ebay rankings? how do they work, how to work THEM?

hey guys,
I have recently started a venture, selling products on ebay.

The niche I am has a few bigger companies selling the same or very similar products.

My account is old but I have never sold anything whatsoever. My first auction that I am doing is under the same (private) account, I am just selling ONE item yet.

The price I am using is quite competitive to others, I did the keywords in the title very similar to my competition.

My auction however is a bit down on the rankings as others rank better than me...Why is that and what can I do in the beginning to get traction and work myself up quickly?


It is probably a combination of ebay sellers account, how many sales and rev, how many items in stock, keywords, how many user currently visting or saving the auction?? is that correct?

The product is here, I can make a normal margin on it, and It's getting sold daily, i can see it on other ebay auctions.

Top Rated Seller, Free shipping, best price, sales history and account type.

If you want to start with ebay sell something very inexpensive to begin to establish the account, even if you don't make any money. I bought in bulk from alibaba a small item, sold them at cost + shipping charges (broke even) to establish my eBay account and get TRS status.

mostly whos sold the most/how long the item has been up. Buy some from yourself from a 2nd account

@pixelgrinder: golden advice right here, thanks for that! Will keep that in my note book and try it then I guess


@1morenoob: Also good advice. How can I put this into practice? I can buy from one (second) account from my seller account unlimited times (in theory)? What kind of payment option would be the best for this method? I am no ebay expert yet sorry guys

Jaykub said:

@pixelgrinder: golden advice right here, thanks for that! Will keep that in my note book and try it then I guess


@1morenoob: Also good advice. How can I put this into practice? I can buy from one (second) account from my seller account unlimited times (in theory)? What kind of payment option would be the best for this method? I am no ebay expert yet sorry guys

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just make a second account with a different IP and user account on your pc. Random name,address. Fund it with a virtual credit card, buy 10 items from yourself or something and then message 'Hi sorry I only meant to do 1, would you mind canceling and I'll buy again', then cancel on your main so you don't pay fees.

1morenoob said:

just make a second account with a different IP and user account on your pc. Random name,address. Fund it with a virtual credit card, buy 10 items from yourself or something and then message 'Hi sorry I only meant to do 1, would you mind canceling and I'll buy again', then cancel on your main so you don't pay fees.

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I don't get this to be honest. I buy 10 items from myself - OK. But why message myself on eBay..does the eBay team even read private messages?? And when I cancel it on my main account It still counts as 10 transactions?!

Also: Is it possible to buy powerseller accounts and using them? What are restrictions to that/any disadvantages when cashing out or something? I just want to start right outta the gate with my products, my rankings are really hurting my traffic. The item + pricing is in the same range like the ones of the money making power sellers, I just can't compete because they are ranking higher than me.....

How can I rank better? Do I need to be power seller? If anything fails I might trying pixelgrinder's way even though I am not really happy with this..

Jaykub said:

OK. But why message myself on eBay..does the eBay team even read private messages??

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eBay/Amazon records EVERYTHING

Jaykub said:

And when I cancel it on my main account It still counts as 10 transactions?!

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I don't think you can be sure, because what exactly Cassini likes is proprietary information, but my guess is that it doesn't because I"m fairly sure that high cancellation rates work against you.

Jaykub said:

Also: Is it possible to buy powerseller accounts and using them? What are restrictions to that/any disadvantages when cashing out or something?

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Yes, you can, but they get very expensive, as in thousands of dollars for aged accounts with quality sales history. I see no difference in practical matters between a powerseller vs. non-powerseller accounts. And frankly, I think sales history and sellthough rate is much much much more important.

Jaykub said:

I just want to start right outta the gate with my products, my rankings are really hurting my traffic. The item + pricing is in the same range like the ones of the money making power sellers, I just can't compete because they are ranking higher than me.....

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If you want to start off by sell in established niches with big players selling the same thing, there is not much you can do to leapfrog them because I think sales and sellthrough is the most dominant factor and there is no way you can short cut your way above the big players.

Jaykub said:

I don't get this to be honest. I buy 10 items from myself - OK. But why message myself on eBay..does the eBay team even read private messages?? And when I cancel it on my main account It still counts as 10 transactions?!

Also: Is it possible to buy powerseller accounts and using them? What are restrictions to that/any disadvantages when cashing out or something? I just want to start right outta the gate with my products, my rankings are really hurting my traffic. The item + pricing is in the same range like the ones of the money making power sellers, I just can't compete because they are ranking higher than me.....

How can I rank better? Do I need to be power seller? If anything fails I might trying pixelgrinder's way even though I am not really happy with this..

Click to expand...

U dont need to message really, just so it looks normal. And yeah it will still move your item up in best match. Top rated etc means next to nothing, just check whos ranking high up and its all people who've sold the most recently

There are many factors but I'd guess here are some of them:

> Overall feedback score (total number of sales + percent of positive vs negative)
> Top rated status
> Keywords (in title and description)
> Watchers
> Sales (i.e, sales of this specific listing, not of the seller in general)
> Feedback from sales (again this specific listing, not seller)