"I hate the hidden bidder system on ebay." Topic

I am currently bidding on 6 separate auctions on ebay. All for the same figures from different sellers.

I have seen one by one them all in a couple minutes time get bid on. My 1st max was higher than what the 2nd bidder wanted to goto so tried them all.

Then I saw 3 more lots come up on the same thing and I left them alone… I didn't want to have a bidding war on the items we both wanted.

Now I was expecting to loose around 1/2 the lots before it's over so I have my 2nd end price depending on what ones go over my end price.

I hate that I cannot see who is bidding against me. I'm expecting to loose some but would like see if they are different bidder or am I fighting with only one other guy?

It's not that hard to tell different bidders apart, from the first and last characters of their names and their feedback score. It's not like they're completely anonymous.

Allen

You are right. It is a stupid new feature. One of the other problems with it is that it is harder to tell if you are competing against legitimate bidders or shills. Ebay says that they enforce the shill bidder policy but before this hidden bidder policy went into effect there were quite a few very obvious cases where they just let it go.
Another this about the hidden bidder thing that I do not like is that you can not look at the other bidders histories and see what they have done in the past.

I found a lot of auctions and bargains on eBay by searching for certain bidders. Saved a lot of time and money that way.

A bit predatory, I know…

In at least one case, where I knew a friend was bidding on a specific auction, the "masking" was completely random as his e-bay handle did not start nor end with the characters displayed.

There's not really an incentive for e-bay to enforce shill bidding as they get a higher amount from the final sale.

Wyatt

>>> In at least one case, where I knew a friend was bidding on a specific auction, the "masking" was completely random as his e-bay handle did not start nor end with the characters displayed.

That's true, but the "masked" ID is consistent within any given auction, as well as across concurrent auctions. And again, the feedback score is displayed, which may alleviate concerns about shill bidding.

You do get a 30-day bid history, and at least from the sorts of things I look for, I've been able to crosswalk current bidders that regularly bid with the same vendor, and from their feedback score, make a pretty good guess who they are, and so look at their past purchases.

Maybe one has to be an intel weenie to make sense of it…

Allen

Nearly all the auctions I bid on simply note Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc., rather than the obscured IDs, so there is no way of knowing who I'm bidding against. My only gripe with the system is I used to be able to follow the lead of more expert collectors when I wasn't sure about an item.

In my case it's not showing the first and last letters.. it is completely hiding them, all I have to go on is – private listing – bidders' identities protected

I get nothing from that.

I believe the systems are different depending on the country of origin as well.

It seems like you could spot shills by looking at the seller's record of sold items. If you're not seeing any deals or everything they sell seems higher than what it should be, then I would consider that a red flag. I am assuming that as a gamer you know approximately what to expect to pay.

dropzonetoe,

the "private listing – bidders' identities protected" is a feature a seller can opt into when he first lists his item up for sale. Has been an option for a long time.

You see it most often in the "Adult material" sections, but it is not REAL uncommon to see it elsewhere as a tool to prevent back-researching and potential predatory cross-bidding ala nycjadie (no offense intended there.)