What are the latest restrictions on International Visibility for auctions?

[found-in-australia]

I currently have 82 auction listings on Ebay. Ten are in US dollars and 72 in Australian dollars.

Until now, while there have been various restrictions to limit the visibility of my auctions on standard search as punishment for listing auctions, all my auctions in those two currencies will show in "Sellers Other Items" on all of the US, UK and Australian sites.

Currently instead of 82 auctions showing there, 78 show on the Australian site (4 dog postcards listed in US Dollars have been removed), 69 auctions show on the American site (various ephemera and photograph lots listed in Australian dollars have been removed, including windmill items that usually attract competition between Australian and American bidders), and only 65 auctions show on my "View sellers other items" on the UK site - a combination of both of those removed above, even though I paid for UK site visibility for the dog postcards). The 2 dog postcards that were allowed better international visibility have 5 times the watchers as the ones that don't.

I have been rung in the past by Ebay to tell me that I would be "punished financially" if I continued to list auctions - Apparently punishing your customers for using your legitimate paid services is good customer service, but listing auctions on what I believe is still the world's largest auction site is deemed to be bad customer service.

Until now, except for UK listings by non-UK residents (scumbags like me) being outright banned from the US site, all of my other listings have shown on all sites if the bidder either goes into my other auctions or clicks to see worldwide listings if they didn't already show on that site's standard search.

I am wanting to know what has been changed to reduce the international visibility of auctions of sellers like me, who had the audacity to establish an international auction business on Ebay before they decided that they only wanted retailers of new goods.

Blocking auctions from buyers in various parts of the world seems to me to defeat the purpose of competitive bidding on auctions, as well as defeat the purpose of trading on the world-wide-web..

Regards,  Kevin

[chameleon54]

Hi Kevin, You have obviously done your homework so my bit of advice may not be much help. When I list items ( auction or BIN )  I choose the option to sell worldwide and include a fixed International postage price worldwide. If I cant give a fixed postage price due to weight or size, I mark for Australian sale only. This seems to work well with International sales averaging around 20% of total and rising. When I list specialist collectables for auction ( mainly ephemera, the same as you ) International sales can be up to 80% of total sales. The last bulk lot of auctions of ephemera around three weeks ago had around 50% clearance to overseas customers.  Not sure if this helps, but it is working for me.

[found-in-australia]

Thank you Chameleon, Since the beginning of 1998, I have always shipped worldwide, and included worldwide fixed shipping fees on everything I list. Only two out of five of my Australian listings tonight have indexed into my sellers other auctions on the US or UK sites, while they all show on the Australian site - all are listed in the same way, and all have full postage details for worldwide shipping. I don't know why I have an increasing percentage of my listings being blocked in this way. It should be noted that Australian auction listings will NOT list into the standard search on the UK site for the last couple of years, as part of a concerted effort by Ebay Australia to punish and discourage auction listings on the Australian site. The two requirements for an Australian listing to show on the standard search of the UK site is (a) shipping details to the UK filled in with the cost to the buyer visible, and (b) the item be listed fixed price - Ebay somehow fails to understand their own marketplace well enough to realise that reducing competition on auction listings can dramatically reduce the prices, and thus reduce Ebay's own commission on the sales. Since they made it unviable for Australian sellers to retain top rated seller status (ie: 95% of sales to United States buyers must have full tracking), it also means that US dollar listings from Australian sellers will no longer show on the standard search on the Australian site (they will show if the buyer clicks either Worldwide or Australia Only on their search, but not if they just use the standard search). Ebay has long been a minefield for trying to run a successful small business that sells internationally, which I have usually been able to negotiate well enough to make my living, but I have no idea why an increasing percentage of my listings are currently being blocked from the other Ebay sites, and rapidly losing exposure. Kind Regards, Kevin

[found-in-australia]

Currently 20 out of 59 listings do not show on the US site, and the percentage of listings blocked is increasing. How do I find out why my auctions are being banned from international visibility?

[found-in-australia]

I have just spoken to Ebay Customer Service in America. They are not aware of problems, or of any reasons that my current listings should not be showing on the international sites, and have indicated that they will review my history for any reason they are blocked, and if none, they will escalate to report an issue if it is a problem with international visibility in Ebay itself. =========== Can I ask anyone reading this who does list worldwide, can you please check your listings on the UK and US sites, go into your own sellers other items on each site, and please report whether all of your listings are showing as they should be?

[honest.johns.phones]

Well well, I sell international and have only realised some of my BIN listings are visible. ebay.com & ebay.co.uk have the limited visibility problem whereas ebay.ca shows everything. My listings are similar and I cant see any reason as to why it discriminates.

This may or may not be related.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2724828/eBay-users-vent-fury-website-crashes-tenth-t...

[cq_tech]

Thanks for posting that link. Missing listings aside, I was actually far more interested to note that ebay.co.uk have increased a number of their sellers' fees as from today, and while it only applies to the UK at the moment, I fear it could well be a prelude of things to come on ebay.com.au in the very near future. Whenever fees go up in the UK or USA, Australia generally follows closely behind and if eBay do happen to increase their fees in line with those in the UK, I fear it will simply be another nail in eBay's coffin and lead to the demise of even more of their loyal sellers.

[honest.johns.phones]

may or may not be relevant

http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/selling-items-overseas-from-ebay-OZ-search-visibility-/10000000016977413/...

[found-in-australia]

Re: The last link above: Just a note on the International Site Visibility on the UK and US sites. If Australian sellers use it on US site listings, it will work into the UK site's standard search (but not into the Australian site standard search), if you list in British Pounds on the UK site, the International Site Visibility will NOT work for Australian sellers (or USA sellers). I do still list British Postcards on the UK site, because the categories are ideal for the appropriate marketplace, even though those listing are banned from the US site. kind Regards, Kevin

[found-in-australia]

Re: Message five on this thread: The US customer service rep that I spoke to expressed concern once she actually established that my listings were not showing internationally where they should. She stated that she would update me on the situation within 24 to 48 hours - this did not happen. I had hoped that once Ebay was made aware of the specific problem that they may fix the problem in Friday's weekly maintenance period - this also did not happen. ================= This week I am generally getting about 40% to 50% of my listings per run to index as they should on international sites. 76 of my listings should show on the US site currently (an additional 20 UK postcard listings should be blocked from the US site). Currently 43 of those 76 listings show on Sellers Other Items on the US site. Tonight I listed 8 Caterpillar brochures, the less available ones should attract competition between US and Australian buyers, but only 3 of the eight listings have indexed onto the International sites. Less reliant on International bidding, only 15 out of 30 Australian postcards that I listed on Sunday night indexed onto the international sites. This is a substantial chunk of my business being blocked from attracting international bidding, unless the bidders specifically trawl the Australian site, as these listings do NOT show up on worldwide search carried out on the other Ebay sites. =================== Has anybody worked out a work-around to get their listings that don't index into the international sites, to do so? Regards, Kevin