I was just checking eBay and noticed there was one bid on a limited edition St. Augustine. The minimum bid was $400, which is nice to see but the seller and bidder should go for a reality check in the current market we have today. The piece is flag# 5111 which doesn't make it rare by any means. The part I thought was odd was the bidder's eBay ID is hidden. I know this option is available, but I've never seen it used before.

Have any of you seen a bidder hide his or her ID before? Could it be for the purpose of inspiring other people to bid on something that is listed too high?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3269538542&category=11132

Bob

Hi Bob,

In all of my E-bay experience I have never seen a private user ID. I have seen private feedback (which still allows you to see # of positives & negatives for the user, just not the actual comments).

So I did a search on their Community answer boards. Seems that the seller sets up the auction as hiding bidder's IDs. You the bidder, can make feedback private but not your ID. The several threads I read indicated that sellers hide bidders IDs for various reasons. The obvious one being they are selling 'adult' items and want to encourage bidding by the 'shy' person. The second is that the seller doesn't want other sellers soliciting the bidders on their auction with the same or cheaper items. The third is to hide the fact the seller is 'shill' bidding up his own auction.

Don't know about anyone else but this auction with a brand new seller and zero feedback would take one HUGE leap of faith to bid on esp. @ $400+! Plus no pictures, plus hidden bidders.

Most E-bayers responding to the private user ID threads stated that they steer clear of any of those auctions.

Donna

Hi Donna, ... You're quite a detective! Thank you for your informative post.

I just checked to see if there were any other bids on it before the auction ended, and there wasn't any. I forgot to mention in my topic starting post that there was a reserve on this auction, and that one bid did not meet it.

Would any of you connected collectors pay $400 or more for a limited edition St. Augustine with a flag# near the end of the run for that piece? How low would the flag# have to be before you would be tempted? Would it have to be a single digit, two-digit, or triple digit? Does anybody know for sure what was the highest price paid for a St. A's LE?

Bob

I wouldn't pay 400.00 from a new seller and no pics. Private bidders option at that. Not me.