Thanks for a great holiday season Ebay.

[debvor]

Yes I'm being sarcastic. So far this Holiday Season sales have been dismal. In this booming economy sales should be through the roof. So what's happening? Now before anyone jumps on me and says "But there's a glut of sellers" or "Collectibles just aren't selling" or  "There are too many people selling the same items" ,and I could go on, let me just say leave your balloon juice right there. The first quarter of this year was the best I've had in 16+ years selling on Ebay. I was looking forward to a banner year. and then long about June things fell off of a cliff. About the same time Ebay rolled out it's latest search engine and so called "catalog sales" oh and I also switched to "Seller's Hub" Now I don't know exactly which one of those caused the problem but the problem is in there somewhere. Since those changes It is turning out to be one of the worst years I've had. I've tried other sites but they are a little too touchy feely for me. Ebay has always been a place where you could list something get good traffic and make sales with not a lot of fuss. How about getting back to basics Ebay or are you more concerned about the giant Chinese sellers? 

[celticbrother]

I deleted my remarks. They were negative about my own sales. 

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i'm not sure why when shopping you would consider margins or  ease of shipping?

Hadn't realized collectors of print advertising  took those factors into consideration before purchasing something to add to their collection. 

thank you for informative post

ebays search engine seems to find sellers who do not follow ebay's guidelines to be best match for buyers to see first. 

you have it figured it? fill the rest of us in, because ebay certainly isn't

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yes, that is true and when one seller is openly hostile to another who is here and distressed about sales. the mods should do something.

instead a private email is sent to the seller who did defend the distressed seller, mods don't do their jobs someone needs to just out of common human decency. 

[tunicaslot]

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@mariebellafashion wrote:

I have only sold 7 items this month, which is the least I have sold since I joined Ebay. My expectation was that the holiday season will yield more sales, I am so dissappointed.  I ended my store subscription today, It makes no senses to keep it. That being said, I am still grateful for the platform provided by Ebay, I hope sales bounce back for everyone. Happy thanksgiving 💕💕

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I'd suggest not using a stock picture as the main picture for used items - you can use it in the group but some buyers won't click on a used listig with a stock photo as they figure a seller didn't take the time to take their own pictures. Also when uploading you can rotate your photos so they are not sideways.

Also in a few listings I checked - you have the length of the dress but no bust, waist or hip measurements - since buyers can't try on the item before purchase - by adding measurments they can see if it will fit their body type.

[tunicaslot]

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@ads.ink wrote:

my august was 2,800 sept 1,700 oct 1,400 and looking at less this month, it is bad. and it is not the economy it is not the elections, etc etc.

Ebay  seller items are not showing up on google search!!

 best match is broken, all sponsored listings now have duplicates,  SALES DO NOT DROP 50% in one month  Sales do not continue to decline from that drop. You are absolutely right, and don't let them tell you otherwise. 

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On your ad lots - zoom out and take a pic of all the ads that are included or do 1/2 and 1/4 pg layouts. Many times people look at the picture and not at the title. They may very well see an ad in the group you list on the main picture showing all in the lot and take the next step of opening up your listing to view it and the other items in the lot.

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ebay has always been that go to place for historians, documentary makers, authors, historical societies, etc etc. Print ephemera including ads has always been a business you could make a subsistence living on if not better  collectors are addicts nothing changes their habits.

60% drop in business from one month to the next has nothing to do with current events, the only current event that causes that drop is whatever ebay is doing. which is putting long time stellar sellers out of business.

Follow ebay guidelines you don't end up on best match first page.  And that is a fact. 

search google, how many items do you see from ebay when using the  image filter?. I found 3 rotogravures of mine 2 were not available and one was already sold. 

not good marketing for any seller on ebay. 

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ebay's  summaries are taken from item descriptions,  if you are like me and at one point put a template on your listings, you cannot bulk revise anything, leaving your summaries a mish mash of words. Why on earth ebay does not pull from titles is beyond me. that is where all pertinent information is listed. ebay's fix? revise 7,600 listings one by one. but that doesn't even seem like a good idea, when best match is full of sellers who do not follow ebay's best practices.

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I'm sure you are right, happens everyday on ebay, sellers sell ads for 3.00 with free shipping and they do sell 5 or 6 items compared to my one or two. add it up i still make more, undercutting has ruined the print ad market  no one makes money anymore

[compassion_matters502]

@sweetpieces4you Completely agree Timothy; a quality well priced item will always sell on eBay no matter what! 

Have been reading through the threads to get the latest scoop and general sense of things as our sales are down and we're working hard to change that.  

We know we have a winner item when it sells within hours of it listing; love to find more of those!  Half our battle and part of the adventure is finding those treasures.  If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

@ads.ink  when things tanked for a minute we realized ALL of our "shared" links out there in the online world were broken, fixed them ALL immediately and came up with a temporary fix so that it won't happen again.  The temporary fix isn't perfect as it requires all listings that aren't auction format to be "good til cancelled" listings. 

