Two notable news accounts about eBay on this Sunday morning, one showing how the online auction house can fleece inexperienced buyers and the second a testament to youthful ambition – and its pitfalls – from a computer-programming student.
The black-eye first:
That shill bidding drives up prices on eBay should shock only the most naive.
However, the brazenness with which an eBay seller admits the practice to a reporter posing as a client? Well, this morning’s report in The Sunday Times of London is a bit of an eye-opener.
Customers of the internet auction site eBay are being defrauded by unscrupulous dealers who secretly bid up the price of items on sale to boost profits. An investigation by The Sunday Times has indicated that the practice of artificially driving up prices – known as shill bidding – is widespread across the site.
Last week one of the UK’s biggest eBay sellers admitted in a taped conversation with an undercover reporter that he was prepared to use business associates to bid on his goods for him.
The seller is Eftis Paraskevaides, “Titanium PowerSeller” who moves millions of dollars with of antiques a year on the site. Asked if he has others do his bidding:
“Well, if I put something really expensive (up for sale) and I was concerned that it was going for nothing, I would phone a friend of mine, even a client of mine who buys from me, and say: For Christ’s sake, I sell you 100 quids’ worth of items a week . . . just put two grand on it, will you?” The reporter was posing as a seller of valuable antiquities. He inquired whether Paraskevaides could sell them on eBay and guarantee a minimum price.
He replied: “Leave it to me (laughs). Don’t call it shill bidding. Then I won’t be accused of shill bidding. Yes. I mean – I’ve got people.
“I’ve got some of my big clients who buy big items off me, I look after them. So I can get on the phone to America and say: Mr XXXX . . . you’re a multi- millionaire. You buy a hundred grand’s worth off me a year. Do me a favour would you. Just put – yeah. Exactly.”
A spokesman from eBay told the newspaper the company was likely to investigate.
On this side of the pond, a Carnegie Mellon University student, Andrew Warshaver, decided to use eBay to find the optimum summer internship, with optimum in this case meaning one that pays better than the offers he claims to already have in hand.
An eBay spokesperson told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette that Warshaver’s posting of his availability was within the auction site’s rules, and, to the best of her knowledge, a first for college students seeking summer work. From the story:
His initial instinct was to play the two (in-hand offers) off each other to maximize his salary. But then, he thought, why not open the market up to other suitors as well.
“The amount of work I put out when I’m productive is far more valuable to them than what they plan on paying me,” he said.
The bidding appears to have ended with a top offer of $6,100; not bad for a 12-week internship, unless you consider Warshaver’s contention that prior to his eBay posting he already had in hand a couple of $15,000 offers from those Wall Street firms.
Now what does he do? Honor his commitment to the eBay bidder? Or take the 15 grand?
Story says he has 3.88 grade point average. He’ll figure it out.
