Many users on eBay UK appear to have been defaulted to the old search experience. Instead of displaying Best Match with only auctions sorted ending soonest, fixed price listings are also displayed in the pre-Sept 25th sort order.
What’s worse is that sellers who have made use of the new 30 day listing format get zero visibility in core search results. 30 day BINs act as SIF listings in the old search and for many sellers this means they now have very few, or even zero, listings appearing on the core site.
It’s possible to opt back into the new search experience, but the big question is how many buyers will? Threads are starting to appear on discussion boards including Q&A and the PowerSeller board suggesting large numbers of users have been switched back to the old search experience.
If eBay are running tests with small numbers of users still showing the old search experience that’s one thing. If vast numbers of users have been switched back it has serious repercussions for sellers who have switched to 30 day listings as buyers simply won’t see their products.
I’m hoping that eBay move most users back to the new search experience in the very near future. In the meantime sellers who have worked to get to the top of Best Match with Recent Sales are reaping no rewards, but are actually being disadvantaged against sellers who blindly re-listed 10 day BINs.
54 Responses
That could explain my lack of sales today after several very very good days. 🙄
#1 It was a bit of a shock for me too when I saw the listings I’d carefully engineered to the top of Best Match removed from search results entirely. Thankfully it’s easy to opt back in to the new search results… but I don’t think I should have had to.
(Plus of course it’s not me I care about – it’s my buyers!)
This really has got to be a glitch hasn’t it?
You couldn’t make it up, could you?
Has anyone in eBay management considered that this is the sort of reason they are having to lay off people?
featured first listings on a 30 day gtc seem to have avoided the return of the old search system
I think they should have retired the old search at the same time as bringing in the new shop/BIN fees structure. Those of us who upgraded shops – at eBay’s suggestion are paying considerably more upfront for even less visibility as most of us have switched from 10 day BINs & Auctions to 30 day GTC BINs.
We don’t even have the option of paying more to list someitems as non-shop BINs toget extra exposure.
My computer keeps switching back and forth for no apparent reason. Shafted I call it!
Anyone who wants this to go back to the new search is LARGELY in the minority. The best match is a bunch of BS.
This is a transitional period, most sellers will not know the new sales strategy or simply refused to change. So Ebay see their sales tanking and start worrying.
Seems like a false alarm, its back to best match again
LOL… good old eBay, never fail to make basic selling interesting.
Bunch of clowns
Hopefully some smart people are looking at eBay circa $15 and will buy out the mess just to reap Paypal…could be why Microsoft are no longer looking at Yahoo
I am a buyer. I despise new search. I stopped buying several months ago because of new search. Opt out nonsense never worked. The best match algorithms brought up Alice in Wonderland results. Search for a hat and get cookware, or some such….. I hope it never comes back.
Have you read any of the Boards about the numbers of buyers who stopped buying because of new search?
I no longer use ebay, it’s full of overpriced rubbish that you can “buy it now” on any website for far less money.
It’s very very rare that you cant find a site outside of ebay that has the same item for less.
I’ll be giving my money to EBID, amazon and google from now on as ebay are a corrupt organisation as far as i’m concerned.
They treat sellers like absolute garbage and let buyers run riot.
What wonderful news to wake up to.
Speaking of best match I’ve pretty much completed the application that will keep your listed quantity constant. That way you can take advantage of best match’s recent sales AND have relatively low items available to encourage purchases. It also keeps track of relisted items so you don’t have to mess with it every time you relist.
Once Dreamhost fixes an issue with my account I’ll spend some time testing and then let some of you at TameBay have a free sample of the service before it goes live (plus eBay’s sandbox is completely bugged so I need some testers). I’ll post the URL when it is ready.
I’ll post this to original thread as well in case some people were looking for an update there.
Its back to normal post Sept 25 now
I don’t get it. I always thought it was ME (the user/buyer) who controlled how my search results were displayed. I actually changed mine to “ending soonest” as soon as I noticed the new search results appearing some time ago. As a buyer I didn’t, and still don’t like the new search, I’m big enough and clever enough to work out what I wanted to buy myself and I didn’t like the feeling that ebay may not be showing me a really bargain item because of some dsr algorithm.
I May be in the minority, but if I go to a shopping mall, I do not want to be marshaled around by the management, telling me which shops are OK to buy from whilst refusing entry to those that THEY decide are unworthy of MY money.
I just checked again this morning and my default search is still “ending soonest” but surely that is because I set it that way? Are other users having their search defaults messed around with by ebay?
#7 “Anyone who wants this to go back to the new search is LARGELY in the minority”. Where did you get your the figures from?
@Richard (eBay)
If you read this Richard can you supply us with some info please, can you supply numbers, users on old search v best match, not % but numbers?
Do I list 4 Featured First today or 50 3,5,7,10 BINS?
