I was looking at a thread I started a couple of years ago to find some information. It was back in the day when ebay didn't block bidder names.

The thread had a nice discussion about serious collectors with deep pockets. You used to be able to watch their bidding strategies and how strategies would change if you recognized the handle of a heavy hitter.

I will never be buying a first gen Grand Sport RD for $7,000 but it used to be more fun to watch the bidding when you knew who was bidding. There is less interest when the only thing you know is the high number when the bidding ends.

Anyone else miss knowing the bidder names?

Absolutely. Knowing who you are bidding against, not necessarily their actual name, but their bidding history, how serious they are, how deep their pockets, is really useful information when you are seriously bidding. The hidden names are also a boon for unscrupulous sellers, like the guy I recently had a problem witih, who I am pretty sure uses shill bidding.

I see something I want, bid what I'm willing to pay, then go to bed. If I win, fine. If not, no biggie; somebody just wanted it more than me.

Ebay had to do this to keep the scammers from sending emails to 2nd and 3rd place bidders to buy the same item.. You would not believe how many people would fall for this scam.. I liked being able to see who I bid against too but understand why it was done..

Most things I watch on ebay I don't bid on. And I certainly don't lose sleep if I loose something when I actually bid. Call me Mrs. Kravitz, but I find it more interesting to know who is bidding in addition to the final price.

I understand why they did it, and how the increase in shill bidding is good for their bottom line. I just found an auction with hi.campy and kouzo bidding to be entertaining.

I just liked it for the shill bidding factor. Even before they made this change, I was very skeptical of situations where I thought it happened. I just can't believe that someone who had sold 100 or so items would have 9 or 10 sales to the same person when they are unrelated things. If it were 10 bike items, that would have been fine, but it seems rare that you would find the one person who was looking for a new campy RD, old fashioned ice cream maker, 1st edition Uncle Tom's Cabin, NES system, Rollie Fingers baseball card, etc. I'd avoid those sellers. Now, I have to hope for the best with them.

Regarding watching a buyer, that just doesn't seem right to me.

I miss that too. I feel it was a part of my learning experience about vintage components. Following certain bidders really opened up my eyes to the really rare stuff and watching people build up groupos appropriate to specific eras and bikes was neat. It was also fun to see where in the world the stuff was going and also to figure why it went for as much as it did. Tons of fun!

I've noticed over the years that certain components come and go in waves. Following bidders sometimes let me get in before the market exploded and the prices skyrocketed. I REALLY miss that! Seems to me that once some specific part goes for a good chunk of change the market gets flooded and the prices start climbing even more. Two examples on my watch list that have done that are Campy Ergal freewheels and Avid Arch Supreme brakes...Started low and now they're triple the cost of a year or two ago. I got my freewheel for cheap (IMO) outside ebay but I'm afraid I'll have to pay big time for the brakes 'cause I didn't catch the wave. Vintagesque (mid school) high end MTB parts are skyrocketing big time and early BMX stuff has already gone through the roof...Titron pedals anyone?

I think they eliminated a lot of bypassing the auction process and other shenanigans.

+10 I liked to look at what other items the same bidders bought.

I actually never thought about the up sides. I lost several bikes to boxdogbikes in NC back when they listed names, and learned he/she would go higher than I would on bikes that were his/her size. However, I also learned that when folks knew I was bidding on an Ironman, the price would jump, and almost always by a bidder who rarely bought anything.

I don't mind if they hid names, and all that stuff, but I'd like to know if, for example, "b***n" actually completed a transaction. It's my guess that I've bid against a bunch if shill bidders, and the shill bidders, of course, can win and simply not pay.

I've lost a few bikes in auctions, against a repeated bidder, only to get a 2nd chance offer when it fell through. I bought one item, got it and realized it was probably shill bid. When, from the same seller, I lost one, and a 2nd chance offer came in, I went back to the bid history. It was always me against one other bidder. I refused the 2nd chance offer, made an offer lower than the shill bids, and got the item 2 out of 3 times.

Now, I'm like the above poster. I decide what I want to pay, bid it, forget it.

If I get a 2nd chance offer, I review the bid history, and if it's just me and another bidder, I assume that was the shill, make an offer lower than the shill. Chances are if I don't get it, it gets relisted.

I just sold an item on ebay. I only had two bidders. The winner had a 100% feedback score, with over 1200 feedback. And here I sit, ten days later, and the "winner" still hasn't paid. When I go to the only other bidder and give them a second chance offer, I hope they don't assume it was a shill bidder.

FWIW: The item sold for about $3 over the original listing price, so its not like the missing winning bidder drove the price up.

Odd thing to me on the missing winning bidder, with over 1200 feedbacks, all of them were on purchases. The buyer had never received feedback on a sale. I thought that was pretty odd.

