Ebay is broken

[goldrushfinds]

As stated in a previous recent post, I have been listing consistently for a few months (every day) . Well, I checked the view count on some of my new listings from early today and yesterday and they are almost nonexistent (along with sales). Yesterday, I listed a Kuhl Mens shirt (very popular brand) at a competitive price and see that it shows 0 views. Today I listed 3 pairs of Hoka One One Running Shoes at very competitive prices and they each have 3 total views (used to get 15 views within minutes of listing). Those 3 view counts have not changed in the past 2 hours. Either the view counter is messed up or Ebay's buyer pool at present has crashed. Something is really wrong. Is it Ebay, the economy, or both. 

[goldrushfinds]

And I think you hit the nail on the head. I am not arguing with you. Ebay is fine for the person looking to sell part time for a little extra cash or the mega seller, with a warehouse of items. However, for people trying to make a good chunk of money, it is getting harder and harder. You can tell me that if "people want the item they will buy it", but I don't believe it is that simple. The subtleties of the algorithm have to be met, if you want a high dollar amount of sales on a steady basis. Statistically, there is no possible way that sales could vary as much as I have experienced. I know retail and how there is a ebb and flow of customers/sales, I am not naive. On Ebay as of late it is like all or nothing. 2 days at $300-400 with 8 items selling a day, then 5 days with zero to $75 in sales. On selling days, constant questions, offers and messages. On the dead days nothing, just silence. 

[goldrushfinds]

Even though many Youtubers claim they are switching over to selling clothing, I am doing the opposite. I do agree that the category is saturated and becoming more so by the day. If I continued to try to sell mostly clothing, I think I would go nuts. So hopefully down the road I can spare you all my rants of utter frustration, but at times it is a bit hard to take (you know some of us need that extra cash, which puts an added level of stress upon us - it is not just for fun). 

[inhawaii]

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@this*old*attic wrote:

If they want what you have, they’ll buy it.

End of story.

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Finally, someone who gets it.

[goldrushfinds]

I am probably more rational than you. I believe in man caused Climate Change. I believe in the notion of a vaccine. I am a believer in science over emotion. I do think we had a fair and free election in 2020. I don't believe in ghosts, spirits or the devil. I do believe Tucker Carlson is moron (sorry couldn't restrain myself). All that said, I do believe there is more to absolute sales volume on Ebay than you seem to infer. We know the site is based on an algorithm, one which is constantly being tampered with. I think that tampering is what causes the wild swings in sales. I think the recent promoted listing campaign offered to some sellers is an example of that. 

[chapeau-noir]

@goldrushfinds  I started selling clothing after I ran out of everything else.  Seriously, I have sold just about everything on this site down through the years save for commercial printing presses and eBay motors (though I have sold car parts).  I used to clear small estates.  I simply was unable to find inventory anymore in any of many areas where I had sold because *everyone* in my region had jumped onto the online selling bandwagon.  I live in the Silicon Swamp and seems like even 90 year old folks know their way around computers, cell phones, etc. 

Finally I stumbled onto clothing because I could get it, and even if I didn't/don't have a good grasp of mass market fashion, I have a background in apparel construction so I could at least bring *something* to the table.  Even that's getting tougher, but it's doable.  I made my living on here selling clothing for three years, and before then it was a necessary part-time job for 7 years (I've been in and out of the gig economy since the olden times when it was called "freelancing").

So I think the Youtubers are actually a dollar short and a day late, because it's not gonna last as it stands unless they have heavy influencer connections (which they may) or live in an area with abundant inventory (I don't) for retail arbitrage (I don't - even the outlet mall north of me up-prices).

[goldrushfinds]

Thanks for your thoughts. I had lived in the Bay Area (Castro Valley and Danville) for most of my life until a few years ago when I moved to Folsom. Yes, the Bay Area is highly competitive. You are spot on in regards to selling clothing online. I read that Ebay is in contract with many large clothing companies to sell their seconds on the site. This will make the clothing category even more cutthroat. There are only so many pieces of the pie. I think I will be only selling one off high profit items in the future (not clothing) and will be doing more of my old job (Real estate appraisal, which I burned out on). Best of luck to you. 

