topic Re: Manipulative Listing Prices in Buying

Manipulative Listing Prices

sc_freak19 — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 07:51:43 GMT

Sellers are doing this more and more often and it's extremely irritating! Here is an example:

They put two or more items in the same listing that have very different prices. I often sort my searches by 'Price + Postage - lowest first' and these items appear making me think I can buy the mini figure for $1.59, but then it turns out that is for the cheaper item, the 'poster' that usually comes with the mini figure anyway. No one would need or want to buy that 'poster', the seller just includes it in that listing to trick people in to thinking that the mini figure is cheap.

This happens with a lot of different products that I search for, whether it's action figures, jewellery or something else. Is this breaking eBay rules somehow? And are other people noticing this?

eBay, please do something about this!!

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

phorum_junkie* — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 08:24:35 GMT

I too find it very annoying and as soon as I see what they are doing I hit the back button, if more people did that then they may give up. If the things actually fall within the same catagory then there is not much you can do about it but if even one thing is in the wrong catagory you can report the listings. It may also be worth calling ebay, if you get the right person they will actually do something about it.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

jensmanchester-australia — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 11:32:51 GMT

These are multi variation listings which, if set up correctly, are a perfectly legimate way of listing on ebay.

Where possible ebay prefer sellers to list this way.

Most websites are set up in a similar way where the lowest price appears first and then the price changes as you click on the different variations.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

digital*ghost — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:06:35 GMT

@jensmanchester wrote:
These are multi variation listings which, if set up correctly, are a perfectly legimate way of listing on ebay.

That's true, but posters and figurines are not a legitimate way of using the listing format, which is for the same items that have variations. Posters and figurines wouldn't even be in the same category, and if they're listing on the Oz site, they'd have to be miscategorised entirely to make use of the variation format. Mis-categorisation isn't as big an issue (as far as I can see, anyway), as baiting technique used, though.

It's the same as all the Chinese sellers listings for wedding or fancy evening dresses that will come up in search results for $1 free post, except it's a pair of stockings or gloves that's $1 and the dresses are significantly more (the price gap itself isn't the main issue, more that they're misusing the format to list completely different items, and in a way that manipulates search results).

Such listings are all over eBay and can be extremely annoying, particularly if you regularly search by price + postage, lowest first. There are workarounds by using search parameters, but you have to cut ot a few legit listings and a lot of people wouldn't know or bother.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

jensmanchester-australia — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 05:28:19 GMT

DG - Ebay actually allow sellers to list in two categories for a multi variation listing so if the items being offered fall into either of the two categories then it doesn't necessarily mean that any rules have been broken.

I totally agree with you that there is a lot of misrepresentation happening but if it is done within the rules of ebay there is little that can be done about it.

For example if I have quilt cover sets for sale which have matching accessories also available it is far easier for the buyer if, from the one listing, they are able to purchase the quilt cover set and the matching accessories.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

digital*ghost — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 05:54:33 GMT

I do understand that, but with all due respect I'm not convinced the dress/gloves examples is within the rules - one of the primary listings policies is that items should not be listed in a category (as either the main or sub category), in which they don't belong. Gloves don't belong in the dress category and vice versa, and I can't see anything within the information about variation listings that allows items to be miscategorised. Watches are another prime example - a $1 tool for watch repair will be the bait, but the watch is the gallery photo and is much more expensive - the watch repair tool is not a watch and shouldn't be in the watch category, or returned in a search for a watch.

They give an example for a dinner set, where you could have multiple place settings available, or allow buyers to choose between dinner and salad plates, but I don't think you could have the dinner set and a table cloth in the same listing, even if matching and by the same brand.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

trendy_rechauffe — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 12:26:15 GMT

I agree, this is becoming a problem. It is really hard to compare prices of items we are looking for.

For instance I was looking for a tablet computer case. I found one at the top of the list when I sorted by price and postage. It showed up as $1.00 and the description, pictures and title all mentioned the case and details about it.

There was a drop-down list for colour selection. Each colour chosen increased the price to $8.99 and the only way to get an item for $1.00 was to select "2 stylus - no case included".

Why would I want to buy stylus in a listing for cases in which styluses aren't even mentioned anywhere, except in the drop-down list?

If sellers are using drop-down lists, they should always have to show the highest price in the results listing. So in the listing above, the case would appear in the search results at $8.99, not $1.00, then if we selected styluses, the price would drop to $1.00.

