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Old 02-22-2009
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Default Shill bidding, but I didn't, or at least not knowingly

I was suspended for shill bidding. But I really wasn't involved. My ex-wife had bid on and won a few items I was selling. She also bid on one other that she made a mistake on and I offered it to the second chance bidder. Well last night I had about 20 items listed and eBay pulls them all and emails me that I am involved in shill bidding. So I got read about it, and apparently I was. I had no idea. So I take the course and when I go to list my items it say I am limited to a fixed item for as long as the notice says. The notice didn't say anything about being limited to fixed price sales. I never did anything or inflate any prices. Most of my stuff has been selling for less than $15-$20. I often had items sell for the minimum bid. I have been only trying to get rid of stuff before I move. I am just lost to all this. eBay will not respond to my email asking how long I am stuck on a fixed price auction only. Anyone know?
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Old 02-22-2009
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You are kidding me. You have a relative bid on an item on your account and you are not involved? Please! Do you not realize that if you allow anyone you know to bid on an item ebay will construe that as shill bidding?

ebay rarely answer emails or if they do it's a canned generic reply. You might like to try Live Help for more info.
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Old 02-22-2009
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Actually I rarely sell on eBay, been on eBay since like 2001 with 275 feedback, but really never sold that much. Was talking to my ex the other day, we are friends, and she loves to bid and buy on eBay, told her I was selling some stuff to take a look at it. If she wanted anything to let me know I would pull the listing. She said no I want to bid if I win great!! (now you know why she is my ex...lol) But she bid on several items over the last couple weeks, some she didn't and and some she won. She then stopped by the house paid me for them and that was it. Next thing I know, I am in trouble. It really was innocent.

So, I do the tutorial, and then when I go to list my items again it says I can only do a fixed price listing. It say refer to the email or notice from eBay about how long this will go on. But the notice's and emails make no mention of my being stuck on fixed listings. Anyone know how long this lasts? Also I blocked my ex from being able to bid on my stuff again. I really meant no harm.
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Old 02-22-2009
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Fair enough. Just try Live (lack of) Help as well.
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Old 02-22-2009
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Sounds Shady to me. Was your "Ex-Wife" upstairs in your computer room using your computer and bidding on your items? Or she brought her laptop over and used your internet connection and placed bids on your items? You were connected/link somehow for Ebay to label it "Shill Bidding".

I don't think you will be able to relist a lot of items with this account anytime soon (6 months). If you are trying to get rid of your stuff before you move then I suggest a yard sale, Craiglist, or just open a new ebay account following the stealth guide.

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Old 02-22-2009
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My ex lives six or eight miles away with her boyfriend. I think the problem is/was is the items she bid on and won, she just stopped by my house and paid for them. It was not run through paypal. She did bid on several items, but others I had listed (like a really nice poker chip set) sold for my starting bid of $5.00 and it was worth a lot more. Clearly if I was shill bidding she would have bid on that item. I have sold many items that she didn't bid on, or she was out bid days before it ended.

I mean it really never occurred to me that there was anything wrong with this. In all honesty since I can't see how much of a proxy bid anyone puts in, what difference does it make who is bidding? I can't tell who is willing to pay how much for an item, so what "insider" info do I have?

I guess it was the number of my items she bid on over the last three weeks, I have no idea.

OK, and this is true; I belong to a car club and know many of the people in the club. I list an item for sale on eBay. I post on the clubs message board; hey I just listed this for sale on eBay <link>. A member of the club bids on and wins the item. Since the person is local to me and knows me they call me to say I will stop by (or I bring it to the next meeting) and I will pay you. I mean the way ebay's "rules" make it out this is against policy since in some manner I cannot sell to anyone I know in any way...

There is a certain amount of absurdity to this whole thing. I can see big value items or where bids are placed and retracted as drawing suspicion and needing to be investigated. But a middle aged man selling crap from my house/garage and the most expensive item was a James Bond DVD collectors set the rest of it was saw blades, tools and just crap that sold for on average $40.00 My ex never bid on most of that stuff.

I have been so screwed in the past on eBay by sellers that have shipped me empty boxes, broken items, lied about the item, even had one "power seller" refuse to take an item back that clearly was not the item listed and even after the paypal fight I lost...well we have these horror stories, I just prided myself on being a nice guy who was just selling my stuff, I shipped it the next day...blah blah blah....its always the small guy who gets screwed and eBay could careless.

Sorry for the rant, just wish I knew how long I am stuck with "fixed" price listings. Guess I will call them on Monday or "live help" during the week days.
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Old 02-23-2009
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This is a real odd thread. Green Bean is correct. Ex-wife or not, a person with your name on her eBay account bid on your items. Simply learn from your mistakes.

