Ebay Usernames

I believe it's to reserve the buyer's privacy. I could be wrong.

I believe it's all the above.

The policy of hiding ebay bidder names was done in part to stop people like me who would contact bidders and ask if they were aware they were bidding on a counterfeit. I used to do that at least 10 times a day and I had a form letter I copied to save time. I asked the bidder to write for particulars (proof). ebay considered that Bid Tampering - I was cutting into the "legitimate" business of several large volume sellers (all from China - well before it became front page news about their fakes).

Identifying bidders also allowed me to track shill bidders - but ebay never did anything. There was one case I recall about 8 years ago, where in one week ONE NEW BIDDER (from China) bid over 200 times on ONE SELLER'S (from China)counterfeit pillar dollars - winning NONE but driving up prices 100% (about $4000). In the same period - he bid on NOTHING else from anyone else. He passed up all other Pillar dollars. I sent all the data I gathered to ebay and they said it was "not adequate" to prove anything. Both bidder and seller disappeared about a month later - but ebay got their fees. In one weekend, while I was still tracking these guys they sold over $12,500 worth of modern counterfeit JUNK. ONE WEEKEND!

But during the period when identities were open, I met a lot of new friends - some I still correspond with nearly 10 years later.

I also tracked people who collected counterfeits. I had a list of nearly 350 when ebay changed the policy.

carmykle There is no specific formula for identifying fraud. The Chinese are very prolific. I can tell you that they have made every date and mint Trade dollar, Morgan, Peace, Seated Liberty and Bust Dollar ever made. In fact they have a longer check list than the US mint because they make a lot of fantasy date/mint combinations that never existed. The Chinese have also completed a full set of Bust Halves and are working on many other US series - from Indian Head pennies Buffalo nickels.

I would avoid almost every seller from China and Hong Kong as a result. But the secondary market is where the trouble starts. A buyer gets stuck and then posts the coin on ebay to try to cover part of his loss. This second fraud is worse than the first.

The Chinese start their coins at anywhere from $0.01 to $99.99.

To be safe know the seller or KNOW the coin VERY WELL.