Can no longer view details of SOLD items

[jpgranton]

Almost daily, I review my bookmarked searches for new items as well as sold searches for things I may have missed.  Sometimes there are more items included in a listing than are noted in the title or shown in the first photo and sometimes details of missing items or damage are given that help explain why an item sold for as little or as much as it did.

Tonight in going through my searches, I find I cannot view individual completed listings.  When I try, I get a new page that says, "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you," and it shows me something different.  Of course the "simiar" item is never even close to what I wanted to see.

This has not happened prior to today, so I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this.  Has there been some permanent change?  Does ebay now feel threatened by sellers' ability to look at a sold item (which would seem the most plausible, knowing how paranoid they are)?  Thanks for any responses or insights.

[tricitygoldbuyers]

Another eBay STUPID change! I need to be able to research sold items, NOT see similar items!!!!

[bdbq_reborn]

Lintbrush

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@lintbrush* wrote:

@jpgranton

I saw that very late last night and then figured it out.

The word "listing" in the The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you  is clickable and will take you to the actual sold item

It's absolutely ridiculous.  If I'm looking at a Sold item, I want to see a Sold item.  

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I agree I always want to see what reborns sold and at what prices. SO thanks for that roundabout. But it should be immediate

What makes me angry is every single time the "This is one like it" listing comes up, they are those horribe knockoffs from China.  Why are they getting priority treatment like that?

And how long before eBay has a chargeabe feature to have your items show up in these recommendation?

I am still trying to figure out how they determine 'best match"

[2welshladies]

Try BIDDING on an item... This happened just this afternoon: I bid on an item, saw I was "outbid, still have time," the auction ended, and instead of being able to SEE what the item sold for - up came a page that offered something "like" it (which of course was NOTHING like it). It's a disservice to bidders not to show how the auction ended. And, although it recently ended, I cannot view the "original listing". It wasn't the first time I've come across this - but was the first auction I was involved in. Dislike this new "improvement."

[vrykalak]

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@kimmron wrote:

I called eBay today as I am experiencing the same issue and was told that they are aware, that it is a global glitch and that they are working on it.  I guess that’s better than saying it’s a permanent change. Let’s hope they resolve it as soon as possible. 

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They said it was a glitch?!?
At the Wednesday chat, they said it was a deliberate change.
I pointed out that BUYERS would almost never be interested in investigating listings that had ended, sold or not, but SELLERS needed that information to set up their own listings.
The eBay agent who was on the chat that day basically agreed...but didn't offer to ask to have this "feature" removed.

[vrykalak]

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@twnpopcards wrote:

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@cbx6 wrote:

I noticed this change today as well.  It took a while to figure out that you can click on the word 'listing' to reach the original item.

This is another classic case of obnoxious Ebay programming - they will waste a million users' time with a (really stupidly matched) "similar item" just to make a few extra sales.  This is called SPAM - everyone hates it in all forms, including this, but Ebay clearly does not care. 

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It is called desperation.  Ebay is desperate to show any kind of growth and have pulled out all the stops no matter how annoying they are to the buyer or the seller.  But when they don't meet their 2nd Quarter numbers, somehow it will wind up being the sellers fault for this, as Ebay feels they are giving us top quality changes that should make all of our lives so much easier.  

But in reality all they are doing is adding addtional clicks on the mouse so that people get frustrated and go to their competition to make the purchase.

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I tried to point out to CS that, if increasing oppression drives away sellers, buyers will eventually lose interest, too. They weren't impressed.

[vrykalak]

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@rickjames8 wrote:

By far the dumbest change ebay has made in a long time. It is do doubt designed to try to lure people to an item for sale.  

Ebay, are you listening?  We don't use Sold searches to find items we're looking to buy. We use it for research.  Granted, we can still get to the item by clicking the little link. but it takes several more clicks, and with every click we're reminded just how out of touch you are with your users. 

Change it back, please. 

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The default should be to show the actual listing, with an OPTION to see similar active items.
This is just like the default action on the Summary page being RETURN ITEM, and you have to select "Other Actions" to see the LEAVE FEEDBACK option...which used to be the default.

