Interview: Exclusive interview with 'BMX' - the seller that hacked BestMatch

Last week we reported that sellers had found a bug/hack in BestMatch that gave them premium placement on eBay and of course corresponding traffic/bids/conversions.  Since that report we were contacted by a seller purporting to be the originator of the hack (turns out he reads eBay Strategies!).  He gave compelling evidence that he was the original exploiter of the hack (note: we didn't get CSI on this, but are pretty sure this is the originator.)  He agreed to an interview for eBay Strategies under the condition that his identity remain anonymous as he fears retribution from eBay because of the BM hack.  We've dubbed him BMX (BestMatch eXpert). 

Like many eBay sellers, BMX turns out to be a very clever, entrepreneurial, business person with a passion for eBay and lots of interesting insights into the recent changes.  His knowledge of BestMatch is very deep and you can tell he's spent lots of time digging into the algorithm to figure out how it ticks inside the black box.  I learned a ton from this interview and I'm sure you will to. 

Here is our interview with BMX - he will be reading comments and replying as BMX - I will verify his identify before publishing the comments to make sure we don't get anyone pretending to be BMX.

Hello Scot,

Thank you for taking the time to allow me to answer a few questions.  I would just take a moment to say that I’ve read a lot of your blogs and am deeply honored with the opportunity to address your readers and the eBay community.

Q: BMX, you have found a clever hack for the BM algorithm, how did you go about doing that?

As any committed eBay business owner does, I always am looking for a way to stay ahead of the competition.  As you know the eBay marketplace is quite competitive and sellers are constantly clamoring for high visibility in the search as that equals higher sell-through and conversion rates.  One day you are on top then next day you are in the middle of the pack. I find that it is very easy to get lost in the shuffle.  With the volume of items being listed on eBay transparency can become a real issue.

As eBay neared its launch of ‘Best Match’ as the default sort, I played with the sort on ebay.com and on playground.ebay.com in order to see where I stood before the official rollout took place.  Using the eBay labs BayEstimator tool, I optimized my keywords to improve my visibility in the new sort.  To my delight I was able to always place myself at the top of the sorts by optimizing my keywords, so I felt that I was ahead of the curve and when best match rolled out, I would be near the top. 

To my dismay, when bestmatch actually did roll out, my listings were severely disadvantaged.  The reason why still is not readily apparent to me but I have a feeling it is because a customer closed an INR dispute against me as unresolved.  I’ve only had probably 2-3 of these types of closures against me in my 3 years selling on eBay so I’m speculating that INR disputes closed with no resolution weigh very heavily in the new sort.  If this is the case, as I suspect it is, I think eBay places too much weight on these INR disputes and I think large sellers who move large amounts of merchandise will be severely disadvantaged in the Best Match sort because of these rare INR disputes.  They are rare but they do happen from time to time and I don’t believe they are representative of a seller’s business (1-2 transactions never is in my opinion).  Sellers, who sell antique, used, and refurbished merchandise are going to be severely disadvantaged by this because of the higher failure rates of used and refurbished products.  What’s worse is eBay launched the Best Match sort without launching the full seller dashboard tool to give sellers information as to how these new factors are affecting their business, which is a direct contradiction of the comments that I’ve heard the directors speaking of regarding making information available to sellers. 

I continued to do research as far as my DSR ratings which were all 4.4 and above, with my S&H star being the lowest, and when the dashboard light was released, the stars were 4.6 or higher in all categories.  I continued to optimize my titles to improve my position in the best match search.  I was optimizing my titles in the BayEstimator tool when by chance I had the word NEW twice in the title.  I took the extra new out so I could use other relevant keywords and to my surprise the tool’s ‘BayEstimate’ dropped significantly.  So I added a few more NEW’s and the relevance jumped to 100%.  Ah ha!  The trick was born.  I was a bit dumbfounded at the simplicity because, being a former programmer myself, I thought it would have been easy to parse the title string and discount (or ignore) and words which were duplicated, but apparently that was not the case.

