eBay

sharingtheland · ‎08-31-2019

I will admit to abandoning a seller because I opted to purchase a widget from those sponsored listings that appeared above the description in her listing.

I truly felt bad about it - I know it's not the seller's idea to have those in her listing - but the "related" listing was less expensive and was IPR, not an auction.

But ebay got its money either way, now didn't it.

And oh, btw, just as importantly, when I searched over and over for this particular widget, the one I ended up purchasing never appeared in search results or, duh, I would have immediately bought it.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

*madison · ‎08-31-2019

I've done it loads of times,

I didn't feel bad though, I didn't care at all.

buyselljack2016 · ‎08-31-2019

@sharingtheland wrote:
I will admit to abandoning a seller because I opted to purchase a widget from those sponsored listings that appeared above the description in her listing.

I truly felt bad about it - I know it's not the seller's idea to have those in her listing - but the "related" listing was less expensive and was IPR, not an auction.

But ebay got its money either way, now didn't it.

And oh, btw, just as importantly, when I searched over and over for this particular widget, the one I ended up purchasing never appeared in search results or, duh, I would have immediately bought it.

Not exactly the same, but I suspect that my most recent cancellation was from eBay displaying a cheaper item that did not show to the buyer in their search prior to doing an IPR purchase from me.

eBay feels that it is a "good business model" to show buyers more of what they are obviously interested in just in case they want another. Not good for the seller that gets the cancel request 1 minute after the sale.

At least you made a purchase without a cancellation.

zktalkj_0 · ‎08-31-2019

The real problem however is those "related" listings are not always the exact thing the buyer was looking for. These related sponsored results appear as a result of "promoted" listings, but they also result in buyers purchasing the wrong item completely by mistake (which then results in a return for that seller, so now we have an unhappy buyer AND a not so happy seller).

It's similar to smart or predictive search, where things are usually a bit to a ways off the mark.

I've had to issue several refunds because of this idiocy, so much for one particular item that I pulled the promotion and listed it regular, now less sales for me means less money for ebay and that's just dandy by me.

(did i just hear stampede heading towards resolutions?)

abfabvintage · ‎08-31-2019

@sharingtheland

Hey...hope the shipping department is back to "normal?". when you say abandoned the seller, does that mean you paid for it, then saw other cheapos and with quicker ship (or did you retract an auction) then had to do a cancel to that first seller? I am seeing if you actually pay, then all of a sudden all the searches you originally wanted to show up, only show up only when you pay...should make one think what is actually happening when you happen to be the seller (hope this is making sense). I posted last May 2018 where I bought something as a test just to see how at the buyer level how it works...I bought it, I paid for it...all of a sudden I received many emails from ebay of cheaper items (and not even close to quality), then when the seller shipped, got more notices for cheaper items, then when received? same mantra from ebay. So there are no win here (for the seller).

I ain't got the brains to make this up (Fantastic Beasts)

abfabvintage · ‎08-31-2019

Tagging to myself: I don't get this rig a ma roll when I buy on other sites...only here.

I ain't got the brains to make this up (Fantastic Beasts)

slippinjimmy · ‎08-31-2019

@*madison wrote:
I've done it loads of times,

I didn't feel bad though, I didn't care at all.

Same here, when I have my buyer hat on I buy what I am looking for or at least something that interests me. I'm am not looking to spend money just to make any particular seller happy.

sharingtheland · ‎08-31-2019

As usual, I was not clear. No, I didn't pay for it and then cancel. It was an auction that wasn't ending for several days.

"Abandon" perhaps was a bit strong; I just meant I didn't buy hers which I was perfectly willing to do even though it had overpriced shipping and I would have had to wait for the auction to end. But I wanted that widget, dammit. Someone stole mine where I forgot about it and left it under the bird feeders in the back yard. You can't trust any of these old fart thieves in this neighborhood....

I had gone back to the listing to place a bid when I saw the one as a "related sponsored" one.

Since I never look at the emails associated with this buying id, I don't know if I get those "here's one cheaper" greetings from ebay. Maybe I should check on that, eh? The only email address I pay attention to is the one that gets the money and notices of sales.

The Shipping Department is down for a long, long time (not sure if normal ever returns). I just turned down an offer on a widget that I should have never listed - and will end soon - because of the huge amount of time and care it's going to take to pack for shipping. It was always intended for the auction house but I got greedy and decided to see if I could save on fees by selling it here. Of course, the offer was juuuust slightly more than 50% of my listing price so it was going to get turned down, anyway.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

sharingtheland · ‎08-31-2019

@slippinjimmy wrote:
@*madison wrote:
I've done it loads of times,

I didn't feel bad though, I didn't care at all.
Same here, when I have my buyer hat on I buy what I am looking for or at least something that interests me. I'm am not looking to spend money just to make any particular seller happy.

jimmy, I had my buyer hat on, obviously, since I bought the less expensive one. I just felt a twinge of seller empathy when I bailed on the first one because of ebay's insertions into that seller's listing.

