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Calvin Klein Slow Death on eBay or Best Match?

Calvin Klein Slow Death on eBay or Best Match?
10 August 2010
EventHorizon1984

With minor fanfare Calvin Klein opened an eBay store last week.  It's incredible that eBay (EBAY, share price $21.91) kept this news low key given the Calvin Klein brand.  Then again given the pedigree of the Calvin Klein (1978) brand versus eBay's (1995), it might not have been eBay's decision to make.

Calvin Klein is owned by the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH, share price $53.27). 

As noted by the multi-brand Phillips-Van Heusen, "We closed 2009 approaching $6 billion in global retail sales under the Calvin Klein brands."  Compared to the eBay 'oranges' of $4.46 billion in Marketplaces Net Transaction Revenue; i.e. fees not sales.

And of course Calvin Klein has it's own web store.

One might expect a well known global brand, to do well almost anywhere.

Well...

Calvin Klein may have opened an eBay Store last week, but their eBay selling ID was created on 30 September 2009.

Seller ID calvinklein has a positive feedback rating of 15.  With DSR (Detailed Seller Rating) of 5.0 Item as described, 5.0 Communication, 4.9 Shipping Time, and a sub-par 4.7 Shipping and handling charges.

There are 10,207 listings for calvinklein.

And 26,826 closed listings.

According to figures from eBay supported TeraPeak, from July 9 to August 7, calvinklein had 47 successful listings for total sales of $1,614.  And a sell through rate of 0.8%.

Given the lack of exposure on eBay's Fashion Vault page that Calvin Klein gets,

and the lack of press hype, perhaps the lack of sales should be expected.

Which leads to the question, if eBay is willing to show such tepid support for a $6 billion dollars in sales a year corporation, how do you think eBay treats the much smaller sellers?

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"Well, that is your name, isn't it? Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear."
Lorraine Baines, Back to the Future, 3 July 1985

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Why Are eBay Sellers Finding 100 Million Listings Amazing?

Why Are eBay Sellers Finding 100 Million Listings Amazing?
31 March 2010
EventHorizon1984

On March 30th eBay converted many product listings residing in seller stores to what are known as "Fixed Price listings."  Which garnered a few statistical observations.

An eBay Stores Discussion Board thread "March 30th is here, and now we know...." had itspostingtime start off with:

itspostingtime (Private)   View Listings  

Posts: 4,106

March 30th is here, and now we know....
Mar 30, 2010 8:12 AM

I obviously can't vouch for the accuracy of the count, but....

I just looked at the PSU chart. It indicates an increase between yesterday at this time and today of about 55%....a net gain between now and then of something like 55 million listings....for a total of about 101 million.

While on Power Sellers Unite, sammicat lead the thread "auction count off" with:

sammicat Red Star Total posts: 53

Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:02 pm Post subject:  auction count off? are the auction counts a little wonky? Does Ebay really have 101 million items listed now?

They are referring to eBay's "101 million" auction listing count on the PowerSellersUnite.com Auction site count chart.  That chart shows the number of eBay auctions at a specific point in time.  The posters are rightfully puzzled because auction listings are not "Fixed Price listings", i.e. the auction count should essentially be the same.

Well we won't talk about 'what's up?' with the statistics, but we will peer into how many listings can be found on eBay "on any given day"? 

In eBay CEO John Donahoe's first solo United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-K filing for "the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009", there is no mention of the number of listings on eBay.  As we tend to say, it's up the reader to figure out where this metric went.

Under the reign of eBay CEO Margaret Whitman, things were different in the SEC filings.  You will find in eBay's United States Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filing for "the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006" the following statement:

"On any given day, there are more than a hundred million items available through auction-style and fixed-price trading."

Which essentially matches the "101 million" count.

Here's the thing.  What to know what's in the 10-K filing for "the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008"?  The year Margaret Whitman stepped down and John Donahoe took over.

"Our Marketplaces platforms include more than 140.0 million listings on any given day and make available to our users a wide variety and selection of goods"

Either 40 million listings vanished, presuming the unlikely event that there was no increase in the number of listings during 2009, or eBay hasn't finished converting store products to fixed price listings.

eBay's listing count should be interesting to watch during April.

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Is eBay Search Burning?

Is eBay Search Burning?
21 November 2009
EventHorizon1984

By now you're probably seen, or perhaps we should say you haven't seen, eBay's search in action.  Perhaps not coincidentally this comes on the heels of a 11/19-11/20 "Scheduled Maintenance."

Readers can find the various takes on this incident at Google News.

According to an eBay System Announcement made at 02:59 PM PST, this is a minor problem.

"Due to errors in some of our backend systems, members may be seeing different errors in Search.  This could be that "We were unable to run the search results you entered.  Please try again in a few minutes", or simply the browser being unable to display the page."

And, "This is also affecting the ability to access eBay Stores through search directly, and sometimes from the store URL."

Unfortunately this highlights the historical response time of eBay's technical departments.

As you can see a warning went out at 05:02 AM PST, almost 10 hours before eBay decided to notify it's users.

Looking at the technical side you might ask, what gives?  eBay does say what is wrong, abet in an innocuous manner.  They mention errors in the "backend systems".

Picking a random easy to understand explanation at random, this is what Linktionary has to say.

Users interact with applications in front-end systems to make requests on back-end systems. The back-end systems then process the requests, searching and sorting data, serving up files, and providing other services. 

"Back-end systems" loosely refers to servers, superservers, clustered systems, midrange systems, and mainframes that provide data services to users. The location of these services is often called the server farm or data center.

In less complex lingo, i.e. normal human terms, eBay said there is a problem with the Search software and/or hardware.

Most of the bets from the professionals here cover eBay doing a barely tested software update snafu. eBay does has a history of implementing major changes over the weekend, with spectacular results.

The fix options here are patch buggy software or back out the changes.

The hardware aspect is best put by Pete Cashmore of Mashable:

If you’ve been on the web long enough, you’ll know that Twitter isn’t the first startup to have suffered scaling issues: the auction site had significant problems keeping the servers humming in its early days

Basically if you view eBay Search (software, hardware) as a car, Search redlined.  eBay managed to exceed the limits of the software and/or hardware.  For example, more items loaded into the database, than the system can handle.

The fix here is removal of items from the database and/or get more robust software and hardware.

eBay's last system announcement of 03:28 PM PST is almost four hours old, and the problem is coming up on lasting fifteen hours.  So we wonder if this is something as minor as eBay portrays, or something more worrisome?

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"When will you make an end?!"
Pope Julius II
"When I am finished."
Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstacy (1965)

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A Tale of Two Cross Promotions, Google and eBay

A Tale of Two Cross Promotions, Google and eBay
19 November 2009
EventHorizon1984

Apologies for the advertisements that were appearing on this blog.  They have been changed.

Don't know how other bloggers view their sites, but here it's rare taking a look at our own site.  Typically the self viewing in the mirror occurs when format changes are being made, or we're checking the links of specific articles.  Otherwise writers here work from the editing pages.

Yesterday viewing the blog, it came as a shock that we had been transformed into a mature audiences site.  The artificial intelligence of Google AdSense decided our 'racy' writing needed suitable 'racy' ads.

Fortunately this is easy to fix.

https://www.google.com/adsense/site-targeted-ad-review

Click categories not wanted and save.

While the Google AdSense promotions are relatively easy to change, the same can't be said of eBay's cross promotions.

When you go to the eBay page "Promote your items on other pages" the choices are simple.

Select "Yes" and "Your items will be shown on pages and emails that are seen by thousands of interested buyers" and "Similar items from other sellers will also be displayed with your other items on your pages".

Select "No" and "Items from other sellers will not be displayed on your listings and emails related to your items."

That should keep the items of other sellers off your own pages right?

Not really.

As noted in our previous article, eBay "Promises, Promises", that changed over the last few days to having no ability to keep out the listings of other sellers.

16 November 2009, 1:28 PM PST

"Starting tomorrow, November 17, you may begin to see merchandise on the bottom of item pages for active listings as well. While we usually refrain from making changes close to the holiday season, the test results showed a considerable increase in sold items, and  we wanted to offer this functionality to our selling community ASAP."

Contrary to what eBay corporate might think about the stealth of these changes, sellers noticed.

18 November 2009, 14:00:55

eBay Seller Unable to Opt-out of Cross Merchandising

"In spite of the fact that I have ALWAYS opted out of cross-promotions on my ebay listings, deceptive ebay still cross-promotes to my buyers (but hides from me) my competitor's similar items on the bottom of MY listings that I am paying for!"

One might think having no choice is all an eBay seller can expect.  Well, there is one other facet of having other seller items on a listing.  Remember our first tale of an awry cross promotion?  When we found out what was happening, we were able to chose what to show our viewers.

There is no similar option on eBay.

Whether an eBay seller opted-in or opted-out of cross promotions, eBay chooses what cross promotions appear on the seller's page.

On the eBay Store discussion forum thread "More proof ebay is INSANE!" Top-rated seller honeville1 presented the case of seller wgeclectics and listing 260499558152. 

The listing is for a "paperback" suitable for "Ages 4-8".  This product would be found by adults searching for children's items.

(Listing captured 18 November 2009 at 11:40 HST)

Anyone finding this listing would get a bonus supplied by eBay. 

(Listing captured 18 November 2009 at 11:40 HST)

For a limited time one could buy a children's paperback and "Complete '64 Collection Playboy".

eBay makes it clear who's responsible for the eBay inserted cross promoted items by including, "Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing."

With eBay making a "small" number of cross promotion insertions in a random fashion, as an eBay seller will you be the next winner of eBay roulette?

And is this what you want?

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"I'm going to give the audience what 'I' think they want."
Ben Richards, The Running Man (1987)

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eBay "Promises, Promises"

eBay "Promises, Promises"
17 November 2009
EventHorizon1984

It was 1968 and the broadway show Promises, Promises opened.  The feature song, a composition by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was a piece that was initially considered unsingable by the cast.  Enter Dionne Warwick.

You may wonder, why bring this up?  Sometimes 'the play's the thing'.  Or the music.

"Promises, promises"

Fast forward to 14 April 2009 and read the words of Stephanie Tilenius.

"On behalf of eBay, let me open with two words: Thank you. We appreciate your business and the opportunity to strengthen our partnership with you. Together we can do what’s necessary to bring buyers to eBay and keep them coming back.

We also recognize the impact that major changes to eBay can have on your business. For that reason, we are grouping those changes into two or three major releases per year, with at least 60 days advance notice.

In 2009, there will be 2 significant releases. This post announces the first release, coming the week of June 15.  The second release will be announced this summer and will go live in the early fall.

Here’s an overview of the changes launching the week of June 15. This release focuses on driving more sales and improving seller efficiency. Note there are no fee changes in this release."

Stephanie Tilenius

Spring forward to 27 July 2009 and read more from Stephanie Tilenius.

"As announced in April, in the spirit of partnership, eBay is now consolidating changes that impact your business into two or three major releases a year, with two months advance notice. This post introduces the second and final major release of 2009. Most of these updates will launch between September 22 and October 1, 2009."

On 21 September 2009 Stephanie Tilenius was essentially fired.

"Stephanie Tilenius, head of global product and North America for eBay, has decided to transition out of her current role. She’ll become an advisor to John for the next few months and plans to leave the company in early 2010"

In real life the promises of a person are only good as the person, and last as long as they do.

However Stephanie Tilenius was speaking for eBay INC.  Wasn't she?

"I'm all through with promises, promises now"

Being a bit lazy, we'll skip forward to November 2009.

3 November 2009, 4:58 PM PST

"In late September, as part of the Fall Seller Update, we launched a number of changes to email communications between buyers and sellers on eBay."

"Oh promises, promises
This is where those promises, promises end"

5 November 2009, 4:50 PM PST

"starting November 9 we’re removing two graphic elements from the search results page"

Gene Cook

"I don't pretend that what was wrong can be right"

6-9 November 2009

eBay Discussion Boards - eBay Stores - See Today's Announcement

AuctionBytes.com - eBay News for Sellers - Removing Graphics for Faster Search

TameBay.com - eBay.com remove shop modules from search results

"Every night I sleep now, no more lies
Things that I promised myself fell apart"

16 November 2009, 1:28 PM PST

"Starting tomorrow, November 17, you may begin to see merchandise on the bottom of item pages for active listings as well. While we usually refrain from making changes close to the holiday season, the test results showed a considerable increase in sold items, and  we wanted to offer this functionality to our selling community ASAP."

16-17 November

AuctionBytes.com - eBay Displays Competitor's Ads on Live Listings

TheBrewsNews.com - EBay's New Approach To Marketing: Throw The Kitchen Sink At the Buyers

According to Merriam-Webster the word "promise" means, "a declaration that one will do or refrain doing something specified".

There appears to be on the part of eBay a lack of refraining from doing what they declared.

eBay's pubic relations folks are bandying about the weasel terms "minor changes" and "major changes."  That these are "minor changes" not "major changes."   That's PR feldercarb you're slinging.  Playing this type of word game destroys trust.

Which brings us to the word, "trust."  According to Merriam-Webster the word "trust" means "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone of something." 

If there can be no reliance on what eBay promises, why should any eBay customer believe what eBay says.

"Oh, promises, their kind of promises can just destroy a life
Oh, promises, those kind of promises take all the joy from life"

Incidentally should eBay stay at this pace of "minor changes", the next eBay defined "minor change" that would have a major effect on sellers would be announced the afternoon of November 25th or 26th.  The 26th is Thanksgiving. 

The day before Black Friday.

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"Trust me.  I know what I'm doing."
Sledge Hammer, Sledge Hammer! (1986-1988)

"Trust me."
Apple Ad, Broken Promises

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The eBay Shopping.com Affair Part Deux

The eBay Shoping.com Affair Part Deux

By Event Horizon
1 May 2008 Edition
Revision: 2 May 2008 12:21 HST

This is a short follow up to our previous articles about the faux sdc_prod listings.

• The eBay Shopping.com Affair
  15 March 2008
  http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2008/03/internet-transa.html

• From eBay Seller Central - Ebay is padding their listings
  1 March 2008
  http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2008/02/from-ebay-sel-1.html

Our research indicates between 161 thousand and half-a-million faux listings were posted on eBay, by eBay, that Leap day weekend.

eBay's official statement regarding the faux listings of 29 February 2008:
"Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused."
eBay, 2 March 2008

Apology accepted, BUT sorry eBay. Those listings appear to be making a comeback.

Or never left, since we've been receiving regular "eBay Item Ending" emails for all sdc_prod* listings we put on a watch list. 

Since March 2008.

1 May 2008

There are 10,001 fake listings for seller sdc_prod_9074_35
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=sdc_prod_9074_35&sort=3&page=40&rows=50&since=30&rdir=0

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There are 754 fake listings for seller sdc_prod_9391_43
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&include=0&since=-1&rdir=0&rows=25&userid=sdc_prod_9391_43

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There are 10,001 fake listings for seller sdc_prod_442675_57
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&include=0&since=-1&rdir=0&rows=25&userid=sdc_prod_442675_57

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There are 10,001 fake listings for seller sdc_prod_90076
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=sdc_prod_90076&sort=3&page=1&rows=25&since=-1&rdir=0

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Apparently if one uses a non-eBay expected method to obtain a product list, you'll see the faux listings.

And do keep in mind that this method used to print out products has a limit of, you guessed it, 10001. It is highly probably that the sellers showing "10001" have more than ten-thousand-one items.

For perspective, here are the fake listing counts taken during the Leap Day 'test, accident, glitch'.

• 21,481 - sdc_prod_9074_35
• 11,102 - sdc_prod_9391_43
• 4,702 - sdc_prod_442675_57
• unknown - sdc_prod_90076

There are three interesting points about all this.

1. These products are hidden in a standard search. But show up as valid listings using different methods.
2. The number of listings or count is obtainable, and presumably ends up in various auction count tallies. By inference, listing counts eBay included in their report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
3. Has anyone given any thought to how much each faux listing adds to eBay's GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) total? Ten's of millions of dollars? Hundred's of millions of dollars? Enough to show a significant quarter to quarter increase?

Final questions. Are there more of these? And how long before eBay hides them even better?

Here's a list of the sellers reported to have faux February 29th listings.

1. sdc_prod_301013_74  The Twister Group
2. sdc_prod_305839_99  BargainBasementBatteries
3. sdc_prod_310426  ANTOnline
4. sdc_prod_409455_97  Sababa Shopping
5. sdc_prod_434012  SpectrumSuperStore
6. sdc_prod_442675_57  Boyne & Kelly L.L.C.
7. sdc_prod_9021_2  Buy.com
8. sdc_prod_9055  Focus Camera
9. sdc_prod_9074_35  pcRUSH.com
10. sdc_prod_9074_47  pcRUSH.com
11. sdc_prod_9090  CompSource Inc.
12. sdc_prod_9124_14  TheNerds, Inc.
13. sdc_prod_9352_67  Digital Foto Club
14. sdc_prod_9391_43  Adorama
15. sdc_prod_9452  eTronics, Inc.
16. sdc_prod_90076  OnlineSports, Inc.

Have fun looking.

But be quick, because eBay or that nasty eBay Glitch will hide them again.

Copyright © 2008 Event Horizon, Established 1984

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From eBay Stores Forum - Ebay punished me because my buyer didn't read the description.

For our new readers, these are not our forum posts. This thread comes from one of eBay's many PUBLIC forums. eBay as a matter of policy, makes these posts public by feeding them to Google. Google in turn creates permanent archives of these posts.

Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

FYI apologist itspostingtime posts spin and damage control for eBay ...

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From eBay Stores Forum
Ebay punished me because my buyer didn't read the description.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000682027&tstart=0&mod=1208123708286

millcovetreasures  (193 )        Apr-12-08 18:43 PDT
I have 100% positive feedback. DSR's are 4.9, 4.9, 4.9 and 4.7. A buyer left me a neutral because "item was smaller than expected". My description said "Mini Perfume Bottle" and in the body it said "This tiny bottle measures 1 inch by 1 1/2 by 1/2"". If the buyer had bothered to READ the description, she would have known it was small! How is it my fault that the buyer chose not to read the description and was disappointed. To top it off, she received a note inside her purchase that stated if there were any problems contact me. She never contacted me and never gave me the opportunity to offer a full refund.

Now ebay has sent me 2 emails and called by phone to tell me that my customer satisfaction rating is below standards and my listings have been dropped in Best Match Search. I received an alert that my power seller status is jeopardy because of the sub standard rating.

They did lower my listings. I'm listing several items in a board TAGSALE. If you search TAGSALE and stay in the default Best Match, all of my items are on the last page.

Of course I can't get anyone at ebay to talk to me. So I contacted live help. They gave me a page telling me how to be a good seller and improve my DSR's. I kept asking "How am I responsible for the buyer not reading the description"? How is this my fault? How do I jam a buyers head into the monitor and say READ? How is it my responsibility for her failure to read? I am a good seller, READ my feedback. It seems ebay has the same problem as my buyer, they won't read. I ship fast, I describe my items well, I take a lot of photos, I communicate, I pack great, I'm honest, I'm patient. These are all the things my buyers have said in my feedback.

I'm sorry, a policy that is this black and white over the color of a dot with no room for exceptions is insane. How on earth do I deserve to be punished and be listed in the bottom pages because the buyer CHOSE not to read the description? I'm being lumped with all the bad sellers on ebay for the actions of my buyer which are totally out of my control.

I've already canceled about 10 listings and I've opened a shop on Ruby Lane. I hope to have under 100 listings by the middle of next week and less than 30 within two. I am not going to pay listing fees and store fees to be at the bottom of the pile because I had the rotten luck of getting a dim wit for a buyer who chose not to read a description.

j...t  (Private )      Apr-12-08 19:05 PDT     1
How on earth do I deserve to be punished and be listed in the bottom pages because the buyer CHOSE not to read the description?

You do not deserve that at all. This company has not yet gotten it that the sellers are their customers and the buyers are the seller's customers. Yet they insist on allowing the ability for bad buyers or bad competitors etc. to do bad things to good sellers.
- JT

656georgep  (1276 )         Apr-12-08 19:13 PDT     2
Ebay just showing they can push the sellers around. One of these days they will push just too much and they will not have any sellers.

alt5603  (282 )         Apr-12-08 20:42 PDT     3
Your best bet right now is to leave the buyer a neg and then suggest a mutual feedback removal. Do this while you still can.
http://stores.ebay.com/Extreme-Sports-Collectibles

http://www.squidoo.com/extremesportscollectibles

designforyou  (998 )       Apr-12-08 21:17 PDT     4
Are you sure someone wasn't spamming you. Your overall ratings do not warrant an email or a call. This sounds just way too suspicious to me to be from E-Bay. Unless of course your 30 day DSRSs are saying something way different, then the 12 month rolling DSR's.

If ebay is doing this, well what can I say? Sellers gotta do what a sellers gotta do.

Good Luck to you!

thewoodlandgirl  (Private )      Apr-12-08 21:18 PDT     5
What? There must be a mistake you only have one neutral. That cant possibly put you below standard?

Makes no sense at all.

Well I agree, leave a neg. Wait about 3 days and then do a mutual withdrawl.

This is the new ebay. Best get used to it. I have had more bad feedack this year than all my 8 years total.

I believe its cuz ebay pushes the concept of disputes and paypal claims to its buyers now. Makes them more pissy.

I never got an eamil from ebay or a call, however I have fallen off the face of the earth in sales this past couple weeks anyway.

So you know, with BM you just cant win.

haldagobay  (188 )         Apr-12-08 21:18 PDT     6
So sorry you had that experience. I am working on my st elsewhere as we speak.

Cathie



millcovetreasures  (193 )       Apr-12-08 21:41 PDT     7
I have already given her a negative and when I emailed her she told me never to contact her again.

The ebay emails are in my ebay email box and yes, it was ebay that called. It is crazy that this happened. But the search results prove it. Ebay has put me in the same position as all the lousy sellers and I did absolutely nothing to deserve it.

Designforyou, my 20 day DSR's are still the same. It's insane.


Cathie, I'm working on my new Ruby Lane Shop right now. I just took a break. I'm using the same name as here.

thewoodlandgirl  (Private )      Apr-12-08 21:58 PDT     8
Typically you should not contact them. You just wait a few days after they are sick of looking at their neg and then try to get them to remove it.

Another tactic is dont contact them at , then send a mutual withdrawl and offer to refund half their money, that usually works too.

I am really sorry this happend to you.

It has happend to me as well, I am not doing well in best match at all. Mainly Im sure to the cost of my items and my ship star. I live way out in the country and cant improve my shipping times much cuz mail her is pitiful slow.

designforyou  (998 )       Apr-12-08 22:00 PDT     9
Wow, ebay doing this to you is just plain wrong. So sorry that happened.

Be careful about mentioning competitors. Your post may get pulled!

thewoodlandgirl  (Private )      Apr-12-08 22:00 PDT     10
I was just looking at your feedback, that is baffling you have 100%, Im sorry ebay must be insane.

sweetsweetsadie  (359 )       Apr-12-08 22:28 PDT     11
This is not your fault-- there is nothing fair or logical about it. ebay is killing people's dreams-- it's sadistic.

In my last batch of FB one buyer left me FOUR neutrals! Four items, four neutrals. I also offered full refunds for any reason-- never heard a word from her. She was either not happy or just didn't want to play the FB game so left neutrals-- some buyers think that a neutral doesn't count one way or the other.

Well, I tried to leave a neg and couldn't. Than tried to leave a neutral and couldn't-- no way to do a mutual (I don't know if it were a glitch or not-- I tried several times to leave FB just to see!)

Tonight I'm working on my new x-cart site-- hard work for me! But, I will get it done!

Sorry that you were injured by this new reality-- it's beyond your control and is like walking through an endless minefield.

bonniesplants  (5564 )         Apr-12-08 22:37 PDT     12
Don't bother emailing Trust and Safety. See my thread. I got a canned response back and when I replied to it, I got a 2nd canned response back

I seriously think they do not even read the emails or they would have seen where the buyer scammed 2 other sellers in my first email. All the details, listing numbers, seller's ID and their negative feedback message.

The buyer learned from the experience that you can scam sellers and get away with it

And even if the DSR's are put removed power seller support told me the DSR's stay

Power seller support is the one who told me to plead my case with Trust and Safety.

Can anyone say "Pass the buck"

What is cool, I emailed Pay Pal's competitor and I received a personalized, friendly email back. Nice friendly email stating my problem as they interrupted in MY email to them.

And an offer of a couple of solutions.

I suspected the buyer to be a fraud using a stolen credit card.

Bonnie



eclectic_salvage  (3729 )         Apr-13-08 06:27 PDT     13
From Ebay's pages:

What factors will be used to determine a seller's percentage of dissatisfied buyers?
When stricter enforcement of Seller Non-Performance (SNP) rolled out in 2007, seller performance was determined by using negative and neutral Feedback, overall Feedback and Item Not Received (INR) complaints over a 90-day period. Sellers with greater than 5% of transactions resulting in negatives, neutrals, or INR complaints were restricted according to that SNP Policy.

Beginning in March 2008, performance evaluation will be based on a 30-day period. It will also include Item Significantly Not As Described (SNAD), and Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) of 1 or 2. eBay added these factors because buyers leave 1 or 2 DSR ratings nine times more often than negative Feedback, which suggests Feedback and INRs alone did not reflect customer dissatisfaction.

So your buyer left a 1 or a 2 rating and that set off the calls etc even though total score is not bad?  Pretty nutso!

good is better than evil because it's nicer - Mammy Yokum

itspostingtime  (2) View Listings | Report                           Apr-13-08 06:40 PDT     14
At what point did eBay advise you of this? Before you left the buyer a retaliatory neg, or after?

Your feedback number was not harmed by the neutral, and it appears your DSRs remain fine.

So I wonder if the buyer complained to eBay after receiving the retaliatory neg (which, of course, is in itself a rule violation).

So perhaps your lowered search results rank is not a result of the buyer giving you a neutral, but a result of you retaliating with a neg?

I'm really not sure why else eBay would lower your search position, since your DSRs and regular feedback remain good.

designforyou  (998 )       Apr-13-08 06:51 PDT     15
Sellers can still leave feedback. In May is when sellers will no longer be able to leave neg feedback for buyers.

I doubt if EBAY would repond to a complaint from a buyer in this fashion. But then again who knows? Ebay can be so clandestine lately about sharing any information with sellers!

Ebay is being ridiculous in the OP's case.

itspostingtime  (2) View Listings | Report                           Apr-13-08 07:05 PDT     16
design,

eBay is taking away the ability to leave ANY negative feedback for buyers in May.

Until then. Sellers can still leave negative feedback, but it is a VIOLATION to leave RETALIATORY feedback. Has been for a long time. Not all negative feedback is retaliatory feedback.

It appears the seller gave the buyer a neg in retaliation for the neutral.

If the seller had simply posted a response to the neutral the buyer gave her (which, of course, is permitted by the rules, and which the seller did), maybe the seller would not be in this position now?

I don't know, nor does anyone but eBay. But it wouldn't surprise me too much to find that eBay is penalizing sellers for leaving retaliatory feedback.

In other words, if the seller had just left the response...the neutral really didn't harm her rating...., and then , say, left no feedback for the buyer....maybe this situation would have been avoided?

mrcrabz  (44 )      Apr-13-08 07:49 PDT     17
For those who don't understand why this seller was flagged...

That neutral put this low volume seller into the 5% dissatisfaction rating. Neutrals carry negative weight now.

If you're getting 20 or so feedback per month, one bad transaction can affect your status. It doesn't have to be negative feedback either, low dsrs, neutral, reports, or a combination of these things.

Clearly, a seller doesn't have to actually do anything wrong to be negatively impacted by these new policies.

Before a seller could just rub some dirt in it, let it roll off the first page and move on. Now there are real negative consequences for running into a numpty, or even well intentioned ignorant customer, let alone a malicious one.

itspostingtime  (2) View Listings | Report                           Apr-13-08 07:55 PDT     18
mrcrabz,

Neutrals are NOT treated the same as negatives. eBay has stated that seller non-performance is NOT triggered by neutrals alone....there would have to be at least one or two negs as well....I forget the details, but eBay looks at the neutrals only if there are negs, too.

One neutral should NOT trigger seller-non-performance.

That is why I suspect either something is simply in error here, or this might be tied to a complaint from the buyer about the retaliatory neg.

sandrarn83  (2921 )       Apr-13-08 08:15 PDT     19
IPT if you go back and reread that post by Ebay it says that DSRS of 1 and 2 will also trigger the same thing. So a buyer who leaves a neg and also leaves 1's for DSR can trigger the same thing as the OP is reporting.


sandrarn83  (2921 )       Apr-13-08 08:16 PDT     20
Sorry a buyer who leaves a neutral and also leaves 1's for DSRs can trigger the same thing.


spotted-lab  (29 )      Apr-13-08 08:17 PDT     21
so essentially after May 1st buyers are no longer required to read anything.

itspostingtime  (2) View Listings | Report                           Apr-13-08 08:25 PDT     22
OK, I stand corrected. Here's some info from the FAQ:

19.  How are dissatisfied buyers measured?
At eBay we consider a buyer dissatisfied if any of these occurs:

    * The buyer leaves a seller a Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) of 1 or 2 on any of the attributes
* The buyer files a dispute, claim, or chargeback related to "Item Not Received" (INR) or "Significantly Not as Described" (SNAD)
    * Buyer leaves negative or neutral feedback

20. How will I know if my percentage of dissatisfied buyers is greater than 5%?
Sellers restricted based on their percentage of dissatisfied buyers will be notified. Also, a Seller Dashboard will be launched in May to provide all sellers with detailed information about their performance.

It would seem that the seller could maybe resolve her standing by increasing her total sales, so that one buyer in a one month period would no longer constitute more than five per cent of her buyers?

millcovetreasures  (193 )       Apr-13-08 08:38 PDT     23
DSR's are counted as 2/3 of a negative according to the new rules.

I don't consider my feedback retaliation. This buyer had two opportunities to not be "disappointed". First, she could have read my well written and, researched description. Second, she ignored the note that I include with all of my items that clearly asks them to "contact me if they are unhappy for any reason. If we communicate, we can solve anything." Even ebay states in it's policies that buyers should contact sellers to see if any problems could be resolved before leaving feedback. This woman never gave me the opportunity. So she failed in her responsibilities in this process, not once, but twice and then turned around and punished me for her own failures. Somewhere along the line, a buyer has to accept a certain amount of responsibility in the process. She was totally unfair to me and, in my opinion, other sellers needed to know that she could be unfair. I have positive feedback from three buyers who never even completed the transaction. I'm not quick to leave a negative for anyone, especially those that take the time to communicate and explain.

itspostingtime  (2) View Listings | Report                           Apr-13-08 08:42 PDT     24
I think the source of my confusion is this article in the chatter Blog, which explains how Seller Non-Performance was being determined in 2007:

http://www.ebaychatter.com/the_chatter/2007/08/lynda-talgo-of-.html#more

Note that before SNP is triggered, there have to be some negs, not just neutrals.

So, either that has changed, or we aren't actually talking a SNP warning here, but rather a warning that the seller's search placement will drop, based on criteria used in the Best Match algorithm.....criteria which do not seem to be the same as SNP criteria.

So, presumably one neutral , standing alone, could effect search placement if it represents more than five percent of buyers within the time period.

But this could be rectified by an increase in sales and positive feedback.

So, mrcrabz, I apologize. I think I was confusing SNP with Best Match criteria.

And I'll just add that, since it is a common complaint on this Board that "buyers don't read", it might be a good practice for sellers to use rulers, or a dime or something, in at least one photo to SHOW size for items such as the one the seller sold here.

itspostingtime  (2) View Listings | Report                           Apr-13-08 08:55 PDT     25
millcove,

I think this is one reason ebay has decided to eliminate neg feedback completely...because too many sellers don't understand the definition of retaliatory feedback.

What you left was retaliatory feedback.

Should the buyer have read the size information you provided? Sure. And you pointed that out in your response to the buyer's feedback. So that issue was taken care of with the response.

That's why ebay provides the ability to respond. The "response" is how one responds to feedback. But you didn't stop there. You ALSO responded by leaving a neg. Feedback is NOT supposed to be used as a response to feedback, but that's exactly what you used it for.

The buyer is not under any obligation to contact you before leaving feedback, even if you do invite such communication.

So that failure to contact you first is NOT a valid reason to leave a neg.

The bottom line is , you left the neg because the buyer left you what you consider an unfair neutral , and did so without contacting you first, and you punished her for it.

If a seller leaves a buyer a neutral, let's say, because the buyer was slow in paying, and the buyer...although perfectly happy with the item and the transaction, left the seller a neg in response, I'll bet you'd have no trouble seeing that for what it is: retaliatory feedback.

Well, that's what you did here.

classy_crafter  (395 )       Apr-13-08 09:56 PDT     26
I received an alert that my power seller status is jeopardy because of the sub standard rating.


Its funny you should be in any kind of jeopardy of losing your PS status considering some of the PSers I see with HORRIBLE feedback and DSRs. One particular PS that sells organza "favor" bags has such horrible feedback and DSRs, its a wonder they havent lost their PS status with eBays new rules.

eBay to their customers: "let them eat cake!"

classy_crafter  (395 )       Apr-13-08 10:05 PDT     27
What you left was retaliatory feedback.

I disagree.

Did the OP have a positive transaction with this customer? No.

Did OP do what she could to satisfy this customer? Yes

Did this customer communicate any problems to the seller? No

Did customer actually read the description? No

Does customer know how to use a ruler? Obviously not.


So, why should the OP be punished for the customers numptiness and why should the seller leave anything but neg feedback since the transaction as a whole was negative?

eBay to their customers: "let them eat cake!"

millcovetreasures  (193 )       Apr-13-08 13:42 PDT     28
Thank you Class_crafter, that is exactly as I see it. The buyer paid at 9 p.m. her package was shipped at 8 a.m. It was beautifully wrapped and she received a free velvet pouch that was not even mentioned in the ad. So if it was not a good experience for her, it's because she failed to read. I don't assume any responsibility for her disappointment in anyway shape or form. For her to turn around and give me less than a positive because she failed to read, not one but twice and, failed to ask for a refund made this a negative experience for me.

I also disagree that the buyer isn't required to contact the seller. Ebay's policy states, contact the seller and try to resolve any problems before leaving feedback.

jake-deals-4u  (709 )     Apr-13-08 14:08 PDT     29
Op..Congrats on your great FB & DSR, however in the case you are referring to i agree that most likely the real problem is the retaliation neg you gave.

Ide say, your customer found a sympathetic ear at Ebay--The words been out for awhile now that eBay really REALLY doesnt like sellers giving out retalitory negs
--IMO this is very understandable, as if a massive portion of buyers leave the site because of them being retaliated against, eventually it will have a snow-ball effect on sellers who dont retailiate.

Consider that leaving a retalitory neg serves no real practical purpose--sure its an emotional release for those that need to leave one, but just one buyer that has a bad exp. with one seller, doesnt automatically equate to that buyer having a problem with every seller down the line.

However im sure eBay research shows that many many a buyer has never purchased again from ANY eBayer ever, after only one retailtory neg from only one seller, so hence the No retalitory neg policy & eBay taking action to prevent this, as they should

homedecorstudios  (20 )      Apr-13-08 14:22 PDT     30
Ide say, your customer found a sympathetic ear at Ebay-

Doubtful. Ebay doesn't respond or read emails from buyers & sellers equally. More than likely no human ever read any email from either party.
_____________________________________

In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.

oldspartantrader  (4045 )         Apr-13-08 14:24 PDT     31
It would seem that the seller could maybe resolve her standing by increasing her total sales, so that one buyer in a one month period would no longer constitute more than five per cent of her buyers?

Of course that is a solution --

It however presupposes that

1 -- The seller wishes to increase the work load and not be a part time for fun seller --

2 -- That eBAY will then give the seller a reasonable opportunity to make a sale by not burying product at the back end of search as punishment for one or two misques that could easily be buyer sources

At least 75% of the eBAY sellers I come into direct contact with list under 20 items a week -- eBAY selling is a hobby that brings pin money -- They will soon say goodbye in droves -- Yepper as individuals they are a miniscule percentage of listings -- as a whole ??? -- I believe they are a huge mass of what made the traditional eBAY successful.

I do not interpret the seller left FB in question as retaliatory -- The buyer failed to read -- The buyer failed to communicate -- The buyer in this case was a lunkhead who apparently single handedly cost the seller in question a goodly portion of their selling opportunity by causing search burial

The bottom line is that the buyer deserved the neg.

Our nearly 6000 item store was shuttered today --- Eighteen months ago the total items listed across our multiple ID's was nearly 12000 in store and between 900 and 1000 in auction at any given time

eBAY is a hostile selling enviroment -- PERIOD -- It can be prettied up with talk of scams -- talk of injustice -- talk of changing underfooting -- All of that is legitamate reason for change -- All of that is deeply rooted within the eBAY CORPORATE CULTURE far more than the vast majority of the seller culture -- eBAY by its very design and laise faire attitude has made their own bed -- they now throw the baby out with the bath water.

Add to that competing ads from companies that pay pennies on a dollar compared to the customer base -- A failure to understand the difference between brokerage and agency in the three way relationship -- and buyer dissatisfaction that runs so much deeper than than eBAY's seller whipping gals and guys -- and you have

A company flailing at its market in an effort to understand the deeply rooted issues it faces -- Looking to new markets to ensure its cash flow rather than stemming the holes in its base markets --

Add PAYPAL with its total lack of basic financial protections for any customer account whether it be seller or buyer -- Its new mandate to withold funds without genuine recourse -- and its growing mandate to be the only payment avenue acceptable in an eBAY transactio --

Sprinkle in the total lack of meaningful communication -- A parcity of trained customer service response people --

Stir well with a search engine that is purposely designed not to "find" the non traditional eBAY widget -- and to minimize the best part of the FUN BUYERS shopping experiance (browsing the goodies) -- While at the same time bringing the run of the mill average high volume mass merchandised product to the fore --

AND YOU HAVE

A company without meaningful identity experiancing the early symptoms of meltdown.

Pretty it up -- but a great face on it -- BUT -- If it walks like a duck -- squawks like a duck -- swims like a duck -- In this case it is because it is becoming a turkey.

Carl

jake-deals-4u  (709 )     Apr-13-08 14:30 PDT     32
Ebay doesn't respond or read emails from buyers & sellers equally. More than likely no human ever read any email from either party.

...???

So where did eBay get the No retalitory policy from? Out of thin air?

From a dartboard?

Not likely...

Keep in mind if 1000 sellers leave eBay because they are upset they cant neg a buyer anymore---is that a NET loss, when surely eBay research shows that leaving retalitory negs is one of the very worst things a seller can do, because many buyers will never buy again ever, after getting a retalitory neg?

sandrarn83  (2921 )       Apr-13-08 14:35 PDT     33
Carl you did a very nice job. Pretty much sums up my opinion of Ebay today. Jake both Ebay and you forget that sellers are also buyers. When those 1000 sellers leave they also take 1000 buyers with them. This site is in desperate need of buyers and Ebay needs to be looking for ways to make both sides happy. I am with Carl and I would have neged that buyer as well. My response to the feedback profile would have been "NEG Failed to communicate w/seller. Full refund available."


jake-deals-4u  (709 )     Apr-13-08 14:45 PDT     34
both Ebay and you forget that sellers are also buyers

Sandra, im curious if you ever got a retalitory neg from a seller?

If you havent, ide bet my last dollar that many good buyers have & it really really pisses them off.

If 1000 sellers leave because they are upset they lose an option that im sure research shows is extremely detrimental to overall site & other subsequent in-involved seller sucess, then obviously eBay doesnt see those 1000 sellers leaving as any great loss.

OTOH maybe you could enlightem me as to ( other than an emotional release ) what purpose does leaving a neg for a buyer do?

On your WWW, ide guess its impossible for you to check every customer & see if they ever got a neg as a buyer on eBay, but even if you could & found they had a couple negs as an eBay buyer, would you refuse service to them?

Would you refuse service to any buyer just because they got a neg on eBay maybe 1x or 2x??

j...t  (Private )      Apr-13-08 14:47 PDT     35
Carl, great job putting into words how many sellers feel.

If it walks like a duck -- squawks like a duck -- swims like a duck -- In this case it is because it is becoming a turkey.

Course in this case, more and more sellers can become the turkey as well during hunting.

Another seller who had a similar experience where the buyer accuses the seller, did not like the reply, gives a neg and all 1's for stars.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000549603&tstart=40&mod=1208075170226
- JT

oldspartantrader  (4045 )         Apr-13-08 14:55 PDT     36
The one very important -- and actually very crucial input -- that I have learned about eBAY these past couple years is that

A very large part of eBAY is actually a closed economy --

I am relatively old compared many --- I remember the beginnings of the building of the interstate system -- NOT the very beginnings mind ya -- BUT -- The beginning of it really taking root and fracturing many small communities --

Prior to the maturing of the interstate system small communities were relatively closed economies -- Of course they "imported" many things -- but the job base -- business base -- and money base was largely in or very near the town center -- or commercial district --

Interstaes basically detoured all but the most central areas -- Money flowed out -- workers and buyers flowed out -- In my area there are entire areas that thrived as few as 30 years ago that are now economic wastelands ---

The same situation is evolving here -- As sellers leave they contact -- smooze -- and entice an already dissatisfied buyer group to follow -- As buyers leave to other parts of the net they entice the commercial base to follow to those sometimes greener pastures --

eBAY thinks buyers are unhappy with sellers --- I think we are pretty typical -- 25% of our off shore purchases are made by buyers who first purchased from us on eBAY -- (that is a 1st quarter 08 tally) -- We fully expect to double that by 3d quarter end as we place a greater emphasis on moving these people to our hub --

IF these are typical buyers -- and I believe them to be -- It shows --

That the root of disatisfaction is not primarily directed at sellers -- and that eBAY is making a grave error in not recognizing that their greatest strength is the very person who they choose to use as the whipping whelp.

The tipping point is very close -- possibly already past -- BUT --

The disease I call Ivorytowerblindentitus will most likely cause a failure to recognize the cause and only see the symptoms of a growing malaise.

eBAY will likely survive the coming crunch -- BUT -- Not in its present form --

Carl

sandrarn83  (2921 )       Apr-13-08 15:00 PDT     37
Carl that's okay because I continue to blindside Ebay and take their buyers. It works for me.
Jake half of my negs on this ID were retaliatory from sellers. It's something you hitch up your panties and move on. It's not like a seller is going to refuse to sell to you based on your feedback numbers. Buyers don't even need feedback. So there is little reason for Ebay to remove the ability of sellers to leave it. As a seller I will work with any buyer to make sure they are satisfied with their purchase. The day I find a neg in my feedback without a communication attempt from the buyer first I consider that transaction closed. I never worked with any buyer who pulled that stunt. I had no incentive to do so as a seller. As I stated I would have neged the buyer for failure to communicate with me. As a seller I can't fix a problem if I don't know it exists until after the transaction has been completed.

jake-deals-4u  (709 )     Apr-13-08 15:11 PDT       38
Buyers don't even need feedback....Ide say getting +FB from a seller, builds their self-asteem & encoureges them to purchase again



So there is little reason for Ebay to remove the ability of sellers to leave it..

Ide agree that removing the ability to leave a buyer a neg is obvious--hence why eBay is taking that action, combined with more attention to complaints by sellers about problem buyers into the ebay message system.

Sandra, have you ever gotten a retalitory neg as a Buyer?

apache*belle  (1117 )      Apr-13-08 15:12 PDT     39 that is why some sellers are going to AUDIO descriptions........

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984
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eBay World_Securities

From eBay - Stephanie Tilenius, General Manager, eBay North America - ***A Message from Stephanie Tilenius -- The International Site Visibility listing upgrade for US, Canada, UK and Ireland sites***

Translation: eBay provided this Search service free. But now pay eBay EXTRA fees and eBay will allow International buyers to see your listings. Otherwise eBay will hide your listings from International customers.

//

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803310800522.html

March 31, 2008 | 08:01AM PST/PT

 

Stephanie Tilenius

Hello everyone…This is Stephanie Tilenius, General Manager for eBay North America. The ability to sell internationally is a key benefit of doing business on the eBay marketplace. I'm pleased to announce an exciting new listing feature upgrade that will give sellers in North America the option to get full visibility for their items on other eBay sites, initially eBay.co.uk, enabling them to reach many millions more buyers.

How International Selling Works Today
eBay's global marketplace opens the door to international business for many sellers. Traditionally, US sellers who want to attract buyers in the UK and elsewhere have had two options:

1) They can list on eBay.com and choose World Wide Shipping or other international shipping options. In this scenario, their items only show up on another international site in the few cases when buyers specifically look for international items using Advanced Search features.

Or –

2) They can create a separate listing on another international eBay site (and pay all the same fees that other sellers pay to list there).

  Coming Soon: International Site Visibility Listing Upgrade
In May, we're giving sellers who list on US and Canada sites a better option for international exposure by introducing the International Site Visibility listing upgrade. With this listing upgrade, sellers will be able to list on their local site and pay a small upgrade fee so that their listing also shows up in the main default search results to buyers across the Atlantic on eBay.co.uk – two sites for a great price.

In the US, the fees to use this optional upgrade are as follows:

Start Price
$0.01 -9.99
International Site Visibility Listing Upgrade Fee
10 cents

Start Price
$10 - 49.99
International Site Visibility Listing Upgrade Fee
20 cents

Start Price
$50+
International Site Visibility Listing Upgrade Fee
40 cents

The International Site Visibility listing upgrade offers sellers who want to expand their international business a great value – items with this upgrade show up by default for international buyers in the market selected in addition to the buyers in the seller's own market. This makes international listing economical and easier to manage than listing separately for international sites.

Data shows that depending on the category and start-price, it only takes one or two extra bids from international buyers to make up the cost of the International Site Visibility fee.

For PowerSellers, using this feature also ensures that these UK sales are counted towards their Final Value Fee discounts.

UK, Ireland, US and Canada International Support Only
At launch, the International Site Visibility listing upgrade will only be available for eBay UK, eBay Ireland, eBay Canada and eBay.com. US and Canada sellers have the upgrade option to list on eBay UK, and UK and Ireland sellers have the upgrade option to list on the North America sites. We'll be adding support for more international markets in the near future, so stay tuned.

A word about testing – US-UK Collectibles
Over the past six months, we've been running tests in the collectibles-related categories on eBay.com and eBay.co.uk, looking for optimal ways to display international listings. These tests will be concluding as we introduce International Site Visibility as an upgrade available for almost all categories to US and UK sellers.

We're excited about the new opportunities for the members in our communities to do even more trade together. International Site Visibility helps sellers reach international buyers – and helps increase the value and selection available to buyers! We'll update you again once International Site Visibility is launched.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Tilenius
General Manager, eBay North America

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From eBay Stores Forum
International visibility surcharges uhhhh what?
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000544161

Discussion

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 15:26 PDT
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803.shtml#2008-03-31074923

its on the right on the board, the announcements. I don't understand. does that mean stores format won't have the option ?

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me


.

bab***  (1256 )   
Mar-31-08 15:30 PDT
1 of 81
Does this mean that unless you pay that new fee you won't show up on the international sites at all?

Jennifer

656***  (1263 )   
Mar-31-08 15:35 PDT
2 of 81
Just another way for feebay to collect more. Glade I stopped selling out side US.

roy***  (845 )   
Mar-31-08 15:44 PDT
3 of 81
Wow! Does anybody remember local ebay sites, i.e., ebay Boston. It was a chance where you could search 'hubs' for lack of a better word- or if you didn't find what you wanted you chose 'ebay international' or something like that.
All these fees are making my head ache.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 15:48 PDT
4 of 81
PLUS, ebay UK defaults to best match, and that msg seems to infer you will be seen... which you may not

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

sca***  (2729 )   
Mar-31-08 15:53 PDT
5 of 81
I wonder if this will work in reverse and all the sellers located in China who say they are in the US will be forced to pay...

I don't like this part: For PowerSellers, using this feature also ensures that these UK sales are counted towards their Final Value Fee discounts.

So does that mean that if I don't use this upgrade and a UK buyer finds me somehow anyway that their purchases won't count? That's lame because close to 30% of my sales are int'l. UGH

Usually I just keep to my own but I just have to say- man am I glad I started building my website when I did. This is getting unreal.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 15:57 PDT
6 of 81
I don't like this part: For PowerSellers, using this feature also ensures that these UK sales are counted towards their Final Value Fee discounts.

scarborough, that's almost the equivalent to "pay the bank extra and the teller will make sure they actually deposit your money" lol

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

the***  (Private )
Mar-31-08 15:59 PDT
7 of 81
Told ya!

Do you guys remember my thread last week?

I had asked what changed. I knew it! I get tons of interantional sales and I have not had one in weeks.

I flippin knew something was different.

Oh how do I hate ebay, let me count the ways!

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:01 PDT
8 of 81
            news at 10: Ebay to start charging for air

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me
.

dorothysew  (990 ) 
Mar-31-08 16:02 PDT
9 of 81
For some who already list in UK at least, this is going to help and it might not hurt to try it-since the dollar is so far down.

Just hope it doesn't work the other way or we may get flooded with UK stuff.

the***  (Private )
Mar-31-08 16:02 PDT
10 of 81
So much for the free gallery. Now I have to pay to sell to my international customers.

This place is such a joke! Oh my word, Im going to go balistic in a moment.

And ebay, please give us a break. We didnt have minimal exposure. 30% or more of my sales are interantaionl. I have never been in a lack of international sales , until now!!!!!!!!!!!

sca***  (2729 )   
Mar-31-08 16:06 PDT
11 of 81
woodland, yes, I remember you saying that. At the time I thought it was just a fluke because my int'l sales were still fine. Maybe you're in one of eBay's glorious test groups to see how this change affects sales.

Sigh. So sad, a site like this has such potential to do great things and instead they just keep tweaking it to squeeze every penny they can out of their customers. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm usually not much of a complainer about this stuff, but it's so disheartening, I've loved being a stay at home mom and eBay was a giant part of making that happen for me. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I sell enough to get some discount on my fees and stay afloat while my site gains steam. I guess that's all I can do!

Okay, speaking of- I'm on a mission to stock up that site this week, so I guess I'd better get to doing inventory!

tre***  (3633 )   
Mar-31-08 16:06 PDT
12 of 81
Woodland, DITTO! I was on the phone with stores today and could hear her blank stare when I asked WHY 30% of my (International) had gone poof! Grr! They are pushing us too far, WAY too far...I am ready to riot

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:08 PDT
13 of 81
why do sellers distrust ebay management

because of crap like this!


Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

moo***  (1627 ) 
Mar-31-08 16:10 PDT
14 of 81
Screw that! Wait I was starting to be an exporter.
Way to change the game eBay!
That's why my sales dried up starting last week.
Up until last week all my sales where Europe and Canada.

eBay is slowly pumping up costs here and there to cover the drop in other areas.

In a Barber Shop, when you start to lose customers, you need to jack up the costs to your regulars. Then when some regulars leave, you need to jack up parking fees, hair removal fees, etc. That's a very slippery slope eBay is dancin' on. 

tre***  (3633 )   
Mar-31-08 16:11 PDT
15 of 81
Howdy Chops! So glad to see you back and spunky again! We missed you soul sister..

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:13 PDT
16 of 81
hugs, my doc this morning gave me a CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH. I am TECHNICALLY HEALTHY> LMAO.

I may riot, just for the exercise! LOL

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:16 PDT
17 of 81
maybe they should just fire whoever that lady is who took over Chris T's job to manage EBAY STORES. Remember her, she was hired then went on maternity leave. never came back.

no value added to the bottom line, fire her if you need to squeeze money.

fire that marketing blogger for Ebay INK you cheaparoonies!

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

tre***  (3633 )   
Mar-31-08 16:17 PDT
18 of 81
Oh man, they are tap dancing on a greased down glacier. Congrats on the great report!

.

tre***  (3633 )   
Mar-31-08 16:21 PDT
19 of 81
Healt report that is.. siggie test:


Ready for lift off!

tra***  (6181 )   
Mar-31-08 16:22 PDT
20 of 81
Hey and ebay lowered our insertion fees.....remember? Now they get to raise everything else.

So the bigger question: Why is ebay chasing all it's sellers away?

Lee

wor***  (3185 )   
Mar-31-08 16:31 PDT
21 of 81
ohh yes they cut off international about three weeks ago i use to do 10 -25 a month none , but no way will i pay to sell over there more money

wor***  (3185 )   
Mar-31-08 16:34 PDT
22 of 81
global market pace my .....

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 16:35 PDT
23 of 81
Will it still work the way it does where buyers can still make purchases if they can find you here?

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:37 PDT
24 of 81
Lets just set up a website that says UK shoppers buy direct from the SOURCE. UK shoppers really like deals. We all show how competitive we can be, they're not gonna care about getting IT on ebay.


Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 16:39 PDT
25 of 81
That is true. They don't care. Great idea.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:40 PDT
26 of 81
do you know in some cases, UK shoppers pay close to 40% customs duties or vat charges to get the goods to them? Any type of discount to reduce their costs is attractive to them.


Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 16:42 PDT
27 of 81
I'm still confused about what she said.

Does she mean it is starting with UK only and then will go to Ireland or it will start with UK and Ireland (Is there just one site for them) and will expand for more $$ later?

I have some international postcards I have to get visibility other places to sell. But, they find me now...bet that changes soon (unless I pay)

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 16:44 PDT
28 of 81
We need to start a thread for:

Bad news from Ebay:

Keep it at the top and just list all the new BS things they change and see how fast and how many of these ridiculous changes they really do roll out.

I would love to see a list and dates for all that has changed over the last few months.

On a positive side, if they don't pay the fee at least 40% of the postcards will go by by when this starts! (nearly 40% are UK listings).

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 16:47 PDT
29 of 81
I think its meant to be confusing. just shoddy poop polished marketing spin.

all we have to do is work together, that is the hardest part... cuz some of us dont work well with others!! When UK shoppers get wind that there's a way to get insider discounts, they're not gonna turn away from that. And anyone who has a significant UK buyer following knows this

All we need to do is be able to SHOW them what we got!

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

tre***  (3633 )   
Mar-31-08 16:57 PDT
30 of 81
It will take a coordinated effort but can easily be replicated in mass someplace else.


Ground control to Major Tom

ger***  (939 )   
Mar-31-08 16:58 PDT
31 of 81
Where do stores come in to play? I get a lot of overseas buyers. Why do they have to make it so complicated???
Gerrhagirls Stained Glass Supplies and More

tra***  (6181 )   
Mar-31-08 17:13 PDT
32 of 81
We gotta start an online mall, but that's expensive and time consuming.

Like was said........I don't work well in crowds.


Lee

dorothysew  (990 ) 
Mar-31-08 17:20 PDT
33 of 81
Same offer in UK, probably Canada also, tho I didn't check.  There goes the under 30 item store advantage.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200803311620542.html

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 17:20 PDT
34 of 81
I don't think stores will be affected one way or the other.

I'm assuming they only find our store items now by clicking to see sellers other items.

So, that should still work as usual. They didn't say we couldn't sell internationally without paying the fee. They just said paying it would get the items placed in with their listings (which means core).

els***  (1310 )   
Mar-31-08 17:21 PDT
35 of 81
I read that BS earlier today and wondered why my international sales had stopped. And why the doofus on the "powerup, let me help you build your business" consultation was really pushing me to LIST on the UK site. Maybe he knew that this was coming down the pike and it would seem like a deal after paying UK listing fees on that site. Pfft. Like I am going to actually sign up for a another site with a BS search. Or pay more for nothing here. Ha. What are they thinking?

The Donahoe Effect: the worst possible search at the worst possible time.

pin***  (3486 )   
Mar-31-08 17:26 PDT
36 of 81
Well I wondered where my international sales had gone...guess now I know. I have to pay to get them back. Great, just great.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 17:30 PDT
37 of 81
whoever wants to be listed on the UK direct list just let me know!! We can refer and publish that list to shoppers!


Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

upn***  (1232 )   
Mar-31-08 17:31 PDT
38 of 81
Sooo..... They are going to start charging us extra to sell international ??? If thats the case then thats the final straw for us. We will close down our third and final store april 14th. I guess the don't need our money because they sure have gone out of they way time after time over the last couple years to prevent us from selling our items on this site. It seems that whatever ebay does for the sellers they find a way to take back way more than they give. Ebay's answer has always been more and more fee's and to them that makes everything ok for the store sellers in ebayland.

moo***  (1627 ) 
Mar-31-08 17:33 PDT
39 of 81
Looks like in a few weeks, I'll need to e-mail many
of my international buyers from the past 2 years, and tell them how to still find us, because of the shrinking search results support from eBay, Inc, they wouldn't know we still existed.

What really bothers me is all these micro changes that they roll out several times a year. It is hard to stick to a selling strategy if you need to tweak it all the time.

moo***  (1627 ) 
Mar-31-08 17:37 PDT
40 of 81
Good idea Chop! I wouldn't mind sharing some of my international buyers e-mail. Maybe a simple webpage list that shows where Barker's Buckles can be found, the ChopSueySisters, and everyone else, with links and pictures.

Then we could all send e-mails with that link.
Just an idea.

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 17:40 PDT
41 of 81
It wouldn't be as bad if it weren't for Best Match.

Now, pay or not you have no guarantee anyone will ever see your listings.

Chop, you know I'm in. I don't sell everything internationally, but some of my items only sell that way.

dbcrn  (85 )
Mar-31-08 17:44 PDT
42 of 81
Strange, I'm getting lots more international business.

Wierd.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 17:45 PDT
43 of 81
YES!

I put your 2 info in my spreadsheet, that way its easier to keep organized and turn it into something web ready


Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

fle***  (617 ) 
Mar-31-08 17:52 PDT
44 of 81
ShOW us the way, O Mighty Fruity!

Hi chops.


Sigmund F. Spot, FHC

"If I clear my cache anymore, my computer's gonna disappear!"

tur***  (6234 )   
Mar-31-08 18:18 PDT
45 of 81
I get enough international sales and don't need to pay additional money to have even more exposure over there.

But the problem I see coming with this is that international sellers have the same chance now to pay more to be in our direct search results, which will bury our listings between thousands of more international sellers. To compensate for this loss we will have to pay the additional fee, to get back internationally, what we lost domestically.

Just doesn't sound right for me.

moo***  (1627 ) 
Mar-31-08 18:27 PDT
46 of 81
They're tryin' to keep you off your toes and off balance with all the changes.
That way you don't time to build your website.

Anyways, since Meg is leaving, maybe she plans to lobby
governments for the need for internet toll booths.
Internet usage fees, International internet usage tariff,
e-mail tax. You already know that some of the worlds elite want this. They'll bill it as an anti-terrorist package, thats "good" for everyone.

Yes, I did wake up on the Pessimist side of the bed today

the***  (Private )
Mar-31-08 18:55 PDT
47 of 81
What she said was bs so it hardly matters.

She was trying to say that we are going to be better off.

that is not true. I have always had very strong international sales here.

Now I have zip, literally overnight. Now ebay is telling me if I want it back, I gotta pay for it.

So much for a discount on listing. ITs rob peter to pay paul again.

Free gallery but now I gotta pay to be seen.

Right now its the slowest I have ever seen it. I have some really cute stuff right now too.

This time last year I sold close to 7-8 grand a month. This site is a serious nightmare. I was so looking forward to spring my busiest season. Now, its in the toilet.

Thank God I got a job building a website, actually I have two. One is almost done. Othewise I would be stresses bad.

tre***  (3633 )   
Mar-31-08 19:02 PDT
48 of 81
Okay, I am putting this to song and going to bed..Night all.


Check ignitin and may Gods love be with you! http://youtube.com/watch?v=VnLv1kh_cuc

nkyphotos  (7670 ) 
Mar-31-08 19:18 PDT
49 of 81
I did not see anything that said they were changing how things currently worked. If you got international exposure today you will still have it in the future. They were only adding an enhanced version you pay for.

BUT

They can turn off the spigot and force you to pay if you want it.

That is my drift on the subject.

Peace, Duane Bass

Seller of Vintage and Reproduction Photographs

gra***  (1316 )   
Mar-31-08 20:36 PDT
50 of 81
I started a similar thread about this on seller Central, and Valerie (a "pink") gave a response that you should read. She says basically that they're NOT charging for anything that used to be free... then she says that your items will still show up in "ADVANCED SEARCH" "like they always have".

Ummmmm, yeah, but they used to show up in item searches too....

Unless I'm totally confused, we're getting double speak...
----------------------------------

eBay... What have you DONE???

schulmanart  (199 )   
Mar-31-08 20:39 PDT
51 of 81
In the art category, art from the ebay.au and ebay.uk sites
show up on ebay.com but my art doesn't show up there.
( and there are rarely <30 of any given art search)

So for me, this is an enhancement I will happily pay for.

sav***  (124 ) 
Mar-31-08 21:37 PDT
52 of 81
Interesting development! Surprising? Naw

sav***  (124 ) 
Mar-31-08 21:38 PDT
53 of 81
Hey turtleGaby
Your little Schildkroete is going to say Awwwey playing with that cactus!

moo***  (1627 ) 
Mar-31-08 21:56 PDT
54 of 81
Just checked eBay Spain and found 2 of the 3 items I have on auction.
The one that didn't show up is from eBay Motors.
I dunno. It isn't really clear what eBay meant in that announcement.

cho***  (2358 )   
Mar-31-08 22:30 PDT
55 of 81
oh and if you dont have int'l postage specified in the ship fields, at least a few months ago you wouldn't show up on the int'l sites. so for those who currently dont show up.. make sure u have postage in the ship field and check thatta way. There are so many test views we all are in at different times it can be very misleading. AND check on different IDs too! Oh and dang I need to double check the older notes but I thought for sure you couldn't go below a certain feedback level. This was all bundled under the cross border transactions policy announcement i think

so far I have 20 boardies who either requested here or mailed me to be added!

Oh, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

My Indestructible bracelets protect me

.

psy***  (300 )   
Mar-31-08 22:35 PDT
56 of 81
OK, now I'm officially confused.

Does this apply to auctions only?

To auctions and BIN only? To Core only?

How does if affect store items?

That announcement is very, very confusing.

But then, this is eBay. SO I suppose that is to be expected.

daz***  (6126 )   
Mar-31-08 22:37 PDT
57 of 81
"the International Site Visibility listing upgrade"

Petroleum distribution Engineer

there's another one for you

Horse puckey

I'm really getting to hate this place

Who was it that said be careful of what you ask for when we all hoorayed when Meggie Pooh was leaving and something about the Devil you know.

Doesn't this "junk" only apply to auctions?

Why the heck can't they EVER make an annoucement that's the dumbed down version?

I am so glad I have my own website.

Tell ya something else - I've been fooling around with Loudfrog for years - just putzing - in the last few months there are so many feebay refugees there now that the quantity of buyers and sellers alike are really making a big impression over there. Think ebay will be content when there just isn't anyone left here at all?

eto***  (2695 )   
Mar-31-08 22:38 PDT
58 of 81
Can't wait for Stephanie to announce domestic visibility upgrade selling options!

daz***  (6126 )   
Mar-31-08 22:45 PDT
59 of 81
etown - good one

daz***  (6126 )   
Mar-31-08 22:45 PDT
60 of 81
just getting harder to see any reason to continue these days

the***  (Private )
Mar-31-08 22:56 PDT
61 of 81
At this time , I have 1 top showing on ebay canada. And zip on the other international sites I checked.

lin***  (4627 )
Mar-31-08 23:10 PDT
62 of 81
I'm the one that said we need to be careful of what we wish for and that overall Meg's rule was kind of benign.

I saw big trouble in Donahoe just from the changes he started making as soon as he came on board.

But, now they are even surpassing my worst expectations!

daz***  (6126 )   
Apr-01-08 04:46 PDT
63 of 81
can't wait to hear what Sandy has to say about this this morning - where are you Sandram?

what's your spin on this latest drama?

eto***  (2695 )   
Apr-01-08 06:08 PDT
64 of 81
Coming Soon: Past the End of your Driveway Visibility Listing Upgrade!

In May, we're giving sellers who list on the U.S. site a better option for "off your property"(OYP) exposure by introducing the entire rest of the U.S. visibility listing upgrade. With this listing upgrade, sellers will be able to list on Ebay and pay a small upgrade fee so that their listings also show up in the main default search results to neighbors and friends. If you do not upgrade, be rest assured that any user on your property will still be able to bid on your items.

In the US, the additional fees to use this optional upgrade are as follows:

Start Price
$0.01 -9.99
Past the end of your drive way*
10 cents

Start Price
$.01 - 9.99
Entire county in which you reside*
20 cents

Start Price
$.01 - 9.99
Your entire state!*
40 cents

Start Price
$.01 - 9.99
Nationwide!*
75 cents

* - denotes your items will not be shown to buyers who have shown the ridiculous tendencies of leaving 5 star DSR's.

A word about testing – US Collectibles
Over the past six months, we've been running tests in the collectibles-related categories on eBay.com looking for optimal ways to exploit and monetize to the fullest, our domestic listings. These tests will be concluding as we introduce Domestic Site Visibility as an upgrade available for almost all categories to US sellers.

We're excited about the new opportunities to increase Ebay's revenue! The members in our communities will have the privilege of having the opportunity to sell nationwide! The Domestic Upgrade Visibility helps sellers reach across the street, and every state in the union depending on our low or high upgrade option. We truly believe OYP Visibility will increase your sales!
We'll update you again once Domestic Site Visibility is launched.

My lil waiver....of course this is sarcasm....for now...

swe***  (355 ) 
Apr-01-08 06:27 PDT
65 of 81
Coming Soon: Past the End of your Driveway Visibility Listing Upgrade! LOL

What does this all mean? Whatever they choose to make it mean. Miss Stephanie has a really bad case of "doublespeak".

swe***  (355 ) 
Apr-01-08 06:30 PDT
66 of 81
etown-- I just read your last poat! I was laughing so hard I spilled my coffee all over the floor!

tre*** (3633 )   
Apr-01-08 06:53 PDT
67 of 81
For PowerSellers, using this feature also ensures that these UK sales are counted towards their Final Value Fee discountsCan anyone explain what the heck this means? We need a translator.

tur***  (6234 )   
Apr-01-08 07:08 PDT
68 of 81
For PowerSellers, using this feature also ensures that these UK sales are counted towards their Final Value Fee discountsCan anyone explain what the heck this means? We need a translator.

This means, that you if you qualify for the powerseller discount, you also get it internationally.

Which shouldn't be mentioned at all, because as it was my understaning from the beginning, if you qualify, you will get it for all transactions and not only for domestic ones, right?

So to mention this, is just an other way of Ebay to enhance something what was granted anyway and make us think, we get something special. How stupid do they think we are?

tur***  (6234 )   
Apr-01-08 07:12 PDT
69 of 81
For PowerSellers, using this feature also ensures that these UK sales are counted towards their Final Value Fee discountsCan anyone explain what the heck this means? We need a translator.

This means, that you if you qualify for the powerseller discount, you also get it internationally.

Which shouldn't be mentioned at all, because as it was my understaning from the beginning, if you qualify, you will get it for all transactions and not only for domestic ones, right?

So to mention this, is just an other way of Ebay to enhance something what was granted anyway and make us think, we get something special. How stupid do they think we are?

daz***  (6126 )   
Apr-01-08 07:14 PDT
70 of 81
And I was working my way up to my former 3500 listings - SCREECH - those are my tires burning coming to a SCREECHING halt - back to work pumping up the website - sorry folks - got side tracked with that sweet talk about lowering fees.......

same old same old - well not exactly - is it getting worse? think so

Hey selling ALOT of stuff kicking around the garage on Craig's list! And it's FREE!!!

tre***  (3633 )   
Apr-01-08 07:19 PDT
71 of 81
            EXACTLY Turtle!

daz***  (6126 )   
Apr-01-08 08:12 PDT
72 of 81
"the Ebay greedy brains develop a new fee"

they pay them overtime to invent these things

Ya know - when times are so tough financially nationwide you would think ebay would be bending over backwards to keep sellers here. Their more like the gas companies stepping on the throats of the sellers. Geez - another fee hike

daz***  (6126 )   
Apr-01-08 08:13 PDT
73 of 81
hey - gab - just looked at your stats - looks like your kicking butt but I know exactly how hard your working for those numbers - amazing girl.

oak***  (4139 )   
Apr-01-08 08:50 PDT
74 of 81
I think this is more to do with bolstering listing numbers on international sites. I get a strong feeling Ebay is loosing far more sellers than they want us to realize, especially from the international sites.
Perhaps the UK sellers are voting with there feet ?

lin***  (4627 )
Apr-01-08 09:14 PDT
75 of 81
I've been thinking this over and remember someone here posted a while back that soon we would be PAYING for visibility with best match being the means to control it.

This is the start.

I stated then that Yahoo did that way back when they started their deadly spiral. Items stopped being shown by ending soonest and you had to BID for placement.

Those willing to pay a nickel a day were moved up over those for free. Those paying a dime a day were moved up a little further. You could pay for some to move up and hope it helped all. Eventually it took a quarter or more a day just to be seen.

I see the same thing happening here and it won't be long before it starts.

Listing fees may disappear completely, but you will pay to be seen and you will bid on the privilege.

Remember how Meg wanted to control Television advertising with a bidding process?

I predict that will be here by the end of the year or early next!

bhe***  (302 )
Apr-01-08 09:25 PDT
76 of 81
A pink on the UK board states that the visibility fee can only be applied to Auction or Fixed Price listings. His post also clears up a few other points:

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200203583&start=160
"Hi all
In repsonse to lots of the queries and questions on this thread I am going to do a bit of a summary.

This fee can only be applied to Auction or Fixed Price listings and does not include Shops (SIF) listings.

Sellers Other Items will show all the sellers listings as today.

Seller Manager Pro and Turbolister have been updated to reflect these changes and the options will be live when the fee is launched.

Anyone listing on the UK/IE (except US/CA registered sellers) can pay this fee to appear in the main US/CA results. However a UK/IE registered seller cannot list on ebay.com to access the fee to gain UK exposure.

Anyone listing on ebay.com (except UK/IE sellers) can pay their fee to gain access to the UK main results.

Currently any item located in the UK is shown in our main results regardless of the site that it is listed on. Once this fee is live any listing made on ebay.com and located in the UK will be blocked from UK main results unless the fee is paid. However it will continue to appear in the international expansion box. The same is true for US listings made on ebay.co.uk However, any listing live at the time of the fee launch will continue to behave in the way it did before until it is revised or relisted.

So in short if you are a UK seller with items located in the UK you can

1) List on the UK and pay the fee to be shown in the US
2) List on ebay.com but your item will not be shown in the UK except in the Internation expansion box
3) List on any other ebay site and appear there and in the UK

Some other things to consider

1) Pay the fee for one or two of your items and use cross-promotion or hope people click Sellers Other Items to get more of your items shown to US buyers
2) If you achieve one incremental bid you will make your money back on the insertion fee

Finally on the point about FVF discounts - a couple of things

1) If you qualify for the UK discount program you only get discounts from the FVFs incurred on listings made on ebay.co.uk
2) The number/value of items sold (which is one of the qualification criteria) is based on all sales regardless of where the item was listed

Back later

George "

the***  (Private )
Apr-01-08 09:42 PDT
77 of 81
LOL

Well let ebay be reminded what happend to yahoo auctions. What happend to AOL. No one is irreplaceable at some point in time it will bite them in the behind.

I do agree that this site is going to change even more. Sad really.

I need to do some serious soul searching to see if I want to do something else or just move on completely. Im very busy and ebay has been a great way for me to run an "easy" biz.

But if things are going to be more work than its worth not sure I wanna go there.

However, Im not sure I wanna do the work necc to go off ebay either.

Sad.

daz***  (6126 )   
Apr-01-08 09:58 PDT
78 of 81
wood - I did the work after MUCH foot and butt dragging - I could kick myself now that I didn't do it sooner. I had one before but was waaaay ahead of it's time so I was hesitant to jump in again. We all know how much work it is with your arse glued to the chair for hours upon hours - days upon days. I think the times have changed so much - ebay has educated seller and buyer alike. Buyers are now not afraid to go out into the unknown. Give it a shot - I think it's worth it. If Linda's suspicions are right you will need back up. Should ebay spiral downwards like Yahoo and Amazon of the past you'll be in sad shape if your eggs are only in one basket.

daz***  (6126 )   
Apr-01-08 09:59 PDT
79 of 81
one more point wood - ebay fees - hundreds each month + paypal - your own website - $14.95 - priceless

the***  (Private )
Apr-01-08 10:01 PDT
80 of 81
I guess where I dont have skill is in SEO. I really dont know how to bring in my own traffic. I can design a store no problem but what are you guys doing to get traffic?

I think #1 mistake is I dont work with my current customers to get them off ebay.

I guess I should start there.

mfa***  (4003 ) 
Apr-01-08 10:33 PDT
81 of 81
I would ONLY do this if UK or Euro buyers had to pay for my item in their currency, in other words if it lists for $5.00 in U.S it would have to list for 5 pound/sterling or Euro on those sites.

Sorry eBay, I pay too much in fees already. This will simply save me a trip to the post office as the only time I have to go is when I have international packages.

Can anyone say "nickle and dimed to death?"

//
//
//

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984
eCRATER EventHorizon1984
eBay World_Securities

The eBay Shopping.com Affair

The eBay Shopping.com Affair
aka "The eBay Leap Day Auction Count Affair"
aka "The eBay SDC_PROD Affair"

By Event Horizon
Ides of March Edition, 15 March 2008
Revision: 2 April 2008 00:01 HST

"It's always difficult to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth. I don't really know what the truth is. I don't suppose anybody will ever really know."
Juror #8, Twelve Angry Men (1957)  

The Leap Day weekend brought with it an extra day of buy and selling on eBay. It also ushered in an interesting event. A number of listings from Shopping.com, an eBay company, ended up on eBay.com. Counted in the hundreds of thousands these product listings were viewable on eBay.com, but not buyable.

In short an event that AuctionBytes would characterize as eBay Mystery Listings.

This was an event that had ample room for opinions. Aside from the fact that the average eBay buyer could not buy these products, there was the question of did these listings affect the auction counts? An important question as eBay provides those listing counts in their many reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Opinions ranged from an eBay Forum poster describing the event as "Ebay is padding their listings", to Randy Smythe of My Blog Utopia! stating "this padding of listings is a non-starter."

All this would definitely pique the curiosity of anyone interested in eBay. For about 5 seconds. Because all the relevant data is spread across Google, or deleted, archived, horded, and just plain not in one place for quick perusal. End 5 seconds.

We're going to attempt to put a smidgen of all that happened in this article. And over time expand the article slightly to accommodate new found pieces.

Before we begin, changing the subject slightly, you're wondering why the style of the title sounds oddly familiar? We were inspired by eBay, with their one mini-smidgen contribution.

• "Agent Sent Message", ebay Customer Service, 1 March 2008

Cue theme. Run introduction. Roll article.

Prologue. Internet transations are perishable and human memories short.

"people simply remember a version of events which makes as much sense as they require it to make"
Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

This article should not be considered a complete rendering of the Leap Day (2/29/2008) weekend events or a tome with all the available data. It is meant to give a relatively quick overview of the situation, and provide leads for those who wish to pursue more in depth study.

I. How many listings were involved?

"It was an accident" Captain James Kirk
"You seem to have a lot of them." Captain John Christopher
Star Trek, Tomorrow Is Yesterday (26 January 1967)

Do Listing Counts Matter?

Let's start with the simple matter of, does it matter at all? The answer is, Yes.

Listing counts are important to eBay, as the figures are reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reference the "23-Jan-2008" "Form 8-K for EBAY INC" "Results of Operations and Financial Condition, Financial Statements and Exhibits" report.

• In the "Unaudited eBay Marketplaces Supplemental Operating Data" section is "Number of New Listings (2)" with the definition "(2) Listings on eBay Marketplaces trading platforms during the quarter, regardless of whether the listing subsequently closed successfully."

Listing counts are important to eBay, as they are mentioned in the report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reference the "29-Feb-2008" "Form 10-K for EBAY INC" "Annual Report".

• In the "Key Operating Metrics and Financial Information" section (emphasis ours) eBay states , "Members of our senior management team regularly review key operating metrics such as active users, listings".
• Further, "These financial measures allow us to monitor the profitability of our business and to evaluate the effectiveness of investments that we have made (and continue to make) in the areas of marketing, product development, international expansion, customer support and site operations. We believe that an understanding of these key operating and financial measures and how they change over time is important to investors, analysts and other parties analyzing our business results and future market opportunities."
  
• In the "Financial Summary" section (emphasis ours) eBay states, "we face challenges in the U.S., U.K. and Germany, which are our three largest markets, as growth of listings, active users and GMV on the eBay.com platform in those countries has slowed."
• In the "Results of Operations" section eBay has the metric "Number of listings (3)" with the definition of the metric being "(3) Listings on eBay Marketplaces trading platforms during the period, regardless of whether the listing subsequently closed successfully."

The fact that eBay has the subject of "listings" in their official reports, belies pundits claims that the listing counts are of no concern.

Those who proffer the specious argument that the amounts involved are small and therefore inconsequential, must not deal often in large real world real time computer systems. Let's propose the scenario that someone or some group accidentally dumps a quarter million to a half million database TEST records into a PRODUCTION system. This same person or group then tells people in authority nonsense such as 'it's 35 thousand Usher'.

This is what those people would hear in the real world:

• "You're Fired!", Donald Trump

eBay's official position on the number of listings.

• eBay - Listings erroneously placed on eBay.com: 35,000

"An eBay spokesman told PC Magazine at the time that 5,000 shopping.com listings were erroneously placed on ebay.com. After sellers expressed doubt about that number in the comments section, eBay was asked to again confirm that it was indeed 5,000. The same spokesman responded Friday that he had originally told PC Magazine that eBay pulled 35,000 listings, but a review of the interview confirmed that he said 5,000."
PC Magazine, 10 March 2008

• 4 March 2008 - "5,000 shopping.com listings were erroneously placed on ebay.com"
• 7 March 2008 - "eBay pulled 35,000 listings"
• 10 March 200 - "a review of the interview confirmed that he said 5,000"

{eBay, Usher} "Lieberman said fewer than 35,000 listings were affected by the glitch".
AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

Usher Lieberman is eBay's Spokesman, and is not an integral part of eBay's programming departments. He reports to the press what he's told.  In the matter of contradictory statements or "false and misleading statements to the press" [SEC], the original source of the "5,000" and "35,000" counts should be investigated.

 

Our research regarding the listing counts during the February 29th Leap Day weekend. 

• Total Listings, Hard Count: 
  • 161,358 to 192,966 (161,358 + 31,608) to 241,368 (161,358  + 80,000)
• Total Listings, Soft Count:
  • 271,280 to 302,888 (271,280 + 31,608) to 351,280 (271,280 + 80,000) 
• Estimated Listings Count: 500,000 (rounded)

Total Listings Hard Count Methodology.

The "Hard Count" represents the total number of auction listings confirmed by screen shots, archives, and reported by AuctionBytes. In theory the Hard Count should equal or be close to the Soft Count. But in practice it is not an easy task to collect hard evidence, from multiple witnesses, after the fact.

The  31,608 figure derives from the AuctionBytes observation that "indicated the seller had over 80,000 listings on eBay.com."

AuctionBytes does not reveal the identity of that seller. Making it possible that the seller with "80,000" items is part of the list of observed sellers. The 31,608 figure is derived from taking "80,000" and subtracting the largest listing count reported, which is 48,392. In this way listing counts are not added in twice.

In other words, if the seller with item count of "48,392" (part of the observed list of sellers) actually has "80,000" items, the total should be 161,358 + 31,608. The  31,608 being the uncounted part of the "80,000" (80,000 - 48,392). The 31,608 can increase to a maximum of 80,000, depending on who the seller is or is not.

For instance in the case of this seller not being on the reported list of 14 sellers, the soft count would be 161,358 plus  80,000 or 241,368.

There is also the case of the count from AuctionBytes being completely wrong; 0 items.

The Hard Count ranges from a minimum of 161,358 items, to a maximum of 241,368 items.

Total Listings Soft Count Methodology.

The "Soft Count" represents the total number of auction listings reported, but not necessarily verified by screen captures, etc.. The figure of 271,280 is the lower limit of those reported observations. As in the Hard Count, the 31,608 figure derives from the AuctionBytes observation that "indicated the seller had over 80,000 listings on eBay.com."

The observed Soft Count ranges from a minimum of 271,280 items, to a maximum of 351,280 items.

Estimated Listing Count Methodology.

Using the Medved "EBay Auction Counts: February 24, 2008 to March 1, 2008" chart, an estimate can be made as to the number of listings removed.

eBay stipulated two things:

• That the problem started "Friday night".
  
• That by March 2nd the "system issue has been resolved", i.e. the "accidental" listings were completely removed.

Logically we're looking for an increase and subsequent rapid decrease of at least 161,358 (Hard Count) listings and up to 351,280 (Soft Count), during the weekend time frame.

As it turns out there is just such an occurrence. There is an auction count spike in the auction count beginning at about the "2/29" (09:00 PM PST, Midnight EST) line and ending at about the "3/2" (09:00 PM PST, Midnight EST) line. From a graphing standpoint this increase conveniently begins after a relatively flat period of auction listings.

