Why do high volume ebay sellers think we believe their lies about shilling their own autctions

[EDGARMARTINEZcollector]

If it looks like a duck........... Google is your friend, use it!

Because everything pulled up by Google is fact?

 

[BBCgalaxee]

Sent from my HTCONE using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[RStadlerASU22]

Because everything pulled up by Google is fact?

I heard it on the Internet.....

Ryan

 

[WhatDoesTheFoxSay]

While I don't think Probstein himself is shilling, I fully believe his consignors do. People say he is too busy to police it. I say it should be part of his job to police it. If he can't do it himself, he should hire someone to do it for him. If you can not provide honest business, you do not deserve to be in business at all. Of course, I doubt him or any other consignor want to police it because it's money out of their pocket.

 

[jbhofmann]

While I don't think Probstein himself is shilling, I fully believe his consignors do. People say he is too busy to police it. I say it should be part of his job to police it. If he can't do it himself, he should hire someone to do it for him. If you can not provide honest business, you do not deserve to be in business at all. Of course, I doubt him or any other consignor want to police it because it's money out of their pocket.

Listen, you can't police it.

You can't legitimately know someone's intent through a browser. I'm sorry, it sucks, but it's gonna happen.

WalMart has theft reduction employees. Guess what, shoplifting STILL happens, and the price of goods must rise to offset the cost. We are all shilled everyday. Immoral people will be immoral. Rick Probstien or Rick Ross, it makes no difference.

 

[David Anthony]

Just remember people, Google is your friend. Research!

 

[phillyfan0417]

Just remember people, Google is your friend. Research!

Thanks, google is what research is now.

Common sense is a requirement of your form of research.

 

[David Anthony]

As long as these three known scumbag sellers are outed. I'm GOOD! RESEARCH PEOPLE, RESEARCH!

 

[phillyfan0417]

As long as these three known scumbag sellers are outed. I'm GOOD! RESEARCH PEOPLE, RESEARCH!

Ah, so your research doesnt include common sense.

Carry on.

 

[David Anthony]

You arent making any sense, bro. I'm just here for the party! Woot-Woot!

 

[WhatDoesTheFoxSay]

Listen, you can't police it.

You can't legitimately know someone's intent through a browser. I'm sorry, it sucks, but it's gonna happen.

WalMart has theft reduction employees. Guess what, shoplifting STILL happens, and the price of goods must rise to offset the cost. We are all shilled everyday. Immoral people will be immoral. Rick Probstien or Rick Ross, it makes no difference.

Of course it can be policed. Do police catch all criminals? Of course not. But they can do their best to keep things under control. There are just too many times where it is more than obvious. Makes a person wonder what happens when a seller ends up buying his own card under another ID or an obvious other family member or a friend that lives in the same town.

So while I agree you can't catch it all the time, it can be caught some of the times. This is not people shoplifting at Wal Mart. Yes, shilling will always happen. But if you care about your customers, you will do your best to make your auctions as honest and straight up as possible. If you show people you will not tolerate shilling, the less likely it is to happen.

But not just Probstein, Im sure there are no consignors that want to stop it because it would hurt their bottom line.

 

[Dilferules]

It seems more often than not, that the shilling call out threads (in general, not speaking about any particular poster/seller/etc) lack common sense or are a result of a bidder being pissy that they lost out on an auction to someone else.

In this case I would bet that the OP read a couple of shilling threads on here or Blowout then got all worked up and just HAD TO post a thread spouting other people's opinions amped to 11. It's a pattern.


But in relation to this, does BigBoyd use the consignment excuse? I don't remember hearing that in the past. I just know that when I looked at his auctions a while back there were always 1 or 2 early bidders with real high bid percentages with BigBoyd that "bid up" a .99 start auction to a higher level, which made it look like he was shilling to set a type of reserve instead of just starting an auction at $5 instead of $.99 for some reason. It got to the point where I stopped bidding on his auctions because I knew my $2 or $3 bids weren't going to top the initial bids even though my bids ended up as the high bids on the vast majority of similar cards I bought from other sellers. It was more of an annoying waste of time than a "BAN HIM!" witch hunt.

