I had a snipe on this Action Set but got outbid by a zero feedback who appeared during last minutes of the auction. Bidding history seemed a bit odd to me as well, but who knows?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....

A few minutes later I see the same Action Set popping up in my research. It has been relisted with a Buy it Now and a reserve price (which is over my $41.11 bid of course).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....

According to seller's recent sales, the same trick has been done with a Playstation bundle today, the only difference being that the winner has 2 feedbacks this time, his bidding history being quite doubtful as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Playstation_W...|65%3A13|39%3A1|240%3A1318

http://cgi.ebay.com/Playstation_W...|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Seeing how things are working with this seller, I've decided to contact him/her about his/her Action Set, specifying that I was still interested in it. This is what I received from him/her :

"Hi, I can tell you are really interested. I relisted the item because I had a bad experience with this buyer in the past and I reserve the right to sell just to reliable people. Tell me how interested you are on the item, as you can see I listed it with a Buy it Now option, this Nintendo is really in mint condition, even the original bags are still there, this was actually my NES when I was a kid and I really took care of it like crazy. Thanks for your interest and have a good day."

So guys, what is the verdict?

lol well me personally I'd stear clear better to be safe then sorry

^ Agreed.

And this made me laugh: "this was actually my NES when I was a kid and I really took care of it like crazy."

Took care of it like mad crazy yo!!

Shill bidder, definitely.

I once came across someone who had the same guy bidding up 50 cents at a time on all of his auctions and quitting right before the peak numbers. He was getting some overly high sales on his lots, and if you looked at his feedback you'd find the same guy for weeks had been doing this on literally all of his auctions. So what did Ebay do when he was reported? Absolutely nothing. Best to avoid these kinds of people/situations IMO.

what a tool

I always take crazy care of my shit dog.

sorry, moron here.  what do you mean by shill bidder exactly?

Basically, either on their own, or through a friend, they have a second account that they use to increase the bid to just below the REAL high bidders maximum bid.

how do they know when to stop?

Two ways:

(1) if they're not too greedy they pick likely price points and bid just under where they think "most" people would set their high bid

(2) they can increment their bid by 0.50 or $1 and then retract the bid that goes over the REAL highest bidders maximum

I'd like to add that you can see when your about to top the maximum bid, cause the maximum bid itself won't increase with the minimal increment.

Ex: Buyer bid= $50.00
Shill bidder = $50.50 - Buyer bid goes = $51.00
Shill bidder = $51.50 - Buyer bid goes = $51.78
Shill bidder knows next time he top the maximum bid.

ah i see. didnt know you could even retract a bid.... wish i could retract about 20 of mine

It's frowned upon, but you can do it.