Parker Listing

[John Allen]

A lot of those bidders are shills. Just there to run the price up. That's one reason I quit GB long ago. Nice and unusual PHE though.

[ArtS]

Originally Posted by John Allen

A lot of those bidders are shills. Just there to run the price up. That's one reason I quit GB long ago. Nice and unusual PHE though.

The ones I mean are not shills. They have No Rating or single digits, and chase the bid up $5 at a time. Shills would bid some reasonable jump. They make so many bids it makes the whole bidding process hard to follow and gauge, and often tend to overpay due to any real knowledge except name recognition.

I have reported quite a few spurious bid to GunBroker. One was a Top 10 dealer, who I just happened to notice had two different guns where I was beaten by the same low rated bidder. I did a little combing and found the same bidders makeing winning bids on a regular basis with this dealer, leaving a rave review of the dealer, and then the same guns being relisted two months later by the same dealer. Duplicate ads. It wouldn't have been obvious except that he should have waited three months so there wouldn't be an accessable record of the transaction. I suspect he was the bidder and was simply running his ratings up. He likely also was reporting non payment to GB.

I bundled up all the info and sent it to them. They said they would investigate, and the dealer has disappeared. Unfortunatly, he is probably starting over with a different name and address.

[Joe from MO]

Originally Posted by John Allen

A lot of those bidders are shills. Just there to run the price up. That's one reason I quit GB long ago. Nice and unusual PHE though.

I have never understood the guy who places a sub $300 bid, on a gun that everyone with half a brain would know will sell for a lot more than that.... What is the purpose of that? Seems like a waste of time, but I suppose there are those, myself included... Who sometimes order the search by bid count, to see what guns are getting a lot of attention..... So, does that make it a schill bid?

[todd allen]

Originally Posted by Joseph Sheerin

I have never understood the guy who places a sub $300 bid, on a gun that everyone with half a brain would know will sell for a lot more than that.... What is the purpose of that? Seems like a waste of time, but I suppose there are those, myself included... Who sometimes order the search by bid count, to see what guns are getting a lot of attention..... So, does that make it a schill bid?

I have done that, and hit a freaking homerun a couple of times! Every once in a while an auction item "falls through the cracks" and you almost literally steal an item.
It works in reverse sometimes when I'm selling.