How does everyone feel about this "Best Match" Feature?

[gifts_of_elegance]

I hate it! I noticed my listing that ends in 4 hours is shown AFTER listing that ends in 18 hours!! I sell authentic Swarovski items, made by Swarovski and bearing the swan logo yet fake items that are posted as "Swarovski" (only resemblance is it sparkles too) take precedent as "Best Match" over my authentic items. I also noticed that many auctions that end within a minute are down at the bottom of the list, preceded by listings that have hours to go.
I can understand eBay feeling the need to "reward" their best customers and I have no problem with them showering them with gifts or other perks, but not at the expense of other sellers. We all pay the same for a listing and it makes no difference if we sell one 99 cent widget a month or a dozen million dollar items, we all deserve to have our products marketed equally. History has shown that such practices of favoritism is an invitation for corruption (kick backs, protection money, extortion) and limits freedom of expression from the little guy trying to make a living.

[dipmicro]

momoftwingles2, I have similar multiple items per order.

I have setup a weight categories: 70g, 150g for Light Packet/Lettermail and 200g/400g for Small Packet - leaving myself an allowance for 30/50/100g for packaging.

The S/H for additional item is calculated as the allowed weight divided by item weight. E.g. 7g item can fit 10x into 70g so 1/10th of the S/H is used as additional charge.

This is for S/H automatically calculated. I have no combination rules, so when buyers buy 3 different items, eBay calculates higher rate. If they request the invoice, they get advertised S/H, if they do not request it we only refund the excess when higher than $3.

I tried to have $0 for additional shipping before and rely on buyers to either request invoice or add weight and calculate their own shipping but this did not work. They are more likely to get communicative when overquoted S/H than when underquoted.

Plus they get nice warm feeling when eBay calculates S/H of $30 and they messages us all scared and we fix it to $3 on the invoice 🙂 Happens all the time.

[recped]

Susan, I'm with Xena, your stuff is suitable for Small Packet. Just list using a Flat Rate, one for USA and one for the rest of the world (don't worry about Canada).

You don't need to try to set up combined rates, that's probably where your difficulty is but it won't affect Best Match anyway. Just state in your listings that you offer good shipping discounts for multiple item orders.

[art-in-the-making]

Best Match is terrible.

I believe it is arguably illegal - because of misrepresentation

* buyers are led to believe they are getting a balanced presentation of goods for sale and they are not

* sellers are led to believe they are buying an even opportunity to sell their goods ~ yet I have seen many items finishing on Page 4 of listings with many items finishing the next day appearing on Page 1 of listings, for example. You can find numerous examples of sellers who paid for "Featured Item" listings who nevertheless fall into this trap.

Beyond that, BM sucks completely and thoroughly.

* for finding, it has the opposite effect that it is supposed to have - it is counterproductive to give specific or unique descriptions of your product

Think about it: there are 50,000 paintings on eBay, all of these now try to use the same 3-5 "mandatory" key words (original, painting, by, abstract, oil, nude) and mix 'n' match with maybe a dozen other keywords that do not appear to give you a negative BM effect (tree, landscape, canvas, modern, surreal, etc...).

In effect, (in the art category) if you describe your listing with anything beyond the most banal words, you are penalized and go to the back.

* Free Shipping overpowers all other factors in BM - OK we get it - eBay thinks it deserves to make a cut on $ being spent on shipping. I get it, it is still coercion.

* recped's theory that if BM disadvantages one seller the advantage is gained by another is mistaken. Many buyers will simply not buy if they do not find what they are looking for. If sellers are forced to use lame generic titles so as not to disadvantage themselves by including a more specific description, then the buyer will just not buy. (granted in some categories where for all I know you can have 50,000 listings with one seller like stamps, books, postcards or whatever, the descriptions will continue to be more specific and varied even under BM)

* using a creative title to incite a purchase by a buyer BROWSING is made nearly impossible

* BM encourages ridiculous situations like the "New Art Trend" on eBay of artists painting with "acrylics and oil" just so that sellers can include the word "oil" in their listings. I am sure this is repeated across eBay in various forms. This cheapens and further damages the reputation of all eBay sellers

I could go on and maybe will... later:-)

[whoscloset]

I've noticed that Best Match likes to advantage new sellers who have no selling feedback. I guess this is ebay's way of encouraging newbies.

Since eBay has chosen to base a seller's ranking upon ONLY a 30 day DSR rating...you should be developing multiple selling ids. If one id becomes disadvantaged...use the other id for the 30 days it takes to clear up. You should be able to stay relatively advantaged if you have 3 separate id's available at any given time.

[lina-mallows]

BEST MATCH IS GARBAGE !!!!!

Time after time I have been screaming this from the rooftops.

It may work in a world where whatever WIDGET you are selling is easily interchangeable with someone else's WIDGET.

In the REAL WORLD of collectibles- where each item is much like a SNOWFLAKE- no two are alike. And, shipping charges, and other considerations have little impact on the buyer's decision. The item speaks for itself. And what are often very minor differences in the physical description, or photo, of the item have more influence over the buyer's decision to purchase.


As STARBUCKS CARDS are both COLLECTED- and USED as a STORED VALUE CARD- eBay fails to understand the difference that some are looking to collect- while others are searching fro a discounted PRELOADED VALUE Card to actually use to BUY coffee. THESE ARE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CONCEPTS- ACTUAL STORE USE- AND COLLECTING! eBay can't get this figured out- so BEST MATCH is absolutely a mess when these two concept are mixed together!

