schill bidding

[Misha]

Sorry but I can't understand how you think the same bidder changed their name in the middle of the auction. Couldn't it just be that another person bid the same amount and their name is showing up in the bid history? Just curious

[jojac]

Sorry maybe I wasn't clear but it wasn't in the middle of a bid that he made the change. Its after he's run some one up and the bid has closed that he changes his name. He did it to me two months ago on a jersey and you tend to remember the name if its been done to you. Now every time I go back in my email history and open that jersey item I will see a different bidders name listed if he makes a name change.
Like I said before, he's only done to me once but I've noticed where he's done it to a number of other people and that's why I brought this up.

[earlywynnfan]

I can understand shill bidding from an auction house or ebay: the point is to drive up the price on an item you own.

But I'm mystified why someone would shill bid on MLB or NFL auctions. Nobody out there owns this stuff, except the teams. Are we implying the teams are shill bidding? Or that some jackass is just out there bidding people up because he has nothing better to do?

Ken

[jojac]

The lesser of the 2 evils would be some idiot just running you up. The other side of it would be hard to take but the thing that bothers me is that its someones job to sell this stuff to us and the only way they look good in managements eyes is to get top dollar for it. A lot of the teams now have game used stores at the ball parks where they could get a premium prices on their items. If an item posted on an auction site isn't meeting what they consider to be fair market value expectation then why not have a shill run it up??? Worse case scenario is they win the bid and sell the item at a later date thru their store . I'm not saying this is whats happening just that it could easily be done.
You can understand shill bidding from an auction house or ebay then you should also be wondering as I do if is it happening here. Auction house, ebay or mlb are all doing it for money so why would one be any better than the other.

[xsentrixsupra]

I can understand ebay or other auction houses. However when buying directly from MLB or NBA or NFL, etc........that money all goes to charities for the most part and as much as it might be to the common man, the difference between 2500 versus 3000 for a jersey meant for charity really isn't a drop in the bucket for organizations worth billions.

[jojac]

If its true that the majority of money did go to charities then theres still the incentive to get as much $$$ as possible in an auction setting for an item due to the tax break on contributions. The more they make then the more they can donate and the more they can write off. That's a great deal for them because then they look good donating your money that you've spent on an item and their money stays in their pocket. MLB, ebay and auction house are all doing this for no other reason then to make money......they're all businesses.

[xsentrixsupra]

If its true that the majority of money did go to charities then theres still the incentive to get as much $$$ as possible in an auction setting for an item due to the tax break on contributions. The more they make then the more they can donate and the more they can write off. That's a great deal for them because then they look good donating your money that you've spent on an item and their money stays in their pocket. MLB, ebay and auction house are all doing this for no other reason then to make money......they're all businesses.

I don't know how much goes to charities, but I'm pretty sure its well over half. Anyways, I still don't feel on official league sites that are auctioning stuff off schill bidding happens that much, probably more coincidence.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

If its true that the majority of money did go to charities then theres still the incentive to get as much $$$ as possible in an auction setting for an item due to the tax break on contributions. The more they make then the more they can donate and the more they can write off. That's a great deal for them because then they look good donating your money that you've spent on an item and their money stays in their pocket. MLB, ebay and auction house are all doing this for no other reason then to make money......they're all businesses.

This makes no sense logically. If the organization donates 100% of the proceeds of the auction, what is being written off? The donated amount comes in and goes out. The "write off" is against "profits" that were immediately donated.

Best way I can explain it:

Team A makes $45mm net of expenses and decides to donate their jerseys, etc to a charity. The auctioned items sell for $500k. The team then gives the $500k to the charity.

Team B makes $45mm net of expenses and also decides to donate their jerseys, etc to a charity. The auctioned items sell for $300k. The team then gives the $300k to the charity.

Both Team A and Team B made $45mm in taxable net revenue after the auction. The assumed shilling would serve no purpose for the teams in question, from a taxable event standpoint. The teams don't get to write off the donated cash AND the value of the bats. They only get the write off the amount that was donated, which also counts as additional revenue from outside sources.

Yes, Team A donated $200k more than Team B, but Team A also has to show that as $200k extra in revenue, which then got donated. The net result for both teams is $0.

[10thMan]

"Changing" bidder name & bidding with different names are two different things. Shill bidding happens, are you saying the different names are the same person? MLB is any different than the rest of the world, specially when it comes to money.

[10thMan]

MLB *is not any different. Here's one for you. I see Stadium employees grab HR balls on a regular basis, not sure, but I think they have them authenticated. I'd be willing to bet they keep the "actual" baseball & the other one goes to market.