EventHorizon1984 Blog Log

4 February 2007 - Used 22 Year Old Alaska Jet For Sale

If you want your blog to really rack up the hits, or you're into trivia try this:

http://twitter.com/fruithelmetcat/statuses/912397391
"see the original ebay luxury Jet listing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin auctioned off"

http://tinyurl.com/637pmv

Amaze your friends with this trivia:

• Bet you didn't know this puppy was 20 years old when Alaska bought it. 

Do you know that eBay's new description for items like this is "acceptable" condition?

And in case you're representing a State that wants to sell off surplus or unwanted Government equipment, you can see how Alaska is doing. Or if you want your blog to rack up hits:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=stateofalaskasurplus

0% !!!

Actually that was a demonstration of the glitchy nature of eBay.  Based on eBay's new policies that should read "100%."

If I were Alaska, I'm be ticked off.

Disclosure: Our eBay feedback is more than 0%. Registered Political Party: none.

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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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Technorati Profile

Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984
eCRATER EventHorizon1984
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

//
//
//

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?"

//
//
//

Technorati Profile

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

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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.

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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.

.

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

.

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.

.

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!"

.

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."

.

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.

.

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? 

.

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"

.

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.

.
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.

.

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!

.

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).

.

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

.

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."

.

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.

.

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."

.

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 ...

.

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.

.
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

.

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.""

.

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.

.

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

.

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."

.

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

.

5 March 2008

Ziff Davis Media Files for Bankruptcy
By  VINNEE TONG

.

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.

.

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.

.

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?"

.

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.

.

6 March 2008

PC Magazine owner files Chapter 11
From the Associated Press

.

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.

.

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 )

.

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." 
 

.

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."

.

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.

.

7 March 2008

eBay Hires Blogger to Improve Communications
By Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com
March 07, 2008

.

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."

.

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."

.

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).

//
//
//

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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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Event Horizon 1984 Blog Log

Event Horizon 1984
eCRATER EventHorizon1984
eBay World_Securities

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

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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)

// 
//
//

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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

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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

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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

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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  &nbs