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Ebay Is Dead for me . My sales have never been this bad.
So far 2024 has turned out to be one of the worse years since 2000 for me. Sales have been 0 in over a week. I think it's time to move somewhere else.
274 comments
rikum_60
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread HERE.
Thanks.
1buzymomi
·1 year agoI agree. The market is a sign of a poor economy. It’s frustrating. Fees keep going up though.
an-57470
·1 year agoDitto...it's so bad
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoThis post was from April 2024, has 268 replies and a best answer. Hopefully after the end of the Calendar year we can start a new one for 2025.
vanpatrick2005
·1 year agoUPDATE 11/17/2024: Despite having an eBay store I mess with every day, despite using promoted listings (up to 15% on all listings), discounting all my listings up to 40 percent (discount sale in my store), constantly having over 500 listings at any time, listing at list ten new or sell similar listings per day, having free shipping and shipping next day, and carrying 100 percent feedback, I will lose my 'Top-Rated Seller Plus' rating this month because I did NOT achieve 100 sales in the last twelve months! From May to September, I got maybe 10 sales. One month I GOT NO SALES! So I did the best I could... thank the heavens I have an excellent full-time REAL job! (P.S.: I had VERY good sales on FB MK so please take that in consideration...)
fbusoni
·1 year ago@vanpatrick2005
It looks like 591 out of your 596 listings are books... and I'd reckon, just by looking at the titles, that all of them are readily available elsewhere at half the price.
Your sentence above in bold red explains why you are not doing well here -- you simply have no real motivation.
Remember, necessity is the mother of invention. Or, in this case, the mother of diversification.
I was the same way when I started on eBay... full time job, family to feed, and thousands of LPs that I could list.
Although I continue to do eBay for fun now that I am retired, I have a lot more time to explore and experiment with categories that are outside my "comfort zone." It has made a significant difference.
And yes, FBM is a great platform... except for (a) the plethora of cheapskates there who will fight to the death over chump change, (b) the numbskulls who ask "Is this available?" and you answer, but who are never heard from again, and (c) imbeciles who make an appointment to pick up but never show.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year ago@vanpatrick2005
It looks like 591 out of your 596 listings are books... and I'd reckon, just by looking at the titles, that all of them are readily available elsewhere at half the price.
Your sentence above in bold red explains why you are not doing well here -- you simply have no real motivation.
Remember, necessity is the mother of invention. Or, in this case, the mother of diversification.
I was the same way when I started on eBay... full time job, family to feed, and thousands of LPs that I could list.
Although I continue to do eBay for fun now that I am retired, I have a lot more time to explore and experiment with categories that are outside my "comfort zone." It has made a significant difference.
And yes, FBM is a great platform... except for (a) the plethora of cheapskates there who will fight to the death over chump change, (b) the numbskulls who ask "Is this available?" and you answer, but who are never heard from again, and (c) imbeciles who make an appointment to pick up but never show.
You do realize the OP was from April?
turtles-trading-post
·1 year agoHere's your problem... You have this book listed at $28 with a 39% off bringing it to $17.08, even with your "Or Best Offer" you are competing with the sellers below. They are willing to send you that book for $3.99 with free shipping. And that's not even the bottom... with their offer of Buy two get one free, the book is now $2.66
Doesn't matter if your book is listed as brand new and theirs show as used, people just want to read the book. And I've masked the sellers but let the feedback show so you can see that these are high volume sellers you are up against. And there is no money in it, so you just don't want to play in that sandbox!
yuzuha
·1 year agoAbsolutely. Unless the book has some sort of collectible or sentimental value to the buyer, the vast majority of people will be happy with a copy in mediocre condition because they want to read it, not collect it. My dad purchases cheap books to read all the time and as long as the book isn't literally falling apart, he couldn't care less whether the cover is worn, etc.
djj12
·1 year agoYou don't get orders because if you use paypal they only want to let you use one method of payment these days. You can't choose which card or bank account to use. ebay or paypal just chooses the methof for you. I used multiple payment methods and no longer can and choose that method at checkout. You also can't make offers without submitting a method of payment for immediate payment. You can't choose that at time of accepting offer either. Blame ebay for making ebay not buyer friendly anymore. I go to other sites that are buyer friendly, etsy, poshmark and even amazon over dealing with the hassle of ebay and paypal these days. paypal is no longer a preferred payment method at any site anymore.
