Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Ebay instating limits to Terapeak
- This topic has 17 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 10 months, 1 week ago by
Lauren.
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
09/14/2021 at 4:03 pm #93097
Hi,
I’m late to the game, but apparently according to ebay for business since April 15th you can only do 250 terapeak searches a day? I maxed out yesterday and it’s so frustrating because I was looking up weird costume jewelry and 3 months just isn’t enough data. From Ebay for business:
“Hey Lauren, I hope you’re doing well. I definitely understand your concerns with the terapeak searches. I checked up any limits for the program and we do have a 250 search limit per day. This is for all users, not just you. It does reset every day so you will be able to use up to 250 searches today. Let me know if you have any other questions! ~Gabriel”
Ugh.
-
09/14/2021 at 6:35 pm #93098
Yep, that’s news to me. I can live with it, but I’m not thrilled with it….thanks for giving us the heads up on this!
-
09/14/2021 at 7:14 pm #93099
Wonder why they limit searches. Maybe they were having issues with people writing scripts to ping their databases thousands of times a day.
250 searches seems arbitrary.
-
09/15/2021 at 3:17 am #93101
It might actually be a limit of 256, and someone thought “Hang on! That’s going to look suspicious…” and rounded it down.
A friend told me about a Belgian politician who won an election by 4,096 votes more than the number of electors who actually voted for him. Turned out a cosmic ray had passed through a computer and flipped a bit from zero to one.
-
09/20/2021 at 11:55 pm #93183
Super arbitrary. I’m not sure. Honestly I was shocked to hear that it’s so high. I use terapeak a lot as a “what is this item” so I need to get out of that habit and use google for that, and use terapeak for “how much does this cost” if they are going to limit it.
hmmph.
-
09/21/2021 at 2:44 pm #93194
I’m sorry the limits are too low for you. But can I say how impressed I am that you are actually using that many a day??? Great Job!
-
09/21/2021 at 3:09 pm #93196
I posted the information about Terapeak limits to an eBay seller’s Facebook group I belong to. The moderator said that there are no limits and the issue is a glitch. She contacted eBay to get it fixed.
I don’t know whether to believe her or not; just saying that there is hope.
-
09/22/2021 at 12:21 am #93203
Lol @Elle, Like I said, I used to use terapeak as a “what is this thing” instead of google, so I could use 5-10 terapeak searches a day on a single item. Not anymore!
Hmmm thats interesting @Sharyn, I wonder if enough people complained that they took it off. I’ll be honest, I haven’t hit the limit again since, but I broke my phone and havent been listing because I’ve been dreading taking photos with my DSLR. They just don’t look as good, but its totally user error.
-
09/22/2021 at 6:47 pm #93213
Hi, checking in. Definitey hit the limit today. I had a $0.25 cent sale and was checking prices on 50 clothing items i bought and hit the limit on like the 30th item. Theres no way the limit is 250 searches. Maybe 100.
-
09/26/2021 at 11:23 am #93241
Okay, so I hit my limit like every day this week. Here’s what I figured out. When you change the filters to like only used, then it means its a whole new search. I think it also counts the next page as a new search. Basically anything that reloads terapeak is a new search. I had messaged Ebay for Business again about it about a week ago asking for limits to be raised and this is what they said: “Hey there! As of this time the limits set by Terapeak are not able to be raised- however I will be sure that this is passed along to our site design to see if additions to the limit can be added! Thank you for the insight! ~Whitney” so no hope there. Ugh.
-
09/26/2021 at 11:25 am #93242
Remind us again: why is a normal eBay search not enough for all these items? Whats different about the Terrapeak search?
-
-
09/27/2021 at 2:08 am #93254
Terapeak search results go back a year versus regular eBay searches which only go back 90 days. Terapeak also provides for the exact sale price of an item sold through best offer. It’s especially useful for items which are rare and may only sell a few times a year, and for items which sell very frequently but at different price points depending on item quality, condition, and other variables.
I hadn’t seen this issue with Terapeak limits until this week. I use Terapeak a ton when I’m researching items to buy, since I purchase almost my inventory through eBay auctions and my main niche (modern trading cards) is volatile where prices can change from week to week and month to month. Also auctions are inherently volatile. I didn’t think that I hit 250 searches yesterday but it’s possible depending on what eBay counts as a search.
Do you have separate buying and selling IDs? That seems like one workaround to allow for more searches. I primarily use eBay when I’m researching on my buying ID, but I also use it on my selling ID to research what to price items the items I’m listing. I think that’s probably why I haven’t run into this issue before, even though I’m sure I run more than 200+ searches on days when I’m listing a large number of items and researching a large number of auctions.
If I hit the Terapeak limit again this week, I’ll be sure to post in the thread and let you know. But I would be surprised if I do.
-
09/27/2021 at 9:26 am #93257
Interesting. So the 12 months of data is that much more valuable than 3 months of data.
That’s a good solution to just make a “search” eBay account if you’re doing more than 250 searches on Terrapeak a day.
-
09/27/2021 at 11:18 am #93265
For seasonal items a years data is far more valuable than 3 months.
-
-
-
10/01/2021 at 11:43 pm #93346
Yes, so perfect example of this is my cuddl duds.
I bought out a bunch of these in april for $1 a piece at walmart. If I was going from a normal search, I would have only seen the end of winter numbers, which were really low. However, with Terapeak, I saw that they do really well in october, so I got a bunch. Now that we hit Oct 1st, I’ve sold like 6 today for like $15 a piece, and I’m sure more will be on the way. It’s like a light switch. Obviously thermals sell better at the beginning of winter, but I’m a baby seller and really lean on terapeak a lot before my gut. I also picked up a pedal car this week that the only comps are more than 90 days old. New comps aren’t the exact same, and are like $100. Exact ones like mine in the terapeak are like $250.
No, I use the same account for buying and selling (I know, bad move). I’ll have to see if you get terapeak with the $5 store. I could justify paying for a $5 for extra terapeak, but not the $20 store. This week I maxed out 4 days, but I’m getting better at timing out my searches or making sure to use all my searches in a day.
-
10/02/2021 at 12:00 am #93348
No, I use the same account for buying and selling (I know, bad move). I’ll have to see if you get terapeak with the $5 store.
You don’t need a store subscription to use Terapeak. From eBay’s Terapeak page:
Terapeak Product Research is available under the “Research” tab in Seller Hub and is free to all sellers.
I think this is a fairly new change. I believe as recently as last year you needed a store subscription to use Terapeak. But no more. Another positive change from eBay which is a sharp contrast from most other selling platforms where it’s difficult to find sales data.
-
10/02/2021 at 9:20 am #93352
Understood. eBay is a weird machine. Over the last 15 years, we’ve learned to “hack” its system to get what we need.
So in your case, you want to use Terrapeak for research but it only allows 250 searches per day per account. Here’s your choices:
–Be really mad about it and complain. The eBay forums are full of people who seem to use eBay’s deficiencies as the reason why they fail. It’s a strong echo chamber so everyone supports their misery. You’re not one of these people.
–Get a couple of eBay accounts. Each account should give you another 250 Terrapeak searches. Other than making up new email addresses, an eBay account is free.
–Be more focused in your Terrapeak searching. If your goal is to list 20 items a day, I would think 250 searches would be enough research for those specific 20 items. The goal is to list the items. Random research don’t pay the bills.
Don’t let eBay slow you down. You’re a Scavenger!
-
-
10/05/2021 at 7:37 pm #93407
You’re totally right Jay- I’ve been meaning to seperate my buying and selling anyways, and it looks like this is the kick in the pants to do it. Keeping me honest!
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.