any experienced ebay users here?

[troypiggo]

I've used eBay a fair bit for purchasing "buy it now" type deals, but haven't really got that much experience with the auctioning other than a few sales of my own.

I'm watching a few items lately and notice the bidding history is completely filled with what look like bots - usernames q***l, f***f, t***t or similar - they're all the same style. There might be 20 different bidders, but all that same pattern. eg look here (http://offer.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=320437283782).

Is this the seller trying to increase the price? Or just some standard naming convention for many different people using some sort of automated software for "sniping" or whatever? Is it unethical and should I report it? I've seen it quite a bit lately.

[DavidU]

Troy, that looks normal. All bidders have *** in the middle no matter how long their ID name is.
iPhones are probably the most sort after item on Ebay at the moment.

[starlooker]

It's because the seller has chosen the option to keep the identities of the bidders private.

Ebay introduced this option to prevent other sellers from contacting bidders to solicit business.

If the seller didn't choose this option, you'd see the bidder's full Ebay ID.

EDIT: And the flip-side to this is the seller can create fake IDs and use the fakes to bid on their own auctions to drive up the price. This is known as shill bidding, and hiding bidder identities makes it more difficult to detect.

[Octane]

Troy,

I believe it's been about 8 or so months since they introduced the username masking.

It's balls.

Regards,
Humayun

[troypiggo]

Aah, I see. Username masking. That makes sense.

PS - I'm not necessarily looking for an iPhone. Was just curious how much they were going for. Too pricey for what I want, or will get out of it, at the moment.

[allan gould]

Troy,
Just to annoy you - ask me about my Iphone that I just purchased and for how much :rofl:;)

[troypiggo]

Allan - I hear you just purchased an iPhone. How much? :)
Oh, and what model was it? And where? :)

[supernova1965]

Hi all the user name masking must be automatic because I have sold things on ebay and haven't asked to hide bidders user names and they have always been hidden since I have been selling.

[starlooker]

Warren, do you list your items via the Ebay website?

If so, Ebay can save your selling defaults, so you don't have to keep choosing that option for items that you sell.

http://help.ebay.com.au/Help/Selling/Selling_basics/Listing_features_#defaults

You may have chosen the option to mask bidder IDs:

http://help.ebay.com.au/Help/Selling/Selling_basics/Listing_features_#private

I use Ebay's Turbo Lister software on my computer to create listings, and there is a "Keep bidders' User IDs from being displayed to everyone" box that I can check.

[supernova1965]

I use the Web Site to list my items and have never even seen the option to mask the bidder's identity secret so I thought it must be a default setting next time I sell something I will make a point of looking out for it.

[dpastern]

yeah, it's masking. It's all BS if you ask me. It makes it harder for a potential *real* buyer to detect shilling, and as a sniper, I like to investigate someones bidding record to see how they bid. I can't do that anymore...

It quite plainly, SUCKS...

remember, EBay gets a percentage of the final sale amount, so of course, it's in their interest to have the final sale price jacked up as much as possible. If people think EBay is going to really attack shilling, they're dreaming.

Dave

PS I'm a manual sniper, I've made my comments about software bidding known elsewhere on these forums. If you can't be bothered to get up and bid, then don't bid. Using software bidding should be banned imho - it's no different to performance enhancing drugs being used in sporting imho.

[acropolite]

I don't bother bidding at all until the last couple of minutes, if the price is right then I try and get in at the last minute, that way I have a chance of beating the autobids.

[leon]

Yep I have had that problem just recently, and I'm sure it was auto bidding all the way I kept biding on this item and for every dollar I bidded the very same other bidders bumped it up within a matter of seconds.

anyway I let the item go and the second bidder won, but with in a minute I was offered a second chance bid as this person didn't want it anymore.

I sent this person a message and told them that what they were doing was a bit unfair and told them to keep their item.

Leon:thumbsup:

[dpastern]

I'm the same. I usually have one FireFox window open with my "my ebay" section open. I then have a separate FireFox window open with the item on the first tab, and then 2, 3 or 4 or even 5 more tabs with pre-arranged amounts for bids, and all I have to do is click on the "commit to bid" button. I usually leave it to the last 15-20 seconds before doing my run. I haven't lost on a bidding bout in several years ;-)

Of course, knowing the worth of the item is important, so you don't get dragged into a bidding war etc. If it's more than you're prepared to pay, walk away. I saw a 2nd hand Canon EF 85mm f1.8 lens go on Ebay a few years back for about AU $100 than you could get it new. Seriously.



Leon - I've seen this too and it's shocking. Did you report the seller? If not, please do. Shilling is generally easy to recognise and to be honest, I believe it happens on nearly every single EBay auction, usually earlier on in order to bump the price up to what the seller thinks is reasonable. There's no real way to stop it, and it's the one weakness of EBay.

Dave

[jjjnettie]

I only use "Buy it Now" if purchasing from an online store.
If it's a private sale, that's different.

Last year my brother picked up a BMW off Ebay for just $2000. Needed it's bonnet resprayed but otherwise it was in very good nick.
There are bargains to be had.

[dpastern]

Oh yes, there are bargains to be had - that is very true. It's spotting the bargains that's the hard part. I picked up a 2 volume set of books:

Stellar Astronomy (by Hong-yee Chiu) first edition, 1969 for US $12 + shipping earlier this year. A veritable bargain. Right now I'm seeing this book on Amazon going 2nd hand for US $20:

http://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Astronomy-Chiu-Hong-Yee/dp/0677129807/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256126122&sr=1-8

but at the time I got this book off EBay, there was 2 going and the cheapest was US $100...

Dave

[BerrieK]

Hi Troy and all,

yes the *** is to help protect the identity of the other bidders. I hadn't thought of sellers using this anonymity to push bids to their 'reserve' price. Oh that's taken all the fun out of it.

I've bought a few pieces of art on ebay at great prices. One of my silly buys was a huge lot of celestron telescopes and other bits and pieces (tripods, a few alt/az mounts, a little equitorial mount, and a gazillion eyepieces and barlows ) ranging from a 60mm refractor, 2 x 114mm reflectors and 4 (yes four) 127mm reflector OTAs. My kids think they are great - much easier to drive and move than my scope, and there's always a 'spare' for when a friend or two come over. Not sure what I was thinking whilst bidding, as I could have just spent that money getting the kiddies something more decent each and we certainly didn't need all those OTAs - it was just a bit of astronomical fun.

Kerrie :)

[jjjnettie]

Ahhh so you bought that.
What fun!

[allan gould]

Pmed you with the Saga.

[AdrianF]

And here I am waiting for a good story....

Adrian

[troypiggo]

I'll fill you in, if Allan doesn't mind...

Allan was out bushwalking recently when he came across a beautiful, crystal clear lake. He was standing there admiring it's beauty when he noticed a gorgeous, young American female backpacker skinny dipping in the lake. She hadn't seen him looking from the bushes. As the sun glistened off her tanned body as she stepped out of the water, Allan considered walking away unnoticed...

But just as he was about to turn around he caught her glancing over her shoulder with a cheeky smile that said "I knew you were there, I'm teasing you". He paused...

What does he do? Walk away quietly, or go over to her? What did she want with him? They were all alone, she was naked, he's a man with interests...

So he ran home, logged onto eBay and bought an iPhone real cheap. The end.

Hahahaahahah. Sorry. Some parts of the above saga were not true. He didn't buy it off eBay. Hahahah. Sorry. What the heck did I drink for lunch?

[AdrianF]

That reminds me of the time when................
Ahwell good story anyway.

Adrian