[MotownMadman]

Matt,
As a Ebay power seller I may be able to explain. Shill bidding is if you have an item on Ebay for auction and you notify and use friends and associates to bid on the car to increase the price. Even if the associates bids stay below the reserve they still create the appearence of multiple parties being interested in the car, which can cause two different situations. Your actual bidder may fear losing the car due to a great deal of interest and therefore step up to the buy it now or make a high offer to presuade the seller to end the auction outright. The other effect it can have is creating a competetive frenzy which could cause people to bid more then they intended to pay or what they can afford. It is against Ebay rules and the seller can be suspended from Ebay on atemporairy or permanent basis, depending on how serious the situation or past similar actions. The best way to use Ebay is in an completely honest manner, certainly with high ticket items, as your future ability to sell is based on your past transactions and the honesty in which they were conducted. If you have friends or employees who had an interest in the car a deal should have been struck privatly prior to ebay. Your one associate made a post here in a manner that he was asking about the car, well, if he knows the car why ask? I would guess that gave you an opportunity to respond on this board with all the details without looking like a hard sell by advertising it without anyone expressing an interest. In the business you are in you cant afford bad rap, certainly not over a test car which is not where your bread and butter is. Just some food for thought.
Motown [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]