That would be approximately 13,900,000 (peak) - 13,400,000 (base) = 500,000 listings

• 13,393,000 28-FEB-2008 04:30 AM PST, 07:30 AM EST. Initial low point;   base.
• 13,910,000 29-FEB-2008 10:00 AM PST, 01:00 PM EST. Peak
• 13,454,000 01-MAR-2008 07:00 PM PST, 10:00 PM EST. Lowest point of the   day.
• 13,410,000 02-MAR-2008 02:32 PM PST, 05:32 PM EST. eBay announces "system issue has been resolved".
• 13,333,000 02-MAR-2008 08:00 PM PST, 11:00 PM EST. Lowest point of the day and weekend.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Using Randy Smythe's 13.5 million average daily auction listings as a measure, the half-a-million auction listings represents 3.7% of the daily total. A significant amount as far as the report by eBay's Accountants to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned.

Is There More?

The question arises, were there more "test" listings. Our answer is, you are free to ponder this question.

But think about this. eBay held a listing special beginning on March 1st. Historically auction counts rise during a listing special. Typically a million or more. How many listings would have to be removed to not only negate the expected listing count increase, but cause the count to fall?

And ponder this too. As a matter of good business, eBay does put back listings removed in error. Such an increase due to putting back deleted listings would show up much later on Medved ("EBay Auction Counts: March 2, 2008 to March 8, 2008"). Abet buried in subsequent listing specials and promotions.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

eBay's 2008 Q1 (1st Quarter, January 01 to March 31) report to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission should be interesting.

II. SDC_PROD Seller List and Counts

"The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons." Cosmo, Sneakers (1992)

We believe that none of the Shopping.com sellers were aware their items were being transferred to eBay.com. As stipulated by eBay,  "Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com". It would be an interesting exercise to find out if the involved Shopping.com sellers were billed eBay.com listing fees at the time, and then credited afterwards.

SDC_PROD Seller List

This is a list of the fourteen (14) "sdc_prod" (shopping dot com) seller accounts that were located and reported, 29 February to 1 March 2008. Plus additional sdc_prod sellers that were located post event.

This list contains:

• A brief description of the seller.
  
• A link to the seller's eBay.com Feedback page.
  
• A link to the current number of items by the sdc_prod seller.
• A link to search Google for the specific sellers.
  • That link can help you perform a search of the Google archives for sdc_prod related material. Use the "repeat the search with the omitted results included" option to maximize the available data.
  • On Google links to eBay.com or ebay.auction.co.kr use the "Cached" link to obtain the archived data.
  • Because this issue involves eBay.com, ignore eBay Express references.
  • And be quick because the Google archive cache data  is dynamic; changing from day to day. 
• The "reported listing count" of items by sdc_prod name seller on eBay.com. As reported 29 February to 1 March 2008. And where available.
• Links to screen captures of these auction counts. Where available.

The total count from the screen captures, 161,358, is evidence that eBay Spokesman Usher Lieberman  made a number of "false and misleading statements to the press" when he said on multiple occasions   that "5,000 listings" or "35,000 listings" were involved.

Time permitting, this section will be updated.

* sdc_prod_301013_74 
Shopping.com seller The Twister Group
Member since Oct-18-06 in Illinois, United States 

• Feedback sdc_prod_301013_74
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_301013_74
• Search Google for sdc_prod_301013_74

  eBay.com reported listing count, 27,291

"27076 items found" ( LINK Google archive screen capture )
"27076 items found" ( LINK screen capture from www.suspendedfromebay.com )
"27076 items found" ( LINK screen capture from www.companyexposed.com )
"27076 items found" ( LINK screen capture from pages.suddenlink.net/docswife )

* sdc_prod_305839_99
Shopping.com seller BargainBasementBatteries
Member since Oct-30-07 in California, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_305839_99
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_305839_99
• Search Google for sdc_prod_305839_99

  eBay.com reported listing count, 56

"56 items found" ( LINK screen capture from www.giovanni666.info )

* sdc_prod_310426
Shopping.com seller ANTOnline
Member since Feb-15-08 in Georgia, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_310426
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_310426
• Search Google for sdc_prod_310426

  eBay.com reported listing count, 21,798

"21798 items found" ( LINK screen capture from www.youtube.com/watch?v=mePI-UWDGOE )
"21798 items found" ( LINK screen capture from forums.ebay.com, www.suspendedfromebay.com, Google archive )

* sdc_prod_409455_97
Shopping.com seller Sababa Shopping
Member since Jul-16-07 in New York, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_409455_97
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_409455_97
• Search Google for sdc_prod_409455_97 

  eBay.com listing reported count unavailable

* sdc_prod_434012
Shopping.com  seller SpectrumSuperStore
Member since Apr-11-07 in California, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_434012
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_434012 
• Search Google for sdc_prod_434012

  eBay.com reported listing count, 35,002

"35011 items found" ( LINK screen capture from www.giovanni666.info )
"34998 items found" ( LINK screen capture from thevirginmarypretzel )
"Up to 10,000 listings can be displayed in this view" ( LINK screen capture from www.companyexposed.com )

* sdc_prod_442675_57
Shopping.com seller Boyne & Kelly L.L.C.
Member since Oct-25-07 in New Jersey, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_442675_57 
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_442675_57 
• Search Google for sdc_prod_442675_57

  eBay.com reported listing count, 4,702

* sdc_prod_9021_2
Shopping.com seller Buy.com
Member since Feb-22-08 in California, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9021_2
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9021_2 
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9021_2

  eBay.com reported listing count, 12,233

"12233 items found" ( LINK screen capture from www.youtube.com/watch?v=mePI-UWDGOE )
"12233 items found" ( LINK screen capture from img255.imageshack.us )

* sdc_prod_9055
Shopping.com seller Focus Camera
Member since Oct-30-07 in New York, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9055 
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9055
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9055

  eBay.com reported listing count, 1,925

* sdc_prod_9074_35
Shopping.com seller pcRUSH.com
Member since Feb-28-08 in California, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9074_35 
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9074_35 
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9074_35

  eBay.com reported listing count, 21,401

"21481 items found" ( LINK Google archive screen capture )
860 pages, 25 items per page. 859 x 25 = 21,475 items ( LINK Google archive screen capture )
"Up to 10,000 listings can be displayed in this view" ( LINK screen capture from www.suspendedfromebay.com )

* sdc_prod_9090
Shopping.com seller CompSource Inc.
Member since Mar-26-07 in Ohio, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9090 
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9090 
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9090 

  eBay.com reported listing count, 32,601

"32601 items found" ( LINK Google archive screen capture )
1301 pages, 25 items per page. 1300 x 25 = 32,500 items ( LINK Google archive screen capture  )

* sdc_prod_9124_14
Shopping.com seller TheNerds, Inc.
Member since Dec-12-07 in Florida, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9124_14
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9124_14
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9124_14

  eBay.com reported listing count, 48,392

* sdc_prod_9352_67
Shopping.com seller Digital Foto Club
Member since May-28-07 in New York, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9352_67
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9352_67
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9352_67

  eBay.com reported listing count, 30,278

* sdc_prod_9391_43
Shopping.com seller Adorama
Member since Feb-22-08 in New York, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9391_43
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9391_43
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9391_43

  eBay.com reported listing count, 11,102

"11102 items found" ( LINK Google archive screen capture )

* sdc_prod_9452
Shopping.com seller eTronics, Inc.
Member since Jul-25-07 in New York, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_9452 
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_9452 
• Search Google for sdc_prod_9452 

  eBay.com reported listing count, 24,499

* sdc_prod_90076
Shopping.com seller OnlineSports, Inc.
Member since Nov-13-06 in California, United States

• Feedback sdc_prod_90076
  
• Products on eBay.com from sdc_prod_90076
  
• Search Google for sdc_prod_90076
  

  eBay.com reported listing count, UNKNOWN

III. What Happened?

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love (1973)

There are two basic explanations.

1. eBay deliberately elevated auction counts, in effect producing "materially false and misleading statements" to improve their stock price. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission violation. A simple plan based on the simple but stupid premise that 'no one will find this.' Orange jumpsuits all around.
2. Human (Computer) Error. A cadre of programmers are allowed to run large scale tests on a live system. And goofed.
 

We had planned to explore and write about each possibility, but we'll leave that for another time.

IV. "THIS IS NOT AN EBAY LISTING"

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905)

Event Timeframe

Like many incidents, there are events that lead up to it, follow it, are associated with it, or simply happen in the same time frame.

Here is a short chronology of those occurrences.

== 2007 ==

.

February 2007

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time.

.

9 March 2007

Are Ebay's Listing Numbers Inflated by Fraud?
03/09/2007 08:31 PM                  ID: 60834

Ebay Inc's (NASDAQ:EBAY) listing numbers have demonstrated dramatic volatility during the 'Vladuz' security scare. Some Ebay users have suggested that the millions of fraudulent listings are significantly inflating Ebay's listing numbers.

In response, an Ebay spokesperson claims: "there just isn't enough information there to tie the swings in listings that they show to any one cause". They declined to comment as to the number of accounts that may have been compromised.

It is also suggested that Medved's calculations for Ebay's total of listing numbers are overestimated too. As the Ebay spokesperson confirms, the Medved statistics used to quantify Ebay's listing numbers "far exceed our real activity in this area".

Source: www.theregister.co.uk

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time.

== 2008 ==

.

13 February 2008

"February 13th, insertion fees for all auction-style and fixed price listings will be only 20 cents!"
Stephanie Tilenius, General Manager for eBay North America

"20¢ Auction-style and Fixed Price listing fees" (eBay)

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time.

.

20 February 2008

Start of eBay Policy changes and media fee cut.

*** A Message from Bill Cobb - New Pricing and Other News ***
General Announcements
January 29, 2008 | 05:59 AM PST/PT

***A Message from Lorrie Norrington – New Media Category Pricing Effective February 20***
"I am pleased to announce we are accelerating our plan to phase-in category-specific pricing for media. This fee cut will coincide with the site-wide pricing changes previously announced to take effect on February 20." 
Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations, February 11, 2008 | 10:01AM PST/PT

.

20 February 2008

Regarding the events of February 20th.

"The bug was related to the gallery feature that allows users to place a small photo of their item on the initial search returns page, a spokesman said. EBay traditionally charged 35 cents to include a gallery photo, but as part of the policy changes that went into effect February 20, they are now free of charge.
However, "the code actually rolled out three hours late, so there were a certain number of listings ... that didn't get gallery free"
Usher Lieberman eBay Spokesman to PC Magazine, 4 March 2008

• It is unclear from the PC Magazine article, if the "bug" was implemented on February 20th, the day of the "policy changes", or on February 29th.

.

20 February 2008

"the bug first emerged on Friday"
"But it wasn't a test. It ended up being a bug," Usher Lieberman 
Usher Lieberman eBay Spokesman to PC Magazine, 4 March 2008

Despite Usher Lieberman's assertion that the "bug" happened on February 29th, there is evidence showing sdc_prod products appearing before the 29th.

While there are reports of sdc_prod listings appearing as early as December 2007, the earliest evidence of a "bug" is 20 February 2008.

Samples of a Shopping.com listings inserted onto eBay.com.

"Items for sale by sdc_prod_310426"
"Time listed" "Feb-20 15:49"

.

22 February 2008

Samples of a Shopping.com listings inserted onto eBay.com.

"Items for sale by sdc_prod_409455_97"
"Time listed" "Feb-22 10:22"

Google archive - February 29, 2008 16:37:41 GMT
Seller sdc_prod_434012, item number 320199419130, 30 day auction listing. Seller has no 30 day store. Start date February 22nd
"eBay (item 320199419130 end time March-22-08 06:45:06 PDT)" screen shot.

.

23 February 2008

Sample of a Shopping.com listing inserted onto eBay.com.

Listings on eBay.com are accessible on eBay International sites, such as eBay South Korea (ebay.auction.co.kr).

Google archive - Feb 29, 2008 22:42:51 GMT
Seller sdc_prod_310426, item number 120225811907. Start date February 23rd.
Time remaining on 30 day listing, 23 days 3 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds, screen shot

.

23 February 2008
05:49 AM PST

redsbe  (Private ) Feb-23-08 05:49 PST 1 of 33

When I search ebay or via google for test listings I only find a few hundred yet total ebay listings are now running at or above Feb 12th numbers of 12.4 m (before 20 cent listings and boycott) so I fail to see the importance of test listings in inflating numbers.

.

27 February 2008
06:04:36 PM PST

PayPal and eBay Pay Shoppers to Shop
AuctionBytes
By: Ina Steiner
Wed Feb 27 2008 18:04:36

.

28 February 2008
04:30 PM PST, 7:30 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)

eBay Auction count at lowest point of the day; 13,393,000 items.

Coincidentally, or not, at about the time many of eBay's employees head for home, the auction count begins to rise. Did some programmer turn something on, and leave for the day, intending to check on the code's progress the following morning?

Auction count rises to 13,405,000 by 07:30 PST, 10:30 EST.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time.

.

28 February 2008
09:00:01 PM PST, 12:00:01 AM 29 February EST (Eastern Standard Time).

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" approximately 13,425,000 items. First count on the February 29th chart.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

.

28 February 2008
11:59:59 PM PST

 "eBay is running a marketing campaign to encourage buyers to shop on its site by offering them coupons. One buyer sent AuctionBytes a coupon he had received (pictured) that offered $5 toward shipping on any one item. Part of the terms and conditions follows:

This Offer is valid only when you pay with, and seller accepts, PayPal. This Offer is intended for the recipient whose eBay User ID is printed on the Offer and purchase must be made on eBay.com with that eBay User ID. This Offer is not transferable.

This Offer is for one-time use. It may only be redeemed on the total shipping cost of an item or items on one purchase from a single seller, using a single method of shipping and single currency, in a single transaction. This Offer expires February 28, 2008 at 11:59:59 PM (PST)."
AuctionBytes, Wed Feb 27 2008 18:04:36

.
29 February 2008
04:23 AM PST

eBay Developer's Program
eBay Developer Forums > Technical Questions: eBay Shopping Web Services
Exclude Sellers Issue

Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Feb 29, 2008 4:23 AM
"Because of the wide variety of searches that we do, we could easily use 200 to 400 ID's. 500 would be a good number for us."
stsi.com

The above statement is in response to the earlier part of the thread:

ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Jan 10, 2008 11:40 AM
Is there a limit on the number of Excluded Sellers that can be specified in a GetSearchResults call? I have several excluded sellers that keep returning search results. I have checked the XML for the call, and it looks correct.

Also, is it a problem if entries are duplicated? (I will be correcting this in any event.)

Thanks.
stsi.com

Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Jan 10, 2008 12:12 PM
After further research, it looks like there is a limit of 100 excluded sellers. Can this limit be raised?
stsi.com

Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Jan 14, 2008 3:42 PM
"Yes the limit is 100, which most users have found sufficient for their use case. How many IDs do you have?"
Rekha Patel, rekha.developersupport@ebay.com, eBay Developer Support, 11 January 2008

Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Feb 29, 2008 4:27 AM
"Also, is it possible to use wildcards for excluded sellers? For example, I'd like to exclude the various iterations of sdc_prod_*, instead of having to type in all the numbers that this seller uses...."
stsi.com

.
29 February 2008
10:00 AM PST, 01:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" reaches maximum for the day of approximately 13,900,000 items. The
previous low count was 13,393,000 items on February 28th at 04:30 PM PST, 7:30 EST. An increase of about half-a-million listings in 16.5 hours.

Coincidentally, or not, during the time many of eBay's employees show up at work, the auction count abruptly stops rising.

One scenario:

• 07:00AM (10:00AM EST) - Programmers apply brakes to sdc_prod application.
• 08:30AM (11:30AM EST) - Or so they thought, sdc_prod application continues to add listings.
• 10:00AM (13:00AM EST) - Management puts  brakes to sdc_prod. Programmer grunts delete sdc_prod listings.

A case could be made that by 10AM eBay applied working corrective action on the sdc_prod listing problem. Because at this point the auction count drops.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

.
29 February 2008
01:00 PM PST, 04:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" drops slightly approximately 13,875,000 items, from 13,900,000 items. Last count of the February 29th chart.

.

29 February 2008

Regarding the events of "Friday night" 29 February 2008.

eBay's statements:

1) "a "bug" in its system had accidentally placed listings from eBay-owned shopping.com onto eBay.com late Friday night."
However, "the code actually rolled out three hours late, so there were a certain number of listings ... that didn't get gallery free, so we were going back and fixing that" on Friday, the spokesman said. "What happened was, when we wrote the code to implement that fix in the database table, there was a string that was left on there that populated and sent shopping.com listings onto ebay.com that it shouldn't have."
Approximately 5,000 listings were pulled from shopping.com, but they have since been removed, according to eBay."
PC Magazine, 4 March 2008

2) "eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman initially told AuctionBytes they appeared due to a test, but on Monday, said he was incorrect and that the listings were the result of a glitch.
On Tuesday, Lieberman explained the nature of the glitch. Programmers rolled out code on Friday evening that was meant to credit certain listings that were eligible for free Gallery. The credit was due to them because eBay had promised sellers Gallery would be free for listings started at a certain time of day, and the code had been rolled out 3 hours past the deadline.
Lieberman said the programmers inadvertently caused the Shopping.com listings to appear on eBay.com when it created and launched the script to credit the sellers' accounts for Gallery fees.
Lieberman said fewer than 35,000 listings were affected by the glitch."
AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

3) "An eBay spokesman told PC Magazine at the time that 5,000 shopping.com listings were erroneously placed on ebay.com. After sellers expressed doubt about that number in the comments section, eBay was asked to again confirm that it was indeed 5,000. The same spokesman responded Friday that he had originally told PC Magazine that eBay pulled 35,000 listings, but a review of the interview confirmed that he said 5,000."
PC Magazine, 10 March 2008

4) "Editor's Note: The eBay spokesman confirmed Monday that the number of postings pulled from shopping.com was indeed 35,000."
PC Magazine, 10 March 2008

.
29 February 2008
06:41 PM PST

First responders to Shopping.com listing anomaly.

By this time, the Medved "EBay Auction Counts" are somewhere between 13,875,000 listings (29 February 2008 01:00 PM PST) and 13,502,000 listings (1 March 2008 08:30 AM PST). "Between" as the Medved chart is blank between those times.

A possible scenario would be that eBay has been deleting listings since 10:00 AM; at least 8 hours. Or we should say an eBay application has been deleting sdc_prod listings.

eBay's March 1st Listing Special begins in 5 hours 19 minutes.

eBay user comments, edited.

mm*mc (154)  Feb-29-08 18:41 PST

Look at this 35000 listings never sold anything these look funny to me. Let me know what you think check this out. 320199384960

neverstopsworking (127) Feb-29-08 18:49 PST

WOW!!

Did you Notice You CAN'T Bid on Any Of Them, You can Only Watch Them and They're listed for at least 21 more days??

.

29 February 2008
07:25 PM PST

Referenced by PC Magazine article.

mydiscountstation  (921 )        Feb-29-08 19:25 PST

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_434012

is e-bay padding their "listings" numbers?

This guy has over 35000 items. And there is no button for a buy it now and no button for making a bid.

interesting

.

29 February 2008
08:56 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited.

cmiprch  (1732 )        Feb-29-08 20:56 PST       44 of 418

That sounds more like a hack, to me.

Sounds more like a conspiracy to me. 30 of these kinds of ID's with 35K listings is 1M items. Imagine the kind of volume drop you can hide with 30, 60 or 90 or whatever number of these IDs.

cmiprch  (1732 )       Feb-29-08 21:19 PST       48 of 418

So "sdc" = shopping dot com?

Nice listings boost if eBay injected everything on shopping.com

.

29 February 2008
09:29 PM PST

Referenced by PC Magazine article.

monkey_business304  (0 )  Feb-29-08 21:29 PST

I have been collecting all ebay's padded listings and forwarding them to the FTC so they will investigate them.
Everything you can do will help.They should not get away with the crap they are doing.Im going to do my best to make sure they dont.

windorphin  (31 )  Feb-29-08 21:40 PST  4 of 273

Don't waste your time. They aren't fake listings. They are your replacements. They're bringing in the big guns now. Huge retailers to compete with.

.

29 February 2008
10:25 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited.

moopy_inc  (5562 )  Feb-29-08 22:25 PST 240 of 516

you would think they would at least use different user names. SDC_prod....I guess that is easier to keep up with. SDC = shopping dot com.....brilliant. haaaaa

orange_cape_hides_me  (Private ) Feb-29-08 22:30 PST 25 of 51

I think the API developer angle is probably where the answer lies. Someone is clearly testing auction formats and listings, and these are not meant to be bid on.

.

29 February 2008
10:31:50 PM PST, 12:31:50 CST &1:31:50 AM 1 March EST

12:31:50 AM CST
"I see. Actually, this is not an eBay listing, the problem is it's a Shopping.com listing that is showing on our site by mistake."
Evan M. A., eBay Live Help Customer Service

12:32:25 AM CST
It is a current issue, yes, we have a bug on it. These are meant to be on shopping.com only but due to some reason are showing on eBay as well and can't be bought through the site."
Evan M. A., eBay Live Help Customer Service

.

29 February 2008
10:35 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited.

badmomster (Private) Feb-29-08 20:35 PST 68 of 521

It seems to me that if Ebay is boosting their numbers with bogus auctions, that's an issue for the SEC.

niruss (1979) Feb-29-08 20:36 PSST 70 of 521

Also for the stockholders and the FTC.

bosshossman1  (1 )  Feb-29-08 22:33 PST 255 of 516

We are now up to 7 Ids, Keep up the good work.
I will keep the totals coming.

sdc_prod_434012 # of listings 35002
sdc_prod_9124_14 # of listings 48395
sdc_prod_9074_35 # of listings 21401
sdc_prod_9452 # of listings 24501
sdc_prod_301013_74 # of listings 27291
sdc_prod_9352_67 # of listings 30278
sdc_ prod_ 9055 # of listings 1925

justinal  (391 )        Feb-29-08 22:45 PST       31 of 273

Just curious, exactly what FTC code violation are you reporting them for?

And the SEC? It's an auction listing, not stock manipulation.

Going crazy will not help your cause.

aenthal  (2243 )       Feb-29-08 23:04 PST       34 of 273

These bogus auctions are not a violation of anything.
EBay has a right to put anything they wish on their web servers, and they apparently wish to use space up with displays of auctions that don't exist.

krs6670  (107 )  Feb-29-08 23:12 PST 35 of 273

a trust and safety poster kind of figured it out...
sdc= shopping dot com   

Feb-29-08 23:36 PST 385 of 700

O.K. looks like ebay is pulling all the listings. All the Ids we posted have had all the auctions pulled.

vsbeauty53  (15 )  Feb-29-08 23:59 PST  17 of 421

if they had nothing to hide, they didn't need to remove those (fake) listings. they are all gone now!

.
1 March 2008

Regarding the events of Saturday 1 March 2008.

"This was a limited test that has run its course" Usher Lieberman, eBay Spokesperson
AuctionBytes, 1 March 2008 01:56:54 AM PST

"He said he had made a mistake when he called the Shopping.com listings a test on Saturday morning. He was trying to track it down and after talking to a few people, felt comfortable saying it was a test, and subsequently found out the listings had appeared accidentally. Usher said it was his fault for initially getting it wrong."
Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes, 4 March 2008 04:02:46 AM PST

"AuctionBytes looked at one Shopping.com selling account on Saturday morning, it indicated the seller had over 80,000 listings on eBay.com"
Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

• AuctionBytes does not report this fact, "80,000 listings," for 4 days.

.

1 March 2008
12:00:01 AM PST, 3:00:01 AM Easter Standard Time

eBay listing upgrade special, "2 days only March 1-2", begins. eBay sellers can list products at reduced prices. Historically the auction counts rise significantly during these eBay specials.

***Get Gallery Plus, Value Pack, Featured Plus!, and Picture Pack at a Discount This Weekend***
"The promotion will start on Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 00:00:01 Pacific time (12:00 a.m. plus one second) and end on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 23:59:59 Pacific time (11:59 p.m. plus 59 seconds)."

There is no 12:00:01 AM count per sec, as there is a gap in the record from 01:00 PM PST (04:00 PM EST) February 29th to 08:30 AM PST (11:30 AM EST) March 1st.

13,875,000 listings, 29 February 2008 01:00 PM PST (04:00 PM EST)

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

.
1 March 2008
00:02 AM PST

eBay user comments, edited.

vsbeauty53  (15 ) Mar-01-08 00:02 PST 20 of 426

look, I found this:

Here is a copy of the list again for those that missed it.
sdc_prod_434012 # of listings 35002
sdc_prod_9124_14 # of listings 48395
sdc_prod_9074_35 # of listings 21401
sdc_prod_9452 # of listings 24501
sdc_prod_301013_74 # of listings 27291
sdc_prod_9352_67 # of listings 30278
sdc_ prod_ 9055 # of listings 1925
sdc_prod_9021_2 # of listings 12233
sdc_prod_9391_43 #oflistings 11100

moopy_inc  (5562 )  Mar-01-08 00:17 PST  459 of 786

well, we all saw it, others on powersellersunite.com has seen it. I just wish these were found during the day. So many more people could have seen them.

atticcleanin  (35 ) Mar-01-08 00:25 PST  477 of 786

well should anyone need pics of id, then fb page then lisitng i think i grabbed like 4 or 5 of the 9

I got screenshots of a dozen different feedback names associated with SDC.

sdc_prod_434012 = SpectrumSuperStore
sdc_prod_9021_2 = Buy.com (who is NARU!)
sdc_prod_9124_14 = TheNerds, Inc.
sdc_prod_9452 = eTronics, Inc.
sdc_prod_409455_97 = Sababa Shopping
sdc_prod_9090 = CompSource Inc.
sdc_prod_310426 = ANTOnline (who is NARU!)
sdc_prod_9074_35 = pcRUSH.com (who is NARU!)
sdc_prod_9352_67 = Digital Foto Club
sdc_prod_301013_74 = The Twister Group
sdc_prod_305839_99 = BargainBasementBatteries
sdc_prod_9391_43 = Adorama (who is NARU!)

Since those are all unique (HA!) user IDs, we have at least 12 bogus sellers running around.

buyingcarsforfun  (80 ) Mar-01-08 01:36 PST 574 of 669

O.K. they are right back at it. I was double checking the Ids and these 4 have auctions listed again. Take a look.
sdc_prod_301013_74
sdc_prod_310426
sdc_prod_9352_67
sdc_prod_9452

.
1 March 2008
01:56:54 AM PST

Mystery Shopping.com Listings on eBay?
By: Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes
Sat Mar 1 2008 01:56:54

Excerpt:

 
• "Mystery listings are appearing on eBay that don't allow shoppers to bid or buy. The listings appear to be feeds from Shopping.com sellers. A look at the User ID sdc_prod_301013_74, for example, shows the seller has 27,076 listings - but the ones we clicked on did not have bid or buy buttons."

.
1 March 2008
05:20 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

molerfamily  (1 )        Mar-01-08 05:20 PST       69 of 273

Considering eBay does not report figures, it seems kinda like the conspiracies are rampant again. Because 3rd parties out there attempt to circumvent and create programs to provide folks this, it is just not logical for eBay to gain anything from this.

I agree with thizzwear completely on this. And Thizz, does not matter what date they were doing this testing, all the chicken littles will make that date fit into the agenda which they have. There is no winning for eBay for anything they do, the Chicken Littles of the world will use their twisted logic to make it appear they did this for some adverse reasoning.

The more these chicken littles talk, the less eductated they look. It has really become a joke to read all these things that are being said now.

.
1 March 2008
time unknown

eBay Numbers Inflated By Shopping.com Product Listings?
Pheebay.com
Date: 03/01/2008

Excerpts:

• "I'm betting Murphys Law is driving this event rather than any evil empire."
• "For me this isn't a significant issue in isolation but there is a potentially more worrying aspect to this story. Many readers will share the belief of many that eBay has never been good at introducing new or changed code leading many users to feel like Beta testers all too often. With the amount of changes planned for the coming months I have a hunch today is just one of a string of "cock ups" we will be reading and reporting in the near future."

.
1 March 2008
06:18 AM PST

eBay user comments, edited.

flaura22  (333 )        Mar-01-08 06:18 PST       79 of 418

I don't believe ebay has done anything with the intent to manipulate or deceive. The point is that IF whatever sort of glitch this is has mistakenly over inflated the numbers, then eBay is responsible for making the shareholders aware of the accounting errors IF the mistake has an impact on the stock values and/or IF the errors impact the financial reports to the shareholders.
I don't know about the whole casino scenario you've got going, I was thinking more along the lines of Enron and such.

eBay cannot be held accountable for any errors if they can say that they didn't know, which is why someone must have proof that an officer of eBay or PREFERABLY THE GENERAL COUNSEL FOR EBAY has been made aware of the possibility of a considerable accounting error in the financial reports to the shareholders.

shwp1  (1919 ) Mar-01-08 07:03 PST 681 of 878

I asked this earlier and it's still nagging at me.

Someone...[forgive me but I have forgotten who],
posted a link to another forum where one of the
sdc###### was inquiring how many id's they could have...
The were told 100....how many did they need?
sdc###### responded 400 or 500

soooooooooo

If sdc= shoppingdotcom
and shoppingdotcom is owned by Ebay

Isn't that like asking yourself a question...and doing it where everyone can hear [read] you ask?

the*katy*workshop  (1468 )  Mar-01-08 07:11 PST 683 of 878

27076 items found (Save this search)
Show only: Items from seller sdc_prod_301013_74

type2mtg  (51 )        Mar-01-08 07:10 PST       43 of 426

The absolute ONLY way for these items to show "by accident" is if the eBay techs included them in the database. If this was done "on accident" then those tech should absolutely be fired, because they are mixing two different databases and that is potentially a MAJOR screwup.

It seems that they probably have done this on purpose, because it's highly unlikely that the two different databases share the same table titles and attributes. Meaning that the SDC listings would have had to have been converted to fit the eBay database before they would show up, otherwise they would just error out and potentially bring down the whole eBay database.

Something is not right with this...you cannot just have stuff appear "on accident"...not when you're dealing with databases.

the*katy*workshop  (1468 )  Mar-01-08 07:13 PST 685 of 786

19808 items found (Save this search)
Show only: Items from seller sdc_prod_9452

.

1 March 2008
08:10 AM PST, 16:10 GMT

200k Shopping.com items appear on eBay
TameBay
Author: Chris Dawson
Posted at: Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm   
Tags for this post: eBay.com, shopping.com, Snafu

Excerpt:

• "User names such as sdc_prod_9124_14 with some 48,000 eBay listings appeared, although currently all the listings appear to have been removed. SDC is the acronym for shopping.com, the shopping comparison site owned by eBay.
   
  sdc_prod_9124_14 The listings had no bid/bin links, simply a link to add to watched items leading so speculation that eBay are using them to increase listing numbers. A more rational explanation is that some one made an error in launching Shopping.com listings onto eBay and the error was swiftly reversed."

.
1 March 2008
08:21 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

emovieposter.com  (20539 )        Mar-01-08 08:21 PST       84 of 418

Just like they were nailed cold with the "shipping stars" snafu, they are nailed cold with this one. Of course they will announce it was a simple mistake, and get rid of the fake listings.

.

1 March 2008
08:30 AM PST, 11:30 AM EST

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" approximately 13,502,000 items. The auction count was previously
13,875,000 listings (29 February 2008 01:00 PM PST)

Eight and a half hours into eBay's listing upgrade special, "2 days only March 1-2", and the auction count is falling.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

.
1 March 2008
09:27 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

sandrarn83  (2919 )       Mar-01-08 09:27 PST       52 of 426

I read an article recently that Ebay (who owns Shopping) was going to start having some of the Shopping feeds shown on Ebay. That was one of the reasons I signed up for Shopping but then found that all my Amazon listings were already on Shopping. So no point in competing with my self and using my own money to be seen on Shopping when Amazon pays and does it for me.

Comment, edited.

Randy Smythe Says:  
March 1st, 2008 at 5:30 pm (17:30 GMT), 09:30 AM PST

Chris, it’s likely that it was a slip-up. There have been discussions about integrating SDC listings into to eBay for awhile. These listings would not have shown up on eBay.com in the form that they did if eBay hadn’t set them up this way. So I would say it was a slip-up before a test. Eventually we will see SDC listing on the main platform.

I agee with you that it wasn’t eBay trying to inflate listing numbers.

eBay user comments, edited.

djcarlos1  (3838 )        Mar-01-08 09:46 PST       93 of 418

I don't know if it's a glitch, hack or purposeful deception. However, what makes it curious is all the auctions I looked at started last Thursday the day after the listing sale ended.

Say it isn't so, Joel?
Posted: Mar-01-08 11:23 PST
boycott*victoriously  (17 )  Posts: 2,108

I must have missed that one. These are the ones I found, with last night's and this morning's results shown. That list you have only shows 10,000 counts ... could have been much more than that:

ID found:...............first shot..... Now
sdc_prod_9452...........19808....still there
sdc_prod_30103_74....27076....still there
sdc_prod_9055............1925.....zero now
sdc_prod_442675_57...4702.....zero now
sdc_prod_9124_14.......42578...zero now
sdc_prod_9090............ 24501...zero now
sdc_prod_434012..........35000...zero now

.
1 March 2008
01:02 PM PST, 03:02 PM CST

eBay Customer Service Agent (Lanie R.) and an eBay customer:
15:02 Agent Sent Message: I'm sorry for the inconvenience.This is actually an issue on the site right now I'm afraid. This is actually a Shopping.com listing that's appearing incorrectly on eBay.
15:03 Agent Sent Message: Our Technical team is working on getting resolved though, and I had this reported for you so we can add your account to the list.
15:03 Customer: Do these incorrect listings show up in ebays total listings/ Wouldn't they scew the listings totals?
15:04 Agent Sent Message: Oh, no it shouldn't though.
15:05 Agent Sent Message: The team is checking on the accounts of the sellers you reported as well for further investigation.
15:05 Customer: Shoudn't or absolutely doesn't?
15:05 Agent Sent Message: Absolutely doesn't.This is only a glitch on the search pages.
15:06 Agent Sent Message: You can check it from time to time to see it not on the eBay pages, only on Shopping.com
15:06 Customer: can you explain that a little further?
15:08 Customer: I'm not familiar with shopping.com. Why would their listings show up on ebay. Anf the one I mentionaed has ebay seller feedback.
15:08 Agent Sent Message: Sure! In the eBay account of the seller for items sold at eBay, it shouldn't get reflected, but if you were referring to the "items from seller" link for all items he is selling, I'm afraid the Shopping.com items will also appear and is confirmed as a tec
15:08 Agent Sent Message: hnical glitch.
15:09 Customer: can you respond to my last question also?
15:09 Agent Sent Message: Sorry for the confusion, Shopping.com is a specialty site owned by eBay but we handle separate accounts. It's similar to Express or Half.com
3/1/2008 15:10 Agent Sent Message: Ah, okay, Here's what happens, this particular seller has an account with SHopping.com to sell items, which is a different one as an eBay seller.

.
1 March 2008
01:12 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited.

suzisstuff  (3233 )  Mar-01-08 13:12 PST 8 of 33

Cyoung 67-
Another poster and I caught that auction in the act last night. OP did a “snapshot” when it was at 35,000 listings and sent it to ABC NEWS. I was watching it around the same time and the listings went from 37,000 at the first point. I checked in on it 4 more times, 2nd time I think it was 17,000 auctions, then 7,000 and then 5,000 and finally in went to 536. Now it is at zero. OP and I both posted our findings but cannot find it this morning. Surprise, Surprise!

EBAY CAUGHT IN THE ACT!

molerfamily  (1 )       Mar-01-08 14:08 PST       195 of 273

Would it not stand to reason, that if some deal was worked out, with say Shopping.com and premier members that pay to Shopping.com get free exposure listings with eBay, that in fact it is not costing them anything to have these listed in an eBay store account? That would make sense.
.
I do not profess to know what arrangement that Shopping.com merchants have, but it seems I read something to that effect somewhere.

rjrkea  (3275 ) View Listings | Report       Mar-01-08 13:56 PST       112 of 418

Well on Monday the Expanded Seller Protection enrollment link showed up for a period of time before getting removed.

Maybe this was some sort of a test like that where it went "live" and then was taken down.

On one hand I would think if it were a test, they would have used a much smaller amount of listings so it wasn't so visible and on the other hand maybe they wanted to see how large a volume they could handle for sellers as a means of luring users back from amazon or not lose them to amazon.

And then also maybe they wanted to see what current, knowledgeable users would say about the listings to quickly find out what "goofs" there were.

.

1 March 2008
2:55 PM, time zone unknown

eBay padding listing numbers on Auction site?
www.companyexposed.com
March 1, 2008
Published by admin @ 2:55 pm

Excerpt:

• "Today the Blogs and eBay Finance forums and eBay Seller forums are buzzing with examples of mysterious listings of items on which you cannot bid or which you cannot buy. These number in tens of thousands on seller accounts that were located today."

.
1 March 2008
2:56 PM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

The Number of Auctions
Posted: Mar-01-08 14:56 PST
lacemaker3  (300 ) Posts: 3,874

sdc_prod_301013_74 has been a member since Oct-18-06.

If you view the Text-format only page for their listings, it's very interesting. I am viewing it with 200 items per page.
- there are 27076 items found (but only 10000 can be viewed in the Text-format list)
- The first page of listings were started Jun-04-07 and ended on Nov-01-07 (why are they still listed in Text-format only? The item #s are invalid.)
- On the 15th page of listings, approx. half were started Apr-19-07 and ended Nov-15-07 16:19:44 PST. That's approx. 2900 listings that ended before Nov-15-07, and should no longer be on the site.
- All the rest of the listings (approx 7100) were started on Feb-25-08 and will end Mar-26-08, between 14:22:26 PDT and 14:32:16 PDT. They are 30 day listings.

.

1 March 2008
time unknown

Ebay Padding Counts w Fake Listings in Wake of Strike?
From: cappnonymous
Added: March 01, 2008

.

1 March 2008
05:24 PM PST

eBay user comment, edited

cloudberry121  (18 ) Mar-01-08 17:24 PST 18 of 20

There's been a lot of this going on this past month. Thousands of listings within weeks or even days and about 20% FB, if any. Odd times.

username: sdc_prod_301013_74 has 27291 listings.
username: sdc_prod_9090 has 32601 listings.
username: sdc_prod_9352_67 has 30278 listings.
username: sdc_prod_9074_35 has 21481 listings

.

1 March 2008
time unknown

Bogus Listings!!!
By dhoosierswife

Is eBay POSSIBLY padding their listings numbers???
By dhoosierswife

.

1 March 2008
06:06 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited

just_not_thinking  (0 )        Mar-01-08 18:06 PST       68 of 426

Looks like the possee slept late today!

Sandra and possee why do you care about this?

How does it effect you in any way at all?

Why can't ebay run tests on their own site?!!

vsbeauty53  (15 )        Mar-01-08 18:14 PST       71 of 333

Gosh! ebay Number of Listings dropped! close to 500,000 items just gone!

eBay view charts 14,109,304 -472525 -3.35% March 1, 2008 9:06 pm

What an overnight change!

pepins4b8e  (21 )        Mar-01-08 18:16 PST       73 of 333

You want them to let you know every time they do tests?
You think other sites let you know when they do test? You're dreaming!

sojo2004  (2698 )      Mar-01-08 18:23 PST     78 of 333

OK, this is what ebay says about test auctions:

Guidelines for Test Listings

Listings in the Test Auction category must be clearly labeled as a ’test’, both in the listing title and description.
No more than 10 test listings should run at once by a single account.
Accounts that leave or receive feedback in the Test Auction category must be used for test purposes only. This means that members must use a different account to leave or receive feedback for test purposes than is used for buy or sell on the site. Accounts found to be in violation of this guideline will be subject to immediate suspension.

Any Feedback left on test listings should be clearly labeled ‘test’.

All ’test’ feedback is subject to removal at any time, at eBay's discretion.

Normal listing fees will be charged when listing in the test category.

But I guess that just applies to members, not the management.

But in answer to pepin -- yes, if we have to clearly state a test listing is a test listing, then I DO think ebay should have to do the same.

sojo

Things are going swimmingly, thank you for asking.

.
1 March 2008
07:00 PM PST, 10:00 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)

Medved "EBay Auction Counts"  approximately 13,455,000 items. Auction count at the lowest point of the day.

.
1 March 2008

08:09 PM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

time2buy1949  (Private )  Feb-29-08 20:09 PST

Search 19140 THATCH RAKE 15" 19T EA 12912226

Comments please? Just saw this at the very tail end of a thread in the Feedback Forum. Thought it was appropriate to mention here. (They had a different item number from this seller posted, but I'm not sure I can do that.)

No price, no way to bid on it (I tried $30 just to see what would happen - it said transaction blocked, cannot bid on this kind of item) and if you click on see sellers other listings he has 35K+ others. And it's a zero account. Location - CA. Website in auction too.

How the heck would you even list something up with no way to bid on it? This is either just leading to their website and bigtime circumvention or it's eBay themselves inflating the numbers. Interesting either way.

What do the experts think?

.
1 March 2008
08:30 PM PST, 11:30 PM Eastern Standard Time

Medved "EBay Auction Counts"  approximately 13,460,000 items. Last count of the March 1st chart.

Note auction count  spike beginning at the "2/29" (09:00 PM PST, Midnight EST) line and ending at the "3/2" (09:00 PM PST, Midnight EST) line.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

.

1 March 2008
08:34 PM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

erimess  (10 )        Mar-01-08 20:34 PST       238 of 273

Wow. I came over here to try to catch up on the latest and I've found a conglomeration of paranoid, fact-creating, lynching mob!

.

1 March 2008
10:00 PM PST, 01:00 AM 2 March EST (Eastern Standard Time)

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" approximately 13,425,000 items. First count on the March 2nd chart.

.

2 March 2008
00:34 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

oldspartantrader  (3913 )          Mar-02-08 00:34 PST     100 of 425

This is much more disconcerting to me as a stockholder than as a seller --

I have asked by stock guy for input and he believes that if this is in fact listing count manipulation it is an SEC matter for investigation

.
2 March 2008
07:00 AM PST, 10:00 AM EST

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" approximately 13,470,000 items. Second listing count peak of the weekend.

Previous peak count was approximately 13,900,000 items, on February 29th at 10 AM PST

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

.

2 March 2008
07:04 AM PST

eBay user comments, edited

Shopping.com, Half.com and Ebay Express
Posted: Mar-02-08 07:04 PST
dakota_exchange  (2844 )   Posts: 5,856

I wonder... but then why, after all of this became obvious to many, did many of these same listings get pulled?

Shopping.com, Half.com and Ebay Express
Posted: Mar-02-08 08:01 PST
pakardbelle  (272 )   Posts: 1,019

Yesterday, I tried to bid on one of the SDC listings. And, this was not an eBay Express listing. It was one of the active auction format listings. And, the page would not accept my bid.

I put the item in my watched items, and it's still there. But now, when I click the item, the auction has been pulled. And when I search those listings for that seller, they are showing no auctions- so all 27K of the auction format listings have been pulled.

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2 March 2008
08:26:53 AM PST

Comment, edited.

Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 08:26:53 -0800 (PST)

The evidence is consistent with that conclusion, but is not yet proof of that. This could yet be hacking, or API/server malfunction. It could also be an unannounced "test" that accidentally had the "unintended" side effect of inflating traffic, right, sure.

In any event, there clearly are "fake Ebay listings", and in large numbers. Large enough to materially affect traffic count? I suspect we'll know in a few days.

The interesting thing to watch here is whether or not this phenomenon continues, and if it stops, what happens to the traffic reports.
--
Regards, Bob Niland

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2 March 2008
11:13 AM PST

eBay user comments, edited

audlee-e-nuff-treasures  (860 )         Mar-02-08 11:13 PST       32 of 432

Let's revamp this weekends events.
1. at 18:41 pst Friday evening a thread was started about listings that could not be bid on or bought.
2. between 12 am pst and 3 am Saturday these listings were being pulled.
3. These so called TEST listings if they were only TEST listings would have no reason to be pulled and some of the sdc_prod_### id's narued.
4. Then the thread of these findings is removed along with any that mention it.
5. why please tell me why, if this was only a TEST has it become an issue to remove them and the threads discussing them.

markd13  (84 )        Mar-02-08 11:19 PST       38 of 432

I see the Conspiracy Nut Jobs are out in full force.

And then we have the Free Speech nut jobs who have never read the Constitution or Bill of Rights and yammer on about something they have no knowledge. They don't seem to understand it doesn't cover entities like eBay.

But then again when have facts every stopped a nut job from their ranting.

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2 March 2008
02:31 PM PST, 05:31 PM Easter Standard Time

Is eBay Fluffing The Numbers With Test Auctions??
Doc's Suspended From eBay Blog
March 2, 2008
Published by admin at 5:31 pm

Excerpt:

• "if they were using these thousands of test listings to skewer 3rd party listing stats generators like, Medved Charts and PowerSellersUnite.com it is outright fraud!"

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2 March 2008
02:32 PM PST

eBay System Status Announcement Board
***Resolved: Shopping.com listings on eBay***
"Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused."

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2 March 2008
03:53 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited

thehairball  (973 )        Mar-02-08 15:53 PST       143 of 432

That was ebays pathetic excuse for 400,000 listings that all appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared almost as quick and looked nothing like any other ebay listings and if thats the case...then ebay is a very unsafe place to shop! How in the hell do 400,000 listings "accidentally" appear? That means that your private information on this site is no longer safe if stuff from any other site can just somehow magically appear on this one!

magisterrex  (6944 )         Mar-02-08 15:54 PST       170 of 418

I don't know why so many people are quick to ASSume that eBay is an evil corporate entity that wants to steal their souls and use them as currency whilst dealing with the Devil.

When I last checked, you were supposed to be INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. From the bizarre, over-the-top posts on this thread, I have no idea why some of you even sell here.

I know that if I felt that strongly about eBay, I would do what Bruce is doing, and exit, stage left.

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2 March 2008
04:01 PM PST, 00:01 GMT March 3

Comment, edited.

Chris Dawson Says:
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:01 am

Such a prosaic explanation! Why couldn’t I have been proven wrong and it be a conspiracy? 

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2 March 2008
04:01 PM, time zone unknown

eBay censoring info about padded listings on it's forums
www.companyexposed.com
March 2, 2008
By admin @ 4:01 pm 

Excerpt:

• "If the hundreds of thousands listings you cannot Buy Now or Bid on on eBay site are just an innocent mistake / glitch or have a legitimate reason to be there, why would eBay moderators be so diligent in removing posts from their forums discussing these? Although the eBay forum thread has been removed by eBay Moderators, Google cache still has some of the posts"

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2 March 2008
03:53 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited

aviation  (3802 )        Mar-02-08 16:29 PST       187 of 418

By the way, at the moment, I don't believe eBay did this on purpose to inflate listings. While it's a possibility, I would hope eBay's not that stupid. I really can't see it happening as there are just too many people who would have to have been involved to do that.

in-weave  (7349 )         Mar-02-08 16:56 PST       197 of 418

Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.

I don't think we've seen the end of this....and, in some ways, I don't want to know what carp is coming. There's a reason they "accidentally" appeared. eBay may not have wanted anyone to notice them so that may be the accident but I'll be very surpised if we don't see something relating to shopping.com listings/eBay by the middle of the summer.

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2 March 2008
8:30 PM PST, 11:30 PM Eastern Standard Time

Medved "EBay Auction Counts" approximately 13,330,000 items. Last count of the March 2nd chart.

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2 March 2008
10:06 PM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

just_not_thinking  (0 )  Mar-02-08 22:06 PST    145 of 425

POSSEE!!!

Why don't you start your own auction site posseauctions.com and make it perfect ...

I.E. the first website ever that has no glitches, and we'll all use it! Be sure to make a possee discussion board too!!

Remember it has to be perfect just like you, and never have any issues/glitches at all, even if millions of people are all using it at once.

Especially be sure to make a perfect message board! So we won't run the risk of not getting your daily/hourly/minutely/secondly words of possee wisdom!

Let us know when its ready possee!

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2 March 2008
11:59 PM PST, 2:59 AM 3 March Eastern Standard Time

eBay listing upgrade special, "2 days only March 1-2" ends.

According to the Medved "EBay Auction Counts", at the time the listing special ended the count was approximately 13,355,000 items. The count at the start of the listing special was about 13,502,000 listings. An overall decrease.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart shows auction counts by days of the month, Eastern Standard Time.

http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND  Chart times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

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3 March 2008

Regarding the events and comments of Monday March 3rd.

"I spoke to eBay's Usher Lieberman during the IMA conference on Monday. He said he had made a mistake when he called the Shopping.com listings a test on Saturday morning. He was trying to track it down and after talking to a few people, felt comfortable saying it was a test, and subsequently found out the listings had appeared accidentally. Usher said it was his fault for initially getting it wrong."
Ina Steiner, AutionBytes, 4 March 2008 04:02:46

"but on Monday, said he was incorrect and that the listings were the result of a glitch."
Ina Steiner on Usher Lieberman, AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

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3 March 2008
06:21 AM PST

eBay Running A Test with Shopping.com Listings-Sorry It Was An Accident?
ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business
Posted by David White at 3/3/2008 6:21 AM

Excerpt:

• "they apparently choose to take this action in an effort to reduce the   visibiltiy of the test or accident, whichever it was.........eBay   needs to get their stories STRAIGHT!
   
  My Opinion
  If it really was a test, eBay should have announced it before they ran it, on the system announcement board. This was no accident. eBay rarely does anything by accident, but if they do, it is corrected very quickly, not 2 or more days later."

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3 March 2008
06:53 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

dorothysew  (978 )  Mar-03-08 06:53 PST 157 of 425

lol we wanted ebay to acknowledge the glitches so we would know about them and wouldn't run around trying to find out if there was something we were doing wrong. Now people are using the notifications to complain that there are glitches?

Ebay really can't win with some of you.

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3 March 2008
07:34 AM PST

Sponsored Ads a Huge Win for eBay!
My Blog Utopia!
Posted by Randy Smythe at 3/03/2008 07:34:00 AM

Excerpt: 

• "In fact we recently saw Shopping.com listings on the eBay.com site, which gives you an idea of their plans. eBay's response to the SDC listings was; "Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused." Notice it wasn't an error, it was accidental. Believe me, the accidental part was, that they showed up now, before they were supposed to. I have a hunch we will see SDC listings on the eBay platform sooner rather than later; first as a test and if that goes over well, they will roll them out site wide."

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3 March 2008
10:21 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited.

oldspartantrader  (3884 )        Mar-03-08 10:21 PST       184 of 333

As I suspected -- These were not just run of the mill feeds I saw -- They were quite eBAY specific listings --

They were in fact eBAY listings like every other eBAY listing -- except they did not have any purpose in the normal realm of buying and selling

Comment, edited.

PAID BASHERS Definition of PADDING the Listing on eBay!
(2008-03-03 14:38:00)  by elikeebayto...

It now has been about a week that the PAID BASHERS community has been busy polluting our beloved board with sorry comments about how eBay has floated or artifically increased its listing. Maybe one day these PAID BASHERS who are PAID money to spread lies and misinformation can discuss the matter with their boss and get an answer for us all. Question: How can you accuse eBay ...

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4 March 2008
04:02:46 AM PST

Update to Shopping.com Mystery Listings on eBay
By: Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes
Tue Mar 4 2008 04:02:46

I spoke to eBay's Usher Lieberman during the IMA conference on Monday. He said he had made a mistake when he called the Shopping.com listings a test on Saturday morning. He was trying to track it down and after talking to a few people, felt comfortable saying it was a test, and subsequently found out the listings had appeared accidentally. Usher said it was his fault for initially getting it wrong.

I asked Usher if he could tell me more, and he could not. I asked him if we might expect to see Shopping.com listings on eBay in the future, or eBay.com listings on Shopping. He said eBay is looking at a lot of different things and can't speculate on anything.

"Lots of things are on the table," he said.

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4 March 2008
04:02 AM PST

Regarding events and comments taking place on Tuesday March 4th.

"On Tuesday, Lieberman explained the nature of the glitch. Programmers rolled out code on Friday evening that was meant to credit certain listings that were eligible for free Gallery. The credit was due to them because eBay had promised sellers Gallery would be free for listings started at a certain time of day, and the code had been rolled out 3 hours past the deadline."
AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

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4 March 2008
Late afternoon, early evening

Ebay Accused of Padding Listing Numbers
PC Magazine
03.04.08
by Brian Heater and Chloe Albanesius

Excerpts:

• "When the bug first emerged on Friday, the spokesman told a reporter that it was actually a planned test.   "But it wasn't a test. It ended up being a bug," he said. "So I ate a little bit of crow on that.""
• "EBay denied that any forum deletions were intentional. If any posts were taken down "it was accidental," the spokesman said. "We're not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards.""

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4 March 2008
06:52 PM PST

ebay user comments, edited

oldspartantrader  (3884 )         Mar-04-08 18:52 PST       199 of 333

It is quite possible that the messy matter is approaching a large fan

Approximately 5,000 listings were pulled from shopping.com, but they have since been removed, according to eBay. (from the PCMAG article)

That is so far from reality that it is ludicrous -- Not only ludicrous but so easily shot through of holes that it borders on management malpractice -- and when it is shown to be GROSSLY understated will invite ever more scrutiny --

We may be seeing a company beginning to circle the wagons and the result will be downright ugly --

If only companies that make major goofs would read the Johnson and Johnson Tylenol Story -- It is a roadmap to not just successful damage control but also to public trust --

Although public trust is at risk -- eBAY is taking an even larger risk with shareholder trust -- A trust that if lost will lead to the dissolution of the company -- an extreme that is unlikely to be sure -- but a needless exposure non the less

Continued pressure here would be far more effective than any boycott in bending managements will -- This misstep is an opportunity that the dissenters will be foolish to waste

I would start by looking for deleted in threads on the net and follow with screen shots of them and the 5000 listings -- followed by 5000 more a day later -- and on and on --

There are now at least two main stream media giants with interest -- an opportunity that is priceless

bhearsch  (302 )        Mar-04-08 21:08 PST       207 of 333

The eBay owned Korean website often mirrors ebay.com auctions. Many of these sdc_prod_ listings are still live on their website. If you want to find them, go to Goog and enter the specific sdc_prod_ number, leave a space, and then enter site:ebay.auction.co.kr

When the results are shown, click on "repeat the search with the omitted results included."

You can find the sdc numbers on various websites/blogs. The eBay Korean website only shows the listings that are currently active and not the ones that have scrolled off but there are still quite a few.

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5 March 2008

Regarding the events and comments of Wednesday March 5th.

"Lieberman said fewer than 35,000 listings were affected by the glitch."
AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

AuctionBytes releases the "80,000" figure to eBay and the public. They first observed this figure on March 1st. Four days earlier.

• "However, he had no explanation for the fact that when AuctionBytes looked at one Shopping.com selling account on Saturday morning, it indicated the seller had over 80,000 listings on eBay.com." AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

AuctionBytes becomes the first large news organization to report a count from direct observation of the situation. However AuctionBytes has not substantiated their claim with screen shots.

"Of the accusations of listing count manipulation, Lieberman said, "To think that we'd do that now is outrageous.""
AuctionBytes, 5 March 2008

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5 March 2008

eBay Calls Claims of Manipulation 'Outrageous'
By: Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes
March 05, 2008

Excerpts:

• "When Shopping.com listings appeared on eBay.com last week, sellers pointed to it as an example of eBay attempting to boost listing numbers."
• "AuctionBytes previously reported that several discussion threads had been removed, including one linked to in the original blog post published on Saturday.
• Most sellers are likely taking little notice of the dust-up. Those who are suspicious may be unlikely to be satisfied with eBay's response."

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5 March 2008
06:44AM PST

eBay user comment, edited

oldspartantrader  (3884 )  Mar-05-08 06:44 PST       210 of 333

The worm may be beginning to turn --

From the PCMAG article

Approximately 5,000 listings were pulled from shopping.com, but they have since been removed, according to eBay.

From the AB article

Lieberman said the programmers inadvertently caused the Shopping.com listings to appear on eBay.com when it created and launched the script to credit the sellers' accounts for Gallery fees.

Lieberman said fewer than 35,000 listings were affected by the glitch.

I am going to start a lottery methinks --

Whoever gets closest to the next eBAY estimated number of misplaced SDC listings will receive --

An all expense day trip to Leavenworth with full visitors passes and change for the vending machines -- While there they can visit the eBAY Exec of their choice

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5 March 2008

Ziff Davis Media Files for Bankruptcy
By  VINNEE TONG

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5 March 2008
08:04 AM PST

eBay user comments, edited

oldspartantrader  (3884 )  Mar-05-08 08:04 PST                 212 of 333

If both "buy" the explainations will likely go no where.

Should the SEC investigate there will be no buying of stories -- IMO

They are probably one of the scariest Regulatory bodies that Wall Street deals with -- They have teeth and are not at all shy about biting -- They are also pretty straight forward and fair without leaning in any particulat direction to meet an agenda

My attorney and accountant are also preparing letters to be sent to the State Attorney General requesting a watch on the situation with some of the "facts" that have surfaced attached as an addendum -- In that the Street is located here many a firm has been put in the hot seat through that AG Office even though technically domocilled elsewhere.

I am still jumping to no conclusions -- BUT -- The more the story changes the antsier I become --

jake-deals-4u  (700 )      Mar-05-08 08:16 PST     213 of 333

preparing letters to be sent to the State Attorney General requesting a watch on the situation with some of the "facts

Too bad im sure the facts are' Everybody uses eBay at their OWN RISK via a user agreemant that is NOT compulsory, its voluntary.

And im sure theres probably an 12th grade HS kid that could explain that its eBays business & they can do as they dang well please with their OWN SITE + if someone doesnt like it, they are FREE to leave!

OTOH i havent quite figured out why someone who is a stockholder ( at their own FREE WILL & PROFIT ) would bad-mouth & spread bad-will at a company that they have a personal financial stake in , far & above the average site user.

If i was so upset at a company that i held stock in, i would sell that stock ASAP reguardless of P/L

pepins4b8e  (21 )       Mar-05-08 08:41 PST       217 of 426

Carl, I own stock myself (although I'm sure not to your big wig level ). I fail to get a wedgie about this because while I see the listing numbers as an indicator, it is of small importance to me compared to the quarter-end results.

I guess we'll see if shareholders tend to think like me, or like you on this. I'm not criticizing your position. I just think that the press much prefers to follow Scarlett Johansson selling an evening with her on eBay versus some nebulous conspiracy about the number of listings on eBay.

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5 March 2008
09:04 AM PST

Comment, edited

El Radical
Escrito el: 05-Marzo-2008 a las 17:04

La huelga de eBay ha sido más que un éxito. No fue sólo una caída del 13% de los artículos listados. Como sospechábamos eBay ha estado inflando artificialmente el número de artículos listados por 2 razones:

1) Para que los huelguistas nos desanimáramos haciéndonos creer que nuestra huelga era una huelga que llevábamos a cabo sólo unos cuantos vendedores.

2) PAra engañar a la bolsa.

La noticia acaba de salir en la propia CNN de EE.UU. Si se confirma la estafa en bolsa por parte de eBay estaría violando una Ley Federal muy seria y la multa que les caerá será de espanto, con el añadido de la mala reputación internacional que se producirá en el mercado financiero mundial de esta empresa y efectivo negativo en sus acciones.

Como véis, compañeros, cuando planatamos cojones y ovarios unidos, incluso podemos enfrentarnos contra las multinacionales y pisarles el cuello como ellos nos lo pisan a nosotros. Mis felicitaciones a todos los currantes vendedores de eBay y la solidaridad y apoyo de muchísimos compradores. Lo estamos consiguiendo. Van a venir más huelgas. Y vamos a seguir dándoles caña hasta que nos quiten el pie del cuello. Si tratan de hundirnos se hundirán ellos con nosotros.

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5 March 2008
03:18 PM PST

What's going on over at eBay?
BloggingStocks
Posted Mar 5th 2008 3:18PM by Michael Fowlkes

Excerpt: 

• "But could there be something a little more sinister taking place on the site? Rumors are definitely swirling that the site has actually been padding its numbers with fake item listings. eBay wouldn't dare do such a thing, would it? It has already admitted that a "bug" in the system did in fact insert some fake listings into the site's database. The question is, was this really a bug, or did the site knowingly inflate its listings?"

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5 March 2008
06:18 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited

jake-deals-4u  (701 )       Mar-05-08 18:18 PST       242 of 426

Im suprised that the listing #s were of a daily concern to you as an investor.

So a higher count would indicate what?

A lower count would indicate what?

I didnt know that short term listing count anomolies here would affect a long term investors strategy.

I cant find any angle to a blip in listing counts in an investment angle, unless it provides a draw-down for emotional expousements .

But then again if i was emotionally upset over a company i was financially Invested in, ide seek Divesting of that investment.

Do you check the day-day infrastructre of other investment vehicles?

badday911  (71 )        Mar-05-08 22:23 PST       46 of 70

Why don't they do it on there stupid playgroud thing they set up?

ALL companies I know of have a test bed server to try out new things. They don't want to risk problems on the servers that make them money or are mission critical.

I spent 23 1/2 years with HP working with high end servers before retiring so I'm absolutely certain that a company would not risk problems running tests on a live system.

In my opinion, eBay is padding their listings.

vik*nan  (33 )        Mar-05-08 23:25 PST       48 of 70

ALL companies I know of have a test bed server to try out new things.

a "sandbox" --- system or network to try out new software and equipment before deploying them to the production network.

Tests are never made on a production network even in smaller companies

aenthal  (2241 )        Mar-05-08 23:59 PST       54 of 70

I don't care if eBay pads their listings.
What will it get them? A larger count on their server?
And what will that get them?
More space used up on their server.
And what will that get them? Nothing. Fake auctions don't bring in money, even if you put up a million of them.

I tend to agree that this is technical phenomenon, not a Pinocchio problem.
But yes, they also have a Pinocchio problem, and an ostrich problem, and a robot problem (se habla Fortran because there are no humans behind that curtain, working the strings).

Let them tell all the Pinocchio versions of reality that they want.
You can't turn a delusion into reality, no matter how many times you repeat it, no matter how much fake evidence you create to support it.
Sometimes karma is sleeping.
But in eBay's case it is hungry, and it will bite them in the butt eventually.

But don't worry about how they expose that butt before karma gets them.
Just be glad that it eventually will.

windorphin  (31 )        Mar-06-08 06:15 PST       61 of 70

They use the numbers to show their stockholders that listings are not decreasing. Therefore they are lying and manipulating stock prices.

The analogy drawn about a restaurant filling their seats with mannequins with stockholders driving past is a good one. It is just as meaningless, and nobody will get in trouble for it.

It would only be a violation if they somehow cooked the books to show that those mannequins had eaten and paid.

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6 March 2008

PC Magazine owner files Chapter 11
From the Associated Press

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6 March 2008
05:22 PM PST

eBay user comments, edited

vik*nan  (33 ) Mar-06-08 17:22 PST 2 of 31

It would be like amazon listings accidentally showing up on yahoo. Just because ebay owns shopping.com does not mean they are magically connected.

ebay's backbone probvider is level3.net

SJC-DNS1.EBAYDNS.COM
SJC-DNS2.EBAYDNS.COM
SMF-DNS1.EBAYDNS.COM
SMF-DNS2.EBAYDNS.COM

Current Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
IP Address: 66.135.194.100 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)

shopping.com's provider is pnap.net

NS2ANY.SHOPPING.COM
NS1ANY.SHOPPING.COM

Current Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
IP Address: 64.94.186.80 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)

uplatewhattodo  (18 ) Mar-06-08 21:18 PST 11 of 31

AS a techie myself, I do have to disagree with this analysis a bit. Everything about DNS and IP's etc has to do with how eBay and shopping.com provide the informaton out to the world. It says nothing as to how that information is stored in the database or databases. If they are sharing databases distributed across their internal networks, or even storage arrays are being shared by the two systems then it's possible.

They did say they were running a script that caused it which means they were running data directly into the database system(s) and bypassing all the interfaces.

A very bad idea to mess with a database that way if you don't know what you are doing, but it does make it possible. And it would violate Sarbanes Oxley if they didn't cross their t's and dot their i's, which they apparently did not do.

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6 March 2008

Despite eBay's announcement of March 2nd, that "system issue has been resolved", 'accidental' auction listings can still be found.

Seller sdc_prod_305839_99
  "67 items found" ( LINK screen shot 3/6/2008 )

Seller sdc_prod_9352_67
  "417 items found" ( LINK screen shot 3/6/2008 )

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6 March 2008
10:23 PM PST

eBay user comment, edited

postericon  (0 )   Mar-06-08 03:29 PST  263 of 426

think the whole thing was filed under rumors speculations

these links that ur bringin here they are written by a bunch of nobodies ur credibility is in the drink, u believe everything u read, u realy expect us to believe this junk
i think what's goin on here is worse than what is goin on at ebay. too bad too a shame this forum is wrecked

.

6 March 2008

eBay Listings on the Rise! Must be the Fee Changes
My Blog Utopia!
Posted by Randy Smythe
Thursday, March 06, 2008

Excerpt:

• "I complain about eBay as much as the next guy and they certainly need to revamp their whole PR department and communicate better with sellers but this padding of listings is a non-starter." 
 

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7 March 2008

Regarding the events of Friday 7 March 2008.

PC Magazine, 10 March 2008:

1. "An eBay spokesman told PC Magazine at the time that 5,000 shopping.com listings were erroneously placed on ebay.com."
2. "eBay was asked to again confirm that it was indeed 5,000." "The same spokesman responded Friday that he had originally told PC Magazine that eBay pulled 35,000 listings"
3. "a review of the interview confirmed that he said 5,000."
4. "Editor's Note: The eBay spokesman confirmed Monday that the number of postings pulled from shopping.com was indeed 35,000."

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7 March 2008
03:37 AM PST

eBay user comment, edited

schmoopie77  (109 )   Mar-07-08 03:37 PST  22 of 31

The eBay computer engineers do give us software which has glitches and bugs, so I can see someone making a colossal error. But technically, can this error even be caused?

"Lieberman said the programmers inadvertently caused the Shopping.com listings to appear on eBay.com when it created and launched the script to credit the sellers' accounts for Gallery fees."

It sounds as though they would be working with accounting software, not launching listings. Very bizarre.

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7 March 2008

eBay Hires Blogger to Improve Communications
By Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com
March 07, 2008

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7 March 2008

Klicken sie hier, um diesen Artikel nicht zu kaufen
Eingestellt am 07. März 2008 um 18:57 Uhr

Excerpt:

• "Die Stellungnahmen der amerikanischen eBay-Sprecher trugen auch nicht unbedingt zur Erhellung bei. In sich widersprechenden Statements war von Tests, Versehen oder Irrtümern die Rede. Ähnlich verwirrende Auskünfte gab es auch für Kunden, die sich bei „Live-Help“ direkt informieren wollten."

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8 March 2008

FIASCO AFTER FIASCO DOGS EBAY 2008 POLICY CHANGES
By Editor, March 8th, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Excerpt:

• "Last weekend, first rumours, then facts, emerged regarding the mass insertion of listings with no bid or buy-now button, which many speculated were deliberately added to mask the effects of the seller boycott.  Throughout the bloggosphere, bloggers dependant on eBay for their content, and ad-click revenues, gave San Jose the benefit of the doubt.  Ina Steiner of AuctionBytes even interviewed a senior eBay bod, and both Randy Smythe and eBay UK’s tame bay gave reasons why it had to be a glitch or site test, rather than something from the dirty tricks department.  First eBay spokesman Usher Leiberman said it was a test, then said it wasn’t, and then declined to comment further.  Posts appeared on eBay announcement boards, and have been all over forums on both sides of the Atlantic."

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10 March 2008

Despite eBay's announcement of March 2nd that "system issue has been resolved", 'accidental' auction listings can still be found.

Seller sdc_prod_310426
  70 items found ( screen shot 3/10/2008 )

Seller sdc_prod_434012
  51 items found ( screen shot 3/10/2008 )

.

10 March 2008

Honest Eddy’s Used Cars oder: eBay - das ehrliche, offene Umfeld
Auktionsblog
Posted in Allgemein on Mrz 10, 2008

Excerpt:

• Trotz der Ankündigungen seitens vieler US-Verkäufer, während des Streiks vom 18. bis 25. Februar keine Angebote zu listen sind die Angebotszahlen bei ebay.com im fraglichen Zeitraum fast nicht gesunken.

  Eine genauere Erklärung dafür findet sich natürlich nicht im ebay-Forum sondern extern.

.

10 March 2008

May Day Boycott Looming, EBay Revises Impact of 'Bug'
PC Magazine
03.10.08
by  Chloe Albanesius

Excerpt:

• "eBay admitted that shopping.com listings were accidentally placed on eBay"

.

10 March 2008

Later in the day PC Magazine changes the title of their article from "May Day Boycott Looming, EBay Revises Impact of 'Bug'" to, "Another eBay Boycott Planned for May Day", and disables the AppScout link containing the lower part of the article.

And later a new  AppScout  link is created with the article reverting to the original title, "May Day Boycott Looming, EBay Revises Impact of 'Bug'".

And the interesting times continues.

Epilogue

"INCONCEIVABLE." Vizzini
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride (1987)

Two weeks after the events of Leap Day Friday, we can draw one conclusion.

• "eBay's 2008 Q1 (1st Quarter, January 01 to March 31) report to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission should be interesting."
   

Thank you for reading.

...... returning to our March vacation ......
"Quashing and Creating Computer Bugs Since 1973"

//
//
//

Notes

Related article:

From eBay Seller Central - Ebay is padding their listings
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2008/02/from-ebay-sel-1.html

Article title:

Q: Why does the title of article keep changing?

A: We've altered the title to avoid being labeled as SPAM. Apparently Google considers variations of "sdc_prod" and "Shopping.com" to be SPAM, and removes direct links to such articles and items. Apparently late last year eBay began flooding Google with Shopping.com and sdc_prod* "advertising". Google's standard reaction to advertising SPAM is death by link removal.

//
//
//

The right to publish this news article - U.S. Supreme Court - 1988

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=485&page=47

1988, CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST:

At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. "[T]he [485 U.S. 46, 51] freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty - and thus a good unto itself - but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole." Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 503 -504 (1984). We have therefore been particularly vigilant to ensure that individual expressions of ideas remain free from governmentally imposed sanctions. The First Amendment recognizes no such thing as a "false" idea. Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 339 (1974). As Justice Holmes wrote, "when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas - that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market . . . ." Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) (dissenting opinion).

The sort of robust political debate encouraged by the First Amendment is bound to produce speech that is critical of those who hold public office or those public figures who are "intimately involved in the resolution of important public questions or, by reason of their fame, shape events in areas of concern to society at large." Associated Press v. Walker, decided with Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 164 (1967) (Warren, C. J., concurring in result). Justice Frankfurter put it succinctly in Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 665, 673 -674 (1944), when he said that "[o]ne of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures." Such criticism, inevitably, will not always be reasoned or moderate; public figures as well as public officials will be subject to "vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks," New York Times, supra, at 270. "[T]he candidate who vaunts his spotless record and sterling integrity cannot convincingly cry `Foul!' when an opponent or an industrious reporter attempts [485 U.S. 46, 52] to demonstrate the contrary." Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy, 401 U.S. 265, 274 (1971).

//
//
//

Technorati Profile

Copyright © 2008 Event Horizon, Established 1984

EventHorizon1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984

From eBay Seller Central - Ebay is padding their listings

15 March 2008 -
Please read our followup article "The eBay Shopping.com Affair".  And do share it with others.
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2008/03/internet-transa.html

//

Updated 05 March 2008 19:10 HST

By the time you read this, eBay will have removed 100's of thousands of auction listings from eBay.com.  This took place between 29 February and 1 March 2008. Many of these listings eBay apparently inserted during the February 18-25 boycott.

Also by the time you read this, as 3 March 2008, eBay removed the larger eBay forum threads documenting these questionable activities. Use Google to obtained archived copies of the original threads.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000527568  [specified topic removed]
http://www.google.com/search?q=Is+Ebay+Creating+Listings+To+Boost+totals+Look

sdc_prod_301013_74  DBA  The Twister Group (27,291 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_305839_99  DBA  BargainBasementBatteries 
sdc_prod_310426  DBA  ANTOnline (21,798 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_409455_97  DBA  Sababa Shopping 
sdc_prod_434012  DBA  SpectrumSuperStore (35,002 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_442675_57  DBA  Boyne & Kelly L.L.C. (4,702 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9021_2  DBA  Buy.com (12,233 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9055  DBA  Focus Camera (1,925 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9074_35  DBA  pcRUSH.com (21,401 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9090  DBA  CompSource Inc. (32,601 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9124_14  DBA  TheNerds, Inc. (48,392 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9352_67  DBA  Digital Foto Club (30,278 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9391_43  DBA  Adorama (11,102 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 
sdc_prod_9452  DBA  eTronics, Inc. (24,499 eBay.com listings 2/29/2008) 

More details regarding the above sellers are available farther down in this article.

Prior to Midnight 29 February 2008, the above list of "sellers" (the sdc_prod names) had over 200,000 lets say interesting (bogus) auction listings on eBay.com.

But don't fret. The above list may represent only "a small percentage" of the sdc (Shopping Dot Com) sellers who eBay posted auction listings on their behalf.

//
//  eBay Customer Service Transcript - 29 February 2008
//

As a matter of privacy, we've edited out the email address. Otherwise the transcript that follows, a conversation between eBay Customer Service and joelycra, is unedited.

And joelycra please forward your eBay Customer Service transcript to the news service(s) of your choice.

From eBay Seller Central Forum
Ebay is padding their listings
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000527614&start=40
http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=78886&p=3&topicID=15720025

joelycra  (735 )     Feb-29-08 22:44 PST     69 of 94

OK... Just got out of live chat also. They told me these are Shopping - com listings that are somehow appearing on eaby by mistake... here's the transcript:




12:17:09 AM CST
System
Initial Question/Comment: Other
12:17:14 AM CST
System
Thank you for contacting eBay Live Help!
12:17:14 AM CST
System
You are successfully connected to eBay Live Help. Please hold for the next available Live Help Agent.
12:17:35 AM CST
System
Evan M. A. has joined this session!
12:17:35 AM CST
System
Connected with Evan M. A.
12:17:40 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Hello, thank you for waiting and welcome to eBay Live Help! My name is Evan. If you're a registered member, may I please start by having you confirm your User ID and first name?
12:17:41 AM CST
zz***@bellsouth.net
hello
12:17:57 AM CST

12:18:09 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Hi, Joe. Thanks! How may I help you?
12:18:32 AM CST
zz***@bellsouth.net
I have a question about an auction listing
12:18:58 AM CST
zz***@bellsouth.net
item 310025758222
12:19:10 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Thanks again. And I'm willing to help as much as I can.
12:19:19 AM CST
Evan M. A.
And may I have your concern about this listing?
12:19:51 AM CST
zz***@bellsouth.net
look at it.... it's not a real item, you can't bid on it
12:20:15 AM CST
zz***@bellsouth.net
these listings are in every category.... on the last page of listings
12:21:40 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Oh, okay. I understand what you mean. And let me try to look up on this listing.
12:24:19 AM CST
zz****@bellsouth.net
some of these SDC sellers have 30-40 thousand listings, and who knows how many SDC sellers there are
12:24:20 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Please give me another couple of minutes to look in to this for you.
12:26:10 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Oh, I see. I'm still looking this up for you, okay?
12:26:16 AM CST
zz****@bellsouth.net
ok
12:27:40 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Thank you.
12:30:15 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Thanks for patiently waiting. I see that the listing is listed under the eBay Express. What I can do is to redirect you now to our eBay Express chat, for more assistance about this listing.
12:30:29 AM CST
Evan M. A.
What IÈUlike to do is connect you with our eBay Express chat, for help with this. There may be a wait time to speak to someone after I? transferred you, but it shouldn?be too long. In case this chat disconnects please feel free to come back into eBay Live Help by clicking on our link on the eBay homepage. May I go ahead and do that now?
12:30:51 AM CST
zz****@bellsouth.net
these are not ebay express listings
12:31:03 AM CST
zz****@bellsouth.net
these are auctions
12:31:50 AM CST
Evan M. A.
I see. Actually, this is not an eBay listing, the problem is it's a Shopping.com listing that is showing on our site by mistake.
12:32:25 AM CST
Evan M. A.
It is a current issue, yes, we have a bug on it. These are meant to be on shopping.com only but due to some reason are showing on eBay as well and can't be bought through the site.
12:33:32 AM CST
zz****@bellsouth.net
ok... that's what I needed... Thanks
12:34:25 AM CST
Evan M. A.
You're most welcome. Do you have any other concerns, Joe?
12:35:29 AM CST
zz****@bellsouth.net
no, thanks
12:35:35 AM CST
Evan M. A.
Thanks for using eBay Live Help! Once youˆÂ ready to close this chat window, please feel free to click on the º–it?utton.
12:35:40 AM CST
Evan M. A.
It's a pleasure chatting with you. Have a good night!


There could be millions of these listings.... just go to the last page of items in any category sorted by "ending soonest" and you'll find them.

//
//  eBay Customer Service Transcript - 1 March 2008
//

From the eBay Feedback Forum
Is Ebay Creating Listings To Boost totals Look
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000527568&start=1080
http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=78886&p=3&topicID=15720025
http://www.google.com/search?q=Is+Ebay+Creating+Listings+To+Boost+totals+Look

idee99555  (0 ) View Listings | Report     Mar-01-08 19:03 PST     1082 of 1119

All right you guys. I went to live chat today to try and see what their story was on the inflated listings. I'm going to post the transcript. I don't see how it infracts the guidlines, but in case it gets pulled and anyone else wants it, email me. This is long and kind of disjointed, but this is the way it came to me. I had to request a transcript because the copy feature wouldn't work.

Dear eBay member,



Transcript of Session Number: 9852546
3/1/2008 14:35 Agent Sent Message: Hello, thank you for waiting and
welcome to eBay Live Help! My name is Lanie. If you're a registered
member, may I please start by having you confirm your User ID and first

name?
3/1/2008 14:35 Customer Sent Message: idee99555
3/1/2008 14:36 Agent Sent Message: Hi there!
3/1/2008 14:36 Agent Sent Message: Thanks! How can I help you?
3/1/2008 14:37 Customer Sent Message: there are some wierd listings
that have no opening bids and you can't bid on them. Thousands of
items.
What's going on?
3/1/2008 14:37 Customer Sent Message: for instance
3/1/2008 14:38 Customer Sent Message: Item number: 150217971814
3/1/2008 14:38 Agent Sent Message: I would gladly look into this for
you.
3/1/2008 14:38 Agent Sent Message: Kindly give me a moment to check .


