Looking to Buy? Do Your Search Before Logging In

[raceteam]

I've noticed a pattern on ebay. Just to be sure it wasn't my imagination, I researched it too many times. I came on ebay looking to buy a table saw. I came to the site's main front page and searched from there.

I entered a search for the terms "table saw." Naturally, I found numerous listings at many prices. I found some brand new name brand saws that sold for several hundred on some listings and half the price with free shipping on other listings, the very same product. Most were priced around $150 up to 6-700 bucks. I even found some way cheaper, one for only $80, brand new, in the box, free shipping. I should have bought it right then and there but I didn't, had to wait until payday.

I come back in the same set up, to front page, except this time, I log into my account first and visit MyEbay page. Then a I do a search for "table saw." Guess what? Logged in, the search will only show me the most expensive items from the top people selling. The cheaper ones from my earlier search were not to be found. No, they were not sold as it was multiple items listings and still running, just not being shown in search results.

The conclusions are simple as it proves true each time I've tried it:

Logged in, I find no deals, no bargains, no low prices on anything. All I'm shown in search results is the highest priced items. Coming on site with a clean cache as a general public visitor, I'm shown much better deals and prices than if I'm a logged in member.

[mudshark61369]

@raceteam,

When you search items shown on the Front Page as you call it, does it have a header saying Daily Deals or some such on it?  If you have looked at table saws or power tools the front page will often show you items you have looked at in a general category.

When you do a search from My eBay page, if you look in the upper right of the results page the search default will be set to Best Match there will be a drop down (V) next to it and you can search by Price: Lowest first. 

Best Match results will show you ebays' top sellers items first, unless a lower volume seller has an table saw ending that day. Price is not a consideration in a Best Match search.

"...I even found some way cheaper, one for only $80, brand new, in the box, free shipping. I should have bought it right then and there but I didn't, had to wait until payday".

Be glad you couldn't jump on that listing.  Chances are very good it was a scam.  With millions of items being listed daily eBay can't possibly vet each listing or seller.  You as a buyer have to do some research.  Often those listings come from a hijacked account. If you look at the seller's feedback profile It may show all of their feedback except for 1 or 2 are over a year old, and most if not all of them are for buying only.  The recent feedback did 2 things it brought the feedback number from (0) to whatever number is displayed. It also was a check by the scammer to see if the real owner of the account was still receiving messages from it or not, and to see if th PayPal account it was linked to (probably backed by stolen credit card and bank information) was working.

Think about it. How much is the seller going to make on each deal?  Table saws come in large boxes, and weigh in the neighborhood of 20lbs, which means the shipping is going to be around $20-$30 minimum. Add to that that ebay and paypal get 12.9% of the selling price, $10.32, so the saw either fell off a truck, was an unwanted gift, or doesn't exist.

[pf9000]

For many of us, the SEARCH ISSUE has become hugely frustrating. Especially after you commit to buy something, and find a cheaper one afterwards that the search had previously missed.

[maltzhu]

You're not the only one having this experience. 

If I log out, or dump all cookies from the cache, I find what I'm looking for.  The other day there was NO SATIN RIBBON.  I sew.  I use this stuff.  NO RIBBON.  Log out, ribbon galore.

Same thing with shoes, tools or nearly anything else I might find myself not wanting to buy on the River.    And I hasten to add, the river's search engine needs a overhaul.   Way too much stuff shown an who has all day?   And tripe from overseas at that.   Ebay's was, at one time, much better.

What gets me is it's things that I see here all the time, suddenly gone when I know they're here.  Gotta log out to re-capture them.  It's a PITA and I can see less experienced buyers and users giving up after awhile.

And then they wonder why sellers say their listings are being hidden.    It's because they ARE.

[raceteam]

Thanks for your responses. It good to know I'm not alone in this theory. Thanks Mudshark for explaining what you know to us, it could help at some point in our search to find what we're looking for. Thanks

[berserkerplanet]

There's an easy way to be "virtually logged out" in Firefox using an addon called CookieSwap (I've used it in Firefox from FF v1.5 on)

Maintains separate cookie profiles that can be used to be logged in (or not logged in at all) with different credentials on websites.

Supports through FF56 (and author is working on FF 57+ quantum): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookieswap/

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Two-accounts/m-p/27482763/highlight/true#M1042913

Only gotcha is that you have to be aware of what you are doing and keep in mind that you may be, for example, using profile 2, and not to jump to other tabs and load other pages logged in with wrong profile - results can be unexpected. I use it for testing a lot, but use it routinely to manage my eBay PayPal account and a website account in the same browser.