Ebay items with private bidding.

gus

Whats it about. Something to watch out for ? I mean pasquillions of things are sold on ebay without it so i get a tad suspicious when i see a high value item such as a lens with this form of hidden bidding.

JenGrace

This is a good way for sellers to hide shill bidding (having people they know drive up the bids), IMO.

gus

I was thinking the same thing jen however anyone could still ask a friend to bump a price.. it would not really matter if the friends ebay ID was used or not i was thinking. If so , there must be another reason but i may well be wrong.

Sam

Gus,

I have talked people who use ebay extensively, and they think that while technically having a shill make phony bids might be wrong, since everybody does it, they do too.

There aren't many people left who value right, and wrong, or value honor.

Sad, but a fact.

I don't use ebay, and while I might look into selling a few item on it, I won't be shilling, and I have no plans on buying through them.

You really have to be careful.

Sam

stirfry

Back in the day I used to sell extensively on eBay - designer handbags and boutique clothing for kids. I had a core following for my handbags that I could pretty much count on to submit bids for any auction I put up in their desired size. This core group was my bread and butter, often engaging in friendly bid wars with one another (thank goodness for the psychology of winning and moms with deep pockets!) ... however, after awhile I noticed that I was getting fewer and fewer bids. I did a bit of probing and discovered that I was losing some bidders because as soon as they saw the eBay ID for one of my core group, they wouldn't bother to bid on it. They figured it was a useless because the ID from the core group would go as high as she needed to in order to win. I could still count on bids from my core group, but over a period of time I saw my number of bids decrease (and with it, my earnings).

As for the boutique clothing, much of my traffic was driven from dedicated MSN and Yahoo groups formed for the sole purpose of talking/buying/selling/trading these designer duds for kids. As is typically true, there was usually a wide discrepency of economic statuses within the groups. Because my bidders were members of a larger internet community outside of eBay, they were always up in each others business -- yada yada yada "how can she afford to buy ALL of this" and "she's charging up her credit cards, I know it" drama drama drama. From lurking on these groups (market research ) I discovered that some potential bidders were afraid to bid because they feared becoming fodder for discussion.

It's been forever since I've visited eBay so I imagine lots has changed. That said, I would have likely considered private bidding for specific auctions at my then-business, to keep bids coming in. Especially on my higher end handbags where I'd think the exclusivity of it appeal to a number of bidders (who may bid higher, then, feeling 'safe' from the prying eyes of whomever -- significant other, parents, competitors from other auctions, etc.) but also repeal a number of bidders (those who are more naturally suspicious/cautious and perhaps less willing to spend $$$.)

Maybe the seller belongs to a catty camera community akin to the ones I sold boutique clothes to or maybe the seller simply wants to be respectful of bidders who are shelling out $$$ by not airing their (the bidder's) laundry in the open for all to see? I'm sure shill bidding happens, I just don't think it's necessarily the reason behind most hidden auctions.

At any rate I don't see a real need to be overly suspicious of this type of aution -- set your price and hold to it rather than succumb to the psychology of bid wars. Hidden auction or not, you can still ask the seller specific questions and determine whether you feel comfortable bidding on said item offered by him. If you're willing to spend $1000 on an item, does it matter if you could have gotten it at $800 save for shill bidding? (If it does, then you should drop your willing-to-pay price to $800 and hold out for it). Are there guarantees that a legitimate bidder might'n't have bumped the bid up had the shill bidder not? (Not really).

I guess if you have your price in mind, ... while it's great to save where you can, the nature of eBay is that sometimes you come out on top with a smokin' deal and sometimes you come out with an okay deal. You never really lose because you set the price you're willing to pay, KWIM? And you have the same tools (email/PM) available to you to verify the products/terms of the auction as genuine to your satisfaction ... so the parameters of an auction (hidden or viewable) are kind of irrelevant in that regard.

JMO