# Are There Ebay Search Sites Allowing Searches of Other Bidder's Bids? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043 "2007-06-22T19:43:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043/1 "2007-06-22T19:43:24Z")
I was using a site called Auctionshadow to look at bids placed by certain Ebay buyers. I was also using it to store a list of several hundred keywords I wanted to look for. It would run a search every day and show me the results it had found in the last 7 days. Now the site has hosed up, and badly, several times in the last 2-3 weeks. I want to find a replacement site, but quick Googling turned up lots of client-side apps and browser plugins that will do this. I need to share the site output with a couple of folks, so a website is an ideal option. Are there any other sites that do this? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043/2 "2007-06-22T20:40:52Z")
eBay’s working to make this difficult, if not impossible. Recently, they’ve started masking people’s IDs when the bid on an item has passed a certain amount with the explicit purpose of making it impossible to phish people with phony “second chance” offers or to draw them to their own auctions. About all you can do now is watch a person’s feedback on completed auctions. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043/3 "2007-06-22T21:08:35Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant] I was using a site called Auctionshadow to look at bids placed by certain Ebay buyers. [/QUOTE] Unless I am missing something, you can do this with [eBay’s own bidder search page](http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/AdvSearch?sofocus=bs&sacat=-1&catref=C5&fbd=1&_trksid=m37&from=R6&nojspr=y&fswc=1&fss=0&saslop=1&fls=4&floc=1&sargn=-1&saslc=0&salic=1&saatc=1&sadis=200&fpos=03841&sacur=0&sacqyop=ge&sabfmts=0&saobfmts=exsif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saaff=afdefault&fsop=1&fsoo=1&fcl=3&frpp=50&sofindtype=3&pfid=). > [@](#): > > I was also using it to store a list of several hundred keywords I wanted to look for. It would run a search every day and show me the results it had found in the last 7 days. This is also available on the [My eBay favorite searches page](http://pages.ebay.com/help/myebay/track-favorites.html#searches), though you are limited to 100 keyword searches. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043/4 "2007-06-22T23:50:04Z")
Even with the bidder search, they throw in a banana peel: > [@](#): > > To protect bidder privacy, not all items that this member has bid on may be displayed. When the price or highest bid on an item reaches or exceeds a certain level, User IDs will be displayed as anonymous names. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043/5 "2007-06-23T00:26:35Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] Even with the bidder search, they throw in a banana peel: [/QUOTE] That is true, though the [limit](http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=230139056997) appears to be [$200](http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=280119809082), so many auctions will still display the bidders’ identities. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-ebay-search-sites-allowing-searches-of-other-bidders-bids/409043/6 "2007-06-23T01:01:29Z")
Just as a reference point, I should note that 99.9% of items I bid on won’t be going over $100. It’s not that I can’t do this manually, but I’ve got around 11 buyers I routinely compete against for items, and I liked getting email any time Auctionshadow noticed one of them bidding. It’s nice and organized. Additionally, I had several dozen searches for items in the system, and using Auctionshadow I was able to sort the results by price or ending soonest, etc. Ebay only lets you save 100 searches, so I was running into that limitation.