Over the weekend I posted about 50 WOTC holos I don’t think are worth grading from base-rocket for sale on eBay and so far most have gotten 10-50 views and 0-1 watchers. Out of all of those, I have 2 cards (a base Zapdos with a bend and a Machamp with play wear) that have gotten 300-500 views, multiple watchers, multiple offers. The wear/damage is clearly visible in the photos. As far as I can tell, there is nothing special about these and I can’t think of any reason for this other than eBay is showing those in more searches.
Anyone have any insight into what is going on here and how I can get the same level of views on the other listings? Has anyone else experienced this?
There is no search algorithm for ebay, other than them putting results closer to the top that are about to expire/auction ending etc. (so ebay can make more money on them)
In terms of getting more to see them, make sure they are accurately and concisely labeled in listing title. Only essential info. People filter by either best match (default) or sort by lowest/highest first, and “most recent” in general.
That’s all you can do. I assure you the filter is the thing that dictates the ebb & flow. Best results are the only one that are seemingly whimsical–ebay tends to get those soonest ending and more expensive ones up front. But all serious Pokemon buyers filter in some way to aid in their search.
To clarify, the only algorithm in question, which is negligible, is for “best match”. All else has no algorithm. The algorithm for best match MOST certainly from empirical experience drifts auctions ending soon (close to ending) to the top. Then at that point it is speculative. I find that many more closely specified title matches get closer to your top page. Less words that match, the lower down, but including all/most of your words.
My best guess, based on the information you’ve given: you priced the Machamp and Zapdos lower because of the wear.
eBay weights price in the search algorhithm. Lower price is one factor in getting better search placement. I’ve noticed that I sell my HP/damaged cards much more quickly than my NM cards, assumedly for this reason.
I’ve found something interesting with my recent listings.
When I made the listing I manually changed the category to “Collectibles > Non-Sport Trading Cards > Trading Card Singles” and after about three hours I had only around 3-5 views on my listings. Which is terrible.
eBay automatically is categorizing Pokémon cards into this category “Toys & Hobbies > Collectible Card Games > CCG Individual Cards.” So, I changed all my listings back to this, and after only about 20 mins I was getting 50+ views and some watches on my listings. This might be your issue.
There’s also the fact that cheaper cards sell faster… because they are cheap. Plenty of people where money is a bigger factor than condition. When I buy Yugioh cards I play with, I buy cheaper and so do many, in a playing game. My yugioh cards that are played to HP condition sell WAY faster than the clean collectible ones. Granted, Yugioh is different and not quite to the degree of collectibility as Pokemon, but this, in my opinion, is more of a factor than an algorithm. People sort low to high in price more often than not.
Yes, but the view count difference is huge, which leads me to believe that the search algorithm preference is a pretty significant factor as well. Definitely a combination of both.