This could get ugly for eBay, if the meat of the story is true. “Accidentally” and “test” at a time when a lot of folks are watching the listing numbers?
Mystery listings are appearing on eBay that don’t allow shoppers to bid or buy. The listings appear to be feeds from Shopping.com sellers. A look at the User ID sdc_prod_301013_74, for example, shows the seller has 27,076 listings - but the ones we clicked on did not have bid or buy buttons. Users found multiple User IDs with the preface “sdc” - a commonly used nickname for Shopping.com
A discussion about the listings began Friday night on eBay’s Feedback board. Some posters believe it is a sign that eBay is trying to inflate its listing numbers to mask any effects of the seller boycott. Because of the dearth of data from eBay, Wall Street analysts put a lot of credence on listing numbers to gauge the company’s marketplace performance. This month, everyone studied listing numbers to try and measure the impact of the seller boycott. And sellers have been prowling the site looking for any evidence of manipulation.
Others believe the “sdc” mystery is a test eBay is running or may be a glitch.
Update 3/1/08: eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman responded by email on Saturday, “This was a limited test that has run its course.” I appreciate the update on a weekend and, if I learn more next week, will update this post.
Update: 3/2/08: eBay posted on its Systems Announcement board around 5:30 pm Eastern, “Some Shopping.com listings appeared accidentally on eBay.com over the past two days. This system issue has been resolved. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”
The dark part of the story is the possibility that the eBay response to the boycott was to put up vast numbers of phony listings so that their numbers would look better.
I’m sure that is true for a thousand other companies as well. What I don’t understand is your need to open, read and comment on a thread that has no interest for you. Why would you even open a thread on eBay if you don’t care anything about it?
This is what I see: Thousands of people work full time selling on eBay. Tens of thousands more get significant part time income from the bay. For them, the boycott is akin to a strike, serious business. Some sellers are joining the strikers, others can’t take the hit on potential income and are crossing the picket line. Some of them are whistle and flute makers that are members here. If what is alleged is true, eBay’s actions are an attempt to break the strike by puffing up their numbers so that folks will give up and go back to business as usual.
/edit to add: I quoted the entire passage at the time, the SPAM allegation was added later. All I can do is laugh at that one.
Taking a quick look at the ‘joined date’ and the ‘post count’ might give yu a clue that Bill is not even remotely a spam artist.
Not having eBay would hurt me, a lot. I don’t live in a large urban area, and find a lot of what I need on eBay. With the price of gas these days, it is cheaper to have things shipped. I also sell items on eBay.
I have heard nothing of any boycott.
Also, though they have tightened things up, there are always folks who get a kick out of worming their way into such places, and putting up fraudulent listings. I would be more apt to believe that is what is happening than that eBay is pulling tricks. They have a very good business, and it would hurt them a lot to have people not trust them.
It would be interesting if there were a bit more credible competition. The only player I can think of who could mount a plausible attack would be Google. They have online shopping experience, and they also have online payment infrastructure in place with Google Checkout. I’m not sure they really want to open that can of worms just now though, what with uncertainty about the plans of their two main search rivals. They could find that they’ve already got a bit of a fight on the horizon.
I’ve bought quite a few of my instruments there. Though it’s really a “seller’s market”, there are bargains to be had from time to time if you know what to look for.
I’m a fan of two sports teams (West Virginia University Football and Newcastle United Football Club) which are not in my area, and 100% of my “gear” for those teams was bought on Ebay.
I’ve sold a TON of stuff which otherwise would be cluttering up the garage. People will buy nearly anything.
So it’s sad if they mess up what has been a good thing.
The look on the kid’s face is what really does it for me…“Huh? WTF?”
I too have bought and sold quite a bit on Ebay.
I’ve bought quite a few of my instruments there. Though it’s really a “seller’s market”, there are bargains to be had from time to time if you know what to look for.
I’m a fan of two sports teams (West Virginia University Football and Newcastle United Football Club) which are not in my area, and 100% of my “gear” for those teams was bought on Ebay.
I’ve sold a TON of stuff which otherwise would be cluttering up the garage. People will buy nearly anything.
So it’s sad if they mess up what has been a good thing.
I’ve done my fair share of buying and selling on ebay too. Just speaking for myself, I’ve been pretty dissapointed in them lately since the policy changes…
The last thing I sold was one of my camera lenses left over from my erstwhile photography business. I’d previously sold most of my gear on ebay, and got a better price for it all than if I’d sold it locally, so when I discovered this lens in storage I thought I’d put it up for sale (this is how I became aware of their policy changes)…I got about $500 for it, which was probably about what the local market would have paid…that’s not what was dissapointing, though; my fees for the sale were almost $75! I’d never paid that much to sell something on ebay before.
I, for one, am participating in the boycott, even though I’m not a big seller/buyer anymore. There’s just no need for policy changes; if it ain’t broke, why try and fix it, right? that’s just my philosophy on the matter.
Whenever I buy/sell anything nowadays, I use a local classified utility that one of our local news channels sponsors; it’s totally free to buy or sell anything. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=13
It does look like eBay is skewing further toward buyers. Interesting.
There were auction sites before eBay existed and there will be again if eBay
disappears. It’s a pretty easy thing to keep up once you get the software
working, because you don’t have to handle warehousing, shipping, or anything
physical. All the problems are in the service and legal departments. The only
reason I can figure out that eBay became the “only” auction site is marketing.
Really, there are several competitors, including auction.com and uBid.com
which will have less exposure as long as eBay retains its user base.
Absolutely. BillChin is BillChin. Accuse him not of spammage, but, rather, conversation. Like Cork, I care nothing for eBay, and so I mightn’t have even looked into this thread except for my antennae twitching, and look what I find.
Hell, Cork. A lot of people feel that way about Ebay. The organization has lost its way, and gotten greedy. A wise soul once said something like “pigs get fat -hogs get butchered”. What we seem to be seeing is a mild skinning of Ebay by the sellers, which if Ebay has any sense, will stop them from being butchered. If they aren’t careful, someone will come up with a more successful model, and they will be an appendix in internet history. You can be forgiven. Maybe. Me, I just don’t give a damn.
Don’t worry folks, Google is watching from the darkness and I’m sure getting ready to knock eBay off balance. You can’t resist Googlelization for long Paypal will be the first to fall, then eBay will be next.
Paypal will be the first to fall, then eBay will be next.