To understand how the trick works, you have to understand how keyword relevance works with best match.  EBay tracks what keyword searches users are typing into the search box when they perform searches.  We’ll call these ‘base keywords’.  EBay keeps data on which listings have the highest conversion rates based on those keywords, eBay tracks what I’ll call ‘Relevant keywords’, keywords other than the base search which are likely to produce a sale (i.e.: buyer data has shown that buyers are looking for this by completing a purchase).EBay then tries to assign a relevance score to the relevant keywords and then give you an overall ‘BayEstimate’ which is one of the major components to Best Match.  For example if you search for ‘Wii’ the word NEW and NINTENDO will have a high relevance score because almost all listings that are sold have those keywords in them.    

I was sure that few sellers knew about this trick, so I tried it in a few different categories that I sell in and it worked wonderfully for the listings.  I was consistently near the top of the sort and my conversion rates and ASP’s rose dramatically.

I ran the listings from the time Best Match rolled out until early April I tried it on a few Wii listings.  As I figured, my listings trumped almost everyone else’s; my ASP’s and conversion rates were phenomenal.  The problem was other sellers caught onto my trick and a few sellers figured out the keyword relevance using the BayEstimator tool.  Quickly they found other keywords which to Best Match were highly relevant.  Hence the reason you saw 5 5 5 and 2 2 2 in a lot of the listings.

What surprised me even more was how quickly other sellers caught on and furthermore how some sellers blindly copied and started putting keyword combinations which did nothing to help them such as 7 7 7 and Wii Wii Wii.  What these sellers didn’t know is that 7’s weren’t relevant to Best Match and keywords that have very low conversion rates are actually assigned negative numbers so they go to hurt your BayEstimate score.  Words such as ‘Wii’ are part of the base keyword search and would have no effect on your BayEstimate score.

One final word about the Best Match system:  I think based on keyword relevance alone, it is a wonderful system.  It would help buyers find what they are looking for and reward sellers who accurately describe the titles of their items.  The problem is that eBay puts in a lot of other factors into the sort such as DSR ratings, Ship Cost, Distance of Buyer to seller, and many other factors.  No one really knows how it works exactly and frankly neither does EBay I believe.  I think maybe over time the adjustments will be made and the actual sort will be more relevant than it is today but right now to me it looks like nothing more than a jumbled mess at times which doesn’t help the buyer or the seller.  EBay could potentially have a lasting scar from the Best Match move, much as they did with the Stores in Search experiment in 2006.  I believe the removal of SIS severely crippled the market and drove many good sellers away from the site.

Q: Did you use the BayEstimator tool to figure out the 'new new new' hack?

Yes, without the BayEstimator tool it would have been nearly impossible to figure this type of thing out.  What I think is inherently unfair about best match is that without the BayEstimator tool you really are shooting around in the dark with your listing titles.  For example, adding PS3 as compared to Playstation 3 when listing a game can have a dramatic effect on your BayEstimate score because most sellers put PS3 and not Playstation 3.  A simple rewording of your title can have dramatic results.  The casual seller will never know this and this puts them at a significant disadvantage.It’s like having a daily pop quiz on something you’ve never studied or hitting a piñata blindfolded at a birthday party.

Q: eBay seems to be wise to the hack, what's next?

The problem with Best Match is that it is constantly changing, no one REALLY knows how it works, so it will be inherently impossible to forever game the system.  As soon as someone figures out a new trick, eBay will change their policy and shut it down.  Best Match acts as a punishment of sorts for seller behavior, but I would compare it to punishing a child for doing something wrong but not telling them what they did so that they can correct their behavior.  The grossly unfair part of this is that there are financial implications to the sellers are they try to figure out the system.

Q: How do you feel about DSRs? Any insights into how to game that system?

I believe the intention of DSR’s are good inherently, but I believe that Ebay’s implementation of the DSR ratings are ultimately unfair.  As has been stated in many industry blogs and conversations around the eBay circles, I think eBay has misinterpreted their data.  I would be curious to see how the DSR data has changed over time and how it would look if you parsed out the DSR’s on a category-by-category level.  My guess is that buyers have unrealistic expectations as to the cost of properly packing and shipping an item and the time it takes for proper delivery.  If you have any doubt about the unrealistic expectations of buyers, go to Kinkos and have them pack a few boxes for you I think you will be in for some major sticker shock.  Sellers are providing a service and should not be required to give it away for free.  EBay doesn’t work for free and neither should sellers.

