re: How I drive up eBay prices

I don't see any problem with trying to get the highest price possible for an item. To me it's simple negotiating, just happening a different way. With ebay, when there are bids the item looks good and worth buying plain and simple. The problem is how the buyers view ebay's auction, thinking something is popular if bids, and also the addicting bidding wars... So I don't feel bad for the buyer at all, they are paying as much as they are willing to pay, and the seller is charging what he's willing to sell it for, it's completely fine. You people are just LAME with all your frustrations, you just don't get the big picture.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I dont find it wrong unless someone is doing it so an innocent person has to jack up their prices that they dont want to because the seller feels the need to jack it up. eBay dont give a damn, there purpose is not to help. Oh no but to take are item we have sold lets say 100$ they take 10$ for using there site. Yes sometimes they may be of some use if a seller is not paying so paypal cant make money. Off subject but shillbidding is in most cases a bad thing. Its eBay problem because they charge to much for a reserve and for a buy it now, its not fair. They should stop trying to earn mega money off of us and actually help the people rather than cure the problem.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Yep - you are dodgy. And it was my first concern when I tried ebay that this would occur - its the same dodgy stuff that real estate agents have been doing at auctions for years. Ultimately you should only bid what you are happy to pay and don't let yourself get sucked into the rush of blood when the bidding is fierce!

What about resellers?

Isn't this a big problem too? People who buy an item only to sell it again later through eBay again?

(I don't get your point at all Sam. Isn't that what eBay is all about -- people buying and selling? If someone resells an item eBay certainly won't complain about making more money. -PZ_

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I had two ebay accounts.
I used them to transfer money from a credit card to a bank account to avoid paying cash advance charges, and it worked.
But if ppl are using the second account to drive up the prices of their items, then it's just silly.
Thing is, if you end up winning the bid yourself, u still pay charges, and by doing it at the last few minutes is silly as well.
I mean, if u want a certain price for it, then add it to postage or the minimum bid, set reserve etc...
When I shop on ebay, if something is in auction, I always check out other sites and 'Buy It Now' prices, and make the cheapest my maximum bid anyways. If they're gonna go higher then that, then thats just dumb, cos they gonna end up forkin out charges.
Anyways u look at it, its a kinda scam, but if buyers are gonna be even thicker, then the scammers are gonna scam ya!
Peace out babies :D

re: How I drive up eBay prices

i just got shilled myself. i bid with less than 30 seconds left. put my maximum bid from 11$ to 17$. funny how at the last second i lost the bid to 17.50$. only way that would have happened is that the real owner saw what the bid was and placed a higher bid with his "dummy" bidder immediately after. The winning bid had a zero rating too and did not bid all auction.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

You are a thief!

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Well, I learned my lesson last night and I am kicking myself this morning! The funny thing is..As I was being outbid by this "bidder", every cell in my body was telling me this f@#$ wasn't a real bidder, but yet "I had to have that vest."

I learned my lesson and vow never to let it happen again. I can only hope the vest is nice enough and worth the extra money I paid for it. I went back and noticed 2 things:

1- The bidder only had 1 feedback

2- I could not find any info on this bidder!

Thanks to everyone for their input!

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Well it just happened to me, its called shell bidding... !beehay! on ebay logged on at last min and bid up his items to get me in a bidding war. I was smart enough to check out the other bidder and saw that his bidding record he had won 8 bids but he had also retracted his bids. If the seller does that then he does not have to pay ebay and can put the items back up for sale...ITS A SCAM

re: How I drive up eBay prices

The sad thing about seller feedback ratings are this: If they are bidding with other user names and also winning then there would be no feedback left for buyers to see they just relist. Sellers pretending the fees for relisting are a issue, are only justifying the reasons to be a thief, eBay will in all ways not care because they don't profit from buyers. If your store sells 1 million a year, how could ebay not let their pockets fill. They are all crooks, Ebay the biggest, when has big busines ever cared about customer satisfaction? The only possible way to have a real problem solved with eBay as buyer, is to sell more than the person you're buying from, this may have eBay at least have someone create some new accounts. If you're an everyday shopper eBay after shiping is more like 10% off coupon, lottery of items(you might get lucky), or just wipe and flush.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

i want to drive up prices only because i'm sick of ticket scalpers buying tickets & then making a profit!!!

