The new math

[moltencore]

the good old days... put up 30-40 items per week and make between $750-$1000. put up 100 more and make way more. no problem.

today... suddenly open a store, put up 2,900 items per week and make $750-$1000 for the week - but hey the auctions are free.

and.. btw thanks for flooding the category with all those unsold goodies.

rant over.

[pierrelebel]

You raise a very valid point.

One would think that by listing more auctions, it would eventually lead to more sales.

Unfortunately, when looking at the big picture, the reality of the eBay marketplace remains that the same amount of money will be spent by the same buyers, regardless how many listings are added to the site.

To get more sales, eBay has to attract more buyers, with more money to spend. Otherwise, sellers are dividing the same pie in different pieces maybe but the total does not change.

[moltencore]

You are correct.

Personally, I don't think that flooding the marketplace with what could possibly be millions more listings than usual helps a buyer actually find what they are looking for.

My idea. Make the items that have actually paid for to be listed visible to the buyers. what a concept, huh?

[femmefan1946]

I agree that Free Listings attract the wideboys and the delusional. (I wonder if it's time to list my 22 karat diamond again?)

Even a 5 cent listing fee will discourage many of these and make more money for eBay, both in the fees and in savings on bandwidth.

We only have to look at the cries of pain from listers (I can't say sellers) who can't understand why they have to pay anything-- possibly for anything.

[art-in-the-making]

Perhaps this trend will get out of control more quickly than eBay imagined and it will become impossible to find legitimate items for sale amongst the frivolous free listings...

Possibly causing them to dial things back?

[moltencore]

We only have to look at the cries of pain from listers (I can't say sellers) who can't understand why they have to pay anything-- possibly for anything.

Think I'll start using the term 'lister'. good one. 🙂

You're so right. And these listers are bringing we supposed sellers down with them.

[guessfourless]

I'm really frustrated today...
There is one seller in my section "GUESS"  who is listing like there is no tomorrow. He will post every hour or two and make it a 24hr auctions so he can be right back at it the next day posting hundreds of identical items!?  To make matters worse he's doing this with only a few items. I checked his store out and he has 5-6 duplicate listing for each pair of jeans.
So if he's got 5 pairs in 5 different sizes  there are ateleast 25-30 listings for those 5 pairs all the same info all the same price. He's not getting any real bids - only making it more difficult by flooding the screen with his items.
Will eBay do anything?? I thought you weren't allowed to create duplicates in such a manner where the product/price everything is the exact same??

[pierrelebel]

The official policy can be found here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/search-manipulation.html 

There is nothing wrong with sellers selling one day auction and repeating them every day.

However, if the seller offers exactly the same item (size, colour etc) at the same time, you can use the "report" button in the listings to report him for violation of the "duplicate listings" policy.

[cumos55]

A store allows one to build up inventory.... No duplicates....

Then the buyer can make multiple purchases and save on postage.....

Buyer will buy 6, 8, or even 10  items.... 

Sell in a niche,,, and build up a niche,.

Buyer will save even if another seller will have one of an item at less cost.

A multiple purchase will save on postage....

[dipmicro]

I think eBay is changing the duplication policy for auctions and needed massive amount of duplicate auctions to develop and test the tools. Once the tools are fully operational, the free auction promotions will stop ... just my speculation.

[vickyg*]

You raise a very valid point.

One would think that by listing more auctions, it would eventually lead to more sales.

Unfortunately, when looking at the big picture, the reality of the eBay marketplace remains that the same amount of money will be spent by the same buyers, regardless how many listings are added to the site.

To get more sales, eBay has to attract more buyers, with more money to spend. Otherwise, sellers are dividing the same pie in different pieces maybe but the total does not change.

Finally, an intelligent and accurate depiction. The problem is, how to get Ebay to concur.