Shill bidding can still occur even if you snipe since shill bidders know about snipping and may count on their product being sniped. As for how ebay finds out about snipping, I think that's inadequate. If that's the only way they can identify a shill bidder by taking all that time to investigate with millions of users then many buyers are being fooled in thinking that they are in a real and fair bidding match with someone when we are being taken as fools. Imagine someone who desperately wants to buy something. They would wind up paying higher than market value. I was shocked when my brother-in-law said he sold
his second hand baby stroller for more then he bought it new. For goodness sake, it had tape all over the handles. If you went to Kmart and the sales person said I have two identical baby strollers. One is used and the other is new, and the price for the used one was more then the new one, which one would you buy?