Posted By:
runscottSome sellers make their feedback private because they don't want their bidders contacted. Contacting someone else's bidders while an auction is ongoing is against ebay's rules, but there is no problem with contacting a winning bidder after the auction ends to give them info about their purchase that the seller neglected to include in his/her description. Naturally, someone who is selling altered cards would not want their victims contacted with that information. There are also situations where someone gets a bug up their *ss and uses the feedback list to send spam to your buyers or just 'dis you - a legitimate use of private feedback;however, if your customers are truly satisfied, they would probably contact you with the name of the offendor if this ever happened.
Sellers make their auctions private for the same reason, but in addition, it can also be used to hide shill bidding accounts - I suspect that Libertyforall uses it for that reason. Since ebay doesn't give a flip about shill bidding, it is a perfect way for Libertyforall to prime the tip jar.
Some sellers also use private auctions to simulate "real" non-ebay auctions, especially for high-end items. Scott Gaynor occasionally does this and I have no problem with it.
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no disclaimer - temporarily taking responsibility for my actions
08-20-2002, 08:27 PM
Another Example of Why there should be restrictions on Private Auctions
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