NO LONGER SELLING DUE TO SIMPLE DELIVERY

[rugbyguy1960]

AS OF 15TH APRIL MY DAYS AS A PRIVATE EBAY SELLER WILL STOP AFTER 19 YEARS.

I AM FED UP OF THE GREED OF EBAY AND I HOPE OTHER EBAY SELLERS DECIDE TO NO LONGER LET THE EBAY CONTROL FREAKS HAVE THIS MUCH CONTROL OVER PRIVATE SELLERS.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"Any dates or updates on it please?"

Not even Customer Service will give dates or updates, let alone us poor souls left to wander in the dark.  It seems to be the case that more and more people are being converted, but I've still got a few items that haven't been and so have other people.

I looked at a selection of your items, and the ones I looked at were all being sent by Tracked 48, which is how Simple Delivery items are sent (either that or Tracked 24), but the costs still look like custom costs (ie Royal Mail price + a little for packing costs).

However, you might find that if you try to revise an item, a banner will appear saying that the item has been converted.  Listing a new item is most likely to be put straight on to SD.

I've also read that some people don't realise that they've been converted until the item has sold.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

When I looked at your listings, I noticed that there was an icon in the bottom left-hand corner of your pictures which I've never seen before.  I assumed it was probably a link to a pop-up enlargement of your picture, but when I clicked it, it took me to a page on which there were dozens of similar items for sale from your competitors. 

Is it just me, or is this a new low from ebay, to hijack customers' listings - directly from the customer's own photo - to try to encourage interested buyers to buy from a competitor instead?

[department28]

I did see a grey pop-up box saying, 'Find similar items, See all the items on eBay that match this style', but I didn't notice that it was pointing towards the tiny icon that you spotted... 

They have already squashed as many 'similar' & 'related' items as they possibly can, underneath & in between the main item photo & item specifics - so now they have added this link to 'similar items', to all the photos in the search results page, as well... 🙄

[heglo_59]

Thanks for your reply. Yes as far as I can work out, all my items are still on custom which is why I asked if it's still happening. When I go to list something new, there's no option of custom, as you say, so I think that's it now but was just wondering if they're still changing everyone's current listings. So I guess that's a yes, it'll happen eventually 🙄 I've seen the similar items thing but didn't realise it's literally on my listing page. My selling has slowed right down recently, suppose about one a week if I'm lucky, maybe that's why. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

This screenshot is what I see when I click the icon from heglo_59's item photo.  Ebay have even minimised hego_59's photo in order to maximise the impact of their competitors.  The "best match" competitor listings are from overseas; it's only lower down that you see [cheaper] items from this country.  "Best match" is the only option, there's no option to switch to "Price Low/High".

 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"I did see a grey pop-up box saying, 'Find similar items, See all the items on eBay that match this style', but I didn't notice that it was pointing towards the tiny icon that you spotted..."

I didn't get the grey pop-up box that you've seen.  The screenshot below is what I got.  It's just the icon in the bottom left of the photo, so it doesn't tell you that you're clicking through to competitors' listings.  I would imagine that unsuspecting buyers would assume - like I did - that you'd be clicking through to an enlarged photo.  Each of the competitors' listings also had these icons in the bottom left of the picture, and every time I clicked one of the icons, I went through to yet another page of similar items.  It seemed to be an infinite number of pages that I could click through to, making it increasingly difficult to get back to heglo_59's original photo and listing.

 

[3942rick2005]

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-image-scrolling-in-search-results/

[kath3735_wxmjn]

Well i for one am glad that i am departing this site in the next few days!  They are certainly not helping the sellers at all.

[nursediesel]

I dont know if its an all time low. Buying a service from a shipper then reselling that service at a profit and attaching your own Terms and Conditions to it sounds pretty shady and pretty low. Maybe we will call it a tie for how low Ebay can go but they are really lowering that bar daily!

[theelench]

Were any of them from UK sellers or were they all USA ?

