eBay Fraud Scams exposed

I see another brilliant move by eBay management took place. Last week blogs buzzed about the shortcomings of the now default of eBay’s Best Match. I also chipped in with my opinion on eBay’s Best Match which rewards auction listing title spamming. All the critics pointed to a useful tool eBay Estimator to illustrate the case how repeat keywords increase listing visibility on Best Match.

In response to the critique, eBay pulled the eBayEstimator tool.

Somehow, reading the page eBay Estimator created by eBay labs:

• The eBay developers state: Unfortunately, we have been asked to pull this tool down. However, if you found it useful and want it back, please log your request here: (Every request counts!)
  [Note: Comments can still be posted, but they will no longer appear in the list on the right]
  [Update: Please check back on Monday 04/21/2008 for status information about this tool] This seems as though the developers are not very happy about their own management decision to pull this tool and are looking for support from eBay members in form of feedback right on that page to make their case with the management types who decided to shoot the messenger instead of fixing what’s broken.

• And feedback they got. They stopped publishing comments on this page at 262… so any new comments do not show. For archival purposes and for your reading enjoyment, here is a link to the screenshot of the current comments by the sellers using this tool and requesting it back.
  My guess is that even the first 262 comments currently published there will dissappear because: a) the tool may be revived based on the popular demand… but don’t hold your breath on this one… b) the same management type at eBay who ordered this tool to go poof will get paranoid about all those criticisms voiced on that page and will order these comments to get “accidentaly” deleted.

One thing is typical. There is someone in eBay management in charge of the damage control who makes these silly decisions to censor out those uncomfortable truths about the company shortcomings and they do it in a worst way possible, case and point is this example. If eBay Best Match Algo does not work well and can be gamed, let’s pull down the tool that exposes it instead of fixing what’s broken. Kill the messenger.

This makes eBay look so yesterday I bet this censorizing decision maker in eBay management is one of the grandfathered perennials who are directly responsible for contributing to stifling eBay company growth by keeping it in the mentality of 20th century.

Let the younger, Google style KIDS take over at eBay. Let them roll and keep this tool so they can get a good feedback to improve the Best Match Algo. Good feedback does not mean “great, wonderful eBay”, good feedback comes in all forms, such as “Hey, look, your Best Match can be gamed, and this is how” … so the programmers on your team can IMPROVE the Best Match.

Update April 21, 2008 : Good news, the eBayEstimator is back in a morphed way, better and smarter and soliciting feedback. Checkout this link on how you can improve your listing title on eBay. This one is also cool, it warns you against spamming eBay titles.. Here you also have the feedback page, where user comments continue to be published. Wow, there may be some hope for eBay! It appears that the comments were published sequentially and uncensored, I have sent this comment, and it is published there: “Fix the Best Match, it’s not this tool’s fault that Best Match is broken. This tool is helpful, bring it back”.

Good job eBay!