djj12
·1 year agoeBay and PayPal are the problem with the way they do business these days is my point in the above post. I still like the unique items that can only be found on eBay because you could always buy that item and I could get it shipped to me. Now I am not willing to jump through hoops to buy items, and that is hurting you the sellers. eBay is not the first place I go to try to find items I want anymore, I am looking elsewhere. I have tried complained to eBay and PayPal. Nobody cares at either place. Maybe if enough sellers start complaining to or leaving eBay they will get the message if it hurts their pocketbook. This is a sad situation, it isn't the economy that is hurting your business, because there are still people out here who want to buy your items and have the ability to do so.
alig3000
·1 year agoI'm going over to Etsy I think.
baysellersbest
·1 year agoI have being selling one bay anything high end used or new I find on estate since 2004. There were years I made close to $100k. In 2024 eBay went dead, no sales in a week. Those that claim that is the seller needing to learn new tools and have better picture or wording are full of it. That might apply to a few, but for those who have had a steady sell record is not the case. This is something internal on eBay side, forcing seller to buy promotions packages they have now. Is eBay greed. Soon, more buyer will leave, including me. Very sad
carolc7822
·1 year agoI have barely broke even and have takes a loss on items this past month. I have quality items. Between the fees and barely braking even, I don't know that its worth it any more
crashinglightly
·1 year agoMe too. It's very disheartening when I see what I sold vs what went into my bank account. The fact that they include taxes and shipping in their final value percentage, when we do not see that money, is outright wrong. To even get views I'm spending 10% on ads now. And every now and again it seems regardless of ad fees you just get kicked out of the algorithm and have no views. So ebay is getting roughly 25% of all monies brought in, and some of that is money we've never seen. Add in cost of doing business such as labels ink, bubble, etc etc etc. Minus cost of the goods. Barely making a profit. And that is gross so then deduct all your government taxes....Now people aren't buying like they did in previous years. Situation seems very grim at least for me right now. 😕 Hoping things turn around soon.
qualityreplacementsfast!
·1 year agoMe as well!! Sales have just stopped like I am not being seen. 24 year seller does it just stop?? I think I am being blocked?? Wow getting depressed but still listing. Not sure if it is a waste of time?
jonbergfineart
·1 year agoTwenty years ago my art listings would get 200 or 300 views in a week. Now, I have over 1,000 listings, all fine art, prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures, and at the bottom of page 1 of active listings, the items have gotten all of 17 hits in the past 30 days. Most items below that, have gotten SINGLE DIGIT number of hits. Seven, five, three, two, etc. The bottom 150 items collectively, have not garnered so much as a single hit in past 30 days! The site seems to be saturated with merchandise, you're struggling for sunlight, if you don' pay even MORE than the nearly 20% ebay takes now, you obviously are sent to the bottom of the algorithm. Then, ebay "helps" the seller even more by showing "research prices" right on the listing, so that the buyer can see, and compare, to other similar items. Then, they actually of course SHOW similar items right on your listing. Obviously the ebay algorithm hates me. Sales are a trickle, a tiny fraction of what they should be. No one is even seeing my stuff, much less buying it.
tommytreasure
·1 year agoI think many of us are experiencing a severe decline in sales. I sell things that are non-essential and most people can't justify buying collectibles or a handbag in this economy. Yes, it is the economy. Gas, food, housing, and the cost of living is sucking consumers dry. My feedback is perfect. I ship out immediately and take extreme care when packing, even adding little extras like fancy tissue paper and thank you cards. I apologize for sounding political but it's "Bidenomics", and don't expect it to get better any time soon.
selsa84
·1 year agoUnless Biden is constantly updating eBay it's not his fault. The recent flood of low sales posts comes right after eBay updating or "improving" the site. I know it's just easy to blame Biden but that's not the case here.