Due to the broken link issue we weren't showing up in google shopping search... grrrrr.  IF the subject title of your listing AND the Catalog items are filled out to support what a buyer is looking for plus you are making sure your listing is shared elsewhere online, it WILL get picked up to the top of Google search whether eBay spends money on Google search/ shopping advertising or not. 

Search algorithms are in a constant state of flux, as are the people searching, and HOW they enter their search criteria.  We're in a different era, its a whole new ballgame, and it takes more than what it used to take to make a title, use key words etc for items that people would buy if they knew you were selling it.... sigh.

@debvor  My current store will be 4yo in March, though I was a part time seller for years prior to that.  Am still learning and trying to improve.  Our store has plenty of room for improvement..... having said that I took the time to review your listed items.  I think an important improvement you could make to your listings is for the photographs not to be so dark.  We have this issue as well and are working to be better as we've noticed our listings with better photos sell far more quickly... food for thought.  I think the younger consumers are looking for used, vintage and collectibles more than ever and like being supportive of small business owners, but if they can't see the item well in the first photo their attention span is too short to spend more time on the listing.

[debvor]

Thanks for the suggestion but the problem must be on eBay's end. When I edit the photos I can't make most any lighter or they look washed out on my computer or phone. Really don't know what to do about that.

[castlemagicmemories]

He made a point of saying that ebay was the place to shop for items that could not be found elsewhere, 

Hopefully that means that Ebay will promote that as their major strength and capitalize on that advantage.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@sodelight wrote:
I feel your pain. But why do those who post have to always be sarcastic. Shouldn't your headline reflect the truth and not sarcasm, it gets really old seeing so many sarcastic posts. It's almost like a competition on these boards.

Folks need to realize that buyers read these posts too, a sarcastic attitude doesn't help in producing sales.

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AMEN and thank you!

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i was told by ebay that unless you pay 1.00 a month per listing for photo package, images won't look any better then the terrible pictures that appear now. great way to make buyers want to shop on ebay,  short descriptions then scans where the buyer can't see flaws in item, sellers lose all the way around but isn't that always the case here on ebay?

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@debvor wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion but the problem must be on eBay's end. When I edit the photos I can't make most any lighter or they look washed out on my computer or phone. Really don't know what to do about that.

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@compassion_matters502 wrote:

@sweetpieces4you Completely agree Timothy; a quality well priced item will always sell on eBay no matter what! 

Have been reading through the threads to get the latest scoop and general sense of things as our sales are down and we're working hard to change that.  

We know we have a winner item when it sells within hours of it listing; love to find more of those!  Half our battle and part of the adventure is finding those treasures.  If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

@ads.ink  when things tanked for a minute  how about sales dropped 60% in September and have not regained anything since despite doing all ebay wants and demands.

we realized ALL of our "shared" links out there in the online world were broken, fixed them ALL immediately when you don't have 8,200 items listed making quick and easy changes is ....  quick and  easy,  8,200 items not so much,.

Filling out item specifics for each item would take years not days. 5 years to build inventory, fixing listings takes 3 times as long as making a new listing, you do  the math.  

Due to the broken link issue we weren't showing up in google shopping search... grrrrr.  IF the subject title of your listing AND the Catalog items are filled out to support what a buyer is looking for plus you are making sure your listing is shared elsewhere online Making sure my listings are  shared in another place? where? how? and why? when ebay is paid to do so? 

I have tried pinterest takes as long to make a listing on pinterest as to make a new listing on ebay, 

and why, it WILL get picked up to the top of Google search whether eBay spends money on Google search/ shopping advertising or not what do we pay ebay for if not to get our listings out on google search up front and center?

Search algorithms are in a constant state of flux, as are the people searching, and HOW they enter their search criteria.  We're in a different era, its a whole new ballgame, and it takes more than what it used to take to make a title, use key words etc for items that people would buy if they knew you were selling it.... sigh. 

 Now ebay says it is decreasing budget for advertising, i guess it doesn't matter since all i ever see is amazon advertising, no sight of ebay anywhere. 

so now back to work since i have 4 items 3 months in a row that were not uploaded on time, yet ebay says for those same months i have almost 50 late shipments, i will now go to double check ebay's work which is always wrong,   instead of taking care of my own work (which is what makes me money)

any advice on cross pollinating 8,200 items would be greatly appreciated 🙂

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thank you on the old lots it takes forever to save the images crop and edit and make a gallery lot but im plugging along, also using your advice on new listings, don't have a camera so a little difficult but doing the best that is possible. Even when i promote at 4% above other sellers for a large ad lot, ebay still puts it at the bottom of all other ads. You see many views at first, then none for days as it sinks lower and lower to page 50 .