does anybody else do this?

[boredashell]

i've noticed some of my friends when they have an auction that they realize isnt gonna sell they tell me to bid on it so they can get the feedback and i've done it a few times too but not recently. i was just curious as to whether or not other people do this?

[Griking]

You mean shill bidding? Sure, people do it all the time. :roll:

[Insaneclown]

The answer would have to be yes.

[Insaneclown]

Whoops...double post! Damn thing was slow as hell.

[Stark]

It's very common. I've done it a couple of times for my Aunt to make sure she didn't give the stuff away for nothing.

[NESaholic]

Yeah almost everybody does it,i did it with my gf once and a friend of mine.

[rhiohki]

I'd just like to throw my input here. Not EVERYONE does it. I'll admit, when I first started doing ebay, I had people bid on my auctions here and there. nothing drastic. until I realized that it truly wasn't fair to the people wanting to get the items for real.

If you are selling something and you don't want to give it away, either put a reserve or a high enough starting bid that if only one bid makes it, you're happy with it, or just put up a BIN. There are plenty of ways to avoid having to shill bid an item. You should inform your friends of doing the same if they ask you to shill bid an item for you. Yes, he/she may be your bud but it just is not fair.

I've sold stuff on Ebay that started off at a $1.00 with no reserve and only ended at $1.00. That's what the item went for. Sure it's not what I would have wanted, but it's a learning experience and the next time I would have either started the item higher or put a reserve on it.

Luckily a majority of my items have sold for waay beyond what I was expecting WITHOUT ANY SHILLING at all.

That's it, I know I may be in the minority opinion about this, but I suppose that's what this forum is all about.

[anagrama]

I have never shill bidded, or had anyone bid on my auctions on my behalf.

Frankly, I'm amazed that so many people are admitting to something that would have you instantly barred from eBay if they knew about it.
I'd better make a mental note to avoid the auctions of everyone who has said they do so.

[NESaholic]

I'd just like to throw my input here. Not EVERYONE does it. I'll admit, when I first started doing ebay, I had people bid on my auctions here and there. nothing drastic. until I realized that it truly wasn't fair to the people wanting to get the items for real.

If you are selling something and you don't want to give it away, either put a reserve or a high enough starting bid that if only one bid makes it, you're happy with it, or just put up a BIN. There are plenty of ways to avoid having to shill bid an item. You should inform your friends of doing the same if they ask you to shill bid an item for you. Yes, he/she may be your bud but it just is not fair.

I've sold stuff on Ebay that started off at a $1.00 with no reserve and only ended at $1.00. That's what the item went for. Sure it's not what I would have wanted, but it's a learning experience and the next time I would have either started the item higher or put a reserve on it.

Luckily a majority of my items have sold for waay beyond what I was expecting WITHOUT ANY SHILLING at all.

That's it, I know I may be in the minority opinion about this, but I suppose that's what this forum is all about.

I agree with what you say, i did it twice in the beginning, i have over 100 positives so it's not a thing that i do all the time or on regular base.
I did it twice after realising the same thing you did.

[Speedy_NES]

I've never done it and will never do it. There are measures that can be taken to increase the price of an auction, etc. Shill bidding is cheap, I would never want it to be used against my benefit, and therefore will never do it myself. I'm somewhat surprised as well that so far the majority has done it once in a while. That would really agitate me if I were to ever find out that I am paying, for example, 50 more euros just because some other person was shill bidding.

As for bidding on an item at the end with the intention of leaving feedback, that's OK, since all it could lead to is a future trade partner being fooled by your feedback, but it won't have much of an economic impact on any of the parties involved. As long as the bid is made at the very end of the auction.

-Speedy

[Drexel923]

Maybe my definition of shill bidding is different than you guys, but I don't think that is what he's talking about.

He's saying that he bids on his friends auctions that aren't going to sell (no bids) just to get a boost in feedback. At least thats the way I read it.

Isn't shill bidding driving up the cost of an item to get more money...if so then it's completely different.

[Griking]

Maybe my definition of shill bidding is different than you guys, but I don't think that is what he's talking about.

He's saying that he bids on his friends auctions that aren't going to sell (no bids) just to get a boost in feedback. At least thats the way I read it.

Since everyone here advocates sniping auctions at the last second who's to say that an item isn't going to sell until the auction is actually over?

[NESaholic]

Maybe my definition of shill bidding is different than you guys, but I don\'t think that is what he\'s talking about.

He\'s saying that he bids on his friends auctions that aren\'t going to sell (no bids) just to get a boost in feedback. At least thats the way I read it.

Isn\'t shill bidding driving up the cost of an item to get more money...if so then it\'s completely different.

True dude that is what i ment,thanx for poiting that out!!