(That doesn't seem to make sense. -PZ)

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Just use craigslist and other classifieds boards. It might take a little longer to find what you're looking for but you will probably pay about 25% less than you would on E-Bay unless it's something generic. If you deal locally on craigslist you can help bring back an honest bartering system and keep those effing profiteers at e-bay off your back.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Its so easy to see this technique and it makes me mad. Ive been recently looking for an iPhone on ebay and you can see a large number of bidder with 0 feedback who outbid you.

(Still, all new eBay bidders have to start somewhere. Just because you have zero feedback isn't a sign of fraud. -PZ)

re: How I drive up eBay prices

but for all the people who are abusing us past, or present shill bidders- who the hell twisted your arm to buy the item, shill bidders will only lift the bidding price up to the maxiumum reserve bid that the current bidder has made, if they are willing to pay that much so be it....how about directing your anger at the big boys- ie banks, politicians....just a thought....:)

re: How I drive up eBay prices

yes i was one of those shill-bidders, being very disatisy about some of the products i sold for a paltry sum, i enlisted the help of a friend who would "boost" the bidding price. It worked wonders, what can i say....but u will get caught, believe u me it will happen, ive lost my ebay account twice and got it re-instated, didnt learn my lesson and committed this scam again and now ive been banned permanently as well as my partner in crime. To all who are worried about selling their items on ebay, make sure u list the item with a reserve bid amount that u are happy with. crime does not pay....

re: How I drive up eBay prices

i hope those dummy bidders out there will get punishment soon .

the owner of ebayer website will find out and kick you out very soon i hope so bec it not fair for everyone!!

it not work so we will make noise at them to pull out and join somewhere else honest Australia auction online ..

thank you

re: How I drive up eBay prices

You are just a low down dishonest
b******, you are making honest people
pay for your dislike of eBbay

If you are not happy with them don't
use them!

re: How I drive up eBay prices

you just have to be aware of this, i agree that the root of all of this is ebay with ridiculous prices. If it isn't completely abused do you think it is REALLY that wrong. You are saying this now.

eg
you have a vintage poster you purchased for $400

you start the auction on $.99 to avoid the ridiculous ebay fees, you place a dummy bid as your free reserve up to $400 because of course you don't want to let the item sell ridiculously cheap.

as long as this isn't abused to create panic bids or get to someones max bid, i don't think it is that morally wrong.

In the end, you get a free reserve, and sell for a reasonable price.

If someone wins the poster for $150, don't you think this is stealing off the seller?

think about it..

p.s. I have never done this in my life, but I have still bid on items which people have done this on because their item was actually valuable it was fair enough. I could tell because a 1 feedback account had bid on every single one of this guys auctions.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

To ALL those who are DISHONEST remember KARMA - it'll get you back BIG TIME!

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I am one of 128 eBayer scammed for a total of over $270,000. This happened in Feb 2006. No responce from eBay. They don't care what you do, as long as they make money off you. The best advise is walk away from eBay - they are only bad news.

