April 1st 8 sales....ZERO SINCE! Did eBay site go down?

[fastjag1]

No trolling...I won't respond! I have been selling on eBay since 1999 so I have a little experience in selling on eBay. I do realize that nobody has the experience to gauge what we are going through right now. However, I have been somewhat steady in sales during all this, so based on this fact I am posting this "Observation" about a slowdown/blackout. I am questioning what happened late day on April 1st. I sold 8 items in the first 17hrs of April 1st.....and NOTHING SINCE! It is now 7:25am eBay time on 04-03-2020. Additionally I have had 2 questions in that time, both from the same person. I have over 1100 items listed, 1500 if you count multiples. Even through this virus I have had questions, offers and sales. When you think about shipments from foreign countries (CHINA) being shut down and the fact that millions of US citizens are sitting at home on the computer due to COVID-19 it does not make since for emails, offers or sales not to at least trickle in. To have ZERO in 38+ hours suggest that eBay is broken once again. By "broken" I mean they updated their site once again. Anyone else see a drop in sales since mid/late day on April 1st? ….or is eBay once again singling me out for throttling?

[nc-daydreamer]

May we please trade problems? I've not had one since mid March and have never seen 8 in one day! Congrats to you.

[inhawaii]

I average maybe 2 to 6 sales day. I rarely have a 0 day. 

March 31: 6 sales

April 1: 4 sales

April 2: 0 sales 

[mr_lincoln]

@fastjag1   What I have seen in the last two weeks is a shift in the buying pattern for the categories we sell in.  We have 2 active accounts here ... we HAD 3 but eBay killed one off last year with the ridiculous GTC mandate but we'll leave that tale of woes for another day.

Normally most sales happen on weekends but in the last 2 weeks we've processed 1 or more sales almost every day of the week.  The things that are selling are things people can do or use at home from a practical standpoint.  Examples would be:  Train scenery in all gauges, train cars and locomotives but NOT full train sets, train track lots for their layouts, needle point, pots and pans (I sold out of one brand), model kits, etc.

I run one Promoted Listing campaign per quarter and for only 30 days (+/-).  I usually do 1st quarter in Feb-Mar but got behind this year and am doing it Mar-April. 

So in the case of your coats and clothing people may not be looking to buy a new coat and would prefer buying something they can work on or enjoy at home.  I know for a number of my categories the Buyers are retired, have their retirement income and benefits and will NOT be affected by a lost job because they are not working anyway so they know how much they can spend on their collections or whatever else they want to do while under their local quarantine rules.

So, thinking in those terms my question to you would be do you have additional inventory that might be more craft, cooking or entertainment oriented?  If so list it ... or if you have some things in those categories consider running a Promoted Listing campaign with them ...

Our issue here is not being able to acquire inventory ... all local sources have pretty much been shut down.  Auction companies have been submitting variance requests with the state government to allow them to do curb side pick up ... meaning you schedule a time to pick up your winnings ... you show up, they see you and from a distance you verify you are who you say you are and not some cheap imitation, they then place your items outside and close the door.  You then go and get your items and leave ... NO to physical contact, YES to social distancing, YES to very very low risk of transmitting ANY infections let alone Covid 19.

[byrd69er]

People.

Stop crying about eBay being broken.

It's not broke.

Sales go on as usual...maybe just not yours.

[fastjag1]

Fair enough. You have looked to see some of my listings. I engaged in clothing when my sales were throttled in 2016 by $50K overnight. I doubled my inventory since to include clothing. However, I have an eclectic assortment of items designed to peak the interest of just about anyone. I don't concentrate on just one area. I will sell anything that the eBay community wants. If you check my items sold and what I do have listed you will see that the clothing, coats etc... only make up a small portion of what I have listed. I have many items that would be of interest to people who are forced to be at home or retired. That is why I have still had steady sales up to April 1st when the died. I did not sell out of all of the items that would be of use to home bound customers. As for retires, GOLF! I have tons of golf equipment and clubs listed that are perfect for many retiree's. I have sporting goods, hobby items, craft items, electronics, clocks, antiques, vintage items....etc. I am a well rounded seller who has options for everyone and I am diverse enough to receive sales everyday even during these times. Quite simply, there is something wrong with eBay that happened late on April 1st. I suspect it is one of their mind boggling updates. You know, fix something that was not broken.

[luckythewinner]

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@fastjag1 wrote:
or is eBay once again singling me out for throttling?

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That is not the only possibility.

[coolections]

Your items are visible so no throttling is happening. 38 hours is hardly worth panicking about. There is a worldwide pandemic going on right now. I don't know if you sell a lot overseas but many countries have slowed down or stopped shipments. Many reasons but definitely no throttling.

[fastjag1]

I just did some random searches for some of my items via a VPN site. This hides your location from eBay. I made it easy for eBay and chose a US based VPN site so they know I am in the US. I found 6 out of 12 items searched for. That is a 50% loss of viewable items when eBay does not know where in the US I am searching from. I went a step further on each of these and additionally search SPECIFICALLY for the ITEM NUMBER. The items that came up using a description (cut and paste from my listing) also came up when searched by item number. When I search the item numbers of the items that DID NOT come up under a cut and paste description search that ADDITIONALLY did not come up via an ITEM NUMBER search. That means where ever this VPN site is located in the US that certain items listed are not viewable, hence THROTTLING! I welcome any and all to open a different browser, hide yourself with a VPN site and search 10 to 20 of any one of my items. Cut and paste the whole title if you want. Some will come up and some won't. At the very least that is Geographical throttling. It still does not explain no sales sine late on the 1st but it certainly disproves ANYONE who wants to side with eBay saying they are not throttling or hiding listings. Your welcome to try this for yourself.

[thejo-52]

Your selling some very nice things!  People are buying cheap things for now that's my take.  Maybe when some checks come in.  I do love reading everyone's replies.

[doubledz-a2z]

I can think of two reasons..... April 1st most seller ebay bills are due, I know mine are and I always make sales in the 30th-1st timeframe.   Second Ebay just gave out a gazillion free listings to most sellers so they are now cycling into the search.   Free listings are nice for folks that are bored but they really do not help their sales.  Mainly just glut up the site.

[buyselljack2016]

Are you getting "impressions"?

Are you getting "views".

 

[yuzuha]

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@fastjag1 wrote:
 I did not sell out of all of the items that would be of use to home bound customers. As for retires, GOLF! I have tons of golf equipment and clubs listed that are perfect for many retiree's.

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Where are you expecting them to use them?  All of the golf courses around here are closed.