Posted on 01/28/2007 6:38:39 AM PST by COUNTrecount
CUSTOMERS of the internet auction site eBay are being defrauded by unscrupulous dealers who secretly bid up the price of items on sale to boost profits. An investigation by The Sunday Times has indicated that the practice of artificially driving up prices — known as shill bidding — is widespread across the site.
Last week one of the UK’s biggest eBay sellers admitted in a taped conversation with an undercover reporter that he was prepared to use business associates to bid on his goods for him.
Our inquiries found evidence that a number of businesses — ranging from overseas property agencies to car dealerships — have placed bids on their own items using fake identities.
The cases raise questions about whether eBay, the world’s biggest auction site, is doing enough to protect consumers.
Shill bidding is against eBay rules and is illegal under the 2006 Fraud Act. However, the resulting higher prices on the site boost the value of eBay’s share of the sales.
Last November eBay changed its rules to conceal bidders’ identity — making it even more difficult for customers to see whether sellers are bidding on their own lots. Since its launch seven years ago, eBay’s UK website has attracted more than 15m customers. It sells more than 10m items at any given time.
One of the beneficiaries of the boom is Eftis Paraskevaides, a former gynaecologist, from Cambridgeshire. He has become a “Titanium PowerSeller” — one of eBay’s handful of top earners — selling more than £1.4m worth of antiquities a year on the site.
In a conversation with an undercover reporter last week, Paraskevaides claimed shill bidding was commonplace on eBay.
When the reporter asked whether he arranged for associates to bid on his own items, he replied: “Well, if I put something really expensive (up for sale) and I was concerned that it was going for nothing, I would phone a friend of mine, even a client of mine who buys from me, and say: For Christ’s sake, I sell you 100 quids’ worth of items a week . . . just put two grand on it, will you?” The reporter was posing as a seller of valuable antiquities. He inquired whether Paraskevaides could sell them on eBay and guarantee a minimum price.
He replied: “Leave it to me (laughs). Don’t call it shill bidding. Then I won’t be accused of shill bidding. Yes. I mean — I’ve got people.
“I’ve got some of my big clients who buy big items off me, I look after them. So I can get on the phone to America and say: Mr XXXX . . . you’re a multi- millionaire. You buy a hundred grand’s worth off me a year. Do me a favour would you. Just put — yeah. Exactly.”
He claimed eBay would never follow up a complaint against him for shill bidding because he generated about £15,000 a month in commission for the company. “Are they going to ban somebody who’s making them the best part of 15 grand a month? No,” he said.
After being told that he had been talking to an undercover reporter, Paraskevaides denied that he had ever shill bidded on eBay and claimed he was talking about clients who sometimes bid on expensive items if they wished to protect the price.
However The Sunday Times discovered businesses that have been bidding on their own items. One leading dealer from London admitted last week that that he had shill bidded in the past.
A spokesman for eBay said he expected that the company would now launch an investigation into Paraskevaides. Anyone caught shill bidding risks a permanent ban.
The spokesman added: “The change to the way bidder IDs are shown has already resulted in a safer environment for users.”
does anyone have information about the automated sniping software or services?
Me, too. I don't have time to wait for some last-minute runup anyway. If I like the price, I'll just buy it and be done.
Snipe it! you get it or you dont.
>>Shill bidding has been going on since ebay got started.
Actually, since auctions got started (live and virtual).
I could write a book on "auctions". It would scare the hell out of you.
I bid early if it's something I'd pick up if I ran across in a yard sale, but which I'm not exactly pining for either. If someone wants it a lot more than me, they're welcome to have it. I won't be watching the clock.
For the more expensive items, though, the stuff you really want that's hard to find, then no question ---- I'm on the computer at whatever ungodly hour that thing is ending so I can slam my bid in inside of the last 10 seconds. The priciest thing I ever bought on eBay was a set of an author's "Works" for $450.
I probably just don't buy in the categories where you have seen this. It is unethical, and that is what I said to this old boy who was bragging about it. I don't think he understood the word.
