Belt Auction

On ebay,is one ex. of shill bidding where U paid much more than original bid as others outbid U in last minute?

That is, you were outbid in just last thirty seconds of bidding, forcing you ( if you are intent on winning the item ) to double your original bid from minutes earlier. While I know this outcome might be expected, could this also be an example of shill bidding ? Can the seller also act as a shill to bring up the price ? I am new at these auctions.

Public Comments

1. I definitely think they do that. They have a fee they want and if the bid is under that, they use another account to bid on their own item and then just keep it so that they wait till the last second so they either get want they want or keep the item to resell it later figuring any cut they must give ebay is better than selling it for less than they want for it. Hard to prove sometime like this. It seems the bid often goes up in the last hour even if noone bid on it the whole time. this way they (whoever else wants the item) can avoid outbidding each other several times and getting the price too high for something they really want figuring the original bidder will think they will get it low and not put a huge bid in there. It is often right at the end that someone "sells" your item away from you. Not sure what shill bidding is though Of course bidding on your own items under other accounts is supposed to not be allowed or bidding on your thing to up other bidders offers is not supposed to be allowed but I think it is hard to prove when someone is doing that.