Something every ebay buyer needs to know

[best-buys-com-au]

Hello Everyone,

I am a seller on ebay, but I am also a frequent ebay buyer and I have found that when I type a product detail I am looking for into the ebay search line "Search for anything", the ebay system automatically goes to the "Best Match" sort setting. 

I find the "Best Match" results to be misleading and appear to be driven by an advertising premium that a seller is prepared to pay ebay, rather than the ebay computer system finding the best deal for ME.

For example, if one types Spirax 550 into the ebay search line "Search for anything", my listing of that product at a price of $4.95 + Postage of $5.00 = $9.95 comes up automatically as the 14th listing in ebay's Best Match. 

When I change the sort box to "Price + Postage : lowest first" my listing rockets up to first place on the list.

Every Spirax 550 is identical, so why does ebay's Best Match not automatically list my listing at the top of the selection?

This is just one example. I have just checked 50 on my listings and 47 of the 50 had the same result, moving from as low as 30th to 1st place when changing the sort option to "Price + Postage : lowest first".

As a buyer, when you type a product detail you are looking for into the ebay search line "Search for anything", I would suggest that you always immediately reset or change the sort box to "Price + Postage : lowest first", so that YOU get the best deal.

As an ebay seller, I thank you for supporting us (ebay sellers).

Cheers

Noel

[maranock]

Most of us here know not to use the 'Best match' but unfortunately, out of Ebays millions of users, very few people actually read these boards so it it difficult to get the work out in this way.

[best-buys-com-au]

Thank you for your input.

As a buyer I place confidence in ebay's search process to find the closest product to what I seek, and then to impose the next and most obvious buyer criteria of price. Everything else seems to me to be irrelevant (as a buyer).

The problem with surrendering to computer processes beyond the essentials, particularly when heading down the advisory path of "Best Match" is that the buyer is often then provided with erroneous advice, like when I recently shopped for a used ride on mower, ebay's "Best Match" advisory service pointed me to a list of products where the top 5 were all "Pick Up Only" mowers located between 700 and 900Kms away from where I am - that's just absent any intelligence - and that can not in any reasonable way be considered a Best Match for me. For ebay to suggest that is a "Best Match" is misleading.

Ebay should not pretend to be capable of providing "Best Match" advice - that's misleading the buyer, and I would go so far as to say that "Best Match" has no place on ebay and should be removed from the sort options, let alone be set as the default search result outcome. 

If, as I suspect, for products like my Spirax 550, ebay's purported Best Match ranking is actually influenced by how much the seller is prepared to pay ebay, then "Best Match" should be re-named to indicate what it is = "Best Fee paid to ebay" (lol).

Ebay, if you are reading this, just remove "Best Match" from search result options and make the default "Price+Postage: lowest first"

which is a straight forward irrefutable result and absent external hidden objectives and agenda. 

[zanadoo_56]

I only take note of two of eBay's search options.

# Price and Postage - Lowest First, and

# Time, Newly Listed (for my regular searches for collectables).

I wish I could set either as defaults instead of Best Match (which has some truly bizarre parameters concerning relevance).

[kopenhagen5]

I also only use Lowest first (Postage included) or ending soonest. 

Never best match.

[lyndal1838]

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@best-buys-com-au wrote:

 like when I recently shopped for a used ride on mower, ebay's "Best Match" advisory service pointed me to a list of products where the top 5 were all "Pick Up Only" mowers located between 700 and 900Kms away from where I am - that's just absent any intelligence - and that can not in any reasonable way be considered a Best Match for me. For ebay to suggest that is a "Best Match" is misleading.

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Best Match can never be best for everyone....there are too many variables that ebay can never know.  How would they know if the item was for you or to be sent to someone else for instance.

In the case of your ride on mower you should have searched by distance....the distance that you were prepared to travel to look at/pick up the item.  After that you could narrow it down to price if you wanted to.

I am very much afraid your post is a bit wasted....most of us here woke up to how uselesss Best Match was very soon after it started and changed our searches according to what we want.

As it has been estimated that only about 5% of ebayers use the boards (probably even less now than when those figures were released) the message is not going to be widely read.

[enigmabear]

Honestly I could not tell you the last time I used 'best match' .....................if ever come to think of it

[brerrabbit585]

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@zanadoo_56 wrote:

I only take note of two of eBay's search options.

# Price and Postage - Lowest First, and

# Time, Newly Listed (for my regular searches for collectables).

I wish I could set either as defaults instead of Best Match (which has some truly bizarre parameters concerning relevance).

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It IS possible to set your default to something else.  I doubt most of us have even seen a best match page for years.

[brerrabbit585]

You might think price is of primary importance but I'm afraid the majority of buyers don't think the same way.  I did a small business course a few years ago and we were told by consumer affairs (or a similar official organisation) that the most important thing to customers was service.  Price comes after that for most people. 

There'd be no point sorting best match by price because it would make sorting by price redundant.

[bsal6160]

i think most of us buyers are telling you 'as a seller' we rarely (if ever) use best match. Only sellers seem to worry about that best match thing.