(yes I bid on a lot of cheap auctions, sorry I don't collect Bryce Harper and Mike Trout autos exclusively)

 

[David Anthony]

Bigboyd has used the consignment lie on several occasions. I actually purchased a few cards from Bigboyd in 2011 when I got back into the hobby. 4 cards were shoved in a toploader with no sleeves. Never again.

 

[All The Hype]

Of course it can be policed. Do police catch all criminals? Of course not. But they can do their best to keep things under control. There are just too many times where it is more than obvious. Makes a person wonder what happens when a seller ends up buying his own card under another ID or an obvious other family member or a friend that lives in the same town.

So while I agree you can't catch it all the time, it can be caught some of the times. This is not people shoplifting at Wal Mart. Yes, shilling will always happen. But if you care about your customers, you will do your best to make your auctions as honest and straight up as possible. If you show people you will not tolerate shilling, the less likely it is to happen.

But not just Probstein, Im sure there are no consignors that want to stop it because it would hurt their bottom line.

I guess I'd be curious to hear how it's possible to police this? Not a hypothetical debate of whether or not it's right/wrong to police it, but rather, what real action do you take to police/stop it from happening?

They have over 25,000 active listings and even with a staff of a dozen people or whatever he has these days, there's no way realistic way to police 25,000 auctions. And even if there was a realistic way to figure that part out, what action do you take to stop it?

 

[WhatDoesTheFoxSay]

I guess I'd be curious to hear how it's possible to police this? Not a hypothetical debate of whether or not it's right/wrong to police it, but rather, what real action do you take to police/stop it from happening?

They have over 25,000 active listings and even with a staff of a dozen people or whatever he has these days, there's no way realistic way to police 25,000 auctions. And even if there was a realistic way to figure that part out, what action do you take to stop it?

If you are in business, I'm pretty sure you know the answer to your own questions. I do not have the time or desire to explain and debate. But all in all, as a business of honesty and integrity, a business owner should find a way to figure this out. I don't think it's rocket science.

 

[JoshHamilton]

If you are in business, I'm pretty sure you know the answer to your own questions. I do not have the time or desire to explain and debate. But all in all, as a business of honesty and integrity, a business owner should find a way to figure this out. I don't think it's rocket science.

Well since it isn't rocket science, explain it to us simpletons, Mr. MENSA

 

[jbhofmann]

Wouldn't eBay ultimately be responsible for cleaning this up?

Technically they own the store. Probstein (etc...) are the vendors who put product out.

The Keebler cookie man doesn't sit in the aisle waiting to see if someone steals his cookies.

 

[RiceLynnEvans75]

The Keebler cookie man doesn't sit in the aisle waiting to see if someone steals his cookies.

That's what he wants you to think. He's usually hiding behind the Nabisco cookies.

 

[Topnotchsy]

Wouldn't eBay ultimately be responsible for cleaning this up?

Technically they own the store. Probstein (etc...) are the vendors who put product out.

The Keebler cookie man doesn't sit in the aisle waiting to see if someone steals his cookies.

I needed that laugh.

More seriously though,
Regarding shilling, I've wondered if there is a way to police it as a seller and have not come up with a simple one.

People send cards to the consigner and certainly don't tell the consigner their username (and can always have friends shill) so it's not like that's super clear. They may have hundreds of people whose cards they are selling for at once and each is only interested in shilling his own item. Further it is definitely true that some people bid on ways that look similar to shilling even when they are not.

If a bunch of items don't get paid there's a chance that the item is shilled but can a big seller start blocking bidders because of suspected shilling knowing that it also means they can't bid on any other cards? How would people looking to find someone to sell for them feel if he knew that many potential buyers have been blocked due to suspected shilling.

As an aside I know that many serious auction houses allow sellers to out a "silent reserve" which is basically a shill bid.

 

[David Anthony]

"If a bunch of items don't get paid there's a chance that the item is shilled but can a big seller start blocking bidders because of suspected shilling knowing that it also means they can't bid on any other cards? How would people looking to find someone to sell for them feel if he knew that many potential buyers have been blocked due to suspected shilling."

Alright. You win. I can't argue with that. The only seller out of those three that I think is shady is Imac because he just seemed like a shady guy before his recent drama. Bad vibes guy.