Amazon shows "related" items but they are related, not the exact same thing. If you want to see the exact same thing there, you price compare in the buy box area. And those identical listings aren't staring you in the face; you have to click to see them.

Although, I will say that Amazon's pages are getting way, way too full of stuff. In the last few weeks I've ordered so many things for the invalid - bed rails, motion detectors, sheets, Ensure Clear, you name it - and since many things were items I knew nothing about I spent So.Much.Time scrolling through all of the junk on the page to get to the reviews and such.

I also have to admit that I didn't look at ebay for anything. I needed it all quickly as circumstances popped up. Ebay is never, ever going to be able to beat Prime, even though I read an article where Wenig said ebay would with its new warehouses, by being cheaper than Amazon. Hmmmm....

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

gamersbaystore · ‎08-31-2019

This is the whole reason ebay's GMV has been falling off a cliff since early last year. Not so much the sponsored listings, but those "Related" listings, which also include the sponsored posts.

Just more proof of how terribly mismanaged this platform truly is. ebay wants to force sellers to drop their prices in order to increase the volume of sales, and its clearly backfired.

There are still things sellers can do to entice buyers to pay the higher rates though. For one, pictures are like 9/10 of the sale, and stock photos don't work to entice sales very well.

One of the other things I do is focus on quality, rather than quantity. In the case of most products, consumers are willing to pay much higher prices for items that are in excellent condition, vs. those in a poorer condition.

For instance, I recently sold a copy of the Playstation 2 game Jaws Unleashed in near mint condition for $22, yet there were others selling the same game for $8. Mine sold relatively quickly, the others for $8 or $10 are still for sale now.

And just 2 days ago I sold a copy of the Suffering for PS2 (also near mint) for close to $30, yet others sell the same game for like $12 to $15. In fact, I sold several copies of this game for the same price over the last few weeks, yet competitors listings arent selling, yet are much cheaper.

The photos and the condition matter more than price, at least that's the case in my own experience of selling on ebay.

sharingtheland · ‎08-31-2019

General reply

I just now realized this. I bought a "real" sponsored or promoted item yet I never, ever saw it in the 53 different ways I searched for the item.

Was I foolish in thinking all promoted listings would be visible at all times?

I wonder how many times a promoted listing shows up in other listings? Once for 1%? 10 times for 10% ? Simplified math but ykwim, I hope.

If there is this advantage, i.e., showing up in related listings, in addition to showing up higher in search, maybe promoted (sponsored) listings are worth it? I have so far resisted because of general principle and also because most of my items don't have much competition; they're not in categories with thousands of others. But if they show up in places as "related," maybe I become a hypocrite and start paying the piper.

I didn't realize these listings are what "we" call promoted; I didn't make the leap from sponsored to promoted. My brain is not firing on all if its highly oiled zillion cylinders right now.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

gamersbaystore · ‎08-31-2019

Yeah, sponsored listings do work. That's how I sold those games I mentioned. In fact, the Suffering game I mentioned was listed for weeks and not selling until I promoted it. I also sold like 5 copies of the PS2 Game Champions of Norath with promoted listings, all sold in less than 24 hours. I've probably sold 100 games this year with promoted listings.

But you have to know where to draw the line as well. In some cases it may not be worth the added costs to promote something, such as with my cheaper games for $10 or less. Promoting such listings would destroy my profits, so I can't promote everything.

You can still stand to benefit from promoted listings even in categories where there isn't much competition. More views = more potential sales.

slippinjimmy · ‎08-31-2019

@sharingtheland wrote:
@slippinjimmy wrote:
@*madison wrote:
I've done it loads of times,

I didn't feel bad though, I didn't care at all.
Same here, when I have my buyer hat on I buy what I am looking for or at least something that interests me. I'm am not looking to spend money just to make any particular seller happy.

jimmy, I had my buyer hat on, obviously, since I bought the less expensive one. I just felt a twinge of seller empathy when I bailed on the first one because of ebay's insertions into that seller's listing.

So you bailed on one seller and bought from another. Anytime you you buy anything from anywhere you are favouring one seller over another.

The most important thing is to favour yourself by getting the best deal regardless of who the seller is.

About the only time a seller might be deserving of some empathy is if they have provided outstanding (pre-sale) customer services but can't match the price. The basic act of listing an item for sale doesn't rate the "outstanding" tag. An example of this would be going to Home Depot, spending an hour peppering a sales rep with questions and then walking down the street and buying from Lowes because you can save a few pennies.

hdps_corp · ‎08-31-2019

The big problem I see with sponsored advertisers

1- When you buy from them, you don't know their feedback, nor yours will matter

2- You will be on your own if something goes wrong

3- I have seeing even firearms advertising on eBay from sponsors.....they don't have to go by eBay rules, which is not a benefit to eBay real sellers.

Since eBay start taking money from sponsors, they also hurt the ebay sellers that are feeding eBay...reason why this whole mess is falling gradually in the last few years.