www.thebaysidediner.com

re: How I drive up eBay prices

While this is totally illegal and isn't fair by any means - what's driven this mentality is ebay's outrageous fees for what should be standard services. You have to pay a great deal extra to get a reserve price or start it at the price you want. Hate to say it - but this one's on ebay. It was ebay who first pulled the rug out from underneath the sellers all too quickly and caused them to resort to other methods just to turn a profit. After listing fees, final value fees, paypal fees... you don't end up with much. Ebay has totally screwed over the sellers, and in return - the sellers have "screwed over" the buyers in order to protect themselves. Ebay just raised their fees again recently! The original one to make ebay shady - was ebay it's self. They anounce some sort of new standard discount on listing fees while driving up the prices on pretty much everything else but what's featured now as less. If I had stock in ebay I'd pull it out now. ebay wont be around as a functional business within the next three years, mark my words. People just want a good place to do business that is a fair profit gain for everyone involved. Google auctions will blow ebay out of the water once they launch and FINALLY take away ebays (what i pereceive to be illegal) monopoly. Gotta look at the motive behind such actions.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

After reading about your greedy dishonest tactics I have just decided never to bid on anything on e bay again.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

SHILLBIDDING - This is an Illegal practice, and i too would love to delete you eBay account. I dont bid on eBay any longer because of people like you. Sadly, It has changed into a scammer paradise over the last 5 years.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

What this guy is doing is wrong of course but people have too use some common sense and only bid up to a price that the item is actually worth. There are plenty of people on ebay that are ripping everyone off in other ways... eg excessive postage and inflated "recommended retail prices" to create the impression of a bargain. As others have said.... RESEARCH!!! Find out what the item is really worth... It's so easy to google Aussie sites and find out. You can get bargains... with research..(and luck). I've bought quite a few things for much less than I'd been able to find anywhere else but you need to be careful. Ebay could easily fix these fraud problems but I guess whilst they are making money there isn't much need...
As 'Chilled out' said ebay is being ruined by greedy businesses selling goods at highly inflated prices and unfortunately suckers are still buying. eg. New CDs for $30 PLUS postage of up to $5 when you can buy them for 25% less elsewhere online.
BUYER BEWARE... BUYER BE NOT STUPID!

re: How I drive up eBay prices

GET REAL EVERYONE. If two people get into a bidding war and one of them is the actual seller, who's the muppet? If you bid on anything, set yourself a maximum amount to bid up to. If you would be happy to pay your maximum and win the item....GREAT. If you don't win, there's always another one there if you look. It's just like waiting for a bus. Wait long enough and you'll find two or three will turn up at the same time, this will usually end up with much lower winning bids! You don't have to bid on any ebay item, no one forces you to. If you don't know by now that ebay is full of scallywags then you shouldn't really be using it.....should you!

Ebay could quite easily end this practice is they really wanted to. They could reinstate the reserve option for items under ■50.00. They could also ban the seller for a month if the practice was reported. This would deter any "normal" individual but, ebay does attract a lot of abnormal, dodgy types.

There are very few real bargains these days on ebay, it's too commercial for that. I think it's about time ebay got back to its roots. Separate the real ebayers from the businesses that trade and have two different sites. ebay-business.com or ebay-asitshouldbe.com.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I dont know how you can live with yourself dude. A incident a while back made taking bids inanimate objects in Real Estate auctions 'ILLEGAL'. eBay is the same deal, you are commiting a crime which called FRAUD. I would absolutely love to use eBay more but dont because of people like you who cheat the system. I am only a teenager and if your arent aware most aint exactly wealthy. You wouldnt go up to a lady and snatch her perse and run, you wouldnt pick pocket a guy, so why do you commit FRAUD on eBay, if it doesnt fetch the money you want BAD LUCK, ethier try again, sell it for less or give up. I despise people like you.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I agree with most of the previous ideas. Common sense tells you check out the seller first (by his feedback and rating ie how many items he's actually sold),then check the postage (sometimes it works out not that cheap) and then set yourself a price and dont go over it. And if you think the seller's trying to pull a swift one on you tell Ebay. It doesnt cost anything and although you might've lost out by paying the price you've stopped him from doing it to someone else. And dear Daniel, I hope you get caught or better yet, I hope you open your big trap to somebody about what you're doing and they sort you out for all those folks you've ripped off you moron.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

