UNBELIEVABLE prices on eBay!!

I have bought a lot of items on eBay. I have recently noticed a "trend" that somewhat bothers me.
An item is listed and we will say it has 20 bids. You can click on bids and there are sometimes many bidders that have never bought or sold an item!!!
And there will be some with 3 or 4 items.
It appears to me that some sellers are setting up accounts to bid on their own items.
Last week a "NEW" Stihl MS200T chainsaw sold for $1,375.00. Stihl stopped making this model a few years ago and it is Unbelievable what these 200 are selling for??

I have heard that the 200T is a better saw than the newer model
and is therefore in high demand. That does not seem out of line
for what someone might pay for a genuinely NOS saw since they
aren't making any more.
Zach

That has been going on for years, an item I was
looking at would sell for $45.00 an identical item
would sell for maybe $55.00 another same item
would have a starting bid of $65.00 and the
auction would end with no bids. When a real person
would bid on it the item would go right on up to
$80 or $90 dollars. The items that sold for $45.00
or $55.00 would be re-listed a few days later.
Just like a farm auction or auto auction, the
seller bids on his own stuff.

Years ago a guy would go to all the farm auctions
and buy stuff. Come next February he would have a
big farm equipment auction at his place, he was
the auctioneer. He had 4 sons who would bid
against potential buyers until the item got up to
the profit they wanted.
You would see the same item year after year
sometimes.

Shill bidding? Can"t be! That"s illegal. ha ha ha

(quoted from post at 19:46:50 12/18/12) Shill bidding? Can"t be! That"s illegal. ha ha ha

Click to expand...

Exactly. Might be why I very seldom go shopping on ebay.

Agreed.

Rarely, do I visit ebay.

Dean

I was looking at a tractor on Ebay. emailed the owner and then I called him. He knew nothing about the tractor besides it was a farmall. I helped him get info . He then told me no reserve but his friends are go to bid it up for him. I said just sell it to them, he said no they are just driving the price up.

It gets very expensive to play that game a lot on ebay, at least it
was around 10 years ago when I stopped using ebay. You have to
pay the fees on all the listings.

That is possible but it is one heck of a gamble. If no one outbids your "friends" you may not sell it to them but you are still responsible for the seller fees based on the selling price of that last bid. If you try to pull the 'non-paying bidder' thing (which you would have to do since you "actually" sold it) it will eventually get suspicious and your friends will have to keep changing email addresses.

I go on EBay about once a year, look around, and leave EBay - have never bid on anything there. Looks like to much opportunity for cheats to suit me.

I buy something off Craig's List once in awhile that is close enough for me to go look at to decide if I really want it. One guy tried to jack up the price that we had agreed on over the phone before I went to look at it. I held out the cash for agreed amount and told him to "take it or leave it". He took it.

If you want something, wait until the last second and bid your price. If you bid any earlier the shills will nickle you up to your max bid. I never bid a second time on eBay.

Of all the items I look at and buy, I NEVER pay over 50% of new price! As mentioned, I "spike" the item during the last 3 seconds. My computer is fast but not fast enough to bid during the last second!
There are many items that are unavailable new, and I have bought many such items used and in great condition. Another thing I do is subtract shipping cost from my maximum bid and bid that amount ONE TIME!
You just don't want to get tied up in a bidding war!

Jiles,
I buy many things from ebay that I can't find in the local stores. I never bid on anything, use buy it now only. You are right, the seller can be running a scam and bidding on his own item. Also use pay-pal.

Tractor sales are being ruined on e-bay. Dealers
are expecting retail prices for wholesale quality
tractors. Seller's wife & kid & BIL etc drive price
up -hard to police I guess. A tractor will say sold
at an inflated price and ten minutes later it is
listed anew. You have to expect many of the auction
tractors are trade-ins that seller knows need an
expensive fix.

I'd just like to say as a eBay seller (although not to the point of some sellers) I'm honest about the things I sell..

My description usually says a lot more than like items.. I start most my parts at 9.99, and if it gets only one bid then so be it.. I don't buy tractors, snowmobiles, etc. to part out.. I buy stuff for parts I need, then decide if I should sell the remainder whole, or part out in a attempt to make back some of the money I spent.

I usually offer the no-sale items a second time (sometimes dropping the price), then they go in the scrap can.. I used to save EVERYTHING.. but then you end up with so much junk it's unreal..

I personally can't afford "shill bidders".. Pay the commission on the parts I "stick to myself" more than once or twice and I'm busted.. But, I'd like to think I got my good feedback by trying to be a honest seller.

I really think eBay "helps" the shill bidder situation by not allowing anyone but the seller see who the bidder is (If the same person bids on EVERYTHING someone sells, that would throw the red flag). They say they protect the bidders identity so that there is no "grudge bidding" (IE, I "ran" you up, now you get mad and run up everything I bid on to fix me)

I simply start the item at the price I NEED out of it, or in the case of the snowmobile I have listed now, I place a reserve and let it go..