tommytreasure
·1 year agoIt doesn't matter what you think of Biden. The cost of living has skyrocketed since 2020. Blame who you want to, but most people aren't buying things they don't need. Inflation impacts everything, not just eBay sales. How does "improving" the site prevent shoppers from buying items? The eBay search engine was always less than ideal yet consumers found a way to buy things they wanted. I still think it's the economy.
ithebargainer
·1 year agoI agree. Fees are out of control and Ebay Support drags their feet when it comes to helping the sellers. I have been exploring other options too.
albany_sellers
·1 year agoI have personally taken steps towards just cashing in and calling it quits on eBay. I have a full time job interview on Monday after being a full time seller since 2016. Promotions drove me out. eBay got way too greedy, way too hateful of their sellers. eBay has also coddled bad buyers and scammers too much for me to continue on.
Being a seller on eBay is untenable in 2024, and has been really pushing that ever since they decided promotions were the most important thing in the world. Shipping costs have jumped exponentially as well, while eBay has been reaching deeper and deeper into our pockets to satisfy their investors. Pretty soon they will have snatched the last crumb from me and will not see another penny.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoI don't think eBay is "hateful" of their sellers. eBay does not have emotions. It's just there to make money and pay the bloated CEO and C-suite salaries, not to mention pleasing its shareholders. There will always be loads of sellers, but maybe not so many buyers, so they're going to coddle the buyers. Competition and falling public interest is diminishing sales, and I'm not sure eBay's C-suite understands how to deal with this.
zamo-zuan
·1 year agoI know I'm a broken record, but I attribute it far more to the site being broken than this being intentional. All eBay sees is their bottom line. They don't see the slow decline of sellers or the damage that their exploiting the algorithms for promotions is doing.
Do they really have any idea that investing more in promotions does NOT mean you'll have more traffic/do better?
Does eBay really have any idea that top sellers in the category fade off the top of the search results, and sellers who literally BUY FROM US (and have more expensive/worse shipping/etc on their listings) start getting sales ahead of the top sellers who give better listings/price AND invest more in promotions?
I highly doubt it.
They don't even realize that there's 2 active shipping systems ever since they removed Guaranteed Delivery without properly deactivating it. If you were on "Door to Door" or "Handling time" method split sellers in to two different shipping systems (that behave differently and offer different options for sellers) and theres NO WAY TO CHANGE IT, as they removed that page from settings.
With how many legacy systems they built on top of each other, they're clueless as to what is really going on. How could they fix something when they don't even know if it's working as intended?
blacktopautoparts
·1 year agoI think that you are 100% correct on what you have stated and are not a broken record because these problems just keep getting worse. eBay doesn't care anymore about the good sellers that offer their customers top service, at this point you are seeing listings that are so overpriced at the top of BEST MATCH due to the advertising. They are busy chasing many of their top sellers away as they keep pushing the people that have bad shipping, handling times, and overpriced items.
The last 2 months, are sales have fallen to new lows. Especially this past week, we have dropped to the low triple digits in sales which we have not had these kind of sales in well over 10+ years. Here we have over 10,000 items and listings new items on a daily basis. Not sure what is going on anymore.
vanpatrick2005
·1 year agoSo far 2024 has turned out to be the worst year ever for me. Sales have been 1 in over a month. I think it's time to move somewhere else.
denaus5321
·1 year agol like all the comments on "Well you made 3 sales last 2 days, that isn't considered slow." "Well, you have over 30 sales in the last month, I consider that quite good."
People already giving their Warren Buffet opinion like they know or run the poster's business. Must be all these "Degree" holders because they went to school and graduated with their master's in basket weaving.
I can see why everything is in a decline.
fiftee5chevee
·2 years agono more...I quit soon as well .....after 25 years.
vanpatrick2005
·1 year agofiftee, don't quit! You have been on here longer than I have! Hang in there, but you know venues have changed, times have changed, Gen Z doesn't come on here much (TEMU, Amazon, Poshmark, INFLUENCER-FOUNDED brands--yuck!---) and products which sold like hotcakes a decade ago don't anymore! But don't give up hope, eBay needs sellers like you because of your loyalty and perseverance- remember the old adage "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!" Not going away, LOL!
