That private feedback is fishy. Why would eBay give that option?
ebay said:
Private Feedback - This member, duotrade237, has decided to make his/her Feedback comments private. Feedback can still be left for this user and the Feedback ratings left are shown above in summary format. Learn more about private Feedback.
eBay has really done a lot of cruddy things to the buyer lately. You can't see who you are bidding against anymore either, so shill bidding is through the roof.
I think eBay realized they couldn't control it, so they just hid it.
Basically, I simply won't buy from someone who has their feedback hidden. I don't know why anyone would. You are just begging to get ripped off.
This seller has about 50% positive feedback for the last 6 months and about 10% positive feedback in the last month.
You'd have to be trying to lose money to order from him/her.
EDIT: just found this...
So Why Allow Private Feedback? - The Real Reason
We believe that the main, and possibly real reason why "Private Feedback" is allowed is to protect eBay from threats of legal action.
If a member gets a negative feedback and complains, he is told that he can take his feedback private. If he chooses not to, eBay have a legal defence against any claim for continued defamation, as the member complaining exercised his option not to remove the offending comment, and his case would fail, or at least be severely hampered.
Think about it, if you were running eBay, wouldn't you try to build some protection into your system to prevent a member suing you for million of pounds or dollars, and costing you many thousands in legal fees, especially when you are hosting millions of auctions daily, with millions of unknown, amateur, unprofessional and unpredictable "members", and for some auctions your total fees received may only be a few pence or cents?
Nowhere else have we seen this argued, yet believe it is the main reason for the existence of this feature. eBay will of course apply spin so that it appears that it exists for the protection and benefit of their members.