Why in the world would eBay change it so you can't research completed auctions now?

[mypalrocco]

Today I was researching completed auctions to determine which price point to list my item. Part of this research for me involves reading the completed auction description of similar items I'd like to sell to do a comparison of condition, included components, features, etc. So today, they apparently changed it so now I can see the list of completed auctions but when I click on the item to try to open the listing I get a "The selected item is no longer available" and instead, it shows an item that's still active and available for purchase. Why? What purpose does this change serve??  This was an invaluable research tool for sellers!

Now if an item sold for $2 and another similar item sold for $100, I have no idea what the differences were to affect the prices because I can't see or read the body of the completed auction. The other problem with this is that if I'm wanting to buy something at, say, a garage sale or local antique auction, to resell on eBay, I don't know what to pay for it now because I can't make appropriate comparisons. Of the things that eBay should change, THIS somebody at eBay determined needed to be changed??? I'm finding myself more and more finding other avenues to sell my stuff because of nonsense like this! If somebody from eBay ends up reading this, for crying out loud, change this back to the way it was! I've included a screenshot as an example of an item that just ended as recently as 5/26 (5 days ago) so this change has nothing to do with the auction ending a long time ago.

[richards*rock*collection]

I never have liked what I sell being seen, it no ones business and an invasion of privacy, I hope eBay gets rid of it for good, the past auction results could be displayed without the sellers user name. I hope everyone knows that internet sales tax is being discussed in congress and I urge people to write their congressman/woman about voting it down.

[walwalwill]

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@cherry*fizz wrote:

Has this been happening on all listings you have looked up?

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All? No. Enough that it's annoying? Yes. That's what this thread is about...

It's nice to see someone actually clicking the link instead of just saying "Well, I see everything fine."

[mikewhite-us]

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@richards*rock*collection wrote:
an invasion of privacy 

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No... It's not.

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@richards*rock*collection wrote:
I hope everyone knows that internet sales tax is being discussed in congress and I urge people to write their congressman/woman about voting it down.

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Not sure how that's relevant. It's also not a thing that's happening--there's no such a thing as a federal sales tax & Congress isn't looking to implement one, online or otherwise.

[go-bad-chicken]

I have already posted this on a similar discussion taking place on the Seller Boards

The selected item is no longer available." Can't view your own sold listing.

but I will cross post my earlier observations to here as well.

"Anyone have any idea how to view your own item that you just sold?"

So far I have been able to uncover one exception/work around.

GTC - Good Til Canceled listings where the seller also uses the "Out Of Stock" option. These listings at this time are still viewable. But that is it.

30 Day Listings at least in the category that I sell in which is Books, no longer appear to be viewable. When you click on a sold listing you are taken to the associated eBay Product Page. This is were The Real Pimps hang out.

I have 2 sold listings for the same book within my sold listings search results page that demonstrate this current phenomenon/NEW eBay experience perfectly.

Click the link below to see for yourself.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown Limited Edition Book.

These are 2 distinct listings that were created at different times.

1) The top one is the most current listing and IS VIEWABLE because it is a:

Multi-Quantity Item - GTC - "Good Til Canceled" listing with the
Out Of Stock Option Enabled! This even works for the listings whose quantities are currently at 0 (Zero).

2) The bottom one is the older listing and is NOT VIEWABLE because it is a:

Single Quantity 30 Day listing. This listing will take you to the eBay Product Page, where eBay will attempt to pimp another similar item (in this case a book), that has been associated with the Product Page via the ISBN.

I desperately needed to retrieve information from both of these listings earlier today for the customers/buyers, and that is when I discovered that I could not open the bottom listing as it was a 30 Day listing.

This is madness! But, if this is how eBay intends to play it for the foreseeable future I guess I will be moving all of my listings over to the GTC - Good Til Canceled format with the Out Of Stock option enabled, in what will probably end up being a futile effort on my part to counter act another one of eBay's daft short sighted decisions.

And if the category that you are currently searching through is not producing these similar type results yet, have no fear, stay calm, and do not worry, your local BORG representative will be by shortly to assimilate you, and your favorite category to.

Resistance is futile.

 

[walwalwill]

Well, you're in luck, because this thread has not one, but two posters who insist that absolutely nothing is wrong and that they have no trouble seeing every single completed listing.

So you can just ask them what the other one says!

[cherry*fizz]

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@walwalwill wrote:

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@cherry*fizz wrote:

Has this been happening on all listings you have looked up?

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All? No. Enough that it's annoying? Yes. That's what this thread is about...

It's nice to see someone actually clicking the link instead of just saying "Well, I see everything fine."

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I can see where this would be totally annoying. I only asked if it was all because I was getting different things on different completed listings. Now the last 5 or so I looked up when doing research ALL went to a current listing when I clicked on it. Luckily I don't really *need* to see the whole listing, price is enough for what I'm looking for, but it's just stupid to not be able to view the details of the listing after it's over. I hope this isn't how it's going to be going forward. Have a good night/day! 

[ceara2002]

I'm a buyer and I posted about this the other day, too. 

I like to see what I bought, or what I missed, but cannot now. Ebay used to be fun. I'm growing increasingly disloyal to this place. I bought a ton of jewelry the other day from another site. 

