Private bids

eco123

It's probably to prevent scammers sending fake second chance offers to his/her customers.

A good move.

StaffsSW

This auction is over £100, so the bidders ID will be hidden by eBay anyway.

I list a lot of private auctions, as I know a growing number of buyers do not want the item description appearing on their feedback. Also, some of the items i list will be resold, so it's unlikely my buyer would want their buyers seeing the purchase on the feedback history.

Finally, If I buy an expensive item (such as a camera) I do not want every baseball capped hoodie chav knowing what desirable goodies I have in my house. (which is another reason to have a raft of buyng ID's)

I'm all for private listings, and think they should be encouraged as an effective method of undermining the current feedback system.

milla

Thanks eco .........

but I confess I don't understand that............... who is it a good move for ?(sorry to be so thick about all this! )

milla

Hi steve

I think you've probably made me realise what I'm getting at (?) ..the fact that the bidders ID would be hidden anyway ! so can't grasp why the extra secrecy ! (and its making me nervous ! )

StaffsSW

milla wrote: »

this is the item .....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160201576444&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=006

thanks for your advice

By the way - that camera is a cracking piece of kit - I bought one on Christmas day, from an auction that finished at 3pm. I wont tell you how much I sniped it for, but it was a fraction of what the current bidding is at the moment on that one.

The seller, fair play to them, honored the sale and it arrived on the 29th.

I had been watching the same seller continually relist the item daily for the week leading up to xmas. I had a feeling that it would go for well under £100, but I was not expecting to win it so cheap.

greedbay

I don't trust auctions with private bidders only.

Especially when they make a huge claim that the item has no reserve, how do we know the seller is not adding in his own bids to meet the so called 'no reserve' price.

milla

greedbay wrote: »

I don't trust auctions with private bidders only.

Especially when they make a huge claim that the item has no reserve, how do we know the seller is not adding in his own bids to meet the so called 'no reserve' price.

Exactly !!

StaffsSW

You'd be surprised at the difference in bidding between two identical auctions, but one that says "no reserve" will always attract more attention, even if neither have a reserve on them.

This works especially well on higher value items with 99p starts - they are almost guaranteed to find their true market value, and with a bit of creative listing it is easy to convince people to make their bids.

eyelinerprincess

I don't mind them if it's a low cost item, e.g. I bought a CD from a seller, only bidder and it was a steal at the price I paid for it. The auction was private and I have no idea why.

melliott1963

Just for your information, if you use pricerunner, you'll see that you can buy this camera NEW for £160. 4Gb memory chips can be bought from about £12. I know there are a few other 'extras', but imho, this isn't quite the bargain he's making it out to be. Also, buying new you'll be getting a guarantee with it whereas I doubt you'd get one with this unless he also provides the original receipts.