I have seen several ads where a user uses a term I like to describe as "Shill Questioning". We all know that shill bidding is when you or someone you know drives up the price of an auction fraudulently. Shill Questioning is different and goes under the radar yet it makes buyers spend more when they should not have. Here is an example of what I mean.....Lets say someone is selling a rare and highly desired handbag. You as the potential buyer, question it's authenticity. Then you scroll down and see that the seller has posted questions to them in the auction. I saw this once in an ad recently and 1 question was this "Will you take $1000 to end this now and make it a buy it now, I really want this bag" and seller responds with something like "I'm sorry, that would be wrong, thanks anyway and good luck". When i saw this I realized 2 things. The item was at about $100 and the high bidder wasn't the question asker who I would think would be bidding on this as she seemed anxious to have it. The 2nd thing i noticed was that the seller indicated that the bag was a gift and didn't want it. Yeah right! Oldest and lamest excuse in the book. What has now happened is you think the bag is worth $1000 and so does everyone else and you start bidding like crazy on it, driving it up when in fact the bag might actually be a counterfeit. The other thing to look for in the questions is this... Potential buyer asks "Can you provide any sort of authenticity for this item?" and the the seller responds with "Sure, if you're local, we can go to the local LV and they'll tell you". Here is the problem with this. 1 is the seller is in Montana and the nearest LV is a 1000 miles so I hope you bring a lot of $$$ for gas and coffee for that trip to LV with the seller:) As a reseller myself I often tell prospective buyers the same thing, yet im in Manhattan just a stone throw from Hermes, Tiffany, Saks, LV, Chanel, etc etc, so I can actually do this. Always consider the sellers feedback and in this occasion location before placing a bid. If this has helped you please let it be known. The more you vote yes the better the chances other ebay member will see this posting!