Can everyone see my eBay store items? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:35:17 am
content: Hello all,This isn't exactly a Buy/Sell/Wanted thread but I guess this would be the best place to post it. Moderators please move or delete if you think this doesn't belong here.I have had a couple of users report to me that they couldn't see my eBay store items when they go towww.99centhobbies.com, and I'd like to see if it's the case with a lot of people or just people in certain countries. They could reach my storefront but they only see an empty store. I'd highly appreciate it if anyone has similar issue can let me know as I try to understand the problem better. Thanks!Cheers,Franky

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:40:00 am
content: No problem here and all items with pictures, currently 35 items displayed.Edit : Btw, I think you have not update the list with the items we've discussed offline while ago right ?

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:41:54 am
content: Same here.

author: ttp
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:42:24 am
content: No problems from AU.

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 03:03:31 am
content: Works for me.

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 03:20:58 am
content: Working here too, with 36 items listed

author: Amarbir[Lynx-India]
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 04:36:02 am
content: Franky ,No Problem From India

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 05:40:07 am
content: Thanks everybody for checking! I really appreciate it!Quote from: BravoV on February 26, 2013, 02:40:00 amBrovoV,Unfortunately adding new items to the store always get pushed down the list of things to do as other duties like taking care of all the orders, shipments and communications with customers take priority...Remind me what you need/want again when you have a chance.

author: ecat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 05:42:39 am
content: Okay from UK too

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 06:51:57 am
content: what the ? you some amateur or something ? If you can see them we all can, log out and / or change browser if in doubt

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 07:25:55 am
content: Quote from: Simon on February 26, 2013, 06:51:57 amSorry, but I did have 2 customers report to me that they couldn't see any listings in my store. One in Germany and one in China. One even showed me screenshots of my empty store so I was just wondering if this is happening across other countries or is it due to other reasons.Please remove this thread if you feel this is inappropriate and accept my apologies

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 07:34:10 am
content: No it's fine you can keep the thread up, It's just rather unusual, It could be they looked very soon after you put the items up, it does take time for stuff to propagate and if your talking different ebay websites it could take a while. again, go to the local ebay website of other countries to check.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 07:43:54 am
content: Quote from: Simon on February 26, 2013, 07:34:10 amThe strange thing is that it's not just the new items, it's everything. My store homepage loads okay, but with zero items available to them. In any case, thanks for your reply.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 08:25:51 am
content: hi, ok here - 35 items seen from France. regards,

author: jmp
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 08:36:14 am
content: I'm located in Germany and it doesn't work for me here. When I click your user name (http://myworld.ebay.com/f-t-2000/) I can see 5 items listed on the left side under "Listings".When clicking "View all items", the search turns up nothing.-- jmp

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 09:27:57 am
content: It could be he doesn't ship to your country so it is hidden

author: jmp
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 09:41:05 am
content: Could be, but I think this is not the case here, otherwise iloveelectronics would not have stated that a customer from Germany wasn't able to see the listings:Quote-- jmp

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 10:35:30 am
content: I ship everywhere, in fact I have sold to a few German customers before.

author: Relaxed
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 10:57:42 am
content: I'm one of the users that reported it to Franky.It's a well known problem for users from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.I'm actually Swiss and tried it with my computer that I bought in Switzerland. - No listings.I switched to incognito mode(no cookies and eBay login), tried it with different VPNs(different IPs) and changed the preferred language of my browser.Nothing worked. Today, I tried it from work with a normal chinese IP(currently in China) and all the listings showed up fine.So, I'm not sure how they check from which country you are.Anyone got a clue?I also tried accessing it through the eBay app on an iPad. It works fine when you change the country setting to Canada or some other country.Here is a thread about the problem: (It's in German)http://community.ebay.de/topic/Suchen-Und-Finden/Suchfunkton-Zensiert-Zum/1900086232It apparently mostly affects sellers that have under 1% negative feedback and are located in asian countries.If you have the listing numbers or have a direct link to the item, you can view and buy them no problem. But if you search for the item title it gives you no results.So, @Simon:It's not at all Frankys fault. It's actually eBay that does this.Here are some screenshots for proof:http://imgur.com/a/OZHGe

author: mamalala
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 12:18:44 pm
content: I'm located in Germany and i only get an empty store as well.Maybe contact eBay and ask them to fix that?Greetings,Chris

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 12:28:10 pm
content: I am in Holland, and this is what I see without logging in:http://stores.ebay.com/99centhobbies34 itemshttp://stores.ebay.nl/99centhobbies33 itemshttp://stores.ebay.de/99centhobbies0 itemshttp://stores.ebay.co.uk/99centhobbies32 items

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 12:29:18 pm
content: Franky, since you're living in HongKong, I think you should prepare and consider other alternative as well instead of overly relying at ebay alone, maybe like Aliexpress ?Looking at your reputations gained through word of mouth across multiple electronic forums, I believe it should be easy and less worry to start it there too. Although I'm not sure about the potential issues like fee difference and etc.Just my 2 cents.

