Mis spelling a designer name is still keyword spamming... Isn't it?

[iamonourside]

I'm so disappointed in someone, and hope you'll let me vent,  while being very vague as possible about the situation because I do not want to name and shame...

There is a jewelry seller whose offerings I have long admired. She asks and gets very high prices for most things.  I attribute such prices partly to her having top notch stuff, but also because over years she has cultivated, I imagine, a boutique image and caters to high roller buyers. "Good for her" I think to myself on occasions when she and I are selling similar items. After all,  I've done no cultivation at all.

But today I saw she is selling 3 different things by a particular designer, a lesser known name. She is asking 10 times the price of the few of that designer's pieces that have sold.  She is doing so by putting the name of another, wildly popular designer in her title. The connection between the designers is non-creative and therefore spurious IMO  in regard to item titles.

I call that unethical. I suppose she thinks she is not keyword spamming because she has misspelled the popular designer's name, leaving off one letter. She might not be funneling search results to her listings, but she is profiting from a slight connection.

I've been upset a lot lately by current events. My heart is breaking for what I perceive as absence of integrity across the board. And darn it, I want people to govern themselves, to steadfastly avoid behavior that has even the appearance of dishonesty and gamesmanship. So unnecessary in this case.

I might say something nicely to the seller directly, but she doesn't know me. I'd just be butting in. This post is what I decided on.

So sad. No respite... or is it just me.

[1940fc]

If seller has a designer name in her Title of something other than what they are actually selling..that`s a no-no, & yes, keyword spamming

However, keep in mind, if seller has 3 pcs by 'X' designer, & she wrote up the 1st listing & misspelled the name, then just did 'Sell Similar' for the other 2...that`s simply a mistake.

So, if ya  really want to help, you could message the seller along the lines of " You have some great items, but just a heads up, I see your ______ are misspelled in the title.. buyers might have a problem bringing them up in search"    or something along those lines.

But that`s just me

[flipping_treasures]

Getting upset because of others ethical or nonethical behavior will give you an ulcer.  You can't control how others act or in this case list.  The only ones that can here is eBay and over the years they have not shown a great deal of interest in regulating key word spamming of any kind.  

If it is an honest mistake a seller would be more than happy to get a message letting them know.  Otherwise, it is a waste of time.  I have made a couple of mistakes in listing and have had kind messages letting me know that I might want to take a second look at my listing.  I have never taken offence and was grateful for the information. 

I have over 300 listings between my IDs, I don't always see a mistake.  I use a 3rd party listing program and have had on occasion a mismatch of a listing and pictures of an item.  I had to end a listing once because a buyer caught the mistake and thought to take advantage of the issue.  Thank goodness I caught it right away.  So ethics can come in on both sides of selling.  There are buyers that wait for a seller to make a mistake.

My number one rule in listing and item for sell is ... to mine own self I will be true.   My number two rule is ... I realize I cannot control how others list.

[iamonourside]

Thank you two, @flipping_treasures  and @1940fc, of course! I should have thought of the possibility of error first. It is the explanation I've encouraged others to think of first on the seller's board on occasion. Thank you for the response and reminder. My best wishes to you both.

[iamonourside]

P.S. Looking back at my OP, when I said." My heart is breaking for what I perceive as absence of integrity across the board. " I meant across all peoples across the world, not across these discussion boards, and most especially, THIS discussion board, where I've never seen anything but sincerity and integrity.

AND the person about whom I was speaking is not someone I've ever seen posting on this discussion board. Not trying to be sneaky.

[pheasantvillecollectables519]

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@iamonourside wrote:

P.S. Looking back at my OP, when I said." My heart is breaking for what I perceive as absence of integrity across the board. " I meant across all peoples across the world, not across these discussion boards, and most especially, THIS discussion board, where I've never seen anything but sincerity and integrity.

AND the person about whom I was speaking is not someone I've ever seen posting on this discussion board. Not trying to be sneaky.

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I took it as you meant it.  I thought it was pretty clear😊