@ # 16
Unfortunately that is exactly how it is now. Just like when they took away any way for you establish your buying record, let you choose how to spend your money, or when they laid off 1600 people at one of the worst times to be unemployed … it was all done for your own good.
30 day BIN’S not apearing in core is this a glitch ???
A scam to get us too list non 30 day?
Whats going on?
What I don’t get is why there is absolutely nothing from anyone at ebay on this.
It just isn’t good enough. (as usual)
#7 I suspect your view is based on your lower sales.
Best Match seems to work well – and I don’t just mean as a seller. Try searching for something you buy on ebay and the best sellers are at or near the top of results which is how it should be isn’t it?
As a buyer, I hate Best Match, but as a seller with an Ebay shop, I’ve been forced to adapt to it. 🙁
Mine’s still defaulting to the old search.
Before September 25th, I had most items on Shop Inventory Format with my best sellers on rotating 10 day BINs for extra visibility.
After September 25th, I spent days tweaking and re-listing every single one of my 500 items as GTC BINS because I was told by Ebay that position in the searches would depend on Best Match, not time ending soonest
Now, all my items are listed as Shop Items and are mainly invisible unless byers opt-in to the new search.
I do hope this is a glitch, otherwise, to quote #6, we have been ‘shafted’ yet again 😈
I’ve tried my best to stay positive about eBay, not because of some unwavering love affair with the red, blue. yellow & green, but because up until a bout 3 months ago ebay was where most of my meals came from. They supplied most of my business and I loved dealing with my ebay business, I felt like I knew what I was doing. They they started the tweaking and fiddling, my confidence evaporated as did my sales. It was about this time that Amazon invited us on to their seller central platform and ebay became 2nd fiddle. My feeling of “detatchment” from ebay has been compounded with wave after wave of changes and bungled communications. About 2 weeks ago our sales all but stopped completely.
We are 100% feedback seller with 4.9, 4.9, 4.9, 4.7 DSR’s a direct competitor who is has inferior dsr’s in every department and sells an item cheaper for the item price than us, but loads the shipping to make them look more cheaper, whilst actually being 5p dearer than us. In best match they get a higher ranking than us and the are selling on their listing whilst ours isn’t. I think this is because some people have been taken in by the P&P trick and as a result they have sales = velocity = higher ranking. But this is a seller who has called people “cockroaches” in feedback…. where the heck is the justice in that?
Come on ebay, stop trying to get what “YOU” want and start trying to give others what “THEY” want, then we will all make money.
After spending the best part of a week changing how we list to accommodate the new search, there is no way on earth we are going to revert back and waist any more time.
After all the hype from eBay about the new search I just hope this is just a glitch.
It is time eBay made an official announcement one way or another.
Seanie2288
I must be one of the few sellers not seeing the old search back. It’s still Best match all the way here. Sadly I think my customers have all been given the old search back as the ebay tap is firmly off this morning.
I been reading some advice on the UK Power Sellers board which suggests that until this mess is sorted out, you should use a mixture of GTC BIN (to reach those on the new search) and 3-10 day BINs (for those on the old search).
I have just done an experiment and listed a 7-day BIN, but this is showing as a Shop Item too.
What I don’t understand is that some of my competitors have BINs ending in 21 days which are shown above the shop items 🙄
Does ANYBODY understand it?
#25 Or a solution EVERYONE should be using is to list some auctions. I know they’re not many sellers favourites, but they’re key to success in the new search and won’t do you any harm at all in the old search 😀
I know its radical …..but how about ebay just fix it?
Some very odd things are going on today.
Just updated TL and the 30 day and GTC options have now vanished 😯
Julie
Anyone else think this might be a disgruntled ebay employee(s) who found out they were soon to be out of work yesterday?
Or a solution EVERYONE should be using is to list some auctions. I know they’re not many sellers favourites
I think the blinkers should come off, nowt the matter with auctions,
we dont list any other way but auction 😆 😆 😆
😆
Do you need a bigger spoon Norf?
If I did need a bigger spoon I could always do a search on ebay for one
😆 grin splutter smirk giggle
First, the usual ebay line…
[email protected]
07-10-08 08:48 BST 31 of 74
As far as I know, we haven’t and aren’t going back to the old search – with the influx of listings that used to be in SIF, we need the new search to make the volume manageable for buyers.
As has been mentioned, there are a couple of small ‘control groups’ who will see the old Time Ending Soonest search – but I can’t explain why so many of you seem to be seeing it. I’ll nudge the relevant team awake and see if they can shed any light.
Regards
Richard
BUT FINALLY (only 8 hours later…)
[email protected]
07-10-08 16:55 BST 74 of 74
Hi Everyone,
I’d just like to say thanks to everyone who flagged the issue with search yesterday. I’d just like to confirm (and as many of you have already mentioned) this has now been fixed and all users should default back to the new search today.
