@redlinear I do know what you mean above. The old algorithms rewarded good service and good metrics and good product. That did make it easier for good sellers to grow and would also lower the chances of new or lesser performing sellers to succeed. Although what i sell is vintage car parts and unique items so the competition of similar items is vry low- usually less than 10-15 available at all in the world on ebay. But people have a hard time even finding 15 accurate results and then use google to find what is listed on ebay.
Of course what i sell vs someone selling new consumables needs completely different algorithms to do it right. I think that is why ebay suffers- its one size fits all and every category suffers then.
I do stand behind what i said about relevant results and not turning buyers away with ridiculous results. if you at least show the items- then you can determine how to "spread out the wealth" of sales between sellers on the first page. Too often buyers leave ebay without purchasing because they are frustrated by not finding what they want....even though its there.... Everyone looses out in this case.
Like you alluded to, ebay controls very tightly who sees what and because of that and trying to keep sales spread out to all sellers, there is little sellers can do to actually grow or improve here anymore. There is no reward for hard work or good service- its all about giving everyone a few sales.
The only true way to excel in our categories is to have to only item on ebay so it has to be yours to sell.