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 12:51:26 pm
content: BravoV, about Aliexpress I am talking only how I feel here btw, maybe there are other people thinking like me. I am talking generally, so this is not for Franky’s store since if I need something from Franky I directly buy it from him. But if there are people thinking like me, they would avoid to check Franky’s store on those sites.For some reason I don’t trust those sites like Aliexpress and Alibaba and so on, not that they are bad but it doesn’t give me confident what to when things go wrong. Maybe it is me but I can’t seem to find a way to make me trust those sites. So if I can’t find something from eBay or sites like Dealextreme and such I try to find alternative but still avoid the two above I mentioned, I rather pay bit more.Like I said this is not a rant about those sites, it is how I feel. The biggest concern I got is, what happens if my items don’t arrive or are defective? Does their system works like on eBay or is it too much hassle?

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 01:05:21 pm
content: Spawn, actually your reply is expected.Personally, I use Alibaba for quite sometimes now, and if Franky decided to build his shop there, I won't hesitate to use it, maybe its just me.Agree on that site is also well known for bad experiences in the past, but again not all sellers "at that place" are criminals, I have few sellers that are really trustworthy, and regarding trust on Alibaba's portal it self on my payment credential, I'm not worry about it at all.Trusting a seller is different vs trusting the web portal right ? So far in the case on Franky, I believe many buyers don't have any problem on trusting him, but regarding "the place" where he sells, agree with you that it depends solely on buyer's preference.What I'm suggesting to Franky is simply an "alternative" place to sell his stuffs, thats all.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 01:23:06 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on February 26, 2013, 12:28:10 pmYou could be seeing these different numbers (except the German one) because some items were selling out in the last couple of hours! And as the end of the month approaches I'm finding myself in this very familiar situation whereby the monthly quotas set by eBay are limiting my ability to sell as much as I wantMany of these items are not really sold out yet from the inventory, but I just didn't assign enough quantities to them because I needed the quota for other items too. I'm now juggling between the quantities to try to make room for and/or re-list some better selling items.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 01:27:05 pm
content: Quote from: BravoV on February 26, 2013, 12:29:18 pmI will look into other alternatives too when time allows. Ultimately I'd like to set up my own web store and not have to rely on a third party platform, hence the redirected domain name instead of an eBay URL I promote. That's still a long long way to go though.

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 01:41:40 pm
content: Quote from: BravoV on February 26, 2013, 01:05:21 pmNot from me directly I hope?if so I am getting predictableI didn’t want to bash your idea, I hope you didn’t get it like thatI was trying to explain how I feel and was thinking some other people might think that way to.Like you said, people who know Franky can trust him through such site, but in my case I rather buy directly from him, he build his reputation among us, he only can break it and I don’t think that will happen

author: BillyD
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 01:48:10 pm
content: In Ireland it redirects me tohttp://stores.ebay.com/99centhobbiesand I can see 35 items.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:10:41 pm
content: Quote from: Spawn on February 26, 2013, 01:41:40 pmAhh... as popular saying around here in this forum .. "sorry for my English"My mistake, I worded it wrongly, what I meant was the kind of respond toward AliExpress.Quote from: Spawn on February 26, 2013, 01:41:40 pmNone taken, and understand your POV, again, sorry.Yep, agree regarding trust that he is gaining thru forum alone, I've been communicating with Franky on my purchase plan for quite a while and for sure I'm going to buy directly from him.

