18 Jan
2007
18 Jan
'07
12:16 a.m.
"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 now, you can't see who you're bidding against.
Frickin' wonderful.
18 Jan
18 Jan
12:33 a.m.
New subject: Latest eBay BS (very OT)
Al Kossow Wrote:
So now, you can't see who you're bidding against.
Frickin' wonderful.
Suits me. As someone who generally snipes auctions (yes, I know it's
antisocial, but until eBay moves to a flexible auction end model - which
doesn't seem likely - it's the best way to win auctions at deflated prices),
I've been subject to occasional abuse from the previous high bidder.
The only thing that WOULD be nice is if the actual f/b rating of the bidders
was displayed, rather than the "between n and N". That way, if I see a
bidding war between two newbies, I know not to bother.
Cheers,
Ade.
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12:37 a.m.
I just started noticing that as well. We all know it has nothing to
do with the dribble Ebay is trying to push on everyone as their excuse,
they just don't want bidders directly talking with one another and
cutting deals or other sellers letting bidders know they may have the
same item for less. I personally don't like not knowing whom I'm
bidding against as I try to make a point of avoiding auctions is I see
another person I know already engaged in a bid on an item, though I use
sniping sw as well so many times I don't know the activity of the
auction until its over and I see I've bid against friends.
Curt
Al Kossow 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."
--
So now, you can't see who you're bidding against.
Frickin' wonderful.
1 a.m.
Cutting deals with other bidders is a no-no in auctions, this the flip
side to shill bidding. As for having other sellers fish for buyers,
it's hard to imagine someone offering a marketplace and being successful
by allowing vendors to walk into others stores and actively pitch their
prices to customers.
As for their reason being BS, what is your basis for this assumption? I
happen to know that the problem that they are mentioning is real as I've
had several of these bogus "second chance" offers myself. And yes, it
happens quite frequently with bigger ticket items. I would venture to
guess that the reason they state happens with significantly more
regularity than bidders collaborating.
I can see how in a tight knit community knowing that you're not bidding
against a compadre is useful, but we could easily setup a system to
assist with that if it was that big of a deal.
George
Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
I just started noticing that as well. We all know
it has nothing
to do with the dribble Ebay is trying to push on everyone as their
excuse, they just don't want bidders directly talking with one another
and cutting deals or other sellers letting bidders know they may have
the same item for less. I personally don't like not knowing whom
I'm bidding against as I try to make a point of avoiding auctions is I
see another person I know already engaged in a bid on an item, though
I use sniping sw as well so many times I don't know the activity of
the auction until its over and I see I've bid against friends.
Curt
Al Kossow 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."
>
> --
>
> So now, you can't see who you're bidding against.
> Frickin' wonderful.
>
>
>
1:21 a.m.
On 17 Jan 2007 at 19:00, George Currie wrote:
Cutting deals with other bidders is a no-no in
auctions, this the flip
side to shill bidding.
Is it? I've certainly done this with live auctions, particularly
where I'm only interested in one or two items out of a lot. The
benefit is that you can find someone who would otherwise be bidding
against you and is not at all interested in the items that you are--
and the two of you can bid more than you otherwise were prepared to.
I hadn't realized that this was illegal, illicit or unethical.
Cheers,
Chuck
1:26 a.m.
Cutting deals
with other bidders is a no-no in auctions, this the flip
side to shill bidding.
Is it? I've certainly done this with live auctions, particularly
where I'm only interested in one or two items out of a lot. The
benefit is that you can find someone who would otherwise be bidding
against you and is not at all interested in the items that you are--
and the two of you can bid more than you otherwise were prepared to.
I hadn't realized that this was illegal, illicit or unethical. 
2:47 a.m.
In article <45AEC6BB.6090003 at kurico.com>,
George Currie <g at kurico.com> writes:
I can see how in a tight knit community knowing that
you're not bidding
against a compadre is useful, but we could easily setup a system to
assist with that if it was that big of a deal.
Engulf and Devour with web services! (Hat tip to you Monty Python fans
out there)
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12:42 a.m.
So now, you can't see who you're bidding
against.
Frickin' wonderful.
And a good marketing tool is also now gone. Watching items, and who
has been bidding on them, is very valuable to us sellers in gauging
the market.
I am not sure if it will do any good, but I encourage everyone to
write a note to Ebay requesting that they revise this new system.
The sooner I am off Ebay, the better...
--
Will
1:20 a.m.
So now, you
can't see who you're bidding against.
> Frickin' wonderful.
Does this mean that the name of the currently-winning bidder will be
hidden from everyone but the seller and the bidder?
1:23 a.m.
I am not sure if it will do any good, but I encourage
everyone to
write a note to Ebay requesting that they revise this new system.
