i'm bidding against a private listing bidders identity protected

[kehew654]

I am making some bids, and I'm just wondering if the person i'm bidding against is allowed to have themselves listed as "a Private listing - Bidders identity protected" ?   The reason why I'm asking is because I have bid for other stuff and have always noticed that they have their screen names, but, for some reason this time around the things i'm bidding for have "A private listing-bidders identity protected"   I wanted to know if the bidder i'm going against is allowed to do that, because I don't want to waste my time, especially if the bidder is actually the seller I'm bidding against?

[kroutpick]

The seller choose the status of his items.

For a private listing, all bidders will be shown as "private", you can only see your name, other bidders will also see you as "private", so you can't know how much bidders are actually part of this auction.

[reallynicestamps]

especially if the bidder is actually the seller I'm bidding against?

That is 'shill bidding' and is against both eBay policy and the law of the land.

If you are being outbid by a particular bidder constantly, it is unlikely that this is shilling, because a shiller does not want to win. He wants you to win at the highest price you are willing to pay.

Shillers usually will chase the high bid until they surpass it and then Retract their bid.

If this is happening, Report the auction to eBay Customer Support. They will not tell you the outcome of their investigation, perhaps because most of theses complaints are misunderstandings or mischievous..

Your best protection against shilling is to bid only once, bid your maximum, and bid late. Bidding late does not leave the shiller enough time to bid and retract.