30 Sep
2010
30 Sep
'10
8:30 p.m.
On 9/30/10, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
Yes. The difference is that when everyone is in the same room, a
veteran bidder can spot signs, recognize familiar faces, etc. This is
not as easy with a virtual auction.
The only thing
I would like to see is a way of booting sellers using
shills.
Every auction since some ancient Greek wanted the enhance the price of
his sheep has had shills. Ebay does kick shills off when they catch
them - they just do not advertise an account cancellation as "Caught
Shilling". "Administrative Cancellation" sounds more sterile but safe
for business.
Sure... when they catch them.
And as well seasoned veteran, my observation is that
the whole shill
concern is quite overblown. It is just not nearly as common as some
would like to believe. It is easy to blame a shill than to come to
grips that lots of others with deep pockets like this stuff as well.
When there are 3-4 bidders with 0-1 feedback that jump in and nudge
the price up in several increments to exhaust the max bid of the
present winner, that's not the same as someone with dozens of hundreds
of feedback _on similar items_ coming in with one bid that blows past
any competition.
I've been outbid by lots of folks with deeper pockets than mine (there
are plenty of them out there). I've also been seen clear evidence of
bid-rigging on auctions I was bidding on. When I see it, I'm done.
More than one of those auctions has been "won" by the 12-hour-old
account with zero feedback. I presume the item then gets relisted. I
wouldn't know. I'm done with that seller.
-ethan