Trouble with Ebay

I send messages to the sellers asking questions on specific items and I rarely get an answer, also I do searches for parts and sometimes get 100s of hits but the items listed are duplicated sometimes dozens of times (the same seller and price). I do searches for parts but only get listings from specific states, over and over. Does anyone else have these problems with Ebay?

Its not an Ebay issue, its a seller who fails to respond to your questions. I asked one for a serial number on Friday. He sent me one back with the "I'll check" and still nothing. Its their loss because I'm losing interest.

Sellers can't answer most questions about an item,a lot are drop shipping something and never see it.Others have no idea about anything there selling,so they don't answer questions or just give you a general reply that covers everything.

I always answer questions as soon as possible, sometimes takes 24 hours from when it was posted. I think the duplicated listings are basically top-posting, if you have 1000 identical doobers then you list one twice a day so that you stay near the top, or you might list one for $10 with $10 shipping and one for $19.99 with free shipping. I am not sure why they do some of those things but either it works or they just think it does, because a lot of sellers seem to do it, especially Chinese factories.
Zach

I am among the rare who have dealt extensively on Ebay but never been taken,, yet. One reason is I am careful. No communication is red flag, don’t bid, no regrets. I have little trouble with it truthfully. Maybe it’s the way you ask or the questions you ask that are causing no replies? As a seller I get questions like, “what will you take for it to sell it off Ebay?” What’s your reserve?” or simply “what will you take for it?” “will you take XYZ in trade?” Will you accept food stamps?” “will you haul it to XYZ for free?” I ignore all such questions.
As for your search problems use the advanced search option. There is a place where you can eliminate words from your search. When you run into one of those annoying types who lists 500 items with the same description find a word in his descriptions that will eliminate him. If he happens to list his name that works, or company name or a certain brand name. As for your item location problems there is a box at the top of the columns where you can search by price, location etc. If say your looking for a non –shippable item because of its size or you want to inspect it before you drop the cash simply select “closest first” . You must be logged in for that to work. Half the fun of searching Ebay , or any other internet search for that matter, is learning how to do it. Good luck

In part, it is an Ebay issue. They train sellers to use multiple item names in the title. What that does for them is it increases hits from searching. But it is not a friend to the searcher.
Case in point. If a person has a 720D SE for sale, they will sometimes add various models in the search that are JD tractors but are not the model for sale. It is a real pain to go through each one to see if what the search found is truly for sale.
I know it is a double edged sword, but buyers should be respected as much as some clown trying to make a buck.
So, based on training on how to "increase sales", next time you have a car for sale, list every model that was made for the past 30 years. That should yield plenty of hits. LOL

Recently E Bay changed the way sellers can communicate with buyers. If a buyer asks a question the seller only has one chance to answer the question since we do not have access to buyers or sellers email addresses anymore. As a seller myself, I do my best to be polite to all buyers, however it does get very old when individuals make 1/2 price offers on parts that are very difficult to find or are extremely expensive at the dealer. Just because we are sellers on E Bay trying to make a profit does not make us evil people. Imagine how difficult it would be to fix your family tractor if we all decided to sent our parts to the scrap yard.

I love the guys who have a one or two line vague description, one poor quality picture, say ask questions and then have two pages of how wonderful of sellers they are that is copied into every single ad. Then when you do ask questions you get a response back saying:

"due to how important my time is, I don't have the time to rephotograph every item. I beleive I adequately described it but feel free to bid and find out. If you contact me again I will black list you."

That is an actually response I got back once ..

Really though, I think ray does have a point that a lot of sellers are just sellers who have subscribed to the philosophy that ebay is nothing but a retail store where someone will buy anything at any price. The idea of ebay as a flea market is dying out where there is some interaction between buyer and seller. Take a look at how many things are BIN even though they are niche items like collectibles or antiques. I have a whole watch list of things that have been continuously listed at absurd prices for years hoping the seller would come down in price. On occasion, I have had luck negotiating with these guys, but its getting harder and harder too. I don't even try when we are 1000% apart on price though.

In part, it is an Ebay issue. They train sellers to use multiple item names in the title. What that does for them is it increases hits from searching. But it is not a friend to the searcher.
Case in point. If a person has a 720D SE for sale, they will sometimes add various models in the search that are JD tractors but are not the model for sale. It is a real pain to go through each one to see if what the search found is truly for sale.
I know it is a double edged sword, but buyers should be respected as much as some clown trying to make a buck.
So, based on training on how to "increase sales", next time you have a car for sale, list every model that was made for the past 30 years. That should yield plenty of hits. LOL

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You don't know what you're talking about. That is called keyword spamming and it is against eBay policy, but people still do it. eBay does not train people to list stuff that way.