Promoted listings is a scam!

[sir.koinz]

I pay extra for promoted listings so my items will have more exposure, here's my experience. I list my item and wait 48 hrs and I have a few views.  No interest after 72 hrs so I go on a neutral computer and search for my item, exactly.  I search to page 30 and see none of my identical items (3). I allow another couple days to go by and I'm starting to get a little warm in the cheeks because I'm seeing the exact same thing for sale that had not been promoted being shown on almost every single page! Items that are shown multiple times each page!! That aren't even promoted!! So I finally click on an item and scroll to the bottom of the listing and start going through the the ads at the bottom that you only see if you happen to scroll to the bottom way past any relevant information to the ad you clicked on (why would anyone do that? ) Lo and behold after a couple dozen items there's 1 of my 3 items!

So, when you pay extra to have your listing shown in more places you're actually paying to have your item taken out of the regular search results and having it placed in an obscure area where you'll be lucky to get a view in the 30 days it's listed PLUS GUESS WHAT?? No matter what, if your item happens to sell then you will have to pay the extra fee because it was purchased after being seen in the "promoted" area!! But since your item can ONLY be seen in the "promoted" area you will ALWAYS have to pay the extra fee!!! 

if anyone else has had the same experience please let me know. If anyone is going to in any way try to justify or make some kind of excuse for this happening, save your energy because this IS happening and it has been for quite awhile by the looks of all the posts. Someone is going to say, "where else can you sell to millions of people around the world for this small amount of money?"  My answer would be, anywhere because I'm only selling when ebay allows me to and i don't like to be cheated or manipulated or lied to or flat out robbed by anyone! If I purchase something then I expect that purchase to be exactly what is described just like any buyer.  What I have been paying for is not even close to what my purchase was described as. And I'll guarantee it hasn't been for any other sellers either.  So either you don't care or you're afraid if you say anything about it you will lose your ability to make money and that would be life changing and detrimental to a lot of people including me because it is my only source of income just like a lot of other sellers. But if you're not selling then what's the point?  Or if you have strings attached to your arms what's the point? There has to be a better way to do this! There at sellers with the same listing multiple times per page why not give those spots to sellers who paid for extra exposure?  Give them what they paid for! If it's a software problem take all of the billions unjustly collected from sellers and FIX IT!!

[ebooksdiva]

Using Promoted Listings is not a guarantee that your item will be seen or sold. 
Depending on what type of Promoted Listings you are using depends on where it gets seen. If you use Promoted listings standard, your promoted listings will be shown in other sellers listing a

that are similar as a sponsored ad.

Other sellers listing is the "more places" you refer to in your post.

If your listing is desirable to a buyer they will click on it, if they like what they see they will buy, if not, they buy elsewhere. If a buyer buys you pay whatever percentage you chose per listing. 

Promoted Listings advanced is a pay per click ad it is also shown in similar listings.. you pay when your listing gets clicked on regardless if it sells or not.

[inhawaii]

A voluntary scam?

[adamcartwright]

Scams are voluntary, in the sense that people sign up or pay for something that turns out to be not as advertised. 

Are eBay promoted listings a scam?  Who knows.

I know my own promoted listings sell by promotion  <=50% of the time.

[chevymontecarlo88]

As others have stated, promotional listings do not equal sales or exposure. It can help as long as what you have is desirable enough for the paid click. Just an idea, maybe change your first listing photo to something more eye catching if you want clicks. Again that does not mean it will sell but you could get more eyes on the listing. You could argue the merits of promotional listings but personally i don't find it a scam. I have had some success in the past using P/L  on (1) of my listings at times to try to entice buyers to view my other listings. Sort of like a lost leader listing.

Now that being said, it is kind of ironic that you are selling a penny for $70. 😀

(This is a joke, not meant to offend penny pushers or coin collectors)

[dbfolks166mt]

     No argument that PL is a sham but your analysis has a couple of issues. Searches depend a lot on how the potential buyer executes the search against what you have in the title of the listing. I took a look at your "1955/5 Doubled Date 5 PMDD!" penny and executed the following search using exact words any order. Your listing comes up first in the list when stacked by price + shipping lowest first. 