Inherently the DSR system is unfair because you are dealing with constraints which are out of the control of the seller such as cost of shipping and packing, actual shipping costs, and accuracy and timely delivery by third party carriers.  Most sellers have very high DSR scores for Description and Communication.

EBay has placed great weight on the S&H star more than any other, but the fact is they created that monster themselves.  I doubt many of the execs at eBay have run a large eBay business themselves and they just don’t see the constraints they have placed sellers under.

Ultimately buyers come to eBay to get a good deal.  There is only so much of a good deal that can be given by small to medium sellers before they have to resort to small cost cutting measures to recover their costs.  When those measures are removed, the good deals go away and so do the buyers and sellers.  A good example is the media category.  My guess is that it’s nearly impossible to sell 100% brand new legitimately acquired media items to sell on the eBay site.  With eBay’s ever increasing fees and confusing free structure it has become more and more difficult to compete and find profitable items.  EBay is forcing good sellers off the site rather than going after the few sellers who truly do abuse the system, not to mention that very low shipping recovered in the selling price results in a higher percentage of the sale

As far as gaming the DSR system I don’t think you really can.  What I would recommend to most sellers is that you communicate as best you can with your buyers, as you recommended in your webinar.  DSR’s are a buyer’s subjective opinion on how they feel your service to them was.  The way eBay words their DSR instructions, and the hideous balloon that eBay placed on the DSR page encourages lower DSR ratings.  Ultimately what a buyer thinks of the transaction, how eBay grades you on that transaction, and what is actually feasible with the constraints you are given, are what I believe a recipe for a disaster.  You will catch far more good sellers in the DSR net than is actually necessary and reduce their visibility to the point it kills their business.  EBay is trying to come up with a blanket system to cover all transactions on eBay and I really believe that is impossible.  One size fits all doesn’t really work the way they’ve designed it. 

Real word studies have shown that customer satisfaction rates for the world’s best and brightest companies such as Amazon run in the high 80%’s as far as customer satisfaction ranks.  EBay itself as a company ranked 81 according to the Univ of Michigan customer satisfaction report.  Now take into account the massive buying power and volume discounts that an e-tailer like Amazon.com receives, yet eBay expects its sellers to maintain a 98% satisfaction rate while providing cheaper and faster service on a small business budget?  Changes such as no feedback for buyers will likely lower everyone’s score all around and give new buyers (and old ones) the perception that eBay is now ‘less safe’ because they will see more real world customer satisfaction numbers.  If you saw a seller with a75% feedback percentage would you buy from them?  What about the average buyer who doesn’t really pay attention to all of the changes?  Let me share some data with you about some major companies and their customer satisfaction scores in 2006. Macy's scored a 75 on a broad list of criteria ranked by shoppers, while Wal-Mart received a 68.  Nordstrom led the department store sector at 80, followed by Kohl's at 79.  Kroger Co. results were off at a score of 75, down from a score of 76 in 2006.  With all these numbers in mind lets translate that to how it translates to eBay.  On a raw number basis, 4.6 is 92% on a 5-point scale.  If you were looking at the same number on the feedback scale a 92% would get you suspended off of the eBay site.  I think eBay has teetered the scales too far and I think it will result in the exit of many vibrant sellers from the eBay marketplace which will in turn be bad for the site overall.  What adds even more insult to injury is eBay’s own customer service is quite lacking and is lower than all the etailers surveyed other than overstock.com. 

Moreover, the constant site glitches and failure of eBay and paypal to take responsibility for those glitches with the site directly affect buyers and ultimately leaves the seller to clean up.  Many times the mess caused by eBay’s failure to correct these issues right away affects the sellers DSR ratings which is extremely unfair.

Q: Any message you want to deliver to eBay or to other sellers?

