Please Selling Community, prove me wrong

[redlinear]

I think eBay throttles listings.  But, as one person, I can't be sure.  AND, how can I do my research when listing items if I can't find what I'm looking for?
SO, Lets have some fun. As sellers, y'all know how to search (for research), as well, if not better, than ANYBODY.
So, here's your challenge.  
Somebody you know has a Polaris RZR 800 (it's a little off road atv thing). 
And, they need a Rear Differential for it.  The whole rear differential, not just pieces or parts. 
They are on a budget, but it's not easy to replace.  SO, needs to be used, a good price, AND best chance of it being good, no problems.
Their budget is $500 to $1000. 
Fitment.....Has to be RZR 800, year does not matter.
Show me your two best choices.  
Lets just see how close we all get to the same choices?  
   

[femmefan1946]

I found 240 listings.

My Search only included listings that would ship to Canada.

My standard Search is Highest Price plus Shipping.

[redlinear]

RZR 800 Rear Differential (search).  Then click "used".....I get 60 listings.  
Then "lowest price 1st". 
Doesn't change the number (still 60), but...it does change the listings. (some are now gone, replaced by others).  

[s.scharmu0]

I found:

1,500+ results for RZR 800

Save this search

Shipping to: 61364

• 

  Shop on eBay

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  Brand New

  $20.00

  or Best Offer

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•  
• • $499.00 to $1,001.00Remove filter

[sapphire_studio]

As you can see in the screenshot below when I search "polaris rzr 800 rear differential" I get 254 New results and 70 Used ( Although oddly at the bottom it says show 53 results)

 Then when I filtered price for between $500 and a $1000 I only got one single listing as a result:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134333999759?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=WaWapxwnRq6&sss...

[luckythewinner]

We can't prove you wrong because what you are asking us will not determine whether "throttling" is going on or not. 

All it will prove is whether any listing used the same categories and item specifics that we were using to filter our results. And everyone has a different way of searching. 

For instance, if I were looking for a part like that I would be looking for a rebuilt one and not just a used one. And I would start in the ATV "Differentials" subcategory with the "Brand" set to "Polaris".

[femmefan1946]

It's been my observation that when I repeat a Search, just as @redlinear  reports, that eBay will change what I see.

This makes sense to me, because the first Search did not turn up anything I was interested enough in to either View or Watch.

Which to my mind is the opposite of throttling. It shows me more items, perhaps farther away, perhaps with different Item Specifics, than my first Search.

[redlinear]

But lucky, I'm searching for a DIFFERENTIAL.  And I'm finding differentials that are categorized as "other".  Yet missing some that are categorized as "differential".    
It almost seems like choosing the right category for your item, means nothing.

I can run a search for RZR 800 DIFFERENTIAL.
(I see the listing I want)
Check that box "lowest price 1st", to make sure it's priced right.
(now it's GONE)

[redlinear]

My searches don't get that specific.   I search words, then switch to used, then switch to lowest price 1st.
That would be how I would determine a selling price.
And maybe eBay is not throttling my listings.  Maybe they are actually just being nice and allowing shoppers to see my items once every three months.  (I can tell every day that one or the other is happening for certain)  

[pargran3]

How can it possibly make sense to you that eBay would "throttle" someone's listings. What, like pick you out of the crowd and say throttle?  the corporation has chosen you today to be in the no sales closet. Really?

[richard1rst]

---

@redlinear wrote:

I think eBay throttles listings. 

Please Selling Community, prove me wrong

It is an unprovable premise. There are groups who absolutely believe it does exist AND There are groups who absolutely believe it does NOT exist

Neither group is ever going to accept anything called "proof" that their position is wrong. Similarly, each group will take any evenly remotely tangential situation to prove that they are right.

The argument is pointless.

[cardxcraft]

Ebay throttles in the sense that they're simply too many sellers and not enough buyers....couple that with a Ebay's stupid view count debacle, horrible economy, record high credit card debt and rising unemployment rates.   I said it before:  it's a perfect storm.  

It's going to get much worse before it gets better....and the getting better part is not going to happen overnight.  It's going to be a long, slow climb out of this abyss.

[redlinear]

I can list 30 unrelated items each day.  I can put these 30 items on "shelf 5".   
I might sell one or two of those items in the following few days.
Then crickets for several months.
Then in one day....I'm shipping four unrelated items off of "shelf 5".....

I have hundreds of shelfs.  
Each morning I'm going to three of them, more than any others.  And those three will be consecutive, side by side numbers.   This morning, I was pulling items off of  (shelf 123,124,125).  And those are items I listed months ago over the course of three days.
That's not coincidence....
I should thank eBay for letting people see my stuff every now and then. Apparently it sells when it's visible in a search..LOL

[redlinear]

Not "me".  I think the algorithm just rotates everybody.  (or most everybody).
It may give preferential treatment to some.  Promotions, or based on Sales, and/or. Just don't know.
But a week or two here and you would sure think my items were running on a rotisserie.

If me and you went to war on ebay (sales).  Neither of us would win.
One of us would not get rich and the other go broke.
We would both just scrape by.  
  

[sapphire_studio]

Hasn't eBay actually admitted that they control how fast we grow including the rate in which we sell items? I thought that was kind of common knowledge they don't want us to grow too fast.