{"id":8716,"date":"2008-12-31T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.originalprop.com\/blog\/?p=8716"},"modified":"2010-11-07T15:19:06","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T23:19:06","slug":"ebays-stoneark-buyerbidder-network-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.originalprop.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/31\/ebays-stoneark-buyerbidder-network-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"eBay’s *stoneark*: “Buyer\/Bidder Network” Analysis – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ebay-stoneark-buyer-bidder-network-transaction-matrix-x380\"<\/a><\/p>\n

30 days ago, I began performing an analysis of eBay seller *stoneark* (AKA stonark, AKA Corner Collectibles, AKA Cornner Collectibles) and bid participation patterns on his listings of “guaranteed authentic” wardrobe attributed to various classic Hollywood stars.\u00a0 As a result, I identified 8 accounts that share not only some remarkable coincidences, but nearly each one has transacted with all of the rest, in addition to buying from *stoneark*.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

6 of the 8 were very active participants in approximately 250 *stoneark* eBay listings that ended earlier this month – in fact, *stoneark* auctions are the only listings those 6 eBay members bid on in the past 120 days.<\/p>\n

eBay, Lack of Transparency, & Identification of “Anonymous” Bids in Bid Histories<\/h3>\n

Though eBay has recently changed its website to “anonymize” both bidder and buyer identities – see eBay Announces More “Progress”, Less Transparency<\/a> – it is still possible to search on buyer usernames to see what they have bid on, and the buyers are still identifiable by the feedback score and inclusion of the same alpha\/numeric characters seen in the eBay-assigned anonymous monikers.<\/p>\n

As an example, from a recent *stoneark* eBay listing, buyer apnj with a feedback score of 464 is shown in the eBay listing Bid History as p***j with the same feedback score of 464 with the “p<\/strong>” and “j<\/strong>” serving as bookends to the three asterisk (***) characters, borrowed from the root username “ap<\/strong>nj<\/strong>“:<\/p>\n

\"ebay-feedback-example-hidden-username-apnj-marked\"<\/p>\n

Mutual Transaction “Buyer\/Bidder Network”<\/h3>\n

Last month, in reviewing the eBay feedback for Anthony Shkutnick’s *stoneark* account, I noticed some interesting patterns.<\/p>\n

A handful of eBay members that left *stoneark* feedback as buyers also appeared to have transacted with one another.<\/p>\n

I identified a list of 6 *stoneark* buyers that had transactions with each and every other eBay member on the list, and 2 more that had transacted with nearly all of the 8 in total (click each for links to eBay feedback):<\/p>\n