eBay now anonymizing bidder identities in auctions

[cozymel]

I just noticed on eBay today that in a lot of eBay auctions, you can no longer see the eBay ids of bidders you are bidding against.

It only shows you Bidder1, Bidder2, Bidder3 etc... You cannot even see their feedback, but only a feedback range.

However, apparently as the seller of the item, only you can see the bidder identities.


When I clicked on the bid history on one of the auctions this is what it says at the top. Per eBay,

"As the internet evolves, eBay continues to strike a balance between preserving transparency and protecting our Community of members. eBay has decided to change how bid history information is displayed so bad guys cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to view Bidder User IDs on the Bid History page. Your User ID will be shown only to you and the seller of the item you're bidding on. Other members will see an anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, applied consistently to the Bid History page"

I don't know...what do you think? On one hand I think it's a good idea if you are the seller. I've lost out a few times when other sellers have contacted my high bidder to offer the same item for less than their winning bid. I never liked the idea of making my auctions private because it would discourage a lot of potential bidders. On the other hand, when I'm bidding, I'd like to be able to see if there is potential shill bidding occurring in an auction.

 

[johnmfaeth]

I also like to see if I'm bidding against someone with zero or bad feedback. I'd rather lose and offer the seller to contact me if (when) the winner falls through. Has happened that I got it on several occasions. Saved big bucks too...

 

[drmarna]

anonymous bidding

While I appreciate protecting my identity, I like to at least know the feedback rating and experience level of those I am bidding against. It lets me know my liklihood of prevailing in a snipe situation. Sometimes you can check a competing bidders history on a similar item to get an idea of how high they might bid. Of course, someone could do that with me as well, so I guess it plays out both ways.

 

[mtngal]

I can understand why they might do it - I wasn't the winning bid on an item and was almost immediately got an ebay message from someone who offered to sell me the same item "new and with a 2 year warranty" for a little higher than my top bid, and for me to email them (they weren't selling through ebay). I thought that was really interesting since the product hadn't been produced for over 5 years! While I knew the product line, I'm sure there are others out there that might have fallen for the scam. I'm sure that ebay security gets very tired of dealing with these people (yes, I did report it).