MLB/team shilling?

[seanbaseball]

Shill bidding at any auction is wrong, period. It creates a falsely inflated market

[sherbal15]

Shill bidding at any auction is wrong, period. It creates a falsely inflated market

Totally agree. And for the record these prices are not getting this high because it's charity. The cardinals auctions on mlb auction are absolutely for profit. Let's not confuse Cards Authentics with Cardinals Care (the not for profit). These are two completely separate beasts

[danesei@yahoo.com]

I disagree. Without the bids by cardsgurl16 most, if not all, all of these items wouldn't even come close to the price they end up at. All the reserve is doing is ensuring that cardsgurl16 will never win.

But what difference does it make what price the item "ends at" if it never gets sold? The reserve ensures that the items don't go for less than the organization wishes to sell for.

As for the charitable aspect of bidding, there are two things which may drive prices in league sponsored auctions:

1) The assumption that the proceeds, at least in part, go to charitable purposes.
2) The items have more legitimacy coming from a primary source.

Personally, I can see both sides of the "shill" argument. It does drive up the market price, but it also shows what an individual is willing to pay for an item. If you don't want to pay a high price, stop bidding.

On the flip side, people inherently feel betrayed or defrauded when shill bidding occurs. This is thanks to eBay. I know larger auction houses have been accused of doing it, but eBay's form of it is idiotic and blatant.

My view is that shill bids will remain a problem, so long as the individual selling the item has a vested interest in the outcome. Auction houses have a vested interest in garnering the highest possible sale price for their clients, since that maximizes their profits, as well. However, that's still a better venue (to prevent shill bids) than having a "marketplace" where all bidders are anonymous.

[sherbal15]

But what difference does it make what price the item "ends at" if it never gets sold? The reserve ensures that the items don't go for less than the organization wishes to sell for.

The items are shilled to the point where the next bid triggers the reserve price. The items are getting sold at an artificial price

Personally, I can see both sides of the "shill" argument. It does drive up the market price, but it also shows what an individual is willing to pay for an item. If you don't want to pay a high price, stop bidding.

I hope this was meant to construe that you are understanding the reasoning behind shilling and the way it comes across. It comes across as if you believe shilling is "ok" sometimes.

[GoCrazyFolks76]

Has anybody bothered to notify MLB about this practice? I think they would be interested to know about illegal activities that are taking place on their websites.

[yanks12025]

Has anybody bothered to notify MLB about this practice? I think they would be interested to know about illegal activities that are taking place on their websites.

No one has given 100% proof that the teams are shilling bidding their own auctions.

I still think there's nothing big about someone bidding up a reserve(no reserve is different story). And no one should use mlb auctions as a go to for prices because most items go over market price anyway.

[sherbal15]

No one has given 100% proof that the teams are shilling bidding their own auctions.

I still think there's nothing big about someone bidding up a reserve(no reserve is different story). And no one should use mlb auctions as a go to for prices because most items go over market price anyway.

The only people using mlb auctions as the "go to" for market value is the teams store. So when you call about buying something they can point to the their latest auction prices as justification. So when you say "that pete Kozma jersey is not even worth $175" the response you'll get is "check our latest auction". The great koz just brought $585!

Reserve or not, the practice of shilling is dishonest. Not sure if it technically is illegal or not. Again, if I were a cardinal fan bidding on anything I would stay away from anything with a reserve. The reason it even made it to auction is because no one in the "regular customer" list wants to pay the quoted price, which is most likely the reserve price on the auction. Since nobody wants to pay the price it goes to auction and is shilled to point of "just prior to" going over the reserve price. This justifies the price to the "regular customer" and creates a false market for the item entirely.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

I hope this was meant to construe that you are understanding the reasoning behind shilling and the way it comes across. It comes across as if you believe shilling is "ok" sometimes.

Take what I say however you want. I can't control how you interpret my comments any more than the board can convince you that there's no proof anything is being shill bid.

[seanbaseball]

Take what I say however you want. I can't control how you interpret my comments any more than the board can convince you that there's no proof anything is being shill bid.

So your comment is open to any interpretation anyone wants to make. Wouldn't it be easier to just clarify your position on shill bidding of any kind at any location?

[sherbal15]

Take what I say however you want. I can't control how you interpret my comments any more than the board can convince you that there's no proof anything is being shill bid.

Just to clarify - I'm not asking the board to convince me of anything. I'm trying to alert people and make them think twice before plunking down hard earned money on items with prices that are artificially inflated. If Cardsgurl16 or Terms actually exist as real bidders than I would gladly apologize to them and own my mistake. I honestly believe they exist to run prices up on unsuspecting real bidders who probably don't know better. They also exist to create a benchmark for items to be sold later.