I usually buy from folks that have a "buy it now" price. If you really want to sell your collections, maybe there is a reputable auction house locally?
A buyer DOES have to be extremely careful on shipping costs. While the item might be a good buy the shipping could be enormous. Read the entire post and pay especial close attention to shipping details.
Talk about shipping and handling for a lousy 5 bucks? What about buyers and sellers commissions of 25% on both sides of the price. Seller gets 75,000 on that 100,000 sale; buyer pays 125,000.
I used to buy on Ebay but rarely do so now. I collect Revolutionary War/Civil War items and the number of counterfeits and outright fakes on Ebay has become astounding.
Ebay has facilitated the sale of bogus material by allowing private auctions and hidden feedback. There are several sellers on Ebay who are known to serious collectors as purveyors of "nothing but fakes". They have been selling on Ebay for awhile and have conned unknowing collectors out of untold thousands of dollars. Despite attempts to alert Ebay about this situation, they allow these people to operate with virtual impunity.
Always evaluate the TOTAL cost when bidding, and beware anyone who doesn't post a shipping price on the item. That's also used to "adjust" the winning bid, if the winning bid comes in too low.
You're right-eBay has gotten more and more unwilling to go after shill bidders, even when presented with clear proof. The standard of proof need not be that of a court of law. It's a private business that makes its own rules. They can bar someone from access if they choose. The simple truth is that eBay makes more money when shilling occurs, and they make only a token effor to stop it.
IT'S FREE!
Not an expert but I've sold several smaller things on eBay.
One thing that drives up the cost of shipping is "return receipt". You need to track your package or a bidder can say they never received it. To do this you must ship Priority Mail with verification which can get up to $5 real quick. Add some special packaging like padded mailers, throw in your gas to get to the post office and you get to $7.95 quickly.
Yeah, you probably wouldn't have run across it. It was a very narrow market, and mine was a subset within that.
Unfortunately, it takes all of the US and pretty much the world to find one buyer for each of the items at a decent price, so local is not an option.
And the horrid "collectibles" craze put the market bottom below zero, where it stays. I could have lost a tubload more if I had gotten into for that, but I didn't. My time has way passed - the ship has sailed and I'm no longer in a position to maintain what I was doing with these items. *sigh* Live and learn, I suppose.
I'm sure it's quite constitutional to be distrustful of something like eBay and not want to use it.
Ebay is also very liberal.
They allow the sales of adult material but forbid the sales of all firearms and ammunition including pre-1898 antique firearms (which are legal to buy and sell without a permit).
I know that in the past Ebay has yanked numerous auctions of excavated Civil War artifacts, explaining to the sellers that they needed to prove that the artifacts were not looted from National Parks. 99.99% of such artifacts are found on private property but Ebay dealt with the sellers in a "guilty until proven innocent" fashion.
I recently had a similar experience. I won an item on ebay listed as being in California, but it was shipped from Hong Kong, and took nearly two weeks to arrive.
It was a good price and a good deal, but I resent liars.
For one recent example: two weeks ago I entered a max bid of say, $747, for a laptop in the morning before leaving for work. At that time the bids were $510 or so. The auction finished just before noon.
What I discovered after the auction was that a shill bidder had entered a shill maximum bid of $7000 (a huge amount that made the shill obvious) two hour before the auction went off. The shill removed his bid 30 minutes prior to the auction going off. But in that hour and a half the shill was the nominal winner for an automatic bid of $757 -- and the seller had 90 minutes to see that someone (me) had a bid just below that.
Badda bing. Two minutes after the high-bidding shill removes his bid, a new bidder, out of the woodwork enters the bidding. He bids $735, almost exactly one ten dollar bid increment under my now-discovered maximum.
Cha-ching! I'm now the mark and hit up for my maximum bid.
I refused to pay and filed multiple complaints. Eventually the seller (a 100% 71 feedback fellow) offered up a dispute resolution to hold both of us harmless. I accepted, but eBay was NO HELP -- they "investigaed" twice they said and found no evidence of a relationship between the seller and the shills. Oh yeah. Right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.