Apart from the probability of taking a sale from a UK seller I wonder what the point of it is ?  Do they think that someone looking for a (no insult intended) cheap and cheerful pair of ear earrings is going to change their minds, pay between double and 10x as much plus £11 - £16 for delivery, especially if they want them for next weekend's party?

I would add that I've clicked on the icon when I've been trying to I.D pieces of vintage glass from the 30s.  It's usually completely useless because 90%+ of the images that are 'similar' are modern and from the US.  The only similarity being that (mostly) they are roughly the same shape.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Thanks for that interesting article.  

"Sellers also noticed another icon overlaid on some images in the search results - a magnifying glass which indicates the buyer can click to see a list of visually similar competing items.  Unfortunately, that isn't something new. eBay has been testing variations of this "see visually similar" functionality since 2023.  At one point, they had it overlaid on the images on the actual listing, though I have not seen this recently."

When I clicked the "View Listings" link on heglo_59’s post, ebay had overlaid the magnifying glass icon on the image on most of the listings, except a few where AI seems to have not been able to find similar.  Why a magnifying glass?  It makes you think you’re going to see enlarged pictures, not competitive pictures.

 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"Were any of them from UK sellers or were they all USA ?

Apart from the probability of taking a sale from a UK seller I wonder what the point of it is ?"

The top ones were from the USA, with a few from Australia below.  Then you got UK sellers, some of which were price competitive with the original (c.£4+), but they were mixed in with £35 items and no option to change the sort order to "Price Low/High".   It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  I just don't know what ebay are thinking.  But is anybody actually thinking or is AI making all the decisions now? 

I'd be mightily cross if ebay had imposed their icon on to my image in order to promote competitors' listings.  I've never complained directly to CS before, but I would certainly complain about that one.  You go to all the trouble of creating a listing, and then ebay stab you in the back by encouraging buyers to move away from it.  It's not on.

[theelench]

They didn't take any notice when sellers complained about the lines of Similar, usually Sponsored items, first appeared all over their ads.

This is just another 'next' step and, I suppose it all helps re-enforce ebays message that to be seen, the seller must Sponsor.

To me it just turns every listing into more of a jumble and might even send more buyers searching on Google than ebay ? 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"Well i for one am glad that i am departing this site in the next few days!"

Aw, do keep an eye on this forum - you never know, you might see some good news eventually!  Best of luck with wherever you've gone though 😊

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Yes it's a jumbled mess, where you can't see the wood for the trees. 

"to be seen, the seller must Sponsor."

Don't get me started on that one!  One of my listings might get seen if they didn't swamp it with totally irrelevant search results.

[aymanseller]

Ebay has become a total sham, Zero views on my listing, can’t even find it when I search for it. 

Ebay are slowly shutting down and will declare losses soon. 

[theelench]

Ever since I started on ebay they've always said that to sell you should :

Have a good title

Take some clear pictures.

Write an informative description.

So having done that ebay comes along like a vandal with a can of spray paint and scribbles all over your efforts.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Love that analogy, that's exactly what ebay do.  One of my items is a small *original* watercolour.  The search results annihilate my listing with prints and postcards.  AI obviously doesn't appreciate that a buyer specifically wants an original, not a print.  And it's a seascape - but the search results are littered with listings of trees, and the Grand Canyon appears in the top few results.  It's utterly ridiculous.

[vinylscot]

That's a very good point about the magnifying glass icon. That icon is almost universally used on websites, as an indicator that you should click for an enlarged photo. It's really underhand to unilaterally change its intended meaning. It also looks, from the comments so far, that it's a totally useless feature, irrelevant for buyers and intensely annoying for sellers. Well done eBay! (again)

[rugbyguy1960]

Don't let this platform get to you. It's not worth it anymore. Since I stopped selling here and hardly buy anymore I took a step back and can now see just how low they will stoop to just to gain as much as they can however they can.

Thank god I don't need to sell. This platform is sinking quicker than a lead brick and I don't intend to give this platform 1p more than I have to.

There are just to many reasons why this platform has become one of the worst platforms to buy or sell on.