Is ebay still dead in 2024

[stuffyoulikealot]

Yes. Although certain answers on google ..... will say otherwise. Facebook marketplace is still the number one platform,aside from selling locally. Now if your just selling Chinese knockoffs ,then ebay may still be an ok place to sell. But for an individual,part time seller, or hustler, its the absolute worst. ebays numbers have ONLY went down consistently for around 5 years now,maybe longer. But I'm sure that if you're searching this,it's because you've noticed your 0 views and 0 sales, right? Personally I barely list anything on the platform anymore,there's really no use. Especially when ebay is not even close to being the #1 selling platform. Things like Etsy and Facebook marketplace are killing it,where as ebay.... Is being killed. But it's mostly the fault of the people who run ebay,not yours. Although people will tell you that's it's my fault,or you're fault,it's clearly not. Nobody likes ebay anymore,and ebay doesn't like you. Items that sold in the hundreds daily,will never get views or sales,especially if you don't use promoted listings. But they sell locally and on other platforms constantly. My listed video game console gets 4 views in a month on ebay,while it gets sold immediately in person. Daily. But years ago on ebay,it would also sell immediately. People don't suddenly dislike video games,or retro games,or consoles. My pictures aren't suddenly horrible,and my pricing is still spot on. So how is this even happening? Because ebay is a dead platform.You're better off having a yard sale or getting  a booth at a local vendor mall. That's how I've been mainly selling for the last year and its great. Not everyone has that luxury though. But yes ,don't worry,ebay is still dying it's slow death. It's going down with disney ,AAA gaming, "mainstream" news, streaming services. All things that you probably think are making millions right? Wrong,some of them are infact losing billions.(Not all companies or games are this bad,I understand) Yes,these companies and platforms are not successful. Meaning no,they do not make money. This includes ebay. Thats not to say that money isn't coming in to these companies,it's to say that they are bleeding more than they have,struggling to stay above a yearly loss or worse numbers than the year before(consistently),and failing miserably. Even twitch,the largest video/gaming platform where some of their users make millions each years. They are losing money,even though video games are a 150 billion dollar industry. Disney lost billions last year,and the year before,and the year before...Numbers have tanked,and are still consistently tanking here at ebay. Woke is broke,dinosaurs are out of touch, and scammy practices are being out more often and more swiftly today. Nobody is falling for the **bleep** anymore and people are smarter than these ceos think. Google lies about these things,news outlets regurgitate the same garbage, and ebay trolls will be here to tell you otherwise.  

[movieman630]

I am not interested in "upping" my "face to face" transactions.  No thanks.

[movieman630]

I can't even begin to say how I feel about Facebook.  My post would get deleted.  😉

[bonjourami]

"and ebay trolls will be here to tell you otherwise'.

Interesting analogy.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Since your example is an auto part which have issues with returns often solved by NAD claims could it be your sales and returns are costing you best match and when your sales and returns are lower, you are the best match.

I could easily see that working, and would not generalize to categories other than women's clothing.

Nothing would be broken, simply no special treatment of your category by the best match algorithm.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@onefootflippers wrote:

I have trouble GIVING things away on Facebook marketplace. It is literally the worst platform, it has the worst customers and is the absolute hardest thing to manage I have ever seen.

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This is because the intent of FB Marketplace is not whats being displayed.  I've known several engineers at the company for years.  Meta is working towards the Metaverse in almost all respects.  Now the various areas of FB if you will are all being worked on (as are others not public facing) simultaneously towards a convergence to roll out aspects of the Metaverse.  The Metaverse is reliant upon the Quest (and others!) 3D viewing technologies.

FB Marketplace is a complete money looser to Meta presently, its all red ink.   But consider the prospect goals of interactive shopping experiences using digital headset/glasses technologies bound with social media...  The goals are not third party sellers, they are the test pigeons of scalability, stability and more, much more in fact that is not yet public facing.  The reason the environment is so archaic like 15 chat windows opening with interested buyers being ever so simplistic, nightmarish even is because it's simple pimple by design.  The end transaction mechanism of the Metaverse shopping place is nothing at all like a slew of Chat windows.  Anybody expect Macy's to lease in on the Metaverse and have chat windows appearing?  No. LOL.  No!

