what is a sponsored listing ?

[vintageista]

While doing research in the vintage field, I came across 2 listings from a Chinese shipper with a "Sponsored Listing" across the top. This is an ebay seller, not a pay for click ad, came up in regular listing search. But was a BRAND NEW item with the word vintage at beginning of title - I reported it for inappropriate title, but doubt if anything will be done, they probably do this with all their listings!

I know wat a PROMOTED listing is, I even tried this with no results, but SPONSORED, not sure how you get that or what it means?

[Anonymous]

Personally I am a big fan of the sponsored ads because they generally show the advantage of buying from a smaller eBay seller. The sponsored ads I have come across recently when shopping have been wayyyy more expensive than the other eBay listings.

[cellcasehub]

It is a scam that eBay executives dreamed up, they want you to pay to show up in the search results, that is what it is.

[ymeagainlord]

I may be wrong but I think the sponsored ones that come up in among actual ebay listings is their new word for promoted listings.

[schwartz138]

All I can say is that the "sponsored" listings are annoying. I say that because the SAME exact sponsored items are showing up every "page" or every 50 items. When that sponsored seller has several items, then you are seeing the same 5-6 items over and over and over. It takes a long time to search through all of the items for sale in a category, so seeing the same items over and over are wasting people's time and the listings towards the end of the search will never be seen because the buyer will get burned out from looking for a long period of time.

[inthewoodspam]

When you used the new promoted listing feature that is the word that would have been on the listings you chose to promote. 

It does make listings show up twice.  I can't see how this is helping anyone but ebay that receives the additional fees charged if your coupon is depleted.

[glennbrook]

I am sick of the sponsored listing sellers junk toy cars cluttering the ebay motors pages , may as well be selling toiletries , They clutter the pages with this junk that is listed in wrong categories on purpose .

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Sponsored listing show up far more than twice. As a previous poster reported in some searches you see them at least once on every page. Sometimes more than once. It's very annoying.

[luckythewinner]

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@vintageista wrote:

 But was a BRAND NEW item with the word vintage at beginning of title - I reported it for inappropriate title, but doubt if anything will be done

---

Everything is "vintage". The word vintage means "a period of origin or manufacture".

Furniture made in the 1640s is "1640s vintage".

A toy made during WWII is "WWII vintage".

Wine bottled in 2014 is "2014 vintage".

A car made in 2017 is "2017 vintage".

Using the word "vintage" without specifying the time period is useless, but it is not an eBay violation.

[mistwomandancing]

You know how it's against eBay policy to run DUPLICATE listings??? 

Well, this is a way AROUND that policy, where you promise to PAY eBay some EXTRA percentage of selling fees for running your listing twice... once as the regular listing and then AGAIN as the promoted *sponsored* listing if it sells under that sponsored tag.

So you can get your listing duplicated and running twice in exchange for this promise to pay more if....

Now, you would think that you would be buying better placement than is being reported by those following this subject, but apparently we are being shown very few of the promoted duplicates on even the first pages, and at this point some have sold the UNpromoted listings, so not necessarily the promoted ones being the only ones that might sell, and when a promoted listings sells, we have no way of knowing whether their item would have sold... anyway (without being sponsored).

At this point you can make use of this **For FREE** as eBay is giving away free promoted listings for awhile, up to a limit of (I think I remember) of $30. 

Easy way to buy into duplicate listings and all on the up and up now.. if eBay gets paid extra for making it all legal for you.       

[mistwomandancing]

Promoted listings how up as Sponsored listings... so one and the same, but called by two different names.  How eBay of them.

[lookng2015]

As I recall eBay legally can't call them promoted listings, hence the sponsored header.

It may have something to do with the settled suit over the old featured listings.

[mistwomandancing]

Yes, likely so. 

[papyruspapillo]

Because it is possible to accurately date 99% of what I sell in my niche category, I lead off the headline with the year of manufacture, i.e., "1917 'Miss Springtime' playbill ..." Solves the "vintage" dilemma.