Suppose I save the URL of an coin I'm interested in and go to the URL after it closed. I have started getting "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you." I am getting this sort of message the same day the coin closed. I want to see how much it went for. To do that, I must click on the word "listing" in their notification that the URL I wanted and entered is not the one I was sent to. I guess that one-step detour isn't too hard, but I preferred it when they just listed "similar" items right there in the "More chances to get what you want" line of images. The world is so incredibly commercial. I am already on their site. They are already showing me (on the lower left) items I have looked at recently as well as "similar" items and a whole line (expandable to two, sometimes) of items with the excuse: "People who viewed this item also viewed..." I feel battered by the insistence that I should be looking at more and more coins to potentially buy. I guess that's simply business and good advertising, but it is tiring.
You can bet that ebay has spent countless millions of dollars on every aspect one can imagine with regards to buying and browsing (and selling). This is why it looks like it does and why the site operates as such. It may not be the best method for ancient coins, but as a general retail atmosphere I imagine all this results in higher sales for Ebay.
In many categories such as movies, video games, clothes ect that feature actually would be helpful to many buyers. Of course coins are mostly unique so it really doesn't help very much, but it was a site wide change and they didn't exclude any categories
I suppose eBay customizes pages depending upon one's bidding history. For example, I just tried the URLs of several coins I saved (some I bid on) and never got any "See original listing" option. But I did get the notification, "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you." As I noted, clicking on the underlined word "listing" worked.
I used the link in your OP to get this page. Next to the item description, in small blue letters, it says "see original listing". Click on that.
When I click the link in the OP I get what @Valentinian described and the coin is nothing like the one he was looking for except for it being ancient. Here's a screen shot with no link to the original listing.
Interesting. That is what I see for some items, but not for other items. For example, my URL to a Caracalla tetradrachm got me this page: Both items are ancient coins, but they are not very "similar". I think different people must see different notifications on eBay.
I clicked on the OP link twice and got two different listings Quietus (ended) and a Lysimachus Tet still for sale, interesting.
I just clicked it again and got the Quietus (ended) "old way" view as well! I came back to this thread and clicked it yet again and got the Lysimachus listing. That's quite a strange algorithm.
I typed up a lengthy rant about this change a couple of days ago, then I discovered the link to the auction I really wanted was still available, and I deleted the rant. (In my case, it was a new BIN listing, and I really wanted to see what else that seller had listed. eBay's "improvement" neatly blocked me from doing so. If you're a seller, how would that make you feel?) I still think it's a terrible idea, especially for coins, because eBay's automation has no idea whether two coin listings are "alike" from my perspective. It's exactly as silly as the "product reviews" for coins.
I too find this new eBay feature very annoying. I keep pdf files of closed auctions (including ones I don't win) for reference purposes. To retrieve a closed auction, I have found you can go to seller's "See Other Items" link and then go to their "sold" items. Aggrevating, but you can still see the old auction.
