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Laurie Lou BearsI know that there is the new policy on e bay that bids over £100 have the bidders id's hidden but I also noticed tonight that if sellers choose to have a reserve they are also hiding the bidders id so even if they have low starting bids you still cannot see their id's.E bay has said that if the reserve is set at a certain price they do this although I am not sure what the reserve has to be.It justs seems as if there is more ways that e bay won't let you see the bidders any more.Has anyone else noticed this?
Laurie :hug:
Storytime BearsYes I HATE it and that is why I love Bid4Bears, there is no private auctions.
According to eBay they have effective anti-shill bidding measures in place . I expect they have their reasons why they don't want buyers names revealed ...probably because they don't want other sellers contacting the high bidders offering to sell outside of eBay. I am not a defender of eBay in any way ( goodness knows I have had many issues myself!!) but I have bid on items and lost then had someone offer me items similar to what I was bidding on..they must lose money this way. Though I won't lose sleep over that!!LOL
I know it's always interesting to see who is bidding on items but it doesn't worry me too much not knowing....I also think that shill bidding can happen whether the identities are revealed or not....I couldn't identify who every bidder is on auctions.
I think shill bidders will get their comeupance in the form of being found out whether the identites are revealed or not...I think it's greedy, sneaky but I think it went on just as much before they started this hidden identity thing.
Just my take on it!!!
The other reason I think it's better from our point of view is that amongst the small-ish bear buying community collectors get to know each other..they sometimes feel that they can't bid against someone they know...or will not bid if there is someone bidding who has a history of always winning so maybe they won't bid at all because of it.
I just think it takes the emotion out of it ...bona fide buyers can bid without the prospect of being targeted by every Tom, Dick and Harry. They do reveal the winner at the auction finish...but contacting members is much harder now too.
Storytime BearsThere are other ways to protect the ebay community without forcing private auctions on those of us who don't want it, such as making it impossible for another ebayer to contact you outside of ebay, any contact should go into an ebay only email box on their site. Then you turn in the person if they send fake email, that way unless the person has a business dealing, the link to try to get your private log in info becomes impossible to get.
I don't know about any of you but even with the private bidder system, I am still getting the fake, try to get your log in info emails. In fact I just got one yesterday for a shirt that I "won" that looks very official and it tells me to hit the log in button from the email to go to ebay, well I never bid on a shirt, the email was fake, they were wanting my password. Where did the protective private bidder system help in that matter?
This new system in creating distrust in the world of ebay, they are losing bidders/sellers to other sites, this is not about protecting sellers, this is about protecting money they make from shill bidders, because if the shill bidders bid up their item they make more money. If a seller wants a private auction they should get that option and if you are a bidder and you only want to bid on private auctions you had that option. They should allow those who don't want it to have that option too, thats the ebay I signed up for .
The thing is, this system is causing people to lose interest in ebay, the numbers are down, and as that happens and continues to happen it will kill ebay as we knew it. Look at Bid4bears it is a great site and the one thing that hurts it, is it hasn't built up the numbers to draw as much interest yet. But hopefully as more people get tired of ebay they will go check out that site and that will help it grow. Which I really hope it does.
If you hate the new private bidder system go to the following linK
Storytime BearsEllen I completely agree, I think the private bidder system should be an option for those that want to use it, I liked that it was there for some sellers, I guess I am just worked up that the way it was before , I LOVED, and they then took my choices away , this is not the ebay I signed up for and it is hurting some.
There is one talented artist who I absolutely LOVE on ebay and her sales have gone way down and I talked to her on the phone a couple days ago and she is so disheartened she is thinking of leaving bearmaking behind. She keeps doubting herself, questioning her talent which is so not the case. She is one of the most talented bearmakers I have ever seen. I am trying to get her to give the Toy Shoppe a try.
I know for me I can stop making bears tomorrow if I wanted and it wouldn't hurt my family, money wise, I would just lose "fun money" but for some, this is their familys main income or a very big part of it and if this new system has hurt the numbers on ebay, it is hurting those artists the most and that is really sad.
Hugs :hug:
Jodi
Ellen I wanted you to know that the baby raccoon you have on Bid4bears right now is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! 
It's just generally slow...not just for bears...the salon is deathly at the moment...and not just our salon either...lots of them. So I think it's just one of those slow times...and actually if I look at my sales year on year things are busier in reality but it seems quieter....I try to look at the year as a whole and try to keep my eyes fixed on the horizon. I think there are many bear makers having a hard time..as there are lots of business people having a hard time. But the market has a natural ebb and flow..I have had lots of new collectors sign up to my mailing list lately, so that's a positive so I keep focused on trying my hardest and hopefully sales will follow.
I don't think eBay is any worse than it's ever been..if my bear doesn't do well I'll need to look at what I did and what could have been improved.
I am not sure I can understand the new style searches on ebay though....my bear didn't show up in the artist or the Ooak sections...though I chose those sections to list my bear in..there are lots of watchers though ...so someone found him!!!
Storytime BearsI just think there are safegards that could be put in place to protect the ebay community without forcing us to sell using the hidden bidding system.
Heck I know as a bidder, I no longer enjoy bidding on ebay and for me money wise it's helped, less money spent on there which my husband loves the new system, he's the CFO at his company, so in honor of him, I will use a math setup
ebay's new hidden system - my spending= :dance: my husband :crackup:
Hugs :hug:
Jodi
Jenny here's an article I found about the new search system that might explain your problem:
" Changes Coming To eBay's Search
Earlier this week eBay announced the first of many changes to come to eBay's venerable search engine. eBay now allows bidders to search for results by category.
This is a nice move and will help buyers refine their searches to make them more relative, however it may slightly hurt sellers, as items of similar interest, but from a different category, may not show up. This could ultimately benefit eBay by incentivising more sellers to use List in Two Categories which earns additional fees for eBay.
This is only the first change however. eBay has been beta testing a major overhaul of its search engine for several months. I tried to get in on the test but was refused. I have spoken to a couple of sellers who are in the beta and they are keeping eBay confidence and won't reveal any details. So far the feedback is mostly positive --but mixed. Hopefully eBay will really get all the bugs out before rolling it out across the entire user base. "
On the dislike of the new system, heres some links of some articles :
http://collectdolls.about.com/od/auctio … denbid.htm
http://collectibles.about.com/b/a/257827.htm
