eBay

inthepastcollectibles · ‎11-12-2018

1/10/18, I submitted a post stating that eBay was down 40% and I stated I could tell this via my dashboard. Many said that the dashboard only measures certain categories (per what the dashboard says) and was not representative of the marketplace as a whole. I stated this was not true, as when I sold in categories which were not being measured (accrding to dashboard), the dashboard moved anyway. My statement was that the dashboard DOES reflect eBay's decline as an overall marketplace. This was my post:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/eBay-is-down-30-to-40-year-to-year-No-sellers-no-or-lo...

Today (see article), I was finally vindicated that eBay's marketplace is down significantly and is down almost 40% (reflective of its markeplace being down as much), but that it will probably be down even further a financial analyst predicts eBay will be down another 16% by April. As much as I loved eBay (and I did), I am reveling at the fact eBay is getting caught with its pants down and MAYBE someone will take notice by the vast amounts of money Ebay is losing for its shareholders. I have posted frequently on the boards that the only way to get eBay to notice is to hit them on their bottom line.

For me, it has meant a little suffering financially (as if eBay wasn't doing this already). I have lost over $1,000 a month that use to be my income on eBay (or approx. 50% of my sales), but as I lose money, so does eBay and its losses of revenues are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not into the millions. Calling customer support is Ebay's illusion of fixing eBay.....it does nothing and it is just eBay making sellers "believe" eBay cares. Know this, the only thing eBay cares about is its bottom line and ONLY when sellers effect its bottom line will we truly see change. We, sellers, may have to suffer and pull back our money (thus in some instances lose sales), but as long as people keep throwing money at the monster, we sellers will surely lose.

https://www.investopedia.com/news/ebays-stock-seen-plunging-15-further/

collectablesofliberty · ‎11-12-2018

I just would like some clarification, the article quoted states "slower than expected growth" growth is not a loss. I have read that their "growth" is somewhere between 4-8%. Stock prices are dipping because, as I stated above, it is slower than anticipated. The article by no means states eBay is not growing. So the 40% down you are mentioning, are your loss of sales, am I correct? I just want to make sure we are on the same page. There is a difference between our sales versus others sales and the overall Stock price. If eBay was growing as they expected the stocks would be the same or up.

Mark

collectablesofliberty · ‎11-12-2018

Also, it appears you are using smoke and mirrors to justify your stance, sales for eBay are not down 40%. The article only backs up the point that Stocks are down and may continue that route for now.

Mark

adsta22 · ‎11-12-2018

The entire stock market is down...

adsta22 · ‎11-12-2018

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/dow-jones-closes-down-almost-600-points-massive-market-sell...

v7bbn_0 · ‎11-12-2018

I will call Devin on his personal phone to let him know his charade is unraveling at once, that way perhaps if he blows several tons of smoke in short order it will restore fractional amounts of confidence however I would not expect the stock market as a whole to recover much if at all as a result.

vintagecraze50 · ‎11-12-2018

When you call Mr Wenig, can you tell him also that he has done an excellent job improving the quality of the website and that we are happy that even if the stocks are falling, ebay is still showing some growth. No one person is responsible for what happens with the stock market. So I will not blame HIM for that.

goldguy22k · ‎11-12-2018

I read that article and saw this information!

For example, analysts now see revenue in 2020 growing by 8%, down from previous estimates for 9%. Additionally, earnings growth is now expected to slow to 14% from 16%.

I just don't see how GROWTH is a negative unless one uses zero based budgeting thinking into assume a decline in growth is an ober all decline? The reveunue is still growing Y2Y _ I bet most eBay sellers would love to have that kind of consistent growth.

If one listened to the 3Q results Conference Call, or read a transcript, they heard the reasons. EBay is transitioning away from a Habitualed Buyer Base to "new" buyers and has to suck it up for a while as this "base" fights tooth an nail, every little change the company wants to make to attract new buyers! But hey, the "get off my lawn" types won't be around forever and perhaps they won't impeed progress enough that new buyers will come in and replace the decline in spending Habitualed Buyer Base .

everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures · ‎11-13-2018

@goldguy22k wrote:
I read that article and saw this information!

