Hello Canadian eBayers,
We are back after a week off for Canada Day. Please go ahead and start posting, we'll be with you at 1 PM Eastern as usual.
@cumos55 wrote:
Gallery Photos
Over the past year it has been noticed that more, and more listings in the books category do not have a gallery photo.
The booksellers without a gallery photo have hundreds of thousand listings….. 200,000….. 500,000 …..one million and close to 1.7 million.
It is understood that eBay has a rule about a requirement for a gallery photo.
One seller with 1.7 million listings has a very… very high percentage of listings without a gallery photo.
How does this occur and why has it not been questioned? And then adjusted
From personal experience it is known that a listing cannot be uploaded without a gallery photo when Turbolister is used…. How do these book sellers get a pass on the gallery photo required rule.
Other book sellers play with photos to provide a photo…
(1) Photo contains the statement…. Photo not available,
(2) Photo contains the statement … Photo to come
(3) Seller has a photo used most often….. The photo contains a stack of about five books…. And is used for many listings….. the book being listed is not in the photo
(4) Seller has a photo with something that looks like the cover of a book….. a single color on cover of the “book”… with the title of the book…. And the statement…..This is not the actual book cover.
These are many ways to bypass the gallery photo required rule….
Booksellers are about the only sellers doing this.
Based on feedback received one finds a lot of condition problems with a purchased book once received.
Booksellers tend to use stock photos for all listings, regardless of the book’s condition
These booksellers have to be reminded that gallery photos are required.
Using a stock photo for any book other than a brand new copy, must be questioned…. based on feedback received….by these booksellers
Hello cumos55,
With literally millions of new listings being published every day, it is impossible for eBay to catch every seller who bends or breaks the rules. We do have some processes in place to catch what we can but since software can't make the right call every time, we have to rely on human review which greatly limits the yield of what we are able to look at before it hits the site. But I'm sure I'm not saying anything you didn't already know. 🙂
With that said, this doesn't mean you shouldn't do things the right way. At the end of the day, the rules we put forth and the guidelines we advise sellers to follow are based on what we know help buyers buy more. So if a seller decides to not follow the guidelines or to break our rules, even if we don't necessarily catch them, it will ultimately play against them.
If you have a specific seller to report, you can either use the "Report item" link on the item page or send me a private email with the seller's ID. I can't promise any outcome but I can pass the info on to the appropriate CS group so they take a look.
@cumos55 wrote:
Duplicated listings….
That seller with the 1.7 million listings has a lot … lots of duplicate listings.
Listings vary in relation to condition and price……. But the problem with these listings is that duplicates use the same stock photo…
A difference in condition of the book cannot be seen a stock photo is used in the gallery photo.
If two listings of the same book use a stock photo… the same stock photo… then the two listings are a duplicate.
This seller also has triplicates differing in condition acceptable, good, very good. But… all three listings have the same gallery photo…. A stock photo.
Why duplicate listings?
Why so many?
Why clog up the listings, and make it difficult for a potential buyer to differentiate among the many different books listed.
Booksellers with hundreds of thousands listing are overloading the book category with duplicates (and some triplicates)
These high volume sellers make it very difficult for other booksellers…. Too many duplicates. And then add in a few triplicates
This sounds more like a stock photo issue than a duplicate listings issue. I know from experience that our duplicate listings detection systems are very robust. Hardly anyone should be able to get away with truly duplicated listings. Condition and price are obviously attributes that can make a listing be distinguished from another similar one. In a nutshell, if a seller has more than one of the same item that are different in condition, they are allowed to list separate listings for them.
@cumos55 wrote:
The photo in the listing should reflect the condition of the item being sold.
A stock photo, the same gallery photo for listings of the same book with a different condition does not do this.
Stock photos are not allowed on items that aren't new. Sellers who do that are in violation of eBay policy. If you see any such listings, please use the Report this item link on the item page. As mentioned earlier, eBay unfortunately doesn't have the resources to catch everyone who breaks listing rules.
@mjwl2006 wrote:
This week you will be spared my twenty questions; I still have 99 listings left that require product identifiers and I mean to have them done, once and for all. Enjoy the peace and quiet! I'll be back next week, mwa ha ha ha.
Hi Maureen,
I just sent you an email with the steps that seem to work for me. Can you take a look and maybe try for yourself?
Thanks!
@tobyshitzu wrote:
Gallery photos. I can speak for games, assume books are similar
Lately relist/sell similar are sometimes dropping the photos. Also ebay's own catalog has increasingly replaced photos that used to be there with "coming soon" or don't have photos at all for newer releases. So I go and relsit everything that ended that had photos, and multiple lsitings no longer have photos. Though they aren't prevented from being listed with ebay's "coming soon" as an image there. Its a problem with ebay that is causing lost gallery images. Used media items can use stock photos
Hi tobyshitzu,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll alert the appropriate team.
Can you tell if this happens only when relisting with BEAR, or does it also happen when relisting a single item?
Ebay has made such a big deal about usign the catalog, but the catalog is beoming near useless. This is a very popular game that is missing all the images. I added images, and my image is remvoed on every relist, left with the coming soon image. The number of popular items that don't even have a listing in the ebay catalog seems to be growing too. The competing marketplace seems to be able to maintain a catalog that is 100% perfect
@cdn_figment wrote:
Just curious on your take on this Disclaimer buried at the bottom of one of the more 'suspect' golf accessory listings;
"Disclaimer: By purchasing the product in this listing you agree to the following: The buyer will not leave a negative or neutral feedback without contacting us first, We are here to help, If the product doesn’t work on your driver, don’t worry it usually is your loft and or hand speed. We will refund your full amount with no return needed. The product works for many golfers. We are fair to all buyers. By leaving a negative and unfair neutral feedback without contacting us first you agree to pay a $250 defamation fee to Layerco."
What, if any, policies does eBay have regarding sellers using a "defamation fee"?
Hi cdn_figment,
That's a first for me, and I thought I had seen it all... I'm actually not sure how the eBay policy applies on this.
The only comment I can offer on this is, how would that seller enforce this? They can't force a buyer to pay such a fee. eBay doesn't have anything in its process to support something like this. At the end of the day, sellers may write whatever terms they wish on their listings, but the eBay rules and policies prevail in case of conflict. And in this case, eBay doesn't allow sellers to charge arbitrary fees for leaving negative or neutral feedback.
May I have the seller's ID in private please?
EDIT: Found them. Thanks for the report, I'll ask someone in CS to take a look.
@cdn_figment wrote:
Thanks for checking on it. Although I understand the sellers concerns regarding unfair feedback I don't think this is the best solution. I'm not sure the seller could have used a smaller font to post this disclaimer.
I've discussed this with a trusted CS contact and we agreed that this disclaimer is likely more harmful to the seller than anyone else. As I said earlier there is no way for them to enforce this, which makes it pretty much a harmless, empty threat. Not the best way to acquire buyers in my opinion.
