eBay

ilene · ‎07-08-2018

I have been a seller on ebay almost since it’s inception. I sell imported name-brand goods so so this problem does not effect me as a seller.

I used to shop on ebay but I no longer can. Many generic categories are flooded with identical goods under different names (often numbers) generally from countries such as Hong Kong. So if I pick a category such as women satin pajamas and ask for cheapest first. I have to go through pages and pages of duplicate listings to find what I want.

The second problem is this almost universal scam of listing items with a range of prices. The items will have a range like $.99-15.99. This brings it up among the cheapest listed priced items. But if you click on it, you find that the .99 item is totally unrelated to the title or the picture and the actual item is $15.99. Then on top of that, the high priced item which is in the title and picture is sometimes not even for sale and only the .99 unsealed item.

cherry*fizz · ‎07-08-2018

I haven't given up completely but I admit that price range thing has had me giving up on looking for something here more than once.

thenobletuckylife · ‎07-08-2018

Morning,

I have found that unless I search here knowing EXACTLY what I want it is pretty much a waste of time.

In defense of Ebay...my preference is to purchase here for several reason but it is a major deterrent when simply trying to find something I do not have the exact specifics for.

When I was about 12 years old and struggling with knowing how to spell something it seemed my mother and teachers simply told me to go look it up in a dictionary...to this day I find this the most crazy idea...how am I supposed to find it in a dictionary when I don't know how to spell it...seems I have this problem to this day.

Mr C

luckythewinner · ‎07-08-2018

@ilene wrote:
I used to shop on ebay but I no longer can. Many generic categories are flooded with identical goods under different names (often numbers) generally from countries such as Hong Kong. So if I pick a category such as women satin pajamas and ask for cheapest first. I have to go through pages and pages of duplicate listings to find what I want.

The second problem is this almost universal scam of listing items with a range of prices. The items will have a range like $.99-15.99. This brings it up among the cheapest listed priced items. But if you click on it, you find that the .99 item is totally unrelated to the title or the picture and the actual item is $15.99. Then on top of that, the high priced item which is in the title and picture is sometimes not even for sale and only the .99 unsealed item.

I have seen the same two issues and find them equally frustrating, and they are a big reason that I no longer use eBay for those items. Another issue I have is that for commodities like chargers and batteries and memory cards, I simply cannot trust that they are genuine and not knock-offs.

But thankfully, a lot of the items I search for on eBay are low-demand, low-supply items for which there is little competition and thus duplicate listings or variation listings or knock-offs are simply not an issue.

So for me, it is not that I have stopped shopping on eBay - it is that I have stopped shopping for certain types of items on eBay.

rt_21_trading_co · ‎07-08-2018

Yup. Finding anything on ebay is the equivalent of attempting to watch all 3 rings at once on the circus floor. Your going to miss alot of what you wanted to see.

The same goes with searching for something "vintage". Even under "steampunk" it is a bunch or newly created chinese junk labeled as "vintage". The chinese watch ebay buying trends through sold listings. If they see an item consistently selling they create it. If it is complicated they will buy one piece from a seller that is dumb enough to ship it to them then use the item as patterns to manufacture it and sell it as vintage.

Built a small diorama once for a local museum display. Needed 1/6 scale realistic figures so I wanted to use Phicen because their figures are very good. Needed 4 males and one female. Took 19 days to find that many. On ebay there were a few true Phicen, but most said Phicen but were chinese replicas. Ended up buying from manufacturers website. Paid more but got real product.

silly-shoes · ‎07-08-2018

On the left side of the page,you can choose either North America,or US only.This would eliminate Hong Kong and any other 3rd world country off the list.I only use it to research "realistic" items for sale when selling.

thenobletuckylife · ‎07-08-2018

@silly-shoes wrote:
On the left side of the page,you can choose either North America,or US only.This would eliminate Hong Kong and any other 3rd world country off the list.I only use it to research "realistic" items for sale when selling.

Morning,

That used to work pretty good for me until about 2 years ago and for some reason it seems alot of that product that used to be filtered out is now being shown as in the US.

