Do You "Private Listing" On Ebay?

I have been selling some duplicates on ebay for a few years and have always used "private listing" option. This makes it so that after a sale, no one can see what was sold or who bought it. I was wondering lately if that is really helpful. When I buy from someone, it is sometimes helpful to see what type of material they have sold. What do you think?

I can only speak for myself but I avoid "private listings."

Dan

As above, just speaking for myself, I ignore sellers who use private listings. I may be too paranoid but, in the absence of some stated plausible reason from the seller for doing that, to me it just raises suspicions. You have to measure the pros and cons from your perspective as a seller. But I would assume that doing private listings cuts down on the size of the audience looking at your material, and may thereby reduce your realizations.

I have never bought a single thing, stamp or otherwise, from a private listing.

I personally don't see the reasons for using private listing. You can't see who bought anything as they don't publish anyone's actual account in the bidding list anymore. This most likely doesn't apply to you, but I feel that the only reason people sell things with private listings is they are hiding their shill bidding evidence.

I avoid private listings completely. Do not buy!

The "private listings" choice is one of a list of tick-boxes on the ebay form. I suspect that many sellers click on it without giving thought to what it entails or how it may be preceived.

If I see a private listing I won't even give it a 2nd look and I run away from these listings. To the OP, why would you not want people to see what you've sold in the past? ebay hides the buyers identity so even without a private listing people can't see who the buyers are.

Adult items. Lot's on ebay.

Thanks everyone. Seems that option was default when I set the listing up ... not sure why. Went back and removed that private listing option.

To Bobby's point regarding adult items, you still cannot find out anything meaningful about any bidder (aside from which sellers they frequent). In philatelics the only plausible reason I have ever come up with for private listings is a license to shill bid (since ebay started hiding actual screen names).

Shill bidding is an adult activity

Private listings make me feel dirty.... in a good way.

I agree with everybody else, I won't buy from a private listing. Occasionally I will notice a buyer with private feedback and I will immediately block them from buying from me. I don't know what they're hiding and I don't want to find out.

Private Listing is a popular choice with crooks, as it makes it that much harder to spot things like shill bidding.

So, in general, I agree that its wise to avoid such listings.

However, some legitimate sellers also use Private Listing for one reason or another (Sometimes they just don't know any better), so I have made some great bargains buying things from such sellers, as most bidders would have been put off. But it does mean you have to exercise even greater than usual care.

I still think Rog's post in this thread is the best one