posted on January 17, 2009 09:02:33 AM
I have an item on ebay right now (10 day listing) that was placed on consignment by a dealer (a former employee and dealer at our store).
Our current employee wanted to buy it on the spot for $499, which is what the original consignment agreement was, but after research I felt it may do even better on ebay.
I listed it on ebay with an opening bid of $499 and told him if it doesn't sell he can buy it. Can he bid on it without me worrying about being accused of shill bidding? He will pay for it in the store if he wins. He asked me this yesterday and I wasn't sure how to answer. It is a perfectly legitimate transaction, but also seems like someone would view it as a conflict of interest.
posted on January 17, 2009 10:45:30 AM
I don't see any problem. He bids on it and wins and then he picks it up at your store. There is no shill bidding, that I can see.
posted on January 17, 2009 11:21:50 AM
I agree with you Shag, it is a conflict of interest. But I don't see you having a problem as long as it doesn't happen often.
Because just say, he places the first bid and then someone bids higher then he places another bid and the other bidder bids higher and then he stops bidding. That example would be shill bidding.
There was a case of a NY big time jewelry seller who had his employees bid and ebay tracked his auctions and it took time but ebay through him off because they can tell where the bidding is coming from, I don't know how but this is what I read.
posted on January 17, 2009 12:16:36 PM
I'd be very careful about this. It's a non-issue if the item goes for opening bid (but you said you would sell it to him for that price if the item doesn't sell anyway). If he is willing to enter into competitive bidding, I would ask him what his top price would be and if you are satisfied, end the auction and sell to him directly. You'd save yourself some fees in the process. Since he is a current employee, I don't think eBay would look very favorably on the transaction if an issue were raised. It isn't worth risking your ebay business for something like this.
-------------------------------------
posted on January 17, 2009 02:15:27 PM
I got into trouble with eBay for bidding on items listed by the consignment shop that I had sold more than a year before I bid.
I placed my bid from a machine that I also sometimes used to help the current owner debug software issues. In order to do this, I would log into the shop's account.
The matching IP addresses raised a flag for eBay.
My explanation was honest and true: I knew that the items were good, especially as I wouldn't require shipping, I would pay if I won and I had every desire to win the auction (as long as the price stayed reasonable). Furthermore, I only bid on something like 1/300 of the items; a lazy shill bidder if I were one. No matter, but as long as I took an online course in bidding ethics, I was okay, but was forbidden to bid on their items in the future... which is too bad for me and the consignor.
posted on January 17, 2009 05:22:43 PM
If no one has bid on it then I would not have him bid at all. He can just pay you the starting bid like he was going to before you listed it and save Ebay fees. That would be legit.
posted on January 17, 2009 05:43:27 PM
we don't have computers at our store. cindy and i both use laptops, so he wouldn't be able to use our computers anyways.
don't laugh, but he still has web tv. his wife and him are oddly unique. they have all of this designer furniture they collect. He paid almost $3K for a new Eames Lounge Chair recently. they have a Noguchi Coffee Table, various Eames furniture (shell rocker, eames stool, Bertoia Diamond chair, etc)... His wife is an Executive Director at a non-profit. He's a professional musician who has toured with major rock bands. Yet, they have web tv and both know how to use computers!
I doubt he will bid on them, but I had never been asked that question before and wanted to bounce it off everyone else. I'll ask him to hold out if he brings it up again.
