It's a pinball machine - not an 'adult' item. I've seen plenty of Playboy machines and game specific parts listed over the years, non with 'private' bidding. Plain and simple, it's being done here to hide the shill bidding. It's BS and people should know, and then again it's ebay and they have a history of letting shenanigans like this happen all the time.

What's worse is the pictures show a faded players machine, not a minty example as described in the text. No pics of the backglass throws up another red flag since again the description hardly matches the pics. Hell, even with all the work the seller could not be bothered to clean up the drop targets...

I have a feeling we'll be seeing this one relisted again after this auction.

We all called this one.

Another EBAY sham! He's trying to sucker someone in.

he's trying to jack up the price point on the game all around. This is a way to get hype and get people to think a game is worth more than it really is. Also, the price guides will take these numbers in account when they make them. Hence why the price guides are always around $500 over what a game is really worth.

Wow, makes me wonder what kind of price my mint Mata Hari might fetch?

Also, Boston Pinball takes the RSS feeds of completed auctions to factor in the average sale price of a game in their reports... (I have to assume Dana Petit does this as well or watches the Boston Pinball reports for his price guide). if this transaction isn't completed, it will still be reflected in the pinball price guides probably... so someone could manipulate the published average sale prices using this tactic.

Wow, this guy is trying to manipulate the market. He will then point to previously-sold games at outrageous prices to justify his asking price.

You can notify eBay of shill activities like this.

The 'sold' one has a very suspicious bidding pattern. Lot of bids within a minute of each other. Time passes then 2 at a time.

now, how high will it go this time?

i hope its not because The auction didn't meet reserve, if so.... delusional!

this guy seems to be popular he's selling a 1969 HONDA Z50A K1 MINI TRAIL with 27 bids on it at $4050.00.
i'm curious, will this also come back for sale?

Never really thought about it till now. I guess that goes for any item that mysteriously gets relisted after it "sold" for a high price. So Ebay does nothing about this practice?

Now that this has been brought up. it does answer a lot of questions. So that practice can definitely skew price indexes artificially. Now I have a new tool to negotiate with when someone pulls the ebay price card. Here is my real price I will pay. When no one buys it for your jacked up price, give me a call. Maybe I will still want it.

Here it is again....

ebay.com link: 1970s BALLY PLAYBOY PINBALL ARCADE PINBALL MACHINE SERVICED AND READY PLAY

Yup, that's his shill account. Only two feedbacks have come from that other account and were months apart. Report it to Ebay but they honestly don't give a crap.

Mata Hari was my favorite game in 1979.

If you want to help out other pinball buyers, please report this. It's pretty easy if you have an Ebay account. And the flagging works by volume. So if 10 people report it, it'll be investigated. It'll help save someone from being scammed now and from others being misled in the future with these fraudulent prices.

Go to the page, click "Report Item".

Under the Report Category dropdown pick "Listing Practices".

Under Reason for Report pick "Fraudulent Listing activities".

Under Detailed Reason pick "Seller is using other account to inflate item price".

It's back and up to $3450.

Reporting it is correct thing to do but messing with person would feel so much more gratifying. Too bad we all couldnt have fake accounts and take turns winning it...only never to pay for it.