Shilling's been going on since the beginning of eBay, and probably always will be a part of the whole auction experience. There's not much to be done about it, really, which is one reason auctions in general suck vs. outright sales. But it's funny that eBay's been around for over 20 years, and people STILL put bids in throughout the week rather than just waiting until the end. There's really no point or advantage to gradually bidding up an item over a long period of time like that, trying to always be the high bidder. All it does it raise the eventual price up. If everyone bid whatever they were willing to pay right at the very end, then it would save a lot of wasted time & $$$. Auctions are psychologically-programmed like a Las Vegas slot-machine, in a way. Pavlovian rewards every time you're the high bidder, and anger when someone else outbids, and triumph when you get the top spot again. Obi Wan could have a field day with the people that fall for that cycle. But in the end, it just jacks the price up much higher than either bidder would have paid if they were bidding in a one-bid silent auction. Poker is a good auction trainer... evaluate WHO might be bidding, estimate what it might go for at the end, and BET or RAISE to try to win the hand (or trigger a fold).
One nice defense against both auction psychology & shilling is the 'yield'. Don't hear much about that tactic anymore. But unlike shilling or Pavlovian programming, there's nothing ethically wrong with 'yielding', as you're not under any rules or financial obligations until you actually bid or take part in an auction. 'Not bidding' is a non-thing. Just because 2 people are interested doesn't require them both to bid by default.
eBay looks to be transitioning into an Alternate-Amazon recently, though, which probably means less auctions & more outright selling instead.