Ebay Members with "***" in their names

[.:.impossible]

I keep getting outbid by members (username "_***_") on some lps from the same seller.

examples:

e***e

t***b

e***b

Each of them have a decent amount of transactions, and they are all in Music>Records, Music>CDs etc. Often times only bidding once on an item, though there are a few where they have bid 25-30 times on the same item.

I haven't used ebay too much in the past. I have maybe a dozen transactions total. Is this a common username format, or is this someone with multiple usernames raising the price on their own auctions?

[.:.impossible]

Just happened again... this time u***u (8).

[Niko]

Just happened again... this time u***u (8).

this is ebays new privacy thing... if you outbid someone he will also think he's outbid by p***a and the like (strangely enough they even use the same code for different bidders in an auction (don't think the start and end letters are from the real handle, but i am not sure

[.:.impossible]

Gotcha. I did win cecil taylor conquistador. I always liked this album. Lost out on Billy Harper Capra Black, Lester Bowie Numbers 1&2, Freddie McCoy Listen Here and so on and so on. It seemed fishy, but I figured it could be a security measure.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Almost every auction is this way now. EBay did this to make it impossible to find out who is bidding on an item, ostensibly to prevent other eBay users from contacting auction losers to offer the same product "off the system". It's all about eBay's take. Money.

What they fail to realize is that it makes it impossible to ferret out shill bidders. It used to be when someone started bidding up an item beyond it's expected value, you could check the bidder's other auctions to see if he/she had a history of doing that. If you found someone who usually bought Beenie Babies bidding $200 for a Jazz CD, you could be fairly certain you were getting shilled. Now, shill bidders are hidden.

Caveat emptor.

[EKE BBB]

Yes. Watch out! I am the f***in' EKE BBB!

Edited May 7, 2008 by EKE BBB

[Brownian Motion]

What they fail to realize is that it makes it impossible to ferret out shill bidders.

Caveat emptor.

They realize it. Ebay knows exactly what it's doing. Shill bidding, especially when it's hard to detect, is most definitely to ebay's advantage.

[Chalupa]

What they fail to realize is that it makes it impossible to ferret out shill bidders.

Caveat emptor.

They realize it. Ebay knows exactly what it's doing. Shill bidding, especially when it's hard to detect, is most definitely to ebay's advantage.

Definitely.

[Chalupa]

Gotcha. I did win cecil taylor conquistador. I always liked this album. Lost out on Billy Harper Capra Black, Lester Bowie Numbers 1&2, Freddie McCoy Listen Here and so on and so on. It seemed fishy, but I figured it could be a security measure.

I lost on the Lester and Billy Harper albums too.

[.:.impossible]

I also lost on The Shape of Jazz to Come... sold for $71.00! Ridiculous. I thought we were in a recession!

[Jazzmoose]

What they fail to realize is that it makes it impossible to ferret out shill bidders.

Caveat emptor.

They realize it. Ebay knows exactly what it's doing. Shill bidding, especially when it's hard to detect, is most definitely to ebay's advantage.

Definitely.

And now they don't have to worry about amateur detectives uncovering the shenanigans. It stinks.

[AllenLowe]

I find ebay is getting more and more risky - after having maybe 2 problems in 5 years, I have had to contest 3 out of the last 4 deals I made through paypal - in each case I got my money back, fortunately, but they were all sleazy deals from people with good feedback - so much for that -

[Jazzmoose]

Yeah, I think the Golden Age of Ebay is drawing to a close...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Gotcha. I did win cecil taylor conquistador. I always liked this album. Lost out on Billy Harper Capra Black, Lester Bowie Numbers 1&2, Freddie McCoy Listen Here and so on and so on. It seemed fishy, but I figured it could be a security measure.

How much did "Listen here" go for?

MG

[Niko]

What they fail to realize is that it makes it impossible to ferret out shill bidders.

Caveat emptor.

They realize it. Ebay knows exactly what it's doing. Shill bidding, especially when it's hard to detect, is most definitely to ebay's advantage.

Definitely.

And now they don't have to worry about amateur detectives uncovering the shenanigans. It stinks.

stupid question... why does it help to know that someone is a shill bidder? (i mean if someone bids more than you want to pay, the item is gone no matter what the motivation is...) is it because you want to avoid the seller in the future?

[.:.impossible]

Gotcha. I did win cecil taylor conquistador. I always liked this album. Lost out on Billy Harper Capra Black, Lester Bowie Numbers 1&2, Freddie McCoy Listen Here and so on and so on. It seemed fishy, but I figured it could be a security measure.

How much did "Listen here" go for?

MG

$30

[Claude]

stupid question... why does it help to know that someone is a shill bidder? (i mean if someone bids more than you want to pay, the item is gone no matter what the motivation is...) is it because you want to avoid the seller in the future?

I've never reported one, but if suspicious cases get reported to Ebay more often, it will prevent sellers from taking the risk of shill bidding

Edited May 8, 2008 by Claude

[Jazzmoose]

stupid question... why does it help to know that someone is a shill bidder? (i mean if someone bids more than you want to pay, the item is gone no matter what the motivation is...) is it because you want to avoid the seller in the future?

In the past, when shill bidders were unearthed (and proven) they were kicked off the site. Generally speaking, the shill bidder is either the seller under another name or an accomplice, so the seller would be booted as well.

[Brownian Motion]

stupid question... why does it help to know that someone is a shill bidder? (i mean if someone bids more than you want to pay, the item is gone no matter what the motivation is...) is it because you want to avoid the seller in the future?

In the past, when shill bidders were unearthed (and proven) they were kicked off the site. Generally speaking, the shill bidder is either the seller under another name or an accomplice, so the seller would be booted as well.

Ebay put out the welcome mat for shills when it designed the so-called "private auction" and then eliminated the possibility of correspondence between bidders. In a private auction the bidders are not revealed, so there is a lot more difficulty in establishing shill bidding, and no way to warn bidders who are being suckered. The private auction model worked so nicely for ebay that they have now, in effect, made every auction a private auction.

[Shrdlu]

What the f**k!

[Chalupa]

I noticed today that the new feedback rules have gone into effect. My score bumped up by 27. Additionally, I keep getting a message that sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. Hmm... not sure about that.

[Jazzmoose]

Holy cow...I went from 719 to 927. Still against the new rules, though.