eBay shut down approximately 237 auctions for Cranberries rarities when they suspected that their seller, Danny Kronstrom, may have engaged in shill bidding. We told you last week that Kronstrom, one of the biggest Cranberries collectors in the world, had decided to auction his entire collection. By Saturday night, eBay closed all of his auctions and suspended his account. The goodies up for auction included a French “Hollywood” radio promo, a Brazilian “I’m Still Remembering” radio promo, countless European live bootleg CDs, and some promos that we’ve never even seen before.

Shill bidding is the process of creating a fake ID to bid on your own auctions in order to artificially raise the prices. A user with the ID of “patheticsenses” was found to be bidding on 117 of Kronstrom’s auctions. “Patheticsenses” had no previous eBay history, was created at the same time as Kronstrom’s account, and was bidding exclusively on Kronstrom’s auctions, but only to outbid other users and never as the first bid. These are all telltale signs of shill bidding. (Even your humble webmaster was outbid by “patheticsenses.”) While Kronstrom’s seller account (“dannykronstrom”) was suspended, the account “patheticsenses” was not.

In an email to Zombieguide, Danny denies all accusations and claims no wrongdoing. “‘Patheticsenses’ is not me, Alex. I don’t know who has made this rumor, began this story, but I only want to sell my items and quit [my interest] in The Cranberries…”

“I feel so bad.. I want to write my real emotions, but my English is not good.”

Zombieguide estimates that Kronstrom must still pay at least $60 in lost eBay listing fees for the closed auctions.

Thanks to Paul for keeping an eye on this situation for us.

Source: Exclusive