b.t.keller
·2 years agoMy sales are terrible, almost nonexistent and buyers are getting ruder and out to rip off sellers like never before and then leave lies as negative feedback. And eBay does nothing about it! So much for buyer protection. I agree, time to find another venue. Sure a major decline from 2000. Screwing their sellers in favor of the terrible quality of buyers they are attracting is NOT the way to improve things
kathydaly59
·2 years ago18 Days out of 26 in September no sales.
vanpatrick2005
·2 years agoToo much competition (TEMU is the new piranha biting off our sales); Generation Z hardly uses eBay because of TiK Tok, FB Marketplace, and Amazon; much clothing is sold on other sites- Poshmark, etc.; the things people buy online have changed over the years; the over-saturation of people selling the same thing-COMPETITION!; and the list goes on and on. Just like My Space was the social platform before FB, it is likely that eBay's steady decline will continue until we will unfortunately see the demise of what once was the best platform to sell to make a living...
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoTemu sells nothing but cheap, counterfeit garbage from China, they are not a threat to anyone. ebay is failing because of poor leadership, and the fact they treat their sellers like trash. Mercari is a much bigger threat to ebay than Temu ever will be.
baydealz
·1 year agoAgreed, but there are far fewer of us rational types. And thus Amazon (already admitted) and eBay (certainly to follow) think that Temu is a threat and will pursue similar policies that benefit the selling of cheap Chinese commodity crap as opposed to low volume but good and quality items. eBay is not much of a venue to sell anymore, possibly to buy but the commodity/counterfeit risk is growing. I'll still buy unique/repair/real items from small shops (as I've recently purchased), but won't risk buying 'new' parts that can surely be counterfeit knock-offs - 'new' car parts (they bootleg oil filters!, electronics, tools...and certainly am not risking selling.
lonebuck-books
·1 year agoI know as a buyer, I have shifted away from eBay for one simple reason. I am sick and tired of finding an item that I want to buy, look to see that it is in the US before clicking the buy button, buy it and then find out that it is actually being shipped from China after the sale has been completed. I just bought a small item that said it was in New Jersey, I ordered and it is still in limbo somewhere between China and here. It has been 2 weeks. That is fraud in my opinion and eBay happily is an accomplice to it. I wouldn't be surprised if one day eBay gets a federal fraud charge put against them over this that will cost them big time.
I used to like buying on eBay instead of Amazon simply because I always felt like I was helping out the small guy just trying to get by (much like myself) so I was willing to pay a small upcharge for that. But not anymore. If I am going to end up ordering items only to find out after the fact that they are coming directly from China instead of somewhere in the US as advertised, I might as well save a few dollars and just buy on Amazon. At least I get better buyer protections on Amazon than eBay provides and it is usually less expensive there as well.
I know if this is how I am buying elsewhere because of this, many other buyers are also doing it.
albany_sellers
·2 years agoIt's the same downward spiral for me too. Ever since they started pushing and pushing for everybody to promote, and started wanting to get paid off just the chance you might, perhaps make a sale, it has been worse and worse.
Gone are the days where the best listings won, and gone are the days where eBay got paid when you got paid. Back when you had to sell items for eBay to make their money, it was good and it was always a steady climb up. Sales were getting better and better and things were looking good.
Along came promotions and all that garbage along with them, and I have never recovered. Sales tanked, and nothing helps. When promotions became the end all be all of eBay, that is when it all collapsed and it is only getting worse. When the only concern is the shareholders making infinite profits, and infinite profit increases every quarter, where do you think that profit comes from?
They can't magically create new buyers, so they take it from the sellers before the sellers even have a buyer. This is the way of eBay now. Pay tribute to the kings and be happy with the scraps, or starve is basically it.
patrick7180
·2 years agoYes, I also am without sales. One so far this weekend. I talked with a supervisor on online chat and was told that I had over 64,000 views on my traffic for a day and one sale is normal for that many views. Told me there are no problems with eBay. I have been doing this for 18 years on and off and I have never seen eBay so slow. This platform is going to come crashing down soon if they do not change their business model.
lostpark2
·2 years agowhere can we go? i'm having same problem "NO SALES"???????????
amethystdream10
·2 years agoDear Ebay,
Please turn my store back on. I have bills to pay, trying to keep a roof over my head.
