Search manipulation policy In a Variation listing

[jcrue-61]

Just got one of my listings taken down today, in the video games category and this was the message:

Your listing didn't follow our Search manipulation policy. Offering a choice of different products in a single listing is not allowed.

What activity didn't follow the policy

Please understand that you have offered choice of the different items in your listing. Per the policy sellers can offer the choice of the color, size in a listing however offering a significantly different item is not allowed. Each item making up the allowed choice offering must be listed in a separate listing or you should create a Multiple quantity Buy it Now listing or a Multi variation listing. You can relist your item choosing the appropriate format of the listing.

It was for single games all for the same system in the same condition,  and it was listed as a variation.

Cs pretty much told me i could list only different versions of the same game, has anyone experienced this? Honestly it seems like this whole policy is open to interpretation, and i just got screwed by someone else's take on it. Just to illustrate how easy it was for me to "Manipulate search results" step by step.

 

[bigdeals.etc · Accepted solution]

How many different games did you offer as variations in your removed listing? Was it closer to 5, or like closer to 50? I believe ebay hit you on this for two possible reasons.

1) This can be seen as listing fee circumventing. Ebay only recognizes MV listings having one insertion fee. As opposed to if you created them all in separate listings. That’s why they may be nit picky on the differences allowed among the variations.

2) As you mentioned, it can be seen as keyword search manipulation. Rather than having a buyer click on your store to see how many games you offer, the buyer just needs to see your one listing. That means a buyer who for example is looking for Pac Man, will also see and maybe sift thru all of your Street Fighter games that they aren’t even interested in. This may go against eBay’s mission on trying to make purchasing easier for the buyer.

You mention all of the variation choices ebay gives you when listing. Just know that all of those choices aren’t meant to all be on the same listing. Just like when I list a t shirt, there’s literally hundreds of themes I can choose from... ranging from superheroes, cartoons, sports, movies, video games, music bands, animals, etc. I’m sure if someone put all those into one listing, it’d get pulled as a violation too.

I just want to point out that I’m neither agreeing nor disagreeing with eBay’s choice and decision. I’m just explaining it.

[jcrue-61]

Cs told me i can list different versions of the same game in one listing. Honestly i could find a bunch of listings that were exactly like mine without much trouble. I had around 70 games listed, with around 150 photos. I spent hours researching market prices. it's a very annoying situation.

I did look at the policies before i created this listing, and my take on it was 250 different items max, don't list items that are different ( my take on this was don't sell ps3 games in the same listing with ps2 games). And i did more looking around at how others listed they're items and found plenty of sellers using multi-variation listings in the same way with more items listed.

[luckythewinner]

Thank goodness that eBay is at least starting to crack down on this. Nothing is more frustrating that having a search turn up an item for $1 only to find out that the variation you are looking for is $50.

Sellers are starting to do this with LPs and CDs, too. I even saw someone doing it with ticket stubs - you search for something like "Led Zeppelin ticket stub" and sort by price and the listing sorts as $1 ... but the Led Zeppelin 'variation' is actually $100. 

IMHO variation is for colors and sizes of clothing, not for different titles of video games.

[jcrue-61]

They need to fix the search engine to show the price for the individual item your search for in the variation. They're are plenty of people doing a bait and switch like your saying.

It to bad, since selling games like this in a variation would be an awesome way to sell if they could fix these issues. Most of the games i was selling were within a dollar or two of the lowest price, and i was offering combined shipping and volume discounts. It might not have been cheapest single title, but people that were buying from me were usually buying between 3-10 games at a time and saving over 2$ on shipping per. Sure you can go into someone's store and buy like this but the interface for this is clunky compared to picking what you want out one at a time.

[luckythewinner]

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@jcrue-61 wrote:

They need to fix the search engine to show the price for the individual item your search for in the variation.

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The problem is that you might match multiple items with different prices.

IMHO the fix is incredible simple - eBay should always show the buyer the most expensive variation instead of the cheapest variation. That way, it punishes the ones who are pulling the bait and switch, while minimizing the impact on  sellers who are using variation listings responsibly.

[kensgiftshop]

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@jcrue-61 wrote:

And i did more looking around at how others listed they're items and found plenty of sellers using multi-variation listings in the same way with more items listed.

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Just because other sellers are doing it wrong also, doesn't make it right.

They will probably have their listings removed to.

[coolections]

It is not only search manipulation but it is also fee avoidance.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

Thank goodness that eBay is at least starting to crack down on this. Nothing is more frustrating that having a search turn up an item for $1 only to find out that the variation you are looking for is $50.

