why am i not first in best match search?

[lloydsteventaylor]

ok i am trying to understand ebay search. maybe this is fruitless, but i am trying to learn. i did a search for  Dansco 7161. I have one for sale. there are 27 listed. mine listing comes in #6. i dont understand why i am not first. i am a trs, 1 day handling, free shipping, 30 day returns, 100% feedback, and the lowest price by far. i made the price lowest to test the search. I want to understand why my sales are very low. right now i only have that 1 listing but in the past i have had up to 1500+ listings at once but very low sales.

anyone have a clue?

[gracieallen01]

Evening Mr C

Well, not so much an early riser as an insomniac who occasionally gets some sleep.  However, I think old age is catching up with me a wee bit.  And, the cat is being nice and letting me sleep in late - 5:30, yeah, right.   AND there is a great estate sale to go to tomorrow.  And ....

Good to see you are still here and a bit more active of late.

Gee, this is completely off-topic.  Think I'll leave it that way.  Have a good weekend - and everybody else, too.

[slati_2013]

eBay wants a buyer to have a great experience. So it will direct the buyer to a seller who has sold multiple items of the product and is an experienced seller. You will have to work your way to the top by selling several items to prove to eBay that buyers will not be disappointed in buying from you. The objective is to leave the buyers with a positive buying experience which will have them coming back for more. 

[buyselljack2016]

My experiences with promoting listings has not changed my placement.  All it has done is to add the same listing a second time at the end of the pile. (may be because of the percentage applied)

[gracieallen01]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

My experiences with promoting listings has not changed my placement.  All it has done is to add the same listing a second time at the end of the pile. (may be because of the percentage applied)

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Unfortunately, about the only thing you, or anyone, can rest assured of, is that the promoted listings are working and/or accomplishing exactly what ebay wants them to - for ebay.

[selsa84]

The more you sell the higher your items will get in best match. Trs and Feedback dont usually matter. I know everyone will argue about my opinon (fact) but ive done my homework. why else would you see sellers with negs at top?

[siayan]

If you could figure out how the search worked it would be a lousy search engine. Everyone would trick it to be on top.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

If you want to be #1 in best match end the listing and hit sell similar put it in 7 day auction format same price same terms and fish for one bid one kill...

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Interestingly, I just ran a search on one of my own items, but logged into a different account on another system.  The search string I used was simply Cube World Block Bash, with Best Match set as the default search results.  After clicking on Used in order to filter out the new in package listings, mine is 2nd in Best Match priced at $19.95 plus shipping, with the top result being a lot of 6 CW games.

Looking further down the list, I am also seeing a pair of CW games at $25.99 plus shipping, a single Block Bash like mine, but at $8.39 plus shipping, marked down from $11.99, a single Block Bash with the transparent housing variant at $13.19 (marked down from $14.99) with "free" shipping,; followed by another 4 similar to mine at $11.99 plus shipping, $18.99 with "free" shipping, $10.50 plus shipping, and $16.29 with "free" shipping.  Then the final one at the bottom is a lot of 3 CW games at $42.49 with "free" shipping.

Now, if I sort by price plus shipping lowest first, all of the lots are at the bottom of the list, and mine is the last for the singles.  So apparently price and "Free" shipping are not be all and end all factors in Best Match search, only 3 of those have the TR Plus designator, and one that does not is still TRS (I am currently not TRS due to slow sales).  So that indicates that despite not jumping through eBay's flaming hoops, I am still coming up at least on this search at the top of Best Match (non TRS and higher total price than the other singles).  And even after setting my ZIP to 02134 (the only East Coast ZIP code I know off the top of my head thanks to ZOOM back in the 70s; I am still coming up on top in Best Match.  So seems distance may not be a factor.

So I declare the algorithm for Best Match to be about as convoluted as bistromathematics from the HHGttG universe, and probably makes even less sense.

[oaklandmaryland]

Just look at usually what comes up first-Chinese vendors.
Try when you relist it to change just make a minor change in the title and it will fool the Ebay computer to think it is a new listings which means higher up on the search list.