3/1/2008 14:41 Agent Sent Message: Hi. Kindly check again the item
number. I can't seem to pull up a record on file. Thanks.
3/1/2008 14:41 Customer Sent Message: Item number: 150217971814 i'll
get you the name also
3/1/2008 14:42 Customer Sent Message: Meet the seller Seller:
sdc_prod_9452( 76)
3/1/2008 14:42 Customer Sent Message: eTronics, Inc( 76
3/1/2008 14:44 Customer Sent Message: 19808 items found
3/1/2008 14:45 Agent Sent Message: I appreciate your patience. Kindly
give me a moment more.
3/1/2008 14:48 Agent Sent Message: I saw the item and this is indeed
strange. I'm having this reported for you for investigation.Please stay

with me.
3/1/2008 14:51 Customer Sent Message: There are many others. does the
sdc_prod_#### seller designation have a particular meaning?
3/1/2008 14:54 Agent Sent Message: Hmm, for the seller's ID though, it

reads : sdc_prod_9452
3/1/2008 14:54 Agent Sent Message: I'm still coordinating with the
team
as we speak. Please give me a few minutes more.
3/1/2008 14:55 Customer Sent Message: I meant as an example. There are

others with thousands of similar listings and they have the same
sdc_prod_ and a number for seller name.
3/1/2008 14:58 Agent Sent Message: Ah okay. Thanks. The team would
reply momentarily, please continue to hold.
3/1/2008 14:58 Agent Sent Message: I appreciate your effort to let us
know about this problem.
3/1/2008 15:02 Agent Sent Message: Thanks for patiently waiting!
3/1/2008 15:02 Agent Sent Message: I'm sorry for the
inconvenience.This
is actually an issue on the site right now I'm afraid. This is actually

a Shopping.com listing that's appearing incorrectly on eBay.
3/1/2008 15:03 Agent Sent Message: Our Technical team is working on
getting resolved though, and I had this reported for you so we can add
your account to the list.
3/1/2008 15:03 Customer Sent Message: Do these incorrect listings show

up in ebays total listings/ Wouldn't they scew the listings totals?
3/1/2008 15:04 Agent Sent Message: Oh, no it shouldn't though.
3/1/2008 15:05 Agent Sent Message: The team is checking on the
accounts
of the sellers you reported as well for further investigation.
3/1/2008 15:05 Customer Sent Message: Shoudn't or absolutely doesn't?
3/1/2008 15:05 Agent Sent Message: Absolutely doesn't.This is only a
glitch on the search pages.
3/1/2008 15:06 Agent Sent Message: You can check it from time to time
to see it not on the eBay pages, only on Shopping.com
3/1/2008 15:06 Customer Sent Message: can you explain that a little
further?
3/1/2008 15:08 Customer Sent Message: I'm not familiar with
shopping.com. Why would their listings show up on ebay. Anf the one I
mentionaed has ebay seller feedback.
3/1/2008 15:08 Agent Sent Message: Sure! In the eBay account of the
seller for items sold at eBay, it shouldn't get reflected, but if you
were referring to the "items from seller" link for all items he is
selling, I'm afraid the Shopping.com items will also appear and is
confirmed as a tec
3/1/2008 15:08 Agent Sent Message: hnical glitch.
3/1/2008 15:09 Customer Sent Message: can you respond to my last
question also?
3/1/2008 15:09 Agent Sent Message: Sorry for the confusion,
Shopping.com is a specialty site owned by eBay but we handle separate
accounts. It's similar to Express or Half.com
3/1/2008 15:10 Agent Sent Message: Ah, okay, Here's what happens, this

particular seller has an account with SHopping.com to sell items, which

is a different one as an eBay seller.
3/1/2008 15:10 Customer Sent Message: Ok. Well there are numerous
"glitches" out there and they are causing major confusion and
conjecture. YOu guys need to clean 'em up.
3/1/2008 15:11 Agent Sent Message: The items listed under Shopping.com

site should only be seen in that site and not on eBay.
3/1/2008 15:12 Agent Sent Message: Yes, we truly appreciate your help
on this one and the team is on it as we speak . We do hope we can have
this resolved asap.
3/1/2008 15:12 Customer Sent Message: Should . . . there they are.
3/1/2008 15:12 Customer Sent Message: you've been a wealth of
information Lanie
3/1/2008 15:12 Customer Sent Message: Thanks
3/1/2008 15:13 Agent Sent Message: So nice to hear that from you.
Thanks for your cooperation and understanding as well.
3/1/2008 15:13 Agent Sent Message: Is there anything else I can help
you with?
3/1/2008 15:13 Customer Sent Message: bye
3/1/2008 15:13 Agent Sent Message: All right! Once you’re ready to
close this chat window, please click on the “Exit” button. Take
care! =)

3/1/2008 15:16 Customer Sent Message: I don't seem to be able to use
the copy function
3/1/2008 15:16 Agent Sent Message: You can copy or print this chat for

your reference or I would gladly send you a chat transcript,I'll just
need your email address.
3/1/2008 15:17 Customer Sent Message: I've tried copying and I get
nothing. idee99@yahoo.com
3/1/2008 15:17 Agent Sent Message: No worries. Processing it
now,you'll
have it in a few minutes.
3/1/2008 15:18 Customer Sent Message: thanks again


Sincerely,
Lanie R.

eBay Customer Support

//
//  AuctionBytes - Response from Usher Lieberman, ebay - 1 March 2008
//

AuctionBytes
http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2008/3/1204379814.html

March 01, 2008

Mystery Shopping.com Listings on eBay?

By: Ina Steiner

Sat Mar 1 2008 01:56:54

Mystery listings are appearing on eBay that don't allow shoppers to bid or buy. The listings appear to be feeds from Shopping.com sellers. A look at the User ID sdc_prod_301013_74

A discussion about the listings began Friday night on eBay's Feedback board. Some posters believe it is a sign that eBay is trying to inflate its listing numbers to mask any effects of the seller boycott. Because of the dearth of data from eBay, Wall Street analysts put a lot of credence on listing numbers to gauge the company's marketplace performance. This month, everyone studied listing numbers to try and measure the impact of the seller boycott. And sellers have been prowling the site looking for any evidence of manipulation.

Others believe the "sdc" mystery is a test eBay is running or may be a glitch.

Update 3/1/08: eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman responded by email on Saturday, "This was a limited test that has run its course." I appreciate the update on a weekend and, if I learn more next week, will update this post.

Update: 3/2/08: eBay posted on its Systems Announcement board around 5:30 pm Eastern, "Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused."

Update 3/4/08: On Monday, eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman said he had made a mistake when he called the Shopping.com listings a test on Saturday morning.

//
//  Response from eBay Customer Service - 2 March 2008
//

This is an interesting announcement (below). Ignores the fact many of the "accidentally" appearing items were showing 25 days remaining out of 30 days.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:nGCP4ib50X4J:search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_301013_74+sdc_prod_301013_74
"This page was last updated: Mar-01 19:00"

Let's see, 30 day listing - 25 days remaining = 5 days run, as of 3/1/2008
5 days before 3/1/2008 is 2/25/2008, give or take a day.

Guess 5 days in the real world is "two days" in eBay days.

From eBay System Status Announcement Board
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803021430071.html

***Resolved: Shopping.com listings on eBay***    
       
March 02, 2008 | 02:32PM PST/PT

Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.

//
//  AuctionBytes - Response from Usher Lieberman, eBay - 4 March 2008
//

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/3/1204635766.html

Update to Shopping.com Mystery Listings on eBay
By: Ina Steiner
Tue Mar 4 2008 04:02:46

I spoke to eBay's Usher Lieberman during the IMA conference on Monday. He said he had made a mistake when he called the Shopping.com listings a test on Saturday morning. He was trying to track it down and after talking to a few people, felt comfortable saying it was a test, and subsequently found out the listings had appeared accidentally. Usher said it was his fault for initially getting it wrong.

I asked Usher if he could tell me more, and he could not. I asked him if we might expect to see Shopping.com listings on eBay in the future, or eBay.com listings on Shopping. He said eBay is looking at a lot of different things and can't speculate on anything.

"Lots of things are on the table," he said.

//
//  AuctionBytes - Response from Usher Lieberman, eBay - 4 March 2008
//

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2273210,00.asp

Excerpt

EBay Accused of Padding Listing Numbers
03.04.08
by Brian Heater and Chloe Albanesius

However, "the code actually rolled out three hours late, so there were a certain number of listings ... that didn't get gallery free, so we were going back and fixing that" on Friday, the spokesman said. "What happened was, when we wrote the code to implement that fix in the database table, there was a string that was left on there that populated and sent shopping.com listings onto ebay.com that it shouldn't have."

Approximately 5,000 listings were pulled from shopping.com, but they have since been removed, according to eBay.

Sellers pointed to the listings snafu as evidence that eBay was inflating its numbers to make up for losses sustained during the boycott. When the bug first emerged on Friday, the spokesman told a reporter that it was actually a planned test.

"But it wasn't a test. It ended up being a bug," he said. "So I ate a little bit of crow on that."

//
//  AuctionBytes - Response from Usher Lieberman, eBay - 5 March 2008
//

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m03/i05/s03

Excerpt

eBay Calls Claims of Manipulation 'Outrageous'
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
March 05, 2008

On Tuesday, Lieberman explained the nature of the glitch. Programmers rolled out code on Friday evening that was meant to credit certain listings that were eligible for free Gallery. The credit was due to them because eBay had promised sellers Gallery would be free for listings started at a certain time of day, and the code had been rolled out 3 hours past the deadline.

Lieberman said the programmers inadvertently caused the Shopping.com listings to appear on eBay.com when it created and launched the script to credit the sellers' accounts for Gallery fees.

Lieberman said fewer than 35,000 listings were affected by the glitch.

//
//  From the eBay Developer Forums regarding the "sdc_prod" name - 29 February 2008
//

eBay Developer Forums
Technical Questions: eBay Shopping Web Services
http://dev-forums.ebay.com/thread.jspa?q=sdc&forumID=1007&threadID=500004459&messageID=600012983#600012983

Replies: 4 - Pages: 1     Last Post: Feb 29, 2008 4:27 AM by: stsi.com »   
   

stsi.com
Member Since: 1/10/08
   
Read     ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Jan 10, 2008 11:40 AM    

Is there a limit on the number of Excluded Sellers that can be specified in a GetSearchResults call? I have several excluded sellers that keep returning search results. I have checked the XML for the call, and it looks correct.

Also, is it a problem if entries are duplicated? (I will be correcting this in any event.)

Thanks.

stsi.com
Member Since: 1/10/08
   
Read     Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Jan 10, 2008 12:12 PM    

After further research, it looks like there is a limit of 100 excluded sellers. Can this limit be raised?

rekha.developersupport@ebay.com
Posts: 2,035
Member Since: 6/30/05
   
Read     Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Jan 14, 2008 3:42 PM    

Hello stsi.com,

Yes the limit is 100, which most users have found sufficient for their use case. How many IDs do you have?

Best Regards
Rekha Patel
eBay Developer Support

stsi.com
Member Since: 1/10/08

Read     Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Feb 29, 2008 4:23 AM    

Because of the wide variety of searches that we do, we could easily use 200 to 400 ID's. 500 would be a good number for us.

stsi.com
Member Since: 1/10/08
   
Read     Re: ExcludeSellers Issue
Posted: Feb 29, 2008 4:27 AM    

Also, is it possible to use wildcards for excluded sellers? For example, I'd like to exclude the various iterations of sdc_prod_*, instead of having to type in all the numbers that this seller uses....

//
//  Reaction snapshot excerpts from eBay PowerSellers - 1 March 2008
//

Is Ebay Creating Listings To Boost totals?  Strange listings...
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000527597&start=40&anticache=1204400261806

fla***  (327 )      Mar-01-08 04:46 PST     73 of 109
(sp)Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 and commonly called SOx or Sarbox; is a United States federal law enacted on July 30, 2002 in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting Enron, Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom. These scandals, which cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of the affected companies collapsed, shook public confidence in the nation's securities markets.
The legislation establishes new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management, and public accounting firms. The Act contains 11 titles, or sections, ranging from additional Corporate Board responsibilities to criminal penalties, and requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to implement rulings on requirements to comply with the new law.
The Act establishes a new quasi-public agency, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, which is charged with overseeing, regulating, inspecting, and disciplining accounting firms in their roles as auditors of public companies. The Act also covers issues such as auditor independence, corporate governance, internal control assessment, and enhanced financial disclosure.

djc***  (3827 )        Mar-01-08 09:04 PST       88 of 110
Doing a little cleaning up, maybe?

djc***  (3827 )      Mar-01-08 09:46 PST     93 of 110
I don't know if it's a glitch, hack or purposeful deception. However, what makes it curious is all the auctions I looked at started last Thursday the day after the listing sale ended.

cmi***  (1712 )        Mar-01-08 09:52 PST       94 of 110
I don't know if it's a glitch, hack or purposeful deception. However, what makes it curious is all the auctions I looked at started last Thursday the day after the listing sale ended.

I noticed that too, 9 days ago they started. Awfully peculiar timing considering the "boycott" and all.

nan***  (9616 )         Mar-02-08 07:38 PST       133 of 280
Also Most if not all keep you from purchasing the items.

From this post (many are developers)
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000527568
there are several people who asked Live Help and sent emails and one got Oh there is an error and another got it is just a test.

They are c&P all the auctions they can before they disappear.

Many are notifying all the media sources they can.

vq5***  (1072 )       Mar-02-08 09:04 PST       138 of 280
Update 3/1/08: eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman responded by email on Saturday, "This was a limited test that has run its course." I appreciate the update on a weekend and, if I learn more next week, will update this post.

dar***  (369 )      Mar-02-08 09:06 PST     139 of 280
Why did they have to "Test" THAT MANY AUCTIONS during a boycott week?

avi***  (3794 )         Mar-02-08 09:10 PST       140 of 280
Why did they have to "Test" THAT MANY AUCTIONS during a boycott week?

Exactly.

And if it were a legitimate test, there would be no reason to pull the listings.

vail***  (9944 )      Mar-02-08 09:22 PST     141 of 280
"This was a limited test that has run its course."

Such HOGWASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gui***  (2168 )         Mar-02-08 09:38 PST       143 of 280
"This was a limited test that has run its course."

Now that sounds like hogwash. There is a category just for test auctions, designed just for that purpose Everything Else> Test Auctions If eBay wanted to do test auctions they would have put them in there with a disclaimer not to bid. IMO that takes credibility away from this being a real test. I may buy a glitch, a hack, or a seller that has no idea what they are doing, but a test that is listed in the wrong category. And they yank it as soon as it is reported, come on, that one isn't believable.

avi***  (3794 )        Mar-02-08 10:47 PST       152 of 280
And eBay is sweeping the threads about this, the big one on the Feedie board is gone. SSDD.

Yep, the big one's gone and so is a much smaller one started after the first one disappeared. The big one at Seller Central is gone, but another with a vague title remains. A short thread at Trust and Safety is still there.

emo***  (20315 )        Mar-02-08 11:23 PST       156 of 280
"I think it might have been a test of dumping SDC items into Ebay."

Gee, what an AMAZING coincidence they picked the exact time the boycott was started, when the ENTIRE world was looking at the listing totals to see if the boycott was actually working!

Hmmmm.....

sno***  (12648 )        Mar-02-08 15:03 PST       166 of 285
Post #138 wrote that Ebay responded with: "This was a limited test that has run its course."

So, did Ebay actually ADMIT to involvement in those listings? They obviously are not test listings, we all know that.....But if they were performing some "other" form of test - perhaps - let's see...could it be inflating the number of listings test? What limited test are they talking about?

mag***  (6913 )         Mar-02-08 15:54 PST       170 of 285
I don't know why so many people are quick to ASSume that eBay is an evil corporate entity that wants to steal their souls and use them as currency whilst dealing with the Devil.

When I last checked, you were supposed to be INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. From the bizarre, over-the-top posts on this thread, I have no idea why some of you even sell here.

I know that if I felt that strongly about eBay, I would do what Bruce is doing, and exit, stage left.

djc***  (3828 ) View Listings | Report     Mar-02-08 17:24 PST     205 of 286
It's inconsistent statements like these that leads to speculation.

Update 3/1/08: eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman responded by email on Saturday, "This was a limited test that has run its course." I appreciate the update on a weekend and, if I learn more next week, will update this post.

Update: 3/2/08: eBay posted on its Systems Announcement board around 5:30 pm Eastern, "Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused."

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/3/1204379814.html

gir***  (305 )        Mar-02-08 18:09 PST       217 of 286
ok the difference would be this if it was a test then ebay has comtrol over its website..the only question would be what type of test and why...this is feel ok with..............now if not a test but rather an accident then this is more of a problem...an accident is an event in which you have no control over..that would mean some one some where and some how was able to get control of the ebay computers and put all those listings on..using the same technology someone could put what ever they wanted on a millon pieces of porn or a millon pages of mad magazine etc....and also if they can control they ebay computers to do that copuld they also not use them to harvest your personal finnancial info?

oke**  (1560 )      Mar-02-08 18:11 PST     218 of 286
I don't think it was an accident, do you?

abr***  (5774 )         Mar-02-08 19:37 PST       272 of 287
If they choose to give 30 day auction style core listings numbering in the MILLIONS FOLKS, then that is perfectly legal for them to do. eBay has rules by which its members must operate, but these may be members of a DIFFERENT eBay club, and their rules may be much different than ours...

fre***  (6704 )         Mar-03-08 00:12 PST       323 of 367
I found something unusual. A new wrinkle. If you go to some of the big categories and show listings, select ending soonest and at the bottom you see, say, 7575 pages total for listings, if you type in assorted numbers HIGHER, say for example, 7578, 7586, etc you can find more of these 20-day listings which are still up but if you click them they say they are ended. However, they are still there! Also, the page numbers higher than the ones indicated are do not all appear. For example, say there is a 7592, 7593, but no 7594, no 7595, then there is a 7596, and so forth. It is very wierd. It looks like there are still thousands of such listings hidden or disguised. The "ended" listings still appear in search if you find them.

mis***  (1530 )        Mar-03-08 08:31 PST       341 of 367
You have to stop and think allot of people don't want to believe ebay is capable of wrong doing because they are afraid if they are that ebay will cease to exist soon.
I don't blame them, allot of them have there life dedicated to ebay and the sales.
I would be terrified as well if my bread and butter could soon evaporate and I really don't have a back up plan.

djc***  (3828 )        Mar-03-08 10:33 PST       363 of 368
Somebody made a comment on that auctionbyte blog about pages of no listings yesterday.

I didn't think much about it figuring it didn't mean anything. Today I started thinking about the actual item numbers and went to look around.

This is the sub categories in Clothing, Shoes & Accessories 2463944 items found in: Clothing, Shoes & Accessories

Costumes & Reenactment Attire (15661)
Cultural & Ethnic Clothing (1797)
Dancewear & Dance Shoes (7108)
Infants & Toddlers (230627)
Boys (58019)
Girls (143875)
Men's Accessories (110147)
Men's Clothing (362834)
Men's Shoes (97112)
Uniforms (13170)
Unisex Clothing, Shoes & Accs (15095)
Wedding Apparel (42330)
Women's Accessories, Handbags (241563)
Women's Clothing (812862)
Women's Shoes (242672)
Vintage (66834)
Wholesale, Large & Small Lots (6970)

If you add the numbers in each sub category, you get that 2.4 million total.

When you look inside Womens's Clothing (812862) you find 16,250 pages of items.
16,250 pages x 50 items per page is 812,500. So that sounds correct.

However, the pages above 14,446 are empty. So there are really only 722,300 items in that category.

That 16,250 pages is down from over 48,000 pages less than 24 hours ago.

Medved gets there numbers from the categories.

//
//  Video screen captures - 1 March 2008
//

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mePI-UWDGOE
Ebay Padding Counts w Fake Listings in Wake of Strike?

From:   cappnonymous

About This Video

This is a live screen recording of actual events on the ebay website, with altered vocals. The video portion is uncut with watermarks added, and otherwise unretouched. The vocal audio portion of this video is my opinion, based upon & validated by the facts. This curious situation has come about on ebay. here is some background and commentary. This is still very fresh. One thing clear, ebay seems to be acting to cover this up right now. This  description will be updated with more info soon. It appears as though ebay has been caught padding the listing counts with lots and lots of fake listings from questionable accounts. Many of the se accounts are showing as "Not a registered user" or NARU. Many of the listings show as not having any detals, and the format of the listings is different Some are showing as disney listings. All sorts of strange things are going on. And of course, the censorship. Captured live here on video. Related threads on ebay forums: from the Feedback board: "Is Ebay Creating Listings To Boost totals Look" from Seller Central: "Im reporting ebay's padded listings to FTC for investigation" From Seller Central: "Ebay is padding their listings" from the Auction Listings bd: "E-bay is padding their listings" From the so called "Trust & Safety" board: "Zero FB seller has 35000 Listings with no way to bid on them - VERY ODD" Here are a few of the alleged fake names as  reported and observed so far: sdc_prod_434012 = SpectrumSuperStore sdc_prod_9021_2 = Buy.com (who is NARU!) sdc_prod_9124_14 = TheNerds, Inc. sdc_prod_9452 = eTronics, Inc. sdc_prod_409455_97 = Sababa Shopping sdc_prod_9090 = CompSource Inc. sdc_prod_310426 = ANTOnline (who is NARU!) sdc_prod_9074_35 = pcRUSH.com (who is NARU!) sdc_prod_9352_67 = Digital Foto Club sdc_prod_301013_74 = The Twister Group sdc_prod_305839_99 = BargainBasementBatteries sdc_prod_9391_43 = Adorama (who is NARU!) Since I started it there, look for follow-up at the CAPP Forum: http://tinyurl.com/2wzjpc Please visit these sites before you consider using or continuing to use ebay: suspendedfromebay.com nekkidtruth.blogspot.com www.firemeg.com www.companyexposed.com www.theauctionguild.com www.pheebay.com www.ebaymotorssucks.com or you can follow the links from the cappnonymous channel page. --------------------- Note: This audio visual digital document was created using the new & improved ZDSoft Screen Recorder 2.6.2.0 and "SUPER © v2007 build .25" wmm2 & audacity on 02-29-2008 approximately 11:32:33 Pacific Time. I am using firefox 2.0012 browser with Adblock Plus NoScript Super DragandGo 0.2.6 Image Zoom 0.3 and SlimSearch 0.1.8 extensions and my "bumped" SpoofStick 1.06 among others. My skin is miniFox 0.8.2. The small magnified window is a function of microsoft wireless intellimouse explorer 2.0 model  (less) Added: March 01, 2008

// 
//  eBay filings to the United States Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC)
//

In regards to auction and store listing counts.

http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?dcn=0000950134-08-003741&Type=HTML
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=ebay

Form 10-K for EBAY INC
29-Feb-2008
Annual Report

http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?dcn=0000891618-08-000046&Type=HTML
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=ebay

Form 8-K for EBAY INC
23-Jan-2008
Results of Operations and Financial Condition, Financial Statements and Exhibits

// 
//  eBay stock price - 29 February 2008
//

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=eBay

EBAY INC (NasdaqGS:EBAY)

After Hours: 26.18 0.18 (0.68%) on 02/29/08
Last Trade: 26.36 Trade Time: Feb 29 Change: 0.91 (3.34%) Prev Close: 27.27 Open: 27.01 Bid: N/A Ask: 27.27 x 3000 1y Target Est: 35.22		Day's Range: 26.17 - 27.08 52wk Range: 25.64 - 40.73 Volume: 17,475,127 Avg Vol (3m): 15,744,000 Market Cap: 35.66B P/E (ttm): 104.19 EPS (ttm): 0.25 Div & Yield: N/A (N/A)

// 
//  Detail data on "sdc" sellers.
//

This data is not meant to be all inclusive. It does provide a means to verify facts, and generate leads to more information.

• Listing counts are from the eBay.com site. I.E. these are not counts from eBayExpress.com nor Shopping.com nor Half.com nor any site but eBay.com.
• For some Google archive data, see the date the item was archived.
• Use the Google "cached" option.
• To see more Google archive use the "repeat the search with the omitted results included" option.

News publication AuctionBytes stipulating on the record verification of at least 80,000 listings for one eBay.com seller.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m03/i05/s03
"the fact that when AuctionBytes looked at one Shopping.com selling account on Saturday morning, it indicated the seller had over 80,000 listings on eBay.com" Ina Steiner, 05 March 2008

sdc_prod_301013_74
aka The Twister Group  (27,291 listings 2/29/2008)
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_301013_74&ftab=AllFeedback
505 positive feedback,  0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Oct-18-06 in Illinois, United States    
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_301013_74  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:nGCP4ib50X4J:search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_301013_74+sdc_prod_301013_74
"27076 items found"
http://pages.suddenlink.net/docswife/Fake_eBay_Listings2.htm
http://www.companyexposed.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/ebay-seller-sdc-prod-301013-74-a-v-accessories-cables-desktop-laptop-accessories-items-on-ebaycom.png
http://www.companyexposed.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/olympus-260302-evolt-e-10-starter-kit-ebay-item-200203133477-end-time-mar-26-08-14-35-44-pdt.png
http://www.companyexposed.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/place-a-bid.png

sdc_prod_305839_99
aka BargainBasementBatteries 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_305839_99&ftab=AllFeedback
7 positive feedback, 148 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Oct-30-07 in California, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_305839_99  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:QpM59pR2JdMJ:cgi.ebay.com/RBC7-for-APC-Smart-UPS-1000XL_W0QQitemZ220205254001QQihZ012QQcategoryZ44963QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_305839_99
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:DS3GG6zXiPoJ:cgi.ebay.com/GP388-Two-Way-Radio-Battery-7-2-volts-Li-Ion-1400-mAh_W0QQitemZ220206831899QQihZ012QQcategoryZ35165QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_305839_99
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:noDieNpXPuoJ:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D220206820744%26ih%3D012%26category%3D46706%26ssPageName%3DWDVW%26rd%3D1+sdc_prod_305839_99
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:13lDN7y4IHAJ:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D220206840342%26ih%3D012%26category%3D31513%26ssPageName%3DWDVW%26rd%3D1+sdc_prod_305839_99
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:MVdOb-vVDPoJ:cgi.ebay.com/Aspire-1301XV-Laptop-Battery-9-6V-Ni-MH-4000mAh_W0QQitemZ220206826809QQihZ012QQcategoryZ50390QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_305839_99
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:9hMQHjW-HvgJ:cgi.ebay.com/Aspire-1307LC-Laptop-Battery-9-6V-Ni-MH-4000mAh_W0QQitemZ220206826435QQihZ012QQcategoryZ50390QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_305839_99

sdc_prod_310426
aka ANTOnline  (21,798 listings 2/29/2008) 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_310426&ftab=AllFeedback
0 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008, Not a registered user
Member since Feb-15-08 in Georgia, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_310426  [Google archive, use cache link]
395 pages, with 25 items per page. 394 x 25 = 9,850 items
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:79FfxT1PdwsJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/List.html%3FUserId%3Dsdc_prod_310426+sdc_prod_310426&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:nPDK_hOHHnYJ:cgi.ebay.com/Revlon-MoistureStay-Fast-Heat-Paraffin-Bath-RSV1212_W0QQitemZ120227712889QQihZ002QQcategoryZ33163QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_310426
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:h1d5zecY9ugJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120225811907%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_310426
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120225811907%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=6&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_310426%26start%3D30%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:VjhJfZtF7sAJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120225360950%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_310426
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120224895939%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_310426%26start%3D30%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:-gm9kAaw7xoJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120224930838%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_310426
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120224930838%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_310426%26start%3D70%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN

sdc_prod_409455_97
aka Sababa Shopping
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_409455_97&ftab=AllFeedback
104 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Jul-16-07 in New York, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_409455_97  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:wdbbmSkSv5YJ:cgi.ebay.com/Joe-Frazier-Signed-Everlast-Boxing-Shoe_W0QQitemZ310025760330QQihZ021QQcategoryZ27272QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_409455_97
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:RS6-QlnYA2sJ:cgi.ebay.com/Streamlight-Jr-Luxeon-LED-Light_W0QQitemZ310025774047QQihZ021QQcategoryZ106987QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_409455_97
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:oJ62cj__odoJ:cgi.ebay.com/Doh-Doh-Doh-Doh-Bushings-Red-95_W0QQitemZ310025775386QQihZ021QQcategoryZ11740QQcmdZViewItem+Sababa+Shopping

sdc_prod_434012
aka SpectrumSuperStore  (35,002 listings 2/29/2008)
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_434012&ftab=AllFeedback
0 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Apr-11-07 in California, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_434012  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj179/thevirginmarypretzel/paddedlistings.jpg
http://www.companyexposed.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/ebaycom-seller-list-sdc_prod_434012.png
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:xMl5SZU-ESsJ:cgi.ebay.com/Hybrid-Series-76-Key-Keyboard-Case-EA-BGHB-76_W0QQitemZ320222873077QQihZ011QQcategoryZ85858QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_434012
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:XcX-QQRk69EJ:cgi.ebay.com/WB700-ALUMINUM-WORK-BENCH-1_W0QQitemZ320222203965QQihZ011QQcategoryZ67719QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_434012
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:ie1RFfPfftoJ:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D320199419130%26ih%3D011%26category%3D41424%26ssPageName%3DWDVW%26rd%3D1+sdc_prod_434012
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:kFB33ls7-SwJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D320220845477%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_434012
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D320220845477%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_434012%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

sdc_prod_442675_57
aka Boyne & Kelly L.L.C.  (4,702 listings 2/29/2008)
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_442675_57&ftab=AllFeedback
0 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Oct-25-07 in New Jersey, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_442675_57  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:eJS01HGdc2MJ:cgi.ebay.com/7-Wonders-of-Ancient-World-PSP_W0QQitemZ120214123226QQihZ002QQcategoryZ378QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_442675_57
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:W2o81DDL3EEJ:cgi.ebay.com/Luxury-Paraffin-Bath_W0QQitemZ120227861327QQihZ002QQcategoryZ33163QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_442675_57
http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html?itemNo=120227877849&FeedBackPercent=0
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120227877849%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_442675_57%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:RdTfjWou1rQJ:cgi.ebay.com/Widepath-Tempo-Upright_W0QQitemZ120213667347QQcmdZViewItem%3Fhash%3Ditem120213667347+sdc_prod_442675_57
Widepath Tempo Upright - eBay (item 120213667347 end time Mar-21 ...
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:RdTfjWou1rQJ:cgi.ebay.com/Widepath-Tempo-Upright_W0QQitemZ120213667347QQcmdZViewItem%3Fhash%3Ditem120213667347+sdc_prod_442675_57
1GB 1066MHZ DIMM DDR3 - eBay (item 120224872850 end time Mar-21-08 ...
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:3hWj_pz6kVQJ:cgi.ebay.com/1GB-1066MHZ-DIMM-DDR3_W0QQitemZ120224872850QQihZ002QQcategoryZ111425QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_442675_57
2GB KIT 1333MHZ DDR3 - eBay (item 120226065068 end time Mar-24-08 ...
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:k-5_eMw0X4kJ:cgi.ebay.com/2GB-KIT-1333MHZ-DDR3_W0QQitemZ120226065068QQihZ002QQcategoryZ111425QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_442675_57

sdc_prod_9021_2
aka Buy.com  (12,233 listings 2/29/2008)
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9021_2&ftab=AllFeedback
0 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008, Not a registered user
Member since Feb-22-08 in California, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9021_2  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:QAXuEnq4G4wJ:cgi.ebay.com/Spalding-79465-NBA-54-Inch-Basketball-Backboard-and-R_W0QQitemZ110228789630QQihZ001QQcategoryZ21196QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9021_2
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:Yd2XfmHiLA8J:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D110228791004%26ih%3D001%26category%3D306%26ssPageName%3DWDVW%26rd%3D1+sdc_prod_9021_2
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:5MkhNRgk0uYJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D110228785954%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_9021_2
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D110228785954%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=10&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9021_2%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html?itemNo=110228785954&FeedBackPercent=0
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:8N4t76pH5uIJ:cgi.ebay.com/Fraudulent-and-Exaggerated-Claims-in-Pi_W0QQitemZ110228803086QQihZ001QQcategoryZ378QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9021_2

sdc_prod_9055
aka Focus Camera  (1,925 listings 2/29/2008)
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9055&ftab=AllFeedback
235 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Oct-30-07 in New York, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9055  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:vL_bdzKpE-wJ:cgi.ebay.com/Canon-Printer-Ink-Canon-PGI-9-Yellow-Ink-Tank_W0QQitemZ220206475064QQihZ012QQcategoryZ51292QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9055
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:OK3sbJCL5p0J:cgi.ebay.com/Canon-Printer-Ink-Canon-PGI-9-10-Color-Pack_W0QQitemZ220206475061QQihZ012QQcategoryZ51292QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9055
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:Xkp36kduKuAJ:cgi.ebay.com/Kenwood-Alpine-in-Dah-CD-MP3-WAV-CD-IPOD-USB_W0QQitemZ220206476932QQihZ012QQcategoryZ307QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9055
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:IbN3pjB5bN0J:cgi.ebay.com/SDI-Ihome-IH9B6R-Alarm-Clock-Radio-for-Ipod-Black_W0QQitemZ220204798292QQihZ012QQcategoryZ84082QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9055

sdc_prod_9074_35
aka pcRUSH.com   (21,401 listings 2/29/2008) 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9074_35&ftab=AllFeedback
0 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008, Not a registered user
Member since Feb-28-08 in California, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9074_35  [Google archive, use cache link]
"21481 items found"
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:egtfB3spkuwJ:search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_9074_35+sdc_prod_9074_35
860 pages, 25 items per page. 859 x 25 = 21,475 items
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:8kcIgg6TBCwJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/List.html%3FUserId%3Dsdc_prod_9074_35+sdc_prod_9074_35
http://www.suspendedfromebay.com/postings-archive/sdc_prod_9074_35-1.jpg
http://www.suspendedfromebay.com/postings-archive/sdc_prod_9074_35-5.jpg
Canon 3708A005AA - eBay (item 120227783548 end time Mar-29-08 :39:34 PDT)
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:t83ZZsaKUBoJ:cgi.ebay.com/Canon-3708A005AA_W0QQitemZ120227783548QQihZ002QQcategoryZ61673QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9074_35
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:4VE7CCkI4fMJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120227765257%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_9074_35
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120227765257%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=10&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9074_35%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html?itemNo=120227765257&FeedBackPercent=0

sdc_prod_9090
aka CompSource Inc.  (32,601 listings 2/29/2008) 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9090&ftab=AllFeedback
206 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Mar-26-07 in Ohio, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9090  [Google archive, use cache link]
"32601 items found"
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:fVmNW6F5irIJ:search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_9090+sdc_prod_9090+-product.express.ebay.com+-ebay.auction.co.kr
1301 pages, 25 items per page. 1300 x 25 = 32,500 items
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:FxeShIuGsq4J:ebay.auction.co.kr/List.html%3FUserId%3Dsdc_prod_9090+sdc_prod_9090
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:p2cKr5hg4-cJ:cgi.ebay.com/Lenovo-3000-N200-Notebook-Intel-Core-2-Duo-T5250-1_W0QQitemZ370018138633QQihZ024QQcategoryZ140083QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9090+-product.express.ebay.com
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:SLywt4rdRRYJ:cgi.ebay.com/Luxury-Paraffin-Bath-Revlon-MoistureStay-Fast-Heat-U_W0QQitemZ370027698377QQihZ024QQcategoryZ33163QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9090+-product.express.ebay.com
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:6UblAGIUYPwJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D370027703589%26FeedBackPercent%3D93.2+sdc_prod_9090
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D370027703589%26FeedBackPercent%3D93.2&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9090%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
HON Mentor Series Single Pedestal Desk - Rectangle - - eBay (item 370016020192
  end time Mar-21-08 23:28:22 PDT)
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:eENzLiVfg80J:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D370016020192%26ih%3D024%26category%3D11832%26ssPageName%3DWDVW%26rd%3D1+sdc_prod_9090

sdc_prod_9124_14
akaTheNerds, Inc.  (48,392 listings 2/29/2008) 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9124_14&ftab=AllFeedback
259 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Dec-12-07 in Florida, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9124_14  [Google archive, use cache link]
INDEX,LTR,#376-400,25,WE - eBay (item 120213499957 end time Mar-21-08 09:18:05 PDT
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:7uI-xsGbWrcJ:cgi.ebay.com/INDEX-LTR-376-400-25-WE_W0QQitemZ120213499957QQihZ002QQcategoryZ4203QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9124_14
NOTEBOOK,5SUBCLG,11X9,AST - eBay (item 120213501400 end time Mar-21-08 09:19:12 PDT)
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:L-FmypDv-oAJ:cgi.ebay.com/NOTEBOOK-5SUBCLG-11X9-AST_W0QQitemZ120213501400QQihZ002QQcategoryZ60271QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9124_14
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:ZzyC1hqSDe0J:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120213540500%26FeedBackPercent%3D97.7+sdc_prod_9124_14
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D120213540500%26FeedBackPercent%3D97.7&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9124_14%26start%3D60%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html?itemNo=120213540500&FeedBackPercent=97.7

sdc_prod_9352_67
aka Digital Foto Club  (30,278 listings 2/29/2008) 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9352_67&ftab=AllFeedback
922 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since May-28-07 in New York, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9352_67  [Google archive, use cache link]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:9TJtexR6ptsJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D270214141173%26FeedBackPercent%3D98.7+sdc_prod_9352_67
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D270214141173%26FeedBackPercent%3D98.7&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9352_67%2Bitems%2Bfor%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:xtXD8nksrckJ:cgi.ebay.com/Crosley-ST73-CH-Richmond-Entertainment-Center-Stereo_W0QQitemZ270214141288QQihZ017QQcategoryZ20488QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9352_67
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:rs5hKtPhMu8J:cgi.ebay.com/Canon-Printer-Ink-Canon-PGI-9-Red-Ink-Tank_W0QQitemZ270214133563QQihZ017QQcategoryZ51292QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9352_67
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:9x61N_X0Qf0J:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D270214140109%26FeedBackPercent%3D98.7+sdc_prod_9352_67
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D270214140109%26FeedBackPercent%3D98.7&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9352_67%2B%26start%3D490%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN

sdc_prod_9391_43
aka Adorama  (11,102 listings 2/29/2008) 
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9391_43&ftab=AllFeedback
0 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008, Not a registered user
Member since Feb-22-08 in New York, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9391_43  [Google archive, use cache links]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:4OzbhDP_92QJ:search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsdc_prod_9391_43+sdc_prod_9391_43+%22items+for+sale
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:VU7vSCdRVFQJ:cgi.ebay.com/CTA-Digital-Grand-Scale-iPod-Home-Theater-Speaker-Sy_W0QQitemZ110227893470QQihZ001QQcategoryZ1499QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9391_43
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:WghAkj7ZI3cJ:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D110227905896%26ih%3D001%26category%3D111650%26rd%3D1%26ssPageName%3Dmem_guide:5+sdc_prod_9391_43
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:BgHMQo9x8vAJ:ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D110227897474%26FeedBackPercent%3D0+sdc_prod_9391_43
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://ebay.auction.co.kr/detail.html%3FitemNo%3D110227897474%26FeedBackPercent%3D0&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsdc_prod_9391_43%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN

sdc_prod_9452
aka eTronics, Inc.  (24,499 listings 2/29/2008)
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sdc_prod_9452&ftab=AllFeedback
78 positive feedback, 0 listings 3/2/2008
Member since Jul-25-07 in New York, United States
www.google.com/search?q=sdc_prod_9452  [Google archive, use cache links]
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:PLDjjwBGjLoJ:cgi.ebay.com/Vicks-V965-Comfort-Flex-Digital-Thermometer_W0QQitemZ150220736330QQihZ005QQcategoryZ117026QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9452
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:jOwntMKvykgJ:cgi.ebay.com/WaterPik-WP-65-Dental-System-Blue-Reservoir_W0QQitemZ150220273422QQihZ005QQcategoryZ108691QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9452
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:pekb_zdKSwsJ:cgi.ebay.com/WaterPik-WP-65-Dental-System-Blue-Reservoir_W0QQitemZ150220447075QQihZ005QQcategoryZ108691QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9452
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:RBjV6gcI01EJ:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D150220157214%26ih%3D005%26category%3D47092%26rd%3D1%26ssPageName%3DWD3+sdc_prod_9452
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:HhCV1-Eh8yAJ:cgi.ebay.com/Bogen-3156-Folding-Autodolly_W0QQitemZ150219029808QQihZ005QQcategoryZ30080QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9452
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:0ibMKyEJt9QJ:cgi.ebay.com/Kicker-06ZX7501-750-Watt-Mono-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ150220613724QQcmdZViewItem%3Fhash%3Ditem150220613724+sdc_prod_9452
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:cuW0f2sePQAJ:cgi.ebay.com/Back-to-Basics-SE2000B-Smoothie-Elite-Smoothie-Maker_W0QQitemZ150219799501QQihZ005QQcategoryZ20668QQcmdZViewItem+sdc_prod_9452

// 
//  Complaint about the accuracy of the data in this article - 1 March 2008
//

http://forums.ebay.com/search.jspa?q=&objID=f21&dateRange=all&userID=sellitallonline

From eBay Seller Central Forum
SIGN THE PLEDGE _ NO SALES FEB 18-25!
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000636290&start=10040

sellitallonline (2278) View Listings | Report  Mar-01-08 10:23 PST     23114 of 23164
I don't know what is going on....maybe eBay is innocent.

http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2008/02/from-ebay-sel-1.html

 

sellitallonline (2278) View Listings | Report  Mar-01-08 11:53 PST     23126 of 23164
broadview1313

I don't need permission to print a link. In regard to the information on that link. Well, it is not me and if the information is correct or incorrect that would be up to eBay to decide and for them to take action against or toward the person posting on that website. If it is incorrect then I hope eBay does go after that person. I was giving a link hopefully shed some light on eBays innocents. Merry Christmas

//
//  The right to publish this type of report - U.S. Supreme Court - 1988
//

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=485&page=47

1988, CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST:

At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. "[T]he [485 U.S. 46, 51] freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty - and thus a good unto itself - but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole." Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 503 -504 (1984). We have therefore been particularly vigilant to ensure that individual expressions of ideas remain free from governmentally imposed sanctions. The First Amendment recognizes no such thing as a "false" idea. Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 339 (1974). As Justice Holmes wrote, "when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas - that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market . . . ." Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) (dissenting opinion).

The sort of robust political debate encouraged by the First Amendment is bound to produce speech that is critical of those who hold public office or those public figures who are "intimately involved in the resolution of important public questions or, by reason of their fame, shape events in areas of concern to society at large." Associated Press v. Walker, decided with Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 164 (1967) (Warren, C. J., concurring in result). Justice Frankfurter put it succinctly in Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 665, 673 -674 (1944), when he said that "[o]ne of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures." Such criticism, inevitably, will not always be reasoned or moderate; public figures as well as public officials will be subject to "vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks," New York Times, supra, at 270. "[T]he candidate who vaunts his spotless record and sterling integrity cannot convincingly cry `Foul!' when an opponent or an industrious reporter attempts [485 U.S. 46, 52] to demonstrate the contrary." Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy, 401 U.S. 265, 274 (1971).

//
//
//

Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984
eCRATER EventHorizon1984
eBay World_Securities

From eBay Search Forum - More about Best Match:

From eBay Search Forum
More about Best Match:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000511099&tstart=0&mod=1202165121692

julie_lavee@ebay.com View      Feb-04-08 14:45 PST
Hello everyone…This is Julie on the Finding team. As Bill mentioned, Best Match will become the new default sort in search and browse in March. I’d like to give you more details about Best Match and the changes we are making to it.

As most buyers and sellers know, eBay’s Best Match sort option is an important Finding innovation that is intended to help buyers find relevant items quickly and easily. Best Match has been a sort option on our site for over a year, and it has been the default sort in other international markets. Since its launch, our data shows that Best Match helps buyer conversion more than any of our other sort methods. That’s why, starting in March, it’s going to become the default sort method site-wide.

julie_lavee@ebay.com View      Feb-04-08 14:46 PST     1 of
How Best Match works
In addition to using factors like the listing end time, Best Match sorts the listings you see based on a concept called “relevance.” A particular listing's relevance is based on past successful buyer behavior for similar items. Essentially, buyers ‘vote’ on relevance every time they search for and buy an item, because these activities provide valuable input into the relevance system.

In other words, if buyers running a particular search often end up viewing, bidding on, or buying a certain type of item more often, this will be factored into our relevance calculations. These types of items might then display higher on the page in subsequent searches.

There are particular areas of the site where relevance plays a more important role in improving the buyer experience (e.g. Nintendo Wii queries) and others where it plays a smaller role (e.g. Collectible lunch boxes queries) We’re committed to using relevance where it drives more buyer success.

It is important to remember that Best Match will not change which listings are returned for a given search. Also, Buyers may still select alternate sort orders, including Time Ending Soonest and Newly Listed from the sort drop down menu at any time. Buyers may also customize their search options to always display their preferred sort as the default.


Adding Seller Performance to Best Match
One thing Best Match has not done is differentiate between sellers who provide consistently positive buying experiences and the small percentage who don’t. In March, we will be enhancing Best Match so that it makes greater use of Detailed Seller Ratings and a seller’s buyer dissatisfaction rate. As Bill Cobb said, this enables us to reward the great sellers on the site with increased listings exposure, and reduce negative buying experiences from sellers with high rates of buyer dissatisfaction.

For great sellers: Sellers with all DSRs of at least 4.6 within the last 30 days will get higher visibility in search results than sellers who have lower rates of customer satisfaction.

Sellers with high buyer dissatisfaction rates: Sellers with buyer dissatisfaction rates greater than 5% in the last 30 days or lower than 4.2 on the Shipping and Handling Charge DSR will experience decreased exposure for their listings in search results. This affects only a small percentage of all sellers and listings, but will make a big difference for our buyers.


In summary
We hope you’ll agree that this will be a positive change for the eBay marketplace and we welcome your questions and comments. We’re committed to helping buyers have the best experience on eBay as possible.

lin***  (4611 ) View      Feb-04-08 14:58 PST     2 of
No, we do not agree!!!!

Only an idiot will continue to list auctions here if they have no guarantee of ever being seen at the prime top spot on the search results pages.

If I am correct I can sit back and watch this site self destruct quicker than ever before!

dor***  (955 ) View      Feb-04-08 15:03 PST     3 of
Can you tell me how this is going to work with auctions? Don't you (we) want items that are ending soon to be more visible than those that are ending later? I'm obviously a non search expert, lol, but if I search auctions for pink elephants-I want to see the ones that are ending soon so I don't miss them incase one of those in the one I want. Is there some kind of default that at least gives you the ones that end in 2-3 hrs upfront?

D

fin***  (2951 ) View      Feb-04-08 15:13 PST     4 of
Hi Julie..

I am a Platinum Powerseller with over 3000 100% Positive Feed Backs. I am in the Toys and Hobbies category that has already been affected by BEST MATCH and I can tell you IT DOES NOT WORK. I have been on the phone with Ebay the past two weeks. They can not give me an answer as to why with a 5.0 DSR rating and very good listings my items appear on page 4, 7, 8. My sales have been destroyed and I am just about to close down my store is this issue is not rectified. So you can all make all the announcements you would like and tell us how BEST MATCH is SUPPOSE to work...BUT it reality unless you are a LARGE VOLUME SELLER WITH .99 cents auctions not minding selling you items for pennies.. BEST MATCH IS NOT FOR YOU. Sorry but it has been two weeks of disappointment. All the hard work I have put into my store to make it was it was and you all took that away by the flick of a switch.

the***  (2 ) View      Feb-04-08 15:22 PST     5 of
"our data shows that Best Match helps buyer conversion more than any of our other sort methods"
HOW was this data gathered?  And more importantly how are you comparing data ... mine against whose?

"It is important to remember that Best Match will not change which listings are returned for a given search. Also, Buyers may still select alternate sort orders, including Time Ending Soonest and Newly Listed from the sort drop down menu at any time. Buyers may also customize their search options to always display their preferred sort as the default."
Then answer WHY I keep (and have been) being dumped into Best Match, when I have clearly changed back to the sort I want?
In addition, my preferences are NOT being honored ... and this is nothing new.

eBay has provided mixed messages for years on various issues and this whole experience has been no exception.

It's nice to welcome our questions and comments, but of late I've not seen a PINK answering any questions, especially when the issues seem to be contrary to what has been stated by eBay.

Thanks for listening ...
the_ospreys_nest

lin***  (4611 ) View      Feb-04-08 15:26 PST     6 of
osprey...sure it does. People load up on those 99 cent items. lol

But, let's see how long they shop here when that is all the site has left for sale.

egn***  (1222 ) View      Feb-04-08 15:32 PST     7 of
As a collectible seller best match is by far the worst thing Ebay has ever done . If you want everyone to sell new chinese junk then just say it and we will go elsewhere.

As a default for auctions it makes no sense. The most important thing about an auction is its ending time.

You might as well just do away with the collectible categories now. Oh how I wish Google would buy Ebay and show everyone at Ebay what a pink really is as in pink slip.

All the collectible sellers have been telling you for a year that this won't work and we don't want it . But you know what, you know more than my years of collecting and the hundreds of combined years of sellers experience in the collectible categories.

When the collectible categories fall flat and all your good sellers leave you will ask yourself why didn't we listen.

das***  (719 ) View      Feb-04-08 16:25 PST     8 of
Julie,

I have to ask, How long do you search EVERY DAY. I do the same searches every day. How will this help. I will now have to go through every page of every search every day.

I used BM last week on one of my searches (VW Key). On the first page half way down was a good seller with a store and his item ended in 2 hours. Above that (top 10) was a stock photo of a "switch blade" blank at more than the going price for a seller I have not seen before. Oh yea that item ended in a few days too.

Now yes you say we can "switch" to the search preference we want but, 1) who will tell this to the new user that will come here and then leave 2) how long will this last till it is the only search (we were told that BM would never be a default search).

eBay really needs to use the site they are running. The more these changes happen the more we see that you don't use this site. Oh and before you look at this ID and say that I have not been around here long, This is my business ID (this is my full time job). My personal ID is WM971252, Yea I have been around for a bit.

lil**  (4335 ) View      Feb-04-08 17:12 PST     9 of
Best Match is a Major Disaster. Leave that trash on ebay express.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com       Feb-05-08 14:48 PST       23 of
Good Afternoon Everyone

dorothysew, egnatz1, fflustred: As I mentioned in the posts above, we do understand that relevance plays a more important in certain categories than others (like collectibles). End time will continue to be an important factor in the overall relevance score in these areas.

dasbullihaus: There are no plans to remove the other sort options (Time Ending Soonest, Newly Listed, etc) from the site, and users can continue to set their preferred sort option as their customized default.

all*about*horses: Only sellers with an unacceptable DSR score will be demoted – we will not be demoting sellers with no DSR score.

Ussearch: Best Match is currently the site default for our UK and France sites.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com        Feb-05-08 16:24 PST       33 of
Hi spombo: Best Match is just a sort. Playground is an environment where we can show the community new features and solicit feedback. You're getting different results there because the search actually is different. The best place for comments on the Playground results are on the Feedback on Finding 2.0 (New Search & Browse) thread tacked to the top of the Search Board.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com        Feb-06-08 16:31 PST       48 of
egnatz, beachgal707 –We’re committed to driving buyer success for auctions and collectibles, and end time is a critical component for success in both of those areas. We know this from our own research, and you’ve told us loud and clear on the boards. Best Match is not a site-wide one-size-fits-all solution, but will be tailored to suit the unique needs on each area of the site.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com       Feb-07-08 08:57 PST       65 of
themagicoftime- (post 55) Yes, 30 day DSR rankings were chosen because it does give sellers the ability to rapidly improve their scores. Your example is correct – the seller would only be demoted for that month, and would receive higher ranking in the sort as soon as their 30 day scores improved. (post 57) You are correct - sellers with no 30 day DSR score will not be advantaged or disadvantaged by the seller performance factors in the sort.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com View        Feb-07-08 10:48 PST       67 of
all*about*horses - Sellers with a Shipping & Handling Charge DSR of 4.2 and lower will decrease in exposure. We are not evaluating the actual shipping charge on the listing.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com        Feb-07-08 11:15 PST       69 of
the_ospreys_nest - Multiple factors including relevance, end time and seller performance factors will play a role in the placement of listings. The length of an auction only plays a role in placement to the extent it affects end time. There is no time of day Best Match starts – it is always on.

Occasional sellers with good 30 day DSRs will be advantaged by the seller performance factors. Occasional sellers without 30 day DSRs will not be advantaged or disdvantaged by these factors.

Regarding sort preferences, I’ll have the developers look into that. I know of an issue on the BIN tab, but I’m not aware of anything else that would prevent your preferences from sticking.

Regarding buyers who do not leave DSRs – I don’t know the answer with any certainty. I’ll look into it and get back to you.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com        Feb-07-08 17:11 PST       83 of
lindaspostcardsandmore - The order of the keywords in your title does not have to match the order of the keywords in the user query.

I'm sorry I don't have any more time to post this afternoon. I'll try to pick up again tomorrow and catch the questions I missed.

//

julie_lavee@ebay.com        Feb-13-08 13:32 PST         107         of

            Hi Everyone - sorry to be away for so long.

the_ospreys_nest: Best Match should not be overriding your customized sort option, and I have raised this issue to our developers. Thanks for reporting the issue.

themagicoftime: Best Match is not currently customized per user. You may be seeing different performance due to customized sort options for different user ids since you won’t see your customized options if you aren’t signed in. I would expect any user without customized sort options to see the same version of Best Match for the same query on the same site. Each site will be tuning Best Match to suit the needs of their own market, so you will see different performance for the same query across different sites.

//
//
//

Comments

pretty_blue_eyes0 ( 2345) View seller's items | View Blog ohhh no more changes?? Feb-04-08 18:40:05 PST

 

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From eBay Stores Forum - A simple vote - Yes or No to the FAUCET THEORY

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

FYI apologist 20th_century_art aka post_a_note posts spin and damage control supporting eBay ...

//

From eBay Stores Forum
A simple vote - Yes or No to the FAUCET THEORY
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000480173&tstart=0&mod=1197298243108

.

kustomkartoons  (1192 )        Dec-08-07 19:10 PST
I'm neither a pessimist or a dreamer. I'm not trying to stir up trouble with anyone.

I just cannot believe the odd patterns developing with my sales and the sales of others that I've read on this board.

So my question is simple. If you honestly believe your items are readily available via search - 24 hours a day and in every area you've designated that you sell....your vote is a NO to the faucet theory.

If you believe (as I do) that something is amiss and your visibility is geographically spotty and downright invisible at times.... your vote is YES to the faucet theory!

I would encourage everyone to vote. I'm curious how some of the staples of this board feel.

Thanks in advance - Rob


Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

108 replies     Date posted     Reply #

dorothysew  (911 )      Dec-08-07 19:18 PST     1 of 108
No, because I can't see a corresponding variation in traffic reports-and I cross check the ebay ones with Andale.

D

disneygurll  (1795 )      Dec-08-07 19:21 PST     2 of 108
Yes! Traffic here is very different from my sales elsewhere.

rustyfarmall  (315 )      Dec-08-07 19:25 PST     3 of 108
Yes. I will get one group of sales that all go to the Northeast, the next group might all go to the Northwest, and yet another group might all stay right here in the midwest, and then the cycle repeats itself.



etexbill  (1479 )      Dec-08-07 19:29 PST     4 of 108
YES, one day over 100+ lookers, 2 days later 0, then the same again time after time after time.

lindaspostcardsandmore  (4553 )      Dec-08-07 19:30 PST     5 of 108
Yes, even in core.

I will get 5 or 6 bids within 30 minutes of each other and then no more for days. Then, 5 or 6 more.

It takes all the motivation out of continuing listing because at times it looks like nothing will sell.

appliancecoverqueen  (209 )      Dec-08-07 19:35 PST     6 of 108
Yes






franksfinefurniture  (62 )      Dec-08-07 19:38 PST     7 of 108
Yes.
I just posted another thread about this. Faucet on last week, amazing sales, faucet off this week, nuthin'.

pattia3  (605 )      Dec-08-07 19:50 PST     8 of 108
Seems to be "All or Nuthin'" around here too.


fleur.de.lis.rising  (583 )      Dec-08-07 19:52 PST     9 of 108
YES. When I have sales, they come in clusters (New York, California, Australia). When I have traffic, my stats show many searches from eBay Australia. Since September I've had VERY LITTLE TRAFFIC, with hits from eBay.uk, .ca, .de, .be, and very few sales (which came from the North Central U.S., and 2 back-to-back from South Carolina).

My recent *first* website sale was from New York.  (Haven't checked traffic stats on my site yet.)


Sigmund F. Spot, FHC

"If I clear my cache anymore, my computer's gonna disappear!"

ranamountain  (980 )      Dec-08-07 20:09 PST     10 of 108
Nope, don't believe it

omostudios  (854 )      Dec-08-07 20:10 PST     11 of 108
Definitely YES! I've experienced much of the same patterns as mentioned by previous posters.

Full-Color Acrylic Animal and Breed Specific Pet Jewelry
Earrings - Key Rings - Necklaces - Tack Pins

trainnut20021  (6023 )      Dec-08-07 20:41 PST     12 of 108
Yes, 4 days ago I got a new bid on a collar....it dissapeared from my ebay. It reappeared in my ebay this morning.

I'd lay money on it that items are not visible for days at a time. Seven day auction may only be visible for three days.


Lee

dacholiday  (1080 )      Dec-08-07 20:47 PST     13 of 108
Yep I believe it.

best-brandname-deals  (701 )      Dec-08-07 20:51 PST     14 of 108
Yes I believe in the faucet theory.

wheeledtoys  (2445 )      Dec-08-07 21:15 PST     15 of 108
Definitely yes!

puddnp  (2054 )      Dec-08-07 21:25 PST     16 of 108
Yes, I also believe it!For over 7 years most of items went to Ca, or the Nor-eastern states, I am an old prep and sell classically prep clothing for the most part! Now selling to midwest and mid-south?....in days gone by, had avg 30-50 core, no store and sold 70% 1st listing,with another 15% on relist. Have over 200 items listed and selling 5%, with giveaway pricing.Do not charge excessive handling, ship the way I always did, have some gorgeous items.??? Carol

how_unique  (1693 )      Dec-08-07 22:04 PST     17 of 108
Yep, can't deny it.

I didn't buy into 'faucet theory' for a long time, but it's become very obvious.

z*nns_vintage  (2381 )      Dec-08-07 22:20 PST     18 of 108
Yes, for lack of any credible alternative explanation.

elsaivymom  (1170 )      Dec-08-07 22:42 PST     19 of 108
Yes. In both time periods of visibility and regional visibility. Sometimes I have a clump of sales to one state or region of the USA in a very short time frame, then nothing for awhile until another geographic area can see my stuff and I have another cluster. Sometimes I sell all west coast, sometimes my sales are all to TX or Minnesota, or NYC. Florida comes in clumps too.

Why did I have 4 sales in two hours today, two sales in an hour the other day and many days with no sales at all?

It just doesn't appear to me to be random.

Fruit Helmutt ducking for cover!

sweetsweetsadie  (288 )      Dec-08-07 23:28 PST     20 of 108

Definitely YES! I've experienced much of the same patterns as mentioned by previous posters.




almostantiquepaper  (1629 )      Dec-09-07 00:17 PST     21 of 108
Put me down for a definite yes. AAP

psychocat1959  (288 )      Dec-09-07 00:23 PST     22 of 108
Yes.
Several times in the last year eBay has come right out and said that they control what the buyers and who the buyers see through the various search options. It may not exactly be a faucet turning on and off, but they are controling who sees your store, how many see it, and how often they see it.

ne1huskers  (11 )      Dec-09-07 01:20 PST     23 of 108
Yes.

Especially when the clusters are international sales. I had a week where 80% of my sales were international, and they were new customers.

I sell used paperback books, so I don't do much international sales because of the high cost of shipping, most are from my repeat buyers, so this was really odd.

paladingamesnhobbies  (2155 )      Dec-09-07 01:49 PST     24 of 108
It's funny that you use the term "faucet theory" as I have often used the word faucet to describe my sales for the past 3 months.
"Someone turned on the customer faucet today!" or "The faucet has been turned off."

The only thing is... my B&M sales are down too. I'm kinda lead to believe that people are a) not really shopping for my items as gifts, and b) expendable income is down for my customers this time of year.
My traffic is slightly above where it was a month ago, and at least double what it was a year ago. Confusing, eh?
-Raine 

 




sportscollectible  (601 )      Dec-09-07 02:51 PST     25 of 108
YES....I believe the stats I see in my sales and traffic....there is NO other explanation. Those stats are too consistent to be ignored.

gardenpartytea  (1802 )      Dec-09-07 03:13 PST     26 of 108
Yes

honiesresale  (3138 )      Dec-09-07 03:22 PST     27 of 108
No, don't believe it. If you run B&M business there are times you'd swear people all gathered at a meeting place and all ganged up at you at the same time. I ran a grocery store and the patterns were all over the place. Days you thought would be busy wouldn't, hours that normally are busy sometimes aren't. You wake up every day and think you can predict the days events and all of a sudden 100 customers come thru the doors when normally less than 10 did.

My day job (the one that pays the bills) is selling cookies to grocery stores in 2 states and about 12 counties. Pretty wide spread area. Sometimes it's a good week up north, but extremely bad down south. Sometimes it's bad everywhere, or good everytwhere... I've done this for 10 years...still can't figure out customers. There are rules... but then there are exceptions to those rules. Like right now, I could always count on the 1st 2 weeks of december to be the slowest 2 weeks of the holiday cookie sales. Yet I saw good movement on most of my displays last week... This is exact opposite of last year. Last year I took that week off and nobody even noticed, if I'd done that this year i'd gotten in a whole heap of trouble.,, So is there a "faucet" where individual stores suddenly "turned me on"? Nope, that's just business.

Speaking of that... In the grocery business there are some certains... for instance if the NWS predicts a winter storm it's certain your going to have a rush on bread and milk. I remember one strange storm rush in about 1994 that for what ever reason suprassed all the other rushes I'd ever seen. I was dairy manager of a fairly large IGA store and by the time the storm hit I didn't have $200 worth of product in my entire dairy department. It was as if we ran a 99% off sale. Not only was the milk gone, so was all the cheese, all the butter, even all the yogurt...the whole store was that way and it took several semi loads of product to get us back in business. Then we didn't sell much for a few weeks. For a while after that we got jittery when the NWS predicted storms but we never did see another rush like that. Why was that one so drastic? Who knows! For whatever reason the "faucet" was turned on.

I know we all love a good conspiracy theory but sometimes things are as things are and little green men aren't always behind it.

However, that being said, with all the poor decisions that ebay has made and the aggresive links to off ebay retailers any more I'm not amazed by slow sales, I'm amazed by any sales at all....especially from my store.




ocean2tides  (965 )      Dec-09-07 03:57 PST     28 of 108
Absolutely YES.

DH and I each have stores. His is very small, with few sales.

But when he does sell, it's nearly always to the same state that I sold things to that same day. And nearly always at the same time or within the same hour.

Just too coincidental.

minnymalse  (880 )      Dec-09-07 04:00 PST     29 of 108
I think there is more than one faucet.

.

clact  (3980 )      Dec-09-07 04:07 PST     30 of 108
NO

Its not the items being hidden or shown but rotational promotion of the items on the site that leads people to think they are hidden/seen.

Items enter a loop of promotion. Promotion means the hundreds of millions of dollars ebay spends on adwords. rotational home page placements etc. Also in terms of Best Match placements.

You can roughly confirm some of this using the category by category stats on Medved. There are wild swings there even though site-wide sell-through is almost always 40% dead on, there are categories with 25-70% sell through swings.

Regarding the home page promotions, there are times when some type of item/items are on the home page and people come out of nowhere for those type items. I mentioned this a long time ago.

In other words my theory is just like stores have items in circular flyers you get in the newspaper and people go to the stores for those items, the same things is happening on Ebay.

Its become more pronounced as the inventory on the site grew.

As someone that sells across many categories I can tell you that there are times when some items are dead, other times are hot.

I also feel that this is why we see things like Store Vacation settings and Ebay Express settings affecting things. It might push our items back near the top of the promotion loop.

I also feel the more things sell and the more traffic they get the more they will sell and more traffic they will get (and promotion they get).

I was able to get my Yoyos to the 1,2 place on Express just by having everyone here search for them (they dont sell from Express of course but they showed up in Best Match page 1 top slots)

I also feel that item numbers have something to do with the promotional loop of fast selling/slower selling/seller ratings . A while back I posted those stats from that top 500 eBay seller report.

You have Jake telling you he has the 1100 series numbers etc etc.

At one time Bill Cobb slipped up during a town hall and that gave a hint that somehow sellers/sellers items are getting some kind of ranking/rating (not sure if anyone remembers that)

The bottom line is that you can still sell and sell well no matter what numbers you have or no matter how your items show or dont show in promotions. By doing your own content and other things you can balance things out.

An interesting question I always have is what are the ethics of how promotional dollars are spent.

Say for example in 2006 - You own an eBay store. The year is strong and Ebay spends 100 million on marketing items.
Your sales are strong.

In 2007 you spend the same on your store, yet other factors lead ebay to cut spending on marketing your items by 50% to 50 million

Same store, same items , same chance of selling items given the same promotional levels etc.

I mean its really hard to judge "worthy items" if the level of promotion is changing.

Its like buying a car based on gas mileage but one month it gets 30 mpg then next 20 mpg but you cannot control it. What if dead period are periods when Ebay cuts marketing costs (as we saw when it pulled google ads) to make earnings. Is that ethical? From a business point of view isnt that part of the picture you would need to know?

I feel showing people things almost anything can sell.

Another issue is before Stores in Core BIN sell through was pegged 10% higher than post SIC. I wonder if that was reset when SIC dropped Ebays unsold auction revenue and the resulting loss of items wasnt as great as expected and that new level was kept (again you can see this on Medved very clearly).

In any case there is one exception to the NO answer.

That is the default settings on how we are seen on foreign sites. Whether US items are showing on the UK site or not, or some are some not, those types of things do affect visibility

Just my thoughts.

Marty

minibeesknees  (645 )      Dec-09-07 05:25 PST     31 of 108
Yes, I've long thought that there could be no other explanation other than some sort of rolling blackout. Although Marty has some good rationale it is less valid if you sell one product to one target market which you sell in only one sub-category and depend very little on ebay's 'traffic' for sales. And you are very familiar with your market not to mention you've been selling on ebay almost ten years.

It isn't so much the slumps in sales that I can't explain, it is the sudden huge spurt of buyers, and sales that double or triple my target in one month that I can't especially if I do absolutely nothing different. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I did to double predicted sales in some months so that I can do it again. Should be simple to do with a basic store, one product line and a very specific hobby target market. Couldn't do it...just like a tap being turned on and offf, those sales will just come to a complete halt.

tanjastore  (Private )      Dec-09-07 05:33 PST     32 of 108
No

oldspartantrader  (3426 )      Dec-09-07 05:42 PST     33 of 108
No -- Because a faucet is controlled -- Although I do believe there is some cycling I do not believe it to be purposefully controlled

Marty's promo theory is likely partly true -- It does not however explain geographic distribution that is a statistical anomoly

Carl

turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 05:48 PST     34 of 108
Absolutley yes. If somebody tells me how to get a screenshot here on the board, I will proof it.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

kustomkartoons  (1192 )      Dec-09-07 06:06 PST     35 of 108
turtle,

One of your keys should say prt sc on it. You may have to press a "function key" (perhaps the same color as the prt sc key) at the same time.

That function copies the contents of your screen image to the clipboard. The open a software editing tool (I use irfanview) and paste (ctrl V) it. The image should then be available for cropping and saving. I then upload the image to my web site for hosting and use the normal img src html command to post it here on the boards.

See how simple that is? 


Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 06:07 PST     36 of 108
Ok I figured it



Look at last year december 6, 7, 8 and 9.

0 Traffic with an average of 600 items listed in core and store.

While december is always my slowest month, it cannot be that you get no hits for 4 days. The entire december last year was ridiculous anyway. It dropped from usually $2000 sales a month to $120 sales.

This is only one example, I could show more from different months with no or almost no trafffic, while my average in normal months is 400 hits a day.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

kustomkartoons  (1192 )      Dec-09-07 06:10 PST     37 of 108
BTW,

The tally is 28 YES votes to 5 NO votes.  I have thrown out one NO vote based on the posting patterns of said poster


Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

severelashing  (0 )      Dec-09-07 06:12 PST     38 of 108
It's a definite fact that search is not returning consistent results.

The simplest explanation for this is Whitman's failure to invest in infrastructure, qualified technicians, and real programmers.

I do agree about the country promo rotations, and the retail "Banana theory" (people come in bunches) having an effect on our experiences.

turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 06:15 PST     39 of 108
This phenomen of non visibility patterns is going on already since several years, like my traffic records clearly show. I do have fluctuations in my webstores too, but not to that extreme.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

kathieskorner  (3486 )         Dec-09-07 06:15 PST       40 of 108
Not sure I would term it a faucet, but yes something strange has been taking place for the past 18 months.

I still believe it can all be traced back to when the numbering system for listings was changed so that all items in a seller's store started with the same two digits regardless of category. It seems logical that with the expansion of the numbering system also came an increase in the number of servers used. The servers seem to be rotated on a regional basis possibly through a promotional cycling as Marty explained.

My store is too small and the items too diverse to be able to determine a pattern, but I believe there is one.

tresrhnter  (2186 )      Dec-09-07 06:16 PST     41 of 108
No.

I don't believe ebay is deliberately turning a faucet on and off. I think marty has it right and/or ebay has so very much messed up their software that they just can't find their way back. and if others are right that ebay wants to become something other than it is now, a portal, then maybe they don't care. maybe they feel they have to give that up to get their site to where they want to be down the road. search results may be the baby thrown out with the bath water.

sandrarn83  (2888 )      Dec-09-07 06:16 PST     42 of 108
Yes but it's related to Ebay's ability to manipulate servers. Based on what criteria besides geographical and the soon to be DSR's who knows. You can watch the traffic manipulation in action via your Omniture account. As it was pointed out to me once by a very wise person- natural traffic doesn't have stair steps. Natural traffic creates a random pattern. Omniture and Ebay's traffic flow to my store does not. You could climb the stair steps in my Omniture graph. It's directly proportional to the amount of server manipulation that Ebay now does. Hopefully some very sharp legal team will see it the same way in the future.

normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 06:16 PST     43 of 108
Yes, when we had a store. Based on our traffic reports during this time, we thought that eBay programming rotated through the stores. Not only based on location, but the product category we sold in. Hence the theory we called the ‘Roller Coaster Theory’.

Norm





kustomkartoons  (1192 )      Dec-09-07 06:22 PST     44 of 108
here is my omniture page views for December.... what a drastic difference from last year..... I'm doing nothing different.... running about the same amount of core auctions..... bla bla bla




Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

mljcarman  (2852 )      Dec-09-07 06:34 PST     45 of 108
Yes, I agree. I get a whole bunch of sales from a state that I rarely sell to all at once and then nothing from that state again for months. And I will have a whole bunch of sales one day in one category and nothing else and then the next day a whole bunch of sales in a totally different category and no others. It seems really wierd.

I also work grocery retail and we pull our hair out trying to figure out how to order and what kind of sales we will have. But it is predictable that a snow storm will bring them in and after a major storm every time they say snow you can expect a panic buying attack.

But otherwise it is hard to know how many people will buy a certain item. Some of it depends on competition who may have an item at a lower price than we do.

Ebay is somewhat similar in that a lot of sales depend on how many competitors you have for the same items.



turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 06:38 PST     46 of 108
I have similar traffic results druing the last year. some days 600-700 hits, the next day 10 hits (store) and so on.

I always compare with my website, where I do not have equal sales every day, but I do have equal hits every day.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

golfingaddict  (12042 )      Dec-09-07 06:59 PST     47 of 108
ebay (UK) is going to disadvantage sellers in search if they have poor shipping rating feedback.

So you might ask, what does this have too do with this thread?

I think that they have proven that they can manipulate at whim who is seen and where they are seen and I have no doubt that they have been testing these manipulations. One thing that is for sure, ebay always tests things.

If they have the capability to disadvantage sellers because of feedback star, don't you think that they have also built in other ways to advantage and disadvantage stores, sellers and listings?

turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 07:06 PST     48 of 108
Good point golfing!
And I need to say, I have noticed a pattern directly resulting to my posts here on the board.
During my move, when I couldn't post on the board for over 3 weeks, I had the best sales ever. As soon as I started posting and blaming ebay of things, my sales dropped into the basement.

Maybe we should stay away from here all together and find an other froum where we can chat.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 07:15 PST     49 of 108
LOL Turtle! We call this the ‘Pimping Technique’ in the Information Systems arena. Basically, don’t tick the people in IS off. We can control everything.

Norm





turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 07:31 PST     50 of 108
I guess I am outta here. I'll still read the board, but I won't post any more. Only if I have something positive to say about ebay.

May not be too often.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

sandrarn83  (2888 )      Dec-09-07 07:51 PST     51 of 108
I guess I am outta here. I'll still read the board, but I won't post any more. Only if I have something positive to say about ebay. May not be too often.

Turtle ROFLMAO Sorry but I have thought the same thing many a time. There is one catch though. Ebay does NOT make money when they limit a seller's visibility. In my case I reduce purchases as well so it's a double whammy for Ebay's revenue. I pay cash from my Paypal account for anything my business buys on Ebay. No money in Paypal means no Ebay purchases. They can't have it both ways. It's up to Ebay whether or not they want their pockets lined with money.

bribaiki  (1275 )      Dec-09-07 07:55 PST     52 of 108
Yes.
I too have seen the same things as many other posters mentioned. For quite a while now.
Strange...yes...coincidental...I don't think so.

DH ran into a similar problem 2 nights ago. He had been looking at a particular item for his truck. There was only a few of these items...similar but not the same and all from different locations and all different prices. Now my DH (bless him) searches the same way all the time as he doesn't quite get doing it any other way...I've given up... LOL...needless to say he couldn't find the item he was looking at 2 days prior and it still had a over couple days left and no buy it now. He had written down the name of the seller and the item the night he first looked at it (yes, he writes this stuff down...don't ask...I did...no point), and contacted him. The seller was confused to say the least as the item was still available. I helped DH do a different search and still nothing. Well last evening he went looking again and there it was...less than a day left on it...had bids...so where was it? Don't know...but it was getting bids all along (we checked the bidding history).




Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 07:56 PST     53 of 108
Turtle,

Don't be too quick to blame your posts on poor traffic. The likelihood of eBay board watchers forwarding your user id to IS, and them turning your store traffic off is extremely remote, it not totally unlikely. Regardless of the entire bonehead testing or lack of thorough testing that the IS people do, there are still policies and procedures that IS must go through. There are government policies that would control any monkey business on the IS side.

Norm





turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 07:58 PST     54 of 108
Ebay owns so many companies, they don't need the auction income to get rich, they are already. This site is only advertising for their other business, hence they don't mind losing a few $$ here. It is not their main income anyway.





Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 08:03 PST     55 of 108
Now, having a program manipulate traffic based on certain criteria’s is highly probable. Anything can be programmed. Programming it correctly is the key. One line of code or one inadvertent perform statement can cause the whole program to malfunction.

Norm



turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 08:04 PST     56 of 108
Ebay owns so many companies, they don't need the auction income to get rich, they are already. This site is only advertising for their other business, hence they don't mind losing a few $$ here. It is not their main income anyway.


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

golfingaddict  (12042 )      Dec-09-07 08:04 PST     57 of 108
The listing fees are very important to eBay.

doesn't eBay frequently talk about number listings on the site when talking about their quarterly earnings? They certainly do not pride themselves on sell through rate in those discussions.

turtlegaby  (5415 )      Dec-09-07 08:16 PST     58 of 108
Fact is fishy things are going on here and we only can speculate. I just know that I do not get the full 30 day exposure which I am paying for, neither in core nor in store.




Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, come visit our store
shop and fill your Christmas stockings, find tropical seeds and more...

sandrarn83  (2888 )      Dec-09-07 08:24 PST     59 of 108
turtle again you are correct. None of us are getting full exposure for 30 days. We haven't for a very long time. Ebay is Elvis on this site and they make the rules. You are completely at Ebay's mercy as long as you sell here and there is no discussion or recourse about any of the decisions. That's why sellers have grown disgusted enough to sell from their own websites. Yes I know you have a website. I control the selling environment on my website and I know I receive full visibility. I don't want to play games as like you it's my revenue not a hobby. That's why I only provide Ebay with a limited capability to mess with my revenue. I count on ZERO sales from Ebay every month. If I sell something then I am ahead of the game. Ebay has proven to be such a poor partner that I don't provide them with the chance to mess with my revenue anymore.

bribaiki  (1275 )      Dec-09-07 08:28 PST     60 of 108
Yes Turtle,this isn't the first instance we've had either,also with items on the Watch list, and then later close to the item ending I would get an email as well. I think that is why DH writes the stuff down now. Because he does know how to put stuff in the watch area...lol...he's getting better...lol...but when he couldn't "retrieve" his items he was watching...he started writing them down I guess. He gets so frustrated now here...it's kind of amusing at times...LOL...but it is ridiculous not being able to find anything...especially when you have it on your Watch list.





Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

seoulsoulsofun  (780 )      Dec-09-07 08:31 PST     61 of 108
Yes, now I schedule my work around the faucet system. Like the last 2 weeks were full on, I would put everything else on hold till the faucet is off. Now it is closing slowly, I then take this time to stock up, tweak listings. I don't know about the rest of you but I am a No.1 believer. And I don't ask why anymore... exactly.. kinda make sense cos I cannot imagine eBay servers all turn on, I think the whole system would collapse. I use it to my advantage and it is working well for me and my sanity!
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

"They tried to make me go for rehab and I said "No No No".

normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 08:33 PST     62 of 108
Sandra - exactly one of the reasons we closed our store and are now looking forward to our future going in a new direction. One thing we learned, use the Website first, then utilize the occational eBay auction/bin for added traffic. We'll be spending our advertising dollars on the Website, not eBay.

Norm




kustomkartoons  (1192 )      Dec-09-07 08:36 PST     63 of 108
I'd love to see a pink come in here and make a comment... I really would


Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 08:36 PST     64 of 108
We decided that we wanted to control the faucet.





normh915  (3882 )      Dec-09-07 08:39 PST     65 of 108
eBay could tell us whatever they want. Let them prove us wrong. Send me the program code. Then we could all back off the Faucet Theory.

Of course we all know that would never happen.

Norm





accessoriesandgifts  (796 )      Dec-09-07 08:45 PST     66 of 108
No is my vote.
Elaine
http://www.stores.ebay.com/Accessories-Bags-Gifts
Free Shipping within USA on all items

kiwisoutbackk  (1804 )      Dec-09-07 09:02 PST     67 of 108
Based on things we've seen, we'd have to give that a "yes." The huge spike in international sales, the clusters of store items sales followed by no store sales for weeks, the drop in traffic overall to store items, and searching for our own items (and not seeing our items even in the store searches) will make us vote "yes."

Kiwi's Outback: Authentic Designer Handbags

pennantpalooza  (16753 )      Dec-09-07 10:06 PST     68 of 108
Yes, without a doubt.

I often checked to see what my competitors have bought. I like to know what they are will to pay for curtain items and what there make us is.
I will find where they have bought some great deals on items that I look for. The items where in the categories I shop in. Keywords are the ones I search for but the listings we never shown to me. During the 7 days the auctions ran, I never came across the listing. It is no wonder my competitor got a good deal on the item(s).

Mark

oas3  (14980 )      Dec-09-07 10:27 PST     69 of 108
I vote yes. Alot of folks won't see it running 300 or 400 items,but come on up into the 5000 level and above and the pattern is as plain as the nose on your face and gets real crazy at the 15000 item level...

bribaiki  (1275 )      Dec-09-07 10:31 PST     70 of 108
well oas3...I'll have to take your word on that...LOL

Since I will never be listing that much...LOL

I do fall in the 400-500 range, and it is pretty clear in my eyes...I couldn't even imagine what it would be like if I had that many items...

Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

southcarolinajane  (2682 )      Dec-09-07 10:40 PST     71 of 108
Yes---seems Dorothy is only one who votes NO-----

very obvious in traffic, reports, and cash flow!

http://www.squidoo.com/ebaybigshoes/
http://www.southcarolinajane.com
http://www.janemart.com
http://www.kaboodle.com/southcarolinajane

oas3  (14980 )      Dec-09-07 10:44 PST     72 of 108
bribaiki once you cross over the 10,000 item limit ebay can't even keep track of how many items you have for sale it's scary,but pre ebay billy math days money was really flowing at the 15000 item plateau..

southcarolinajane  (2682 )      Dec-09-07 10:49 PST     73 of 108
oops---there are more NO's --missed those---still in minority----and it looks like analysis of the word faucet is vital---

just get the marketing, programming, search corrected, ads removed -- and all would be wonderful! Not in best corporate interest and if all goes as noted---my sales will decline for posting---oh well--Merry Christmas anyway--

http://www.squidoo.com/ebaybigshoes/
http://www.southcarolinajane.com
http://www.janemart.com
http://www.kaboodle.com/southcarolinajane

bribaiki  (1275 )      Dec-09-07 10:53 PST     74 of 108
Wow! Not that I would expect any differently these days, but cripe, with all those items, I agree a seller should be doing quite the profit...not the opposite. But that's using basic logic here... which doesn't apply

I'll never know...LOL

... gosh I couldn't fathom listing that much...and the fees would certainly give me coronary

Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

oas3  (14980 )      Dec-09-07 11:01 PST     75 of 108
bribaiki fees are just a part of life if you're in the business of selling there is always someone wanting a slice of your pie. I don't mind paying fees when I'm selling 7 to 12 grand a month but as I watch sales tumble and pay fees to sit and watch paint dry I get a little goofy...

bribaiki  (1275 )      Dec-09-07 11:14 PST     76 of 108
I couldn't agree more Oas3. I guess that is what I was getting at. Yes, you have to pay not matter what...not a problem...IF your are being exposed and you are getting sales because of exposure. I wouldn't mind paying the lease on a B&M as long as the window wasn't covered by my landlord...

Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

thecountryhorse  (7481 )      Dec-09-07 11:22 PST     77 of 108
YES Indeedy....

 

wheeledtoys  (2445 )      Dec-09-07 11:40 PST     78 of 108
How else can it be explained that I will sell 2 or 3 items in my own area, then 2 or 3 in the Southeast, then a couple of international, then some in New England, than a whole bunch in the West Coast area?

The majority of my sales are grouped like that.

Can anyone give an alternative explanation for that?

wheeledtoys  (2445 )      Dec-09-07 11:40 PST     79 of 108
I'm not saying it's intentional, but it certainly does happen.

bribaiki  (1275 )        Dec-09-07 11:46 PST       80 of 108
That's exactly what I and many others have experienced as well...for quite a while...so I don't believe it to be just a figment of people's imagination. As to intent...another burning question...which I suppose starts to lead people into further believing that what is happening is intentional...because none of the powers that be cares to comment on the subject.

Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

folsomhouse  (1358 )      Dec-09-07 12:36 PST     81 of 108
YES

But I believe it's category related, perhaps due certain categories somehow getting extra exposure at certain times (per Marty's earlier post).

Proof: I'm a small seller selling random collectibles, usually listing a lot of similar items at a time, then letting those that don't sell hang in my store until they do. I had listed a lot of Advertising Tins a year or so ago, and haven't sold one in MONTHS. All of sudden four in the last week.