This current practice is ruining the ebay buying experience and i've already not purchased a few items I would have, and there must be others who are buying less too.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

springyzone — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:51:04 GMT

sellers are using drop-down lists, they should always have to show the highest price in the results listing. So in the listing above, the case would appear in the search results at $8.99, not $1.00, then if we selected styluses, the price would drop to $1.00.

-----------------------

That would make sense.

I know I had the same experience, searching for cake toppers and wedding signs.

Thought I had found a bargain, couldn't understand why it was so cheap, the photo, the description showing were for a dearer product-much, much dearer.

I would rather start with the real price and work down to the extras or else have the listing say "from $"

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

digital*ghost — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 02:50:15 GMT

The price displayed in search results is according to the search conducted, and the seller has no control over that.

Because the items are often listed in the wrong category (eg the gloves and dress example), searching for a dress with price + postage, lowest first, will show the glove price in search results because the gloves are in the dress category.

If you searched by price, highest first, then the highest price for an item in the same listing will show in the search results.

However, in saying that, sometimes I do get a price range displayed in search results (i.e. it will say from $1.00 to $50.00), but while a feature on the US site, it has been quite inconsistent here.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

greenie4242 — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 04:11:36 GMT

eBay MUST know this is going on, but they are completely ignoring it. I wasted hours looking for dimmable LED bulbs, searching through thousands of "$1 free shipping" listings only to find out the $1 item was a lamp adapter not a bulb. The adapter was not in the photo or description, merely listed as a bait item and had nothing whatsoever to do with my original search query. After clicking these $1 listings, the bulbs themselves were between $18-$46!! That's nowhere near $1. As soon as a seller baits me with rubbish listings, they are blacklisted. I won't deal with liars. It's deliberate, because a socket adapter has nothing to do with LED bulbs. If somebody wants a socket adapter they type 'socket adapter' in the search box.

Knowing that eBay care little about their users and will likely never fix this issue, I found a fairly tedious but workable way to get around it by setting your minimum price to just above $1. Some sellers have cottoned-on to this practice and list their sham items for only a few dollars less than the 'real' item in the photo, so it's not perfect but with a little tweaking it can weed '3,852 results' down to a manageable ''136 results'.

After I've found items I'm interested it, I still find out if they originally listed sham items in the listing, and try to avoid purchasing anything at all from that seller. They should not be encouraged.

Lately I've ditched eBay completely due to rubbish like this, and buy everything I can locally from the $2 discount store. I'd rather pay double at the store and have it in my hand, rather than waste hours with eBay's rubbish search engine. Every few years they seem to get it 'right' but then change it again for the worse.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

rustyboy60 — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 12:05:18 GMT

"eBay MUST know this is going on, but they are completely ignoring it."

So true. ebay won't care as long as they are getting their fees and are showing little concern for the buyers. I don't mind the concept of having multiple items, but the search result should say which of the multiple items the price applies to. I spent ages looking for an ipad cover after choosing "lowest price and postage first" (as I'm sure 99% of buyers would do) and quickly got sick of looking at $1.00 results (a stylus pen) and having to choose from two drop down boxes just to see the cover's real price ($10 upwards). If I want to search for a cover, I should not be shown a price result for a stylus.

The sellers are gaming the search system so as to be at the top of the listing and while this may not be against the rules, it is definitely not done in the spirit of fair play. I never buy from any seller that uses these dodgy multiple listings and encourage other users to do the same. ebay could fix this issue, but only if they wanted to.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

digital*ghost — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 16:47:47 GMT

If you find that there is a very common item being used as the bait, just tweak the search a little. It's not ideal, but it's a simple workaround for the issue.

eg ipad cover -stylus

Using the minus symbol will mean the stylus listing price won't be in the search results.

You can also set the minimum price so that no items under $1.50 (as an example) will show. The listings with a stylus will probably show up further down the line with the actual cover price displayed.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

rustyboy60 — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 06:10:50 GMT

Good points, dg, thanks.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

rustyboy60 — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 06:21:52 GMT

I tried your suggestion and it didn't work as there are other "cheap bait" items often included. I ended up going with

ipad air case -stylus -protector -pink

and it did quite well. The concept of refined search is useful, you just have to think carefully about the bait items and exclude them.

