Interesting Ebay changes + any tips please?
 

Didnt win an auction last night - which was fair enough, someone else was prepared to pay more than I was however, on looking at the bid history it seems Ebay is now 'protecting' its users by showing other bidders just as, "Bidder1", "Bidder2" etc

I quote:

"As online shopping evolves, eBay continues to focus on preserving our marketplace's open and level playingfield whilst protecting our Community of members. We have decided to change how bid history information is displayed so unscrupulous people cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to see other bidder's User IDs on the listing 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, Bidder 2 etc."

Nothing to do with Ebay trying to stop users contacting each other with alternative offers on identical items easily, of course.

As an aside - I think I've now reached the point with Ebay that I'm not going to pay for an item unless I've established some sort of personal contact with seller, even if its via Ebay and can pay via credit card.

Any other tips for avoiding being ripped off on Ebay are much appreciated!

Cheers - Frank

I've had a couple of occasions where, after winning an auction, one of the other bidders have contacted me saying the seller has offered them the item as I had pulled out of the deal. Of course it isn't the actual seller at all, just a scam. So I can see the worth of hiding the bidder information.

I've allways had good experiances with e-bay. Win most things i go for.

On the subject of ebay:

I was looking at a 900SS on there last night.

I can't link to ebay at work, but it's easy to find; there's only a handfull of 900SS's, and it's called "cheap 900Ss" or some such. In Norwich IIRC.


Seller has feedback of 1 (!). However he claims to have owned the bike for a few years, which is good. I emailed a couple of questions, asking for the date of last belt change, and that he had the reg doc and proof of no outstanding finance etc.

I suppose if you can get it "cheap enough" (under 2k?) it coulkd be worth a punt.
Any comments very welcome.

moto.

Obviously not this one then (FCR 41mm's + Sil Moto pipes !)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ducati-900-ss-...mZ110057918063

A very clean 96 900ss just sold for £1500 close to me - a lot of bike for the money but sadly, in the about the right ball park figure these days!

Cant find the one Moto mentions I'm afraid - ended already?

Cheers - Frank

So are we now prevented from seeing a bidder's actual buying/selling history? (sorry, not had the time to check the eBay site).

If so, that's not good. Many a time I've noticed some tentative connection between a seller and his/her potential 'buyer', by studying what each of them has bought/sold previously.

On one occasion I was bidding on a VW Lupo, until I noticed a rival 'bidder' had sold a couple of cars on eBay in the previous months. Checking out the two vehicles he'd sold, I noticed that the photos he'd posted had been taken in the very same location as the VW Lupo he was now 'bidding' on.

So, if I'm unable to do some minor detective work and prove to my own satisfaction that the auction is truly above board, I'll simply not be buying from eBay.

It seems to me that this latest move will only help the scammers.

Yep, looks like it will mask shill bidding completely as you cannot see that Person A is bidding on Person B's items, and vice versa.

But what do ebay care [about shill bidding]? The higher the price, the more money they make - it's in their interest for the prices to be higher. Even if it is shill bidding, ebay still charge their fee on the final listed price and you can't get round it.

Ebay is one big scam - pay to list, pay again to sell and pay a third time to accept money through paypal... all to the same company.

Ebay care because sellers can target potential customers by viewing who's bidding on similar items and promoting and selling their goods directly to them without incurring ebay sale fees.

Tim

Sounds like the inland revenue!

Many a time i've not bid as i've followed the history through via the bidders and seen some shady stuff happening.
Looks like I won't be able to in future so no more ebay for me. I've not had any problems to be honest but only because i'm careful I think and do all the history checking etc.

This enforces the point - ebay are doing more to protect their service costs by hiding who are making the purchases.

The bike I mentioned above on ebay is here:


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...0823&rd=1&rd=1

Hello Iconic994ss

I was watching that punt, but decided it was a no go
the info/pics did not match

to good to be true;)

regards

TopiToo

Reader, I bought it! :eek: :eek: :eek:

I have only had good experiences with ebay, but I always use auctionsniper.

having a look at the changes ebay does tell you what percentage of the sellers auction that a bidder bids on. For example I just checked an auction for a car and there were 2 bidders who had bid suspiciously often on the sellers auction, one on 100% of occassions, the other 67%, so that would be one to steer clear of. So it seems it is now easier to track this kind of artificial price boosting.