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Thu May 18 2023 15:22:57

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

By: Reader

Sponsored Link

Dear Ina,
Thank you for the news flash e-mails. I just wanted to comment that over the past couple weeks at eBay website, when scrolling various categories of items for sale with the 'sort' feature set to "newly listed", the newest items are often no longer displayed first but are now mixed with other items that are NOT new listings.

For example, when I type "remington xlr" in eBay's home page search window (looking for electric shavers & parts by Remington) under 'All Categories', click the search button, then set sorting to "newly listed", I must scroll down to the 15th listing to arrive at the first "newly listed" Remington item for sale. The other 14 items I scrolled past are not new listings. Same thing happens when I type "Archgon dvd drives" in eBay's home page search window under 'All Categories', click search button, then sort to "newly listed": I must scroll down to the 5th item listed before I come to the first "newly listed" Archgon disc drive.

However, when I type "string quintet" in eBay's home page search window under 'All Categories', click search button, and set sorting to "newly listed", ALL newly listed string quintets will appear as a block as the first listings - as they should be. There seems to be a pattern of when eBay decides to mix newly listed items with older listed items - when sorting set to "newly listed" - and when they don't mix but instead show all "newly listed" items first (like they used to). And the pattern appears to be this: If there are only 1 or 2 new listings and a buyer sorts for new listings, eBay will move the new listing down forcing the buyer to first view older listings. But, if there are MANY new listings - such as the string quintets - then eBay will list them together as the first listings when sorting is set to "newly listed".

The purpose of this change by eBay seems to be forcing potential buyers to view not just "newly listed" items but ALL items within a category when the "newly listed" option is chosen - if there are just a couple new listings. This prevents buyers from zipping in & out of eBay when looking for a specific new listing, forcing them to view more items. But this is somewhat dishonest on eBay's part.
Dr. J

Comments (9) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: pace306

Thu May 18 15:45:29 2023

$10 says those first listings are “promoted listings”

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: Rexford

Thu May 18 18:09:00 2023

Small sellers' newly listed items must have been getting more attention that eBay's golden child big brands and Chinese mega sellers listings so perhaps eBay "fixed" it. Speculation on my part of course.

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: Snapped

Thu May 18 19:33:45 2023

Subtitled: Another buyer learns eBay doesn’t care what THEY want either.

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: Fruitylovesyou

Thu May 18 23:32:01 2023

EBay won't listen to anything you have to say unless you're the chosen. So accept it and poop on their carpet as you look for a better way.

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: toolguy

Fri May 19 11:05:49 2023

I just did this search: Remington xlr in all categories

I got 115 results and they are in order!

The newest being May 18 and the oldest Sept. 26

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: iheartjacksparrow

Fri May 19 13:51:16 2023

I just did the Remington XRL search, sorted by Newly Listed. The first listing was marked as new, all the rest were not marked as new. I didn't check on the dates.

As far as the Archgon DVD Drive, sorted by Newly Listed, there were none marked as such. There were a total of 16 listings.

Since eBay minions read this site, they probably fixed the Remington issue.

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: pace306

Fri May 19 14:08:27 2023

These issues are all eBays "mini Bud Lite" situations

For Bud - it was - whats more important - your ESG score or your customers.

For eBay, its - whats more important - small sellers and the goods they provide or your mega donors.

We saw how its going for Bud, will eBay learn ?

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: Marie

Sat May 20 02:06:45 2023

You may just be noticing this, but it has been like this since they started Promoted listings, years ago. Pesky things in my book, but some seller feel they are the way to go to get their items sold.

eBay No Longer Honors 'Newly Listed' Sorting?

by: Lightning

Mon May 22 00:19:41 2023

I just did the Remington XLR search, and all were in the proper order as Newly Listed, no sponsored listings at all on the entire page. None that have the word ''SPONSORED'' showing in gray, that is. And for the first time in recorded history, the search came back for me with Newly Listed as the default, instead of Best Match. It's a true miracle!

Interesting that on that same page, if you hit Ctrl+F (find) and type Sponsored in the search box, EVERY listing has a narrow band of highlight color on it at the bottom, a sliver, barely visible, about the same length as the word Sponsored. So it appears the search is finding the word everywhere, it's just hidden. Is it always there, but just as white text on a white background, if not activated? I'm using Firefox as a browser, YMMV.

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