Has ebay's new O scale categorys affected you??

I chose to stop using it because they did something I did not like.

Just like DCS/TMCC/ETC.....I wrote software that makes that look like high school stuff..

I chose to not use it.

I was wondering if others felt the same.....I like to see both sides. thx

Yes, I too think the changes on Ebay are one of the worst blunders they have made and they have made a lot.

Just when they seem to perfect the system someone who needs to justify their paycheck decides to "redesign" everything.

I did contact them, told them how difficult they had made everything and suggested that the next time someone feels the need to "tinker" with something that ain't broke go out in front of the building and pull the weeds out of the flower beds.

That way they can justify their paycheck.

Mark

Not really. I check eBay most days just to see what is happening with K-Line passenger cars. That's about it.

 

Ditto

Its Ridiculous, they can never leave thy system alone...I like the older version, so much easier

I model in On30, a gauge that is gaining popularity.
Now, theres no category at all for it. So, eBay just lost me for bidding on anything in that gauge as its too tough to find anything.

I thought it was me or my computer wasn't modern enough. Most annoying thing is at random intervals the category changes mindlessly. I search Lionel whatever in all categories and I click newly listed. When the page is done loading I see that the category has changed to baby. I imagine they want people to look in other categories with a hope they will buy something on impulse.

I too have had a tough time with the new categories. Like many here, I would review certain listings (like postwar Lionel) every day. That's now over, as the new categories either leave you with only a fraction of relevant listings or have you wading through many irrelevant ones. 

 

To be sure, change is hard. But I think the old listings corresponded to most guys' actual interests. I certainly wonder what prompted the change.  

 

But here's the good news: more guys (including me) will be looking at the OGR board for buying and selling. 

Since the changes were made I definitely spend less time on Ebay. 

the changes made suck you have hard time finding anything at all.

 why did thy do such a change. didn't make things better.

 I have not been on e-bay for a while because of changes.

Ditto to the original "stink" reply, one cannot readily use N and HO terminology in describing O gauge toy trains. When you talk Lionel, it should be prewar, postwar, etc...

 

enjoy your trains...

 

Count me in the the new E bay listings sucks category.  I used to check trains on e bay just about everyday.  The day I learned Weaver was going out of business, I checked E bay for Weaver trains and got under 50 listings.... used to get several hundred before E bay decided to "improve"things.  

 

I no longer check e bay and like AMC Dave said " its saving me money" and thats cool

 

 

"Like many here, I would review certain listings (like postwar Lionel) every day. That's now over, as the new categories either leave you with only a fraction of relevant listings or have you wading through many irrelevant ones."

 

    I think it's just a matter of educating the sellers to put the correct wording in their listings. If they type lionel postwar somewhere in their title or description and you search for postwar lionel by title and description you'll find it. I just did a lionel postwar search and it came up with 12,545 listings in O gauge, 6,834 of them were listed as other, 4,336 were listed as parts and accessories, 348 as locos, 544 as freight cars, and 179 as passenger cars. If the sellers want folks to find their stuff they just gotta label it correctly and we'll find it........DaveB

 "The day I learned Weaver was going out of business, I checked E bay for Weaver trains and got under 50 listings. "

 

     There's 2,508 listings for Weaver in model railroad category right now( using title and description search for weaver)......DaveB

Maybe they hired a high-powered consultant in marketing to do the "fix".

All the best,

Miketg

Its almost like there are two Ebays. Like, DaveB I have never noticed a change in the number of returns on my searches. If it weren't for threads like this I wouldn't even be aware of a change.

 

Pete

 

quote:

I did that back in Fed when they warned sellers of the changes coming.

But in true IT tradition I got the 'Ve know vhat is best for you........'

 

Have you ever led a requirements gathering session? I have. The End User often doesn't know what they want. It can take a bit to draw it out of them.

 

As for EBay, I doubt that anybody seriously looks at the comments and/or suggestions. If they see a drop off in activity they might reconsider their changes. I cannot name any specifics, but I think they have rolled back a change or too before.

Not going to dwell on my career here....But yes.....in my 35 years in IT I did about every job you can think of. At times I was a liaison for both sides, IT and Customer, for some of the biggest bank mergers in history among other projects. Seen both sides. Techies often 'know' what customers want and the other way around. 

 

I too doubt any comments left on ebay have any affect. They are suffering stagnate grow and are trying anything to fix.  

""""""""In regards to eBay in general.

It is like a loved one that meant a lot and had lots of great memories with.

But has since suffered from a long illness that has continued to worsen over time.

Now things are so bad that even though they are still hanging on, it would be best if they just passed on""""""""

 

Every time, as this morning, I think I have figured out how to "beat the new system",

I wind up with washtubs of equine excrement I do not want to wade through.  I am

afraid they will do this to other categories besides trains I search.  It took them forever to figure out how to categorize automobiles.  (they finally got that right, and

must have hired somebody out of the hobby, for their comprehensive listing surprised

me)  However, that is brand specific, and I may want to search trains that way, AND

by specific scale and the former subsets.  Few of us are looking for anything and

everything that is nominally "O scale/gauge".

Ditto ditto   A lot less bids on items that would otherwise sell very easy

I noticed that too! Really annoying!

This is another example of someone who knows nothing about a specific category, that thinks they know what people want. Let's change the Coke formula, they'll like it!

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE, If YOU don't like ebay, YOU are more than Welcome to NOT use the site, I for one certainly do not Hope that the bay passes on.