The new or close to new bidders make me, as a seller, nervous too.. I've been stuck a few times by a non paying bidder that was "new".. Then when I relist the item I get stuck on, it makes me look like I was using shills..

I don't understand though why some people will not bid on things with a reserve, however, I do know some people put crazy reserves on stuff.. Heck, I've probably even been guilty of a crazy reserve myself in some folks eyes.

Anyhow.. I'm done now..

Brad

*SOME* auctions have shill bidders but the vast majority do not.

It doesn't matter. Nobody is forcing you to buy. If you don't think the price is fair, don't bid.

I don't get why you think that you *HAVE* to buy an item.

I don't get why you think that the seller *MUST* sell it to you at a stupid low price.

If you don't think the price is fair, don't bid. It's that simple.

Smart shills will know just how far to run up the price, and you won't even know they were there. Stupid shills shoot themselves in the foot. It all works out in the end.

What gets me as a buyer is a reserve auction with little interest in the item. I may be willing to pay the reserve but unless a second bidder will also bid the reserve, my bid stays at the lower price and it is a no sale.

It highly unlikely a seller is setting up seperate accounts just to bid on their own stuff. Its very, very difficult to do that now days without ebay busting you. Ebay allows you to have seperate "buying" and "selling" accounts, even a "business" account but they are tied together and you cant bid on your own stuff or ebay shuts down ALL accounts. There are forums dedicated to out foxing ebay by setting up new accounts. In fact, getting a sucessful account set up with ebay (thats NOT connected to any other accounts) is so hard, scammers will pay money for them.

The old days of ebay where you just set up an account and run up your own auctions are long over. Now, can your friend, neighbor or relative run up your auction for you? Sure, once or twice. Maybe even several times as long as its not often, like once a year. But get busted by ebay, and they do catch people no matter how sly they think they are, then you and whoever helped you will forever be "tied" as a same person account. You cant get a new account either, you will forever be effectivly banned.

If you are seeing accounts with no feedback it could be scammers using higacked accounts that have been dormant or abandoned. It could also be scammers using a new account but usually they "season" them by buying from other scammers to get some solid feadback numbers. It could also be a newbie user that has never left feedback so never got any.

Forget trying to bid in the last few seconds, programs have been available for years now that do the last second bids for you. Nobody, no matter how fast of a connection they have can bid in the last half second like the sniping sites can.

Ebay is a whole different place now days...

Ebay not only tracks your user ID, but also your IP address. So a seller who sets up a second account totally separate has to use a different internet connection, such as taking a hike to McDonalds with the laptop, to do his shill bidding. If he did it from the same IP address as his main account, they would spot it in a heart beat.

It is possible however, but as already noted, they have to pay the auction fees when they "sell" it, not something they can afford to do often.

Shill bidding used to be rather common, not any more, as Ebay has more technology than the users do.

I find lots of little deals on Ebay. I needed male and female L14-30 twist lock connectors for generator cables I am making. Home depot wants $20 for a P&S male plug. I bought 4 of them (a real auction, not a buy it now) for $25 including shipping. I found the Female ends in a Bryant brand for $9.99 each including shipping. Home Depot wants $40 for these in P&S brand, similar quality.

I wanted a pilot light light switch for my shop ceiling fans to help me remember to turn them off. Found a Leviton 1221-PLR for $9 including shipping. This is a $20 or $25 switch.

Lots of little things for good prices if you spend the time to look.

Charles

What I find interesting about EBAY are the number of people that list things and have no idea what they are really worth or what they really are. A little research would tell them that the item they are listing for $X00.00 sells all day long for $X0.00. I am always looking for carbide fueled mine lamps. I have seen people call them carbon lamps or oil lamps. Lately some real common ones or really beat up ones have been listed for hundreds of dollars and those are some of the items that sell for less than $30.00. Needless to say, they get no bids.

Lots of people think that just because something is old, that it has to be worth lots of money.

Lots of other people are just fishing, hoping they can hook someone that's fool enough to pay their prices.

Thats the "craigslist effect", where people price it high and look for a sucker. Whenever you have a listing site that dont charge, you will get a certain number of people pricing things high just looking for a sucker (or somebody that really needs something bad).

For a while, Ebay was really dying, all of the "power sellers" and people running a "virtual store" and no common people selling junk from their basement. The problem was, people selling junk from their basement were the people with deals and what brought people to Ebay. In responce and to encourage the common sellers, Ebay set a policy to make your first 50 items listed per month free from listing fees. Of course this starts bringing the common sellers back to Ebay but it also brings back to Ebay alot of craigslist effect type listings.

Its a vicious cycle but as long as there is money to be made, people are going to be taking advantage of the system.

What Rich said, Ditto. bill