Mr C

ed8108 · ‎07-08-2018

@ilene wrote:
I used to shop on ebay but I no longer can. Many generic categories are flooded with identical goods under different names (often numbers) generally from countries such as Hong Kong. So if I pick a category such as women satin pajamas and ask for cheapest first. I have to go through pages and pages of duplicate listings to find what I want.

The second problem is this almost universal scam of listing items with a range of prices. The items will have a range like $.99-15.99. This brings it up among the cheapest listed priced items. But if you click on it, you find that the .99 item is totally unrelated to the title or the picture and the actual item is $15.99. Then on top of that, the high priced item which is in the title and picture is sometimes not even for sale and only the .99 unsealed item.

I usually give up and just buy on Amazon. I pay a little more but at least I can find what I want in a reasonable amount of time. Both these problems could be corrected by ebay which might bring some buyers like me back. This would help sellers on ebay.

You need to place a dollar value on the time being devoted in conducting a search.

Paying more may result in costing less.

Good luck with your future search efforts.

newview · ‎07-08-2018

Buying on eBay is becoming more and more like buying out of the trunk of a car in some sleazy back-alley street in New York City.

And THESE are the sellers from China that eBay is featuring and that Wenig is touting as the future.

I'm ̶p̶r̶e̶t̶t̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ certain the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

turquoisetulips · ‎07-08-2018

The second problem is this almost universal scam of listing items with a range of prices. The items will have a range like $.99-15.99. This brings it up among the cheapest listed priced items. But if you click on it, you find that the .99 item is totally unrelated to the title or the picture and the actual item is $15.99. Then on top of that, the high priced item which is in the title and picture is sometimes not even for sale and only the .99 unsealed item. ilene - unquote ---------------

I've taken note of that as well and after awhile I just began bypassing those waste of time listings . IMO its an unfair selling tactic . tulips

turquoisetulips · ‎07-08-2018

@thenobletuckylife wrote:
Morning,

When I was about 12 years old and struggling with knowing how to spell something it seemed my mother and teachers simply told me to go look it up in a dictionary...to this day I find this the most crazy idea...how am I supposed to find it in a dictionary when I don't know how to spell it...seems I have this problem to this day.

Boy I get that ! my mom used to say '' take your time but hurry '' . How do you do that ? lol tulips

turquoisetulips · ‎07-08-2018

@thenobletuckylife wrote:
@silly-shoes wrote:
On the left side of the page,you can choose either North America,or US only.This would eliminate Hong Kong and any other 3rd world country off the list.I only use it to research "realistic" items for sale when selling.
Morning,

That used to work pretty good for me until about 2 years ago and for some reason it seems alot of that product that used to be filtered out is now being shown as in the US.

Mr C

And that would leave you wondering why your purchase took a month to arrive . tulips

retrose1 · ‎07-08-2018

I rarely buy on ebay.

But when I do - I don't buy new - I go to the store and save myself the time and ship costs.

And when I search for something I really want - I stopped using vintage as a keyword - I hit the used Item Specific. The Chinese will keyword spam everything possible but they will never try to sell something as used. That will get rid of at least 75% of the stuff I don't want to see, and US only will not, when I am looking for something to buy.

(*Bleep*)

thenobletuckylife · ‎07-08-2018

Afternoon Tulips,

A couple of years ago before I purchased my new shop planner one of the main reasons for needing one was that Hitachi had discontinued the one I owned and also no longer made the cutter blades including even being able to source them directly from them.

Coincidently I found a supplier that had left over stock and I purchase a whole pile of them and also listed them here. At that time there was no alternative including a knock offs.

Well I hit it just right with my inventory because one of the after market companies from "elsewhere" purchased a set from me and sent it to a place in California and wityhin weeks the after market company had an equivilent listed here at ebay.

Shortly there after you had to scroll through them just to get to the real ones and thankfully I sold out of mine just in time.

Mr C

couldabeenworse · ‎07-08-2018

I buy on eBay mostly out of nostalgia/loyalty. A third of the stuff I buy comes from somebody's Prime account anyway, so it would not be difficult to buy all my new stuff there and save a couple of pennies.

I agree that the "variation" listings are a waste of time; even if all the items in the variation are different sizes of the same item, they are never the lowest price for the size I want, yet always top the search results when searching by Low Price. If anybody is listing with variations with low prices and no bogus items, I'm sorry, but I'm skipping right over your listings.