I also don't have feedback on sales because I don't sell things on E-Bay. I had only one second chance offer and it arrived promptly and exactly as described and the seller gave it to me for my last bid which was $10 less than the winner offered. I also look at an item, decide what it is worth to me put that down as my bid. I then go to see if I own it after my E-Mail says I do. Most times when I win I get it for less than my maximum bid. Roger

I am sure there are exceptions, but I would always automatically assume that in any second chance offer, the first chance bidder was a shill.

( I am originally from NJ )

Every time I get used to ebay changing the rules or the format into something that I don't like... they do it again.

Make no mistake, it is a well thought out plan. They know if the changes are abrupt and far reaching, there will be too much resistance. But if they incrementally change the system to benefit them by hurting their audience... most people can't maintain their indignation long enough to effect change. Companies do this, governments do this. As I write this, I remember how many times I vowed to never use ebay again because of the ways they have taken the shine off the experience.

But I still bid, they still win.

That, I guess, is why ebay still uses the terminology "winning" to describe someone who just contracted to spend way too much money on something they didn't really need.

Yeah... I thought the democratic transparency available to everyone to see what everyone was up to was an important part of the experience. If you have ever been to a live auction, you know what I mean.

You sound like another communist on this board, Purevl.


Again, shill bidding doesn't work on me because I just bid what I think the item is worth/what I'm willing to pay.

Not so odd. I keep seperate ebay ids for bidding and for selling. My buying id has no sales on it. I don't think this is an uncommon practice-- if an unscrupulous seller leaves me a negative feedback, it will not affect my selling.

On the bidding end, I use a sniping service. This neatly sidesteps the shill bidders-- they can't shill up a bid that comes in during the last few seconds of an auction. It also kills off the increment bidders, who want the item and just punch in bids until they eclipse the high bid.

Ebay's changed a bit, and has moved more towards a fixed price buy it now strategy. This works fine, but for different reasons than the old bidding strategy. The vintage stuff seems less frequent now, ten years back there always seemed to be a Motobecane Grand Record or two up for bid, now they show up infrequently. There are still good buys out there, but you have to be fairly sharp to pick up on them.

I do miss being able to search a bidder's history. There was one guy who would put in lowball bids on nearly everything in my size, for example. Much as I hate to admit it, I would sometimes use him as a search engine...

I don't think you would have trouble with that. As you pointed out, the minimal difference in price shouldn't matter much and the time delay would make sense.

I get frustrated when I get an email almost immediately after end of the auction with a second chance offer. There has been only one time that I wanted the item badly enough to take it.

As for the slow payment, you might want to give them a bit more time. I sold about 15-20 items recently and a high feedback seller won several auctions. He took a week or two to pay, but it was worth it because I didn't want to mess with relisting the same item.

EBay has become my last resort for buying things nowadays. I used to be able to find good deals pretty easily when buying used parts, frames, etc., but is becoming harder and harder now. The few eBay purchases I've made in the past couple years have mostly been Buy-It-Now sales because if the product is decent the price will usually get bid up to ridiculous levels. However, most of the time I can find better prices by simply doing a Google search for the product I am looking for. Frame prices have become ridiculous on eBay, to point that I rarely even shop for them anymore.

I recall one buyer, greatbikemoves, who always ended up paying enormous prices for vintage stuff - probably because of shill bidders. I was always amazed to see some of the closing prices when he was involved with the bidding; I passed on every one of those auctions because of my suspicions.

However, my main reason for enjoying seeing the bidders was that I connected with a few enthusiasts that way - before I found out there was an easier avenue: forums.

I always get there in the end, but sometimes it seems I end up taking the most circuitous route!

Sellers can't leave "Negatives" any more, and it's been that way for some time. Sellers could say negative things in a "Positive" feedback, but it's against the rules and will most likely be removed when Buyer complains to eBay.

Dang, I'm so old-school ebay I missed that. I'll keep sniping, though.

What the hell is that supposed to mean!

eBay to me, now that it's not exactly acting like an auction, just a very wide selection of stuff, priced already.

Paying at ebay "more than what the item's worth" can sometimes be a subjective comment, because there are many times that I think I have done so when I set a maximum price and win the items with room to spare, but still feel comfortable doing it as I am happier just getting it asap and putting it on my bike to ride with than spending countless nerve racking hours trying to win bidding wars against other collectors and restorers and still losing the item most of the time. Unless you are really just collecting for speculation purposes, it's really not worth the time effort and stress to go into countless bidding battles with other bidders. because there are jillions of other guys out there trying to get what you want too, and it comes down to a silly challenge of who can post their bid the quickest and last. If you are a low volume collector that is not planning on selling off you latest project for a profit, just save up and get what you need to make the best result for your restoration project. As long as you don't do something utterly ridiculous like paying 200+ dollars for an NOS Huret Jubillee derailleur or something...but then again, that could just be subjective for a Jubillee "super fan" driven by abad case of classic weight weenie fever, like most of us get once in a while....

Chombi

Don't bet on it. I usually bid ridiculously high on items I want (current high bid x n). I remember losing several auctions to greatbikemoves after doing just that. I know from experience that I'm not the only one who bids like that.