Of course, best kept secrets are often not kept for long which hey, eBay and Amazon are so much smarter in concealing things than most its night and day to both their credit.  You may see a bazillion questions here on why's and wherefores with sellers upset they dont get answers, nor should they.  If they were to, well, then best laid plans of mice and men per se.

Meta is experiencing the "Best laid plans of mice and men" as we speak.  The leaks of what Metaverse development is taking place has caused Samsung and Apple to stand up and go, "Wait what?"

Now both these giants are working new technologies that are effectively digital glasses that are mobile ready and will likely at some point assuming not big "FAIL(!)" come with one's new Samsung Snn or Apple edition nnX.  These technologies to revolutionize online mobile shopping with the retailers who can afford leverage the technologies aside new AI.  The new AI things retailers are engaged in are very (VERY!) remarkable.  Where the Metaverse was the "Buzz" for the past two years now there is "New buzz!"

Now the players are involved are also due to this coming technology and AI changes across their selling networks in EVER so many respects is having another effect.  Brick and Mortar retail and online retail want it all called "Retail."  They are blurring the lines of eCommerce and brick and mortar because they want retail law applied to the Internet.  That's a HUGE game changer if they get their way.  That'd mean retail arbitrage for example could readily fly into predatory business conducts.

Everything is evolving, thats the bottom line.  How sellers and open marketplaces fit or don't is a very big question and there seems to be a completely lacking of answers governmentally and more!

[gwens*4saleitems*]

I call what he/she typed "Black on white BLOBBERY".

   It's almost totally unreadable. (nope, not even going to try)

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@retro_entertainment_collectibles wrote:

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Everything is evolving, thats the bottom line.  How sellers and open marketplaces fit or don't is a very big question and there seems to be a completely lacking of answers governmentally and more!

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Actually there is a government answer. It is not all retail. The government opposition to the merger of Albertson's and Kroeger, refused to consider the role of Walmart.com and Amazon in the grocery business. They claimed the merger would result in a too big competitor which would drive up prices.

If the FTC has its way, nothing will evolve. They are attacking grocers at the same time they are attacking Amazon.

They will attack the entry of the metaverse to retail, assuming the stock market does not force Meta to drop their Metaverse program before that. Sometimes the amount of investment required is too large and the payoff too far off to be accepted. Meta has spent enough without any return and it has been noticed,

Some smaller company will probably make this happen. It definitely will not be Apple or Google who are already anti-trust targets, here and in the EU.

[silver7auto]

I think people just forgot about ebay or think it's non existent. When I tell people I have an ebay store, many reply "Oh, is ebay still active?" or something similar. 

Does ebay even advertise anymore? I remember that when they had ads on tv and radio, I had better sales. All I see and hear now is ads from the competitors. 

[tinsoldierunderground]

I get hit with their ebay motors radio ads a lot.... quiet other than that.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

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@retro_entertainment_collectibles wrote:

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Everything is evolving, thats the bottom line.  How sellers and open marketplaces fit or don't is a very big question and there seems to be a completely lacking of answers governmentally and more!

---

Actually there is a government answer. It is not all retail. The government opposition to the merger of Albertson's and Kroeger, refused to consider the role of Walmart.com and Amazon in the grocery business. They claimed the merger would result in a too big competitor which would drive up prices.

If the FTC has its way, nothing will evolve. They are attacking grocers at the same time they are attacking Amazon.

They will attack the entry of the metaverse to retail, assuming the stock market does not force Meta to drop their Metaverse program before that. Sometimes the amount of investment required is too large and the payoff too far off to be accepted. Meta has spent enough without any return and it has been noticed,

Some smaller company will probably make this happen. It definitely will not be Apple or Google who are already anti-trust targets, here and in the EU.

