Ebay privacy.

[hosman321]

I'm just curious about a little thing, maybe someone can clarify. Ebay keeps the winner of an auction private, I suppose because they think it's nobody's business to see who purchases what. But, if I click on an ebayer's name and go to "Feedback as a Buyer" I can see everything a person bought, as long as the seller of the item didn't make it a private auction. Is this really logical? I understand that they don't want people who lost the auction to pester the person who won, but this just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe some people actually don't mind if a loser makes them an offer on it, maybe they would make a profit on the item. I think we are all big boys and girls and we should be able to turn down someone who contacts us on our own. Thoughts?

[CuriousCollector]

I actually liked it when you could search by user name and see what other people bought (long time ago -- it's been quite a while since you could do that).  We used to search my Dad, see all the stuff he was buying, then know what we didn't have to get him for Christmas. 

But to your question -- I think it's helpful to know what a buyer has been buying, especially when you are selling a high-dollar item.  If you click on a bidder's history and see they have bought small items, then suddenly they are buying a car, or a diamond ring? -- well, that's often a sign that the account has been hacked.

It helps me as a seller, too, especially when I'm selling something I'm unfamiliar with.  I get a bidder, I click their history, and I see they have bought other similar items -- then I know I've priced the item well enough.  I wish you could find out who has been "watching" an auction -- it always bugs me when people watch an auction, but the item doesn't sell -- I'd like to know if some of those watchers buy similar kinds of things, and then I might know if I have overpriced my item.

[waywardangler]

And if you know someone's "private" bidder name string such as x**x, that stays the same on every auction they bid on so you do not have to go to their feedback page and look up what they bid on.

It had something to do with too many scammers contacting bidders with bogus second chance offers or something to that effect. That and people tracking what other people are bidding on and then finding the good stuff too without any effort. Kind of like standing behind someone at a live auction and bidding when they bid and using their knowledge to bid if that makes any sense.

If we were all big boys and girls, scammers from Nigeria would cease to exist. The new one from Canada uses grandchildren's computer generated voices to get Grandparents to wire money NOW to help them out of jail or a ticket. A fellow in our town just lost 6K in that scam and was going to wire more when the bank stopped him.

CC just posted so I am going to answer one of her concerns...watchers . Watchers watch because they own a similar or exact item, are going to list a similar or exact item, or are just plain nosy. I figure half of the watchers are interested in bidding. Kind of like a live auction where many number holders never bid but just take in the auction experience.