I am barely getting by and don't know what the heck I will do next month...
bosscheetah
·2 years agoI have sold on eBay for 21 years. I sold on Amazon for 10 years and have sold on my own web site now for 15 years. eBay has ups and downs, but this current state is the worse I have ever seen and doubt they will recover unless major changes are made.
I sell licensed items and compete with others who can sell the exact same item. Many barriers to entry, but different experience from sellers with unique or “1-off†items. Overall though I think the current issues with eBay effect everyone on some level.
It really comes down to a core marketing principle as eBay has simply lost its brand identity. It wants to be Amazon and even more absurd it is now trying to be Google. All while gouging its sellers for more money along the way.
My monthly Google ad budget is about 6K. Some sales I get from Google make little or no profit. Why would I do that? Because that sale has a decent chance of becoming a long-time repeat customer. I logged into eBay the other day and saw a new “Advertising†section. My jaw dropped when I saw them using the term “ROASâ€, which is “return on ad spendâ€. What on earth is eBay doing? eBay is not the place where sellers should have to worry about their ad spend and by all means not their ROAS.
I remember when Top Rated actually meant something, but not anymore as listings are solely judged now based on amount of ad spend vs any kind of quality of the seller. It is a complete mess and laugh when eBay suggests my promoted ad rate should be like 75% of my profit margin in addition to final value fees. This works with Google on my own web site, but the repeat buyer rate on eBay is incredibly low.
The whole reason we pay final value fees is so we DON’T have to advertise our listings. eBay has forced sellers to raise prices and all things equal why would a consumer buy from eBay vs all the other options they have? In the past eBay was typically a place with more personality and better prices. Consumers now more than ever will check other places you might be selling. Why buy it on eBay when you can typically get a nice “first time buyer†discount on the web site.
eBay wants to be Amazon, but can’t because they don’t have the traffic. I sold on Amazon for 10 years and hate Amazon as a seller, but many of my product searches still start with them. The goal to be more like Amazon sucked the soul out of eBay’s unique brand.
Now eBay also wants to be like Google asking sellers to pay even more for advertising, while offering none of the benefits of Google.
It is a huge mess and in my opinion their traffic will continue to decline more and more unless they make major changes. eBay should be a simple place to sell with less than average fees and some kind of personality that offers buyers a unique shopping experience. And by all means nobody selling on eBay should have to worry about ROAS or what that even means.
Sorry this is so long as I am a marketing nerd and in all honesty the demise of eBay makes me sad. I started on eBay and would not be where I am today with out them. I no longer need to sell on eBay, but have continued because it was fun and felt a loyalty to eBay. Not sure if I am going to continue selling on eBay as it seems to be a waste now vs my web site.
hls_estate
·2 years agoI guess money is relative. But most businesses and people need more than a 1000 a month to survive I do believe. I think relative to what most businesses do a thousand is not a big number.
hls_estate
·2 years agoYep. Me too. I never had a huge number of transactions, but at least a thousand a month. Now I'm lucky if I sell 50. One thing I do know is that when I send an offer via ebay the person on the other end does not necessarily get an ebay message. The offers show up in their myebay. I also think that you only get exposure if you pay for advertising which I do with campaigns but even that doesn't get the sales, which is bad because the EBay company business is really about SEO and advertising. Its BAD. I need another venue. No doubt.
adamcartwright
·2 years ago@hls_estate
1k+/month is not a huge number?
psfhobbies
·2 years agosame with me I expect some rebound after the election and get this administration over with
1helluvaguy
·2 years agoSame here. I used to sell Guitars, and Amps like a Power Seller. After the Pandemic, it just went completely down Hill. This year 2024 has been the worse. Thank God For REVERB.Com
usadetectors
·2 years agoYea, eBay has changed since the earlier years. Unpredictable.
nh_sales_lv
·2 years agoHeavy Heavy Competition from China,
1 seller can have 200 employees with different accounts selling the same item.
Song - All traffic leads to Beijing and All Mighty Chairman Xi, maker of all things, bow to him each morning doing Tai-Chi, Over the Mountains, Past the Great Sea will you find the Mighty Chairman President Xee
vistameadows
·2 years agowhere are you moving to? I agree this company needs to just die and get replaced. Really sad as a seller of over 20 years....
