Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I don't like this either. If I see there are a bunch of low feedback bidders, I'm not participating, since there is a high likelihood that they are schills. Same thing goes for the chippers, the ones who bid $5 at a time to jack the high bid.

Now I am being bombarded with emails from prospective bidders saying that they have reported me to Ebay or won't bid because they thing I am trying to scam bidders or shill up my own auction with false identities!

On another tack, I recently won an auction where there were only two actual bidders, me and another bidder who kept bidding me up and then retracted his bid when he out bid me, he then re-bid just lower than my (now known) maximum bid. I checked into the history of the seller and the same bidder was runner up in most of his completed auctions (23 out of 26 - and not similar items at all). I confronted the seller and he said that he didn't know who the bidder was (even though the bidder had actually won two of the auctions which were subsequently relisted). I reported to this ebay and both were thrown out.

You won't be able to do a check like this any more!

My opinion: it is another ploy by eBay to protect the scammers and, thereby, keep their revenues up - remember, eBay makes money on listing fees as well as completed auctions, so if the scammers are eliminated, so are a LOT of listing fees in eBay's coffers.

Peter, I had the same thing happen on a bass that I was selling a few weeks ago. This s**t did the same to me with the retracted bid ploy.

Not only is that sharp practice at best, it also makes others nervous about placing their bid, thinking there might be something wrong. This sort of thing really pisses me off.

This will open up a lot more corruption than they already have on ebay. Shill bidding will become the norm, I would venture to say. Ebay, unfortunately, doesn't care because they will get their commission no matter what.

So they have eliminated something that happens much less often but will invite sellers to bid up their own items via alternate ID's, friends, etc. They must love it, as it only ups thier commission that much more. A true shame.

I've gotten to the point with Ebay that on major items, like a guitar, I won't look unless the BIN is attractive to me. The shill bidding thing has gotten just too prevalent--I know everyone has to start somewhere, but a "zero" bidder on a $2K guitar is just too much to risk.

Ebay are a joke, worst thing is that they have almost destroyed the private classified papers like LOOT which hardly has anything in it anymore!

Sod 'em they are too greedy with their fees & Paypal deducting more cash afterwards.

So what if people trade off EBay, good luck to them, all EBay cares about is bucks not the safety of it's users & they do nothing to stop the scammers!

Well, what do you know!!! Somebody must have told Ebay about this thread because they have removed my auction. That told me, didn't it?

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle of these extremes I see quoted here. The reality is that Ebay provides a platform for thousands of people to make a living and many more thousands find items to buy..many that would be impossible to find other wise..case in point I found not one but two booklets from a Rose Parade that my wifes mom was one on the Princeses in..try finding that at your local antique mall! I agree that every time I turn around Ebay tries to make more money but...the listing and final value fees are still low and gets your item out to a huge audience...I complain about paypal fees also but..I can accept a cc without running it through a bank and a bank would take a cut as well..so...let's continue to complain about ebay/paypal..I do..often..I'm also glad they exist.

Well said. What amazes me about Ebay is, with all of the other sites out there, even the powerhouses like Yahoo and Google, no one has mounted serious competition to them.

And that's the problem. They'd be better if they had better competition. Even Coke has Pepsi.

Though of course Ebay has had their butt kicked by some of these vary same names in other markets. Go figure.

Peter, what was the excuse eBay used to pull your ad?

They said I had "infringed ebay policy"

Ah, must have been the "... you must be a scammer located in China to sell on this site ..." hidden in the fine print!