Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
Private bid
What is a private bid and who & why is it done that way?
2 comments
Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
What is a private bid and who & why is it done that way?
woodland_gnome
·3 years agoALL bidders' and buyers' identities are hidden on bid histories and seller's Feedback profile (from everyone but that particular bidder/buyer and that particular seller, and I would assume at least some eBay employees in at least some circumstances) by substituting an alias in the same way as every other bidder/buyer for that particular listing and/or page, either:
1. An "a***b (#)" alias where "a" and "b" are randomly selected characters (formerly selected randomly from the actual username's character set, but it now appears on at least some pages the characters are not necessarily in the username) and "#" is the user's feedback score (if the user has chosen to make his/her Feedback Profile "Private"--NOT a good idea--that word will appear in the parentheses instead of his/her feedback score), or
2. "Private listing: bidders' identities protected" or a translation of that phrase to the language of the eBay site the listing was set up on if the SELLER chose that option (buyers have no choice in the matter except in choosing which listing to bid/buy/offer on). Experienced buyers are wary of such Private Listings in auctions as it is too frequently used to hide evidence that the seller is shill bidding to run up the price.
You see YOUR OWN ID in the bid history list for the same reason you see your own face in a mirror you are passing: YOU are the one looking. To everyone except you and the seller (and possibly some eBay employees) your ID is hidden in the same way that the others are.
rock.star
·3 years agoIt is a setting the seller can choose, but it is not of much use these days because all bidder id's are hidden .