For those who do not believe.....
Summary: sakic92710 shared a claim that their eBay listings had been suppressed, leading to sudden changes in views and interest. They argued this was proof of listings being selectively visible. luckythewinner and others questioned this, suggesting alternative explanations like social media influence or listing timing. Several participants discussed patterns in sales and views, with opinions varying on whether eBay intentionally suppresses listings. sakic92710 maintained their position throughout the discussion, while others debated the implications and likelihood of suppression by eBay.
I've talked about it in the past & SO MANY sellers deny the truth. Well, here is the exact proof I need when talking about listings being suppressed & made unavailable to the viewing public. I posted an item on August 20. Up until Sept. 18, it had 9 views & 2 watchers. On this weekend alone, it gained 50 views & 4 more watchers. Why, all of a sudden, is it attracting so much attention? Because, now, eBay allows it to be seen by the majority.
steve_stuff
路2 weeks agoYou sound surprised?
Ebay has said [somewhere] for years that all of anybody's listing might not be viewable at any given moment to everyone or even anyone.
Also you do a search and ebay might add "We鈥檝e streamlined your search results to show you the best listings" -- streamlined = not everything
I did a search - it returned 160 results in four categories - clicked on a category, it returned 160 listings. So again, "streamlined"
lb23cavaliersmvp
路2 weeks agoWith millions of sellers do you really think ebay is targeting you to make your business fail? I do think that the changes ebay instituted to their search algorithm a year or so ago has resulted in making it harder to find items. I've read on the board that sellers don't care about views/watchers only sales but if reasonably worded searches don't bring up your listing you obviously have no chance. I'm not suggesting that our listings/items are any better than someone else's but we do offer a variety of items and our views have dropped significantly since last year.
redlinear
路2 weeks ago@lb23cavaliersmvp eBay is not targetting any single seller in order to make said sellers business fail.
While fail may happen, Quite the opposite is the intent. They want everybody to have a little slice of the pie. As opposed to just a few getting big slices.
redlinear
路3 weeks ago@sakic92710
My proof was when I walked past a $500 (2019 Can Am X3 Front Differential) on my shelf and wondered why it had not sold? Been here a couple months...was I too high?
Came in a searched "2019 Can Am X3 Front Differential" and FINALLY found my "2019 Can Am X3 Front Differential" down under "RESULTS MATCHING FEWER WORDS".
And mine was prettier, better described, lower miles, and $20 cheaper than the few that were shown in matching results.
My proof was also: I made 25 listings for Cummins 24v pushrods.
Full sets of 12... (98,99,2000,2001,2002)
Six pushrods (98,99,2000,2001,2002)
Four pushrods (98,99,2000,2001,2002)
Two pushrods (98,99,2000,2001,2002)
Singles (98,99,2000,2001,2002)
Any search for Cummins 24v pushrods might show two of my listings. MIGHT....
The rest were not easy to find, even if you knew they were there.
Had a buyer message me from a Single pushrod wanting to know if I'd make him a deal on a full set of 16. He couldn't find them either.
redlinear
路3 weeks agoThat's not really proof, but yeah...you are correct about eBay placing items in darn near impossible to find locations.
fabrics24
路3 weeks agoI don't suppose the item type has anything to do with it?
Stuff that was selling like hotcakes for me over the summer isn't moving an inch now that fall's coming.
I guess I'm just a little perplexed at how and why eBay would suddenly change who gets to see your items. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it.
vintage-camerastuff
路3 weeks agoYes ebay suppresses everyones listing at certain times because they want you to start promoting your listings when sales drop. More money for them and less for you.
And yes UFO's and aliens are real but they no longer come form outer space. They have been here a long long time and now live deep in the oceans. Just thought I would throw that in.
zakstreasuretrove
路3 weeks agoI killed all of those aliens in X-Com Terror From the Deep in the 90's. Many....many rookies were sacrificed.
frugalmarketplace
路3 weeks agoNothing surprises me today
inhawaii
路3 weeks ago 路 EditedI am still waiting for that proof.........
bbcardzman
路3 weeks agoJust because it's not happening to you does not mean it's not happening.
inhawaii
路3 weeks agoThe Earth is flat. I have proof.
redlinear
路2 weeks agoIf the earth is flat.
Walk to the edge.
Give it some time.
You'll come around
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoSuppressed - no sale. Not suppressed - SOLD! :P
meme6253
路3 weeks agoI do believe suppression of Listings happens, But for the life of me, I don't understand the reasoning at all.
shire123
路3 weeks ago 路 EditedAnd there are people who believe the earth is flat...............
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoAnd those 'flat Earthers' believe eBay has the sellers' best interest at heart. lol
zakstreasuretrove
路2 weeks agoYou just have to think like the people running the corporation. By that I mean, have utter contempt for your fellow man and have a heart that only yearns for money.
If the perception is that listings are suppressed then more people will think they must use promotions which means more money. If you don't they still will eventually get the transaction fee when it sells which means they make the same as they would have anyway.
