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Biker Bids Fee Avoidance
In order to keep our fees well below the average auction site of today, Biker Bids consistently monitors all listing activity looking for Fee Avoidance, or the act of circumventing Biker Bids fees that can occur in many ways. Here is just a partial list of practices that may be considered a violation of this policy:
You may not end a reserve-price auction early because it does not look like bidding will reach the reserve.
You may not end a no-price auction early because it does not look like bidding will reach the minimum you hope to get for the item.
You may not encourage bidders to contact you directly to purchase the item off-site.
You may not require the buyer who wins the auction to buy something else. For example, a lamp that requires the buyer to pay extra for the shade.
You may not end an auction early in order to sell a bidder the item directly and remove Biker Bids out of the sale.
You may not include a static or clickable link to a non-Biker Bids auction website.
In most situations, it is the potential buyer who reports to Biker Bids that fee avoidance is occurring or has occurred. However, as a savvy seller it is your obligation to report to Biker Bids directly these violations made by your competitors. Many times a new seller to Biker Bids doesn't know they are breaking policies - and certainly doesn't know what to do once they receive a warning. Sellers who have a fee-avoidance complaint against them can expect a warning, temporary suspension or permanent suspension.
Stealing Photos
It is tempting for people who see a photo to right click, save the photo to their desktop and upload the photo as their own. This occurs a lot and is mostly done by new sellers on many auction sites who do not understand that your photos are not part of the public domain for their own use.
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply everywhere else. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to Biker Bids and that competitors listings will be removed.
Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two user IDs and will use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Shill bidding can be tempting when lots of people are watching an item but no one is bidding just one false bid to get things rolling, or when bidding is slow and it looks like an item will sell for a lot less than the seller thinks it is worth. Biker Bids uses very sophisticated code and technologies which can detect "Shill Bidding" in a number of ways.
Do you notice a pattern? Can you see a trend? Does the same user ID purchase multiple items from the seller (for an item that would have no need for multiple purchases)? When did these users registers? If shill bidding is happening, many of the bidder accounts will have recent Biker Bids registration dates.
Shill bidding happens with new sellers who think "what's the harm in increasing the price just a bit - no one will know." Shill bidding also happens with experienced, high level sellers.
Shill bidding is illegal, and is another policy violation that Biker Bids takes very seriously. As mentioned above, Biker Bids has very sophisticated tools and technology to track shill bidding. If you believe there is shill bidding activity going on within a sellers account, report it to us and we will open an investigation immediately.
Keyword Spamming
As you become aware of what keyword spam is, you will begin to notice how frequently this policy violation actually happens. While some advanced sellers who are making money using this tactic, many will actually keyword spam intentionally.
What exactly is keyword spamming?
Keyword Spamming is the act of trying to attract buyers to your auction by putting popular but inappropriate keywords in the title. In situations like this, sellers often use keyword spamming to make their items appear in a wider range of search results, even though what they are offering is not exactly what the buyer is looking for. A title like: Vintage 1934 Harley Davidson, Not Indian, Big Dog, Buell is an example. A 34' Harley Davidson can not be from all those manufacturers, only Harley Davidson! However, the seller wants his title to show up in the search results of people who search and also for anyone searching for any of those manufacturers by name.
Biker Bids believes that keyword spamming is unfair to buyers that a seller is wasting a buyers time with a title that promises something that the seller doesn't, in fact, have to offer. There are several kinds of keyword spamming, all of which violate Biker Bids's policies.
You may not compare. Your title must describe what you are selling and not compare it to something that you are not selling. For example, let's say your have a listing that says: Womens purse, like Harley Davidson but for less. This would be considered a violation of the keyword spamming policy. The auction is not for a prada purse but the seller is trying to attract bidders looking for that specific designer handbag. Comparisons do not have to use the word like; either.
You may not include a list of related words. This restriction applies to both titles and descriptions. In a title you're limited to 55 characters, so you can not really make long lists. However, it is against Biker Bids policy to fill up your item description with long lists of words that are there for no other reason than to attract the attention of shoppers who are searching by both title and description. For example, if you are selling leather jackets, don’t include a list of words like this in the description: leather vests, leather hats, leather chaps, leather purse and so on. Your auction might turn up in more searchers, but it will just upset buyers who are looking for something other than what you are selling.
You may not use misleading titles. This policy covers some of the previous violations but also anything else that could potentially confuse buyers or lead them astray. For example, you might be offering free shipping to buyers who use the Buy Out option. If that is the case, make sure you state this in your listing title.
If you think already happening in your category product niche report it to us. Now that you are aware that this exists, report these sellers and their listing violations to Biker Bids. The result will be in the warnings and cancellations of your competitors listings.
The goal of Biker Bids is for all sellers to play by the same rules on the same field. It's your responsibility to insure that your competitors do not have an unfair advantage.
If you look closely, you can and will find active auctions that violate one if not all of the policies mentioned above. Can you get away with it? Maybe for an auction or too, but sooner or later, you will get caught. You never want to jeopardize your Biker Bids account by violating site policies-just be sure that your competitors are not violating them as well. Do the right thing-report these violations to Biker Bids.
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