Even weirder, same thing with Salt and Pepper Shakers, after initial listings and sales, no sales in months... only had a few left that had a US State theme, then all of a sudden all my state themed S&P shakers sold within three days, some within minutes of each other, to different buyers all over the country.

I could go on but things like that happen that make me wonder... something is definitely going on, wouldn't surprise me if even eBay couldn't figure it out.

Jeff

blue*skies*ahead*  (1152 )      Dec-09-07 12:52 PST     82 of 108
Absolutely Yes!

primsaw  (427 )      Dec-09-07 13:00 PST     83 of 108
That would be a big YESSIRREE! eBay has admitted it can manipulate search and plans to manipulate it more in 2008 via the DSR system. If their infrastructure is still suffering, then it could be necessary to rotate our visibility to keep the whole thing from crashing. I can't think of any other reason for rotating visibility geographically except to lighten the load on their system. I too have experienced these patterns of selling only to the west coast one week and then east coast another, and then NOWHERE the following week. I think the zero weeks were supposed to be my international sales weeks. I don't ship internationally hence I get zero those weeks. Hey eBay! Program your visibility rotation thingybob to consider where sellers ship why doncha! I need an extra week of visibility to some USA zones since I don't ship internationally. LOL.

What amazes me is the difference in search results between eBay's regular search and a getitnext search for the same thing. I've been using that search a lot lately.

Kat (primsaw)

etexbill  (1479 )      Dec-09-07 13:00 PST     84 of 108
Quote: "I also feel the more things sell and the more traffic they get the more they will sell and more traffic they will get (and promotion they get)."

I am experiencing the opposite personally. I am letting my store items expire prior to closing my store. A couple of weeks ago, I had over 250 items in my store with no sales. Now, I have 70 items in my store (the same kind of items) and the same amount in core, and I am finally getting sales almost every day. Go figure. The less I have in my store the more sales I am getting. It's like buyers are saying "Hey, let's buy it before it's gone??"

cumos55  (1699 )      Dec-09-07 13:03 PST     85 of 108
The vote appears to be ... YES

But how does eBay do it?

Everyone says it happens to them.. BUT

Is it the same for everyone?

There are so many variables that can affect sales....

So what other variables can affect sales?

Buyer components....Population densities.. income of buyers... Is the need broad-based or narrow?

Seller... type of inventory... uniqueness of inventory... sell US only... or worldwide?... plus ....

Are you a one category seller... or multicategory seller

I suspect that traffic is category based... There is a finite number of people searching each category ... Is each category unique...

From personal experience I believe that traffic begets sales... Traffic is very much in relation to the 30 day cycle ..... while there is no relation between sales and the 30 day cycle..

Buyers are tuned into ending soonest and newly listed. from auctions... and that has carried over into stores.

Trends are more easily observed for stores with large number of listings.... how big should it be...

There are perhaps 50 million listings in stores... How many listings, how many per category, would you have to look at, selected on a random basis, in order to identify if there indeed is a faucet effect.

Which month should you look at? ... or should it be month-by-month for a 12 month period?

Potential buyers may visit, find something and then buy after a specific internal of time......

If there is a regional bias how is it done?

International sales.... How does your inventory fit into the international environment

What is the effect of exchange rates in relation to USPS airmail only... versus what else for international sales...

There are more questions than answers... and there is more than just saying Yes or No to the faucet theory....

The faucet theory is too narrow a focus... Too many other variables...

oas3  (14980 )      Dec-09-07 13:12 PST     86 of 108
cumos55 just find a seller with the same 4 digit beginning item number and compare notes as to location of the daily sales. My five sales today so far are all on the east coast nothing central or west coast..

bribaiki  (1275 )      Dec-09-07 13:26 PST     87 of 108
Same here...East coast only...past couple of days...mainly Upstate New York

Madame Kazoo Kitty says...
" Have no fear...the Fruity's are here ! "

genv  (4215 )      Dec-09-07 13:30 PST     88 of 108
SEARCH availability is DELAYED... up to 12 hours, I've read... The faucet ain't ON cause it wasn't TURNED on.

upndan23  (1170 )      Dec-09-07 13:31 PST     89 of 108
We vote Yes, No question about it. Its a neverending game on this site.

kathieskorner  (3486 )      Dec-09-07 14:43 PST     90 of 108
Three sales in the past 24 hours - all east coast (MD VA and SC).

kustomkartoons  (1192 )      Dec-09-07 15:49 PST     91 of 108
Well....

I'm a total believer in the fact that something, somewhere, somehow is being massaged. Here it is a great day to shop... just a few weeks before Christmas, and I've not had one sale today!

That is very unusual this time of year. My store stats back this up with the fact that there is almost no traffic to my store today.

I sure wish I was much more smarterer...... I'd love to figure out what is going on and how I can adapt.

(ps ... I'm not watching the Steeler game in the hopes that they upset the Pats.... I believe it helps the Steelers when I don't watch them... what a curse )

Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

oas3  (14980 )      Dec-09-07 15:54 PST     92 of 108
I know on the 1500 series server bank I go into the ebay blackhole around 10 pm CST almost every night and comeback into the light around 6 am CST. I'm sure there is nothing to it afterall like my store rep. said most folks are asleep during those hours and thats the reason for slow or no sales..

thisdoor65  (0 )      Dec-09-07 18:05 PST     93 of 108
Absolutely "YES"!

rbiondi  (3500 )      Dec-09-07 18:14 PST     94 of 108
YES

mygift2u  (7087 )      Dec-09-07 18:14 PST     95 of 108
YES. It all has to do with eBay indexing. They do it when they want and not often enough.

My sales come mostly at night.  Lots of night own shoppers for my items.  Always nice to wake up to sales.

PETITION to REMOVE the Star Rating System

pets1213  (152 )      Dec-09-07 18:39 PST     96 of 108
I say YES, but I don't think they are doing it on purpose. I think that whatever server you get shuffled onto depends on many things but mostly space availability. Some days we are on European servers, some days California, some days east coast. Some days on the Antarctica servers. Hardly any hits there.

vetromile  (4401 )      Dec-09-07 19:08 PST     97 of 108
Yes.....

fleur.de.lis.rising  (583 )      Dec-09-07 19:36 PST     98 of 108
most folks are asleep during those hours and thats the reason for slow or no sales..

oas3, I guess eBay has decided that the entire world should have the same bedtime...LOL!

Sigmund F. Spot, FHC

"If I clear my cache anymore, my computer's gonna disappear!"

kustomkartoons  (1192 )      Dec-09-07 19:41 PST     99 of 108
Very disappointing "faucet off" day!!

Thank goodness for the web site

Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!

Turn the faucet back on Meg

psychocat1959  (288 )      Dec-09-07 20:00 PST     100 of 108
Interesting to see others snapshots of their Omniture pages mirror my own very closely. Last year at this time was low, but this year is 2/3rds below that! Granted, November and December are always low months for me, but this year has been the worst. I also think the "on - off faucet" syndrome is indicative of deeper problems at eBay having to do with not up-grading and adding to their technology the way they should. SO much feels patched together, not planned.

Add to that manipulating search and it explains a lot of what sellers here are dealing with.

ccmjem  (2715 )      Dec-09-07 20:27 PST     101 of 108
Add me to the Yes group. Either that or only people in TX, IL and TN are buying books!

mymimi43  (1104 )      Dec-09-07 20:27 PST     102 of 108
I believe in the faucet theory. My sales are almost all in clusters. They always come within a couple of hours and the usually are from the same geographic area. They usually come from either cali or extreme east like the carolinas. Right now its unusual, I have sales from ind, ill, ky. My omniture pages mirror the ones shown by others. My server? number is 1701. Sure wish it was on every day of the week instead of just 3 days a week.

SheRa  Sept 16, 1995 - Nov 17, 2006
Thor Nov 17, 2006 – Nov 26, 2007

I have exactly what you want..........if I can just find it! 

catscole  (1116 )      Dec-09-07 21:24 PST     103 of 108
100% YES Spurts of sales within a few minutes. I'm talking 5 minutes then lights out.

oas3  (14980 )      Dec-09-07 21:37 PST     104 of 108
I got blackholed early this evening 9 sales today all east coast and last one was at 6 pm CST. Folks must have headed to bed early tonight..

consignment_alaska  (7855 )      Dec-10-07 00:41 PST     105 of 108
I have been keeping track of the location of my sales with Google Earth. Here is a screen shot of my 2007 sales. (crossing my fingers this works...)

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/10948349@N06/2100493036/[/img]

oldspartantrader  (3426 )      Dec-10-07 03:39 PST     106 of 108
Here is a screen shot of my 2007 sales

COOL MAP --

It does however appear that your ship to destinations pretty closely mirror population densities --

Carl

tribblekitty  (1775 )      Dec-10-07 05:15 PST     107 of 108
I am definitely a believer in the store "faucet theory". 

My sales are almost all in clusters. They always come within a couple of hours and the usually are from the same geographic area.

Exactly the same phenomenon here.

Has anyone figured out a way I can pay my store & selling fees bases on actual exposure?

lovapet  (3735 )      Dec-10-07 06:50 PST     108 of 108

Yes!!

trainnut20021  (6036 )         Dec-11-07 10:04 PST       109 of 153
Ok I'm getting 7 day core auction items with 1-2 hits in 7 days. Now what's wrong with that picture?

How many people get 1 hit on a core listing in 7 days?

Lee

kustomkartoons  (1198 )      Dec-11-07 10:59 PST     110 of 153
Man....

Almost three days since a sale in my store..... perhaps this is my reward for starting this thread


Kustom Kartoons - The Perfect Personalized Gift!
Turn the faucet back on Meg... Pretty Please

postavent  (0 )      Dec-11-07 11:18 PST     111 of 153
For the first time ever (I've had a store since almost the beginning of stores) I went 30 days with NO eBay store sales. I put my store on vacation yesterday as advised on this board. Today I sold $446. Hmmmmmmmmmm

My website was selling steady during the same period.

etexbill  (1479 )      Dec-11-07 11:28 PST     112 of 153
Quote: "How many people get 1 hit on a core listing in 7 days?"

That's par for the course for me on most items, lately.

20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-11-07 11:48 PST     113 of 153
Lee writes:  Ok I'm getting 7 day core auction items with 1-2 hits in 7 days. Now what's wrong with that picture?

Just a thought... all your item titles start with pretty much the same few words... 'dog supplies' or 'pet supplies.' For instance:


Dog Supplies 3' Nylon Slip Leads Show Loop Lead Red

If I'm a buyer looking for a nice dog leash or lead, I might miss your listing because the word lead (even though you've used it twice) is lost somewhere in the middle and end of the listing. Also, I might not even know the difference between a lead and a leash (according to the dictionary, a lead can be described as a leash), so why not use both words to make sure to hit all the keywords? Also, have you tried moving the keywords to the front and captalizing? Like this...


DOG LEASH Show Lead Fancy Red Nylon Slip Loop 3'

Note I also added the word 'fancy.' I don't know whether you think these are fancy leads or not... but a word like 'fancy' might attract attention. Or 'special.' Or 'durable.' Anything to make YOUR leads, collars or pet supplies seem different from all the others!


Mark

halspaperfair  (9228 )      Dec-11-07 14:49 PST     114 of 153
yes, my sales were so bad about a month ago, i was about a day or 2 from closing the store when all of a sudden sales exploded. they're ok now and not as dead as before. obviously, there'll be ups & downs and you won't have the same sales every day but i felt like i dropped out of sight.

trainnut20021  (6036 )      Dec-11-07 15:07 PST     115 of 153
My store hits on omniture look like a roller coaster. Massive hits one day nothing the next. UP/down...I mean drastic numbers like 186 one day 23 the next. Crazy!


Lee




themagicmountain  (368 )      Dec-11-07 15:19 PST     116 of 153
I thought it was me.

I'll have a day or two of great sales, then nothing

mljcarman  (2865 )      Dec-11-07 19:21 PST     117 of 153
(ps ... I'm not watching the Steeler game in the hopes that they upset the Pats.... I believe it helps the Steelers when I don't watch them... what a curse ) 

I'm glad I'm not the only one that does this but with the Bears for us. They seem to play better if I don't watch them--though it hasn't helped much this year
something strange is going on. I also tried to find one of my items in search to see how many people had the same item and it didn't even come up in the search with the exact title but there were a lot of the same item from competitors listed. How can we sell anything that way. Fortunately I have several buyers that keep my on their favorites to see what I have and buy regularly but don't know if my items even show up unless it is my time to be "on".



stuff-4-me  (29 )      Dec-11-07 22:13 PST     118 of 153
YES. But I don't think eBay can control the faucet. I think between glitches, promotions, international changes, whims of programmers, technology up and down and the "wonderful" serach experience the faucet changes from day to day to day... and even eBay can't figure it out.

But, I do beleive in the faucet theory. That is the only thing that can explain some of the oddities. Some of my product lines sell like gangbusters for a week... then, something changes and the faucet is turned off... and nothing in that line sells for months... then something changes and the faucet is on and I will see that product like crazy for a week.... and so it goes...

quality_consignments  (15 )      Dec-11-07 23:12 PST     119 of 153
lee i see your postings here after divorce and mutlible heart attacks im setting up shops and teaching ebay to people on a part time basis and consult with a few store owners no more powerselling even though i dig the powerseller chicks lol

mrbubbe2  (837 )      Dec-12-07 08:07 PST     120 of 153
yes to the faucet


joe

toontowntreasures  (2872 )      Dec-12-07 08:17 PST     121 of 153
            A very emphatic yes to the faucet theory ,sales of late seem to appear in groups by country , my sales book shows a definite pattern.
Not exactly what we store owners  are paying for , who would open a store if they told you it would appear in random searches??

just-thinking  (11 )      Dec-12-07 11:47 PST     122 of 153
Yes, but I believe it is a wide variety of factors affecting how this "faucet" gets turned on and off.

20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-12-07 12:18 PST     123 of 153
I've yet to see any convincing evidence of the 'faucet.' The Omniture charts I've seen posted are not at all convincing. First of all, PAGE VIEW charts are worthless, since they are not an indicator of how many unique people find your store in search each day, and they include your own views while working on your store. So for heavy listing days, my page views rise dramatically. Or you may have one very curious visitor who spends hours browsing your store... bumping your page views way up.

The best indicator of traffic levels is UNIQUE DAILY VISITORS. This report counts each unique IP only once each day. So it provides a great snapshot of how well your store is being 'found.' And when I look at my UDV stats, I never see any unexplained peaks and valleys. The visitors may increase 25% on days when I list heavily, or they may decrease 25% if I take a break from listing. Thus the variation from peak to valley might look dramatic, but there's not much deviation from the norm. And the deviations there are are entirely explainable.

Someone who has evidence of the 'faucet' in their Omniture Unique Daily Visitors report please post it...

If your store has suddenly been made 'invisible' in searches, then we might expect to see 200 visitors one day and next to none the next day, while you're 'invisible.' Then 200 visitors the following day when the 'faucet' has been turned back on...

Let's see it!



just-thinking  (11 )      Dec-12-07 12:28 PST     124 of 153
I've yet to see any convincing evidence of the 'faucet.'

PAN, how many sellers do you need to hear the same scenerio of a number of items sold in a certain geographical area or international? Or batches of sales and then nothing?

20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-12-07 12:40 PST     125 of 153
J-T,

The problem is people can make up all kinds of theories to explain odd patterns in buying... if you have three sales from the UK in one day you may believe you've suddenly been placed on a UK server. That's a fallacy.

Here's a test... we can all look at our 'Referring Domain' reports in Omniture. We can look at where our traffic comes from by day, by week, by month. As shown here:



Notice that my traffic sources for yesterday compare very well with my overall traffic sources for the month as a whole. I'm getting about 75% of my traffic from ebay.com, and the rest of the sources tend to line up pretty well.

Now, if the faucet theory is correct, if it's true that there are days when our stores are 'invisibible' on eBay, then someone should be able to produce a similar chart showing a day when ebay.com has next to no hits, and is overwhelmed by some other sites. If a 'faucet' proponent can produce such a table... then I'll reconsider the argument.

Make sense?



jake-deals-4u  (673 )      Dec-12-07 12:48 PST     126 of 153
Actually JT you make a good point. More people believe they have seen a UFO than approve of Congress!

Oh & im on the #1200 server & a vast majority of my stuff ships to the areas that marty says people are going broke in record numbers.

So im with you, i believe in UFO & servers that have a little green man inside that turns on & off listings while they spin & rotate

20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-12-07 12:52 PST     127 of 153

More people believe they have seen a UFO than approve of Congress!

But little green men are much more fun than Omniture data!



just-thinking  (11 )      Dec-12-07 12:58 PST     128 of 153
20th_century_art

It does not need to be anything like being placed on a different server but I would surely not rule anything out. What I have suspected for at least a year is that it has more to do with how eBay does targeted keywords for the paid contextual ads. But also believe there are other things going on like ensuring most sellers get enough sales to cover the store costs etc. But that could also be accomplished though contextual advertising. The international spurts could also be due to that. I know programming so know what is possible for them to do and it would be easy to manipulate who and when sales are made on this site and they can tweak it automatically based on certain criteria.

just-thinking  (11 )      Dec-12-07 13:00 PST     129 of 153
Btw 20th_century_art, the new troll jake believes he was given very special item start numbers.

20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-12-07 13:22 PST     130 of 153
J-T,

I presented data... instead of presenting any data of your own, you dismiss my data as possibly 'falsified' by eBay.

So there is simply no arguing the point.

When an argument rest on tin-foil conspiracy theories... well...

So much for the 'faucet.'



20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-12-07 13:24 PST     131 of 153
Btw 20th_century_art, the new troll jake believes he was given very special item start numbers.

If eBay would falsify Omniture reports to hide their manipulation of our store search... certainly they'd have no qualms about giving Jake a special server number! No?



just-thinking  (11 )      Dec-12-07 13:29 PST     132 of 153
20th,

If people could prove it, lawsuits could incur. It really is that simple.

jake-deals-4u  (673 )      Dec-12-07 14:03 PST     133 of 153
Ahhh i see JT, So like if someone stubs their toe @ home, they could blame eBay, sue & make Millions.

WOW im gonna call my lawyer friend rite away. He works for that famous law firm' Dewey-Cheatem-& Howe!

Whish me luck!!!

tilliesteaparty  (638 )      Dec-12-07 14:33 PST     134 of 153
            My vot is YES!


Hip, Chic and Unique Decor & Gifts

20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-13-07 10:13 PST     135 of 153
I posted some Omniture charts above showing that the faucet theory is bunk... at least for my store. I'm curious if any of the faucet supporters have been able to produce the charts for their stores proving their claims?

Still waiting...



jake-deals-4u  (673 )      Dec-13-07 13:53 PST     136 of 153
I cant answer that on the basis of' eBaycentricism.

trainnut20021  (6036 )      Dec-13-07 13:59 PST     137 of 153
We have nothing to prove nor do we need to. I know what my report says and frankly it's not of your business.

You said it best......"at least for my store". This does not mean your numbers represent anyone else but yourself.

Sorry nothing personal.......

Lee

trainnut20021  (6036 )      Dec-13-07 14:00 PST     138 of 153
            not=non

Lee




trainnut20021  (6036 )      Dec-13-07 14:09 PST     139 of 153
Besides you posted the wrong chart anyway. How bout the stores view chart? Not the reffering domain chart.

Lee






katiyana  (4119 )      Dec-13-07 15:01 PST     140 of 153
My vote has to be: I don't know.

My traffic reports don't show days with absolutely 0 traffic - if I understand the faucet theory, there should be no traffic to my items because no one is finding them. I'm not seeing that on my traffic reports.

However, I have found that some days I get more sales than others - I haven't tracked sales by buyer location or time zones or anything like that.

Obviously many people do believe in it.

lehman-parker  (538 )      Dec-13-07 20:52 PST     141 of 153
No.

Like Marty, I think the cycles have a lot to do with eBay's promotions. Also, with what I have in core, how much I've listed lately, whether I've refreshed my google store connector listings, etc.

Pat


kswallace2  (8328 )      Dec-13-07 21:19 PST     142 of 153
Yes, no other explaination.

jeanibe  (2668 )      Dec-13-07 21:30 PST     143 of 153
Yes, first it flows, then it goes.

quality_consignments  (15 )      Dec-13-07 21:51 PST     144 of 153
whats up robert aka jake lol hey hows the ps chicks doin?

pure.plug  (Private )      Dec-13-07 22:03 PST     145 of 153
minnymalse (882 )  Dec-09-07 04:00 PST 29 of 143
I think there is more than one faucet.

ITA- I think there are more than two faucets, in fact, I think there are as many faucets as there are letters in the alphabet. Which means that whenever A-D logged in customers search, all they get are sellers starting their names with E-H, etc. The pattern has been tested, and it looks like everything's based on the alphabet corelated with the names of customers and sellers.
Because my name starts with T (seller account), all I get are customers starting with U-Z.
You should look at your customers first name letters (id names that is, although sometimes another algorithm replaces this one and switches to coordinate last buyer's and seller's real names.
Mystery solved.





meecabay  (1228 )      Dec-13-07 22:13 PST     146 of 153
.......

Yes!

why and/or how ?



.......................

Bye

pure.plug  (Private )      Dec-13-07 22:33 PST     147 of 153
I guess the best way to work the system is to change your name every so often to get a whole range of new customers.
If you Meecabay change your name to lets say Peekabay, you'll start getting Qs, Rs, Ss names.

 
meecabay  (1228 )        Dec-13-07 22:42 PST       148 of 153
........

excuse me 'pure'.... but I must correct your typo......

It is meekababy!

or maybe you think and will vote for:

meekababe!




........
Bye


meecabay  (1228 )      Dec-13-07 22:44 PST     149 of 153
........

just never call me

geekabe


........
Bye


20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-13-07 22:46 PST     150 of 153
Lee writes:  Besides you posted the wrong chart anyway. How bout the stores view chart? Not the referring domain chart.

I've posted all kinds of charts in the past. I'll be glad to post any chart you'd like to see. But remember, when looking at a chart, it helps to understand what the numbers mean. And most everyone who looks at their Omniture reports on a regular basis understands that Page Views and Storefront Page Views can vary wildly, don't represent the actual number of visitors to your store, and even include your own multiple daily visits, while editing, updating, or re-listing your own items. Which means those charts aren't very good for much of anything. And that's why I stated earlier that the best chart to look at is Unique Visitors... because it counts each IP address only once, including your own. So if you look at 100 of your listings during a day, it doesn't get scewed wildly. Or if a single visitor looks at 50 items in your store, that doesn't impact the chart either... take a look:



You can see the page views and store views show a huge spike yesterday. But my sales yesterday were quite average. And when you look at the Unique Visitors Report at the bottom, you see that my visitors yesterday averaged pretty much right on target with every other day, give or take a few. About the same number of people 'found' my store yesterday as every other day this month. And I'm pretty sure the little peaks and valleys in that chart correlate pretty well with days I did more listing.

If my 'faucet' had truly been turned on yesterday, I should have seen lots of sales... at least double my average. But my sales were quite normal, as would be expected with my normal traffic.

So, we get back to the question of why the page view and storefront view charts are so unreliable... well, I can only speculate. But as I mentioned earlier, the page views count YOUR OWN VISITS to your store. And I know while I'm listing or re-listing I might look at my storefront dozens of times during a given day, if not more. Plus, I know that hot listings with multiple bids often get lots of viewers, or gawkers. I had one listing end yesterday that got almost 30 views in the last hour. No doubt most of those were just curious browsers. The same people coming back multiple times to watch how much the item got bid up.

Bottom line: Page View charts are close to worthless for measuring store traffic. They are entirely worthless as evidence for a 'faucet.'

If you've got some charts to prove the 'faucet' theory... feel free to show them!



pure.plug  (Private )      Dec-13-07 22:50 PST     151 of 153
Peekabay, I'll email you tomorrow after I get some sleep kay? Hope everything's ok with you.
Hugs, plug




20th_century_art  (441 )      Dec-13-07 22:59 PST     152 of 153
By the way...

Did you know that when someone looks at one of your auction listings with multiple bids that counts as one page view, then if they click on the 'bid' list to see the bidders that counts as another page view?

So as I said, if you've got one interesting listing with five bidders, for instance, and each one comes back several times during the course of the last hour or minutes... then each time they click on the listing and each time they click on the bidder list they are generating more page view counts.

Here's an example from one of my listings that ended yesterday. Note this is not a listing that's being viewed, it's the bidder status...

But all those clicks generated 'page views' for the page view report.  Meaningless.



meecabay  (1228 )      Dec-14-07 00:14 PST     153 of 153
........

Hello 'pure'....

It is tomorrow!


............

Bye

// 
//
//

How the vote tallied.

List below has the Item Number Prefix (first four digits of a sellers eBay item number), the vote, the seller and their feedback.

A "9999" means no items for sale. A "n/a" means no vote was given.

The number of votes is small. However the total number of aggregate transactions the sellers represent, is not small.

1101 no jake-deals-4u (673)
1200 no honiesresale (3138)
1401 no accessoriesandgifts (796)
1600 no ranamountain (980)
1601 no dorothysew (911)
2601 no 20th_century_art (411), post_a_note (0)
2601 no lehman-parker (538)
2801 no tresrhnter (2186)
3201 no clact (3980)
3201 no oldspartantrader (3426)
3201 no tanjastore (47)


1201 n/a golfingaddict (12042)
1401 n/a consignment_alaska (7855)
1401 n/a paladingamesnhobbies (2155)
2001 n/a cumos55 (1699)
2001 n/a genv (4215)
2301 n/a katiyana (4119)
2901 n/a kathieskorner (3486)
3201 n/a quality_consignments (15)
9999 n/a severelashing (0)


1100 yes pennantpalooza (16743)
1101 yes gardenpartytea (1802)
1102 yes tribblekitty (1775)
1200 yes folsomhouse (1358)
1200 yes z*nns_vintage (2381)
1201 yes disneygurll (1795)
1201 yes mljcarman (2852)
1201 yes pattia3 (605)
1201 yes sandrarn83 (2888)
1201 yes southcarlinajane (2682)
1301 yes kustomkartoons (1192)
1301 yes omostudios (854)
1301 yes vetromile (4401)
1401 yes appliancecoverqueen (209)
1401 yes halspaperfair (9228)
1401 yes mrbubbe (837)
1401 yes normh915 (3882)
1500 yes oas3 (14980)
1500 yes rbiondi (3500)
1501 yes lindaspostcardsandmore (4553)
1501 yes meecabay (1228)
1701 yes mymimi43 (1104)
1701 yes seoulsoulsofun (780)
1800 yes lovapet (3735)
1801 yes kiwisoutbackk (1804)
1801 yes jeanibe (2668)
1801 yes mygift2u (7088)
1801 yes upndan23
2001 yes pets1213 (152)
2001 yes psychocat1959 (288)
2001 yes rustyfarmall (315)
2001 yes toontowntreasures (2872)
2201 yes ccmjem (2715)
2201 yes ocean2tides (965)
2201 yes turtlegaby (5415)
2301 yes almostantiquepaper (1629)
2301 yes tilliesteaparty  (638)
2501 yes bribaiki (1275)
2501 yes minibeesknees (645)
2501 yes minnymales (880)
2501 yes sweetsweetsadie (288)
2601 yes elsaivymom (1170)
2601 yes extexbill (1479)
2601 yes pddnp (2054)
2601 yes wheeledtoys (2445)
2801 yes catscole (1116)
3001 yes franksfinefurniture (62)
3201 yes best-brandname-deals (701)
3201 yes primsaw (427)
3201 yes sportscollectible (601)
3201 yes thecountryhorse (7481)
3301 yes how_unique (1693)
3500 yes blue*skies*ahead (1152)
3500 yes dacholiday (1080)
3500 yes fleur.de.lis.rising (584)
3600 yes kswallace2 (8328)
3600 yes trainnut20021 (6023)
9999 yes just-thinking (11)
9999 yes ne1huskers (11)
9999 yes postavent (0)
9999 yes pure.plug (Private)
9999 yes stuff-4-me (29)
9999 yes themagicmountain (368)
9999 yes thisdoor65 (0)

// 
//
//

Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984
eCRATER EventHorizon1984
eBay World_Securities

From eBay Search Forum - VOLUNTEERS needed to help do search tests into UK / US cluster sales

From eBay Search Forum
VOLUNTEERS needed to help do search tests into  UK / US cluster sales
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000605413&tstart=0&mod=1196885882598

evonthis  (-1 )        Nov-30-07 11:46 PST
Hi
I am posting this post on behalf of rames International ( ebay seller)

We are trying to find out if our listings are appearing in different geographic locations or clumped in groups in select areas. It seems that when some of us have sales, they tend to be in groups which go to certain select areas of the country and the world.

I will be performing a “three stage test.”

Anyone wishing to help would be very welcome. We would also be prepared to do these tests both with UK / US listings.
Test dates Dec 2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th.
Chose when you are available.

To participate, it will be necessary to do the following:

1. Everyone must have their search results to default.

2. All participants must use the exact same words in your search and must search using the same category.

3. We must all start our searches at the same time. (Give or take a few seconds) Lancashire Lad has recommended setting your PC clock to Internet Time (double click the time shown, use the option Internet Time, set to time.windows.com)

4. Use the site you normally search, on such as UK, .com, etc. Just make certain to indicate this when posting your results.

Once the initial search has been done, it will not be necessary to go into a more detailed search. Initially, I would like to see the total numbers found of the selected item.

When you have completed the test, please post your results on the thread, stating what time you did the search and, if you don’t mind, the area from which you are searching.

2 replies     Date posted     Reply #

cloudberry121  (12 )      Dec-04-07 12:27 PST     1 of 2
I'm sorry but eBay has changed the way Search works and we buyers HATE it. They force us to dig through tons of crap we aren't interested in and it's a tremendous waste of time.

This is unacceptable. I suggest you forget selling on eBay until they return to the original Search system that worked so beautifully.

I'm so angry about their contempt of my time that I'm buying gift cards from major electronic stores to give to my nieces and nephews instead of buying through eBay this Christmas.

evonthis  (-1 )      Dec-05-07 12:18 PST     2 of 2
Cloudberry.

Thanks for your reply.
The searches are a mess. IMO everything as got to complicated for a buyer with little time to spare searching for an item. Some of us sellers in the UK have been doing tests coming up with very strange figures.

Some sellers are also experiencing cluster sales. In my case my sold items mainly go to Sussex in the UK. this happens for a couple of weeks, then they will stop going to Sussex instead go to Essex and Glasgow. This pattern repeats itself over and over through the year.

See the link below taken from the UK boards. 

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200169796&start=680

//
//
//

From eBay Community Question and Answer Board
Community Question and Answer Board
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200169796&start=680

ramesinternational  (0 ) View Listings | Report       14-11-07 13:13 GMT
            Hello.  Sorry I’ve had to start this thread over.  We had a mistake in the first one, so here goes again.

I am trying to find out if our listings are appearing in different geographic locations or clumped in groups in select areas. It seems that when some of us have sales, they tend to be in groups to certain select areas of the country and the world. I will be performing a “three stage test.”

To participate, it will be necessary to do the following:

1. Everyone must have their search results to default.

2. All participants must use the exact same words in your search and must search using the same category.

3. We must all start our searches at the same time. (Give or take a few seconds) Lancashire Lad has recommended setting your PC clock to Internet Time (double click the time shown, use the option Internet Time, set to time.windows.com)

4. Use the site you normally search, on such as UK, .com, etc.  Just make certain to indicate this when posting your results.

Once the initial search has been done, it will not be necessary to go into a more detailed search. Initially, I would like to see the total numbers found of the selected item.

When you have completed the test, please post your results on the thread, stating what time you did the search and, if you don’t mind, the area from which you are searching.

For those of you who do not know how to post the results, you can follow the next steps:

1. Scroll up to get rid of the carp at the top of the page but leave the search
      boxes showing.

2. Hit the PrtSc (print screen) key located to the left of Scroll Lock or to the right of F12 button on top row of keys on your keyboard

3. Open an Image editing programme  (MS Paint will do)

4. Go to Edit & in the drop down menu select "Paste" (this will paste a copy of your eBay search page)

5. Go to File & "Save As"

6. Default is usually "My Documents/ My Pictures"

7. Type in the name "Screenshot 1" and change "Save as type" to "JPEG"

8. When you open the saved picture, you should then see your screenshot, crop out any unwanted info, make a reasonable size and upload to your image host.

9. In order to post it, copy the HTML link from your image host. And paste into your post.

I will run two searches the first day; one for the day shift posters and one for the night shift posters.

The first test will start at 1500 hours and the second at 2000 hours.

Please type the following item, exactly as I have written it, in your search box:

Limoges trinket box

Search in “All Categories” and tick search “UK only.”

Thank you for your help.

Tomorrow I will post another thread for Stage two of the tests and on the following day, Stage three.

GEOGRAPHIC VISIBILITY TEST – volunteers needed

Good morning:

I am trying to find out if our listings are appearing in different geographic locations or clumped in groups in select areas. It seems that when some of us have sales, they tend to be in groups to certain select areas of the country and the world. I will be performing a “three stage test.”

To participate, it will be necessary to do the following:

1. Everyone must have their search results set to default. The easiest way to ensure this is to sign out before doing the search. That way, you automatically will get the default search.

2. All participants must use the exact same words in your search and must search using the same category.

3. We must all start our searches at the same time. (Give or take a few seconds.) Lancashire Lad has recommended setting your PC clock to Internet Time (double click the time shown, use the option Internet Time, set to time.windows.com)

Once the initial search has been done, it will not be necessary to go into a more detailed search. Initially, I would like to see the total numbers found of the selected item.

When you have completed the test, please post your results on the thread, stating what time you did the search and, if you don’t mind, the area from which you are searching.

For those of you who do not know how to post the results, you can follow the next steps:

1. Scroll up to get rid of the carp at the top of the page but leave the search boxes showing.

2. Hit the PrtSc (print screen) key located to the left of Scroll Lock or to the right of F12 button on top row of keys on your keyboard

3. Open an Image editing programme  (MS Paint will do)

4. Go to Edit & in the drop down menu select "Paste" (this will paste a copy of your eBay search page)

5. Go to File & "Save As"

      6.   Default is usually "My Documents/ My Pictures"

7. Type in the name "Screenshot 1" and change "Save as type" to "JPEG"

8. When you open the saved picture, you should then see your screenshot, crop out any unwanted info, make a reasonable size and upload to your image host.

9. In order to post it, copy the HTML link from your image host. And paste into your post.

I will run two searches the first day; one for the day shift posters and one for the night shift posters.

The first test will start at 1500 hours and the second at 2000 hours.

Please type the following item, exactly as I have written it, in your search box:

                        Limoges trinket box

Set your search in “All Categories” and tick search “UK only,” then press "Search."

Thank you for your help.

Tomorrow I will post another thread for Stage two of the tests and on the following day, Stage three.

Cheers

P.S. - Sorry I can't afford to pay anyone! LOL!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RAMES

//

george-uk@ebay.com        05-12-07 12:41 GMT       652 of 709

Morning. or is it afternoon

OK so you have all been having more fun. As several people have realised the issues you are raising is because of how search and browse work. I will try and explain it again, but Jimboy has it

When you search it looks in the title for the words you type in. It doesn't care which category the items are in (unless you also choose a category).

When you browse in brings back everything in the category regardless of what is in the title.

So if we think about it the majority of items in the Womens Vintage Clothing category probably don't have "Womens Vintage Clothing" in the title. They will be things like vintage skirt, 20s blouse etc. As a result search will bring back fewer than browse.

Now in the case of Nintendo Wii. I imagine everything in the Consoles->Nintedo Wii will have those words in the title. But hundreds of other items in other categories will also have those words in the title. For example Wii Games, Wii accessories, t-shirts with Wii on, people putting Wii in the title as keyword spamming etc etc. So in this case search wil bring back more items than browse.

I really hope this is clear now.


evonthis

No this is not due to outofdate servers. Yes, at time of listing/sale there is a latency as all the servers refresh which explains the ~1% difference in number of items returned but that is it.

No the constant changes/ tests are not effecting the results we return.

All listings go on all servers.


shiva - I will need you to explain in more detail the problem you are seeing.

George

//

george-uk@ebay.com View Listings | Report       05-12-07 15:27 GMT       668 of 709
#665

do has it

There are items in more than one category. For example the "anti vandal office" ending in about 4 days.


EVERYONE - you can spend all day doing this but search and browse are working as designed and there is nothing wrong with our systems.

George 

angels-part  (0 )        05-12-07 15:31 GMT       669 of 709
Hi Everyone

You will not have seen me before but I have been following your discussion with great interest. However having run my own businesses for many years might I suggest that EBay seems to have lost the plot. Big as the organisation is it is still subject to the laws that are laid down by governments and especially those relating to FREE TRADE. EBay’s Chief Executive has also stated that it is the policy of EBay to encourage and promote FREE TRADE. In the Western world there are several agreements which make it illegal to interfere with FREE TRADE. These include the North American Free Trade Agreement, EEC Treaty and in the UK the Competition and Race Relations Act. These laws prohibit the interference with Free Trade in any way and this means that tampering with visibility of items, restricting site access in any shape or form is ILLEGAL. The object of this legislation is to create a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD for all traders irrespective of size, creed or race.

So Sorry George, LL and other EBay execs who think that they adjust visibility etc so as to create more revenue for EBay. Better start getting rid of the scammers, porn etc and make EBay a better place to trade before the Office of Fair Trading come knocking at your door. You may not like it but the law is the law. So get back to the principles that Pierre established when he set up EBay many years ago.

george-uk@ebay.com      05-12-07 15:38 GMT     670 of 709
angels-part

I am not sure where your rant has come from. This thread was created as some users had a perception that visibility was somehow not universal. It has since moved across to a broader understanding of exactly how search/browse works.


George

duck_a_lorange  (0 )     05-12-07 15:47 GMT     671 of 709
George, do -

Thanks. That's it.
Fascinating.

evonthis  (-1 )      05-12-07 15:56 GMT     672 of 709
George.

I still would like to know why I am having a cluster sales pattern e.g. Sales to Sussex for a couple of weeks, then a turnaround with sales going back to Essex as previously.

The idea that people in Sussex like my items for so many weeks, then the Essex people like them for the next few weeks with this pattern occurring over and over through out the year, does not equate to fair trade, or fair value for my fees, money.
* * * * *


george-uk@ebay.com     05-12-07 15:59 GMT     673 of 709
evonthis

I have no idea. There is no technical explanation, all the tests show that visibility is pretty much the same (save the 1% latency) and so your items will appear everywhere. All our systems are working correctly and we have absolutley no way of directing traffic based on region, it is just not possible for us to do that.

Some things in life are unexplainable.

George

//

angels-part  (0 )        05-12-07 17:04 GMT       678 of 709
Sorry George mine is not just a "rant" just facts which you can verify at the Office of Fair Trading.

The laws regarding FREE TRADE between USA, EEC etc have been in existence for many years and are surprisingly clear. They were specifically put into place to create a level playing field for ALL TRADERS. Interference in any form by ANY organisation however big or small is illegal and leaves that organisation open to legal action by government. Note what is happening with regard to banking charges. I understand the interference of FREE TRADE by EBay by adjustment of visibility by EBay within its search engines has already been brought to the attention of the Office of Fair Trading within the UK in the form of several complaints and they are beginning to investigate the matter. By the admission of yourself and other EBay executives EBay, is interfering with free trade by adjusting just who and what are visible within the search facility. To comply with the law all sellers, wherever they are located are entitled to equal exposure irrespective of sales volume, creed, colour or location. You may not legally restrict this choice and hence EbBay MAY NOT reduce visibility by the means that you and your executives have done or are proposing to do neither may you adjust trade between countries as has been stated several times. It is quite clear from the replies on this thread and others that the actions of EBay with regard to visibility have seriously affected the trade of many businesses. It is quite likely that these businesses would be able to sue Ebay for loss of profits.

It is not a question of understanding how the search facility works but making sure that the results produced by it are not biased towards any seller in any way. Naturally EBay can allow buyers to select who they wish to see giving options but this must be their choice only. Similar laws relate to the freedom of speech a fact that some contributors to these discussion boards might also remember. You may be able to fool some of the people for some of the time but you can’t fool ALL the people ALL the time. You may not like it George but there it is.

george-uk@ebay.com      05-12-07 17:11 GMT     679 of 709
Given your clear legal accumen you will understand if I maintain my rigth to remain silent for fear of incriminating myself.

Although I am not entirely sure that we are preventing anything.

George

angels-part  (0 )        05-12-07 17:56 GMT       681 of 709
George

Corporate law is something that perhaps all EBay executives might bear in mind. There has been much said by many and the differing results produced by searches using different locations are clear evidence that search engine no longer produce consistent results. This may well leave some EBay executives vulnerable as many executives involved in ENRON found to their cost. So George it would be a loss to all if you were to disappear. Pinks are few and far between. However free speech is what is wanted not the "Part Line".

What I would like to know is how such interference with trading relates to the policy statements made by Meg with regard to the promotion of free trade. Is this a question of the Captain setting a course but those that control the ship's rudder setting a different course? Or perhaps it may simply be due to lack of practical business experience amongst those who are "adjusting search engine results. Of course it might be too much to ask for a clear statement from Meg on search engine manipulation and the law relating to Free Trade.

If you are not sure of the legal implications of the laws regarding FREE TRADE such as the Competition Act in the UK and the EEC then, George, may I suggest that you take advice. Ignorance is not accepted as a valid excuse for flouting the law either in the UK or the USA.

george-uk@ebay.com      05-12-07 18:21 GMT     682 of 709
Wow, anyone would think that I was the Chairman of the board and not just the monkey with the spanner.

Seriously, if you actually read this thread from start to finish at no point anywhere does it show that we are showing different results to different locations.

Additionally, free trade refers to the ability of anyone to sell without discriminatory obstacle. Well anyone can signup to eBay and list and their item will be shown in search, in exactly the same way as if the next guy came along and listed an identical item. I see no discriminatory obstacle there.

Additionally anyone from any country can access our site and use our search engine to find the item. In the case of the two identical items above both items will appear.

In my opinion that is a much more level playing field that trying to sell on the High Street.

How much freer do you want it!

George

evonthis  (-1 )      05-12-07 18:24 GMT     683 of 709
Well I for one do not feel I am experiencing fair trading.

(1) I do not get the same visibility in a number of my categories. I only get the extra visibility for a few items If listed in collectibles.

(2) The .com site as more sub categories than the UK.co site e.g painting UK = up to 1979, US.com = Up to NOW.

(3). My item go to specific areas only both in the UK & Internationally. e.g Sussex then Essex.

(4) Due to number 3 I end up having to pay more fees than some other sellers, due to having to re-list after re-list, after re-list, still with very little chance of a sale.

(5) Searches have become so complicated for the newbie buyers to find items, causing less sales for the sellers particularly the ones without the added visibility.

(6) Sponsored ads have been put above the page numbers, giving buyers the impression they have seen all the items ebay sellers have for sale. The ads then take buyers to off ebay sites.
More fees for re-lists.
* * * * *

//

george-uk@ebay.com        05-12-07 18:31 GMT       685 of 709
evonthis

1) your items are getting fair trade for the categories they are in - all collectables get visibility, no clothes do - there is no trader based discrimination

2) .com and .co.uk are totally different sites

3) As I have tried to say this is nothing to do with eBay - yes it is odd but that's just the way it is

4) see (3), plus we can't be expected to guarentee sales, some people sell more and some sell less, that is how a marketplace works

5) Searches haven't changed for 10 years. The new system was a test that few people saw and which is now switched off.

6) Sponsored ads effect all sellers equally

George

//

george-uk@ebay.com        05-12-07 18:38 GMT       687 of 709
When Marks & Spencers were experiencing a downturn in sales, or Sainsbury were struggling to grow versus Tesco they adjusted their business model, offered different things and generally reinvented themselves.

Maybe when you are experincing a downturn in sales/price over a prolonged period it is not necessarily the fault of eBay.

Just a thought

George

//

evonthis  (-1 )       05-12-07 19:55 GMT       692 of 709
George.

1) your items are getting fair trade for the categories they are in - all collectables get visibility, no clothes do - there is no trader based discrimination

When I put a £29.99 item in collectibles, then one in vintage clother for the same price. I pay the same fees dont I ???????.

.com and .co.uk are totally different sites

But US.com listings are shown by default on the .co.uk site in collectibles vice versus, yet the sellers on the .com site have more sub categories to list in. so more .com items are shown by default on the .co UK site, than UK listings on the .com site.
I gave you a instance of this a couple of weeks ago concerning Art. UK sellers are at a disadvantage.

When Marks & Spencers were experiencing a downturn in sales, or Sainsbury were struggling to grow versus Tesco they adjusted their business model, offered different things and generally reinvented themselves.

But my designer outfits are very much sought after, particularly at this time of the year.

Marks & Spencers had just got old fashioned over the years, needed to bring in younger styles. My designer styles are young, up to date, wanted. Just not being seen as They only seem to get seen mainly in Sussex, then in a couple of weeks they will be seen by Essex buyers.
Something is stopping my items being seen by the maximum amount of buyers.

Vintage clothing people still want these items also.
* * * * *


angels-part  (0 )      05-12-07 20:11 GMT     693 of 709
Hi George
Perhaps we should point out a few things to you concerning FREE TRADE. The legislation was developed to ensure a level playing field for businesses and to restrict restrictive practices. It was intended that removing restrictive practices competition would be encouraged and both the NAFTA and the EEC treaties are both designed with these aims in mind. They apply equally to both North America or to the EEC and also to trade between these areas as well as trade within the member states within their communities. This means, George, that EBayCOM therefore cannot be set aside from EBayUK as separate entities as you suggest as traders cross their boundaries as either exporters or importers. Trade of course cannot be guaranteed but neither can it be restricted in any way as this would be contrary to the NAFTA and EEC treaties in relation to trade. Therefore Ebay.com cannot have a discriminatory policy which differentiates between EBayCOM and EBayUK. To do so would be considered a restriction of trade contrary to the treaties. Having different categories on different sites may also be considered as an infringement. Neither can EBay legally attempt to adjust trade as was stated by Richard Ambrose with regard to protecting a domestic markets. The legislation also applies to trade within communities, this means George, that you may not adjust visibility of items depending upon sales of sellers, location etc UNLESS YOU GIVE THIS AS AN OPTION TO THE BUYER. Similarly hiding buttons below the bottom of a page so that they are not easily noticed is sharp practice and again might well be considered as an attempt to circumvent the legislation.

Similarly you may not practice racial discrimination. This means that it also illegal to exclude sellers from other countries where the buyer has used the world-wide option. It has been stated by EBay executives that only English speaking sellers are allowed on English speaking sites. Sorry George this is also a no no unless the seller has opted for this in some way. Perhaps you might take a trip to Wales and look at the care that is taken with regard to the Welsh and their language. The omission of Irish, German, French, Italian and other sellers from Ebay.com and Ebay.COUKis an example of this discrimination which is illegal not only from the Racial Discrimination point of view but also the Competition Act. Similarly the policy of permitting certain items such as alcohol for sale on one EBay site and not another is also contrary to the legislation in relation to FREE TRADE.

Finally may I state that I have done my own extensive tests on search engine results and these produce exactly the same results as have been quoted within this thread. These are not slight variations that you suggest but deliberate filtering and selection of search engine results. So George let’s have some straight answers and get this ship back on course as Pierre intended when he sold the broken laser pointer.

//

evonthis  (-1 )        05-12-07 20:22 GMT       695 of 709
George.

The paragraph below I have taken from the US. com boards.
This was posted by a very highly respected poster there.

When I have complained to eBay about this, I was told that they have numerous servers that house the databases. Sometimes one (or more, I would guess) of the servers is out of date. So each time a person searches, they may get an up-to-date server or an out-of-date server.
* * * * *

//

angels-part  (0 )        05-12-07 22:30 GMT       702 of 709
Evonthis

Servers may well have something to do with visibility but the results produced by the search should be similar. It doesn't explain the fact that you will not find say an item description written in French on Dotcom or DotUK. This is because someone within EBay has decided to interfere with global trade by "Adjusting" the search results. This has been admitted by EBay executives who have stated that English speaking sellers are restricted to English speaking sites. This is contrary to FREE TRADE. If EBay wishes to make it easy for buyers to find items then the way to go about it is to make it such that when the buyer searches for an itme he/she can select which options they would like to use to restrict results. For example there could be buttons which would allow you to deselect other countries or those sellers who do not export. I think severs are being used as a partial excuse to cover up EBay interference.

evonthis  (-1 )      05-12-07 23:45 GMT     703 of 709
Angel.

A lot of posters suggested that buttons be put in place for buyers to narrow their search as they wish when the visibility change came into affect in Feburary.

IMO there are items being put onto old servers, I believe mine are along with other sellers. Why else do my sales have a on going pattern of going to the same areas time after time. IMO my items are not even shown to the maximum amount of English speaking sellers in my own Country U.K. alone internationally.
* * * * *

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george-uk@ebay.com        06-12-07 13:57 GMT       706 of 709
Right - enough

You are clearly not believing or listening to anything I am writing. Here I will summarise everything and then I am no longer replying to this thread.

Before I begin - please ask yourselves why it is in eBay's interest to restrict visibility. The more visibility your items get the more likely they are to sell and the more money we make. Only showing items to 10 people in Essex is not going to achieve this and is therefore not a very sensible thing for us to do.

Here goes

1) There is no racial discrimination - ANYONE from ANYWHERE can list on ANY eBay site.

However it is the default view that users see only those items listed on ebay.co.uk The seller has paid to list on this one site and in doing so is given exposure to users who access this site.

Additionally, if the user so chooses, they may elect to see all items from the world that offer shipping to the user. It doesn't matter if this item is from France, or Germany or Australia or any of the other 20 eBay sites. It also doesn't matter what language the listing is in.

I think you will find that this is a much more open system than other online sites - try finding items from Amazon US on Amazon UK!

2) We do not have out-of-date servers where we put peoples listings. Occassionally one of our many servers will not be updated. As a result it is possible that your listing may only exist on a proportion of our servers. Given server access is totally random and not geographically driven it does explain why refresh sometimes pulls back a different number of items. However please note that this is rare and if it does happy it is in the region of 99% see all, 1% see some so your listings will be on the up-to-date server and not on the out-of-date server.

3) angels-part if you really believe we are infringing NAFTA and EEC treaties please make a legal representation as I know very little about the nuances of the law and ranting at me about it isn't going to achieve anything except waste your time.


George

l..o..l..a  (0 )       06-12-07 14:29 GMT       707 of 709
George, yu've probably gone now and I'm really regretting not reading this thread earlier.

You say:Additionally, free trade refers to the ability of anyone to sell without discriminatory obstacle. Well anyone can signup to eBay and list and their item will be shown in search, in exactly the same way as if the next guy came along and listed an identical item. I see no discriminatory obstacle there.

Well, George, I have to disagree. As an Irish seller I am discriminated against. First of all I lost the visibility in February. The UK sellers in the same category re-gained it in October and have cross vis. with dot com.

Even if I list on UK I don't have the same visibility because my items are in Ireland. Even when I pay the same fee as a UK seller to list on UK, I don't get the same visibility.

So, tell me this is not discrimination.


And I won't believe you.........

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

 

Banned By eBay - Glitchy Software Dude (with apologies to Johnny Rivers and Secret Agent Man 1966)

Originally posted early Sunday 11/25/2007 on the eBay Search forum. 
The following song was quickly banned by eBay's coders.

//

An Ode to eBay's code and not test teams.
On the eve of Cyber Monday, here's to you Mr. Coders.


There's a dude who thinks he's a programmer
eBay sellers he meets he stays a stranger
With every change he makes another feature breaks
Odds are IT will crash before tomorrow

Glitchy software dude, glitchy software dude
They've given you a keyboard and taken 'way our sales

Beware of eBay sellers that you find
An eBay seller has an evil mind
Ah, be careful what you change
Or you'll fix something some way
Odds are IT will crash before tomorrow

Glitchy software dude, glitchy software dude
They've given you a keyboard and taken 'way our sales

Hackin' on the Best Match Smart Search one day
And then layin' in an eBay alley next day
Oh no, you let the wrong code ship
While evading chains and whips
Odds are IT will crash before tomorrow

Glitchy software dude, glitchy software dude
They've given you a keyboard and taken 'way our sales

Glitchy software dude



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9toYaZZKHA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Agent_Man_(song)

***Introducing Best Match: A new sort option based on relevance***
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000241408&tstart=40&mod=1195343348001

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Comments ... from people with a sense of humor.

4343martino ( 679) View seller's items | View Blog LMAOFF !!!! Nov-25-07 13:31:08 PST

// 
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//

And what are these eBay coders paid? Far too much for buggy software.

http://www.mydanwei.com/query.php?t_salary=ebay&type=salary&order_by=DATE_DESC

Query Records of ebay (1 - 30 of 836) ( 0.003 seconds)
	No.    Position Salary Organization City State Hiring Date   1 Senior Software Engineer $95580.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-04-01 2 Senior Software Engineer $96000.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-03-27 3 Dutch Language Specialist $73840.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-03-24 4 PRINCIPLE NETWORK ENGINEER $135229.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2007-03-23 5 Staff Software Engineer $108272.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-03-15 6 STAFF SYSTEMS ENGINEER $119356.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2007-03-15 7 Senior Software Engineer $98102.40  eBay, Inc. San  Jose CT 2007-03-14 8 Senior Software Engineer $97124.20  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-03-12 9 SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER $101848.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2007-02-27 10 Senior Software Engineer $95000.10  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2007-02-23 11 Software QA Engineer $80000.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-02-17 12 Senior NOC Database Engineer $97479.20  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-02-13 13 Globalization Management Systems Engineer $109332.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2007-02-07 14 Software Engineer $93554.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-02-07 15 STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER $120570.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2007-02-06 16 Senior Software Engineer $92359.10  eBay, Inc. San  Jose CA 2007-02-03 17 Senior Software Engineer $95000.10  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2007-01-26 18 Localization Engineer $104500.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-01-15 19 Staff QA Engineer $115225.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2007-01-12 20 Business Analyst, Revenue Accounting $92500.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2007-01-05 21 Senior Software Engineer $94860.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2007-01-01 22 Research Scientist $106050.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-12-31 23 Senior Software Engineer $101142.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-12-29 24 SOFTWARE ENGINEER $89508.60  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-12-22 25 SOFTWARE ENGINEER $89508.60  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-12-22 26 Software Engineer $84930.10  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-12-16 27 Manager, Risk Analytics $122000.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-12-10 28 Senior Software Engineer $101142.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-12-06 29 Software QA Engineer $93702.50  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-12-06 30 MANAGEMENT ANALYST (AD SERVICES AND OPERATIONS) $110000.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-11-17

 

No.	Position	Salary	Organization	City	State	Hiring Date
31	Specialist, Direct Marketing Operations	$78000.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-11-13
32	Senior Database Engineer	$101990.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-11-09
33	SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER	$100017.00	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-11-09
34	User Interface Designer	$87033.40	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-11-04
35	Senior Software Engineer	$94050.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-11-03
36	DATA ARCHITECTURE MANAGER	$155845.00	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-11-03
37	Senior Software Engineer	$95000.10	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-11-01
38	SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER	$98311.50	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-11-01
39	Paid Search, Associate Data Manager	$96900.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-31
40	SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER	$94152.90	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-10-25
41	Senior Project Manager	$115000.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-20
42	SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER	$93554.00	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-10-19
43	SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER	$93554.00	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-10-19
44	Senior Business Systems Analyst	$122500.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-14
45	Software Engineer/Intranet Developer	$95257.50	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-09
46	Senior Software Engineer	$100000.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-02
47	Corporate Strategy Manager	$105000.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-02
48	Staff Software Engineer	$116507.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-02
49	Senior Software Engineer	$108199.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-02
50	Product Strategy Analyst	$105000.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
51	Senior Software Engineer	$82163.20	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
52	Senior Software Engineer	$82163.20	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
53	Senior Software Engineer	$82163.20	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
54	MANAGER, CORPORATE STRATEGY	$105000.00	EBAY INC	SAN JOSE	CA	2006-10-01
55	Senior Product Analyst	$105000.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
56	Staff Database Engineer	$110755.00	eBay, Inc.	Plymouth Meeting	PA	2006-10-01
57	Statistician, Risk Analytics	$85000.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
58	Software Engineer	$115008.00	EBAY, INC	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
59	Manager, Corporate Strategy	$105000.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01
60	Staff Database Engineer	$110755.00	eBay, Inc.	San Jose	CA	2006-10-01

No.    Position Salary Organization City State Hiring Date   61 Software QA Engineer $74476.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-10-01 62 Senior Software Engineer $112500.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-10-01 63 Product Strategy Analyst $105000.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-10-01 64 Senior Language Specialist $76440.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-09-27 65 Software Engineer $85000.20  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-09-25 66 Statistician $78000.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-09-19 67 Software Engineer $83200.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-09-19 68 Senior Software Engineer $108942.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-09-18 69 Senior Software Engineer $108942.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-09-18 70 Senior Software Engineer $108942.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-09-18 71 Manager, International Business Analysis $98115.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-09-13 72 Autos Category Manager $110000.00  eBay, Inc. San  Jose CA 2006-09-11 73 Software Engineer $85000.20  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-09-07 74 Statistician $86091.20  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-09-07 75 Software QA Engineer $74476.20  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-09-04 76 Research Scientist $106050.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-08-28 77 JAVA SOFTWARE ENGINEER $80816.20  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-08-28 78 Senior Software Engineer $93554.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-08-28 79 SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER $86027.80  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-08-26 80 Senior Software Engineer $112439.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-08-26 81 SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER $86027.80  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-08-26 82 Senior Software Engineer $100000.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-08-25 83 Software Engineer 3 $105455.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-08-25 84 Localization Program Manager $115000.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-08-25 85 Senior Software Engineer $102000.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-08-21 86 Technical Outage Manager, Problem Management $155952.00  eBay, Inc. San Jose CA 2006-08-18 87 Senior Language Specialist $76440.00  EBAY, INC San Jose CA 2006-08-14 88 Senior Software Engineer $102000.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-08-14 89 Senior Software Engineer $102000.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 2006-08-14 90 SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER $127205.00  EBAY INC SAN JOSE CA 2006-08-12

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http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=485&page=47

1988, CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST:

At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. "[T]he [485 U.S. 46, 51] freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty - and thus a good unto itself - but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole." Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 503 -504 (1984). We have therefore been particularly vigilant to ensure that individual expressions of ideas remain free from governmentally imposed sanctions. The First Amendment recognizes no such thing as a "false" idea. Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 339 (1974). As Justice Holmes wrote, "when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas - that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market . . . ." Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) (dissenting opinion).

The sort of robust political debate encouraged by the First Amendment is bound to produce speech that is critical of those who hold public office or those public figures who are "intimately involved in the resolution of important public questions or, by reason of their fame, shape events in areas of concern to society at large." Associated Press v. Walker, decided with Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 164 (1967) (Warren, C. J., concurring in result). Justice Frankfurter put it succinctly in Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 665, 673 -674 (1944), when he said that "[o]ne of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures." Such criticism, inevitably, will not always be reasoned or moderate; public figures as well as public officials will be subject to "vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks," New York Times, supra, at 270. "[T]he candidate who vaunts his spotless record and sterling integrity cannot convincingly cry `Foul!' when an opponent or an industrious reporter attempts [485 U.S. 46, 52] to demonstrate the contrary." Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy, 401 U.S. 265, 274 (1971).

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Event Horizon 1984
eCRATER EventHorizon1984

From eBay Technical Issues Forum - Do you people EVER test before turning something loose?

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Technical Issues Forum
Do you people EVER test before turning something loose?
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000444333&tstart=0&mod=1191448628477
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:mwuScww1GrQJ:forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa%3FthreadID%3D2000444333%26tstart%3D0%26mod%3D1191370435917+%22do+you+people+ever+test
.

jamie*n  (327 )      Oct-02-07 00:08 PDT
Here we go again. You rolled out a new search with FUNDAMENTAL FUNCTIONALITY that's JUST PLAIN BROKEN.

I bring up an item from a seller I like. I click "View seller's other items - List" (I hate the Store concept, don't tell me to use it). I see everything that seller has listed. Fine - so far, so good. Now I type a search string into the search box at the top, then click "Show Items" down at the bottom of the left side bar, which is CLEARLY LABELED AS "NARROW YOUR RESULTS". What do I get? THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of items matching my search term FROM EVERY SELLER ON EBAY!

NO! NO!! NO!!! That's not what I wanted. That's not what the box said I would get. The box for "Items from seller" was CLEARLY checked, and I did NOT uncheck it. I wanted things matching that search term from THAT SELLER and ONLY THAT SELLER. Ebay, this used to work, and it's such a FUNDAMENTAL USAGE. Did ANYBODY on your development team actually USE this abomination before turning it loose on the public? Please get some of your monkeys in there to fix it? Please?

Don't get me started on the fact that it's stripping *'s from search terms. That makes my day, too.

14 replies     Date posted     Reply #

kathyseven  (1025 )      Oct-02-07 00:46 PDT     1 of 14
            You need to go to the Search Discussion board and post on the locked thread at the top.
I've been told that's the only one the "finding" team reads.

Beware the button that takes you to a "Log In" page. Check My Messages First!

kathyseven  (1025 )      Oct-02-07 00:52 PDT     2 of 14
            One more thing.....don't sign into the boards and expect your search preferences to work. They WON'T!
I have to sign out and then sign into the ebay side for them to work at all.

I'm suspecting that you've been included in a beta test.
It sounds like what I went thru when I found myself in a beta search one day. 
It was a very frustrating experience!

Look at the bottom of the page and see if there is an opt out link. If not, try dumping temp file cache and ebay cookies. Some members claim that helps them to get  the "old" search back.

Beware the button that takes you to a "Log In" page. Check My Messages First!

jamie*n  (327 )      Oct-02-07 01:11 PDT     3 of 14
Sorry, but no - I'm trapped in this nightmare and I'm just going to quit.

Cleared all cookies & cache (which FireFox very nicely does FOR me every time I close it and restart anyway). Went directly to "www.ebay.com", didn't use any bookmarks or links in emails. Clicked directly on "sign in". Signed in. Didn't go anywhere near this "Playground" abomination. Entered a search with a "*" in the term. What do I get? ZERO results, because the stupid search stripped the "*" out and gave me NOTHING in return.

Started over. Cleared it all, started at "www" again. Signed in. Went to a closed item from my watch list. Clicked "View sellers other items - List" Got the list of everything that seller is selling. Added a search term to the box with a * in it. What did I get? MORE THAN SEVEN THOUSAND RESULTS because now I'm looking at results from EVERY SINGLE SELLER on ebay for a search term that was now MISSING THE * I had explicitly added!

I'm stuck with this worthless piece of crap search. I can't opt out. I can't use any of the methods I've developed over time to actually get MEANINGFUL results from the search. I've needed to break the habit of SPENDING WAY TOO MUCH MONEY ON BUYING THINGS FROM EBAY for a while now. I think this time they may have finally succeeded in stopping me.

dewskis_dewings  (31 )      Oct-02-07 05:18 PDT     4 of 14
Aha! OP said the magic word:: "FIREFOX". Dunno why, but FF has major big problems with the new search. I've learned to use my IE6 for searches because there's so many FoulUPS when using FF.


alwayszero  (0 )      Oct-02-07 07:12 PDT     5 of 14
Hi Jamie,
First wish me a Happy Birthday! hehe....anyway when I do a search in the seller list I don't use the * or ". For instance, I get the list (I don't use the store either), I'll type at the top.....capris or sweaters, etc. with no * or " or whatever and I get the seller's list of that item. Try that and I also use Foxfire.

Also, when searching I use the Advanced Search and type in what I"m looking for without the * or ". Such as....Baby Face Galoob Doll or Barbie vintage white purse. Seems to work fine for me. But I have noticed that I'm not getting a full list or it seems small.

Several times I've searched a few times and get different results? Which is strange. If eBay would just fix what is wrong and STOP changing what works, might be nice for a change?

scambusting  (0 )      Oct-02-07 09:25 PDT     6 of 14
No one at eBay uses eBay. The employees come here for the paycheck. Meg's team comes here for feel good backslapping and to check their stock options.

They do the same as the rest of corporate America. Hire by price, get the cheapest. They hire kids out of college who took a few programming classes, in a variety of languages. They now know everything. They're gurus and will tell you so. They expect to be systems analysts. They don't want to take the time to learn to program first. They already know how.

But the big problem is that no one uses eBay. It's a bunch of used junk and new phoney crap. Yeech. Just give me my paycheck and let me get outa here. Yippee it's friday.

.

marnisue@ebay.com      Oct-02-07 12:05 PDT     7 of 14
            Good Morning jamie*n

I have not been able recreate your issue. Here are the steps I am taking, please let me know where your steps vary from mine so I can report it correctly.

1) Find any item where seller has multiple items for sale:
http://tinyurl.com/2way2z
2) Click View All other items (List)
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/beachgal707
3) In narrow search box, enter term to narrow items from that seller, e.g. helmet
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/beachgal707?_rkw=helmet

results: items found with that KW that are true for seller

Thanks for your time,

MarniSue
Finding Team

.

scambusting  (0 )      Oct-02-07 12:29 PDT     8 of 14
OPs not allowed to post a user name or an item number. Unless he finds an item from his seller with a title so unique that only one comes up, The two of you can't be on the same page.

jamie*n  (327 )      Oct-02-07 15:59 PDT     9 of 14
So let's crank the frustration up a level. *MY* searches have all gone back to normal today. *'s ()'s, and -'s are all back to working the way they always did. I can properly narrow down a seller search with additional terms. My bookmarks of saved searches that do seller-specific searches with multiple alternate words (word1, word2, word3, word4) are now back to working when they were decidedly broken last night.

However, my husband's account (he uses Seamonkey instead of FireFox, not sure if that matters since the behavior is exactly the same) has now STARTED behaving like mine was last night.

I think we're both going to lose our sanity if we're not careful.

Ok, here goes using one of HIS items.

Finished item from a few days ago:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160159752437&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=006

Click the "View seller's other items - List":
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZkalisiak
(I did notice that this already looks different from your "shop.ebay.com" URL)
7 items visible.

Enter "loop" into the search box at the top - a clearly visible searchable word that should get ONE hit.
Note that he's double-checking that the box for "items from seller" on the left side bar IS checked, and the seller name is properly filled in.
Submit search.

http://search.ebay.com/loop_W0QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ32QQlredZloopQQrprZ138
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, almost FIVE THOUSAND results for "loop" from every ebayer in the system, including Men's Accessories, Women's Accessories, and so on.

We are NOT imagining this. Something is not right here. But I will admit, the exact same steps work perfectly for me, where they were behaving as they are above last night.

Help? And before you suggest it, cookies and cache are being cleared - with alarming frequency - as we go through this looking for a solution.

soupac332  (682 )      Oct-02-07 16:30 PDT     10 of 14
When I follow the steps you list, entering "loop" returns only the one item (also get the 5,000 hits with the last link), using Ffx 1.5.07 and Java 1.42. I have never cleared cookies nor cache for as long as I've been using this version (over 6 months). What version of Java is your husband using? Usually you have to install the Java plugin(s) "manually" with all versions of Mozilla/Firefox/Seamonkey/Thunderbird, although this might not be the case with the WIn versions (I don't use Windoze, any version).

coreshmoo  (18 )      Oct-02-07 17:13 PDT     11 of 14
I get one item also with Firefox 1.5 which is the version on the CD that I use to boot Linux. I don't change nuttin, just boot the CD. It's Mepis.

I find that when there's a problem it's always eBay as since I don,t fix nuttin or change nuttin when something starts working I give the Bay the credit. I do sometimes reboot instead of running a virus scanner. I have rarely cleared my cache and cookies.

permacrisis  (526 )      Oct-03-07 10:33 PDT     12 of 14
coresh I hear ya. I use Knoppix and LOVE it.

Of course knoppix can't fix the mess between ebay's ears

.

pmjohn@ebay.com      Oct-03-07 13:45 PDT     13 of 14
jamie*n,

I think the confusion may be around which search box was used. The search box at the very top of the page always conducts a new search. If you want to refine your search (e.g., search within the seller) you need to use the search box that appears below the tabs and "Items for Sale by kal*****." I suspect that is why people experienced a different behavior. Those who got one result used the lower box. Those who got 4000+ used the very top one. The top search (we call it global header) is always a restart. It will preserve none of the search settings you've done previously. Please let me know if the above info doesn't address the issue you saw.

Thanks,

john

.

pmjohn@ebay.com      Oct-03-07 14:57 PDT     14 of 14
We have identified an issue where a small group of users are losing some of these filters when they try to refine their search. We are pushing an update tonight so if you are one of the few people who experienced this issue, it should be all okay tomorrow morning.

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From eBay Stores Forum - I am going to eat my words........I take back my previous posts...

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From eBay Stores Forum
I am going to eat my words........I take back my previous posts...
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000436800&start=0
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:T-xgOBBXeTwJ:forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa%3FthreadID%3D2000436800%26tstart%3D0%26mod%3D1190430047719+%22i+am+going+to+eat+my+words

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irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-20-07 03:09 PDT
Just for the craic I decided to see what the story was with all this search lark on Ebay.

I searched for a "silver claddagh ring" listed on Ebay.ie only. Search returned many items, a couple of them on Ebay.ie, most listed on ebay.com but all fo them in Ireland. now I hadnt asked for items to be in Ireland. I asked for the results to be listed on ebay.ie, so there is one error in the search function.

Then I did a search for the same again "silver claddagh ring" this time on ebay.ie with no advanced options. Low and behold the place was flooded with results from ebay.com and some on ebay.ie which was fine as I didnt want to filter out the results.

I found an item listed on ebay.ie 120160949146 so I did a search on this item with the first four keywords on the title "sterling silver irish celtic" and loads of results came up. I looked for that specific item by looking at the end times and low and behold it wasnt there, but you bet your prize pony that the .com listings were on the .ie search results!

I have just found out what Ebay is at. Its manipulating the searches to bits and not giving a true picture. Surely if I search on Ebay.ie then the Ebay.ie or .co.k listing will come up first? Asked in "live help" and I was told, "thats weird". Damn straight its weird, its downright unjust and unfair to the people that list on Ebay.ie

I whole heartedly apologise for being so harsh in my other posts about the negativity, altho I would still like to remain positive about this but Ebay has just shown me what truly lies beneath!!!

27 replies     Date posted     Reply #

irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-20-07 03:11 PDT     1 of 27
second paragraph correction - I searched on ebay.com for the ebay.ie listing but no joy.

irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-20-07 03:13 PDT     2 of 27
actually the fourth paragraph it wa,s - really fkd up this thread lol

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-20-07 03:33 PDT     3 of 27
-

And you found just one of the problems with search.

Another major one if one has a store it is very hard
for buyers to every find those items. So a question
is what are the listing fees for store items for?

And if you go to the Technical Issues board it has
been full of glitches for years now.

All the manipulations and glitches limit the
amount of sales sellers can make here.

And then there was them pulling out of Goog Ads
and when they started up again and I think based
on what they said it would be cut down. Sellers
pay a lot in stores and core/auctions and to not
have proper advertising cuts down on the amount
of sales.

The sales before SIS (stores in search) was ok,
the sales during SIS were pretty darn good, the
sales after SIS nearly stopped for many.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-20-07 03:41 PDT     4 of 27
And check out this thread. There was also
another one about this earlier but the problem
was still not fixed. This is just yet another
problem and there are so many problems would
be hard to count just how many. All these
problems day after day month after month year
after year results in lost sales for many sellers.
And all the hiding they did after SIS to make sure
store items would not sell like they did before SIS
is one of the very worst manipulations this company
did to sellers so again what are those store listing
fees for?

Completed Search Again, Still??

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000434458&tstart=0&mod=1190270352076

chopsueysisters  (2192 )      Sep-20-07 03:43 PDT     5 of 27
Irish, between the various sites there is inconsistency on how search is displayed. Certain sites default to local country listings with an option to expand. For the US site, Ebay doesn't allow us that. It seems a bit backwards to me because the US has the largest volume of us listings already, you'd think it would improve the user experience. But ummm I think ebay wants to show us everything and maybe get us to buy from other countries more (because they get more money via paypal)

I dont know, I just dont know anymore..

Der-der der-der-der DER-DER
Green acres is the place to be!

 

.

huckster3000  (292 )      Sep-20-07 06:26 PDT     6 of 27
a few weeks back i received a "favorite seller" email from one of my favorited ebay store sellers (a media dealer). there was a dvd in the email that i was interested in, so i clicked the link to check it out and was taken to the seller's store listing. so far so good.

then i decided to do a title search to see if i could find this particular dvd a little cheaper. search returned nothing. nada. zip. zero results. even though i had just been looking at a listing for this dvd title in an ebay seller's store! (and yes, the "add store listings" option box was selected.) i spent the next 5 - 10 minutes trying various searches with various options settings to find this dvd and all come up zero. and none of the searches ever returned this store seller's listing that i knew was there - which i verified again by going directly to his store on my own, where surprise surprise i found the listing that search couldn't. finally i just gave up in frustration.

suffice to say it's ridiculous.



huckster3000

DEAD END DRIVE-IN DVD

and if i weren't a civil servant / i'd have a place in the colonies / we'd play croquet behind white-washed walls and drink our tea at four / within intervention's distance of the embassy

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-20-07 15:13 PDT     7 of 27
-

This thread is a good summary explaining how more
and more sellers are catching on to what has been
going on after SIS

Slow store sales? Here's why!

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2007735847&#2007735847

savoir-faire08  (92 )      Sep-20-07 15:21 PDT     8 of 27
irishcelticdesigners

You are a nice person to exercise insight and actually acknowledge your erroneous judgment from before. Congrats

Most of the people who post about glitches and the stupid star system do not hate eBay. There is a small minority of posters who, for one reason or the other, attempt to stifle these truth seeking or solution seeking voices and call them Negative Nancy-s or whatnots.

If eBay has a clever leadership, they better read about the problems and do something, before they alienate even their most dedicated fans and / or some other company that listens to its customers better will force them out of business. Posting the problems here is for the most part the only way to get something done, because e-mails may get canned responses, and if you write them back, yet another canned response will be sent with apologies, of course, btu not addressing the issue at hand.

savoir-faire08  (92 )      Sep-20-07 15:51 PDT     9 of 27
btu = but

savoir-faire08  (92 )      Sep-20-07 15:56 PDT     10 of 27
finally i just gave up in frustration.

suffice to say it's ridiculous.(huckster]

Huckster, it IS ridiculous! Plus, it is self-defeating for eBay! ebay only makes money if its sellers make. Hiding our store items or making it difficult for potential buyers to find them = monetary loss for seller = monetary loss for eBay

One does not need a Harvard degree to understand this simple mathematical calculation.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-20-07 16:06 PDT     11 of 27
Hiding our store items or making it difficult for potential buyers to find them = monetary loss for seller = monetary loss for eBay

I have thought that a long time but reading these
threads for a number of years I came to the conclusion
that the more they hide items or prevent sales the
more re-listing fees eBay makes.  And eventually,
the item will sell so they get that as well.  So
I believe eBay has fine-tuned/tweaked the "smart"
search to do just that.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-20-07 17:49 PDT     12 of 27
irishcelticdesigns

On your site don't your boards raise many of this
issues? Or maybe because it is smaller not as many
posters to really dig out all the truth as to what
has been going on for a long time. Or maybe your
eBay.ie site is less prone to the massive amount
of problems on the USA site?

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-20-07 17:53 PDT     13 of 27
-

I just went to the ebay.ie site and to the board
that looks to be equivalent to this one but takes
one to the UK boards.

And because of what chopsueysisters said in this
thread now makes me wonder if eBay is much kinder
to other international sites and USE sellers on
this site much more and make much larger messes.

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/forum.jspa?forumID=1100000000

irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-21-07 01:29 PDT     14 of 27
Well Ebay's EU headquarters is in Dublin so they might have servers over in Europe for the EU, not sure but the boards over there dont seem to have as many problems. Although they just might not be aware of the many problems you guys are finding.

irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-21-07 01:31 PDT     15 of 27
savoir-faire08 Its nice to be able to admit defeat or that you are wrong about things.  Altho who likes defeat eh? lol

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-21-07 01:45 PDT     16 of 27
the boards over there dont seem to have as many problems. Although they just might not be aware of the many problems you guys are finding

It could be two things.  Maybe things work for some
reason better internationally than here in the USA
or what you just said.

I have said that before too that I think it is a
matter of how much one sees.  And that takes quite
a bit of being attentive and observing what goes on.
I also think some posters have not read as many
threads as others so less informed.  When I first
really seeing questionable things going on a few
years ago and had my speculations, I would check the
boards and sure enough others were as well.  And many
times I could go verify what they said and there it
was for all to see, for those who did check.

And if some posters who really are good at getting
facts and even good speculations out there on the
boards left for green pastures then that also could
explain some of it.  Another thought is maybe those
boards are more strickly moderated?

I think too what some posters are missing is that if
they already had a number of repeat customers they
did not feel the pain as many sellers here did.  And
that they might be selling products that were more
immune to the changes.  Also those who do not have
stores or are fairly new to stores and were not here
before SIS I do not believe they understand just how
bad it was after SIS.  So it is a matter of knowledge
for a good part of it.

Its nice to be able to admit defeat or that you are wrong about things. Altho who likes defeat eh?

It is never defeat to admit one might not have seen
a larger picture of something.  I really like how
you approached this.

If you haven't had an opportunity to read this post,
you might consider that as it brings out quite a bit.

Slow store sales? Here's why!

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000436892&tstart=0&mod=1190354118649

irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-21-07 02:07 PDT     17 of 27
Yeah I had a quick skim over it. Am in work so cant read all of it or I'll be here for ages. I am seeing some fo the bigger picture alright. Have to say I am getting cold feet a bit as I hoped to open a store in four week but I really dont know now.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-21-07 02:44 PDT     18 of 27
If you have done auctions for quite awhile and are
successful at it, you can get visitors into a store
that way. Just make sure you have a very visible
link to that store in all your auction listings.

And if you have the kind of products that are in
a good or high demand and even better yet unique
one has a good chance of being seen more in the
stores. If a lot of people sell the same type of
product as yours it will be more difficult unless
you have lower prices and even with that if those
others have repeat customers not as easy.

But think the route to go since this company has
pretty much made the store listings invisible is
to go the auction route and make that successful
and if so then open a store.

If you already have success with auctions that is
a good sign that you might do ok with a store.

And if your store is located on the ebay.ie or uk
and if the international sites do not have the
many types of problems like here in the USA you
might be ok to proceed with a store any way. You
might consider asking around on the boards over
there to find out more how others truly are doing.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-21-07 03:12 PDT     19 of 27
Another thing I would strongly recommend is to
diversify by at least having your own website
in addition to what you do on on eBay.

irishcelticdesigns  (25 )      Sep-21-07 05:59 PDT     20 of 27
Yeah I figured that from just reading here. Actually first few posts I read on here months ago I figured that as I kept putting St elsewhere into google thinking it was an auction type site lol every day is a school day

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-21-07 13:57 PDT     21 of 27
-

There are also some good alternative sites like the
moon and the bird and not sure if you can sell on
the Zon but if so might check that out. But having
one's own website to me is a must and should be the
main business where here and the other alternative
sites are secondary and if they work more important.

meecabay  (1225 )      Sep-21-07 16:05 PDT     22 of 27
            ........

Wow 'just':  Your comment above:


"I have thought that a long time but reading these
threads for a number of years I came to the conclusion
that the more they hide items or prevent sales the
more re-listing fees eBay makes. And eventually,
the item will sell so they get that as well. So
I believe eBay has fine-tuned/tweaked the "smart"
search to do just that." by 'just.thinking'


....IS SO INCREDIBLE TO THINK THIS COULD BE HAPPENING!!!.

Even if this is happening by ACCIDENT-result of search manipulation.....

IT would be so very very very WRONG!!!

And, of course, if done PURPOSELY for reason you stated as one way to generate more revenue for the site...

IT would even be OUTRAGEOUS!!!

===================================================

kimonomomo  (264 )      Sep-21-07 16:10 PDT     23 of 27
Having once worked for a jeweler or two, I'd suggest anyone doing a search for "claddagh" try some alternative spellings (and that goes for jewelry and jewellry, too). Most people in the US have no idea how to spell claddagh correctly, pronounce it, or even what it is. Sad, but true.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-21-07 16:28 PDT     24 of 27
Even if this is happening by ACCIDENT-result of search manipulation

Yes, even by accident and not fixing all the many
many many many problems on this site due to neglect
or incompetence for this company to allow them to
go on is unacceptable. So a question is if they
allow them to go on and on and on how is that different
doing it on purpose? I believe it is a combination
of both, purposefully manipulating and allow glitches
to continue for all those dollars they pack into
their pockets.

just-thinking  (11 )      Sep-21-07 16:33 PDT     25 of 27
Imagine if one was a small business and their software
allowed that company to increase their profits due to
glitches. The members of that company would tell them
all about the glitches for years and not much changes.
They take them to court. Do you think that small
company would get away saying they did not know or
they have other priorities? Judge Judy would have a
hay day with that small business owner. How would
Judge Judy feel about a small company manipulating
whose items are seen and when when all member pay the
same?

meecabay  (1225 )      Sep-21-07 16:53 PDT     26 of 27
.........

ya know 'just'and anyone reading:

The more I read.... the more I am convinced 'we' are in a very complex maze and so complex that:

...even eBay itself may also be 'stuck' IN this complex maze, so to speak!

