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.

[mommymeme123]

I use this feature a lot also. If an item is in my watch list I can still access it under more actions to the right and then "see sellers items". Then I can look at sold items in the left column. I dont know why ebay would mess with this valuable feature either. Maybe they dont want us to know the value of an item so we give it away? It would be to their benefit for us to get a reasonable price for our goods.

[ymeagainlord]

Well on the UP side, it does mean you don't have to wait for the .99 start bid sold widget that's actually worth a lot more to fall off before listing.

[rolenboy01]

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Well on the UP side, it does mean you don't have to wait for the .99 start bid sold widget that's actually worth a lot more to fall off before listing.

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Does anyone other than a scammer or idiot think an item is ever worth that though? neither of those types are people I want as a customer.

[ymeagainlord]

There are definitely those out there who think what it sold for is what YOU should sell it for as well, and get quite indignant about your refusal to do so LOL

[mypalrocco]

When I list stuff, I want that stuff gone quickly but not at some giveaway price. The only way to that is to research what similar items sold for to see what the market is willing to bear and develop a sold price average. If I wanted my stuff to sit, I would throw a stupid price on it like I see so often on eBay...I can always tell immediately when a seller hasn't done their research. By the way, we shouldn't call them sellers, we should call them sitters because they must just love to sit on their stuff and not actually sell it.

[rolenboy01]

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
There are definitely those out there who think what it sold for is what YOU should sell it for as well, and get quite indignant about your refusal to do so LOL

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All I can say is if there is no guide the item is gonna lean to the higher side not the lowest of the low.

[ted_200]

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@rolenboy01 wrote:

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
eBay has always been one of the VERY FEW sites where you CAN actually see completeds & solds and I've always wondered when they'd remove that, but they should still leave the listings available for the actual seller and buyer.

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Yes and I never understood that unless they want to charge for the service, without that kind info the prices are gonna either be too low or too high like they already are, a lot of people outside of eBay use them as gold standard of pricing of certain items as well so i'm not sure how all that's gonna pan out in the future.

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It stems from the old history of the site as an auction platform, and how mail bid auctioning traditionally worked prior to eBay showing up.  Most of those, when you got the next catalog of mail bid auction items, a listing of the sold prices for the last catalog was printed inside.  It was a way to help reassure the bidders the auction was on the level.  You could see what it sold for, and compare your losing bids to the actual prices realized.  This prevented the mail bid auction from simply not selling the item if they weren't happy with the price you bid as the high bidder... the "seller non-performance" issue.  Bids I placed that didn't win, I wanted to know how much it actually sold for.

That actually caused me to bid a lot more on certain auction catalogs, and ultimately win a lot more stuff than I otherwise would have.  Since there was no PayPal or MBGs, people were careful about how much they bid and whether the auction could be trusted or not.  Once I got comfortable with an auction's ability to properly grade items (there were no photos!), I started looking more seriously at bidding on higher dollar items, and would recognize certain types of items were selling for ridiculously low prices thanks to the prices realized page.  Some auctions, I'd win thousands of dollars in items at a time, all with no photos and paid for with a mailed check.  Because I trusted them, and because it was transparent.

In other words, showing the actual sold prices was "industry standard". 

[ted_200]

If I wanted my stuff to sit, I would throw a stupid price on it like I see so often on eBay...I can always tell immediately when a seller hasn't done their research. By the way, we shouldn't call them sellers, we should call them sitters because they must just love to sit on their stuff and not actually sell it.

Oh, they did their research alright.  Someone once paid a stupid price for something, probably in 2004, and they're going to get that stupid price for theirs too.  With "free listings" they can just sit there waiting for it, even if they have to wait until 2026 to sell it. 

