mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Variation listings are a fantastic tool for sellers. If used properly they are extremely useful and enable sellers to list more products in a smaller footprint.
However you are correct. There are sellers out there misusing this listing format. Those sellers need to be reported and stopped. IMHO Ebay is not doing enough about this to stop those that are giving all of us a bad name. I too have seen lots of these variation listings that are against the rules. I've reported many of them. To date not a single seller I've ever reported for this has stopped or had the listings I've reported closed.
I'm unsure as to what we can do about this problem. But I sure agree with you that it is a problem.
@slippinjimmy wrote:There were many posts when this started to became a popular thing. Pretty much everyone agrees it's bad but almost nobody agrees on how to fix the problem. Almost every suggestion would be so broad that it would eliminate a lot of legitimate listings where there is and should be a significant price differential.
Personally I'm not seeing as many of these listing as I did 6 months ago but that may simply because I'm not looking in the right categories. It's also possible that eBay has been doing something about them as I'm quite sure they recognize the problem.
If you are talking about variation listings in general. I can't imagine that "most sellers" would agree they are bad. Variation listings used within the rules of Ebay are an excellent selling tool on Ebay.
It is those sellers that are misusing the variation listings that are causing the problems. So to me it is simple. Ebay needs to staff the dept. responsible for handling these issues in a way in which they have a fighting chance to do so. If they are significantly under staffed, then of course nothing is going to improve.
I've tried for close to a year for a particular seller to be looked at by Ebay that misuses variation listings on a regular basis. It is clear and easy to see in the vast majority of their listings. To this day they are listing variation listings with what appears to me no slowing down at all.
@jason_incognito wrote:Wasn't there one here a while ago that listed diamond rings, all in the $500 to $1000 range, and had the option of a 99cent box?
Someone bought the box and left a neg because they thought they were getting a ring......
I've seen listings like that. Ebay needs to do a better job finding them and closing them down.
