@joliztoyco wrote:
You're about to read an endless stream of eBay's cosmic defenders telling you they see plenty of ads.
Like on Facebook. Yeah....the place where Grandma posts her 37 pics of Thanksgiving dinner.
Home of the retired and the 3rd World masses.
Meanwhile on the TV I see and endless parade of ads from Amazon, Poshmark, and Wayfair. I guess they see value in advertising.
The bottom line is : eBay doesn't give a crap about the majority of it's sellers who are keeping their diminishing platform afloat. If it's not focus categories, they're not spending.
But there's another problem. The PL percentage sellers are having to pay in those "focus categories" like guaranteed fit auto parts, is dragging their prices up to where they can easily be had elsewhere like RockAuto or Discount Auto Parts. Or you local Autozone.
The rising cost of shipping is also affecting them.
Unless you find a specialty niche like "stainless steel engine"? has, it's basically becoming a junk yard of used and "re-conditioned" parts.
Oh well....it is what it is.
I've resigned myself as a seller, that nothing's going to happen.
Said it before... What does eBay have in respect to advertising on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?
What exactly are they supposed to advertise? I think we can agree most people shopping for the holidays are looking for new stuff, brand new. They are looking for bargains over this particular weekend, where are the bargains? Amazon is a retailer, eBay is not. Poshmark is known for clothing more so than anything else, pretty easy focus there. Wayfair deals in home products, again, easy focus, up to 80% off. Do we see any eBay resellers wanting band together and sell things at 50-80% off and actually have quantities to meet demand?
Do we have vendors willing to commit potentially large inventories where there are quantities to suit demand 60-90 days in advance and it actually be stuff consumers want to gift over the holidays?
eBay's focus categories are not simply focus because of value's. They are focus and moving towards authentication because retail, manufacturers and governments are pushing and not pushing lightly to regulate third party commerce. It's like David versus Goliath's whole family. Anyone actually listen to the hearings related to The Safe Shopping Act? Amazon is #1 in problems followed by here but the difference is Amazon has FBA and can make arrangements with manufactures towards authenticity. I predict with two years or less Amazon will require all goods go through FBA and they're gonna raise the selling costs into the 25%-40% range.
Anybody ever think maybe eBay trying to bank money so as time marches they can increase focal categories and authentication requirements? That's what I'd be doing at the helm not because that's what want to do but because that's what has to be done or Governments are going to force measures that will simply put, wipe third party selling out.
Again, the last incarnation of the Safe Shopping end would have ended eBay, Poshmark, Etsy, Mercari, all of em' yet not Amazon and yet not Walmart. Both of those entities have the infrastructure to adjust making 99% sure that customers get EXACTLY what they ordered as described.
eBay is NOT the problem and you, me, other sellers reading this may not be the problem. eBay is a venue, a venue where people sell things and unfortunately for eBay and all the very good sellers the bad sellers are and HAVE BEEN a problem. Every limiter on this site from Vero, Trust & Safety, Money Back Guarantee, iNAD's on and on and on exist because of bad sellers. That's just a fact. Now good sellers get to feel the pain due to bad sellers. Right?
So solution, get rid of bad sellers right?
How?
You sell a Mr. Widget someone claims is counterfeit when they get it. How do you prove its not? I show a Walmart receipt? Proves nothing. A seller could get 10 receipts and had sold those someplace else. The ONLY proof is by the manufacturer who doesn't want there stuff sold by third parties for the most part to begin with, they want authorized resellers.
Joe/sephine Q. buys ten refurbished Playstation 5's sells them, half of them belly up within 90 days. Did the seller run the units for days on end pushing them with titles that stress the hardware? Nope.
Point being I can cite a million and one potential circumstances whereby consumers are at a loss to sellers and THATS A BIG PROBLEM.
How does eBay determine every cellphone sold is in fact authentic, going to continue working on and on. Is eBay to test every single cellphone sold? These are real problems and thus Money Back Guarantee's in place but that does NOT SATISFY ANY CONSUMER who buys something only for things to go awry.
I used to deal with this ALL THE TIME. Yep. People buying PC Software only to install it and either A. Doesn't work or B. Screw up their PC's, then they try fix things making it worse followed by communication to me whereby many were literally flipping out. Can explain to them all day long, "I didn't write the software, just a reseller like CompUSA or Walmart, Staples..." Doesn't matter... "What you sold me doesnt work.", "It messed up my PC and I can't fix it! I tried!", "It ruined my computer! Now I have to bring it someplace and you should pay for the repairs."
Oh believe you me, I've heard it all!
So again... Exactly what is eBay to advertise?
"Shop eBay and find everything for you're holiday gifts?"
Where are the sales? Where are the bargains? You seriously expect me to look at 100 listings for this item and not be worried about what I get?
Ask how many consumers have had a bad experience on eBay be that a horrible one, something that said it was new but didn't seem new when it arrived? How many "I can't give this to him/her for Xmas!" have happened? Again, its NOT EBAY, its sellers. eBay is simply a website no different than FB Marketplace, Amazon is not Facebook Marketplace and Amazon is BRUTAL in consumer satisfaction.
I dont know about now, but I can tell you back in the day they'd a 2.5% rate on most goods of any issues. That is to say if a third party seller had 2.5 validated complaints to Amazon within 100 sales, done, account cancelled. They afford one appeal, a comprehensive strategy to improve. If anything other than that is received, it's all done and even at that, Amazon 3P sales remain #1 on the Internet creating problems for consumers and manufacturers. That's according to the folks testifying before Congressional members re: Safe Shopping Act.
During those discussions it was asked, "How many consumers have had an experience of counterfeit or incorrectly described merchandise come to them." In the polls these operations ran it was two in three people. There's the problem. Is that eBays fault? Amazon's fault? No, not in the least. Its sellers. eBay hols funds on new sellers, big ticket on and on because of problems. In a perfect eBay or perfect Amazon not a single restriction should or need exist.
Sellers need to start seeing things in the reality that they are versus through their own glasses of what they want to see. I could say the same of America in general, the people are their own worst enemy because they want compartmentalize their thinking, lifestyles and more never wanting to see the reality more or less contribute to solving those realities.
As much as people want blame Jamie for eBay thangs I am like 110% positive that 99.9% of sellers on eBay could not fill one of his shoes more or less both, self included. That's why he is a CEO and has the background to be one and we peddle trinkets online.
Regards,
