When I notice numerous bidders on an item, I will go to the history to see if it's indeed several different bids, or two individuals involved in a bidding war. I guess it's not too relevant, but I'm curious, just the same.
Do you know why some bidders' ID show as first letter, last letter with asterisks in between, while others show the complete ID? I assume it is a privacy issue but can I adjust my profile to be "private"? and why would I want to do that?
thanks for your help.
For those in the know about EBAY
I've always assumed that every bidder's ID is private when you click to see the bidder's. I would say it's just for privacy sake unless you are the seller of that item. If you are the seller of the item you should be able to see the full ID of the bidder's of an item.
As I understand it, you are the only one that is seeing your whole member name, anyone else only sees the first and last digit of your member name, and you their's.
I think that's how it works, Anyone else know?
I know mine is shown to me as my whole name, and mine is always the only one in the group that way. I'm pretty sure it's the same for everyone else too (they can see their whole name, but no one's else's whole name). I think I went to a help section once and read about it.
Yes, those bidding wars are crazy aren't they. Lots of the bidders I think are buying to resell at antique co-ops. It can be frustrating for an average person looking for one or two things for their own home competeing against all those big time professional buyers. At least for me....
This message was edited Jul 3, 2010 6:15 PM
thank you all. I will go into DH's ebay acct and see how my name shows. I'll post here. again, thanks.
It's something Ebay implemented a while back to disguise bidders' names. One reason is that other sellers of the same item now can't notify you that they have the same item cheaper. And it also promotes bidding wars. For instance, daylily collectors often know each other. If you see that one of your friends is bidding on a daylily you want, you may not bid against her. So the price may not go up as much as it would if you had joined the bidding. More money for the seller means more money for Ebay.
And I imagine ebay got tired of all the shill-bidding reports. So now it's hard for us to detect shilling.
It's really all about Ebay making more money with less effort. The said it was to protect us from Spoof emails people would send out offering to sell us the same item at such-and-such site or whatever. But we know better.
OK, I'm naive.....What is Shilling?
Shilling is fake bids done to drive up the price.
Let's say you're bidding on one of my items, but I don't like that the price isn't high enough. So I either bid under another name, or I call up a friend to bid up the price. When the auction is over and you've bid against my friend and my friend won, of course she's not going to pay, but we've gotten your price up to where I like it. So then I send you and email saying you won because the other bidder backed out. So I get more for it than what you would have originally paid for the item.
With experience, we used to be able to catch shillers by looking at their bid histories. Now it's a bit more difficult. Someone more trained than I am probably could, but I don't worry much about it. I know the maximum I'll bid and if I get it for that, I'm happy to have it. I don't try to see if I've been cheated but some people are fanatical about catching shillers. Me, I'm onto the next daylily auction. LOL
This message was edited Jul 4, 2010 11:42 AM
When I do bid on ebay, I manually snipe. If you bid early it just gives people the chance to make the item cost you more. If you wait until the last 5 to 10 seconds of the auction(sniping) you have a decent chance of getting it for less. It takes a little skill to do it. You have to be aware of the speed of your internet connection, speed of your computer, speed that ebay is moving and the speed of yourself to get the timing down right.
You can also have software snipe for you. I have never used it but many do that don't have the time to be there as the auction ends.
Here are some sniping programs.
http://www.auctionsniper.com
http://www.powersnipe.com/
https://www.myibay.com/
http://www.bidnapper.com/
http://www.ezsniper.com/
http://www.bidnip.com/index.html
http://www.esnipe.com/
Some are free.
Frank
I manually snipe too
I'm a sniper too. I never "tip my hand" early in the bidding. I bid in the last 20 seconds. I usually make sure I sign in again near the end of the auction, because a few times I've gone to snipe only to find I have sign in again first. And by then, the auction is over. A few times my internet went out and I lost some great deals. But most of the time I get what I'm after.
Yup! Me Too! LOL
When I snipe I use two browser windows with one set with my bid entered and it is one click away from being sent. The other window is to monitor the time left as the last few seconds tic away. Having the two windows side by side makes this easy and efficient. When you get good at it you can win multiple auctions that were listed by the same seller within seconds of each other.
lol - you guys are pro's.
