@da_dj wrote:
I would like to start a petition to stop the practice of selling multiple priced items under one listing.
This practice is creeping into our world as the policy of more and more sellers on eBay which makes "search on price" now worthless. For example I can no longer search on torch flashlights and get a valid price comparison of items for sale because almost all flashlight vendors now offer multiple items under their single listing entries of "torch flashlight". The majority of them have begun to sell something like a small pen lamp or keychain lamp under their multi-item pull-down list and since eBay defaults to displaying the lowest price in their list for multi item listings and placing that low price right next to the description and photo of the much more expensive item you actually searched for and the more expensive item. So these pen lights are starting to be used as "low price search anchors" by all flashlight vendors using some trivial item as a decoys to hide until the last minute the actual price of the more expensive item you actually searched for.
In this example the torch light that is shown in the photo and named in the description will show up in your search list as priced at 99 cents. When you open the listing and actually click on the pull-down, you see that the 99 cents is not for what's in the photo but instead for a tiny pen light while the actual photo of the more expensive "torch lamp" is displayed in their list. It gets even more confusing when vendors are actually selling the lights for $1.02.
In the past where buying decisions could be made in seconds, the process now can require hours to do comparison shopping. Today, "nothing is at it was".
FIX: No longer permit multiple priced items in drop-down lists. Only allow different color or size such as t-shirts or colors of items, and force the seller to create a new listing if something costs more or less.
This is like a cancer that is moving to many other items too, including security cameras and as more and as more sellers figure out that all they have to do is add a cheap item to a multi-item listing, then they can make their items come up first in a sort by price filter. With this spread of severe listing practice violation and no one from eBay policing it, you are quickly moving people to other sites. I now shop more and more on Amazon because they are starting to pick up with low price China sellers and they don't play these deceptive games with the buyer community.
The puzzling part is why eBay allows it. Perhaps it forces everyone into emulation of the old school model of our walking from brick and mortar store to another to make a purchase where we finally get tired and just buy something because we are tired of the tedious drawn out shopping process.
Some of what you say, I agree with. Just as some of what @myjunqueyourtreasure I agree with too. You are complaining about the abuse of the system, not the system itself. According to TOS, this abuse already isn't allowed. It's obviously just not being enforced. The closest deterrent ebay has is that I believe in a MV listing, the lowest price item cannot be less than 25% of the highest priced item. There is an automatic road block if you try to create or revise a listing to violate this rule. If you see some listings that do violate this, I'm guessing they are not US sellers and probably have a different set of (lenient) rules.
I agree with you that something must be done about the abusers. But not with your proposed solution. I sell clothing and my cost for a size Small is lower than my cost for 2XL-4XL. Sometimes they can be over double the cost. Are you saying that I shouldn't be allowed to list all my sizes of the exact same shirt in the same listing? Isn't that going against what the initial reason that MV listings was created in the first place? Also there are some shirt sizes/colors I have in surplus and need to put on clearance. Why shouldn't I be allowed to sell those on the same listing at a clearance price as the full priced "non-surplus" ones?
I've established that the abuse is already against eBay policy... and they don't police it. What makes you think eBay will police yet another policy like yours given their current track record of enforcing rules related to this? I'm all for fixing this abuse, have you reported any of these listings to eBay? If enough people report these listings, eBay should eventually conduct a further investigation or maybe actually start enforcing their rules. If none of us even try to report these listings, then we are also part of the problem.
