Seller faces $80k fine for fake eBay bids

[Zeus]

You can view the page at http://www.maxconsole.net/content.php?39741-Seller-faces-80k-fine-for-fake-eBay-bids

[sharkattack]

this is why I always choose "Buy it now" option when I purchase stuff on ebay...

[weeboo]

every ebay seller has done this on an item that has few bidders. i bet hes not the only seller on ebay has done it. it sux ebay cant prevent this if the bidder is the same as seller because you can hide your info and use other name in paypal. anyway, he probably got caught using the same ip address with his seller account and buyer account. he could have used proxy if he plan to cheat on ebay. i bet thats how everyone gets away with having same person bids on the stuff he sells to boost bid price.

[iLLNESS]

too bad they dont take actions like RIAA and the MPAA to prevent this :)

then again, ebay probably wouldnt be popular anymore.

and yeah, buy it now. who the **** bids on ebay anymore?

[pin]

Lol,,,I do this too as do loads of people by getting friends to bid on their items.
It's not exactly as bad as corporate collusion and price fixing on (government) contracts is it, c'mon

[garyopa]

I learn a long time ago, that ebay is like a game of poker. -- Never show your hand.

It happens all the time on ebay, plus others are watching on what you bid, and will bid against you.

Now I just write down the time an auction ends, and I make sure on my super-fast computer with super-fast internet, and I wait until 5 or less seconds are left on a item up for bid, and bang I throw in a bid at the very last second. 9 times out of 10 I win the item at a super great price, no bidding war, no getting outbid.

I bought thousands of items that way, it is the only way to play the game of ebay poker!

[QrafTee]

Good, I hate these people on eBay. I bid and they bid higher than like 50% of the BIN prices from other sellers and I'm thinking, "What a dumbass..."

[yusky03]

I use a firefox addon that bids for me 4 seconds before the auction ends so no one can out bid me :p

I can bid on it like 6 days before it ends using that addon but it does not actually bid on it until there are 4 or however many seconds I set it to bid at.

[grapeape]

The problem here is that people want to cheap out on listing fees so they don't set a reasonable minimum...then when it doesn't reach minimum they try to pump it up so they either don't have to sell it at a lower than desired price or so make it appear that there are actually more interested in an attempt to drive up bids. Its shill bidding and they have been doing it and ebay's been kicking people off for it since ebay started. I can understand the listing fee thing though...thats why I stopped listing there about 3 years ago and havent been on there since...between the ever increasing listing fees, the continual push down of individuals in favor of bulk sellers and double dipping with paypal (which is also owned by ebay) I just decided enough was enough.

[DEDDOA]

Things like this and hidden reserve (if you don't want to sell bellow a certain price list that as the minimum, not the whole annoying hidden thing which you may not be able to reach even if your maximum bid is higher, lost out bidding on a few cars for my sister this way even tho I had the highest bid) is what annoy me about Ebay.

That said I have bid on stuff my mate was selling, with my max bid being his minimum simply because he forgot to set one, I guess thats artifiacially inflating the price, but that was a one off thing (one of those collectors horror movie models, was worth £60+ new before it's limited run ended but was looking to go for less than half that, that said, my minimum £50 bid was out bid instantly, finnaly went for about £200 odd)

[Nomad121]

Things like this and hidden reserve (if you don't want to sell bellow a certain price list that as the minimum, not the whole annoying hidden thing which you may not be able to reach even if your maximum bid is higher, lost out bidding on a few cars for my sister this way even tho I had the highest bid) is what annoy me about Ebay.

That said I have bid on stuff my mate was selling, with my max bid being his minimum simply because he forgot to set one, I guess thats artifiacially inflating the price, but that was a one off thing (one of those collectors horror movie models, was worth £60+ new before it's limited run ended but was looking to go for less than half that, that said, my minimum £50 bid was out bid instantly, finnaly went for about £200 odd)

As a powerseller on ebay I can tell you one of worse things you can do is set a visible minimum price on bids, for some reason people get really detered by it. If you want a minimum price your better off refusing to sell it at the end of auction if it doesn't meet your quota.

[gazza14sr]

I learn a long time ago, that ebay is like a game of poker. -- Never show your hand.

It happens all the time on ebay, plus others are watching on what you bid, and will bid against you.

Now I just write down the time an auction ends, and I make sure on my super-fast computer with super-fast internet, and I wait until 5 or less seconds are left on a item up for bid, and bang I throw in a bid at the very last second. 9 times out of 10 I win the item at a super great price, no bidding war, no getting outbid.

I bought thousands of items that way, it is the only way to play the game of ebay poker!

I do this too. Always look out for items ending at an odd time rather than peak hours. Afew weeks ago I bought a phone that ended at 3 in the morning. Waited up to bid on it with afew seconds left and won it with no other bids. Most in my watched items had gone for over £300 and I got it for £220, the sellers starting price.

As for the fees, that is why I try not to sell on there and use for sale areas in forums. I sold a phone for £350 and the final value fee was £35. Fortunatey it sold for more than I expected so it cusioned the blow of the FVF.

[MadonnaProject]

Never considered using ebay. Especially after the romanian tried to rip me off when he wanted to sell me his "brand new macbook air" for cheap.

of course in roman-land, or wherever, "brand new" must mean, cracked hinges for the screen, with the screen discolored and laptop clearly showing signs that it's been dropped, then painted....

[DEDDOA]

As a powerseller on ebay I can tell you one of worse things you can do is set a visible minimum price on bids, for some reason people get really detered by it. If you want a minimum price your better off refusing to sell it at the end of auction if it doesn't meet your quota.

I can see your point, my gripe is that I can bid on somthing and still not have a chance of winning simply due to it not reaching the reserve, even if I have a maximum bid past the reserve. I'd rather see people bid on their own stuff if it means the reserve is reachable without the need for others to bid against you to force the price over the reserve.

That said, the car that I was buying for my sister which highlighted this issue for me, was listed again, tho this time I went to the dealer earlier today as I didn't want to go throught the hassle of the reserve again, and got it £1000 less than the buy now price, so it did work out for the best :)