Good news bad news on ebay sales?

[super8man]

I figure this is on topic since I do quite a bit of ebaying and I am sure others do with repsect to movie camera equipment...

I noticed ebay has started to change the bidder history in the automotive section. Not sure if the change is coming to the camera side but I am sure it can't be far away. Here's their quote:

"As the internet evolves, eBay continues to strike a balance between preserving transparency and protecting our Community of members. eBay has decided to change how bid history information is displayed so bad guys cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to view Bidder User IDs on the Bid History page. Your User ID will be shown only to you and the seller of the item you're bidding on. Other members will see an anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, applied consistently to the Bid History page."

So, if you look at some ebay automotive sales, the bidder history is just a bunch of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4,5, etc....

It does not seem to be widespread yet...

[Blin]

Yeah I noticed that. It's happened in other areas of eBay.

I wonder if eBay has considered sellers might try upping the selling price by putting in their own dummy bids. Proper bidders have no way of knowing.

Just a thought.

[Evan Kubota]

No, that's been going on for a very long time (since the beginning of eBay, really). As the original poster quoted, it's apparently to prevent sleazy sellers from using the bid histories to find out what people are buying and offer fake items pitched to their own personal purchases.

[aj]

It would be more like real world auctions.

But in a electronic auction one needs extra tools to handle matters.

It would be a loss too as one cannot message too other eBay members too. I have messaged a lot to cross check on seller. Last week I asked a winner if he would make a copy of the manual of the projector he had just won. He promised to send me a copy. And even insisting on not charging any money for that.

Also it essential to check bidder lists for seller friends who push the bidding.

I even campaigned for while against a seller who knowingly sold dubious NP22 batteries. That cost him a lot of money and deals. eBay wasn't too happy either as the commisions went down of course.


BTW On the last feedback I was asked to do an experimental feedback where feedback is constructed from four factor/subjects and where the input is selected from a list with some six choices.
I have advocated this at eBay for buyer feedback. Apparently some people did too. The choice would be limited to: paid quick, paid, didn't pay. What else should a seller be entitled too. Also buyer feedback should be posted mandatory before seller feedback can be posted. This would counter blackmail and retaliation negative feedback.

[super8man]

I was thinking that feedback could be based on $$$ (or Euros, etc). Therefore, higher weighting given to higher $$$. But I like those ideas AJ - that would be nice.

[reflex]

Interesting. eBay is in an awkward spot - they have to reveal some information for transparency, but if they reveal too much they risk exposing their users to fraudulent activity.

eBay's biggest problem is the feedback system. It's next to useless, except in extreme cases (I'm happy to hear from aj that they're working on something new).

Leaving negative feedback simply means that you're likely to get hostile feedback in return, which is frustrating when you try to buy a product in good faith and said something like "Item not as described. Seller refused to accept return."

[aj]

So, if you look at some ebay automotive sales, the bidder history is just a bunch of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4,5, etc....

It does not seem to be widespread yet...

I stumbled upon this one:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :MEWA:BIDN
with the mentioned new type of bidders listing. I cannot tell why one listing is like this and others are as used to be.

It is not too bad. You cannot get to know your opposing bidders but the bidder statistics are convenient though. Check bidder2 on this auction. He spent 69% of his bidding on auctions of one single seller. If that isn't a helping (moused) hand?

[marc]

I once used a guy's bidding history to win an auction. There was an item that I wanted and the guy that had placed a bid ( the only bid) seemed to bid on everything and nothing in particular. So, my thoughts were, " This guy is a lightweight, he is not going to bid beyond a certain amount on this item". So I set up a sniper bid which placed the bid at the last 10 seconds of the auction. I beat him out at a very low price.

[aj]

That is how snipers make the best of an auction.

I am not sure if the other bidder is aware of your intend. I noticed there are scores of people who just throw in a lowest bid routinely. I think they adopted this method when one could only hold 30 items in a watching list. The bid item list was unlimited. Also you get plenty notification email on items you bid on. For the record so to say. And possibly it saves work.

Also there still plenty of ebay bidders who even after 100 or 500 auctions still bid by hand and bid early.

Should eBay adopt this anonymous bidding list then in the end the auction shadowing of others will be lost. Ethically better but less fun.

[DriveIn]

There are a considerable number of valid complaints about blocking bidder identities. Bid history is one of the main avenues of watching for fraud. The only real way for bidders to be compromised, is when the ebay ID and associated email address are both known to the scammer. Otherwise, the only way to contact bidders is through ebay. If you properly manage your ebay and email usage this will not be the case.

[camera8mm]

if ebay really wanted to do something they would turn it from a glorified bulletin board (which is what it is) into something more scam proof. notice they have square trade, but in reality, it isnt binding.

[MovieStuff]

I once used a guy's bidding history to win an auction. ....

I had to do that in the past a bit, as well. Some years back, there was this ebay-troll that was fucking with me on things I was buying. It was pretty apparent that he really did not need the item because identical items that I was not bidding on he didn't take interest in and was simply bidding against me to raise the price I would have to pay for the single item that I wanted. If I then switched to the other identical item, there'd he'd be with a follow up bid (a good reason, in itself, for sniping...). Anyway, I have no idea why he was doing this but it was reallllly annoying. So after I had enough, I took a look at his feedback and started making a list of items he had purchased in the past to get a sense of what he routinely purchased and depended on for his business. The next time he screwed with me, I then started bidding on all those items against him, driving up his final price exponentially, since he would have to pay higher prices on multiple items as opposed to just my one. I then purposely underbid on my desired item so he'd be stuck with a high price for something he really didn't want with his available budget depleted because he had to pay inflated prices on all his other purchases. He finally got the message and sent me an email that said, "You win." and that was that. Total waste of time.

Interestingly, when I told that story to a friend of mine, he started using the tactic against competing bidders to try and make them give up on something that he was trying to win; essentially forcing them to use up their cash reserves on earlier auctions so they wouldn't have the dough to bid on the item he was after. Talk about ebay getting cut-throat! 8O

Roger

[flatwood]

....sent me an email that said, "You win." and that was that. Total waste of time.....

How strange. Was it someone you knew??? Out for revenge??? Did you ever find out who it was???

[aj]

What a complicated way of doing.