eBay rant

Zog The Undeniable said:

It's gone mad since the last time I bought anything from there -
browse the Cycling category and it's all freaking wristbands (99%
knock-offs). Can't eBay make a separate category so all the fashion
victims can be parted from their money more efficiently? I mean, the
real ons are only a quid FFS!

eBay made a "Livestrong Wristbands" sub-category but still the bloody
sellers use "Other Cycling Accessories". Browse the sub-categories
separately, and avoid Other Accessories or search with certain keywords
excluded.

Outrageous plug: my Bicycle Parts:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZlime500
(Campag 8sp 12T & Marchisio 9/10sp 13T top sprockets, Campag
alloy cable stops, carbon 1" 10mm spacers).

~PB

Pete Biggs said:

Zog The Undeniable said:

It's gone mad since the last time I bought anything from there -
browse the Cycling category and it's all freaking wristbands (99%
knock-offs). Can't eBay make a separate category so all the fashion
victims can be parted from their money more efficiently? I mean, the
real ons are only a quid FFS!

eBay made a "Livestrong Wristbands" sub-category but still the bloody
sellers use "Other Cycling Accessories". Browse the sub-categories
separately, and avoid Other Accessories or search with certain keywords
excluded.

If you look at the Cycling Accessories category right now, there are
over 10,000 items listed.

Add this filter string to take out the bulk of the wristband [censored]:

-wrist -wristbands -wristband -bracelet -bully -bullying -racism
-racist -tsunami -band -bands -cancer -livestrong -livewrong -troops

The item count drops to 2,066. It's farcical. That filter that doesn't
even get them all, and this is before you even begin to consider the
other kinds of spam and abusive listings. With a [censored] ratio of over
80% ebay is becoming a real pain in the [censored] to use.

Ebay works best for me when it's used as a marketplace for private
individuals to trade on a small scale basis. The problem is the
commercialisation of the whole thing, with professional traders
infesting the listings with spam and all manner of other [censored].

We need stronger and more readily useable set of filter tools. I'd
like the ability to filter out, for example, anything offered for sale
by sellers with more than x number of auctions running. Set to a low
figure that would knock out huge numbers of the buggers.

You know what, there's probably money in this. Ebay is such an
astonishingly profitable monster that there must be room for a smaller
online auction company that works really hard to keep all the [censored]
out. Perhaps a site that won't allow you to list multiple items, and
that, contrary to ebay's position, positively discourages vendors from
become high volume "Power-Sellers". Keep the whole focus on private,
low volume, good faith trading.

"Bob"

--

Email address is spam trapped.
To reply directly remove the beverage.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...
The problem is the

Quoted message said:

commercialisation of the whole thing, with professional traders
infesting the listings with spam and all manner of other [censored].

We need stronger and more readily useable set of filter tools. I'd
like the ability to filter out, for example, anything offered for sale
by sellers with more than x number of auctions running. Set to a low
figure that would knock out huge numbers of the buggers.

Hey, you never know. Cross your fingers:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing-uk.shtml#2005-05-11150211

--
Mike

Zog The Undeniable said:

It's gone mad since the last time I bought anything from there - browse
the Cycling category and it's all freaking wristbands (99% knock-offs).
Can't eBay make a separate category so all the fashion victims can be
parted from their money more efficiently? I mean, the real ons are only
a quid FFS!

If you take the time to report say ten different ones as wrong category
listing it gets cleaned up quite a bit. You just have to have the
tenacity to keep doing it as they repopulate pretty quickly.

--
Tony

"A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought" Lord
Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers)

Call me Bob said:

If you look at the Cycling Accessories category right now, there are
over 10,000 items listed.

Add this filter string to take out the bulk of the wristband [censored]:

and band on mechs ;-)

Quoted message said:

-wrist -wristbands -wristband -bracelet -bully -bullying -racism
-racist -tsunami -band -bands -cancer -livestrong -livewrong -troops

The item count drops to 2,066. It's farcical. That filter that doesn't
even get them all, and this is before you even begin to consider the
other kinds of spam and abusive listings. With a [censored] ratio of over
80% ebay is becoming a real pain in the [censored] to use.

Ebay works best for me when it's used as a marketplace for private
individuals to trade on a small scale basis. The problem is the
commercialisation of the whole thing, with professional traders
infesting the listings with spam and all manner of other [censored].

We need stronger and more readily useable set of filter tools. I'd
like the ability to filter out, for example, anything offered for sale
by sellers with more than x number of auctions running. Set to a low
figure that would knock out huge numbers of the buggers.

It might knock out some useful traders as well, though. Some good deals
can be had from some of them.

