Belt Auction

What prevent's Ebay vendors from creating an account and bidding on their own item to inflate the price?

I'm bidding on something at Ebay for the first time, and I'm wondering what stops vendors from creating other accounts and then bidding on their own items in order jack up the price?

Public Comments

1. It happens
2. The same thing that stops them from ripping you off; nothing
3. It's called "shill bidding". It can be done and, unfortunately, some sellers do it. eBay is keeping a track on those and blocking such attempts, but sometimes it may be too late or eBay did not see it coming. I snipe for auctions I want. Since sniping is bidding on last seconds, the seller has no time to do shill bidding.
4. Nothing can stop a seller from attempting to inflate their price in this manner. I have bought on eBAy before and I do get suspicious of some auctions I have bid on. There are situations which make it easier for a seller to know if he can shill bid on his item, EBay displays each bid in bidder history. The buyer can make a starting bid. This is then recorded as 1 bid on the item. If you decide to make a maximum bid after this initial bid, eBAy also records this bid in bid history with 2 bids. Now the seller knows you have a higher maximum bid on the item(anyone else looking at the listing also knows there is a higher maximum bid). Not that anyone else would want to up your bid or paying price, but they would be able to do this, just as the shill bidder or seller. For this reason I am reluctant to put maximum bids on auctions, and if I plan to put a maximum bid on something I wait until I no longer have the highest bid. Never put a maximum bid on the item while you have the highest bid because it will be apparent that there is a maximum bid on that item. By the way, when a maximum bid is place ebay bids for you, beating everyone's bid up to your maximum. I am sure if you are suspicious of dishonest seller practices you can contact ebay to look into a sellers account. I am afraid this is the only means at present to get rid of dishonest sellers. Also since eBay actually profits more from this type of behaviour, I would assume more resources of ebay are directed toward circumventing ebay fess and other issues. hope this helps a little.
5. Very little- in fact, I turned in one seller for doing so after I discovered they had bid on many of their own items. I checked this by going to completed listings and seeing who the bidders were on other items. When the suspicious buyer ID showed up, I knew. Both of their accounts were shut down, but nothing will stop them from opening new ones. Now, Ebay has changed many of their ways of conducting business incuding not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers regardless of the offense and now you cannot even check who bid on items as it no longer gives out that information it just puts asterics instead of characters when you check the IDs. As for the one answer from the other guy- sniping is convenient, but it does not stop shill bidding. A buyer can use their other ID to just put in a maximum bid (or I guess it would be more like the amount they are hoping for on the item) and then your sniping just moves the price up to a higher price than you would have paid anyway. It does however, keep you from bidding with your heart instead of your head if you set a price early and stick to it. Hope this helps!