eMoviePoster.com

Almost EVERY major auction site there is completely hides exactly WHO is bidding on each item, including eBay, which USED to be the most transparent auction there was. But one by one all these auctions have taken to "hiding" their bidders IDs, so you don't know if the person bidding on one item is bidding on others, and you don't even know for sure that there are "real" bidders.

In fact, such auctions are a paradise for "shill bidders" (either the consignors of the items, or the auctioneers, who often own a high percentage of what they auction). When you add to that the fact that just about every auction we know of (except us!) can see exactly what bidders are bidding (ever their supposedly "secret" maximums), it is the easiest thing in the world for them to enter bids just under the secret maximum, to ensure the bidders pay the highest amount they were willing to pay, even if there was no "real" second bidder at all.

And on eBay, where we have never heard of people learning of other bidders secret maximums, there is a different way to do this. A bidder enters a sky high bid, which exposes the bidders maximum, and then the bidder quickly "cancels" his bid, claiming it was a "mistake", and then, near the auction's end, he uses a second account to enter a bid just under the formerly secret maximum, which again ensure the bidders pay the highest amount they were willing to pay, even if there was no "real" second bidder at all.

But back to how only we at eMoviePoster.com does not hide WHO is bidding, or the exact bid history. We not only show you the full bidder ID of every bidder, but we also provide you with complete bid histories, that show you exactly who placed every bid, and when, and what was the result after every bid. This is vital information that every auction SHOULD provide, but none do.

But even though you can see ALL the bidders on every eMoviePoster.com auction, anyone looking at our auctions quickly sees that a LOT of the bidders have odd user names, with two letters, followed by six random numbers.

WHY IS THIS? Because when every new bidder signs up, they are given a random temporary user ID, which consists of the first two letters of their last name, plus six random numbers. They are then supposed to go to a link (see below) that lets them quickly and easily change that "temporary user ID" to one they like better (or is easier for them to remember). While a fair number of bidders DO do this, quite a few others never change their temporary user ID!

Why? Maybe they feel they are more anonymous with a random ID. If they had an ID like "ILoveLucy", they might be afraid that when Lucille Ball posters come up, others will "bid them up", thinking they will surely want to own them! We feel such fears are overblown, but it is not for us to decide whether people change their IDs or not.

But if YOU are someone who never got around to changing your temporary user ID (or didn't know you could), then click below, where it says "Did you know... that you can quickly and easily change your username and/or password?", and in a minute or two you will have a new user ID of your choice (and you can change it again at any time). If you choose something easy to remember, you will never again get caught where you can't remember your ID, which happens to a fair number of our bidders.

And if you want to stay with the temporary user ID you started with, that's fine too. But either way, now you know why so many bidders have usernames that have two letters followed by six numbers!

See also:
Did you know... that you can quickly and easily change your username and/or password?