23 Feb
2006
23 Feb
'06
6:49 a.m.
At 07:44 AM 2/23/2006, William Donzelli wrote:
Nor do real auctions have precautions. In fact, if the
auctioneer is a
scum, he can shill himself, pulling bids out of the air.
I know I've accidentally bid against myself in a real-life auction. :-)
At least Ebay can
not do that (we think!). Ebay has at least some sort of papertrail for the
bidding.
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.
- John