• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

eBay's latest stupidity
3 3

199 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, comicwiz said:

These are being generated from feeBay's own links, not something I've mined external to the site.

In addition, there have been situations where I have performed a search on "sold" items, and when clicking one of the results in the array, it would take me to a "recommended" item or current listing, with the blue banner and link saying the listing is no longer available. When clicking the listing link contained within that blue banner, it takes you to a preview page of that listing.

You click the "original listing" link from the preview page to see the full listing, and feeBay decides to take you to another stupid "recommended" listing instead of the original listing, and you have to cycle through the madness by clicking at least 6 times before you finally get to a past listing that used to take one or two mouse clicks.

There is nothing normal about it, and this is all happening on their site. And I've been working for the past month on an appraisal assignment, researching at least 3 comparables for anywhere from 25-50 items a day in a 600+ piece collection. This has only started happening over the weekend.

Got my subscription to worthpoint. I used to think I was fine researching using feeBay, but this is absolute madness and if feeBay is monitoring these discussion, what you've done here is insulted both sellers and buyers intelligence with this move. You did it to pad views on listings no one would care about clicking or even checking, but because you're forcing people to look at them, you're artificially creating a "views" metric for your buyers to believe your site is driving activity to their listings.

This will catch up with you the same way clickbait scams have caught up with others.

Hmmm not sure what to make of your situation with ebay.  I would try other computers & browsers to see if you can get the original view.

I'm not seeing this issue on my end, just checked again to be sure. Usually when ebay changes something they just do it and don't make it sometimes work and then othertimes not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, GM8 said:

 

There are two different ebay pages for each listing, and this is not new. The first one from above is normal, desktop listing information.

The second is a special version of the page that I get only when googling an item and opening that item through google search results. It is less informative and disorienting since I'm so used to seeing the "normal" desktop version.

I would say make sure you are searching ebay through ebay, and not in a google search bar.

The first one above is NOT normal, it looks normal, like the traditional ended listing details page. But that listing on the screen is not the one the user was originally looking for, it is a new/active listing that eBay has suggested, and that eBay has redirected the user to unwillingly, because as it states in the text in shaded blue box the listing the user was looking for is no longer available. How is the page different from the old one? The text added in the blue box and the hyperlink attached to the word LISTING is new. Not a huge deal since you can still click on the LISTING hyperlink and access the old page with all the listing details for the ended listing you are actually looking for. However, the second screen does not give the user ANY option to see the actual ended listing details they were looking for.

Some users are seeing neither of these new screens. Some are seeing one, some are seeing both.Nobody knows if this is a bug or a feature. Call up eBay and they won't be able to give you answer, because they don't know and/or are lying. There is speculation that with eBay's recent acquisition of Terapeak that they are moving towards charging a fee to eBay users to access detailed sales data and other analytics and that with the new changes implemented on June 1st that eBay has quietly started to remove user's ability to see details for recently ended items on purpose so that they can charge for it later.

I bought this game on Thursday, May 31st:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173341846906

I tried accessing the listing details page on Saturday, June 2nd. eBay would not allow me to access the listing details page, it redirected me to a screen like the 2nd one RMA captured above, with a suggested alternative listing that was still active.

Today, if I copy that link I posted above into my browser (while I'm logged in on eBay), I can now see the listing details page. However, if I copy that same link into my browser when I am not logged in on eBay, the site redirects me to a suggested alternative listing. The same thing happens if I log onto eBay under a different account than the one I used to buy the item. I'm guessing if other users click the link I posted above they too will be unable to see the detailed ended listings page and instead be shown an alternative active listing for the same product.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, GM8 said:

 Usually when ebay changes something they just do it and don't make it sometimes work and then othertimes not.

That is not true. When ebay makes an announced change, they change it across all servers at the same time. When they make unannounced tweaks (like this one), they roll it out slowly across their servers-- not everyone sees the change immediately.

This is a new tweak. It's not because of someone's computer, or browser or anything else on the user's end.

FWIW, I'm seeing this change as well. I mostly get the "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you.", maybe 3 out of 10 times I get the " The selected item is no longer available." page.

I keep track of auctions I'm watching by bookmarking the auction into a specific folder, and a few times a week I will load all the bookmarks into separate tabs. This week, most of the auctions ended and I couldn't see any of them without additional clicks. This is one of my "favorite" :eyeroll: new bookmarks. Auction ended on 5/20.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/STRANGE-TALES-19-Jun-1953-Atlas-1-0-fair/183224853694?hash=item2aa90d64be:g:UUMAAOSwaMpZpjBM

Click the link and you get shunted to a different book. Click the "listing" link in the blue bar, and you see the ended auction, and can see the item was relisted. Click the relisted link, get sent back to the same alternate book, click the listing link and now get sent to the ended relist.

Edited by stock_rotation
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, stock_rotation said:

That is not true. When ebay makes an announced change, they change it across all servers at the same time. When they make unannounced tweaks (like this one), they roll it out slowly across their servers-- not everyone sees the change immediately.

