Complaining to the seller would be fruitless since if it was a case of shilling,
he would be complicit and would deny everything anyway.
OTOH, since you won the item at a price you were apparently willing to pay, I
don't see what you have to complain of.
All that said, that 90% doesn't necessarily mean you've been shilled. I've
seen numerous similar cases that were legit.
How did you find the bidder's ID and history anyway?
eBay now disguises bidder IDs on the bid history page.
Bidding war, perhaps? I once found a mis-categorized PCGS MS-66 1970-
D Kennedy Half (I don't remember where I found it, but it wasn't
listed in U.S. Coins or U.S. Halves). I was looking to get it for my
son for Christmas. I put in my initial bid and waited. I ended up in
a bidding war in the last minute, eventually losing. Once it was
over, I sent an e-mail to the winner (buyer's IDs were viewable back
then), congratulating him on his win. And within an hour he'd sent a
reply, wondering if I was a shill. I assured him, if my fingers were
just a little faster, I would have won. No shill.
Jerry
Did end up buying a PCGS MS-65 from one of RCC's regulars. Son is
happy with it.
I can remember when the 1970-D Kennedy USED to be an above average
thingie, but the market certainly doesn't treat it that way anymore.
Just one more thing that marks me as a dinosaur.
oly
The bidders id still masked but the history of the bidder in regards to the
seller is information provided by Ebay by clicking on the bidders name.
You and me both, oly.
Jerry
Turning <older> in January.
There is a simple solution - just bid what you are willing to pay.
Better to be "over the hill" than "under the hill".
oly
Back on December 4, 2009 I watched what had to be a shill going on for a
piece of electronic equipment. The item that should have been about
$25, based on past auctions I watched, wound up going for $103.62 after
10 bids. Considering the limited use of the item in question, 10 bids
was rather unusual but the three bidders were all feedback of between
zero and two. After the auction ended, I bookmarked the item page to
wait for feedback to appear to get an idea of who was so stupid to pay
an overly inflated price (this is one hole in the eBay privacy setup -
unless feedback is kept private, you can see the item and the buyer
listed in the sellers feedback). Oddly enough, feedback never appeared
and buyers "disappeared". The seller is now NARU. What is strange
about the NARU is the seller had a feedback of 1349 with 99.8% positive
so this was not some fly-by-night operation.
I do get suspicious when I am winning an auction at a good price and
some new buyer with a very very low feedback (less than 10) suddenly
makes a bid towards the end of the auction. I even had one where a
buyer beat me yet no feedback ever appeared for either the buyer or the
seller. I am guessing the seller or a friend of the seller wanted to
bump the price but got stuck "buying" the item, as I was not willing to
increase my bid, and decided not to relist for fear of triggering an
investigation.