ebay spamming!?

normalbrains · Post by **normalbrains** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:28 am

ok, the first time i listed an alpha chaos orb on eBay i put "not beta" in the title to attract more potential buyers. i think this tactic is perfectly legitimate since many people are that are looking for BB limited cards dont care if its alpha or beta. most people searching for a beta chaos orb would be happy to stumble across an alpha one. at least i would. its not like i was selling repacks or something totally non-related. towards the end of the auction, ebay pulled my auction for keyword spamming. i listed it again and put "like beta" in the title, and it was pulled for spamming almost immediately. is someone reporting my auctions to eBay? i find it hard to believe they are doing this by themselves, especially since there are TONS of auctions that keyword spam with alpha and beta in the title.

mahdishain · Post by **mahdishain** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:42 pm

one of the hardest lessons for me to learn in life is that all people do not think like me. it seems so obvious but i still struggle with the concept. just because you would be happy to stumble across an alpha card while
searching for a beta does not mean that other people will not be annoyed that you wasted their time with your deliberately misleading description.
that fact that you've been told twice that what you are doing is wrong and you are still questioning it is interesting.

practice peace

mahdishain

normalbrains · Post by **normalbrains** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:48 pm

for the record, im not putting "alpha beta chaos orb" as the title.

i put "1x Alpha Chaos Orb - Magic - like Beta"

you would find this title annoying? it cannot be construed as a beta chaos orb. its not even slightly misleading.

id like to hear others' comments on this.

ende73 · Post by **ende73** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:13 pm

Normalbrains, I think you're right.

I've seen FAR WORSE keyword spamming around ("Summer Magic" to indicate an auction for six mild miscuts is the most recent one), and pulling down your auctions was excessive.

Someone must have reported you :(

... but now drop me that scan of the Bazaar of Baghdad please !

Gryfalia · Post by **Gryfalia** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:14 pm

The search function exists for me, as a buyer, to find what I am looking for.

Not to find what you, as a seller, think is something I might be interested in that is NOT what I am looking for.

That is why people report you (no, it wasn't me).

Gryfalia

normalbrains · Post by **normalbrains** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:23 pm

ill reiterate that i think that alpha and beta are so darned similar that this cannot be considered keyword spamming. there are real keyword spammers out there that put "mox", "NON FOIL" and all kinds of stuff to generate interest in their unrelated auctions". if somebody reported me for this, thats just petty. ill leave my argument at that. unfortunately it probably came from somebody on this forum. id like to hear other opinions.

ende73- ill email you in a minute

mintcollector · Post by **mintcollector** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:32 pm

I don't think what you did was wrong at all. If people did not want to see your search pop up they should do better searches. I di think people who put a word in for no reason whatsoever should be shot on sight though. I have been working on my 4th set of power and constantly am on the lookout for reasonably priced power. I can't tell you how many times people put the work Mox in when there is not even the slightest tie into a real mox. I'm not talking about repacks or anything like that, but just simple listing like:

"Unlimited UNL Shivan Dragon - Mox Power P9"

Now something like this is foolish and should be whacked as spam.

I see your point that some searchers may be looking for pure black border searches and your auction listing would get picked up, but apparently this style os listing is now against eBay policy. You are also correct though that many obvious other auctions that are much worse and heinous in their listings go unchecked. This implies someone is reporting you. This I find as stupid as they could just refine their search to be:

Beta Chaos Orb -alpha

This would get rid of your auction in their search. Apparently someone looking for a Beta chaos Orb would be the most likely candidate that narc'ed on you.

Archivist · Post by **Archivist** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:54 pm

normal,

I'm far too busy reporting the Power 9 "proxy" auctions for counterfeiting to bother with Alpha/Beta spamming, but I understand it. Perhaps you should get the hint and stop spamming.

Anyone who is looking for either Alpha or Beta would be searching as: (Alpha,Beta) Chaos Orb. But then someone who is searching for only Alpha might search as: Alpha Chaos Orb -Beta, to filter out irrelevant items. This means your potential buyer, who is looking for exactly what you have for sale, would miss your auction.

Keep in mind, it is also very likely that your competition is reporting you. Someone else selling Orbs would probably be doing searches to see what else is for sale and check prices. You can see where they would be motivated to report you.

mahdishain · Post by **mahdishain** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:21 pm

i can understand why someone would refine their search to beta chaos orb
- alpha, but not why should they have to. people should be able to search for what they are looking for without having to filter out false headings, whether literally false or false in spirit. buyers should refine their searches to better find what they are looking for, not to avoid what they don't want.
this is obviously not blatant abuse but to say that it's not as bad as others
is a poor justification and admitting guilt.
think about it.

practice peace

mahdishain

ende73 · Post by **ende73** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:39 pm

mahdishain wrote:i can understand why someone would refine their search to beta chaos orb
- alpha, but not why should they have to. people should be able to search for what they are looking for without having to filter out false headings, whether literally false or false in spirit. buyers should refine their searches to better find what they are looking for, not to avoid what they don't want.
this is obviously not blatant abuse but to say that it's not as bad as others
is a poor justification and admitting guilt.
think about it.

practice peace

mahdishain

I'm sorry but if we purse that reasoning if I list a Japanese "Exalted Angel" on Ebay then I'm spamming and should be blocked and removed since I'll turn up on people's searches for English "Exalted Angel"s.

Does that imply I should learn to use ideograms or list on Ebay Japan ?!

Of course we're all against keyword spamming here, but normalbrains brought up an example of what he did (and also of how he corrected his auction the first time it was removed) and I think in this specific case reporting him and having his auction removed was simply unjustifiable and therefore idiot.

mintcollector · Post by **mintcollector** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:40 pm

Admitting guilt against what? The text posted is not a misrepresentation of the product. Stating 'not Beta' or 'like Beta' are subjective to opinion. While some may view this an annoying, they can filter out listings that would be annoying to them. eBay policy use to not have rules against this, but maybe they now do. Don't care enough to go and look. Regardless if the policy exists or not....people still do it rampant, and I just alter my searches around it.

Archivist · Post by **Archivist** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:09 pm

Actually, the policy fits normalbrains tactics exactly:

Comparisons: Sellers are not permitted to make comparisons between items in a listing title.

Example not allowed:

The titles "Leather Handbag, like Chanel","Leather Handbag, Chanel style", or "Leather handbag, not Chanel" are not permitted on eBay because they make comparisons between the appearance of the item being offered, a leather handbag, to a Chanel handbag.

eBay monitors may even have automated processes to nuke auctions matching that format.

misterpid · Post by **misterpid** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:38 pm

Archivist wrote:eBay monitors may even have automated processes to nuke auctions matching that format.

Ebay does not monitor it's auctions. They completely rely on buyers/sellers to report auctions that contain violations. If they were to start monitoring the auctions themselves, they could be held accountable for anything that got past their monitors.

Tha_Gunslinga · Post by **Tha_Gunslinga** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:14 am

I report everything like that that I see, including "beta like alpha," "mox lotus recall," "not japanese," "not foil," etc. Spamming wastes my time, and everyone's. I do remember reporting you, but I probably wasn't the only one.

normalbrains · Post by **normalbrains** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:17 am

youre an asshole.

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