[go-bad-chicken]

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@walwalwill wrote:

Well, you're in luck, because this thread has not one, but two posters who insist that absolutely nothing is wrong and that they have no trouble seeing every single completed listing.

So you can just ask them what the other one says!

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Honestly I have a feeling that this New eBay Experience/krap change is still currently in flux. eBay might be deploying it slowly throughout the whole site over a period of days or even weeks, or it might be that eBay has chosen to be selective about how exactly it is presented to its various users throughout its many different and varied categories.

For many this change will have very little effect to how they use and or choose interact with eBay. For some this development will have a larger impact that will alter their business models and practices in the future on this platform.  And for others this will be a devastating game changer.

But only eBay truly knows the real rhymes and reasoning's behind this change at this time.

Unfortunately it appears that they have decided that it would be best for all concerned if they just turned out the lights and closed up shop for the weekend to go sailing. That or they are sitting in San Jose right now as we speak laughing their azzes of at us rats trying to navigate their newly constructed maze.

[ted_200]

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@walwalwill wrote:

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@cherry*fizz wrote:

Has this been happening on all listings you have looked up?

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All? No. Enough that it's annoying? Yes. That's what this thread is about...

It's nice to see someone actually clicking the link instead of just saying "Well, I see everything fine."

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I suspect everyone here is actually seeing what they're seeing.  There are currently all sorts of differences to how a lot of pages are working for different people... how to access a listing from a Product Catalog Buy Box page, how search is working... not just this.  I think they're under pressure to get this "product based shopping" thing done, they've got a lot of functionality that is designed to work with listing based shopping, and they're beta testing all sorts of stuff trying to make it work by whenever they're supposed launch it. 

They're trying to limit presentations of actual listings, it's "product based" now, it's not surprising access to listings is gone or non-functional.  You can't even click on "See Other Listings" now if you have a Store.  They're redesigning the site, in real time, on the site. 

[phono_0490xxxxxx]

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@cherry*fizz wrote:

Now with this one I'm getting a 3rd message, this has the blue bar and takes me to an active listing at $105. I don't know what the heck is going on. Three different things happening with 3 different complete listings. Strange.

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I don't get that result.   I do on the link re 'Presidents book... are you sure the description is the one intended by poster ?  I suspect thats an autograped copy and poster questioned 'who has signed it'.

I couldn't find the specific listing from the supplied link... took me to an active listing.

Nothing showed up using the item title either... only active listings for the same book.

There you go... it sucks and it's inconsistant.

Perhaps try using the ebay.com.au site and see if different.

I'm based in Aus, but tried that search using ebay.com

I too use the 'completed listings' searches seeking out items not sold and 'historical' info.

If this is an 'improvement' (TM) it sucks and another reason to abandon the whole site.

[phono_0490xxxxxx]

@mypalrocco

@ted_200

See that ?

[d-k_treasures]

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@ted_200 wrote:

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@walwalwill wrote:

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@cherry*fizz wrote:

Has this been happening on all listings you have looked up?

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All? No. Enough that it's annoying? Yes. That's what this thread is about...

It's nice to see someone actually clicking the link instead of just saying "Well, I see everything fine."

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I suspect everyone here is actually seeing what they're seeing.  There are currently all sorts of differences to how a lot of pages are working for different people... how to access a listing from a Product Catalog Buy Box page, how search is working... not just this.  I think they're under pressure to get this "product based shopping" thing done, they've got a lot of functionality that is designed to work with listing based shopping, and they're beta testing all sorts of stuff trying to make it work by whenever they're supposed launch it. 

They're trying to limit presentations of actual listings, it's "product based" now, it's not surprising access to listings is gone or non-functional.  You can't even click on "See Other Listings" now if you have a Store.  They're redesigning the site, in real time, on the site. 

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They are - yesterday I was able to click another link to see the actual listing. 

Today it brings up an active product page with no way to find the original item(unless you have the actual item number).

And I've found that if you click on the store sellers feedback, the 'see other listings' link is there. Otherwise you can only go into the sellers store, something I would rarely do.

[tml989]

What you have posted a screenshot of is not what this thread is about.  We are all able to see a list of sold items.  It is when we try to click one of those sold items, that the problem presents itself.  It takes you to a "similar" item that is currently for sale, not to the actual item that sold.

[tellmemama]

They're trying to limit presentations of actual listings, it's "product based" now, it's not surprising access to listings is gone or non-functional.  You can't even click on "See Other Listings" now if you have a Store.  They're redesigning the site, in real time, on the site. 

Which is all well and good for new commodity items.  The problem is for anyone interested in used or vintage.  I'm in the same boat (the Titanic) as many of the other posters here.  Clicking on a completed listing will either allow me to see the whole thing, bring me only to a similar item currently listed, or a completely unrelated item currently listed.

Some of us need to see the details of a sold listing in order to accurately price our item.  Even major auction houses allow the realized prices to be seen.  What makes eBay any different?  But more importantly, as many have posted in this and similar threads, how can a buyer OR seller check to make sure the item received is indeed a SNAD?  On the rare occasion where my item has a flaw which I missed, the first thing I do is check the listing to confirm.

I fail to see how any buyer or seller can think this is a good thing. 

[threshold.sales.group]

IMO, probably related the purchase of Terapeak.  Going forward if a seller wants all the data it'll require a Terapeak subscription.