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eBay changes again, for the worse...
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Started by miraclemet,

21 posts in this topic

miraclemet

miraclemet

Posted
Posted

It's a little thing, but apparently they've recently changed their advanced search function so now you can't search for completed auctions and limit it to those auctions with X number of bids (say 2 or more bids). 

I've always used that function to look at sold comps in competitive auctions, so to weed out the old "start an auction at what is really a BIN price and get one bid to sell it". 

*sigh*

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World Devourer

World Devourer

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On 3/8/2022 at 5:00 AM, lostboys said:

I dont trust auction results that ended with just 1 bid. Its probably usually the seller.

There was a spate of phishing a few years ago to pump up prices for GPA. The dishonest types would then relist their items at the inflated and artificial price.

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Stefan_W

Stefan_W

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On 3/8/2022 at 7:10 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

When was the last time that eBay changed for the better?

Truth.

Some changes were for the better. I still remember buying items on Ebay and the seller keeping the money and simply not sending, and I am glad they fixed that part of the process. The automatic return regardless of why they have now leads to abuse though so I cant say it is completely fixed. 

IMO, the worst change they made is no longer allowing people to block sellers. I would love to be able to block sellers who I know I will never buy from and focus on search results that I am actually interested in. I complain about this every time they do a survey and ask for feedback. 

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october

october

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On 3/8/2022 at 7:50 AM, Stefan_W said:

Truth.

Some changes were for the better. I still remember buying items on Ebay and the seller keeping the money and simply not sending, and I am glad they fixed that part of the process. The automatic return regardless of why they have now leads to abuse though so I cant say it is completely fixed. 

IMO, the worst change they made is no longer allowing people to block sellers. I would love to be able to block sellers who I know I will never buy from and focus on search results that I am actually interested in. I complain about this every time they do a survey and ask for feedback. 

I am still able to exclude sellers. Advanced search > by seller > exclude. They changed the location or something. I had to redo all of my saved searches a month ago and it was kind of a pain.

 

image.png.db00d1fedcf985241685165d8832d81f.png

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Stefan_W

Stefan_W

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Posted
On 3/8/2022 at 8:56 AM, october said:

I am still able to exclude sellers. Advanced search > by seller > exclude. They changed the location or something. I had to redo all of my saved searches a month ago and it was kind of a pain.

 

image.png.db00d1fedcf985241685165d8832d81f.png

I believe you have to fill that in every time though. You used to be able to block sellers and none of them would appear in searches. So you could block however many bad sellers and the process was automatic that none would show up when you did searches. 

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october

october

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On 3/8/2022 at 8:07 AM, Stefan_W said:

I believe you have to fill that in every time though. You used to be able to block sellers and none of them would appear in searches. So you could block however many bad sellers and the process was automatic that none would show up when you did searches. 

Hmm. I never found a way to just permanently block sellers from every search. I had to block them manually for every search. I got around it by just saving each seach as a bookmark.

Permanently blocking some of these guys would be awesome though. 

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Stefan_W

Stefan_W

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On 3/8/2022 at 9:27 AM, october said:

Hmm. I never found a way to just permanently block sellers from every search. I had to block them manually for every search. I got around it by just saving each seach as a bookmark.

Permanently blocking some of these guys would be awesome though. 

That was a long time ago. I have been on Ebay basically since the site started. I am in Canada, and the best days were when the Canadian Dollar was above the USD in value and you were still able to declare things as a gift to avoid any type of customs fees and taxes. Those were the days. 

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GeeksAreMyPeeps

GeeksAreMyPeeps

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On 3/7/2022 at 1:00 PM, lostboys said:

I dont trust auction results that ended with just 1 bid. Its probably usually the seller.

That's a stretch. Many of my sales only have 1 bid, because I make the minimum bid close to what I think it's worth, for books that aren't in high demand. (Otherwise they'll probably sell for pennies.)

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shadroch

shadroch

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Posted
On 3/7/2022 at 11:00 AM, lostboys said:

I dont trust auction results that ended with just 1 bid. Its probably usually the seller.

Wow.   I'd guess well over half my ebay auctions end with a single bid. I'm fairly certain none of them were my bids, but I'm fascinated to  hear 

about the research behind such a ridiculous claim.

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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On 3/8/2022 at 8:22 AM, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

That's a stretch. Many of my sales only have 1 bid, because I make the minimum bid close to what I think it's worth, for books that aren't in high demand. (Otherwise they'll probably sell for pennies.)

I really get and understand that approach. But, unless I am looking for that specific book, I always pass on those “auctions”. Might as well just put a buy it now on it. I spend a lot more if a true direct sale. 

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kazoo

kazoo

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On 3/7/2022 at 11:55 AM, Robot Man said:

They have also eliminated the bidding history in the item description…:pullhair:

That's strange, are you sure?  I just checked and can still see the bidding history by clicking on the link - digits of the number of bids (sellers' ids are still hidden as they have been for years).

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Mr Sneeze

Mr Sneeze

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Posted

As fond as I am of ebay in it’s beginning years and as much as I dislike some of the major changes over the years (hiding ids and not being able to leave negative feedback for a buyer), I find that the reality is that I have little to complain about.

Despite the many hoops I have to go through to sell on ebay, it is still the one place I find to sell things for a decent price where I would otherwise be lucky to get pennies on the dollar.

Depends on what your selling of course.

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GeeksAreMyPeeps

GeeksAreMyPeeps

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Posted
On 3/8/2022 at 12:23 PM, Robot Man said:

I really get and understand that approach. But, unless I am looking for that specific book, I always pass on those “auctions”. Might as well just put a buy it now on it. I spend a lot more if a true direct sale. 

The reason I don't list as BINs anymore is that you can have a book up for 2 months as an auction without burning a free listing. Also, if the book explodes suddenly, it sells for a better price.

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