Who are these Ebay bidders; 5***I, 6***Y?

ARCO

I know that posters here get tired of Ebay questions, but I am just perplexed as to what is going on. Some months back I started noticing whole runs of auctions with these strange Ebay bidder's names. I first thought they were shill buyers, but I started to see them everywhere and some with hundreds and hundreds of feedback comments. the weirdest is that whole auctions have these bidders. It can't be some sort of coincidence.

Does anybody know what this is? Can bidders elect to hide their identity on certain auctions? Here is a link, one of hundreds just like this that I have seen over the last couple of months.

Ebay bidder's history


Tyler

pharmer

OK, the jig is up. It was fun while it lasted, but you caught us. Are you sure you want to know the truth? Can you handle the truth?

CarlWohlforth

eBay itself is generating random names for bidders. They do this on auctions that get above a certain price to hide/protect the identity of the bidders from fake 2nd chance offers or other scams, at least that is what they say.

pharmer

Yeah, that's the ticket. What Carl said. That's what's going on

ARCO

That makes sense. Thanks Carl. You know, I remember bidding on a gold coin where all the other names were scrambled, but mine was listed as it is with no change. I wonder if it scrambles when others look at it though?

I thought I was losing it!

Tyler

mattniss

<< <i>You know, I remember bidding on a gold coin where all the other names were scrambled, but mine was listed as it is with no change. I wonder if it scrambles when others look at it though? >>



It does. Your username is only visible to the seller and yourself until the auction is complete, when the winner's username is visible to everyone, along with the other bidders in the bid history.

MFH

<< <i>

<< <i>You know, I remember bidding on a gold coin where all the other names were scrambled, but mine was listed as it is with no change. I wonder if it scrambles when others look at it though? >>



It does. Your username is only visible to the seller and yourself until the auction is complete, when the winner's username is visible to everyone, along with the other bidders in the bid history. >>



Ummm...Your user name is only visable to you [ IF you are logged on ] and to the seller. When the auction
is over, only the winner's name becomes unscrambled, the other bidders' names are still scrambled in the bid history.

I have kept up with a few fellow collectors' bids because of their Feedback ...ie: I'm at 125 currently with two sellers still to leave feedback. So, if you see l***r or some such scrambled name bidding on a Barber you're hot for and the bidder's Feedback # is close to 127, its probably me.

ttown

those ID's come into play at about $200.

mattniss

<< <i>Ummm...Your user name is only visable to you [ IF you are logged on ] and to the seller. When the auction is over, only the winner's name becomes unscrambled, the other bidders' names are still scrambled in the bid history. >>



First off, that's what I said originally. Second, your latter statement is untrue, to the best of my knowledge. As far as I know, whenever the auction is complete, all the bidders' names become unscrambled. I've never seen an auction where only the winner's name was unscrambled and the other names were still scrambled. I may still be wrong, but this is what I believe to be correct.

pharmer

No, they remain scrambled, and this was supposedly the point of the exercise, in that it was intended to prevent false second chance offers, and possibly other horrors as yet unforeseen.

mattniss

Perhaps this is not the case in auctions with less than a certain number of people? I vividly remember a recent auction in which bidding was between myself and one other person. His username was scrambled during the bidding, but after the auction's end, I checked the bid history and I saw his username unscrambled.

ttown

<< <i>Perhaps this is not the case in auctions with less than a certain number of people? I vividly remember a recent auction in which bidding was between myself and one other person. His username was scrambled during the bidding, but after the auction's end, I checked the bid history and I saw his username unscrambled. >>



That's because you won the auction.

Goldbully

<< <i>No, they remain scrambled, and this was supposedly the point of the exercise, in that it was intended to prevent false second chance offers, and possibly other horrors as yet unforeseen. >>



Thank God!

mattniss

I actually lost the auction.

MFH

Looks like the whole scrambled name thing varies - no one is right - and no one's wrong. I just posted what I have observed over a couple dozen auctions I have bid on; some I won, some I lost.

I'll have to recheck what happens when I won...maybe the names do become unscrambled...but not
according to my memory.

I agree with pharmer's opinion.

Bochiman

Some of it depends on auction value. There is an amount at which the scrambling occurs.

coinpictures

As mentioned above, $200 is the magic threshold, above which scrambling occurs. You can only see your own userID unscrambled. The high bidder remains unscrambled for the world to see, but not underbidders.