Is there a way to edit my previous post? I couldn't find it and had to resort to another reply.

Thanks again.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

i-once-was-bump — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 03:55:01 GMT

dg while that might solve part of the problem it shouldn't be necessary, if I do a search of wedding dresses then that is all I should see.

I wanted to buy a case/cover for my tablet and have given up because of the number of minuses necessary to get anywhere near the item I want to look at.

If you go to plus size clothing down the right hand side is a list of all the types available and in brackets the quantity available so if i see Dresses (2800) then I should see dresses only and probably about 1500 due to choice listings making up the quantity when I click on that..

If I want "gloves with that?" then I will go to McDonalds.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

book-of-hezekiah — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 07:59:27 GMT

Hi everyone

This naughty practice of listing an el-cheapo something I don't want in the same list as with the expensive something entirely different that I do want has been looked at by eBay. They posted this upate

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/201311.shtml#2013-11-18162918?_trksid=p3984.m2301.l3955

***Updated: Listing policy updates on eBay.com.au***

18 November 2013 | 04:37PM EST

Further to our previous announcement about streamlining policy pages and aligning policies to other eBay sites, we've now reviewed the following policies:

The Avoiding eBay fees policy (formerly Circumventing fees policy) has been rewritten. Some guidelines have been added regarding links that refer to, or promote, want ads and trades, payment surcharges, putting items in the wrong category and warranties. Two older policy pages (Reserve Price listing violations and Multiple listing fees avoidance) have been retired.

The Tobacco policy has been rewritten. A number of policy requirements have been added, although these are implied (if not specifically mentioned) in the previous version of the policy.

We've also updated our policies on Accepted payments, Payment surcharges, Publishing contact information and Using eBay's intellectual property. These pages have a newer format, but no material changes to policy requirements.

We are still working on our policies. We'll let you know about further changes as they're ready.

Regards,
The eBay Team

and the Avoiding eBay fees policy link goes here http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/listing-circumventing.html which describes the dress/gloves scenario is not allowed and the tablet case/stylus scenario is not allowed.

I went looking for this announcement after I noticed in the search that a couple of the items in my search had a range of price for the one listing, something like $1.00 to $8.99 so I looked and saw it was one of those stylus/case listings, but at least the price range was there - I can't find any more at the moment 😞 That being said, since there are still heaps of those stylus/case-esque listings, then the policies aren't doing much good. Looks like it is up to the users to report... if we can be bothered doing it for the 50 squillion there are!

If you do choose to report, I recommend the following combo:

Report Category > Listing Practices

Reason for Report > Avoiding eBay fees

Detailed Reason > Offering Choices

The listing has different brands of an item, a choice between two entirely different items, or items that aren't in similar condition.

I hope this annoying practice stops!

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

digital*ghost — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 08:58:47 GMT

@i-once-was-bump wrote:
dg while that might solve part of the problem it shouldn't be necessary,

I agree, but I also think it's better to take a pro-active approach in regards to refining searches if some sellers are trying to work the system in their favour. It's all about getting the result you want, rather than the result the sellers want.

Sadly, while as noted the policies have been updated, they rarely - if ever - seem to apply to sellers in China, who are the biggest culprits of this sort of thing.

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

stormernumber1 — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 13:19:14 GMT

how has this not been fixed.

Tried to search for USB-C to USB cables and all the listings on the first page advertise it for around $1-2 but NONE of them are actually this low, in fact most of them are actually more expensive than you can get elsewhere, ended up just buying it from Kogan...

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

jodieonline — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 23:56:19 GMT

Similar problem- I just had a seller doop me by listing barefoot sandals $1-$11.06 it had two drop down menus I went through all after I purchased my pair (which were $1) and the only pair that were listed as that price were a mustard yellow in an uncommon size (2-3yo)
Then, the seller quite bluntly cancelled the sale telling me they can’t afford postage?!? Also that ‘eBay ‘ keeps doing this and it’s a glitch... I don’t believe them and am very upset to be stooged by someone locally.

Does anyone know what I can do in this situation inc what to report under please?

Re: Manipulative Listing Prices

imastawka — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 02:54:07 GMT

The Chinese are extra good at this. All ebay will do (if anything) will be to report it

to ebay China, who will do nothing.

That's about it, really. Chinese sellers are 'untouchable'