Quoted message said:

You know what, there's probably money in this. Ebay is such an
astonishingly profitable monster that there must be room for a smaller
online auction company that works really hard to keep all the [censored]
out. Perhaps a site that won't allow you to list multiple items, and
that, contrary to ebay's position, positively discourages vendors from
become high volume "Power-Sellers". Keep the whole focus on private,
low volume, good faith trading.

Keeping on-topic, the Bicycle Parts categories are not too bad at all. I
like the mix as it is for these. Just Accessories has been spoilt when it
comes to cycling stuff.

~PB

Pete Biggs said:

and band on mechs ;-)

Pff, I'm Mr Single Chainring lately, what do I need front mech's for?
🙂

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

We need stronger and more readily useable set of filter tools. I'd
like the ability to filter out, for example, anything offered for sale
by sellers with more than x number of auctions running. Set to a low
figure that would knock out huge numbers of the buggers.

It might knock out some useful traders as well, though. Some good deals
can be had from some of them.

Yes, you're right, but it's a matter of expediency. I'd be happy to
miss out on a small amount of the wheat in order to eschew such a huge
heap of chaff.

Quoted message said:

Keeping on-topic, the Bicycle Parts categories are not too bad at all. I
like the mix as it is for these. Just Accessories has been spoilt when it
comes to cycling stuff.

Granted the wristband issue has particularly blighted that specific
category, and it can be deflected at the cost of some faffing about,
but this kind of thing is happening increasingly elsewhere as well.

In all of the sections I browse semi-regularly (not just cycling) the
signal to noise ratio is fast heading the wrong way.

Still, I suppose my option is like it or lump it.

"Bob"

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Email address is spam trapped.
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Call me Bob came up with the following;:

Quoted message said:

Ebay works best for me when it's used as a marketplace for private
individuals to trade on a small scale basis. The problem is the
commercialisation of the whole thing, with professional traders
infesting the listings with spam and all manner of other [censored].

Well said that man.

The ones that really annoy me are those with NOT X,Y,Z in the sub-heading.
Do they seriously think someone who wants X will want to look at, and bid
on, their auction for W anyway?

Quoted message said:

We need stronger and more readily useable set of filter tools. I'd
like the ability to filter out, for example, anything offered for sale
by sellers with more than x number of auctions running. Set to a low
figure that would knock out huge numbers of the buggers.

Good idea. Isn't that what ebay started out like? 😉

Quoted message said:

You know what, there's probably money in this. Ebay is such an
astonishingly profitable monster that there must be room for a smaller
online auction company that works really hard to keep all the [censored]
out. Perhaps a site that won't allow you to list multiple items, and
that, contrary to ebay's position, positively discourages vendors from
become high volume "Power-Sellers". Keep the whole focus on private,
low volume, good faith trading.

I'd buy that for a fiver ... 😉

--
Paul ...
(8(|) Homer Rules ..... Doh !!!
http://www.petitiononline.com/som/

Zog The Undeniable said:

It's gone mad since the last time I bought anything from there -

browse

Quoted message said:

the Cycling category and it's all freaking wristbands (99%

knock-offs).

not quite, what about all the mini motorbikes and electric scooters?

"Paul - [censored]" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The ones that really annoy me are those with NOT X,Y,Z in the sub-heading.
Do they seriously think someone who wants X will want to look at, and bid
on, their auction for W anyway?

As an example, I've no problem with people selling ultegra stuff that
include 'not tiagra, 105, dura ace' etc as it's on-topic. If i'm looking for
a 105 rear mech I might be tempted by a reasonably priced ultegra one, or a
newer tiagra one. But I take your point for the people who list every
well-searched manufacturer.

Zog The Undeniable said:

It's gone mad since the last time I bought anything from there - browse
the Cycling category and it's all freaking wristbands (99% knock-offs).
Can't eBay make a separate category so all the fashion victims can be
parted from their money more efficiently? I mean, the real ons are only
a quid FFS!

I found this last time I tried to buy anything. It's mental, and
extremely annoying. Unfortunately, creating a special category
("[censored]"😉 will not solve it as people will just list their stuff
in the wrong cat. The only solution I can see is if you use an
appropriate search query to remove all the wristbands - there was
a thread about this a few months ago.

Call me Bob said:

You know what, there's probably money in this. Ebay is such an
astonishingly profitable monster that there must be room for a smaller
online auction company that works really hard to keep all the [censored]
out. Perhaps a site that won't allow you to list multiple items, and
that, contrary to ebay's position, positively discourages vendors from
become high volume "Power-Sellers". Keep the whole focus on private,
low volume, good faith trading.

I like a different approach; do something similar to spam filtering
already done with stuff like dspam - you classify ebay pages according
to how much you like them, and the tool is then used as a filter to
remove bad ebay results.

I don't know how easy it is to extract search results from ebay in
a way that would make it easier to automate this.