eBay auction visibility limited

[robh]

Not a rant (although regarding eBay rants are well deserved)....just an information.

I recently listed on eBay.es a set of Mordheim figures that I want to sell/trade. I am a very infrequent seller on eBay as the fees and commissions are excessive. I only use it as a "last resort" venue.

One of my friends in UK contacted me a few evenings ago to say he could not find my listing by keyword search (Mordheim, Kislev, Warhammer) so I asked eBay customer service why not.

Turns out that unless you have a "seller ranking" above a certain undisclosed level and a certain number of sales within a given time period, eBay no longer allow your listing to be visible via search on other country eBay sites. So my keyword search on eBay.es showed my listing but not those in UK, France, USA etc, whether by keyword or seller id. The only way for a person looking for "Mordheim Kislev" type figures in USA to see my listing was by item number or direct link.
The visibility used to be linked to your shipping preferences (places where you ship could see it otherwise not) but now it is down to how much and often you sell on eBay.
Means that the saved keyword searches on my account only show me items offered by sellers eBay choose, not anyone with the items I am looking for who want to sell and would ship to me.

[Malebolgia]

...that's rediculous...
Urgh...another reason to skip eBay and only buy here. Thanks for the info!

[von Lucky]

And the reverse is true - I, as a buyer, have to search multiple times on each eBay site to potentially find something at all. Urgh.

[Daeothar]

So basically, this caters to big sellers and nobody else. At all...

I recently wondered why I am buying less and less on Ebay the past couple of years (used to buy just about anything through Ebay for years), but this certainly will not help.

I'm sure there's money in this for Ebay, but the casual buyers and sellers are the ones losing out... 

[Malebolgia]

Yes, eBay has become quite frustrating and mostly a boring storefront for eBay shops. Old stuff is rediculously priced (search for Warhammer Quest heroes...hilarious!!!!) and good auctions are a rarity nowadays.

[robh]

........ the casual buyers and sellers are the ones losing out... 

Yes, it hits both ways, the buyer is not seeing the full range of goods available (or the spectrum of prices) and sellers are not reaching all the potential buyers.

As a policy it smells of deliberate favouritism and "Restraint of Trade" but just as eBay hide in Luxembourg for tax evasion purposes you can guarantee that any action would have to be placed before a pro corporate US court rather than the more free commerce European ones.

[grant]

Yes, eBay has become quite frustrating and mostly a boring storefront for eBay shops. Old stuff is rediculously priced (search for Warhammer Quest heroes...hilarious!!!!) and good auctions are a rarity nowadays.

Exactly. Couldn't tell you the last time I used eBay. It's utter crap now.

[YPU]

And the reverse is true - I, as a buyer, have to search multiple times on each eBay site to potentially find something at all. Urgh.

Noted this too, even worse if your trying to track down some obscure Japanse book.

[von Lucky]

What's the alternative?

Here in Australia the largest alternative (Gumtree) is owned by eBay already, which means similar practices could always be imposed (on a city region or whatever).