Many thanks
Kelsy
🙂
#32 Very true Norf, do a search for small fork, there are loads of big spoons 😆
PS Support told me yesterday on the phone and today by email that even 3,5,7 & 10 day listing will not appear in ‘Classic’ Search (i.e. old one that works) if you are charged 5p for them – they are a ‘shop listing’ and will only appear in core on the new search. When I asked how to make that happen they said I couldn’t unless I closed my featured shop.
This was from one one of the nice, intelligent and (normally) very helpful PS people and she was obviously genuinely baffled. I got the feeling she just thought I was mistaken.
This is interesting cos it’s certailny true for all my listings even short (less than 10 day) BINs show only as SIF- but it doesn’t seem to be true for some of my competitors who even though they have a shop have managed to get 7 and 10 day listing – listed yesterday to show in old core search
No-one appears to have clue why this is?!
Mind you … they also stated that only 2% of users are now on the old search 🙂
I’m simply hoping that eventually someone will actually get a correct answer out of SOMEBODY and share it with us all.
This is prolly the reason why I’ve had my best sales over the last 24 hours since the changes 🙄
Looking forward to the next “glitch”…
incompetence runs rife at eBay.. picture a free range farm of headless chickens and you have a snapshot of eBay’s inner workings.
And a headless cock aka Donahoe parading around misguiding the flock.
Their stocks are at 16.50. Shocking stuff. When will their shareholders get together to kick this clown out.
I think they should be booting the heads of Ebay at most of their global sites. All they seem to do is give misinformation and company lines….both those in the US and UK.
this “small control group” statement worries me.
Have ebay decided on the actual format yet or what.
i thought this new system had been tested and is to stay, the testing of the old search still does not sound promising.
lets stick with a plan guys and get on with selling eh…
Its still knackered
When you go to revise an item it takes out the picture and then adds a new insertion fee to the revision
#41 I went to relist something just now and it had taken the picture out, but I just backed out of it and tried again and this time the pic was there.
Something is definitely borked today, it keeps trying to charge me 20p for media listings instead of 10p (basic shop fee). I can’t list CDs today because it looks like I’ll get charged double. (ie the same as non-media listings).
I’m being charged the correct amount for jewellery listings.
What on earth is going on??? Anyone else having problems with media listings?
Kate, have you tried using Turbo Lister?
I listed a few bits this morning and they were charged correctly and seem to be appearing in search.
I’ve just had a quick look on the PS forum and some people are having this problem with TL as well, and there are problems with listing fees in some of the other cats eg crafts.
I’ve just tried using TL to check the listing fees and all I’m getting is an error message on every one which says-
“Error the product you selected does not match the item specifics you provided please update your product and item specifics information”
I’ve never had a message like that before and there’s nothing wrong with my listings, I’m getting this message on every CD I try to check, what on earth is going on?
And I’ve just tried updating a listing in TL to get ‘invalid item’ after syncing.
I’m giving up and having a glass of wine. 🙂
Please, please someone tell me what is going on with media listings.
I can no longer upload CDs from TL because of the error message I mentioned in post #46. So I tried updating TL and the category had vanished! (ie music-CDs) and when I tried to put it back there were no categories, just a blank page. I tried the ctrl-alt/shift/r thing, no difference. I tried uploading and got “the category selected isn’t valid”. I then removed the pre-filled item info and could then get the categories – but then there was no option to use pre-filled item info!
I don’t use the stock photos or even have the info showing on the listing (I just copy and paste the track listing and then correct all the mistakes in the info as it’s often wrong) but just having it there can help with searches.
have ebay got rid of it altogether? I can’t even find prefilled item info using the SYI form.
I just don’t know what on earth is going on.
#48
There does appear to be a TL fix available to download now.
Basically the category for Music CDs has changed and is now #307
You should now be able to enter a EAN to find an item
#49 Yes it seems to be fixed now, and also you can revise currently listed items to add prefilled item info as well now, which you couldn’t yesterday.
#50, Nope, eBay has managed to screw things up again. as of 19:55…
Music > CDs
is showing..
Albums (1)
Not Specified (696,194)
The tiny percentage being picked up in subcategories like a total of 400 in CDs > Pop are all from overseas sellers.
As it stands right now. It’s inpossible to browse sub-categories in CDs
My customers are beginning to ask my why I no longer sell on eBay – I am still selling on eBay, it’s just that now the search is defaulting to ‘Best Match’ my items are no longer appearing.
Also, I fail to see how this Best Match works, because I have better feedback, been trading longer and am cheaper than my competitors yet I do not feature on the stupid Best Match – I hate it.
Please someone help me understand what I can do to get a better listing, and why have eBay done this? It doesn’t make sense.
I wish ebay would stop updating things they are no good at it they always mess things up .I am one of the people that always do opt out to use the old search as i hate the new one its awful. due to there forcing of paypal on sellers a company that is not to trustworthy with your money i will now only use http://www.ebid.com as i can list for free with no final fees.