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10/02/2019 at 11:29 pm in reply to: Interesting Promoted Listing "Trending Rate" Inconsistency #68537
Yes, exact same item with a different price due to some difference in quality I felt was big enough to split it off from a quantity listing. All item specifics were the same since I wrote up one listing and then just made a copy for the second one.
I agree with you on the other points re: not worrying about TR and just applying a global rate that might be over/under the TR. The point, I guess, is that we should be able to trust these numbers have some kind of math behind them. If I plug in two identical items and the rate comes back different, then it’s just a random number generator that occasionally spits out something something resembling logic. I have the same critique of Service Metrics and Guaranteed Delivery where the information seems unreliable or otherwise manufactured to push you to “do better”, as the former almost always says I’m “above average” whereas my return rate is quite reasonable given what I sell, and the latter constantly says I’ll qualify for the program upon the next review, but I always get rejected for some unknown reason.
I want to trust eBay, but stuff like this bothers me. When I was breaking into a really tough category a year or so ago I ended up trusting the high TR because I assumed it had some logic behind it, but now I wonder if that was at all accurate – could I have halved my rate and remained in the top 10?
10/02/2019 at 5:23 pm in reply to: Interesting Promoted Listing "Trending Rate" Inconsistency #68528I decided to change the price of listing A and the rate dropped to 4.2% (from 7%) to match listing B. I changed the price back and the rate stayed at 4.2%.
Price was the only difference between these items. Listing A was cheaper, but had a higher trending rate. Not cool.
They’re both still sitting at 4.2%. The mysterious black box of eBay puzzles me.
@Retro – Thanks for checking. I’m hoping others can chime in and confirm whether this was a one-off accident.
I tried to get my limits raised when I first started. They upped the limit on the total amount I could list, but wouldn’t remove category restrictions, so I could only have X amount listed in a category for something like a month. eBay said this was non-negotiable.
Maybe it’s different now? Or maybe if you open a store they’ll lift it automatically? It’s unfortunate that the reps just fed you false information.
I would also go with GovDeals or something else. They allow payment via PayPal. No idea what the backend looks like.
There’s another thread up, but I can’t link to it for some reason.
Looks like I’m moving to MP sooner than expected.
edit: I wasn’t charged twice.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
IndySales.
Ad blockers work by using some kind of “fuzzy matching.” Essentially you’re telling the ad blocker to look for specific tags in the HTML. Since promoted listings have text that says “Sponsored”, then somewhere in the page’s code there has to be a specific tag where that is the value. For example, here’s what a typical filter looks like:
twitter.com##.tweet[data-card2-type=”promo_website”]
If this filter were widely accepted by ad blockers, Twitter would eventually see the drop in engagement and then rename “promo_website” to something different, at which point ads would show up and the filter would need updated.
This is the case for promoted listings, which now show up 100% of the time compared to a week or two ago when my ad blocker caught them.
The number of results wouldn’t change. Ad blockers work “locally”, as in, eBay serves you the results, then your ad blocker filters through those results and strips out ones that are sponsored.
There have been ways to block sponsored listings in some ad blockers for a while now. You can openly find filters for uBlock Origin that will remove promoted listings from search. eBay clearly knows this is happening and has been changing the way promoted listings are shown to show off these ad blockers, but it doesn’t take long for them to update and block them again. Mine was blocking them a while back without me adding in any special filters.
Inevitable TBH. I didn’t realize how bad the backlash was over PLs, but doing some searches for “adblock ebay promoted listings” brought up posts from people calling PLs spam. I tend to agree, although I still use them for listings with a lot of competition.
I send them occasionally. Sorry. It’s not an indication of an item’s worth – I just want a good deal.
Right in their store description: “Welcome to thredUP.com’s eBay store! thredUP.com is just like a consignment shop, but all online. You’ll find quality women’s and children’s clothing, in practically new condition. Every item has been hand-selected and inspected by trained consignors. Visit http://www.thredup.com for more great items!”
See: https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/links-policy?id=4248
“Any permitted links cannot direct customers to pages that encourage people to view, search or purchase items off eBay.”
eBay remembers what items you look at via some kind of tracking code. It’s designed to remind regular buyers they’ve looked at an item and bring them back to eBay to buy it. Amazon and most major retailers do the same.
How are they able to link to their site in their store description? I thought it was against TOS to link to another place to buy your items?
Good to know!
Any reason you’re not shipping via FedEx for something this large? FedEx ground would have been cheaper for you and the buyer.
Good to hear about the Finances API. That’s something I’ve been wondering about since the launch of MP. Hopefully developers will be able to get the true cost of shipping now without authenticating with PayPal.
How does paying for shipping work under MP? Does it pull directly from your balance on eBay?
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
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