The new eBay format is terrible. If I perform a search under a very specific category and then decide I want to widen that search out (e.g., going from the "Roco" category to the "HO Trains" category), I no longer have the option of moving up the tree one level. The only option now is to remove the category filter and search all categories, and then click, click, click, click to drill down to HO again. This is a problem!
Another problem is the missing "Search Title and Description" checkbox. I now am forced to go through the "Advanced Search" page to get to this feature when it was right on the results page. This is really annoying as it make the site much slower to use. What I used to do in one click now takes three or four clicks and navigating through two pages.
The new banners are overly loud and obnoxious and detract from the pictures. I typically scan the pictures in the results column and if I see something interesting, I then look at the price, the seller, the feedback, etc ... in short, all of the information that is shown on the old format page ... before I ever click on a link to look at the details. With the new format, the banners block part of the picture, meaning that I have to click on every auction to see the actual item and to get detailed information. So I just don't bother and skip those auctions for now.
Removing the divider lines makes the screen less readable, and the larger fonts and pictures only mean that fewer items fit on the screen, and I have to do more scrolling. It's like they're trying to format eBay for smartphones instead of wide-screen monitors. eBay shoppers like me are home on their computer hammering through hundreds of listings every day looking for specific things - not browsing a few listings on an iPhone while sitting on the toilet listening to iTunes.
I've seen sellers complaining their sales are down - well no wonder! eBay is making the site impossible to use by dumbing down the interface instead of making it more robust. I'm not a huge buyer - I only buy one or two things a month - but I do so consistently. Or at least I did.
In the past I liked shopping eBay but now now it is increasingly difficult to use and I find myself extremely dissatisfied with it.
And there are other venues for buying the kinds of collectables I like. So as a shopper, I'm dumping eBay and shopping other places now. I see pretty much all of the changes thus far as detriments, not improvements, and it looks like it's only going to get worse.
eBay really has screwed the pooch this time.
