Comments on: eBay Australia change the way User IDs are displayed

By: board_surfer

board_surfer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:23:05 +0000

The problem was fake second chance offers

Ebay took the easy solution and ruined the fun part of auctions IMO

By: pwb

pwb — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:43:04 +0000

I don’t understand the problem with the original method of showing the username. Why would Second Chance Offers be a problem? Is this just another situation where Ebay should have stuck with its original behavior?

By: Kevin_T

Kevin_T — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:48:13 +0000

If they are changing to the system that is currently used on Ebay.com, it is not all that “randomised”. The first and last letter/digit/symbol shown are always actually in the ID, and it is followed by an unclickable feedback score, which is the actual number of the user’s feedback. The alias ID is also consistant – a***g will always show as a***g for that bidder. I can readily identify a couple of my regular buyers when they are bidding on items belonging to other seller lists that I watch, and the alias has not changed over the 12 or 15 months I have observed this.

If you are familiar with the users that compete for the same things you do, you can identify them okay with practise. If you want to know who has successfully outbid you on US or AU auctions, and thus be able to identify their “alias” ID when they bid on a US dollar auction (and maybe the new Australian format if it is the same), go into the “View Sellers Other Items”, then click on completed auctions. Then, in the upper right corner click on “Text Only Format”, this will show you the last 15 days of completed auctions with the high bidders’ user ID’s visible. If you want to view the last month of that sellers auctions change “since=15″ in the URL to “since=31″. If you click on the US dollar auction, the alias ID will show on the auction, thus you can connect the alias to the bidder ID.

It seems that most bidders prefer to feel that they have been bid against by a real bidder, and not a shill. This somewhat identifiable system seems to be received better by bidders than “bidder1″ and “bidder2″, as a***g (254) does at least seem to be a real individual identity.

However, most bidders I have spoken to would actually prefer that real ID’s were still in use. This aspect does affect bidder confidence and will reduce bid prices, if bidders feel that they may be being shilled by an unidentifiable ID.

Kind Regards, Kevin

By: board_surfer

board_surfer — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:33:42 +0000

I dont care how they hide them

its a mistake for them to be hidden in any way.

By: Suz

Suz — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:52:34 +0000

I can understand hiding them, to a point. It used to be fun a few years ago when I was outbidding someone in a collectible category all of the time, we had great banter via eBay….

It then got the stage, if they bid, I wouldn’t bother, maybe its that, the anonymity is meant to make it fun?

Face it – you can tell who is bidding on somethings, as the feedback coloured star is there. So, I think that is a further deterrent too, I miss the old frenzy – as a seller and as a buyer, and the sense of community
Suz x

By: ebuyerfb

ebuyerfb — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:42:37 +0000

There is some transparency though it is very minuscule. If you already know the listings that a buyer has bid on you can see their alias consistent across those listings but in the “Bidder n” scenario that is lost across each listing. At least you now know you are bidding against the same person.

What I don’t understand is why can I see user ids on some listings? They aren’t even immediate payment required listings.