What are some supersitions or theories you have when it comes to eBay or reselling?
Mine:
1. eBay's algorithm is like a lawn sprinkler.
The buyers are the "water" and the sellers are the lawn. I've had very slow sales and other sellers I know were doing fine, or they lament sales ground to a halt and mine haven't. It's interesting because I've read on these boards for years and once a week without fail you'll get the same "seller of 20 years, sales have ground to a halt, what is going on?" type of threads.
I think there is some kind of "rotating exposure" element to the search algorithm.
2. Ending old inventory and relisting it makes it sell.
A lot of sellers personally attest to this, myself included. Heck, I've had some relisted items sell the same day. I don't think eBay actually admits to it, but it does seem to provide a temporary boost.
3. Moving/touching items helps it sell.
I know this one sounds a little "out there", but sometimes I will take a bunch of really old (2+ months listed) items and put them all in a box or tote and one will sell the same or next day. Or, I might move an item, often older inventory to the back of a shelf, and boom the same or next day it sells. I don't really believe in that stuff but it's also happened too much to write off as coincidence.
stainlessenginecovers
·4 months agoThe 'touch the old' or 'revise' IS AN ACTUAL ebay thought- as they send emails of my items that 'haven't sold in past 90 days so revise it.
Also, I have listings that have been up since 2014, no edits, and they still sell. Once 1 sells, another sells within a week.
It's all about a buyer finding, wanting and buying and has almost NOTHING to do with algos.
ten_o_nine
·4 months ago@quadcitypickers
Or, I might move an item, often older inventory to the back of a shelf, and boom the same or next day it sells.
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lol, same thing happened to me, I took some items that were sitting and taking space on the shelf and put them in a box to save space, they sold the next day.
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I don't really believe in that stuff but it's also happened too much to write off as coincidence.
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You can't believe in that stuff, how many have you sold without moving, it's a mind game.
inhawaii
·4 months agoI'm not a believer in ghost listings even though so many sellers (even sellers I really respect) claim it happens.
I believe it's seller error.
It happens to so many people because so many people make mistakes.
I had a ghost listing once.
I wanted to revise an item and rather than click on "Revise item" I clicked on "Sell a similar item" right underneath - first mistake.
I made my changes to the listing and hit enter.
I didn't notice that it said "listing is live" instead of "listing is revised" - second mistake.
I now created a new (ghost) listing.
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoEbay seems to believe in them, though. I do because I've traced two of the ones I've had, found that they occurred when I was not even listing, and know that databases aren't infallible - I know this from working with them. I make enough mistakes already 😁 so I don't want anyone else's.
inhawaii
·4 months agoYOU are "one of those sellers I respect" that claim it does happen.
Maybe you have to believe it does happen before it happens to you?
It'll never happoen to a non-believer like me. 😉
jonathanbrightlight
·4 months ago@inhawaii
I did have what I would call a ghost listing one time, though it was a little different than what most sellers talk about I think.
I got a message from a customer about an item, and the item was linked at the top of the message by eBay as usual. I could click on it and see the active listing, completely normal so far.
I then tried to search for it in our active listings in the Seller Hub. It wasn’t there. I searched by the title, by our SKU, and then even by the eBay item number, but it didn’t show up in any of those searches.
I was able to revise it, from the link from the message, and then once I did, it started appearing in the Seller Hub searches.
Fortunately, I think we did have it in our stock, so we didn’t end up with a cancellation or upset customer, but it was very odd.
quadcitypickers
OP4 months agoI thought so to, thought I was having a brain fart. But it wasn't remotely during the time I would have been awake, heck it wasn't even on a day I had listed anything, if I remember.
It would also be very hard to accidentally relist a sold item. I always relist things before taking down the old listing, keep track of how many items are currently listed so they match, make sure none have sold in the time I'm doing that, etc.
eBay also has admitted to it...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-to-report-GHOST-LISTINGS/td-p/34527800
dirk12955
·4 months agoOther sellers have stated the problem with "Ghost listings"
I'm a 26 year seller with almost 100K transactions on ebay and I'm telling you that 'I absolutely did NOT
get up at 3:00AM one morning while away on vacation, Log into ebay, Find an old 2-3 month ago sale,
And relist it. Did not happen.
With the number of glitches on this site, I can't understand
why anybody would question another poster making that claim.
Not everybody posting on this board is uninformed or inexperienced.
a_c_green
·4 months agoI know sometimes we have looked at the complaining party's listings and found that they're selling buggy whips, decorative stuff from Grandma and things that haven't been sought-after for years.
eBay doesn't guarantee equal exposure for all listings, but I have always viewed that as a CYA maneuver to account for technical issues, server barfing and so on. I have never tried to bid on or purchase an item (such as on my watchlist) and be told, "Sorry, we are not allowing sales by this seller at this time."
You bet it does; a new listing is a new listing (and you can use your Sell Similar option; you don't have to create a new one from scratch). Ended listings have no effect on new listings; eBay is not tracking whether a new listing matches an older one. It's just new, period, and thus will get placed at the top of the search results for anyone who is searching in the order of Sort: Time: Newly Listed (which I would say is the vast majority of buyers who have figured out how to dump that silly Best Match default sort order).
Seriously? Of course it's coincidence. 🙂
mattva
·4 months agoSince I'm considered a new seller and I guess that I am, I have just been flinging mud at a wall and hoping something sticks. I've had a few dry spells, like this week but the mud seems to stick for the most part. I hope you all get your mud to stick.
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoI feel like at this point I'm mired in mine. 😒
mattva
·4 months ago"The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering." — Thich Nhat Hanh