Is there a way to beat eBay's non-.com discrimination?

General
1

Boys and girls,

I guess many are not aware of this, because they’re US citizens and use only the eBay.com website.
The rest of the world is probably very aware of this issue; Your listings do not show up on eBay.com or any other international eBay page.

I’ve been tinkering with it, changing my templates, my shipping locations (blocking and unblocking certain countries) and even listing it straight on the eBay.com website. Nothing yielded any real difference.

I’ve seen my cards in the eBay.com listings, but sometimes they disappear. Even if I just repeat the same search entry. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not, but most of the time; it doesn’t appear at all. It’s not until I completly copy the listing name it will show up as ‘from eBay international sellers’

Currently I am back to my ‘old’ minimalistic ‘I have to do a lot of items in least possible time’ template and just relisting them if unsold. Because nothing I tried in past months had any difference in items selling in non-EU territory.

Is there not a way, or any tips for non-US eBay users to make their items be more visible without listing them straight onto eBay.com (which is a hassle with shipping costs, and shipping methods)?

2

Hmm, interesting, I felt something similar.

I thought I fixed the problem by listing on ebay.com instead of ebay.nl, I had some lower-profile WOTC PSA graded cards and in a month they got around 100 views I believe, it did not strike me as surprisingly many, but not the horrible single digits either.

I’m often looking at the recent listings on eBay and all I notice there is that you explicitly see that the item comes from a different country on the overview page.

I’d also be interested in the thoughts of others on this.

3

I list on eBay.nl by default, in past I did on eBay.com but it became a hassle to keep track of shipping costs, exchange rates and not fucking myself over every single sale. Losing a few $ on one sale due to miscalculated shipping and exchange rates heavily changing is ok. Doing that on 4 sales, it’s no fun any more.

The thing I find odd, is that I can list on eBay.com and it doesn’t show up as much, but just do a search for a Charizard and see how many crazy fake Chinese bulk sellers will pop-up. But my own Charizard cards, they are nowhere to be found.

4

What’s your ebay username?

Edit:
Got to computer and saw it in your signature.

So the eBay search engine eBay uses is Cassini, there’s a lot you can do to help improve your best match results.

-Auctions that don’t start at .99 are really hurting your search results. Cassini uses an algorithim for click through and watch, by setting up auctions that aren’t at .99 you’re creating a bunch of customers that aren’t going to look at the item when they search through auctions, which in turn lowers your search results.

-Items you’re selling aren’t the most popular. When buyers want an item they search broad then narrow down. By not having any big ticket items on your page you’re getting into that broad cattegory, but as people narrow down their search you don’t have many items that are popular which means a lot of your potential buyers are removed, which lowers your search results.

-You don’t offer returns. Just turn it on, if you’re a good seller and describe your item properly there’s less than 1% of people that actually will return the item. With eBays policy there’s no reason to have it off as people can return items even if they’re not allowed. Having it off hurts your search results as it’s not convient for buyers.

-You don’t have multiple pictures. In the pokemon category eBay will hurt the search result for anyone that doesn’t have two pictures of their items. Besides if you’re selling raw product you should have a front and back image.

-Add card or cards to your titles. This goes to the general way that people search they go broad then narrow down, you have Pokemon which is good, but the next narrow down term most people are going to use is card. By not having that in your search it’ll lower your ranking. (nobody types TCG)

-Put in as many items specifics as you can, but don’t put in wrong information. When you get into the listing eBay now has a feature that ask if you’d like to add relevant terms, click yes to all of them unless they don’t make sense. Don’t add info that doesn’t apply, ironically when people put NOT in their titles they’re actually hurting their search results as the search engine lowers their ranks, but it also lowers it for wrong item specifics. It goes back to making the search the most relevant in the algorithim.

I’m sure there’s more tips I can give you, but you can google search ‘how Cassini works’ and you’ll be given a bunch of info.

1 Like
5

I know I don’t sell popular cards. But that’s not the point.
The main point of this thread was to see if you can tackle the eBay system that excludes non-eBay.com auctions to their search results, while they should appear due to good search querry. As in the example; cards that I list on eBay.nl do not appear on the eBay.com website unless I do very specific, almost complete copy-paste of item name.

As an example this. I search eBay.com for a ‘Bisaflor’ (German Venusaur)

www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=pokemon+card+bisaflor&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xpokemon+bisaflor.TRS0&_nkw=pokemon+bisaflor&_sacat=0

And the same search on the eBay.de (Germany) search.
www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_odkw=pokemon+card+bisaflor&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR4.TRC0.A0.H0.Xpokemon+bisaflor.TRS0&_nkw=pokemon+bisaflor&_sacat=0

Many of the items listed on Germany with worldwide (Weltweit) shipping do not even appear anywhere on the eBay.com website. While their description, item names etc. check all the boxes.

If I remove my Charizard listings today, and relist them via the eBay.com website. I am sure at the end of the auction duration I’ll have 50-100 views per card. On eBay.nl I will be very happy if I reach 15-20 views per card. And Charizard is as wanted in the Netherlands as anywhere in the world. Doesn’t explain why the same card, with same name and description will yield 90% less views, while eBay.com should scoop them up.

Also, a lot of features are cut from the European eBay pages. For example:
www.illogical.nl/ebay.png

All the cool features that eBay.com has, are just missing. Which doesn’t help hitting all of the boxes which the search engine checks on.

[EDIT] I just noticed, if I click the eBay.com link, I’m not seeing any of the USA listings. So there is clearly something eBay does to block/disallow views.

6

I’ll try this again. Cassini, the search engine used by eBay, ranks your listing based on many factors. A couple of those factors are location, and I’m sure the extension of the site you’re using is going to effect the results. Most people can’t read foreign languages so a lot of results are going to be removed simply using the .com site vs others. Location is a major factor, who wants to pay/wait for international shipping when you can get the same item locally. That’s why most international listing come after the local ones.

Overall your issue is with exposure, I gave you a list of things to improve on to get you more exposure. You can’t fix what you have no control over, the things I’ve shared with you you can control.

If there is an answer to what you’re specifically looking for maybe someone can chime in.

7

I think the OP mostly wants a fair treatment of international users by ebay.com, you just said basically that the treatment will be unfair, if that’s how it is, then I don’t see much ways of changing it.

The US eBay is a a very big market internationally, but we as Europeans don’t get to have the same opportunities as Americans will have on there.

I understand what you say about the Cassini search engine, but that is not all that applies in this case. We sometimes see non-US sellers on ebay.com clearly listed as “International sellers” on a tab that comes after ALL of the international ones have appeared. On the other hand, I do know that for a given subset of international sellers this does not apply, because I do see listings from Japan, Canada, and sometimes Italy (for example) in the “regular section”.

Edit: I might actually be mistaken on that last part, because I search for the newest listings (or listings ending first), and then it does not feature a separate tab for international sellers, it wouldn’t make sense. So can you maybe show instances of where international sellers are mixed with US sellers when just searching for an item? Or will that never be the case?

8

Unless you’re willing to move it is a too bad so sad situation. You can’t improve on your ability to ship as fast as a us seller to a us destination. The positive side is you have a better ranking for international buyers.

You can work on your search ranking so people can see you that what’s holding you back. Yes Japanese sellers and Canada sellers are higher on the list because they have a higher ranking. Most Japanese sellers you find have lower prices, that’s a higher ranking; they have items that other sellers don’t have, that’s a higher ranking; they have proper descriptions, that’s a higher ranking. I can show you multiple Japanese and Canadian sellers that can’t be found on eBay too.

It all boils down to improving your search rankings. Don’t complain about the mountain if you’re not willing to go over the hill.