Ebay has every right to limit accounts for shill-biding. It is simply wrong. We have morons who come on here every so often and try to justify it. Think about it. If you are wanting to purchase something through an auction, would you want the seller to "jack" up the price....
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Old 02-23-2009
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It just doesnt make sense to me really...if my sister or exboyfriend or whoever wanted to buy something from me that i usually sell on ebay and they lived 6 -8miles away and they are coming to my house to pick it up anyway...why would i list it on ebay to incur unnecessary ebay fees.
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Old 02-24-2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by divine422 View Post
It just doesnt make sense to me really...if my sister or exboyfriend or whoever wanted to buy something from me that i usually sell on ebay and they lived 6 -8miles away and they are coming to my house to pick it up anyway...why would i list it on ebay to incur unnecessary ebay fees.
Well as I said, I listed a bunch of items, I ended up talking with my ex on the phone mentioned having to deal with ebay's new fees and how it was a lot different than it used to be. Like listing a DVD and only needing to use the UPC from it. Then I complained about the fact that I had a huge box set of DVD's (22) disc's in the Bond series and how eBay now only allowing me to set the shipping at $3.00. She then asked what else did you list. And she proceeded to look up my listings. She was interested in some of the items. I told her a couple days later after I saw she was bidding on them why don't you just tell me what you want I will pull it and we can do it that way, no point in my paying the fee's. She didn't want to, she felt if she got out bid oh well and I might make more money letting go than selling it to her. She loves to bid and buy stuff from eBay, what can I say. I didn't care if she was interested in some items or not. On three of the items she ended up paying more than what I paid for them and would have sold them to her if she just wanted them....LOL (that was her own being stupid and loving to bid on stuff).

Sure had I known what was happening at that time it was wrong, I never would have done it. It really all was very innocent. I think she bid on a lot of my items "just because" they used to 'our' items when we were married. I have no idea what or why she does what she does.

Anyways, I moved over to eBid and will try that for a couple weeks, I only got a 14 day fixed price listing restriction. So its not that bad. I just wish a warning and removing her form bid or bidding would have been nice. Just having 25 items that a lot were about to end, and have the listing canceled and eBay keeps the listing fee seems kind of crappy.

I am a little lost though as to why the tone of this forum toward me seems to be like I had done something terribly wrong. I didn't, yes I can understand how it can appear I did, but if that was the case I would simply be a stand up person and say, yes I did this OK lets move on. But I don't think people selling items that cost $20-$40 really have a lot of shill bidding going on. I mean you now how much the item is worth, it not like art work or jewelry or something where the price is subjective. I mean how do you shill bid up a door lock set that sells at Ace Hardware for $19.95 when the other bid is $12.95? I mean I guess you can try to rip off someone for an extra $3 or $4 bucks, but at the same time I have another item listed that sells for $5 that is worth $40 and no one else (including my ex) bid on it. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize there wasn't any intentional shill bidding going on.
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Old 02-24-2009
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Big, you gave us your story. The point of the forum is for others to learn. There was no 'tone' that I noticed. Your story may be true to you:that you are certainly naive is clear to others. Comments were reasonable.
Move on now & if you are making stealth accounts, then find much info here.
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Old 02-24-2009
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Big, I had the same thing happen to me years ago before I was aware of the idiocity of Ebays Shill-bidding rules and really took the time to read up on them. I had mentioned to a friend that lived in the same town I was selling on Ebay. She wanted to check out what I had for sale and ended up bidding and winning on a few items (new designer clothing we cannot get in our small town)

I would just take it as lesson learned and carry on. If it was your first time being dinged with the "shill bidding violation" you will most likely be able to get your account back in action very soon. Back in tha day they made me do a quiz and then I was back on.

Good Luck! =)
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Old 08-20-2009
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Ebays rules are that you can sell to "friends, family members and associates" but only on a buy it now or fixed price listing. With fixed price the item is same price for anyone who wants it so no shiling involved.

If you want to sell to friends at the car club list items fixed price and then tell them about it or post a notice. Then they can buy it if they want it. They can also use "make an offer" if you use that facility.
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Old 08-21-2009
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How is eBAY suppose to know it wasn't you using another PC in your house with the same IP, perhaps even the same PC tied to your own account that wasn't trying to up the bids? Think about it... this is not rocket science.

Even if you were intentions were noble, eBAY will not care. You're doomed until the limitations wear off (if they're policy violations -related).

You could TRY faxing in whatever documents they want. Since I assume it's all in your real name might be worth the effort.
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Old 08-22-2009
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Ebay has restricted you to fixed price listings because under their rules there can be no shilling involved with fixed price. So why not just list your stuff fixed price for the moment. Also tell your ex wife she should never leave fb for you as eBay would see this as feedback manipulation!

If you re-read the notice more carefully there will probably be some time period mentioned. Or you should go onto live chat and ask how long the restriction is for.

I think you just have to stick to fixed price and play by their rules on this account. If you want to do auctions take the above advice -creat a stealth account and build it up slowly with some genuine fb for cheap physical items before you list anything.
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Old 08-22-2009
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you start talking to me in a thread that is over SIX MONTHS OLD! You just like to see yourself type out stuff so bad you run around giving out unwanted opinions to topics that are dead and gone?
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Old 08-22-2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigBoy2U View Post
Geezus you wacky azz, you start talking to me in a thread that is over SIX MONTHS OLD! You just like to see yourself type out stuff so bad you run around giving out unwanted opinions to topics that are dead and gone? Go get a life.
Holy thread resurrection batman

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Old 08-23-2009
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With an attitude like that no wonder you get restricted when people are trying to help you.
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Old 08-23-2009
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I don't have an "attitude" I have an intolerance for ignorance. And of course you now make some smart ass comment about me being restricted.

There is NOTHING that you said that had not already been said. You didn't add or bring anything else to the discussion. Your so eager to make your opinion known you don't even realize your posting to a thread that was done and over with back in February. It only shows you don't listen or pay attention, you only want to be heard and you like to see yourself talk (or type).

Next time, read ALL the posts in a thread and then see if you really have something to contribute

Last edited by BigBoy2U; 08-23-2009 at 11:18 AM.
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Old 08-23-2009
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Very nice. Bit of rudeness. Bit of attitude. Not acceptable.
As the OP says he's happy with the answers from 6 months ago thread closed.
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