Why is management running eBay into the ground?

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

I have been an eBay seller for 25 years. I could be wrong, but I do not think there is a single person in upper management who has been at eBay for as long as I have been a seller. And for at least 15 or so of those years, I have been eBay's flagship seller in the categories of woodwind and brass instruments. I've seen a lot of changes come and go.

I do not think it is hyperbole to say that literally every single major change I have seen happen in the last 10 or so years has been to the detriment of the sellers in an attempt to soak them for more nickels and dimes. Most recently has been this pivot away from being a general marketplace to being a marketplace specializing in selling sneakers, Rolexes, and Magic The Gathering cards.

My year to date sales on eBay are down 22% from last year. And it is no secret why this has happened. Ebay eliminated support for my category. Though I was a $4 million+ seller in 2021 I no longer have an account manager. I don't have anyone at eBay who knows my business, and eBay has, effectively, told me that my business doesn't matter to them. This is the culmination of a years-long, seemingly purposeful effort by eBay to destroy this category by raising fees and reducing service to drive sellers off. What was once a thriving community of vintage musical instrument aficionados has become a wasteland filled with cheap Chinese junk, and, for some reason, I'm still here as well.

But wait, you say. Perhaps I'm just mismanaging my business and this isn't eBay's problem at all? Well no.  As you can see, my sales in other channels are up over 50%. This is a pretty welcome development for us, as these channels have substantially lower fees (even counting in my advertising costs) and I tend to realize higher sales costs. And it looks like this is the direction my business will be heading-where eBay used to account for 95%+ of my sales it is now barely 40% and falling each month.

I've never had any illusions that eBay cares at all about me. But as someone who sends them literally hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, it boggles my mind that they don't care about my business or my revenue stream.  eBay appears to have decided that their original strategy of making money by empowering sellers to build businesses and succeed as been replaced by a strategy of strangling sellers nearly to the point of death in an attempt to wring every last dollar from them. 

It might be too late for eBay at this point. I have sounded the alarm bells every time I have had a chance to speak to management, which is probably why they don't want to hear from me any more, but this is not a sustainable business model and is the reason why eBay stock is currently trading near a 52 week low. But as one of the sellers who literally built eBay, I will be sad to see it shuffle off into obscurity. 

We had such high hopes.

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

Yes, the thing is, I'm the only one of my colleagues left, AND both my total gross sales and eBay sales as a percentage of my total gross are falling substantially. A few more years and eBay will be completely irrelevant to my business model. We could survive leaving right now, but it wouldn't be pleasant, as that revenue is still important. But soon it will not be.

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

Most of my serious competition in my categories left about 10 years ago when fees changed from a tiered fee plan (10% of the first $50, 4% of the next $1000, 2% thereafter capped at $100 per item) to what they have now.

They managed to bring back a fair number of sellers in Guitars and Basses by lowering FVFs to 3.5%, but they didn't do it for Woodwind and Brass instruments, which I sell. 

They simply do not understand the business. If they make is so that you have to have a 40% or better margin to make money on eBay, all you will see is cheap Chinese garbage that will give buyers bad experiences that will have them never coming back.

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

I'm not sure what you think is wrong. People DO want my instruments, as my data clearly shows. They just aren't buying them on eBay. They're buying through my website.