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Ebay - How to tell who outbid you and how to tell what others are buying.

Ebay changed rules and some other things back in 2008. There used to be a 3 month history of completed auctions and buyers history but that has been reduced to 4 weeks or so. Still you can tell who outbid you at the last second on that item you bid on.

Any Ebay user can do this and its all perfectly legal since it is public information.

First thing is to click on the "Advanced Search" link to the right of the main green colored search button. Options show up on the left side.
Next you click on the "Items - By Bidder" link.
Next you type in your eBay user id into the box indicated.
Check mark the box indicated "Include Completed Listings(30 Days).
Leave the "As High Bidder only" box unchecked.
Adjust the "Results per Page" option and click the blue Search button.

The results can be placed in order by clicking the header "Start" - "End" - "Price" - "Seller". I usually arrange the results by ending date. Now you can go down the list and it will show auctions that you have won or lost and the winning eBay users id who beat you. This will not work on auctions where the seller has chosen to keep the bidders id "Private". You can do this same thing for other eBay users but it will only list the auctions they have won.

Some other useful things to know is you can get the actual name of any eBay user identity. Use the same "Advanced" search but click the link "Members - Find Contact Information". You are required to place a bid on one of their items and then you can use this tool. When you do it will send an email with their name and phone number and sometimes the state they registered. Ebay will also send the same email with YOUR information to the same person you just checked on.

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Comment by Wayne Whitted on February 20, 2012 at 8:46: I am glad you have found this information useful!

Comment by Ron Cooper on February 20, 2012 at 3:27: typical of me to get to the party late, but i wanted to thank you for passing this information on, wayne. thanks!

Comment by stephen tungate on March 7, 2011 at 20:10: iam a new ebay seller when i came here i seen others sold on ebay.so i thought i would give it a try.man how can a person make anything at the prices that they were selling good knifes for i had to take mine down in price to were you was losing money.is there a soloution to this or how are they making any money i sure could use some advice because it would be cheaper to keep them than keep losing money.

Comment by Michael Kelley Sr. on February 27, 2011 at 13:32: Well that definitely works, I tried it and found an item that I was outbid on 27 days ago and didn't even remember bidding on.

Have also been (mostly) selling on that East Bay Auction site since 1999, back then you could call direct and someone would answer the phone and actually care and email you for ideas.

Took time off for three back surgeries and now it's a buyers market with the exception of some recession proof item's.

Not sure what benefit this option has for me but it's always good to have another tool.

Thanks all the same for sharing this info.