Seller abuse

[msmoms-thingyattic]

I am calling bull! Multi listing abuse supported by Ebay. Book dealers and I am one and I am not SMALL so I am not just whining or saying OH it is so unfair. I make very good money and am top rated in both stores with 100% rating no negative feedback 10 year seller.

So you can list an item in more than one category if you have it. Say new, like new, very good, good and well, junk “ACCETCABLE”. Then you can add no dust jacket to listing an have 4 more listings. You can add ex-library to all but “new” and get enougher 3 listings. You can add no dust jacket and ex-library for 3 more listings. This is for all the same item just playing with the title. So looks like this.

NEW

LIKE NEW

VERY GOOD

GOOD

JUNK

LIKE NEW NO DUST JACKET

VERY GOOD NO DUST JACKET

GOOD NO DUST JACKET

JUNK NO DUST JACKET

LIKE NEW EX-LIBRARY

VERY GOOD EX-LIBRARY

GOOD EX-LIBRARY

JUNK EX-LIBRARY

LIKE NEW EX-LIBRARY NO DUST JACKET

VERY GOOD EX-LIBRARY NO DUST JACKET

GOOD EX-LIBRARY NO DUST JACKET

JUNK EX-LIBRARY NO DUST JACKET

Now double all this if you have the book in trade edition with the same ISBN

You can double it again if you have the same book in paperback with the same ISBN

So you see how it is easy for a large store or two to take 100% of the first page on a search. It does not matter about price that is all fair but this is abuse. Yes they can afford to list sometimes 10 items or more per store per item. How to fix it? Easy just make each store have a single listing with all conditions listed just like sizes for shirts. Hell the price can even be changed doing that on the page.

But hell will freeze because Ebay wont give up selling that many listings.

[richards*rock*collection]

The way I buy is click the tab that say, lowest price shipping first, then work my way up the list, but I see what your saying. My, that is good no negitive feedback, I commend you, keep trying, books are hard to sell since you can read them from your tablet, the younger generation seems not very interested in books, I like to browse old first editions in the thrift stores, but rarely buy any myself, because their heavy and hard to store and sell.

[yuzuha]

In the example you gave, that's not abuse.  The books are all in different conditions; some have dust jackets and some don't, and others are ex-library books, which is something that most collectors want to be warned about as library books will by their nature tend to have a significantly higher amount of wear compared to personally-owned books.  In fact, it would be worse for the seller to put them all in a single multi-variation listing BECAUSE they are not all in the same condition-- variation listings are meant for things like differing colors or sizes or for a hardcover or paperback version of the same book, not for differing item conditions.  A seller who made a multi-variation listing for the same item only in different conditions would be setting themselves up for trouble with buyers who didn't read that the variations were due to the item conditions rather than things like hardcover/paperback.

[smileytown18]

I would call it ANNOYING, more then seller abuse.
They can always claim these little differences make a difference to the buyers,so there's no way to enforce removal. And they may be right

[southern*sweet*tea]

---

wrote:
I would call it ANNOYING, more then seller abuse.
They can always claim these little differences make a difference to the buyers,so there's no way to enforce removal. And they may be right

---

They DO make a difference.  If I'm buying a book for myself just to read, I really don't care if it has a DJ or not, if it's EXLIB, if it has remainder marks...as long as the text is all there and readable it's all good.  If I"m buying to collect, I want it in the best condition I can afford, including the DJ if applicable. If I'm buying as a gift, I want it in a new or nearly new condition.

So yes, to many book buyers condition makes all the difference in the world.

[southernfriedbelle]

---

wrote:

---

wrote:
I would call it ANNOYING, more then seller abuse.
They can always claim these little differences make a difference to the buyers,so there's no way to enforce removal. And they may be right

---

They DO make a difference.  If I'm buying a book for myself just to read, I really don't care if it has a DJ or not, if it's EXLIB, if it has remainder marks...as long as the text is all there and readable it's all good.  If I"m buying to collect, I want it in the best condition I can afford, including the DJ if applicable. If I'm buying as a gift, I want it in a new or nearly new condition.

So yes, to many book buyers condition makes all the difference in the world.

---

Right. It matters. And the OP's analogy is off, too. If I were selling 6 Ann Taylor dresses, all NWT, identical in every way except size, then the multiples format used in one listing for all six items makes sense, If I have 6 of those same dresses, but in NWT, EUC, NWOT, Used VG Condition, Used Good Condition and Used Fair Condition, I could not list those in one listing.

[smileytown18]

Good analogy. I'm not a big book buyer,but clothing I understand! @southernfriedbelle

Either way, I find most buyers sort results by price

[tunicaslot]

OP is not talking about a variation listing - they are talking about additional listings of the same book - but how does the OP know that this seller may not have multiple copies of the same book - 1 in good condition, another in good condition with the dust jacket, another in fair condition as it's a library book ect...?

[lookng2015]

I find it akin (and just as annoying) to the sellers who list china patterns in groups of 1,2,3,4,5,6 ad infinitum

[msmoms-thingyattic]

Ok you are right it is not abuse. And yes they may have them all. I will fold on that one. But **bleep** it is hard some days to look at what you know is a seller using the rules to make a work around. Oh well I am not leaving and Ebay still works for me. I have seen 100s of changes year by year month by month and sometimes day by day. This will change too in time. Thanks for the input and replies. have a good day everyone.

[tunicaslot]

We all have gripes and we all need to vent! I get upset with the thousands of overseas listings that are misrepresented as far as item location and Ebay does nothing about it. Ditto to those using variation listings and have one OOS item or an item unrelated to the listings marked for 99 cents while the actual listed item is 30x that - but if a buyer chooses lowest to highest for cost - those listings pop up right at the beginning.

It irks me - but since I've seen this on other web sites as well - have gotten use to just skipping over them.

[southernfriedbelle]

---

wrote:

OP is not talking about a variation listing - they are talking about additional listings of the same book - but how does the OP know that this seller may not have multiple copies of the same book - 1 in good condition, another in good condition with the dust jacket, another in fair condition as it's a library book ect...?

---

I admit I'm a little confused by the OP's opening post. What did the OP mean by:

"So you see how it is easy for a large store or two to take 100% of the first page on a search. It does not matter about price that is all fair but this is abuse. Yes they can afford to list sometimes 10 items or more per store per item. How to fix it? Easy just make each store have a single listing with all conditions listed just like sizes for shirts."

I interpreted that part of OP's initial post to suggest a mandatory variations listing as the solution to his/her problem. How that would be enforceable is beyond the scope of my imagination. What was your understanding of the post cited above? I think I may have misunderstood it, in which case what I said doesn't make sense....

[chicboutique31]

i sell clothing and see the exact same thing so it is not just books. it is very unfair to have the same item listed 10 times but just use different wording in the titles. It is getting flooded.

[div_style]

It is frustrating to see many listings for the same item from the same seller which have only a slightly different title to escape eBay's duplicate listing policy.  Unfortunately eBay's dup-police software seems limited to Same/Not-same capabilities, so changing a single character in a title eludes it.

EBay also forbids a seller with multiple IDs from listing the same item by two or more of them but does not seem to be capable of enforcing that, or perhaps, just prefers to keep the listing count up.