....Well, all I continue to know for sure is: I am still here and still here with an open mind!

But, I am beginning to be at a loss-for-words regarding this eBay complex maze as my mind is beginning to see an even bigger view of IT!

And, without knowing all the facts.... all I can do personally is to just post when 'inspired' all that I feel or think or believe and hope that it will also help contribute in some way so that the eBay-WAY will NOT become just a distant memory.

oy vey!
====================================================

kimonomomo  (264 )      Sep-21-07 20:00 PDT     27 of 27
Imagine if one was a small business and their software
allowed that company to increase their profits due to
glitches.

Microsoft?

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From eBay Search Forum - Visual Updates to Search

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Search Forum
Visual Updates to Search

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000547760&start=120

.

pmjohn@ebay.com  Report       Aug-30-07 17:59 PDT       129 of 137

Menagerie1,

I don't yet have an updated on your css errors or the wide page. I'll post here when I have more info.

Regarding your post #128, "It ain't so!"

We're being honest when we say that the new search experience is not pre-ordained. Certainly we have high expectations for it, but it is in everyone's best interest that the user experience for buyers and sellers be the best it can be whichever search experience that ends up being. We're adding enhancements and fine tuning both experiences so that they both improve as much as possible.

It's great that we have users who are as passionate as everyone here on the boards. Of course its most useful when it is specific like yours was, but seeing people's general feeling/impressions helps, too.

John
.

glenda (1359 ) View Listings        Aug-31-07 12:04 PDT       134 of 137
Hi pmjohn@ebay.com

>>> We're being honest when we say that the new search experience is not pre-ordained.

About 10 minutes ago, I was looking at a seller's listings. On the upper right, the page said (this isn't from memory: I copied the entry and am pasting it):

eBay's new search experience is coming.Try it in our playground.

Glenda

--
V3  You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Search Forum - New search makes my computer cooling fan come on!

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Search Forum
New search makes my computer cooling fan come on! http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000547760&start=120

.

takeamile  (8 )        Aug-31-07 09:24 PDT
I keep my computer on all day going on different sites. When I search eBay my cooling fan on my computer comes on every 20 minutes or so and stays on about 30 seconds. When I get off of the search it never comes on. What the heck eBay! Oh by the way, the search pages stink like a skunk in a garbage can in the summer.

.

karens_krazy_klozet  (1607 )      Aug-31-07 09:35 PDT     1 of 1
Same here - I actually had to reboot to make it stop yesterday after searching on the Playground for a couple of hours. This also happens if I leave a Tab (firefox) open by mistake with an Express search on it.

Even reloading Selling Manager sure makes it kick in high gear. No other sites do this - Amazon, Overstock, etc.

I installed Speed Fan just to make sure - and it's only Playground, Selling Manager and Express for me.

Does anyone know the technical reaadon why?

K3

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Search Forum - Feedback on Finding 2.0 (New Search and Browse)

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Search Forum
EBAY IS RUINED!!!

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000406482&tstart=0&mod=1188505620474

.

jeffking@ebay.com

View Listings | Report                 Aug-29-07 21:55 PDT                 522 of 537

Hello All,

I wanted to give you a quick update on where we are in regards to the Finding 2.0 testing. We have completed the first round of tests and we are seeing some encouraging trends. Activity, bidding and buying in several key areas have clearly increased in the new platform in comparison to eBay.com.

Because of these positive test results, we have decided to increase traffic from 1% to up to 20% for users who are searching or browsing in the following areas: Computers, Video Games, Art, Antiques and Jewelry & Watches

We will also continue to run the 1% test across all categories to measure the impact of the new features rolling out this week and other changes (such as category and attribute changes) we're making to improve results across the board.

This week you'll see many of the additional features we've been working on that we know you've been missing. Look for Advanced, Completed search, Title and Description, Canadian items, in-search box refinement, additional stores expansion and other features. You may see changes in item counts, inventory and layout until the roll out of these features are complete.

We're thrilled to see clearly positive results from our tests that show buyers are finding and buying more items in this new system. As always, we look forward to getting your feedback, input and suggestions.

Thanks,
Jeff & the Finding Team

P.S.  If you haven’t already, please take a peek at the new snapshot view  which we think will be a great new way to shop!    http://shop.ebay.com/Art_Art-Prints__W0QQ_dmdZ3

captainhappypants  (519 )        Nov-21-07 10:23 PST       1569 of 1569
Chagdes,
Yes, there is that hidden back door that you mention. Also, you can log into eBay UK and get the classic search page. But I assure you that those avenues will be shut down shortly. I don't know if you have calling privileges with eBay, but I do and I spent an hour on the phone with them yesterday: this insipid 'Finding 2.0' is now the official search interface and there will be NO option to use the normal search page. I spoke to three different CSR's and they all were adamant that this was the case; I was even swearing, I was so mad.
The 'Playground' test-phase that they did was obviously phony: I know for a fact that the reaction to Finding 2.0 was overwhelmingly negative; obviously, they were going to do this no matter what the reaction was.
This is about weasling more profit, even if it means making narrowed searches far more difficult and time-consuming for experienced users. Ebay is saying, "Screw you, we don't care about YOUR ease of use, we're imposing this dumbed-down search page so that newbies and casual users can buy more stuff". That's what this is all about.
So, enjoy your back door opt-out while it lasts, which won't be long.

//

jeffking@ebay.com  View Listings | Report                     Dec-04-07 11:01 PST       1723 of 1739
Hello All,

Just a quick note to let you know what's happening with the search tests. First, we've learned a lot after the extensive testing & all your feedback in the fall & we're now making changes to the system based on the results. We've turned off most of the user testing as we've entered the holiday period and now only a small % of users are seeing the new search (less than 1%). We appreciate all the feedback you've provided and will continue to make changes based on your input. You can see all new features as we release them (checkout the improvements we've made to snapshot view!) and provide your specific feedback on http://playground.ebay.com

Thanks,

Jeff & the Finding team

//

marnisue@ebay.com

View Listings | Report                 Feb-01-08 17:34 PST                 2653 of 2668        

Hi Lindaspostcardsandmore2644

I am so sorry I am so behind keeping up with this thread.
Would you call out the number of your post with the your question in it to my email at MarniSue@ebay.com.

I will do my best to find the answers if I don't already know them and promise to post what I find out back to the board, not just respond to the email.

USSearch I saw your post on the art thread about IS. I am not going to answer there b/c we are going to expire that thread since it is about Art board category changes. The IS that beach is talking about, I believe are the Custom IS, not the IS that were launched prior to that which you see on Clothing. If you believe that the custom IS are not working in your favor, don't use them. They are optional. The IS on clothing are optional as well. If you don't use them you run the risk of buyers not seeing your item if they are searching on a term which is not a term that you used in your item and then use the Product Finder to apply terms.

I hope that answers your question.

With respect to the changes made for Feedback, one of the main focuses for eBay this year is to make eBay a place people want to shop. If there is increased buyer traffic and increased buyer confidence that will translate into increased sales.

Many of the changes we have made are in an effort to correct the broken feedback system. Buyers are afraid to leave accurate feedback because of retailatory negatives, so we have eliminated that factor.

That being said, we are taking steps to be a better business partner to the sellers as well. For buyers who do not pay, more stringent standards are in place. For repeat offenders, they will be suspended. If a suspended buyer has left negative feedback for you, it will be taken out and your feedback score recalculated.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to look at the overview of the changes: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/overview/

and to attend the town hall on Monday: http://pages.ebay.com/townhall/

See you next week,

MarniSue

 

//

marnisue@ebay.com

View Listings | Report                 Feb-04-08 14:50 PST                         2685 of 2691        

Lindaspostcardsandmore

In March, Best Match will be rolled out sitewide as the default for both Auctions and Fixed Price. 

At that time, DSRs will be factored into the equation for your listings in Collectibles.

I appreciate your taking the time to post & voice your concerns.

MarniSue

For Everyone:
Julie has started a new thread to address Best Match Concerns.  Please direct your questions & issue to her here:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000511099&tstart=0&mod=1202165121692

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Stores Forum - August Brown Bag Lunch on 8/28 @12noon PT

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

FYI apologist itspostingtime posts spin and damage control for eBay ...

//

From eBay Stores Forum
August Brown Bag Lunch on 8/28 @12noon PT
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000548908&tstart=0&mod=1188333154912

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:N70feneyf60J:forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa%3FthreadID%3D1000548908%26tstart%3D0%26mod%3D1189126540450+August+Brown+Bag+Lunch+on+8/28+%4012noon+PT

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storesteam@ebay.com         Aug-24-07 18:17 PDT
Hello,

Please join us for our monthly discussion on the eBay Stores board.

We look forward to your participation and will attempt to answer all of your eBay Stores questions as quickly as possible. Based on your questions, we'll also offer tips to ensure that you're using Stores to maximize your business.

In addition, we'll have a special guest from the Finding team to answer questions about eBay's new search experience.

We are committed to answering your questions as quickly as possible. In order to accomplish this equitably, we ask for your cooperation -- please limit your questions to two (2) per user.

We look forward to seeing you here at 12 noon PT on Tuesday, 8/28.

Sincerely,
eBay Stores Team

87 replies     Date posted     Reply #

storesteam@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 11:46 PDT     1 of 87
Hello,

Thank you for joining our August Brown Bag Lunch discussion. This is your opportunity to ask questions, and post your comments about Stores.

We're committed to answering all of your questions as quickly as possible. In order to accomplish this equitably, we ask for your cooperation -- please limit your questions to 2 per user.

All questions posted prior to 1:00 PDT will be addressed by one of the staff. Our responses to questions near the 1:30 mark will appear after the thread has been locked.

If this is your first time using the discussion boards, please see the following tutorial on how to post messages and view updates. http://forums.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=200066500&tstart=0

We will be joined today by the regular members from the eBay Stores Product and Marketing Teams, as well a special guest from Finding.

We will be unlocking the thread shortly; we look forward to speaking with you!

Regards,
eBay Stores Team

dorothysew  (841 )      Aug-28-07 12:01 PDT     2 of 87
Hi:

Just wondering if you could give us any info on crosspromotional problems?

Dorothysew

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 12:06 PDT     3 of 87
Hi. Traffic has been just dead lately. With the emphasis being on trying to ignite auctions, what is ebay doing to try to attract buyers to stores? I find that auctions are dead in the water. Almost all of my buyers purchase from my ebay store, even if the same exact item is also in core at a low starting price.
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:06 PDT     4 of 87
Dorothysew,

Hi. Yes, we're frustrated w/the cross promo issue, too. Sorry about that. It's basically a technology problem that the team is working to diagnose and fix. They hope to have that back up just as soon as they can.

Sorry not to be able to be more specific. They're definitely focusing on it.

Thanks.

Gene

onepreciousplace  (1805 )      Aug-28-07 12:09 PDT     5 of 87
What are the chances that you are going to do a free month if you sign up for a store again? I haven't had my store for over a year, but am thinking about reopening if the price is right.

~ Sheryl ~



itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:12 PDT     6 of 87
Well, Dorothy beat me to the punch on that obvious question, but I'll ask the obvious follow-up:

When, if ever, is ebay going to take seller communication seriously?

Why was it necessary for sellers to tie up their time and Live Help's time with the cross promotion question? The cross promotion issue is not an ephemeral glitch, it's been ongoing for some time now. It is also not restricted to a few people. Live Help told me it is store wide.

Seller Communication. It really, really would be nice.
I find more products than glitches



itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:15 PDT     7 of 87
Oops. I lost part of that post. Why isn't this store wide glitch on the Systems Announcement Board? Why didn't someone from the stores team come here and post a short post at the top---before the Brown Bag----, something like what you just said. We shouldn't have to ask about these things on live Help or here. Why is it so hard for ebay to be pro-active on issues that directly effect us all?
I find more products than glitches



rich337@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:17 PDT     8 of 87
(Re: #5)

Hi Sheryl (onepreciousplace),

We don't have plans to have a free trial, but we feel our price for a Basic Store is extremely competitive at $15.95/month.

I hope this answers your question.

Thanks,
Rich

dorothysew  (841 )      Aug-28-07 12:19 PDT     9 of 87
Since you have someone from "finding" here-I assume that is search (sorry not up on new terms)- has general search been changed in the last several wks-I mean outside of whatever tests are going on. And what % of buyers are being subjected (not perjoritive) to new search?

Relative to Carl's post. I have to agree, I wrote 2 emails Fri and Mon, hoping to spur a response either to the board or to me. Nothing. I presume you do not want our buyers treated in the same manner?

D

onepreciousplace  (1805 )      Aug-28-07 12:20 PDT     10 of 87
Well, Rich, if the search was working right, which I read the stores board all the time and there is a huge problem with it, you might just be correct in that. However, it is a waste of $15.95 a month when nobody ever finds the store. And now I'm reading here that when people put links to their stores in their eBay auctions, the auctions are terminated because it's illegal to do that. I guess we are then to assume that all buyers will recognize that silly little red door as something to be checked into and come in to shop? Highly doubtful, as I think these people on this board could verify.

~ Sheryl ~



gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:21 PDT     11 of 87
Dear itspostingtime,

Hi. The short answer is that you're right. We're going to focus on more proactive enagement w/the board going forward, and part of that includes reaching out to you when there are issues and giving you more visibility.

Sometimes, other teams at eBay "own" different features that affect Store sellers. But we're going to try to help facilitate that communication.

Thanks for the feedback.

Gene

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:22 PDT     12 of 87
Well, while I'm waiting for an answer to that question, I'll go ahead and ask the next obvious question. Since you have someone from the findings team here, can that someone give us some insight into how stores are going to be incorporated into the new findings? And what's the timetable for us the playground to incorporate those changes?
I find more products than glitches



accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 12:22 PDT     13 of 87
There has to be more focus on getting buyers to come to the stores. What is happening with that?
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

honiesresale  (2999 )      Aug-28-07 12:23 PDT     14 of 87
I thought I heard about changes coming to the powerseller eligibility program. Something about low volume sellers who reach a sales quoto of units sold may be eligible. Is that still coming and if so when?

...................................................

Also, on numerous occasions since last years store fee hike I have tried to purchase books I was in the market for here on ebay only to discover that none were available. I went to Amazon.com and each time found over 50 of the books I was looking for. Is ebay considering lowering the store insertion fee on fixed price items $5.00 and under back to pre "rebalancing the marketplace" levels in order to lure those items back in stores. Clearly if Ebay is unwilling to lower insertion fees for all items then at least add a third tier and have .02 cents for up to $5.00, .05 for up to $24.99 and .10 thereafter. Thanks.



handmadebymartha  (1110 )      Aug-28-07 12:23 PDT     15 of 87
i have been reporting a problem with the shipping calculator to live chat and ebay store phone support ... no fix yet ... and i hope that you can help:)

here is the problem: i have my cards set to ship for 5 oz a package. i offer first class and priority shipping. shipping calculator is now displaying first class when over the weight limit for first class.

buyers are picking the first class amount because it is cheaper, and i am loosing out on shipping fees.

this used to be correct in auctions and wrong on invoices and now it is wrong in both places :(

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:23 PDT     16 of 87
Gene, Thanks for the reply. I hope "going forward" means "as of today", but I'm patient. Tomorrow will be OK. LOL
I find more products than glitches



oakrc  (4 )      Aug-28-07 12:24 PDT     17 of 87
-

Any news on the Stores' hub page?

handmadebymartha  (1110 )      Aug-28-07 12:25 PDT     18 of 87
a fellow store owner has reported this problem several times with no help ....

seems like the location based bidder blocks are not working. causing sellers to loose money in insertion fees.

please let me know when this will be fixed.

stinson@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:25 PDT     19 of 87
Hello accessoriesandgifts (re: #3),

There are several initiatives that are in the works to promote Stores to buyers.

The inclusion of Stores in the global header has increased traffic to the redesigned the Stores Hub. The new hub has great merchandising opportunities that we will be taking advantage during the holiday season. We have also seen the request on the boards to broaden the inventory that we promote on this page and we will do this for our holiday campaign.

In addition to our holiday campaign, we will be launching a post holiday buyer program to inspire shopping in Stores.

We are also hosting a holiday workshop to help Store subscribers prepare for the holidays. The focus of this workshop will be promoting your Store.

Stinson

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 12:28 PDT     20 of 87
thank you Stinson. I would like to suggest also that changes be made so that when you go to the home page and click the stores tab, instead of seeing all that stuff about why open a store, sellers checklist etc - it would be nice to shift the focus to "great reasons to shop in stores" or something along those lines. Really promote those stores and all the great reasons to shop them. We need buyers.
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

ajames@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:30 PDT     21 of 87
Dear handmadebymartha –

I am going to take your issue directly to our Shipping team and will respond back to you with what I learn. I appreciate you raising this concern as I am sure it has affected other sellers.

Thanks for the feedback.

Andy

handmadebymartha  (1110 )      Aug-28-07 12:31 PDT     22 of 87
thank you andy ~ this has been going on for months :(

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:31 PDT     23 of 87
itspostingtime,

We have a few stores related updates to the new search experience already in the pipeline (Should be available soon). This includes Cross-stores search and the results module for stores that will appear below the regular search results. Was there a particular feature you were looking for?

John

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:31 PDT     24 of 87
Dear honiesresale (re: 14),

Hi. Yep, we're making changes to the PowerSeller program that we think folks will be excited about, as it will help to recognize the hard work of other groups. You can find details here:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200706151512052.html

Thanks very much for your feedback and suggestions on media. We're always looking at things we can do to make sure buyers can find exactly what they want on eBay, and I'll take your specific suggestions back to that team.

Take care.

Gene

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:32 PDT     25 of 87
Sheryl,

Just an FYI about this:

And now I'm reading here that when people put links to their stores in their eBay auctions, the auctions are terminated because it's illegal to do that

I know the thread you are referring to, and I suggest you read the EnTIRE thread. There is no prohibition against linking to your store from your listing. The OP of that thread was , let's just say, being less than candid about the real reason his listings were removed.
I find more products than glitches



rilla@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:33 PDT     26 of 87
oakrc:

In response to your post #19. I am not quite sure if you are asking about the current Stores Home Page that we have just launched or what our plans are for the future of this page. So I'll try and address both. The Current Stores Home Page is a fresh redesign of our old page and offers a more consistent look and feel with our newly launched eBay.com homepage. We are now driving much more traffic to the Stores Home Page, primarily from our inclusion in the Global eBay Header. We are seeing increased click thru on this page and have received very positive feedback on this first phase redesign.

I am actually leading an investigation on what the next version of the eBay Stores Homepage should evolve into, so I'd love to hear your ideas. We are considering some exciting new modules to help merchandize Stores and their items. We are still in an 'ideation' phase so I cannot commit to any launch plans, timing, etc. Please do feel free to share your thoughts and ideas of what you would like to see.

Thanks,

Raj

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:33 PDT     27 of 87
itspostingtime,

I should also mention we have the promotional stores "widget" that appears in the left hand navigation bar, too.

John

stinson@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:33 PDT     28 of 87
Hello accessoriesandgifts (re:20),

There are several versions of the Stores hub – 2 buyer versions (male, female), 2 seller versions (existing, potential Store owner) and a generic version. The buyer versions include a promotion about why to shop eBay Stores -- that landing page (http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/shop.html) then outlines how to shop with Stores, but I like your suggestion of making info on how to Shop more prominent."

Thanks,
Stinson

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:34 PDT     29 of 87
John,
I'm not sure I know what "cross-stores" search is. Could you explain?
I find more products than glitches



handmadebymartha  (1110 )      Aug-28-07 12:36 PDT     30 of 87
any reply to #18?

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 12:39 PDT     31 of 87
Stinson - I guess I'm not getting it (need another Starbucks :) When I click on the stores tab, I get just the sellers checklist, how to open store etc etc. You're saying there are those various versions of the landing page - how does one know which one they're going to be in when they click? sorry if this sounds confusing.
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:39 PDT     32 of 87
Sorry itspostingtime, I try to remove some of our internal eBay speak, but it sometimes slips through. Cross-stores search is when you search the inventory across all the shops within stores. For example, from the Stores hub if you enter your search term in the text box labeled "I want to buy...". Your results will show the inventory that matches your search term from all eBay stores.

John

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:40 PDT     33 of 87
John,
Questions I know are on people's minds:

Will the new findings alter the Rule of 30?

And, will there still be a separate BIN results that includes store items as at present? Or will this be modified in some way?

Will the stores tab remain in the header?

And, this is a Big One: will the new findings be implemented (ie, go live)BEFORE the holiday season? During? Or after?
I find more products than glitches



ajames@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:43 PDT     34 of 87
Hi again handmadebymartha –

Regrettably, there are not any issues currently filed in regards to the 'Block buyers I do not ship to' feature. This feature is designed to block buyers based on their registration address. However, this is not necessarily their "Ship To" address. This is why some buyers are able to purchase items even though they live outside of the Ship To area.

We understand that situations may arise with the different features on the site, and we would be happy to address any situations that may arise via the Live Help feature and/or Phone support for our Store sellers and PowerSellers.

Thanks.

Andy

golfingaddict  (11593 )      Aug-28-07 12:44 PDT     35 of 87
I have trouble with search dropping a word from my search and then the results are messed up. Is this by design? How will buyers find my items if they search and they get the wrong things? Is that what smart search is?

handmadebymartha  (1110 )      Aug-28-07 12:45 PDT     36 of 87
thank you andy, i will pass this reply along. my fellow store owner has contacted store phone support and ebay live chat numerous times with this new issue ..... not a happy thing at all :(

jacque@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:45 PDT     37 of 87
Hi Dororthysew, (RE: #9)

We have made changes to the finding pages last week, outside of tests that are in progress.

I apologize that the communication around these changes was confusing. It hasn't been clear to members what is a test and what is not a test, and we regret the confusion.

The visual updates we made were rolled out to 100% of buyers. These changes were not launched as a test and it is not possible to opt out of these changes.

These cosmetic changes did not impact the way the site works, they only changed the look and feel, including:
- Slightly wider left column that contains navigation and refinement options
- Updates to the item list, including removing the alternating gray and white stripes
- Changes to font size and font family
- Removing link underlines
- Etc.

These changes are part of a gradual update to eBay's visual appearance across all areas of the site. This change will happen over time, but you should already see a more consistent look and feel between the Home Page and finding pages for example.

We understand that changes like this can be disruptive, and the teams driving the site-wide look and feel update are listening to all the feedback being sent in about the changes. The finding team is working closely with them on next steps.

Changes have also been made to the new Finding experiences you can see at playground.ebay.com. These changes include visual updates consistent with the changes made to finding pages on ebay.com, but also include adding missing features like advanced search, the ability to filter by search options before selecting a category, etc.

We hope these changes address a lot of the comments and concerns voiced about the new Finding experience.

A small percentage of members continue to be opted into the new Finding experience. We did not change the percentage of members in this test, and members can opt out of this test if the new experience is not meeting their needs.

Thanks,

Josh

a.k.a Jacque
eBay Product Management

stinson@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:46 PDT     38 of 87
Hello accessoriesandgifts (re:13),

Yes, one of the areas of focus for the team is getting buyers to Stores, especially increasing repeat purchases and buyer retention. Based on our data, Store owners have a higher incidence of repeat purchases. The Stores product and marketing teams are working on several exciting projects over the next couple of months to help advance our leadership in repeat buying and customer retention.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

Stinson

honiesresale  (2999 )      Aug-28-07 12:47 PDT     39 of 87
regarding trust and safety:

While I commend your attempts to clean up this site and yank up the welcome mat for sellers who consistently under-perform there is great concern over using neutrals against sellers in determining performance. I myself have had several positive neutrals, Neutrals with positive comments Like: "Neutral: very fast shipping" Why should a comment like that be held against a seller because a buyer, for reasons unknown, chose neutral instead of positive. Since Ebay is bent on using neutrals against us are there plans to just delete that option and give buyers only the chose of positive or negative?


accessoriesandgifts  (744 )        Aug-28-07 12:48 PDT       40 of 87
Thank you Stinson - we appreciate it, and do hope those changes and projects take effect in time for the holiday shopping season.
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

golfingaddict  (11593 )      Aug-28-07 12:48 PDT     41 of 87
I am also very curious about how shopping.com will be intergrated on eBay express. Will stores items be pushed down because of this? Shouldn't store sellers be promoted before shopping.com?

rich337@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:48 PDT     42 of 87
(Re: #10)

Hi Sheryl,

We understand driving buyers to a Store is a primary concern for Store owners. Listing in Auction-style and Fixed Price formats is one strategy to bring buyers into your Store, as well as cross-promoting your items. Also, the Store Listing Frame (header and/or left navigation bar) will link buyers directly from your listings into your Store.

We think $15.95 fee is a great value for a Basic Store, since it includes multiple selling and marketing tools, as well as access to Store Inventory Format and repeat buyers. The product and marketing teams are continually looking to enhance the value of each Store level.

Thanks,
Rich

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 12:51 PDT     43 of 87
If auction fees weren't so high, and if they truly brought buyers (as opposed to just watchers which by the way there are too many of) then I think we'd do some more auctions. But right now every auction I put up just goes unsold, with watchers, and so that is money lost and it does add up, as you know. I used to get excited about watchers, as it usually meant bids but now, I really don't think much of it.
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 12:52 PDT     44 of 87
John,
This includes Cross-stores search and the results module for stores that will appear below the regular search results
OK, thanks for defining cross stores search, but I'm still trying to picture this. Are you saying there will be a cross stores search box more or less in line with core search boxes? Or are you saying that a stores search box will appear down the search results page, between the core results and store results module"?

And when will the store module appear after core listings? Always? or only when the Rule of 30 is used?
I find more products than glitches



dorothysew  (841 )      Aug-28-07 12:53 PDT     45 of 87
Josh, aka Jacque, thanks for the answer. I'm sure you understand seller's apprehensions concerning the holiday season. Every year we've been promised no disruptive changes and every year something huge goes wrong. (I've been on 3 Xmas I think-maybe 4-my memory....).

I know each of you has the best of intentions, but can we count on some real info about things during at least these 4 upcoming months-to prevent the hysteria, that spreads with no info-during our stressful time? We want to deliver our best to our buyers, but we also need Ebay to deliver their best to us.

D

ajames@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:53 PDT     46 of 87
Hi handmadebymartha –

This is in response to your post #15. Ask and you shall receive a quick answer. :)

After reviewing this situation, we have found that this is not an issue with the site. Once the weight of the items exceeds the shipping service, the system will calculate the shipping based on multiple packages. However, there is a new version of the checkout process coming to the site in the near future that should resolve this situation and ensure that buyers are being billed correctly for their shipping.

Thanks.

Andy

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 12:54 PDT     47 of 87
On the subject of star ratings - I think it is crucial that buyers be educated about how to properly use the stars. I ship lightening fast (i.e. same day as paypal comes in for most items, once in a while the very next day). I get so many comments, like 99.9% on my lightening fast shipping yet my star on shipping time is only 4.8. Once the item leaves our hands, we have no control as to how long the post office will take to get it there, even if it went priority and right away. Someone needs to educate the buyers better about the stars and how to use them properly. Better yet,remove the stars!
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 12:58 PDT     48 of 87
itspostingtime,

If I am understanding you correctly, you can already see the separate BIN results on the new search experience. I believe they are still optimizing when and how it appears. I brought it up by searching in playground for Nirvana LP cd/b>.

Our team is not responsible for the header, but it is my understanding that there are no plans to remove Stores from the header.

We do not have a date for if/when the new search experience might go 100% live (I'm assuming you mean replace the current search). I would not expect that to happen during or before the holiday season.

John

jacque@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:02 PDT     49 of 87
Hi itsposting time, (RE: #33)

Good questions, I’ll address each of them.

> Will the new findings alter the Rule of 30?

The Finding team is working closely with the Stores team to study the Rule of 30 and other ways we provide exposure to Store Inventory in eBay.com search results. We don’t have any definite plans yet to change the Rule of 30, but if we find a solution that works even better for buyers and sellers, we’d certainly consider it.

> And, will there still be a separate BIN results that includes store items as at present? Or will this be modified in some way?

The new experience doesn’t have a BIN tab, but our intention is to have the same behavior as eBay.com today for searches that filter on BIN. It’s not currently working this way, but this is only because we’re gradually adding features to the new experience, not because we have made a decision to change the way this feature works.

> Will the stores tab remain in the header?

As far as I know, yes. I’m glad we were able to add this link to the header.

> And, this is a Big One: will the new findings be implemented (ie, go live)BEFORE the holiday season? During? Or after?

The new finding experience is still being tested. Based on the data we’ve collected so far, we’re seeing that in some categories on eBay.com, it’s driving more sales than the old search. We’re planning to ramp up traffic to a few of those categories before the holiday season to confirm that, outside a test scenario, we are actually helping buyers and sellers with the new experience. During this category-specific test, buyers will still be able to opt out if the new experience isn’t working for them, as we want to take care not to force this change. We’ll be posting more information about this category-specific ramp up soon, including information about the categories involved.

Thanks,

Josh

a.k.a Jacque
eBay Product Management

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:03 PDT     50 of 87
Dear honiesresale (re: 39),

Hi. I think that's a fair question. We're obviously concerned that feedback skews so strongly "positive" that we're trying to find ways to introduce more differentiation.

I hear your concern about neutrals, and we'll pass that feedback back to the Trust and Safety team. They're obviously taking a hard look at this now.

Thanks.

Gene

chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:04 PDT     51 of 87
Hi, I didn't know this was going on I haven't been around but I wanted to tell JakeJake that my issues from last month, Raj is helping me on one of them, but have not heard from JakeJake on the other.

Raj, that customer service person still has not followed up re your last email from the other week.

It is now both issues opened for 1 month for 1 issue and almost a month and a half for the other

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



jacque@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:05 PDT     52 of 87
Hi dorothysew, (RE #45)

I understand your need for better communication from us at eBay about changes to the site leading up to the holiday season, and my team is spending more and more time on the boards. We always strive to provide as much accurate information as we can.

Thanks,

Josh

a.k.a Jacque
eBay Product Management

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 13:05 PDT     53 of 87
John, Sorry, I hadn't been to the playground in a while. my bad. It looks like search store inventory only is now a very clear option on the left. Since that is already there, I assume that "Cross store" is distinct from that, in that "cross store" results include ALL store merchandise, whether store listing format or core listing format? And that will be on the left as well?

As to the time frame, you are saying that we should assume that the new findings will NOT go live before next year?
I find more products than glitches



chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:06 PDT     54 of 87
how much more time is this BBL open?

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:06 PDT     55 of 87
Chop,

Hi. What issues are you referring to?

Gene

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:07 PDT     56 of 87
Itspostingtime,

There will not be an additional search box. I meant to indicate that when someone does a cross-stores search either through the hub, or by applying a store inventory filter, that they will stay in the new search experience (if that is where the user is searching from). Previously the user was sent out of playground for these results.

The appearance of the store module (i.e., Rule of 30) is still being optimized for the new search experience. I don't know what rules will be applied to it at this time. I don't expect it to change much from the experience on the regular search, but I cannot say for sure.

John

chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:08 PDT     57 of 87
It was from last months BBL so #1) was about the gallery banner image compression size that we can use on our ebay stores. The other was an #2) issue I had sent about the custom pages. You were gone at the time so Raj is helping me on #2

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



storesteam@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:09 PDT     58 of 87
(Re: #54)

Hi CSS,

This session will end at 1:30PT. I'll post another message on this in about five minutes.

Thanks.

chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:10 PDT     59 of 87
I don't really have any new questions this month only that I am looking forward to Darlenes commitment of making advance communications & brainstorming ideas for holiday season. I want Christmas to be a kickin' season this time around!

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:11 PDT     60 of 87
okie dokie!

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



golfingaddict  (11593 )      Aug-28-07 13:11 PDT     61 of 87
I just want my stuff to show up in eBay express and in searches. My store sales have been good but I don't want them to slump because buyers get strange search results.

Can anyone address how store items will be displayed on eBay express now that shopping.com items will show up?

And can the finding team tell me why when I search for Robert Held the word "Held" gets dropped and the search returns are showing only Robert? (that is not a good finding experience)

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:12 PDT     62 of 87
Chop,

Hi. Was the gallery compression issue that you think the slideshow promotion box loads too slowly for some b/c we're not compressing those images as much as we could/should? I've asked our engineering team to take a look at that.

Gene

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:12 PDT     63 of 87
itspostingtime,

Yes, with respect to your question on timign of going live. Do look at Jacque's post in this thread on the testing that will be going on, however.

John

kingst  (2651 )      Aug-28-07 13:13 PDT     64 of 87
first when are they going to fix the bulk editor? it is a store question plain and simple and second,
Experian owes me money, or Ebay does,since there is now a spam link on my auctions that reads,
Free Credit Report & Score From Experian. Learn more.
since i pay ebay for my listing, i think that i should be getting a cut from the spam link! i cant add a spam link in my listings although i pay to list and have a store!

chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:15 PDT     65 of 87
JakeJake, yes that was it. I was just wanted them to check to see if they were doing compressions to help with load time. Because I run them on all my stores pages and people had told me they can't stand them because it croaks!

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:17 PDT     66 of 87
Thanks, Chop. I'll ping them again.

Gene

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:17 PDT     67 of 87
golfingaddict,

We are trying to get someone to address your question regarding express/shopping.com.

with respect to your search for Robert Held. have you done the search recently? It seems to work okay now (assuming Robert Held is supposed to bring up art glass).

John

chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:17 PDT     68 of 87
ok, ping them hard. like a grapefruit

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



rich337@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:18 PDT     69 of 87
(Re: #64)

Dear kingst,
Would you mind being more specific on the Bulk Editor issue?

Thanks,
Rich

storesteam@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:19 PDT     70 of 87
Hi folks,

Please submit your questions and comments as soon as possible. We'll be locking this thread promptly at 1:30 PM PDT. Any questions that are posted close to the end of the session will responded to after the thread has been locked.

Thank you for joining,
eBay Stores Team

kingst  (2651 )      Aug-28-07 13:19 PDT     71 of 87
it dont work! the page you need to make the changes is skipped going right to the confirmation page. it has for weeks.

kingst  (2651 )      Aug-28-07 13:20 PDT     72 of 87
i would also like to know why the spam link is allowed in my store? yet i cant list one! thanks

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 13:21 PDT     73 of 87
How about plans to educate buyers about leaving stars (from my prior post #47)
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:22 PDT     74 of 87
I have just added "ping them like a grapefruit" to my collection of sayings. Thanks. :)

Gene

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:24 PDT     75 of 87
Everyone,

Please feel free to suggest future "special guests" for the BBL. Sounds like Trust and Safety may be one candidate.

Gene

kingst  (2651 )      Aug-28-07 13:25 PDT     76 of 87
the secrets of search one topic
how to rate the buyer topic two

itspostingtime  (2 )      Aug-28-07 13:26 PDT     77 of 87
Well, OK, I'm down to my tenth and last post for the day. First: CHOP!!!!! Where've you been?

Second: To the finding team: I just looked at the Robert Held search and the results came up in "snapshot" view. Which I like a lot: kudos to the team.

But this really demonstrates that, with the new findings, it will be more important than ever to use gallery. I know that ebay france recently required Gallery (not sure how they addressed the fees on that)

Given this new emphasis on the visual, are there any plans to require gallery here? Or to lower the fee for core gallery in some way?

I know that's not strictly speaking a store issue, but if anyone can address it, please do....

And, since this is my last post and I can't add more, thanks to all involved in today's BBL.
I find more products than glitches



ajames@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:26 PDT     78 of 87
Hi golfingaddict - (re post #41)

Yes, the Express team will start to phase in adding listing from Shopping.com. There won’t be anything done to disadvantage Store listings. They remain committed to ensuring relevancy of items remains top priority both from a price and inventory quality standpoint.

Thanks.

Andy

accessoriesandgifts  (744 )      Aug-28-07 13:27 PDT     79 of 87
Yes and thank you to Gene, Stinson and anyone else who answered my questions - I appreciate it!
Elaine
Accessories,Bags,Gifts

rich337@ebay.com        Aug-28-07 13:27 PDT       80 of 87
(Re: #71)

Kingst, can you write in the exact steps you took when you received the Bulk Editor error to storesteam@ebay.com? We can't seem to duplicate it.

Thanks,
Rich

chopsueysisters  (2164 )      Aug-28-07 13:27 PDT     81 of 87
I hve doc appts all this week IPT!! I am OK, just very tired. I will email you!

All aboard the crazy train!
This one time... at band camp....



kingst  (2651 )      Aug-28-07 13:28 PDT     82 of 87
you simply click on the buttons, also stated in the tech board by others

pmjohn@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:30 PDT     83 of 87
itspostingtime,

Glad you like the snapshot view. Default presentation of Galley view is one of the things we've been testing, so it is definitely somethign we would consider. If the data and customer feedback support it, we could see it happen. We'll also be looking at snapshot view, which may be even more beneficial to sellers (and more compelling for buyers)

John

golfingaddict  (11593 )      Aug-28-07 13:30 PDT     84 of 87
Andy, I pay for a store and to list my items. I still cannot get all of my store items on eBay express because it does not include all categories. I'd say that my store items are disadvantaged on eBay Express if they bring on shopping.com

Are you aware that Amazon advertises on shopping.com

So my aroew items will be next to Amazon.com items? Weird...

kingst  (2651 )      Aug-28-07 13:31 PDT     85 of 87
what about the spam issue from experian?

gene@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:32 PDT     86 of 87
Kingst,

Hi. Sounds like we should also add the Advertising team to the list of guests, so they can explain their testing.

Gene

storesteam@ebay.com      Aug-28-07 13:32 PDT     87 of 87
Stores Community,

Thank you for participating in this Month’s discussion. The thread is now locked to new posts.

We will be going through the entire thread to make sure all questions are answered. Please check back for the completed thread.

Thank you again for joining us today. Stay tuned for details about the September Stores Brown Bag Lunch event.

Regards,
eBay Stores Team

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay - ***A Message from Philipp Justus – Making winning on eBay even more fun***

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200708.shtml#2007-08-21102613

***A Message from Philipp Justus – Making winning on eBay even more fun***
August 21, 2007 | 10:29AM PST/PT

 

Philipp Justus

Hello everyone... We've been talking a lot with you about improving the buyer experience on eBay, and I'm pleased to let you know about some great new enhancements that we're adding to the site over the next two weeks. We've been working hard to ensure that these enhancements will add to the thrill you feel when you win a great item at a fantastic price. Winning on eBay is a big part of the great experience you have on eBay and we want you to win faster, more often and have even more fun than ever before.

If you've been keeping on eye on Sneak Peek (www.ebay.com/sneakpeek),   you're probably aware of many of the products and enhancements we're working   on. I'd like to give you a quick snapshot on a number of enhancements that are   on their way.

Our new eBay home page – A homepage is like a front   door, and it can say a lot about the business inside. Making its debut this   week, our new eBay homepage has a simplified interface that puts the focus on   you and what you love. Quick access to key My eBay information, featured items   and recent activities helps to make a more inspired and fun shopping experience.   We hope you like our new "front door" – and that you find it   welcoming, informative and fun.

Bid History redesign – Through research and talking   to a lot of you, we know that our competitive bidders spend a lot of time on   the bid history page. We've enhanced the page to be more functional for you.   You'll now be able to bid directly from the Bid History page. We heard that   it's really important for you to be able to see more information on all items   you're bidding on, so we've restored some transparency when bidding on items   over $200.

New look & feel in Search – We're making a number   of visual changes to our current Search to make the search results pages less-cluttered.   Soon you'll notice subtle changes to color and other details that will help   the most important content on the page – your items – stand out   better.

Snapshot View on Search Results – Snapshot View allows   you to browse quickly through larger item images – it's a little like   window shopping but with faster results. Browse for what you are looking for,   or refine your search by color or price, and let your visual sense be your guide.   You'll find the link to Snapshot View at the top right of every search results   page. This is an exciting new way to help you to find and win items on eBay.

You'll be hearing more about these projects and others – like progress   with our new My eBay beta, our Finding tests, and more – in the coming   weeks. Until then, keep checking our General Announcements board, and visiting   our Sneak Peek page for updates. We also hope you'll use our sneakpeek@ebay.com   email address to let us know what you think about our new projects. We really   want to hear from you – so don't be shy.

Sincerely,
  Philipp Justus
  Senior Vice President, eBay Auctions

Des eBay - ***Test d'un nouveau critère de tri des résultats de recherche: le tri par pertinence***

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/fr/200707311541492.html

***Test d'un nouveau critère de tri des résultats de recherche: le tri par pertinence***
juillet 31 2007 | 03:41PM CEST

Bonjour à tous,

Depuis plusieurs mois, nous proposons sur le site eBay.fr un nouveau critère de tri des résultats de recherche : le tri par pertinence. Ce critère est disponible parmi les autres critères existant dans le menu déroulant situé en haut des pages de résultats de recherche.

Afin d'améliorer l'efficacité du moteur de recherche, nous allons désormais tester ce critère de tri par défaut pour trois catégories d'objet: CD/Vinyles, Loisirs créatifs et Monnaies.

Qu'est-ce que ça change?
Désormais, quand vous utiliserez le moteur de recherche pour rechercher un objet appartenant à l'une de ces catégories, les résultats de recherche obtenus seront triés par pertinence.
Les utilisateurs qui souhaitent trier les objets à l'aide d'autres critères comme le prix de vente ou le temps restant peuvent continuer à utiliser ces critères à l'aide du menu déroulant situé en haut des résultats de recherche. De plus, si vous naviguez dans les catégories (sans utiliser le moteur de recherche), les résultats de recherche demeureront triés par temps restant.

Qu'est-ce que le tri par pertinence ?
Contrairement aux autres critères de tri disponibles sur eBay, qui ne sont basés que sur un seul facteur tel que le temps restant ou le prix de vente, le tri par pertinence combine plusieurs facteurs. Il permet d'afficher en haut des résultats de recherche les objets correspondant le mieux à ce que les utilisateurs recherchent.

Le tri par pertinence modifie donc l'ordre de présentation des objets sur la page des résultats de recherche. Nous tenons à préciser qu'aucun objet n'est enlevé ou ajouté quand le tri par pertinence est utilisé. De même, les options de mise en vente telles que « A la Une de la Galerie » ou « A la Une de la Catégorie » continuent d’être fonctionnelles.

  Pourquoi implémenter le tri par pertinence par défaut ?
Nous avons réalisé de nombreux tests utilisateurs qui montrent que le tri par pertinence permet aux utilisateurs de trouver plus rapidement et plus facilement les objets qu'ils recherchent sur le site. Nous avons donc décidé d'implémenter cette fonctionnalité par défaut sur quelques catégories, afin de confirmer les résultats de ces tests.

Si vous avez des commentaires ou suggestions au sujet du tri par pertinence, vous pouvez les faire en nous écrivant ici.

Bonne journée,

L'équipe eBay

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Hello all,

For some months now on eBay.fr, we’ve offered a new sorting criterion for search results: sort by relevence. This criterion is available amongst the other criteria in the drop-down menu at the top of the search results pages.

In order to improve the efficiency of the search engine, from now on we are going to test this sort criterion by default for three categories: CDs/Records, Crafts and Currency.

What’s changing?
From now on, when you use the search engine to look for an item belonging to one of these categories, the search results given will be sorted by relevence.

Users who want to sort items by other criteria, for example price or time remaining, can continue to do so with the help of the drop-down menu situated at the top of the search results. Likewise, if you browse these categories without using the search engine, results will continue to be sorted by time remaining.

What is sort by relevence?
Unlike the other sorting criteria available on eBay, which are only based on a single criterion like time remaining or price, sort by relevence combines several factors. It allows those objects which best match what users are looking for to be shown at the top of the search results.

So sort by relevence changes the order in which items are displayed on the search results page. But we make a point of specifying that no item is removed or added when sort by relevence is used. In the same way, listing options such as “gallery featured” and “category featured” will continue to function.

Why implement sort by relevence by default?
We’ve carried out a number of tests which have shown that sort by relevence helps users to find the item they’re looking for more quickly and more easily. We therefore decided to implement this functionality by default in some categories, in order to confirm the results of these tests.

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From eBay - ***Testing an Improved Finding Experience***

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200707300936512.html

***Testing an Improved Finding Experience***
30 July, 2007 | 09:37AM BST

We wanted to let you know that we will be testing some changes to Finding pages over the next few weeks. These tests are designed to make it easier for buyers to find items on eBay.co.uk.

In the week beginning 30th July, 2% of users will be shown new search and listing pages. We have redesigned the layouts, and improved how search works to return more items for each search and also to return only relevant items.

As a simple example, if a buyer in the test searches for "red size 12 shoes", instead of looking just for listings with the words "red", "size", "12", and "shoes" in the item title the search engine will find all the items in the shoe category that are size 12 and in the colour red.

The buyer should see more relevant items, and will also see a new way to narrow their search results according to important details such as size, colour, and type.

The tests should be completed by the beginning of September.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk Team

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From eBay - ***Testing New Search Results Pages***

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200707041120592.html

***Testing New Search Results Pages***
04 July, 2007 | 11:21AM BST

We wanted to let you know that we will be testing some changes to search results pages over the next few weeks. From today, 5% of users will be included in the test automatically, which should be completed by the start of September. Users who are included may see differences in:

The way that search results are sorted
The number of items shown on each search results page 
The total number of items that are matched to a search 
The way that postage is displayed on search results pages 

These tests are designed to make it easier for buyers to find items on eBay.co.uk.

Regards,
The eBay.co.uk Team

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From eBay Search Forum - EBAY IS RUINED!!!

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Search Forum
EBAY IS RUINED!!!
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000405068&tstart=0&mod=1185292335012

denizappleby  (68 )        Jul-22-07 07:57 PDT
Let me start by saying how Ebay is a part of my day. I search for my items, and shop. Not a big buyer,but a heavy duty shopper. That is now gone, due to this ridiculous search process! It may work better for the techy who wrote the program, but in turn ruined it for the shoppers! I am truly disappointed in Ebay. Now I have gone back to my local papers, and yard sales. Still just shopping, but disappointed that I can't use Ebay any longer!!

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-22-07 11:02 PDT     1 of
HA! I was searching for Birki's -cork using search title and description. Best match tells me that Harley Davidson boots are a better match than Birki's. HUH? This is beyond stupid.

.

jeffking@ebay.com      Jul-22-07 11:15 PDT     2 of
Hi denizappleby,

We'd love to hear specifics on how you use search. Can you post your queries etc and we'll do what we can to respond and/or resolve the issue you're seeing.

touch*my*toes,

I tried birki's -cork on both the current search and the playground. http://playground.ebay.com
I get identical results on each and neither are showing any harley davidson results. Would you mind posting your queries and or URLs so we can investigate?
Title and description search isn't complete yet for the playground but on the current search, even using best match from the dropdown I'm seeing women's shoes at the top.

Thanks,

Jeff

.

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-22-07 11:32 PDT     3 of
Here is the identical search I ran, same results.

Search terms: birki's -cork

Searching title and description.

Harley Davidson boots are #4 on your "Best Match" results:

http://tinyurl.com/2dhdmn

There are also more HD boots that show before Birki's on other pages. I understand WHY they show up. I don't understand how they would be in the top 10 of a best match search result. What exactly is the criteria for best match?

fairly_dinkum  (6 )      Jul-23-07 08:34 PDT     4 of
touch, this may actually NOT be a problem with any of the new search functions. OTOH - it does illustrate how "gaming the system" is even easier with the new search.

It appears that the seller of those items is Keyword Spamming within all listings. Besides an internal search/browse that utilizes various brand names...

...there's several keywords that are being used under the guise of a FAQ page.

Quite ingenious. But, definitely a rule breaker.

fair treatment for Stores - just do it
~me

glenda  (1349 )      Jul-23-07 10:34 PDT     5 of
            Hi fairly_dinkum

I think the issue isn't that the listings are coming up, and I think touch*my*toes understands that they're coming up because of the keyword spamming.

I think the issue is that they are coming up high in the results as a Best Match for birki's -cork.

Glenda

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V3  You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

zag001a  (1708 )      Jul-23-07 11:30 PDT     6 of
Pink: I have not been able to get rid of the location by miles part of the search results. Today I even lost the shipping cost section and when I go to customize (for the 10th time) it says everything I want is OK. Help please. zag.

zag001a  (1708 )      Jul-23-07 12:34 PDT     7 of
Also it "APPEARS" that all of my searches have the Title & Description box checked as well as Best match. Very frustrating. Just cuts down on the time I spend searching to change everything back. zag

zag001a  (1708 )      Jul-23-07 12:37 PDT     8 of
I Rarely put in my opinion to this boards, but since no one else is responding, I would like to say I feel like that Twilight Zone episode where all the people n the neighborhood are worried and upset about new situations going on in their block and at the end, the camera pulls away to a little girl playing with her dollhouse people. ebaY is yanking our strings...zag

glenda  (1349 )      Jul-23-07 14:42 PDT     9 of
Hi zag001a

You're in, I believe, one (or more) of the unannounced tests. I know that some people have experienced the title w/description checked off situation, and some people have experienced the shipping column disappearing situation. You're the first one who's commented on having the Location by miles displaying all the time when you don't have it specified to do so, though.

You might try deleting cookies and clearing your cache, though I'll be honest that it hasn't worked for some of the people who have been dropped into those particular tests.

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

zag001a  (1708 )      Jul-23-07 16:25 PDT     10 of
Exactly Glenda, although it has happened at two different computers now. I can live with it. Thank you for your reply. I still feel like I am in the T.Z. tho. LOL:_|

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-23-07 17:20 PDT     11 of
Title and description search isn't complete yet for the playground but on the current search, even using best match from the dropdown I'm seeing women's shoes at the top.

Thanks,

Jeff

Oh, there is definitely women's shoes at the TOP.  Is there only ONE best match result?  LOL! 

BTW, those Harley boots are now the #2 best match result ebay provides.

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-23-07 17:23 PDT     12 of
I think the issue isn't that the listings are coming up, and I think touch*my*toes understands that they're coming up because of the keyword spamming.

I think the issue is that they are coming up high in the results as a Best Match for birki's -cork.

Exactamundo, and thank you very much! 

BTW, you were right. I was obviously being subjected to some sort of random test as my search results have now reverted back to the ones I had set. Thanks!

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-23-07 17:28 PDT     13 of
It appears that the seller of those items is Keyword Spamming within all listings. Besides an internal search/browse that utilizes various brand names...

...there's several keywords that are being used under the guise of a FAQ page.

Quite ingenious. But, definitely a rule breaker.

That PS should, and probably does know better.  Disgusting.

I hope Jeff takes a look at the link soon. Those listings might be gone shortly. That is if ebay is fair and even handed. We'll see.

8270elizabeth  (197 )      Jul-23-07 17:57 PDT     14 of
I agree that the new search leaves much to be desired. I do not have time to weed through all of the stuff I wasn't even searching for. On top of that I tried to enter a new search in my favorites today and after the fifth attempt, I gave up. This is ridiculous.
8270elizabeth

fairly_dinkum  (6 )      Jul-24-07 08:52 PDT     15 of
touch, I wasn't sure if you knew it was due to KWS, or thought that it was part of the category/auto-linked-words feature.

I will offer my opinion as to why those items come up so high w/in BM. Since those listings are doing some major KWS, they come up in more searches.

Since they come up in more searches, more peeps are likely to click on them. With those "more clicks", comes a higher placement in Relevancy.

In the words of Esteban Kozak, "with Best Match, what buyers do on the site will affect the order in which listings are displayed. In other words, if buyers running a particular search often end up viewing, bidding on, or buying a certain type of item more often, this will be factored into our relevance calculations. The Best Match scores for these types of items will be higher, and might display higher on the page because they are similar to items that have been more relevant for that search in the past."

It is a direct result of the BM search functionality that listings engaged in KWS will benefit with higher placement. It is simply a matter of logic.

Ebay will (again) be rewarding the rule-breakers. They have NEVER stated that they are even aware of this situation. It would appear that the end of their collective noses is the extent of their vision.

I hope Jeff takes a look at the link soon. Those listings might be gone shortly. That is if ebay is fair and even handed. We'll see.

Now I know you're just kidding. Right?

fair treatment for Stores - just do it
~me

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From eBay Search Forum - My sort option changed to Best Match?

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Search Forum
My sort option changed to Best Match?
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000404928&tstart=0&mod=1185131701613

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touch*my*toes  (12 )        Jul-21-07 19:33 PDT
Hello? Don't be messing with MY CHOSEN sort method. WTH?

.

glenda  (1348 )      Jul-21-07 23:44 PDT     1 of
Hi touch*my*toes

You know you can change it back, right?

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

.

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-22-07 10:54 PDT     2 of
Yes, thanks. However, I have to change it back EVERY time. When I choose a preference for search, I would assume that would be the default for every search I do. Not just the one I am doing when I change it. This is BS.

Didn't one of those pinks post and say they would NEVER force Best Match on us? Liars.

.

glenda  (1348 )      Jul-22-07 11:01 PDT     3 of
            Hi touch*my*toes

Hmmmm... I recall discovering that my sort had been changed to Best Match at one time as well. But I changed it back to Ending First for search, and Newly Listed for category browse, and it stayed that way.

Maybe you're in one of those "little tests" they talked about in Sneak Peak that supposedly won't last very long.  http://pages.ebay.com/sneakpeek/ (down at the bottom, under Testing Testing)



Glenda

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V3  You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

.

touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jul-22-07 11:12 PDT     4 of
            Oh, LOLOLOL!!  From that page:

"If disruptive technology is a passion of yours, follow along at eBay innovation."

I think I just hurt myself.

.

*sirfelix*  (1719 )      Jul-22-07 12:15 PDT     5 of
Even when signed in, using the search field at the top of any ebay page forces the listing to be sorted by "Best Match", not by my preferences.

So eBay, again, is forcing buyers to use extra "clicks" to search items. This is making my buying experience a pain and I'm tired if it.

I have a 1700+ feedback, about 50% of that from buying anbd 50% from selling. I have already gave up on selling due to increased fees, a confusing system and poor inventory exposure to buyers. Now eBay is threatening MY buying experience with more nonsense like "Best Match".

Fix this problem and stop changing something that worked for everyone. Keep going like this and you'll only succeed in making a marketplace for chinese products from importers. Is this what eBay was originally about?

Goodluck,
SF

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naugagirl  (909 )       Jul-23-07 19:38 PDT       6 of
Ditto. This is an involuntary change to the default behavior and no amount of changing my prefs via customize' stick: every single new search (and saved search!) is now sorted as 'Best Match' by default. Dreadful.

.

webpaper  (1554 )     Jul-24-07 01:56 PDT     7 of
Dreadful hardly begins to describe how ticked off I am.

.

sko74517  (593 )     Jul-24-07 06:10 PDT     8 of
Glenda: You have your work cut out for you this time!! I gotta tell you that if it wasn't for you, I suspect the board would have exploded by now. We sure don't get any rational answers from pinks or whoever is responsible for this mess. Here's the problem: users shouldn't have to "opt out" from eBay's bizzaro experiments. No one should be put into a test scenario without being asked. There should also be a clear path out for those who decide to try it and don't like it. No one has time to fool around with this stuff. It's not easier at all. It just wastes our time.

They tried that same crap on Paypal recently....requiring buyer credit users to "opt out" from Paypal's decision to unilateraly switch from mailed invoices to paying on-line only. They learned quickly that only I control my finances.....not them :) I will never use that service again.

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glenda  (1349 )     Jul-24-07 08:45 PDT     9 of
Hi sko,

Users shouldn't have to "opt out" from eBay's [search] experiments.

I've rephrased your statement slightly and I agree. I think search is too important to be messing around with in a public setting. It's impactful enough that listings take longer and longer to even be searchable, but then to change settings and displays and sorts and categories on the fly, at random, is unacceptable.

eBay said they learned last time that people don't like to be dropped into tests, so they added an opt-out. Hopefully what they learn from this round is that people still don't like being dropped into tests and that they should have an opt-IN at the top of search results pages, instead of an opt-OUT at the very bottom.

What really irritates me, however, is that they announced it was only going to last 6 weeks, and here it is going on 11 weeks and there has been no further explanation of why they ignored their own statements. Judging from the number of new complaints, they have also increased the "small percentage" of people being dropped into various searches.



Glenda

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It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

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From eBay Search Forum - Completed Items Search Option Gone ? ? ? - jeffking@ebay.com

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Search Forum
Completed Items Search Option Gone ? ? ?
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000529619&tstart=0&mod=1185083598616

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jeffking@ebay.com        Jul-21-07 16:58 PDT       11 of 16
Hi All,


Thanks for the feedback. We think completed items is a great feature and are committed to having it available on the platform. We really just haven't finished it yet. We expect to finish testing and launch descriptive search, completed, favorites and the rest of stores expansion in mid august (just a few weeks from now)

Thanks for your patience!


Jeff

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Ewaey WorldSecurities2001
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From eBay Search Forum - New Search SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

From what can be read from eBay, they have no intention of NOT changing how searches are done.

//

From eBay Search Forum
New Search SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000404259&tstart=0&mod=1185169347167

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friendtomananddog  (54 )       Jul-20-07 10:21 PDT
This new search SUCKS. I can't find what I want without a lot of crap included that should be excluded based on my search parameters. I will not be using ebay with this type of difficulty. Why should I have to find this forum to vent when all I want to do is USE ebay to shop. Get your crap together EBAY!

babydoll0000000000000  (345 )     Jul-20-07 10:28 PDT     1 of
Well said my friend!

amethistle  (559 )     Jul-20-07 12:08 PDT     2 of
My God, what a disaster the new search is! I didn't get what I wanted, and I got a lot of stuff I didn't want!! It's unbelievable that, apparently in order to keep all their programmers busy, they come up with this unnecessary, unneeded, and useless change!! Please please please don't screw with something that works!!!

oldgoatplanes  (806 )     Jul-20-07 17:20 PDT     3 of
What are they thinking????? I'm leaving, this isn't fun anymore. :(

vanlohd08em  (23 )     Jul-20-07 18:08 PDT     4 of
Yup, I agree...the new search is terrible. The filters on the left aren't all laid out in one view...you have to click on things & open menus to get to them. Terrible!!

I found a link at the bottom of the page after a search. It said something about an experimental new search. Click here to opt out. I clicked "Opt Out" and go the good 'ol search we all like!

webpaper  (1554 )     Jul-20-07 18:46 PDT     5 of
I QUIT!

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jeffking@ebay.com     Jul-21-07 16:51 PDT     6 of
Hi All,

If you'd like eBay to consider your feedback on changes to the new search system including the layout, items returned or other, we need more information from you.

When providing feedback please provide detailed informaiton about what queries you're using and what you're expecting to see vs. what you are seeing.

Thanks,

Jeff

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gillz  (578 )     Jul-21-07 22:05 PDT     7 of
Attention eBay. I'll make this real simple. Do NOT change the search engine results page. This is not about fearing change. The new results page is difficult in so many ways as have already been discussed in the other posts here.

rushinto  (223 )     Jul-21-07 23:39 PDT     8 of
What do I want to see?

Every damn auction, Store item, eBay express item, half.com item, eBay motors item, and overseas item (if I choose) that matches my keyword(s) and none that don't. No hierarchical or contingent separators based on the source of the item. All items from all sources intermingled based on my sorting criteria. (Criteria, that's plural, I want to be able to sort by more than one column, should I choose.) I don't care what part of the eBay empire it comes from, I just want to know if someone is offering it to me.

All items presented with vital data in (easily customizable) columns so I can scan down them rapidly.

Multi-select of categories as I drill down. Keep the current format of offering sub-category matches on the left, but add check boxes so one search can cross multiple sub-categories.

Direct editing of all Saved Search parameters right on the saved search page. Using the subset of search tools on the results page can be frustrating and inefficient. As an alternate, clicking on "edit" in Saved Search will bring up a split screen view. The advanced search options are displayed at the top, pre-filled from the saved search and the search results are displayed at the bottom, so changes can rapidly be verified.

Separate search boxes for titles and descriptions in advanced search

rushinto  (223 )     Jul-21-07 23:43 PDT     9 of
Also, Jeff, do your search developers even do live, over-the-shoulder, testing with regular users driving the tool? When I sit in front of the test version of search I see the signs of cave-dweller development. Let your developers out into the wild with real users so they can see the frustration points and fix them. Now!

webpaper  (1554 )     Jul-22-07 02:45 PDT     10 of
Jeff,
99 percent of the users that take the time to come to these boards do so pleading to leave search the way it is because it works.
If you can't understand that there is no hope for ebay. Ebay does not know what we want to search for - we have been using search for years and understand how it works.
We do not want our time wasted by you, or anyone else. We want to see all of the items we are searching for and NO OTHER ITEMS. We want to be able to search categories and set priorities without ebay making assumptions about what we want to see and favoring large accounts over small accounts.
LEAVE IT ALONE - we have told you, and told you, and told you what the problems are in numerous threads on these boards and to date you have not acknowledged our complaints - this is absolute garbage. No company can survive ignoring their customers.

buystuff35235  (27 )     Jul-22-07 05:13 PDT     11 of
"LEAVE IT ALONE - we have told you, and told you, and told you"

And I will tell you, and tell you, and tell you, too. LEAVE IT ALONE! Do NOT make the new search method mandatory. It is HORRIBLE in EVERY WAY.

denizappleby  (68 )     Jul-22-07 08:04 PDT     12 of
Please,Please,Please, bring back the Ebay we all love!Please!!! This is like the NEW Coke Idea, we don't want change!! PL?EASE.!?

denizappleby  (68 )     Jul-22-07 08:07 PDT     13 of
Jeff, why don't you let your members vote with a little HTML box on the main screen after signing in? Don't try a force feed us! Let the members decide!

greatoldstuff2  (89 )     Jul-22-07 13:42 PDT     14 of
Jeff, I can customize columns of data now. Choose which order I feel most comfortable viewing. And, which data. With your "test," I don't seem to be able to do this. Why? Instead, the "test" has data stacked on top of each other, which I find extremely impossible to scan with any speed.

I know this isn't the first time anyone has stated this.....yet you continue to ignore this. Instead, you persist in taking away features that make searching more fun and pleasant.

greatoldstuff2  (89 )     Jul-22-07 15:46 PDT     15 of
Jeff, how many positive comments have been posted to the Search Board, about your "test?"

Inprovements should be a positive thing. And, nothing that I've seem posted is positive about the changes that you are moving forward with.

oldfrog1  (138 )     Jul-22-07 17:59 PDT     16 of
If you'd like eBay to consider your feedback on changes to the new search system including the layout, items returned or other, we need more information from you.

I may just be a stupid customer of ebay buying items etc but the changes you at ebay made make absolutely no sense at all. My Favorite searches were set up to give me a limited and set pattern of results with a manageable number of items. Now amazingly I get the entire inventory of my search items. I want the concise searches that gave me what I was looking for back. I do not want to go through all that nonsense and junk you have added. the system you had before was easy to use and could be modified at the click of a mouse. Was/is it your intention to drive even more buyers from the site from with such an ill considered and stupid decision?
Is that clear enough feedback from me?

oldfrog1  (138 )     Jul-22-07 18:11 PDT     17 of
When providing feedback please provide detailed information about what queries you're using and what you're expecting to see vs. what you are seeing.

My first favorites search was set up as follows
category:jewelry and watches/wristwatches
Men's: pre 1940 :US only: paypal only: keyword automatic
Items ending within 1 hour. my typical results were limited to no more than 10 items. I could look at a longer time frame on the left of the page with just two mouse clicks.

Now it tells me that my search parameters are too broad and the search returns over 4,000 items and there is no I repeat no logical way to return to my comfort level.
Please tell me how there was an improvemant made, sincwe if it continuies to be this difficult to find what I want it will nmot be worth my time or effort to visit ebay anymore.

member_amx  (33 )     Jul-22-07 18:30 PDT     18 of
I was "selected" to participate in the "test". I was not warned my Ebay would start sucking. The new search is aweful! It took me some time to figure out what was happening... I first went to my preferences to see if it could be turned back into a powerful and easy to use interface. No luck. Then I went back to the search page again to see if it was my computer messing things up. (Getting desperate...) Nope still sucking. Then, waaaaay at the bottom of the page I find the "opt-out" link. Success! Now the suction ceases... I'm afraid that the cookie or whatever opted me out will be erased when I close my browser and I will have to endure more awefulness.

More specifically I didn't like:

1. Always resets to "Ending Soonest" with a new search.
2. Hard to switch to "Completed Auctions" view.
3. More scrolling due to wasted screen real estate.
4. Totally unfamiliar feel. You might want to try incremental changes so us Ebay veterans aren't totally lost/alienated.

I will not enjoy my experience as much with the new search.

Of course I've only been here since shortly after the start of Ebay.

Please abandon this, or make the old search a preference choice in my Ebay.

I appreciate the chance to participate. I'm sorry I didn't like the changes.

JB

yellowstonelove  (201 )     Jul-22-07 18:50 PDT     19 of
I'm sorry Jeff, but you're post is really patronizing. Don't talk down to us. You know darn well that the new search stinks. It's very simple. We ALL know it. What ebay is not telling us is WHY they are trying to cram it down our throats.

The smug attitude of ebay is sickening. And anyone who says we should be nice to pinks, well.... that's like saying be polite to someone who is shooting you with a bb gun. No, if someone is hurting you, you fight back.

Jeff do NOT ask us for more details -- there are none to give. We cannot possibly give you a simpler response than, DON'T CHANGE IT.

yellowstonelove  (201 )     Jul-22-07 18:53 PDT     20 of
ugh, i meant "your" post, not "you're" post. and when I said "it's very simple", i meant, the solution is very simple (i.e. don't change the search)

sorry... it's just that i'm so angry. but hey it's just a website.... i won't let it get me down... lol

jaddwhat  (33 )     Jul-22-07 21:17 PDT     21 of
What was eBay thinking? This new search is NOT an improvement.

Where did the completed listings go? That was a great feature to see what the price range may be for a like item.

Each item now takes up to many lines with wasted space on the right hand side.

Before you could eliminate listing by using the "space-item word", which helped weed out items that were close but not really what you wanted.

Some heads should roll over this piece of crap.

.

jeffking@ebay.com     Jul-22-07 21:53 PDT     22 of
Hi oldfrog1,

Thanks for the great detail here. I'll have the team investigate what's going on here & get back to the board.

member_amx,
also great feedback.. thanks!
1. Not having the sort order 'sticky' is a bug. We'll fix it..
2. Completed items isn't done yet. It will be released in a few weeks
3. 'real estate problem' We're not happy with the layout of the search results. The current layout shown in the test is leftover from the experiment we did last fall that we're changing dramatically. The new layout will be much more like the existing search with a real cleanup of the stores expansion and other needed updates.
4. We did push some of the page designs in the test 'to the extreme' a bit to get a good understanding of how users could interact with new elements. (for example Top Navigation instead of left side) We're learning a lot from the test and I expect that the designs closer to existing will perform well.

yellowstonelove,
My apologies. It was not at all my intention to come across patronizing. We really want your feedback. The team is very committed to improving search on eBay and understanding specifcally where you are having issues is important to us.

Jeff

.

rec78  (1065 )     Jul-22-07 22:42 PDT     23 of
UGHHHHHH !! This is simply awful. How come when i click on one of my favorite catagories now-i get 7000 listings where i used to get 20-30? eBay is losing money with this system-i can't find anything without a great waste of time. If i can't find what i want-how can i bid on it? Please go back to the old system and leave well-enough alone. I also use completed listings a lot as references. PLEASE -Please-PLEASE- do not implement this system-It is useless. Thanks for your consideration. It is your bottom line. Bob

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laska_2006  (82 )       Jul-23-07 01:23 PDT       24 of
I'm still in shock!!! WOW!! Why would anyone in this world would do something like this??????? They just destroyed a lots of good things! And e-bay representatives just look not very smart by asking :"oh, give us more details, give us description what you didn't like....." Huh, let me think.. !!EVERYTHING ABOUT NEW SEARCH!!! I'm really pissed off! This is awful!!! E-bay will loose tons of customers.. Seriously. I think most ppl rather would go to Wal-Mart then come back to poor, ugly, pittyful, confusing, messed up NEW SEARCH. I'm afraid to think even about "Selling" portion of e-bay! Tht should be disaster!!! If simple search became sooo unattractive, imagine how hard it will be post item for sale?
Today i tried to look for something on E-bay, and when I saw new search results I felt sick in my stomack. Then I thought it was my computer. Then i went to MY ebay and tried to play with preferences. Didn't help. And then I got brightest idea to check discussion board. I've had hope till the last moment, but when I read all the post on new search everything just collapsed..
I think it is against all the rules. People who use Yahoo mail not long time ago noticed invitation from yahoo to try new and improved interface view. BUT THEY HAD CHOICE TO SWITCH BACK IF THEY DIDNT LIKE IT!!! Thts what I call freedom of choice and ability to run business with respect to your customers, ppl who makes world of e-bay turns. PLEASE SWITCH IT BACK!! PLEASE!...

webpaper  (1554 )     Jul-23-07 01:50 PDT     25 of
"My apologies. It was not at all my intention to come across patronizing. We really want your feedback. The team is very committed to improving search on eBay and understanding specifcally where you are having issues is important to us."
If you are not trying to come accross as patronizing then I don't know what to tell you, because you certainly do. The reason so many of us who have been here 8 to 10 years are leaving is because of the arrogance and contempt displayed by the "pink" posts. Do all ebay employees get a crash course in how to tick people off?
Ebay belongs to the stockholders, yes. But ebay will not survive without customers and if you implement this piece of trash in core it will absolutely collapse.
Please hire someone with just a trifle bit of courtesy and common sense to tell us what is going on.

roadviewer  (3592 )     Jul-23-07 06:06 PDT     26 of
This is beyond belief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

roadviewer  (3592 )     Jul-23-07 06:07 PDT     27 of
Will someone please tell me how to get to COMPLETED AUCTIONS??????

glenda  (1349 )     Jul-23-07 07:47 PDT     28 of
            Hi roadviewer

Bookmark this link:  http://search.ebay.com

Hi laska_2006 and roadviewer

There is an opt-out at the bottom of each search results page.

Glenda

--
V3  You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

fairly_dinkum  (6 )     Jul-23-07 08:53 PDT     29 of
            I am so afraid that all of these "new search" complaints simply fall upon deaf ears. Once ebay makes up its mind...

Something that Bill Cobb said in his introduction email, way back when, was just so telling of the way they think. It was either uber-condescending, or else it foretold our future (now, our present).

"We have heard you say that you want the ebay site to be simple, to return to those simpler functions and to stop changing it. We have heard you and we will work on that."

Sorry, but in returning things to an earlier function, the small amount of effort involved should not be referred to as work.

fair treatment for Stores - just do it
~me

fflustred  (139 )     Jul-23-07 13:05 PDT     30 of
"If you'd like eBay to consider your feedback on changes to the new search system....we need more information from you.....Thanks, Jeff"

Hi Jeff and how about more information from YOU?!

How about a summary of what your trying to achieve with the new search that the old one failed to deliver?

Convince us that this is not change for the sake of it...

book_and_music_mover  (901 )     Jul-23-07 17:01 PDT     31 of
Jeff, you're unbelievable. Your answer to most of the complaints is that there are layout problems and the final version will closer to the existing version. How about resolve the layout problems internally before bringing to the users to test?

What he hell was so wrong about the old version that the whole system needed to be changed? Always room for a few tweaks but there was no need for a major overhaul.

Everybody knows this is about Ebay shoving sponsored links and items onto users who aren't interested enough to specifically search for them.

SELL your Ebay stock NOW, boys and girls. Revenues are going to plummet and the programming managers are going to lie to upper management about the real reason (screwed up Search) in order to protect their jobs. They have sunk so much time and money into this new format that to cancel it now would lead to heads rolling.

oldfrog1  (138 )     Jul-23-07 18:08 PDT     32 of
Everybody knows this is about Ebay shoving sponsored links and items onto users who aren't interested enough to specifically search for them.

Couldn't agree more if the new system is implemented then definitely I will not stay around to use the cumbersome and illogical nonsense that I saw the other night.

greatoldstuff2  (89 )     Jul-23-07 19:57 PDT     33 of
The Search Board is quickly filling with threads saying how much folks HATE the "test" search.

Some want to find COMPLETED LISTINGS.
Some DON'T WANT best match as a default.
etc. etc. etc.

Jeff, are you reading and listening?

As a seller, I am reading and listening. Am I getting my money's worth for my listing/gallery fees? Are my items getting the exposure in the Searches that I expect from eBay? I'm beginning to think that I'm crazy for paying full price to list items on a TEST SITE. That's some very specific things to consider, Jeff.

fraer_at_work  (11 )     Jul-23-07 22:04 PDT     34 of
In addition, the advanced search is now broken. When I specify my location, and check the box "Items near me" the search returns items from all locations. Instead of the usual ~100 items I got ~21,000, and the number is exaxtly the same as when the box is unchecked.

Am I supposed to waste my time looking through 21,000 ads?...

Alex

webpaper  (1554 )     Jul-24-07 01:55 PDT     35 of
As a seller I quit over a month ago -probably forever (down from 40 items per week).
As a buyer I will soon be leaving, even the unannounced "tweaks" are making it difficult to find things and IMPOSSIBLE to enjoy.

scotchorama  (60 )     Jul-24-07 02:20 PDT     36 of
Just to echo what has been said: I can't find anything anymore. I've just wasted 10 minutes of my life trying to figure out this new search, and it is plain rubbish. Ebay will lose out a lot here, as there will be less bids. I just can't find anything anymore!

Rubbish.

scotchorama  (60 )     Jul-24-07 02:28 PDT     37 of
Ok, to be constructive:

My main complaint for the "antiquarian & collectible books" category:

1) I can't search by date anymore;
2) I can't search for words in description;

As it is, ebay is useless in this category.

sko74517  (593 )     Jul-24-07 05:58 PDT     38 of
Get rid of "Best Match" as a default....period. The "best match" is a joke. Let people search the way they want.....make it an option, but not a default. I also want to see everything that contains my search keywords.....not someone elses idea of what they think I want. It is not easier when I have to click on extra links to find the stuff I want.....not easier at all.

I seem to get this new search sporadically......not for every thing I search for. Maybe they finally figured out that it just doesn't work for most vintage items.....the things I buy and have sold.

Right now, I'm not selling or buying. Between eBay trying to control my search and making tons of other silly decisions and Paypal making a unilateral decision about how I receive my buyer credit invoices, I've about had it with this place.

sean-q  (864 )     Jul-24-07 07:31 PDT     39 of
Today was the third time I was opted into this test. I actually tried to use the new format like I use the current one and after ten minutes I just gave up and opted out again. I'm not trying to do anything crazy, just the following:

1) Search across the entire US Coins category: the new system is forcing me to search in either individual coins or group lots.

2) Dig down to subcategories within the Individual Coins category. I want to look at commemmoratives. The old system has a separate subcategory for them, even divided into Early and Modern. In the new system I can't access those at all. Searching for "Commem*" only gives me items with that string in the title - if I'm a seller putting my item in that category, why would I waste space repeating it inthe title? instead of 6,000 coins the search returns about 1400, all mixed between early and modern.

3) When I finally get to an auction in a subcategory, and I click on it, it returns me to the main Individual Coins page. No matter what I tried, I could not access the subcategories from any page. That's when I gave up. If that functionality is there somewhere, it wasn't at all obvious to this longtime eBay user.

If you could just allow users to access the existing subcategories again I would almost be willing to give the new system a try. They are the most effective way of organizing search results and rendering them inaccessible makes everything else useless. I don't come to eBay and I don't use the search function to have to surf through 5,000 tangentially related items with no organization. I come to eBay to look in the handful of categories in my specialty. I'm not going to buy more if you dump a huge pile of stuff in my lap, it's only going to obscure the few things I'm really interested in.

I've been on eBay as a buyer and seller for almost ten years, and the new search in its current construction is by far the worst "improvement" you've ever proposed.

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From eBay Search Forum - New Search brings up fewer items

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

"we are always considering ways to advantage sellers that provide great buyer experiences"
Jeff King, eBay

//

From eBay Search Forum
New Search brings up fewer items
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000402453&tstart=0&mod=1184692212840

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qfi**        Jul-17-07 06:08 PDT
I just tried a search I do regularly (couple of times a week) that ususally returns between 300 to 500 items. Using the new format I only got 51 items back (using the same words). Sellers -- you should be concerned as I am not seeing your items. Ebay -- where did they go???

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jeffking@ebay.com View     Jul-17-07 10:10 PDT     1 of 1
Hi qfij1l50,

If you post your query we can look at the details.

The design of the new Finding technology that you can see on the Playground is actually intended to increase the number of relevant items that are returned ('search recall') not reduce it. For example, we return items using attribute data as well as title keywords (Title: "Great Red Air Jordan Basketball High-tops" with the attribute brand=nike and size=12 will get returned with a buyer keyword search for "nike shoes size 12"

There are areas where search recall may appear to be lower than core search due to some incomplete features or classification work. For example, we haven’t added cross border items, Title and description or advanced search. These features are coming soon.

Also, I've seen some postings on the chat boards about feedback stars and search. There is currently no technology on eBay or the Playground site that uses feedback stars to control visibility of items. That said, we are always considering ways to advantage sellers that provide great buyer experiences and this is something we may invest in the future.

Thanks,

Jeff

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kar**     Jul-17-07 21:24 PDT     2 of
Great input Jeff.

Still want to know why:

Men = Mens

but

Women does NOT = Womens

PLEASE fix that oversight


K³

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gre**     Jul-18-07 04:41 PDT     3 of
jeffking@ebay.com View Listings | Report  Jul-17-07 10:10 PDT  1 of 2 
Also, I've seen some postings on the chat boards about feedback stars and search. There is currently no technology on eBay or the Playground site that uses feedback stars to control visibility of items. That said, we are always considering ways to advantage sellers that provide great buyer experiences and this is something we may invest in the future.
Thanks,
Jeff


Jeff, You may want to do your homework. Many, many sellers have been prevented from even "listing" their items, due to detailed star ratings. I'd say that definately "controlled visibility of items."

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gle**     Jul-18-07 08:53 PDT     4 of
            Hi greatoldstuff2

A Finding issue would be where the item couldn't be found once it had been listed. If it isn't there at all, then it's not the Finding process that is controlling the visibility.



Glenda

--
V3  You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

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low*profile  (0 )     Jul-18-07 10:24 PDT     5 of
            Don't really know where to say this. Chose this thread because a Pink posted here.

The design of the new Finding technology that you can see on the Playground is actually intended to increase the number of relevant items that are returned

And who defines "relevant"? If you re-interpret my search criteria via "artifical intelligence", there's now no guarantee I won't be missing things I might want to see. EBAY cannot now nor ever will be able to READ MY MIND, despite arrogant claims to the contrary.

The description of this new "feature" and the awful comments I am reading about this are making me simply dread the day the new technology goes live (mercifully, I am not in current "test" group), and anticipate it as possibly the last straw for trying to buy on ebay, MUCH LESS sell. Things I an reading are truly ALARMING me.

The "Improving the Buyer Experience" concept has been over-emphasized. Appears it amounts to dumbing it down for the masses to the extent that anyone not satisfied to be a member of the lowest common denominator will simply have drop out from utter frustration. But I suppose Ebay views this according to the law of diminishing returns, and will continue to do whatever they believe will generate the most revenue for them, so too bad for those of us who don't fit their model of the "typical" buyer.

I fervently hope that, if/when this new technology is instituted, it is offered as an OPT IN alternative for buyers who DO want ebay to do their thinking for them.

PLEASE allow those of us who know WHAT we want to search for and HOW we want to do it to CONTINUE finding and qualifying our own results.

Please, please, please...Just return everything that matches, and let ME decide how to manage my searching, as needed, to narrow/expand and to make it more effective for ME. I realize that some people are too hurried/lazy/dumb/whatever to want to do this OR learn how to do it. Please give those people a "LET US ASSIST YOU" preference or option, leave the rest of us alone, and stop claiming you know best what **I** WANT. Only **I** know that.

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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Stores Forum - Best Match

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

FYI apologist itspostingtime posts spin and damage control for eBay ...

