@mjwl2006 wrote:The herd coming to the counter is just that, herding instinct.Getting back to Best Match then, we are all now in agreement that the Old Store versus New Store format is not a factor in Best Match and therefore not responsible for your lower-than-expected placement in the Buy Canadian promo? I would hate to see new sellers think they have somehow gained the advantage over an older, established seller simply buy buying a New Store subscription.
Actually, the "herd" phenomenon might explain eBay rushes and slumps from time to time as well. As we all know, eBay promotes specific types of items at various times in its targeted advertising (and interestingly, I've noticed the advertising varies widely by site). EBay advertises in one category, prospective buyers see countdowns to listings ending, or others ending with sales and hurry to buy.
I think you're misunderstanding what I was saying about the old v. new store format. I filtered my by degrees, starting at the main page, not using Best Match. It's quite possible that new/old store type could be a factor in Best Match as well, but I didn't particularly check for that. I was searching the way my buyers would be likely to search. So no, I don't think there can be agreement on that question, since no one can really know for certain what criteria, in what weight, go into Best Match (except eBay of course).
My point in mentioning the results of my search was not that my particular placement in the Promotion was lower, but that the overwhelming majority of listings in the top 20 were "new format" store owners. In fact, all except 3 were new store owners, with 9 listings by one "new format" seller. That seemed peculiar -- and interesting. How precisely that result was generated by eBay and on what basis, who knows? But the result was significant enough that it meant something, somewhere was giving preference to "new format" store owners.
Actually, new sellers (at least on .ca) can still, as far as I'm aware, choose to use the classic store format, although someone who moves into a store currently may be first presented with the "new format". In which case, yes, all I can say is that based on the type of search I did, where all other main factors were equal, older sellers using the old store format, appear to be given lower preference in results. That may or may not apply to Best Match as well.
As I've said previously, this probably makes sense from eBay's viewpoint. They have been phasing out or simplifying some of the more useful "old store" features for some time now. I think it's only a matter of a few more months before the "new store" format becomes mandatory for everybody.
As slick as the "new store" format looks, buyers will no longer be able to get any sense of the real person(s) behind the storefront, which I will regret. Larger sellers of mass-produced goods likely won't care (and those who were unaware of the customizing available with the old format may not even know). EBay will be happy. It will have succeeded in creating a plain vanilla site where all storefronts look the same and the people behind them are more or less anonymous. Online Wal-Mart. Yet I know there will come a point where it no longer makes sense to hang on to the old style. I'll be sad to see those personalizing pages go.
My apologies, I'm straying off topic again, although I'm thinking that my "old format" store may be partly responsible for lack of sales from the Buy Canadian promotion. My sales generally since July? Overall much more erratic than usual, bigger bursts of activity with bigger slumps, the postal dispute notwithstanding. Who really knows why. Or we can just blame Donald Trump, he's got a whole lot of people in the world both mesmerized and worried. 
Although I am currently selling other items that's temporary and not important to me. As such, I don't control it the way I do my purses and how that stuff comes up in a search may not be under my control (although I do have a few tricks that haven't been mentioned here and work very well. 
My observations regarding GTCed listings are about the collectibles I sell and specifically purses.
eBay does not control the way my purses come up in a search. I do. I'm in control and that's one of the reasons I chose purses.
If I have the right buzz words in my title and have the item categorized correctly virtually every knowledgeable collector searching on eBay will see my item.
I always get a surge of sales right after listing and just before the 30 day cycles end. The surge at the beginning of the cycle is because experienced buyers search for new listings. The serge at the end is because new buyers don't control the search and those items get a boost in Best Match just before the 30 day cycles are about to end.
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