Hmmm, Trade Me

[tigertim20]

perusing trademe for another bike. came across one that has reached its reserve.
thought Id chuck a few cheeky bids on, you never know your luck right?

then I had a second look.

three of the bidders are new to trademe this year. all within about 3 months or so. none have completed any trades yet at all.
yet all are bidding in this particular bike.

the most recent bids go like this (oldest to newest)

New user #1 with no trades
random user with 100+ trades
new user #2 with no trades
random user A with 30+ trades
new user #2 with no trades
New user #2 with no trades
random user A with 30+ trades
Me
New user #3 with no trades.



Am I being paranoid?

[Berries]

Probably. Who'd buy an R1?

[gammaguy]

Shill bidding on trade me is rife,everyone knows that.

Its a joke that keeps on being told, trade me do nothing about it

Here's just one example


http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/trad...g-case-5445891

[Akzle]

decide what the value to you is.
Autobid that amount.
Come back after the auction closes.

[awa355]

As Akzle says, you bid to whatever you think the item is worth to you.

If there is a 'jack up' between the seller and a bogus bidder, then leave it for someother to pay a hiked up price. The practice is wrong, but until turd me decides to sort it out, there's little you can do about it. Any inflated price paid is going to help Tdmes profit, so I cant see them in a hurry to fix the problem.

When I see a bidder or seller that has not traded before, I wonder if this isn't simply an old hand trading trading under a new id. It's one way to get rid of negative feedback.

[HenryDorsetCase]

perusing trademe for another bike. came across one that has reached its reserve.
thought Id chuck a few cheeky bids on, you never know your luck right?

then I had a second look.

three of the bidders are new to trademe this year. all within about 3 months or so. none have completed any trades yet at all.
yet all are bidding in this particular bike.

the most recent bids go like this (oldest to newest)

New user #1 with no trades
random user with 100+ trades
new user #2 with no trades
random user A with 30+ trades
new user #2 with no trades
New user #2 with no trades
random user A with 30+ trades
Me
New user #3 with no trades.



Am I being paranoid?

Not at all. Report it to tardme as shill bidding. they will yank the listing

[Drew]

Linky linky?

[Mo NZ]

Hard to pass an informed comment for me without viewing the listing....
I would be interested in viewing the profiles of the bidders and their location..

[Drew]

Funny thing. Trademe is a commercial website, and this place is more heavily modded.

[fridayflash]

ive seen it a lot in auction too..especially $1 res
yet tradme can be so vigilant in other ways..i sold my cbr1000 the other
day so changed the text to say 'sold' i didnt take the ad down yet tho
gotta get payment through etc and trademe sent me an email within 24hr
to say theyd removed my classified ad!
i guess they didnt want me changing the pics and text to sell another bike
off the same ad

[tigertim20]

Probably. Who'd buy an R1?

It isnt an R1!!

decide what the value to you is.
Autobid that amount.
Come back after the auction closes.

ah, I wont be paying more than a set amount for it, no worries there.

Linky linky?

Dont wanna link it in case im wrong. fortunately it would be very hard to find a particular username bidding on litrebikes on tardme so youll never know . . .