Group Bidding

[sschauer513]

I have an idea that might not be used by many but I have a bunch of collecting friends and we sometimes bid against each other for the same item. Other times we'll email each other to feel out the bids and say I want the item for $20 and Bob wants the item for $25 I simply will not bid and let Bob bid $25 but ultimately he might win it for $19 because I didn't bid to drive the price up.

So I'd like a way to have a call it user group we I could have say 10 different ebay users all lists the items they want and their bids but only have the highest bid fire when the same item is being bid on. Would almost be like reverse shilling why drive the price up on a friend.

[Cupid]

The argument made against this type of feature in the past has been that it constitutes auction manipulation, which is against eBay rules (and the law of many countries).

I think what you are suggesting would be equivalent to a group of friends operating a single eBay account.

I'm sure eBay would not like it, but whether they would have a case for claiming that is still auction manipulation I have no idea.
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Mark

[nochkin]

Sharing on eBay account is the good way to go around. You can't outbid yourself. Whoever put the snipe first, gets the item. And so on.