What is a Private eBay Auction? (Good Things To Know)

Private auctions are auctions with a special setting that hides the identities of all bidders. This means that people who view your auction page cannot see any of the bidders who bid on that item. It also means that doing a buyer search on anyone who has bid on a private auction will not show their user id.


Private auctions should be used when an item is highly collectible or expensive (to prevent another sellers from poaching a bidder) and to hide bidders identities on items that could be embarrassing if anyone viewed their recent bids list.


Example: I am selling a power drill. I noticed there was another seller selling the same exact power drill on eBay that has more bids than mine. I could look at the bidders on that other listing. I could click on the link: "Contact Member" to send that person an email and ask them to look at my listing. You could tell them you are selling the same power drill at a cheaper price than what they were willing to pay. You could generate more sales by doing this.

This is a way that sellers could steal bidders on other auctions and have them start bidding on their own auctions.