Having read through the previous posts as to the usefulness of the actual bidder IDs. The one item that jumps out is the total lack of feedback information. The value of that seems minimal to me but it does have value. why do I care if another bidder is "less than desirable as a friend". The lack of the identification of the bidders will prevent the harassment of the winners though, as mentioned below. All of the rest of the comments are also true for the live auction setting. This is especially true when the live auction also accepts phone in bids and prior bids to be placed by the clerk. seems to me that the majority of this bidder research is directed at determining the bidding habits of the "competition" so as to make the purchase at the absolute lowest price. I have no problem with that, by the way. But I have yet to see an argument for why the stated purpose of the new ebay policy will increase the risk to any other bidder.
As to the comment that by checking the bidder history one sees that a bidder bids on items from a specific seller and those items are not related to each other. It is entirely possible that the bidder has located a seller who he considers a cut or two above the normal eBay seller and also has wide and various interests. I have a list of my prefered sellers and I periodically check their listings to see if they have something that I can use, if so I bid on it. Rich On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:32:51 -0500, Dan K wrote: >The same has been used against me, in revenge for outbidding someone! >"Followed" me around, upping >the bid on everything I bid on, just for spite. >Some countries' privacy laws, such as Germany's, do not allow Ebat to show >such information; that's >what I would like to see them adopt for all. >----- Original Message ----- >Another use that I use that information for is to track bidders that >have similar interests to me. I can track items they are bidding on. >If they have found something that I also want, I'll bid on it. Some may >not like this , but it is an auction and everything is open to everyone >equally. >_______________________________________________ >Phono-L mailing list >http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
