e-Bay Shill Bidding...???

[Pete Ebbink]

Seeing more and more "brand new" bidders jumping in on auction items on e-Bay in the last day/hours of bidding. Such "new" bidders with a "zero" history rating do not seem to bid for many days until the bidding stalls or until the last day of the auction.

I am suspecting some shill bidding...I have seen 10-15 examples over the past month alone on items I am after...

As soon as a new "zero" history bidder comes on-board, I just stop...no matter how badly I want the item...

Here is an example :

Date of Bid Bid Amount User ID
Mar-01-04 09:41:27 PST -- sventaal80af( 0 )
Mar-01-04 09:37:27 PST -- sventaal80af( 0 )
Mar-01-04 14:32:18 PST -- fnhp35( 918)
Mar-01-04 09:35:40 PST -- sventaal80af( 0 )
Mar-01-04 02:09:22 PST -- tont36( 5 )
Mar-01-04 09:35:11 PST -- sventaal80af( 0 )
Feb-24-04 19:32:18 PST -- pebbink( 27)
Feb-24-04 16:18:03 PST -- mach2( 349)
Feb-24-04 15:41:54 PST -- pebbink( 27)
Feb-24-04 06:54:11 PST -- spreewerke( 327)
Feb-24-04 09:02:23 PST -- wdpa( 166)

Okay...I said it...now I feel better...

<img border="0" alt="[soapbox]" title="" src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" />

Regards,

Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />