New eBay Bidder Tracking Policy?

Dennis Gardner
Dennis Gardner Posts: 4,861
edited January 2007 in The Clubhouse
Has anyone noticed the bidder tracking change on eBay? Basically all auctions have private bidding now from what I can see so far. With this change, I can't see if some of the regulars from here is bidding on and item.

Example: Bidder 1 and Bidder 2 have exchanged high bidder in the first 4 bids on this auction, but you can't really tell who they are other than a vague profile..........http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160071403415&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D160071403415%26fvi%3D1

Thoughts, good or bad?
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Comments

  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,194
    edited January 2007
    This must be something brand new or perhaps the seller has chosen this option. I just won an auction on Thursday and I could see all the bids as well as the bidders. Perhaps there is some kind of harrassment, etc., going on. Maybe it's a way to keep accounts from getting stolen. Who knows.
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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  • szhleppy
    szhleppy Posts: 320
    edited January 2007
    Awesome. Now I can bid against you asshats without having to face any consequences.:D
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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited January 2007
    I dig it, because of the general synopsis on the bidders history. As a seller, if you are logged in looking at your own auction, you can see the actual id's.
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,645
    edited January 2007
    I think the reason eBay is giving for doing that is BS.

    I can see a problem with this already. If you want to warn a bidder(s) that the auction item isn't what it's suppose to be or just an outright scam, you won't be able to do that anymore. It also makes it impossible to spot shill bids.

    Of course, eBay could give two **** about that as long as they get theirs. Thanks for nothing!!!
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,338
    edited January 2007
    F1nut wrote:
    It also makes it impossible to spot shill bids.

    This really pisses me off! There was software that you could run to see if a seller had a history of these bids. Of course eBay doesn't want you to know what's going on. Jesse's right, all eBay cares about is that they get their cut.
    Carl

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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited January 2007
    How does it make it impossible to spot shills? How can you spot them anyway? It amazes me that people have time to 'police' ebay, wow.

    What it DOES do, is put a HUGE dent in the amount of Fraud emails that go out, ones that can REALLY hurt people. I've had false 'second chance offers' sent out to MANY bidders on some of my higher $ auctions - and I would have never even known about it, if the bidders didn't contact me directly, and just 'clicked' the email instead.

    No harm to me, mind you, but a lot of harm to them if they fall for it.

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,645
    edited January 2007
    It's not hard to spot if you know what to look for in an auction that you may have an interest in, NOT every effing auction on eBay. It amazes me that someone would think that, wow.

    Only idiots bite at second chance offers, why should the rest of us have to suffer for their stupidity!?!


    Want to voice your opinion about the new policy, send your comments to billcobb@ebay.com
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited January 2007
    I've had a lot of non-idots bite at second chance offers. It's actually a useful tool.

    While you may doing a service to some, ie 'heads up' emails, I'm willing to bet that by simple killing the second chance scammers, they protect a lot more. Give a little, loose a little, but for the greater good, why not. Besides shill bidding can't really be proven, unless someone admits to it. New bidders? Frequent bidders on multiple auctions? All that is really proven at the end of the day, is that the winning bidder put in the high bid, willingly. Does it happen? Sure. Can you really prove it, or do anything about it? Not likely.

    I can think of a lot of charities, and world events right now that one could choose to voice their opinion / focus time on, but if ebay is keeping you up at night, you've got the top banana's email addy.

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,645
    edited January 2007
    Sure I can do something about it, not bid.

    You know, with all the technology available today, there has to be another way to protect folks from scammers without penalizing everyone else.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • Polk65
    Polk65 Posts: 1,405
    edited January 2007
    "To keep eBay a safe place for buyers, member-specific information is not displayed. Each bidder is assigned an anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, that is used consistently throughout the bid history for an item."

    Poo nuggets. This is the third time in a few years that they have changed how bidding looks and IMHO sucks for buyers. Jesse nailed it with ebay being happy as long as they collect their fees. Russ, I don't think of it as keeping me up at night or policing. The checking I used to be able to do on bidders gave me valuable insight on their past bidding methods. This allowed me to choose which auctions to bid on. Hey, it's only America, the land with the legend of choices. Who am I to argue against a behemoth?
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  • snow
    snow Posts: 4,337
    edited January 2007
    well it has pros and cons like anything else i guess. idont like the idea of not having the option of warning some poor bidder that he is about to be scammed. but the way it was before it didnt work half the time anyways ebay would stop me. but it will help with second chance offers etc. so ill live with it. REGARDS SNOW
    Well, I just pulled off the impossible by doing a double-blind comparison all by myself, purely by virtue of the fact that I completely and stupidly forgot what I did last. I guess that getting old does have its advantages after all :D
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  • unc2701
    unc2701 Posts: 3,587
    edited January 2007
    It also hurts your ability to snipe. If there's something I really want, I'll eyeball the habits of the other bidders. If you see they usually do a bump if 30 seconds left for a few extra bucks or if they always insulate their bid by $50, you know what you're dealing with. No chance for that now. As for the scams, you gotta be an idiot to fall for one... it always comes down to the scammers needing you to send money someplace and it's damn easy to tell whether that's legit. "oh i just moved to england, but my wife will ship the item from nebraska" riiiiiiight.
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  • Dennis Gardner
    Dennis Gardner Posts: 4,861
    edited January 2007
    It seems to improve security for both sides a little which is good while the savvy bidders lose the edge they may have found over the years.

    I'm still waiting for overtime extension periods like Agon has to push potential bids/revenue even higher.
    HT Optoma HD25 LV on 80" DIY Screen, Anthem MRX 300 Receiver, Pioneer Elite BDP 51FD Polk CS350LS, Polk SDA1C, Polk FX300, Polk RT55, Dual EBS Adire Shiva 320watt tuned to 17hz, ICs-DIY Twisted Prs, Speaker-Raymond Cable

    2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable
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  • DarqueKnight
    DarqueKnight Posts: 6,765
    edited January 2007
    Dennis Gardner wrote:
    I'm still waiting for overtime extension periods like Agon has to push potential bids/revenue even higher.

    I'm still waiting for ePay to make the seller anonymous too. That way, both seller (seller1, seller2,...) and bidder(s) are hidden from the general public. ;)
    Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
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  • Polk65
    Polk65 Posts: 1,405
    edited January 2007
    "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."

    Well the way it is now, it's like sitting in the back row of an auction house. All that's left is dim the lights and use buttons to bid. I never did like silent auctions much.
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