I auctioned some comic related stuff for someone almost a decade ago, I'd put live BIN listings on the watch list as part of my research.  Many of those listings are still SITTING on the site right now.  The bottom has sorta fallen out on that market, that stuff won't EVER sell at anywhere near those prices, but as long as it's free to try, they're going to keep trying to snag a sucker.  Maybe if eBay gets all those sold listings hidden one will swim by close enough... or maybe not. 

[moondogblues]

"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 totally agree...I haven't checked to see if my completeds are misbehaving, but when I get something that has a missing stone, or a tear, etc, I go right to the completeds to check the pic and the description.

[pixzee]

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@phono_0490xxxxxx wrote:

Seriously... every one of the completed listings in this search opens and displays all details, or in one case the page came up and I could select 'see original listing'.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=sony%20cyber-shot%20dsc-h300&LH_Complete=1&r...

What doesn't work there?

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I tried the link above and the first listing right now is "Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H300..." (product photo against a white & blue background) and it opens to a different product listing", white banner "!The selected item is no longer available."  and I can not find a way to see the original listing. Can anyone figgure out if there is a way to see that origional listing? Am I missing the fine print?

What if the buyer wants to return it as SNAD because of details in the photo, is the buyer suppose to just use her "memory" to file the claim and let eBay and the Seller (who can't see the origional listing either) duke it out? This does not look good, people.

[pixzee]

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@mypalrocco wrote:

I called eBay last night ... she assured me that "IF they EVER have a meeting, she will bring it up." Everybody should call and complain about this, maybe us bombarding their call center will make them listen.

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She was telling you that if the other workers at the call center in India, during their daily meeting while having lunch, complain about the crazy irate people who call in, she will bring up the fact "yeah, now they are complaining about stuff somebody else sold because they can't see the listing, how funny is that?"

eBay has two ears. One, that call center. The other here. You can shout into them as much as you want and as loud as you can, but they are like a microphone that isn't plugged in. Those ears aren't connected to the brain and nobody is listening. You have the wrong idea bout these services. They are here as therapy, like punching a pillow. It is suppose to help you deal with the things you can not change.

[pixzee]

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@richardwillardcollection wrote:
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.

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That is foolish. I keep a list of items I may want to buy in the future. Today I found several on that list that were completed (ended without sale) and I was not directed to the completed item, but to another sellers live listing.

Meanwhile, through long and careful searching, I found that the origional seller had relisted the very same item.

So what you are saying oregonwash. is that if you relist an item,  a buyer should not be directed to your relisting, because that is private information, and rather they should be re-directed to a different seller. How smart is that?

[pixzee]

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@go-bad-chicken wrote:

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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.

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Slow or erratic deployment of a change to the programming is business as usual for eBay's major changes.  They do that for one of two possible reasons.

1. The change is likely to upset buyers or sellers, and they will leave the site in droves.

2. The "machine" that is eBay's site is so huge and onerous spanning several super computers and continents that even a subtle change that proves to be slightly damaging to the programing, has the potential to have a ripple effect and shut down the whole system. Slow release helps to get the programing bugs out.

The second reason is the most likely in all cases. In the 16 years I have been here I have only seen one change (sorry can't remember it, so long ago) that was rescinded because of seller or buyer outrage. Well, because sellers and buyers (actually, really, in fact did ) stopped selling and buying because of that change.

eBay does not hear your complaints. eBay only hears "Ka-ching", the sound of money. If every seller and every buyer upset by this change, or even slightly annoyed, would stop selling or shopping on eBay because of it, eBay might hear that. But they hear nothing else. Believe me when I say that.

And I am not suggesting that people on these boards puff out their collective chests and "threaten" to quit eBay, or "threaten" to shop elsewhere; because everybody knows that's always an idle rant. eBay don't listen to that, and quite frankly, I'm tired of reading those threats.

[pixzee]

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@dolldesigns4u wrote:

AKA "if it's not broke, we want to fix it"

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Not quite sure if that's how Murphy's Law would be in this instance.

"It's not broke and my job is to fix it but if it's not broke I'm out of a job. So, I gotta break it."