[tea_past_times]

I think we should all try to be more optimistic. Jobs are scarce in our small towns, and if it wasn't for Ebay, what would we have.

[ameroindustries]

I Have Givin up caring if i make money good for me if i lose money thats fine too . I enjoy ebay i enjoy selling so i guess i just work for ebay now i have lowered all my s/h fee's i let ppl extort me for money .

Best match does not matter for me cause im the only one in the catagory selling in mass so they have to put me up there even though im "lowered" status .

We run our family under a communist type system anyways no one owns anything we all own everything together and share .

Except ebay isnt shareing with me much other than headachs so only unfair thing .

[gifts_of_elegance]

"Best Match" implies "most like what you are looking for" whereas under new eBay practice it means "these are the ones we favor and want you to buy". I deal mostly in Swarovski and I can truly say that the items under "Best Match" often don't have anything to do with Swarovski. I typed in "Swarovski Necklace" on eBay.com. It brought up 3,876 listings. Out of these, 103 were listed under the catagory "Collectibles, Decorative Collectible Brands, Swarovski, Jewelry. I looked through all 3,876 listings and ONLY 45 were actual Swarovski necklaces. I mentioned this to my account manager and she replied that she has noticed that before. When I asked WHY they have not done anything about it, her answer was that she has noticed that too and I should report these listings to eBay. Nice, huh?

[gifts_of_elegance]

My ratings have taken a beating in "shipping cost" and "shipping time". The items I sell cannot be shipped cheap. I have taken a 20% loss last year on my shipping charges and that does not include cost of boxes, styrofoam and bubble wrap that I have provided "free". (I use all new packaging). I also spent 4-6 hours each week at USA Customs so that I could mail some of the bigger items from USA to save costs and shipping time. From here-on I will have to pay 8% duty. What used to cost me $45 to mail from USA to Australia will now cost $165 to ship from Canada. Perhaps recped in his infinite wisdom could help me solve this problem. I hate to loose my over-seas customers, they have given me 40% of my business.

[gifts_of_elegance]

My rating dropped down to 99.1% and I have been advised that I need to work on my Customer Service and until I improve, visibility of my listings have been lowered. I have never misrepresented any item but sometimes I don't get paid and I am forced to file for FVF. Remember, my items are not cheap, so it can be $40-75 at times. More often than not, these have earned me bad feedback. Another one is people that are livid that I refused to lie on the Customs Declaration and they had to pay duties. Negative/neutral feedback guaranteed.
I know I am not the only victim here, many of my fellow eBayers are suffering the same fate.
Maybe the only solution here is to follow recped's example and sell only very low priced items. Noone really cares if they loose a buck or two.

[gifts_of_elegance]

Because of reduced visibility my sales last month dropped to about 50% and I bet its going to get a lot worse yet. I pay more eBay fees in a month than some Power Sellers sell in a month and eBay is destroying my business with their new rules.

[whoscloset]

Interesting "Best Match" at work. Check out this search for the term Salt Lamp...

http://search.ebay.ca/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=salt+lamp&category0=


A BRAND NEW EBAY ACCOUNT WITH 0 FEEDBACK IS AT THE TOP, WITH A LISTING THAT DOESN'T END FOR 5 DAYS! AND THEIR SHIPPING CHARGES ARE OUTRAGEOUS!

[whoscloset]

The above post proves the theory that I espoused earlier...

Open up and develop some new id's so you have the ability to switch between seller id's when one is being disadvantaged by an obviously flawed system.

[pierrelebel]

That is the way it should be based on the new emphasis eBay.ca places on items located in Canada.

Canadian sellers get priority in Best Match, regardless of all other factors.

This emphasis also benefits your listings when competing with items coming from outside the country.

I do not agree with the emphasis on Canadian location but that is what the management of eBay.ca decided. They seem to think Canadians sellers need to be protected against foreign sellers as if we could not compete on equal footing. It is wrong, it is wrong, but it is the way it is.

As a result, I suspect Canadian sellers will eventually find themselves on the short end of the stick on other eBay sites. .

[whoscloset]

I don't have a great deal of problem with emphasis being placed upon items located in Canada. I do have a bit of a problem with a brand new id landing at the top of search for 7 straight days when sellers with years of proven customer service suffer.

[pierrelebel]

He's the only Canadian in the search! ;-) .

[gifts_of_elegance]

We can hash it anyway we want. The whole system stinks! Everyone pays the same for the listing service and everyone deserves to get the same service. Listings should be shown in order of time and not be affected by favoritism. As this does not cost eBay anything, it is NOT REWARDING as they put it. eBay is trying to get their sellers up to a certain level by not providing the service for which they are paid. Just how do they think they rate with their customers? Do they not owe us the same professionalism that they would like us to practice?

[lina-mallows]

Well- having given this some thought-
MAYBE it's time we all write to our buyers/bidders explaining to them that they should remove BEST MATCH as the default option. Likely many do not even know how they are being manipulated by eBay.

Suggest that they use- NEWLY LISTED, or ENDING SOONEST as their default option.

If we could convince ALL/MOST of our regular bidders to do this- BEST MATCH would not be an issue.

[lina-mallows]

EDUCATION is the key to success.

Why do most sellers take for granted that our buyers/bidders are knowledgeable about BEST MATCH?

Maybe it's time to educate them!

[gifts_of_elegance]

lina-mallows: If I was operating a corner grocery store in a small town, I could educate my purchasers. I am a faceless internet seller offering my items to people all over the world, so where would I start?
I doubt if any sellers think that buyers/bidders are knowledgable about BEST MATCH. On the contrary, knowing that they are NOT is the problem.