No traffic and no sales. I am tired of waiting for Ebay to fix the problem

[adkinsonm500]

Ebay keeps messing around til people have no traffic and no sales. Possibly time to try other auction sites? Loyal to Ebay since 2020. But my sales are down to zero.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@paraquip 

As many have said, and ebay has confirmed, there has been NO change to the PRESENCE of bots on this site. 

The bots are here, doing their bot thing, indexing them and so forth, ebay just identifies them and subtracts them from the total shown to sellers in our statistics. 

No change to the way bots are handled. Just a change to how the count is shown to sellers. So, if my item has 10 bot views and 2 people views, for a total of 12 views, all those views are still there, ebay just does the math and shows me 2 non-bot views as the total of non-bots.

ebay has almost certainly been identifying the bots since before this change was made, so that is no change...the only difference is, ebay no longer counts them as views for the amount it shows sellers. 

I know you (and many others) want to blame ebay for your sales decline, and that's fine....but this minor change in how views are tallied and reported to sellers is NOT a persuasive  explanation for the decline. 

[laststopgeneralstore]

Never said I was an expert but I do know how to keep consistent traffic and with that consistent sales. Even if you were to just work on your titles and keywords, you'd have more traffic but since you don't want to change your listing practices... You may not think that you need more than 6 photos but that may not be what the customer thinks. eBay's recent changes and emphasis on promoted listings and higher priced items has very little to do with your specific items. First off, you do NOT need promote your listings to sell items on eBay, what you do need is a good item that people want or is in demand, good titles, keywords, photos, return policy, price & title structure. If you don't want to change and adapt, which you said you haven't in the past 14 years, you can't complain or blame eBay for lack of traffic or items not selling.

[uncseniorsportsfan]

I have also been here 22 years - just 9 on this account which was originally that of my husband for the first five years before he passed away.  You and I sell vastly different items - the number of new items I have listed at any given time can be counted on one hand and I sell zero multi-quantity items.  You likely have many repeat customers - I have few.   An LSU fan rarely buys Alabama collectibles. 

Sales for collectibles sellers have always fluctuated (although less for niche sellers)  especially as inventory changes and economic factors come into play - some items sell quickly - others take many months.   For that reason I tend to view my sales on a yearly basis - not month to month.   When downward trends occur over many months - one has to consider what factors are at play.  Unlike the economy, marketplace changes, or ebay's algorithms - my listing practices are one of the few constants.  

I sell collectibles over four accounts - this is the first time all four have trended downward at the same time.   And when it is my higher priced items accounting for a majority of my views and sales over the past six months - I don't believe it is inflation to blame. 

[stacy_1971]

I have noticed a huge downturn as well, and I am also feeling frustrated.  Your listings aren't the worst I have seen.  I did also notice that the images do not have a lot of detail showing which some have said may be a bit of blurriness.   One of the suggestions I would make would be to get a plain white background to use for your photographs, that will put the emphasis on the item you are selling, and doesn't distract the eye to other things around and might actually help with the focus mechanism on your camera...  Try that and see if that improves not only your focus on your camera, but also your sales 🙂   

[uncseniorsportsfan]

In my 22 years of selling collectibles on eBay I have likely never listed many items that are deemed  "in demand" - the collectibles market constantly changes - what sells today likely won't next week or next month - but it might be just what someone is looking for six months from now.    Just because eBay thinks lots of photos, free returns, free shipping, item specifics or their keywords, etc, etc, etc are important does not mean that potential buyers do.  They are only important if ebay uses them to manipulate visibility in their search algorithms. 

All sellers have been forced to change and adapt to every lame brained idea ebay has come up with through the years - my basic listing practices so far have remained in tact.  I research every item before I decide whether to even list it.   If there is a lot of competition for the exact same item or it does not fit in my price parameters (nothing under $4.95 plus shipping)  I don't list it or list it in a lot of multiple items - and I price items based on items previously sold and currently listed - usually somewhere in between the highs and lows.   Unfortunately with some collectibles and vintage items there may no longer be a label or brand name. 

And, yes I can blame ebay when they constantly make changes that favor certain sellers or items being sold to put more money in their pockets without regard to either their buyers or sellers - and they are losing both.   ebay was once designed to feature items that couldn't be found elsewhere - yet it is those sellers and buyers that they have been driving away. 

[stacy_1971]

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@uncseniorsportsfan wrote:

ebay was once designed to feature items that couldn't be found elsewhere - yet it is those sellers and buyers that they have been driving away. 

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I wholeheartedly agree!  THIS is perfectly stated.

[paraquip]

I spoke to someone in Ebay support today for about an hour......they did confirm that about 1/3 of their calls  inbound are are radical drop in sales.

HK

[kathieskorner]

In that hour - did you get any believable answers?

[yuzuha]

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@uncseniorsportsfan wrote:

I sell collectibles over four accounts - this is the first time all four have trended downward at the same time.   And when it is my higher priced items accounting for a majority of my views and sales over the past six months - I don't believe it is inflation to blame. 

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Actually, that makes perfect sense to me-- the people who have the money to be spending on high-priced collectibles are the people who aren't going to be very affected by inflation, so their spending habits likely won't change much if at all. It's the people who don't have much money to begin with who need to cut back on their extraneous spending, and they generally aren't the ones who are in the market for pricey stuff in the first place.

[reallynicestamps]

EBay hasn't been an auction site for decades.

Less than 15% of transactions are auctions and most of those opt for Buy It Now or Best Offer, which if used end the auction.

Views are down because eBay stopped pretending bot views were customer views.

You've made 140 sales since March.

How does that compare to the same period in 2019 or 2018?

Because of the pandemic surge in online selling of 2020 and 2021, comps with those years should be regarded with skepticism.

[reallynicestamps]

And when it is my higher priced items accounting for a majority of my views and sales over the past six months - I don't believe it is inflation to blame.

I disagree.

Inflation hurts those with smaller incomes more than those with lots of mad money.

So high priced items would continue to sell steadily while lower cost items would drop in sales.

Oddly, the high priced doothingy remains affordable to those who have traditionally been able to afford them, while the low priced doomahickey becomes a wish rather than a purchase, and groceries the priority.

With the price of gas dropping quickly, we may see some change in consumer actions by fall.

[paraquip]

Talking to ebay support is like connecting the dots to make a picture.

There were no answers.....since ebay support is third party......they are disconnected from any answers and really can only verify that there are a large amount of calls coming in about the issue.

I just watched a portion of the Fall seller update where they are starting to address some of the issues.

Ebay has seen a steady decline in sellers whose primary source of income is ebay.  Those are streams of revenue that are difficult to replace once a seller leaves the platform.

Where lack of sales issue is really going to catch fire is the Ebay Q3 earning report/call on October 25, 2022

For myself personally I am seeking other platforms to sell on that have thus far not worked out but I am still trying

HK

[dee01234]

I’m dealing with the same problem. No traffic no sales. A waste of time. 

[gotta-have-it-collectables]

Dug UP again!

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.