Bidders name disguised. Why?

[antoniserp_3]

Recently a strange case happened at an auction I attended. I was the leader of the bids, and I still had a few euros up on the covered bid. I ended up being won at the last second, with only one bid, just one euro above my covered bid.
Why not show the names of the bidders?
That's lack of ebay transparency. It looks like they're purposely leaving a field open for fraud.

[dhbookds]

Bidders were getting false emails...........so in interest of their privacy........it started blocking ids...........

[sunnysouth1]

eBay does mask the IDs of all bidders/buyers. That is done to protect the member's privacy. There is no need for anyone to know a bidders member ID other than the seller.

[antoniserp_3]

Looking from another angle, there is no reason to hide the identity of the bidder.

[eburtonlab]

@antoniserp_3 

eBay hides the usernames of bidders to discourage auction interference and to prevent off-eBay deals.

Of what benefit to you is knowing the username of a bidder you are bidding against?

[antoniserp_3]

In this specific case only curiosity. I would like to know who won the auction, to see if he will sell the same item more expensive later. Not that it's a crime, it's part of the game.
But the main thing here is the transparency of ebay.

[sunnysouth1]

That is another reason eBay masks member ID's when bidding/buying. Not many buyers will want unsolicited messages from other members.

[eburtonlab]

@antoniserp_3 

I would like to know who won the auction, to see if he will sell the same item more expensive later.

That's an entirely reasonable thing to want to know. At one point many years ago, that was how eBay operated -- it was possible to see the usernames of bidders, and to search all the items a bidder was bidding on or had won. But that lead to problems of bidder interference or collusion, and off-eBay side deals. Many sellers used separate accounts for buying and selling to make it harder for others to find out how much they paid for their items. And if you were a buyer with a reputation as a collector of fine specimens, you might not have wanted to advertise a bid on an otherwise obscure listing which could attract unwanted competition. That transparency had real costs.

Even under the current system where bidders' usernames are obscured, many sellers still use separate buying and selling accounts, so even the sellers they are buying from cannot easily see what prices their items are marked up to and sold at.

Your best bet in any case is to keep searching for that particular item to see if it turns up again.