eBay vrs42?

[Antonio Carlini]

>   I won an auction recently in which there were two bids.  
> Mine, made a 
> day before auction end, and the second bid 5 minutes before 
> the end, for 
> $.50 *less* than my high bid.  Raised my winning bid by 400%. 
>  What made 
> the shill obvious was that I usually bid odd numbers - 
> $16.88, $27.92, 
> etc.  In this case my high bid (on a $4.99 starting bid) was $26.86. 
> The other bid was $26.36.

I also bid odd numbers, mostly because if I bid £10.01 on a £0.99
item (so it shows as £0.99 high bid) and someone later bids £10,
I'm still winning *and* they have to jump by a whole bid increment.
If I'm bidding against a £0.99 item where someone else has bid
£10 and I come in with £10.01, I'm winning - if I'd tried £10
I'd be losing.

I don't see how a seller could have known you'd bid $26.86
unless there was a high bid that was retracted. If the item
could reasonably have been expected to go for $10, then a
shill bid of $26.36 would be insane.

Is there any evidence of it being a shill rather than just
hugely unfortunate for you? Did the other bid come from
a zero-feedback buyer or a buyer who has made no bids on
anyone other than the seller or anything else that might
suggest a shill?

Antonio

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Antonio Carlini arcarlini at iee.org