I've been watching this one being listed a few times with the price slowly dropping and it finally sold earlier. So now it's been relisted for £20 more than the last asking price...
Working back from the end time of the new listing and allowing for the clocks going back one hour on 27 Oct: The old listing sold at 15:23:41. The new listing started at 15:26:09. He's darn good if he can identify a non-paying winner in 2 1/2 minutes. He also seems to revise his listings an awful lot. So far he has revised one of his current items seven times. Terry
It is the same knob-head that was running the shill bidding scam sometime ago, I did a post on CCS about him.
He also sells on ebay.com, ebay.com.au and ebay.com.ca etc as 'lanterns_stoves_vapalux'. And guess what? If you look at the feedback for lanterns_stoves_vapalux you will see feedback from camping_fishing_cooking . If you put "derek brinkley pe219as" into google you will see all his old auctions. Terry
If the winning bidder is his 'other' ebay name then he's had to raise the price to cover ebays selling fee's ,he is selling a lot of lamp for top prices ,obviously he's pushing other bidders really high and maybe winning a few himself
Stuff like this is why we should allow posting of current ebay auctions too much of this goes on on there now adays pete
Stuff like this is why we might allow posting live auctions, but only in the event of necessity when warnings and/or precautions is appropriate. But posting regular auctions just to spoil a thing we don't intend to bid on our self is another thing, and not allowed.
I'm with you Pete on both counts Don't think there's going to be many an occasion were members are going to post live auctions their not going to bid on, just to spoil it for other members If , on the rare occasion, there are, then I'm sure they can be dealt with in an appropriate manner
Frankly the seller is a real piece of work and should be the type that eBay penalises and removes from the site rather than bring in increasingly restrictive practices that affect everyone and only legitimate sellers abide by. If you read some of their responses to feedback it's a wonder anyone would ever bid on their stuff... Badly packaged items that get damaged in the post and yet apparently it isn't their fault!
I was always told in the E bay forums, if a seller had a feedback score of less than the human temperature avoid them. There for that would make him cold blooded. DanL
Ended the lamp this morning due to 'error in the listing'. Now re-listed at 99p start price . He is also reported to use or has used: pbrinkley-2012 bargainhuntderek tilleyradiatorstove123 lynzi2709 tigercub21 Terry
I'm not sure they're all him but those that aren't are almost certainly family members or associates acting together as a cabal or cartel of some sort. I'll leave it to others to work out for themselves what's going on but it's definitely a case of caveat emptor...
Yesterday, I passed our findings to Ebay. This morning I received the following reply (edited for brevity, spelling and grammar): "Thank you for reporting to us the members who are bidding on their items and leaving their account good feedback. As a result of my investigation, I’ve confirmed that the member has breached our Feedback Manipulation Policy and Shill Bidding Policy I’ve taken the appropriate action with these breaches. I can guarantee you that this action will have a negative effect on their account and at the same time, will be recorded towards them that may lead to issuing the seller a temporary suspension, an indefinite suspension or terminating the member's account. Rest assured that proper action has been taken with the member you reported." Terry
Thanks, Terry. It all seems a little strange to me though. On the few occasions I've contacted eBay regarding similar matters, I've always received a stock response to the effect that they don't comment on members' accounts so won't reveal the results of their investigations when completed and what, if any, sanctions may be applied. Perhaps they've given the other member the benefit of the doubt on those occasions. I note nothing has happened as yet with the main account we're discussing here. I'm presuming he will have been given some time to respond to them. We'll see - fingers crossed...
You have got more chance of having your butt licked by a donkey than seeing this muppet shut down - or even any action taken by Ebay. I have lost count of the number of reference numbers I have got from Ebay, with regard to this pillock and his sister. Ebay need the dosh chaps !
The type of response you get from ebay seems to depend on who reads your complaint. I've had the stock 'thank you but can't comment' response, but I've also had a detailed response ref a guy who refused to give me a refund until I left him positive feedback. I guess it's the luck of the draw, but you would expect them to have some sort of standard policy. I note that his accounts are still running but the cross-account feedback has been removed. At least his activities are now more widely known to collectors via this thread . Terry
It would seem, then, that they intend to do nothing about the shill-bidding - unless he's been warned but we'll probably never know. I suspect he's operating mainly in a different area of the market than most, if not all here - shiny, overpriced ornamental trinkets... Edit: I've just checked and the conventional auctions of his I was watching seem to have gone now - only his BIN listings remain, where there can be no shill-bidding...
Shill bidding is a criminal offense that carries a maximum fine of £5,000 per incidence... Trading standards are the people to contact if eBay fail to act.
Even the stuff he listed yesterday is gone . Found some other names he has used (some for only a few months): delbotts_china 11buymyitems 0774derek beswickman2012 I wonder how long it will be before he opens a new account or changes the name yet again? Why would a legit seller change his name so often? I've been on ebay over 10 years but have never changed my account name.
strange seller ,he's listing a tilley x246 for £80 on a buy it now,,,,same item (same photo) he sold for £160 a few weeks ago and rec'd good feedback for it,,,how does that work?,he's got to pay ebay fee's based on the £160 , if the sale didn't go through (but he got good feedback!) then the second bidder would be offered it for £155,so why relist on a buy it now for £80?
That would work because a group of shill-bidders bid up each other's items but sometimes get caught out and end up 'buying' it themselves. That's unfortunate for them but at least provides the opportunity to leave some good feedback for each other. The item then re-appears for sale some time later when they hope no-one will notice. Given these lamps are a fairly 'niche' item, it was only a matter of time before people here and elsewhere started to see the pattern emerging. Yes, but the item was probably bought very cheaply in the first place. You also have to look at the big picture - the odd loss here and there will be easily covered by the profits on the other items that have been sold, often at artificially enhanced prices. Overall, they'll have come out well on top otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. The second bidder could be offered it for whatever their bid was but it's quite possible that bidder was also part of the scam. But even at £80 the seller could still be making a decent profit on the deal - that's why it was set at that price. Although I don't for a nanosecond condone these 'polishers' (and I pray fervently there's a special place in Hell reserved for them all ), the sad thing is there's probably a decent profit to be made from doing it honestly and without resorting to fraud. Some people are just plain greedy...
i agree David ,its just done in such a way that it is obviously a scam, I suppose ebay are happy as long as they are getting their fee's and dont want to upset a good 'customer'
I wonder what would happen if someone who'd been shilled (e.g. me, apparently - but for only a few quid and the final price was still reasonable and well within what I was prepared to pay) presented their case to eBay and asked for recompense from either them or the seller...
Ultimately if someone wanted to make a point it could cost them a lot more... I suspect if it came to that eBay would be more than happy to "cooperate" and throw the seller to the wolves! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10494724
I see our favourite seller is selling again, you'd have thought he'd learnt by now how to assemble a Tilley lamp....
