Why Does Ebay Allow Private Listings?

I placed the opening bid on an item and the next day I see this;





Maybe its me but I find this a little suspicious. Why does ebay allow private listings when they already make the bidders IDs anonymous?

This auction doesn't say its a private listing and I've never bid with this seller before so I was surprised to see it was a private listing. I'd like to see if I'm bidding against 1 person or several, check to see if my opponent is a regular bidder etc. but I can't.

Some sellers do this for higher priced items.

ID's may be masked, but if someone sees the masked ID on many items from one buyer, they will be very suspicious.

It also protects buyers of expensive stamps from being publicized on the web.

It can prevent buyers from bidding as some will not bid on any listing where bids are private.

There is never an easy answer to this question.

Because when there are items where the same people are bidding against each-other from one auction to another, I can figure out who the bidders are from the feedback number.

Dutch- what info will be published on the web??? An ID of s***f? What bidder would be afraid of having that published on the net?

Here is my anonymous bidder ID on ebay; 3***w

Please feel free to both search for that bidder on ebay and to post that ID anywhere on the net you wish to. :-)

To me, the only purpose for a private auction on today's ebay is to facilitate shill bidding.

'Private listing ' also hides the 'View Item' from the feedback history pages.



Since some ebay items are 'embarrassing', this serves a purpose. Do you want others to see that you are buying bongs or sex toys?

But actually there are some items which a person might want to keep private, like adult diapers.
Don

Another pet peeve of mine are bidders with "Private Feedback". What are they hiding? I can block people with multiple unpaid item strikes but I can't block those with Private Feedback. In this case I couldn't find any indication that this was a "Private Auction", if I'd seen that I wouldn't have bid. The item eventually sold for a reasonable price but I wasn't going to bid again. Their loss!

Buying adult diapers on ebay is less embarrassing than standing in line at Walmart.

No need to stand in any line, most stores have self-check terminals now.

I stood in line at Walmart today.