Strange eBay phenomenon

[Earthian]

In the last month or so , I have seen many featured listings on eBay "jumping the queue" in the newly listed order (which is the default for the domain category) ...

at first , they are at the position where they were first listed and some time later they appear above many listings that were listed after them ...





I am not talking about listings that get featured plus and appear in the featured items section after they were initially listed in the main section ... I am talking about featured listings that "jump" in front of many other featured listings while both were in the featured items section before and after the "jump" ...

as you understand they get more visibility because many people that visit the domain category , first look at the top spots ...





I have seen this happen many times but was reassured when I saw a 10-day listing with 1.5 days left , which was under mine (although for only about 10 spots , while it should be for way more for 8.5 days listed , (maybe it "jumped" again ?)) and suddenly some minutes after I listed a featured auction which appeared on top for a little while , this listing was on the top spot with 1.5 days left ... ?????







- Have you seen this phenomenon ?

- Do you have an explanation ?







the "hours" left in listings should logically decline as you go down while the listings are in the newly-listed order (while the "days" left can fluctuate because of the different lengths of listings , 1-day , 3-day , 5-day , etc) ... if you check the times here (the domain category navigated from eBay homepage , newly-listed is the default order) while there is a declining pattern for the "hours" left for "most" domains , there are many listings that are out of this pattern ... If you are watching the category for some time you probably have noticed some auctions "jumping the queue" also ...


NOTE: For what is described in the above paragraph ... "Show time in:" should be in "Time Left format" and "Show Time Listed for newly listed sort" must be unchecked for "Browse sort by:" (both in "Customize" link on top right) ...


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[Earthian]

Hasn't anyone else seen this ???



there is another way to see what I am talking about ...

compare the "Time Listed" of some items (on the the right in the domain category) with the "Starting Time" in the listing itself ...

Note: In "Customize" (top righ) ... "Show time in:" should be in "Date format" and "Show Time Listed for newly listed sort" must be checked for "Browse sort by:" ...



Some listings have 2 , 3 , 4 or 5 days difference between when the listing started ("Starting Time" in the listing) and "Time Listed" in the "front" of the domain category ... which is strange ...

 

[The Stealthy One]

I've seen it, too, but I don't know what causes it. It could be a low-profile hacking case. Have you posed the question to eBay?

 

[Earthian]

Freeway - quite many listings have been doing this in the last month (some even more than once) ...



I think it is some kind of trick too ... probably some code in the description ... because , in some listings that I looked , there is a revision on description at the time of the "jump" (and when the "Time Listed" in the front of the category is "renewed" (as described in the above post)) ...



I asked Live Help on eBay about two days ago (describing the phenomenon) and the customer service agent told me it is because the listing is revised ... while I know that this does not happen since I've revised listings on eBay many times ... plus , it is revised not listed or relisted ...

 

[lipps]

Here is something that will help you gain exposure on ebay under 2 and 3 letter domains
In the title put "not 2 3 letter domain" This will trigger the bot to put your domain under 2 and 3 letter domains. Far fewer domains listed there and good exposure.
I have seen this going on alot
List first under domains/.com wait a day then revise the title.
Perhaps this has something to do with it.

 

[goodkarmaco]

I sell many products on Ebay. Some are items I have multiples of and I may have a wk or ten day lisitng for a certain product. If I want to garner some quick cash I may create a new listing of the same product and list for one day with a "buy it now" at only .50 cents above the auction listing I have for that product in a ten day listing.

So you may be seeing a repeat listing that is designed to get a quick buyer. Why wait until the auction ends if you see a simalar product from the same seller ending in only a day at a half buck more than the ten day listing?.

 

[DotWeekly]

Here is something that will help you gain exposure on ebay under 2 and 3 letter domains
In the title put "not 2 3 letter domain" This will trigger the bot to put your domain under 2 and 3 letter domains. Far fewer domains listed there and good exposure.
I have seen this going on alot
List first under domains/.com wait a day then revise the title.
Perhaps this has something to do with it.

This is Keyword Spamming and is not allowed. I did it once and had my lising removed. I know several people do it, but the one time I did it, my listing was removed. I called my rep and pointed out that around 100-150 other listings are exactly the same as the one that I had. She stated those were to be removed as well. (but they never got removed)

So I would not advise to list 2 3 4 in your listing!

 

[Earthian]

lipps - revising the title does not cause this effect (I tried it to check) ... it must be some kind of code added in the description ... or some other trick ...




goodkarmaco - that's not it ... it is the exactly same listing that "jumps" the queue and not a BIN for the same domain ...

 

[ablaye]

This is Keyword Spamming and is not allowed. I did it once and had my lising removed. I know several people do it, but the one time I did it, my listing was removed. I called my rep and pointed out that around 100-150 other listings are exactly the same as the one that I had. She stated those were to be removed as well. (but they never got removed)

So I would not advise to list 2 3 4 in your listing!

I have done too but my listing were never removed. Someone must have reported you.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Oh, interesting.

