Can I safely bid on this auction?

[pfm]

@smpratte

@duceee2

i personally think privacy is very important. i dont use social networking sites(current news facebook sold ur info to 61 different firms) i use things like tor for internet browsing (cant use it here sadly) I want people who buy from me to not have the world see what they are buying. the mentality of you must have something to hide is not good. its not i have something to hide its just i have nothing i want you to see.

The usernames are already scrambled for bidders. Making the bids private is redundant. Also making a bid private isn’t related to Facebook sharing information. It is mainly done to hide shill bids.

Just a friendly heads up, you will lose business from serious buyers with private bids.

I’d also highly recommend not doing private listings since, as mentioned, it seems like you’re trying to hide something.
BUT I did want to mention that the scrambled names doesn’t offer much privacy. I can tell if you are bidding on something Scott or discord regulars or even certain politicians. In one instance I was able to figure out a user and find their ebay only knowing their collecting interests and their username on e4. So I don’t think scrambled names offer the same level of privacy as private listings. But to reiterate, if you’re the seller you’re only hurting yourself by doing private listings.

[duceee2]

@smpratte

@duceee2

i personally think privacy is very important. i dont use social networking sites(current news facebook sold ur info to 61 different firms) i use things like tor for internet browsing (cant use it here sadly) I want people who buy from me to not have the world see what they are buying. the mentality of you must have something to hide is not good. its not i have something to hide its just i have nothing i want you to see.

The usernames are already scrambled for bidders. Making the bids private is redundant. Also making a bid private isn’t related to Facebook sharing information. It is mainly done to hide shill bids.

Just a friendly heads up, you will lose business from serious buyers with private bids.

but it hides the item from there feedback page and thats whats important. i cant see what you are buying. not related to facebook but was just an example of why i choose to be private where ever i can.

[poken00b88]

@duceee2

@smpratte

The usernames are already scrambled for bidders. Making the bids private is redundant. Also making a bid private isn’t related to Facebook sharing information. It is mainly done to hide shill bids.

Just a friendly heads up, you will lose business from serious buyers with private bids.

but it hides the item from there feedback page and thats whats important. i cant see what you are buying. not related to facebook but was just an example of why i choose to be private where ever i can.

As others said, you’re just losing potential customers. It’s totally your right to do that, but I just think there’s more cons than pros going with private listings. It makes people suspicious.

To be honest, the only bidders that would like to remain 100% private are probably flippers that don’t want people to know how much they paid for an item. These people usually have multiple ebay accounts which makes this a non issue anyway.
I think what ebay could do is hide the feeback number as it’s indeed too easy sometimes to know who’s bidding just from their feedback and a couple letters of their username. They could leave the star though so people know it’s not some 0 feedback shiller.

[duceee2]

@poken00b88

@duceee2

but it hides the item from there feedback page and thats whats important. i cant see what you are buying. not related to facebook but was just an example of why i choose to be private where ever i can.

As others said, you’re just losing potential customers. It’s totally your right to do that, but I just think there’s more cons than pros going with private listings. It makes people suspicious.

To be honest, the only bidders that would like to remain 100% private are probably flippers that don’t want people to know how much they paid for an item. These people usually have multiple ebay accounts which makes this a non issue anyway.
I think what ebay could do is hide the feeback number as it’s indeed too easy sometimes to know who’s bidding just from their feedback and a couple letters of their username. They could leave the star though so people know it’s not some 0 feedback shiller.

but its not just flippers that like to remain 100% private. when i came back to pokemon i was like 20 and i sure as fuck didnt want any of my friends to see i was buying pokemon cards lets be honest it can still be an embarrassing hobby for some. the whole thing that if you are private you are doing something bad to me is crazy lol why should other people know what you are buying? making a listing private doesnt stop shill bidding it might be easier to see the people that do it badly it but it doesnt stop it. but again this how i view things

[poken00b88]

There are plenty of ways to remain private. There are several people that have multiple ebay accounts for that reason. One for selling, one for buying,etc… That solves any problems you might have if you’re worried about your privacy. Also, why would all your friends know your ebay username? I know that no one I know in real life has a clue who the hell poken00b88 is.

As I said though, I think if ebay didn’t show the feedback number in the bidding history it would make public auctions much more private. We all understand your concerns, but we’re just saying you would probably earn more money if you didn’t do private listings.

[jahbless91]

Bit ontopic again: i didn’t bid anymore although i think it was a legit sell(er) -but all of the reverse eserie lots went for wayyy more then i expect, someone (if for real) dropped 550$ on the 75 reverse skyridge cards…

The expedition/aquapolis lots also went way above my budget, to bad

Thanks again for all the helpful advice guys!

[duceee2]

yeah kinda went off topic lol sorry my friend

[KingPokemon]

@duceee2

@poken00b88

As others said, you’re just losing potential customers. It’s totally your right to do that, but I just think there’s more cons than pros going with private listings. It makes people suspicious.

To be honest, the only bidders that would like to remain 100% private are probably flippers that don’t want people to know how much they paid for an item. These people usually have multiple ebay accounts which makes this a non issue anyway.
I think what ebay could do is hide the feeback number as it’s indeed too easy sometimes to know who’s bidding just from their feedback and a couple letters of their username. They could leave the star though so people know it’s not some 0 feedback shiller.

but its not just flippers that like to remain 100% private. when i came back to pokemon i was like 20 and i sure as fuck didnt want any of my friends to see i was buying pokemon cards lets be honest it can still be an embarrassing hobby for some. the whole thing that if you are private you are doing something bad to me is crazy lol why should other people know what you are buying? making a listing private doesnt stop shill bidding it might be easier to see the people that do it badly it but it doesnt stop it. but again this how i view things

This is the benefit of being a member of E4. We tell you the truth even though it hurts us. Other sites would encourage you to continue with that counterproductive strategy because they know it’ll hurt you and help them.
Some of the biggest brains in the hobby here are telling you it’s stupid to run private listings and your concerns are unwarranted. You should pay attention because you’re hearing it from people who care about you and the integrity of our site.