I just bid on a Saturn game that I quite want. It's fairly rare, but was badly listed so when I found the page, it had only had 2 views - one mine, and the other presumably the sellers. I usually don't bid until near the end of an auction, but I placed a bid on this one. A couple of hours later, I am outbid. I am suprised, since it is unlikely anyone else would spot it so soon if no-one had seen it before ... it had already been up several days. My suspicions are raised when the high bidder turns out to be a new user called nat_1234, who registered a couple of days after the seller began his auctions. I do a quick search on items he has bid on .. and he has bid on three items, all of which are being sold by the same seller as the auction I bid on.

Now, am I leaping to conlcusions, or is this pretty damning evidence of shill bidding? And what do I do about it? The price on this game is still pretty cheap for what it is, and I would still like to win it .. so I don't want to get him chased off ebay. But I also don't want to have to bid against that kind of tactics ... any advice anyone?

Please resist the temptation to go and look for the auction I am talking about, since it now only has 4 pageviews - two from me .. and I would like to keep it that way as good evidence of my theory if I need to back it up...

Vroomfunkel