Old Candidates: Silliest Auction Prices of the Year
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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:05 am 
 

bclarkie wrote:
Its not just you.  

He has been doing well on common items for a long time, far to long and far too many times for it to be just dumb luck.  I have suspect something far more sinister myself for more thana year.  As a matter of fact I just checked him out again for shilling just the other day but I really didn't come up with anything.  I think that I am going to have to look a little deeper on this one.  This happens far to offen to him for it to be just dumb luck.  

There is also no way in hell it has to do with the US only/Media Mail shipping thing either as thats really just silly.  Some of the biggest buyers on Ebay nowadays are from Europe, so I fail to see how eliminating the better half of your buying base being some sort of a positive in any way shape or form.

Also, as noted he seems to be an absolute magnet for only newbies which makes me think that it has to be a shill.  He must have several friends/relatives bid on his auctions to help elimate a lot of the consistancies of other more lazy shillers, but believe me something is very very wrong there. Maybe he just has a very sophisticated method of shilling with multiple buying IDs that he uses to buy from other sellers as well, but something is not right at all with his auctions.  Give me a few days to give this a really serious look see and I'll report back anything that I find here.


Brian I sat checking out all his auctions today, because I was also surprised at some of the prices (plus I had nothing better to do....!).  I also checked a ton of his older auctions, and compared some screennames. I will have to agree with your conclusions, something is REALLY off here.  Once or twice a seller, usually an established seller, will get two newbies into a bidding war for a mono or something and the item goes for more than it should.  It's almost beyond any comprehension that it happens to this guy CONSISTENTLY, on very common items, among one or more newbie bidders.  Add to this he doesn't sell internationally (this will drive your prices DOWN, as international bidders are more than happy to often spend MORE than an item is worth, it does not bring your prices up to exclude them), and that items he ends up with large prices for are readily available at CHEAPER prices from other sellers on ebay, many even in ebay stores where they can be purchased without even having to suffer through the time consuming efforts of an overpriced auction.
  So I am with you this guy needs to be watchd, and anyone wanting to bid on his items needs to be very cautious is someone starts bidding up the item.  The only thing I would disagree with BC about is his buying activity, I know in my case in particular it's not always an indicator of how much you sell on Ebay.  I personally very rarely bid on or buy items from ebay, I find my items through other venues, perhaps this guy does also.Unless you meant something else and I just misunderstood.  Anyway, keep an eye on this dude....

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:29 am 
 

I was looking through the noob bidders previous purchases to see if he was using those account to buy and then resell through his main account but haven't found anything that matched.

Although I do find it interesting that 3 of the noobs: bugwart200, emperorclint, 736surf don't have any feedback auctions that are still active.

If he uses these accounts to buy with, he waits the 90 or 60 days (I forget which) for the links to expire on Ebay before reselling.

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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:31 am 
 

Badmike wrote:

  So I am with you this guy needs to be watchd, and anyone wanting to bid on his items needs to be very cautious is someone starts bidding up the item.  The only thing I would disagree with BC about is his buying activity, I know in my case in particular it's not always an indicator of how much you sell on Ebay.  I personally very rarely bid on or buy items from ebay, I find my items through other venues, perhaps this guy does also.Unless you meant something else and I just misunderstood.  Anyway, keep an eye on this dude....

Mike B.




Mike, I wasn't indicating that something was necessarily amiss because he has very low bidding activity, but it could be an indication that since his buying under the Harper ID is very low that it could meant that he is using one or several other IDs to buy things up.  If he has a mutitude of buying IDs he can use them both to buy things to resell and he also would have the ability to use thise same IDs to shill his auctions.  I am thinking that the reason his shilling activity is hard to find is because if he is using a multitude of Ebay IDs to shill his auctions.  What I am going to have to do is start checking out all of his bidder previous wins from sellers other than himself and match those wins up with the items that he is currently selling as that is going to be the only way it seems that I am going to be able to catch this guy shilling, if in fact that is what he is doing.  This is going to be a long arduous process. :?



Also Mike, you happen to be lucky.  You live an area where you have an opportunity to finds lots of things locally that most of us don't have the fortune to have. :wink:  Like me for instance, I live in RPG blackhole of the universe, I mean there is nothing, and I mean nothing here what-so-ever.  :?



Oh and last thing BTW, I happened to noticed Aneoth popped a bid in on the last Tsojconth auction that just ended (nice win Jeff BTW  :) ).



http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0059882920



Does this mean he is getting back in? :)


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:04 am 
 

bclarkie wrote:

Mike, I wasn't indicating that something was necessarily amiss because he has very low bidding activity, but it could be an indication that since his buying under the Harper ID is very low that it could meant that he is using one or several other IDs to buy things up.  If he has a mutitude of buying IDs he can use them both to buy things to resell and he also would have the ability to use thise same IDs to shill his auctions.  I am thinking that the reason his shilling activity is hard to find is because if he is using a multitude of Ebay IDs to shill his auctions.  What I am going to have to do is start checking out all of his bidder previous wins from sellers other than himself and match those wins up with the items that he is currently selling as that is going to be the only way it seems that I am going to be able to catch this guy shilling, if in fact that is what he is doing.  This is going to be a long arduous process. :?

