I started noticing vanishing listings back in 2019 as I do inventory in December and keep an ongoing account of when I purchase and I do a photo inventory of my purchases. As visual is faster than typing large inventories as the items are not hugely expensive to begin with. I sell films so I have receipts of collections and bankruptcy sales etc. the photos help. At year end in December I take inventory in 2019 I noticed some films were not listed that I had in inventory and had photographed and listed I sometimes place eBay numbers on titles that might be confusing when pulling films. For instance two different films with the same title like the original and the re-make. It wasn’t so bad in 2019 but several titles were no longer listed. In 2020 I had a huge amount of sales during the early part of Covid as people were inside buying up films to keep them occupied and I sold a crazy amount of documentary films. When I did inventory several remaining documentaries were no longer on eBay, I wondered what was happening thinking it strange but sales were so good it didn’t bother me. Last year at inventory I had a large box of films that disappeared from inventory I contacted eBay and they played dumb. I did inventory today and of the 1112 films listed this year 116 were no longer on eBay as of today.. that is more than 10% of my total listings. They vanished. So I did a bit of searching and found this which was posted hidden from sellers since it’s inception back in June of 2017 . I smell a major class action lawsuit as eBay deliberately concealed this policy from Sellers. For me after 22 years and nearly $1,000,000 in sales, my sales have dropped to almost nothing. My regulars often ask me what happed to a specific film. Now I understand why. EBay has a secret policy that is hidden under the carpet. They will not discuss it. It is time to fight back. Nothing should be removed from an eBay store without telling the seller. We work to maintain a reputation and by removing items without respect to sellers it hurts our reputation as sellers. I don’t mind waiting 6 months or a year for the right customer but removing what that customer wants to buy is simply unfair. Who is to say how long an item takes to sell. This year eBay removed items I listed in July I can’t tell when as I do one inventory a year but rest assured they were not sitting for a year. Some of my most expensive films that are Rare and out of print were vanished from listings. Here is the eBay post that us hidden from you. Read this and let everyone know what really happed to your vanishing listings. EBay has never given out a penny to those of us who have stores and I doubt anyone else got anything back either. We need to be made whole. I just don’t know in a crooked Corporation that hides policy from it’s users how we can achieve this. Here is the hidden post.
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06-01-2017 05:12 PM
As sellers, you understand the importance of regular evaluation of your inventory and changes to your listings that will improve your sales. eBay does the same thing, and periodically will evaluate site-wide listing performance to ensure the marketplace continues to be a vibrant and efficient selling environment. For sellers, that means your great listings can stand apart in search results. For buyers, it means seeing quality, relevant results delivered quickly, making it easy to find and compare products of interest.
To that end, we have taken two specific actions:
- We have identified a relatively small number of unproductive listings and have begun removing those with one or more years of no sales and minimal page views, and are refunding any associated listing fees. We value long-tail inventory – it is what makes eBay unique – and remain committed to helping sellers of all types be successful on our platform.
- Removed listings in violation of eBay’s duplicate listing policy. Even when you have listings such as connector cables or auto parts that are identical except for the fact that they fit certain models, the policy specifies limitations on how many separate listings you can have. It is also important to use eBay parts compatibility format if available in the category you are listing.
We will continue to evaluate listings that do not provide value while enabling our key marketplace differentiation and are committed to providing ongoing guidance to sellers on ways to improve sales performance overall.
See our Seller Center for more information on how to create effective listings.
As always, thank you for selling on eBay.b
