[R-390] Please see this and tell me why

[Tim Shoppa]

Cecil writes:
> Yep...may have been a bit of collusion with someone acquainted with the 
> seller bidding it up.  Definitely something fishy....

It actually takes two to bid up the price. It's
possible that one of the two was a real buyer, but
with that nice round number final price, as big as
it is, it's hard to imagine even a single real buyer
(contrast with "joke" buyer) going to that level.

There are known instances where people figure out
there is a real shill, then they "joke" bid the shill
up to some stupidly high price. Joke is a bit of a
misnomer as this is most often done with some sort
of throw-away Ebay account because even if the
other guy is a shill, it's still against Ebay rules to make
a bid if you aren't gonna pay.

So at least four possibilities:

1. One real buyer and a shill

B. Two shill bidders and no real buyer (well, none past reasonbleness)

III. One shill bidder and one "joke" bidder

4. Two joke bidders each thinking the other is a shill

It used to be possible to look up each bidder's bidding history
and figure out which ones are jokes and which ones are shills
and which ones might be real, but that's impossible for us now.

Tim.