23 Feb
2006
23 Feb
'06
6:59 a.m.
I know I've accidentally bid against myself in a
real-life auction. :-)
An ethical auctioneer will NOT allow a bidder to bid against
hinmself. Most will simply say something like "you are already the high
bid".
As much as I'd like to think that eBay could
somehow protect
us against shills, I can't think of a way you could enforce
it and still prevent the motivated shiller from doing his
dirty work. All it takes is collusion and cohorts. eBay's
only risk is that a shill bid wins the auction - and they win
in that case with one form of listing fee or another.
The problem has existed since the beginning of time. One can not rightly
blame Ebay for it.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org