Triplicate listings!!!

[angus_coin_shops]

Please have a look at these three listings, 370802861660, 370811324513, 350837074726. It is the exact same item being sold.

They were reported to eBay as duplicate, triplicate listings on two or more occasions but fell on deaf ears or blind eyes.

How does he get away with it? Now is it me or is there a double standard going on?

If I was to do this, eBay would be all over me like a fly

[bb_cool_stuff]

some sellers have been suspended for listing for a week for a few accidental duplicates ( even ones they instantly fixed themself )

That happened to me a few years back, listed three items all different, but forgot to change the Title.

Never noticed, my mistake I should have checked, until i received a notice the next day informing me i was suspended from listing for a week.

Newbie mistake, i took my lumps, & that never happened again.

[angus_coin_shops]

How strange,

when you do it by mistake> you get slapped

when you purposely do it to get around the policy, like in these 3 listings, he gets away with it.

[lady.stark]

If I recall correctly, his listings would be in violation of the policy ONLY if he didn't meet a "sell through" rate. Listing one: 0 out of 10 sold. Listing two: 1 out of 3 sold. Listing three: 3 out of 5 sold. So maybe he is meeting the sell through rate and therefore is not in violation of policy. But I may be wrong, since I don't remember what was the right percentage...

[anguscoinshop]

Please look at the listings, it is the same report being sold in 3 listings. It doesn't matter what the qualifications are, this is a triplicate. It is against ebay policy to list the same thing more than once.

[tobyshitzu]

No the sell through thing was dropped a long time ago

You can have unlimited auctions as ebay will hide the extras without a bid (and you cant change the title to get around that) or 1 fp.  There is an exception in some circumstances to have 5 if its an accesory specifically made for different items.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-multi.html

These listings are clearly in violation, but there are piles violating that policy, the payment policy or fee avoidance policy.

[cumos55]

Except for the title the three listings appear to be identical.

The three items should be in one listing with three of the same item available in that one listing.

eBay will catch up to this seller..... might take a while

 There was a seller  who had about 8 of the same item.

First listing of one item at a high price.... close to $40

Second listing  of one item  at a different but lower price.

Third listing was for six of the same item,  each priced at $15.00.

Listings were spread over a 30 day period...  Took about 8 weeks for things to change.....

Seller eventually had only one listing with several of the same item listed  at one price...

[reallynicestamps]

I revised my price on several occasions. He has a watch on my listing and he undercutmy everytime.

So the problem is less that he has "duplicated" listings than that he is a competitor who is willing to sell for less than you will?

Has that been successful for him?

I had an antique dealer in a shop next door to mine some years ago who, when his items didn't sell, raised the price. His belief was that many buyers believed that the higher the price of the item, the higher the quality of the item.

How can you improve your own listings to make your items more attractive? Sell the sizzle not the steak.

[cumos55]

Found the following book to be an interesting read....

Title... How to Sell at Prices Higher than Your Competitors

Subtitled ... The complete book on how to make prices stick

Year of publication ... 1994

Author ...Lawrence Steinmetz

ISBN ... 0-9631-9230-2

There is more to selling than pricing.... 

Profitability is more than the price of an item.... However, the selling price of an item does define a part of the profitability picture....

How to compete without lowering your price.....

From personal experience...

Sometimes you price it and leave it......  several times  an item has sold not because it was the lowest price.

There are also too many sellers who do price "too high", making it easy to underprice the competition....pricing at an acceptable... and profitable level.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are many things to think about.

There is an "acceptable" price for everything.... where the buyer is more than happy... and where price is not the only consideration

Being the lowest does not necessarily make the sale....  One can find many low priced books on major book-selling sites... However, many buyers will never by a book priced less than $10.00.

Fighting a competitor  on the basis of price can result in your selling your item at too low a price....  Let the competitor worry more about you than the reverse... because when the competitor's item sells....  the next in line is your item

[anguscoinshop]

You are getting away from the subject matter. I also noticed the same seller is also using the system in other ways. Listing exact same items, one in us$ the other cdn$. Now that's circumventing the policies to the limit.

[cumos55]

Triplicates have been identified

Triplicates have been reported to eBay.

Now is the time to wait.... and wait.

Perhaps report them again at some time in the future.

Playing the "Who has the lowest price game"  is not necessary.

Set a price for your one listing... a price you would be happy with.... and acceptable to a buyer

If eBay does bounce this seller... then you will have the only listing for this item on eBay... for a short period of time.

and... Perhaps  your listing will sell at this time.

You do have many other listings on eBay ... and eventually this one listing might also sell.

Competitors do make it difficult at times....  and that is to be expected....  but not with a triplicate listing.....  and even without the triplicate   there would be one listing with three available....  less competitive... but that number 3  is still there...

Now is the time to wait....

[pocomocomputing]

Off topic.

Congratulations cumos55 on reaching 4000 feedback!!

[angus_coin_shops]

Actually, I see that this sellers has a lot of listings violations(same item in cdn$ and US$) circumventing policies even more.

It is difficult to compete with three of the same ending at regular interval. I have been reporting these three listing every day for the last five days.

I can only conclude from the lack of eBay response that it is now allowed to list the same item several times.

[cumos55]

It will take time....

If you do report the three listings...  wait a week or two between each report

Report other violations as well as other duplicates, triplicates and more.

eBay has more than this one violation to look at ... and the line up before anything happens is quite long.

[lady.stark]

Off topic: Yeah, congratulations on your 4000+ feedbacks Cumos!!

On topic: I did also report that seller to help the OP, because I do agree that there are many listing violations. Let's hope eBay will do something....