 

[Earthian]

the featured-listings-jumping-the-queue phenomenon continues quite strong on eBay ...

just today I saw a listing going to first place from way down (it was listed many days ago) ... then in an hour's time another one jumped over it (again old listing , not newly listed) ... and then after another hour the one that was on top before the two "jumps" (which probably jumped before since it was a 5 day old listing) jumped again from th e third to the top spot ... lol










Yofie - you have been eBaying for some time now ... haven't you seen this phenomenon ? ... I am kind of thinking that featured listings aren't really worth it with these types of practices ...










goodkarmaco - there is a very easy way to spot the listings that have jumped ...


go to the domain category ...
on "customize" (on the right) ...
put "Show time in:" ... "Time left format"
and on "Browse Sort by:" ... have "Show Time Listed for newly listed sort" unchecked


as you scroll down in the category , time left should be declining ... taking into account the different listing durations ... 3 , 5 , 7 , 10 days) therefore the hours/minutes should be in a declining pattern while calculating the different durations ...


eg.
9d 23h 50m
9d 22h 50m
9d 21h 40m
6d 20h 50m
9d 19h 50m
9d 18h 50m
4d 17h 50m
etc


the ones out of this pattern have "jumped" the queue ...










to verify the ones that "jumped" ...


spot a possible listing ...
on "customize" (on the right) ...
put "Show time in:" ... "Time left format"
and on "Browse Sort by:" ... check "Show Time Listed for newly listed sort"


go to the category ...
right click on the possible listing ...
compare the "Time Listed" for the listing on the right of the front page of the category ... with ... the "Starting Time:" in the listing (in "Listings and payments details:" click "Show")


do you see what I mean ???


many listings have a 2 , 3 , 4 or 5 day difference between "Time Listed" and "Starting Time" which is not logical since the "Starting Time" of a listing is when it is "listed" ...

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[cache]

why do you want to know the newly list? Isn't the last minute bid the what we
should be intereted in?

 

[Jo]

Here is something that will help you gain exposure on ebay under 2 and 3 letter domains
In the title put "not 2 3 letter domain" This will trigger the bot to put your domain under 2 and 3 letter domains. Far fewer domains listed there and good exposure.
I have seen this going on alot
List first under domains/.com wait a day then revise the title.
Perhaps this has something to do with it.

This is VERY annoying to us that have automatic emails set to notify for 2 and 3 letter auctions.

why do you want to know the newly list? Isn't the last minute bid the what we
should be intereted in?

Sometimes the "Buy It Now" is supreme.

 

[Earthian]

cache - while someone is ready to buy ... and while being an experienced (or rather experienced) domainer it is wiser to sort the listing in "ending soonest" order and scroll down to the regular listings (which many times end cheaper than featured due to less exposure)






but ...


- if someone is a business person looking for a domain and has visited the eBay domain category for the first , second , third time ...

- if someone is a rather new domainer and hasn't been accustomed to eBay yet ...

- if someone justs wants to check the new listings for the day , to see if there is anything interested to buy or to check what's on sale and for what prices ...

- if someone just navigated through eBay categories from the front page (Computers & Networking > Other Hardware & Services > Domain Names) ...


then ... the order they see the domains at is the "newly listed" order (and of course the featured on top) ... this results in greater exposure to the featured listings and especially to the top spot(s) which are the first that someone sees when he arrives in the category ...

"newly listed" is the default order when you navigate from the homepage or any other page to a search result or category .. to verify this , log out and go to a category as a guest ... also people who visit a category quite often many times have the "newly-listed" order as default so as to check out what's fresh and not see the same listings the saw before again ...












Jo - BINs are sometimes very useful on eBay ...


also ... many people use the "newly listed" order as default , so that they can buy a good BIN bargain the moment it appears ... eg. a good domain at a fair price that others might try to BIN quickly too ... or a domain in a really low BIN price that won't stay long in the category after it appears ...

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[Earthian]

I contacted Live Help about 4 days ago and the agent understood clearly the situation above and said that I should contact Trust and Safety about it ...





I sent a rather long (and detailed) email to Trust and Safety 2-3 days ago ... and today I received a reply ...


"... Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your report of the unfair listings which seem to be jumping the queue.

We will thoroughly review the information you provided and will take the appropriate action in accordance with our listing policies and User Agreement. ..."





If you visit the domain category (and while "Time Left" , not "Time Listed" , appears on the right in newly listed order) you will see the time left in most (recently listed) listings now follow the declining pattern I described a couple of posts above ... it is possible that they found the trick and disabled it ... or they are in the process of resolving the issue ...





the reason that I persisted with this issue is because ... due to this trick , legitimate listings get much less exposure that the ones that "jump" making the eBay domain category a more difficult marketplace than it already has been in the past ... though ... there was an increase in end-price amounts in the last 6 months or so ... and of course a rather large decline in "traffic" in the last month due to the summertime internet slowdown)





As an epilogue to this post , I have a link to an article about a rather funny eBay listing ...

angry wife sells husband's Lotus Esprit Turbo for 50p BIN on eBay

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