[reallynicestamps]

I have listed this same stuff for the past months,......and all of a sudden no interest.

Ummmm.

So what, you say people wanted my stuff in January and then in February they collectively stopped wanting it?

Exactly.

Selling Easter eggs in August. BBQs in September. Bathing suits in January.

To every thing there is a season.

[sakic92710]

I am one of those trying to make a good chunk of money & it is dismal.  7 straight weeks, sales have been horrible.  No more than 4 in any week.  0 so far this week & 1 sale in 9 days.  NOT a normal "ebb & flow."  I'm trying to figure out how to add more so it doesn't feel like I am completely wasting my time.  I want immediate sales.  I NEED immediate sales.  Last week, I listed 6 new listings & 3 sold quickly.  I am lost as to what I should post next to generate income.   Good luck to all!    🙂

[this*old*attic]

Now if we could just get in a statistics lesson, we might be getting somewhere.

Did you know it’s a psychological phenomenon for people to see patterns…. When there aren’t any.

[richards*rock*collection]

You probably will never really be confident that the record of views can be erroneous, but I think they can be. I also believe that people, like me too, buy things from sellers that they pick who have recently sold the most of that thing, a whole bunch, and not necessarily the price. A prospective customer on eBay today, everyone please take note has begun to buy this trouble, or more trouble free method of selecting a seller, by lots of happy customers, if any of this makes sense. If you want to buy, go to the sold column and see all the recent happy customers for that product and buy from them. That is what I do so I have to assume other people do.

[kaylybon0]

The ebay trolls always blame the sellers when its slow. Ebay is broken 

[kaylybon0]

Exactly catering to the big stores

[aaronrocks12]

It’s not the sellers. All the people replying this is the fault of sellers, those are not helpful answers. OP is (accurately) describing something that a LOT of us are experiencing right now - consistent items, with no apparent change in overall market demand outside of eBay (but suspiciously following several seller-side changes to the eBay platform itself) have suddenly been selling up to 50% less often , viewership is down (or just broken) up to 90% according to some of the metrics I’ve seen. But 50-100 million people didn’t just suddenly stop looking at items on eBay ..?  50% of people who PURCHASE online didn’t suddenly stop purchasing because of seller-side updates.. that’s nonsense. And sellers didn’t suddenly just become lazy or all within a few weeks completely change consistent behaviors/product research and buying/selling habits that they developed over years of experience. I think the recent  changes to the platform either a) were implemented poorly or had unexpected bugs / consequences  , which led to this huge drop off in sales , but eBay can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, so they’re quietly trying to put out the fires without bringing too much attention to it, so the investors do not freak out (which actually would doom the company) then they can down play this later if the manage to fix things.  Or b) they actually did funnel sales into a few very well connected channels , probably larger corporation accounts or vested interests, under the guise of these changes causing temporary slow sales / viewership reporting issues.. Wouldn’t surprise me to see that the huge drop in sales all of us 6 figure or less sellers are experiencing has been made up for by a few 7 figure+ accounts , quietly , behind the scenes. I could see summer slowdown coming kind of early this year , combined with economy issues and implementation of new features on the platform — a dip in sales. But these numbers don’t add up , I mean either the platform is actually doomed ,  or many sales are just going somewhere else on eBay that we don’t know about yet .  Maybe a few sellers with the promoted listings discount are catching it all , maybe ebay sold out to some huge corporate accounts. Who knows. Hedge your bets right now is my advice - keep grinding on eBay , maybe it will come back - but wouldn’t hurt to “explore” other platforms as well . Maybe just maybe .

[omegavid-18]

It depends on what people just decide to buy to I listed Pokémon cards and nobody bothered to view them and then there were some I listed where a lot of people were watching it, looking at the listing and bidding on them.