Each listing has a report link and there is a specific category for search n browse manipulation.
Misuse of the Listing with variations option is rife among Chinese eBay sellers. If you report a Chinese seller, the result is Sweet Felicia Arkwright.
The report would go to eBay Australia. eBay Australia have neither ability nor right to affect a Chinese eBay seller's listings.
eBay Australia could contact eBay China with the complaint, true. (They won't, but let's wander into fantasy land for a moment, where butterfly-like fairies strew fairy dust into the air to give good fortune to all who are touched by it.) eBay China would perhaps bow and say, "It is kind of you to contact us with this information. Thank you." eBay China would then turn the complaint into confetti - perhaps to be processed as fairy dust to power the Chinese economy. What eBay China would NOT do is sanction the sellers. (See this post (the first "spoiler") for potted history of eBay's presence in China and why they tread carefully.)
So... unfortunately there is no way to encourage or force eBay to do away with the sellers who are listing in this way.
All that you can do is to avoid any listing that misuses Listing with variations. If you don't buy from any such sellers, and if you tell everyone you know to similarly avoid such sellers at all costs, and everyone that you know tells everyone that they know to avoid such sellers at all costs, etc., who knows? The power to stop those listings is in the hands of Australian buyers by using the Power of the Purse.
How to tell that it's a seller probably misusing that function:
- The lowest price is unrealistic for the item. (Be an intelligent shopper.)
- The search result almost always shows a PRICE RANGE (e.g., AU $1.63 to AU $14.67) for listings with variations.
- If the search result doesn't show a price range (because the item searched for is permanently out of stock when you go into the actual listing) it's a little trickier, I agree. I can only reiterate point 1 - that the price is unrealistic for the item.
- The search result shows the seller location (for most results), assuming you have enabled that in the settings. For instance, when I look at that search result, seller location comes up as From Singapore or From China, etc. Avoid. By avoiding those sellers, you will certainly limit the possibility of your being caught out clicking onto a misused listing with variations, since Australian sellers abusing the policy can be reported.
- Where the seller location is NOT shown (and it does happen), click onto the seller's feedback score to be taken to their feedback profile page. That page will show where the seller is registered.
- The feedback percentage is low for a high-volume seller. For example, the first result in that search has a seller with 98%; the second result has a seller with 97.3%; the third 97.9%, etc. In general I would not purchase from a high-volume seller with a lower than 99.5% feedback score.
- Ignore "eBay Premium Service"; it doesn't mean what you think it means. In particular when you see "eBay Premium Service", "trusted seller" and a feedback score of 98.5% for instance, one can only laugh hollowly.
- Don't be fooled by an item location that states somewhere in Australia, if the seller's location is in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.
- Work out a realistic price, and filter the search results based on the lowest realistic price you would expect to pay. I would probably not be looking at any listing priced below... let's say... $35. That will probably still return some "bad" results, but at least it will filter out the worst of it.
