The ebay weirdness thread

[Jim R]

There are dozens of threads here related to ebay, but the vast majority are posted by sellers (in the offering and looking for forum), and those that aren't tend to deal with questions and complaints related to specific deals gone bad; feedback issues; crazy prices, etc. I couldn't find one with an ongoing discussion about some of the strange (to me, at least), sometimes blatantly fraudulent, and sometimes confusing things that occur at ebay in general (fraud tactics, rule changes, etc etc), and the way the site has evolved and become more complex over the years. So, I'm starting this as a catch-all thread to discuss things... like this, for example:

Earlier today, roughly 12 hours ago, I was doing part of my routine series of searches (in this case, related to vintage Gibson guitars). I had done a couple of searches already, and everything was proceeding as normal. Then I went to the third search in my bookmarked list, and the results that came up were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. One particular seller had put up multiple new listings, but some of the items were listed 60 or 70 times. So, on page 1 of the results of my search, there were 46 separate (but identical) listings for one particular guitar that caught my eye (there were roughly 20 more for the same item on page 2). A couple of things entered my mind. First, I thought this might have been some sort of glitch, caused by a problem with ebay's system. Alternatively, I thought it could be some kind of a hack or a spam job that had eluded ebay's ability to control. Either way, I thought that it would likely be cleaned up fairly quickly (within a few hours). Well, like I said, that was about 12 hours ago, and the situation hasn't changed. I've seen this before, actually, but on a much smaller scale. Regardless, I still find it odd that ebay hasn't evolved to the point that they can control this sort of thing more effectively.

But my confusion goes beyond this. When I clicked on one of those 46 listings, I encountered a few things that I found odd. Before I explain, I'll go ahead and provide a link to the item in question: 1959 Gibson ES330

The seller has 1581 transactions; and a 99.9 feedback rating. Location: "Free Shipping, United States" (Never heard of that town. Minor pet peeve... I think sellers should have to list their actual location, but maybe that's an idealistic and outdated sentiment). The seller specializes in militaria, and when I viewed their feedback, it looked like 99% of the items were militaria-related items. I clicked on "see other items", and discovered that they had over 52,000 active items listed! Bicycles, stoves, cameras, saxophones, printers... everything under the sun. I assumed that the number was probably that large only due to multiple/identical listings of the same items, but I didn't bother to investigate that.

FYI, this particular 1959 Gibson has a market value of about $5000. The top of the page showed: "starting bid: $99"; and no "buy it now" option in the usual place. Then I scrolled down to see if there were any photos (there were none at the top of the page in the usual place), and I saw the following:

"BUY IT NOW PRICE: $1700. Instead of "ask seller a question" form, contact me at my personal email. I will not sell through bidding, only buy it now. The transaction will be made through ebay."

Okay... then below this, there is a link that says "To view product availability ---Click here for more details". I'm just curious as to whether somebody has already snatched up this guitar, so I go ahead and follow the link. A legit-looking ebay page, with a box for "enter ebay user ID" (there's no request for my password, so I enter my ID and click continue). Next page, again, legit-looking ebay heading: "Sign in to eBay to use the service provided by eBay Turbo Lister... Sign in with your eBay user ID and password to link your account to eBay Turbo Lister". "Link my account" ?? This was completely new and foreign to me, so I stopped and returned to the item listing.

There are indeed photos of the guitar down the page, but the last photo doesn't belong (not the same guitar). A little odd and suspicious, but not necessarily a huge red flag.

Then, I go back to the search page, and I see another guitar with multiple listings (same seller) which I recognize as something I've seen before. The photos of the guitar are all taken with an attractive blond holding it in various poses. I've seen these photos before, but used by a different seller. I've seen this phenomenon (bogus listings using other sellers' photos) at ebay before, of course, but typically by "0" sellers located someplace in Asia. Big red flag there, but again, the seller's details look somewhat legit.

