Hey all! Just wondering what other's thoughts are on this topic.

Every once in awhile, I come upon an Ebay auction from sellers who have decided to keep their eBay feedback details private. This morning was one of those times.

The item is right up my collecting focus alley, and would be a welcome addition to my collection. (I won't give out the auction, as I don't like "outing" auctions, but I'm sure you guys can guess at least the figure involved. :) )

Now...why one earth would a seller want to hide his feedback specifics? To what beneficial end does this serve? For the life of me, I cannot think of one well intentioned purpose. Why does the seller not want a potential bidder to see an assessment of his past transactions?

Does the seller think that by hiding the details, they remove buyer's doubt? An quick evaluation of the feedback positive/negative percentage would usually lead to a decision to bid anyway.

As would generally be presumed, I conclude that in hiding the details of their feedback, sellers are only intending to cover-up the "bad marks" on their records. Their virtual records are sealed!

So...who the heck would throw caution to the wind and bid to win with such a seller?

What do you guys think?

EDIT: I should clarify that I would NEVER bid on an auction from a seller with hidden feedback. For a seller to do this, is to immediately stupefy any desire to bid on the particular auction.

-Peter

Sounds like a con artist to me, I would stay as far away as possible from the seller.

If you dont have anything to hide, why would you hide it?

Actually, I have a friend who sells alot of different things on Ebay and his feedback private as well. Mainly because he sells some adult items as well as some more "innocent" toys. With the way the feedback systems works the auction number contains a link to the auction that feedback has been left for. If little Billy is looking for some G.I. Joe toys and happens to click on one of those links Billy may not stay little very long.

Or.....he/she could just be hiding something.....

Either way it is a red flag in my book. These days who can take a chance?

Also keep in mind that they can neg you, but what can you do to them? Neg them? What good will it do if no one can see it?

One more thing that is kinda off topic. I got positive feedback from gunny_sgt_jutkendo (used to be jedisarlaac). He then followed up to his own feedback with the following comment "I eat flour and cheddar and crap macaroni and cheese" What is this all about. And of coarse his feedback is blocked so I cant see if he does this to everyone. I dont care, it is just very odd!

I guess when you have a rare ability like that, you've got to tell somebody.

I almost hid mine the other day. I've gotten the bug again and have been spending more than I should. This way if my brother give's my Wife or my parents (whom I am living with currently) the info on my account. They couldn't see how much I have spent. But a lot of what I am spending is money for stuff I have sold. But still it's not the way they see it.

I actually have a friend who has their feedback private. You can still see their overall score, percentage, etc. You just can't see the specifics.

Unless I know the seller VEEEEEEEEERY well, there's absolutely no way I'd buy from a seller with private feedback.

If feedbacksdetails are hidden I will not bid, no matter how nice the item. I know only the total is important when it comes to feedback. But if feedback is not full 100% I like to examine who made the complaint.

If you hide feedback because you sell both kids and adult items: get two accounts and keep the stuff separated. Hiding details of feedback is only backfiring at seller.

I would only bid on a hidden feedback seller if the item was going to close within the $200 covered by ebay's fraud protection and was so interested in the item that I'd be willing to eat the $25 processing fee in the event that I was screwed over.

Considering that the item I presume you're referencing will likely go for a few times that amount, I would ask the seller to use escrow. If a buyer offers to pay the escrow fees, a seller should have no reason to deny the service unless he's/she's a fraud.

I once got a good deal off of a zero feedback seller this way. Nobody else was willing to risk it, and it closed way low. The cost of the service was much less than the premium I would have paid for buying it from someone reputable.

If feedbacksdetails are hidden I will not bid, no matter how nice the item. I know only the total is important when it comes to feedback. But if feedback is not full 100% I like to examine who made the complaint.

If you hide feedback because you sell both kids and adult items: get two accounts and keep the stuff separated. Hiding details of feedback is only backfiring at seller.

I agree. I often times get good wins from people with negative feedback that was given to them by people that opted not to buy insurance. Since they have some negatives, not many bidder bid. Anyway, if the comments are hidden, I will only bid if they have 99% and up.

I've seen a few nice auctions I would have bid on but the feedback was hidden and the user had some really wierd policies in place. Possibly he had been screwed before but as a whole it all seemed a little fishy.

As for the Adult items, I thought those come up as Private so you can't even see them without having a CC on file?

I would. I'm brave (or foolish, it IS a thin line after all), and am willing to go for a good possible instead of a definite no. I'm willing to use my resources and the legal system to keep me covered. If a deal seems to good to be true, I'll try anyway. it's how I'm in the process of scoring a really nice red laser for $22 shipped.

I never bid when someone has private feedback. Its just to risky