The above eBay/LiveWorld Public Relations person is spinning a big one.

eBay - Search Engine Comments by eBay Express Employees
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/ebay_search_eng.html

eBay - Rotating Servers, Smart Manipulated Search by Odie
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/rotating_server.html

From eBay Forum - What in the he he happend to core this week?
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/from_ebay_forum_7.html

From eBay Stores Forum - I got a best match for Ya'
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from-ebay-sto-5.html

From eBay Stores Forum - Project San Dimas - eBay Coming to Your Desktop ...
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from-ebay-sto-2.html

From eBay Stores Forum - I thought best match search was NOT the default?
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from-ebay-sto-1.html

AuctionBytes - PESA Organization Lays out Recommendations for eBay
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/auctionbytes_pe.html

From eBay Search Forum - What's going on with search and stores?
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from_ebay_searc_1.html

From eBay Stores Forum - $0 earning for the past 3 days....what is happening eBay?!?!
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from_ebay_store_16.html

eBay Throws Changes at Sellers During eBay Live Keynote
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/auctionbytes_eb_6.html

From eBay Search Forum - Announcement: *** New Search Test till mid-June ***
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from_ebay_searc.html

From eBay Employee jeffking@ebay.com Senior Director Finding - **A Message from Jeff King: Improving the Finding Experience***
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from_ebay_emplo.html

From eBay Stores Forum - Cobb's BIG Townhall Lie
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/06/from_ebay_store.html

From eBay Stores Forum - Join us: May Brown Bag Lunch on 5/30 @12noon PT
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/from_ebay_store_19.html

From eBay Search Forum - Thread - ***Introducing Best Match: A new sort option based on relevance***
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/from_ebay_searc_1.html

AuctionBytes - eBay Tests New Search-Results Interface
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/auctionbytes_eb.html

eBay Web Services Guide Release Notes - Search & Best Match Updates
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/ebay_web_servic.html

Spotlight on eBay Employee Esteban Kozak estebankozak@ebay.com Finding Team
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/ebay_spotlight_.html

From eBay Finding Team Employee matt.olson@ebay.com - EXPRESS ITEMS NOW SHOWING ABOVE CORE ITEMS IN SEARCH!!!!!
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/from_ebay_findi.html

From eBay employees jeffking@ebay.com and jacque@ebay.com - Announcement: *** New Search Test till mid-June ***
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/from_ebay_emplo_1.html

From eBay Forums - shanem@ebay.com eBay Pink Shane's take on, Sort by total cost including shipping
http://eventhorizon1984.typepad.com/event_horizon_1984_blog/2007/05/from_ebay_forum_3.html

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From eBay Stores Forum
Best Match
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000527396&tstart=0&mod=1184529985573

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dac**  Jul-14-07 15:49 PDT
I just did a search for "motorcycle trailer" on all of ebay. I was given a "best match" result. I did not choose best match, ebay chose it for me.
I do not like this one bit.

cho**      Jul-14-07 16:07 PDT     1 of
yup, ebay is overriding user preference to make sure mine is set to country/region sort down. The default I set is still just that... It's not set to Best match. Just continues the belief that ebay is not interested in me finding stuff. THey want me to buy the stuff they stick in my face

It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood!
Say outloud Edit It over and over. Isn't that funny

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dac**  Jul-14-07 16:17 PDT     2 of
Well normally, until this, I have my preferences set to newly listed, with feedback, store name and shipping showing. However I went to the search direct from the stores board and not from my ebay, so I wasnt even signed on according to the search, I was just any ole Joe, so that has to be why any ole joe isnt finding what we are selling. Only what ebay deems they want to see.

Ebay don't even try to read my mind. You have no clue what I really want.

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art**  Jul-14-07 16:34 PDT     3 of
Guess I don't see the problem...did you really want to see everything with TRAILER in the title and everything with MOTORCYLE or did you only want to see what you asked for?

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itspostingtime  (2 )      Jul-14-07 20:13 PDT     4 of
I tried this and I think the key point is you weren't signed in. I wasn't signed in, and I also got Best Match...however, there was also a little clickable note above the results that said something like "Sign in to see your customized search results"....once I did that, I was shown search results with my pre-selected preferences.

I doubt this is having any serious negative effect on sales. Many people DO sign in before shopping, so they are seeing their normal preferences. Those who haven't signed in can do so quite easily, or, for that matter, can select using best match. It's not as if best match shows the customer a blank page....the customer IS seeing items to buy. Why would you think the customer isn't seeing your item?

Remember, Best Match does NOT alter which items are shown....it merely alters the ORDER in which they are shown. If your item would show in a "ending soonest" sort, it will show in a "best match" sort. This is really no different than "ending soonest" and "recently listed"...same items, different order.

I don't see a problem with this. The buyer who doesn't want Best Match can either change the option or sign in. No big deal. And---believe it or not---I think there are going to be buyers who will come to PREFER Best Match.

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coc**    Jul-14-07 20:26 PDT     5 of
Just continues the belief that ebay is not interested in me finding stuff. THey want me to buy the stuff they stick in my face

You are correct, and eBay so chooses at times not to show items at all. I am not home now, but on my computer I have an eBay employee's description of how the search works. It may be up on the Express board. I will go look.

The search is based, from what I recall, on popular items, undisclosed  seller ranking, etc.

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cho**      Jul-14-07 20:27 PDT     6 of
IPT, the order I think is going to be significant. Try searching via the playground you'll see there what I mean. There's also no way to change the option.

I agree there are going to be buyers who prefer this. I actually like how it loads fast (like ee) but not the best match

best match on EE does remove items from search. Am not sure if its a bug or design. Would feel more comfortable knowing what is what though

It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood!
Say outloud Edit It over and over. Isn't that funny

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coc**     Jul-14-07 20:32 PDT     7 of
            It is by design. I found these:

On eBay Express, we are trying to present the "best matching" items to buyers. A wide variety of factors from the listing, sellers and buyer are taken into account, including the category the item was listed. Sometimes an item does not meet those criteria, and as such, we have elected not to show those items in either search or browse.


or


"The default search results on eBay Express are based on what we're calling Best Match, which means that best selling items are ranked higher. An outstanding aspect about Best Match is that it actually learns, and never stops learning. Best Match, learns from aggregated buyers' activity over time, and accordingly adjusts product rankings on eBay Express. Product rankings are dependent on what buyers are looking for and clicking on. Buyers can also use other criteria, such as price."


The underline is mine.

There were many discussions back then on "product" ranking. eBay would not disclose the criteria (mentioned above) so that sellers could not adjust their ranking in this type of search.

If it becomes the norm, I truly think it is going to be a mess.

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cda**      Jul-14-07 20:34 PDT     8 of
I was researching completed listings the other day and it kept reverting to best match;I'd reset and sure enough the next item I would search for it's on best match again.7 times and then it finally remained on highest price first.Also notice the stores tab is in it's first weekend and seems to be a failure so far.When are they going to learn that the only thing that is going to bring buyers and sellers back is site wide general search for all formats.The more games they play the more they're going to lose.

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itspostingtime  (2 )      Jul-14-07 20:55 PDT     9 of
This has been discussed before, although I don't know if the thread is still up. You folks are confusing ebay Express's search with ebay's "Best Match" search option.

THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING AND DO NOT FUNCTION THE SAME WAY.

True, Express works in such a way that some items the DotCom site would consider "Matching", Express does not (I think it also works that some items DotCom would not show, Express does show.)

This is because they are two different search engines.

But the Express eearch has NOTHING to do with the DotCom's Best Match.

Again, I don't know if it's still posted somewhere and I didn't keep a copy, but eBay confirmed what I said in my first post. Think of the DotCom engine as a two part process. the DotCom search engine first creates a list of matching items, and THEN puts that list in a certain order as directed: ending soonest, recently listed, whatever.

But the original list is the SAME. It is ONLY the order that is different. The criteria used to create the list in the first place...not to order it, but to create it....those criteria are the same, regardless of whether the list is afterwards put in order by price, ending soonest, best match, or whatever.

Now, obviously it's very simple for the engine to order "ending soonest"...it only needs to look at one parameter, the ending time. DotCom's Best Match looks at a number of parameters, and then creates an order based on weights assigned to those parameters. But....and this is important....it does so only AFTER the list has been created...so the LIST is the same whether ending soonest or best match, the order of the list is the only difference.

So, PLEASE, do not confuse DotCom "Best Match" with Express. They are two different creatures.

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coc**    Jul-15-07 05:46 PDT     10 of
PLEASE, do not confuse DotCom "Best Match" with Express.

That is good to know, for the Best Match on Express truly advantages some sellers over others with the same products, and is less influenced by key words. Why would they call the .com search by the same name?

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cum**     Jul-15-07 05:51 PDT     11 of
Best Match is the search on ... The Playground....

If you do a search in regular eBay you get all of the listing.

Do a Best Match search on the Playground and only percentage of the listings show up... The computer is telling you these are the listing you... should... be looking at.

Best Match works if your item is 100 % definable... a book as an example where you know the title, author, year published, publisher... everything is definable.

Best Match in anything else presents nonsense... Listings are selected in an arbitrary , non-logical manner.

I have done searches on .. The Playground. for art glass... Chalet glass, Altaglass. Each listing is different than every other listing for Chalet or Altaglass... so why does the Beat match select.... The buyer should do the selecting... not the computer program.

What every one sees is a few listings that are the Best Match as defined by the computer program... In many instances the Best Match is more comical than true to the search.

As long as Best Match is not applied as the only search, and is only an option... it is OK. If Best match is applied as the primary search as in ... The Playground... then eBay better duck.. because some listings will never show up in search... and fees are being paid....

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cda**      Jul-15-07 08:40 PDT     12 of
Fine and dandy,I'm hearing Express-Playground-Main Site.Where best match showed up 7 times in a row for me was on the main site in completed listings.Not active listings but completed listings.So to say there not messing with the main site on best match just isn't so when it shows up on completed listings.

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pos**     Jul-15-07 09:45 PDT     13 of
The playground search WILL be on the .com site as soon as they have conditioned the servants to accept it!

Mark my words.

We were told last year that BC loved the Express search and that it would come over here. He said it again in a recent town hall meeting.

IT IS COMING!

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pos**      Jul-15-07 09:46 PDT     14 of
OK, my hostility is showing again.

My Store is permanently closed, and if everyone will leave my name out of their postings (as in misquoting me) I will go back to my own little world which consists of core listings and my own off ebay website.

Will it work? I don't know but an ebay store costs me hundreds and it costs me $29.95 so it sure can't hurt!

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dac**  Jul-15-07 13:05 PDT     15 of
            Best match DOES NOT show all the listings available.
I just did a search on all of ebay, best match for auction templates. On page one none of mine, page 2 one of mine, page 3 one of mine, page four the same one on page two is on page four, and page five the same one on page 3 is on page 5. So two of my core listings are not showing at all on best match. I only have four running but best match is hiding two of them. Also how is it that others match the terms auction template, better than mine which all begin with auction template. Some of the best matches showing dont say template, but templates.
To me this is deliberate misrepresentaion, to not show items which plainly are exactly what was searched for. Seems kinda like breach of contract to me.

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dac**  Jul-15-07 13:06 PDT     16 of
            Oops correction I searched auction template, not templates.

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From eBay Stores Forum - Basic TWO word search not working - Why is "+" added in space?

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Stores Forum
Basic TWO word search not working - Why is "+" added in space?
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000388427&start=0

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randomgoods  (1449 )       Jun-19-07 15:14 PDT
I type in a two word search and cannot find any items listed (or very limited).

Example:

I type: Baseball Cards (3900+ auctions listed

It spits out: Baseball+Cards (3900+ auctions listed)

I have manually remove the "+" to get: Baseball Cards (171,000+ auctions).

This is only an example, not the item I was searching for. Why does it add the "+" sign where a space should be? This seems to be happening irregularly when I performed searches today. Sometimes the + shows up, other times it doesn't.

Can someone from Ebay explain if this is a system problem and when it will be fixed? This was not an issue when I performed searches yesterday. This is affecting peoples' ability to find my auctions... even I couldn't find my own auction by doing a basic word search because of this problem. I tried this in both IE and Firefox browsers.

Who else is having this problem also?

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74 replies     Date posted     Reply #

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cydonian  (2214 )     Jun-20-07 09:51 PDT     1
I am having the same problem here. The added "+" symbol is throwing off the search results and actually returning NO results...Have to remove the + and search again to get results. This only just started happening today.

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-21-07 15:40 PDT     2
This is happening to me also. My ebay keeps changing my setting to advanced search on all words and is adding the plus symbol.
I change it and it changes back. I am getting so p.o.!
I can't even search on completed listings.
Stacy

cydonian  (2214 )     Jun-21-07 18:50 PDT     3
This is still happening here today. I want to list auctions but there's no sense listing if no one will find them. I don't think people will know right away to remove the + symbol to get all the results they're supposed to. I sent eBay a message about it, but you know how that goes...just waiting for them to send me a canned response saying its my fault or my computer's fault.

randomgoods  (1449 )     Jun-21-07 19:17 PDT     4
This only a guess, I'm not a tech guy, but it might be because it's not recognizing an older version of MS Windows correctly. I have Windows XP at home and it works fine. But when I'm at work (where this "+" problem shows up), I think it's Windows 2000. As I said before, it showed up on Firefox and IE on my Windows 2000.

If you manually delete the plus marks, then it will search normally. I know, pain in the you know what. EBay must've upgraded/updated something in the system this week to cause this to happen. What Windows are you guys running, could that be the problem?

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-21-07 19:31 PDT     5
I have windows xp media and just started seeing this problem today. Live help was no help. I too found that just deleting the + symbols works. What a pain!
Stacy

touch*my*toes  (12 )     Jun-22-07 13:34 PDT     6
Wonderful. This just started happening to me today as well. Christmas barbie brings up only "Christmas Barbie". Barbie Christmas brings up only "Barbie Christmas". Words must be next to each other.

When I remove the +, I get more results....but most of them do not have both of my search words in the title.

touch*my*toes  (12 )     Jun-22-07 18:31 PDT     7
At home now and the problem I had with EXACT search at work is gone. I use I.E. at work and Firefox at home. Going to try I.E. here and see if it still happens.

touch*my*toes  (12 )     Jun-22-07 18:35 PDT     8
Ok, so....I.E. at home....no problems with the + added to the search. Both computers are Windows XP. What gives?

cydonian  (2214 )     Jun-23-07 04:52 PDT     9
Day 4, still happening. I did get a reply from them and they acknowledged a problem:

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to being unable to search an item.

We are aware that some members were facing this difficulty. Occasionally
these unfortunate situations do arise and we work our hardest to reduce
the frequency of these events.

Please note taht when our system experiences problems such as these, it
is of great concern not only to our community, but also to the entire
eBay Corporation.

The information you've provided has been sent to our engineers for
further investigation. I am sorry for any additional delay in getting
this resolved for you.

Our engineers are on the site 24 hours a day troubleshooting and fixing
things as needed. They are working diligently to diagnose and repair the
problems, but sometimes it takes time and they are not able to predict
what the next problem will be.

However, I can assure you that when these situations do arise we always
work as quickly as possible to solve the problems.

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

Sincerely,
Issac A.

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jun-23-07 17:19 PDT     10
I have the same problem: I type in 2 words and I get word+word = 0 or few results (for an item with lots of results if I take the + out. Which I know lots of people won't know to do) I'm not listing until they fix it. It's hard enough to sell but if someone gets 0 results for an item I do have listed - forget about it.

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jun-24-07 14:38 PDT     11
I've been having the same problem for at least a few days. MAJOR frustration both as a seller and a buyer!!! Pinks, can we get an update??

frantichippie  (15 )     Jun-25-07 04:41 PDT     12
I came here looking for answers to this same problem. Someone needs to explain to us what is going on here. Is it a glitch? Is it part of one of the search tests? Is it just the way things are now? If there is an issue, is it being addressed?

A couple of days ago, when I first noticed this issue, it only added the +'s when I searched from the search box at the top in the header. Now today it seems to be adding them no matter how I initiate my search.

This has nothing to do with our computers, which operating system or browser we're using or anything else. This is an issue on eBay's end, their system is adding the +'s.

Susie

postcardsandmore  (4341 )     Jun-25-07 09:54 PDT     13
Susie,

Silence speaks volumes. It's the wonderful new improved search we will all be seeing in the not so distant future.

We are as helpless to stop it as we were to stop the SYI form change. Remember Ebay says the sellers LOVE all the changes.

.

jeffking@ebay.com     Jun-25-07 12:46 PDT     14
Hi All,

We have a team investigating this, but arent' able to reproduce it yet.
If you're still experiencing this, please provide the query, OS and browser information.

Thanks!

jeff

.

webpaper  (1553 )     Jun-25-07 14:24 PDT     15
"can't reproduce it" Gee, I bet if you sent out an email to all of your customers you could get thousands and thousands of screen shots.
Ignore the masses, they will go away. And they are going away much faster than you anticipate........
Perhaps you could hire "a few good programmers"??

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jun-25-07 16:18 PDT     16
This is happening to me on every search, not just 2 word searches. A "+" is added between all words.

I am using IE. OS is Windows XP.

This has been happening for several days on all of my searches.

mygift2u  (6558 )     Jun-25-07 16:37 PDT     17
Sorry - if eBay can't reproduce it -- it doesn't exist.

I might remove my helmet when we get the Stores Tab!

glenda  (1343 )     Jun-25-07 16:43 PDT     18
To be fair: eBay did not say that the problem doesn't exist, just that they can't reproduce it.

I haven't been able to reproduce it, either.

As I've said before, they have to replicate a problem before they can backtrack and find what caused the problem and fix it.

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jun-25-07 18:33 PDT     19
IE - Windows XP for me and it's still going on. I search for Escondido Postcard and I get back Escondido+Postcard with 0 auciton results and 1 Store hit. I take out the "+" (which I didn't add in the first place) and I get 3 aution hits and 14 store results. Scary - no way am I listing until this is fixed.

cydonian  (2214 )     Jun-25-07 19:17 PDT     20
I'm using IE and Windows XP Home.

This has been happening for about a week now. I believe I first noticed it on June 18.

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-25-07 20:48 PDT     21
I have windows xp media. This problem started immediately after opening some sort of upgrade in TL2. Now I can not search and I can not upload any listing from TL2. My laptop searches just fine. I have also been hit with a trojan and 2 other viruses in the last two days while doing nothing but listing and searching completed listings. I only use this computer for ebay.
I tried searching off of my work computer and no problems.
Is there some Ebay virus out there?
Stacy

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jun-25-07 20:55 PDT     22
Stacy, Your situation sounds similar to mine. I noticed the problem at about the same time as doing a TL2 upgrade. I haven't been able to launch any auctions from TL2 since the upgrade. It says it can't retrieve my pictures or something like that.

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-25-07 21:07 PDT     23
I tried live help and the rep did not know anything about this problem. I will not use TL2 anymore. A complete waste of time. I get nothing but errors.
I research completed listings on most of the stuff I list and can not do that effiently now becuase of this search glitch.
I truly believe I downloaded something and it has screwed with my pc. I luckily have antivirus that has caught several viruses over the last two days and also removed 33 malicious files.
I have heard of ebay listings containing viruses but I immediately had the problem once I did that Tl2 upgrade.
Stacy

glenda  (1343 )     Jun-25-07 21:44 PDT     24
Hi schatzfarms and adorable*and*affordable

Are you two experiencing the + sign being added to your search results?

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-25-07 22:10 PDT     25
Yes but just on my main computer. All 3 are windows xp.
Stacy

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jun-26-07 06:01 PDT     26
Yes, I'm still experiencing it. It's driving me crazy when shopping and doing research.

jje9  (344 )     Jun-26-07 06:45 PDT     27
Everyone ~ You're not alone! I also have been experiencing this problem with the "+" symbol inserting itself in every search for the past week, and it is very frustrating. It happens with each and every search I attempt ~ no matter how many words I enter into my search string. I submitted my concern to eBay yesterday (6/25), per Glenda's request, and received the following response (I appreciate the fast response, but it appeared that this customer service rep thought this issue was only related to the one search string I submitted as an example, and actually suggested that I try it once again ~ wow, not quite the response/suggestion I was hoping for)...

eBay's response:
Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the search that you are unable to make.

I understand your concern and would like to tell you that I tried to search for the item that you have stated and I was able to search succesfully. I suggest you to try it once again.

However, the information you've provided has been sent to our engineers for further investigation. I am sorry for any additional delay in getting this resolved for you.

Our engineers are on the site 24 hours a day troubleshooting and fixing things as needed. They are working diligently to diagnose and repair the problems, but sometimes it takes time and they are not able to predict what the next problem will be.

I can assure you that when these situations do arise we always work as quickly as possible to solve the problems.

Okay, now, back to my comments ~

I am hopeful that eBay realizes that this is a troublesome and frustrating issue affecting numerous users, and is not limited to just one specific search. It is happening on each and every search. I am running IE on Windows XP Pro Version 2002.

I'm sorry that we're all having to deal with this, but I am grateful for this discussion board because I know I'm not the only one with this problem, and I know that the problem is not "user-created". Let's all keep our fingers crossed for a quick resolution from eBay engineers!

cydonian  (2214 )     Jun-26-07 08:44 PDT     28
After you guys suggested a possible virus and/or a Turbolister issue, I ran a virus scan but came up clean. Then I uninstalled Turbolister and the problem is NOT happening anymore! No more + symbol.

Seems like it's definately a problem with Turbolister.

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jun-26-07 09:01 PDT     29
I don't have Turbolister and it's been happening to me

baseg35  (11835 )     Jun-26-07 09:10 PDT     30
Ok it is worse now, I type in baseball cards and I get 7 items, it is removing the space between baseball and cards and running it together baseballcards, but I'm positive the space is there, this is scary, no wonder I have hardly any bid/sales in the past 4-5 days.
Firefox on Vista

jje9  (344 )     Jun-26-07 09:13 PDT     31
I do not have Turbolister installed, and I run clean virus scans daily, and I am still experiencing this problem with every search I attempt.

baseg35  (11835 )     Jun-26-07 09:24 PDT     32
try babe ruth, adds them together baberuth and gives you one result

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-26-07 09:24 PDT     33
I just remember getting some pop up from ebay while using turbo lister and it required me to allow active x. I don't know very much about computers but anyways I allowed it and that is when it started for me. A norton window popped up and said a trojan was detected.
Stacy

randomgoods  (1449 )     Jun-26-07 09:25 PDT     34
When I click on from an outside link (like from an email from ebay) to this discussion and do a search the problem comes up with the +'s. If on that second page (the one with the +'s) I retype the same search in the box with the + words in it, then the search comes out normal.

On front page of Ebay, when I type in search words the + appears. Now on the 2nd page (1st results of my search) two search boxes appear... the one with the + words, and then there's the small advanced search box at the top. If I retype the same search in the box with the existing + words, then search turns out regular. If I retype the same search in the top "advanced search" box, then the search comes out flawed again.

I do not run Turbolister on my work computer so that is not an issue with me. My home computer is fine (once again, no Turbolister either). This was not a problem on 6/19, but began appearing the morning of 6/20. Whatever programming or system changes were made during that period, I think that's where the bug lies.

Everyone on this forum looks like an experienced Ebayer. If it's happening to us, then think of all the first time or casual users that are coming to the site looking for something and can't anything because the search comes out wrong. That's where the concern is.

fields011  (320 )     Jun-26-07 09:32 PDT     35
I'm very frustrated as a seller and a buyer. How many people aren't going to see my listing because of this glitch? I noticed that to pull up my listing, I have to search with the same word sequence as my title. For instance, search for Stephen king and get 2890 return listings. Search for King Stephen and get 12 return listings. Its far worse on other things I've searched for.

baseg35  (11835 )     Jun-26-07 09:34 PDT     36
6/20 is exactly when sales and bids took a nose dive, might be a good time for an experience buyer to get some deals out there

cydonian  (2214 )     Jun-26-07 09:35 PDT     37
baseg35, I am getting the same thing here. It is combining two words into one, but only on a few select phrases. It combined 2 words into one for these searches: Babe Ruth, Baseball Cards, Barbie Dolls, Comic Books

Other searches came out ok though.

But the + symbol definately disappeared for me immediately after the TL uninstall.

glenda  (1343 )     Jun-26-07 09:37 PDT     38
Hi fields011

If I might make a suggestion for your listings, unrelated to the + issue you are experiencing: leave out the ~ and just use normal spaces in your titles.

eBay is currently ignoring special characters such as that in search results, but in the past, it would have affected how your listings came up. The engine have treated FLATBUSH~DVD~STALLONE~WINKLER~ as one word, and would not have brought it up if someone had searched on Flatbush or Stallone or Winkler.

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-26-07 09:41 PDT     39
I just read this:
In some cases, eBay will automatically expand your search to include items based on the intent of your search rather than matching the exact keywords. This is why for certain searches, when you enter keywords, additional items appear in the search results, even though all the key words you entered are not in the title. For example, when you type in the key words audiobook, eBay automatically includes the items from the audio books category even those items without the keyword audiobook in the title. The following tables list the key words and their corresponding category expansion.

Go to Keyword Category Expansion List for eBay.com
Go to Keyword Category Expansion List for eBay Motors

so, it appears Ebay is limiting the normal search to only certain catagories. If this is true, why does it only happen on certain computers and to only certain users?
Stacy

glenda  (1343 )       Jun-26-07 10:53 PDT       40
            Hi schatzfarms

I believe you've misinterpreted what it says. Normal search is available in every category. But for some categories/searches, eBay will ALSO search the category name as though that name was in the title of the listing.

If, for example, I search on 56 department, department 56, 56 dept or dept 56, eBay's search engine will bring back listings that have those two words in the title, but it will ALSO bring back listings that are in the Dept 56 subcategory under Collectibles, even if they don't have either of those words in the title.

(This generally works quite well, unless a seller lists a few hundred Dreamsicles items in the Dept 56 subcategory. Then a search for dept 56 would get those Dreamsicles listings as well.)

In addition, by the way, those four particular sets of words have been specified internally as meaning the same thing. Therefore, if I do a search for department 56 I will also get listings with the word dept but not department.

This is unrelated to the + issue being discussed, of course.

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-26-07 11:00 PDT     41
Thank you. I understand what you are saying. I do hope it gets fixed soon. If anyone else comes up with any info plz post.
Stacy

fishingdecoy  (182 )     Jun-26-07 12:36 PDT     42
This is happening to me too...and it's driving me crazy. I tried 'live help' and it was a complete waste of my time. I'm using Safari OS 10.4.9...I've been using this computer/software for about 2 years and never had a problem until a week or so ago. Everytime I do a keyword search with more than one word, a '+' sign is added in between the words. If I search 'fishing decoy', the search returns 'fishing+decoy" and has about 10 items. I than have to go in and manually remove the '+' and search again, roughly 200 items will come up. Believe it or not, it's a drag to have to manually remove the '+" and re-search. I'm not going to list any new items for sale until this is fixed. Bizarre. :(
If anyone's interested, I can post Jpegs of the screens -

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jun-26-07 12:57 PDT     43
I uninstalled TL2 but it didn't help my search problem as it did for a previous poster.

fields011  (320 )     Jun-26-07 13:59 PDT     44
Glenda,
Thanks for the tip!

atbat  (1402 )     Jun-26-07 14:15 PDT     45
I've been having the same problem and it's started to really tick me off so I decided I'd give E-Bay a try and see what kind of response I would get. And I actually got a response, that addresses the issue. Apparently we are part of "A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE" that's being tested in a new site called PLAYGROUND. I think their experiment stinks and I'm going to let them know what at least one person thinks about it. I don't understand how they think this is a better way to search for an item. Just go to the General Announcements area under the News section of Community and click on the message from Jeff King. Or you can go to the link below:

"Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the new Search or Find.

It will probably be very advantageous for you to visit the
Announcement Board posting at:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200706251438452.html

That explains a lot about the new Find.

If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to reply to this
email and let us know."

stoneware3  (2451 )     Jun-26-07 15:14 PDT     46
If this was a result of the "playground," wouldn't Mr. Jeff King have known about it?

He posted earlier in this thread, and said that he wasn't able to reproduce the issue.

Someone doesn't know what they are talking about. Live Help, or Mr. Jeff King?

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-26-07 15:28 PDT     47
This problem at least for me is not the playground thing. I entered the playground and had no problems searching there. WHen I left and came back to normal Ebay search the darn plus signs were back.
Stacy

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-26-07 15:38 PDT     48
Now my search is messed up in SMP. When I search my active listings for "fig" as there are 3 listings it says there are 514 listings found with fig in the item title so basically it doesn't bring up squat.
Active Listings (1-200 of 514 listings)
Once a listing ends, it will move into Sold or Unsold listings depending on whether you have a buyer. Print Customize Display

Item title Item number Product name Custom Label | Show Search Options | Clear Search
Store Category
All - AVON - BARBIE STUFF & DOLLS - BATH & BODY WORKS - BOOKS - bracelets - clip earrings - COLOGNES & PERFUMES - dog toys - gift baskets - GLASS/CERAMIC COLLECTIBLES - HALLMARK ORNAMENTS - HERBEGER'S ORNAMENTS - JEWELRY - MAKEUP, HAIR & NAILS - necklaces - pierced earrings - pins & brooches - rings - VHS VIDEOS & DVD'S - vintage - VINTAGE AVON - Other
Status
All (514) With Bids/Reserve Met (4) With Offers Without Bids/Reserve Not Met (510) With Leads Without Leads Format
All (514) Auctions (26) Fixed Price (14) Store Inventory (474) | Hide Search Options | Clear Search

514 listings found for fig in Item title

How do I do a screen shot copy?
Stacy

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jun-26-07 15:56 PDT     49
why are they screwing around with the Search function anyway? If I type in Giant Robot in Search I want to see every single auction and store listing with Giant Robot in the seller's title. SIMPLE.

atbat  (1402 )     Jun-26-07 16:51 PDT     50
I went back & checked and it looks like Jeff King posted his announcement about 2 hours after he was in this Discussion Board. It would have been nice if he would have gotten back to this discussion and provided that information.

atbat  (1402 )     Jun-26-07 17:01 PDT     51
Schatzfarms

You're right. It only shows up on the regular search because the regular search page is part of the test. When you go into the Playground it's showing how the system will work if they decide to implement this stupid idea.

frantichippie  (15 )     Jun-26-07 18:14 PDT     52
Doesn't matter what search query I use or how many words it has, all the spaces are replaced with +'s.

Searching from the header and the main search gives me this result, however if I go into Advanced Search and type in keywords there, it doesn't add the +'s.

I've been to the playground, but clicked out of it. I've also been to shop.ebay.com which seemed to put me into some search test at one point maybe? Not sure either of those are related, but can't think of anything else I might have done.

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.4 on WinXP Pro SP2.

Susie

postcardsandmore  (4341 )     Jun-26-07 19:08 PDT     53
why are they screwing around with the Search function anyway? If I type in Giant Robot in Search I want to see every single auction and store listing with Giant Robot in the seller's title. SIMPLE.

If only the search team would realize that! And, stop messing with search.

Unfortunately, we are on a runaway train. The more they mess with search, the less items sell...the less items sell, the more concerned Ebay becomes, so the more they mess with search...which mean even LESS items sell and then they.(get the picture)??

They have this site so messed up there is very little chance it will ever recover.

I quit shopping with one major online office supply company for nearly 2 years because I couldn't find anything I was looking for. The search led me to a drop down list which led me to another search and then items that didn't match what I wanted in the first place.

I went back last week to see if they still had some of the huge size rubber bands I bought from them years ago and low and behold...the site worked perfectly.

There was a search box and when you enter your key word you get EXACTLY what you asked for. No drop down with mfgr, no "other sections to check" JUST the item you were asking for!

So, I spent over $300 on office supplies and enjoyed doing it! For the last two years I had been just going to Office Depot locally. With free shipping I hated to give up the online shopping but the search was too big a mess to bother with.

Trust me, lot's of buyers here are feeling the same way and lots more will feel that way when this monstrosity rolls out for everyone!

mygift2u  (6558 )     Jun-26-07 19:46 PDT     54
postcards - I think we are going to have to get used to things if we stay here. We are not in Kansas any more.
I just wish we could get BACK to Kansas. Things were so nice there.

mygift2u  (6558 )     Jun-26-07 19:46 PDT     55
Postcards -

Please do send me a pretty Post Card if you ever get back to Kansas! LOL

regards,

.

jeffking@ebay.com     Jun-26-07 20:01 PDT     56
Hi All,

The problem with the + in searches has been discovered and a fix will be released tonight.

Thanks for your patience,

Jeff

.

mygift2u  (6558 )     Jun-26-07 20:05 PDT     57
Hi Jeff and THANK YOU for droppin in! :-D

.

jeffking@ebay.com     Jun-26-07 20:05 PDT     58
Oh and by the way, the problem turned out to have nothing to do with Turbo Lister 2. It was related to a problem with a cookie setting for customized search options.

Jeff

.

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jun-26-07 20:08 PDT     59
Thank you!

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-26-07 20:17 PDT     60
Yeah! Thank you.
And can you also fix SMP search? Please, please, please??????
Stacy

fields011  (320 )     Jun-27-07 02:08 PDT     61
Thank you! Life can now return to normal.
(I wonder why more people weren't up in arms about all of this?)

jje9  (344 )     Jun-27-07 07:04 PDT     62
Jeff King ~ Thank you so much for resolving this matter quickly! My searches run perfectly now, and I am thrilled! I'm very appreciative of the efforts, communication and fast resolution from you and your team! Wonderful customer service! Jodi

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jun-27-07 07:07 PDT     63
thanks - fixed for me too

schatzfarms  (2949 )     Jun-27-07 07:07 PDT     64
I am amazed! Search is working correctly this morning! Thank you Ebay for fixing this promptly.
Stacy

fishingdecoy  (182 )     Jun-27-07 09:33 PDT     65
My searches are back to working again!!! Thanks Jeff.

randomgoods  (1449 )     Jun-27-07 09:52 PDT     66
To Jeff King & the Programming Team,

Thanks for your attention to this and finding and fixing the bug!

Howie

frantichippie  (15 )     Jun-27-07 16:08 PDT     67
Thank you Jeff :)

Susie

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jun-28-07 22:16 PDT     68
Problem is resolved but I only just now received a reply to my e-mail to support about the problem that I sent a few days ago. They told me to clear my cache and cookies. Isn't that the standard answer to anything when they have no idea what to do? They really are out of the loop...

touch*my*toes  (12 )     Jul-06-07 18:07 PDT     69
This problem returned for me today.

glenda  (1343 )     Jul-06-07 18:40 PDT     70
Hi touch*my*toes

They did scheduled maintenance last night - maybe they undid something. Click on Help then Contact Us and follow the menu through the site issues path to report it.

Glenda

--
V3 You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us.
It's hard to tell where the road will lead, just looking at it from the one end.

adorable*and*affordable  (1559 )     Jul-06-07 18:48 PDT     71
It is doing it again!! Ebay is going to drive me insane!!

atbat  (1402 )     Jul-06-07 22:25 PDT     72
My search is working again. Let's hope it stays that way!

world_securities  (4925 )     Jul-07-07 08:05 PDT     73
The "+" is being auto inserted again; Finding 2.0 remains broken.

1) Type "tachikoma organic".
Finding 2.0 changes this to "tachikoma+organic"
and returns
"0 items found for tachikoma+organic"

Replace the "+" with a space " ".
Finding 2.0 returns
"0 items found for tachikoma organic" and
"3 items found for tachikoma organic in eBay Stores"

2) Type "tachikoma 8".
Finding 2.0 changes this to "tachikoma+8" and returns
"0 items found for tachikoma+8" and
"1 items found for tachikoma+8 in eBay Stores"

Replace the "+" with a space " ".
Finding 2.0 returns
"0 items found for tachikoma 8" and
"11 items found for tachikoma 8 in eBay Stores"

Another excellent way to kill off eBay Stores?

ninkasi  (3515 )     Jul-07-07 08:10 PDT     74
what the he**?! - Doing it again! Hope they take less time to acknowledge / fix than they did last time - I wante to list more stuff (but, I prefer it when people can find it)

//

//

//

Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

 

From eBay - San Dimas Blog - projectsandimas

http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/archive/2007/06

Archive - June 2007

.

San Dimas is Big in France, Apparently
Posted Jun-27-07 17:00:16 PDT

I've been very pleased by the positive reaction to San Dimas. We have beta testers from all over the world -- the US leads the way in terms of number of beta testers, no surprise there. However, I was surprised to find out that the number 2 country is... France! This is despite both Germany and the UK having bigger eBay usage. Also, there is no translated version of the interface yet, and we have done zero press about San Dimas in France up until now.

As if it weren't enough to be number 2 in beta testers, French bloggers and media have written up a storm about it. Here are some of the stories:

Nouvelle version d'eBay en préparation

This was the first French article, and was published back in April. After this was published we saw a big spike in beta user registrations from .fr email addresses.

Premiers pas dans le projet San Dimas - AccessOweb, le blog

What appears to be an in-depth review of the San Dimas features. I say "appears to be" because I can't actually be sure, since I was an abject failure in learning French, this despite my four years of French class in junior high and high school.

One of the commenters on the blog post says this:

"Pour en revenir au graphisme, moi je le trouve au contraire très bien foutu : plus classe que du html avec de légers dégradés, et surtout un écran pas surchargé du tout où l'on pourrait se perdre, comme sur la homepage d'ebay. On ne peut pas non plus le constater sur des screenshots mais la navigation est très agréable également. Bref joli test pour une jolie application !"

Which Google translates into this:

"To return from there to graphics, me I find it very well on the contrary foutu: more class that HTML with light ranges, and especially a screen not overloaded of the whole where one could lose oneself, as on the homepage of ebay. One cannot either note it on screenshots but navigation is very pleasant also. In short pretty test for a pretty application!"

Umm... thanks?

Application riche #13 : eBay San Dimas - Fabien Deshayes - Du client riche à un Internet riche

Another in-depth review, I think. My favorite quote is the following:

"La grande force de San Dimas est à mon avis cette navigation complètement nouvelle qui casse les codes d'une page web, ou même d'une application de bureau plus classique : fini les pop-up, les rechargement : ici tout se fait par onglets ou par panneaux, profitant à merveille des technologies Flex et Air pour donner un style à part entière à San Dimas."

Which translates as:

"The great force of San Dimas is in my opinion this navigation completely new which breaks the codes of a Web page, or even of an application of more traditional office: finished the popones, recharging: here all is done by mitres or panels, benefitting wonder from technologies Flex and Air to give a style to whole share in San Dimas."

I'm calling pop-ups "popones" from now on.

Que sont les applications riches (RIA) ? - Partie 3 - Quel futur pour l'Internet riche ?

There is a small San Dimas mention in this article, which is a three part magnum opus on Rich Internet Applications. (3 part blog post! Take that, Twitter!).

What I like about this one is that it refers to San Dimas as "projet San Dimas d'eBay".

Premiers regards Vidéo : Project San Dimas : Ebay en Apollo

I've saved the best for last. Somebody made a 17 minute (17!) video of a San Dimas walkthrough. In French. I have no idea what the narrator is saying. Can anyone help translate this?

Bravo, French San Dimasers, Bravo

Note: This is a cross-post from my personal blog.

-Alan

New Version: 0.5.013

Posted Jun-26-07 11:36:49 PDT

For those of you who have already received invites: we pushed out an update yesterday to version 0.5.013. To update, all you need to do is open the application, and it should prompt you to auto-update after a few moments (depending on your connection speed). The auto-update process seems to be working very well, but we are still very early in the beta process, so it may not work 100% of the time.

What's new in this version? Lots of fixes, that's what. Including:

• Entire HTML description on item should be scrollable (so listings with long descriptions are no longer cut off)
• Fixed syncing issues with adding/removing on watch
• Fixed image error when loading search results. This was the most frequently reported bug.
• Currency symbols now show correctly for non US listings. International support is still very raw, so we appreciate feedback in this area in particular, especially with testing the whole buying process from an international site.
• Changed scrollbar skins
• Feedback confirmation window improved

Most of these fixes were prioritized because of the bug requests that you, the beta community, entered in the application. Thank you to everyone who reported bugs, or added feature requests!

One of the big issues that has been reported is excess CPU usage, even when idling. Thanks to everyone who has reported this, we are looking into some optimizations that should help with this.

-Alan

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Congratulations to Beta User Number 1

Posted Jun-20-07 11:52:21 PDT

The charity auction for the first San Dimas beta invitation was a big success! Winning eBay user "selltouzed" from Denver, CO came by the offices of EffectiveUI, the development group that is working with eBay on the project, to pick up his T-Shirt and certificate. The winner (his name is Steve) got to try out the beta before anyone else, right there in the office, and he went home and promptly logged a bunch of feature requests and bugs. I got a chance to talk to Steve on the phone, and I was so glad that the logistics worked out such someone on the San Dimas team could meet him in person. Here is Steve with Rebecca from EffectiveUI, proudly wearing his "Preston/Logan '08" shirt, and displaying the inaugural Certificate of Betachievement.

The guinea pigs of Aurora, Colorado also say "thanks!" to Steve for winning the auction, in the process raising $216 for the Cavy Care Inc. guinea pig shelter. Actually, they said "wheek, wheek" and I translated for them.

-Alan

 

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Beta program for San Dimas starts today!

Posted Jun-12-07 08:20:23 PDT

Actually, it started yesterday, but I was so busy with stuff here at the developers conference that I wasn't able to blog about it until today. I started sending out invitations last night, and I'll send out some more today and throughout the week.

I got to show San Dimas in the keynote yesterday, which was a great experience.

If you haven't yet signed up for the beta, be sure to do so soon - if you do it is likely that you'll get an invite within a few weeks.

-Alan

http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/archive/2007/05

Archive - May 2007

1 comment

Auction for the First San Dimas Beta Invitation

Posted May-28-07 23:48:35 PDT

The first beta invitation for San Dimas is up for auction right now. San Dimas is entering beta soon, and if you win this auction, you will get it first. This is for the Alpha-Geek who has everything!

Auction Includes:

• First invitation to the San Dimas beta program
  Will be sent out at least 6 hours before any other user gets an invitation. Exact timing of when the invitation gets sent out is not guaranteed, but we promise the winner won't have to wait too long.
• Official looking certificate
  Provides documented proof that you are in fact the first San Dimas user. Certificate will be signed by me, and by a real life eBay executive, if I'm successful in convincing one to do so.
• "Preston/Logan '08" XL size T-ShirtSorry, no other size is available. I
  bought this on eBay, of course, and if all you want it the shirt I'm sure you can use your eBay search skilz to find another one just like it. I will also sign the t-shirt (additional fee may apply for me to not sign the shirt).

More details on the auction page. You can also grab an eBay togo widget from my personal blog (too bad eBay blogs doesn't allow embeds -- Hey Nii, can we fix that?)

-Alan

 

0 comments

The Mystery Behind the Name "San Dimas"

Posted May-22-07 08:57:24 PDT

My name is Adam Trachtenberg, one of the people working on Project San Dimas.

One of the questions I often hear when speaking about Project San Dimas is: "Why is San Dimas called San Dimas?" Good question. So, I thought I'd let everyone into the answer.

At eBay, we like to use code names for products before they go live. At the time we started working on San Dimas, there was another product nicknamed "Baldwin Park".

If you don't live in Southern California, Baldwin Park is a suburb of Los Angeles. So, when trying to come up with a name for this project, Alan decided to look at neighboring LA towns -- and came across "San Dimas."

San Dimas, of course, is the hometown Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Logan, best known for their work in the band "Wyld Stallyns."

That's right, it's a reference to "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", that great work of late 80s cinema, and the first movie with Keanu Reeves that anybody ever saw.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

-adam

 

2 comments

Feature Highlight: Popular Searches In Search Box

Posted May-17-07 11:16:35 PDT

I promised that I'd blog about features in San Dimas, and the first one up is very simple. In the search box, when you start typing a few characters, a drop-down menu appears showing popular searches that match.

This has a few benefits - one is that if you happen to be looking for something that is on the list, you can click directly on it and save time. But what I like it for best is for finding stuff to buy that I didn't even know that I needed. The other day I found "cushman" was one of the top "cu" keywords. If you are not familiar with Cushman utility vehicles, you may be surprised what you find when you search for it.

San Dimas is not the first application to have this kind of feature, but we are looking in a few areas to improve on the basic model of showing popular searches in this way. The first is integrating a user's own past searches in the same drop down as the general purpose popular searches. We are toying around with various ideas on how to do this. The main question is whether to have a single merged list or to have a single list that intermixes personal with popular search terms. This is the kind of thing that is hard to form an opinion on until you see it in action, and even I won't be sure which I prefer until it is actually implemented in the product. Leave a note in the comments with your thoughts.

-Alan

http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/archive/2007/04

Archive - April 2007

8 comments

Started Writing a FAQ - What Do You Want to Know?

Posted Apr-22-07 11:13:53 PDT

I've started writing an frequently asked questions (FAQ) section for the projectsandimas.com website. So, what do you want to know? Features? Who is working on it? When it will come out? Where the name came from? Reminder that you can comment on this blog by logging on with your eBay username.

-Alan

 

15 comments

Welcome email should be fixed

Posted Apr-22-07 11:10:38 PDTUpdatedJun-21-07 22:01:19 PDT

We rolled out a fix to the website that should fix the welcome email issue. Please comment here to let me know if you sign up for the beta but don't receive a welcome email.

-Alan

 

2 comments

Welcome emails might be flagged as spam

Posted Apr-17-07 20:26:03 PDT

Just a quick note - if you have signed up for the beta you should have received a welcome email from "beta@ebay.com". Some users have told me that they are seeing the emails flagged as spam, in particular GMail users. We haven't sent out any invitations yet (the welcome email is just that, a welcome email), so we'll be sure to test the email system to try and resolve that issue before sending out any emails. Dont you just love email? (Sarcasm)

-Alan

 

1 comment

San Dimas screenshot in the Wall Street Journal

Posted Apr-16-07 07:49:53 PDT

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the "Clash Course" between Adobe and Microsoft. San Dimas is built on the new Apollo platform from Adobe, and the article contains a nice screenshot of San Dimas. I'll post more about the Apollo platform later, but I wanted to mention the article because it contains a nice summary of the technology landscape. The journal is usually paid, but this article is free, at least for now.

-Alan

 

6 comments

Welcome to Project San Dimas!

Posted Apr-13-07 15:25:28 PDTUpdatedApr-13-07 15:31:34 PDT

We are so excited to share project San Dimas - a new eBay desktop application that is currently being in development. I and the rest of the team will be using this blog to share what we are doing, ask you questions, share stories, and help make a great application for eBay. We are working hard on the product, and will be opening up the beta in a few months. Be sure to sign up over at the San Dimas website. All we need is your eBay username and an email address (doesn't need to be the one you use for your eBay or PayPal communication). The sooner you sign up the more likely that you'll get in to the beta. We'll be updating the site with more information soon - we've been so busy working on the project that we haven't had time to work on the website until a few weeks ago.

Please feel free to leave comments here, or blog about it on your own blog -- tell us what you think!

-Alan

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From eBay Stores Forum - eBay Stores Improves Stores Search Functionality

From eBay Stores Forum
eBay Stores Improves Stores Search Functionality
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000518016&tstart=0&mod=1182883652653

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storesteam@ebay.com     Jun-26-07 11:47 PDT
Dear eBay Stores Sellers,

In the past, you have made some great recommendations on how we can improve the search functionality within the eBay storefronts. Today, we are excited to let you know that we have reviewed your recommendations and are leveraging some of the search functionality on core search and are implementing it for the storefronts.

Here is a brief summary of the upcoming improvements that will increase search efficiency for buyers:

- Spell-check: We have added spell-check capability to eBay Stores searches.

- Search expansions in low results cases: If a user has no results, for example, within a category, then we will automatically expand the search to other categories.

- Permanent eBay Store Home link in the left navigation

These changes are intended to make it easier for your buyers to find matching items within your Stores. We hope you're as excited as we are about these upcoming improvements.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please email us at storesteam@ebay.com

Sincerely, eBay Stores Team

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From eBay Stores Forum - I got a best match for Ya'

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Stores Forum
I got a best match for Ya'
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000392095&tstart=0&mod=1182910962439

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min**  (602 )      Jun-26-07 15:46 PDT
Home page search box...
put in Rug
Choose dolls & bears
hit search.

You get none...ebay thinks you don't know that you want to see rugs in dolls & bears...so it doesn't show you ANY! Shows one in collectibles, none of the 136 that are in the only category I ever list in.

.

pin**  (3172 )      Jun-26-07 16:01 PDT     1 of
Well you are absolutely correct. I get ZERO items returned for that category.

When I go back and change it to "DOLL HOUSE RUG" I get 40 items returned, none of which is yours, nor is your store one of those linked in the sidebar.

Is this because you aren't currently running any auctions?

But others are and theirs aren't showing up either!

.

kat**  (3150 )      Jun-26-07 17:47 PDT     2 of

1512 items found for rug in Dolls & Bears in eBay Stores

On the home page, you have to choose stores. Isn't that what you were looking for? Your store items? Store items don't show up in search, you have to do a stores search.

.

pos**  (4322 )      Jun-26-07 18:00 PDT     3 of
But, if 0 results come back in core should store items show up automatically?

.

pos**  (4322 )      Jun-26-07 18:01 PDT     4 of
should store = shouldn't

I need a new keyboard.

.

the**  (1378 )      Jun-26-07 19:22 PDT     5 of
Ooooo, good proof as to why our stuff is HIDDEN~!

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From eBay Tech Support - Transaction ID Expansion

http://ebaydeveloper.typepad.com/dev/2006/05/tech_support_al_1.html

Tech Support Alert: Prepare for Item ID number expansion by June 1st

Updated 5/23/2006 with June 1st date

Last week, a global change to accommodate the expansion of item ID numbers to 12 digits was wired on to eBay sites. We are aware this caught many in our eBay developer community by surprise. We apologize for the inconvenience we caused some developers and their eBay customers.

Looking forward, eBay needs to accommodate the expansion of item ID numbers very soon, and we want to communicate to our developers about how to make sure your applications using eBay Web Services support this expansion. This item ID number expansion will be wired on eBay.com in the US and across eBay sites globally on Thursday, June 1st. If your application does not support expansion up to 12 digits by June 1st, your applications could generate errors with new and revised listings.

To prepare for this item ID number expansion on June 1st, we are recommending that developers building applications using eBay Web Services allow your applications to support eBay item IDs of up to 19 digits, so that your applications will not experience issues with future item number expansions being planned. Item ID and transaction ID are defined as signed long int and could expand to a maximum of 19 digits.

Please use this opportunity to check all your tools and applications to ensure they can handle the IDs being up to 19 digits in the future. Furthermore, we recommend that developers never try to build logic about item ID ranges, other than treating each item ID as a unique identifier. Eventually the range for every item category will be updated and any previous assumptions about the item ID range will no longer be valid.

Developers will be able to test your application with the new item number expansion in the Sandbox no later than early next week. We will communicate the exact date for the Sandbox support as soon as possible.

Kumar Kandaswamy, our Senior Manager of Product Strategy for the eBay Developers Program, will be addressing your questions or concerns about supporting expansion of item ID numbers in this Developer Product Feedback/Wishlist forum thread.

May 17, 2006

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http://ebaydeveloper.typepad.com/dev/critical_notes_from_tech_support/index.html

Tech Support Alert: Transaction ID Expansion

As originally announced in mid-May 2006, developers building applications with eBay Web Services should be aware that eBay item ID and transaction ID could expand up to 19 digits. If your application does not support expanding ID numbers up to 19 digits, then your application could generate errors with new and revised listings.

As of late January, eBay transaction IDs will be expanding to the 7 billion range. Developers who tested their application back in May to ensure that their item ID support was compliant with our ID number expansion should ensure their transaction ID support is also compliant. Please use this opportunity to check all your tools and applications to ensure they can handle these IDs growing up to 19 digits in the future.

Furthermore, we recommend that developers never try to build logic about ID ranges, other than treating each ID as a unique identifier. Eventually the range for every item category will be updated and any previous assumptions about the ID range will no longer be valid.

Sandbox support for the transaction ID number expansion to the 7 billion range has been enabled, so that you are able to test your application before the late January expansion.

System status, updates to the schedule and other information will be updated in the API Production System Announcements:

All API production sites (US, CA & Motors and International): week of January 29th

Check updates: Production System Announcement

January 23, 2007 in Critical Notes from Tech Support  | Permalink | Comments (2)

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eCRATER EventHorizon1984
Ewaey WorldSecurities2001
eBay World_Securities

 

From eBay - Leaving eBay and San Dimas to Join Ribbit - Rob Abbot

"The importance of this application should not be overlooked. While the project goal is to drive metrics on the eBay Buying experience" Rob Abbott, San Dimas

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http://robabbott.com/2007/04/16/leaving-ebay-and-san-dimas-to-join-ribbit/

Leaving eBay and San Dimas to Join Ribbit.

April 16, 2007  by Rob Abbott        

After 31 months at eBay, I have decided to resign from my position in the Disruptive Innovations (FastCompany.com) team.

For most of my career at eBay I have been paving the way for Flash technology and Rich User Experiences. We launched Flash home pages in China, the U.S., and eventually in Taiwan. It has been a road of many obstacles both for engineering and user experience in the eBay organization across our locales. Despite these obstacles we been triumphant many times through the years, especially with the visibility we have gained and the recognition we have received from the executive team.

Most recently (December 2006) I took on the lead design role on San Dimas (see the TechCrunch post by Nick Gonzalez referencing my article) to redesign the current application. San Dimas was good as a prototype but, the implementation and design did not effectively represent the needs of our eBay users or a compelling interface. After being in UED at eBay for 2 years I have intimate knowledge of the eBay product, business and user experience. It is essential for this intimate knowledge to find its way into the design of the consumer facing product, eBay desktop.

After assessing the redesign effort and the limited resources I had; I immediately enlisted the team at Metaliq (based in San Francisco) to assist me with the redesign. Beau Ambur and Danny Riddell have been icons in the Flash, Flex and RIA community for many years and they oversee an extraordinary team of talent consisting of some of the most respected developers and designers in the world (Grant Skinner, Michael Kemper, Caleb Haye, Guido Rosso to name a few).

The team at Metaliq displayed a fantastic ability to ramp up quickly on the project and eBay’s needs. We hit the ground running and started rolling out new designs during the first quarter of 2007. Here is a preview of one of those designs.

We started delivering highly efficient, relevant and contextual information architecture to illustrate the most compelling user experience for the eBay community. Since we were leveraging Adobe Apollo, we took advantage of the opportunity to push our designs past the normal RIA experience and focused on relevancy and efficiency. This mentality alone helped us conceive of radical ideas to drive value in the user experience for eBay users. Our efforts pushed our development team to meet the unique needs of the proposed designs.

Despite our success and raves from the San Dimas team, all design work on our side ended abruptly at the end of Q1.

Before I go on, I would like to publicly thank Beau and his team at Metaliq (especially Michael Kemper).

Metaliq is responsible for a lot of rich application development and design for companies like Microsoft, AOL, VitalStream, Macromedia, Adobe, Adobe Labs and most recently eBay. They do the majority of their work quietly behind the scenes, most of which will never be publicly credited to their name.

It was an impressive experience to work with them and I will look forward to working with them at Ribbit when the opportunity arises.

They are a classy bunch and most importantly are extremely professional in every interaction.

More…

An eBay desktop environment built on Apollo is the light at the end of the eBay Product & User Experience tunnel for Buyers and Sellers. The importance of this application should not be overlooked. While the project goal is to drive metrics on the eBay Buying experience it is solely overshadowed by the simple fact that a new dimension for innovative design and development has been carved out in a low risk environment.

Adobe Apollo is cross platform and encompasses an array of web technologies (Flex, Flash and Ajax) to design and develop on top of.

Apollo is THE Platform for Innovation.

Designing in this application environment is cheaper, faster and therefore more efficient than any design implementation process for eBay.com. As equally important, developing for Adobe Apollo is cheaper, faster and also more efficient than any development process for eBay.com.

This means the innovative culture at eBay can take risk in a low risk environment and not affect the 150+ million registered users on the core eBay platform (eBay.com). It’s an amazing revelation and opportunity.

It gives eBay a chance to be disruptive in its Product Design process, as well as in its development of the functionality, which is supported by the back end.

This is critical to the future of the eBay experience. A disruptive product environment like Adobe Apollo can help guide the incremental product design of the core product (eBay.com).

Companies on the web across the world can benefit from the same philosophy and practice.

Working at eBay has been a great journey and one that has helped shape me as a professional and as a person.

eBay is a company full of passionate and very talented individuals who enjoy pioneering “communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity.” This is quoted from eBay and it very much reflects those who I have enjoyed working with over the past 31 months.

The relationships and friends that I have made represent a network of individuals who I have the most profound respect for. I value this experience and all that I have learned from this amazing team and culture. It was a fantastic opportunity.

In the Valley it is never “goodbye” but more like “until next time.”

I wish you/them all the best.

If it wasn’t for Eric Hikade, I wouldn’t be where I am at today. Thanks Hik…I owe you.

Where I am going…

For the next couple months I will be spending time to be with my family, traveling abroad and entertaining new opportunities.

My interests were to either accept a role as a user experience lead at a startup or close funding with my business partner on an idea we would love to pursue.

Since, my announcement I have been entertaining offers from various startups in Mountain View, Palo Alto and San Francisco.

My decision finally came down to Mozilla and Ribbit.

I had the great pleasure of speaking with Mike Beltzner who is the Director of User Experience at Mozilla. He was down last week from their offices in Toronto, ON Canada. We spoke about my work on San Dimas and the upcoming version of FireFox 3. One of the most important things I liked most about the opportunity was the Mozilla team and its amazing culture, which would of been a great fit for me.

If you’re in UI/UE and are looking for a chance to work for a great cause and immerse yourself into a beautiful culture of talent, contact Dan Portillo (careers@mozilla.com) at Mozilla. Here are the current opportunities.

I would go to Mozilla in heartbeat if it wasn’t for this other compelling opportunity. Ribbit.

Since the new company is in stealth mode I cannot really say much about it besides that it is lead by a very talented team from the telecommunications industry some of which have been working together for the past 15 years and have successfully sold companies they’ve started.

A few words from the Ribbit web site…

Independence and individuality…are what Ribbit believes in.

Putting voice and choice back into communications…is what Ribbit does.

Ribbit offers a new way to communicate without the hassle of additional software or hardware, and without having to purchase a new device.

A powerful service that’s easy to use.

Stay tuned Ribbit is coming!

In my new role as Principal, User Experience at Ribbit, I will be defining the blueprint for design and interaction as well as the holistic user experience for Ribbit products and technologies.

So, quite an interesting post…as you can see I believe in transparency…a lot.

Check back over the next couple weeks I will probably be posting more details on Ribbit.

UPDATE: Ribbit Team

As promised I have posted more details on Ribbit and this time it’s about the Ribbit team.

Last Friday, several people resigned, those who I admire greatly. One particular event is important to Ribbit.

Charles “Chuck” Freedman resigned as the Senior Flash Platform Engineer from the Flash Platform team at Yahoo!

Chuck is now the Director of User Experience, Flash Platform at Ribbit and I will have the pleasure of working alongside him as we build and design Ribbit’s products and technologies.

We are both very excited about the opportunity we have to work together. Chuck and I originally met at Fidelity Investments in Boston, MA and he was very instrumental in convincing me to leave Fidelity.com and join eBay.com.

Offline Chuck and I collaborated for 2 nights a week, 6+ hours/night for an entire year crafting a couple products.

Check them out - Radario & Daily Radario - We even had a company blog.

I must point out that three companies (Fidelity, Yahoo and eBay) had the chance to snag us both over the years. Finally our valuable combination was realized by a great company. Ribbit.

rob.

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sunshinez* ( 247)

Jun-23-07 20:25:31 PDT

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From eBay - eBay San Dimas and Adobe Apollo

http://robabbott.com/2007/03/19/ebay-san-dimas-and-adobe-apollo/

eBay San Dimas and Adobe Apollo

March 19, 2007 by Rob Abbott        

After a year of planning, I am proud to finally announce ‘San Dimas‘.

San Dimas is the code name for our new unofficial eBay Desktop application built on Adobe Apollo¹.

See San Dimas in action - DEMO 07 conference presented by Adobe Apollo Senior Product Manager, Mike Downey.

Way back in October of 2004, I built an eBay Desktop demo for Macromedia MAX in New Orleans. The thought was to place an eBay Buying Experience on the desktop using application interactions, personal settings, and a rich interactive experience. All the characteristics of a Rich Internet Application for the desktop and it just so happens Adobe has defined Apollo in the very same way.

The key reason for building such an application was to drive efficiency and streamline the eBay Buying Experience for users.

Alan Lewis from our eBay Developers Program kick started a project last year with the Adobe team, which had a similar goal. I was brought on board at the same time to consult on Rich Interaction Application design, the eBay user experience and the technologies of Flash, Flex and AJAX (some of the technologies Apollo encompasses).

During most of the summer and early fall of 2006 Alan, Adobe and a third party vendor planned and built an initial prototype of San Dimas (Alpha) that was later demo’d at the Adobe MAX keynote in Las Vegas.

Alan and the teams involved did a wonderful job of building the initial prototype. It demonstrated Apollo’s technology and shed new light on its great potential when applied to a fresh eBay experience. The third party vendor, Effective UI who built and initially designed the application displayed exceptional skills and execution during the build process.

The San Dimas demo at Adobe MAX was well received by the Adobe Developer Community and was later written about over at ZDNet Ryan Stewart, who provided some great coverage on the application as well as the technology behind it. The application was also later TechCrunch’d by Michael Arrington.

Shortly there after, we were excited to hear the project became an internal initiative (i.o.w. we received funding) at eBay. Alan and I both accepted key roles on the project, he as the Product Manager & Evangelist and I as the User Experience Lead overseeing the information architecture & design and the user experience of the application.

I will be writing about this application and the design effort quite a bit so check back for weekly updates on our unofficial eBay project.

UPDATE: I am Leaving eBay and San Dimas to Join Ribbit.

rob.

¹ Adobe Apollo is a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

Jeffrey commented 3 months ago

Download link?

Also: is it intentionally named after the waterslide/bedroom community where Bill and Ted are from or was that just a coincidence?

Rob Abbott commented 3 months ago

No download link yet, look for something in Q2.
Alex, What is “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”?

Correct!

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Spotlight on eBay Employee Adam Trachtenberg

http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamtrachtenberg

Adam Trachtenberg

Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism and Innovation at eBay
San Francisco Bay Area              

Current

                  

• Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism and Innovation at eBay                         
• Author (Self-employed)                                   

               

Past

                  

• Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism at eBay                         
• Manager of Technical Evangelism at eBay                         
• VP Production at Student.Com                         

                   

                     

• VP Production at TVGrid                              

                     

see less...

                   

                                        

Education

                  

• Columbia Business School                                
• Columbia University                                
• Sidwell Friends                                

Adam Trachtenberg’s Summary

Adam Trachtenberg’s Specialties:

                Building stuff, getting people to use stuff, union negotiation.              

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Adam Trachtenberg’s Experience

• Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism and Innovation      

  eBay (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; EBAY; Internet industry)

              January 2007          — Present                 (6 months)                 

  I preach the gospel of the eBay platform to entrepreneurs around the globe, and I oversee our developer community and marketing team; our web site, developer.ebay.com; and the eBay Developer Conference, www.ebay.com/devcon.
  
  I also prototype "disruptive innovation" applications built upon the eBay platform, and manage a team of product manager-evangelists leading these efforts.

   
• Author                 

  Self-employed (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Writing and Editing industry)

   

              September 2001          — Present                 (5 years 10 months)                 

  * Author of "PHP Cookbook" (with David Sklar) (1ed and 2ed) and "Upgrading to PHP".
  * Contributor to "eBay Hacks" (2ed) and "Google Hacks" (2ed and 3ed).
  * Technical reviewer of "Essential PHP Tools," "Pro PHP XML and Web Services," and "RESTful Web Services".
  * Author of many PHP and web services-related print and online magazine articles.

   
• Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism       

  eBay (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; EBAY; Internet industry)

   

              September 2005          — January 2007                 (1 year 5 months)                 

  I preach the gospel of the eBay platform to developers and businessmen around the globe, and I manage people, including the community, evangelism, and marketing staff.

   
• Manager of Technical Evangelism       

  eBay    (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; EBAY; Internet industry)

              June 2004          — September 2005                 (1 year 4 months)                 

  I preach the gospel of the eBay platform to developers and businessmen around the globe.

   
• VP Production       

  Student.Com (Internet industry)

   

              1995          — 2001                 (6 years)                 

   
• VP Production       

  TVGrid (Internet industry)

   

              1995          — 2001                 (6 years)                 

         

---

         

Adam Trachtenberg’s Education

•   Columbia Business School               

        MBA, Management, September 2001 — May 2003            

• Columbia University               
  

        BA, Mathematics, September 1993 — May 1997            

• Sidwell Friends                  
  

        Diploma,  1993 — 1997            

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Adam Trachtenberg is eBay's Senior Manager of Evangelism and Disruptive Innovation.
http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/06/13/ebaydev-adam-trachtenberg-on-ebays-new-platform-extensions/

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Adam Trachtenberg is eBay's Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism.
http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/781

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http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/781

30 Minutes with Adam Trachtenberg        

by Cal Evans (editor

Monday, August 7, 2006                       

       

O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention (OSCON) in July of 2006 was a fun time for all who attended. One of the great things about it for me personally was that I was able to sit down with several influential members of the PHP community and talk to them one on one. Adam Trachtenberg was one of the one of the ones nice enough to sit down and talk to me.

Adam is the senior manager of Platform Evangelism at eBay. His job is to communicate to developers all the cool things possible with eBay’s web services. We sat for a half-hour to discuss PHP, eBay, where things are and where they are going. Here’s what he had to say.

Adam, I’d like to say thank you for taking time to talk with me today. First let’s get a little background. How did you come to be involved with PHP. Second, how did that lead you to eBay?
When I was in college, a group of friends and I started a website called student.net which eventually became student.com. This was in 1995 and we were just poor college students. We built it on a Windows platform but after Windows NT 3.51 kept crashing on us, we decided to look around and see what our other options were. Someone said, “Well, I’ve already got this Dell machine, why don’t we install this operating system called Linux? We’ll use Apache and we’ll do some Perl stuff and we’ll use mSQL.” mSQL was an open source database.

Over time, we found PHP 2 and we installed it and this new database called MySQL. We continued to use a lot of open source software on the site. All of a sudden, I looked around and someone had coined an acronym, L.A.M.P. [Ed. Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP] for the technologies we were using. I realized at that point that a lot of people we using PHP. PHP3 was out, PHP4 was on its way and I had a lot of knowledge that I could share with others just because I was an early adopter. So I wrote a couple of books for O’Reilly, “PHP Cookbook” and more recently “Upgrading to PHP5”. While I was in the middle of writing “Upgrading to PHP 5” and speaking at conferences like OSCON, sometime around 2004, I started looking for a job.

One of the topics I had been talking a lot about was web services and how people can use them. eBay, launched their web services in 2001, by 2004, they had windows code, .NET code and Java code but they began to realize that the open source community was important. I mean the whole point of web services was to be platform neutral. So eBay looked at me and they thought it would be a good fit for both of us because I had a lot of experience in open source and web services.

They also liked the fact that I had founded a startup, student.com. Since a lot of eBay’s development customers were startups – some one-man shops, some venture backed – they felt I was a good fit for what they need to grow their web services division. I was someone who could talk to developers using web services and open source technologies.

I actually found the job through a friend of a friend. I was doing some work on the SimpleXML extension, just bug reports and stuff for the book. I was on the IRC channel one day and someone said “Oh, you need a job, my friend needs some help.” So my resume got passed along to eBay and we both decided that it was a good fit so I moved out to California and I’ve been there a little over two years now.

The web services platform has really grown. We now have over thirty thousand members, over fourteen hundred live applications and last quarter, over fifty two percent of all listings on eBay.com came from a web services interface. About half of the calls made to eBay web services come from internal applications that we’ve written. The other half comes from third party applications written in all sorts of languages like PHP, Perl, python, VB, Cold fusion, Java, just about everything.

The great thing about eBay web services is that people can tap into the marketplace differently. Some want to be involved a lot and do all the research and list everything themselves; others just want to sell things and realize eBay is the best channel for them to do that but they don’t have the time or experience to handle everything themselves.

Give us an overview of the eBay web services API.
That’s hard to do. We actually open up almost the entire eBay platform through the web services API. They roughly break down into two or three types of activities. The one that was the first one released, the reason we opened up our API was the one we just talked about that helps resellers operate their businesses more efficiently. These resellers write what I call “Business Mashups” because they are mashing up eBay web services and maybe PayPal web services and the USPS or UPS web services to handle shipping. These eBay web services APIs allow a user to add items to eBay, check when they are sold, handle the feedback and generally automating all the process of listing items on eBay. From there we have many different things you can do of various complexities. We even have an API for talking a “best offer”. So if you list a large-ticket item like a car, you can list it for say, twenty thousand dollars but you someone offers you say nineteen thousand, five hundred. We have an API to help you accept or reject that offer.

In the last couple of years, we have been working closely with eBay affiliates. These are people who help drive traffic to eBay by serving up eBay content through value-added pages or buying ad words, or even incorporating eBay listings into their own content. One of the things we realized was that they could be more efficient if they we also using web services to do things like always pull the freshest item. We also help them with research by helping them find what’s most popular in the marketplace right now or what key words people are looking for. We now have a whole bunch of affiliates that use our searching web service as well as pulling items to help them find out what is happening on eBay. We’ve even recently rolled out an API that will help them by doing contextual analysis of web pages the help them figure out the right keywords to pull items for.

Then in the last year or so, we’ve seen the emergence of what we are calling “buyer tools”. These are tools to help buyers, buy more efficiently. That could be finding things on eBay or keeping track of what’s going on with items they are interested in. We’ve had a lot of developers working on tools now for the buyer. One really cool one is a service that will call you up on your phone and using IVR and let you know things like “the item you are bidding on is closing in 5 minutes and that you are not the winning bid.” With this service, you can even bid back through your phone. Another one we are working with, Scandex Software that integrates eBay completely with Microsoft Media Center. So you can be watching TV and an alert will popup on the TV notifying you about your bid.

What is your favorite API that you feel is underused?
One that news and people don’t use a lot yet is the “Get Popular Keywords”. We actually expose at the category or even sub-category level, what the keywords are that people are searching for. You can do that internationally because we expose our web services in more than fifteen different languages. So you can get, let say, the popular keywords in China for instance. Since it’s all in Unicode, you actually see the Chinese characters people are using. The API allows you to get a pulse for what people are searching for on. You can see what’s going on globally scale and how that differs on a region by region basis.

We just launched a new product called eBay express. eBay express is a way for people to quickly find what we call ‘Fixed price items’. eBay has always been known for our auction format which is the great differentiator for eBay but we also have a lot of items that are fixed price items. So we’ve released an interface optimized just for fixed price items. So you type in a product, for instance an iPod, it gives you a list of the items for sale at a fixed price.

Let’s switch topics for a bit here. You literally wrote the book on upgrading to PHP 5, what do find is the hardest thing for developers when migrating to PHP 5?
One thing I found from the feedback I got while writing the book was that a lot of developers need their software to run on both PHP4 and PHP5. When I was working at a company and we controlled our servers we had control over what version of PHP we were running so we could develop for PHP 5 if we wanted it. But I had people write me from projects like [Ed: but not specifically] phpMyAdmin or WordPress and say that they needed their software to work no matter what version of PHP their customers had. Since most ISPs run a version of PHP4, these big packages can’t afford to lock out their customer base. Since the changes between HPP4 and PHP5 are large, people are finding it difficult to write software that works with both simultaneously. That’s really the biggest barrier to adoption. It’s a “chicken and the egg” issue. If more software just went to 5 then more ISPs would also, or visa-versa. I do think that over time more and more will go to PHP5, it’s just going slow.

For hosts actually contemplating the move to PHP5, what do you find is the hardest part of the move?
There are only 2 things that are tricky and you really need to watch out for. First, if you are making extensive use of Object Oriented features in PHP4 there are things that are different. Things like the constructor of the class is now __construct() whereas it used to be a method named the same name as the class. But PHP5 does some fallback things to ease that along. Also “passed by reference” verses “passed by value”. In PHP4 we had to put a lot of ampersands together to get things passed by reference. If you are doing a lot of OO code then it’s something to look out for but if you are mainly working in procedural it’s not really an issue.

The other big issue that is tricky is that all the XML extensions in PHP5 have been re-written. They are much better and they have been standardized both within PHP but also they use a lot of the XML standards like DOM. Because PHP5 enabled us to do some things that PHP4 didn’t allow, they are also now more robust. If you are using the older XML extensions in PHP4, those extensions were not ported to PHP5. If you have code that relies on the old XSLT, the Sablatron library or the old DOMXML extension then you’ll have to fix your code to work with the new extensions. The book touches on this issue as well. It talks about the features that went away and the incompatibilities.

Those are really the main trouble spots for backwards incompatibility. There are some new features that you need to be aware of like mysqli and PDO if you are doing database work you can begin to use them. However, the old mysql extensions still work as well as the old Oracle extensions, so in that respect you can move to PHP5 and then chose to upgrade bits and pieces of your code.

Thanks for those tips.  Now let’s look forward for a bit. What’s the next big thing for eBay that impacts the PHP community?
We are continuing to release new APIs. Since most of our APIs are SOAP, I have been working really hard to make sure that there are no incompatibilities with the new PHP5 SOAP extension. Using PHP5’s new SOAP extension makes working with our API really easy. Also, we now have a lot of APIs that do “eBay stuff”, we are now looking around to see if there are other services that eBay uses that we can expose to developers.

Interesting.  Let’s talk about the future of PHP for a moment. What is the biggest thing that you feel PHP is missing?
Well I think that PHP6 addresses the biggest need and that’s Unicode support. Our web services use mainly XML and XML is Unicode friendly. So if you are using SOAP it supports Unicode. eBay is international and some of them do not support the use of standard western character sets, for example India or China. Therefore as applications are increasingly using web services and being global in nature, not having really strong support for Unicode is a serious limitation for PHP. That’s why I think it’s really great, the work that Andrei is doing with Unicode and PHP6. It will make it much easier for international developers to incorporate eBay’s APIs into their own applications.

Thank you for that. I agree Unicode is important and Andrei and the entire team working on Unicode are doing a great job. Let’s talk about technology in general now. What is the one new technology gets you excited?
Honestly, I don’t have time t play with new technologies that much these days. Clearly there have been a lot of talk recently about Ruby on Rails and how it lets you get applications up operating quickly. That’s been really quite interesting. One thing I’ve been really interested in recently has been XML databases. Normally, when you have data, you define the table sand relations and put your data in there. I call this square data because everything fits in a square table with columns and rows. As people are increasingly using XML both for web services on the backend and AJAX on the front-end you are really receiving XML as an input and sending XML to the client as an output. I call XML data angular data because all the brackets are angles. So why would you want to take angle data in, convert it to square data to store in the database and then convert it back to angle data when you send it back out to the browser? If you could store things as native XML then you could skip the whole conversion step.

What toys are you playing with in working with XML data?
I know there’s the Berkley database that has some XML support. I think MySQL actually is trying to bring out some new XML features. I know MarkLogic has XML support as well as some of the larger vendors as well.

There you have it. eBay is committed to building interfaces to just about any service it offers. They actively promote the use of their APIs to an ever increasing universe of developers. Most importantly, using their interfaces, you can build some cool functionality into your applications. Now if they would just release a Sniping API…hey, Adam, comeback!

=C=

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http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/entry/The-Mystery-Behind-the-Name-San-Dimas/_W0QQcommentsyncidZ0QQidZ219800010

The Mystery Behind the Name "San Dimas"

Posted May-22-07 08:57:24 PDT

My name is Adam Trachtenberg, one of the people working on Project San Dimas.

One of the questions I often hear when speaking about Project San Dimas is: "Why is San Dimas called San Dimas?" Good question. So, I thought I'd let everyone into the answer.

At eBay, we like to use code names for products before they go live. At the time we started working on San Dimas, there was another product nicknamed "Baldwin Park".

If you don't live in Southern California, Baldwin Park is a suburb of Los Angeles. So, when trying to come up with a name for this project, Alan decided to look at neighboring LA towns -- and came across "San Dimas."

San Dimas, of course, is the hometown Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Logan, best known for their work in the band "Wyld Stallyns."

That's right, it's a reference to "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", that great work of late 80s cinema, and the first movie with Keanu Reeves that anybody ever saw.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

-adam

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Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 @

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Stores Forum - Project San Dimas - eBay Coming to Your Desktop ...

http://www.projectsandimas.com/

           

       

       

         

Project San Dimas

         

Announcing "San Dimas", a new desktop application from eBay. It provides a new search interface, a fun way to bid, access to your personal eBay history, and much more. We are sharing this project in the very early stages because we want your input. Sign up for the Beta, and help us build this brand new way to use eBay.

- Alan Lewis, San Dimas Product Manager

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Adam Trachtenberg is eBay's Senior Manager of Evangelism and Disruptive Innovation.
http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/06/13/ebaydev-adam-trachtenberg-on-ebays-new-platform-extensions/

Adam Trachtenberg is eBay's Senior Manager of Platform Evangelism.
http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/781

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http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/entry/The-Mystery-Behind-the-Name-San-Dimas/_W0QQcommentsyncidZ0QQidZ219800010

The Mystery Behind the Name "San Dimas"

Posted May-22-07 08:57:24 PDT

My name is Adam Trachtenberg, one of the people working on Project San Dimas.

One of the questions I often hear when speaking about Project San Dimas is: "Why is San Dimas called San Dimas?" Good question. So, I thought I'd let everyone into the answer.

At eBay, we like to use code names for products before they go live. At the time we started working on San Dimas, there was another product nicknamed "Baldwin Park".

If you don't live in Southern California, Baldwin Park is a suburb of Los Angeles. So, when trying to come up with a name for this project, Alan decided to look at neighboring LA towns -- and came across "San Dimas."

San Dimas, of course, is the hometown Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Logan, best known for their work in the band "Wyld Stallyns."

That's right, it's a reference to "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", that great work of late 80s cinema, and the first movie with Keanu Reeves that anybody ever saw.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

-adam

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http://www.projectsandimas.com/faq.html

   

   

 

   

Home

   

                         

	San Dimas FAQ   Basics   What is Project San Dimas?   Project "San Dimas" is the code name for a new eBay desktop application.   "Desktop application," what exactly do you mean by that?   That means an application doesn't run in a web browser. Other examples of desktop applications include Word, iTunes, and Skype.   When will San Dimas be released?   We are working hard on it, and it will be sent out to the first set of beta users as soon as it is ready.   You didn't answer the question.   Sorry, that's all I can say right now.   How do I get it?   Sign up for the beta at www.projectsandimas.com. The sooner you sign up, the sooner you will get into the beta. So sign up. Right now. Do it.   How do I keep up-to-date on the project?   Read the weblog.   Is it an official eBay product, or is it just a prototype?   Yes, San Dimas is an "official" eBay product. However, since it is currently in beta it is not a supported product, meaning that you won't be able to get technical support through eBay customer service during the beta period.   So is this going to be one of those "forever in beta" projects?   No way. We aren't using the "beta" designation as a marketing gimmick.   Features   What features are in San Dimas?   We are currently developing three main types of features. First: the "core" eBay buying features, including search, browse, watch list, and bidding/buy it now. Second: unique desktop-specific features, such as alerts and a browsing history. And third: features such as checkout and feedback that are integral to the eBay experience, and that if they weren't included would require you to go back to the eBay website on a regular basis.   What about selling?   We are planning a simple selling feature for San Dimas, targeted strictly at "casual," non-professional sellers. However, this feature will not be included in the initial beta release.   What about features x, y, z, etc...?   The San Dimas roadmap is very flexible. While we have certain features in mind, once the beta is out we will rely very heavily on the feedback of our users to determine what new features we implement, how we change existing ones, and even which features we remove.   Will it run on a Mac?   Yes, San Dimas will run on both Windows (XP and Vista) and the Mac (OSX 10.4 or higher).   What are the minimum system requirements to run San Dimas?   We don't know for sure yet, since we haven't done performance tuning. Informal performance tests have shown that it can run with acceptable performance on most any computer.   Technology   I'm interested in the technology... tell me more   OK. San Dimas is built on the Apollo platform from Adobe. Apollo allows developers to use Flash, HTML, and PDF to build desktop applications. Apollo allows applications to run cross-platform (Windows and Mac, and Linux in the future), and it provides the ability for internet-connected applications to run "offline" (without a continuous internet connection).   How does San Dimas work? How does it get the data from eBay?   San Dimas uses eBay Web Services to communicate with eBay. Web services are a mechanism by which client applications communicate with a server via a standard network protocol to exchange data via a well-understood format like XML. In fact, there is nothing preventing other companies or developers from creating applications like San Dimas, using the web services just like we do. You can learn more about this at the eBay Developers Program website.

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http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/entry/Feature-Highlight-Popular-Searches-In-Search-Box/_W0QQidZ215751010

Feature Highlight: Popular Searches In Search Box

Posted May-17-07 11:16:35 PDT

I promised that I'd blog about features in San Dimas, and the first one up is very simple. In the search box, when you start typing a few characters, a drop-down menu appears showing popular searches that match.

This has a few benefits - one is that if you happen to be looking for something that is on the list, you can click directly on it and save time. But what I like it for best is for finding stuff to buy that I didn't even know that I needed. The other day I found "cushman" was one of the top "cu" keywords. If you are not familiar with Cushman utility vehicles, you may be surprised what you find when you search for it.

