Ebay randomly showing seller's listings to different areas of USA.

[ryanrobyn]

As an owner of 2 Ebay stores this process irritates me greatly. Store owners pay fees regular sellers don't. There is no way that a seller would know that Ebay does this when they agree to Ebay's rules. When I began selling over 25 years ago this did not occur. Ebay just decides what to do without informing the sellers. After being loyal to Ebay for so long I feel cheated and stabbed in the back.

[bennotbill]

This was often said on the UK forum. Some would laugh some would agree. With stuttering reduced sales I've sometimes noticed this myself.

Three or four days nothing then suddenly three sales to Edinburgh, nothing then a few sales to Birmingham, nothing then a couple to Shetland Isles.

As long as something was selling though who cares what part of the country is buying.

If I remember right I think a few asked who could see their items in the search. Some could and some couldn't, depending where they were. But we all know a lot of various daily differing search shenanigans goes on. Which is why I now Google first then eBay second.

[janet9988]

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@ryanrobyn wrote:

As an owner of 2 Ebay stores this process irritates me greatly. Store owners pay fees regular sellers don't. There is no way that a seller would know that Ebay does this when they agree to Ebay's rules. When I began selling over 25 years ago this did not occur. Ebay just decides what to do without informing the sellers. After being loyal to Ebay for so long I feel cheated and stabbed in the back.

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Yes  there is as it is stated in the user agreement.

[jerseyboymusic]

@ryanrobyn 

I'm sorry... you're talking but not really saying much. What do you mean? I don't understand

[mr_lincoln]

Hi @ryanrobyn 

The venue, like others, covers that in the User Agreement as pointed out up thread.  The internet sales "industry" is controlled by the venues because their main source of income is from fees (eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, Bonanza, Mercari, etc) ... 

 I can see where they would look at their vast assortment of listings on their site and systematically expose them to different regions of the country and world in an effort to see what sells best and where.  While that approach may benefit the venue it may not benefit individual Sellers.  

For myself I have seen a slow steady decline in sales for over 2 years and peg the start of that decline to early 2022 when PLA was fully launched, Views counting was changed and PLS "Suggested" ad rates doubled and tripled seemingly overnight.  The venue has published that there are 1.7 BILLION listings worldwide.  They have the numbers to do some pretty serious testing.  For example, if one does not use the suggested ad rates on a PLS campaign their sales will not be very good (that's part of what I experienced). 

So at the end of the day Sellers have to try and figure out if there is a way they can get their items moving without giving away the farm ... this is my 9th April selling and at present it ranks 7th place and has little chance of moving up the list with only 2 days remaining.  

The sad part is, I REALLY like Selling on eBay but at the end of the day, the operative word is Selling ... I am patiently waiting for things to recover and get back on a growth curve ... 

[powell-memorabilia]

I don’t believe that eBay does this, but let’s pretend that you are correct. Do the math. If eBay is hiding your listings from certain parts of the country, and showing it in others, then they are doing that to nearly every seller. That means that where your item is being shown, there is less competition from the sellers that are being hidden. Really, that should mean no difference in sales. 

The more likely reason for soft sales is supply and demand. If people don’t want what you are selling, at the price that you are charging, then your sales will suffer. It is as simple as that.

[swenson8781]

Unfortunately, eBay, like many other things, has just simply lost it's lustre.  The younger generations have little interest in this site, and likely view it as tired, worn out, and not on trend.  Don't get me wrong...I really love 'selling' on here also, and don't intend to stop anytime soon, but my sales have certainly dropped year over year also.  I also sell clothing, so that doesn't help the matter either.

I think we stand a slim chance of revitalization as B&M stores seem to continue to carry less inventory overall, and some have ended up closing down, due to increased online sales as a whole.  But I doubt we'll ever get back to the hey day of sales.  The 2000's were pretty good IMO, as everyone started to have consistent internet access, and all online sites were still fresh & exciting.  Guess we'll all just keep on keeping on! 

[pcobra93]

Read the post of janet9988 above .....its shown in Ebay's own words. There is more to the visibility algorithm for sure than just number of items listed and Ebay will not share that with us but the rolling visibility is definitley part of it. I happen to think the issues we are all seeing is the programming has become so cumbersome and patched together with 30 years of old code that they cannot control it anymore. They make one small change and it ripples through the whole thing.....and they seen to do VERY LITTLE BETA TESTING anymore....

[powell-memorabilia]

Again, let’s pretend that eBay is hiding listings based on geography of the buyer.  How would that hurt the average seller?  If all are being hidden to the same basic degree, and eBay is doing it on saturated items, what is the math to explain how any seller is being disadvantaged (overall)?  Sure, if eBay hides listings for me in Ohio but but hides my competitors in Pennsylvania, we are even, right?

