posted on November 30, 2000 10:19:39 PM
I closed all my ongoing auctions before going out of town for 9 days over Thanksgiving, and now that I've relisted them I've discovered that their placement NOW is almost at the end of every category I put them in.
My sell-through rate was OK (about 33% per month) and my feedback almost 550, so my listing placement PRIOR TO NOW was very close to the top of most categories I placed listings in. I don't understand why my auctions are now on the next-to-last pages with those of low-feedback sellers.
Did Yahoo change the formula for listing placement while I was away? SURELY going 10 days without sales isn't enough to drop a seller to the bottom rung of the ladder, IS IT?????????????
Most of my auctions are "First Bid Wins" and ALL have a "Buy Price", so it doesn't make a lot of sense to pay to feature them (I'll be charged for 10 days, when the auction might close much less time).
Did anyone else close your auctions to leave town and return to find you'd "lost" your placement ranking????
posted on November 30, 2000 11:25:23 PM
Sorry to hear it.. 33% is excellent for Yahoo.
You might try not using First Bid Wins. Your listing placement depends on your sell through percentage and the number of bids per auction. I've also found it best to Feature on the last day or two days of your auction.
Personally I'm fed up with Yahoo. It was nice while it lasted. I will most like move all of my auctions back to Ebay..
[ edited by outoftheblue on Nov 30, 2000 11:27 PM ]
posted on December 1, 2000 04:33:52 AM
Sorry granee.
I would LOVE to know how the heck they are calculating the listing order. I'm as confused as ever.
Does this mean that we all start over at square one on the first of the month as far as sell through goes? But no, that can't be right either because if that were the case then the default order at the beginning of the month would basically be high feedback sellers first. Since granee has high feedback she wouldn't be at the end of the list for anything even if her sell through % were knocked down to 0%. No matter how you slice it her new placement just doesn't make sense.
posted on December 1, 2000 06:51:42 AM
We wrote to Yahoo about it. The response said that the placement was based on "quality" of items... determined by sell through rate and the number of bids items were receiving. Since I sell high quality items, yet seldom receive more than one bid per item due to the catagories I sell in, I'm pretty much not going up in the listings. It pretty much sucks.
have a nice day.
posted on December 1, 2000 03:29:20 PM
How can Yahoo possibly determine the "quality" of an item by the number of bids it receives---especially when sellers have learned to use the "buy price" option on Yahoo in order to get even *ONE* person to bid???
The ONLY way to get multiple bidders is to open bidding at a VERY LOW price and protect yourself with a reserve OR gamble that bidding will go high enough that you won't lose money on the sale (a gamble sellers often lose selling on Yahoo). Since Yahoo bidders HATE reserves (usually not even bothering to bid), and the "buy price" doesn't protect a seller from giving his item away for a low price like a reserve does, how the heck are we supposed to get multiple bids without giving our merchandise away????????
Apparently a seller's "sell-through" rate reverts back to 0 if he doesn't sell for a VERY SHORT period of time, and feedback rating no longer means squat to Yahoo. Why else would my listings be sent to the last pages now?
As for removing the "First Bid Wins" and "Buy Price" from my auctions so I can have multiple bids on them (thereby improving their placement), I would have to CLOSE all of them (without winners) to rewrite them and resubmit. Not only is that a LOT of work I don't have time for, but closing them without winners would only lower my sell-through rate even more.
I may have mis-understood you, but, you said that you closed all of your auctions before going on your trip. Could this have hurt your sell through ratio?
Just a thought. At this point I can honestly say I haven't got a clue what they (Yahoo) are doing...
posted on December 2, 2000 02:12:42 AM
I'm sure closing my auctions without winners counted against my "sell-through" rate, but not enough to put me near the BOTTOM. In fact, my November sales had been good up to the point of my leaving town.
As posted on another thread, Yahoo seems to have DROPPED seller feedback rating as one part of the "formula" used in determining listing placement. Now they just use the "sell-through" rate and number of bids on the auction, so I ASSUME listings are placed according to "sell-through" rate, then they MOVE UP when a bid is placed. IS THAT RIGHT???
It seems Yahoo decided to eliminate the advantage that previous Yahoo sellers enjoyed over newbies by taking seller feedback out of the picture *altogether*, but in doing so they put us all on equally BAD footing.
If you plan to be away from home over Christmas, I suggest you leave your auctions running and take a computer with you to email buyers as the need arises. Otherwise, you'll find yourself bringing up the rear with me.
posted on December 2, 2000 08:37:39 AM
I really don't think the sell-thru has any effect on placement. I sold 10 items in one day, which is very unusual for me, and the following day my listings drop! I have been watching other sellers in my categories and their listings moved to the top when they are selling a lower % of items!