The only real losers are the sellers that perceive or experience dropping sales, but we are customers to be milked just the same as buyers. We are not employees and are pretty much infinitely expendable and replaceable. Pretty much the '...and what are you going to do about it?' mentality. That is certainly not exclusive to eBay.
windycityart4u
路2 weeks agoView rotation. It is like a casino. Some days you are super hot and trending. Then you fall off a cliff to put in more quarters. It is a hamster wheel effect. So you list more/ promote more.
dy60609
路3 weeks agoOn Sept 12 I got (or so it shows) 37 organic, and 2 external views on my selling account with a total quantity of (0) items available on my 100+ listings.
ebay allowed many more users to view my items that day. Go figure.
shado-x
路3 weeks agoCheck the impressions and see the real number. Impressions should be available with all of our live listings, but unfortunately, they are not-----one has to see the mishmash under Performance -> Traffic. Just show them under Listings too, like they used to be in the past. Those are the true views with machines, humans, and humans asking machines, and C3PO asking R2DR, and Anthropic stealing from Open AI, and visa-versa. Views are not that true, I've had 4 watchers with 0 views = vacuously untrue.
itsjustasprain
路3 weeks agoPlease tell us in your own words why you think Ebay would want to suppress your listings. How would that benefit Ebay? Please be specific.
fullers_uk
路3 weeks agoBecause there are only a certain amount of buyers, by doing it they get a more even spread of sales across more sellers, if they didnt some sellers would give up and quit and the amount of items listed would drop, they allow just enough sales to keep sellers interested.
meme6253
路3 weeks agoI think you may be correct, But they push it to the limits sometimes, How do they know just when you are thinking of calling it quits you suddenly get a sale?
fullers_uk
路3 weeks agoI dont know how they know, my ebay sales are broadly the same every month on regular stock items, if I list a one off item at a higher price my sales of regular stock items drop, I have been in my industry 25 years and my family for 60 years, its seasonal, when days get shorter and temperatures drop sales go up, when people get poorer sales go up, when the preparedness followers feel a threat like Cuban tanks rolling down route 66 sales go up but ebay sales stay about the same but on two of my websites they go up by 35 to 40%, I don鈥檛 rely on ebay sales, they are merged with website sales all be it at a far lower profit margin but i am sure there鈥檚 a ceiling somewhere.
tobaccocardyahoo
路3 weeks agoYou haven't proved your listings have been suppressed and probably never will be able to.
Buyer behavior is sufficiently inconsistent so any scenario you postulate can have an explanation based on buyer behavior and there is no way to prove what is correct.
Today several of my new listings had no views but one watcher. Obviously the watcher clicked the heart from the search results and did not bother to visit the page.
Someone saw the listing in the search results, might be the only person looking for the item today.
1786davycrockett
路3 weeks agoMaybe because Ozzie Smith was providing media commentary during the recent St. Louis Cardinals end of season games?
chapeau-noir
路3 weeks agoI've also noticed, in my case, that those items that suddenly have a jump in views frequently don't sell, so basically the jump is of passing interest to me, but that's it.
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoExactly! Mine still sits in limbo. lol Although 5 have sold in the last week.
12345jamesstamps
路3 weeks agoThe truth is out there somewhere...
Well, I sometimes have days where it's all international buyers which is weird and then days when it's mostly domestic buyers.
And I get a day with no buyers usually once a week.
There is no consistency.
powell-collectibles
路3 weeks agoWell, maybe evidence, not proof. I do admit - odd view jump.
mamacassidy
路3 weeks agoOr the views could have come from people on this forum.
You started a thread yesterday, and I know many people reading these threads like to click on the users to see who they are/ what their sales look like. And when I click on your listings, the Ozzie card if the first listing.
But really, who knows. Could be the algorithm. Could be any number of reasons.
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoI did not post this comment until this afternoon, after the view count had gone from 9 to 59.
mamacassidy
路3 weeks agoCorrect. Like I said, you started a thread YESTERDAY about the scam message.
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoAnd you believe people will look at my listings because of that thread? lol
mamacassidy
路3 weeks agoI look at the accounts/ listings of people who post here. I like to know the source of the information that I read.
In the case of your thread yesterday, I clicked on your account and also on your profile (but no, not that particular Ozzie listing).
Because you said you had received many of those spam messages and I haven't received any at all, I was curious who you were and why they would be sending you so many and I had received none.
grann-4629
路3 weeks agoThat could also be the reason some post here ... free advertising for their listings.
'Made You Look ' kinda' thing 馃槑
mamacassidy
路3 weeks agoI absolutely believe there are some posters here who think the more threads they start the more "action" their account gets. There are 1 or 2 who post more than a few times a week (mostly complaining) that I think are just looking for that "bump"
1786davycrockett
路3 weeks agoThere are not that many eBay employees to oversee and manipulate all the millions of available eBay listings.