As an Ebayer for a few years now but not a heavy user i have learnt one simple rule that all should adhere to. Find the item you want to bid on and check around as to the value of this item at online computer stores, or at local sunday computer markets. Next if you want to bid set yourself a price limit and do not exceed it. I have lost more auctions than i have won by 10-1 but have avoided being ripped off by wa#%@rs like daniel who will eventually be caught up with and maybe even end up behind bars for fraud, i hope.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

buyer beware-- is that not the case with any auction or transaction involving money-- i have seen many people pay more than the new price for second hand products well over 2 years old--do your homework and check the postage out--it's not much of a bargain for a pair of sunglasses for $5 if the freight is $20-- read everything.my brother who was a car dealer used to put in higher bids at auctions--not because he wanted the car but he wanted them to pay the right amount--to keep them honest on the price with no connection to him.only pay the amount you feel it is worth--thats the bottom line.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Dear Help Station

The old greed factor again. Ain't it wonderful.

Regards Darcy

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I don't think that people need to worry about this happening frequently - to create an Ebay account you need a credit card that hasn't been used for another account, or you need an email address from a respectable company - something that the average person would only have one of.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

eBay has a whole section on SHILL BIDDING, I suggest you read it and wake to yourself, you shouldn't have an eBay account, in fact if there was some way of identifying you, on behalf of every decent eBay user I would dearly love to dob you in A..hole

re: How I drive up eBay prices

It is illegal and e-bay should warn the vendor as his computer signal can be matched with his account. If a wraning is not acted upon the crooked vendor should be prosecuted and banned from using e-bay for these scams.

(Think about what you're sating Leo. Do you want eBay to check every bidder that way? How else are you going to discover who is doing this? -Paul Zucker)

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Ive auctioned items where people have indicated their top dollar through the question process....its very tempting to place a shill bid to get them up there but its morally corrupt....and in the long run you should be proud that you didnt give in to your base nature and accept a few bucks less.

Dont fall for the 99c gets your auction hopping speil if you want $50 for your item....start it at $50. If you dont want too much for your item it will still attract bids.

I am a great fan of ebay but any ebay user whose been around the block knows about this and its why everyone uses a sniping agent (tender over auction)...steer clear of any repeat items that consistently sell for the same amount(i do anyway...very sus).

Dont let the few scammers ruin your experience....bid as much as your prepared to pay only and enjoy your purchaces:-)

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I agree with you Paul, sniff bidding is immoral. But half the time if noone is bidding on your stuff it's coz noone wants it, so if you make up the other fake account and bid on your own stuff and you win your own stuff, then sucked in to you for being an ebay cheat.

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I THINK HE SHOULD BE LOCKED UP!

re: How I drive up eBay prices

Real estate agents taking dummy bids at auctions to raise the selling price is definitely illegal and this eBay scam should fall in the same category. Isn’t there a reserve price sellers can nominate to make sure the item doesn’t sell for less than they want?

re: How I drive up eBay prices

I agree with Paul, Daniel. If you wish to sell a product at a certain price point, then, in the real world auction, you wold place a reserve price up0on the item. A price which the auctioneer will not reveal until the reserve is met. Until that amount is met the itme will not be sold and will be passed in. The price is then open ro negotiation with the highest bidder. As far as eBay is concerned, you would be advised to discuss the options open to you as a vneodr with the administrators.

(I think you'll find that eBay has scrapped the reserve price Leigh. -PZ)

re: How I drive up eBay prices

you should be shot

re: How I drive up eBay prices

This is not allowed and Ebay prohibits such behaviour.

(It doesn't matter what eBay prohibits if they do nothing to stop it. It's like the time I went to a Black Stump restaurant and asked for a table in the non-smoking area. After we'd been there a while the people at the next tab;e started smoking so I asked the waiter why we weren't in the non-smking section. His response was to place a "No Smoking" sign on our table. -Paul Zucker)