I bought more than 200 eBay items in the last several years with no
problem until now.

This eBay seller had a reserve. When I asked him about the item
conditions, he told me the reserve was at, i.e. $300. I put in my
maximum bid at $311, considering the item value.

When the bidding closed, there were 2 other bidders, one at $120 and
the other one at $299. The second bidder has (0) bid history! He and
the seller signed up with eBay about 2 months apart, more than 2 years
ago. The seller did not have any eBay activities in the last 14
months.

Since this seems like a typical shill bidding, I reported the issue to
eBay 3 days ago and received an automatic reply from eBay saying they
consider shill bidding a "serious" violation and they will investigate
the report within 24 hours.

I sent eBay another email yesterday to check on the report status and
once again received the same automatic reply from eBay.

Two questions arise:

1. How do you folks handle eBay shill bidding problem ? If I do not
pay, the seller can leave me a negative feedback. My current feedback
is 100%.

2. What is your experience with eBay when you need their help ? Is
there anything else I can do ?

Thanx,

Calvin