Zwackery Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 (edited) SCROLL DOWN TO POST #9 TO PICK UP THE NEW PART OF THIS TOPIC. Thank you, drive thru. Looking at something kind of pricey on eBay today, I noticed that the Bidder 1, Bidder 2, Bidder 3, etc., has now been replaced with letter/number combinations separated by a series of 3 asterisks, such that the bidders might now be a***e, m***n, 0***0, and so on. I'm curious as to why they did this. If a person writes down the initial bidders before the $200 magic line is crossed, that person can still track the initial group of bidders no matter if they are designated as Bidder 1 or a***e. The seller of the item does see all the bids with the actual user names displayed. These changes to the site lately have been strange and I think a weird reaction to eBay's loss of actual items being listed. According to a report in July 2007, eBay's 2nd quarter profits shot up 50 percent to $376 million. Revenues also grew to $14.46 billion which is up 12 percent from last year. Listings fell six percent and the number of active users showed no growth at 83.3 million. Edited March 6, 2008 by Zwackery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 That's still not much better than the system that was in place before. I don't like not knowing who I'm bidding against...especially on big money items. I don't know what the logic behind this whole thing was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendra Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Those are random characters, not initials. The real change that they made was to make the bidder actual feedback score visible. Previously, eBay only told you their feedback range, such as 100 to 200 for those who have feedback score of 150. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200708.shtml#2007-08-24154355 I don't think masking bidder id will completely prevent people from getting scammed. Since eBay only mask bidder user id when the bidding price gets to $200 or above, all the scammers need to do is take a snapshot just before the bid gets to $200. Then by comparing the bidder list before and after the bidding gets to 200, it is very easy to send a fake second chance offer to those who don't win the bid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zwackery Posted August 31, 2007 Author Share Posted August 31, 2007 Those are random characters, not initials. If you reread my post, you'll see that I am using the word "initial" to mean "first", although if you read the info from the link you posted, you will see "We are replacing the current aliases (Bidder 1, Bidder 2 and Bidder 3) with a masked ID that consists of two random characters from the member's User ID". Anyhow, I agree that if a person merely compiles a list (or takes a screenshot) of the initial (i.e., first) bidders before the bid list gets tripped over to anonymous bidders, then that person will know who the initial (i.e., first) group of bidders is and would at least be able to contact them. It makes it a bit harder for the scammers, but wouldn't the scammers be watching for big ticket items that tend to get high bids anyhow? I wonder if this is really that big of a deal for eBay or just mainly a PR move... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 That's still not much better than the system that was in place before. I don't like not knowing who I'm bidding against...especially on big money items. I don't know what the logic behind this whole thing was. If the goal is to prevent people from harvesting contact info from the bid history, perhaps they should allow people to supply a list of other eBay users they're interested in, and allow bidders to see the identities of people on that list. I'm sure there'd still be ways to scam the system, but that would seem a potentially useful compromise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph74 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 I tell ya though... I'm amazed at the number of blind solicitation emails (claiming to be the owner of the item) I get using my ebayname@gmail.com (which I have-- substituting ebayname for my ebay ID lol) Especially when I know my email is tied to a different account. lol so if they were the seller, they surely couldn't have known about that email addy. With that in mind, I'd suggest you all open emails on your ebay name at gmail if possible, and report the emails.... Not that I expect much change, but they just might crack down sooner or later! Murph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Wonder007 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 I wish they bring back the old system......I always enjoyed seeing who was competing against me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zwackery Posted August 31, 2007 Author Share Posted August 31, 2007 I wish they bring back the old system......I always enjoyed seeing who was competing against me. As I've gotten to "know" some folks around here and their eBay handles, sometimes I'll be looking at an item and see someone bidding on it and decide not to bid against them - I figure this is something they are interested in more than I am and I'd be one less competitor for them to worry about. Anyhow, because of the whole issue of potential shill bidding, I'd prefer to see all the user IDs of bidders on an item. Of course, if eBay let sellers set feedback levels - I'm talking about specifying an actual minimum number - as a requirement for bidding, it would put a cramp in shill bidding (it wouldn't eliminate it completely, just make it more of a hassle). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zwackery Posted March 6, 2008 Author Share Posted March 6, 2008 (bumping this old thread again, here's why...) Today I noticed that a couple of games I was watching suddenly went into the "buyer protection mode" but at rather low prices compared to the magic $200 price point of the past. I'm talking these games switched into anonymous bidders at around $40. Has anyone else noticed this on games you've been watching (or bidding on)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 You haven't heard? Keeping eBay your trusted source for great deals and truly unique finds is important to all of us. Toward this end, we're making an important change: Soon we will no longer display the complete user IDs of people bidding on any auction-style listing. Instead, we'll use asterisks such as x***y to protect our members' identities. Sellers will continue to see complete user IDs on their listings and the winning bidder's ID will be visible to everyone after the auction ends. We haven't provided this information on listings of $200 or higher for some time and it's been a very effective fraud deterrent for those items. For safety reasons, we're now expanding this protection to all auction-style listings. We know many of you like to see who you're bidding against. But displaying this information makes it too easy for scammers to send out fake offers that include convincing details of your actual bidding activity on a specific listing, such as the item number, description and exact amount you bid. In recent weeks fraudulent email offers targeting listings under $200 has surged unacceptably. To keep eBay a top shopping destination we must choose safety over visibility and nip this in the bud. We recognize for some of you this may be an unwelcome limitation but we hope you'll support our putting more muscle into fraud prevention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Could be the high bidder actually bid over $200, although the proxy bid to beat the next highest bidder was still much lower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I'm sure eBay would love to make it impossible to communicate with other members of the site if they could, so this does not surprise me. