Is this an example of shill bidding?
 

I looked at this listing after this guys CL ad pointed to it a few days ago. I have no real interest in this model since it's too big as well. But what got me curious was how fast the price jumped up after it opened, not uncommon but seemed funny. I'm trying to get better at looking through the bid history to avoid similar situations and wondered if any of you would consider this a shill attempt by viewing the history. Thanks :thumb:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I don't see anything that necessarily makes me think there is a shill bidder. Instead, the current "winner" is one of those dang people who keep creeping up their bids to increase the price.

It looks like the first bidder was merely trying to creep into the reserve. Perfectly logical and ligit.

agree with steppinthefunk. buyer was trying to find the reserve.

I've dont that myself. I know how much I'm willing to pay for item so I'll test the reserve price. If the reserve doesnt lift when I get to my target price I walk away.

What I look for is an item that keeps reappearing after it sells. I watch a bunch of stuff I can't ever hope to win, just for kicks and grins, and sometimes I see something sell several times but then reappear later. I assume the unconsummated deals were the guy setting a 'free' reserve price.

I guess they assume no one is watching.

I think that San Diego repainted Raleigh International sold the first time it was listed. Then he relisted (several times) with a stupid-high reserve.

I occasionally bid early on an item-just bidding what I can afford, not what I expect it to sell for.My thinking is I would like to get it-cheap- if everyone else is asleep. I occasionally "win" with this strategy, but never anything like this with a fancy Italian name, nice bike-. A Trek 730-maybe 1994 vintage-for $112 is my most recent surprise.I would have paid $125 for it.Good all around bike with 700c wheels which makes it easier to eventually sell.

That bike has no smell of shill bidding-just foolish early bidders-like me.
I doubt the 22 lbs claimed weight-clinchers etc- probably more like 23.5 or so.
Charlie

It's called chasing the reserve. You do it until you get bummed and quit.

why is there a kickstand on that bike?

Very nice bike and excellent presentation. This might be a bit of a race. Watch and learn.

so they could crush the chainstays, duh
I used to hate seeing crushed chainstays on cheap bikes. Seeing them on a nice bike like this is nearly criminal

If it were excellent presentation, it wouldn't have a kickstand stuck on it. It's a good bike with a good set of pictures. Not all that special, IMO.

I never bid on reserve auctions, they're for suckers. There are way too many things wrong with that bike to even consider paying that much. I've only bought one complete bike on eBay, and I only payed $65 for it. It was a low end 1970s Mercier and it needed a lot of work.

it looks like the bidder with 2 wins put a max bid of $300, the bid price was $52.50 and the bidder with 52 wins bid after this person with smaller bids to go over their bidder with a max of $300. since his bids are so small I would assume that the current winning bidder has a max bid of $310. I don't think its shilling. I don't know how they can determine the reserve price unless someone else bid over the reserve.

I don't understand the psychology of “chasing the reserve.“ If you need to know what the reserve is, that means you haven't made up your mind what you would pay for it; not very savvy buying strategy. For me, hidden reserves are a turn-off, because I don't like someone else thinking I'm going to be such a sucker that I'll try to guess what their secret price is. If you have a reserve price, be upfront about it and just make that the opening bid.

I almost never bid anything before ”snipe-time.” There's no point, from a buyer's point of view, in contributing to a bidding frenzy by slowly incrementing bids. I have enough discipline to be sure about the max. bid I would pay, in any case. I bid that at the end, and I don't feel bad if I lose -- but I don't feel remorse about having won, either.

Bidding this way also takes shill bidding right out of the equation. If the seller shills, he's (women are more ethical than that) doing so having no idea what I would bid -- chasing my reserve, as it were, and betting they know how much someone will commit to. I really don't care what games people play before the final moments. And I rarely bid on something that's been relisted, unless it's a very good deal. Done this way, the process avoids being “taken” due to poor judgment, to a great extent.