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How To Defeat Shill Bidders

Bob was, of course, a friend of the

goat seller. He never intended to buy

a goat at all. His sole job was to get

you to pay more than you needed to

for the auction item. Totally against

the rules at any auction. Very difficult

to prove.

But what if you hacked the goat

auction? Let’s up the ante and

crowdsource our answer. What if no

one bid until right before the

auctioneer gave up in disgust,

wondering what happened to all

those naive goat buyers he used to

take advantage of at the fair, the

ones whose blood ran so hot during

the auction they overbid by 15% or

so, easily paying the auction fee right

on the spot? That scumbag Bob

would have nothing to do, and would

instead find himself at the side of the

road, saying “Will clean your goat

 

 

 

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stalls for food”, which is more than

Bob deserves out of life, to be

honest.

eBay, like the vast majority of

membership sites, requires little proof

of identity when you sign up. Shill

bidding is distinctly possible. One

way to avoid it is to wait until the end

of the auction to place your bid;

ZDNet talked about it in this article

way back in 2000.

Done