What would you do?


I happen to have proof that a fairly well known American boutique audio audio company routinely and brazenly shill bids its auctions for audio equipment. Knowledge of this fraud and so many people being ripped off troubles me. Thoughts?
sbach11
It's been common knowledge for years (run a WWW search) and nobody that I know of (aside from you) cares as their cables still sell in the dirt cheap range.

What I do not understand is why they do not simply place a meager reserve price for the auctions, instead of going through the rigmarole of placing shill bids .
"What I do not understand is why they do not simply place a meager reserve price for the auctions, instead of going through the rigmarole of placing shill bids ."

It makes the product look more desirable to potential bidders. 5 or 6 different bidders creates more excitement than 1 or 2.
"You're an Audiogon member yourself. There's no difference if you give the name, or someone else does. If you can't do something that simple would anyone believe you?"

I see what you are saying now, but I just disagree with you. I'm going to listen to Chayro and others that basically said its not worth it. Sorry if that's not the result some wanted. Perhaps the company in question will see how close they just came to being outed and knock it off. I named this thread "what would you do," because I wanted to know what you would do. For those that answered that question, thank you. For those of you buying via auction sites [especially new items sold repeatedly by the same seller] you would be wise to do a completed listing search for the specific product you are buying, then look at the bids, then compare the partially hidden bidders to other auctions for the same item from the same seller for patterns. Does the same bidder bid on almost every auction and not win? Does one bidder seem to bid up the auction early on, and a second bid up the end? Then check the bidder by clicking on the partially hidden name and see if there is a high "% of bids with this seller," and other stats that may or may not be helpful in the analysis. You can then look at the seller's other product listings for bids by the same bidders and/or similar patterns. And don't discount the obvious, for example, do all of the seller's auctions wind up selling for a somewhat consistent price? If that sounds complicated, it really isn't once you get a hang of it. I think I've done my part here. Good luck.
Your time may be better spent accumulating "data" on the Adcom GFA-555 that you seem to lust after.

Unless it's been washed from the Internet you should come up with a major retracted review of the unit.