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The wheels on the train go round and round that's to be sure.  There is the expectant, the maybe and the never and the timeframes well who knows?  Half the technology is "no wine before its time", another quarter of it is, "the wine just sux" and the last quarter is, "Wait what?  How?  When? No!"

Take for example the "Home Information Center."  I saw the prototype of this almost 20 years ago now as I was invited sneak into a Tech University up my way by a Professor friend.  We'll just call him, "Professor Friend" (LOL).

So Sony wanna-know-me has this prototype, nuthin' wizzzzz-bang about it.  Basically a small form factor PC mated to a Cable TV Box and game system, modular and some software glue between it all.  Wireless Keyboard w/ trackball and track touchpad.  Kinda cool.  Makes complete sense and you're flatscreen TV is now the home misinformation and entertainment center.

Now you think something simple as that given everything exists be a hit with the "I dont care what it is as or how it works as long as it works crowd."  To this day never has come along.  Is it a no wine before its time needing bilk consumers of every plug nickel before creating what makes so much sense?  Or Sony wanna-know-me marketing flounce it?

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

Yep, the pandemic has lead to our sales increasing by astronomical amounts (by our standards).

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Hi @brightlightbookseller. Sadly, eBay did not retain those new and returning  members during the pandemic. (A dreadful loss to the platform. Was it lack of advertising? Or management’s judgements? Or perhaps they did have a plan and it failed?)

Well, the end result was they lost the numbers within the year after the epidemic waned, as we all know. It felt like a huge opportunity squandered.

(So the OP was only partly correct (or partly incorrect) in discussing the downturn of sales, traffic and etc. when he wrote: “its the absolute worst. ebays numbers have ONLY went down consistently for around 5 years now,..”)

Below is an interesting article with a breakdown of the eBay numbers after the pandemic, for those interested in such.

https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/ebay-loses-pandemics-e-commerce-surge

[angelno10]

Hi @brightlightbookseller. Sadly, eBay did not retain those new and returning members during the pandemic. (A dreadful loss to the platform. Was it lack of advertising? Or management’s judgements? Or perhaps they did have a plan and it failed?)

Or perhaps when the pandemic ended, people simply stopped being cooped up with their computers with  a fistful of stimulus dollars and nothing to do ... while at the same time, more competition appeared. 

[downunder-61]

''ebays numbers have ONLY went down''

This sais it all really.....

[chapeau-noir]

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

Yep, the pandemic has lead to our sales increasing by astronomical amounts (by our standards).

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Hi @brightlightbookseller. Sadly, eBay did not retain those new and returning  members during the pandemic. (A dreadful loss to the platform. Was it lack of advertising? Or management’s judgements? Or perhaps they did have a plan and it failed?)

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I think it was simple evolution - eBay was never meant to be a world-conquering platform - it just happened to start in early days of eCommerce and held the high ground until 2006 (when Amazon caught up and then surpassed, due to its very different business model). It didn't take that long for auctions to lose their attraction, again evolution, as people disgorged everything from their attics and basements, raided yard sales and thrifts, salvage places, etc. and listed it here, and now almost nothing was rare. The pandemic accelerated a change where people prefer to spend their money on experiences and services rather than buying yet more stuff. Now we have millions of tchotchkes and people no longer interested in that sort of thing, but eBay has the 'old GenX/Boomer' rep with increasing pressure from newer, more agile and present tense platforms.

I know they're trying hard to be relevant and re-invent, and I hope it works, also there will always be stuff here that appeals to all generations, but I'm not even slightly surprised that the platform is shrinking.

(Yes, there was loads of mismanagement).

[monroe67]

" 'ebays numbers have ONLY went down'

This sais it all really....."

Assuming you intended to spell "says" the way you did . . . . .
Unfortunately, I must agree with you.  

It seems the Queen's or King's English isn't what it used to be.