For example, analysts now see revenue in 2020 growing by 8%, down from previous estimates for 9%. Additionally, earnings growth is now expected to slow to 14% from 16%.

I just don't see how GROWTH is a negative unless one uses zero based budgeting thinking into assume a decline in growth is an ober all decline? The reveunue is still growing Y2Y _ I bet most eBay sellers would love to have that kind of consistent growth.

If one listened to the 3Q results Conference Call, or read a transcript, they heard the reasons. EBay is transitioning away from a Habitualed Buyer Base to "new" buyers and has to suck it up for a while as this "base" fights tooth an nail, every little change the company wants to make to attract new buyers! But hey, the "get off my lawn" types won't be around forever and perhaps they won't impeed progress enough that new buyers will come in and replace the decline in spending Habitualed Buyer Base .

Growth in and of itself is not a bad thing but the issue is there are instances where the growth isn't actual growth but a manipulations of numbers to make it appear as growth.
Now keep in mind you are also not seeing losses at all to offset growth numbers and those losses are never talked about.
For a simple example Ebay will show sales as overall growth either quaterly or yearly but they do not show unpaid items, returns or cancellations as an offset to those sales numbers. So the numbers are not exactly accurate for quarterly and yearly totals. They only count that a buyer initally purchased.
Kinda like how they count the number of buyers or sellers on the site or registered users. None of which means they are active.

everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures · ‎11-13-2018

EBay also should stop deciding what buyers are allowed to use the site, which also is a manipulation. Habitual buyers or new buyers should not matter to ebay as we need both. Ebay has a hard time remembering they do not have buyers, we do and sellers on ebay are not the same. Some have things for the new buyers and some have things for the habitual buyers...but unless there is a problem with a buyer the site should be open and receptive and accommodating to all of them since it is the buyers that support the seller base here.

Somewhere along the lines such sites have forgotten they are not retailers and do not own any of their own inventory and do not own any of our businesses and instead of being what they are and licensed to be, have taken on a completely different role.

a_c_green · ‎11-13-2018

@goldguy22k wrote:
If one listened to the 3Q results Conference Call, or read a transcript, they heard the reasons. EBay is transitioning away from a Habitualed Buyer Base to "new" buyers and has to suck it up for a while as this "base" fights tooth an nail, every little change the company wants to make to attract new buyers! But hey, the "get off my lawn" types won't be around forever and perhaps they won't impeed progress enough that new buyers will come in and replace the decline in spending Habitualed Buyer Base .

I don't quite see how this "base" is capable of fighting anything that eBay rolls out, nor how "'get off my lawn' types" are able to impede progress in any way.

eBay's own worst enemy and impediment to progress is itself, in the form of questionable planning and atrocious website QA, a never-ending round of ill-planned and poorly-tested revisions and purported improvements that seem to cause more problems than they resolve. Until they recognize that cutting corners on software development and letting Marketing rule the site is not a recipe for success, they'll continue to blunder on as they have, and we can only hope that they succeed in spite of themselves.

adsta22 · ‎11-13-2018

EBay also should stop deciding what buyers are allowed to use the site, which also is a manipulation
____

Explain what you mean by eBay deciding who can use the site...

goldguy22k · ‎11-13-2018

Well two points were discussed here. Please allow me to comment on both?

Now not to be a smart azz or anything, but just because I can't see how something works, does not mean that it can't or doesn't. The CEO was pretty clear (in the most recent CC) that eBay has not been able to roll out as many changes and upgrades to the site due to resistance from the habituated buyer base. Hey not my words, just the messenger.

Second, I tend to agree that the way eBay does some changes isn't stellar. I was just reading this AM the podcast transcript from

"Selling On eBay - Episode 15 - Holiday Selling Insights"

and was shaking my head. They mentioned volume discount program and how they had rolled that out and then noted:

Yeah, well we're actually working on a tutorial video right now and that should be live soon.

Huh? Novel idea: Why not have the "How to" videos and the explanations of the program released at the same time the upgrade/new program is released? Does anyone coordinate these programs or is it one department against another? Software guys finish an upgrade, marketing rushes to announce "what's new" and the training department has to play catch up? Second Novel Idea: why not create Program Managers that are responsible for coordinating with departments and seeing to it that all of these items are in place, BEFORE releasing an upgrade?