Seems like 80% of everything I bid on gets sold at a great price and then a few days later  magically reappears listed by the same person.

This happen on the same item 3 times in row for me.

so what % would you say are being boosted by shill buyers?

Less than 10%.  You sure they don't say "Reserve Not Met"?

I spend a lot of time on Ebay with heavy equip. and machine tool stuff.  I've seen the same thing you describe, but not often.  When it does, I think it is more due to a winning bidder that won't follow through with payment.  Then the seller has to re-list the item.  I saw the same South Bend lathe sell twice recently.

If it was shill bidding and they ended up buying it on a troll account, the seller would  have to pay the final value fee and a re-listing fee.  The whole idea of shill bidding is to get someone else to pay more for the item, not end up buying your own item.

The other thing that happens is sellers making a side deal and ending the auction.  Not really the most fair way of treating your customers, but I've done it too.  Sometimes it's a case of "bird in hand" vs the unknown.

I usually set the minimum bid at the absolute lowest I'll take for the item.  Yeah, you get more bidders starting at .99 or whatever, but then you need to put a reserve on it or risk it going for the minimum bid if there's only one bidder.

It's a fun game and I'm sure there's a lot of ways to cheat.  Overall, I think shill bidding is the least of things to worry about on Ebay.

Depends on the item.
I was watching Real Sports on HBO and they had a story on fake sports memorabilia. They said something like 70% of the stuff on Egay is fake.
That's a scary high percentage and only made me hate them even more.

87%

Ebay used to have the occasional deal.  Now its flea markey garbage without the cool stuff and everyones looking to pull a fast one

I only use it for hard to find  stuff.  Run of the mill stuff like flashlights and so on I can get better deals at online retailers.  oddball gun parts and English "Thomas the Train" toys for my 2 YO seem to be the bulk of my recent purchases lately.

I see a bunch of shill BS on some of the gun auction sites.

rj

Well, I've been on the online auctions since they started. I find it rather odd that an item can go for days without a bid. But when I bid on it within a few hours someone else will also. Now is this a shill trying to find out how high I bid? Or is it a coincidence? I notice this at all the auctions Ebay, Auction Arms & Gun Broker. There was a time early on when Ebay was gun friendly that lazy people would simply check you bidder list instead of doing a search. This really pissed me off so I just put items on my watch list and bid at the last minute.