San Dimas is not the first application to have this kind of feature, but we are looking in a few areas to improve on the basic model of showing popular searches in this way. The first is integrating a user's own past searches in the same drop down as the general purpose popular searches. We are toying around with various ideas on how to do this. The main question is whether to have a single merged list or to have a single list that intermixes personal with popular search terms. This is the kind of thing that is hard to form an opinion on until you see it in action, and even I won't be sure which I prefer until it is actually implemented in the product. Leave a note in the comments with your thoughts.

-Alan

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For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Stores Forum
eBay Coming to Your Desktop ...
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000389289&tstart=0&mod=1182446652037

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wayoutwestusa2  (78 )      Jun-21-07 07:03 PDT
Currently in Beta (course, that's kinda like the entire eBay site, eh?), so now's the chance for all store owners get their voices heard regarding any issues (hidden store items, etc)

eBay client for your desktop. Instead of browsing to the site via the web, it's a program that you run on your computer and it will interface directly with eBay.


http://www.projectsandimas.com/

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elonica  (0 )      Jun-21-07 09:26 PDT     1 of
And sellers need this because...???? Just to have another download on their hard drive? I am not a specialist so can someone more computer savvy come and explain - does this eBay client have something to do with eBay servers overload, does it mean seller's computers are going to host part of the data that now ebay hosts or I don't get this right?

"It provides a new search interface, a fun way to bid, access to your personal eBay history, and much more."

Words like "new search" and  "fun" give me a bad gut feeling...

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sandrarn83  (2690 )      Jun-21-07 09:28 PDT     2 of
Yes and Ebay wants me to download their buggy software on my new pristine website so we can "drive traffic to Ebay". YEP! pigs will be flying first too.

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19yearoldcat  (19 )      Jun-21-07 09:40 PDT     3 of
sorry
not interested

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postcardsandmore  (4312 )      Jun-21-07 09:48 PDT     4 of
It looks like something for buyers only.

And, those words "new search" just made me feel ill!

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wayoutwestusa2  (78 )      Jun-21-07 09:54 PDT     5 of
I thought it of interest for sellers because of this

We are sharing this project in the very early stages because we want your input

A chance to give them feedback about how crappy the search is before they release it.

Whether it'll make a difference or not, dunno (and prolly wont) but if you dont try to make it known that youre not finding the stuff you want (hint: store items)... After all, the chance if getting it changed after it's officially released is even slimmer.

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elonica  (0 )      Jun-21-07 10:00 PDT     6 of
wayoutwestusa2, they do not need our input cus they know better, they do what they want to do no matter what.

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postcardsandmore  (4312 )      Jun-21-07 10:00 PDT     7 of
In Ebayland I have found that the chances of getting anything changed once it's been offered in test mode is slim and none!

Test means..it's a done deal. This is a period for you all to complain and just get over it because it is here to stay!

The good news about the desktop feature is that everyone and their dog is offering a desktop feature, a toolbar etc and people are getting turned off by the whole thing.

My daughter took everything off hers and refuses to download anymore wonderful new desktop features that clutter up the space and eat up the memory (even on a brand new machine).

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frantichippie  (12 )      Jun-21-07 10:13 PDT     8 of
I think it's totally cool! eBay has opened up their API to developers in some amazing ways, prepare to see lots of cool new apps like this.

There is even a remote bidding API!


Susie

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postcardsandmore  (4312 )      Jun-21-07 10:18 PDT     9 of
Susie, see how cool you think it is if the "new search" is "best match" and your items never ever show up because you are a small seller with few page views therefore not popular and therefore no page views and therefore no possibility of ever being one of the popular choices!

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elonica  (0 )      Jun-21-07 10:24 PDT     10 of
Check this other thread about Trojan/virus alerts with the new store templates:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000389221&tstart=0&mod=1182444171157

Every download is potentially dangerous especially if you do not trust the company very much. About 2 years ago I made the stupid mistake to take a 3rd party survey on the ebay site, my computer went on fire, almost crushed, I got furious because I did not expect eBay to do this to me! So now I wouldn't download anything coming from ebay, period.

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world_securities  (4918 )     Jun-21-07 11:35 PDT     11 of
Would bet eBay will use this opportunity to reduce load on their own servers.

The additional power of 100 million Buyer computers.

eBayNet

Distributed computing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing

Distributed computing is a method of computer processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network. Distributed computing is a type of parallel computing. But the latter term is most commonly used to refer to processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more processors that are part of the same computer. While both types of processing require that a program be parallelized—divided into sections that can run simultaneously, distributed computing also requires that the division of the program take into account the different environments on which the different sections of the program will be running.

Drawbacks and disadvantages

If not planned properly, a distributed system can decrease the overall reliability of computations if the unavailability of a node can cause disruption of the other nodes. Leslie Lamport famously quipped that: "A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable."

Many types of computation are not well suited for distributed environments, typically owing to the amount of network communication or synchronization that would be required between nodes. If bandwidth, latency, or communication requirements are too significant, then the benefits of distributed computing may be negated and the performance may be worse than a non-distributed environment.

The effectiveness of a distributed computing project is therefore determined largely by the sophistication of the project creators.

Grid computing
A grid uses the resources of many separate computers connected by a network (usually the Internet) to solve large-scale computation problems. Most use idle time on many thousands of computers throughout the world. Such arrangements permit handling of data that would otherwise require the power of expensive supercomputers or would have been impossible to analyze.


"By the time Skynet became self-aware it had spread into millions of computer servers across the planet. Ordinary computers in office buildings, dorm rooms; everywhere. It was software; in cyberspace. There was no system core; it could not be shutdown." John Connor, Terminator 3



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wayoutwestusa2  (78 )     Jun-21-07 11:45 PDT     12 of
they do not need our input cus they know better, they do what they want to do no matter what.


In Ebayland I have found that the chances of getting anything changed once it's been offered in test mode is slim and none!


Youre both most likely correct. I just figured that since there might be a slim chance of effecting some change before the gadget gets finalized, that it might be worth messing with.


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elonica  (0 )     Jun-21-07 12:00 PDT     13 of
world_securities, thanks for your post. I'm not familiar with the term "Distributed computing" but I'm familiar with the "Grid" thingy as I'm a Second Life user. The system is highly unstable and buggy, it effects not only your in world (Second Life) experience but your overall computer performance. Since I downloaded SL on my desktop I started losing my wireless Internet connection and in the end it just could not be restored at all, still wondering how to deal with this. But Second Life needs the Grid because this is, I think, the only way to create their virtual reality.
Keeping in mind all the problems eBay has NOW I can only imagine the mess that this eBay client will cause. Not to mention how bright is their idea to use YOUR computer instead of buying new servers.
Mia

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postcardsandmore  (4315 )     Jun-21-07 12:13 PDT     14 of
Youre both most likely correct. I just figured that since there might be a slim chance of effecting some change before the gadget gets finalized, that it might be worth messing with

Point well taken. You just caught me in one of contrary moods due to the "now you see it now you don't" nature of search testing and store items.

My comments were in no way meant for you.  I have always found your postings very helpful and informative.

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wayoutwestusa2  (78 )     Jun-21-07 17:12 PDT     15 of
^ aw shucks, PC&M. Youre too kind. I've always found your posts very helpful and infomative as well. 

And you're probably right. Sometimes I just tend to forget that ebay has that corporate mindset of 'only the people in charge know anything' and actually hope that they might listen.

It's my cat's fault, he stole my tinfoil hat

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savoir-faire08  (58 )     Jun-21-07 17:45 PDT     16 of
eBay Coming to Your Desktop

Certainly not to MINE

I would never download that product, after what I have read on the board yesterday, about the Trojan virus in the store template, who knows what isin the desktop software? I am paranoid about downloads, so if you think differently, go for IT!

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clact  (3593 )     Jun-21-07 18:18 PDT     17 of
I think you are missing the point. It is your customers that should have your store on their desktop. As a matter of fact I just suggested the stores people that the widget should be able to be emailed or popped up somewhere. Why would someone have to go through all the trouble of finding you again when they can have their eBay search for your store right in front of them.

Unrelated, to eBay a client developed something like this. Ironically the tech guy came to eBay and tried to get people interested in it here. It was a little different than what we have seen but represented an always "On" channel on the desktop. Anytime a customer wanted to see their "logo" on any item they would open this channel and see their logo on any one of thousands of items and new items. Sales soared. Many times the customers were doing the company's sales for them by saying "your bar glasses could look like this" . Designers started using the tool as part of their work for marketing plans etc.

Something is not even out yet and already you give it zero chance...

Ebay is the largest online marketplace in the world, Stores are the largest online mall in the world. Next to Visa, Paypal is the 2nd largest online payment solution in the world, Skype is the most downloaded and used telecommunications product in the world.

Some things are coming here that you will not see on your 3rd party websites for years if ever. So at the very least as some say you need to stick around to "use" ebay to feed leads to your products.

But the most successful will capitalize on the world markets and do something amazing here.

There are tons of things to be excited about, pick and choose what you like or dont like. Just keep in mind most of us are small store sellers being shown the state of the art in internet technology, and that is a good thing.

Marty

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catbooks1940s  (1169 )     Jun-21-07 20:00 PDT     18 of
Something is not even out yet and already you give it zero chance...

because ebay has lost our TRUST. trust they are even capable of putting out any product that doesn't have signficant bugs and glitches. (except this would be our computers at risk.) trust that they wouldn't misuse the power this would give them. trust, period.

::waves at wayoutwest::

yeah,ebay's idea of getting feedback is, they present their newst, and if you say anything except 'great, fabulous widget/idea!' they go deaf.
joan


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homedecorstudios  (11 )     Jun-21-07 20:10 PDT     19 of
No thanks I have google desktop.

Ebay is the largest online marketplace in the world, Stores are the largest online mall in the world. Next to Visa, Paypal is the 2nd largest online payment solution in the world, Skype is the most downloaded and used telecommunications product in the world.

I don't care how big it is if there are no paying customers in it.

Some things are coming here that you will not see on your 3rd party websites for years if ever. So at the very least as some say you need to stick around to "use" ebay to feed leads to your products.

My websites have almost zero glitches, no downtime, no non paying customers, no FVF fees, no listing fees, no nigerians...Basically No headaches. Your right it will be years if ever before I have these problems outside ebay.

Just keep in mind most of us are small store sellers being shown the state of the art in internet technology, and that is a good thing.

Go to any techie show, Ebay is not cutting edge. They just BUY the cutting edge after someone else starts it.

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world_securities  (4918 )     Jun-21-07 20:19 PDT     20 of
clact
I think you are missing the point. It is your customers that should have your store on their desktop.

And they already do. It's called a link.
http://stores.ebay.com/STORENAMEHERE

No overhead, and a part of every browser on the planet.

What eBay is proposing is a dedicated front end. Taking processes eBay's servers already handle, and offload that processing onto individual computers. In effect eBay receives free processing cycles, and the individual who downloads the front end takes a performance hit as their processing cycles become eBay's.

clact
Something is not even out yet and already you give it zero chance...

People aren't giving it a zero chance. They're being very picky as to what gets loaded onto their computer. The old buzz term being 'practicing safe computing.' This is no longer the 80's where new computer owners loaded every new routine into memory they could get their hands on.

You have to be very brave to load software, that even eBay says has bugs, on your pristine business systems.

Free advice. Anyone who chooses to do so, backup EVERYTHING first.

It would be very informative to see how many Wall Street types that would load this on their Business systems, right now.

Why don't you wait until San Dimas passes eBay internal beta testing? Because I guarantee anyone who deals with computers on 'the deep levels' will be waiting. Those same individuals and organizations will be waiting for test results from the usual places: PC Magazine, InfoWorld, MacWorld, etal.

clact
Some things are coming here that you will not see on your 3rd party websites for years if ever.

You underestimate the inventiveness of these 3rd party people and organizations.

Stanford students beat eBay on Firefox toolbar
http://www.grooveking.com/blog/2007/05/stanford-students-beat-ebay-on-firefox.html

These are students, 3rd party if you will, beating out eBay's programming brain trust. Superior finished tool bar versus eBay so-so beta.

clact
But the most successful will capitalize on the world markets and do something amazing here.

Actually "the most successful will capitalize on the world markets and do something amazing" period.

Sam Walton
Bill Gates
Steve Jobs
Gordon Moore
Donald Trump

Hope some of you get the point that it's YOUR large/medium/small Business. You need to make decisions. Letting unknown people make your business decisions, without your complete acceptance, is future disaster in the making.

clact
most of us are small store sellers being shown the state of the art in internet technology, and that is a good thing.

Sorry, what eBay is doing is 'novel', but it isn't really state of the art.

Store sellers who want to stay current, Read. Read a lot. A extremely short basic recommended reading list:

Wall Street Journal
Business Week
PC Magazine, MacWorld, InfoWorld, etc.

You want to see business? You want to see technology? Read unfiltered material.

As a business cradle, eBay is not a bad place to apprentice. But always consider the long term. Staying or going, using or not using, should be what You want for the long term.


"The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever."
~Konstantin Tsiolkovsky




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elonica  (0 )     Jun-21-07 20:48 PDT     21 of
Yeah, "state of the art" glitches, no one can beat this, LOL

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psychocat1959  (268 )        Jun-21-07 21:00 PDT       22 of
I have one word for this .

Scary!

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joint_runner  (Private )     Jun-21-07 21:28 PDT     23 of
being shown the state of the art in internet technology

Marty, Marty, Marty. I mean no disrespect, but what color is the sky in your world? eBay's had 10 years and they can't even make a lister work properly. Now suddenly they are going "state of the art"? C'mon.

Pretty well any reputable third party software, etc, makes their technology look like a dinosaur.

JMPO.

---

As transparent as eBay itself.

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bhearsch  (302 )     Jun-21-07 21:42 PDT     24 of
Popular searches in Search Box?
http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/entry/Feature-Highlight-Popular-Searches-In-Search-Box/_W0QQidZ215751010

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world_securities  (4919 )      Jun-22-07 10:55 PDT     25 of
A little comparison history of project names, and a HUH??  Save that last link data. It might disappear.


Project Apollo
Lunar Landing, Man on the Moon, 20 July 1969

Apollo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo

Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of the chaste huntress Artemis, who took the place of Selene in some myths as goddess of the moon.

In Roman mythology he is known as Apollo and increasingly, especially during the third century BC, as Apollo Helios he became identified with Sol, the Sun.

Apollo was an oracular god. He was the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle, as well as one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities. Apollo also had dominion over colonists

Technically the project should have been named Artemis, but you get the idea.

Apollo Program
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program

The Apollo program was the third human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA, on behalf of the United States of America. Its goal — “to land humans on the Moon and return them safely to Earth

Project Constellation

Orion (mythology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_%28mythology%29

In Greek mythology, Orion was traditionally a great huntsman, who was set amongst the stars as the constellation called Orion. He is also described as a great hunter in the Odyssey, when Odysseus meets him in the underworld.

Ares
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares

The Romans identified him as Mars, the Roman god of war

Orion (spacecraft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)

Orion is a spacecraft design currently under development by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Each Orion spacecraft will carry a crew of four to six astronauts, and will be launched by the new Ares I launch vehicle. Both Orion and Ares I are elements of NASA's Project Constellation, which plans to send human explorers back to the Moon by 2020



Project San Dimas
Beta release 20 June 2007

Project San Dimas Beta: Cleaning Up eBay’s UI
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/16/projectsandimas-public-beta-cleaning-up-ebays-ui/
April 16 2007

Saint Dismas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismas

Saint Dismas (sometimes spelled Dysmas or only Dimas, or even Dumas), also known as the Good Thief or the Penitent Thief, is the apocryphal name given to one of the thieves who was crucified alongside Christ according to the Gospel of Luke 23:39-43.


The Mystery Behind the Name "San Dimas"
http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/entry/The-Mystery-Behind-the-Name-San-Dimas/_W0QQcommentsyncidZ0QQidZ219800010
Posted May-22-07 08:57:24 PDT

My name is Adam Trachtenberg, one of the people working on Project San Dimas.

One of the questions I often hear when speaking about Project San Dimas is: "Why is San Dimas called San Dimas?" Good question. So, I thought I'd let everyone into the answer.

At eBay, we like to use code names for products before they go live. At the time we started working on San Dimas, there was another product nicknamed "Baldwin Park".

If you don't live in Southern California, Baldwin Park is a suburb of Los Angeles. So, when trying to come up with a name for this project, Alan decided to look at neighboring LA towns -- and came across "San Dimas."

San Dimas, of course, is the hometown Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Logan, best known for their work in the band "Wyld Stallyns."

That's right, it's a reference to "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", that great work of late 80s cinema, and the first movie with Keanu Reeves that anybody ever saw.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

-adam


"We're not asking you to spy. We're just asking you to steal." Noah Bain, It Takes A Thief, 1968

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savoir-faire08  (58 )      Jun-22-07 11:51 PDT     26 of
Just wanted to thank you, world securities, for responding to Marty's long stretched email in response to my post. I could not have said it better. Generally, I enjoy Marty's posts as they have some good info in them. This time, we disagreed. I think one can not be cautious enough on-line. Thank you wolrd securities!

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bhearsch  (302 )      Jun-22-07 17:17 PDT     27 of
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/14/eBay-store-owners-voice-concerns_1.html
With Finding 2.0, eBay wants to improve the relevance of search results without sacrificing what Durzy calls "serendipity," which eBay considers a key ingredient of the eBay experience: Stumbling upon a product that happily surprises you.

Do you suppose Hani Durzy was referring to the Popular Search showcased in eBay's new desktop application? It sure sounds similar to Alan Lewis' comments about the Popular Search feature:
http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/entry/Feature-Highlight-Popular-Searches-In-Search-Box/_W0QQidZ215751010
This has a few benefits - one is that if you happen to be looking for something that is on the list, you can click directly on it and save time. But what I like it for best is for finding stuff to buy that I didn't even know that I needed. The other day I found "cushman" was one of the top "cu" keywords. If you are not familiar with Cushman utility vehicles, you may be surprised what you find when you search for it.

serendipity = stumble upon? We used to call that BROWSING before eBay took it away.

Blanche

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clact  (3594 )      Jun-22-07 18:54 PDT     28 of
Wow, now its the terminator software! I think that is getting too dramatic!

Speaking of the WSJ and BusinessWeek they both ran articles on it. I have read BW since my first year in college and a hint to anyone that age it keeps renewing at the college rate so dont give up your subscription. Its been 29 or 39 bucks a year for 20 years for me LOL

Dont worry about it crashing your computers though cause ill test it in Beta and If I go Poof youll know not to try it out.

With the negative possibilities there are some great things like it stores the category structure on your computer instead of recalling 20megs every time you need it on eBay.

The technology itself is praised by tech gurus mainly because it can be run across many platforms (Unix etc).

Heck for $400 for a Dell PC these days, you can have your whole eBay system seperate from anything else if you really wanted to.

I wish I saw the charity auctions sooner, the buyer got some good publicity for being the test rat for only $250 bucks!

Marty

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homedecorstudios  (11 )     Jun-22-07 20:35 PDT     29 of
there are some great things like it stores the category structure on your computer instead of recalling 20megs every time you need it on eBay.

I never used ebay to list & have it all saved in Marketworks.

Heck for $400 for a Dell PC these days, you can have your whole eBay system seperate from anything else if you really wanted to.

Why waste time & money pouring over a ebay only computer?

Ebay is no longer the It thing or even that useful as a marketing tool. It just one of many ways to drive sales.

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world_securities  (4919 )      Jun-22-07 21:25 PDT     30 of
clact
Wow, now its the terminator software! I think that is getting too dramatic!

It's a generalized description of networked computers put in fictional terms to provide an understandable analogy. Apparently if you understood that, so did the average computer user.

Frankly if you're trivializing the inherent abilities of the software, then obviously you don't understand how it works. But it would explain the fascination you have with it.

What you find so state of the art, is an old concept. In 'computer years' anyway.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/client-server-faq/section-11.html
The distribution of applications and business logic across multiple processing platforms. Distributed processing implies that processing will occur on more than one processor in order for a transaction to be completed. In other words, processing is distributed across two or more machines and the processes are most likely not running at the same time, i.e. each process performs part of an application in a sequence. Often the data used in a distributed processing environment is also distributed across platforms.


The list of fallacies generally came about at Sun Microsystems. Peter Deutsch, one of the original Sun "Fellows," is credited with penning the first seven fallacies in 1994.

Fallacies of Distributed Computing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing

The Fallacies of Distributed Computing are a set of common but flawed assumptions made by programmers when first developing distributed applications. The fallacies are summarized as follows:

   1. The network is reliable.
   2. Latency is zero.
   3. Bandwidth is infinite.
   4. The network is secure.
   5. Topology doesn't change.
   6. There is one administrator.
   7. Transport cost is zero.
   8. The network is homogeneous.

clact
Speaking of the WSJ and BusinessWeek they both ran articles on it.

Repeating eBay's press releases. You're free to cite the articles.

Given the official beta was released June 20th, any articles released before this is questionable as to what was tested. And Wall Street Journal and Business Week are not known for being computer test beds.

The real testing by die hard professional testers will play out over several months.

clact
Dont worry about it crashing your computers though cause ill test it in Beta and If I go Poof youll know not to try it out.

You're implying that you have the technical expertise of, say ZD Labs or similar testing facilities. Do you?

Leaving out a discussion of your computer testing background, try this tiny simple list.

What's your baseline system configuration? Will you run San Dimas in an isolated network? If not, will you determine if San Dimas actively seeks out other systems?

Can you provide figures regarding cycles used, memory used, network access, storage used, bandwidth used, search time, pre and post? Can you provide the 'hooks' San Dimas sinks into the operating system? Would you recognize a crash caused by San Dimas or something unrelated?

Can you provide more than, "loaded it and ran fine?"

clact
With the negative possibilities

Great to see you recognize this. Frankly I know no reputable professional that would recommend loading betaware on ANY Business Production system. It's irresponsible.

clact
there are some great things like it stores the category structure on your computer instead of recalling 20megs every time you need it on eBay.

Only "20megs?" Projecting needs outward, more like oh 10GB? to get a good test environment. Pushing perhaps to 100GB and more of a buyers computer resources, to be utilized by eBay in this distributed processing front end.

Were eBay's server architecture as state of the art as you say San Dimas is, this would not be a problem. Since you do have inside information, thank you for confirming what was said earlier. eBay is using this front end software to load a buyer's computer with eBay data and use the buyers computer cycles.

Then again, anyone who knows about distributed processing would have figured those things out already. This 'state-of-the-art' process is older than eBay. Abet eBay is using state of the art equipment to implement it.

Once you allow an outside system to dictate what it needs on your own system, the needs continue to expand to the maximums. Worse case in a parasitic relationship, the user's needs are subordinated to the needs of the single process. I'd call it vampireware, but the term already exists.

This is not a bad thing, if you really need the application. Any 'only load 250 GB' Halo players understand the feeling?

But is San Dimas a must need application?  Given portable wireless Internet access, and browsers and bookmarks?

clact
Heck for $400 for a Dell PC these days

Heck, most people don't own computers because of that 'low' price. If this is eBay's assumption, that buyers won't have a problem with San Dimas because computers are 'cheap', it's a bad one.

As a side note; readers some help here. Long ago there was an in passing remark from corporate about the construct of the 'eBay computer.' Any notes or links regarding this would be welcome.

clact
you can have your whole eBay system seperate from anything else if you really wanted to.

Did you read what you wrote? You essentially said 'eBay dedicated computers will access eBay.'

IF this is the direction eBay is collectively thinking, and you tend to get eBay insider information, that's megalomania or hubris.

megalomania -

A mental condition where the patient is exhibits delusions of grandeur, patient has a greatly enhanced opinion of himself.

hubris - exaggerated pride or self-confidence.

Essentially you're saying the eBayOS?

MicroSoft made that argument for their operating system, but as can be seen, most of you do need MS OS to get anything done on your computer*. But tying up a computer, remember most owners have only one, dedicated to eBayOS?

     * easy there: Mac Q G5, G4, & 2 AMD Dual Core, etc.

Over the coming 12 months, the sales pitch for that should be interesting.


"HAL was told to lie - by people who find it easy to lie. HAL doesn't know how." Dr. Chandra, 2010

.

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frantichippie  (14 )      Jun-23-07 05:30 PDT     31 of
Frankly if you're trivializing the inherent abilities of the software, then obviously you don't understand how it works. But it would explain the fascination you have with it.

Where are you getting that this new software is even based on distributed networking?

How would a distributed network even function with a website like eBay anyway? eBay runs off a huge database server farm, so in order to distribute their network calls to all the people using this software, they would have to store a little chunk of the database on everyone's computer and then when someone searches and each of our computers return a chunk of the results?


Susie



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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-23-07 07:00 PDT     32 of
So at the very least as some say you need to stick around to "use" ebay to feed leads to your products.

I've heard "stick around", things will be better for a year now. Guess what? They aren't. eBay is getting worse with no relief in site.

eBay has proven once again that they will continue throwing money out there for stuff like this instead of fixing the REAL issues regarding the CORE of ebay.

They want to reignite auctions and core? What exactly have they done to fix any of it? Nothing. 

I am sick and tired of search changes, sick and tired of their so called tests, I'm sick and tired of their inability to maintain servers and make items visible to any searcher anywhere at any time of the day. I am sick and tired that eBay doesn't get it.

Every new tool they launch is useless to me unless they fix the real issues first.

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world_securities  (4920 )      Jun-23-07 13:37 PDT     33 of
frantichippie
Where are you getting that this new software is even based on distributed networking?

I'm going to use 'distributed' in extremely general terms. Please do not confuse the use of these general descriptions for the actual depictions of specific concept terms.

Let's start with removing the misnomer that equates 'distributed' to massive. This large scale may have it's origin in the book (1966) and movie (1970) "Colossus: The Forbin Project."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project
"built a gigantic and fantastically advanced supercomputer, called "Colossus", to control all of the United States and Allied nuclear weapons systems"

Basically sentient computer taking over/distributing itself into every computer on the planet and threatening humanity with extinction. "Obey me and live, or disobey and die." Colossus.

Today, 'distributed networking' is common due to small scale implementations. For instance, powered on computers cable connected are being used minutely for distributed processing of the cable providers computers. It's in the user agreement, that polling your computer and adding data to your hard drives. Simple monitoring of the entire cable network using the individual computers as one of the monitoring devices.

On one of the other ends of distributed processing, there are games and simulated worlds. Think Halo, World of Warcraft, Second Life, etc. Were this type of application played completely on the host servers, the genre would have died last century. Think how long it takes to download a large photo on your system, then image the hundreds of pictures necessary to generate the illusion of a moving object.

A network game depends on the processing power of it's servers and the processing power of the it's user computers. Distributed processing.

The network server sends the bare minimum of data to a user's computer. The user's computer has preloaded the application that is able to use the server constant real time data stream. User computer translates the server data to a moving visual image. The quality of the display image is almost entirely a function of the user's computer capabilities. A normal application will allow scalability. A system with bare minimum capability will have bare minimum display. A top of the line system will show the maximum possible.

The tradeoff is remarkable. Were a company dealing with 100 users, the choices are to have a supercomputer capable of processing the entire needs of 100 users internally and pushing out a 100 user wide data stream, or an average stand alone server servicing the needs of 100 users externally using far less bandwidth.

Moving to eBay.

frantichippie
How would a distributed network even function with a website like eBay anyway? eBay runs off a huge database server farm, so in order to distribute their network calls to all the people using this software, they would have to store a little chunk of the database on everyone's computer and then when someone searches and each of our computers return a chunk of the results?

That is what clact said.

clact
With the negative possibilities there are some great things like it stores the category structure on your computer instead of recalling 20megs every time you need it on eBay.

When you do a search through eBay.com and get a Category Page, an eBay Server is generating this data. Not your computer.

What clact described, requires eBay to have loaded on your system, the desktop application and data necessary to generate the Category Page. And requires your computer to do the computational work. Because the data changes one microsecond to the next, your computer would be configured to continually poll for these changes.

This is distributed processing. Your computer does more work, eBay's servers do less.

Some excerpts direct from the San Dimas people.

http://www.projectsandimas.com/faq.html
What features are in San Dimas?

We are currently developing three main types of features. First: the "core" eBay buying features, including search, browse, watch list, and bidding/buy it now. Second: unique desktop-specific features, such as alerts and a browsing history. And third: features such as checkout and feedback that are integral to the eBay experience, and that if they weren't included would require you to go back to the eBay website on a regular basis.

How does San Dimas work? How does it get the data from eBay?

San Dimas uses eBay Web Services to communicate with eBay. Web services are a mechanism by which client applications communicate with a server via a standard network protocol to exchange data via a well-understood format like XML. In fact, there is nothing preventing other companies or developers from creating applications like San Dimas, using the web services just like we do. You can learn more about this at the eBay Developers Program website.


Despite what is being inferred, eBay does need a new user interface. And San Dimas, eBay 2.0, was born in 2006.

No software will take over the world; at least not today. They are tools. The tool of fire can light the way to rescue, or destroy billions.

It's your choice what that tool will do.

And, how eBay goes about implementing a new tool (user interface) is a matter that should be watched closely and discussed openly.



Leaving eBay and San Dimas to Join Ribbit - Rob Abbot
http://robabbott.com/2007/04/16/leaving-ebay-and-san-dimas-to-join-ribbit/

Going, Going…Everywhere
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_25/b4039072.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech

eBay’s Chief Disruption Officer: UI to eBay’s “commerce operating system” could be left to others
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=367

eBay San Dimas and Adobe Apollo
http://robabbott.com/2007/03/19/ebay-san-dimas-and-adobe-apollo/

eBay developer conference: San Dimas desktop and APIs
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9727966-7.html

San Dimas Project Beta Overview
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/06/19/san-dimas-project-beta-overview/

How eBay is developing with Adobe’s Apollo project
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=197

Microsoft, Adobe Set A Collision Course on Web
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117668634225970835-FVRZcPo5bJpxrx7Rw6KfN6j_UFY_2007

Project San Dimas Beta: Cleaning Up eBay’s UI
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/16/projectsandimas-public-beta-cleaning-up-ebays-ui/

EBay plans Web site overhaul
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2007/06/20/2003366096

eBay San Dimas Blog
http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/

Adam Trachtenberg is eBay's Senior Manager of Evangelism and Disruptive Innovation.
http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/06/13/ebaydev-adam-trachtenberg-on-ebays-new-platform-extensions/

30 Minutes with Adam Trachtenberg
http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/781


Colossus: The Forbin Project, 1970
"In time, you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love." Colossus
"Never." Dr. Forbin

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clact  (3595 )         Jun-23-07 16:05 PDT       34 of
Its funny how Skype has 200 million users or something using this type of system as well as other companies using VOIP. And recently 400,000 plus computers were all over the news with a SETI screensaver that was searching for life in outer space when it popped up in another example of using this type of computing.

I did love that Forbin Project movie though, that was an excellent movie!

Thanks for putting all the articles in one place , since I missed some of those :)

Marty

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world_securities  (4920 )      Jun-23-07 19:02 PDT     35 of
clact
Its funny how Skype has
/advertising removed/
using this type of system

"It’s free to download and free to call other people"

It can be relatively easy to get a huge user base, when the service is FREE.

Your basis for "this type of system" please.  The protocols for San Dimas and Skype are not the same.

2003
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1402368,00.asp
The service uses a peer-to-peer networking scheme, but rather than sharing files, connected PCs help route one another's calls. Skype also uses that routing technology to get around the need for (and cost of) central servers and directories

In the very generic short description, computers are used as glorified routers, not distributed processing nodes.

And you neglect to mention that San Dimas is completely eBay in house. Birth to beta is less than a year.

eBay bought 4+ year old (2003) Skype technology and did not create it. Free phone calls placed from a personal computer is not new or novel. And I think pre-21st Century.

clact
And recently 400,000 plus computers were all over the news with a SETI screensaver that was searching for life in outer space when it popped up in another example of using this type of computing.

Thought you would bring this up.

SETI@home
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI
SETI@home is an extremely popular distributed computing project that was launched by U.C. Berkeley in May 1999, and is heavily sponsored by The Planetary Society. Any individual can become involved with SETI research by downloading and running the SETI@home software package, which then runs signal analysis on a "work unit" of data recorded from the central 2.5 MHz wide band of the SERENDIP IV instrument. The results are then automatically reported back to UC Berkeley. Over 5 million computer users in more than 200 countries have signed up for SETI@home and have collectively contributed over 19 billion hours of computer processing time. As of December 4, 2006 the Seti@Home grid operates at 257 TeraFLOPS, making it equivalent to the second fastest supercomputer on Earth.

This is a voluntary effort by computer owners. With open software created by scientists for altruistic purposes.

San Dimas is a commercial enterprise, with closed architecture. 

http://www.projectsandimas.com/faq.html
What are the minimum system requirements to run San Dimas?
We don't know for sure yet

SETI is a eight year old example to business of how much FREE processing power is available. The question is how to tap that power.

No later than 2005, eBay already had distributed processing within all of its internal computers. I believe the comment from one of the architects was along the lines of providing more processing power than the sum of the parts. I believe eBay markets the process.

When the computing power of the servers is maxed out, an increase in servers, increases the processing power. You can see indirectly the amount eBay is willing to spend on new machines in their quarterly budget statements.

When faced with the need for more processing power (and what business does not need more), and low cost, it takes no stretch of the imagination for someone at eBay to think, '100 million free processors.'

At it's very basic usage, San Dimas is capable of delivering that free power. Any process that an eBay buyer's computer does, means less processing for eBay's servers. Postponing and reducing the need for massive hardware upgrades.

Of course it remains to be seen what San Dimas is capable of for eBay and users.

"The importance of this application should not be overlooked. While the project goal is to drive metrics on the eBay Buying experience" Rob Abbott, San Dimas


From the slimy opposite end of distributed processing. A few malicious examples.

http://www.smith.edu/its/tara/viruses/parasiteware.html
"Parasiteware", also known as "spyware" or "adware", is unwanted software that installs itself on your computer without your knowledge or consent when you view webpages or download files from the Internet. Parasiteware can dramatically slow your computer's performance, bombard you with pop-ups, or even cause you to lose your Internet access altogether. The most malicious types may take over your browser and reset your hompepage, or worse yet, allow outsiders to access personal information on your computer.

Even if you think you always browse the Internet responsibly, you are not immune from these pests. Parasiteware-writers have found many ways to sneak their files onto your computer without your knowledge or consent. According to Microsoft, parasiteware and other deceptive software is responsible for more than 50% of Windows operating systems failures, costing millions of dollars in computer support each year.

FBI tries to fight zombie hordes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6752853.stm
The initiative is part of an ongoing project to thwart the use of hijacked home computers, or zombies, as launch platforms for hi-tech crimes.
The FBI has found networks of zombie computers being used to spread spam, steal IDs and attack websites.


"Well, I got good news and bad news, girls. The good news is your dates are here."
"What's the bad news?" Karen
"They're dead." Det. Ray Cameron
Night of the Creeps, 1986

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From eBay Stores Forum - I thought best match search was NOT the default?

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Stores Forum
I thought best match search was NOT the default?
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000515013&tstart=0&mod=1182393542181

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tresrhnter  (2146 )         Jun-20-07 19:07 PDT
I just did a search on ebay and the default search was set to best match. I have never used best match or ran a best match search on ebay. and yet it was set for the default?

am I in a test group or is this the default now?

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thesilvercygnet.va  (1636 )      Jun-20-07 19:08 PDT     1 of
I'm not aware of the situation you described! I'll do a quick search myself, and let you know what I get...

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postcardsandmore  (4310 )      Jun-20-07 19:09 PDT     2 of
Mine came back as ending soonest.  So, hopefully it was a glitch.  But, I'm betting it is coming .

thesilvercygnet.va  (1636 )      Jun-20-07 19:10 PDT     3 of
I just did a search, but didn't see anything about default or best match...

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postcardsandmore  (4310 )      Jun-20-07 19:11 PDT     4 of
silver...it shows up at the top of the search page....mine is set to "ending soonest". It's a drop down box.

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thesilvercygnet.va  (1636 )      Jun-20-07 19:12 PDT     5 of
Something has already changed, because when I used to search there was a page that came up "qualifying" my search. Now, just the page with live auctions, ending soonest, comes up.

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thesilvercygnet.va  (1636 )      Jun-20-07 19:13 PDT     6 of
Thanks postcardsandmore... I now see the drop down with the option of best match.

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-20-07 19:14 PDT     7 of
depends on how your preferences are. My other ID I default to that. If you click on some of the ebay marketing emails or home pages it will go to best match.

I think whatever they're saying about it being optional has little to do with the fact they can relatively easily set it to the default and override all of your preferences.

They've done that before


Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood!

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tresrhnter  (2146 )      Jun-20-07 19:28 PDT     8 of
I haven't changed my preferences. I do not receive emails from ebay. I never go to the home page.

in searching for one of my items, I'm seeing some people who's items end a day after mine getting bumped ahead of me. I'm just checking a few but none have significantly better # of feedback or stars. or are power sellers.

I've been on ebay with this id since June 1997. just what in the world are they basing best match on? my stars and feedbacks are about as good as it gets.

I did a search on photo postcard. there is one listing bumped ahead of its time that isn't even photo postcards. its a lot of postcards with see photos! in it

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postcardsandmore  (4310 )      Jun-20-07 19:33 PDT     9 of
tresrhnter...that is really sad. Because if that becomes the default we are all paying our fees for absolutely NOTHING. And, of course will have to just stop listing.

Been there and done that with Yahoo about 7 years ago. I went from a 35% sell through there to 0%.

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tresrhnter  (2146 )      Jun-20-07 19:35 PDT     10 of
there was one listing I saw that ended in about 1.5 days and had been dumped back into the others ending in 3 days. wonder if his items will EVER been seen before it ends?

and his listing actually WAS a photo postcard, he had good feedback though not a powerseller.

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tresrhnter  (2146 )      Jun-20-07 19:36 PDT     11 of
if this becomes the default search I won't be listing auctions. not unless I can figure out how to *game* the system. figure out what categories are preferred or words. people figured this out on ebay express for some categories.

but this looks like the end to me.

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postcardsandmore  (4310 )      Jun-20-07 19:39 PDT     12 of
but this looks like the end to me.

Very frightening. All I had ever figured on was closing store and listing only in core. Now, if they do this, then core will be an even bigger waste of money.

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From eBay Stores Forum - This Is Odd...Anyone Else Having This Going On ?...

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

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From eBay Stores Forum
This Is Odd...Anyone Else Having This Going On ?...
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000388797&tstart=0&mod=1182367316265

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bribaiki  (1041 )        Jun-20-07 08:51 PDT
I know that this is not something new, but on top of sales be extremely poor I am noticing something that has been reported before...all month my sales have been horrible, I can now see why. Any measly sales I have been making are all coming from the same area.

Started the month on a dismal note...I think I had 1 sale maybe. Last week any sales I made all came from the West Coast, mainly California, one in Arizona one Nevada. Week before was Texas. This week we have moved to the Mid states...Illinois.

I have had this happen before...the sales were really good then, but still all coming from one area of the country.

So, it seems like a double whammie going on here. Invisible as it is with stores, poor sales and I suspect that in part due to only certain areas seeing us at a time. I find it more than a coincidence...looks like manipulation to me.

Madame Kazoo Kitty

"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07        

               

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-20-07 11:04 PDT     1 of
            Bri - you know the answer to that.

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thewoodlandgirl  (Private )      Jun-20-07 11:44 PDT     2 of
yup, regional selling has been going on strong for over a year now. Usually it doesnt effect sales that much though, cuz one way or another something sells.

I think its more the pulling of Google adds that is doing it!

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sandrarn83  (2688 )      Jun-20-07 11:49 PDT     3 of
woodlandgirl you know that's correct. I get a TON of CA buyers and they all can't have their preferences set on "seller geographically closest". I appreciate the break on shipping fees with my free shipping offers but again I knew it relates back to search manipulation by Ebay. Now that's one place I would like to see in person is the "finding" team and their data.

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oas3  (14199 )      Jun-20-07 12:00 PDT     4 of
bribaiki thats how the rolling blackout sales work. List 4 or 5 thousands different items and you will see the pattern. When you get into the thousands of items listed minor problems that affect sellers with few items listed really get magnified with the more listings you have in place. Right now and for the past week there is a huge time difference in emails. I get a paypal payment in for a item that sold I wasn't aware it sold gets boxed and somedays already in the postal system before a ebay email comes in showing the item was sold..

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-20-07 12:04 PDT     5 of
I want to throw in the possibility that Google ads were also somewhat responsible for geographical sales outside the US. Maybe even domestic.

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thewoodlandgirl  (Private )      Jun-20-07 12:07 PDT     6 of
That could be a possibility.

I have yet to figure out how its done. Cuz I get the same search results if Im signed in on my CA account or if I browse as a visitor.

Unless it reads your isp and knows your the same person?

I have yet to see the regional selling on a search, but as a seller I know it exsits.

I get more CA sales than I have in my 6 years on ebay put together.

Also Texas and Florida.

I never sell to the midwest. I find it hard to believe people in the midwest hate my items?

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rustyaccents2  (995 )      Jun-20-07 12:10 PDT     7 of
Yep Madame Kazoo Kitty its been going on for a while. Someone mentioned this in a post last year and it got me to thinking. So I started paying mor attention to the region from which my sales were coming. I even mentioned it to another seller friend of mine. They hadn't noticed until I mentioned it and come to find out it was also true with their sales. The only time I see any difference in sales from various regions in the US is if I have a sale from a previous customer.

Generally around the 1st of the month, most all my sales are from my home state (Texas) with a few spread out from other Central States.

Sad but yes its happening.

This time last year for me sales were good but I'd only been back selling for about 1 1/2 months. This month so far stinks, only 17 items sold. At this point, May of last year (my first month back) will be better than June of this year.

I am trying something new though. I have no items in Core, only in my store. I'm testing just to see how sales are without any Core items and yes I know core items pull buyers into your store. I generally list my big sellers in Core all the time however, I'm headed to a show this weekend and supply for my big seller is very very low so I figured this would be a good time to test sales in my store only.

Just my .02

GayNell
Rusty Accents

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catbooks1940s  (1168 )      Jun-20-07 12:21 PDT     8 of
i've been seeing the same thing as y'all for the past year. it started around the same time ebay took store out of search. maybe a month or so later.

i can see it even with having few listings.

prior to whatever change they made, i would sometimes get sales in the same area/country, but it happened within the realm of coincidence. entirely different thing now.

monkey, ebay had been buying adwords for a long time, so i don't think that's related.

we did not agree to pay for our listings to only be shown in rotating geographic areas. we paid for our listings to show up regardless of geographic area. we're paying the same price for LIMITED exposure and were not informed of this.

woodland, if you have cable or dsl, you have a static ip number. that's how these things are tracked, by ip number. so ebay would know it's you (or your geographic area), no matter how you're signed on.

i have dial-up, which is a dynamic ip. i get a different ip when i sign on. isps buy banks of ip numbers, so there is a finite number of them available to me.
joan

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From eBay Stores Forum - Servers

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

FYI apologist post_a_note aka 20th_century_art posts spin and damage control supporting eBay ...

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From eBay Stores Forum
Servers
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000388662&tstart=0&mod=1182361481804

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mgkmkl  (22 )       Jun-20-07 00:09 PDT
Hey everyone!

I have just opened up a store and am getting everything set up, but I have been reading around this forum and what is all this stuff about being on different servers and not getting as many sales because of it?

Aren't everyone items viewable to all ebayers when they type in the keywords of the search?

Any advice on this subject would be much appreciated!

- Mike

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mrbubbe2  (721 )     Jun-20-07 04:32 PDT     1 of
In short your items do not show in search. There is some criteria and it seems to be changing all the time and I find it hard to keep up. But if less than 30 or 20 items show in core stores may show at the bottom. Also they have been mixing in EE and other things so I am not 100% sure what is the rule today. Then also there is the spigot effect that is getting thrown around. This is something all together different to deal with.

Confused yet.... stick around a while.
joe

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bribaiki  (1041 )     Jun-20-07 09:00 PDT     2 of
Like joe stated above...
And to answer your question, it appears lately that if you are somehow found you are only found in certain areas of the country at any given time...not the whole country...just certain parts. For me, last week my sales were only on the West Coast...mainly California, one Arizona, one Nevada...oh...and they didn't realize I had a store either...they purchased through auction...had to tell them I have a store. This week we have moved to the Mid states...namely...Illinois.
Few weeks before...Texas only.





Madame Kazoo Kitty



"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07 .

bribaiki  (1041 )     Jun-20-07 09:01 PDT     3 of
Oh and before that...No sales in the U.S. only international (U.K. and Australia)





Madame Kazoo Kitty



"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 09:04 PDT     4 of
WOW I was on the international server for a while. Then I headed to the southern states and now I am primarily selling to CA buyers. Some days you wonder do they just have a map up on a wall and set the servers to where the dart lands on the map.

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bribaiki  (1041 )     Jun-20-07 09:16 PDT     5 of
Some days you wonder do they just have a map up on a wall and set the servers to where the dart lands on the map.

LoL!

I swear they do...I too was on the international server for a while. Prior to the greater U.K. area, I was in Italy and France. Then I travelled to the greater Singapore area. No U.S. during this period at all.





Madame Kazoo Kitty



"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07

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post_a_note  (0 )     Jun-20-07 09:18 PDT     6 of
I have no idea whether this server visibility issue is real or myth.

The majority of posts in these threads seem to be little more than speculation at best... total fiction at worst.

I have never done a search for my items and found them missing. I've never had a friend, acquaintance, or customer complain that they searched for my items and found them missing. I'm baffled. But I'm open to the possibility that there are server issues which I'm not aware of.

Frankly, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to servers and that sort of thing. Perhaps I need to bone up a bit. In any event, if anyone has a good layman's tutorial on this subject, I'm all ears.

But if all you have is "Last week all my sales came from the west coast and this week they're all from Florida." Well, I consider that absolutely meaningless. I had two sales from Canada yesterday. Would you conclude I was stuck on a Canadian server?

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 09:29 PDT     7 of

PAN I was always neutral on the search engine theory until recently. Shortly after Ebay made it a point to tell us they were going to be doing some real beta testing with their "findings" team I got my answer. I wound up on the international market and didn't have a single domestic sale. I still cringe waiting for the Hong Kong, Singapore, and UK pacages to arrive and my star ratings to drift in. I had ZERO and I mean ZERO domestic sales for days. That's unheard of at my level. I knew then that Ebay's ability to manipulate search was no longer a theory. It is a fact and Ebay has become a master at using it. They can shut any seller out of a market without a blink. It's been shown to me without a doubt. Now I want to know when they are going to start punishing sellers who they feel are misbehaving with these same "finding" methods. Probably already have. (Ebay by the way I can be bought! You just gotta find my greed factor to shut me up!)

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rdora  (85 )     Jun-20-07 09:47 PDT     8 ofFor awhile - until ebay took it off as "illegal coding" I have had the sitemeter.com little tool installed on my store page.
The little gadget show me who visited the store, how long they stayed, and WHERE - which area they come from.
I posted the result several time in this board, and there was absolutely no doubt that indeed several days all visitors come from East cost - except a handful exception- while another days they come from West coast, some days I had no another visitor beside Chicago area, then California, then mysteriously only UK.. or from Europe.
Now I'm not in any server seems like but to me it is not a myth that the search is artificially manipulated.
Dora

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sandrarn83  (2688 )         Jun-20-07 09:52 PDT       9 of
Dora I have no doubt you are right too. If you wouldn't mind could you email me some of those results I would love to pass them along to some friends.

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private ) Jun-20-07 09:53 PDT                    10 of

When this server issue rose, 3 sellers that I am in a group with did a test. We all cleared our cashe, deleted cookies and searched the SAME term at the same time.

One person is in CA, one in Ohio and one in FL.

All 3 of us got different results.

Those results were also posted here and discussed to great lengths.

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 09:58 PDT     11 of
monkey you got any screen shots of those threads?

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bribaiki  (1041 )     Jun-20-07 09:59 PDT     12 of
PAN I was always neutral on the search engine theory until recently.

I was as well. I would see it here and there, but really didn't chalk it up to much because it was something that took place over a course of say 1 or 2 days and then sales would be from all over again.

I as well pretty much have had a pretty consitant sell through rate all year round. Lately though since all these special announcements and changes and whatever, I have noticed the same thing as sandrarn. I as well have never not had a U.S. sale during a given time frame. And the person who had bought from me from out of the "area" was a repeat customer who had gone directly to my store. They purchase from me often and don't search for my items at all. Most of the individuals I have contacted in regards to answering questions had no idea I even had a store until I told them, while another thought I only had like 12 molds listed in core when in fact I had 87 in core at that time and no they were not just listed either. I have not experienced sales like this in all the time I have been here. Yeah, there have been some times when things were slower than usual, but the few sales I had came from all over and things would pick up again after several days. Now, sales have been horrible and when something does come in they are all only in certain areas and spread out over a week or more. Then it moves to another area...same thing...then another...then out of the U.S. all together for an extended period of time.





Madame Kazoo Kitty



"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07

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bribaiki  (1041 )     Jun-20-07 10:09 PDT     13 of
When this server issue rose, 3 sellers that I am in a group with did a test. We all cleared our cashe, deleted cookies and searched the SAME term at the same time.

I did a similar test too as well with a few people.

I am in Mass, had my sister in New York, my friend in Conn., another relative in North Carolina, and a friend in California. All of us reported different findings...I would like to add that the friend in Conn lives right across the Mass border 5 minutes away from me (I am on the Mass/Conn border) and we had gotten different results.

I have to agree with you as well Dora and monkey see...something is up, no doubt in my mind about it.





Madame Kazoo Kitty



"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 10:11 PDT     14 of
I think that was the one that sent me over the edge as far as Ebay was concerned. I can neutralize any advantage Ebay gives an auction seller with my selling strategies. I can not compete when Ebay completely stacks the deck against me with the servers and visibility. I really think this needs to head out into the court system and to the buying public's eyes. I think Ebay's ability to alter search and visibility needs to publicly be addressed with the buying public so they can realize just exactly how Ebay is altering their buying habits and limiting what they are seeing.

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rdora  (85 )     Jun-20-07 10:11 PDT     15 of
Sandra I would but this was a while ago, and I don't have them anymore..
I thought about it reinstalling again until *opps*LOL or someone else might try it it is sitemeter.
Another interesting thing was to see that for over a month while I have it, there was not once the visitors numbers match the omniture numbers.

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 10:14 PDT     16 of
Dora I think you might just have peaked Chop's interest what this comment "Another interesting thing was to see that for over a month while I have it, there was not once the visitors numbers match the omniture numbers" Were your stats higher or lower than the Omniture stats?

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bribaiki  (1041 )     Jun-20-07 10:20 PDT     17 of
I agree sandrarn...this is something that no seller can "adjust" to. How can you ? It's ridiculous. Even listing in core...I mean come on! How can I have 87 items in core and some see all 87, others only see say 40, while still another only sees 12 and others don't see me at all ? This just being an example, I have done searches with other posters here and I can say I have gotten different results than others and others got different results than mine, some had the same and we were all searching the same thing...there are many different posts about it here.





Madame Kazoo Kitty



"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )     Jun-20-07 10:22 PDT     18 of
Sandra - uh, I will email you if it is ok.

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 10:24 PDT     19 of
Money thank you it is most appreciated. Mail it please directly to my ISP. sc@comcast.net by filling in the name please.
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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )     Jun-20-07 10:27 PDT     20 of
also - you are right.  Many things we can overcome and adjust to but issues like that are impossible.
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rdora  (85 )     Jun-20-07 10:44 PDT     21 of
Sandra Omniture was ALWAYS much higher... not talking about a little but many time a 100 or more

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sandrarn83  (2688 )        Jun-20-07 10:50 PDT       22 of
That's been the general consensus of several sellers lately. That Omniture stats appear to be grossly inflated. Dora I must say you have been a delightful ray of sunshine for me today. It's refreshing to learn new things on these boards and I do every day that I come now. Thank you and I'll check out some of your software advice it's been great advice and will be heeded.

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rdora  (85 )     Jun-20-07 10:55 PDT     23 of
Sandra, someone might get away with it for awhile... I know I did LOL.. - of course it is very obvious why it is "illegal coding" when the site says that you can install it ANYWHERE but that's not IT

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 10:57 PDT     24 of
Oh I didn't plan to install on it on my site. Too many eyes and ears. I'll let others do that for me. I fully understand what you are saying and I appreciate the advice. It too will be heeded. Thanks again.

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rdora  (85 )     Jun-20-07 11:38 PDT     25 of
I never thought that you would LOL 

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 11:40 PDT     26 of
ROFLMAO oh my Dora. I can hardly type.

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catbooks1940s  (1168 )     Jun-20-07 12:47 PDT     27 of
hmm, very interesting about omniture's stats being significantly higher than those reported on sitemeter.

I have never done a search for my items and found them missing.

pan, you wouldn't. i know you have either cable or dsl, which means you have the same ip number when you're online.

I really think this needs to head out into the court system and to the buying public's eyes. I think Ebay's ability to alter search and visibility needs to publicly be addressed with the buying public so they can realize just exactly how Ebay is altering their buying habits and limiting what they are seeing.

^ what she said.
joan

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post_a_note  (0 )     Jun-20-07 12:54 PDT     28 of

monkey:  Those results were also posted here and discussed to great lengths.

Do you have a link to the thread? I did an advanced search on the word 'server' and couldn't seem to find it. I probably didn't search right, oh well.

Thanks!

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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sandrarn83  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 12:57 PDT     29 of
The majority of posts in these threads seem to be little more than speculation at best... total fiction at worst.

I doubt you will call Billy C discussing the "finding" team and their new testing and tweaking of the "finding" system total fiction. You need to go back to the previous Town Hall and listen to the whole thing. (not the Live one the one before that). He specifically addresses this issue. This is not cloak and dagger stuff. It's quite out in the open and being discussed on the radio by Ebay's number 2 (uh-oh number 3?) man during a Town Hall. No big dark secrets hear. It was definitely something that perked up my ears believe you me. When they proceeded to roll out the much discussed searches it was obvious that Ebay has had a great deal of success with this concept. I think it's been called "surgical precision" by the military. Quite impressive but I don't think it will sit well with people when they find they aren't being provided with all the possibilities. My surprise was that Ebay was so open about the finding team and the manipulation.

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )        Jun-20-07 13:23 PDT       30 of
Do you have a link to the thread? I did an advanced search on the word 'server' and couldn't seem to find it. I probably didn't search right, oh well.

I was going to search for them for someone else too but I didn't have time. Most no longer exist if you get my drift.

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sandrarn83  (2688 ) Jun-20-07 13:26 PDT     31 of
Unless they do a Rosemary Woods and erase the Town Hall tapes those are still there to listen to. If not I have a MP3 download of it. Just for backup shall we say.

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psychocat1959  (268 ) Jun-20-07 17:08 PDT     32 of
Right now I am on the West Coast server. Have been for a couple weeks. Not a bad place to be, except I wonder if anyone else can see me?

As for eBay manipulating search, they have been very up front that the have and are continuing to restrict in various ways what shows up where and when. Take the so called "serendipity factor". They won't say precisely what it is, just that it is used in smart search. What I find amazing is that a seller can search for their own auction items using exact wording from titles and not get those listings in the search results. That is not fiction or fantasy. That is proof positive that eBay manipulates what you find when you search.

Wish eBay would figure out that the more buyers see, the more buyers buy. If they can't find it, they can't buy it! It has never made sense to me from a business stand point that they raised final value fees in stores and then made it so hard for peeps to find them and buy from them.

Unless of course FVF's are not all that important in the money scheme of things. Just a thought.

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chopsueysisters  (2068 ) Jun-20-07 17:37 PDT     33 of
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2003823101

Go to post 280, note the link. Exterminated.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000222963


I think ebay emps should search for their paycheck
See if they can find a best match that's appropriate

.

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menagerie1  (3915 ) Jun-20-07 18:05 PDT     34 of
If you have a few hours/days on your hands (idle sellers?) read that post that Choppy referenced. Just read the Techie posts.

Print 'em out and have an IT person look at what is stated. The words Load Balancing will be a hot topic. The word 'myth' will not come up.

Highly plausible. Standard practices. But, never in real time settings. Inadequate. Cheap hosting sites do that. Money issues. Infrastructure.

Intentional? Probably not. Unless you count lack of forethought as intentional.

This site will have more glitches occur when there are approx. 12-M listings, than when there are 19-M listings. Especially right after a 19-M listing "bonanza".

Why? Because there's huge chunks of empty space on the servers. Load balancing has one heckova time then.


You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.  ~Malcolm Forbes

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world_securities  (4916 ) Jun-20-07 18:50 PDT     35 of
DEAD LINK (Zelda: Nooooo!):
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000376564

QUOTE

"Items are now stored on hosts by seller rather than by category. Thus, sellers are assigned ranges of item numbers, rather than categories having all similar item numbers.

To address the second part, the secondary sort in search results is indeed the item number. Thus, when a buyer sorts by "Ending Soonest", "Newly-Listed," etc., within those search results, the secondary sort
will be by item number.

Basically, what it boils down to is that items are now stored on hosts by seller rather than by category. Thus, sellers are assigned ranges of item numbers, rather than categories having all similar item numbers."

END QUOTE

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OBSERVATION
Original poster name edited.

t (5695)   Nov-01-06 07:54 PST   81
I've been told by a third party that the first two numbers refer to server numbers and are used for load balancing. In other words, listings are dealt out to various servers to help keep any particular server from getting bogged down.

It does potentially explain why higher numbers seem to perform more poorly than lower numbers, if the higher number servers are lower performance or there are further load-limiting restrictions. Such as geographical, algorithmic decisions on whether to display the item ... all speculative but the possibilities are endless. If you accept that the numbers are for load balancing then that part makes sense.

It does not explain why the numbers are allocated in seller-specific fashion. Why always 30 for example, when random selection would work better for load balancing and isn't any more difficult? Logically since the effect is to control distribution of your listings, the purpose would be to allow ebay to control traffic on a per-seller basis.

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catbooks1940s  (1169 )        Jun-20-07 19:48 PDT       36 of
To address the second part, the secondary sort in search results is indeed the item number. Thus, when a buyer sorts by "Ending Soonest", "Newly-Listed," etc., within those search results, the secondary sort will be by item number.

can someone explain to me, in plain english, what this means? what is a secondary sort?
joan

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psychocat1959  (268 )      Jun-20-07 21:10 PDT     37 of
OK, this is a very basic simplified explanation.

The first sort is your overall or general sort. Say you have a bunch of marbles in different colors, sizes, values, and owners. On the first sort you sort by owners and values. You know have them divided according to two criteria. Now you do a second sort dividing the first sort up further. This time you sort by size and color. Maybe for a third sort you sort by age and condition. You continue to beak the original group into smaller and smaller subsets.

Now suppose that you take all of the items from the first sort that are owned by sellers with names starting with A through M and put those on one set of very good servers and rotate them. You take the remaining sellers marbles and put them on the older less efficient servers. Within each separate server group you then divide down further as mentioned above.

Searches can be done the same way. Group "A" and all of it's subsets may show up, while group "B" and it's subsets will not. Or they may be rotated so that group "A" shows up part of the time and group "B" shows up part of the time. Any set or subset can be used as criteria to be included or not included in the search.

Does that help make sense out of it for you?


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catbooks1940s  (1169 )      Jun-20-07 21:20 PDT     38 of
ah, thank you, psychocat

so it is as we suspected months ago, the searches are being manipulated by ebay using the banks of item numbers we're assigned to.
joan

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psychocat1959  (268 )        Jun-21-07 00:08 PDT       39 of
Based on what eBay's own people have said, I'd say that is probably the case. What we don't know and they won't tell us are what all the actual criteria are used in sorting sellers and listings. They give us some, but keep a lot of it secret. I don't think it is so much paranoia on their part about stores or sellers so much as it is a means of controlling sellers and manipulating numbers to their own ends. Those quarterly quotas have to come out the way they want or stocks suffer. If stocks suffer, they look bad.

Unfortunately, this type of short sited manipulation is not healthy overall for the long term good of the company. Wish they would figure that out.

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mainstreetmallonline  (3518 )        Jun-21-07 07:02 PDT       40 of

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Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Stores Forum - Auctiva listings not showing up in Store???

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Stores Forum
Auctiva listings not showing up in Store???
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000388583&tstart=0&mod=1182321375954

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finkitties  (1072 )        Jun-19-07 20:03 PDT

Tonight I opened an ebay store and while the listings that I posted directly through Ebay can be found in the store, the ones I did through Auctiva don't show up (in the store, they do show up in My Ebay). Is this normal and will they eventually show up or do I need to do something else? I checked with Auctiva and they said it was an Ebay issue.

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5 replies     Date posted     Reply #

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polish$princess  (1100 )      Jun-19-07 21:23 PDT     1 of

Did you generate a token on Auctiva? This is what is needed for your Auctiva listings to appear. If you are using more than one computer network you need to generate a token for each computer network.

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crazy_for_gymboree_etc  (111 )      Jun-19-07 21:50 PDT     2 of

Hi! I had the same problem and asked ebay's help center. They told me it all depended on how the listing was indexed / categorized or if I made any changes to the listing after it was posted. Ebay said it could take up to 6 hours for it to show up outside the my ebay area. Some of my items posted through auctiva took up to 12 hours (even though it was posted at the same time as other auctions, which took 4-6 hours to show). It must have something to do with how Ebay receives Auctiva listings.

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joint_runner  (Private )      Jun-19-07 22:36 PDT     3 of

            No, no, no. The eBay guy that's copying and pasting the listing on to the server is outside having a smoke.

---

As transparent as eBay itself.

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seoulsoulsofun  (284 )      Jun-19-07 23:15 PDT     4 of

Op, it would take some time. When I first started, I was scare too but eBay give me the usual indexing answer. Now I just post, saw that it is in my eBay then I go and sleep, 8 hours later, everything is in my store. I think roasting a chicken is faster.

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-19-07 23:36 PDT     5 of

            Ebay says a few hours if you have just listed it & to not bother them for at least 12hrs.

If you contact them when its been between 4-6 hrs they will say 6-8 or maybe 10-12

and if you contact them after its been there for 12hrs you will get a note that says it can take up to 24hrs.

No joke. Doesn't matter what the listing is, just list something and immediately send them an email in this combination to these groups : report technical outage & then "my listings are not showing up"

1 hour
4th hour
12th hour

You'll get 3 different answers each time.

Paid liars!

I think ebay emps should search for their paycheck
See if they can find a best match that's appropriate

.

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Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Stores Forum - Raj & The Store Team rilla@ebay.com - Ready, Set, Go!!! eBay Stores To Go is Live!

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Stores Forum
Ready, Set, Go!!! eBay Stores To Go is Live!
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000514128&tstart=0&mod=1182281779431

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rilla@ebay.com View Listings |     Jun-19-07 09:52 PDT

Dear Stores Sellers:

We are pleased to annouce that eBay Stores To Go is live in beta. After hearing from you about your desires to advertise your Stores in blogs and popular social networking sites, we decided to piggyback on the popular eBay To Go widgets, and create a Store version, just for you.

The Stores To Go Widget offers a window into your Store. Users can search your entire Store in one of two views: An exciting and engaging Gallery view, and an easy to navigate list view. All listings are paginated. Users can also learn more about your Store, and identify with your brand through the accented Store colors and your logo. We are very excited to give you the opportunity to showcase your Store in a new and snazzy Web 2.0 experience.

How to get going:

The Stores To Go widget is now one of the types of widgets that you can access from http://togo.ebay.com.

Step 1: Select Your Version: Just follow the link, click on the Store version thumbnail.

Step 2: Enter a Store: Upon clicking "I Want This One", you will be taken through the creation flow. Enter your User ID, click on Search, and you will see your widget appear in the right pane. Click "Next".

Step 3: Enter a Search: Enter a beginning search term, and click "Next".

Step 4: Set it Free: Click "Copy" and the embed code will be copied to your clipboard. If you would like detailed instructions on how to paste to a particular website, click on the pull-down menu and select the website of your choice.

Step 5: Paste the embed code across the Internet, and let new buyers know about your Store and what you sell!

We hope that you enjoy playing with Stores To Go!  This product is still in beta, so we also would love to hear your feedback.

Best of Luck:

Raj & The Store Team

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75 replies     Date posted     Reply #

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 10:11 PDT     1 of

I personally would never advertise my EBAY store (pretty pathetic store since I have gone from 3000 listings to 7 due to lack of exposure in the under 30 rule....my items started appearing on page 7 or 8 and never ever on page 1 around May 3) outside of Ebay until it is fixed so we can get the referral credit for anyone using it.

Why would we want to? Why not just build our own links with the referral credit built in?

Please make that change and I will immediately put it up at other locations.

The affiliate program would be nice to include as well but I'll settle for the referral credit.

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huckster3000  (292 )      Jun-19-07 10:14 PDT     2 of

will TO GO widget users qualify for the usual affiliate and store referral commissions when customers enter their listings via the widget?

huckster3000

DEAD END DRIVE-IN DVD

"It's not the kind of activity one partner normally does with another."

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melrose_stamp  (13702 )     Jun-19-07 10:17 PDT     3 of

Postcards- Maybe the Stores Team thought we wouldn't notice that referral codes weren't built into the links.

-wupszee-

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postcardsandmore  (4300  Listings | Report     Jun-19-07 10:25 PDT     4 of

lol melrose.

I think they thought we wouldn't care. Ebay is so sure we are all desperate to bring in outside buyers that we will do whatever the ask.

They still haven't caught on that we actually believe we are paying hundreds of dollars a month in Ebay fees for THEM to bring in the outside buyers.

If I have to bring in my own I'll bring them into a site that charges NO listing and FVF.

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sandrarn83  (2685 )     Jun-19-07 10:27 PDT     5 of

My standard post to Ebay's rollouts anymore. Pass AGAIN!

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rilla@ebay.com     Jun-19-07 10:29 PDT     6 of

All:

I know that many of you are concerned about the Store Referral Credits inclusion into the widget links. Rest assured, that we are working on that, and as we work through the beta of this product, that topic is front and center as one of the enhancements we'll be looking at as we build out the technology.

We're here to listen, and we would love to get any constructive feedback. In the meantime, I do suggest utilizing this widget to generate excitement and drive traffic to your Store.

Raj

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )     Jun-19-07 10:31 PDT     7 of

In the meantime, I do suggest utilizing this widget to generate excitement and drive traffic to your Store.

LOL...Pass!

Let me know when the beta with the referral credit rolls out.

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private  Listings | Report     Jun-19-07 10:33 PDT     8 of

            *steps outside and screeeeeeeeeams*

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sandrarn83  (2685 )     Jun-19-07 10:39 PDT     9 of

Pass again. "Let me know when you beta testing the referral credit". Thanks for posting it's a pleasant surprise Raj. I'll continue to spend the time driving traffic to my new website though until that time.

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )     Jun-19-07 10:41 PDT     10 of

you know alot of us already have gallery widgets on our listings. Why can't I insert this into my listing. Those you already can insert into our blogs and sites.

Seems like a duplicate thing to me.

and here's another thing because you guys are such cheaparoonies. You let the api include galleries for non-gallery items. You give EE express galleries when they didn't pay but you dont put out for this when you know it will be plastered all over the internet. It's pretty, nice bells and whistles. Now go FIX Markdown Manager

It's 3 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 11:02 PDT     11 of

Question - Once we create that widget - can it be pasted into our listings or Stores Home Page?

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meecabay  (1222 )     Jun-19-07 11:05 PDT     12 of

....

Hi Raj.... it is great you are 'here'.

I myself believe that ALL comments/feedback is constructive. 

Anything and everything that helps bring us to the right solution in the construction of something is helpful.....

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meecabay  (1222 )     Jun-19-07 11:09 PDT     13 of

.......

If one is seeing a ladder falling and a MAN is on it.... should one stop, jump-in and help to try and steady the ladder?

OR

Should one walk away in fear of hurting the MAN's pride?

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sandrarn83  (2685 )     Jun-19-07 11:14 PDT     14 of

It depends if it was Meg/Billy C on that ladder. Define your theory some more please.

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 11:16 PDT     15 of

I was able to paste it into my Store Home Page but not individual listings. Just playing with it. I will probably take it off my home page but I will leave it for a couple of days to see if it generates any additional sales.

Still waiting for the "Stores Tab".  Wake me when it is up and running...

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rilla@ebay.com      Jun-19-07 11:17 PDT     16 of

Hi MyGift2U:

In regards to your post regarding pasting the HTML in your Store Custom Pages: Yes, you can! In fact, I have noticed that chopsueysisters has pasted the html embed link in her About Me page.

Thanks,

Raj

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 11:20 PDT     17 of

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 11:22 PDT     18 of

p.s. Raj -

Could you please have someone put me on the "Live" server?  Stores sales are "dead."

Sure hope that Stores Tab helps. 

Thanks!!

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wayoutwestusa2  (74 )     Jun-19-07 11:35 PDT     19 of

In the meantime, I do suggest utilizing this widget to generate excitement and drive traffic to your Store.

Perhaps once the referral credit thing is deal with.

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victorias*curio  (1329 )      Jun-19-07 12:18 PDT     20 of

Vicki -

Have you noticed any increase in sales since you have used that tool?

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 12:20 PDT     21 of

Vicki -

Have you noticed any increase in sales since you have used that tool?

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victorias*curio  (1329 )     Jun-19-07 12:24 PDT     22 of

Well, it's brand new and just utilizing it today; so I'll just have to wait and see. I have it up on Yahoo! 360, MySpace, My Blog and my ME page. It is very visual and I like it. Check out my ME page and see what you think.

As far as hits and sales, I'll just have to wait and see. I'd really like a referral credit set up with this. That would be awesome!

Vicki

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-19-07 12:25 PDT     23 of

Wow - a killer for dial up users???

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loosebindings (0)  June-19-07 12:25 PDT  24 of

I haven't even gotten over the excitement of Express yet!

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )     Jun-19-07 12:35 PDT     25 of

I love my ebay store, because I can drive customers to it and before they reach the site tell em they can buy it from me direct at a discount. lol. Ebay stores, may not have alot of traffic for sales conversions (on ebay) but its the most effective place to dump your junk and use it as a catalog

I might like this widget after all.

snort

It's 3 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 12:36 PDT     26 of

Victoria is that thing on your ME page the new widget thing? I think that is out on my redirect page on the internet. I have a page parked somewhere the designer made that used to point to my Ebay store. It says something about "shop my Ebay store" and it looks like that and takes customers to my Ebay store. Maybe she already did it.

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rilla@ebay.com      Jun-19-07 12:53 PDT     27 of
Team:

So I've heard you loud and clear on the issue of the Store Referral Credit. It's definitely something we'll work on in the future versions, so that's #1 on my list.

I am glad that some of you are liking it and hopefully can see some of the strong marketing benefits. As I have mentioned before, this tool is in Beta, so I would love to gather any other feedback as well, such as what other features/tweaks might be of benefit.

It would be great if you all shared some interesting ways that you have applied this widget with the rest of the Stores Community, so they too can embed their "mini-store" across the net.

Raj

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-19-07 13:02 PDT     28 of
what team are you talking about. Are you talking to us or did you mean to post this elsewhere?



It's 3 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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katiyana  (3908 )      Jun-19-07 13:18 PDT     29 of
I put one on my Profile Page over at MySpace and it seems to work - but I'm thinking space wise you're probably limited to one widget in that space allowed - I'll play with it and see if you could put multiple panes in there.

I could not get it to work on a Squidoo lens - but will experiment some more there.

The how-to-insert instructions for specific sites will be helpful for newbies, I think.

 

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victorias*curio  (1329 )      Jun-19-07 13:20 PDT     30 of
sandrarn83 - Yes, it's the new Widget thing. I used different searches that brought up different items and those widgets I posted on my blogspot. For my ME page and MySpace I just used "Victoria's Curio" in the search term area and it brought up different items in my store. Am I clear as mud on this? If you go through the directions using the link above you'll see what I mean. It is very easy.

Vicki

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victorias*curio  (1329 )      Jun-19-07 13:23 PDT     31 of
Here is the address to my blog so you can see the different variations I used of this:

http://victoriascurio.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-start-collecting.html

Vicki

 

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relentless_mtg  (6059 )      Jun-19-07 13:29 PDT     32 of
Looks okay but doesn't work. Tested on my Myspace page. Non-functioning buttons = 'Visit the Store', 'Bid and View' and 'Seller'.

Search returned "sorry, couldn't find any search results for 'shoe' "

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 13:44 PDT     33 of
Raj -

From reading your posts today, I think I might like you. First time in a LONG time that a pink actually sounds like he/she is listening to us and is responding to our concerns. There are "real" issues being addressed here on the Stores Boards -- along with the jokes and mindless posts (admittedly some of which are mine.)

Please realize that when our posts and replies get somewhat heated that we are very frustrated since Stores have been treated as step-children at best for the past year. When eBay took out SIS, they took away some of our lifeblood. So we of course, have doubts and distrust on any upcoming "enhancements". The best way to win our trust again is to be honest, upfront and tell us what is really going on.

Ok, so when will we get our STORES TAB?????

And, when will eBay put ads back on Google?  This is killing us!

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 13:48 PDT     34 of
            oh, and one more thing Raj -

If the boardies decide they like you enough, we might let you join the Fruit Helmet Club. Except instead of a lime helment you probably would want a PINK Grapefrult one. I will have to check with Chop Sewey Sister on that.

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 13:59 PDT     35 of
Okay vet is cancelled. One cat hiding and can't find. Here is a redirect page of mine sitting out on the internet. This is what my customers have been instructed to use now to enter directly into my store since their other link was "hijacked" and redirects now to my website. This is what repeat customers will see. How is that different from your widget or is it a widget by another name? http://www.sandysclosetlingerie.com/
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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 14:06 PDT     36 of
sandy - I picked a different style widget.  I just stuck it on my Stores Home page just to see what it looks like.

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 14:09 PDT     37 of
I remembered the music from last time and turned my speaker volume to off. I have a bad heart you know! Heading over to check yours out.

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 14:13 PDT     38 of
Sand -

I am working to take it out of all my listings.  Those babies need a good mom.

I have removed it from about 60% so far.  Funny, my sales have dropped since starting the removal!

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:13 PDT     39 of
Can we put this inside our core listings?

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sandrarn83  (2685 )         Jun-19-07 14:13 PDT       40 of
Oh I get it. NO, no no! Mot unless there is a fee rebate on that thing. It will mess my new custom storefront design up. It's ugly and there has to be money involved before I am posting that thing on my storefront. Probably never will go on my storefront but I can hide it somewhere. I prefer my "widget" it has fee rebates attached. My regulars who enter through that portal thing provide me with reduced fees. They got used to the bonus freebies I provide when they use it and I get used to reduced fees.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:13 PDT     41 of
I like the one you chose mygift

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menagerie1  (3915 )      Jun-19-07 14:17 PDT     42 of
(priv msg)

Sandy, your x-cart (.Net) site comes up with that same Rover applet. That shouldn't happen.

If the "home.php" is placed on the end of the URL, then your site comes up. That shouldn't be necessary to get into your site.

Anyway,none of the links to your ebay store have the "?refid=store" referral suffix.

You should beat that designer senseless. Or not.
(/prv msg)


You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.  ~Malcolm Forbes

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world_securities  (4916 )      Jun-19-07 14:17 PDT     43 of
** post 11 **

Much as "I" normally don't say this after years of dealing with an exasperating entity: Give them one more chance.

But Only One More Shot.

eBay store owners voice concerns
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/14/eBay-store-owners-voice-concerns_2.html

Professional eBay Sellers Alliance
Unhealthy Marketplace Dynamics - Seller Perspective
http://www.gopesa.org/news/index.cfm?page=ebayunheatlhymarketplace2007

With 2nd Quarter ending, eBay is very very aware that their actions are under the News microscope.

The speeches from Corporate are almost conciliatory. There have been more notices about improvements to eBay Stores in the past week, than there have been in years. Improvements actually useful to eBay Store owners.

And then there's how eBay is conducting this thread, versus two years ago.

From eBay Workshops Discussion Forum
eBay Workshop: Stores Logo/Branding Change - Thursday, June 16th
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=200100172&start=149
"I don't know if it is just the "rabble rousers" who come to the boards but it is clear that the people on this board who are responding negatively to the logo are a minority of the total eBay Store sellers. This is merely a numerical fact."
Chris Tsakalakis

Two years later, and What a difference in tone.

No condescending speeches. Answers are being given to questions posed. And Pinks are/were giving near-real-time responses.


"On Earth, we have a saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Star Trek


Juggernauts do not change direction overnight. Our position is to wait 60 days and see what happens. We will make course corrections based on the course adjustments eBay makes. And why 60 days? It marks the very early beginning of the Holiday (Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years', etal) shopping season. Normally it would be 90 days, but there are limits even to "my" patience.

As is the patience of the "minority of the total eBay Store sellers."


Conflicts can end. Remember 18 June 1815, Waterloo? This was reenacted to commerate the 190th anniversary of the Battle. This time casualties were due to over enthusiasm.

Big IF this is eBay extending the hand of truce. IF eBay will deal in good faith to eBay Store owners, you have nothing to lose At This Point.

IF eBay is using Marketing feel-good tactics. IF eBay is stalling to establish a better face to the Press, well you already have plans for that don't you?

"Promises, promises
I'm all through with promises, promises now"
Burt Bacharach
Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log





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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 14:20 PDT     44 of
Postcards -

in response to your question can we paste it in our listings.  Don't think so.  I tried and the html didn't "take" there.

Let me know if you find out differently.

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 14:21 PDT     45 of
No it doesn't. Take off the word "lingerie" on your search and type it in. Only the Ebay store has the Lingerie domain name now. Website only has the SC domains all FOUR of them. The other ones all got redirected to the website to hijack customers checking into the Ebay store. Worked on that little surprise for months.

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 14:23 PDT     46 of
            .....


WHOOPEE.... I just got back and started reading this linc and I am so delighted 'we' are actually something now ......

Team 'somones'

Of course we are part of the Team if we are willing to offer our help.....

Ya don't want the paid Team to think they are 'speaking' to the 'wind'......

Yes, yes, yes, we are someoneS  YIPPEE ..... a bunch of volunteer someoneS

I hope my words won't be dashed as I continue reading on. 

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 14:29 PDT     47 of
......

Oh.... and darnsand:  Are you being nice today? 

There is no IF or OR or AND answer.... It is a point you must discover for yourself!

I know it is backwards..... I am being nice to you.

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 14:30 PDT     48 of
......

and a bit 'altered'.....

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 14:34 PDT     49 of
meecabay I am not sure exactly what you are saying but the royal "we" are not part of any team with Ebay. Ebay dictated that decision not me. Until the day my business is treated in the same manner and offered the same benefits as an auction seller then "we" are not part of any team with Ebay. I can tolerate a discussion with Ebay because it's the only way we are going to get this site back on track. Make no mistake I have no trust nor do I have any respect for Ebay. Those are things Ebay will have to earn back in my book.

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onsnapper  (265 )      Jun-19-07 14:36 PDT     50 of
Get lost ebay, don't EVEN come around offering me more stuff until you come up with a SINGLE GOOD SELLER TOOL THAT WORKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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menagerie1  (3915 )      Jun-19-07 14:37 PDT     51 of
Yeah, I see what you're saying, I got confused.

I've followed your site buildup. Make that sites.

And I know where you have had problems doing redirects to the various sites. I can't say much here. Follow? I have an x-cart site.

You can have what is called a "Meta-Refresh" statement in the .index page that will do a redirect instantly.

That is also how the x-cart site should be set up. So no one lands on a "portal page", but goes straight into the home(php) page.

The ideal way to redirect for all of your sites (to ONE site) is by using DNS redirects, but that involves dealing with your domain hosts/sellers.




You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.  ~Malcolm Forbes

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:41 PDT     52 of
mygift...I did it and it works.

But, it looks like it may slow down the page load too much.

I guess my question should have been: are we allowed to, or is it recommended to be used as a means of getting regular auction buyers into our store.

I have it embedded in the Golden Mall Burbank postcard if you want to see.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:41 PDT     53 of
Until we get the referral credit I don't see any other use for it other than maybe on my me page.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:49 PDT     54 of
BTW...I really really like the way it looks in my listing so if we are allowed to use it that way for core listings then it will be hard for our buyers and browsers to miss the fact we have a store with more items hidden out back.

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 14:49 PDT     55 of
I don't see an advantage of putting it in the listings. 
I will take a look at it in your listing.  Thanks

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mygift2u  (6531 )      Jun-19-07 14:50 PDT     56 of
post cards -

It came up extremely fast for me.  However, I do have High Speed.  It actually looks good in your listing.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:51 PDT     57 of
In core listings only to bring people to store. I've put stores tags, a little storefront, a huge search box and everything else I could come up with over the years.

This might just be the best yet.

For store Items it may not have much use.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:52 PDT     58 of
Hey Raj, please let me know if this is OK with Ebay.

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huckster3000  (292 )      Jun-19-07 14:54 PDT     59 of
With 2nd Quarter ending, eBay is very very aware that their actions are under the News microscope.

true and good. but isn't it also nice to know that when the heat's not on, they don't care?



huckster3000

DEAD END DRIVE-IN DVD

"It's not the kind of activity one partner normally does with another."

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-19-07 14:57 PDT     60 of
LOL Linda - Looks good.

I am thinking ebay wanted sellers to use it off ebay but see no reason why they wouldn't want it used in listings.


