Shilling is not exactly news, but good to see that some action is being taken to prevent/punish it (eventually).  See AP article for details.

globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM ... echnology/

lol how the hell is it a felony charge?  If the prices goes higher then you want to pay stop bidding!

"Mr. Spitzer said one of the sellers pleaded guilty to a felony charge, the other two to misdemeanours. They were ordered to pay more than $50,000 in restitution and fines."


Felony charge

the world is full of stupid people.........
a fool and his money are soon parted.......

Christian 1758 is so obviously a shill account. How could ANYONE fall for that?
As far as fraud/shilling, there are a few ways to look at it.

1. If someone bids $200 when an item is at $1, and it gets shilled up to $200, so be it. They were willing to spend the $200.

2. If only the one bidder was interested in it, and could have gotten it for $1 if not for the shills, then so be it. The seller set the price at $1, with no reserve.

3. eBay says shilling is illegal, so it is illegal on eBay.

Consider this, however. When a house goes up for auction, the bank starts the bid low, but they have a minimum amount they will accept for it. If the bid is at $100K, and they want at least $120, they can have an agent bid $120K for it. If someone bids $125K, they sell it. Is that shilling, or is it setting a reserve?
My experience with shills has been this: I have won a few auctions that were obviously shilled. When I get the invoice/e-mail from the seller, I explain my concerns, and ask them to provide the contact info from the shiller, so that I may verify the shill account with eBay. I then proceed to tell them that shilling is illegal, and if it WAS a shill, the person needs to be stopped for the good of eBay. Out of all the times (and there have been more than a few) that this has happened to me over the years, only 2 auctions have turned out to be legit bidders. All the rest are either met with silence, or some lame excuse.
Some few sellers are actually ignorant of the rules.I shilled a few of my own auctions long ago, but when it was explained to me that there was a policy against it, I stopped. Is it the seller's fault if he is truly ignorant?Judgement call there, but I say yes. it is plainly spelled out in the rules, but attention to detail and impatience is usually what keeps people from actually reading them.
OK, let's have opinions on this: The last time I renewed the lease on my apartment, I signed it Notmy Signature. It was scrawled, but legible. I did it to show my wife how the average person suffers from severe lack of ATD, but the question is this: If I break the lease, am I responsible? Or is the management company responsible, for not checking to ensure the signature was valid?
My vote: They are.
If there was a line in the lease saying I had to give oral to the leasing manager's dog as part of my rent, and I signed it, who is at fault there if I refuse to do it?
My vote: I am.
If someone is a victim of shilling, and doesn't realize it, is he at fault or the seller?
My vote: He is.
The last one is tricky, but my reasoning is this: There are plenty of links and warnings about shilling on eBay's site for anyone who cares to actually read the details of how eBay works. If someone is too lazy to research the possible pitfalls of their actions when presented with the opportunity to do so, fuck 'em. They could have avoided it with a little effort, but they chose to take the chance on getting burned.
We all know that the world is not dog-eat-dog, it's dog-eat-any-goddam-thing-it-can-choke-down. Anyone who does not have their guard up 100% of the time is asking to get burned. I don't like it, and most people don't like it either, but it is what it is. Adapt or die.
Shit, that was a lot of typing...........

Yes, of course!  What are you implying?

If you are suggesting this Christian1758 newbie who is bidding on several of my items is in any way connected to me then I take offence at that.

On one of my items (The Book of Lairs) jamesbolivardigriz (who is someone else I have no connection with) had put an initial bid on which Christian1758 kept pushing up (to $202.50!?) which I could not believe (I thought it was too good to be true).  jamesbolivardigriz contacted me the other day to say he'd put a bid on but had not included the decimal point and wanted me to cancel the auction.   Checking eBay's rules I did not think that this was a valid reason.  I suggested he retract the bid which he has now done leaving Christian1758 as the high bidder.

If you are interested in bidding on my items then please do so.  I have never shill bid on my auctions, never asked anyone to do so either.  In fact, if you check my recently sold items a couple went off on Sunday night much under what I wanted them to.  Such is life.  You win some you lose some. I'm proud of my feedback rating and would not do anything to jeopardise it.

As for Christian1758, I've contacted him with my concerns about his zero feedback, his pushing the price of that item up and his intention to pay.  He has informed me he is interested in my items.  I'm assuming he is an over-enthusiastic new comer to eBay.

Cheers,

Wayne
.............................

Oz's reply when I asked him if he knew shilling was illegal.
You are quite possibly right. Except for the fact that, if you look at the buy/sells of some of these bidders, they all seem to buy and sell largely with each other. Too convenient for me.

Except for the fact that, if you look at the buy/sells of some of these bidders, they all seem to buy and sell largely with each other. Too convenient for me.

I think the main reason for that is because Australia is a very small collecting market. Not many of us about, and I have bought from and sold to the same people a few times.

Deadlord36 wrote:OK, let's have opinions on this: The last time I renewed the lease on my apartment, I signed it Notmy Signature. It was scrawled, but legible. I did it to show my wife how the average person suffers from severe lack of ATD, but the question is this: If I break the lease, am I responsible? Or is the management company responsible, for not checking to ensure the signature was valid?
My vote: They are.

Nope, gotta disagree.  Your signature is not the same thing as your name.  It could be an X, a number, someone else's name, and it would still count.  They'd probably require videotape of you writing the signature if you wanted to pick nits.  They should have questioned the validity of your signature, but you have the right to change it at any time.  I don't know the law in the USA, but here in Canada, you may even assume a new name, at any time, provided it is not for fraudulent purposes.  They could totally hold you to that lease, if they wanted to waste the time/money in court.  It's probably more worth their while to let it slide and get a new tenant in as quickly as possible.

If there was a line in the lease saying I had to give oral to the leasing manager's dog as part of my rent, and I signed it, who is at fault there if I refuse to do it?
My vote: I am.

This wouldn't be legally binding in many states/countries as that particular act is illegal, and may nullify the entire lease if they don't have severability clauses...I'd hardly call this anyone's "fault", however.

 
If someone is a victim of shilling, and doesn't realize it, is he at fault or the seller?
My vote: He is.
The last one is tricky, but my reasoning is this: There are plenty of links and warnings about shilling on eBay's site for anyone who cares to actually read the details of how eBay works. If someone is too lazy to research the possible pitfalls of their actions when presented with the opportunity to do so, fuck 'em. They could have avoided it with a little effort, but they chose to take the chance on getting burned.
We all know that the world is not dog-eat-dog, it's dog-eat-any-goddam-thing-it-can-choke-down. Anyone who does not have their guard up 100% of the time is asking to get burned. I don't like it, and most people don't like it either, but it is what it is. Adapt or die.
Shit, that was a lot of typing...........

I get what you're saying, I'm a wee bit of a Darwinian myself.  But it's also our moral duty to protect the stupid.  If you're not buying the moral argument, the alternative reason is that they tend to be hotties...or know them.  

>>>Just out of curiosity: How many serious (A)D&D collectors do you think are active in Australia?

Not many.  So far this year, I've had 18 Australian customers for D&D - hopefully none will mind being listed here.     Those marked >>> have bought fairly large piles of stuff and could probably be called "serious," along with mdr003.

ajm6*9
andrew_gale
aone333
>>> dazbaby
dchoey
earache666
>>> genkimax
helsbells_68
>>> improvstone
jszkilnyk
mdr003
post_war_dreamer
rdechatillon
ruran42
>>> smallbluedonkey
unihead
>>> zytaxical
0mojoh