Ebay Private Listings-Avoid?

Is it common sense to avoid buying from eBay sellers of non sensitive items (e.g. stamps) with private listings, even if they have positive feedback? By private listings, I mean listings where the bidders' identities are hidden and feedback does not list the item reviewed.

What is the rationale for an eBay seller of stamps using private listings?

I avoid like the plague.
Opinion: Scammers

John

I won't sell to buyers with "Private" feedback. What are they hiding?

I suspect you'll find that lots of eBay sellers tick the "private listing" box without realising what it means and how some buyers see it. I asked one lady selling an item why she'd made it a private listing. It turned out she thought it distinguished her from a business seller.

That's a first for me.

Geoff's response is also interesting.

Only other thing of note, is Aussie vendors, with lots in US currency
makes the lots look cheaper than they are.

Again it matters if you know the seller. There is one dealer I have purchased from for years at shows, mail order and on eBay. On eBay he has it set up such that all bidders are shown as private.

Also agree with Rod. Avoid, even if a "mistake."

Had no idea about this issue! Must go to bed too early.

In the majority, I have found the seller to have things to hide. Be it fraudulent sales, possible tax evasion, and so forth.

I can see buyers wanting privacy of what they buy but a seller who hides the items they sell is to be met with suspicion.

With all due respect, I guess that I'm one of the few remaining people that attempts to retain some online privacy in this day and age.

Why is it perfectly fine for buyers to have privacy, but not sellers? Why is it anyone's business what any particular seller sold, and to who? What difference does it really make? A substantial, mostly positive feedback score isn't good enough to warrant a possible purchase from the seller?

Rather than assume that something horribly nefarious is going on with "private" listings, maybe consider that the seller simply would prefer to keep his/her transactions somewhat private - for whatever reason?

The last that I heard, all of eBay's buyer protection policies still apply after the sale, whether everyone knows about the transaction, or only the buyer and seller know about it.

Jim

The feedback system protects the buyer fully by listing the users with anonymous letters. The seller is not "protecting" the buyer in any way by making his sales "private".

With stamps it is pretty important to see the seller's feedback to learn reliability, experience of the seller (is the user selling baseball cards and only a few stamps or makes big statements with no authority to do so like saying a common stamp is rare), authenticity (does the seller sell illegal stamps or forgeries ect.), has bad feedback and if so for what, and a slew of other reasons.

Feedback is advertising your business and your products. To hide this is to present that you have something to hide. Any legitimate stamp dealer is not going to hide their sales feedback because by hiding it they "look" like they are doing something illicit.

Now hiding personal buyer feedback is different. You might be a dealer who bought a stamp for $5.00 and then turned around and sold it for $20.00. Even though this is legitimate business, one may want to hide it.

Hiding anything as a seller will gain suspicion. Why do it unless hiding something because it raises MORE suspicion?

Because they're the sellers. That's part of their burden. Sellers must signal to the universe of buyers that they're good actors in the marketplace: that buyers will get what they pay for, what they offer isn't fraudulent, etc. And on eBay, the primary way to do that is by keeping feedback (read: the reactions of buyers who came before you) public.

Sellers must show that they have the item, and that the item is as described. Buyers only ever need to demonstrate that they can pay for the item. It's not equal. Never has been. Department store, bodega, eBay, or anywhere.