Why are more and more Items marked as private?

[critter748]

Only recently I’ve noticed (possible just by chance) that more and more items are being marked as private. Why?

When I find an item I think would suite my needs I also want to know what feedback that particular item has.

For example : When I search (Ctrl F) on a sellers feedback page to find a previous sold item it obviously won’t show anything because the sellers have most of their items marked as private 😕

Cheers'

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@critter748 wrote:

Only recently I’ve noticed (possible just by chance) that more and more items are being marked as private. Why?

When I find an item I think would suite my needs I also want to know what feedback that particular item has.

For example : When I search (Ctrl F) on a sellers feedback page to find a previous sold item it obviously won’t show anything because the sellers have most of their items marked as private

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I think you may have just answered your own question!

[critter748]

LoL !

How's that providing a service to a buyer?

🙂

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

It's certainly not helping future buyers.

BUT, if you feel that sellers may be doing this to avoid feedback scrutiny by buyers then hit them where it hurts and do not bid/buy their 'private' items.

[thecatspjs]

As a number of sellers have explained on the boards there are a range of reasons for private listings, including that sellers may choose to keep their turnover and sales details private from their competitors. IMO this is a more than reasonable explanation.

For most items a glance at the colors of the dots sellers have accumulated and a quick scroll through a sellers feedback comments can be very telling. 

I can understand some hesitating to purchase, however there are also buyers who would prefer that their purchases were not detailed in their feedback history, so it can also work in the favour of sellers.

If private listings make you nervous as a buyer, then I reckon just move on to other sellers.

[critter748]

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@thecatspjs wrote:

... including that sellers may choose to keep their turnover and sales details private from their competitors. IMO this is a more than reasonable explanation.

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Appreciate the reply, however I can and surly their competitors, can still see how many items have been sold when on the item page.
Example: More than 10 available / 20 sold  <- Click on the 20 sold and it shows dates, quantities etc.

Sorry, I'm not sure exactly what you mean with the other points mentioned. I’m lost at  "colors of the dots sellers have accumulated" 

Here's a screen shot that should give a better example:

[phorum_junkie*]

The womderful thing about ebay is that items are rarely unique so if seeeing the feedback for a particular item is important to you find another seller who does not list with privacy. For the rare unique item then there is actually a very good case for the listing to be private.  

[thecatspjs]

Color of dots simply means that a sellers feedback will display ratings a buyer has left in a color coded fashion,

red dots = negative rating

grey dots = neutral rating

green dots = postive rating

Again the reasons why some sellers may want to keep listing details private is broad, but might include things like protecting their "customers" identity, keeping details and price accepted of make-an-offer listings private and to generally make it much harder going for competitors to compile data on their sales. For example, if a seller has 1,000 listings, to elicit data from volume over time, the competitor would have to peruse each individual listing to get ball park total sales numbers for big picture of seller overall turnover.