eBay

[AestheticDeath]

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.

Went to check ebay, and saw Bidder 4... I was like who names themselves that.. so I went to check them out and figured out it wasnt their name afterall.

So what do you guys think of this? How many of you use eBay, and like this change?

[Sean of the Thread]

I think it's a crock a shit. I'm 110% about accountability and honor.

[The Ponzzz]

I think it's misleading now and a step in the wrong direction.

[Marl]

what does it matter really? Only the seller should know who is bidding on their items other bidders just want to size up the competition..

[AestheticDeath]

It becomes like a mystery auction almost.. was the first thing that came to mind for me, like in game.. someone starts saying anonymous bidder.. I quit.

Not to mention, for some things like Gemstone, there are people I won't bid against if I know they are looking to buy something on eBay.

[Iced]

It matters because you can make an ebay account with a new other email address and bid your own auction up, and noone can see that it's being bid up by a 0 feedback fake account. I saw the same thing and was really pissed, and am much less likely to use ebay unless I'm the only bidder now. Just not reputable.

[TheEschaton]

I don't understand what they're trying to "protect" from.

Bad guys targetting bidders with bad offers? What the fuck does it even mean? I agree, it's a bad policy.

-TheE-

[AestheticDeath]

They say its from unsolicited emails. Which I dont like those myself. But mainly I think they are trying to decrease the amount of sales people are able to set up without going through eBay and having to pay eBay fees.

Alot of people used to use email addresses for the eBay name.
They changed it so you couldn't use an email address, basically just taking away all the @ or .coms..

Alot of people, like me, only took away that @aol.com, or whatever, and kept the other part the same, so it wasnt a noticable change.

Which means spammers can still send you an email by just guessing which service you use.

But beyond that, I am not sure what the purpose of hiding the user name would be.

Also, I went and looked at some other items.. Not every auction is being changed to this 'hidden name thing'

At first I thought it was just targeting me for some reason. But I can see user names in other auctions.

[SpunGirl]

If people want to avoid paying ebay fees, the easiest thing to do is make a .01 auction and charge like $40 for S&H. I agree that it's a shitty policy, though.

-K

[AestheticDeath]

I seriously hate people that overcharge for shipping.

[SpunGirl]

If you pay $40 all together for the same item, what does it matter to the buyer if the charge is in shipping or item purchase?

-K

[AestheticDeath]

If everyone did it the way your saying, 40 vs 40, it wouldnt be a difference to the buyer. But that rarely ever happens. You pay top bid for the item and then the jerkoff charges you $40 for shipping that costs $12...

I stopped bidding on anything that listed preset shipping totals that seemed high. Especially if I contact them and they say they won't recalculate, or do something different.

You way would only really work, if you used buy it now, for a cheap price. And then charged hefty shipping. And if someone were to start actually doing that, eBay would probably wind up having a fit and banning them or something.

[CrystalTears]

When you bid, why do you need to know the name of the other bidders? The seller still knows who it is.

[AestheticDeath]

Look eBay is set up as a place where you can deal with other people. If you don't know who you are dealing with - wheres the piece of mind?

They have a rating score, so you can say whether your transaction went well or not. So how are they going to hide the bidders during the auction, and then hide them just as well after the auction is over, and each person gives feedback? Your basically gonna wind up with mystery bidders, mystery feedback etc.. Or, you are going to be able to figure out who the auction winner is at the least.

Not only that, if they are trying to hide the secondary/losing bidders from the person running the auction so they can't contact them for outside eBay sales its almost stupidly useless. All the people have to do is put in - CONTACT MEMBER, and bam they have a message about buying/selling.

I just don't see how hiding peoples user names is going to be successful in any way.

[Bobmuhthol]

<<When you bid, why do you need to know the name of the other bidders? The seller still knows who it is.>>

I'm sure AestheticDeath covered valid arguments, so I won't repeat any. Hiding the bidder information will result in a wide open door for fraudulent seller activity.