How can I remove the endless, daily, regurgitated and unsaleable listings from my searches

[sebungwe]

The subject says it all.   Very irritating having to plough  through all this regurgitated stuff every morning looking for something new.

[siddieswans]

Without knowing how you search or what you are searching for, it is a bit hard to try and help. I have created  7 Favourite seaches where eBay email me daily with any new listings - however they are VERY specific searches with complex terms (and with fairly unusual terms) so some may not turn up any new listings for months. Even the ones that appear daily will usually only have a couple of new items each time.

Just an observation. There are very big changes coming to eBay Australia after 6 May - if you are a Seller you will know all about these. Now that it is apparent there are changes being made to the site, some of the major glitches that have occurred during the past month or so become more understandable.

For Searches these have included

Item Location. Selecting eBay Australia SHOULD bring you everything that is available to buyers in Australia, while selecting eBay Australia SHOULD bring you only items listed in Australia. However recently this has been VERY glitchy and it has been impossible to filter out overseas listings at various times.

SORT for searches. Although I have mine set to "Time Ending Soonest" it is consistently reverting back to Best Match (which as we all know is completely undesirable). If you usually have it set to Newly Listed (to avoid looking at the same old, same old) make sure it is not reverting back to Best Match each time.

I guess all I am saying is that if these frustrations are fairly recent, it may be that the changes eBay are making to the Oz eBay site are the culprits. If on the other hand you are searching widely, for fairly common terms, you may need to come up some very complex search equations to make things easier for you. But as you are an experienced eBayer, I am sure you know how to do this already.

[bsal6160 · Accepted solution]

agree with siddie, however, it is still very frustrating when you see the same old stuff listed, relisted and relisted and relisted week after week after week, month after month after month and still it doesnt sell but the seller still doesnt get the hint that either the asking price is too high or simply that no-one wants to buy it. There should be a limit to the number of times an item can be relisted before a new listing has to be made for the item therefore making the seller think twice if it is worth paying the listing fee for the item again. They (ebay) should also do away with this free listing idea. If a seller wishes to sell then they should have to pay for each item they want to list. This may help get rid of the over-stuffing of items on ebay, by sellers listing hundreds of items simply because it is not going to cost them anything to do so.

[siddieswans]

While I understand your point of view, what needs to be remembered is that while we may be on eBay every day, most people are not. At lot of my sales would be to people with less than 100 Feedback,  in fact I often sell  to people with Feedback less than 10. So these are either people who are new to eBay (and many many people join every day) or who come to eBay only rarely - usually for something for a special occasion, or a gift.

Everything I sell is second hand, so there is no "right price" - only what I think something is worth. Everything I sell gets 2 sometimes 3 goes at auction (yes, often as a "free listing" under the Collectables category) and if unsold it then goes into my store as a BIN. Because for my store category relists only cost 20c per month, it doesn't really make economic sense to remove an item that fails to sell - there is always an opportunity that it will be seen (and bought) by someone new. Although all my store BIN items have Best Offer attached, at least 30% would sell at full price, without the buyer even attempting to make an offer.

It is after all exactly the same situation as in a retail bricks and mortar antique / second hand store - something can sit in your cabinet for years, then one day it suddenly sells. It did not mean that the price was wrong, or that it was unsaleable - just that the right person had not seen it until that moment. eBay provides sellers with the widest opportunity to reach that "right person" which is why there are sellers here. And the widest opportunity for someone to find that "right something" which is why there are buyers here.

[sebungwe]

Thanks bsal.  You understand what I am getting at ---- I should have used the word "re-listings" rather than "listings".    Of course eBay show them as NEW listings which is just a joke !!       Some particularly irritating sellers are listing for only one day and then endlessly re-listing day by day by day.   I realise there is no solution to my problem until eBay change their listing policies.  I hope eBay read this because they make absolutely no money out of all these endless re-listings that never sell.    BUT they should also understand that the practice deters buyers from even looking for something worth bidding on.    Thanks for understanding my whinge ---- Sebungwe

[siddieswans]

---

@sebungwe wrote:

Thanks bsal.  You understand what I am getting at ---- I should have used the word "re-listings" rather than "listings".    Of course eBay show them as NEW listings which is just a joke !!       Some particularly irritating sellers are listing for only one day and then endlessly re-listing day by day by day.   I realise there is no solution to my problem until eBay change their listing policies.  I hope eBay read this because they make absolutely no money out of all these endless re-listings that never sell.    BUT they should also understand that the practice deters buyers from even looking for something worth bidding on.    Thanks for understanding my whinge ---- Sebungwe

---

OK I understand your whinge now. But why don't you exclude those "particularly irritating sellers" from your search parameters?

http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Block-a-Sellers-Listings-/10000000006694277/g.html

By the way eBay do not read these discussion boards.

[sebungwe]

Thanks -- but I am a keen collector and am concerned that if I exclude them they'll one day come up with something I want.  Its a pity if eBay do not read these blogs as they might just get a message which will improve their business and probably their profitability ------------  and maybe even the peace of mind of their punters.   Sebungwe

[siddieswans]

Without wishing to state the obvious, while eBay may have started in 1995 as a trading place for vintage goods and collectables, that market is a very small part of eBay 2014. Do a global search – you will find that categories like Phones, Sporting Goods, Art, Computers, Health & Beauty, House & Garden, Books, Clothing & Shoes & Accessories, Jewellery & Watches, Music, Crafts – all have 4 to 5 million listings worldwide. In other words, eBay has become like any other suburban High St shopping mall. Certainly there are the same number of listings for the Collectables category but probably half of these would be “new” and of the rest, how many would be “collectables” in the traditional sense? Or those “antiques” in Antiques? I am not criticising the listings in these categories – because eBay does not care about this segment of their business, there is frequently no “proper” category in which to list, especially in Australia.

It is often hard to understand eBay’s business direction, but for some reason they have introduced some free listings for the Collectables categories – while of course raising the FVF in these categories. If sellers have taken advantage of those free listings, it is hard to be critical IMO. Even so, the Antiques & Collectables listings would account for maybe 7%? of the total eBay listings (just a wild guess), and I would imagine a lesser percentage of their turnover. (I am avoiding mentioning Stamps & Coins – not my area and seem way too problematical to me.) So even if eBay read these Boards, this tiny part of their huge global platform is hardly going to be of concern to them. In my opinion, sellers (and buyers) in the Collectables area are very lucky to still have the eBay global platform in which to try to sell, and try to buy. When it becomes too difficult for either the seller to compete, or the buyer to search, they leave. Is eBay the poorer? In the sense of my interests, yes; in the sense of the interests of 90% of people who use eBay, no.