 

 I don't know what search definitions some are using, but like Norton and daveb, I would not know that there had been any changes, without reading this thread. The number of listings in a specific search has ALWAYS varied somewhat, but I have NOT noticed anything that would generally find 200-500 results, suddenly dropping to 50 or less as some others are finding.

 

 My searches are some what broad, but evidently are more specific than others. Most of my searches are of the MFGR/Roadname variety, such as Lionel Union Pacific, or MTH Southern Pacific. Occasionally, I will search for a very specific item, but the results there are bout what I have always seen, sometimes there just isn't what I am looking for listed on ebay, at any given time.

 

 Ebay has been a real Boon to finding some items(and a REAL detriment, to my BUDGET). Ebay has made MANY, Former "HARD to FIND" items much more available, than before ebay was around, with ebay some of those items aren't so hard to find at all. Now, I can sit in my underwear (I know THAT is an image, few of you want to picture) and in under an hour, find more things that I am looking for, than I would be likely to find going to dozens of our local swap meets, being near Portland, OR, York just isn't an option for me.

 

 I haven't seen the changes that others have, and I would sure MISS ebay, if it were to follow the DoDo Bird into extinction.

 

Doug

Try this link out  you look on the left hand side you can still search by the MFG.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/O-Scale-/19145/i.html

 

happened to run into a E-bay guy on my morning beach walk. Very nice man that know a lot about the new changes. I told him I thought the changes were a huge mistake. He said they were making it easier for non users. No Brass, American Flyer, the list goes on. It's hard for a company to admit they made a mistake so I don't expect things will change. Wonder how many train people work at E -bay. Don

The only effect for me has been more affordable purchases over the last couple months or so, no complaint here.

With all due respect, it's not the same.  Example:  used to be you if you clicked on Lionel and then narrowed the search to "1988- today" (or whatever the years are) you would get at least 15 pages of new listings.  Now, you'll see maybe 7,8 9 pages of new listings.  Where did all the previous inventory go?  Did that many sellers suddenly pull their items from eBay?  Or are there that many fewer people selling modern-day Lionel?  It just seems to be too much of a coincidence that it happened just when they changed the listing format.

I haven't bought a train-related item since the changes.  All my searches ceased to work, and I just decided I didn't need any of that stuff that bad.  It was a major blunder IMO.

 

"I search Lionel whatever in all categories and I click newly listed. When the page is done loading I see that the category has changed to baby. I imagine they want people to look in other categories with a hope they will buy something on impulse."

 

  If you search for something in model trains category and there are no matches they will show you things that match your search wording in other categories. This is in case folks have listed the item in a different category than model trains. The key to searching is use the right word and don't be too specific as many sellers don't know the technical terms so use generic "train" a lot. After searching for the broad item description use the left side category boxes to refine the search. Also be sure to search for both tile and description as many guys put a lot of specifics in their descriptions so things like model number or road number come up.......DaveB

Sorry Dave, but that's way too much screwing around.

 

 "used to be you if you clicked on Lionel and then narrowed the search to "1988- today" (or whatever the years are) you would get at least 15 pages of new listings.  Now, you'll see maybe 7,8 9 pages of new listings.  Where did all the previous inventory go? "

 

    I just did a lionel search and there are 8,258 items listed as 1988-today category ( on the left side down below the category search results). If some things are not showing up it's because the sellers are not checking the proper boxes or using the correct words in their descriptions......DaveB

""""I COMPLETELY DISAGREE, If YOU don't like ebay, YOU are more than Welcome to NOT use the site""""

As a matter of fact, being both a buyer and seller on the site from day one. A seller that I may add had a few thousand a month in transactions As well as a huge buyer. Yes I have now chosen NOT to use the site to sell and as far as my purchases go I also find the site more of a burden to use then it is worth. So now they even managed to make buying a hassle since though I still seem to log on out of habit I quickly leave out of disgus.

 That said, the majority of the like are in agreement and it shows. Sadly that site has the typical lack of respect for the long term people who helped built them up as most corporations do with the thought of new blood can replace them. Well as not only history shows any one with real knowledge knows from seeing this in their life time and time again, that simply is not the case. 

Now I just sit back and watch the disaster unfold more and more like watching CNN

 

 

eBay has clearly veered off on the course of commercial buy/sell, they're largely abandoned what made them what they are.  What is needed is a decent alternative.

 

It has not bothered me. I still type in what I want and I usually can find it without problems. I don't usually look under categories anyway.

Dave,

   I seldom purchase off e-bay any more, and you are correct their new way of listing is going to drop their sales a bunch.  If I am looking for a certain piece of rolling stock or an engine, it's  mess now even finding it.

PCRR/Dave

 

No, I didn't even notice. I typically search for things based on scale and roadname.

Yes. It completely screwed up three of my saved searches. Fortunately, with a couple of them I had finally found the last items I was looking for.

Colorado highrailer wrote:

 

I wind up with washtubs of equine excrement I do not want to wade through.

 

 

 

To ME, this sounds more like my search results on Google ( where myself and others get repeated directions to any time a question is asked) than my search results on ebay.

 

What exactly are the "CHANGES" that ebay has made? I am still using the same search definitions that I always have, and my results have not noticeably changed.

 

 What types of searches have become so frustrating that one would quit using the site?

 

I am NOT trying to be arguementive, I just don't understand what types of searches have changed, because I have not seen any changes in my searches.

 

Doug

Put me down for ****ed off as well! None of my searches work for my limited area of interest. But like most of you I try not to buy on this site.