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Actually ebay has been cracking down on this "bait and switch" for awhile now... but I don't know how effectively. I didn't mention this issue because we don't know what pricing the OP had on this listing, so I can't assume they were in violation of that.

Ebay actually changes what price is shown in the keyword results so often, that I don't know what their intention is anymore. Sometimes I see the highest price shown, sometimes the lowest price shown, sometimes even a price in the middle, and other times they show a price range like "$5 - $50".

[bigdeals.etc]

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@jcrue-61 wrote:

They need to fix the search engine to show the price for the individual item your search for in the variation. They're are plenty of people doing a bait and switch like your saying.

It to bad, since selling games like this in a variation would be an awesome way to sell if they could fix these issues. Most of the games i was selling were within a dollar or two of the lowest price, and i was offering combined shipping and volume discounts. It might not have been cheapest single title, but people that were buying from me were usually buying between 3-10 games at a time and saving over 2$ on shipping per. Sure you can go into someone's store and buy like this but the interface for this is clunky compared to picking what you want out one at a time.

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I agree that the search engine needs to be fixed with more accurate price displays... it seems it's a random mess at times. There was once a post here about a seller who was selling ceramic dishes, cups, bowls, and plates. They were a huge volume seller but only had 1 listing. That listing had 150 variations on it... with different colors, patterns, sizes, type of dishware, etc.

Ebay doesn't like clutter anymore. I think even if the search result price issue was fixed, ebay would still find another way to remove that huge variation listing of yours, sorry. They would try to fit it into another policy violation and give you grief because your "average buyer" would feel inconvenienced or confused by your listing. And yes, even if some of your buyers understand your listing, ebay tries to cater to the lowest common denominator.

I forgot to also mention that ebay might feel this is manipulating exposure (not just with keyword) by your purchase history. Your listing may be bumped significantly higher because of your combined purchase history of all game titles versus a listing with just one of the game titles.

With that said, there's ways to still implement your combined item discounts as well as combined shipping discounts while having separate listings. Look into combined shipping discount profiles and your promotions tab in Seller Hub.

[jcrue-61]

I'm working now to move everything to smaller single title variations now, I can't really tell but i do see other people selling one title with 2 options such as this:

Good Condition For full price

And Flawed Condition Some % off.

Or is this still seen as bait and switch type tactics?

[bigdeals.etc]

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@jcrue-61 wrote:

I'm working now to move everything to smaller single title variations now, I can't really tell but i do see other people selling one title with 2 options such as this:

Good Condition For full price

And Flawed Condition Some % off.

Or is this still seen as bait and switch type tactics?

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Hard to say. The problem is that this policy is VERY subjective. You'll find alot of different people who would give you different answers. Sadly, there are different interpretations.

[corvettestainless]

You're looking at problems with buyers if you do it this way, as they won't understand that there are 'different' conditions. Most just want to play the game, have the original case etc. 

If you have same game in different conditions and believe it warrants different pricing, I would list separately. Most games are not 'collectors' so.....

[lacemaker3]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

Thank goodness that eBay is at least starting to crack down on this. Nothing is more frustrating that having a search turn up an item for $1 only to find out that the variation you are looking for is $50.

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Actually ebay has been cracking down on this "bait and switch" for awhile now... but I don't know how effectively. I didn't mention this issue because we don't know what pricing the OP had on this listing, so I can't assume they were in violation of that.

Ebay actually changes what price is shown in the keyword results so often, that I don't know what their intention is anymore. Sometimes I see the highest price shown, sometimes the lowest price shown, sometimes even a price in the middle, and other times they show a price range like "$5 - $50".

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I suspect that this was the listing in question. Looking through the list of items sold (going back to Feb 27) I see prices ranging from $0.85 to $27.95. I just did a quick scan, so I may have missed some higher or lower than that.

I think this may be a good example of the type of variations listing that buyers complain about being "bait and switch". Although the available price range appears to have been much smaller when the listing was ended, the range of items that had been sold was much larger.

I get the impression that this may be a price range issue, and it might be better to group listings with similar prices. But, I don't have any evidence or documentation for that.

I find it annoying when I'm searching for a particular variation, and it turns out to be sold out. The listing keeps coming up in searches again and again, but the item I'm looking for was sold out early on.

Nintendo Nes Games Over 100 Titles to Choose From Clean Pins Tested Working

[jcrue-61]

Yes i did sell a couple games early on, that were in really bad shape for 0.99 just to get rid of them. Other than that everything else was priced with prices from pricecharting. I've already said that most of my stuff was with 1-2$ of comparable games.