Tim Tebow and I are not going to be collecting BFFs this year, but for a lot of people, he is the hottest player to come out of school since Danny Wuerffle. Because of this, a guy who probably wont do a single thing well in the pros has cards that are selling for astronomical values. When I say astronomical, I mean, he is frequently outselling top picks and players who are slated to do very well in the NFL
.
Although some of his current autographed cards
are selling off the chart, there is one of them that has made some waves lately. This card shouldnt have sold for more than 150-200 bucks, but for some reason, it sold close to 700. Obviously this should set off some big red flags, and more importantly, it is a good teaching tool to show people how bad shill bidding can get.
Basically, a guy has a card that he doesnt want to sell low, so he either creates an account or gets a friend to bid on his own item. Sometimes, this fraudulent account bids countless times in the minimum amount until it gets higher than the seller wants. Other times, its two accounts, one setting a huge high bid, and another bidding it up to a high amount. This Tebow is a pretty good example of both. If the fraudulent account wins, the original seller just puts it back up under a different name, or if the scammer is stupid enough, under the same name.
The easiest way to check is to open the bid history from the item page, and start clicking on the hidden names. It displays a record of how many times each person has bid with a certain seller, and most importantly, how many items they have won. This is one thing that eBay takes VERY seriously, so dont hesitate to report it if you see it.