Private listings, do they put off any buyers.

brokenant

I must have accidentally clicked the private listing button a couple of days ago. I have changed back all the auctions with out bids, but I've got a couple of ones that should sell well that already have bids so I can't change the option.
Does it put any buyers off or should I just let them run.

yvonne13_2

I like to see what others have bought as I may want one too as I also like to look at the ratings and completed listings before deciding.

A brilliant comment but not seeing what they bought was means nothing so I move on.

soolin

I don't think it really makes a great deal of difference. Most of my auctions are open ones, but for my multiple BINS with Best offer they are all private- as I don't want anyone seeing what my lowest price is that I will take!

The only time I don't like private auctions is for just run of the mill stuff where a seller looks dodgy in any way, as I tend to suspect shilling is going on.

sham63

'Private listing' auctions are the shill bidder's friend.

brokenant

Well they already have quite a few watchers and a few bids so I think I'll leave them be.
It's a shame because it would have been nice for people to see them on my feedback.

Jen_Jen1985

I dont like it when a seller has ALL their listings private.

I was searching for an item a couple of days ago, found one with 24 hours left so bid then started to get a weird feeling about the seller. Within 2 mins I was outbid. I looked at the sellers listing and saw all of them were private. I could have been outbid by a genuine bidder but as the listing was private and I couldn't do any checks on the other bidder I decided to leave it.

warehouse

Yes absolutely.

As a buyer I will never buy from a private listing. It doesn't matter what the reason may be, but if there is ever the slightest doubt about anything I'm buying on ebay, (and making a listing private, or having private listings in your history), then I'll walk every time.

porto_bello

Yes, definitely! Private auctions put off many genuine buyers.

You don't have to look far to spot obvious, sometimes longterm trails of shill bidding on eBay, which private auctions serve to try to remove shill bidding fingerprints.

As a result, buyers are very wary, I've seen relatively expensive items undersell - sometimes substantially, when listed as a private auction. Personally, I avoid private auctions completely. That a seller has issues with bidder transparency is a very loud alarm bell!

StaffsSW

Most of my listings are private as I accept Best Offer and I do not want the lower-end of the buying market scouring my feedback to see how much they think they can get off, when I use it more for different purposes than profit erosion.

I also sell products that are gift lines, as well as some personal/intimate items that many people do not want showing on their feedback.

malcumms7898

To be honest I didn't know about this. I have never concerned myself too much with the bidding history of items. If I really want something I will set myself a maximum price I think is reasonable to pay and bid up to that point, but I would only bid in the last minute or so anyway. I take it this is in regards to sellers artificially inflating the prices? I will have to keep an eye out for this in future. Thanks

porto_bello

malcumms7898 wrote: »

I take it this is in regards to sellers artificially inflating the prices? I will have to keep an eye out for this in future. Thanks

Yes, 'shill bidding' is exactly that, the seller using a different eBay ID (or more than one) to bid up the price with the aim of incrementally bidding to just below the top 'real' bid.

If you have a look at auctions, you can spot some obvious examples, where a bidder has bid on a large number of items and unrelated categories, but only (or virtually only) ever items listed by one seller.

By listing auctions as 'private listings', sellers can prevent genuine bidders and buyers from clicking on the other bidders and revealling the above bidding correlations/statistics/history.

You can help prevent shill bidding by using an auction sniper, to place your bid only in the last few seconds, so the seller has insufficent time to discover and bid up your price.

Other tell-tale indications of likely shill bidding are:

When you lose an auction for an unique item (i.e. something that a seller would have only one of, e.g. a painting or antique) and immediately after the auction, the seller sends you a 'second chance offer'.

When you see a sequence of bids below natural price points: Genuine bidders will tend to bid either rounded amounts, such as £20.00 or £25.00 or just above them, such as £25.20 or £25.50 If you see bids (particularly in a sequence) of £19.99 , £24.99 or £29.99 etc, it's pretty clear that the bidder is not trying to win, but discover the price of the top bid ...and just lose out to it.