Dude. All you're doing is artificially inflating the market, reducing the chances that you'll be able to buy one in the future at a price that you're more willing to pay.
Not only are you a spiteful psychopath, you're actively working at cross-purposes to your economic interests.s
I don't think I singlehandedly inflated the price of Yashica rangefinder cameras in 2001-2002, but then again maybe it was me.
I've been eBaying since 1998, so I'm probably okay.
You've been eBaying longer than I've been alive!
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Perhaps I see things froma different perspective than you people here, but I see a huge difference between a shill bid and someone bidding the price up for their own reasons. Callig it "gambling" is indeed a good term for it.
I identify as a non-consequentialist, philosophically.
So if this "gambling" and shill bidding have the same effect (or consequence) then it matters not to me. All that matters is the motives and intentions that go into it.
A shill bidder is doing something wrong, whereas a "gambler" might be doing something wrong (Not taking an ethical stance either way on that: beyond the scope of the post here) but since they have entirely different motivations then the actions are worlds apart morally, even if they have the same consequence.
Now, if petty revenge is "perverse and psychopathic" or not, That's not for me to say, but I would think it's not as bad as all that, especially since most people do it.
B'sides arguably it's not hurting the buyer at all, for them to pay a higher price: they bid that much in the first place, and were therefore willing to pay that much for it. It also helps the seller, (and yourself, arguably, if you get some satisfaction from saying "so
there") so from a utilitarian perspective then it's the only moral course of action.