Honestly I can say I used to love eBay, unfortunately eBay sellers are victims of what is known as contract of adhesion.  For those who don’t know, a contract of adhesion is a contract so imbalanced in favor of one party over the other party such that there is a strong implication that it was not freely bargained for.  Sure you could argue that sellers have the right to take their business elsewhere when changes are announced, but eBay makes constant changes that turn the seller’s businesses upside down and this is inherently unfair.  Once you have made the monetary commitment to run an eBay business, it’s hard to back out easily with no negative financial implications.  What’s a seller to do with all of their inventory and staff if they are at that level?  I find the situation really saddening.  When I was at eBay live, I saw many handicapped and disabled who were proud sellers on eBay.  EBay revolutionized their life and gave them a second chance at survival.  I am fearful of their plight in light of all of the new changes, which are taking place on the site.

I personally fell in love with the idea of selling on eBaya few years ago and have built a rather successful business with eBay as my main venue for selling.  I can say I truly do enjoy it.  However, lately, as most sellers I think would agree, I feel abused by eBay’s constant and sometimes erratic and drastic policy changes and frequent and steep fee increases.  However more importantly, I believe eBay’s tragic flaw is that eBay is consistently reactionary with their policies and procedural changes.  All great business leaders will agree, change is necessary to promote and foster growth inspire innovation.  With that said I believe that eBay’s changes are all in hindsight and not in line with the visionary type leadership that are what eBay as great as it is today.  Pierre Oydimar was a true visionary when he saw a way to connect individual small buyers directly with sellers through the Internet.  EBay needs to revisit its roots and reinvent the marketplace with the core principals that make buying and selling fun.  Constant fear of whether the next policy change will be the one that makes you go under is a pressure and stress that many people would rather live without. 

One last comment, as with all opinions, mine is what it is, just that, an opinion. (a somewhat educated one I would hope everyone agrees!)I welcome you and others who read your publications to comment on their experiences and whether or not they agree with some of my arguments about the current state of eBay.

Thanks for having me.

Regards,
Mr. BMX

Comments

[rikki]

Hey - BMX - no lectures here - I personally don't think that what you did is immoral or unethical, either.

I had a weak moment when reading your original post and a very simple point to make. It isn't important that I made it - nothing will change, it is 'the way it is'.

And on a side note, I agree on the cc companies and I can't wait to watch mc/v/ae 'get back' everything they've been 'paying forward' on all of us.

AND there is a 'little' company we both know well that might just have both the cohones/size to assist in changing in the cc system as we know it.

Cheers,
Rikki

[BMX]

Rikki,

The reason that I did see the increase with the trick was because I already had good DSR scores and a relatively high feedback rate. Had I been an extremely poor seller then my listings would have fallen in the search regardless of how good my keywords were.

As a matter of fact, the categories I list in, my listings still bubble up towards the top (if not on the very top) almost always consistently. I no longer use the trick (I doubt it works). I believe this is because I provide a good customer experience and deliver quickly.

All ebay had to do is stop scoring the same keyword more than once (thought a better design). The only instances that would be affected would be the ones that Mr. Gupta notes on his page, but I really doubt that it would have a material effect on most listings.

I don't really feel bad about using it because I don't think I did anything wrong. You can give me a speech on morailty and eithics if you wish, but I had no inside knowledge or special access to any tools that anyone else had and I assure you I wasn't the ONLY person that knew about this trick. Anyone was free to use it. When ebay saw the masses using it, they finally got wise. Reactionary policy change as usual. They should have waited to roll best match out when it was properly tested and sellers had the tools they needed to use it properly.

Some might consider it unethical to use this trick, but I don't think it was illegal.

Ebay is guilty of gaming the 'system' like all of the big companies do with immoral but not illegal practices. Perhaps you should go and read your paypal UA and tell me if paypal is a bit underhanded about how they trick customers into using their bank accounts to pay for merchandise. Is that good for the buyer experience? Ebay is a hypocritial company who doesn't practice what they preach. Cell phone companies, cable companies, oil companies, they all deal with underhanded type of business activities which are not good for the customer. Go to cnn and read about the latest war on credit card companies if you don't think this type of immoral behavior is not rampant.

When it comes down to it, its not about whats right, whats moral, its all about dollars and cents as ebay and other companies have proven over and over again.

