What would possess somebody to bid like this?

[Dilferules]

I'm not going to link to the auction because even though it seems fishy I looked through all of the seller's 600 completed auctions with anything more than a couple of bids and did not see anything weird, so I'm not accusing them of shilling. I won a card that ended today at 1:46, it was an older rare insert of a common player that I had the only bid on until this afternoon. Some new zero feedback buyer comes in and makes the following bids:

m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) Retracted: US $13.00 Explanation: Entered wrong amount Bid: Jan-22-13 13:38:05 PST
Retracted: Jan-22-13 13:38:37 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $12.00 Jan-22-13 13:38:02 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $11.00 Jan-22-13 13:38:00 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $10.00 Jan-22-13 13:37:57 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $9.00 Jan-22-13 13:37:53 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $8.00 Jan-22-13 13:37:49 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $7.00 Jan-22-13 13:37:44 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $6.00 Jan-22-13 13:37:39 PST

Member Id: m***t ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days) US $5.00 Jan-22-13 13:37:35 PST

My max bid was $12.50 so he retracted and left me paying my max. In the last 30 days he has bid 175 times on 105 items, only 4% bid activity with this seller, but FOUR bid retractions. He just got his first feedback between me pasting the bids and typing stuff down here so he's clearly brand new.

So what was he doing? Is it just some a-hole who once he placed his first bid was curious about how high my max was and that's how he found out? An ebay troll?

 

[smapdi]

Either an a-hole or a shiller, take your pick.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

You've been shilled.

 

[A_Pharis]

A shilling account has to start somewhere. You got shilled, man.

 

[sawmillthug]

I got shilled about 2 weeks ago on a much larger scale. One person was the initial Schiller then another came in and bid it to my exact max amount with a plenty of time left to snipe and it another bid was placed. I could have retracted at that point and should have but I was at work and busy. After I looked into it further one retractor had only bid on this sellers stuff 100% of the time and had 9 retractions in a month. The other bidder had over 200 retractions in a 6 month period.

 

[Dilferules]

Maybe I'm being naive but as much as it looks like shilling on the surface I really don't think so. The account is brand spanking new and based on the stats (4% bid activity with this seller) these were all the bids he's ever placed with this seller. The seller had hundreds of auctions end yesterday. Like I said, checked all the rest of them and nothing similar happened.

Oh well, look for yourselves: 2002 Topps Chrome Bobby Jones Black Refractor D 10 50 | eBay

I guess it's possible that it's an account to shill the auctions of a group of sellers, but it seems like a really random card to target out of the hundreds the seller had ending yesterday.

Guess I should have put in a snipe instead. At least it was only $10 and it's a card I really want.

 

[1st4040]

chances are it was another account of that guy who shills all the topps black auctions.. Sinocc on all these trade boards


That set sells high normally as these are a tough find. Doesn't help when someone out there who specifically wants to keep the market high on them shills every auction.

 

[Dilferules]

I think the MO of that guy is to win auctions and not pay, haven't heard of him doing retractions. I had not considered it may be somebody trying to keep the value of that set inflated, though. That's a good theory.