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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 14:59 PDT     61 of
I am thinking ebay wanted sellers to use it off ebay but see no reason why they wouldn't want it used in listings.

Let's see....Ebay introduces Ebay Express.

Ebay says it will never be used to drag customers away from .com

Ebay says it is ONLY intended to bring NEW customers to Ebay.

6 months later...where is the EE ads....right above our regular .com listings in every search available.

OK, I thought I would just cut to the chase.

Ebay has already done the experiment and found out you can't drag new customers into Ebay...you have to redirect the ones that are already here.

That's what I want to do with this widget.

Off Ebay, I want to direct them somewhere that I only pay $29 a month in fees, can list what I want when I want as many as I want for the same fee, and pay NO FVF.

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 15:02 PDT     62 of
....

sandrarn83: 

It doesn't matter whether you have trust or no trust or whatever.... the point is your sharing your true feelings and thoughts and maybe suggestions.

And.... that SHOULD BE invaluable to eBay. I will assume you would like to see eBay where it should be and working correctly and also I am sure from your words you would like alot of other things to be different also..... why do I assume this: as you here taking the time to Post!

You are one individual person and your thoughts and feelings are as important as anyone's.

I just hope there is an eBay Division that has a program computer program set-up to import and annalyze the individual likes and disklies of individuals......

... NOT BY THE ACTUAL PERSON (no name of person, of course!) ..... but by a whole bunch of things: like area, male or female, age, country.... things like that.....

I am meaning for those that CHOOSE to post on these boards either for helping another eBayer strictly or using this board to just complain or to give input....

eBay is giving this opportunity by providing posting boards: We have the choice of using them or not. eBay can CHOOSE to learn from them and use what volunteered info they read to better their site, etc......

So technically we are all part of the eBay Team in that sense since we know eBay is reading our Posts and hopefully we feel we are being helpful.

Well, of course, maybe some come here to just blab to theirself or another but they must realize any good company seeks out any feedback they can obtain..... and what better place than these boards to get FREE feedback and we don't hold-back.... nice relaxed place and place where there should be no judgments! But, with courtesy and respect.... well, as much as possible I know it is very hard sometimes!

I myself am here on the boards posting at this time for a definite purpose.... to help this eBay site.

At the moment I don't need help of the community or eBay with questions as I am not in Selling mode right now. When I get back to selling I will probably have a gazillion questions. I have kinda forgot everything I have learned

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-19-07 15:04 PDT     63 of
Linda - I know what you are getting at and I am right with you on that.

I just had to giggle about it.


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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )      Jun-19-07 15:05 PDT     64 of
I did get a banana thrown at me earlier.


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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 15:06 PDT     65 of
LOL, did you throw it back?

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 15:07 PDT     66 of
But, seriously, if it was developed to help us get more sales I think I just stumbled upon the perfect use.

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 15:07 PDT     67 of
......

Good point onsnapper:

I also feel everything should be fixed before anything new is introduced.... but maybe eBay is just desperately trying to help us Store Sellers like an emergency ???????

I really don't know... as I can't absorb yet what this new 'thing' is, how it works and how it is suppose to work, etc. etc.
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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 15:10 PDT     68 of
just desperately trying to help us Store Sellers like an emergency

Excuse me but I nearly choked here.

Then where is the Stores Tab? Why are the store links disappearing from some searches? Why are our FVF's not reduced for the summer?

Ebay is simply trying to use us, the store sellers, to drag in new Ebay buyers from the outside Ebay world. It's cheaper to make a widget for us to plaster all over the world than for them to make new TV ads or any other advertising medium.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 15:11 PDT     69 of
But, it is a really cute little widget to use within Ebay.

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 15:12 PDT     70 of
......

OH... thanks postcards!

Now I know why I couldn't absorb anything about IT..... something wasn't exactly clear  

But, will people use IT?  Is it easy to use?

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 15:17 PDT     71 of
meecabay I agree with you there. There is a purpose to my postings. It's been posted previously. More than Ebayers read these posts now. Our posts provide a window into Ebay that normally only sellers can see. By posting you provide outsiders with a better understanding of what it's truly like to sell on Ebay. The frustrations that we all have with all the broken software glitches and programs. the fact that Ebay doesn't use the announcement board to post problems anymore because of their fear Wall Street will find out, all the dirty laundry being aired publicly. These boards do provide a window directly into that and the people who need that information have learned where to find it. So we all (Ebay cheerleaders and non alike) provide outsiders with the most current up to date info out there.

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menagerie1  (3915 )      Jun-19-07 15:20 PDT     72 of
It's cheaper to make a widget for us to plaster all over the world than for them to make new TV ads or any other advertising medium.

Oh, what a mean thing to say. Next you'll be saying how this is their backup plan for not purchasing any google adwords.

Oops! Looks like I said it. So sorry!


You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.  ~Malcolm Forbes

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 15:24 PDT     73 of
Hey we website owners are celebrating that stand Ebay took. I hope Ebay makes it permanent to punish Google some more. I could use the time to put my website in the top "nine" slots for all brands where buyers can find it.

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postcardsandmore  (4300 )      Jun-19-07 15:26 PDT     74 of
If store listings were free or even reasonably priced I would agree. Man I would dump the website, close the other sites and yell off the rooftops that people should rush to Ebay.

I'd change my car bumper stick to Ebay is great instead of having my website on it, I'd put this little widget everywhere.

But, Ebay fees are totally outrageous for store listings. I just can't see any reason to pay that high a fee to bring my own traffic in. I thought I was paying the high fees for the traffic Ebay generates.

If that isn't the case then I guess I'm paying the fees for nothing much.

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sandrarn83  (2685 )      Jun-19-07 15:34 PDT     75 of
postcards I have a question. What am I paying Ebay fees for? Why am I doing their work? Same reason I did not write more guides and/or reviews when I found out why Ebay wanted me to do it. They make enough money off me to pay for their own advertising for this site. Something other than Meg's new cupholders for the corporate jet ought to come out of their line item budget. I think Ebay can do without me making a widget for my store. I don't think it's a budget breaker.

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bangkokbint  (453 )      Jun-19-07 17:20 PDT     76 of
I just used it on my Blog. It's a nice feature but, unfortunately, it's too WIDE. I have a Typepad blog where these types of widgets are listed in the columns at one side - the other widgets I have for that craft place and the River place fit perfectly in the columns. EBay's is too wide so half of it disappears.

Unfortunately, if it stays wide I'll probably remove it as it spoils the look of my blog

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bangkokbint  (453 )      Jun-19-07 17:26 PDT     77 of
Yep, sorry, I removed it from my Blog. It's just too wide and looks a bit stupid.

Nice idea, and I would have used it but it doesn't fit in with Typepad's size specifications for a widget.

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katiyana  (3911 )      Jun-19-07 17:27 PDT     78 of
Hey postcards, this widget reminds me of a version of Oscar's Tool - remember that?

That was very successful for drawing people into my other Store Listings - this COULD be the same thing, in theory.

I must say, I like the mosaic effect of my little sweaters in the panorama view...

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babybcp  (804 )      Jun-19-07 17:29 PDT     79 of
I manually re-sized the one that I was messing with. Just go into the html and change the spots where it says '355' to whatever size you want it to be.

Jennifer

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world_securities  (4916 )         Jun-19-07 17:35 PDT       80 of
With 2nd Quarter ending, eBay is very very aware that their actions are under the News microscope.
huckster3000 true and good. but isn't it also nice to know that when the heat's not on, they don't care?

Yep. Hearing 'we will change' followed by the 'bupkus song' far too many times, no one here will take anything said at face value. And One widget on it's own will not make eBay Stores better.

But the process I'm seeing is mildly encouraging. Time will tell, 50 some odd days, whether in Aggregate the eBay Store improvement process is real or Marketing talk.

Plus I have seen no indication that store owners are going to let up on the heat any time soon.


And to anyone at eBay reading and working the problem; Develop a hide.

Everything being written on these boards isn't anywhere close to the being roasted alive situations in the real world. Being unable to handle this reflects badly. You can choose to be a lump of cold hard iron, collect your paycheck, and remain where you are until eBay cuts you loose.

Or be tempered steel. Yes, beaten, molded, blazed in hellish temperatures, yet becoming stronger than the sum of its parts.

And eminently hirable in the real world.

"I want you to paint this name on the nose of your ship: Leper Colony. Because in it you're gonna get every deadbeat in the outfit. Every man with a penchant for head colds. If there's a bombardier who can't hit his plate with his fork, you get him. If there's a navigator who can't find the men's room, you get him. Because you rate him."

Brig. Gen. Frank Savage
Twelve O'Clock High, 1949



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clact  (3590 )      Jun-19-07 17:41 PDT     81 of
Raj, thanks a lot for posting this update for you I knew it was coming soon  nice to know its here!

Postcards. Your page loaded fast. I think (To me) the images are too small to get the right amount of attention you might want to try the big picture one with the move arrow. Maybe for each category (might take you a few weeks to get them set up, but once you have one for each search then you will have the entire category in your show for each similar item.

Steph, I wondered about the mosaic look myself , have you tried one?

I just got back here so Ill have to get one up and running here!

Marty
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bangkokbint  (453 )      Jun-19-07 17:42 PDT     82 of
I manually re-sized the one that I was messing with. Just go into the html and change the spots where it says '355' to whatever size you want it to be.

babybcp, I tried that but it didn't work. Let me go off to try again and I'll report back
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babybcp  (804 )      Jun-19-07 17:48 PDT     83 of
Bangkok - there are 4 spots that have '355' written in (I know little about HTML, but have figured out enough to change small things). It didn't work for me at first because I only saw the first 2 spots, after a couple of tries I saw the other 2 and changed them as well. That did the trick.

Jennifer

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postcardsandmore  (4309 )      Jun-19-07 17:53 PDT     84 of
Katiyana,

I looked on your me page but you don't have one there. Is there one posted I could look at?

Marty I thought there was only one "store" choice so I'll have to look again and see what you were referring to. It might be the incentive I need to beef up the other categories.

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clact  (3590 )      Jun-19-07 18:12 PDT     85 of
Holy Carp, I blew it up and it looks great! I changed the 2 355s to 655s and now I can see everything.

Now I want something else though. I want the ability to send this baby over to every customer in an email where they can click and this would pop up, just have to figure if thats possible if not we need to ask for it.

All they will need it a pop up like this, it can even be customized to whatever that buyer ordered.

Marty

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bangkokbint  (453 )      Jun-19-07 18:14 PDT     86 of
babycp, Thanks for all the info. I tried all the changes but it looks really icky (everything just gets pixely and out of focus) so I finally gave up and deleted it.

Companies like amazon, etsy, google etc. have already designed widgets that work perfectly with Typepad blogs. When Ebay can do that, I'll reconsider using it, but right now it's pretty useless for my blog as it just looks horrible.

Thanks though

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bangkokbint  (453 )      Jun-19-07 18:16 PDT     87 of
Clact, yep, I think it would look really good big, but it looks HORRIBLE small and there's no other way to fit it into my blog sidebars so it's not going to work for me unfortunately.

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clact  (3590 )      Jun-19-07 18:32 PDT     88 of
Check it out on our myspace..

When you get there is is showing books but type Funny Friends into the search box. The good news is though it says "search ebay" its really searching your store.

I love it!

I want to call this My Catalog and be able to send it out to people Ill just this !

Oops the page is http://myspace.com/Onceuponabid

Marty

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relentless_mtg  (6064 )      Jun-19-07 18:37 PDT     89 of
Marty,
I am having the same problem clicking through your widget to any of your listings or to your store, same as with mine on myspace. Seems to work fine on my Me page though.
Stefan

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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-19-07 18:55 PDT     90 of
........

Hi sandrarn83  Post #71:

Maybe that is your reason for posting.... but it is not mine.... I post to share my thoughts, ideas, etc. and hope mine will stimulate other eBayers and other Posters stimulate me with more and new and refined thoughts and thus in this type process of us sharing and learning eBay gets some valuable 'stuff' to help them refine their own thinking/planning.

The word again is:

REFINE.... it is a process!

I really don't believe alot of non-eBayer's have the time or even want to bother reading these Posts other than say people who may be thinking of building their own site....

People will come and just set-up and start selling and assume everything works great! 

I didn't even know about the boards for a few years.....


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clact  (3590 )      Jun-19-07 18:57 PDT     91 of
Stefan, that is probably that myspace backlink thing, we need to get that sorted out quick! Thanks for finding that! Ill check your about me page..

Marty

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huckster3000  (292 )      Jun-19-07 19:29 PDT     92 of
hi marty!

i'm curious as to what your thoughts are about the TO GO widget's affiliate/referral issue, as i don't believe you have yet mentioned it in any of your posts. do you think that this issue matters at all to most ebay sellers who will be using the widget? do you tell those that you encourage to use the widget about this issue? also, from your "inside" ebay contacts, do you personally have any sense at all for when this functionality actually might be able to be "built out" into the real world application of this widget?

thanks!



huckster3000

DEAD END DRIVE-IN DVD

"It's not the kind of activity one partner normally does with another."

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katiyana  (3911 )      Jun-20-07 07:12 PDT     93 of
postcards, I currently have 4 of them on my custom page for my doll & bear clothes - using the mosaic style, clact, if you want to check that out.

http://stores.ebay.com/Katiyanas-Collectibles/Holiday-Themed-Doll-Bear-Sweaters.html

I kept them at 355 so they'd fit 2 across the page without scrolling. I'm going to create some custom pages specific for the different sizes of dolls that I sew for, and will probably use a blown up version of this on those as well.

I have found they click through fine from this custom page, but are NOT working on the MySpace page (www.myspace.com/katiyana).

I don't currently use any of the other options they suggest.

It also isn't working on Squidoo, I can't get it to come up at all when entered in the HTML of the introduction, for example. I'll email them about that and see if they can come up with a module to handle it.

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sandrarn83  (2688 )      Jun-20-07 07:30 PDT     94 of
huckster we are all waiting for Marty's post about the referral credit. I know he's been here because he posted on the Google thread. I am sure it's just an oversight on his part.

Let's recap shall we "i'm curious as to what your thoughts are about the TO GO widget's affiliate/referral issue, as i don't believe you have yet mentioned it in any of your posts."

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bangkokbint  (453 )      Jun-20-07 07:55 PDT     95 of
Well I finally got mine up on my blog (couldn't get it to work properly in the side bar - too wide or out of focus no matter how much I tried to change it), but I did get it on my blog as a post:

http://bangkokbint.blogspot.com/

It looks really nice and works great. I especially love what it does when you click on it to go to My Store. Nice job to whoever designed this
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postcardsandmore  (4309 )      Jun-20-07 08:02 PDT     96 of
Thank looks really nice bangkok. I didn't realize that layout offered larger pix when you mouse over.

You did a great job.

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scarboroughseaashells  (2041 )      Jun-20-07 08:06 PDT     97 of
Katyiana, Bangkok and Marty they look great! I've been itching to get mine up but I have a ton of editing work that just wont wait so I can't make one up until I fix the other stuff I need to do first. I did play around and the only thing I'm not thrilled about is that the mosaic doesn't look quite as nice if there are not enough to fill each row. It sorta falls short of spectacular. But all in all, I agree with katyiana. Very nice to see all my stuff layed out in a pretty pattern like that!



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meecabay  (1222 )      Jun-20-07 08:20 PDT     98 of
.....

Hi All!

I just clicked-on the linc in Bangkok's post. Looks nice I clicked on a few of the pictures and then my pc locked-up and I had to shut-down and restart

I do not know much about computers.... just reporting this.... I haven't tried any of the other lincs on this thread and now am a bit hesitant.

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melrose_stamp  (13709 )      Jun-20-07 09:34 PDT     99 of
Stores Team-

I would like the eBay Stores To Go widget to display feedback rating just like the eBay Seller To Go widget does. That would be helpful. Thank you.


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katiyana  (3911 )      Jun-20-07 09:47 PDT     100 of
100!

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huckster3000  (292 )      Jun-21-07 00:25 PDT     101 of
hi everybody!

well i decided to wait at least 24 hours before posting about this subject again - just to see what would happen! with the exception of sandy, nobody else who posted to this thread since my last question even acknowledged the existence of the issue of no referral credit when using the TO GO widget. so i have to assume that everybody here is A-okay with the idea of giving up that 75% FVF referral commission refund, especially since that would mean that ebay would be forced to add a few more lines of code to the widget. and we all know how difficult it is for rich multinational internet-based corporations to write basic code! lol!!

hiya marty!



huckster3000

DEAD END DRIVE-IN DVD

"It's not the kind of activity one partner normally does with another."

.

clact  (3591 )      Jun-21-07 04:01 PDT     102 of
We heard the referral credit was coming in an earlier post and that is consistent with what I heard at Live (affiliate or referral credit I guess?).

In any case, people complain they dont get the credits now, so I dont see the point in claiming it doesnt give you the credits you were not getting before anyway LOL

Sales at this point would be good.

Tara , that problem was one I had, that is why I didnt like having to add a search term. I just picked a general category with enough items in it and then the buyer can search for whatever they want in the box. Ill add text to let them know that.

Maybe you can use "shell" or "seashell" as your term and fill the boxes? Im sure you shells look better than my hodgepodge! LOL

Marty

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//

//

//

Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Search Forum - What's going on with search and stores?

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Search Forum
What's going on with search and stores?
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000387790&tstart=0&mod=1182300602880

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postcardsandmore  (4304 )        Jun-18-07 14:21 PDT             

You can find screen shots here:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000513528&tstart=0&mod=1182201213489

But, basically what is happening in some search instances is:

1.  You do an advanced search by seller.

2.  You get the core listings first (in the case shown on the stores board the seller has 14 core listings).

3.  Under that is 30 of 36 store listings.

4.  At the bottom of the 30 listings is a link to see all 36.

But, and this is the problem, the link takes you to the stores home page.

You never do get to see all the store listings.

I often have 1000+ store listings and this would be 500 times worse for my exposure.

Why is the link not taking the buyer to all 36 of that sellers listings?

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16 replies     Date posted     Reply #

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glenda  (1335 )      Jun-18-07 15:14 PDT     1 of
            Hi postcardsandmore

I came across an odd one the other day too: the seller had 10 or 15 items total. They were displayed as you would normally see them, PLUS they were displayed AGAIN below the "stores" break.



Glenda

--
V3  You can write to eBay support by clicking on Help then Contact Us. .

postcardsandmore  (4304 )      Jun-18-07 15:17 PDT     2 of
            At least they were all seen

I want to restock my store but not if people are only going to be able to see 30 of my listings rather than 2000.
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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-18-07 15:56 PDT     3 of
Glenda, I saw this with another seller maybe a few weeks ago, when I came across them again sure enough I saw it on theirs again. I think PC is telling me she can see it on mine also, but I don't. What do u think would be causing this to happen to only certain sellers or is it somehow being controlled by who is viewing? This is very strange



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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postcardsandmore  (4304 )      Jun-18-07 16:31 PDT     4 of
            I agree it is strange that I see it on your listings CSS but you don't.

I wonder what search experiments are still going on to cause that

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postcardsandmore  (4304 )      Jun-18-07 16:32 PDT     5 of
I just did a search by seller ID of a large postcard seller I know. Hers showed up just the way it should.

Over 8000 items and all listed by ending soonest ... no differentation between store and core.

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postcardsandmore  (4304 )      Jun-18-07 16:34 PDT     6 of
I just did another seller search for CSS and all 50 now showed up in a row.

Maybe someone from the findings team could come and tell us what "new" search experiment is underway and why and when people might not be able to see all our items.

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 00:10 PDT     7 of
I just did another seller search for CSS and all 50 now showed up in a row.

Using Advanced search for CSS showed 13 core items. It showed 30 of 37 store items below that. When the 37 was clicked....it went to the main store page.

I did another advanced search by clicking on show Favorite Sellers.  Since there were more than 30 items...NO STORE items were shown at the bottom.  Absolutely NOTHING! 

Try running an ADVANCED search on a seller who has a store AND more than 30 auction items. You will see ONLY auctions. NOT A HINT about store items. You will not see your FAVORITE SELLERS store items. Unreal.

As far as I am concerned, ebay should refund all fees to each and every store owner for any store items over 30 that will not show, for however long this has been happening. In addition, any store owners who have more than 30 core listings should be refunded for ALL store listings. Unbelievable.

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postcardsandmore  (4304 )      Jun-19-07 08:37 PDT     8 of
touch...that's how I know it is some experiment or search feature gone haywire.

It happens sometimes and sometimes it doesn't.

I did an advanced search for a competitor who has over 8000 items in store and runs 300+ auction listings a week.

The search returned the normal view with all 8900+ items lined up in a row by ending soonest with NO difference between store and core.

They are experimenting yet again!

And, before stocking store I need to know what is going on because if this is a new search that will be implemented then I want no part of it and will just close mine back down.

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menagerie1  (3915 )      Jun-19-07 09:08 PDT     9 of
This is not an experiment or a result of the latest Finding tweak, at least, it is not a Direct result of it. It is simply an old issue, revisited.

I first saw this issue last year, sometime around May or so. I emailed CS several times, but got nowhere. It appeared to be fixed after I made a post to a Tech Board thread.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=1005631654&forumID=87&x#1005631654

It involves a change made to the search parameters that are suffixed to the URL of a search result (request). Part of those changes to search last year that had an impact upon auction listings causing them to appear and then disappear, only to reappear later.

Those changes that had a major impact to Store item searches. If you had a store back then, you already know this. You also know that these 'allegations' were denied.

"We simply put Search back the way it was before SIS"

I don't think so. In fact, I know so. This issue with the Store's Portal page being displayed instead of the seller's remaining items was unknown before last summer. I had previously searched for my (and my competitors) products the same way for quite a while.

When you do the same thing and it produces different results...double check that you did do the same thing, to be sure. I did. So, I documented the errors.

Group 1. If the seller has any auctions running and BIN store items: the "rule of 30" comes into play (even though they are all of the same seller's items) and the search results will segment into multiple pages.

Group 2. If the seller has no auctions listed, only BIN store items : the list of BIN items will display on multiple pages, but only if the amount of BIN items exceed the user's set option of how many items to show on one page.

Yes, it gets complicated because of how many items are set to show on one page VERSUS how many items the seller has listed AND in what format they are listed (auctions and/or BIN's). Also, when a seller has listings within the 30 or lower range, some being auctions and some being BIN's, all manner of strange search-results display - Page 1, Page 2, etc.

I am 100% sure that Glenda can understand this and can also understand why I simply gave up trying to explain this to CS last summer. There was no need to get CS to fix anything when it suddenly stopped happening, but now that it's occurring again, maybe she knows somebody!

I suspect that the underlying problem is a misguided function, or default sub-function, of search that only manifests itself when certain parameters are passed via the basic search function. IOW - it is always alive, but usually caged.

It will be released from its cage every time a Finding experiment opens it's cage door. The programmers may be aware of it, or not. The earlier fix for it may be documented, or not. The "fix" may be a Hack that is now long-forgotten, not documented and nullified every time that Search is enhanced/tweaked.

I truly wish I could write something more substantial concerning the knowledge of its existance, but this is the result of having NO communication between ebay and sellers. Basically, this is but one example of ebay not acknowledging an issue, which always results in that issue having adverse future potential.

I see that the Advanced Search page's landing page (Find Items) has been "fixed" so that sellers' ID's cannot be used to search for items. That fixes the glitch, but it's only a cosmetic fix. The underlying issue is still present and is still occurring for certain sellers.

Any seller in that Group 1, if they have the correct amount and mix of listings are affected. Under the "right" conditions (non-cookie newbie, etc), even Group 2 can be affected.

Sorry for the long post - thanks for reading!


You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.  ~Malcolm Forbes

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 17:21 PDT     10 of
Thank you for posting that, Menagerie. At the very least, you documented that this was an issue a year ago.

Postcards....An advanced search of your name does not show the 11 items you have in store. Only 82 items come up. Since you have over 30 auctions, there is nothing at the end telling me that you have another 11 items available in store.

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 17:24 PDT     11 of
            This is the result when clicking View Listings by your name.

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 17:25 PDT     12 of
            An advanced search for you:

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 17:26 PDT     13 of
            This is the result:

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 17:26 PDT     14 of
            The last page shows no hint of your store items:

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-19-07 17:37 PDT     15 of
            I just did the same thing for Postcards and what I got was


82 items shown (all of them were auctions) None of them were BINs (core or store)


On the top where it says "All Items" "Auctions" "Bin" despite only auctions being shown to me, I am at the ALL ITEMS and the ONLY tab I can click is AUCTIONS. Once I click AUCTIONS then suddenly I am able to toggle and click BIN. THEN I CAN SEE Postcards 11 other items that are in her store.

This behavior is very familiar to me. This is what was happening in the stores internal search on a few sellers last year around late aug/sept time frame. They said it was a glitch, but now that I see this more... this looks like its by design

Unless you can put this into some context of how a regular shopper would see this view, I dont think this is anything that we can really do much about. But it is definitely one for the books as to why store sellers do not trust ebay management


I think ebay emps should search for their paycheck
See if they can find a best match that's appropriate

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touch*my*toes  (12 )      Jun-19-07 17:50 PDT     16 of
I use advance search to view ALL of my favorite sellers items at one time. If there is another way to do it without using advance, I don't know it.

This is something I do regularly, btw. I just checked and see 43 items when I am on the ALL ITEMS tab. Auctions tab shows.... 43 items. BIN tab shows 26 items.

So, out of the sellers I have saved into my favorites.....I assume I have been missing about 50% of the items they have for sale on a regular basis. Just wonderful.

What is the purpose of the ALL ITEMS tab if not to show all items?

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postcardsandmore  (4309 )        Jun-20-07 11:55 PDT       17 of
I guess I know why store sales died May 3rd.

And, I might as well just forget about either:
1. Listing in core.

2. Listing in store.

It appears it is an either or situation:(

Can Nico or someone please address this!

I do need to restock store but if people aren't going to see my store items then what is the point?

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postcardsandmore  (4309 )      Jun-20-07 11:57 PDT     18 of
Funny thing is, when i do it all 93 items show up.

So, why are some not seeing all but I do??????

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postcardsandmore  (4309 )      Jun-20-07 11:58 PDT     19 of
Maybe Ebay has lost my store? Maybe that is why my listings stopped showing up on page one of the under 30 rule on May 3rd when i had over 1000 listings in store.

Maybe...well the possibilities are endless.

Help someone! Please explain what is happening.

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ham**  (5952 )      Jun-18-07 13:10 PDT
Is scare me, starting on 15th afternoon I got no sale from auction or BIN,is never happen before! I wonder what is going on on eBay?? If it keep going no sale I have to close my store ! I use to have a lot of over night sale but now no more....is eBay want to close down??

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bav**  (242 )      Jun-18-07 13:16 PDT     1 of
I had the same thing going on with both of my stores last week. Last night sales started picking up again, also in both stores.

I am really starting to believe the old server theory.

Gabriele

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cho** (2068 )      Jun-18-07 13:20 PDT     2 of
Try registering a new selling ID and throw down some stuff over there. See if u get any sales then



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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oas**  (14196 )      Jun-18-07 13:24 PDT     3 of
bavarianliving if you look at my feedback do you see a drop in the last year? Being stuck in the 1500 series of servers has been just about the kiss of death my rolling blackout time starts around 9pm CST and doesn't comeback into view until around 6:30 am CST. Most sellers never notice due to less than 2000 items listed,but if you're a rainbow seller selling in all different categories with over 2000 listings the blackouts are very easy to spot..

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post_a_note  (0 )      Jun-18-07 13:29 PDT     4 of
I wonder what is going on on eBay??

Looks like you are running less than 5% core listings. That seems very low. Perhaps you've been hit by the Google adwords cancellation. Hard to tell. But I'd definitely run more core. I'm running between 10-15% right now, and that's on the low side. But I am selling.

Hope things pick up!

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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bav**  (242 )      Jun-18-07 13:32 PDT     5 of
Oas3 I can already see the difference between 6 months ago and 12 months ago in your feedback.

I just started selling recently on this ID, so it's hard to tell, but most sales come over night. I will keep an eye on it.

On my other ID, my items start with 22, I just to get sales all day and night, now I just get them in the morning, between 8 and 12 EST.

Actually, this was the main reason for me to start a separate store and not throw everything into one. I though, if one Store is on the dead server, at least theother one will sell.

It's almost funny if it wasn't so sad.

Gabriele

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ric**  (1668 )      Jun-18-07 13:42 PDT     6 of
We are running about 1/3 of our normal monthly sales but I have noticed it is coming in spurts (two-three orders at a time then nothing for days) rather than spread over the days in a more typical fashion.

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lam**  (6949 )      Jun-18-07 14:15 PDT     7 of
Yes, you are not alone...we have done really well with Ebay for several years...this will be the worst month we've had by far ever. We've started our own website a few weeks ago and that takes some time...The final straw was when our internet competitors ahow up at the bottom of our listings- good grief- what was Ebay thinking???? That's almost as bad as the ill-conceived Ebay Express...it all means less sales for us all...The "powers-that-be" seem to be making changes in "search" which should help sales, but....way too little...way too late.
Lamppartsguy

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ban**  (452 )      Jun-18-07 14:19 PDT     8 of
Absolutely pathetic sales here too - down 70% from this time last month.

Ah well, I'll be putting all my stuff on sale in 2 weeks and bailing from EBay. It's just become a complete waste of my time :(

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oce**  (759 )      Jun-18-07 14:27 PDT     9 of
OP, you really need to update your ME page.  You talk about Dec. 06 and getting stuff before Christmas.

I had told very clearly if ship via letter post it will have a very high chance arrived broken

Don't offer to ship this way.  It's up to the seller to know which shipping method is best for their items.

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che**  (11127 )      Jun-18-07 14:31 PDT     10 of
yes...it is true...about 5 months ago I found a drop in email contacts...noticeably so...with over 9k items in my store people would email about all kinds of parts not listed and ask plenty of questions about items that are listed...it seemed like a headache to wake up to 100-200 emails but compared to now when i get 10-20 emails ever morning...life was good...there are many reasons why ebay is still making money..it is mostly because of you and i long term sellers...they tweak and they change but the bottom line is they do not have the infrastructure (servers) to keep everything up 24/7...i remember when selling 15 items was a bad day...20 -40 was normal...and had a bunchof thousand dollar days...(which takes a lot of doing at 20-40 dollars per) today was the best though...turbo lister has been changed and will not allow access to change preupdate lister files...tried to upload two items...it said they were listed but they are no where to be found...and i mean no where...they hyped the stores and supported the concept for a while...adwords actually worked...and sales were good...now you had better have a bunch of expensive regular auctions to use as hooks to find the fish...if you have only a store...kiss it goodbye...

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oas**  (14196 )      Jun-18-07 14:41 PDT     11 of
cheapusedcarpartsco it's nice to see someone else who has seen the overload problem. I try to explain it but very few sellers have enough merchandise listed to grasp what is happening. I like the roll thru a different country feature one day sell 6 items to France next day 6 items to spain...

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rwe**  (4142 )      Jun-18-07 14:45 PDT     12 of
OP,
I can sympathize. I did not have a single sale from the afternoon of the 15th until this afternoon (and that is a buyer from peurto rico that is sending a money order)
Roseanne

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oas*  (14196 )      Jun-18-07 14:48 PDT     13 of
The reason store listings were removed from search was ebays servers couldn't handle the overload had nothing to do with buyers displeasure of seeing to many items. Had store listings stayed in search ebay would have had a major site meltdown in less than 2 weeks they were getting more daily glitches and mini site outages everyday and the longer it was allowed to go the worst it was going to get. How about store listings interfered with core sellers. Core levels are at or below 2001 levels and with a less than 20% sell thru rate in core that listing number is going to continue to drop like a rock..

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cat**  (1167 )      Jun-18-07 15:01 PDT     14 of
hamutie28, you have my sympathies.

this probably won't make you feel any better, but i have had a total of ONE sale this whole month. that's never happened before in the 8 years i've been here.

oddly, the one item that sold has been in my store longer than most, has never had many watchers, yet within one day i got an asq on it and not too many hours later a sale - not by the same person. i don't know what to make of that.

i can attribute part of my lack of sales to not being able to list anything new since may 7th (which will be changing soon - thank you again, you know who you are!!), but still that isn't enough to explain ONE sale in over half a month. i've had fewer things in my store than i have now many times, and still got decent sales. so it's not that.
joan
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oldklutz  (2673 )      Jun-18-07 15:09 PDT     15 of
Always slow when the kids start summer vacation. Will pick up in July when school stuff begins to sell. Most people have planned their vacations by the end of May and have purchased what they need. June and July are the most traveled time for vacationers. They are spending their money on that not ebay.

My sales go in spurts...Weekdays are usually slow.

September will be the next slow down...when the kids go back to school and household routines are disrupted.

At least that is the way it is for my stuff.

My stars are doing a strip tease....I think that's sexy

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neg**  (16159 )      Jun-18-07 15:12 PDT     16 of
Last night was the first night EVER that I had auctions running with *zero* sales. I have had a trickling of store sales and am getting some bids but nothing is following previous buying patterns (time of day etc). a higher % of my store sales lately have been international ...have to wonder what is going on! My traffic report still shows about the same % coming from Google - I think something is more wrong than ebay pulling the ads. I never thought I would say this, but I pray they don't run a listing sale to get good numbers for end of quarter reporting.

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cat**  (1167 )      Jun-18-07 16:10 PDT     17 of
it's about vacations or kids starting summer in my case. i have the stats for all previous 8 years. i've never seen anything like this before.

obviously i'm not alone.
joan

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ibe**  (1276 )      Jun-18-07 17:18 PDT     18 of
I thought is was just the used book business that was stinking. It's not seasonal and it's not just here on Ebay unfortunately.

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fun**  (2526 )      Jun-18-07 17:37 PDT     19 of
The reason store listings were removed from search was ebays servers couldn't handle the overload had nothing to do with buyers displeasure of seeing to many items. Had store listings stayed in search ebay would have had a major site meltdown in less than 2 weeks they were getting more daily glitches and mini site outages everyday and the longer it was allowed to go the worst it was going to get.I don't have a Harvard MBA.....but, how about BUY some more durn servers.....obviously the traffic/sales were resulting from SIS....and the fees generated would have more than paid for more servers....but ebay doesn't want to buy servers.....their last quarterly showed less $ allocated to server purchase/lease rather than more...Sorry I don't have the link to the auctionbytes article anymore...where that fact was quoted.


~funkoma in Tacoma! style recycle~
~tressie~

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mes**  (6414 )      Jun-18-07 17:45 PDT     20 of
i AM SO GLAD THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS MENTIONED THE 1500 SERVERS.
I will be sending them a subpoena for my bankruptcy case.

This time last year i was selling just on e-bay $30000 a month and more. 100 of this item and 100 of that item. Coins and stamps from around the world to people around the world.

August hit and the store mess came on us and then they hired these moon beams to totally destroy search, and to make it work for them they started at the results and worked it back up to the top to get the results they wanted.
Not for us,
but for them to make them look good.

They dragged this on till the week before Christmas then they gave them some time off to pat themselves on the back

we are so fantastic

Christmas was a total loss I got 2 weeks of business $25000. The week before and after Christmas.

Thinking that we were going to now be able to get caught up then the first week of January came and we then start all over again with the

circus of servers/search/finding/lying. All the while Rome is burning and Nero is playing the fiddle.

I hear that this one and that one are on Sabbaticals what the hey they need to be on the unemployment line not rewarded for this mess.

Today I am sending out bid requests to liquidate my stuff because now that they are not even advertising on google I need to come up with $2000 in fees and my sales this weekend were $78.

I only hope that these people can just get a clue with the people here today just a bout to give it up

wake up e-bay before it is to late!

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pos**  (4298 )      Jun-18-07 19:03 PDT     21 of
If you think 1500 servers are bad then you should be stuck on the 2600 servers.

On my second ID my sales make those on this ID look good (and this one is only running 15% sell through in June).

I even moved some items from the other ID here and sure enough, they sold. But, over there I can barely give things away.

That's too bad too because I would love to keep my postcards separate from the records and postcard lots. I'm debating what to do next. I wondered if writing and politely asking to be moved to the same server as this ID would do any good.

Also several of Ebays biggest and best are on 1500 servers. If any manipulation is being done I think it is being done by ID...like the second one hasn't sold in a long time and now those items that are listed rarely get bids or sales from store.

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pos**  (4298 )      Jun-18-07 19:05 PDT     22 of
Where I was going with that, since that ID is only running about a 2% turnover even in core (I'm only listing 10 or 15 total items over there trying to build it back up) then maybe they are being hidden as being from an "unpopular seller".

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pos**  (4298 )      Jun-18-07 19:08 PDT     23 of
I have a 3rd ID I list seasonal items on and it was doing great around Christmas. But, this second one is just dead. And, this one has it's good weeks and bad weeks.

I have to say that my core sales here seem to have slowed way way down about the time I reopened the store. I'm beginning to think that might even have something to do with it. Before that I was selling 20 to 25% of items and one week even 40% in May after closing store the 17th. Now that I have reopened store, even though nothing is in it, the core sales have just stopped.

Coincidence? I guess it could be. But, this will be one of my worse weeks on Ebay.

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theres_someone_in_my_head  (0 )      Jun-18-07 19:19 PDT     24 of
"Where I was going with that, since that ID is only running about a 2% turnover even in core (I'm only listing 10 or 15 total items over there trying to build it back up) then maybe they are being hidden as being from an "unpopular seller""

I think that is exactly what they are doing. I have a competitor who is currently running 10 times the number of core listings than I am. Their store and core sales have not taken a nosedive, but mine have.

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mes**  (6414 )      Jun-18-07 19:37 PDT     25 of
The unpopular seller idea. Recently I sold three items to a buyer in Spain.

They totaled over $150US i sent them to him via global priority mail. I have sent maybe a 1000 items like this. They never get lost. On the envelope i always put on the custom report. It has a number on it and the postoffice can tell if it was delivered.

So he goes to the item not delivered process, e-bay sides with me and drops his complaint. He is ticked off so he gives me three negatives. Since then I can not even give the stuff away. In better times I would have given him the money back to avoid the negs but i can absorb the negative easier that a $150 refund.

This is the state that I am in today with this cara bot sel of e-bay

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mes**  (6414 )      Jun-18-07 19:58 PDT     26 of
About changing servers.

I asked my customer rep about this and the lying was so profuse about it, is in my head it can not be possible!

I was turned down flat as they did not want to start anything.
Some servers service a certain place and item mix. She told me in a round about way that this ID is on a server servicing buyers of stuff i did not sell.

I have an item that i sell for $36.49. on this ID i have sold 5000 or more of them in the last three years.

For three years all I ever did to it was relist and re-add to the count when it went down.

the same ad and pictures and price. 5-10-20-50 at a time these sold to people through the US.

Six months ago they stop selling, stopped dead.

I contacted her and its bip boop bim if i was there with here I would have got a floor show, such an act.

I started another ID, took the exact same auction, template. pictures and price and set it up there.

Boom they are selling again.

It must be the price, the auction, the layout, you need to get this program and that program she exclaimed.

I then mentioned,

but I am using the exact same layout, pictures and prices on the other ID. the only thing different was the server number.

well She went on a sabbatical, maybe we need to ask e-bay if we can go on a sabbatical so we can rest while they spin the wheel to see what will be next to wreak oooh fix!

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pos**  (4298 )      Jun-18-07 20:03 PDT     27 of
I might have to do that. Change ID's to see what number I get on the other account and then combine the two and close the one I'm using now.

Because something is just not right over there.

And, I'm really curious why my sales on this one stopped dead once I re-opened the store.

I don't have but 7 items listed in the store and I closed it in May because sales died. The week I closed it I started doing a normal sell through on auction listings and continued until I opened it back up. I only opened it to have a place to stash stuff as I moved it to my website but that may have been a very bad idea.

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hom**  (11 )      Jun-18-07 20:10 PDT     28 of
ebay is not the most stable website for sales. At any time they can change, cancel, add or glitch up any part of the site, search or service.

It's advisable to not rely solely on ebay for a income.

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and**  (85 )      Jun-18-07 20:15 PDT     29 of
Help me out. When you mention running 10-15% core items what exactly does this mean? Run 15% of your total items in auction format?

Thanks for the help.

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postcardsandmore  (4298 )      Jun-18-07 20:29 PDT     30 of
Right now I'm running 90% core items and they have died since I re-opened the store.

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andyg7373  (85 )      Jun-18-07 20:31 PDT     31 of
what is considered a core item?

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overthere!  (72 )      Jun-18-07 20:50 PDT     32 of
I'm getting a few sales every now and then. Sales have been really slow lately compared to a few months ago.

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ban**  (453 )     Jun-18-07 21:26 PDT     33 of
I wouldn't recommend anybody run more things in Core.

I've run 25% of my items in Core this month, with less than a 7% sell thru so far. It's just wasting money and until Greedbay fixes the search system I've stopped listing anything else.

I won't be able to pay my fees at the end of the month if this continues (well I will, but I won't be paying them!) there's no way I'm going to pay 60% of my sales in fees so, ebay, I suggest you turn my server on or you won't be getting my money!

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theres_someone_in_my_head  (0 )     Jun-18-07 21:43 PDT     34 of
what is considered a core item?

An auction or fixed priced listing that is not a store listing.

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ham**  (5953 )     Jun-18-07 22:20 PDT     35 of
It is not because I don't have enough auction running or Summer slow season is here. The fact is sale suddenly dead! Before 15th I've stability sale, around $80-$120 each day, but when I woke up on 15th everything is dead! Even no question email from buyer! I know there something happen with ebay system but I have no idea what it is.

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how**  (1375 )     Jun-18-07 22:43 PDT     36 of
Sales have never been this bad for me! On one ID or another, I've been on ebay since '98. It's not the economy, summer vacation, phases of the moon or how I set my jaw. It's ebay. Period.

I have my last few core items ending tonight and I'm not listing anything more in core until the end of the month (if then). I'm going to spend every free moment getting my web site finished and on line.

After that, I'll only be here to advertise my site and not depend on ebay.

This carp is getting old.

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seo**  (284 )     Jun-18-07 23:02 PDT     37 of
I do have sales, like 1 or 2 when I wake up. My norm is 12 to 15 average a day.

Funny thing this time is only my letter sets and stationery category is selling. My headbands nothing, I only sold 2 from my store to a regular.
Out of 12 sales, 8 is to Europe.

Start to thing I am under category and countries server switch.

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che**  (11136 )     Jun-19-07 22:14 PDT     38 of
absolute bummer..sales were fine until they played with the search, banner ads, and other money(for ebay) generating fixes...my thought is get a few people from around the world and obviously different time zones...and simultaneously ...click enter on the same search...the results will show the fate of the nation...as it were...I'm in Hawaii...Aoha!

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kin**  (214 )         Jun-20-07 09:37 PDT       39 of
My sales are drop too... as compare to last month.  Scare me off as a new seller.

Really hope this is a summer holidays syndrom and I'm not alone....

Looks like the sellers will need to buy from each other to generate sales...

When is the summer holidays going to end? 

regards

Vanda

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the**  (Private )     Jun-20-07 11:42 PDT     40 of
like cheap.....

My sales are 1/4 of what they were last month. Summer is bad enough, but with the loss of Google too, its like death around here. I still have sales, but nothing like Im used to.

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rwe**  (4144 )     Jun-20-07 15:12 PDT     41 of
postcards
I am on the 2800 servers
I am still pretty much dead in the water right now
I am running more core than usual

UGH!
Roseanne

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elquattrocacti  (0 )     Jun-20-07 15:14 PDT     42 of
How do you know what server your ID is on?

---

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pag**  (1237 )     Jun-20-07 15:31 PDT     43 of
Like postcards I have found in the past that closing my store after core sales dies has rejuvinated my core sales, except this time it didn't work. I am getting almost no hits compared to what I would usually get and no bids for a WEEK. Yes my stuff is somewhat seasonal but still every other summer for the last 6 years I have survived. This year I don't know what I will do to survive. Moving off ebay has never been successful for me so that won't work. I must have been put on the slow seller server. So how do we know what server we are on? What about this idea that combining accounts will get you on a different server? So like if I combine my buyer & seller accounts into one I may get on a different server? It can't be any worse than the one I am on now!

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san**  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 15:35 PDT     44 of
If I may be so bold as to ask what's a decent server number? My items sit on the 12 server. Although I do a great deal of traveling these days- Hong Kong, Singapore, UK etc my sales run hot and cold. Amazingly good and dead cold. You can tell when they are "turned on" and "turned off".

I have quit running core. If Ebay manipulates search to the extent I am seeing then why am I wasting money for product visibility. I am either "on" or "off". I'll keep my extra money I used to spend on core fees.

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wor**  (4916 )     Jun-20-07 15:43 PDT     45 of
Best Match as of mid-2006.
Based various 2005 server architecture reports by eBay on server specifications.

Terms used are descriptors and are not actual names.


Four logical groupings

Server Farm 00
10 'server banks'
Server Bank and corresponding Item ID Prefix
00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09

Server Farm 01
10 'server banks'
Server Bank and corresponding Item ID Prefix
10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Server Farm 02
10 'server banks'
Server Bank and corresponding Item ID Prefix
20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29

Server Farm 03
7?? 'server banks'
Server Bank and corresponding Item ID Prefix
30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35?, 36?


In other words, your item number (made up) 150078999444, prefix "15", is probably on logical 'Server Farm 01' 'server bank' 15.

Which means very little unless you know exactly the computer hardware being used for each logical grouping.

Again, for made up example.

'Server Farm 01' 'server bank' 15, run on upgraded TRS-80.
'Server Farm 03' 'server bank' 10, run on CRAY-XMP.

Yes, there's more and someday it will get written up.

Frankly if you want to see eBay's computers, ask for the tour. But don't even think about getting a camera past their security.




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mon**  (Private )     Jun-20-07 15:50 PDT     46 of
well, I do know that if you choose a webhost that crams you on an already overloaded server, your website will be up and down more than acceptable.

So when I relate this to ebay, it makes sense.

If your server is non functioning at the moment, what do you think will happen?

Correct me if I am wrong please.


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efa**  (1182 )     Jun-20-07 15:52 PDT     47 of

Quote:

homedecorstudios  (11 )   Jun-18-07 20:10 PDT  28 of 44 
ebay is not the most stable website for sales. At any time they can change, cancel, add or glitch up any part of the site, search or service.


It's advisable to not rely solely on ebay for a income. 
--------------------------------------------------------

If this were proven in a court of law, trouble for eBay.



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ste**  (1032 )     Jun-20-07 15:53 PDT     48 of
this weeks score  website 1   ebay store 1   website was the first order since i opened it 2 weeks ago approx..




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dor**  (803 )     Jun-20-07 15:54 PDT     49 of
How do you know what server your ID is on

not sure if this answers your question or not, but when people refer to being on 28, 15, etc., they are referring to the first numbers of your item IDS.

d

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san**  (2688 )     Jun-20-07 15:56 PDT     50 of
Congratulations steve2221. How do you like those free and clear sales? It was scary the first time a sale notice came thru. I was like "uh how do I do this?" I got used to it very quickly. It gets to be a comforting experience each and every time.

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mon**  (Private )     Jun-20-07 16:10 PDT     51 of
LOL - nearly peed my pants the first time.


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for**  (26561 )     Jun-20-07 18:58 PDT     52 of
Sales have been just terrible. As posted, their is no doubt some games are going on. I had my worst week ever last week and over the weekend sold 7 items. Then yesterday out of the blue sold 12 items and again now today i've sold just 1 item all day. I've been selling long enough to know when things don't add up. I don't know if it's search, servers or a combination of both but no doubt my items aren't being seen of late.

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hom**  (11 )     Jun-20-07 19:04 PDT     53 of
If this were proven in a court of law, trouble for eBay.

Why? It's their site & they are allowed to have rolling blackouts, change the design, search, UA or anything at a whim.

Amazon does the same thing (without the listing fees), ebay is just trying to be like them.
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pos**  (4312 )     Jun-20-07 19:10 PDT     54 of
Amazon does the same thing (without the listing fees), ebay is just trying to be like them.

Fine. Drop the listing fees and I'll take my chances. But, If I'm paying I expect to be seen (even though I realize that won't necessarily happen).

I bet a mass exodus will occur if that happens and fees are still charged.

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wor**  (4916 )     Jun-20-07 19:13 PDT     55 of
homedecorstudios
Why? It's their site & they are allowed to have rolling blackouts, change the design, search, UA or anything at a whim.

There is NOTHING in the User Agreement that guarantees search views of ANY kind. There is no criminal act, based Solely on that basis.

However one well place Subpoena, and there would be a PR (Public Relations) disaster of apocalyptic proportions. If you think it completely through, no one would want that.

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Joshua, War Games, 1983




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hom**  (11 )     Jun-20-07 19:43 PDT     56 of
Fine. Drop the listing fees and I'll take my chances. But, If I'm paying I expect to be seen

With ebay's new changes it will be even harder to be seen.

As I said ebay is not the most stable venue to make a living off of.

I bet a mass exodus will occur if that happens and fees are still charged.

It's happening now. Stores have been invisible for a year.  Best match is rolling out.

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rus**  (996 )     Jun-20-07 20:08 PDT     57 of
How do you know what server your ID is on

not sure if this answers your question or not, but when people refer to being on 28, 15, etc., they are referring to the first numbers of your item IDS

Okay so if one of my item numers is 140100306623 then I would be on say the 1400 Server? I'm seeing most of my auctions begin with 1400 or 1401.

Might have to try setting up a new ID and see what happens. 

I haven't had a sale in 4 days and that 1 has its problems. Compared to this time last year, I'm not even at an 1/8 of June 06 sales.

GayNell
Rusty Accents

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old**  (2675 )     Jun-20-07 20:25 PDT     58 of
If I'm paying I expect to be seen

No, you are paying for space on another's web site.  The rest are bennies that nobody has to supply...but they do.

The is still lots of exposure here.

My stars are doing a strip tease....I think that's sexy

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cat**  (1169 )     Jun-20-07 20:27 PDT     59 of
GayNell, yes, you're on the 1400 server.

i checked my reports for june '05 and june '06. i have NEVER seen anything like this before. june of both years, i was doing fine. it's the 19th today, and i've had 2 sales since june 1st.
joan


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cat**  (1169 )     Jun-20-07 20:30 PDT     60 of
i thought what i was paying for was my listings being hosted on ebay's site, searchable according to if someone types in the words i have in those 55 characters of title space. nothing more than that. that has always been my understanding of what i was paying ebay for.
joan


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ste**  (1032 )     Jun-20-07 21:20 PDT     61 of
the first sale on website was really kinda weird i kept looking for the fee's. hmmm there were none...but its only one. but a start..only way is up now...

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pos**  (4312 )        Jun-20-07 23:23 PDT       62 of
i thought what i was paying for was my listings being hosted on ebay's site, searchable according to if someone types in the words i have in those 55 characters of title space. nothing more than that. that has always been my understanding of what i was paying ebay for.

Cat, me too. I guess we were mistaken. We are paying to have our listings here and whether or not the almighty Ebay deems it necessary to give someone a peek at 1 or 2 is purely a side benefit...and yes, I'm getting bitter again.

This smart search thing is a load of carp and it is coming and I'd be willing to bet my last dollar that it will be the default!

CSS...you said PESA could squash Ebay...looks like they decided to squash us instead.  Endorsing smart search and all.

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pos**  (4312 )      Jun-20-07 23:32 PDT     63 of
Maybe they have already been testing smart search on stores in deciding who gets the favored placement in the under 30 rule!

I know my 1600 items stopped showing on page 1 of any test search I did in early May and that was the end of my Store sales.

Now, I just use it to organize and try and show buyers other items I have available.

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cat**  (1169 )        Jun-20-07 23:40 PDT       64 of
postcards, that was the agreement, up until about a year ago. i have a hard time believing there isn't something illegal about changing the agreement so radically, without informing us.
joan

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pos**  (4312 )        Jun-20-07 23:48 PDT       65 of
They informed us...remember the popup that said Ebay wasn't guaranteeing how long it would take for your item to show up?

They just forgot to add that it might not EVER show up (at least on the first page).

With sales so low now I really don't think this will fly. But, I've sat back and watched other remarkably bad ideas succeed (for Ebay, not sellers) and i could be wrong this time as well.

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pos**  (4312 )      Jun-20-07 23:50 PDT     66 of
Who knows, maybe they will have some type of rotation where we all show up for 5 minutes every 3rd day if that day falls on a Sunday and has the number 8 in it.

Ummm, come to think of it, I think that is what they are doing now as well.

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pos**  (4312 )      Jun-20-07 23:51 PDT     67 of
Then again, I probably shouldn't have been bragging about the 24% Ebay fee to total sales I had in May. (after closing store).

They wanted to be sure that didn't happen again so this month it is over 50%.

.

//

//

//

Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From ebay Stores Forum - Store Owner Survey - Is Everything OK?

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Stores Forum
Store Owner Survey - Is Everything OK?
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000513528&tstart=0&mod=1182191824633

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )       Jun-18-07 09:27 PDT

I listened to the Town Hall on Saturday. The only question that had any impact for me concerned the Sponsored Links that show up underneath Active Listings. I'm talking about the row of text links with the header that reads, Sponsored Links.

I'm not talking about the box that included links to the Amazon site and other selling sites. The seller asking the question wasn't talking about them either. But, guess what? Mr Cobb answered about those ads. Said they were a mistake and were pulled last Monday.

Out of my pure pessimistic nature, I did a search to see if any Yahoo Sponsored Ads appeared. Guess what? Go ahead, guess! They were NOT showing up on Saturday either. I hadn't checked in a while, so maybe they'd pulled those last Monday, as well.

Today, they're back. Tell me that ain't just the slickest thing, EVAH. Hide your horedom when you're out in public, then when you're back home let the games begin, anew.

Many report they can't see 'em. Do this: Log out. Clear ALL cache, cookies, history...every dang thing in your browser. Reboot, if necessary. You absolutely have to get rid of any parasitic ebay-cookie that will identify you, and they are longer lasting and more ID-descriptive than they used to be!

Type www.ebay.com into your browser. Search for Pierre Cardin Watch. Scroll down below the active listings. Down below the ebay Express box. See 'em?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second issue is an old one - I raised this concern last March. It involves every single store seller, but just like a lot of "issues", some can't see it. If you have a clean browser, from the above steps, maybe you'll see it.

Go to the Advanced Search screen. Under the heading, From Sellers, tick the circle for "From specific sellers (enter sellers' user IDs)". Type in a Store seller's ID (chopsueysisters is used for this example). Don't change anything else and click on Search. The page that opens will display all auctions, but only 30 store item links.

For the Chopsueysisters example, go to the bottom of the list of 30. See that "Showing 30 of 36 items" link. Click that link.

Did the page open to show all of Chopsueysisters' 36 Store items? Or did the page open to the Store's Portal?


.......................................

For some reason, I feel this post has a lifespan of minutes. I'd love to be wrong on that. I'd also love to read some replies, even if you don't see anything unusual.


"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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21 replies     Date posted     Reply #

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rickskatie  (1668 )      Jun-18-07 09:29 PDT     1 of

I'm not sure what Yahoo ads you are talking about but Yahoo auctions closed down forever on Father's Day.

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monkey*see*monkey*do  (Private )     Jun-18-07 09:35 PDT     2 of

            OP is talking about the sponsored ads that are ALL over the site.

Nothing to do with Yahoo auctions.
.

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )     Jun-18-07 10:09 PDT     3 of

            Thankie Monkey! I know I'm losing my mind, but thanks for confirming a part of it is still intact.





"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown .

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rickskatie  (1668 )     Jun-18-07 10:10 PDT     4 of

I can't find anything but eBay or Victoria's Secret ads. Maybe I'm not looking at the right pages?

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rickskatie  (1668 )    Jun-18-07 10:11 PDT     5 of

Never mind. I just noticed your graphic.

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rickskatie  (1668 )    Jun-18-07 10:12 PDT     6 of

Do we get a kick-back from the advertisers because our (paid for) listed items generated their sponsoered links?

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )      Jun-18-07 10:29 PDT     7 of

            Marty, you reading this? I searched for your items and that first page displays "Showing 30 of 446 items".

When I clicked on the "446 items" link, the page opened to the Stores Portal. NONE of your remaining 416 items are being shown. Please ask your contacts to fix this.

Why is this so important? Under the basic page layout, the left-side navigation box does NOT have an option to input a seller's ID. Even if the buyer is logged-in, but doesn't have that option enabled, there is...

No ability to search for a specific seller's items, except via the Advanced Search page.

This is NOT important if all buyers have that option set for their left-side navigation box.

This is NOT important if newbies to the site are not important.


"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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bhearsch  (302 )      Jun-18-07 10:32 PDT     8 of
            I believe the Amazon Marketplace ads have been removed but not the Yahoo Sponsored ads.

The following quote is from the eBay Town Hall Meeting held at eBay Live last Saturday:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m06/i18/s04
Donna Klein from Detroit complained about the sponsored links, embedded text advertising on the eBay website. "At the bottom of the page," she said, "you see "buy it on Amazon and Yahoo." What's up with this?"

Cobb said that had to do with eBay's relationship with Yahoo. There was a mistake made where people were starting to go off eBay onto the Amazon Marketplace

"It has been shut down," he said. "But Yahoo search - this is a test." He said it was a question of if a buyer can't find something, do we just have them exit or give them an opportunity to find something? "The jury is still out," he added. But "the number one priority is to drive transactions on the eBay marketplace."

Editor's Note: AuctionBytes confirmed that it is only the Amazon Marketplace ads that have been banned from eBay, the Yahoo sponsored links are set to appear as part of the advertising test.
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fairly_dinkum  (6 )      Jun-18-07 11:05 PDT     9 of

            Yeah, the mistake was, "where people were starting to go off eBay...". How dare people do such a thing?

IT's getting so you can't even have an active link without some dunderhead clicking on it. Pitiful.

The sponsored ads are only now appearing due to the current Finding test and ONLY for null-result searches.

And dawn only happens occasionally.

It's as if Bill Cobb isn't even aware of this issue. Can that be true?


"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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chopsueysisters  (2067 )     Jun-18-07 11:13 PDT     10 of

Fairly, I don't know which step you are describing. Is it "items by seller" or "find a member"? I want to see what you are seeing!!



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )      Jun-18-07 11:26 PDT     11 of

Just click on any of the Advanced Search links. The page that opens is "Search: Find Items". The 4th Bold title is "From Sellers".

Tick the middle option "From specific sellers (enter sellers' user IDs" and type in your ID. Then click the Search button or just hit the keyboard Return key.

This is how buyers search for specific seller(s) items, unless they have that left-side navigation setup for the seller ID search-option.


"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

                                     .

fairly_dinkum  (6 )     Jun-18-07 11:37 PDT     12 of

Follow the link circled below and you'll (most likely) see what our buyers have been seeing for a long time.




"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-18-07 12:20 PDT     13 of

            Fairly,

The page that opens is "Search: Find Items". The 4th Bold title is "From Sellers". Tick the middle option "From specific sellers (enter sellers' user IDs" and type in your ID. Then click the Search button or just hit the keyboard Return key.

See I dont have that. This is what I'm at
http://tinyurl.com/28nt3h

Maybe you are in a search test? but the screen shot you are showing? that seems odd no piccy gallery for me. I paid a penny for that, they better be showing my gallery to someone!



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )     Jun-18-07 13:23 PDT     14 of

            Choppy, that link opened the same page as I always see. You'd have to take a screen shot.

This is no test. That advanced search page (screenshot) has always looked like that, as far back as I can remember.

If you haven't cleared all your cache, cookies, etc. then ebay is dogging you. You've got to come to the site just like a newbie.

That screen shot of your Store items is what shows underneath your auction listings, all 14 of them (13 of which have Gal Pics). That is why I mentioned, in the OP, the store items show up under auctions, even if they are your own auction.

Your Gal Pics would not show in such a setting. If you click on that "36 items" link, that is when you'd expect to see the Gal Pics.

Except, the page of your items do not show up...the Store's Portal page does.

"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )     Jun-18-07 13:38 PDT     15 of

Fairly, now I see it. I just didn't read your instructions right & that image wasn't sticking in. I have seen this before and it hits a little closer to home.


http://tinyurl.com/yphx2t Go there, then click the view listings on the first one, displays just like how you are saying. I have seen this on the same sellers display, but not on others. There might of been a newbie I saw that also had it, but I thought it was strange I was only seeing it on hers. Maybe u can check mine see if I show up the same way like that. On click it doesn't look like I'm affected in that view screen



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )      Jun-18-07 13:41 PDT     16 of

Shown below is the upper part of the Advanced Search page, as I see it. See the 'ticked' circle, beside your seller ID?

When the Search button is clicked, your listings show up as shown in the screenshot above. Here's a link to THAT page...scroll down and click on your "36 item" link.

http://tinyurl.com/3btqne

"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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postcardsandmore  (4296 )      Jun-18-07 13:48 PDT     17 of

CSS...I just checked and this is terrible!

Someone needs to get this fixed and they need to do it quick.

Has anyone posted over on the search board about it?

When I click on the link provided it shows your 14 auction listings. Then shows 30 of 36 store items with a link to see all 36...but that link just takes me to the stores home page.

This is multiplied 1000 times worse by sellers with hundreds or thousands of listings.

What is going on?????

I was going to restock store but I won't do it until this is fixed.

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rickskatie  (1668 )      Jun-18-07 13:50 PDT     18 of

Paraphrasing Bill 'Talk to the Cigar' Clinton, depends on what the meaning of OK is...

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )      Jun-18-07 13:56 PDT     19 of

PC, are you telling me you went to the URL, and clicked me and you're seeing only 14? Split out like how that other seller I noticed was?

Cuz I'm clicking and I see it all, not split out



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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fairly_dinkum  (6 )     Jun-18-07 13:59 PDT     20 of

            This is my last allowed posting, so here goes.

YES!!! You got it choppy! That is what happens when the seller has fewer than 30 items. If you click on that "page 2" link, it will open to another "2 page" view.

When you click on THAT page's "page 2" link...you go to the Store's Portal page.

The seller will NEVER have an entire page of their items show up!

YES..someone has finally saw it! Don't forget what you've seen. Some don't believe it or think that it isn't important.

This problem manifests itself in various ways, depending on if the user is logged-in, how many items the seller has, more craap than I have figured out.

I first reported it to CS in March of last year. You can imagine how "complicated" an issue it can be just explaining to CS how to see the problem. I gave up after about 6 emails.

I feel that only the Storesteam could get this issue resolved. They could be instructed in how to replicate the problem and they could have the tenacity to see it fixed.

Could.

Thank You!


"Balancing the needs of the sellers" does not equate to a choice between delivering paid-for services, or not delivering those services. The only things balanced by such failures are your books.
~unknown

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chopsueysisters  (2068 )     Jun-18-07 14:07 PDT     21 of

            you should write to Jeff King!



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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postcardsandmore  (4296 )        Jun-18-07 14:13 PDT       22 of

            I wish I knew how to do a screen shot and then post it here.

Because I say 14 core listings, then 30 of 36 store listings and then the link that should have shown me all 36 (the missing 6) just took me to the stores home page..not yours.

So, those missing 6 listings can't be seen!

Just think what happens to someone with 1000, 2000 or even 200 listings

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From eBay Stores Forum - Pageviews Drop since Google ads vanished

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

FYI apologist post_a_note aka 20th_century_art posts spin and damage control supporting eBay ...

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From eBay Stores Forum
Pageviews Drop since Google ads vanished
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000513019&tstart=0&mod=1182111980701

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reliablecopy (2291 ) View Listings |  Jun-17-07 10:33 PDT
Pages views dropped over 85% since Ebay dropped Google ads.

Slowest week in sales that I ever had on Ebay, Best week on our own site.

Guess ebay fees will be really low ??

I will wait another month and see if the stores receive any more exposure.

Happy Fathers Day

Regards
Reliablecopy

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25 replies     Date posted     Reply #

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chopsueysisters (2067 ) View Listings |     Jun-17-07 10:57 PDT     1 of
I got 3 sales on my dot com since ebay said bye bye to google. Ebay sales at a halt. This time last year there was a search test and I seem to recall around this time sales picked up. Oh well, call your local consumer affairs group and file a big fat complaint on ebay changing your service agreement. Ebays not putting down the same bucks they did with Google on Yahoo. I can tell because of the keyword searches I normally do. Cheaparoonies!

It's the end of the quarter this month!



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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post_a_note (0 ) View Listings | Report      Jun-17-07 11:08 PDT     2 of
Hmmm... 85%???   That's huge!   My store hasn't seen anything like that.  I guess I'm just lucky!

Here are my Omniture stats...

Page Views for Store Inventory (I don't count the store home page, feedback page, and others):



And Unique Daily Visitors, which I think is a better gage of activity anyway,(since one visitor might look at 20-30 pages):



An 85% drop would be almost off the charts.  That would be going from 100 visitors a day, to 15!  Ouch!

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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reliablecopy (2291 ) View Listings |  Jun-17-07 11:26 PDT     3 of
Last week on Saturday had 1200 Page views Yesterday less than 100

No traffic at all!!

Reliablecopy

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post_a_note (0 ) View Listings | Report     Jun-17-07 11:29 PDT     4 of
RSCopy are you running any core listings? I don't see any in your store... unless you do fixed price. It's tough to tell what's going on there.

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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chopsueysisters (2067 ) View Listings |     Jun-17-07 11:31 PDT     5 of
RC, dump something into core see if that changes anything



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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worldproducts101  (1921 ) View Listings |   Jun-17-07 11:35 PDT     6 of
do you guys think the visitors reports are correct? data provided by ebay . my traffic easily down 80%

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huckster3000 (292 ) View Listings |  Jun-17-07 11:39 PDT     7 of
if google catches wind of any of this they're gonna wanna hold a monster truck rally in the ebay corporate HQ parking lot.



huckster3000

DEAD END DRIVE-IN DVD

"It's not the kind of activity one partner normally does with another."

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chopsueysisters (2067 ) View Listings |     Jun-17-07 11:47 PDT     8 of
WP, no. I dont have much confidence in the reporting tool. Mainly because some of the google referring traffic was already being masked into ebay traffic previously

Independent 3rd party reporting would be more accurate. But in general, I dont like to look at these reports because unless you are consistent in your product offerings and listing schedule.. there's too many factors you have to eliminate to really find something to work with. Spikes in traffic across many sellers, that I can get into. Because when you have that many people with different listing/product behaviors all sharing the same dip, that can indicate a shared impact that has nothing to do with what a seller is doing. I think July/Aug we all saw the nosedive



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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chopsueysisters (2067 ) View Listings |     Jun-17-07 11:58 PDT     9 of
but you also have to think about this in terms of sales changes, not so much the overall traffic. I know the reports are about traffic but... you can have a huge amount of traffic and very little sales. And another seller can have minuscule traffic but higher sales... that comes down to the quality of the traffic and how it converts to your sales.

Ebay is well known for garbage traffic and that is what they have been starting to increasing in our stores for some time. Delivering volumes of irrelevant gawker traffic means nothing unless you sell by being a circus act. The quality of targeted traffic is what you want and what converts into sales

Ebays web2.0 social tools and even to some degree their API, is gawker traffic. It doesn't invite a person who is interested in purchasing right now to find you. Instead, it dishes up a barge full of keywords and is more like spam than engaging a potential buyer

Ebay doesn't deliver quality traffic anymore. That's because they are tightwads. They want all the sellers to put on sandwich signs & drum up traffic for the site.

For "just a venue" they sure don't know how to put out orange cones and hand out flyers



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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catbooks1940s (1165 ) View Listings |     Jun-17-07 12:23 PDT     10 of
Mainly because some of the google referring traffic was already being masked into ebay traffic previously

css, can you explain what you mean by masked?
joan

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chopsueysisters (2067 ) View Listings |     Jun-17-07 12:26 PDT     11 of
yeah in email. Not on this board



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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catbooks1940s (1165 ) View Listings |      Jun-17-07 13:03 PDT     12 of
ok, i'll drop you a line in a sec.

just got back from viewing my traffic report for june. hits and visitors are significantly down from 4 weeks ago, and i don't even want to talk about how far down they are from 54 weeks ago.
joan

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chopsueysisters (2067 ) View Listings |    Jun-17-07 13:05 PDT     13 of
you and I had similar increase/decreases last year at the same time, too similar. I remember we were trying to rub each other see if we could extend our luck! LOL



It's 2 weeks & I can't find the featured upgrade section of the SYI form
Can the finding team help me find that?
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried! rofl

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monkey*see*monkey*do (Private ) View Listings |   Jun-17-07 13:06 PDT     14 of
my stats are comparable to catbooks1940s.

Way down.

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post_a_note (0 ) View Listings | Report   Jun-17-07 13:15 PDT     15 of

but you also have to think about this in terms of sales changes, not so much the overall traffic.

There are a million and one indicators that can be watched to gage trends. And you're right, traffic is not an indicator of transactions, and transactions are not an indicator of avg price or total volume or profitablity. I watch at least a dozen different indicators and try to pick out which are best for my store. Because each of our stores is built on different models, different sell-thru rates, different everything. Someone running lot's of core is less likely to see much impact from the adwords campaign. Someone relying on search engines for visibility could notice a big drop-off.

As far as traffic, by that I mean daily visitors, I know that on average, I get one sale for every 264 visitors to my store. The month started a bit slow with one sale/308 visitors. But as of this morning that's looking better at one sale/276 visitors. Of course that doesn't tell you the average sales price of the items that are being bought.

But Omniture data, as far as I can tell, are no less reliable than Google analytics, or any other of the professional site trackers. There was a great editorial about the 'fuzzy' math of web site tracking that I posted in another thread. I didn't bookmark it... I'll have to go back and look for it.

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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catbooks1940s (1165 ) View Listings |    Jun-17-07 13:23 PDT     16 of
you and I had similar increase/decreases last year at the same time, too similar. I remember we were trying to rub each other see if we could extend our luck! LOL

lol, yeah, i remember that, too!

are your current stats similar to mine? was may great for you and june not so much?
joan

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dc*squared*wearhouse (1220 ) View Listings |    Jun-17-07 13:25 PDT     17 of
I have seen a signficant drop as well.

Today:

Referring Domain Instances %
1. ebay.com 1,250 80.2%
2. google.com 125 8.0%

Last week google was 23%. I took a major hit on page views between June 13 and 14.
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~ Cindy ~

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catbooks1940s (1165 ) View Listings |    Jun-17-07 13:26 PDT     18 of
oh, i do need to add that my hits/visits are down this month, not specifically since ebay pulled the google ads.
joan

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minibeesknees

(591

) View Listings |      Jun-17-07 15:40 PDT       19 of
I don't understand...if you g**gle 'dollhouse linoleum' I'm all over that first page...what is it that ebay stopped doing?

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post_a_note (0 ) View Listings | Report       Jun-17-07 16:47 PDT     20 of
...what is it that ebay stopped doing?

They stopped the adword advertisements. Those are the 'sponsored links' on the right hand side of a Google search result.

Notice when you Google 'dollhouse' eBay does not appear. They used to have prominent links to just about every major keyword you can think of with a little message saying Shop for Dollhouses on eBay!.

The visibility or ranking in Google of your inventory or personal pages has not been affected, as far as I know.

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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clact (3588)     Jun-17-07 16:53 PDT     21 of

On the bright side if you search "big butts" you no longer find "Find Big Buts on Ebay.. click here" and all those other silly ads.

I havent seen any decrease yet, but just came off vacation settings so I will let you know.

Sell through adjust down rapidly (per medved) when this first happened but then in the last two days is going up at a good clip (why I dont know).

Marty
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post_a_note (0 ) View Listings | Report         Jun-17-07 17:00 PDT     22 of
By the way, mini, unless you're a high-roller you probably never got any direct hits out of eBay's adwords anyway. If you clicked on a link, it would take you to a page of 'core listing' Dollhouses, for instance, along with a nice box featuring three Stores selling more dollhouses. From what I can determine, ranking in that box was made my the seller who ran the most 'core' dollhouse listings.

The only benefit for most of us would be the possibility that that Dollhouse buyer might happen upon one of our core listings. And since most online shoppers are well aware of eBay anyway, the adwords probably did a lot less to boost eBay volume than it does for my personal site.

I will note, that one of my top competitors seemed to have cornered the market on eBay's adword searches. She'd show up in just about every keyword combination I could think of. It will be interesting to take a look at his sales in a week or two and see if there's any down turn. It's probably a bit early to tell, as he runs 200 auctions a day, so some of his sales today could still be the result of adword search hits.

Disclaimer: This is a Posting ID. If you are uncomfortable with posting IDs, feel free to ignore this post. Thank you in advance.

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bangkokbint (451 ) View Listings  Jun-17-07 19:21 PDT     23 of
Sales have come to a screeching halt for me since they did this. My EBay fees are looking to be 50% of what they were last month ($150 as oppose to $300) as no sales means I'm NOT listing any more stuff and instead will be moving it to other sites I list on. Pathetic.

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bangkokbint (451 ) View Listings    Jun-17-07 19:23 PDT     24 of
Oh weird thing though, some of my ebay items used to be #1 on Google search - now my items are still #1 but now from my 'moon' store - wondered why my sales had increased over there (and NO fees over there - yay!)

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funkoma

(2525

) View Listings | Report     Jun-18-07 09:49 PDT       25 of

well, whatever.....I'm only gonna run about 5 to 10 auctions a week...moving almost everything to an online store, I already opened a B&M in Tacoma.....my pageviews , etal have dropped about 90%..sales dropped the same...I've gone from 2 grand in May to 200 dollars in June...So, until ebay puts Stores in Search.....ebay can kiss my Arse....a cute arse for sure but still arse!I'm happy Google no longer has ebay ads....Google is like Craigslist, the drama class kids, the science kids...smart and sweet and geeky.....Ebay and Yahoo are JOCKS....and you know what that means...stupid, mean and alcoholic.....

~funkoma in Tacoma! style recycle~
~tressie~
 

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Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

From eBay Employee Lara Housser - ***Updates on eBay Express***

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200706.shtml#2007-06-08100657

		***Updates on eBay Express***
		June 08, 2007 | 10:16AM PST/PT     Lara Housser Hi everyone...this is Lara Housser with eBay Express. Like many folks around here, my team and I are gearing up for eBay Live! Not only is this one of our favorite events of the year, it's also a special occasion for another reason -- eBay Express turns 1 year old! Did you know that on eBay Express an item of clothing is sold every 67 seconds, a piece of jewelry every 2.3 minutes, and a DVD every 4 minutes? The word is building that eBay Express is THE place for buyers who want that great eBay deal and who at times prefer fixed-price items. Furthermore, 9 out of 10 buyers have told us they love the shopping experience that eBay Express offers. This is all excellent news for a site that's barely one year old, and we want to thank the eBay Community for all your support in helping to make eBay Express's first year a success. If you haven't visited eBay Express lately, I invite you to come check it out. We�ve added a host of new features recently to make it even easier to buy and sell. Here�s a quick rundown of what's new:   More convenient shopping features, such as the ability to search for wish lists, see your recently viewed items on the eBay Express home page, and send notes to sellers during the Check Out process.   More merchandising exposure for sellers, such as the new 'Added-to-Cart' page. Once a buyer adds your item to their cart, we showcase more of your merchandise to them, highlighting shipping discounts where offered, as well as related items. (See for yourself by adding an item to your shopping cart.)   More integration with eBay.com, including a new section in My eBay with your eBay Express shopping cart details and a handy link to eBay Express from the eBay.com navigation header.   Inclusion of Half.com listings for Half.com sellers who opt in. (Read our previous announcement to learn more.) A note to our sellers � Remember that getting your listings included on eBay Express requires no additional work beyond what you're already doing to sell on eBay.com! (For more information about qualification, read our eBay Express Selling Checklist.) Stay tuned for more improvements in the future. And if you're heading out to Boston for eBay Live! next week, make sure to stop by the eBay Express booth so we can meet you. Sincerely, Lara Housser Director, eBay Express Link to this announcement

From eBay Technical Issues Forum - HELP!! What happened to ebay?? I can't find anything

For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.

//

From eBay Technical Issues Forum
HELP!! What happened to ebay?? I can't find anything
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000373539&tstart=0&mod=1181174418685

mat**

)                 May-22-07 19:48 PDT                        

Man ebay did a drastic change to the site. I can't seem to find any of the catagories I use to look at. The way they have it set up now makes it very difficult to find anything. When I am in any catagory the catagory listings on the left are gone PLUS the View Completed actions option box is gone!
Is anyone else having this problem? Is there a way to go back to the old style of viewing things?     

           

pin**                 May-22-07 20:02 PDT                 1 of 13                        
matrix, where have you been? everything got changed in april. they have totally changed the whole site. that is why many ppl left or are leaving . trust me, nobody likes it. you can look for customise buttons and see if you can do anything there, but pretty much the old ebay is gone, sorry.
~^..^~ piney

mat**                   May-22-07 20:04 PDT                 2 of 13                                     
OMG I just figured it out!!  Look what I found at the bottom of the page in small type

"You are currently testing eBay's new search experience. If you prefer, you can opt out of the test." I OPTED OUT REALLY FAST!!

THAT WAS THE WORST SEARCH EXPERIENCE EVER!! DAMN If Ebay goes to that crap we'er screwed.

pin**

                  May-22-07 20:09 PDT                 3 of 13                                     

oh! ok, you were on beta! i thought beta ended in march...
there were about 6 different betas. one was great. it let you add to watch list w/o having to open the listing so you could save time and look later. of COURSE they did not keep that nice one
i stopped buying early april. i stopped searching mid april. i'm only on ebay to run a group and try to be moral support for ppl. and help with piddly stuff if i know it. otherwise i'd be gone. between bad sellers, pp delays and horror stories on the board a person would have to be crazy to give this monopoly any more money... geesh. not a fun year.
~^..^~ piney

the**

                May-23-07 09:35 PDT                 4 of 13                        
Well as a seller if people can't search I can't sell. I can tell you that something has happened in the last couple weeks. My sales have droped at least 75% in last couple weeks. If ebay doesn't get it togther soon I am going to stop listing.

tob**

                  May-28-07 05:29 PDT                 5 of 13                        
The view completed items IS NOT gone. Maybe you need glasses or just do not know what your doing! Check again, its there, never went anywhere! I use it all the time to buy and to check to see what sells or not before I decide whether or not to list an item.

adi**

                  May-28-07 06:01 PDT                 6 of 13                                     
It is true that the new search makes it hard to find items that you want. This is just my observation !!!

ret**

                  May-28-07 09:07 PDT                 7 of 13                        
- we're under a triple-witching hour right now. We have the normal summer slowdown + ebay "enhancing" (this also encompasses "star mania") + USPS rate increases = (the Ebay equivalent of) "The Perfect Storm".

 
Guess what? I got a fever and the only prescription is. . . MORE cowbell!

bea**

                  May-29-07 14:28 PDT                 8 of 13                                     
rick -

my sales have increased this month. i have no idea why unless it's because i sell tropical beachy type stuff. i know didn't change anything.

oh, i've got it!  they finally turned my server on, lol.

beachgal

bul*

                  May-29-07 15:34 PDT                 9 of 13                                     
"my sales have increased this month. i have no idea why unless it's because i sell tropical beachy type stuff."

The people selling sleds and snowblowers probably aren't doing much right about now.

ret**

                  May-29-07 15:52 PDT                 10 of 13                        
Beachy - Yeah, based on last year's sales (first year of total T-shirts) this is now my "up season". However, when I was handling a more traditional mix of merchandise, the summer was always down. Also, in my area of collectibles (tikis) the summer is always a down season.

 
Guess what? I got a fever and the only prescription is. . . MORE cowbell!

jus

                May-29-07 16:30 PDT                 11 of 13                                  
post 5 -
as far as the NEW search is concerned -
go to the search board. lost/hard to find "ended items" search in the
beta/test version is mentioned there.

mad**

                  Jun-06-07 01:48 PDT                 12 of 13                        
My overall sales dropped significantly in April and are still not "up-to-par"...... I am a full-time seller (Power...whatever that means Right now I don't feel any power whatsoever.

My quarterly taxes are due next week and I'm going to have to pull half of it out of a CD that I toiled for many years to create. This is a first for me. It is not a good time, to say the least.

Years ago when I started, it was SO LUSH....good sales, perfect transactions. High-End Items really got the attention that they deserved.....now most days I feel like I'm working at a flea market. The only difference being that I'm not outdoors, basking in the sunshine and meeting a really neat array of people.....what a shame.

I have other plans in the works right now to turn this whole situation around, but don't really feel confident pasting them on some forum. (It's quite UN-RELATED, if you get the drift)

But the point of the matter is....Sales just aren't nearly as good as they used to be. Not even close.

And the scary thing about it is that I made SO many improvements to my listings and general appearance long before this drop in sales even happened (acquiring services outside of eBay...my site is gushvintage.com if you wish to see for yourself). I am quite professional, my items are Top Notch, I have great Feedback........what the hell am I doing wrong?

Nel

sunb**

                Jun-06-07 17:00 PDT                 13 of 13                       
Before the big upgrade I can't think of anything
that didn't work. They must have hired some young
punks just out of diapers, who want to show how
dumb the old guys were by upgrading everthing.
Give them a diaper change and send them packing.
cheers
an old guy