Ebay's anonymous bidding... Grrrrr!

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Does anybody else here hate ebay's new system of keeping bidders identities secret? As far as I can see it just makes it ten times harder to spot shill bidding. It's certainly discouraged me from bidding on some items!

[margamatix]

No, it's still the same, you bid what you are prepared to pay.

If someone wants to shill their item beyond that, then they have just thrown away their listing fee.

[cheeky]

I agree with the Pud. Previously, you could report a 'shill' bidder and cause untold inconvenience. Now you can't even tell - although some of the stats clearly indicate who is shilling. Still more money for Ebay I guess! What a shame this site isn't used more!!!!!!!

[coino777]

Well who are these new collectors on ebay buying some very poor condition Bullions and Clocks for silly money? I guess it's because the Bryans Bullions and a Clock machine went for higher than normal prices at the recent auctions. Must have something to do with this good condition Bullion selling for nearly £700 on ebay. Last year you would be lucky to get £450 on ebay. Strange how things can change. Who said slot machines are going down in price? !!

[JC]

I for one, am becoming extremely irritated with some of the inaccurate; misleading; and damn right wrong descriptions of some machines on ebay. Such as machines with half the mech missing described as "requires some TLC". One machine in particular, which has still got a couple of days to run (the nasty orange pained Saxony allwin), was originally described as "full working order" even though the entire payout mech was missing! The seller altered the description after I complained.

Another trick seems to be to make the machine several decades older than it really is, presumably to enhance it's value to the novice. Recent examples include: "Genuine original 1940s Bryan's Elevenses"; "Rare 1920s or 30s allwin" (which was actually a not particularly rare 1950s Ollie Whales). And there's that con artist at the moment with his Bullion - says he clearly remembers playing these as a kid in the early 1950s. Come on! No one's memory is that bad.

Jerry

[nobby.pennytoy]

Yes I agree totally with the points made by 'Yorkshire Pudding' and I also like to know who I'm bidding against!

[cheeky]

But Cheeky, you recently auctioned an early Mills Hi-top on ebay ( the one from the Coventry auction) and kept the bidders' I.D.s secret, didn't you?
And if you would like to see this site used more, why didn't you auction it here?

Nope I didn't keep the bidders ID secret - Ebay is doing that! I sold it on Ebay to attract a different audience. I take your point though and trust you will now be placing items on this auction.

[badpenny]

If the con merchant that JC refers to who remembers playing Bullions in the fifties is the same one who has just relisted a Bullion with a 50 year patina, then he's just replied the only trouble with ebay is the amazing number of people who ahev notheing better to do than be nosey busybodies ... and all for advising him that at the earliest his machine was 1963.
Oh dear!

Seems to me the only trouble with ebay is the amazing number of people who have no conscience nor any interest in being accurate in what they say in their descriptions. Bad spelling I can forgive lack of scruples I can't. Sad really.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Well, I would probably have bid higher than the final price on the Gapwin that just finished if I could have seen who I was bidding against (or at least I would have done if the seller had bothered to answer my question about serial numbers...).

I really think ebay have taken one big step backwards with this.

[badpenny]

Recognising that e-bay pretty well have a monopoly on internet auctions (this site should be a contender for slots, however !!!???) it goes without saying that they don't need to put into place many of the customer led recommendations that companies in a more competitive market would do. They don't even police their site, relying entirely upon their own customers to mail in when they spot something dodgy.

So is it any wonder that the current situation regarding bidders' I.D. has occurred. It is a short, sharp, cheap solution to a security issue which cost them nothing, was easy to do; and made it look to the the world as if they cared and were doing something.
There is a web-site called Goofbay which until the recent e-bay changes offered several useful tools. There were the usual "Show all Negative Feedback" type of options which avoided having to trawl through hundreds of feedback to find the vitriolic ones that screamed "Don't trust this thieving Nutta".
Fantastically though they also offered one where after placing an item number it told you what I.D.'s habitually bid on any items from this seller. Of course it displayed honest customers who kept coming back for more, but again and again it displayed those blatantly shilling.
That facility was removed before e-bay made bidders anonymous, I wonder why? And if it was that easy to do in the first place then why didn't e-bay have it running themselves?
Goofbay is now a shadow of its former self, it only offers the same interrogations you can find elsewhere, what a shame. Still check it out for yourselves and keep an eye on it, who knows it may be resurrected, here's hoping.

Badpenny