The policy of Variations Listings is quite simple and it is quite explicit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/listing-variations.html
There are NO GRAY AREAS in that Policy.
There are only 8 Major Categories where Variation Listings ARE allowed.
Now. do a Search of ( variation listing, you pick, u-pick ) ...... there are 962,000 +/- Search Results.
Now, look at the Categories in those Search Results.
There are 250,000 Variation Listings in Baseball Cards alone.
Baseball Cards is NOT an authorized category that qualifies as a Variation Listing, per the Policy above.
EVERY baseball card is an individual and unique item, NOT a variation of a generic baseball card. And every baseball card has it's own unique value.
Look at the Toys and Hobbies / Model Railroad Category.
Toys and Hobbies is NOT an authorized category that qualifies as a Variation Listing, per the Policy above.
Every model train is an individual and unique item, NOT a varuation of a generic model train. And every model train has its own unique value.
Books is NOT an authorized category.
DVD's & Movies is NOT an authorized category.
It seems to me, that many sellers are knowingly creating variation listings in unauthorized categories in order to save money on listing fees, since even if they list 50 items in one "Variation Listing", it counts as just ONE listing fee.
And once one seller in that Category sees the loophole that his competition is using, the other seller starts listing Variation Listings too.
It "should" be an easy computer programming change to prevent sellers from creating Variation Listing in Categories that are NOT authorized by the Policy above.
If a seller thn tried to create a Variation Listing in a category that is NOT allowed, they would get the following message that would also prevent the listing from being posted:
"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CREATE A VARIATION LISTING IN THIS CATEGORY"
Over the last few months, I have called Ebay several times and reported this circumvention of policy and the fee avoidance. and each time that I did, the CS Rep told me that I was correct, and that they would "report it" to "somebody".
Yet, the abuse goes on, the listing fees continue to be avoided, and most sellers like me and you still comply with the policy by listing our items as single-item listings.
I wonder how much money Ebay has lost in listing fees since the first seller took advantage of the programming loophole that allows Variation Listings to be created on categories that are NOT authorized by the policy.
And for items that are CLEARLY NOT variation listings, as defined by the policy.
This is a no-brainer, Ebay ...... STOP the abuse of Variation Listings that violate the policy by making some simple programming changes, and make more money in listing fees.
The cost-benefit should be obvious to you.
Ebay should look at the Search Results, and have someone who has the authority to make an immediate decision, start cracking down on sellers who are abusing the policy, and make an immediate decision to get the computer programmers to make the computer changes to prevent sellers from listing Variation Listings in categories that are NOT authorized by the existing policy.
This is NOT a csae where you need to create 10 different "Teams" to study the problem for months.
This is clear case of abuse of Ebay policy to apparently avoid listing fees and it violates both the letter and the spirit of the Variation Listing Policy.
( end of my rant about bogus Variation Listings whose sole purpose is apparently to avoid listing fees )
