eBay introduces absolute anonymity for (shill) bidders

[PhilipCohen]

In Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, eBay has obscured auction bidding to the point that genuine bidders have got <i>absolutely</i> no chance of detecting and thereby protecting themselves from “shill” bidding (a criminal offence in most civilised countries) by unethical vendors. Notwithstanding eBay’s statements to the contrary, this application of <i>absolute</i> anonymity (ie, Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc) by eBay on these sites serves absolutely no purpose other than to deceive consumers by making even any otherwise obvious shill bidding undetectable; and the same criticism has always been applicable to eBay’s other shill bidders’ facility, “User ID kept private”. Again, notwithstanding eBay’s various pronouncements about shill bidding being banned on eBay, eBay is now effectively (and knowingly) “aiding and abetting” such shill bidders on these sites, at the expense of consumers…

For those of you with a longer attention span, a lengthy critical analysis of this matter appears at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB ... 45#6498345
I apologise in advance for the length of the above-linked “rant”. If you are an unethical shill-bidding seller or a buyer who is not concerned that on the above-mentioned national sites eBay is effectively “aiding and abetting” such shill-bidding sellers to cheat you, read no further.

[rewolf]

This was introduced in Germany (and many other countries too) months ago.
Since then, I spend much less time on ebay. I used to look what the co-bidders had purchased in the past to get an impression what they were interested in and how serious they were (how much they might bid). After some time you knew all the "usual suspects", this created sort of a "community feeling" . This is gone now .

[retroleds]

I'm thinking that the old system of showing user ids eliminated a certain percentage of shill bidding(particularly from repeat offenders), but did nothing against the casual or infrequent seller who had a friend or family member shill bid their price up. So yes, this total anonimity really sucks. Looking at a person's bidding/buying history was always interesting: you got an idea if the other guy was a serious shopper or just a casual shopper that happened to see the item.

I'm thinking that one bidding method , "sniping" is almost shill-proof, if you stick to a plan of never looking whether you are outbid, You have to be very confident you have accurate idea of what the current market value of the item is.

Sometimes[rarely] the anonimity is beneficial to bidders, by virtue of what they DON'T know.... anonimity stops people from bidding on items(a) just to piss off a particular bidder, or (b)just to "beat" a particular bidder, even if it is not a good deal for them. Example: There was a guy a few months ago(who has now dissapeared completely) who would alway bid against me, even though it became apparent that he had no skills at fixing broken pieces - he would send his broken stuff to me for repair, and then he would lose money since he had bought the watch,paid me for parts and labor and then had to resell it. No profit left in it for him(margins are terribly thin at times). Using sniping or anonimous bidding was a mercy in that case...he just didn't understand that what is a working deal for one person might not translate into a good deal for someone else.

[rewolf]

...I'm thinking that one bidding method , "sniping" is almost shill-proof, if you stick to a plan of never looking whether you are outbid, You have to be very confident you have accurate idea of what the current market value of the item is...

I agree with that. I see no point in bidding early, it just makes it more expensive. Enter maximum bid 5 seconds before auction end - either you win or not. The only problem are US items ending at 3am in my timezone... (I don't want to use sniper tools).
But there are ALWAYS some impatient early bidders disturbing this tactic...

Looking at a person's bidding/buying history was always interesting: you got an idea if the other guy was a serious shopper or just a casual shopper that happened to see the item.

A bit of it is left: if you click on the anonymized bidder you see where else he has been bidding recently. Amazing on how many items at a time some people bid....

[LEDluvr]

It's sad, but a sign of the times I guess. Ebay is primairly interesed in making more money. If it's not the most ethical way to do it, oh well.
At least that seems to be their attitude.

I agree with that. I see no point in bidding early, it just makes it more expensive. Enter maximum bid 5 seconds before auction end - either you win or not.

This has always been my method. If it works and I win - great! If not, well... tommorrow is another day.