eBay wrote: "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." Al replied: "So now, you can't see who you're bidding against. Frickin' wonderful." Yea, that would make it a lot easier for a seller to bid against their own buyers, now wouldn't it? Yes, eBay will argue that sellers bidding on their own items is a violation of their "Acceptable use policy", but then again "target bidders with fake offers" would also likely be a violation of the policy and they don't seem to be able to do anything about that, do they? On Jan 11 '07 I had placed a bid as the only bidder on an item with no reserve. eBay later told me that: "We're writing to let you know that eBay has ended the following item you were bidding on because the item appears to have been listed without the account holder's permission: ... We are now working to restore the account to its original owner as soon as possible. For privacy reasons, we can't share any further details regarding this member's account. ... As eBay removed the item, you are not obliged to send payment for it. Please don't send money or respond to any further emails regarding this listing. ..." Now we see who they are really trying to protect, don't we? Mike Gemeny.