Shill bidding alert - BP Fallon

[icdvet]

So I think I was just the victim of a shill bid scam on Ebay for the tricolor BP Fallon. I have reported it to Ebay for investigation (no easy task) but wanted to make y'all aware so you can avoid these to sellers:
alih42330
fenriswarg6
Both are from Bowling Green KY and I suspect are the same person.
here's how it went:
In the last few minutes, a bidder with very few feedbacks (6, the same number as fenriswarg6) put in mutliple bids until he/she exceeded my high bid, then retracted the final bid leaving me to win at an inflated price. Another copy sold 30 minutes later where the seller had 6 feedbacks and the buyer (who also retracted high bids at the last minute) had 38feedback, which is interestingly the same amount as alih42330. Probably in the latter case the buyer decided to take the hit and win as the next high bidder did not go high enough, and I would not be surprised if this is not relisted as a new item.
So the lesson I have learned is to only buy these tricolors from the sellers with high feedback, and that the policy of selling these from TMR is increasingly attracting flippers with no morality whatsoever.

[Tonic&Gin]

Were you willing to pay at the "inflated" price? As a rule of thumb i never bid more then i would be willing to pay and always expect to pay the highest possible.

But yes it sounds like a couple of assholes are here.

Also as a seller can you see what people have as their highest bid?

[Kaber]

n/a

[icdvet]

Were you willing to pay at the "inflated" price? As a rule of thumb i never bid more then i would be willing to pay and always expect to pay the highest possible.

So I would have been OK with paying my maximum bid if this were a genuine auction - me and one or two other bidders duking it out. Instead, a single bidder with almost no feedback put in multiple bids in the last few minutes (limiting my ability to withdraw my high bid in time when I realized what was happening) then withdrew their highest bid (which beat mine) as "entered wrong amount" (even though it was only 3 buck more than their prior highest bid) leaving me stuck as highest bidder at a price $40 above what it had been before that bidder entered the fray. Oh yeah, and ALL their bid activity has been with the same seller. I just dont see that as kosher. If someone wants a mimimum sale price, they should put in a reserve or so B-I-N. Oh, but wait, that costs more to list.

Also as a seller can you see what people have as their highest bid?

I dont think as a seller you can see the highest bid which is why all these "exploratory" bids were made

[Scheckywhite]

god id love a BP tri-colour but I'm not paying inflated schill prices