Dear Nena,

It is not necessarily a scam. I know at least a few absolutely reliable and honest sellers that make bidders’ identities private.
It is somewhat hard for me to understand why they are doing this as the real identities remain hidden at all times anyways.
With that being said, I have to note that private listings are indeed a factor that should raise a red flag.
According to my personal experience, private listings are mainly used by dishonest sellers. For the most part, it is being done to hide shill bidding (placing bids on your own lots).
You see, in order to engage in shill bidding, sellers have to create new fake accounts (users) all the time. Thus, these fake bidders have extremely limited feedback scores or none at all. If bidder identities are not private, you can easily notice that one and the same bidder with no feedback score is continuously bidding on that seller’s lots. Or there is a bunch of no-feedback-bidders competing for that seller’s lots. So, there is a good chance you’ll get suspicious that something fishy is going on. They (dishonest sellers) don’t want that. Therefore, they make bidders’ identities private (hide them), and bidders have no idea with whom they are competing.
My estimate is that at least 9 out of 10 sellers who make their listings private are scammers.

Regards, Editor

As Eric rightly noted, this happens due to automatic bidding. However, it is important to note that automatic bidding, although it may seem a very convenient tool, is not a smart choice. It inevitably leads to paying more.
There are other foolish mistakes bidders make, too. For example, engaging in bidding wars. If you want to find out how to bid on eBay and pay less, read this post: https://www.shopperlib.com/how-to-bid-to-win-on-ebay-3-simple-tips/
This post describes in detail what mistakes eBay bidders make, how to avoid them, and what is the most effective bidding strategy.
It is not rocket science, but you’ll be surprised how many eBay bidders make mistakes and grossly overpay as a result.

Best regards, Editor

Dear Paulo,

There are two things I’d like to say about Westfield Jewelry Appraisers:
The good thing is that they are perfectly clear and honest about the gemstone treatment methods in their certificates. For example, if a ruby is lead glass-filled, they state “treatment: glass & flux”. Many labs (or so-called labs) do not disclose such information. Westfield Jewelry Appraisers are not like that.
The bad thing, however, is that their estimated retail values are extremely inflated (as Anna has already mentioned). Actually, they are shamelessly lying about the market value of the items they certify.
Therefore, I find this lab very interesting – on the one hand, they are perfectly consistent and professional; on the other hand, they are just a bunch of scammers printing certificates with totally fake retail estimates.

Best regards, Editor