Can we talk about the Trae Young shill bidding epidemic on ebay?

[Ericc5Bears]

For all who don't already know (and I'm sure I don't have all the details as I just learned of this a few months ago) there is a collective effort by a group of people to essentially shill bid every mid-high end Trae Young card that is auctioned on ebay. That may sound like an exaggeration, but based on what I've seen, I truly believe these guys successfully shill at least 75% of all Trae Young ebay auctions that are at least a few hundred dollars, and apparently it's been going on for around a year at this point.

Shill bidding on ebay is obviously nothing new, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like this where it is essentially impossible to sell a very popular player's card on auction if it's over a certain price point. I'm honestly curious how auction-only consignment companies handle this, because I've seen multiple Trae autos re-listed 7-8 different times with an obvious shill bidder winning each auction.

This isn't some simple solution where you just block the accounts or set a buyer non-payment strike requirement, these guys clearly have dozens if not hundreds of accounts created with the sole purpose of shill bidding trae young cards. It legitimately makes it almost impossible to properly comp any of his mid-high end cards and just in general throws the entire market out of whack. I've seen plenty of people mention this on here before but don't think there's ever been a dedicated thread to it so I thought I'd make one and see what you guys think.

[KhalDrogo]

It’s every Hunter NT/Flawless/Eminence and maybe more as well.

[Spacemanspif]

I can’t imagine being a collector trying to obtain one of those cards, or someone legitimately trying to move them. I had some trouble moving Trae and JJJ cards for a while, even called eBay and reported the accounts. The only way to move them is find a reasonable price point and just put up for BIN with immediate payment required, or have direct dialogue with anyone sending offers before accepting.

[ATLOTP]

yeah I ran into this when someone tried to sell me a Trae Young Donruss Next Day auto. they said comps were ~3k. I thought that was a totally unreasonable price in my gut and checked the bids on all the comps. all low or no feedback winners and bidders. dcsports has relisted the same Trae Next Day multiple times. these cards don't sell

[Ferg1945]

So glad I avoided the Trae Young fiasco.

The peak $3500 PSA 10 Silvers... were those legit?

Can't believe they are $320 now.

I remember when he was touted as a perennial All Star starter... and now he doesn't even make the team. Having issues with yet another head coach

[Nomad]

Basically, when you have a sunk investment in one of the 5 rookies who were selected as "blue chip investment" by the movers three years too early, and put all your eggs in one basket, there is a lot to lose.

Not that I should talk, I put somewhere south of $8k into Nesmith exclusively, but at least it was not $8k for one card. A single card of those I purchased could eventually be worth $8k, but it's way too presumptive to place that kind of bet early in any player's career.

[dkcardman]

this has been going on for over a year now. its excruciating. I am a big trae collector and have been unable to get key cards because of this.
it is almost exclusively his auto cards and a few other specific ones. it's weird how they lay off some but always hit others. it's probably hurting his market more than helping because I won't even attempt to bid anymore and I assume I'm not the only one that pretty much just ignores his auctions now. on the flip side, there are some amazing deals on his stuff when it doesn't get shilled...

[boxbuster7]

wait...my trae young 2018 prizm raw BASS aren't worth $100 a pop?

[Archangel1775]

Many times I become completely disinterested in a card when I see it bid up in increments to my highest bid at that point in time. Yes, I do understand its also a strategy by another interested party. I also do understand that sometimes I'm the one that has been setting the market. So leaving a card alone should pay off in the long run.

[larryhughes]

Yea, many those get relisted many times, I pretty much stop watching now. Especially those flawless and PP, is nice looking patch but with market going down it doesn't get any popularity like before. I am sticking with NT and high end prizm for PC, will prevent any product get pump crazy in recent years.

[kingofsnake]

So they will bid up Trae cards, win them, and then just not pay? What is the motivation behind this? If the goal is to keep the prices artificially inflated, it hardly seems worthwhile given how many Trae autos are out there and how Panini keeps on producing them.

[sportsyard]

I bet card ladder is booking every single one of them as legit sales to

[nbahobbyaddict]

Not sure if this is related to the Trae BS but my friend and I noticed that the last 25 Klay Thompson NT RPAs on ebay were won by different 0-feedback bidders, who were later listed as “not registered”. Crazy how many of these false ebay accounts some people create and get away with it over and over again. My friend finally gave up trying to sell his Klay because it was a waste of time with him having to deal with repeated non-paying bidders. No idea why Klay RPAs were the target. Seemed strange.

[solt0131]

Every 2018 Prizm Auto is shilled. I have one in a PSA 8 and I'm tempted to put it up at a low BIN immediate payment and see what happens!!!

[bluebirds987]

Originally Posted by nbahobbyaddict

Not sure if this is related to the Trae BS but my friend and I noticed that the last 25 Klay Thompson NT RPAs on ebay were won by different 0-feedback bidders, who were later listed as “not registered”. Crazy how many of these false eBay accounts some people create and get away with it over and over again. My friend finally gave up trying to sell his Klay because it was a waste of time with him having to deal with repeated non-paying bidders. No idea why Klay RPAs were the target. Seemed strange.

To make the Thompson RPA situation weirder, I looked at the 30 day bidding history of the zero feedback bidders and they all have placed exactly one bid.

[Kobefan]

All these fake bidding must have hurt Ebay's bottom line, why don't they try to fix the problem by removing all unpaid sales record? Then shady folks can't prop up the comps with fake bids?

[PatronVoyager]

Well this sucks, explains why my Trae Prizm auto hasn't been paid for I guess

[DontToewsMeBro]

Shills on EBay?

[pachyderm]

The easiest way to stop this kind of shill bidding is to keep a credit on file that is automatically charged when an auction is won.

[solt0131]

This group with the Trae Young's is unstoppable.

[estorilsq5]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

Many times I become completely disinterested in a card when I see it bid up in increments to my highest bid at that point in time. Yes, I do understand its also a strategy by another interested party.

I’ve noticed this as well. How can they determine my max bid and have the listing end on exactly that amount every time?


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[Kobe101]

The shilling won't stop for a while.

Investor Dorks can't take losses man.

We can thank all of the investor content for all these losers who can't jus sell their cards for market prices.

[smalltown]

Originally Posted by Kobe101

The shilling won't stop for a while. Investor Dorks can't take losses man.

Ya it's not just Trae. So many cards are being shilled to the moon. And so obviously too. It's bordering on comedic with how often the shillers win and relist some cards too.

[dcarado]

This is crazy. I was not aware of this but 3-4 months ago I was trying to sell an 21/22 optic auto of his for like 175 obo. Took it down after a few weeks and auctioned it and it went for like 240, and obviously never got paid. Relisted and took an offer for 120 or something, but had I known this was going on I would've never relisted. Just checked and every one of these in the last couple months has been shilled consistently to the 300-350 range.

I know ebay is extremely buyer-friendly but is there really no recourse for something this obvious?

[Nomad]

Especially when the integrity of the industry depends on it, because "market observers" are regurgitating whatever surface-level data eBay generates.