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Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

I just noticed that EBay fees since January 1st have been 21%, I use the most basic listings. They are hostile towards sellers...always on the side of the buyer, and really don't give a *&% as they think they are the only game in town. It isn't worth it; besides the crazy buyers, a bunch of theives at EBay and the headaches...for what, 79% of my goods and I get the hassle. And if that guy comes on that always tells you to take a deep breath, hold yours for as long as you can.
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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

*** I'm not LOSING any money trying to sell...***
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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?


@godzillafan2020 wrote:

Ebay fees are are not 21% ??? And if you run your Ebay Business correctly you can get actual Ebay fees down to around 7.7%, pretty cheap to show your stuff to millions of buyers.

 

Some people are rediculous and expect something for nothing. I see lots of sellers that complain on here and when you look at there listing quality they should be banned from sellling on Ebay anyway, terrible blurry small pics, almost no info on the product they are selling and hardly any selection,  sounds like lots of trash sellers are leaving. Good, this will make Ebay a better place for everyone.

 

 


Welcome to the part-time sellers board, godzilla!  Just noticed your post from a few months ago, and it made me smile.

 

I'm of two minds on what you said about trash sellers leaving. On the one hand, I agree that some of these sellers shouldn't be selling here because they are clearly listing used stuff as new, misrepresenting the condition of the items, shipping so badly that things get broken.

 

On the other hand, I've gotten some great deals where if the seller had taken time to get good photos & research a little for a better title, they could have gotten 4 times as much.

 

Some of these in both categories have been new sellers, and rather than being banned for life, I'd hope they come here & get some advice on how to be more successful at it.  The ones that have been selling for a long time, yes, ban them. They should know better.

 

 

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?


@animal-instinct-2009 wrote:

I liked your comments, they were useful, and, sounds like me!

I am a Mom that sells as a part-time thing.  Too much stuff, but its the what to do?

 

I found also that the shipping being (doubly dinged), 1st the costs have went up significantly on shipping itself....then, 2nd, Ebay taking a cut of shipping profits.  I find that there have been too many times, that I put "FREE SHIPPING"....and, then find when it sells, I am in the NEGATIVE or, close to it.

I have had a string of unlucky destinations though.  Being on the east coast, and, you get an AZ or California buyer, it can even with lighter weight items, eat into what you need to make.

FOR large items, as your describing, CRAIGS LIST!  That's also been a secondary tool for me.

 

Donation is the best, because things get gone quickly!  If speed is important to you, then I encourage donations, and, have been surprised that it can really help at tax-time!

 


Welcome to the part-time sellers board, just now saw your message from months ago! Glad you liked my comments, I enjoyed reading your post, as well.

 

Yes, donations can help at tax time for those folks who can itemize deductions because they own a home & get that government-subsidized handout on the mortgage interest deduction. Renters are probably out of luck - it's hard to come up with more than the standard deduction when you rent.

 

I "lost" money when I first started because of shipping. To me, that was the most difficult thing about ebay to sort out. Well, I didn't exactly lose money, but had to pay some shipping out-of-pocket rather thant he buyers paying it.

 

Now my rule is, I have the item packed and weighed before I send it. Do you have a scale?  That was the #1 thing that stopped me from making shipping cost mistakes. My darling hubby picked one up for me for around $10 and it's paid for itself many times over.

 

Also, I ordered regional rate boxes from USPS. There are 4 sizes: regional A has two types, A1 & A2. Same for regional B1 & B2. A ships at the 2-pound weight and the B boxes ship at the 4-pound weight.  So stuff that would be too expensive normally, up to 15 pounds can fit in an A box and B boxes can take up to 20 pounds. There is a C box but not a good deal, IMO.

https://www.usps.com/search.htm?q=regional rate

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?


@mudboy5 wrote:
I found this page by googling "ebay isn't worth it anymore"...💔 I'm a small time seller and the monthly invoices I am getting from ebay barely makes it profitable to sell. I now donate small items or save them up for a yard sale. As much as I HATE yard sales, I am not loading any money trying to sell something not wanted by anyone. At the end if the day I givd it away for free. That declutters my life and it feels good to give stuff away to someone less fortunate. 👍

Hi mudboy, welcome to the part time sellers board!

 

I'm still selling small items, but anything heavy went in my first-ever garage sale I had a few months ago. It was a trial run since I'd never had one before. Now that I've gotten my feet wet, I am going to have a much bigger one this spring. I did pretty good for posting it on craiglist at 4am the day of sale and only putting up 5 signs! Plus it was Nov 1st and freezing out, nothing was priced, but I did OK for a rookie.

 

There are still things around my house that I know I'd never get a good price for at a yard sale, and I'll list on ebay.

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I am wondering the same thing. I have alot of clothing/shoes/bags I would like to list, but with all the fees now I would barely make anything afterward. I rarely if ever sold on Ebay thruout the years, and so it just seems like with all the fees, shipping, finding the right packing materials...is it still worth selling on Ebay? What do the sellers get out of this at the end? Not much considering what I actually paid for some of these items. Frustrated....