Also Mike, you happen to be lucky.  You live and aread where you have an opportunity to finds lots of things locally that most of us don't have the fortune to have. :wink:  Like me for instance, I live in RPG blackhole of the universe, I mean there is nothing, and I mean nothing here what-so-ever.  :?

Oh and last thing BTW, I happened to noticed Aneoth popped a bid in on the last Tsojconth auction that just ended (nice win Jeff BTW  :) ).

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0059882920

Does this mean he is getting back in? :)




Thanks for clarifying, BC, you are right if he is buying from mulitple ids that would explain it.  If it's true it does show a level of competence in shilling not previously seen, but truthfully it's not hard to get or manage multiple ids if you know what you are doing and keep notes on who bids on what.  Just requires some work...

  And you are right I am very lucky to live where I do.....D/FW has 15 or so HPB, plus other used book/game stores, plus Austin and Houston are within 4 hours drive and each has multiple used game/bookstores.  If I had to buy on ebay to resell...well, I couldn't do as good a job as you or BTB or others here on the forum, I'd never end up with anything worth my time and efforts!

  Interesting note about Aneoth....I hope he is back in.  I'll have to give him a call during the holidays to see what he's up to, it's been over a year since I talked to him...



Mike B.


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:20 am 
 

deimos3428 wrote:Seems like Harper is either:

a) extremely lucky
b) extremely good at attracting rabid newbays

The only thing I can think of that distinguishs him from other sellers is that he only ships to the USA.  This means he can quote Media Mail shipping rates in his auctions and appear less expensive.  :?:

I suppose it's possible he's runnning a massive shill network, but ask bclarkie to sort that out.  I don't know.  :lol:


i dont agree with you: i´that's not a question of luck (of course you always need some luck in everything)... i had a look to the auctions you highlighted and what is extremely interesting is that 80% of his bidders are newbies...
coincidence or not?


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:21 am 
 

bclarkie wrote:

Oh and last thing BTW, I happened to noticed Aneoth popped a bid in on the last Tsojconth auction that just ended (nice win Jeff BTW  :) ).

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0059882920

Does this mean he is getting back in? :)




Merry christmas to me :D


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:40 am 
 

Blackmoor wrote:
Merry christmas to me :D


Heh heh heh....last year's Christmas present to myself was the incredible commissioned Roslof artwork I got....don't have anything as spectacular as that or a Tsojonth on the menu this year...darn!  

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:05 am 
 

aia wrote:
i dont agree with you: i´that's not a question of luck (of course you always need some luck in everything)... i had a look to the auctions you highlighted and what is extremely interesting is that 80% of his bidders are newbies...
coincidence or not?


Well, as an example, now mind you maybe these newbies just don't know how to use the Search function on ebay, but I have a mono B1 sitting in my ebay store right now in about the same condition (actually, could be NICER), for a BIN of $15, yet mysteriously this copy has gone up to $48 overnight based on the bidding of an 8 feedback bidder active since October that mostly purchases very cheap Eberron items, but on closer look has purchases a couple of higher dollar items (a Chainmail at $80 or DA2 at $30) and shows a typical newbie type disregard for consistency.  However, it's the other id (EmperorClint) that makes me wonder.
  This 18 feedback identity has not bid on anything since July, yet is suddenly in the thick of it in 7 auctions, five being for the aforementioned Harper.  This to me is a suspicious bidding pattern and should be watched.  Bugwart200 is another name that keeps popping up, he is bidding in every Harper auction, again off but he is bidding in many other auctions, so may be just a hope he can combine shipping with one seller if he wins multiple auctions.
  What this means I don't know, it's left for better minds than mine (BC) to investigate, but from what I've seen from a day of messing around, there does appear to be more than newbie exuberance going on.  Definitely bears watching....

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:29 pm 
 

bclarkie wrote:Oh and last thing BTW, I happened to noticed Aneoth popped a bid in on the last Tsojconth auction that just ended (nice win Jeff BTW  :) ).

Does this mean he is getting back in? :)


From a personal standpoint I hope so.  Aneoth is a really nice guy.  Like Badmike mentioned we havent seen or heard from him in quite a while.

From a collecting standpoint...I hope not!  j\k  :wink:

  

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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:14 am 
 


** expired/removed eBay auction **






One sec, let me get my crack pipe...... Ahhhh, now I can bid on it.


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:10 am 
 

I nominate anything by this seller ... geez ...



eBay listings

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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:16 am 
 

WereSteve wrote:I nominate anything by this seller ... geez ...

eBay listings




Heh, that's Ian, one of the members here.   :D


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:05 pm 
 

Ian has his nice items at the price he's willing to accept.  Nothing wrong with that.

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:33 pm 
 

Yikes!




** expired/removed eBay auction **




8O

  


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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:51 pm 
 

And no newbie bidders. *looks thru the A's and finds AC1* cha-ching!

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Post Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:10 pm 
 

http://cgi.ebay.com/D-D-Dungeons-AC1-TH ... dZViewItem



Um...here it is in shrinkwrap for $10 less than the current bidding price?  8O



And $3.50 shipping.   :?



Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:30 am 
 


** expired/removed eBay auction **




This guy is undoubtedly the village idiot of El Cajon.


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Post Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 3:36 pm 
 


** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **




Interesting :!:

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