See original listing now redirects to similar item

[wilddonkeybmx]

See original listing now redirects to similar item. This is the latest in Ebays stupid ideas. How is anyone going to be able to do research. If you sell hard to find or hard to identify objects.  How many years has "see the original listing" been a valuable tool for sellers to accurately describe their items.  EBAY change this back this is totally terrible. This is so stupid it is beyond words.  Who is getting paid to make these ridiculous decisions that make zero sense. What are people looking at items that were sold for in the first place but to get any idea of how and how much to sell their item.  Why even have access to sold items at all?  Everything that is happening for Summer update is complete garbage.  Ebay stop trying to reinvent the wheel every few months.  All you do is make things worse...

[bootlegpoliceman]

Depending on the platform and device you are using, not all redirected item pages have the blue bar with a link back to the original item. Some people just get a nonsimilar item page with a message saying the original item is no longer available. No link back.

Probably split testing on eBay's part and what they are aiming for is to remove all traces of sold items... which will be the death knell of eBay if buyers and sellers alike can no longer do research.

This change is second only to the removal of wildcard searches in terms of buyer-hostile idiocy by eBay.

[6thgenauctions]

So is anyone at eBay going to fix this? This is a major usability problem "see original listing" should send you to the original listing. If your not going to fix the "see original listing" link at least rename it to something descriptive. Also why is it sometimes you click a link to an item for sale, and it gives you a page with half the info on it and you then have to click "full description" to actually get to the listing? Do the people making these decisions not understand basic usability principles?  Every additional link required to click to get to the item, means annoying the buyer. If I get that silly half info thing, I close the tab, and choose a different product and buy from a different seller. Further, why does this textbox I'm typing in, not use the browsers built-in spellchecker? You're wasting your own CPU resources, and re-implementing the wheel. 

[berserkerplanet]

•So is anyone at eBay going to fix this?

There is nothing to fix as it is intentional.

•why is it sometimes you click a link to an item for sale, and it gives you a page with half
•the info on it and you then have to click "full description" to actually get to the listing?

You must not have been paying attention the last year or so when Google decided to "fix the interwebs" single handledly in the Chrome browser by declaring war on mixed content. eBay had no choice. When it happens it is the seller's fault for not fixing up their listing to comply.

Go here and start reading about a year back. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent
and/or search these forums for "see full item description"

I created a browser toolbar bookmarklet to open the description where it should instead of in another window or tab (still requires a mouseclick - to automate it would, once again, require running a GreaseMonkey script)
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/See-Full-Item-Description-FireFox-Workaround-Bookmarklet/m-p/2...

•Further, why does this textbox I'm typing in, not use the browsers built-in spellchecker?

They think the Lithium forum spellchecker is better. There is a fix for that, but requires running a GreaseMonkey (Firefox) script to patch up the pages on the fly.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Community-Platform/Wow/m-p/27569365/highlight/true#M6233
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Community-Platform-Feedback/Style-fix-for-better-desktop-readability/m...

[futuretomorrow]

Are you a UX Designer or usability expert? You sound like one. I'm actually a contract UX/UI Designer so there are things here that for me are as bad as chalk on a chalkboard.

Based on a conversation I had on Friday with someone from the North American office I'm going to chill on some of my comments and give eBay until the end of 2018. If she wasn't lying, they are truly trying but having worked on large enterprise projects myself, this is a massively complex and long process of fixes and with this many active users and being global they can't just "start over".

That would literally be eBay's death nail.

[jason_incognito]

like if I looked for candle* I got candleholders candle holders, candlesticks and candle stick and candle sticks but now I have to do seperate searches.

Sometimes I have to do a search for the word without an s and with an s. As in candle and candles.

Lunacy I tell you.

[cyberpunk]

This is one of the Worst things eBay has ever implemented. If I can't compare something I'm now looking at, to something that was recently sold, then guess what....I'm NOT Buying!

[tonyausouth]

A retrograde change, removing a very useful feature.  Why?