[Kelly]

BMX, Thanks for taking the time to share your comments. Your are spot-on and just about everything you said and I think eBay does not have a lot of experienced PowerSellers on their own staff. Also thanks for bringing up the customer satisfaction rates. Even the most respected companies in the world with NEVER comes close to anything in the high 90's. EBay is so quick to stress the inportance of customer service yet they simple dont practice what they preach. How many stars would you give "Communication" to eBay? 4.8? 4.6? How long does it take to a response from eBay's customer service? 3 days? 2 days? As a Powerseller if I would never expect a customer to wait more that 24 hours from a response and I expect eBay to hold the same standard. Amazon.com can do it. Why can't eBay?

Kelly

[Rikki]

Quite respectfully, Abbi - you may 'get' it better in the very short term, but a business that is primarily 'buyer-first' is the only path to long term survival. Until you understand that sellers are simply a tube through which ebay's revenue flows, you will never clearly and routinely understand ebay's decisions.

Over the years I've found ways to 'game' the ebay system - and haven't implemented them on a grand scale because they disappear eventually. Sellers who jump on the latest 'game' just destabilize their biz and set themselves up for wild variations - the kind that make sellers wildly emotional, wastes valuable resources and wreck businesses. Seller stability on ebay requires a focus on the absolute fundamentals of your particular biz. This is the real and sustainable 'generating an advantage' - not some 'momentary' glitch in ebay's site mgmt structure or policies.

BMX - I understand that you were not alone and that ebay's response to the defect in the algorithym would have been occured eventually. On the other hand - you shouldn't be suprised when another seller who is actually 'paying' for your game and your temporary advantage gets a bit hacked off.

Ebay has no other option than to shut down the tool for now until they get things fixed - I don't fault their response. I do, on the other hand get very tired of adjusting my business due to ebay shutting off features due to seller misuse.

I usually stay far away from getting involved in this kind of time-wasting issues and roll with the changes - but reading about BMX'S increased asp/st due to this latest trick AND without any demonstration of understanding of what these little games ACTUALLY cost in terms of other sellers losing valuable resources/features on ebay pushed me to respond.

[Abbi Vakil]

BMX
Thank you for your thoughtful & detailed response. I don't think John & Rikki get it...To me, Ebay has swung the pendulum too much towards the buyer side. They should be enforcing higher standards from sellers by banning them from their site if their customer service level falls off. If you don't meet the high standards of Amazon, they are very quick to ban you from their site and then it gets VERY hard to get back in their good graces. But that would be too much work for Ebay and less number of auctions (which is easy to track by Wall St analysts) would trigger a stock slide. I don't think any of their recent actions are motivated by concern for the buyer or the seller- they care about the stock price and bring the growth back but instead they're going about it the wrong by trying too hard to be something they're not. Almost ALL of their recent acquisitions have been non-synergistic and that could have been money well spent on things like buyer education and cust service...
Scot- makes sense you are long GOOG, I would short EBAY if I was you ;-)

[Sally]

Excellent article and information. While I am disappointed to see the Bayestimator tool pulled due to this, it was only a matter of time before they pulled it. The one consistant with eBay in recent years seems to be, take away anything that is of value and assists the sellers in making more money. Seems they have forgotten that in order to make money themselves, they have to have sellers making money.

Their theory seems to be that there is an infinite pool of sellers available to them and if they lose a few 1000 here or there, there are plenty waiting in the wings. Sooner or later, this philosophy will catch up with them, same as it does with flea market and antique mall owners that take the same cavalier attitude towards their primary customer, the seller.

[Gail]

I applaud your opinions on how all these changes will affect the sellers of antiques or collectibles, disabled sellers who rely on eBay for income, smaller sellers of unique items or their own personal collections. These major changes were made with the big powersellers in mind; they are the only sellers with whom eBay PTB spoke about the changes.

Why does best match favor powersellers with lower DSR ratings over the smaller seller with higher ratings? Why do powerseller items come up in best match that have nothing to do with the searched keywords? Yes, this happens consistantly.

What do smaller sellers know about having to manipulate best match for their items to be seen? Why does this have to be done at all?

eBay is destroying what made it unique. If buyers want NEW items, they go to online retailers or brand name discounters and buy directly. I know I do. I'm not looking for scratch and dent or returns. Why pay a middleman for an item that may not work or has undisclosed flaws?

eBay will never change its reputation of being the world's largest garage sale; it will never be known as anything else. This is what made it successful. Buyers come to eBay looking for the unique or the collectible. When they can't find anything due to search glitches, long page loads, best match not working, small sellers no longer there, they're not going to buy something mass produced from some powerseller. They're going to use Google to find that unique item elsewhere. After this happens once or twice, they'll no longer bother returning to eBay. Why should they?