[ramiroll]

Same here. I spend hours or sometimes even days to find something I'm interested about and when I don't win there is text "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available".

Ebay engineering geniuses  display instead something, which doesn't make any sense to me. Looks like Ebay considers customers are absolut idiots. 😞

[prima63]

Thank you! You are right! I would have never found this. Much appreciated. 🙂 

[mr.jerry]

OMG

Thank you for bringing that to my attention! I was having to do 5 steps to find my listing. My issue: After I sell something, someone pays, I then click on the listing within their payment to see a picture of what they bought so I can wrap it and ship it. Hey, eBay, how do I know what I sold and they bought if I cannot see it?! A 'title' or 'description' is not alway adequate when selling similar items. Ridiculous!

[kirashopsglobe]

THANK YOU for solving this problem! I was going crazy, with all the changes so far & could't understand why they would pull this option.

[isohedra]

terrible design choice with this update.  really unintuitive change that makes the site feel more confusing. it still catches me offguard and i've been using ebay for 10+ years.

clearly someone's idea to give item's for sale more views. the way to get people viewing items with genuine interest isn't to trick them imho.

[drusalina]

I don't want to see a similar item or the relisted item that isn't even the same thing!  This is agravating!!!! ebay makes stupid changes.  I'm not wanting to buy the item, I want to see what it sold for and how I should price my item!!!  THANKS FOR MAKING SELLING MORE DIFFICULT EBAY! 

[mrgq041276]

I am finding this very annoying when trying to share purchased item links on other sites. The redirect is absolutely no where near what I purchased or what I did not win. If Ebay thinks this is a good way to lure buyers in to another purchase' they are wrong! They are doing everything in their power to drive prices up as well. Sharing items that I have searched for and found with others when they click on a similar item has led me to be much more sneaky about my bidding. I some times do not click on an item to make it more popular, and remember the listing and end time to go back later and bid last second.  I will not even bid anymore prior to listings end; as the more bids, the more they show the item as popular also driving up the minimum bid incrament. Another trick is that it seems as though Ebay has taken away the "best offer accepted" on some items when searching sold listings, to keep it looking like the higher asking price was what the item sold for. Seeing a lot of sneaky tactics by Ebay recently that are not good! My rant to Ebay, is that as a buyer I am not going to purchase your suggested items that are irrelevant to my collecting, which 99.9% fall in to this category. The others I have already seen. As a seller; Ebay is an absolute last resort due to fees. I do better on private forums, and facebook. Once new tax laws take effect; I am gone as a buyer.

[berserkerplanet]

You can add           ?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true 

to the end of an item link, and it will bring up the the original listing.

That would be for links like this:

     http://www.ebay.com/itm/283002198914

where there are no current trailing parameters, so you add   ?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true    and get

     http://www.ebay.com/itm/283002198914?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true

a link like

  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Princess-House-Nouveau-2-Quart-Sauce-Pan-No-Handle-No-Lid/173256671658?hash...

has a ? and a parameter already (hash=item...), so you just need to add more parameters in the form of    &nordt=true&orig_cvip=true    to get

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Princess-House-Nouveau-2-Quart-Sauce-Pan-No-Handle-No-Lid/173256671658?hash...

(a single ? is the separator with everything in the following query string being parameters chained by & symbols. No more than one ? is used.)

A workaround if you want to use it.

[jd656160]

I have been very annoyed by this lately, and made a simple  "UserScript" that automatically clicks that silly link to show the sold listing. Start by installing Greasemonkey from Mozilla Addons or Tampermonkey from Chrome Webstore, then create a new script, and paste the following 5 lines into the script editor:

// ==UserScript==
// @name View Sold items on eBay
// @match https://www.ebay.com/itm/*
// ==/UserScript==
document.querySelector('a[href*=nordt]').click();

As we've seen time and time again, eBay is run by idiots who don't understand their users and don't care to. At least the web is an open platform that allows for some level of user control, even if it's not ideal.