I ask because it doesn’t look like proxy bidding… because there are 20 and more seconds separating some of the bids. This is also a new bidder, which makes me even more suspicious. Anyone else’s thoughts?
It might be shilling, or it might be someone really trying. I’m somewhat confused that the bid amounts are shown before end of auction – most of my Ebay experience has been in auctions that protect the bid amounts until close of auction.
If you’re really concerned that it might be shill bidding, I believe you should report it to Ebay. However, if it’s shilling, it’s really amateurish and crappy shilling. Multiple bids from an account with no history within minutes, 4-5 days before close of auction?
I have no direct experience with bid shilling, but the psychology of auction selling in general indicates that the best time to shill would be late in the auction, when multiple people are “invested” in the auction, thus increasing the chance that one of them will outbid the shiller.
This does not look like a shill bidder.
A shill will usually bid on one person’s items. If you search the bidder’s auctions you can see he is bidding on the same type of item with many different sellers.
Looks like a newbie to eBay who does not understand the proxy bidding.
Yep…looks like a newbie to me. The time lag is just enough to account for his bid being too low, and re-entering a higher bid. He just doesn’t understand how the system works.
Oh, thanks… I didn’t know how to search his bidding history.
I just didn’t like the fact that I doubled the current bid and was at my max a few hours later.
Or it could just be someone who didn’t want to use proxy bidding. Sometimes I repeat bids within a short period, just so I have a chance to do a ‘gut check’ in between them, rather than commiting myself to a top level right at the beginning. 
There’s no ebay regulation against this sort of thing that FORCES you to use the proxy, right?? It’s just an option.
Revealing the bid amounts before the close of the auction is a recent “enhancement” by eBay. One consequence of the new system is that if your maximum proxy bid is less than one increment above the next highest bid, your maximum bid is revealed to all.
To search a person’s bidding history, go to “Search” at the top of the page, then “Items by Bidder” on the left hand side.
That’s, um, sucktacular. I prefer the old system, I think.
Looks, to me, like a newbie who isn’t sure what they’re doing. I accidentally did the same thing once when I was new. I felt pretty dopey after I searched and found a screen that looked just like your link (except with my name listed).