Shill Bidding

[Bruce Dykes]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Thursday, June 08, 2000 12:24 AM
Subject: Shill Bidding; The Art of Eating Well


>SHILL BIDDING
>
>   The FBI announced today that it's looking into "shill bidding," or "self
bidding," on eBay.  That's when friends bid on their own stuff to drive up
the price.  It's illegal.
>   The term is not in the online OED.


On Lovejoy, this was called 'a ring', as in a ring of friends, accomplices,
cohorts, what have you, who would bid up the price at auction. Of course, I
have no idea how closely the TV series hewed to the written source, and how
accurately the books described the dodgy side of the British antique
business...

bkd