Private listing, bidders' identities protected - why?

[EvilRotation]

I'm currently watching something where this comes up on the bidding history. I don't get it, the only information that you normally get is es has bid 3 times and rp has bid twice. Why is it ever necessary to protect identities when they're already protected?

Is this some sort of scam?

Bumping as it ends in 14 minutes!

Less than 8 minutes to go, would love to know before I bid...

Is it something embarrassing?

No, kids toy!

It went for more than I would have paid in the end but I'm still curious.

All bidding histories look like that don't they - it is to protect the bidders. They changed it a while ago.

No, it doesn't look normal to me, this doesn't even have the starred out information so you can see how many bids each person has put in, every bid is just listed as private. It just looks a bit odd.

I have seen this lots of times. (addicted to Internet shopping)

It's not a scam or anything.

Maybe I just don't ebay enough, I've not seen it before. I could understand if your identity was given on the bid, but given it's made anonymous anyway, it just seems a bit overkill. I was wondering if it's an attempt to hide the fact all bids are made by the same person? That's the part that made me wonder if there was a scam element.

so it will be a private listing then? Maybe they just want to be anonymous - it doesn't always have to be sinister.

I thought private listings were for the people who bought used underwear though? It just seems odd having it on a child's ride on tractor, I'd not be ashamed of buying or selling one.

Maybe they also sell such things and haven't un-ticked the box in the listing.

Or maybe they don't like their friends and family looking at what they are selling.

I agree - they probably don't want friends snooping

I thought this was just for the whiffy slippers brigade.

However I bought an entirely innocuous item recently that was listed as 'private' in my history. Oddo.

I know some sellers will use a private listing to hide questionable items or bidding, but others just want to be private. I know I use a spare eBay account to buy Christmas presents as one friend does know my id and looks at what I buy. Some folk do just want privacy.

I did have a look at his feedback and all his other stuff wasn't private, too late to ask now though. Maybe there is a nosey friend/relative who had expressed an interest in having it at a knockdown price and he didn't want them to know!

they could have accidentally ticked the box for private listing and not even realised.