This is a new tweak. It's not because of someone's computer, or browser or anything else on the user's end.

FWIW, I'm seeing this change as well. I mostly get the "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you.", maybe 3 out of 10 times I get the " The selected item is no longer available." page.

I keep track of auctions I'm watching by bookmarking the auction into a specific folder, and a few times a week I will load all the bookmarks into separate tabs. This week, most of the auctions ended and I couldn't see any of them without additional clicks. This is one of my "favorite" :eyeroll: new bookmarks. Auction ended on 5/20.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/STRANGE-TALES-19-Jun-1953-Atlas-1-0-fair/183224853694?hash=item2aa90d64be:g:UUMAAOSwaMpZpjBM

Click the link and you get shunted to a different book. Click the "listing" link in the blue bar, and you see the ended auction, and can see the item was relisted. Click the relisted link, get sent back to the same alternate book, click the listing link and now get sent to the ended relist.

I don't get it. This was relisted and didn't sell. You're saying it sold and the page with the sale price isn't available?

Unless this sold, I don't see anything different here. I use ebay all the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very strange.  I did a search for X-Men 143 CGC and 4 out of 5 past sales let me view them.  The 1 gave me the "sold but check this out" page.  Glitch much?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently bought an X-men 101. I sent it to CGC & it came back B-1. I went to go look at the original listing again, but it's not letting me view it. It takes me to a "recommended" current listing.

 

I think I read somewhere that Ebay does all their upgrades on Thursday. So hopefully this coming Thursday they will have received enough negativity concerning this that they'll put things back to normal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, GM8 said:

 

There are two different ebay pages for each listing, and this is not new. The first one from above is normal, desktop listing information.

The second is a special version of the page that I get only when googling an item and opening that item through google search results. It is less informative and disorienting since I'm so used to seeing the "normal" desktop version.

I would say make sure you are searching ebay through ebay, and not in a google search bar.

I got both of those results searching at and through eBay, for the same seller, for items ending on the same day (a couple of days ago), within minutes of each other (in this case, ASM #320 and Crisis #1), on eBay

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, stock_rotation said:

That is not true. When ebay makes an announced change, they change it across all servers at the same time. When they make unannounced tweaks (like this one), they roll it out slowly across their servers-- not everyone sees the change immediately.

This is a new tweak. It's not because of someone's computer, or browser or anything else on the user's end.

FWIW, I'm seeing this change as well. I mostly get the "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you.", maybe 3 out of 10 times I get the " The selected item is no longer available." page.

I keep track of auctions I'm watching by bookmarking the auction into a specific folder, and a few times a week I will load all the bookmarks into separate tabs. This week, most of the auctions ended and I couldn't see any of them without additional clicks. This is one of my "favorite" :eyeroll: new bookmarks. Auction ended on 5/20.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/STRANGE-TALES-19-Jun-1953-Atlas-1-0-fair/183224853694?hash=item2aa90d64be:g:UUMAAOSwaMpZpjBM

Click the link and you get shunted to a different book. Click the "listing" link in the blue bar, and you see the ended auction, and can see the item was relisted. Click the relisted link, get sent back to the same alternate book, click the listing link and now get sent to the ended relist.

This is the page I got the FIRST time I clicked your link:

1098448432_st10ebay.thumb.png.fb280399af767cbdc2619057e6d04fc5.png

I'm looking for the specific listing linked. I'm not interesting in that "similar item." I can still do an EXTRA CLICK and check out the actual listing I'm looking for, but that's just more frustration.

I suspect darkstar is dead on, that eBay is now going to start charging for access to completed listings. Morons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This also makes a LOT of random listings get ton's of more views than normal.... so the seller may think that they have a "hot" item and up the price...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Very strange.  I did a search for X-Men 143 CGC and 4 out of 5 past sales let me view them.  The 1 gave me the "sold but check this out" page.  Glitch much?

I'm convinced it's got something to do with using it as a research tool. I have noticed (just now) the ratio is somewhere between 6:1 and 10:1, that you will encounter at least one instance where you pull up an old listing in preview mode, try to see the full listing by clicking the "original listing" link, and be shown a stupid listing not related to what you're trying to look-up. The blue banner with the "listing" link will show up, you then click it, it takes you again to preview mode, and then when you click "original listing'" link, it takes you to the listing finally!

Look three posts below for an accompanying post I made as a visual reference of what I'm describing here.

Edited by comicwiz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm able to see the sold items but a few days ago I wasn't.  I'm sure they're using A/B testing/analytics to see which approach is more effective for selling which is why you're occasionally seeing the old format.  We can only hope they fully revert to the old way.  The new format is annoying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Gaard said:

I recently bought an X-men 101. I sent it to CGC & it came back B-1. I went to go look at the original listing again, but it's not letting me view it. It takes me to a "recommended" current listing.