[BMX]

Response to rikki,

To my defense I only discovered a bug (or exploit) in best match.

Other sellers took this and ran with it and began using irrelvant titles such as 5 5 5 and 2 2 2.

'Gaining an advantage' is what this business is about. I am sure other sellers knew about this exploit and used it as well. Ebay should have thought the system through better and when rolling out the tool provide information and tools for sellers to optimize their listings. They should also make this known to all sellers.

I think shutting down the tool is the wrong move for ebay and will just inflame an already upset seller base.

Scot asked me to do an interview to share my thoughts with the audience and I agreed to do so.

Thank you for your comment.

[BMX]

Reply to Abbi,

Let me respond to your question and expound upon it on what I feel is an underlying problem.

My feeling is that most sellers will open several selling accounts and when one gets dinged up start using the other. Switch back and forth so that you maintain a high enough visibility to keep making money since ebay keeps a rolling 30 day average. I see some advantages to being a powerseller, but I don't think most high volume sellers can achieve the 4.8 rating that ebay wants to get the high discounts. 4.5's should be attainable by most good sellers, but you still are at a disadvantage as to fees and best match placement.

I recently learned that Buy.com sells on ebay and they have 4.8's, but why is that do you think? They are a huge company, with their own site and other revenues, dedicated full time employees, specialized software, etc. They probably use ebay to data mine new customers and sell some merchandise which they are having trouble getting rid of. (I'm speculating I'm not sure). I think the financial cost to get to 4.8 will outweigh any discounts or benefits you will receive.

The main problem I see with ebay (and amazon has this problem too but to a lesser extent because of their 0 insertion fee structure) is that NEW quality reliable items cost money and the prices on ebay don't support them. Ebay wants to be a shopping mall, but I don't think it can be with the amount of fees that it charges.
Ebay is a venue to find either scarce hard to find items (which you are willing to pay for) or items you can get anywhere else at a lower price. I will be hugely difficult to change this idea in buyers minds. Ask yourself why Ebay Express never worked? Think of the requirements. 1) Ship to all unconfirmed addresses at your own risk and sell brand new items at a discount from other retailers. Ebay express never gained traction in other markets or in the US. I believe this is because legitimately acquired goods (especially NEW ones) such as iPods, TV's, Video Game consoles, etc have very low margin. There is absolutely no way a seller can legitimately sell these and make money at the prices they bring on ebay unless they are in high demand and low supply. So what do sellers do? They find items which have margin such as used, refurbished, and in some cases counterfeit. Do a quick search on Amazon for some of your favorite DVD's. Notice how alot of sellers are selling new merchandise for 1/2 of what they can be bought for at retail stores. Why do you think that is? Do people really think that sellers can get a better price than Wal-Mart and wholesale clubs like Costco? Of course they can't, I will let you make your own conclusions as to the authenticity or method those goods were acquired because that is a whole argument in itself. For some interesting litigation reading along these lines google search ebay v. tiffany Inc.

Buyers will come to the venues that offer quality merchandise at a good price and at which they feel safe. If not they'll go to Best Buy, Target, or Walmart to make their purchase. I think that sellers of used merchandise will have a much harder time as buyers will become increasingly aware of the 'good deal' and become more stringent in their standards of these used products because ebay has given them this right. Ebay wants to improve the buyer experience and rightfully so but good customer service has a financial cost and I don't think alot of sellers can provide it and make enough money to be worth the headache. Companies like Amazon can afford this expense because they are huge volume sellers. The average ebay seller can't afford that type of customer service. Some sellers are part time sellers and won't be able to provide the type of customer service that most buyers are going to think they are entitled to.

Larger companies enjoy larger discounts and can offer better pricing than smaller sellers. Ebay wants us to compete with Amazon's free shipping and I really think this is impossible and will not increase ebay's long term growth. Sure customers will be happier, but sellers will make less money and many will give up. When there is nothing to buy because the sellers left, buyers will leave as well.