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

 I am fairly new to ecommerce but had a moderate success here on eBay in 2014 and early 15. I took the summer off and now i am back and having a very slow start. IDK if its just that time of year or what is happening here but I am very close to ending my store subscription and Ive been searching and trying out new venues to sell my wares. I am just not making the money here that i was. For 1 thing taking away the 3 day auction is flat out dumb, I can still do a 3 day "buy it now" so i dont wanna hear BS about how they need to encourage me not to do a 3 day auction by adding a fee. Step off and let a seller do what works for them. Thats best for everyone IMHO. For 2 an angry buyer can ruin you here w bad feedback on multiple items over the course of 1 transaction. A bad feedback here must outweigh a good feedback by 1000% too.. So now its set up for the buyer to bully me around. Annoying. For 3 if they start forcing this seller pays for all returns (easy return policy) thing its all over but the crying. Who can afford all that? I wouldnt even be able to sleep at night. They made me pay for one guys return AND he left two bad feedbacks AND sent the items back separately charging me for both.. I was charged $12 twice for an item that cost $4 tops to ship and couldve been combined for $6 tops. fun huh? Knocked my feedback down an entire 10% too,, and eBay just lets these people get away with murder. For 3 SOO many sellers are unhappy and leaving, bad mouthing eBay all over the web.. Do we really think that these sellers arent taking buyers away with them? Im sure they ALL have a contact list of buyers.. All they need to do is contact these people and tell them why eBay sucks, Its not secure, this or that, and they leave too. It seems all the buyers left here are cheap and want to steal an item one way or another. I do hope that the situation improves but for now I need to find other avenues to to profit as I am well invested. What i might be faced with is ending my store and limiting what i list here to whatever i can list for free, becase I cant afford even the basic store rate at this pace. Maybe its just me.. but i dont feel like i have changed, i feel like ebay has changed.. and quickly. 

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

ebay is currently a dead cat without a bounce.  haven't sold a thing all week with 4 different stores with over 500 items.  It is like something happened over the weekend (maybe an update?).

 

all i know is i can't remember it ever being this horrible...not 4 days in a row with silence.

 

 

and i have listed almost every single day during this drought.

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?


@eliteproductsupply wrote:
It is like something happened over the weekend (maybe an update?).

It happened before the weekend, but unlike corn through a goose,

this is still bunging up the system. Keep offering these Mega Free

Listing Offers to millions of Sellers globally and your items will be

so buried in the clutter of garbage listings, they won't be seen.

 

Sales are usually dead for a couple of weeks after these offerings.

 

free listings.JPG

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?


@bronx-dog wrote:

@eliteproductsupply wrote:
It is like something happened over the weekend (maybe an update?).

It happened before the weekend, but unlike corn through a goose,

this is still bunging up the system. Keep offering these Mega Free

Listing Offers to millions of Sellers globally and your items will be

so buried in the clutter of garbage listings, they won't be seen.

 

Sales are usually dead for a couple of weeks after these offerings.

 

free listings.JPG


that is true, and i didn't even realize it.  i do not even pay attention to promos anymore.

 

but yeah, promos just get people without stores to list their junk and clog the system.

 

it is a great disservice to members with subscriptions.

 

thanks ebay for screwing me over

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

2 sales within 3 hours of my last complaint.

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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

I had a period of a year when my husband was not receiving an income. I wholeheartedly sold on eBay, did everything honestly, many pictures, measurements of clothes, and thorough descriptions. It was tedious. The seller fees seemed criminal. And, though I was making several thousand a month, I kept telling myself, it wasn't worth it. The amount time involved, and the money received after eBay and PayPal wasn't worth it. Any job would pay more. And, my accounts were continuously hacked-both eBay and PayPal. The customer service is outsourced to India, and there is no "customer service". The standard response is "No worries", and nothing is done about hackers or buyers' false claims. I still have items listed but have decided to let them end and donate for the tax deduction. I have hundreds more I could sell, but this is slavery.
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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

Thank you for your honesty. I think when I use to sell over 10 years ago it was very hard and bent over backwards to get good feedback . Worked like a dog.! I think it would be a lot easier to have an open house with security and sell everthing.
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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

Me too. I closed my store. I opened in 2012 and closed everything in 2016. Fees. Scams. Time intensive to list. The killer for me is a colleague who sold a $400 coat 8/2015 and got a chargeback through Pay Pal 1/2016 for item not as described. Pay Pal took $400 plus a fee. The scammer has the coat, too, BTW.
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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?

unfortunately, this is all to common.....
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Re: Is EBay worth it for sellers anymore?


@eliteproductsupply wrote:

@bronx-dog wrote:

@eliteproductsupply wrote:
It is like something happened over the weekend (maybe an update?).

It happened before the weekend, but unlike corn through a goose,

this is still bunging up the system. Keep offering these Mega Free

Listing Offers to millions of Sellers globally and your items will be

so buried in the clutter of garbage listings, they won't be seen.

 

Sales are usually dead for a couple of weeks after these offerings.

 

free listings.JPG


that is true, and i didn't even realize it.  i do not even pay attention to promos anymore.

 

but yeah, promos just get people without stores to list their junk and clog the system.

 

it is a great disservice to members with subscriptions.

 

thanks ebay for screwing me over



Yep, I remember when you had to PAY for every listing... and we had more traffic and sales because there weren't NEARLY as many junk listings back then. Back in that day, pretty much EVERYthing I listed sold. I remember Dutch Auctions being a LOT of fun, too, but they aren't allowed anymore, unfortunately.

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