Quote:
Originally Posted by thecatspajamas
The reasons Michael B gave are still legitimate even though eBay now scrambles IDs because they scramble IDs in a consistent manner. It's tantamount to assigning everyone a new ID that is only seen in the bid histories. If you buy and sell in the same niche market enough, you can learn who's who in spite of the "scrambling".
FWIW though, I think any seller that is putting so much thought into their selling that the reasons Michael gave are the driving force behind how they list on eBay is really thinking about it too much. I'm sure there are a few cases where it has been detrimental to the bidding, but I seriously doubt that anyone has had so much trouble with "revenge bidding" on their items that it's driving away their customers and they've had to protect their pet whales' identities. Unless they're selling porn, the "I just want you to leave me alone while I shill" explanation seems the simpler and more likely scenario.
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Funny this discussion came up today. I just took a look at an auction I I had bid on to see if I could figure out who won it only to see it was a private listing. However I later for some reason checked it again on my cell phone, ebay mobile or whatever it is called and the bidders scrambled ID's are shown, while on my home computer it say private listing! Anyone else have the same experience?