Poll: strict rules for listings with variations

[traut-gmx]

Hi all,

what's your experience with listings that contain variations?

I feel that this is one of the most abused and thus useless choices that sellers have.

The typical malpractice is: Create a listing with variations to select from. Have some more expensive choices, but do include at least ONE item which is much cheaper, although it's somethin perfectly different than named within the title - e.g. a small piece of accessory.

This does manipulate the search, to show this auction with a very low price, although the item which people are looking for is much more expensive.

Even worse, ebay does not show the full range of prices, but many times the lowest price ONLY.
And ebay does not offer any option NOT to show listings with variations.

In former times, the rules where more strict that variations may list items of comparable characteristics only, but not perfectly different items:

ebay sell: listing variations What wouldn't be considered a multi-variation listing?

Nowadays I to not find these limits any more:

ebay sell: Creating listings with variations The prices of your items can vary...

Because of this frequent abuse, I'd welcome a poll:

[  ] 1. ebay must not permit variation listings with very different characteristics

[  ] 2. ebay should create an option to exclude variation listings

[  ] 3. variation listings must have the SAME price for each item. A price range of ±10% could be tolerable

(is there any other choice to create a poll nowadays, instead of using the reply button?)

Thanks for an active participation within this poll!

[kaelykat]

Definitely the second choice.

If I could, I would filter these listings out completely. I just posted about this very problem a few days ago here. Unfortunately the answer comes down to, ebay doesn't care.

[chrysylys]

Multi-Variation Abuse has been a hot topic here in recent months.  Staff has been shown a large number of blatant examples and suggestions have been offered to end the practice, but so far, they have done nothing.

[lovtaco0]

I think this issue is going to be a lot less relevant once the site makes major moves to product-based search. Once that happens the specific variation will appear on a product page accompanied by the price of that specific variation. At least that is how it has worked so far when I searched different product pages.

[evry1nositswindy]

I vote for 3.  Group like items by price.

[shoptalkid]

Not going to vote,because  I don't think most sellers are intentionally abusing multi-variation listings.    In the end, it comes down to buyers paying attention to the search results, because the latter will indicate which listings have varying prices.  A buyer can choose to buy or not after reading a listing and that's probably how eBay sees it too.   Nothing is being forced on them.    I have clicked on listings where the lowest price variation is a gift wrapping for the other items being sold, but the prices for the other items were still fair.    If there is more than one related item from a seller I want to purchase, having them all in one multi-listing variation saves time. 

[retrose1]

I will never use variations because as a buyer I will never buy from a seller who uses them.  They make the listings confusing and often looks like bait and switch keyword spamming to get eyes on their listings.  Personally I believe that ebay should remove it.

[rolenboy01]

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@shoptalkidwrote:

Not going to vote,because  I don't think most sellers are intentionally abusing multi-variation listings.    In the end, it comes down to buyers paying attention to the search results, because the latter will indicate which listings have varying prices.  A buyer can choose to buy or not after reading a listing and that's probably how eBay sees it too.   Nothing is being forced on them.    I have clicked on listings where the lowest price variation is a gift wrapping for the other items being sold, but the prices for the other items were still fair.    If there is more than one related item from a seller I want to purchase, having them all in one multi-listing variation saves time. 

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You don't think putting a 99 cent to 3 dollar item mixed in with more expensive items the seller wants to peddle that is mysteriously always out of stock to get better placement when someone clicks lowest price first isn't intentional?

[shoptalkid]

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@rolenboy01wrote:

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@shoptalkidwrote:

Not going to vote,because  I don't think most sellers are intentionally abusing multi-variation listings.    In the end, it comes down to buyers paying attention to the search results, because the latter will indicate which listings have varying prices.  A buyer can choose to buy or not after reading a listing and that's probably how eBay sees it too.   Nothing is being forced on them.    I have clicked on listings where the lowest price variation is a gift wrapping for the other items being sold, but the prices for the other items were still fair.    If there is more than one related item from a seller I want to purchase, having them all in one multi-listing variation saves time. 

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You don't think putting a 99 cent to 3 dollar item mixed in with more expensive items the seller wants to peddle that is mysteriously always out of stock to get better placement when someone clicks lowest price first isn't intentional?