Pure chance and luck.
rfmtm
路3 weeks agoIt is widely known ebay manipulates the search results, but that relies on many factors and not that they are just singling you out although it may seem that way.
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoI did not say I was being singled out.
rfmtm
路3 weeks agoSorry I miss spoke, but it can feel that way as a lot of us seem to have our sales die out and then revived for no apparent reason.
mam98031
路3 weeks agoSo many things could have happened and I don't see where this proves what you think it does. First, Ebay's counts on view is often WRONG. So now to hold them as 100% accurate may or may not be true.
Depending on what we sell, summer months are often slower than when we get kids back into school and the Holiday season gets under way. For me, in ALL the years I have sold here except for once, August is the worst sales month for me of the entire year. That was only different in 2020. In Mid Sept., my sales typically start picking up and then the Holiday season likely starts in early October.
For me, what you experienced, I experience every year.
janet9988
路3 weeks agoPromoted listings show up higher. It is simple.
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoMy item is not promoted.
gurlcat
路3 weeks agoHow do we know that?
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoYou're right. I come here to lie.
gurlcat
路3 weeks agoI was 95% joking, and the 5% serious wasn't necessarily a suggestion of you lying @sakic92710 .
I should clarify: my background is in science, and so when I see any claims of evidence or proof of something, my mind goes straight to scrutinizing the assessment. -Same as everyone else here, but even more critically.
The variable of whether you had promotion but lied about it is actually minuscule, or at least I find it highly unlikely. The much bigger criticisms I would assert are:
Sample size: One listing can't prove anything.
Possible "contamination" (like people sharing the listing in social media, as others suggested).
Possible equipment failure. We know eBay is glitch-prone, and this has occurred in data reporting like views, impressions, etc. a bazillion times.
Oh and by the way, I'm not even a "throttle denier." I know it's real. @zamo-zuan shared overwhelming evidence years ago, but most people who are still here now either don't remember it or didn't believe it at the time because they didn't understand his evidence.
gurlcat
路3 weeks agoOh and just for the record (don't tase me bro) .... even your screenshot isn't absolute proof that you didn't have promotion on the listing, because if you did and turned it off before the buyer purchased, then you wouldn't be charged for it.
In fact that was one of the strategy ideas we came up with back before the January change in how General Promotions would work. The idea was, use promotion to get a lot of views and watchers, then turn it off, and send offers to the watchers.
I still don't think you lied, just saying technically you could have. 馃槈
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agosakic92710
OP3 weeks ago 路 EditedIt sold yesterday. I provided the proof of no promotional fee.
gurlcat
路3 weeks agoCongratulations!
janet9988
路3 weeks ago 路 EditedI know.. but your item got no views until all the promoted ones sold first.
gurlcat
路3 weeks agoWhat item are you talking about? We can't even begin to evaluate whether or not to believe you without at least being able to consider the listing. You might as well say we should believe in mermaids because you say you saw one.
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoYep! My #1 purpose was to come here to lie. Ozzie Smith card.
kawliga3
路3 weeks agoBut you won't answer the question?
sakic92710
OP3 weeks agoWhat do you think I meant when I wrote 'Ozzie Smith card.' ?? lol
grann-4629
路3 weeks agoI married one ... at least the top part 馃槑
gurlcat
路3 weeks agoSwear to dog, I STILL think of you as a woman because of you username. So I see this^ reply and I'm thinking "But that would be a merMAN."
Which do exist by the way.
iamalwaysright
路2 weeks agoshire123
路3 weeks agoDefinitely not proof.
chapeau-noir
路3 weeks agoThat has actually happened to me quite a bit.
Generally someone has referred to the item in some post or other - Pinterest seems to be where mine pop up.
a_c_green
路3 weeks agoLikewise. Always nice when it happens, but beyond that, I don't worry about the number of viewings.
Keep in mind that people can see your listing in their search results, but if they don't actually open it for viewing, the counter won't increment.
shire123
路3 weeks agoI think that is a really good point. I often do my searches to see what is out there but I don't actually click on the item unless I am REALLY interested in it.
So that means that the items are viewable but maybe not clicked on by the majority of people.
biggymoe
路3 weeks agoOr, could it be that a lot of lookers were looking at Ending Soonest, and yours was about to end?
luckythewinner
路3 weeks agoSo you think this is proof of a conspiracy by eBay to restrict access to your items and thus restrict their own potential revenue?
And it's impossible that perhaps someone simply posted a link on a collector's discussion group or on social media somewhere?
redlinear
路3 weeks ago@luckythewinner It's not really proof.
eBay knows something is going to get bought. To eBay though, it does matter WHO gets the sale.
If there are 30 choices "shown", there might actually be 40 listed. The 10 not easily found are likely from sellers that are having a much better than average month, or have several of said item listed, or have several "very similar" items listed (but not the exact same). OR.....no telling what other reason.
People ARE going to buy. eBay is just attempting to guide WHO gets the sale by limiting what's shown.
Ya can't have one seller getting all the glory, no matter how much they might deserve it.