Btw why do some sellers use Private bid histories? How would we know if there is shill bidding? Should not be allowed!

I thought that was an ebay 'feature' ? Its been awhile since ive been able to see who bids on what
Ebay replaces the full username with 3*****3 etc

Private listings also serve to protect legitimate buyers who don't want people to look at their feedback counts and figure out who they are. Great feature!

But some sellers use a completely private listing like for the watch above which looks like below that can be easily manipulated by shill bidders. I can't see it in the usual r**r(100) type format.

I use that as well when selling , to protect buyers privacy mainly and to give resellers a chance as well
the world is really small and if the buyer doesnt want to share his purchases with the world that is OK with me

re shill bidding , the Ebay algorithms are quite good and , with a few notorious exceptions that use a wide variety of proxy servers and IP adresses , most shill bidders are caught / warned

Fair enough Rene but I prefer this format when buying a high end and cose item, I esp look for those zero or low feedback bidders who could be not genuine, but surely the system can still be rigged by the pros

"still young and stupid"