There's nothing worse than browsing through a category and seeing the same item listed up to ten times by the same seller, with minor changes in the title to get it past the bots.
There is something worse ... wading through thousands of listings for new overseas junk. Buyers have been screaming from the rooftops how frustrating it is to contend with page after page of items where the location is misrepresented and the drop-down price variations are nothing short of bait advertising. Not to mention the fact these items are often of inferior quality and customer service is non existent. These are the listings which are clogging the arteries of ebay and this policy change will do absolutely nothing to change that.
When I'm browsing categories the listings often number in the thousands. Filter out the new carp, the overseas sellers, etc and sometimes I'm left with single digits.
The niche sellers are the only thing which differentiates ebay from any other site. Several others have used the example of books. Books and other media [CDs, DVDs] are the perfect examples. I go through phases of reading a lot. One book can take you on a tangent to another and another ... not recent best-sellers but often out of print titles with limited availability.
Furthermore, there are cycles in every type of consumer product. I experienced it myself several years ago. I used to list bulk lots of Bratz dolls. At one stage I think I hadn't sold a single lot in 8 to 12 months. Then I sold one lot, then another, then another. Soon I was selling them as fast as I could list them. I was so surprised by the turnaround I asked one buyer who was picking up some lots, why the sudden interest. She told me about the artist in Tasmania [Tree Change Dolls] who was doing make-unders on Bratz dolls. In a period of several months I sold in excess of 1,000 dolls. Had my stagnant listings been removed, it never would have happened.
I believe ebay began as a site for collectors ... don't know if the Pez dispenser story is true or urban myth. Sure, it had to evolve and adapt to become the phenomenon it became but you have to remain true to some of your roots.
Ebay always posits these changes as enhancing the buying experience but the truth is they simply do NOT listen. They keep slapping bandaids on gaping wounds. I know these boards are not necessarily representative of the broader ebay community but, honestly, how many people come here complaining about stagnant listings as opposed to the ongoing complaints about the deluge of junk which makes finding anything relevant a needle-in-a-haystack trial.
