As a Buyer, what 3 things would you wish to change from sellers' listings/ebay searches?

[trainofthought]

I'm thinking more about the aspects that discourage or hinder a bid/purchase, rather than the experience after a purchase. For me:

1. A buyer using AI description is off-putting. If they can't string a sentence together themselves then I have little faith in them.

2. Item photo - I don't buy "used" items from stock photos.

3. No description but relying on the useless item specifics.

(And I have to mention that I do wish ebay's searches just returned explicitly what was searched for, nothing else, I know what I'm looking for!)

[m25jet]

In addtion to the things that you have already mentioned, here are three things that tend to result in me deciding not to buy from a seller:

1.  Failure to describe the item properly.  Items listed for sale require a clear, concise item description in order to grab a potential buyer's interest and help sell the item.  So, for example, if I was looking for an electric guitar I'd want a clear description regarding its overall condition, any upgrades it may have had, any accessories included, whether it needs restringing or any major work done on it to get it working properly, etc, rather than just a short sentence saying something like "Electric guitar for sale" and nothing further.

2.  Listings with the Best Offer option on them, with an unrealistically high Buy It Now price.  Due to eBay's decision to demand that the buyer provide full payment details before the seller has even had the chance to consider the offer, let alone accept it, I no longer use the Best Offer function and 99% of the time now just scroll past any listings that I see with the Best Offer option on them, the only exception being if the Buy It Now price is not overly expensive and the item appears at first glance to be worth clicking on and looking at further.

3.  Items listed without making it clear as to what postal service the seller is using, especially as there are certain couriers that I would make a specific point of avoiding if I knew that the seller was using them.  If the seller can't even be upfront about small details such as this then what's to say that they're going to be more forthcoming with any additional information that you may wish to ask for upon which to base your decision as to whether or not to make a purchase?  In instances such as this I tend to treat them as though they're despatching items with one of the couriers I would want to avoid and ignore all of their listings.

[davidninetynine]

Sellers using the "reserve price" option.  I have always avoided bidding on those listings (in 23 years of using ebay).

The seller should enter a starting price that's the minimum they will accept, and let the market decide if somebody is willing to pay more.

[department28]

1. I would like to be able to set the default location on Search results to UK only.

2. Remove sponsored items appearing in between the item photo & the description. This is unfair to sellers & distracting for buyers, having to scroll down to read the descriptions. And it looks untidy.

3. Replace the handy Postage & payments tab, that used to be next to the About this item tab. The new 'pop-up' postage details box is more fiddly & the link is not obvious.

And I think almost everyone finds the AI descriptions useless & off-putting.

[auctionmike1]

How about images that AREN'T out of focus?

[incredible_how]

I didn't know it was possible to not show what postal service was being offerred...

[incredible_how]

AI decriptions are bananas and only rejig item specifics and say really weird things.
Out of focus photos.

Not answering questions.

[doomed-doomed]

Totally agree with the AI thing. If someone can't be bothered writing a description of THEIR item, I can't be bothered buying it, and move on to someone who can.

I had someone in work use Chat GPT to write parts of a technical report I reviewed a few days ago. Boy did he regret that decision!

[ed_58611]

"Other" is allowed without specifying the exact courier.

[incredible_how]

finally made my way to the bottom of the list - not been to those depths before!

[zoomingmouse]

For the search to return matching results <size 3 is no good if you take a size 5 shoe!>

Remove the ability to have a start price lower than the actual price once you open the listing

More than a one word/line description, & more than 1 photo as I like to see all angles, especially if  it’s used

[fashionista27]

there is a free google extension - "eBay item location - My country only"

[forestfeline62]

I dislike the fact that when you go to list something ebay tell you to start at 99p ,what a mad idea . Why can't they just let us sell and encourage it instead of making it a competition where they hold your items back and push others forward . So many sellers with lots of negative and neutral feed back yet ebay say they are top rated sellers and always  give exceptional customer service ????.  Perhaps if companies like Ebay were run by real people instead of robots who don't understand you when you want to talk to a human on chat they would  have a happy customer base and could take the lead in the world of online buying and selling . As it is now there aren't many happy people 

[fashionista27]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/How-to-set-location-default-to-UK-only/td-p/34314134

[eburtonlab]

@trainofthought 

I do wish ebay's searches just returned explicitly what was searched for, nothing else

If you are having problems with keyword substitutions or corrections, try putting one of your search keywords in quotes to disable any substitutions or corrections, forcing eBay to return only exact, literal matches. You may have to explicitly change the category after searching, as doing that also disables the automatic category navigation.

Avoid "Best Match" sort order as well, as lately that sort order produces more unrelated results compared to other sort orders.

[eburtonlab]

@department28 

Remove sponsored items appearing in between the item photo & the description.

It is possible to do that by using the element hiding tool of a desktop ad blocker add-on -- at least in your own browser.

[m25jet]

@incredible_how wrote:

I didn't know it was possible to not show what postal service was being offered...

Although it isn't possible to deliberately choose not to provide a postage option, unless the item is Collection In Person Only, it is possible to choose something along the lines of "Other Courier", which doesn't exactly make it clear which company the seller is using to despatch his or her sold items...

[m25jet]

One other thing that I would like to change about eBay searches would be the current scenario whereby if you click on an item to have a look at it but subsequently see something that puts you off of buying you will often end up receiving unwanted offers for the item, even though you didn't put it on you Watch List!  If eBay want to have this function on the site whereby the seller can send you offers, then perhaps they should reprogramme the site in such a way that all Buy It Now listings, regardless of whether they have the Best Offer option included, have a "Show Interest" button on it to tick if you were considering purchasing the item but hadn't made your mind up yet, and set it up so that only people who had actually ticked the "Show Interest" box could actually receive offers on the item.  This could come in useful if the asking price is too high, especially if there is no Best Offer on the listing, as that way the seller might decide to make an offer that reduces the price by enough to persuade a potential buyer to commit to the sale.  However, I doubt if eBay would ever implement such an option, as they only ever seem to introduce new features that do not offer any real advantage to either buyer or seller...

[zoomingmouse]

I had an offer just the other day on a pair of boots that I'd viewed, but hadn't put in my watched list. 

The reason I'd opened it was because I liked the look of them, but the size was not in the title.

Being a size 5 I would have to chop my toes off to fit them @ a size 3 ... it's another silly idea that wastes potential buyer’s time.

It's another annoyance.  Instead, bring back the pop up that you used to get-  gave a bigger pic plus gave the main IS info like size, brand, etc. 

It was very useful & quick.

[department28]

Agree. I think offers should only be allowed to be sent to Watchers, not to anyone who has just happened to look at an item.

There are all sorts of reasons for looking at an item... sometimes I'll look at something I have absolutely no interest in buying... but there is a cat in the background... 😄