What is with the ebay names?

[airhead]

I\'m looking at the bid history on an item I lost.
Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time

a***t( 57)
u***6( 61)
n***3( 134)
u***6( 61)
u***6( 61)
-***n( 197)
u***6( 61)
u***6( 61)
Starting

Is ebay doing this to the bidders\' names? Or is that the latest trend in handles?

 

[Infidel Castro]

I sense a sinister hand behind all this. BME was mentioned in another thread, and now suddenly all those 6\'s appear! Fear ye the lord of darkness and his minions, yea, quake at his passing (of stools).

 

[generulpoleaxe]

it\'s ebay, they have decided that all bidders names should be hidden.
thus allowing shill bidding to run rampant.

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by reverend
I sense a sinister hand behind all this. BME was mentioned in another thread, and now suddenly all those 6\'s appear! Fear ye the lord of darkness and his minions, yea, quake at his passing (of stools).

It was fortold in the prophesies!

No time for repentence, arm yourselves!

The time is nigh!

 

[Infidel Castro]

You\'re scaring me Vikey!

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Sssssssssssh! Its so everyone on eBay is a secret...

They did it to keep people from knowing who was bidding on auctions to supposedly make it more \"Fair\"

But to be honest its to keep you from contacting loosing bidders and offering them your like item at a cheaper price.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by generulpoleaxe
it\'s ebay, they have decided that all bidders names should be hidden.

Seriously?

If so well bloody hell, they take one step forwards and three backwards time and again, don\'t they?

Steps could have been taken to control shill bidding years ago but they deliberately chose to do, apparently, nothing whatsoever because at the end of the day they get their cut and that\'s all they really care about.

Einion

 

[freakinacage]

what the hell is shill bidding?

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by freakinacage
what the hell is shill bidding?

You, or a buddy/colleague/family member, using a false ID (or multiples) to bid on your own auction to artificially drive the price up.

Endemic on eBay since they don\'t even take rudimentary steps to prevent it.

Einion

 

[gohkm]

Shill bidding is rampant on other auction sites, too. I had a bad experience on WarGamesMarket, and another on tradingpost.com.au. Dropped my TradingPost account fast enough, but I\'m reluctant to drop the WGM account since occasionally, really nice items crop up there.

 

[Einion]

Sniping! It\'s the best way to bypass it if the auction\'s end fits in with your schedule. Actually it\'s the best way of winning an auction anyway

Einion