eBay is horrible now unless you pay to promote you won’t get sales or views hope someone investigate

[everythinginteresting413]

eBay has become completely ridiculous. Unless you pay to promote your item. You won’t get any views or sales the last eight items I’ve listed on eBay all of a sudden don’t get a single view unless I promote them to wear before I would still sell them it would just take a little longer. This is a joke and I hope somebody investigates this because you shouldn’t have to pay some crazy amount to get anybody to look at your stuff. I will no longer be listing on eBay anymore.

[laststopgeneralstore]

Wrong. You don't have to promote anything to get traffic and/or sales. A little over 70% of my sales are organic. I only promote at 5.1% and average a little over $300/day in sales with the majority being organic & not promoted.

What you do need is to list items that people want, that have demand, high sell thru rate, sell for good money etc...

You don't seem to have those and not to mention you're running auctions. Less and less people, especially the newer generations could care less about the kind of stuff you have listed. Anyone could go to the nearest store and get 100 spoons for a few bucks and not care if it's silver, sterling, metal, pewter, tin etc...

Source better items and do better before you come around and blame eBay for your lack of accountability.

[dolcetreasures]

I’m not sure, I promoted at very high rates and that still didn’t lead to many sales. I think it ultimately comes down to having things people want and those people actively searching for them online. 

[dhbookds]

You only have 3 like items listed..........harsh, generalized conclusion for such small experience..........

[theteamsetguy]

@everythinginteresting413 ,

There are many people who sell here very successfully and don't pay to promote their items. If you have high demand or items with little competition it would be a waste of money to pay for promoted listings. For example I have sold multiple Michael Jordan rookie cards on eBay for well over 5 figures without any promotion. Michael Jordan rookie cards are highly desirable and their is a very defined market for them. So, even spending $1.00 on promotion would be throwing money away.

However, just using your current listings as an example. When I did a search on eBay for "Oneida silver spoons" there were over 45,000 of them for sale. Even if I did a "Oneida sterling silver spoon" search there were sill over 1,200 results and very few individual spoons sold in the last 90 days.  I would also suggest adding the the name of the pattern for your spoon to item title. Since you are selling individual spoons your buyer is likely someone looking to fill in a incomplete set. As a seller it is your job to make an item easily found by a potential buyer. 

Sellers have to realize the competition on most categories has risen exponentially over the years. Today almost every Tom, Nancy, Betty, Dick, and Harry can list things on eBay.  Because of this a seller has to give a reason for a potential buyer to click on their item versus their competitors from the search results. Think lowest price, better pictures, or descriptions.  

[4pawsup*]

What your selling usually sells for melt value. I have not seen too many spoon collectors anymore. JMO

[everythinginteresting413]

These are 3 of past 20 plus listings including gold that didn’t get views don’t make assumptions when you don’t know how many prices I’m talking about 

[monroe67]

"I hope somebody investigates this . . ."
No investigation is needed.  Smart sellers who can do math can figure out how much money eBay will keep on sales with the promoted listing fee(s), and then decide to promote or not to promote.

". . . you shouldn’t have to pay some crazy amount to get anybody to look at your stuff."

I offer a suggestion as a possibility to help sell your three current listings:
Take some new pictures with a plain white background.  Or maybe a plain pale pastel color, like very pale blue.  
That multicolor patchwork-look fabric is just too busy, too distracting.  The eyes do not focus on your silver spoons. 
Oh -- maybe try to polish them a bit more, too.  

"I will no longer be listing on eBay anymore."
Redundant and unnecessary, especially when some of your problems are easily fixable by you, yourself.  

[stainlessenginecovers]

I investigated it and here is my final report:

You had a whole 20?

You need at least 2000 to compete with the other 70,000 listings of 'silver spoons'.

Promotions is the ONLY way to GET to the 1st Page- or you can choose to NOT use them and languish on page 483 getting no views because people have already seen 1000's BEFORE they get to your listing.

[inhawaii]

Wrong.

I don't pay to promote. I get sales and views.

You want someone to "investigate" why nobody wants to buy your items?

[boomersbiz46]

well I am not so sure people don't care about STERLING Spoons...you may want to rethink that!!!!! LOL

[tobaccocardyahoo]

The number of people interested in selling old things is constantly decreasing. Those who care are getting old enough to be downsizing, or are dying. Young collectors are scarce for many, many items.

I have found silver spoons not be worth my effort in listing, and stopped trying to sell them years ago. I'm waiting for the price of silver to go up enough to sell them to a melter. I am very lazy, and not willing to invest the time unless it means enough dollars in hand.

It is impossible to tell whether promotion would help you sell or not, but my prejudice is that it will not.

Even if there is some demand, Ebay is too large for all of the sellers offering these spoons to find a buyer. Most Internet Marketplaces have more of many items being offered than there are buyers for. Some sellers who promote actually make sales, whether it the promotions or the specifics of what they offer is hard to tell.

[chariot_badges]

I really think it depends on a lot of variables.  

I manage three sites, with similar inventory.  I look for small, light, easy to store, cheap to ship, inexpensive to source auto stuff.   Mostly used ... some new.  

I'm in process of expanding the inventory types on one site to increase average sale to $20 instead of $10.  

On one of the sites I promote at 10%, and add that to the purchase price and/or shipping charges.  I increase the total sales price by 10%.  I do the same with shipping.  Some of them are $10 with $3 shipping ... some are $14 with free shipping.  

Point is ... if what you are doing isn't working .... do something different.  Anything.  Just see if it works.  Keep notes, keep records.  

What works for me selling a window crank handle to a '64 Mustang might not work for you selling a sterling silver spoon.

Nobody here can give you the magic answer.

There are many magic answers.

[dnasilver]

Never have promoted and still have sales.

[gail5176]

Even with promotions small sellers get no views.

eBay loves volume  sellers who start their listings at .99 cents, and sell thousands of items a week. That’s who they make money from.