[mr_lincoln]

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@swenson8781 wrote:

Unfortunately, eBay, like many other things, has just simply lost it's lustre.  The younger generations have little interest in this site, and likely view it as tired, worn out, and not on trend.  Don't get me wrong...I really love 'selling' on here also, and don't intend to stop anytime soon, but my sales have certainly dropped year over year also.  I also sell clothing, so that doesn't help the matter either.

I think we stand a slim chance of revitalization as B&M stores seem to continue to carry less inventory overall, and some have ended up closing down, due to increased online sales as a whole.  But I doubt we'll ever get back to the hey day of sales.  The 2000's were pretty good IMO, as everyone started to have consistent internet access, and all online sites were still fresh & exciting.  Guess we'll all just keep on keeping on! 

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@swenson8781 

I think you have some valid points there on the younger generations.  eBay may not be their choice for places to buy many things they use in their daily lives.  The other important aspect of selling online is knowing who most of your Buyers are.  For me I know who they are.  Many are from the baby Boomer generation.  Many are collectors still collecting BUT will be downsizing in the next 5-15 years or dying suddenly with their collections in place and ready for liquidation.  I also have a group of Buyers who purchase things because their parents had them when they were younger and they want to have it for their kids, etc.

And here is the thing, the economy has little affect on a lot of those Buyers, otherwise, I would be wallowing in surplus inventory acquired at ridiculously low process ... that is not happening. Trying to obtain inventory for my categories at a decent price is harder today than it was before Covid.  Prior to Covid I went to live auctions and the only competition was those who were there.  Covid forced many auction companies to convert to online selling which opened up their Buyer base to around the country and some international buyers.  Prior to Covid it was not uncommon to double and triple my profits on items whereas now I target a specific % and no when I have to stop bidding on something or else risk losing money on it reselling.

[a_c_green]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

Again, let’s pretend that eBay is hiding listings based on geography of the buyer.  How would that hurt the average seller?  If all are being hidden to the same basic degree, and eBay is doing it on saturated items, what is the math to explain how any seller is being disadvantaged (overall)?  Sure, if eBay hides listings for me in Ohio but but hides my competitors in Pennsylvania, we are even, right?

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I am trying to see what advantage this would give to eBay (since, you know, eBay is most interested in things that benefit eBay). 

I have a more-or-less fixed set of searches that I run one or more times a day in order to spot any newly-listed bargains to pounce on. If this rolling-blackout strategy (or whatever you want to call it) was in effect for the items I search for (which typically return anywhere up to 1000+ hits in each search result set), I should see entries disappearing and then reappearing some days later (or whatever time interval you want to choose), and TBH I simply don't see anything like that.

[ryanrobyn]

Many items are sold shortly after listing the item. When only a small segment sees this it means by the time most of the country sees the listing that it is already buried by 3 to 5 days of new listings. Sales are cut down.

[bennotbill]

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@ryanrobyn wrote:

Many items are sold shortly after listing the item.

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Ah the good old days. I remember them well. Putting up a couple of dozen items on a Friday and then transferring several hundred from PayPal to my bank on Tuesday.

[bchural-0]

thank you so much for clarification

[siamjane8]

On high selling volume new goods- it probably does not matter much....... but on used unique items- exposure to everyone searching for your item is crucial! Small differences in condition or price make a difference. Many vintage car parts are bought just because of the date code inscribed in them as people restore date matching cars/trucks.    Ebay's "one size all" approach to search that is catered to new trinkets and bar coded items is horrible for unique vintage items. When there may only be 10-15 of what you are looking for on ebay but ebay search only shows 2 or worse yet none- its a big sales killer and customer disappointer. 

   Nothing is perfect but you cant deny that when the search was less cluttered with all this AI and promoted listings...sales were better and ebay was growing instead of shrinking.   I understand that there are other factors BUT people cant buy what they cant find and when your search does not give relevant results...we all suffer.

[luckythewinner]

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@ryanrobyn wrote:

As an owner of 2 Ebay stores this process irritates me greatly. Store owners pay fees regular sellers don't. There is no way that a seller would know that Ebay does this when they agree to Ebay's rules. When I began selling over 25 years ago this did not occur. Ebay just decides what to do without informing the sellers. After being loyal to Ebay for so long I feel cheated and stabbed in the back.

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People have been accusing eBay of "rolling blackouts" for 20 years.

eBay makes money when items sell, so it makes no sense for them to do this. But over the years people have blamed it on ...

• eBay wanting to get rid of small sellers 
• eBay favoring big sellers
• eBay having "servers that are too small"
• eBay wanting force sellers to use promoted listings
• eBay wanting to make sellers pay more insertion fees
• eBay wanting to maximize shipping costs to make more fees

Many sellers tend to blame eBay for their lack of success on eBay instead of blaming themselves for their lack of success on eBay.