(OT) Private auction

anoldgoat

I found something rather puzzeling this morning. I was checking my feedback on ebay and went to click the auction to see what the FB was for and it was private. Can a buyer do this? I've never had a private auction.

MB police, it was for the new proof nickels.

nwcs

Yep, you can have private auctions on ebay where the bidders are hidden. I personally cannot think of a good reason to do this (but can think of many bad reasons)

relayer

It was originally designed for porn auctions, but is used today to hide ID's when the seller is selling fake/junk/crap items so nobody will warn the bidders

anoldgoat

I was the seller. I just checked turbo lister where the auction was uploaded from. The Private box is not checked. Could ebay possibly have a bug


Auction


My Feedback

ziggy29

I think the idea was to protect the identity of bidder who bid on potentially "embarrassing" items. However, as mentioned above, it has become a haven for scammers to operate without worrying about having the sale disrupted by transaction interference.

Conder101

The thing is that it is HIS auction and he didn't list it as a private auction. He wants to know how it became a private auction.

seanq

I recall someone else here had a problem with Turbo Lister making some of his auctions private. If there's a bug it's in there and not on eBay.


Sean Reynolds

anoldgoat

Ebay's reply

Hello Mike,

Thank you for writing to eBay's Customer Support. My name is Michael.

Reviewing the listing, it appears that your wining bidder chose to make
his or her feedback private.

Because eBay does not edit feedback in member profiles, we offer the
option of hiding feedback if a member feels that one or more of the
comments in his or her profile is libelous or contains information he or
she believes to be untrue. However, we do caution members from hiding
their feedback, as many eBay members will not conduct business with a
member with hidden feedback.

To make your feedback private in your member profile, please follow the
steps below:

1. Click the "site map" link at the top of any eBay page.

2. From the "Site Map" page, click the "Make feedback changes public or
private" link. This link is located in the middle column of the page,
near the bottom, under the heading "Feedback Forum."

In very specific circumstances, feedback may qualify for removal under
our Feedback Removal Policy. You can view this policy at the link below:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-removal.html

Thank you for your time. I was happy to help and I wish you the best of
luck with your sales.


Regards,

Michael M.V.
eBay Listing Tools Support


So this makes the auction appear private in my FB but not the feedback they left?

kranky

Am I missing something, or does that response from ebay not even address the actual issue?

Isn't private feedback a completely separate topic from a private auction?

seanq

That is an auto-reply and it completely missed your point. But I still don't think the issue is with eBay but with Turbo Lister. Read this thread about two-thirds down and there is another eBay seller who used Turbo Lister and ended up with private auctions.

However the auction you linked earlier became private, it was handled from eBay's perspective just like any other private auction. There is no way to on the auction page to see the list of bidders, and no way from the feedback left to link to the auction. Go look at the feedback you left for the winning bidder and it shows the auction as private there, too.


Sean Reynolds

XpipedreamR

Doesn't this line




<< <i>Reviewing the listing, it appears that your wining bidder chose to make his or her feedback private. >>




explain the situation? Maybe if you make your feedback private, all your tracks are covered, so to speak.

Conder101

No because the bidders feedback isn't private, the auction is private. Take a look a anoldgoat's feedback and you will see one private auction, yet the buyers name is visible and if you check his feedback it is all visible. So the buyer hasn't made his feedback private. If he had then only anoldgoat would be able to see it.