eBay rules

Viewing 22 posts - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)
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  • #1296154
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Many eBay sellers manipulate search by making a listing with multiple items, one of which is priced much lower than the others so as to come first in price sorted searches. Is this allowed?

    #1296185
    Joseph
    Participant

    Thanks for the tip!

    #1296234
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    eBay does not do search results by price, they use a system called “best match” or Cassini. Its not so easy to manipulate the search results

    #1296265
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    ZD, search for “Rotating Car Windshield Mount Holder Stand Bracket for Cell Phone”. Filter for under $1. Look at the second and third listings.

    The cheaper ones do not fit the title.

    #1296287
    🍫Syag Lchochma
    Participant

    What’s ebay? Is that a store in boro park?

    #1296297
    yitzyk
    Participant

    I understand what you are asking, and I admit, I have done this myself once or twice. I do not recall ever seeing anything explicitly forbidding it in eBay rules. I had an item that just wasn’t selling at the price I listed it at, for many weeks. Instead of cancelling it and listing it cheaper, I created another identical listing with a lower selling price. Interesting to note – the first item included free shipping, but the second cheaper price did not. The second item sold very soon thereafter, even though the total cost with shipping was higher!!

    Technically it is not affecting or manipulating the search results. The search remains unaffected. What it is affecting is the buyer’s perception that one item is cheaper than all of the rest, so it must be a bargain. OTOH, if you would just list the cheaper price, they would not be paying anything more or less anyway. Many of the chinese sellers have multiple listings for the same items, varying the price by just one cent (look at button batteries for example). Their intention here is not price manipulation, but merely to get more ‘shelf space’ in the search results. It is like a cereal company having 40 flavors instead of two, just to hog more retail shelf space.

    It is notable that most of eBay’s policies are primarily intended to protect their profits, not the sellers or buyers. So this practice would be very low on their priority to prevent, as long as they are getting their selling fees. In fact, the people doing it are often high-volume sellers, which are eBay’s best customers.

    #1296302
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    It has nothing to do with the price, Its other factors including the reputation of the seller and how many items the listing sold

    eBay does not disclose how Cassini (Best Match) works, but there are some hints out there

    #1296303
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    eBay has a sort-by-price option.

    #1296308
    Joseph
    Participant

    “What’s ebay? Is that a store in boro park?”

    It’s like a pop up store that travels from city to city to steal business from local frum merchants. That’s what it’s doing ok Boro Park.

    #1296309
    yitzyk
    Participant

    ZD – The fact that eBay returns results that do not at all seem to fit what you are searching for, has nothing to do with the price manipulation that RebYidd23 asked about. It is something they call Best Match, and it stinks. Amazon also does this, and I hate it there too.

    However, unlike Amazon, on eBay there is a simple solution – you can change the results list to “Cheapest” or something else. Then it reverts to exact match only. Best Match is just the default listing order.

    On Amazon, if you search by price, you will get tons of garbage listings that do not match at all. Any search other than the ‘Relevence’ sort order is totally useless.

    #1296320
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    You cannot price manipulate on eBay , you can KEYWORD manipulate

    #1296349
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    As an example of what I mean, if you search for a guitar tuner and sort by price plus shipping, and then click on the first relevant result, it links to a listing with the title “New Guitar Screen Digital Tuner With Clip On Design For Guitar FT-12C lot DP”. You can select either a tuner or a guitar nut. The tuner costs 5.69 and the nut costs 0.99. The nut is why the listing is the first relevant result, but the tuner is what was searched for. Meanwhile, one other tuner is listed at the price of 2.11, lower than the first one.

    #1296336
    yitzyk
    Participant

    I just reread the original question, and while I already commented on what I think was meant , the way it is worded sounds like the question is:

    “Are you allowed to charge less than everyone else, in order to come in first in a sort by lowest price?”
    The answer to that would be YES, of course! As Chazal say – Tavo Alav Beracha!

    #1296369
    yitzyk
    Participant

    Ah – now I understand.

    You mean the sellers that have multiple items within one sale, with a drop-down box to select which specific item you want. They sometimes include a dummy item that is cheaper.

    Yes, that is definitely search manipulation. No, it is not forbidden, but maybe if enough people complain about it, eBay will change the way that works someday. There is no way to exclude those results. In general, I ignore any results that show the price as a range “$1 – $50”. That means that there are multiple items in that listing.

    It is helpful to sometimes select “US Only” as one of the search options. That eliminates virtually all of the trash listings. However, it will also sometimes eliminate the cheapest legitimate options.

    #1296373
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Yes. The dummy item doesn’t fit the description.

    #1296375
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    However, it will also sometimes eliminate the cheapest legitimate options.

    Just about always.

    #1296400
    yitzyk
    Participant

    You are sometimes better off buying from US sellers.

    When buying button batteries, you can get some from US-based sellers for just a few cents more, and get it within a few days instead of a few weeks.

    Some items like memory cards have a very high rate of non-working or less usable space than claimed when bought from china.

    Chips or other accessories for which compatibility is tricky and critical.

    Anything that you want sooner than 5 weeks!

    #1296404
    Meno
    Participant

    I buy stuff from China all the time. Often you can get half decent stuff for like 75 cents and free shipping. No idea how that works out for them

    #1296408
    Meno
    Participant

    When I read the topic title, I thought it would be about how awesome ebay is

    #1296448

    Often you can get half decent stuff for like 75 cents and free shipping. No idea how that works out for them

    I bought a wooden nickel for 75 cents once

    #1296463
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Sometimes it’s fun to buy something from China through eBay or Aliexpress with a shipping time so long that you forget you ordered it and it’s a surprise.

    #1296757
    yitzyk
    Participant

    Yes, you are surprised that it arrived at all!

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