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoThis post will just not die and mods seem unwilling to archive it. Posted in April and has 195 replies with a best answer solution. As best I can tell the OP has not been back since they made the original post. It is just an endless chain of add on posts.
inhawaii
·2 years agoIt's a nice thread to have for people to post their frustrations with ebay because their stuff isn't selling.
"My sales are slow. Ebay needs to DIE and get replaced."
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoIt's a nice thread to have for people to post their frustrations with ebay because their stuff isn't selling.
Good point I suppose we can ride it out for another 4 months then maybe the mods will archive it and we can start a new one for 2025.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@dbfolks166mt I suggest we ask the Community Team to pin a thread on Jan 1st...."The Official My Sales Are Dead, How are Yours?" Thread....and hopefully everyone having good, bad, or indifferent sales will stick to that thread all year, without starting new ones every day.
carolinaspeedcat
·2 years agoThe amount of **bleep** responses on here is a joke! LMAO
Some if them listing ways to get by this no sales situation like college professors. Really?
E-bay is clearly not getting the traffic Amazon and TEMU are killing everyone.
I had to slow down on eBay because I had to sell elsewhere with local apps that brought me more profits without the rip off sales fees eBay has brought to it's faithful clients.
E-bays CEO is the highest paid CEO last I checked and we haven't seen any new efforts to improve it that make sense. The platform is outdated in many ways. The fee's need to get lower the traffic needs to get better. People on here are mistaken! They claim thet products are seen at the best prices in the Google SERPS (search engines results)? If I have original new never used merchandise that's been given to me by a family member and I'm not ever a re-seller then I constantly have better prices then SunglassHut and Amazon! I can beat any prices . Problem is... Look closely in some SERPS... Look closer and you'll see many people don't even have the item in stock they there's a lot of tactics used online that are going against the Goggle algorithm . Ebay needs to slash prices and fix the traffic and if they have to spend more to revive the brand and to keep it alive from going under they should.
sakic92710
·2 years agoI get several more views on Marketplace than I do on eBay. 1 item I posted on both sites have been online for the same amount of time. Marketplace - 44 views. eBay - 0. 99 out of 100 items I could post online would get more attention on FBM than on the site that is supposed to have well over 100 million buyers. eBay has not been an active place for me for 3 years. My 1st 20+ years here were fairly steady with the random lull.
bryo_3145
·2 years agoIt looks to me that you have done well in the past selling on ebay. 15K in sales.
taffgiraffe
·2 years agoMaybe sell something other than dvds (dead weight in stream/online era) and rhinestone jewelry?
cine-montage
·2 years agoBy the way, what online platform would that be ? It seems ebay has a monopoly, all the other platforms are ok for certain type of items,
baantiques
·2 years agoI was doing OK in April but the bottom has fallen out this month. I'm down 50% from last month, and this week was down 50% from last week. It just keeps going down and none of the usual things are helping. Views are not down though, so that's somewhat encouraging, but no one is buying.
It's not because school is starting. Most of my customers are over 60. I went back and ended all the listings with 0 views and watchers in the last 30 days. Should be below 1000 listings soon and I can drop my store subscription.
Hopefully I can weather this. Still have a lot of stuff to sell.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoLooks like your drought from back in April is over, you have sold 66 items in a highly saturated category over the last 90 days.
johnrj1226
·2 years agoAugust has seldom been a "hot" month - except for the temperature and utility bills. Kids are going back to school (they started the first week of Aug in GA and many other states in the Southern states) and then there is the college kids - that is really expensive now in the 60s it was too - paid an average of $1048 for tuition, R & B, books and had a $5.00 weeks spending allowance for 4.5 years. Yep sent two of to college in the late 80s and early 80s - sticker shock. The dollar hasn't been going too far for a while, looks like credit cards are close to maxing out, clothing is competitive and summer clothing is on clearance racks at rock bottom prices at retail stores - hard to compete with new stuff. Some folks are getting their last minute vacations. Other than that all is just fine.
