Sellers listing multiple items in listings to lure buyers into their listing

[danstarproject]

Sellers are using the feature of adding multiple items in 1 listing to lure potential buyers to view their listing.

Ie. I was searching for a branded iPhone cable. I arranged the search by lowest price, which I clicked the first one. But I had to select the item I wanted which isn't the lowest priced item I was searching for. The item that was the lowest price wasn't even in the title or description. Sellers are using the multiple items listing to just put there item to be first when searching.

My suggestion is, eBay should'nt allow different items within the same listing. It's confusing and sellers are using it to benefit themselves. 

[fixnwear]

horvatic,

How exactly are sellers benefittting from  it?

Not sure, but I think the price is determined in searches by the title - ie. say, colour TV, and not by pictures of the rest of the furniture of the room that TV was photographed in.

So, I didn't quite understand from your post how  the lowest priced item was not even in the description - the price in the listing must have related to the item being sold surely?

Even those multiple listings (don't know if that is the right name for them), on Ebay are legit, the ones where the advertised item is always the lowest priced one, then you go to buy it and find that is 10 times more expensive!

And besides - that is common everywhere.

Whatever you are looking for you'll see ads like: Prices start from .....$XYZ.

You go in, or call,  just to find that the item YOU want is  NEVER at that price!

Designed to create the interest, I suppose --- but ultimately it's up to the consumer what they buy and how much they pay for it.

[danstarproject]

I'll use this listing as an example after searching  "belkin usb iphone cable"

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Belkin-Genuine-1-2M-8pin-USB-Lightning-Charger-Cable-For-IOS7-iPhone-5S-6...

Advertising a USB cable and when sorting by lowest price it is the first listing showing $1

When you go into the auction, there is a drop down box where you need to select what product you want. When you select a cable, the actual price is $4.68.

The $1 item is for a screen protector which isn't even mentioned in the desciption, but used in the listing to be able to come up first when people searching for the lowest priced item.

Sorry if I'm unclear, but my main point is. A listing should consist of 1 item (of multiple colors, etc.) and not different items.

[curmu-curmu]

I think this may be the type of listing the OP's complaining about.

351071215785

At first glance, you're drawn to an expensive fishing reel - which turns out to be the most expensive. Probably nothing illegal here, but certainly misleading.

[phorum_junkie*]

It can be a bit annoying I agree but my response is I hit the back button and wouldn't buy anything from them even if another of their items looked like a decent bargain.

Most sellers use the muti variations in the correct way and as it saves sellers in time and fees they can sell more competitively so I would not like ebay to remove the option however I think it should have a report category which could be selected when one of the items is not in stock or is not the same item, one of the worst in clothing is including a $1 pair of gloves in with $50 dresses etc.

[danstarproject]

Should've have to click the 'back button'

Should be legit auction the first time.

You don't go to the supermarket and see a sign for $1 apples, but then when you go up to it its actually $5 and the $1 is for bananas

sorry for the lame exmaple lol

[go-tazz]

Report it via the report function above the item number.

Then select Listing practices  from the first drop down box

Search and browse manipulation from the second and then > Other search and browse manipulation,(which will

have next to it:The listing inappropriately draws attention or diverts members to a listing).

Click the Continue button and then Send Report.

It's a great function when used correctly but you'll always have the sellers that will abuse it,

[danstarproject]

Never thought to report, cos it's pretty much any listing I search for that is something of high demand (mostly phone accessories)

[digital*ghost]

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@danstarproject wrote:

My suggestion is, eBay should'nt allow different items within the same listing. It's confusing and sellers are using it to benefit themselves. 

---

They actually don't, but at the same time it's quite difficult to get eBay to do something about it when a seller misuses the variation format (the format is supposed to be used for the same item which has variations, not completely different items, so in the example of a cable, a seller might use one to list several that are compatible with different brands, some of which might be more expensive than others, but ultimately it's the same product so would be a legitimate use of the format, and just speaking for myself - since I use the format a lot, and legitimately - I would be very disappointed if I were no longer able to thanks to the sellers who are abusing the option). 

To avoid the more common ones appearing in your search results, you can exclude some terms from your search (another example of a seller misusing this type of listing format is an evening gown, but putting a cheap pair of gloves in for $1, so it first looks like an expensive dress can be purchased for $1. So, if I was looking for a dress, I would type in my search terms then put -gloves after them to make sure the prices displayed are for the dress). Another trick is to set the minimum price to just above the average amount of the cheap item - eg if you're looking for something that generally doesn't sell for less than $5, you can set the results to not show anything lower than say $4.00 - listings with a 'bait' item will still appear, but they won't show the prices for the cheap item when they're sorted by lowest price etc (unless it's more than the minimum you set). 

[digital*ghost]

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@fixnwear wrote:

Not sure, but I think the price is determined in searches by the title - ie. say, colour TV, and not by pictures of the rest of the furniture of the room that TV was photographed in.

So, I didn't quite understand from your post how  the lowest priced item was not even in the description - the price in the listing must have related to the item being sold surely?

---

Searches on eBay work on keywords, as everyone knows, but the category titles and variation titles are keywords in exactly the same way as words in the title are, which is great for sellers who are using the format correctly, but unfortunately also great for sellers who want to keyword spam and misuse the variation format, because a keyword search plus category refinements then don't function the way they are supposed to, making search frustrating and difficult.

To continue with the example of a dress, the reason the gloves (and its cheap price) show up in the search results for a dress is because the seller creates the variation listing in the dress category, so every item in that listing is automatically categorised as a dress for search purposes. If I type "dress" into the search bar, it's very likely that I'll be shown results from many different categories (eg dress shoes, dress pants, dress gloves), but if I only want to see dresses (and their respective prices) I can (theoretically) quickly eliminate all of those other results by selecting to show only items in the dress category. Having a listing for gloves in the dress category - despite the fact that there are still dresses in the listing - is no different from miscategorising a single item (on purpose, eg like those who put costume jewellery in the fine jewellery categories).