Baked right into the eBay flea market code is the surrender to the waves of Chinese wannabe/knock-off products polluting the search results with riff-raff.
When drafting and editing, sellers are given the choice between flogging their hall closet and granny-flat wares as either Fixed price or Auction-style listings.
Sniffing a little behind the face of the “Auction-style” option is the fact that the code base calls such listing types as “Chinese auctions”.
It’s even there in the Developer API Reference:
Chinese - This value indicates a single-quantity auction listing. In an auction listing, prospective buyers engage in a competitive bidding process, although Buy It Now may be offered as long as no bids have been placed. Auctions occur on the eBay marketplace site, and the auction listings will also appear in the seller's eBay Store (if the seller has an eBay Store).
That corporate definition doesn’t jibe with the semi-racist ethno-flavoured one where the Chinese style is more akin to a raffle. Everybody buys and throws in as many tickets as they want to increase their chances against a single item. Not unlike certain animals in the wild where they live on by a spray-and-pray attitude to squirting as many male suitors’ semen into a vagina or dozen to seed a lineage.
The type of auction working on eBay is more askant with the English, of bidders throwing down their drinking money to a higher and higher call to be the last one standing with pre-buyer’s remorse before the final seconds run out.
Power-listers may be able to see other options, but for the regular seller slogging through the listing page, it’s a Chinese grip taking hold.
Given the definitions are out of whack it’s basically eBay saying there is no leg-up and over the onslaught and peter of watching a second-hand Made in China item compete with one direct from the mainland at cents to the dollar with free shipping to boot.
Written on Monday, 8 October 2018