Interesting side effect of copying and undercutting another seller...

[ricarmic]

I found this interesting.

Another seller copied my exact title of a reasonably rare item and priced it at about half my price.

Both their copies sold relatively quickly at the cheaper price.

The bots noticed that this title was selling well (remembering that the other seller copied 100% of my title wording) and after the last one of the other sellers sold out, the bots started sticking mine out in front of folks and I sold mine at my price without even getting dinged a promoted listing fee!

My prices are strong for this item, I only have a couple left, very low chance I'll ever get more, so I'm in no rush to move them, eventually they'll go at my prices.

Anyway, it is interesting to me that the "copy and undercut" approach ultimately helped me in the end as well.... I was originally annoyed at the 100% copy until I realized hey, that benefitted me in the end!

[msau4301]

Nice to read something posted with a happy ending! Would be made even better if the other seller saw that you sold yours for twice the amount he did. Patience is a virtue as you have shown here.

[msmaggie060]

I've noticed this as well. Well, not the copying, but if I see an item selling that I have one of, if I put mine up for sale right away it has a good chance of an immediate sale.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@ricarmic wrote:

I found this interesting.

Another seller copied my exact title of a reasonably rare item and priced it at about half my price.

Both their copies sold relatively quickly at the cheaper price.

The bots noticed that this title was selling well (remembering that the other seller copied 100% of my title wording) and after the last one of the other sellers sold out, the bots started sticking mine out in front of folks and I sold mine at my price without even getting dinged a promoted listing fee!

My prices are strong for this item, I only have a couple left, very low chance I'll ever get more, so I'm in no rush to move them, eventually they'll go at my prices.

Anyway, it is interesting to me that the "copy and undercut" approach ultimately helped me in the end as well.... I was originally annoyed at the 100% copy until I realized hey, that benefitted me in the end!

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I am finding, as of late by doing a search to see ALL results you have to click on the first item that comes up and then look at what is promoted to get all(rest) of the results. Unsure if anything non promoted has become very well hidden but that is how it is appearing.  If something comes up with a low number of results in many cases the majority of newer listings are being created using AI. (The wording used is a dead giveaway.) Doing the physical research is going out the window.

-Lotz

As a side, because of what I sell on several occasions I have found items identical to mine listed overseas where title, description and photos were copied from mine. Right down to the packaging scuffs. 

[ricarmic]

Yes I've seen my pictures "borrowed" several times over the years as well.

Most of those sellers are gone, or they have the problems of folks realizing hey NOTHING that was in the pictures is in my lot.... and the related feedback and likely other problems as a result.

I've adopted the "ignore the borrowers and carry on" approach and it's served me well..... very well this time indeed!

[reallynicestamps]

This does work better in categories where listings are for one of a kind or unusual items.

Less so, if the item is mass produced and widely available.

The cute part here is that the two lowball sales, led to a full price sale, and better placement in Search for ricarmic.

High fives all around!

PS Look what I found-
https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/dvsygr/high_five_cocktail_codex/

[byto253]

I knew a seller back in early days when you hosted your own pictures. 

Some folks would directly link to his photo host to use his pictures.  When he saw that he would do a new link for his own photos, and for the photo the other seller linked to replace it with a different, hmmm, non-PC picture!  

[msmaggie060]

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@byto253 wrote:

I knew a seller back in early days when you hosted your own pictures. 

Some folks would directly link to his photo host to use his pictures.  When he saw that he would do a new link for his own photos, and for the photo the other seller linked to replace it with a different, hmmm, non-PC picture!  

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I remember those fun times! Some of those replaced photos were really funny and some were definitely "different".