[attombomb7]

HI I saw this post on Mushroom village...not sure who posted this but the news is SHOCKING!!!!!!!
any one know more??? since I have been outbid many times by these (this) characters... and bought from them as well///>.

I sure hope this is incorrect..for it makes my stomach turn to know this is going on on EBAY>>



this is what I read on Mushroom Village this morning:
anon
Guest
Feb-23-05, 06:18 AM (EST)

"shill bidders on ebay"

warning !!!!
schtroumpfissimus is same person as smurfurious (was rohlingen) and also probably using lle57mauve and color3004 ebay names also. you are being ripped off if you bid on these auctions !!!!

[Guest]

I read that as well, Attom!! It is really shocking!!! What have you bought from them? Did you pay a lot of money? I really hope this isn't true because it is horrible to think someone could do that to you.

[attombomb7]

hi Karen
check this item out!!:)



http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 20775&rd=1

and the BID history!!

if this is true then look at this item!

User ID: Bid Amount Date of bid

lle57mauve ( 54) EUR 56.01 18-Feb-05 15:43:52 EST


noenoenoe ( 531) EUR 55.01 18-Feb-05 15:40:16 EST


lle57mauve ( 54) EUR 55.00 18-Feb-05 15:38:00 EST


noenoenoe ( 531) EUR 40.01 17-Feb-05 13:56:25 EST


color3004 ( 4 EUR 38.00 17-Feb-05 17:13:48 EST


color3004 ( 4 EUR 32.00 17-Feb-05 17:13:30 EST


color3004 ( 4 EUR 26.00 17-Feb-05 17:13:18 EST


color3004 ( 4 EUR 20.00 17-Feb-05 07:31:57 EST


saussard*be ( 177) EUR 15.00 16-Feb-05 14:33:11 EST


smurfurious (private) EUR 11.51 16-Feb-05 16:25:00 EST


smurfurious (private) EUR 7.51 16-Feb-05 16:24:45 EST




I did bid on other items from this seller and the same kinda bid history exists...

[Fram]

Wow, that would be really strange. But it was weird that smurfurious had a 'private' rating as well (although I know that sometimes, like with Sven, it can have legitimate reasons). If it is true then I'm glad I never bought anything of either of those names...

[Guest]

Perhaps it just looks bad because they are new? New ebayers tend to bid up a lot early on rather than wait until the end. You'd have to look at the bid history to see what else they buy to get a better picture I guess?

[eggie smurf]

Here is the auction history on some of the ebayers just to compare what is being bid on and what is being sold:

http://cgi6.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Mf ... =1&rows=25

http://cgi6.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Mf ... =1&rows=25

http://cgi6.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Mf ... =1&rows=25

http://cgi6.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Mf ... =1&rows=25

http://cgi6.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Mf ... ompleted=1

[Guest]

WOW look at that color id, he or she loves buying from that one seller! How odd!!

[XoioX2000]

Very interesting that yellow digger: as it is similar to the one I saw being sold in France by someone who clearly stated it was homemade... I wish I had kept track of who was the winner!

It sounds like this guy does not care who wins in the end: even if it is himself... which reminds me of the same technique used by art collector to increase the value of their own collection, just before they are about to sell some more pieces of the same type...

Cheers,

David

[attombomb7]

OMG!! Eggie that is amazing research!!! what a shock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


the sad thing is that seller has great smurfs usually...to bad they are so expensive now...

but if this stops!! we could all get smurfs again for fair prices!!

[Rachel]

Hi guys, I will be honest, this doesn't really suprise me although by the looks of it the scale of what has been happening is big. Unfortunately Ebay has grown massively of the last few years and because of the nature of the internet it is very difficult to "police" what is happening. I don't follow Ebay as much as I used but lately I have been getting more and more concerned about dubious auctions. If it is not newly made fake smurfs it is repainted rare variations or huge amounts of raws, leaving me in no doubt that there is a growing amount of Ebay sellers who are not honest and don't mind ripping people off.

Having had a good look at some of the auctions mentioned I have to say there really does look as if there is something dubious going on, very strange bidding patterns of certain bidders with certain sellers. If what has been posted on MV is true and shill bidding has been going on, it looks as if it is on a fairly large scale with what I can only assume involves quite a bit of money. Although I don't totally agree with the way this info was posted anonmously on MV (one of the reasons we decided to make this for members only posts) I think I can understand why the poster wanted to remain unknown, afterall this is fraud happening on Ebay.

Lets hope Ebay cleans it act up, if this sort of thing carries on it is going to seriously effect smurf collecting, values of original figures will drop and no-one will be able to trust anyone, which lets face it isn't very smurfy!

[Gerda]

I personally don't understand why people would choose to make there feedback private. It seems shady to me when ebay is based on feedback and what others think of you.
Also with prices going so high on very common auctions I can see why some newbies come in with there small smurf lot and want an outrages price for them. They probably look at these high end auctions and think they have a goldmine on there hands and then wonder why things done sell.

gerda

[Syd Smurf]

I saw that post on MV too and from talking to others in Europe there seems to be quite a strong suspicion of this happening before that post on MV came along. I guess they can win their own auctions as I will be trying to avoid these sellers from now on.

This is just a greedy and disrespectful action by this/these people and it's also a criminal offence so I hope criminal charges are laid if this is proven beyond doubt.....they would deserve a jail sentence for fraud if it's true...and if so let's hope it happens.

Dyar

[Guest]

Yes I don't understand why sellers are so greedy. At least we are all more aware of shill bidding now. Reading up more about shill bidding the single best way to avoid being shill bidded is to bid late on in the auction, as close to finish as possible. If you see someone trying to nudge the price up but they eventually lose the auction by a small amount then it is time to get suspicious.

[Bunno Smurf]

I was bidding on something on Aussie ebay recently and a fairly new ebayer (only 3 feedback score) outbid me and then retracted their bid, stating their reason that they put the wrong amount in. They changed their amount to just under what I had paid.

As you can imagine I found this pretty suspicious as they'd upped my bid by $10. Later on I got outbid again but decided against bidding anymore as the whole thing seemed very fishy to me.

[SA Smurfette]

Linda

Are you able to tell me which Ebay User that was ?

So i can keep a look out.

Maybe PM me if you don't want to post names on here

Raelene

[Syd Smurf]

Me too....I would liek to know Linda......I always type the word "like" incorrectly.....everyday I fix it up but now I think stuff it.....you guys will have to liek me the way I am...and tyep....DOH!

[eggie smurf]

Oh geez, liek looked like lick to me

[Bunno Smurf]

Hey Raci Staci,

Was just wondering how you got the info on recent bid histories of ebay members?

Edit: Oh never mind. I just found it

Dyar and Raelene: Yeah I'll PM the info. What was interesting when I went and looked back at the bid history there were 3 bidders in there with a low feedback score (between 0-3 feedbacks). If you look at the items bought by the person who bumped my bid up $10 you'll see the last feedback they received was from this seller and that was back in 2003. They haven't used their account since then.

Edit: I just did a recent bid history on that person who retracted their bid. They have only placed a bid on 5 auctions in the last 30 days and all of those auctions were from the same seller mentioned above. hmmmmmmm

[SA Smurfette]

Thanks Linda,

Well we've established i"ve been a victim of the same seller.
My friend here in Adelaide was already bidding on 2 of her items and i asked her to bid on some for me to save on postage.

From the history Linda sent me it appears it happened to me as well.
So i will be steering clear of her in the future also

Raelene

[Guest]

So it looks like this practice is more widespread than we realised? It's a real shame that sellers can't just enter start prices that they are happy with the auction ending at.