Ebay, what's the deal with 'private bidders'?

[Buggsilla]

So I'm just sitting here surfing 2nd hand furniture on ebay and I see one item I like. It already has bids, so I look at the bidding & every bid is made with their identity hidden! How do people do this? How do I hide my identity? Why does ebay even allow this? What's the point? In this case I suspect is so the seller can benefit from cheaper selling fees (starting at 99p) and yet guarantee a minimum sale price. Can you have a look & tell me what you think?

Also, it says there were 4 bidders. So 4 random people all had hidden identities?

Its a private listing. All bidders will appear like that.

Do you know why a seller would choose to do this? @Namechange1345677 I can't see any advantage

Sometimes it might be its a 'sensitive' item that they don't want ppls names to appear and it won't appear in feedback listing. I've seen it with fetish items more than anything else..

In the past I've had to hide identity of bidders as I had a problem with 2 bidders out bidding each other then the winner would cancel on me......