There is a particular seller in the state of Ohio who lists and sells a good
number of old british sports cars. He has recently sold a couple of Healeys
and an MGTC, as well as a Jaguar and others. I have been following his
auctions for a couple of years after I bought a car off of him (not off
ebay) and discovered he outright lied to me about the ownership history of
the car, the duration of his ownership and several other things, including
the mechanical condition of the vehicle. I did inspect the car before I
bought it and, aside from being lied to, am not dissatisfied with my
purchase. I noticed that the same two bidders always bid on his auctions,
repeatedly, but never enter a bid that meets reserve. They always seem to
stop a few dollars short of actually buying the car. Before ebay started
hiding the identities of the bidders, I was able to check out items for sale
by the other two bidders and lo and behold, they were selling cars from the
same garage as the seller. I had been there and it was easily recognizable
from the photographs of the vehicles listed. I have reported this guy to
ebay no fewer than eight times and ebay refuses to suspend him or take any
action to end the shill bidding. I even pointed out that the cars for sale
by the seller were visible in the photos of the cars for sale by the shill
bidders. Ebay did not care. Since ebay now refuses to list the identities
of bidders, you can no longer see items for sale by bidders and it is more
difficult to detect the shill bidding. One indication is numerous bids by
the same or a couple of the same bidders without the item meeting reserve. I
also noticed that items which are being shilled will often have many more
bids than similar items that are not. For example, the unshilled big healey
may have 8 or 10 bids over the course of 7 day auction. In the know shill
auctions I have observed, a big healey may have 40 or 50 bids over the same
time period. The bottom line is only bid what you are willing to pay,
regardless of how much interest others may have in the item. Always inspect
the vehicle before you agree to buy it, or have someone else you trust go
and inspect it. Photos hide a lot. John
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