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 (edited) Could be the high bidder actually bid over $200, although the proxy bid to beat the next highest bidder was still much lower. Read my post above. It's all auctions now. I'm sure eBay would love to make it impossible to communicate with other members of the site if they could, so this does not surprise me. Actually, the next step is to make the auctions themselves anonymous, so bidders don't even know what they're bidding on. Makes the auctions more exciting. :!: Edited March 6, 2008 by PingvinBlueJeans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zwackery Posted March 6, 2008 Author Share Posted March 6, 2008 You haven't heard? Wow, that is certainly news to me! Now how am I supposed to know when I'm bidding against my friends (or enemies)? Damn eBay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gklinger Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I would prefer that eBay give the bidders the choice of whether or not they want to hide their IDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Franzman Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Wait, there's more! Maybe eBay was always doing this with their "anonymized" bidder lists, but I only noticed today because I haven't bought anything for a long time... the letters that aren't masked as asterisks don't actually match the first or last letter in the user ID. I discovered this when 2 auctions that I bid on against only one other bidder and didn't win, had my bids as by "r***." instead of "a***n". So if you thought you knew who those "masked" bidders were, you're wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Oh yeah, the letters displayed are just two random letters from the user name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Oh yeah, the letters displayed are just two random letters from the user name. Nice. Why don't they do something like "Bidder 1", "Bidder 2", "Bidder 3", instead? At least then you could more easily discern who's bidding against each other. eBay has long past the point of ridiculousness. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Oh yeah, the letters displayed are just two random letters from the user name. Then the display should be *x*y* x=1st random letter y=2nd random letter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Could be the high bidder actually bid over $200, although the proxy bid to beat the next highest bidder was still much lower. Read my post above. It's all auctions now. No, I hadn't heard. Your post was one minute before mine... Wow, even the current high bidder is hidden! Shill bidders rejoice! Sad they have to screw things up for everyone in order to protect the idiots from scam second chance offers. I still wonder what eBay would do if you announced in your ads that you were willing to send to any losing bidder who asks the complete, unobfuscated bid history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pangasinan Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Actually, the next step is to make the auctions themselves anonymous, so bidders don't even know what they're bidding on. Makes the auctions more exciting. icon_exclaim.gif :rolling: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+pboland Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I think it is a little over the top to start masking bidders now. Heck, they have been operating since, what, 1995 and they just now think this is a good idea? Not to change subjects, but what I worry about the most (as a seller) that ebay wants to make a rule that sellers can not leave negative feedback to a buyer. I don't know if you guys have heard this. About a month in half ago I got some kind of update from ebay and they floated the idea of sellers not be able to leave any feedback other than positive. Now if you are a heavy buyer and never sell, this might sound great, but ebay needs to be careful, sellers pay the fees not the buyers. I think ebay is having troubles trying to keep buyers and sellers happy, but the wrong thing to do is to only cater to the buyers needs. Buyers would be able to bring down any seller they want with that kind of power. I don't like the feedback system as much as the next guy. I think to many people see it as a right instead of a privilege to get feedback. The thing I hate the most is when people tell me "I left you positive feedback, be sure to leave me positive feedback." That just sends me up a wall. I have been on ebay since 1997, and back then feedback was something you did when you felt people did some extra. It wasn't I bought your product now give me my positive feedback. (sorry had to vent) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 (edited) I still wonder what eBay would do if you announced in your ads that you were willing to send to any losing bidder who asks the complete, unobfuscated bid history. I doubt there's anything they could do to stop that, but who's actually going to go through the trouble of asking (and what seller is going to comply)? Edited March 6, 2008 by PingvinBlueJeans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I still wonder what eBay would do if you announced in your ads that you were willing to send to any losing bidder who asks the complete, unobfuscated bid history. I doubt there's anything they could do to stop that, but who's actually going to go through the trouble of asking (and what seller is going to comply)? Whether buyers ask or not, it might assuage their concerns about shill bidding. And I would comply if a buyer did ask, seeing as how I offered to do it in my ad! I just wonder if they'd tell me I can't say that in my ads, or even cancel them over it... I suppose I could ask them, but I doubt I'd get an official (or even a well reasoned) response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.