Seller - sandiegowill

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Posted By: Josh K.

I know we have posted about this seller in the past and that most people who have bought from this seller have had positive things to say. Has anybody noticed that he/she is now keeping all bidder id's private? I emailed for an explaination and got no response. It seems a little strange to me. Does this alter anyone's perception of this seller or raise any red flags with anyone (I should note that the seller's feedback remains public)?

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Posted By: ramram

I've dealt with the them in the past with no problems but I can't imagine any reputable dealer making that move...considering the stigma that goes with it (private auctions) and how it keeps bids down.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

It doesn't alter my favorable perception of this seller, but I am curious about the motivation for this choice.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

I was surprised as well when I first saw the private auction setup on one of his items and thought at the time it was just a fluke. Evidently, it is a conscious decision. I've gotten a couple of things from Will and have never had an issue with them.

I will say, however, in my experience he is not great about answering his emails.

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Posted By: Craig

I have bought multiple items from Will and never had a problem.
Email communication is slow but understandable given the number of internet transactions he deals with. I have also participated in buying game used equipment directly from NFL teams on ebay and they also have started keeping bidders ids private.

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

he has done this to prevent auction interference. There are several people out there running scams where they pose as the seller offering to the underbidders items just sold. So it is possible he is merely trying to protect his buyers and his reputation.

It is a deterrent to be bidding in an auction that is private but then again every telephone auction we participate in is no different. Sandiegowill has a high enough feedback profile that it would not bother me too much but an explanation would be great.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

The phone number for sandiegowill is in the auction descriptions.

About 10 days ago "SanDiegoWill" updated the ebay auction software and it wasn't noticed that the default for the software was set to keep the User ID private for the bidders. After setting up a few auctions they noticed this and didn't know how this was happening. Extreme measures were taken to the point that the computer was torn apart to figure out what was going on. After the reason was found for this problem it was resolved and now all auctions will not have the bidders ID kept private.

SanDiegoWill is a trustworthy seller on ebay and he has run nothing but honest auctions in the past.

To be honest with everyone I also wondered what was going on. I figured there was a rational explanation and there was. All we had to do was call.

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Posted By: Josh K.

Thanks for the responses and to the Judge for getting to the bottom of this.

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Posted By: Will Hays

Here is the news from the source. Let me address these issues directly. Keep in mind that I do not monitor these boards regularly so direct comments to me directly via email will@willhays.com or phone 619-222-5683.

The private auction thing was kind of a screw-up on Ebay's part. When we downloaded our latest version of auction software, the "PRIVATE" option was selected, by the software - not by me, as the default. So, we unwittingly posted about ten days of auctions with the new default. We have corrected this and all new auctions will be back to normal.

The good news for all the consipiracy theorists out there is that I don't have time to clown around with individual items once they're on Ebay. Imagine how busy I am kept selling 400+ items a week virtually all by myself. Think I have time to log onto Ebay and follow them individually? With all the traveling I do?

Regarding email responses. Feeling slighted that an email response wasn't adequate requires much assumption and you know what happens when you assume. You have to assume that a) your message was received (that's a somewhat large assumption), b) that is was read by me (not that big), c) that I ignored it or didn't reply, or d) that my reply was not itself undelivered.

Solution for email's built-in inadequacy - USE THE PHONE!!! That's why we put it in all of our listings.

Thanks to all of you for the kindness shown to us in the vast majority of your comments regarding SANDIEGOWILL.

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Posted By: Julie

very healthy price (reserve). I never re-visited to find out whether reserve got met or not. I have always followed Mark Macrae's policy of charging by the book on REGULAR Colgans. End of very short story, and I have no more Colgans to sell.

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Posted By: Josh K.

Will - Thanks for the response - however, I dont believe anyone on this board thought that there was some big "conspiracy" behind the change. I, and apparently others, were simply curious as to why the auctions were private - nothing more, nothing less. In fact, every time anyone has brought you up on this board (this thread included) the comments have always been positive. If this wasnt the case, then maybe we would be talking about a conspiracy.

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Posted By: jay behrens

This hasn't been the first time a seller has unknowingly had his auction become private becuase eBay likes to set their default that way. Make no sense, but eBay does that. When I saw this thread, I figured that is what happened to Will.

Jay

I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

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Posted By: Howie

A lot of the problems with email now are caused by the fast growing Spam email filtering programs either purchased or built into some ISP's. Emails are rejected deleted or put into junk folders. If they're no set up right or not trained to work for the individual user then emails and responses just vanish. You can send 20 emails to a guy who gets none or get 20 replies and you never see them. The last thing anybody should assume is that a buyer or seller is intentionally ignoring an email they did in fact receive and read. If in doubt try calling.

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Posted By: Robert

Thanks for the explanation sadiegowill!

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Posted By: Will Hays

Thanks, Josh, for the note. I'm not suggesting a fear of conspiracy or any conspiring at all, for that matter. I'm glad we got the 'private' issue sorted out, but the only way that could be abused, I think, would be if the seller was somehow manipulating auctions himself under the cloak of non-disclosure of bidder name. My point is only that I really don't have the time to mess with that stuff and it's dishonest anyway.

We just post 'em and let 'em run. All of our items are consigned, by the way, so, while I want to get the highest prices I can, I'm not at all interested in keeping material regardless of the final bid price. I like it that way; keeps me out of the equation and, hopefully, increases bidder confidence.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I am getting a lot of spam from people who want to sell me cards like the ones I underbid. Perhaps keeping the ID's of the bidders private (not the seller's feedbacks) isn't so bad after all.

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Posted By: Jeff S

I wouldn't be surprised to see eBay take a step pretty soon to all but eliminate post-auction spam of the sort Adam and others are talking about. As most of you probably know, eBay gives sellers the option to make "2nd chance offers," which allow sellers to sell duplicates or unpaid items to underbidders at reduced eBay fees and with greater buyer confidence.

It wouldn't be a drastic step, nor would it be out of line with eBay's previous user-anonymity moves, to simply make underbidder id's unavailable to everyone other than the seller after the auction is over. It'd be a downer to some of us who like to keep tabs on what our friends are bidding on, but particularly if eBay kept the actual bid frequency & amounts available, it wouldn't be a huge negative, as I see it.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

Another alternative - If ebay only allowed the bidders (and seller) of the auction to see the bidders list. This still leaves a little room for trouble but it will minimize a lot of the problems that people are mentioning. Obviously you will have to be logged in to "myebay" to see the bidders list (if you happened to bid on an item).