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New Ebay Rules??

FL Knifemaker

FL Knifemaker

Apr 9, 2006
12,453
55
Lakeland, FL
www.blackwoodknives.com
#1
What do ya'all think of the new Ebay privacy rules?? IHMO, it seems like the auction companies now bid up their own auctions and if they win, they just re-list the item. I also miss seeing who I'm bidding against. It was kind of like a friendly game of chess......or poker with known, regular players :) This bidder 1, bidder 5, etc. is BULLCRAP :mad:

I bid on tooling often as well as basses sometimes. It just seems like if you place a high bid, NOW other bidders take it right to the limit and the items are often re-listed rather quickly by the same seller :eyebrow:

This is the new rule :confused: :rolleyes:

To help keep the eBay community safe, enhance bidder privacy, and protect our members from fraudulent emails (such as fake second chance offers), eBay has changed how bid history information is displayed. If you place a bid on a higher-priced item, only you and the seller of the item can view your User ID in the bid history. Other members can no longer view User IDs and will see anonymous names, such as Bidder 1.


I just scored an old Aria bass but I didn't like the way the bidding seemed to have gone. Something seems fishy.

Thoughts or am I just a complainer ??
 
#2
Eh, no biggie so long as the bidder can still read the seller's info and the seller can still read all of the bidder's info. I've never understood why people worry about sellers having their own prices jacked up. You only bid what you're willing to pay. If they make it too high, you stop bidding. It's not like they owe us a low price or something.
 
#4
Shill bidding. It happens.

Then again, it is an auction, not a used bargains clearance site.
Items sell for whatever price the market will bear. You want it you pays your money, you don't want it you keeps your money....

I set up a high 'buy it now' price for a rare item once, (higher than market average selling price)... the point is if you want it fast and you want it bad you'd bid the premium over the other punters. It was a rare item, and it went in minutes of the auction listing. Buyer was enthusiastic with a slew of emails regarding his score. When he received the item, he wanted to negotiate the price to be more on par with the recent average selling price..... I don't think he quite understood it was an auction!

I think the anonymous ID policy is a consequence of the second offer scams.....
 
#5
I agree. It is nice to be able to see who you are bidding against, even if just by member id. It gives you more confidence in the fairness of the auction. There has always been the occasional shill but this new system does seem to make it easier for them.

I am not sure what eBay is really trying to do. They can protect buyer privacy by not allowing anyone to send email directly to another member. I think it may be part of eBays "secret" plan. There really is no reason to put you in and out of secure mode when signing in and I wondered why they made that change. I think they want to merge eBay and PayPal accounts together at some point and this may be another step down that road.
 
#8
Ya, OK...... Your right, bid what you are willing to pay. BUT..........I used to be able follow the auctions and get lucky with buying tooling for my business. I could see the "regulars" and get a feel for what I was up against. Now it just seems kind of COLD. Over the past few yerars I might have other bidder or another knifemaker contact me and say go for it, I'm out, or........Hey I'm ON THIS and I would step back. We would even split certain bulk items. It just seems like they took the fun and an occasional good deal out of it :scowl:

You guys will laugh at the blood splattered pointy Aria I got. It's not for me...........really :ninja: Just re-living the 80's now that I can afford to :D :bassist:
 
#10
Once again it's the many that suffer for the actions of a few........a slice of life in America. The way I read it, it's a protective device that ebay is imposing, and since it reduces the amount of information that we receive, I'm not particularly happy about it.......that said, I don't think it's going to keep me from bidding on items I want.
 
#11
Son of Magni said:
I don't have a problem with it. Just bid your max and do it in the last 15 seconds of the auction. Same as always...

I also did ok with the best offer thing. TB10 for $2000 :)
Click to expand...

Yes, you did OK. I have also done well with the best offers. I feel that with the new "system" there will be fewer best offer auctions. Why bother risking a low price sale if you can bid your item back and re-list it??
 
#13
FL Knifemaker said:
Yes, you did OK. I have also done well with the best offers. I feel that with the new "system" there will be fewer best offer auctions. Why bother risking a low price sale if you can bid your item back and re-list it??
Click to expand...

Ok, what I don't get is why do you think that is any more likely to happen with the new system? Anyone could have multiple accounts to bid up their own items, or have a friend do it. Nothing's changed...
 
#14
well it's the lesser of 2 evils... phishers and hackers offerening fake 2nd chance offers to bidders and then swindling them... ebay has to pay for that... auctions where the sellers bid it up and then relist... ebay actually makes money off of that...

What I think the best solution would be is to eliminate 2nd chance offers altogether and make sure people know that. I don't think a huge amount of 2nd chance offers get used. It might be 1 or 2 percent of the total... probably less (certainly less in basses anyways but it may be use more often in highly duplicable (is that a word?) items like watches, xboxes, games, books, rare coins... jk
 
#15
Son of Magni said:
Ok, what I don't get is why do you think that is any more likely to happen with the new system? Anyone could have multiple accounts to bid up their own items, or have a friend do it. Nothing's changed...
Click to expand...

True, it just seems more secretive now. For me and the way I previously bid and conducted business on Ebay, it's like playing poker with a bunch of strangers instead of old friends.

I asked in my first post if I was a complainer :hmm:
 
#18
I like to see who outbids me too... the ebay names in the bass section means something to me. I like to see whether BASSMODS got something that I wanted and there are quite a few other names that used to look familiar... Plus you used to be able to get 80s G&Ls for $400 and I got my Read for $1000 :eek: and quite a few other steals a few years ago... no steals anymore (unless its on a cheaper bass.) I haven't gotten any good deal on ebay for basses over $500 in awhile... And I've missed the occasional BIN steal... a mint flea with lane poor sold for $1000 BIN within minutes is a recent one that stung...
 
#19
WarriorJoe7 said:
Also has anyone noticed there are a LOT less desirable basses on ebay than there were say 5 years ago?
Click to expand...

there's still good stuff out there...

only differences are:

1) Sellers are more knowledgeable, so the "bargains" have disappeared...(this was inevitable)

2) Ebay is now flooded with cheapo clearing house type stuff...making it difficult to sift through the weeds...

I recently picked up an inexpensive Yamaha pacifica 112 guitar for about 1/2 of what I'd pay new...and it was a fine bargain, IMO.

The seller had left the original sales receipt in the gig bag pocket (credit card number and all...UH OHHH)...

shows that they paid $AU 550 for the guitar, bag, strap, and stand...I took it all over for $AU 310 (shipped)...everything in top notch condition.



As far as the new rules...doesn't affect me much, because my approach to ebay is thus...

1...make ONE bid...one bid only...know your max value and stick to it...

if you win, you win....if you don't...c'est la vie
 
#20
There is one gripe I have with ebay.

Well, probably more, but one that would change the way ebay works, and be a real auction house.

There is a website, gunbroker.com, that deals in firearms. The way they work, is that after the bid cutoff, the bid has to stand for 15 MINUTES before it's accepted as a final bit. This is like the "Going once, going twice!" period.

What happens with this, is that, the seller gets top dollar for what people are willing to pay, and the buyers actually get to pay what the item is WORTH to them, not just who can throw in a bid at the lucky 2 seconds left mark.

If ebay was like this, everyone would win. The buyers deserving of the item would get it, the sellers would make more, and ebay could charge the sellers more, since their item sold for more.

As it is right now, all the smart people know its stupid to bid anytime before the last 10 seconds of the auction.

All you're doing is driving the price up.

Anyway, that's my gripe with ebay.
 

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