ON TOPIC - The seller first mentioned in this thread, already identified in the second post as showing suspicious links to a group of
ebay ID's known for bad sales, possibly just one person but widely discussed as the "British Cartel" on other boards (Glen's Australian board has developed massive documentation on the misdeeds).
One of his bidders exhibited actions that looked like shill bidding. NOT SAYING IF HE WAS OR WASN'T A SHILL BIDDER - but he was the second place bidder and resulted in the buyer spending a couple hundred dollars above the third place bidder.
Bobby, I am so disappointed in your recent response I feel physically sick.
You said, "Tell me, how do you tell it's a shill?"
We all make bad assumptions at times. I made a bad one. I thought you were asking, in order to see an answer posted, to help our readers know what to look for. Boy was I wrong!
But beyond that I never expected you to raise the bar for proof to what you must admit is impossible. As was said here, its even difficult for
ebay to verify.
But shill bidders do get caught, and as Don and Sinclair will confirm, they do get booted off
ebay.
As for the accusation that those who are critical of
ebay are doing damage to the venue, or hurting your sales there, well all I can say is, some of us are involved in what can be a frustrating and time-consuming task, done for free, and encouraged by the APS, who played a very active and beneficial role with their oversight of
ebay sales. We were all in this TOGETHER. Do you really believe the APS was out to hurt
ebay by rooting out bad sellers?
If that's the case, take the extreme example of the "Bid Ring". It took the actions of the New York Attorney General to clean up that mess, in auction houses, not
ebay. Did revealing and prosecuting those big-name dealers hurt the hobby? Google the Bid Ring if you're not familiar with the case, it was bid rigging on a massive scale and international in scope. It's not the revelations that hurt auction houses or
ebay, the blame lies with activities of the cheaters and crooks.
And as long as
ebay thinks that booting a bad seller's identity off
ebay is adequate punishment, they'll keep coming back, because their criminal actions do pay. AND STILL ON TOPIC - the latest reincarnation of the seller being discussed is proof of the system's failure to keep the bad apples out of the barrel.
Bobby, I've always enjoyed reading your posts and thought you were a level headed poster, but keeping a watchful eye on
ebay is a thankless job, and you've certainly helped take the fun out of it for me today.
I'm sorry if I upset you, I'm hurt, and I'm very disappointed.
Posted 07/27/2014 1:19 pm
