What is happening?

[myestate-treasures4u]

Is it me, or is there is an abnormal amount of long-time sellers leaving the platform lately?

[inhawaii]

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@myestate-treasures4u wrote:

No numbers (as you can see from my post). Just monitoring this board. 

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You will see upset sellers come here to announce the are leaving.

Most never do.

You rarely see happy sellers come here to announce they are staying.

So "monitoring this board" really does not give you an accurate data.

[lilyswan2]

a lot of sellers have left...not one is still here that i had put on list of favorite sellers over the years...it's not the same ebay anymore and a lot of sellers have left or given up...

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I have a relatively short list of favorite sellers. Only one who was selling his own collections has left.

Those who were selling on Ebay as a business are still here and have been for 20+ years.

I am back here after a run on Amazon which lasted 12 years, I can make more  here with a quarter of the listings due to Amazon's unfriendliness to collectibles. Used to make enough on AZ to not miss Ebay.

Ebay sellers have had to evolve. Some things that used to bring good money now have no interest. Some items are so plentiful they are not worth listing. As is and no returns sales can be returned for not as described even when they are as described.

Many of us are old enough that we will not invest our time in $1 and $2 listings, and this site now has a lot of these time wasters.

[pls-consignments]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@myestate-treasures4u wrote:

No numbers (as you can see from my post). Just monitoring this board. 

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You will see upset sellers come here to announce the are leaving.

Most never do.

You rarely see happy sellers come here to announce they are staying.

So "monitoring this board" really does not give you an accurate data.

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So, since the OP didn't offer "accurate data" you're saying "it's him" right? I don't think his opinion required  any scientific evidence.

[harborauction]

I think you have to consider the unfortunate fact that no one lives forever and your favorite seller that was going gangbusters on ebay a decade or two ago may have expired

I'll use myself as an example, long time seller on ebay 25+ years and I wasn't a child when I started in 1998

So now I'm a geezer and before many more years (maybe tomorrow?) this long time seller will be leaving ebay

Like many of the angry sellers that post here I'll be dying to get outta here. Bummer

[luckythewinner]

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@pls-consignments wrote:
So, since the OP didn't offer "accurate data" you're saying "it's him" right? I don't think his opinion required  any scientific evidence.

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I think he was simply suggesting that the opinion might be based on something resembling an echo chamber. 

[reallynicestamps]

Nope.

With a platform that is over 25 years old, "long term" sellers reach retirement age.

And one day something is the last straw.

Although it would be interesting to know how old the average seller here is. I suspect it is over 45 and possibly over 55.

[mam98031]

I don't know.  Where are you getting that information from?

Here on the threads, it isn't uncommon for sellers to pop in and say they are leaving for one reason or another.  They don't always leave.  Sometimes you can look at them a few months later and they are still selling.

Keep in mind, we have around 19 million sellers worldwide.  So there is no shortage of sellers.  What we need are more buyers IMHO.  And it is more concerning to me that we are losing buyers.

[richard1rst]

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@myestate-treasures4u wrote:

Is it me, or is there is an abnormal amount of long-time sellers leaving the platform lately?

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"Long term" being the operative word. I'm coming up on 20 years. I personally have no interest in retiring  because I have had the good fortune to build up a nice retirement nest egg so I don't really NEED to do this. (except sitting around doing nothing is not as easy as it looks). But someone with multitudinous grand-kids might find more joy with them than here.

After all, in business, it is not unusual to retire after 20 years -  gold watch and all that.

[johnrj1226]

exactly how many sellers  have left eBay and during what period of time.

It is not unusual for a company, seller to lose 10% of their customers every year for a myriad of reasons

[toysaver]

Yep, that's my take.  Sellers 'age out of the system'.   Young sellers don't get it and can't imagine the possibilities of wonderful surprises that are to come.

[laststopgeneralstore]

Most "long time" sellers that are leaving, are the ones that continue to do the same thing over and over again while living in the early 2000's/2010's of eBay were you could list canned air and sell it at a premium.

Now, their is a lot more competition, things change, harder to get good items, not everything will sell anymore etc...

If all they did was adapt and take some accountability, they probably would've stayed but god forbid you do that nowadays.

[dhbookds]

Leaving posts are nothing compared to the times they took Store inventory listings out of general search (after putting them in for 3 months or so)  and when they went to GTC as the default.......or when they disallowed checks and money orders.........

[soh.maryl]

Respectfully, how do you know how many long-time sellers are  leaving this platform?

Would really like to know.  

[sakic92710]

23 year seller.  I have not left, physically but, I have left mentally.  5 sales in 2024.  4 active listings.  I tried auctions - no bids.  I might try more BINs here & there.  Test the market on a few things.  Otherwise, prefer to sell locally & on free listings sites.   2 negatives in a year - both from "buyers" who got refunds AND received their items.  Who deserves the negatives??  lol  Best of luck to all.    🙂