I'd report to Ebay and keep looking. That seller is doing something shady. They should not even get 50% of the price, even if it's a good deal.

I'd send ebay an email stating your situation which includes the seller and this other person's id.

Ebay has systems in place to check everyone's bidding and selling history. Maybe it's just under their radar and hasn't surface yet. You may be their tip off.

I noticed that similar situation once between a seller and 'another id'. A few weeks later neither the seller or the 'other id' was on ebay. I think they got caught.

If the seller's rating is 100% and they have lots of sales (more than 500), I would stick with the deal. My only change in the deal would be to pay whatever the amount of my last bid was and to require free shipping. $36 for EQ 5 is a good deal as long as it is in the original packaging--not a copy of a copy of a copy. Nobody wants EQ 5 any more because it's 2 versions out of date and may not run on anything newer than Windows XP. As long as you are cool with that, you'll get a great program.

That's exactly what I mean by shill bidding. Ebay forbids it.

(Ok I can understand a one time thing but I looked at her information they give and it seems she has bid with the seller (two other times) before AND has backed out of bids over 11 times in the last 6 months)

I would have thought that ebay would have cancelled this person by the time she had backed out over 11 times. Doesn't make sense to me either.

If the other person you were bidding with backed out then it should go back to the bid before she bid. I don't deal with Ebay so I don't know what there rules are. It just seem more far for them to do it that way.

Sheesh. How do you check that stuff? Have I been taken and not known about it? How do I find out?