[jg95z28]

[ QUOTE ]
Personally, I don't see it as shill bidding if you really are looking to buy something and have the money and place a bid for the amount you're willing to pay for it. It doesn't matter if it's a friend or complete stranger. The problem arises when you know what the reserve is and know that you bid won't meet the reserve.

[/ QUOTE ]Jeff, that is exactly what shill bidding is. You know the seller, you know the reserve, you know your bid will raise the price, however you aren't on the hook to buy the item because you're under the reserve price.

I actually have less of a problem with this type of action even though it is specifically considered a no-no by ebay. The bigger problem is two friends come on a messageboard and talk up a car that another friend is selling and pretend like they don't know who each other is or all the details. No one came clean until Aloha Jeff caught them red handed. That to me is bad business and can be potentially damaging to a company like GMMG.

These guys are actually lucky someone doesn't come along and creates a dummy account and bids up the price past the reserve. Why? Because if the bid goes past the reserve and the phoney-winning bidder neglects payment, the seller will still be responsible for the ebay fees on the selling price. (You'll have a rough time getting a credit back from ebay.) I've seen this happen time and time again on smaller items, so I'm sure it happens on their bigger auctions as well. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif[/img]