The ominous eBay "Algorithm". Fact or Fiction?

[bamorris]

I see quite a few references to the eBay "algorithm" but I haven't seen any evidence that one actually exists.

Does the algorithm exist?

How does the algorithm manifest?

Is the algorithm room with us right now?

Ok, last question was meant to be light hearted and more humorous. I just don't know how the algorithm would manifest. Most of my items are found using "search". I assume the buyers order search results by lowest price with shipping included and begin to examine each of the cheapest item to find one in the condition and price they desire.

Watching YouTube videos from "top rated sellers" offering advice on eBay, I often hear suggestions on how to appease the algorithm by "do these 5 things daily".

Do we have examples of eBay shadow banning accounts on eBay? Clear cut examples where you can see this algorithm in action? Excluding sellers "promoting" items by paying a fee to be at the top of a search. Does eBay really channel traffic to sellers it prefers or favors? 

[mmadigan]

" I would like to see some examples of the search manipulation where items are "shadow banned" from the results"

I just searched in the auction format for county history in the books category.  With the best match setting I received 524 results when I changed to rank by highest price I was shown 450.  If I change to lowest they showed 254 results with a disclaimer saying they were not showing all the listings to see al click the link  Clicking the link showed 450.

I have no ideas if the missing listings are due to being "shadow banned" or being a duplicate listing.  I have never bother to determine which listings are missing.

When I limit the search to book over $200, best match shows 20 while price shows 19.

When I limit the search to book under $10, best match shows 121 while price shows 89.

[orangehound]

By the way, the "algorithm" works both ways.  It can also boost the visibility of a seller's inventory.

My favorite story is the week where we had next to nothing in sales, and then in a period of about 2 hours, we made 4 sales - all to Minnesota. 

Of course it could have been a coincidence, even though we had probably made only 1 sale to Minnesota in the previous 3 years.

[luckythewinner]

I'd like to see evidence of these "thousands of algorithms that do thousands of things

algorithm: "a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer."

Best match is an algorithm.

The fraud detection system has an algorithm.

The counterfeit detection system has an algorithm.

The seller rating evaluation system is an algorithm.

The service metrics system is an algorithm.

The listing renewal system is an algorithm.

The prohibited listing detection system is an algorithm.

The system that detects bad buyers and NARUs them is an algorithm.

Every bot on eBay is an algorithm.

I'm not sure that search optimization really qualifies as this ominous "algorithm".

Just using the phrase "the ominous algorithm" indicates the writer does not understand what an algorithm is or how a website like eBay operates.

[hotspotauctions]

Everything that runs on the internet uses an algorithm, or many of them.  

I only know from personal experience of looking for an item six ways from Sunday in a search, and then finding one or two for sale in a browser search that did not come up in my eBay search. If there are thousands for sale I get it, but if there are only one or two for sale, show me what I am looking for if you want to make the sale, be it a piece of tooling or a car part. 

[sapphire_studio]

OP are you asking if people search using Best Match (which is obviously some type of search algorithm) often compared to just sorting by price?

Yes on average I am sure people probably just let ebay feed them the automatic Best Results more often than they bother to sort by Price or Newly Listed or Ending Soonest.

So when sellers talk about being affected by the algorithm is means their placement in this Best Match results page. Hidden could just mean put hundreds of spots lower not removed completely from the results. When the algorithm "likes you" you get better placement and more eyes on your listing and most likely more sales.

This Algorithm not only 100% exists she has a name: Cassini

https://algopix.com/glossary/cassini-search-engine#:~:text=The%20Cassini%20search%20engine%20is,impa....

[redlinear]

Algorithm as defined means......Oh my gosh....... We know what you mean.

I search MANY MANY MANY MANY items every day.   They start as best match, and I'll filter high-low price, and then "used".
Most times my searches are a bit vague.  Intentionally because I want to see everything related.  OR, I want to see items from sellers that did not include all the info that they might have should have included.  
Quite often I'll know that I have THAT item and wonder where it is.  AND then get more precise and STILL not find my item.  
Which makes me wonder how many other items I'm not seeing. 
If I'm not seeing my stuff?  Makes me think shoppers might not be either.
LOTS of times, I'll end up switching to "nearest 1st" to see my listing.  (usually that does find it).  

I read yesterday that the search only pics up the 1st three words of the title.  Since search now uses item specifics mostly.  But, I tested that today with an odd ball word at the end of the title.  Search found that word.  (so, that 1st three title words only isn't correct).

There is a trend with my items though.  I'll list 30 unrelated items in one day.  Then MONTHS later, in one day, sell several of those 30 items, to different buyers.   SO, what starts out as easily seen, gradually becomes harder to find....then, comes back into view (based on time).
I assume this is to let all sellers have a few sales, instead of a few sellers having all the sales.
Ending and Restarting listings every month or so is how many sellers battle this.
  

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

Cassini takes a plethora of information it processes to rank listing results.  Sell through rate vs impressions, seller history, seller defects, returns, claims, price, shipping such as price, location related to the searching consumer and more.  Since Promoted Listings now exist they will take precedence over normal organic searching *IF* the seller ranking via Promotion and Cassini's results warrant higher ranking.  In other word a seller with "Defects", poor shipping times on and on may still rank low even when paying for Promoted Listings.  Last thing eBay needs are lackluster sellers blanketing Promoted Listings causing consumers grief.