Pam
thank youi for the info. I still haven't checked using DHs id to confirm the full name thing.
Butterfly chaser, I have had people come back to me saying orig. buyer backed out. So, does that mean all 2nd chance offers are a byproduct of shilling? wow, those sleazebags!
Thank goodness, I don't buy much of anything on ebay. I think the sniping is useful to a point. My max is my max. If somebody offers a higher price, then sniping is pointless. I don't bother, if it's too much trouble or a war, maybe I wasn't meant to have the item.
PS: I did get a brand new elec carving knife for $3.05 delivered. that was a deal! lol
PS#2: I've also had it happen where I wanted something really bad but then I forgot to bid and the darned thing sold like for nothing. ugh!
No...second chance offer means that the seller may have another one or Someone backed out. But usually because the seller has more then one item. I have put 1 item up for auction and received a lot of bids. Usually I have another one on the back table but did not list that one. So I can go to the next highest bidder and offer the item. Therefore I don't have to go through another auction and give the person who wanted the item a chance to obtain it.
Sniping is very valuable..maybe understanding it more and how it works makes it Not Pointless. I've sniped a lot of items this year and you usually get the item way lower then your max. Maybe frank will explain it a little more in detail..I'm on the run but will visit this thread a little later :-)
This message was edited Jul 4, 2010 4:43 PM
A 2nd chance offer doesn't ALWAYS mean there's been shill bidding. Like Kim said, it can mean that a legitimate buyer backed out for some reason or they have another one just like it for sale. Before Ebay made all names anonymous, you could actually check the winning bidder's bidding history and see how many times they "won" items from the same seller. If you frequently got outbid by this same bidder and then received 2nd chance offers, it might be shilling. Now you can't really tell.
Not everyone puts in their Final max bid. Some people wait and see what they think others are bidding before they put in the max. Some people will raise their max bid when they see you bid on it. They then know you're in the game and they better get serious and up their max. However, if you kept quiet and bid in the last 20 seconds your max bid, you might win it at a lower price. I managed to win 3 HUGE bass sun wall decors for my garden gates for a mere $6something. These things are about 2 ft in diameter. The other bidder put in a low max bid because there was no other interest in the auction. Had I bid early in the game, she'd have upped her max I'm sure. I waited til the last 20 seconds and won them at this surprisingly low price. And they look absolutely beautiful on my gates.
'tis true, 'tis true. I did ck using DH's ID and I couldn't see my name. You learn something everyday. If I bought a lot on ebay, I would surely snipe, but buying as little as I do, just not worth it to me. Besides, I'm lucky that living in Houston area, I have access to a lot of stuff locally, so I opt for that.
On a totally separate subject, I was so pleased today w/ my bank. I had purchased an item that's coming from overseas and this morning I got a call from their fraud dept making sure it was a legit transaction. With ID theft and all the theft horror stories out there, it was nice to know somebody "had my back".
Right...
For example: I wanted a certain item. My max bid was $100.00. Meaning this was what I was willing to pay. The auction sat at $4.99 for a long time. Then about a half hour towards the end of the auction people come bidding like crazy which actually just keeps raising the price up. It's best to watch and not bid at all until the last minute. This is when sniping comes in.
So at the last 30 seconds of the auction it was up to $49.00. So I bid $100.00.
What this does is not give anyone time to bid again. And if they do bid again most likely they are going to bid $50.00 (and still outbid by me). So then I won my item for $49.00 even though I bid $100.00
thanks for the explanation. Here's a stupid/funny story when I only had 2-3 transactions under my belt. I was hot to trot for a red coffeemaker and got in a bid war. I won at a price about $10 higher than if I had bought it from Penney's. I felt like such an idiot when I realized that. So, to make me feel better, I contacted the other bidder and told him/her where they could get the same coffeemaker for $10 cheaper. I wonder if they ever followed my tip..... This was 5-7 yrs ago.
Kim, I sincerely hope you and I have totally different tastes otherwise, you would always win me out of stuff, lol.
Vossner! Was that you bidding on that plant I wanted??? Sounds familiar.
