Manipulative Listing Prices

[sc_freak19]

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

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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!!

[phorum_junkie*]

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.

[jensmanchester-australia]

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.

[digital*ghost]

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@jensmanchester wrote:

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

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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. 

[jensmanchester-australia]

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.

[digital*ghost]

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.

[trendy_rechauffe]

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.

[springyzone]

 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.

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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 $"

[digital*ghost]

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.

[greenie4242]

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.