how does one become a private bidder

[2lza]

I bid on an item and then see that it a private bidder listing, how can I be a private bidder and how do we know the seller is raising the bid?

[theafkgamer]

Sellers can choose whether or not they want their listing to be private. If a listing is public, the bidders name will appear with astericks (*) in the middle of it. So if I bid on an item, it would appear as M*****s(271)

[heidilynn0_3]

Public or private you are the only one who can see your real ID , other than seller.

[oskye]

Put another way 🙂  if you are looking at the Bid History and you see that every bidder is showing as "Private Bidder", this is an auction that the seller has designated as Private.  Which means ALL bidders show as private  - including you.  You see your ID because you are the one viewing the list.  But your bids show as "Private Bidder" to everyone else. 

With a Private auction you have no idea if the bids are being made by several people or the same person. So, you don't know if there are repeat bidders, automatic bids, etc.  But, likewise, the other bidders can't make any inferences about you either.