If I execute a similar search on "1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent" I get 160 matches and your listing does not even show up in the search results. 

[conservitvs]

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@sir.koinz wrote:

But since your item can ONLY be seen in the "promoted" area you will ALWAYS have to pay the extra fee!!! 

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First, paragraphs. 

Second, I am going to take your advice and not waste my energy addressing the discrepancies of your rant… but this statement (above) is the most egregious and 100% completely and totally UNTRUE. 

I promote every listing. I sell lots. A full 25% or so of my listings sell without the promoted fee being charged. 

[g00dies4saleonline]

Yes, it's a scam. I've seen many non-promoted listings far ahead of promoted ones with the same title/model. It's merely a cash grab on behalf of eBay who are already gouging sellers with 15% fvfs that should be a simple flat rate price, considering they do no more to facilitate a $5 sale than a $5000 sale. It's just outright greed!

[ethylsgarage · Accepted solution]

Promoted Listings is simply additional advertising you can opt in to pay for. You can decide for yourself how much extra you want to spend. In my category using promoted listings almost always guarantees that my item will come up first or second in the search page listing giving me a great chance for a buyer to see my item. If they don't select it, then I need to evaluate the quality of the listing photo and the price against my competitors to see if my price is competitive in the market. You can see how many looks your items are getting on your dashboard on the Traffic Tab.

[paxilill]

I've thought about using promoted listings, but the marketing terms have nothing in them about total cost. The fees need to be upfront vs. me clicking thru with a listing and finding out. 

[sumsum70]

I know a scam when I see one, this is why I have never used PL. Too bad all eBay sellers didn't refuse to buy into it.

[sir.koinz]

I've got a couple followers and one or two repeat regular customers that have to message me to ask if I'm still selling.  I don't get ANY exposure whatsoever and maybe it's just because on this 30 day rotation I'm not in it.  I understand there are millions of people all over ebay selling similar items and there's just not enough room for everyone's ads all at once and of course that makes sense but tell me, let me know that I'll be out of rotation for this 30 and when I'm up let me know so i can list the crap out of items and make sure i get multiple spots per page or set of pages, give all of us who pay for it, what we pay for! It wouldn't be that hard to be honest so we don't feel like we're being cornholed and end up in the community forum crying like baby's because we couldn't make our house payment this month because we didn't know our stuff would be invisible, just tell us. If they don't know why it happens tell us that! Something besides the obvious generic clicks and tongue rolls i get when calling customer service because they don't know either and that's gotta be a hard freakin job to do, i actually feel worse for them! Thank you for your input btw.

[sir.koinz]

Best answer I've heard all year, ever actually. Yes! It is a fully voluntary scam lol you are right!  But it's a little more than that because you have 3 options: 1. List normally and risk absolutely no exposure and no sales 2. Pay the fee and hope you get the exposure you should get from just paying the normal fees like we used to, risk factor 50/50-ish... 3. Don't sell on ebay.  Some would say "it's the only way i make money and i have to pay my bills so i must take the risk and hope for the best". Then it creeps over into the involuntary just a wee bit.  Add pressure from collectors and it slides a bit more.  But yes you are right it is still voluntary although it might not feel like it for some people and if you think about it, there really is nothing in life that isn't voluntary, we could bust this can open and everyone on ebay would have a worm to fish with!!

[sir.koinz]

The only post that made me think.  Bravo...

[sir.koinz]

I know right?  Haha and it's a great feeling when i sell a penny i got back in change from McDonald's for $100! Happens pretty frequently actually and I don't know what it is about McDs but they always hook me up! So do liquor stores but that's kind of sad because alcoholics will use theirs and anyone else's coin and currency collection to buy booze, I actually have a deal with the workers in a couple liquor stores so they set any strange looking currency aside for me every day.  Thanks for the input it is most appreciated!