Help with shady Predator listings on ebay

[Emperor]

I was hoping to get the opinions of you guys about these ebay listings. This guy has just about every Hot Toy Predator up for auction and the bid history on them all is a bit shady. The same people seem to have bid on all the items, mutiple times. Do you think this is a shill bidder? Should I report the seller? Here's a link to the auctions.

https://shop.ebay.com/steuve076/m.html

 

[ARAFAT209]

Well it could be , most of the times some people ask their friends to do that and we end up paying unreal prices for the items we like , i also bid on some of those auctions but when i see stuff like that i just stop

 

[RollingJ]

Predator items are very popular, and it is often the same people who are after them. Not saying it's not a case of shill bidding, but it's hard to prove. Just decide what you are prepared to pay, wait until the last few seconds, then put that bid in. It makes no sense to bid before the end, this just helps shill bidders keep upping the price.

 

[vareika]

I thought ebay masks the bidder's ids. what you see are generic user id first and last letters? Am I wrong?

 

[Furley_Ghost]

I'm watching those auctions as well. I don't believe anything funny is happening because most of the bids were pretty low when the same people were winning them. I bid on 4 of them in the beggining.

Have you seen the auction with 10 Predators though. I am very suspicious on that one. Last night the high bidder had one feedback and now the high bidder has no feedback.

 

[Furley_Ghost]

I thought ebay masks the bidder's ids. what you see are generic user id first and last letters? Am I wrong?

You can see the first and last letter followed by feedback score. i.e. e***7(120). The letters don't match you're i.d., but it is yours.

 

[Elder_Predator2]

Nothing shady about the 10 Predator lot, nope, nothing at all.....

 

[prefused]

somebody's got a collection agency banging on the door...

 

[Elder_Predator2]

I'll bang on that door....

 

[ARAFAT209]

Nothing shady about the 10 Predator lot, nope, nothing at all.....

nothing wrong with it?? when you see 0 feedback bidders adn 1 feedback bidders and that they are just bidding several times sound like shillbiding , but then again its hard to proof

 

[Elder_Predator2]

I was being sarcastic Raf, I knew that something seemed a little off.

 

[ARAFAT209]

oh my bad seth , still a very nice collection

 

[WolfPredatorAVPR]

You can report it to ebay if it is questionable but I am not sure if you can unless you have bid on it prior. Ebay can match up IP addresses, so if they are using the same computer on a different account they will get caught. Not sure what ebay would do with a friend bidding for them, not really sure they can do anything about that.

That predator lot does look questionable but the other guy you are talking about I think it looks legit so far. Its not out of the realm to think someone who wants them would bid on all of his to save money on shipping or what not.

Shill bidding is a federal offense so I think not many people do it as some would think, but again if you bid...got outbid and it looks like it could be questionable, report it to ebay and they will check it out. Just because someone has zero feedback or 1 feedback rating does not automatically mean its a friend bidding or another account. Why I hate auctions, it seems you always get them people bidding, then people question whether or not you are being honest. Has happened to me a few times...and I am sure Ive got reported a time or two. If they are honest...nothing will happen

My advice, if you think they are cheating you in some way...easy solution, dont bid and move on to another seller.

 

[jstep13]

Looks relatively legit to me. He has pics, Im assuming its his pics, has 36 feedback, member since 2005. Although he doesnt have any feedback I can see as a seller.

I would say if youre dead set on buying from this guy, make sure you pay with your *credit card* via Paypal and at least you have 2 ways of recourse if something bad happens.

 

[WolfPredatorAVPR]

Looks relatively legit to me. He has pics, Im assuming its his pics, has 36 feedback, member since 2005. Although he doesnt have any feedback I can see as a seller.

I would say if youre dead set on buying from this guy, make sure you pay with your *credit card* via Paypal and at least you 2 ways of recourse if something bad happens.

He thinks the guy may be shill bidding. Don't think it was a question on whether or not he actual had the pieces for sale and would ship them to him.

Its more of a question of if the guy is gonna try to use shill bidding to jack the prices way up...

 

[Emperor]

He thinks the guy may be shill bidding. Don't think it was a question on whether or not he actual had the pieces for sale and would ship them to him.

Its more of a question of if the guy is gonna try to use shill bidding to jack the prices way up...

Exactly. What concerns me is that if you look at the bid history for just about every figure, you will see the same user bidding multiple times. However, It also might be that someone was trying to outbid them and they never hit the maximum bid.
I'm aware of the popularity and price that these AVP Preds go for. However, since they are loose with several days until the auction's end, I'm surprised these figures are already going for over $300. I can't imagine what the winning bids will be on these 4 days from now. $800? $1,000?

 

[jstep13]

Oops well I guess reading is fundamental. Yeah judging by the bidders, it def. looks shill. I say report 'em...

 

[Violator66]

This is rigged don't pay more for nothing

 

[vareika]

shill or not, if someone is willing to pay the winning bid, so be it...its 10 predators we are talking about, anything under 2000 or heck 4000 maybe seller probably would not be satisfied...so yah..

 

[thenammagazine]

The auction with the lot, absolutely fishy. The other auctions, I'd say no. With the growing converts moving from NECA to HT, it's only natural that you'd have the same people looking over the same items. The best way to determine the legitimacy is by looking at the bid history. If everybody bidding has a healthy variation of feedback, and there is a sizable increase between bids, chances are, it's legit. However if you see a bunch of bidders with 10 or less, doing small bid increments trying to "top off" the previous bidder, chances are, it's shill bidding.