As a buyer of a car an auction can be a bit of a neurotic place to be, if you suffer from this as I do, some people are very calm about it.
If there are very few bids a seller is highly likely to end early for an offer which is very annoying for the bidders I think. The activity we can see may at the very least make sellers think things are going well, if they are not aware of the total activity across the board.
I was fishing, here is me 100% direct.
I think ebay can only compare ip addresses to spot connections. With the level of modern communication a connection can arise anywhere - I am having 4 virtual conversations hopefully discreet from the other right now. (except when I type in the wrong window of course)
Martin as I said in PM I hope you end up with more than you were asking, I look for a few small signs in pictures and decide about body state as to whether worth a serious look, parts can be replaced anyway and with the work you had done, MOT etc. the car could be worth more than you were asking especially to the belt savvy which isn`t me.
I mentioned my selling there because... well now you know it`s a hard world and we all need to make a living.
Ebay was supposed to be a place for people who had something to sell and other people who wanted to buy something. Then total parasites like me took over.
Now every high street shop and its guard dog have multiple accounts.
Ebay has improved things over the years for buyers which has been needed given the state of play but the current level of chaos is unlikely to ever be tamed and profits are up don`tyerknow!
I took the pain out of the buying process for customers. I only had 100% quality goods and first class service. I let one customer down in 3 years with a cpu somehow skipped soak. He had a double cache version delivered next day. Feedback still 100% after 11 years.
Forgot what this post was about now.
Oh yes, I think Facebook might be a good place for connections to form which might lead to what looks like some form of market collusion.