As always just my opinion..

[John]

Comparing the satisfaction rates of eBay sellers versus those of deparment stores, amazon and the like is a faulty comparison.

Department stores can't leave a comment visible to all other department stores calling you an idiot.

It will be a more apt comparison once negative feedback is no longer available, and it will remain to be seen what percentages on feedback that sellers will be able to maintain

[BMX]

This is a reply to Sandy.

The reason 5 5 5 and 2 2 2 worked well is because (I suspect) alot of sellers described their listings as '5 games' '2 controllers'. Another savy seller discovered that if you repeat those 'keywords' (Best match thinks 5 and 2 are keywords) over and over then you can fit more 'relevant' keywords in your allotted title space. You can fit more 5 5 5 5 5 5 than you can fit New New New.

In essence I think this is why ebay made the change.

5 5 5 and 2 2 2 do nothing for the buyer experience and are an obvious exploitation. New new new is less subtle but still a trick nonetheless.

Its all a moot point because ebay has changed the code and pulled the BayEstimator tool so we are back to selling blindfolded. Something I believe is truly unfair to us as sellers.

[Abbi Vakil]

Scott- one of the best articles from an insider's perspective I have ever seen. Kudos to you & BMX! As we all know, organic growth @ Ebay is 0 and so they have to resort to the tricks we've seen in the past few years. Inflation on eBay fees is higher than commodities inflation. If they would simply accept this fact and work towards reducing THEIR expenses, we could all settle down and get on with the business of selling which is challenging enough already. Looks to me like Ebay loves the small mom and pop seller and not the professional seller. In BMX's opinion, is there any advantage to being a Powerseller anymore if DSRs above 4.5 in ship time & ship cost become impossible to achieve?

[rikki]

The 'create system - game system - change system' dance is one all longtime ebayers are familiar with. Fine. Enjoy your moments of fame - but lets all clearly understand who is actually paying for your increased conversion rates/asp.

You took down a very valuable tool as a result of this particular 'game'. You accrued the financial benefit and the rest of us lost the use of this tool. Your gain came at a cost to others - not in direct competition - but through trying to grab an advantage over others. This is part of the 'dance' that really frys my potatoes. You win in the short term, a lot of other sellers lose much more in the long term.

Thank you for your consideration and community values. You may now join the automatic reviser folks in the 'I gamed ebay and won (for a little while at least)' corner.

I guess the world is just a bit too big for me.

[Bob Winfrey]

I agree with your assesment 100%. They seem to have taken an extreme left turn. Without the great sellers e-bay will actually make the problem worse. My sales have slipped to 25% of last years sales for same month. My two stores redscollectibles and shipmodelsuperstore were both power sellers and now I sell half of what it takes to be a power seller. One has 98.5% and the other 99% positive feedback. My negatives came from a NPB and a non english speaking customer who tried to pay with Western Union. Penalised for following policy go figure!! My DSR's are 4.5 and 4.7 and I drop ship so I have no control over shipping costs for my large fragile items. I am hanging on but my income is suffering big time!!

You hit the nail on the head.

Thanks
Bob Winfrey

[Sandy]

Great article! Congratulations on using some ingenuity to work this system. Could you explain the significance of 5 5 5 and 2 2 2 as you discussed their placement in listings please?

[Dustin]

Here is my question. I wanted to let the dust settle a little on the best match before I optomized my titles for Best Match. Of course I would not make the change of repeating keywords over and over but do you think that I should use the lab tool and go ahead and do that or is it still to early? Should I wait and see what changes come? I have noticed a significant drop in sales in the last 14 days. I usually get about 2 negs a year and with the new feedback changes coming I think buyers are feeling more empowered and wanting more and have got 2 negs in the last 2 weeks. Even though my DSR's are all 4.5 and above for the last 30 days I wonder if thats affecting it as well.

Great Article.

Thanks Dustin

[shthar]

what you need to do is find something to sell that 50 million other people arent selling.

then you wont have to resort to tricks, and you wont give a tinkers damn about how ebay jiggers the search.

cuz if they can only get it from you, they will.