i agree that if you don't like what you see, don't buy it. but shill bidding stinks of deception, which is to say that it's done behind the scenes. it would be a different story if somebody was shill bidding AND disclosing it: " ...in addition, bidders, every so often during the following 7 days i will have one of my buddies place a bid for the sole purpose of inflating the price, which will hopefully cause you to place a new, higher bid, perhaps higher than you normally would have gone. this way i get more money." in that scenario, shill all you want. at least the consumer is making an INFORMED decision. i guess my problem with shill bidding is that if/when it is done, it is not disclosed, and that is dishonest. in fact the "feedback forum" was developed to combat the issue of dishonest ebayers in general, specifically to run them out of town.