To give an alternative viewpoint, as a frequent buyer I get a lot of requests
saying "well, I see your max big was x, how about this?"
I'm leery of such offers from people I don't know, and would just as soon
not get them because it makes it obvious where the deep pockets are.
I realize this hurts sellers, but frankly, if I didn't know you and you
offered me a big-ticket item, I'd probably ignore you as a potential
fraudster (whether or not you actually are, I'm not willing to chance it --
I've been burned before).
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3:58 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote, in part:
I am not sure if it will do any good, but I encourage
everyone to
write a note to Ebay requesting that they revise this new system.
I find the hardest part of writing to eBay is finding an address to write
to. They seem to like hiding any means of direct contact. :) They do
have a "suggestion box" sort of thing, though, which I can _hope_
somebody actually reads:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/suggest.html
...and I just sent them the following:
I see eBay has chosen to withhold information about other bidders from
the "Bidding History" pages of several auctions. While eBay's desire
to protect the bidders' identities "so bad guys cannot target bidders
with fake offers" (as eBay's explanation suggests) is understandable,
I must also note that it effectively prevents bidders from being able
to identify, and protect themselves from, shill bidding. To my mind -
especially because most of what I do on eBay is buy - the benefit of
your new policy isn't _nearly_ enough to compensate for the loss of
security and knowledge I have in being able to verify that only
legitimate bidders are bidding against me.
Because of this, I regret to say I will _not_ be bidding on eBay
auctions which have masked bid histories (I really _do_ regret it,
because there's an auction [#330075638902] I was planning to bid on
before eBay implemented this feature!). This is unfortunate, and
regrettable, but I'm confident I'll find other forums to buy most of
what I'm looking for which have greater transparency.
I hope eBay will reconsider, and quickly end, this experiment in policy.
Agree with it or don't, as you choose. But that's what I think, and I
figured it wouldn't hurt to tell them. :)
(And yes, I'm completely serious. I suppose I'll miss out on some deals
this way, but if eBay really likes their new rule I'm sure there are
some _other_ places where I can spend the money. <g>)
-O.-
12:52 a.m.
Al Kossow 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."
I've noticed that happening on some auctions when I view a seller's
auctions over a period of time. I've just looked at a few random
auctions live (on ebay.co.uk) and I can see full details on the
history page. Maybe it's by category or something.
Antonio
1:31 a.m.
At 4:16 PM -0800 1/17/07, Al Kossow 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."
--
So now, you can't see who you're bidding against.
Frickin' wonderful.
This is a great boon to all of those dishonest sellers out there.
Just think of how many sellers will now sign up for a 2nd account so
that they can bid on their own items. Thanks eBay.
This isn't about protecting their users, realizing the maximum profit
from the sellers by aiding them to be dishonest.
Zane
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| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
2:05 a.m.
This is a great boon to all of those dishonest sellers
out there.
Just think of how many sellers will now sign up for a 2nd account so
that they can bid on their own items. Thanks eBay.
What?
They could not get a second account and do exactly the same thing
before this change?
Think this over again.
This isn't about protecting their users, realizing
the maximum profit
from the sellers by aiding them to be dishonest.
Zane
Bull.
Ever bid on a big ticket item and get bogus second chance offers?
Its a real problem. I may not like their response, but it makes more
sense than claiming this is a tool for dishonest sellers.
2:30 a.m.
They could not get a second account and do exactly the
same thing
before this change?
Yes, they can - but now shills are not as obvious to the outside
world, just Ebay. Sure, Ebay can probably weed out the shills and
bogus accounts for the big sellers, but not for the casual and small
networks of little guys. What is to stop me from asking my buddies
with good, established feedback to shill up my auctions for a cut? To
Ebay and the rest of the world, everything looks fine.
Ever bid on a big ticket item and get bogus second
chance offers?
Its a real problem. I may not like their response, but it makes more
sense than claiming this is a tool for dishonest sellers.
Yes, it happens. I buy a lot of certain identical items, put them on
Ebay with second chance offers, and every so often someone calls me on
it to see if the second chance is genuine. It is a simple fix - a
personalized message, and perhaps a new digital image of the item. It
works well - I have not yet had a questioned second chance offer get
refused.
It would be nice if Ebay tied their Verified User program (something I
ought to join) to a waiving of this cloaking system. If verified, it
seems to me that Ebay and the rest of the world would know the second
chance offers are real.
--
Will
6566
days inactive
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16 comments
12 participants
participants (12)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
arcarlini＠iee.org -
bshannon＠tiac.net -
cclist＠sydex.com -
curt＠atarimuseum.com -
g＠kurico.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
javickers＠solutionengineers.com -
legalize＠xmission.com -
ohh＠drizzle.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com