In this instance, it is not the seller who is making the decision to hide the bidders' IDs, it is eBay. It does seem like a very unpopular idea.
On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:36:43 -0800, Daniel Melvin wrote: >I have always avoided auctions that hide bidders. I agree with Jeff's >suspicions. I just don't trust sellers that hide things. It just feels >wrong. I suppose many people have had OK transactions this way. It's not for >me though. >Dan >----- Original Message ----- >From: <[email protected]> >To: <[email protected]> >Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 5:57 PM >Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Protected Bidding on ebay! >> >> In a message dated 1/16/2007 4:13:48 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, >> [email protected] writes: >> >> Has anyone bid, or won anything with these bidder identification >> protected >> auctions? The seller of the Zonophone-A is doing that with that particular >> auction. >> >> >> >> ==================== >> eBay has always had an option for keeping bidders private, but this is not >> the case here. Recently eBay instituted a new policy whereby anything that >> tops >> $200 becomes "protected." It's not the seller's choice. Instead of showing >> bidder IDs it shows "Bidder 1, " "Bidder 2" etc. This is an attempt to >> combat >> rampant fraud since so many scammers are sending fake "second chance" >> notices >> to underbidders. By hiding bidders on higher-priced items they hope to >> cut >> down on these scams. It will also prevent people from offering similar >> items >> to underbidders by private message. >> >> On the bid history page you can view some statistics on the bidders. >> Perhaps >> the most telling is the one that shows what percent of the bidder's total >> bid activity is with the particular seller. In the Zonophone auction, for >> example, the current high bidder has 42% of activity with the seller. >> That's >> certainly very high. It also shows the categories the bidder has been >> active in, >> so it's very easy to see if a person who spends most of his time buying >> Christmas ornaments is suddenly a player on high-end collector >> phonographs. >> >> The new system is far from ideal, and I confess I liked to see what other >> people were bidding on. But by the same token, I never liked airing my >> own bid >> history publicly so I guess I'm a hypocrite at heart! Overall I think >> this >> new system will have more pros than cons. (And it will hopefully stifle >> some of >> the con artists, pun intended....) >> >> Best regards, >> Rene Rondeau >> _______________________________________________ >> Phono-L mailing list >> http://phono-l.oldcrank.org >_______________________________________________ >Phono-L mailing list >http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