Shills are why they hide the user identities? I figured it was to prevent me from knowing my enemy, yes, even to keep me from hunting them down and torturing them. I actually used to research the bidder and would find patterns on how they bid.
Snipers? I've run into them too. At the last minute! That was MY PLANT ~ MY BID ~ I saw if FIRST and bid on it FIRST and how dare they!!! 8 )
Yep, sounds familiar. Last year I bid on a rare plant that I had been on the hunt for. I stayed with that one till the bitter end and made that "hidden identity" pay thru the nose... heh, heh, heh. Needless to say on dialup I lost that bid. This year, I got another super secret, personal email from ebay telling me one of those same rare plants had just been listed . I have watched it like a turkey buzzard for the past week and danged if sometimers (as in sometimes I remember and sometimes I forget) didn't catch me off guard. The first bidder was the only bidder and got a screaming bargain. Nope, it wasn't me. 8 ((
This message was edited Jul 4, 2010 5:22 PM
Always make your snipe bid with .77 on the end of it or .57 or .27. Because if you stay on .00, .25, .50 or .75 someone can beat you by bidding one cent over those numbers. Most people only go one cent over the the standard number so I go two cents over. Just don't tell anyone my secret!
Good tip..Thanks!
Pod, I believe you can set your notifications at Ebay to remind you when an item you're watching is ending. I think they can send you a reminder email just an hour or so before the end. Seems like I used to get those, but can't remember now. Maybe it was only if I was actively bidding on it. But maybe it can happen if you're just watching too.
Shills are only one of the reasons ebay now hides identities. I listed some of the other reasons too. And another one is so we can't communicate with each other. I don't think we can contact other bidders now that identities are disguised. Bidders would sometimes get upset with other bidders for outbidding them. And they'd shoot off hate emails to them. So now you can't send me hate mail if I keep raising your bid. :-) Also, other sellers selling the same item can't email you with offers.
LOL ~ but I know where you stay . I'd just come raid your plant stash.
They actually do email when it is going out but I use a secondary email address for ebay and other litter and don't check it often like I should.
Tis o.k., the hunt is part of the fun. That's when I found all the rest of these plants I don't need.
Kim, I'm a little, or a lot, dense. If the other person bid 50.00 then you would have had to pay 100.00 right? Which is what you were willing to pay. But in most cases it keeps others from bidding and you get it cheaper.
hiya pod! Not to worry. I think I have bid on 2-3 plants in all the years I've done ebay. if it's not buy it now, I don't do it. Your super-rare plant is safe from me, lol.
franknjim, I'm on to you. Now every time I see a .77, etc. I'll know it's you!
no, killdawabit, Kim would pay 50.50 or whatever increment is required by Ebay but stating such a high max, Kim improves her chances of winning. A lot of bidding would have to take place from $50 to $100 and if she does this at the very last moment, then not much bidding is gonna happen. I really good strategy for something you really, really, really want.
This message was edited Jul 4, 2010 5:47 PM
You're just sayin' that so I don't come raid your plants....
I admit, I have become a buy it now shopper too. Far less agonizing and after all, that is why I work. That and cat food money, of course.
I'm with you, Vossner, I like buy it now. Just tell me what ya want for the darn thing.
I always forget to sit and watch bidding. I don't buy much on ebay anymore either.
Pam
Here's how to snipe well and always win .. I've never lost one I've wanted. Since I have a fast computer and fast internet connection I'll open up 6 pages on the same item and put bids in increments on 5 in a series with the fifth page having my ultimate limit .. the 6th page is for monitoring .. so all I have to do is hit enter to place a bid. I start in the last 20 seconds and constantly hit reload on it to keep an eye on the price. As I said, I've never lost.
ROTHFLOL Wow X your an Ebay PRO!!!
I got the point where I was tired of losing out on great stuff I didn't need in the first place (LOL!), so I subscribed to esnipe. It only costs me $.25 if I win the bid, and nothing if I lose. I put up a deposit of $5 from which esnipe takes their $$. Then I don't have to get my blood pressure up with bidding and even when I had dialup I rarely lost a bid for something I really wanted.
Thanks, Vossner. I get it now.