ebay blocks search by bidder

[Peter_Spaeth]

In its ever increasing campaign for transparency, ebay has now eliminated the option to search by bidder.

Do an advanced search and see for yourself.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Peter, I'm on the autograph side 99.99% of the time and I do my thing on Ebay.

Check out the below screenshot. Ebay has now blocked the EBay IDs of the winning bidders.

Feedback-1.jpg

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

Peter, I'm on the autograph side 99.99% of the time and I do my thing on Ebay.

Check out the below screenshot. Ebay has now blocked the EBay IDs of the winning bidders.

Attachment 119459

I know the reason behind EBay doing that...

Especially when it comes to buyers of forgeries on Ebay.......

[chaddurbin]

anonymous bidding and winners, finally ebay is acting like a real AH.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Bid history is probably next to be wiped out.

[slidekellyslide]

When I was looking at someone's feedback yesterday I noticed this, but also there was no link to "view item" so not only could you not see the bidder name, but also it was a mystery as to what the item even was.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

When I was looking at someone's feedback yesterday I noticed this, but also there was no link to "view item" so not only could you not see the bidder name, but also it was a mystery as to what the item even was.

Dan, I noticed that a few days ago (the View Item being removed).

Now it's back.......

But the winning bidder EBay IDs are now gone.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

Dan, I noticed that a few days ago (the View Item being removed).

Now it's back.......

But the winning bidder EBay IDs are now gone.

Weird...I just went and looked...I can see the bidder ID's but the view item links are gone. I'm using Chrome.

[chaddurbin]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Bid history is probably next to be wiped out.

then after they can work on the code to automatically delete those pesky scans/photos as soon as the auction ends.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Weird...I just went and looked...I can see the bidder ID's but the view item links are gone. I'm using Chrome.

I just logged into Ebay using Chrome and the buyer IDs (under an individual Seller's Feedback) are not visible.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Ebay does not want certain people to contact buyers of forgeries....

[Rollingstone206]

delete

[thetruthisoutthere]

Geez, I guess Ebay was losing a ton of greenbacks due to buyers of forgeries demanding refunds after they were alerted that they purchased a forgery.......

[HRBAKER]

So we think that ebay instituted this change to their entire site over forged autographs? Just asking as it probably represents .000000000? of their business.

[batsballsbases]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

In its ever increasing campaign for transparency, ebay has now eliminated the option to search by bidder.

Do an advanced search and see for yourself.

Peter,
If you click on advanced search you will see by seller, if you click on by seller another set of boxes will come up and still says by bidder in the second pop up. try that and I believe you can still see by bidder.

[nsaddict]

This has NOTHING to do with forgeries. They are experimenting to find new ways of making more money!

[WhenItWasAHobby]

I have an old folder of bookmarks for bidding history of certain bidders and those links still work.

[cardaholic]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

So we think that ebay instituted this change to their entire site over forged autographs? Just asking as it probably represents .000000000? of their business.

Fakes of all kinds make ebay money - from purses to autographs.

[ibuysportsephemera]

eBay is doing everything it can to be Amazon.

Jeff

[auggiedoggy]

Back in the wild, wild west days of eBay when there were more holes in their security than a fishing net, people could see who outbid them on an item and even contact them. It happened to me. I placed a winning bid in the final seconds of an auction and within 5 minutes I received a nasty message from the person I beat out. Personally, I'm glad they hide the IDs. Who needs that nonsense!

p.s. What eBay needs to reinstate is the ability for sellers to give negative feedback to buyers.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by ibuysportsephemera

eBay is doing everything it can to be Amazon.

Jeff

+1 Anytime you wonder what eBay's motivation for doing something is, just ask yourself "how would Amazon do it?" I can hear the eBay execs now, "What? You mean Amazon doesn't tell everyone who bought that widget from Seller A? Then why the heck are we doing that? Get the code monkeys to strip that info out of there!"

Also remember that autographs, and sports collectibles in general, are a very very small part of the overall eBay pie. If they are doing something that affects every eBay user's experience, you can bet their reasons (however nonsensical) are influenced by something broader than our corner of collecting.

Update: Found this response from an eBay employee on one of their message boards:
"Yes, this is a new change to the site. We expect that with the features we're announcing today (new profile pages, collections, etc.) that there will be more visitors viewing each other's pages. Buyers may not want to share their past purchases with the general public, so the details on what items were purchased have been made private. You can still see someone else's buyer feedback and their ratings. The details on what they purchased and for how much are the elements that have been made private. Also, you can still search by bidder if you'd like from Advanced Search. If you click on a search by seller first, you will see an option to search by bidder as well."

As usual, in an attempt to make the site more attractive to new users (or at least, new users who don't want people seeing what they buy), eBay removes or hides functionality that established users actually find useful.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by cardaholic

Fakes of all kinds make ebay money - from purses to autographs.

OK, so ebay is instituting these changes to make it easier for sellers to sell fakes of all kinds?

[D. Bergin]

Ughhhh! EbAAAAAAAAAAAY! (raises fist to the sky)



More wonderful buyer experience at the expense of the seller (unless you are a shiller or those I like to refer to now as "bid strategy buyer/shillers")


This seems like a tactic by Ebay to really thin out seller's "BBL's" (blocked bidder lists)

Whether it's weeding out a guy who perpetually likes to retract bids in auctions, or trying to weed out bidders who vicariously love to make others miserable by leaving negative feedback for every other purchase of theirs, or extorting sellers for partial refunds.

Wonder how long before this "venue"..........starts to tell me I have to use "Ebay" approved packing materials with "Ebay" approved logos and an "Ebay" approved return address label so no potential buyer is under the impression that these items are actually coming from me and not "Ebay", holder of many software patents and actual seller of nothing.

Ebay wants to be Amazon without having to actually bear the expense of storing stuff in warehouses.

Maybe I'm just being dramatic.

EBAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

OK, so ebay is instituting these changes to make it easier for sellers to sell fakes of all kinds?

Intended or Unintended, they are doing this in order to create less things that are reportable or easily tracked. Less headaches for Ebay, less overhead for them.......spreading the liability and expense out to others besides Ebay.

[Rollingstone206]

...

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by batsballsbases

If you click on advanced search you will see by seller, if you click on by seller another set of boxes will come up and still says by bidder in the second pop up. try that and I believe you can still see by bidder.

That does work...probably only a matter of time before ebay closes that loophole