Ebay advice?

Evenin' all,
I was wondering, does anyone on here have any experience of ghost accounts being used on ebay. If so what advice can you give me?

no what are ghost accounts exactly??

Hi S.F.
An account set up and left dormant, they can be sold or given to sellers to up their listing prices / feedback rating.

For example I recently bid on an item, the starting price was 99p. I put in a maximum bid as I didn't expect to get it for this, however, as the listing came to an end it was still at 99p, then I was outbid. Nothing strange in that so I bid again and won. I then looked at the other bidders details and found the account was opened over a year ago and they'd never won anything, this raised my curiosity.

I then looked through this sellers previous listings and found 25 of these accounts all of which are anything up to 1? years old (each used several times)with no items won or sold and no feedback, they are always used to bring the original bidders bid up to their maximum bid, I suppose if the bidder doesn't bid again the seller can say the other (ghost) bidder fell through and offer you the item on a second chance obviously at your last bid which is now your maximum bid.

This guy is a power seller with over 10,000 sales, imagine how many they've done this to as I only looked back less than a month.

I should say this is all my own opinion but as I said it looks a bit dodgy.

I'm now unsure as to what I should do, As I've paid for the item before noticing anything weird.

Report it to Ebay.

If someone came back to me with a second offer because the winner fell through, I'd tell them I'll pay the last bid I made when the next lowest bidder backed out. I wouldn't pay the bid I made when I got knocked out, that's for sure.

Cheers Jeff,
I won this item on my second bid, it was a supid thing to do, you know the last few seconds and "it's only another quid". I just stumbled into this by chance and found a load of these accounts.

I don't know whether to let the seller know I'm on to their game or go direct to E-bay, I think their dispute procedure involves disclosing both parties details to each member and what the complaint being made is.

I've also heard of a specific angling retailer doing this on eBay several times, the price being hiked up right at the last minute. The seller was mentioned on another website's forum as well, just to warn people of course.

Who was it Terry? if you don't want to say could you tell me where the other tread is, thanks.

Go straight to ebay.

Agreed, go straight to ebay Rodders!

Hi Terry. I buy a few bits off ebay and I also sell some of my old stuff to. I have experienced what you are describing once before and I too became very suspicious. If a dealer has a buy it now or reserve price then that is pretty straight forward to me. My suspicions are always aroused when a retailer is selling brand new products, - rods, reels etc. - for auction. Like all retailers they have to have a break even. But a strange thing did happen to me that was actually pleasantly surprising. A few weeks ago I bought a 15ft float rod. It retails at ?170 and with postage it cost me ?132. I was quite pleased. After fishing with it a few weeks and realising it was a little gem I wanted another. The retailer seems to sell one a week so I placed my bid. I bid a max of ?120 which with postage would be the same as i'd happily paid for the first. And believe me this particular rod is weell worth it. (makes you wonder how others can charge ?300). Anyway I watched the last few moments of the auction fully expecting to be taken to my limit. Imnagine my surprise when I won the item for ?81 incl. postage. I paid immediately and received the rod next day. First class service and its perfect. But how can they possibly sell it for this price?

I think there are some very honest dealers on ebay but as with anything connected with the internet there are also some very unscrupulous dealers who probably never go fishing but it is, - to them, just another way of making money. I think if, like you have done, you fish around (sorry!) a bit and check them out you can get some sort of handle on them and if you are suspicious then keep your money in your pocket. I tend to decide on a maximum price and bid it. I very rarely go higher. If I win it for less - as the rod - then its good luck.

If I was you I wouldn't tell the dealer you are onto him. But I would inform ebay. I'm sure they could find a way of stopping people setting up these ghost accounts. Just on a funnier note I recently saw a product advertised at ?5.99 "buy it now" and ?1.00 postage. You can buy this very same product in the shops for ?4.99. I thought this must be a slip of the keyboard. I couldn't resist mailing the seller and asking him if his customers were all on drugs. His reply was unprintable but he told me if I didn't like it then "Don't bid" !!!!!

Dave / Eddie,
looks like everyone is in agreement, I only had doubts about going direct to ebay because I'd rather they (the seller) stoped doing it than have them kicked off, the kit they sell is good but the practice they may have used just isn't right, it's proving it that's the hard part.

Stewart,
I agree some people make their living off Ebay these days and have given up their job to run their ebay shop as their main source of income. Congrats on the rod, I've had some great deals myself on Ebay and like you I don't mind paying a fair price for an item but to be scammed and not notice till later really hurts, not because of the amout of money (which was still a fair price)but because I would always advise others not to do what I did on the spur of the moment.

rodney,the missus and me buy and sell a fair bit of stuff on ebay,including fishing tackle.i too have experienced the sort of problem you have had in the past,funnily enough with a tackle dealer as well.
what has happened to you is called "show bidding" its where someone gets friends or family to bump up bids for them or uses a ghost type account.you can contact e-bay and voice your concearns and they will investigate for you and take any action.
most folk dont bother going down this road but at the end of the day mate,you have every right to complain if you think you are being cheated.
ebay still have a moral obligation to ensure everything is legal and above board.

That's it Nick, the reason I thought the seller was doing it themselves was that the accounts used to bump up the bids were only ever active for this purpose.

I mean it's a bit dodgy when an account created on 19-Jun-05 suddenly pops in over a year after being created, on an item that's about to go for 99p when they don't have any winning bids before or after. Even though it's successfully used to outbid several ebayers maximum bids first go in that time, popping up now and again on the 99p listings or when a more expensive item's about to end on a low price.

i`ve had it done to me several times in the past when bidding for berkley digital scales from the same seller.i tend to make a note of who is at it and dont bother buying from them.
my mrs,although not a power seller has built up an excellent reputation and good feedback from all we have sold to and brought from.as she says,there is no point cheating the system because you will only get found out and earn a poor reputation and ultimately,no customers.

Like Stewart, I've had many good buys off Ebay and not afraid to say so, as most of you know.

But there are sharks and con men out there who explore every avenue of selling and corrupt it. They've done it to market traders, advertisers, and shop owners. It's impossible to stop them until there's evidence against them. Ebay should do something about this - no doubt!


Meanwhile, remember "Caveat Emptor" = let the buyer beware.

I just reported someone to Ebay for this, called "shill bidding".
Seller is in USA (Texas) and sells reels, rods, ipods and nintendo ds.
He had 4 lots of Abu Cardinal reels for sale and i would have liked 2 of them. Started bidding and other bid came in.
Looked at other bidders feedback of 1 which was given in 2004 by the seller.
So i checked all other lots ipods etc that he had for sale and same bidder shows up in those too.