author: Rick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:44:25 pm
content: Quote from: iloveelectronics on February 26, 2013, 02:35:17 amOnly 3 of these were available this afternoon:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Silicone-Test-Leads-Sprung-Hooks-and-Female-Banana-Connectors-1-Pair-/170997275495?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d03b5b67So I took 3 but I wanted 2 more.Now there seems to be 4 more.Have you just added new ones?It will be for the next batch.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 02:53:12 pm
content: Quote from: Rick on February 26, 2013, 02:44:25 pmYes, I have. I don't usually list any item in a large quantity at any one time because of the eBay monthly quota. I usually only add a few more to the quantity as it approaches zero, this way I won't use up my quota too quickly during the month.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 03:32:49 pm
content: Quote from: iloveelectronics on February 26, 2013, 02:53:12 pmAs someone that's only four months into ebay selling and is desparate for higher selling limits, can I ask how you've got on with getting limits increased? PM me if you'd prefer.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 03:50:32 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on February 26, 2013, 03:32:49 pmI haven't been on eBay much longer than you have actually. There's a link that says "request higher selling limits" on the Selling Manager Summary page. But if you click on it, it basically just asks you to call eBay on the phone. And that's what I do every 30 days, because apparently you can only request to increase the limits every 30 days. It is a PITA to be honest having to juggle around the remaining available quantities every month near month end. The increase in limits eBay has been giving me every month isn't too bad, but it just always seems to be not enough comes final week of every month.Having to set low quantities on items because of the limits also means I run the risk of having an item ended by people buying all the remaining few, which means 3 things to me: 1)I need to pay another $0.2 to list the item again; 2)I could have lost some potential sales between the time the item is ended and when I re-list it; and 3)users won't see the number of previously sold quantity anymore and in my experience people tend to feel more comfortable buying things that show a healthy selling history.To summarise, eBay is a pain to deal with, charges too much, but does give me the exposure to buyers I will otherwise be very difficult to reach.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 04:15:32 pm
content: With some things how about listing as a multiple of the unit. for test lead ends making a pack of say 5/10 will probably be a doable thing, and then it is a single item on the eBay side.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 04:20:21 pm
content: Quote from: iloveelectronics on February 26, 2013, 03:50:32 pmI guess we are in a very similar position. I'm far more interested in high value items, so don't hit the numbers limit but do hit the value limit a week or so before the end of the month. I know it's cost me the sale of a signal generator because I removed that so I could add some more power supplies but the exposure it provides is very good.

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 07:51:15 pm
content: From Italy,http://www.99centhobbies.com/redirects tohttp://stores.ebay.com/99centhobbieswhich opens normally, with all items displayed, whilehttp://myworld.ebay.com/f-t-2000/opens without redirecting, but the store is empty.Best regards

author: Anquietas
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2013, 10:49:29 pm
content: Okay from Germany. The store lists 35 items now.

author: Plecharts
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2013, 06:41:39 pm
content: I am from Czech Republic,http://stores.ebay.com/99centhobbiesshows 36 items, but when trying ebay.cz it does not even find your store.

author: dr_p
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2013, 06:47:27 pm
content: looks fine from Romania too - 36 items

author: ProBang
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2013, 01:51:17 am
content: Quote from: Anquietas on February 26, 2013, 10:49:29 pmHmmm - da staune ich aber...Sorry, wrong language.I'm astonished.Look at the screen-copy. I have made it just a few minutes ago.

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2013, 02:03:30 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on February 26, 2013, 02:10:41 pmNothing to sorry aboutI think I got that same "sorry my English" syndrome too

author: stecklars
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 03, 2013, 06:06:23 pm
content: Hi,I just registered here because I'm facing the same problem.I would be absolutely unable to order any item in your ebay store because I can't see any of your items at all.However this problem is known and is being discussed in the German ebay forums herehttp://community.ebay.de/topic/Suchen-Und-Finden/Suche-Unterschl%C3%A4gt-Angebote/1900081934And here:http://community.ebay.de/topic/Suchen-Und-Finden/Suchfunkton-Zensiert-Zum/1900086232Some users stated that they got an answer by ebay customer support about what causes this problem and that they explained to them that in some countries (like Germany for example) there were too many complaints about sellers from China and Hong Kong, so they started only showing sellers that are "top rated" (which doesn't really have to do with good or bad ratings as it should be).But the forum users found some work arounds:1) "The most complicated one":Change the preferred language in your browser. This language is send in a HTTP Request everytime you open a website, so for example ebay knows, which language you're speaking. Change this in your browser to English for example and use the American ebay.com to look through the articles. Write down the article number and then enter in on your local ebay website for ordering.2) "The easier one": Use an iPhone or an Android smartphone, change your country in the settings of the eBay app - for example to "USA" - look through the articles and write down the article numbers. Then change the country back or buy using your computer over your local ebay website.3) "The easiest one":Use the following link:Code:http://cgi6.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&sort=3&rows=200&since=-1&rdir=0&userid=Change the .tld to your local ebay website (in this case .de) and add the username of the ebay seller at the end of the link. And there you have all the articles listed. Hooray!Nevertheless in my opinion eBay should change this ASAP as this is really annoying.Hope this helps!Lars

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2013, 06:19:32 pm
content: Quote from: stecklars on March 03, 2013, 06:06:23 pmHi Lars,Thank you VERY MUCH for the detailed explanation! Whether a seller is "top rated" (for a certain market, and there are 4, US, UK/Ireland, Germany/Switzerland/Austria, and Global) has a lot more to do with volume than being good or bad as you don't really need the very top feedback rating to become top rated, but you do need a lot of volume. And being unable to even reach my German/Switzerland/Austria customers easily it means it's pretty much impossible for relatively newer sellers like myself to become "top rated" in these markets. All the "top rated" sellers for the German market probably established that status before they implemented these filtering rules.I contacted a local eBay support earlier today but he/she had no clue what was causing the problem at all. Now I can only hope that German eBay will fine tune that filtering and allow legitimate sellers to reach their market...