[jaknudsen]

This is how it appears for me:

[sweetheartpet]

Today the SOLD items in the seller's list did not let me see it, but redirected me from that listing, also!

[hippie02]

This is soooooo infuriating!!!!!!!!!!!! I bid on something that was at the end of the auction. It flashed that I didn't have the high bid and said what was needed to be the high bidder, then that box disapeared, and then the auction was over, and the whole **bleep** thing disapeared and showed me something else that I was not the least bit interested in. Where did the origianal auction go??????????????????????????????? What happened to it?????????????????????????????? Why eBay, why would you allow this to happen??????????????? It would have been wonderful to see what it sold for, but it disapeared too quick. eBay, how can that be a good thing???? How can someone be so stupid to approve this???? I get redirected from a closed auction all the time to see something else I might be interested in. Which is rediculous to begin with. But this is even more "stupider"! There is no logical reasoning for this. I want to look at the auction or listing that I was looking at! Not be redirected to something else!!!! eBay, where are your heads? eBay, what were you thinking? eBay, how can this be constructive . . . to ANYBODY????????????????????????

[releasecoolthings]

Same --Original Listings for Purchased Items are not being displayed 100% problem. The text for the listing is shown but zero (none) , no capacity to see the original photos. How can anyone know if the item received matches the photo. Big problem...no logic behind this except to protect the seller and really rake the buyer over the coals.

[releasecoolthings]

Mine suddenly is working again. I mean like a miracle. I wrote a reply for this and now it actually shows the original listings. For 9 months it has not Worked.

Same --Original Listings for Purchased Items are not being displayed 100% problem. The text for the listing is shown but zero (none) , no capacity to see the original photos. How can anyone know if the item received matches the photo. Big problem...no logic behind this except to protect the seller and really rake the buyer over the coals.

[jordand2]

Just. Plain. Stupid. STUPID.
The are countless reasons people NEED to see how an auction closed... i.e.
For Buyers: Did the item actually sell? How much should I bid next time? I should check the features that commanded that closing price? How many people actually bid on the item? Is this pricing different than the last similar item that sold ,etc.;
For Sellers: What can I get for a similar item? How many people seem to be interested at this time of year? etc.
THEN, and ONLY THEN, If someone is then still shopping for something similar, they can just run some more searches.
The redirect is just plain stupid.

[jordand2]

PS
A suggestion for the user experience program managers at eBay:
Build what people actually want as a means to add genuine value to your product. And don't evolve your product with purely greed-based changes that have no value other than to exploit people and insult their intelligence.

[eburtonlab]

@jordand2

The are countless reasons people NEED to see how an auction closed...

Of course. eBay obviously could not function if it were impossible to view closed auctions.

This is an old thread. Most of the comments were made just as eBay was changing how ended auctions were redirected, before many people realized that there was a link to the original listing in each redirected listing.

Since then, eBay has changed the implementation of those redirects quite a bit. Now, instead of a blue banner at the top of the listing and a tiny text link, there is a large banner with a photo of the ended listing, making it much, much clearer.

Why would eBay make a change that makes it harder for sellers to see ended listings? To make it easier for buyers to find open listings and actually buy them.

Lots of folks search for things to buy not by going straight to eBay, but by going to a search engine like google. But by the time a search engine indexes all the new listings and begins to provide search results to its users, many of the listings will have already ended. If folks using a search engine to find items click through eBay links in the search results and keep getting ended listings, eventually they get discouraged and decide not to click through any eBay links, and they go elsewhere to make their purchases. So eBay figured out a way to redirect those folks from ended listings to open listings.

eBay could have done a much better job of communicating what was going on at the time, and the implementation itself could have been handled better. Finding old listings now requires following an extra link, and finding a relisted item often requires following two links (back to the ended item from the redirect, and then from there to the relisted item). Some of the "similar" items really leave people scratching their heads. But the ultimate result is many more folks seeing many more currently open listings.