 

I think I read somewhere that Ebay does all their upgrades on Thursday. So hopefully this coming Thursday they will have received enough negativity concerning this that they'll put things back to normal.

It won't even let you view the original through "purchase history" (or whatever it is)?  To me thats a bug, not a feature.  They should allow you to view historical listings for purchases.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is exactly the sequence of steps I remarked about above which I encountered while looking-up an item using the keywords "Bowen Mysterio" - after viewing the results page below (step 1), I click the item I've highlighted using a red arrow:

Step 1

screen1.jpg.c898c2de0680d0d7d8958dad84f60f99.jpg

After clicking the link, I am taken to what I refer to as a preview page. This is because it provides you with a thumbnail view of the item, the listing title, and price sold. You are also shown the shipping cost. However, to view additional images or the original listing description, you need to click the "original listing" link

Step 2

screen2.thumb.jpg.6d070f8837234aa03f1df1650e6768ba.jpg

Ordinarily, clicking the "original listing" link would take you to the full listing page, and you would be done. In this latest edition of feeBay skullduggery, you are now presented with a Step 3, even though you neither want to, or care for the recommendation they are presenting you:

Step 3

screen3.thumb.jpg.1fa5d1a44820fc5310ded19483be3b3e.jpg

So after realizing this isn't the item you've been wanting to look-up, you see a blue banner with "the listing you're looking for is no longer available", and "listing" in the sentence is a link. You click the "listing" link and it takes to you to:

Step 4

screen4.thumb.jpg.96ca5e8fbbbe56a278e2d2d3643c92e5.jpg

So you're back to Step 2, and realize this is just the preview screen. So AGAIN, you click the "original listing" link and...

Step 5

screen5.jpg.16aed4eacb4e2fcb4879b7b095b594a5.jpg

This, the final step (5) should actually have been Step 2. I assure anyone here who might think this is nothing new, or normal, that this only started happening this weekend (Saturday, but possibly as early as Friday evening) and never happened to me with any research I've done using eBay until that time.

I also want to make it clear this doesn't happen every time, but will occur if you are looking up different items, and I'd say it's a random thing that I've noticed happen when looking-up past sales on 6 or more different items.

Edited by comicwiz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

Here is exactly the sequence of steps I remarked about above which I encountered while looking-up an item using the keywords "Bowen Mysterio" - after viewing the results page below (step 1), I click the item I've highlighted using a red arrow:

Step 1

After clicking the link, I am taken to what I refer to as a preview page. This is because it provides you with a thumbnail view of the item, the listing title, and price sold. You are also shown the shipping cost. However, to view additional images or the original listing description, you need to click the "original listing" link

Step 2

Ordinarily, clicking the "original listing" link would take you to the full listing page, and you would be done. In this latest edition of feeBay skullduggery, you are now presented with a Step 3, even though you neither want to, or care for the recommendation they are presenting you:

Step 3

So after realizing this isn't the item you've been wanting to look-up, you see a blue banner with "the listing you're looking for is no longer available", and "listing" in the sentence is a link. You click the "listing" link and it takes to you to:

Step 4

So you're back to Step 2, and realize this is just the preview screen. So AGAIN, you click the "original listing" link and...

Step 5

 

This, the final step (5) should actually have been Step 2. I assure anyone here who might think this is nothing new, or normal, that this only started happening this weekend (Saturday, but possibly as early as Friday evening) and never happened to me with any research I've done using eBay until that time.

I also want to make it clear this doesn't happen every time, but will occur if you are looking up different items, and I'd say it's a random thing that I've noticed happen when looking-up past sales on 6 or more different items.

Ok I see what you're saying. They're adding an extra layer...annoying but they already make you click on extra time to see a sold item's details, this seems like just another layer.  Ebay's gonna ebay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, GM8 said:

Ok I see what you're saying. They're adding an extra layer...annoying but they already make you click on extra time to see a sold item's details, this seems like just another layer.  Ebay's gonna ebay.

It's not just that. See above. There are times when there is no way to find the listing you're looking for. In certain cases, they're completely removing your ability to see an ended item at all.

This is no accident.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Edited. This seems to be something they are actively fiddling with right now. When I started this post, my original bookmarked link worked like it did last week-- taking you right to the auction ended thumbnail page. 15 minutes later and it's reverted to the "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available".

Edited by stock_rotation
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

It's not just that. See above. There are times when there is no way to find the listing you're looking for. In certain cases, they're completely removing your ability to see an ended item at all.

This is no accident.

I don't think that's true... yet. Right now, if I click enough times on a link, I'll eventually get the original listing. But it seems very random and is obviously annoying.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

I don't think that's true... yet. Right now, if I click enough times on a link, I'll eventually get the original listing. But it seems very random and is obviously annoying.

 

If you keep getting the #2 type screen...without the hyperlinked word "listing"...there's no way to get to the original listing.

Sure, you can keep trying and it looks like right now you'll eventually get there, but at what price? 5, 6, 7, 10 clicks...? No one's going to tolerate that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
3 3