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It does matter, in some contexts.
For porsche parts being sold to us, not so much, since most of us know the value.
But a lot of people who don't have as much knowledge about the particular item use past eBay auctions as a guide, assuming that it accurately reflects the market for the item. For many things, it is difficult or pretty much impossible to use any other source to establish a market value, because they are only very lightly traded anywhere other than eBay.
Shill bidding artificially skews the market. Particularly over time.
Smart people like us only pay what we'll pay. But if you've ever sold on eBay, you know that many or most aren't smart like us, and bidding wars happen all the time. Shills are unfair (the are prohibited) and take advantage of those people.
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