I am a recycler - looking for new homes for vintage and used items. I've sold a wide variety of previously owned - supposedly no longer wanted items - as well as new handcrafted items made by family members on eBay for 22 years and at flea markets and in a brick and mortar store for 28 years before that. I've also sold books on Amazon and recycled items on a half dozen other sites with less traffic than ebay usually generated.
For me ebay is not generating anywhere near the traffic that it did just a couple of years ago on any of my accounts - nor were my listing pages ever so full of items from other sellers when they did appear in search - many irrelevant to what I was listing. As a buyer - I no longer use ebay search - I use Google because Google usually returns items based on the exact keywords I enter first - not just one of the keywords.
There is nothing wrong with my customer service nor my prices which I research before ever listing an item. In fact I have come to the conclusion that my prices are possibly too low since higher priced items are often more likely to sell first. What I consider a "great" item is something not found in large quantities elsewhere - something I also research before listing. I donate most clothing and with a few exceptions the more common items to charity thrift stores rather than list them on ebay.
I find the thank you notes I receive for replacing a child's favorite toy that was lost, an heirloom that was broken, a piece of fabric that was discontinued, or adding to a collection far more rewarding than the money which is donated to charity anyway. Anything I can keep out of a landfill is worth the effort. Through the years I have often found a bag or box of "treasures" on my doorstep left anonymously rather than set out for the trash man. My van is always available to haul larger unwanted items to the thrift stores.
I transitioned from a business to a hobby six years ago except as far as the IRS is concerned - they still get their cut of my sales. But as ebay has become more manipulative (yes, they have) and focused on their bottom line rather than their users and the functionality of their site - I will downsize and likely fade off into the sunset within the new year.
