Seriously Over Throttled

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

ANYONE ELSE?

I don’t get it. I have been throttled for the most part of a year. Outlining Feb. 2019, good thru June 2019, then barely anything from June, 2019 until November, 2019, dead again December through present. I did have over 50-60 items for sale. I finally took down nearly everything since it’s not selling and hoping I would sell the few I have listed now, but no. Here’s an example: In seller fees: Feb $7.59; Jan $3.14; Dec $60.91!! 

I just removed the majority of my products as it is a joke, which was 50-60 products. They want to say you get certain amount of views. I don’t believe it. 

I’m a good seller with good reviews and I just don’t get it.

[bill.purvis2012]

I hear your frustration. Your items are beautiful. For me, a little overpriced. You have only a few listed that you can get offers on; that may slow sales down.  I think EBAY of several years ago would have given you better results. Online sales are quickly changing. There's a lot of competition. EBAY seems to have earned a name for ''getting a deal'.  Don't give up. Find other products and expand your inventory. Try to shake it up a bit. Wish you well. 

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

I took your advice and added that, but in the months I referenced, I had a store, had frequent markdowns, but nothing to speak of. I finally had to close my store.

There is one thing that bugs me. I can’t prove it because eBay removed the message, but a couple of years ago when one of the large stores paying over $500 a month threatened to ruin me. Since that time, I have had a real hard time selling anything on eBay. I think I have a screenshot of it, but would have to seriously search.

[barbara1774]

I agree with Bill - shake things up a bit. Maybe sell some "hot" items like PYREX or LIONEL Trains - if you can get your hands on some. Fortunately a woman gave us several bins filled with her late husband's LIONEL Trains & accessories from the late 1950's to sell for her and she wants us to keep 60 percent of the actual sold prices. Never thought I'd learn so much about model railroads, but boy are they ever hot! Even sold an empty LIONEL box for $420.00 at auction and two dead D Cell batteries from the 1950's for $9.99 each. CorningWare sells really well now - the older stuff. Noticed you offer Free Shipping. People don't seem to mind paying for the shipping. We have over 200 items for sale. It seems the more items you have listed, the more likely you are to get sales and then the more sales you do, the more likely eBay's algorithm puts you near the top of the listings. We also use Promoted Listings on most items.

Good luck!

[richards*rock*collection]

I am replying to your post without reading the other replies. I have been selling things a bunch now and have a thousand dollars in sales the last 2 months but before and during the holidays there were very few sales. Of course the views are not correct, logically, there are thousands of views not recorded. eBay is a thing you have to work on, keep listings fresh, not letting them get stale, list some every day and dont let you items slip down the algorithm, go ahead and promote the listings give them an extra buck, let them know your trying. Good luck selling!

[s.scharmu0]

Hi, Would E-bay have a record of the messages they send to us.  You would not have to tell them why you are asking. That would save you time looking if they did. Just an idea, maybe they do. Good luck 

[sextons-sweet-deals]

January of 2020 was down 25% from January 2019

February is crashing! Down 60% with 5 days to go. 

eBay needs to do some advertising. Not just from October to Christmas! There are so many formats these days that can reach millions of people. If you sit silent, people will forget you!

I'm riding the storm out! Been here since 2001. eBay has set up many policies to protect both buyer and seller. It may not be bullet proof, but I'm sure it is better than other selling sites. eBay just doesn't let anything & everything to be sold. They try controlling the counterfeit products (working with the actual manufacturers), watching for recalled safety products, and items against the law to sell on the internet. 

[im-poor]

I have been selling part time since 2000. I am still selling the same things. Before eBay started to make all the changes I averaged 6-10 sales a week. Since then my sales have dropped like a rock, 10 for December, 6 for January and 2 this weekend for February. The changes are not helping this seller.

[barbara1774]

Agree here too. I do list items every day - frequently new listings but I frequently end a listing just before it is about to be relisted and then relist it myself and tweak it at that time - maybe lower the price (sometimes increase the price!), rework the description and double check everything. Now averaging close to $2,000/month with an average sale price of $50.00. I spend a lot of time on descriptions and do lots of research. Most of the items I sell are vintage and collectibles.

[handyhandz4u]

As far as I know sales fluctuate wildly. It has nothing to do with you, but what people need, not want. Pay to promote, sell more than 1 and give a better deal, might help.

Maybe get more items online, I found that listing more items helps get the same amount of sales as last year but at least not less... Which doesn't make sense, but it does, because every year we have more sellers, so you get more diluted. And nobody sees you anymore. Especially retired folks who just like to stay busy and not realy need to support themselves but like to do something and that is bad news for prices and sales.

[chapeau-noir]

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@cunberlandgapshop4you wrote:

ANYONE ELSE?

I don’t get it. I have been throttled for the most part of a year. Outlining Feb. 2019, good thru June 2019, then barely anything from June, 2019 until November, 2019, dead again December through present. I did have over 50-60 items for sale. I finally took down nearly everything since it’s not selling and hoping I would sell the few I have listed now, but no. Here’s an example: In seller fees: Feb $7.59; Jan $3.14; Dec $60.91!! 

I just removed the majority of my products as it is a joke, which was 50-60 products. They want to say you get certain amount of views. I don’t believe it. 

I’m a good seller with good reviews and I just don’t get it.

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FWIW, given what you're selling (a more speciality item - I agree, your items and presentation are great), your price point and the few you have listed (only 50-60 at most it seems like), looking at your solds I think you're doing pretty well even at maybe one sale a week.  Because of sheer the amount of stuff here, plus retailing fluctuations that are a lot more pronounced for very small sellers than big sellers, it's hard to be seen and hard to have regular sales.  I agree with diversifying and getting more items listed - bring more eyes to your listings.

Since I've gone from maybe 500+ items up to a small seller at only about 250 running, the fluctuations are a lot worse for me now, despite the fact that I always had had steady sales.  It's a lot more frustrating selling here than it was 15 years ago when I only needed 50 items at a time.

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

In my situation, it does not apply to me. I’ve been suppressed for over a year. It’s not about what I’m selling as my site and another I’m selling those products right and left. EBay intentionally will not show my products. 

I had an incident about 3-4 years ago where I was in competition with a big seller. She literally threatened me. I have a screenshot of the message where she stated she would contact her people at eBay and I would be ruined. In my opinion, that is exactly what happened.

I have since removed all my products. Just be vigilant about your sales. If they fall off, they are throttling you. When one talks that sales are slow or stopped, it’s intentional. I’m sure there are TONS of cheerleaders out here trying to say differently. 

When it all went down with the other seller suddenly all my sales stopped. I worked hard to try to let them know what happened and SUDDENLY the message was removed. Then I couldn’t find any of my products nor could friends and family.

Finally I got in touch with someone at eBay that told me ALL my listings were being shown in other countries. She fixed it, sales went great, but then a rapid halt. 

eBay lets good sellers go for any reason and then they lose buyers because there are some real jerks out there selling. Then they want to know why.

A good example: Back in 2013, you could put something on auction for 99 cents and know you will get a lot of bids. Look at the auctions now. It’s a ghost town and the ones who do definitely do NOT take a chance of listing it less than what they want.

In my opinion, eBay will be something in the future that others say Oh yea, I remember eBay. They crashed. That’s how I believe it will happen. Good luck to everyone.