John; Here's my take on ebay buying.

It makes no difference to me whether a shill bidder is involved or not. I have a price in mind that I am willing to pay for an item. If I win it fine ... if I don't that's fine also. Generally speaking, there will always be another similar chip offered somewhere down the line ... unless we are talking about uncommon material.

Even if the item up for bid is in the scarce range, sometimes one only gets one bite at the apple to obtain it ... but there are still limits to how high one wants to go for the item.

As I responded to Jason ... simply because someone goes head to head with someone else ... does not necessarily indicate shill bidding. Many times it simply of a case of someone wanting an item as much as you do.