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It's usually  Chinese sellers that employ that tactic.    I run very successful multi-variation listings and either all items are the same price  OR if there are different prices, it's only by a few dollars and NOTHING is .99.     I also make it very clear to buyers several times throughout the listing that prices vary.  

If I am selling a "round princess cut loose stone", but it's available in different gems, some may cost more than others because some are more valuable than others.   

[rolenboy01]

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@shoptalkidwrote:

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@rolenboy01wrote:

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@shoptalkidwrote:

Not going to vote,because  I don't think most sellers are intentionally abusing multi-variation listings.    In the end, it comes down to buyers paying attention to the search results, because the latter will indicate which listings have varying prices.  A buyer can choose to buy or not after reading a listing and that's probably how eBay sees it too.   Nothing is being forced on them.    I have clicked on listings where the lowest price variation is a gift wrapping for the other items being sold, but the prices for the other items were still fair.    If there is more than one related item from a seller I want to purchase, having them all in one multi-listing variation saves time. 

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You don't think putting a 99 cent to 3 dollar item mixed in with more expensive items the seller wants to peddle that is mysteriously always out of stock to get better placement when someone clicks lowest price first isn't intentional?

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It's usually  Chinese sellers that employ that tactic.    I run very successful multi-variation listings and either all items are the same price  OR if there are different prices, it's only by a few dollars and NOTHING is .99.     I also make it very clear to buyers several times throughout the listing that prices vary.  

If say I have a 1/4 " round cut stone, but it's available in different gems, some may cost more than others because some are more valuable than others.  

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Yes we know the chinese employee the tactic and they do it intentionally you implied most sellers do not do such a thing intentionally when indeed they do, most sellers using multi-variations are chinese and are abusing the use of them.

[dhbookds]

I'm not sure which I'd chose........because I don't know all the permutations of the variations in every category.  Price would be an obvious choice since that's where the lowballing happens...and that's what most complain about. 

but anyone who advocates doing away them completely isn't thinking this thru.....  If each variation were listed individually, some categories such as clothes would be flooded with pages of the the same item in a different colors/sizes/sleeves/necks.......and that's just one item in clothing....

[traut-gmx]

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@shoptalkidwrote:

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If I am selling a "round princess cut loose stone", but it's available in different gems, some may cost more than others because some are more valuable than others.  

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If you are selling that different items, I actually do not see any need to offer this as variations, but as seperate auctions.

But the current practice with significantly lower priced choices is usually nothing else but price spamming - and it's further enforced by ebay not showing the price range any more.

Another, simple solution to get rid of this spam is to list variations not by lowest but by highest price - voila, problem solved.

[traut-gmx]

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@dhbookdswrote:

but anyone who advocates doing away them completely isn't thinking this thru.....  If each variation were listed individually, some categories such as clothes would be flooded with pages of the the same item in a different colors/sizes/sleeves/necks.......and that's just one item in clothing....

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Clothing is a good example where variations can be helpful. But usually those are all priced the same, even though the taller ones do use significantly more fabrics. So it's a good example too for a solution that does not permit price spamming.

[shoptalkid]

Well most of the ones I buy from on here don't do that, but then again I shop from US sellers only.   

Marketing tactics are all over the retail industry and not just on eBay.  Just recently I was in need of a pair of running shoes, so  I went to AMZ.  Of course, the search results showed "starting at $75" so sure, I am hoping my size is that price, but the listing showed my size was $150.   Only the size 6's were $75.    Sure I was disappointed, but I had the choice to buy or not, so I kept searching until I found another retailer with a more reasonable price.    eBay sees it the same way.  

 I do agree that if a seller is selling designer shoes and then they add a pair of socks to the listing for .99, that's kind of shady,  but I doubt eBay will do anything about it.   The will probably see it as an upsell. 

[dhbookds]

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@traut-gmxwrote:

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@dhbookdswrote:

but anyone who advocates doing away them completely isn't thinking this thru.....  If each variation were listed individually, some categories such as clothes would be flooded with pages of the the same item in a different colors/sizes/sleeves/necks.......and that's just one item in clothing....

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Clothing is a good example where variations can be helpful. But usually those are all priced the same, even though the taller ones do use significantly more fabrics. So it's a good example too for a solution that does not permit price spamming.

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I see quite a lot of what you are talking about in clothing........  one color or size is lowballed and then grayed out.....(not available)........