Are Grouped Listings in eBay Search Helping or Hurting?

by: eXtinctBay

The thing I chuckle about is the ''Trending Price''.

Does the average selling price include shipping?

And is this just a history for eBay sales? Amazon? Wal-Mart?? Sears?? JC Penney??? All?? None???

Time will tell if all these changes to search are working. Hopefully prospective buyers are making an intelligent decision by bypassing what eBay and their artificial intelligence are attempting to feed them, and using the search parameters that are (hopefully) available.

by: JQ

As a buyer, I used this function once, found it completely useless, and never came back for seconds.

EBay management refuses to understand that people what to decide for themselves what they want, and who they want to buy it from. Every time they try to "think" for me they drive me further out the door. I spend about 15% as much on eBay today as I spent before Cassini was implemented. I spend about three times as much on Amazon as I did a few years ago. And until 2014 I actively disliked Amazon and loved eBay. Sea change.

by: Snapped

''Time will tell if all these changes to search are working.''

Riiiight.  eBay 'experiments' - with YOUR time, your product, your visibility, your fulfillment, YOUR customer, and meanwhile...

''EBay management refuses to understand that people what to decide for themselves what they want, and who they want to buy it from.''

10+ years of flipping coins, tossing spaghetti, floating balloons, and tweaks, many perfectly 'timed' to completely discombobulate stability required to prepare for and service holiday season shopping.  Bloviated arrogance.

But sure, hold out 'hope'.  Always a 'chance' - actually, two chances.  Slim and fat.  Their obese take.  Your ever skinnier shot at a sale.  

by: mcposty

Probably helps Chinese

by: phantom

I now only shop at Amazon.
Ebay has become a waste of time.

by: CardyChung

I buy CDs all the time so I love it. I get the lowest price every time. I feel for the sellers who miss out on a sale because they are just a tad more expensive. I spoke to quite a number of eBay sellers in December about this very topic - all of them who use ItemSpecifics hate it without exception.  

by: bb6

Cheapest may be best for CDs, but there are a lot of things that you don't want cheapest. Cheaply priced usually means cheaply made. It also could mean something is wrong with the item so they are blowing it out cheap like a hole, broken for parts or damaged in some way.
When I have looked at these group listings I have seen the pictures of the nice more expensive item and the price of the broken item. You think its a good price then when you click on it you find out its a bait and switch. So I can't see how this is driving sales. Just pissing people off.

Question maybe someone can answer. Ebays explanation for the group listings and product pages is that 80% of ebay is new items. Do they mean Long Duck Dong from China has 1 new comb, 10,000 quantity and John from USA has 1 used hammer, 1 quantity.  Ebay has more new items because its 10,000 to 1 even though both are 1 listing. Is that what they are saying?

by: epuise

LET the SHOPPER enter the parameters THEY want to see.

Show ENDING SOON, NEWLY LISTED, lowest/highest INCL. SHIPPING.

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid

by: Don Wagner

I get a package addressed to my kids almost every day - all from Amazon or Walmart, NEVER from eBay. I think eBay can spin plates and manipulate search results from now til doomsday and that isn't going to change.

eBay used to be a simple marketing solution - now the simple features are broken and the programmers are too busy adding management-dictated complexity to fix anything. I know how it works - meet management objectives by implementing 'something' that kind of works, and sweep bugs under the rug by not logging user complaints.

'No one else has reported this problem' - sound familiar to anyone else here who has ever contacted eBay Customer Support?

by: Filadelfos

I had 20 years in IT before I decided to start my own business and open a physical retail store with an online presence. Programmers don't at all think like end users, and management doesn't think at all. When a company is so arrogant as to do as it pleases without implementing any of the suggestions provided by it's users &/or customers... they fail... every time.

by: Chicago48

I'm sorry but I'm baffled by all this techno-babble.

by: Geetar

Sorry, but when I am looking for something I would like to find it, not be diverted somewhere else. Or be fed a bunch of other stuff. When I want to browse I will go to ebay, but when I know what I want I go to Amazon, because I can find it right away, price may be a bit more but sometimes its less. Time is money, and I dont want to waste my time.

by: Bidonmine

The new eBay group-search is terrible. It doesn't come up on every search, but, when it does, I try to re-word my search or look for other ways to avoid the grouping. A lot more work for me which is why I buy almost everything on Amazon. If it is not on Amazon, then I try Ebay.
As recent as 2014, I purchased almost everything on Ebay... Last year I purchased 211 items on Amazon and 12 on Ebay.  

by: comments

Like many things ebay does.....It is probably a very buyer friendly feature in some categories and horrible in others. Ebay should vary all changes by category because the one size fits all approach is bad for some categories. Take coins for example. A 1909 S VDB in G4 condition is a $600-$650 coin an MS65RD is a $3000 coin. How do you group that?

Even if grade was factored in the groupings (which it isn't) You could have that MS65RD but could be toned in the holder to a RB as is very common, also making it sell for a deep discount. I could see ebay giving that listing priority only because of the coin even if a more expensive one is the more attractive choice.

Other categories might be effected by actual condition new vs like new vs new other vs new open box etc. Any group i have seen outside of a new in box retail items usually has apples and oranges comparisons.  

by: extremetm

When I first landed on the page I thought I made a mistake. Hit the back button and bought on Amazon.