Hi all!
Just wanted to get everyone's opinions on some changes to eBay that I only just noticed about a year ago, after having signed up for an account well over a decade ago.
Back then eBay was certainly the premier online marketplace for practically anything IMHO. Now it seems as though the company is getting greedier by the day, and encouraging their sellers to do the same.
A simple search for product X, sorted by price + postage, no longer brings up only product X listings in the order you'd expect; rather you're bombarded with what I'd call clickbait ads. Each one is carefully crafted to make it look 10x cheaper than the associated product/s actually are, and you don't find this out until you look at the actual listing.
At that point you realise that the listing isn't just for product X, but also products Y and Z. Oh and they all come in 10 different colours, each one being a different price! Plus, if you buy 50, you get a 1 cent per unit discount! Wow, what a sweet deal! NOT!!!!
OK, I'm obviously exaggerating, but seriously guys...what gives??? And as if everything I've said so far wasn't bad enough, you don't even notice that you're being scammed until you log into your account!
If you're like me and are paranoid about the multitude of cookies that every man and his dog wants to put on your PC these days, then you come to the site as a guest, search for whatever, end up finding a listing that you like, click "Buy It Now" and are then prompted to sign in.
That's when the price can suddenly jump up a few dollars, because you didn't realise that the blue one was more expensive than the red one (for example). But once that cookie exists on your PC and eBay can effectively track your every move, then the price auto-updates via AJAX as soon as you change your selection.
Has anyone else noticed and been annoyed by these things as much as me? Or am I just being pedantic? MTIA 
LOL...glad to know this is such a trivial thing to you. That's the funny thing about opinions; everybody has one, and more often than not, they're all completely different 
If you feel safe and not as though your privacy is being violated by staying signed in, then good luck to you. I, on the other hand, will exercise my right to feel the complete opposite.
Huh? Back button?? What's that? I had no idea you could leave a listing page once you were on it! I thought that by simply visiting one, my browser would be permanently stuck with that tab open!! I also don't have a clue how to read, as has been made obvious by my two lengthy posts on here 
Seriously, next time you think about posting something so passive aggressive...maybe do the community a favour and close your browser
@kent9206 wrote:Hi all!
Just wanted to get everyone's opinions on some changes to eBay that I only just noticed about a year ago, after having signed up for an account well over a decade ago.
Back then eBay was certainly the premier online marketplace for practically anything IMHO. Now it seems as though the company is getting greedier by the day, and encouraging their sellers to do the same.
A simple search for product X, sorted by price + postage, no longer brings up only product X listings in the order you'd expect; rather you're bombarded with what I'd call clickbait ads. Each one is carefully crafted to make it look 10x cheaper than the associated product/s actually are, and you don't find this out until you look at the actual listing.
At that point you realise that the listing isn't just for product X, but also products Y and Z. Oh and they all come in 10 different colours, each one being a different price! Plus, if you buy 50, you get a 1 cent per unit discount! Wow, what a sweet deal! NOT!!!!
OK, I'm obviously exaggerating, but seriously guys...what gives??? And as if everything I've said so far wasn't bad enough, you don't even notice that you're being scammed until you log into your account!
If you're like me and are paranoid about the multitude of cookies that every man and his dog wants to put on your PC these days, then you come to the site as a guest, search for whatever, end up finding a listing that you like, click "Buy It Now" and are then prompted to sign in.
That's when the price can suddenly jump up a few dollars, because you didn't realise that the blue one was more expensive than the red one (for example). But once that cookie exists on your PC and eBay can effectively track your every move, then the price auto-updates via AJAX as soon as you change your selection.
Has anyone else noticed and been annoyed by these things as much as me? Or am I just being pedantic? MTIA
Hi, maybe a touch pedantic .... maybe not, but quite realistic. You've brought up some good points. Certainly this place has lost some of it's pizzazz.
Just wanted to add that I accidentally posted this on the US forums first (got there by searching for the issue on Google and didn't realise it was actually the US forums until a community member kindly pointed it out to me) and the responses there have all been in favour of my viewpoint (although there's only been two of those so far LOL).
It's really interesting to me though that it currently seems as though Americans are bugged by this, but Aussies aren't...perhaps I need to move!
@kent9206 wrote:Just wanted to add that I accidentally posted this on the US forums first (got there by searching for the issue on Google and didn't realise it was actually the US forums until a community member kindly pointed it out to me) and the responses there have all been in favour of my viewpoint (although there's only been two of those so far LOL).
It's really interesting to me though that it currently seems as though Americans are bugged by this, but Aussies aren't...perhaps I need to move!
So two Americans have the same viewpoint as you do? That speaks volumes when you think of the millions of Americans who use ebay.
Compare that with the much lower volume of Australians who use ebay, and the even lower numbers who come to the boards.....how many Australians agree with you?
I am among the many ebayers who never sign out of their accounts.....why do you think it is an unsafe practice? I have never had a problem in all the years I have done this.
