why are so many items repeated in search

[notacloudinthesky]

I'm not sure it's a technical issue, but it sure does bug me.

When I'm searching for an item, I don't want to see the same thing two or three times while I peruse the listings.  It's annoying and wastes my time. Is there an opt-out for this "feature"?   I cannot see a purpose for showing the same exact listing more than once. 

[chuck-r]

It's the same item sold be many different sellers. Some sellers do drop shipping and you're paying the seller, but the item ships from a wholesaler. So I think one wholesaler is Aliexpress and a person/seller/dropshipper can just check 1000 items to import into Ebay and sell it that way, but it will actually ship from China. That's why they often have the exact same images in the same order. It's the same item from Aliexpress!

[notacloudinthesky]

Thank you for the reply, Chuck. 🙂 Yes, I see that's true of many items, like cheap stuff from China.
I search for a lot of vintage Christmas and doll items, and see the exact same item more than once on the same page. Same item, same photo, same seller. Grrr.