Private Bidders!

[hotchin67]

Can Someone explain Private Bidders??  I finding it just a bit of a coincidence that I make a bid then Private Bidders come in and bid one after another and push the price of the item up?? And why would you need a Private Profile on Ebay??  Can someone enlighten me Please.:|

[***super_nova***]

If all other people bidding come up as "private bidder' that means that the seller has set it that way and the other bidders see you as private as well.  Mostly it is done when people sell some delicate items; not many women would like everybody to see that they bought g-string size 48 🙂

If the ID shows like mine (with private FB) that is the buyer has sey their ID to private, for one reason or other.  Mine is because I only use it for posting here on the boards and do not usually buy on this Id, unless I forget I am on this ID, come across someting I want and buy it 🙂

[putney32]

when you see private bidders it is how the auction was set up by the seller... they, the other bidders cannot see YOUR id either, that only shows to you and the seller.

best to not bid too early and you wont have that problem. put items on your watch list and bid towards the end of the auction.

[hotchin67]

I understand what your saying  ***super_nova*** about privacy for buying certain purchases, but why would the owner set a privacy setting when bidding on cheap pieces of jewellery??

[hotchin67]

putney32 that's exactly what I do when bidding:-D

[thecatspjs]

OP I am not sure what the other posters are on about as all bidders identities are kept private by ebay.  It is not a choice that a seller has.

It has been that way for some time now.

If you go into any listing with bids, you will see that all of the identities of those who are bidding are also private, and that you can only see the number of feedback that id has.

A seller can see all of the IDs of those bidding, and of course you can see your own id name in the bidding activity.

[hotchin67]

thecatspjs most bidders names are half stared out eg(p***j ) is what i see all the time, but this is what I'm talikng about --->private listing - bidders' identities protected  ???

[thecatspjs]

Sorry, if I went off track ... you seemed to be most troubled about bidding IDs being private and outbidding you ???

Also, the letters in the starred out IDs are random generations - and do not reflect the actual bidder ID in any way.

[olesilva]

Yes the seller has made the listing private. So you can't see the details.

And your bid keeps increasing because someone else has already bid a higher amount than you, thus when you bid your amount and if its not higher than previous bid, it will increase. 

You can't have a private account when trying to sell.

[***super_nova***]

I understand what your saying  ***super_nova*** about privacy for buying certain purchases, but why would the owner set a privacy setting when bidding on cheap pieces of jewellery??

yes, I have noticed that many sellers nowadays use the private bidder option without any good reason.  I wonder if it is because that way you cannot see when looking at their FB, which items they are getting bad FB.   Sellers may have hundreds of items listed and many FB saying "total rubbish, broke second time I wore it" but if the bidding was private, potential buyers do not know what it was.