What's Up With the Anonymous Bidder?

richprincess

richprincess

O.G.
Jun 25, 2007
378
1
#1
Why are bidders displayed as bidder 1,2,3,4,etc... or as s***k so often now? When the username is displayed w/ astrids it makes the auction looks suspicious, b/c I can't tell if it's that person's username or if it's ebay trying to keep the bidder's name anonymous. It's just something about astrids I just dont trust :lol: Most of the names I've seen with them have low feedback. Like this auction for example (in case you have no idea what Im talking about): http://cgi.ebay.com/AUTH-CHANEL-BLA...ryZ63852QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
#5
I think they're not doing it on purpose, it's just a user name. However, I noticed that not only do they have zero feedback but they have also bid on a high number of items. This person will probably end up a deadbeat bidder as LVObsessed415 suggests.
 
#7
LVobsessed415 said:
in my experience, they have all been dead beat bidders.
Click to expand...


No, actually I read that eBay now does this for bags listed beginning at a certain price...It's generally for high-end bags, I assume to prevent other sellers from poaching bidders.

From the eBay blog (who knew?):

...We made a change several months ago and showed user IDs as “Bidder 1,” “Bidder 2,” and so on, for members bidding on items that are over $200. This was an important safety measure designed to confound professional fraudsters. We are now going to mask the IDs in a way that still can thwart the bad guys, but I think you’ll agree that it’s much more useful to members trying to determine a bit about their bidding competition. You’ll soon see IDs displayed as a label derived from two random characters from the ID: for example, a**b. That label will remain consistent across all auctions over $200 for which a particular bidder places a bid. You can read more about that here,

Here's the whole blog entry: http://www.ebaychatter.com/the_chatter/2007/08/updates-to-the-.html

Personally, I find it very annoying...It makes me feel as though someone is shill bidding on the auction. Plus, I like "to determine a bit about [my] bidding competition"! But, really, does eBay care about shill bidding,etc? I don't think so...The bottom line for them is the more $$$ the better...their FVF will be higher. All of this "improving the eBay community" stuff is nonsense. You have to hound them and hound them to remove auctions w/stolen photos, counterfeit merchandise, etc. They don't care....Can you tell I'm a little bitter?
:rolleyes:
 
#8
I actually like it - but I've also been on the receiving end of one of those "fraudsters". Someone sent me sent me an email stating that the item I was bidding on was fake ... only to see this individual bid on the item! The email address was fairly similar to the username.
 
#9
it's to prevent someone else from offering your buyers a second chance offer and it comes up after the bid gets to a certain amount. i never thought about it with shill bidding but for sellers it is a good way to protect your buyers..
 
#11
Like everything Ebay does -good and bad. As a seller I like my buyers to be protected but as a buyer I like to know who my competition is. It just feels weird bidding on something so expensive and not having all the information I need. Is the price being forced up? and by whom? there is no way to find that out this way. I really don't like it as a buyer at all
 
#14
AnnieRose said:
Like everything Ebay does -good and bad. As a seller I like my buyers to be protected but as a buyer I like to know who my competition is. It just feels weird bidding on something so expensive and not having all the information I need. Is the price being forced up? and by whom? there is no way to find that out this way. I really don't like it as a buyer at all
Click to expand...

Same here..and it makes it a LOT harder to report shill bidding that way too.
 
#15
I had an item ending last night that displayed the X***X user ids. The high bidder contacted me with less than a minute left on the item demanding her bids be canceled because of shill bidding. It took me a minute to recall what shill bidding was, but when she further explained (not in a very nice way either) I realized ebay had made changes AGAIN.

I will admit that because i canceled one buyers bid (and OMG...she bid AGAIN!) that she could have derived a little suspicion from that, but I also emailed her stating that i tried to cancel that buyers bid AGAIN, but she had outbid her luckily. I felt it was unfair for her that the chance of a slow computer was costing her an additional $50, and told her I would be happy to sell it at her price had the bid actually got canceled.

She has now won the item (since 20 seconds is not enough time to cancel a bid) and refuses to pay. Her prerogative, but why can ebay not establish something and leave it alone? Is it not enough that you can't contact an buyer that has not contact you first?

I really hate ebay, but I can't stop using it! haha :sos:
 
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