You can no longer see what others are bidding on @ ebay?
WinPitcher
Posts: 27,726 ✭✭✭
WinPitcher
Posts: 27,726 ✭✭✭
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This change in the EBAY info was announced about
three months ago, and is now being fully rolled out.
As of this morning, goofbay was still showing some
info, but it seems erratic. Try TH, also.
Shill bidding is now seen as "necessary" by many
small/corrupt sellers. They are tired of giving their
stuff away, and have turned to crime as the cure.
At this point, I would not buy ANYTHING on EBAY
from a stranger.
Sellers you already know and VERY LARGE sellers
are probably relatively safe.
does it also stifle those intent on running up a competitor?
I think people can still see if a shill is loose, you still can see the bid history for an auction.
just can't check into anyones bidding habits.
Steve
Introducing the Safeguarding Member IDs Project
The Safeguarding Member IDs project is a new approach to auction-style listings that offers more privacy for our members through changing how bidding information is displayed. Following intensive development and review, as well as Community input, we believe the Safeguarding Member IDs project provides the Community with enough information about the bidders involved in an auction-style listing for them to feel confident in placing a bid – without revealing actual User IDs. We're implementing this new system on listings with a high bid of $200 or greater, which is where we believe it can have the greatest positive impact. The bid information for listings where the bid is lower than $200 will display as it does today.
Here's what will change:
1. On the bid history page for each listing we'll replace member User IDs with aliases (such as Bidder 1, Bidder 2 and Bidder 3) in the order of their bids placed. For each bidder involved in a listing, we'll display the number of bids in unique categories that they've placed, a range that their feedback score falls within (i.e. 10-49, for instance), their percentage of positive feedback, their length of time as an eBay member, and the number of bids they've placed on the item. At the end of a listing, the winning bidder's User ID will be displayed on the item page. Please note: Sellers will still be able to access bidder information on their listings through the Bid History page and the My eBay selling table.
2. In My eBay, members will no longer have access to the high-bidder column from bid and watch tables.
3. On the item page, you'll only be able to see the high-bidder ID if you are the signed-in seller of the item or the signed-in high bidder.
4. Through the Advanced Search by Bidder link, we'll only show completed listings within the last 30 days.
Future enhancements are being designed that will provide even more transaction data about the bidders and seller involved in a transaction. We'll continue to update the community on these changes as these plans become finalized.
Safeguarding Member IDs – Launch plans
Clearly, even the smallest changes on the eBay marketplace may have unexpected effects, and we want to move forward carefully. While we are cautious of making changes to the site during the holiday season, we feel strongly that this is the right thing to do for the Community.
Our first step is to launch on eBay Motors in early November. This decision is based on Community input in these categories, especially in Motor Vehicles, where the rates of member reported spoof and fake Second Chance Offers have been higher than in other categories. As November and December are slower months for vehicle sales, we believe this is the right time for implementation.
If all goes well, we could implement the Safeguarding Member IDs project on eBay.com in early 2007.
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As I understand it, the answer would be "yes."
I emailed goofbay.com to get their reaction, but
they have not responded yet.
The privacy issue side of this change has some merit.
But, we were able to go private without the change;
this just forces the issue.
Except for the concept of "fairplay in the market," I
am not really personally concerned about shills, so
as long as there is some reasonable transparency
in EBAY's scheme, it might be wrothwhile to let it
succeed or fail on its own.
MANY of my high-end listings are private because
some rich people will not bid otherwise. I often
include a line on my BINs that says,
"This listing is currently designated as 'private,' if you wish
your user-ID to be publicly connected with this purchase,
please notify me prior to using the BIN feature,
and I will designate the listing as 'public.'" NO ONE HAS
EVER asked me to go public. (I use the disclaimer to try
to ease the minds of folks who are paranoid about
private listings.)
There has also been alot of bad-faith interference from
jealous competitors (not on my stuff) and the new
scheme will halt some of that. It will also prevent most
good-faith warnings from being issued promptly.
And, the fake second-chance offer business will be
hit hard; a worthwhile thing.
Nick
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<< <i>It will probably also make it impossible for you to warn a bidder that an auction is a scam.
Nick >>
It already is. Sometimes, ebay wont allow you to "ask seller question" if you dont want it to appear in the auction itself. I have been denied countless times in trying to tell both sellers and bidders both...
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