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 03, 2013, 07:15:23 pm
content: ebay basically blamed me for anything I could not see. They kept saying I was not seeing the option to see things that were not normally visible.I won't go into details but I will say that ebay has screwed up their system and are making excuses to hide their mess. If my ebay search has "all the world" selected I should see everything. I should not have to select "Hong Kong" to see things from that part of the world. To find things reliably now you need to select every region and do a unique search, that is if they don't randomly decide to grey out your selection choices. I hate ebay now.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2013, 02:32:51 am
content: Why not make your customer's life easier by providing an alternative path to access to your shop by creating the list of all your items here in this forum like normal selling thread, and let your customers decide for them self either "directly" buying from you or thru ebay if they feel more secure.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2013, 02:31:20 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on March 04, 2013, 02:32:51 amThanks for the great suggestion! I might just do either that, or set up 99centHobbies.com with some pictures and links to the specific eBay item pages (so even German customers can access). I will then just have one "official Franky's spam" thread with updates and what not so it's easier for everyone to keep track.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2013, 03:11:32 am
content: Quote from: iloveelectronics on March 05, 2013, 02:31:20 amExactly, you only need continuously to maintain an updated list & stock which is trivial imo. Cause I don't see that nasty ebay problem will be fixed in short term, not sure though, but imo it looks like a soft international trade protectionism applied or enforced by buyer country's trade policy at ebay.Just see it as the alternative/backup listing from ebay for cross checking, but with an extra hidden benefit that they might buy directly bypassing ebay's fee if you've gained the trust thru time. Nothing to lose from your side.

author: Rick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2013, 08:20:56 pm
content: Why don't you try to sell also on aliexpress?

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2013, 02:23:28 am
content: Quote from: Rick on March 05, 2013, 08:20:56 pmThanks for the suggestion. I just had a look at the requirements on becoming a seller on Aliexpress. Apparently at this moment they only allow sellers from mainland China. Being from Hong Kong I'm not eligible

author: PedroDaGr8
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2013, 07:14:48 pm
content: Hey Franky,Just letting you know WebSense flags your URL (http://www.99centhobbies.com/) as "Phishing and Other Frauds. Sites in this category may pose a security threat to network resources or private information, and are blocked by your organization."You may want to contact them to get this resolved. It used to say Parked Domain but the latter is much worse. I only mention this because I can't directly go to your site while at work.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2013, 05:44:36 am
content: Probably an automated thing as the site has a redirect to another deep linked domain ( ebay.com|stores|99centhobbies) so looks like a phishing link even though it is not.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2013, 06:44:43 am
content: Thanks for letting me know. It's getting really frustrating at times trying to run an honest business on the interwebs...I am in the process of setting up a proper web store, to allow users to either buy directly from me, or go through eBay. I will contact WebSense to unflag me once that's done. Thanks again for bringing that to my attention.Cheers,FrankyQuote from: PedroDaGr8 on March 08, 2013, 07:14:48 pm

author: Quick5pnt0
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2013, 02:44:17 am
content: Quote from: PedroDaGr8 on March 08, 2013, 07:14:48 pmWas just going to post this.

author: snowl
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2013, 07:00:39 pm
content: I just checked, I don't see any products but I also don't get any warnings.

author: tosborn
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 11, 2013, 08:19:53 pm
content: Franky's Ebay store came up fine for me using (http://www.99centhobbies.com/). No WebSense flags and plenty of products for sale.

author: Maister
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2013, 01:23:29 pm
content: Hi!Im also from Germany and I get 0 results/listings in your shop.Even when i click on your ebay account to see all your things you are shipping, I have no results.

author: Elektrongeek
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2013, 01:42:29 pm
content: Seems to be working in france 27 items :p

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2013, 06:28:38 pm
content: Quote from: Elektrongeek on March 12, 2013, 01:42:29 pmThank you all for checking.27 items doesn't sound right though. I currently have 34 active listings...

author: Ratib
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:30:03 pm
content: This sounds more like a browser problem, as even countries that restrict access usually block URLs not content. Some browsers may block content depending on the settings for content, privacy, and security.

author: Dylogic
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 19, 2013, 10:09:07 pm
content: work for me too from Canada

author: valentinc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2013, 12:43:00 am
content: Working from Romania. 40 items in the listings

author: daveshah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 23, 2013, 10:56:27 am
content: Showing 32 items for me in the UK

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2013, 02:49:00 pm
content: The number of items people in different parts of the world see is really puzzlingI actually have 36 active items as of this writing.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2013, 03:38:11 pm
content: I see 40 Frankie. You must have updated, I see a new GT Power meter now.