The GOOD old days

[ga-877480]

Does anybody remember the good old days, when we found an auction of interest, CLICKED on the bids made, taking us to the BIDDING HISTORY of that auction, where you would find that ebay had encrypted the bidders user names, and you COULD have clicked on ANY "name", to be taken to that bidders BID HISTORY: BIDDERS DETAILS page, where you could? well, in effect check out the opposition.

Check its bidding history with the seller

Check its bid retractions in the past 30 days AND 12 months, for example

Total bids: 13

Items bid on: 5

Bid activity (%) with this seller: 46%

Bid retractions: 3

Bid retractions (12 months): 7

I ask y'all, would you get involved in an auction, with a bidder with THIS record? I wouldn't AND YET ebay blocked our ability to make these checks...leastways for us, in the UK, but WHY? to protect WHO?

[fotherbale]

Some of us can remember when ebay didn't even encrypt the bidders user names on the listing page - you could see the user name of the high bidder, and the bid history showed the names of all the previous bidders, so you could check not only what their bidding history was like, you could also see what they had been bidding on and the name of the seller in each case and check over their feedback history. 

I don't go back quite far enough to be able to remember when it was possible to leave feedback for another member regardless of whether or not you had a transaction with them!

As to why they have stopped us seeing the bid history (even in anonymised form, I can only wonder what they are trying to hide.  I have my suspicions 😉

[edwardian-dreams]

In the good old days if a buyer was a scammer you could leave negative feedback for them ergo warning others of their criminality 

but eBay in their wisdom decided all buyers are perfect 

that’s just one thing I remember about the good old days 

[fotherbale]

What actually happened was ebay decided to do something about unscrupulous sellers scamming buyers and using feedback extortion to get away with it. 

If seller really want ebay to do something about the bad buyers, then make sure you report them via the correct procedures.  

The reason that nothing seems to get done about them is mainly because of stupid sellers who don't use the reporting procedures for problem buyers, and instead mistakenly think they they are doing other sellers a favour by leaving a positive with a negative comment - not only breaching ebay rules and putting their own account a risk of restrictions, but the ebay system only sees the positive so everything appears tickety-boo.  

Added to which, if the bad buyer knows the system, they can report the false positive feedback left for them and ebay will remove the comment, so ultimately the seller has actually aided the bad buyer to continue buying, and done absolutely zero to help anyone!.

[edwardian-dreams]

Oh right

so there’s as many scamming sellers as scamming buyers? I doubt it 

if a buyer is a sh it I want to be able to warn others 

the reporting system will certainly not do the same job 

[fotherbale]

It will do far more than leaving a false positive will. 

And yes, I would say there are easily as many scamming sellers on ebay as there are scamming buyers.  In fact, judging from the posts I read in here, I would say there are a higher proportion of dishonest sellers than there are dishonest buyers.

But ebay sellers always seem to think that it is only they who are hard done to.

[edwardian-dreams]

Ok 

I get you now 

still the normal feedback would be better

all other online places have it except eBay 

[themidnightcaller]

I remember being able to look at the bids and seeing the same 0 feedback bidder upping the price

on all the same seller's auctions (very naughty)..

[themidnightcaller]

I should add to the post above that the bidding user names at that time were not encrypted.

[harb_7542]

Picture the scene people...

YOU are in the market for a Laptop, and you find a few of interest.

This was when we COULD click on the bids made, THEN on the encrypted name of a bidder, to be taken to that bidders bidding history, and this is where the trouble started...for me.

How to spot  shill bidders

You see, ebay encrypted (just scrambled, think of it as an Anagram) our user name, BUT our feedback score was still showing 😉

As I say, I found a few auctions for the same type of Laptop, but from erm...different sellers 🤔

I had 3 "sellers", with the same 2 bidders in the top 2 slots, fighting it out...apparently, in multiple auctions, running at the SAME TIME 🙄

It didn't take long to notice that the 3 sellers had the same feedback score as the 3 top bidders in all the auctions, THEN when I CLICKED on the bids (as once we could) and then CLICKED on the bidders encrypted ID, and found myself in that bidders BID HISTORY?  I noticed the high % of bids that went to the seller in question, but also noted the RETRACTION history (for the past 30 days & 12 months) ran into triple figures...for all of them, but it got better .

Do y'all remember a ". com" company called SHIPLY? (yer gotta be SO careful on this site) who work hand in glove with ebay...check it out. Go to the site, CLICK on GET QUOTES (top right ) (and possibly an item) and notice how the site is geared to work with ebay.

Is this an ebay item?

Describe briefly what you need to move

e.g. Table and chairs

Well, TIME WAS  you could pop in the item number, and have the GENERAL location (Town & street) pop up...until it was pointed out TO EBAY that, in this way, I had found 3? sellers of the same Laptops at the same address, and could ID them as BIDDERS in each others auctions, and soon after?

Our ability to access a bidders bid history page is GREYED-OUT, *and you can no longer see as much locational detail via SHIPLY* 

Ebay Trust and safety 🤔  MY WRINKLY A**🤣

*How to once again access the bidding history by clicking on the bidders encrypted user id, after clicking on the BIDS MADE

Alter the ADDRESS at the top of the page, swapping  out "co uk"  for "com" , and when you hit ENTER ? BINGO 😇  

So why are WE (in the UK)  blocked from access to a bidders bid history page, but not  if you are in a .com region? I think the answer is simple. Firstly, ebay can get away with it on THIS side of the pond, and secondly, for the FVF.

[harb_7542]

Funny thing is, that you/we not only have our user name encrypted in the bidders list, but a SECOND encryption can be seen, in that bidders bid history page. Hell, why not go the whole hog ebay,  and all we see is "bidders ID protected"  (as I recently noticed in a currant auction, when I double checked you could still see that 2nd encrypted ID, in the bidders bid history) It's been a while since I've seen that.

Good ol ebay eh, making this selling platform a SCAMMERS paradise.

[harb_7542]

Well, it all boils down to the FVF doesn't it, and ebay?  I guess STILL act the the three wise monkeys   🙉  🙈...all the way to the bank.

The better the scammer, the higher the closing £, the higher the FVF, AKA the proceeds of crime, it's THAT simple.

We couldn't even name a scammer? I think it's still against the rules to "Name and shame"?

[nat11911]

In the old days when you could see bidders' usernames there was a website where you could insert the usernames of both seller and bidder and see how much shilling between the two was going on. Can't remember the website name though. And you could also see what your fellow collectors were currently bidding on - that was a great way of finding items you hadn't been able to find yourself! Those were the days!