So, that's about it. If not for the seller's 1581 transactions and 99.9% feedback, I probably would have just ignored the whole thing as rather reckless fraud, but I don't understand how to really tell if this particular item could be legit or not (I'm not interested in buying the item, I'm just trying to make sense of this). Also, I'm hoping somebody can shed some light on the whole "turbo" seller thing, and why these multiple identical listings can get so out of control.

[Jazzmoose]

Well, since the link you provide now says "item removed", it sounds like the slow moving turtle that is eBay finally agreed with your suspicion.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Jazzmoose

[Big Wheel]

Are you SURE that "legit-looking" ebay page prompting you for your user ID and password was really legit? This sounds to me like a classic case of phishing with a well-done fake of a real ebay login page. Although you thankfully stopped short of giving the site your password, if I were you I'd change your password anyway ASAP and scan your computer for malware.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Big Wheel

[Dan Gould]

I think BW got it exactly right.

[Brownian Motion]

I was looking through book listings on ebay a few weeks back, and I came upon a book whose title was partially redacted. I clicked on "see other items". Most of the other titles this seller had listed were partially redacted as well. The seller is based in Cyprus. His user name is "adolfreich", which ebay seems to be fine with.

http://shop.ebay.com/adolfreich/m.html?_dmd=1&_in_kw=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

What the hell is going on?

Edited March 26, 2010 by Brownian Motion

[Jim R]

Thanks, guys. Apparently this got cleaned up during the night. I guess I should learn to trust my instincts a bit more... I just can't get over how rampant all the fraud has become.

BW- no, I'm not sure it was a legit page (I'm doubting it even more now). Is there even a legit form of that procedure ("linking your account" to a "turbo lister")? Anyway, I'll look into a password change.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Jim R

[Jazzmoose]

I was looking through book listings on ebay a few weeks back, and I came upon a book whose title was partially redacted. I clicked on "see other items". Most of the other titles this seller had listed were partially redacted as well. The seller is based in Cyprus. His user name is "adolfreich", which ebay seems to be fine with.

http://shop.ebay.com/adolfreich/m.html?_dmd=1&_in_kw=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

What the hell is going on?

Weirdness indeed!

[Big Wheel]

Thanks, guys. Apparently this got cleaned up during the night. I guess I should learn to trust my instincts a bit more... I just can't get over how rampant all the fraud has become.

BW- no, I'm not sure it was a legit page (I'm doubting it even more now). Is there even a legit form of that procedure ("linking your account" to a "turbo lister")? Anyway, I'll look into a password change.

I don't actually have an ebay account but it sounds like this could be a legitimate tool used by bigger sellers. It's possible this seller just goofed and pasted this link in by accident (I can see a bigger seller using it frequently, and misusing Turbo Lister could also be responsible for the multiple postings). But given the amount of crooks determined to use ebay and other large sites for phishing purposes, I wouldn't take my chances that this was just a novice seller who screwed a bunch of things up in the listing process.

In general when I see something that looks out of place on a site that contains links from elsewhere (this includes search engines and their sponsored links, too) my first two assumptions are always (in this order):

1. Fraud

2. A bug in the site

Edited March 27, 2010 by Big Wheel

[Big Beat Steve]

I've never come across listings on eBay that looked as weird as those described by the thread starter but multiple listings of the same article by the same seller would not necessarily be a cause of concern to me, just a sign of annoyance.

In fact in other areas I check more or less regularly (parts for collectible cars of specific marques) I often come across listings of NOS "wear and tear" parts (as usually sold by large wholesalers) for a collectible car where you will find identical listings of one and the same part for an older model placed there by the same seller. Beats me why they'd do that. If it is an auction item it is plain silly because who'd raise a bid if he knew another identical part may be just around the corner at the starting price? And even if it is offered at a Buy it Now price they might as well make a single listing that says "10 available" or "20 available" or whatever instead of 20 separate listings! Looks a bit like listing spam to me if I have to work my way through 3 or 4 pages cluttered with maybe only a handful of different articles, each of which is represented by 10 or 20 identical listings each. At any rate, that's another detail that really reduces eBay's attreactivity to me these days.