Wayyyy!!! too much carp displayed to the buyer on the Item page

[ducks2k]

for a few months I've been getting more and more disgusted with the amount of carp being shown to me when I click on an item to view it.  It used to be that what I would see would be what is actually being offered for sale, with tabs for additional detail.

This morning I clicked on a typical lot (https://www.ebay.com/itm/354226352231) and received what prints out (terribly, by the way) as 12 pages, with only 2 of the 12 actually related to the item being offered.

Yes, the first screen shows the actual item pictures and would allow me to place a bid, but following that is a row of "Similar Sponsored Items", then a row of "Related Sponsored Items", occupying a full screen worth of space.

Then comes the almost hidden space for the item detail  tabs.  This item did not have much of a description, but there were so many images surrounding it that it was easy to miss it entirely. 

Following that was another row of "Similar Sponsored Items" then a row of "Explore more sponsored options: State"  Each pair of rows takes up a screen of real estate.  Then comes another row of "Related Sponsored Items" which appears to be an exact duplicate of the one presented earlier.  Then I get a row of "People who viewed this item also viewed", followed by a FIVE ROWS of "Find more sponsored items"
 
This totals ELEVEN ROWS of advertisements, totaling 55 image blocks.  The item itself is almost lost within the advertisements.  Even the item itself with 3 images, only gets to display one of them at a time, so it is outnumbered 55 to 1.

Almost all of this is related to me, personally, through my userid as a buyer.  When I ask a browser utility to capture the page (by doing an independent http retrieval), almost none of this is retrieved - just the basic item data.

The reason I put this in a seller conversation is that the entire eBay website is dynamic content and it is nearly impossible for a seller to see what a buyer sees.

THIS IS ABSURD.   Amazon makes recommendations, but AFTER the pertinent data on the item being clicked on.

[ducks2k]

Additionally, every email I receive from ebay STARTS with advertisements before even getting to what the email is trying to tell me.

[ducks2k]

All additional lots browsed this morning have ELEVEN OR MORE rows of advertisements.  Why would any seller pay a premium to have a little block to appear among 55 to 60 other blocks?

[ducks2k]

I went over and browsed a totally random portable electric generator for absolutely no reason at all.  I really wonder how soon I will be having that influence my "recommendations"....   sigh.....

[hartungcards]

I think the real question here is:  Why on Earth are you printing out eBay ads?

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@ducks2k wrote:

....  Why would any seller pay a premium to have a little block to appear among 55 to 60 other blocks?

---

Because if I don't; someone else's stuff will be shown on MY LISTINGS.

Because for those that don't, MY LISTINGS are shown on their listing.

For 2%, well worth it. 

Not any different than the banner at the top or the side of any website you visit or 

even your OWN email is full of them at top or side.

TV commercials used to run 2-3 Minute. I fast forward on recorded shows up to 6 minutes at a time! 

Advertising is everywhere. Everybody is making something, selling something. 

In fact, the entire Planet Earth Population has DOUBLED since the 60s'. 60 short years going from 3 Billion to 7 Billion??!!

Best advice; get on the ride or you'll just have to get back in line. 

[heckofagame]

Carp are just giant-sized gold fish.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@ducks2k 

I pumped gas the other day. The gas pump played a video, complete with ads.

Ads are everywhere. 

Do I like that? No.

Is it a fact of modern life? Yes.

At least with the sponsored ads on ebay listing pages, one of those ads might be mine, and I might make a sale from it. 

[ducks2k]

Oh come on people... Of course I said "carp" instead of "crap" (intentionally, a bit of humor, actually).  The point is REAL.  I do not object to recommendations - Amazon does them well. What I object to is that the advertisements that totally dominate the item itself.  It has gotten steadily worse in the last year or so, and is now way beyond reasonable.

If they are putting up so many ads that they duplicate some on a single listing, and don't even notice, it is too many.

A 55:1 ratio of paid advertisement images to item description images is too many by an order of magnitude.

Placing the advertisements before the detail data of the item being sold is too intrusive.  The buyer clicked on the item to see the item - do that first.

I do not object to paid advertisements, it is just that the business of eBay used to be selling stuff, not selling advertising.

[jameshen1]

So even if we agreed with you, what do propose we do?  What do you hope to gain by posting this here?  None of us work for eBay, or have eBay's ear.  And corporate does not read these boards.

[ducks2k]

Who asked you to do anything?  You don't even need to read the post or follow it.  Theoretically, eBay does (or should) read these posts.  They are customer-centric, and sellers are customers of eBay - they certainly get a lot of our money.  Ebay goes to great lengths to "help" us create well-designed item listings, and then goes and buries our results in advertisements. 

Ebay "helps" me by refusing to allow me to use an image file that is less than 500 dots by 500 dots (I read 1000x1000 in various places, but they have not objected to 500x500 (yet)).  I can understand this restriction for an automobile, but I sell things that are about an inch square.  One size does not fit all.

If I can't complain here, where am I supposed to complain?  I have dreams that some eBay executive will happen on this thread and think "we should do something about this".  sigh.....

[hartungcards]

eBay has these discussion boards specifically because they DON'T want to deal with all this crying themselves.  Theoretically, eBay has no interest in reading these posts.

[ducks2k]

Then where do they want to listen to crying? 

The reason I started this thread on the seller board is that sellers can't see what buyers see.  Sure, we can use the manual lister tools with "preview", but that only shows what our input portion of the item would appear as.  If they showed it with all the ads inserted it would be much closer to what the buyer sees.

I just viewed my own store and all I see are the nice clean listings - no extra carp.  This is NOT what the buyer will see.

I go view someone else's store and each item is buried in carp.

All I can say is that if my stuff appears as muddled as when I look at as other people's stores do (which they MUST), then even the fact that all my items are nicely grouped into store categories will get buried in ads for everyone else's "stuff", and the "stuff" that eBay decides to display there is based on fee-based advertising and some strange algorithms about which is "related" to that item in my store and "related" to the buyer's browsing and purchasing history.  

Personally, I would think that the closest matches to items in my store category would be other items in  my same store category.  I doubt that it is that neat.  I guess I will have to bring up another browser with totally cleared cookies and not be logged in to eBay and see what my store looks like.  I would not be amazed if eBay has already stored a lot of context based on my IP address, so I guess I have to go use a VPN or something to see how bad it looks.

[gkn29]

You can say "crap" btw

[ducks2k]

Of course the allowed/forbidden words vary between websites, and I really don't care if I can say crap.  Carp have a reputation as an inedible junk fish, so I am attempting to drag in some subtle innuendo.  "This Ebay policy stinks like an inedible dead fish" -- shorthand "carp".  maybe humorous, maybe not...