Expert: Marvinator - 8/3/2006

Question
Would it be wrong or illegal if in order to bring up the price of my items on ebay I have a friend of mine constantly outbidding everyone else until the end? It seems to me that if anyone would still pay the inflated prices in order to get the item that would be capitalism at work, and I wouldn't get stuck selling per se a $50.00 item for $12.00 tops? Also you say buying all that other fancy stuff like borders, boldness, etc are not that helpful in selling an item, and that basically a good title is everything? What else is important? Is the subtitle that helpful?

Answer
Yes. It's not only wrong, it's against the Ebay Terms of Service.  This is called "Shill Bidding".  From the old term of a "shill" in con games, the Shill is the guy who SEEMS to be a regular person, but who is in on the Con.  

In your example, your friend is the SHILL.  He looks just like a regular bidder and bids like a regular bidder but he's in on the sale (or con.) You're conning people into thinking that they are bidding against another regular bidder, when in fact they are not.  If you want to get $50 for an item, start the price at $49.99.  

Now, as for the fancy stuff, I've not had any luck with it increasing sales.  My wife uses only gallery pictures on her store, and tht's it. No borders, no colors, or subtitles, and nothing else which adds to the price of the auction listing.  This is my personal opinion, but the amount you pay for the listing should be directly proportional to the price of the item.  Unless the item is valued at over $100, I don't see spending any more money than is necessary - especially since I've not seen any correlation to using these fancy things and increased sales.

Stick to the basics until you are sure what sells your item or not.