Hello everyone,

     It appears that I have struck a nerve with the SHILL BIDDING SELLERS in regards to the review/guide that I wrote below. Out of  all votes received many  have been not helpful votes. So I ask why would someone vote not helpful to a guide that denounces Shill Bidding unless thay are partaking in the activity. So I just wanted to add, if you are a SHILL BIDDING SELLER reading this guide, don't vote it down just because it denounces your practice. Instead why not think about what I stated and change over to being a totally legit EBAY Seller. Please just give it your complete consideration and if you still wish to play against the rules, please don't knock  all of us legit Ebayers who follow the rules. Thanks again for reading! 

      Just a quick note to let everyone know that I feel it is all of our responsibility to keep Ebay a safe, fun, and equitable trading place. I know that  members use Ebay for a variety of  different reasons. Some are looking for deal, some are looking to make a few dollars, and some maybe just for the thrill of winning or selling. I also know that many many members rely on Ebay as their main course of income, perhaps it is the best format  for them to run their business, or perhaps they have no choice, IE. those that are confined to their home because of disabilities or other reasons. With that said, I'm sure many of you know of the corruption that some members are involved in. There are those who mis-represent items, those who don't deliver what is promised, and many other forms of corruption. But in my expierence, I've found the worst corruption to be the SHILLERS, (those who bid or have an associate bid on their items to jack up the price).  Someone who chooses to Shill Bid may be a desperate person whom needs income badly, or perhaps they got a bad deal on something and now feel thay need to repay the favor, it could also be just a sort of game for some,  or perhaps they are just a mean greedy person. No matter what the reason, SHILLING is wrong and I am constantly on the look out for it.

     When I am searching for items, very seldom do I just pop a bid anymore, no matter how much time is left on the auction. Its not worth it to place a bid in haste only to find out you are supporting a member whom is corrupt. I take full advantage of the feedback system to track a sellers previous sales and performe advanced searches on other bidders to see what their bid history looks like and what kind of feedback has been left for them. What I have found is that most members are outstanding people who follow the rules, but the ones I find cheating give me an ill sinking feeling that If I don't do something they will soon take our Ebay and turn it into something completely what it was not meant to be, and make it unuseable for the people who really need it. A members who SHILL BIDS can take a relatively zero value item and trick other bidders into thinking that its something of high value, because it looks as tho so many people want it because their bidding so high. It also assure the seller that anyone who bids will have their bid reach its maximum.

      They are also in part driving up the cost of doing business on Ebay. When a deal goes sour, usually a buyer expects to be re-inbursed, and wether its by their charge card, Paypal Buyers Protection, or Ebays Buyer Protection, those re-inbursements ultimately cost all of us money in the form of addition or increased fees for using those services. 

     So I investigate as far as I can into the matter by comparing information between the sellers and their bidders, including  names, email addresses, home address, phone numbers, and any other information that is available to me, within Ebay rules of course. If you simply take the time to perform an advanced search by seller, you can see all the recent items they have sold, who bid on them and who won them. (Provided they are not using private auction, which in itself can be cause for alarm.) Upon performing the search if you see a particular bidder who has bid in or won a large amount of the sellers recent auctions you can suspect Shill Bidding. Now you should take it at least one step further by performing an advanced search on the bidder themself. If you see that all of their recent bids have been place for one particular seller and the items being bid on seem to be selling for a pretty good price tag, then more than likely you have caught a Shill Bidder.

     Now you must simply decide wether to investigate further on your own or simply report the matter to Ebay using the Security Center Link at the bottom of most pages. If you choose to investigate further on your own, do not get yourself in trouble by harassing another member, but if they have items for sale you have every right to contact them and ask as many questions as you want, most of the time they will reply and give you something more to go on. Its not always easy finding this information and it does take time, but Ebay offers several tools to help, and also saving your own previous purchase records can help greatly. Members can change ID's but they will go through alot or work to change their real name, phone numbers, and the Id's of all their shill bidding friends. Yes its not easy, and I would very much prefer not to have to investigate any seller but its a reality we are forced to live with.

      So i feel it is mine as well as everyone elses, responsibility to be on the look out for SHILLERS and other rule violaters, help Ebay by investigating as much as we can, turn over all the information to Ebay on a complaint form against the seller and their SHILL BIDDING FRIENDS, and follow up with Ebay with any additional information you find. I have found that when I do my part and turn over the information to Ebay, the results can be very swift, and that is what we need, to stop these bad sellers dead in their tracks before they do serious damage to our Ebay.

     I refer to it as our Ebay because even if you don't own stock such as I don't,  I or you may in the future, and I'd like it to be as great a place to do business in the future as it is now.  Ebay has become more and more like a public institution, which is a good thing, just like the old markets, and flee markets where honest people bring in their goods, set up a table, present their items for trade, and make deals with other good people. We need to protect it because like I said before, I know certain people are not capable for many reasons to use any other type of market place and Ebay has become a stabilizing force in our economy. When someone can't work, they need income, and Ebay is an excellent sorce. I myself don't have any problems working or using any other market place. I use Ebay because I enjoy the comfort of trading from my own home and I also feel good that I may be helping someone out who really realy relys on Ebay as their primary sorce of income.

     So in closing, please everyone lets do our part to keep Ebay a safe fun and equitable trading place, by investigating and reporting and suspicious activity. If this is helpful please vote yes below, if not I would appreciate anyone elses input on what to do about shill bidding sellers, so by all means drop me a line through the Ebay message system. Thanks for reading!

    AND SHILLERS BEWARE WERE WATCHING YOU!!!