Perhaps someone can clarify a point for me about shill bidding. The most frequent situation is a seller using a shill to raise the price of an item for higher profit or as a substitute for a reserve if an item is selling below what the seller desires. Along with this friends can "help each other out" by shilling their respective auctions. What puzzles me are those instances where bidders attempt to manipulate market prices in general by " bidding up " many items from many sellers. I would think from ebay's definition of shilling listed below this behavior would also be cause for expulsion under the shill rule. Ebay's definition is below. Any comments?

Tom

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Shill Bidding

It's not permitted to use secondary User IDs or other eBay members to artificially raise the level of bidding and/or price of an item.

To avoid the appearance of being involved in this activity, family members and individuals living together, working together, or sharing a computer may not bid on each other's items.

Shill bidding undermines trust in our community and is not permitted on eBay. In addition, shill bidding is considered a felony with severe consequences.

We want all eBay users to understand what shill bidding is, why eBay treats it so seriously, and what can happen if one engages in shill bidding, in order to ensure that users don't unknowingly engage in the practice.

What is shill bidding?
Can my friends bid on my items?
If I turn someone in for shill bidding, will they be suspended?
Why are some reports of shill bidding not acted upon? Why are reported shill bidders allowed to continue to do business on eBay?
I only bid on items listed by one specific seller. Will I be considered a shill bidder?
Why isn't a seller suspended permanently the first time shill bidding is discovered?
What happens if the seller shill bids again after the temporary suspension?
What happens if the seller sets up new accounts after the other accounts are suspended?
Is a seller allowed to have more than one registered eBay account?
Can sellers bid on their own listings?
What if I need to end a listing early and it already has bids?
Changes to enhance privacy make it more difficult for me to detect potential shill bidding since I cannot easily see email addresses. How do I manage this?
How exactly do the Bid History and Bidder Search pages help?
What is shill bidding?
Shill bidding is the deliberate placing of bids to artificially raise the price of an item and is not allowed. To avoid the appearance of being involved in this activity, certain people should avoid bidding on each other's items: for example, individuals living together, working together, or sharing a computer, or family members.