As with any search engine page one will see the most traffic, page two will be an ENORMOUS amount less and after page three views will be near nil.  

[nuclearomen]

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@bamorris wrote:

I see quite a few references to the eBay "algorithm" but I haven't seen any evidence that one actually exists.

Does the algorithm exist?

How does the algorithm manifest?

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yes

if we knew the inner gears of the algorithm no one would be here complaining about sale - algorithms are a highly kept secret. 

Youtube videos aren't greatest source of info. Never once did I watch one from a "top rated seller" (btw most all sellers are top rated lol) that showed or taught me anything I didn't already know and figure out on my own...those same sellers giving those advices experience the same decrease and lack of sales as any other seller - to wrap it up - they know nothing special, and i know for a fact half of them get their "information" from these boards.  

[iart]

When looking to price items we often see the same item sell for greatly different prices. 10X as much sometimes. Why?

Because eBay decides to place some items higher in search visibility than others. Some buyers don't want to search around (or don't know how) and simply get the one that's easiest to find.

Call it an algorithm. Call it chance. Call it and 'act of God'... whatever...

[evry1nositswindy]

@mmadigan The small differences are pretty easy to explain--a sponsored item is shown at least twice on a page, more if there are multiple pages.  Multiple people sponsoring items + more duplicates.

I just sold an item that I have had listed for 2 years.  It wasn't hidden because somebody found it!

[bamorris]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

AI seems to be the latest buzzword in Silicon Valley.

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Not much on "tech" but seems like Al has been present from the start.

Is that not how things work?

How would eBay work without Al?

Wasn't aware that it has just become the "latest".

Seems that is what it has always been about.

replacing chat agents with chat bots ?  Now I get it. this just a entertainment thread.

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I think AI is different than traditional programs or applications. Or algos as discussed in this thread.

Have you used ChatGPT? https://chat.openai.com

Sign in and ask it to "Describe a catalytic converter in the voice of a valley girl". Or substitute valley girl for pig latin.

Ask it to write a small script for you in Visual Basic script, BASH, Perl, or any language you prefer. "Write a script in BASH that displays the spinning word "eBay"".

Start a new chat and tell it about one of your pets, or try to engage it in some innocuous conversation about yourself.

The days of human customer service agents are numbered.

AI seems different than what we traditionally think of as software, programs, algorithms or scripts.

[pjcdn2005]

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@1tuna wrote:

its hard to tell if you are asking about the search algorithm or the money algorithm

california is the largest seller in the USA

ebay likes to make sure the buyers are also in CA so the tax boost favors ebay

the los angeles area has a tax of 10%.

all of that tax is added in and the the FVF is then taken out

ebay is in love with the high tax states, it adds to the bottom line

sales are steered to states with high taxes.  that way ebay gets more bang for the buck

fiction?

@bamorris 

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Probably fiction.

It's more likely or just as likely that the ebay sales are higher in California simply because there are more people there than in any other state. 

[bamorris]

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@orangehound wrote:

My favorite story is the week where we had next to nothing in sales, and then in a period of about 2 hours, we made 4 sales - all to Minnesota. 

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How many total sales did you have yesterday? Were the items similar to each other or were they completely dissimilar?

[yuzuha]

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@iart wrote:

When looking to price items we often see the same item sell for greatly different prices. 10X as much sometimes. Why?

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Just to point out, the price you see when you search Solds isn't necessarily the actual price the buyer paid if there was a seller-initiated offer involved. If you look at my Solds, for example, it shows that Kingdom Hearts pin sold for $20. It was actually less than that because I sent an offer to its watchers and one of them accepted the offer.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@bamorris wrote:

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

AI seems to be the latest buzzword in Silicon Valley.

--------------------------------------------------------

Not much on "tech" but seems like Al has been present from the start.

Is that not how things work?

How would eBay work without Al?

Wasn't aware that it has just become the "latest".

Seems that is what it has always been about.

replacing chat agents with chat bots ?  Now I get it. this just a entertainment thread.

---

I think AI is different than traditional programs or applications. Or algos as discussed in this thread.

Have you used ChatGPT? https://chat.openai.com

Sign in and ask it to "Describe a catalytic converter in the voice of a valley girl". Or substitute valley girl for pig latin.

Ask it to write a small script for you in Visual Basic script, BASH, Perl, or any language you prefer. "Write a script in BASH that displays the spinning word "eBay"".

Start a new chat and tell it about one of your pets, or try to engage it in some innocuous conversation about yourself.

The days of human customer service agents are numbered.

AI seems different than what we traditionally think of as software, programs, algorithms or scripts.

---

Can we tell it "Please re-code Wordpress from start to finish as it's Pig." LOL.

Response:  "Please step into the Transmat machine so as we can microwave you on high for 45 minutes."

And yes...  Artificial Intelligence is up and coming moving at high speed which is a good thing because humanity around the world definitely seems to be sliding backwards...  I call it Artifecal Untelligence. 🤣