Flippa changes the bidding info

[grynge]

Finally Flippa has taken some advice and changed the bidding history

I actually like this step forward in showing up wether or not a bidder is an active bidder or a newbie. I still wish the bids weren't private but that is my pet hate. At least this goes one step towards being able to spot a shill bid.

What do you think good step or bad step?

[grynge]

Can anyone explain why the bidder numbers on flippa never go in order?

For example

Bidder 5 has bid on 26 listings from 25 sellers	$65	5 days ago
Bidder 15 has bid on 84 listings from 36 sellers	$50	5 days ago
Bidder 4 has bid on 14 listings from 13 sellers	$35	5 days ago
Bidder 3 has bid on 59 listings from 46 sellers	$30	5 days ago
Bidder 17 has bid on 56 listings from 31 sellers	$25	5 days ago
Bidder 15 has bid on 84 listings from 36 sellers	$20	7 days ago
Bidder 2 has bid on 6 listings from 6 sellers	$10	7 days ago
Bidder 4 has bid on 14 listings from 13 sellers	$5	7 days ago
Bidder 1 has bid on 37 listings from 36 sellers

How does it jump from 2 to 15?
Is it the actual order of bids or the order the bids were accepted?

[Clinton]

I don't know about bidder numbers not going in order. Maybe OLEchat or andrew can shed some light.

When I bid on a listing now, this is what the seller sees about me:

...
has bid on 51 listings from 51 sellers

But I was wondering how this changed anything. Anyone who wants to shill bid can now simply put in a few $1 bids on auctions that have reserves ... just so they can build their profiles and appear like they are not shill bidders. False sense of security, no?

[Clinton]

Just tested. If I bid too quickly on multiple auctions I get this

We're sorry, but your bid has been rejected automatically by the system because the number of bids you have placed in a given time period is abnormally high. Assuming your bid is legitimate, please give it a minute and try again.

But it seems I need to wait only a minute or two between each bid to bypass that block. For now I've made just one bid.

I bid on a random site that has a reserve and a starting price of $1: this auction. I figure if there's a reserve then my $1 bid ain't going to win this. (Even if it does, it'll cost a shill bidder just $20 to build up a half-decent profile on Flippa at $1 a go).

And Bingo, my profile has gone up to

...has bid on 52 listings from 52 sellers

[grynge]

Maybe they could add a starting date.

has bid on 52 listings from 52 sellers in a period of 1 week
has bid on 52 listings from 52 sellers in a period of 3 years 7 months

[benitez17]

Can anyone explain why the bidder numbers on flippa never go in order?

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that is irritated by that.

I like it as a buyer because I can spot potential shill bidders, as you mentioned.

Nice work Flippa.

[Clinton]

Anyone checking my profile later this weekend will see

...has bid on 60 listings from 60 sellers

Or maybe 65.

Bentz, how would you tell whether those bids made were serious bids ... or $1 bids to build profile?

I sometimes wonder if Flippa thinks these things through!

[benitez17]

Bentz, how would you tell whether those bids made were serious bids ... or $1 bids to build profile?

You can't. I would prefer to go back to the old days of the Sitepoint Marketplace where you could see who was bidding and look at their history, but this is a step in the right direction in my opinion.

If people game the system like you describe, it will be worthless. Hopefully Flippa will follow this up by showing the history between the bidder and the seller, their complete bid history, and other useful data.

[OLechat]

Hi grynge -- the Bidder numbers take into account rejected bids, and the numbers appear in the order the bids were accepted. This is sometimes in reverse order as, for example, when a seller gets emails overnight and approves bids in the morning, starting with the newest one.

[grynge]

OLechat, I was wondering are you guys going to expand on the bidder history something like ebays?

Bidder Information
Bidder: e***r ( 0 ) New eBay Member (less than 30 days)
Feedback: 0% Positive
Item description: Item Title: Canon EOS 600D / Rebel T3i 18.0 MP Digital SLR Camera - Black
Bids on this item: 7

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 16
Items bid on: 5
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 43% Help
Bid retractions: 0
Bid retractions (6 months): 0

Then it goes on to list the last 30 days bidding history

30-Day Bid History
Category No. of Bids Seller Help Last Bid Help
Cameras > Digital SLR 7 Seller 1 15h
Cameras > Digital SLR 1 Seller 2 3d 19h
Cameras > Digital SLR 1 Seller 3 3h
Cameras > Digital SLR 4 Seller 4 2h
Cameras > Digital SLR 3 Seller 5 1h

Not sure if other people here would agree but I think with that kind of more open bidding transparency I would be inclined to bid a bit more often if I can research other bidders and their histories.