The three pictures below are from the same listing.
Pic one shows title/search page. Ebay sticks that link to buy cheaper ones right there.
Pic two shows the same competing item that’s cheaper above sellers description.
Pic three shows same cheaper item below sellers description.
WTH? That listing costs the seller money (from subscription fees) and yet eBay has done everything they can to make sure he doesn’t sell it.
What do you all think?
It is an unintended consequence of the system in place. If someone buys a camera or phone there is a high likelihood that the “items also viewed” will include accessories that someone else purchased. It’s a good way to sell more things as people get shown items they might not have meant to purchase in the first place but are now looking at because they go with what they already purchased.
Obviously, this doesn’t help Pokemon as much since PSA cards are more of a stand-alone item. But modifying the algorithm for every exception is probably more work than they are willing to put into it 
But linking to an exact same item that’s selling for a cheaper price? ON AN AUCTION PAGE/SITE?
If you can accept that then you’ve doubled up on your downers and I’m going to sic pokesyn on you;)
It doesn’t make my Gyarados likely to sell but I like the urgency it shows with that “last one” and the red timer on my last PSA 9 Machamp haha. Get on that shit before its gone! But when you click on it probably cheaper ones show up there too haha.
But yeah @selodin nailed it.
I have had cancel requests come up for “oops pocket buy”, “oops kid bought it” etc. whatever lame excuse you want to fill in that I know comes from after checkout seeing something along these lines. That is the worst. At least when they refuse to pay you can nail em with an unpaid item strike but when they pay and want a refund you have few good options. Refund and eat the fee and time waste or ship it to them and make them take it where they will likely leave bad feedback (even positive with low DSR’s is detrimental to many top rated sellers) or they will open a bogus INAD claim to put it back on you.
Lol certainly annoying, but then again ebay has always been all about the buyers and not so much for the sellers.
Don’t you get the final value fee credited back to you if the order is canceled? Also INAD is my biggest fear as a seller, and thankfully I haven’t had to deal with it… but I’ve definitely had to use it as a buyer. A consequence of sniping “mint” listings. Sometimes they really do turn up nice, though… more often than not in my experience.
Not sure how you guys handle it so well. eBay charges you a subscription fee for those listings. They are taking your money. Then they throw the same item for cheaper 2 inches away which makes you look like a ripoff. They do this on the auction page you created and paid for.
Not sure how anybody can just bend over then justify. I can’t even believe not one other person on this site doesnt voice a dissenting opinion on this lol.
Unless I find a cheaper option in my initial search result I never look at tge similar cards for sale.
In the brief time I sold anime Dakimakuras, my listings were always $60 above the average listing from China and I managed to sell 6 of the 10 I had in three months.
I got you, Gary.
I think it’s gross. They’re essentially betraying the value of the platform they offer by unnecessarily introducing alternatives that are more likely to hurt your product by making it seem badly priced than they are to help in any tangible way.
With Amazon, you have almost no small sellers. They come into the market knowing the margins are slim and the volume has to compensate. Most of the products have established Nash Equilibrium and the lowest price is a reasonable on-item sorting feature.
eBay is supposed to be the online garage sale. You’re supposed to be able to provide a description of your item and keywords you think will draw people in then reap the rewards. It is made of small sellers from niche angles looking to turn their extra stuff into cash. This does not lend itself to an on-item algorithm showing potentially cheaper items at all. That’s the least helpful thing they could do. “See this seller’s other items” is the only button we need. You wouldn’t have a garage sale where some asshole is whispering in everyone’s ear a potentially unfounded rumor that the neighbor has it for 20 cents less.
eBay consistently demonstrates a lack of understanding of their core selling community and that seriously threatens their long term viability in an increasingly competitive scene of successful “online garage sale” alternatives. They’re not just competing with Craigslist anymore.
Very well put. At least it’s not just me.
Just to play Devil’s advocate, I think the point of the features in the bottom two images is to expose the user to things they would be likely to buy but haven’t searched for (and also a way to inject sponsored listings). Amazon does this well. If you were to buy a laptop for instance, they’d recommend a laptop bag or a mouse or a charger or something. Ideally these items should be not be exactly the same as the one you’re currently looking at. Ebays’ machine learning algorithm (I’m assuming they’re using some sort of AI) used to produce the “also viewed” section seems to be ineffective, at least when it comes to pokemon cards. A smarter algorithm would recommend other psa 9 unlimited base cards but this model might be overfitted and recommends items too similar to the one being looked at.
Or possibly this is working as intended and this selling model works well for things like electronics, vacuums and dresses (the things Ebay tends to push the most). Either way, the effect of this is probably not beneficial to sellers
This seems pretty crappy, they should be showing the sellers other items IMO. Even if the items in the ‘people who viewed this item also viewed’ area showed things that aren’t just cheaper alternatives to your own listing and are completely different, eBay could still be showing people related items that you’re selling in your other listings, so are still potentially pushing traffic to other sellers.
I understand they’re probably trying to do what amazon does like @pkmnflyingmaster mentioned but what they’ve got at the moment isn’t cool.
Agreed.
Next thing you know, when the buyer clicks your item link they’ll be directed to a completely different page first of rows of like items. Then they must x it out to finally get to your page lol.
Listen. eBay gained success with their auction format but now most everyone is using Amazon to justify what I consider inequities or as an example. Amazon and eBay were two totally different things but now we’re dealing with Amazon Lite.
@cinnaminhbun yeah you get back the FVF fees but you don’t get back the 30 cent paypal fee nor the time you waste on those bums. Over the course of a year it adds up with the time always being the more significant loss.
What’s this subscription fee you guys keep mentioning? Is this yet another US-only “feature”? I’m not paying a single cent for listing my auctions.
First 50 each month have are free to list 
Also, they own eBay stores which cost (correct me if wrong) 19.99$ a month.
But this thing eBay does, doesn’t make any sense. For them it’s in their best interest to sell the item with the highest price listed first and always since that way they have more fees/income.
You’re assuming each user is only completing one transaction on eBay. It’s actually in their best interest to make each user spend as much as possible on the website in general. Selling 5 items for $20 each is better for ebay than selling one item for $80 (it’s probably even better than selling one item for $100 after consideration of listing fees).
So when eBay suggests cheaper items there’s still a positive effect for eBay:
But again, this is beneficial for ebay and for buyers while sellers suffer.
I’m on eBay Germany right and now and it’s telling me I can list 160 items per month or make a profit of 6000€ per month before my cap is reached and that this cap increases the more I sell and get ratings. (No eBay shop here)
Are you sure those aren’t just your selling limits? If you scroll to the bottom of ‘My eBay - All Selling’ page it usually has promotions and one is always XX free listings for the month. So you can list 160 items but you’ll have to start paying insertion fees after the first XX.
On the bottom I have even more free listings. I have “Listing is always free!”, a “promotion” that lasts 1 month and allows me to put up 300 listings for free.
verkaeuferportal.ebay.de/gebuehren-fuer-private-verkaeufer
This is the German page on fees. Says that listing is always free for the first 300 listings in a month and takes a 10% cut off the sale price (not Shipping Cost) and that’s it.