Oh Where, Oh Where Has My eBay Auction Gone?

Logging in to eBay today I noticed the view count on my vintage Leica IIIc to be well below average, with only 3 days left on the 7 day auction. It was a little surprising but I figured there could be plenty of reasons for why the numbers were down; for example a flood of vintage Leica postings. So, I typed in Leica IIIc, actually I copied and pasted “Leica IIIc” from my auction heading, into the search box with the “All Categories” selected and pressed search to check out my competition.

The search turned up only one page worth of results and as I was going through the list I couldn’t see a reason for why my auction views would be so low. There weren’t more than the usual amount of cameras listed and my pricing seemed to be well in line with the rest of them. Then I realized my auction for my Leica IIIc didn't show up among the search results.

I went up and down the list a few times and even hit the search button again but my auction wasn’t anywhere to be found. After playing around with the search options a little more, however, my auction finally appeared within search results. What I needed to do in order to see my listing was sort the results by “Pricing + Shipping: highest first”. I noticed I foolishly had my search results sorted by “Pricing + Shipping: lowest first”. As a thrifty minded individual I generally choose the "lowest first" option so I can see all the bargain prices first; I’m assuming that for most bargain shoppers this is also their preferable sorting option as well.

I don’t understand though, why my auction would show up in one sorting option but not the other? The auction was listed as one of my 50 “free” postings for the month, so could that be the reason? Or maybe it’s a bug? When searching for “Leica IIIc” by “Pricing + Shipping: highest first” there are 3 pages of results. When searching for “Leica IIIc” by “Pricing + Shipping: lowest first” there is only 1 page of results. So, I’m guessing I’m not the only one with this problem.

Whatever the case may be, I certainly hope I don’t have to start paying a fee now just to ensure my auction shows up properly among the search results.