Ample wrote:
"On a side note, I'd be willing to give more than 5% commission if they made the search more relevant, allowed newer items to be mixed in with the higher ranking items...."
Yes, it is very difficult for people adding newer listings to compete with older, established listings. This hurts people trying to start out, as well as people adding brand new things or trying to expand what they have on marketplace.
For example, I have some things I added recently that have both a matching item name, keywords and description fitting my Search. I attempt searches that exactly match the name of my newer listing, with the assumption that the exact search wording should make my item at least come close to the top. But when I perform the search, these items sometimes fall dozens of pages under things that appear only marginally related - if they are even related at all (in fact some things come up well ahead of mine that have no matching titles or matches anywhere in the visible description).
In what way is it fair or encourging to newer merchants on here, when sellers who have sold something a few times keep being rewarded by being at the top of the search, while any new things added fall way at the bottom. It's similar to a "rich getting richer while the poor stay poorer" kind of system. Keywords should be more important in the search results in some way.
On a related note.. I have paid a good bit of money for several ads. But some of the ads have to compete with so many other ads (for example Womens Formal Gowns has so many featured ads). I think some of these costly ads are barely getting their "time in the sun", so to speak. Perhaps it could be adjusted so that when there are more people advertising in a certain niche, we can have our ads show longer for the same cost, since they have to compete and rotate in with so many other ads. Just an idea.