One more thing people with home mortgages are facing those end of the year property taxes that keep skyrocketing. Glad I have an escrow account.
sfau
·2 years agoTry running a couple of sales - I moved a couple of things this week with some sales....
robbie31415
·2 years agoI won't lie. My sales are a bit down right now on eBay.
But my sales are regular on both Walmart and Amazon.
But I blame it on me. I utilize both companies automation for pricing to stay competitive.
I do so much less repricing on eBay. I tried a tool like price spectre but honestly the cost wasn't worth it. It also wouldn't change my prices because all my items were in markdown sales.
I like eBay more than other marketplaces though. Both Amazon and Walmart feel so sterile.
I guess that's why I can be more on eBays side. I see how bad the other side is.
scotttrees
·2 years agoI’m seeing the same thing. I wonder if it’s the economy. People are tapped out buying necessities. They don’t have the extra cash for replacement China that I sell. I’m guessing. Scott in CA
reallynicestamps
·2 years ago@adamcartwright
I get more Views.
And sales have gone up.
But.
The percentage of PL listings that sells is lower than the percentage of PLs.
What I think is happening is that the PL is bringing the eyeballs, the punter decides against the PL item, but hangs about and checks out my Store , then buys a non-PL item.
I get lots of Views on PL items and they show up consistently when I am deciding whether or not to send a Best Offer to Viewers*.
But I am spending very little on actual PL fees**, less than $5 a month.
*Viewers have looked at the listing in the last 30 days, Watchers are permanent and may have looked at my longtail items months ago.
** I use the 2% minimum only. Higher does not help with sales for me. YMMV.
buytodayshipnextday
·2 years agohard to provide an answer because there are so many variables. desire of products. condition. price. photos. description...
friedeggsandrice
·2 years agoI’ve been a top seller for 12 years and I completely agree with you. My sales have also gone down the drain. Even worse, if I don’t give all of my profit back to eBay by using excessively high promoted listings, I get no views. I’ve had others people look for my listings and something they don’t come up, even when they search for the exact title & even when there aren’t many other listings of the item. I’ve done over 100k a year in sale some years so it’s not a matter of not knowing how to list or understanding selling and profits. I’ve maintained a 100% feedback as well. So ignore people who claim you’re not putting in the work - that’s **bleep**. It’s impossible to keep up when eBay is constantly changing its algorithms while not keeping sellers informed of changes. Even if you seek out the information, it’s hard to find if you can find it at all. Even eBay employees can’t offer suggestions or advise a seller to make sense of such a sharp decline. They just suggest the same old thing… cross list in different categories, use good titles, and change something in the listing if you aren’t getting views. I’ve had to start listing on other platforms and I think it’s something most sellers will have to do. I hope things improve.
adamcartwright
·2 years ago@friedeggsandrice
Do you actually get more views going with eBay's suggested promotion rates, though?
I've tried it and didn't find I got more views.
bosscheetah
·2 years agoOMG no its all just a money grab. eBay can't even figure out your product categories correctly so in many cases they suggest ad rates to me that are above my entire profit margin. The advertising side has just gotten insane on a platform where sellers should NOT have to advertise!
bosscheetah
·2 years agoVery well said as eBay is now an advertising auction among sellers and it is bonkers crazy. The amount of organic traffic vs promoted is just absurd. A platform that charges such high final value fees should not also require you to advertise your products. Now they want you to do offsite advertising and PPC. Seriously **bleep** eBay have you all gone bat sh^t crazy? What exactly are you brining me for my final value fees?
reelworks
·2 years agoAt work, my boss tells us to research the last 3 or 4 same or similar items that sold, then price our items at or below that price, they stay listed for 10 weeks, if it don't sell they they may get reduced or go to the shredder room. We do real estate cleanouts, so the company gets paid to remove them, they have little in them other than the effort to sell them. The general thought is that if it don't sell for
proven market value or at a minimum wholesale price, they get crushed rather than sell them and devalue the next lot of items in the future. Business costs are going up, eBay fees are not cheap, and
shipping is almost always a loss, so prices have to go up, not down.
The general theory is that its better to have an expensive item in inventory than a loss on the books.
Tossing an item goes on a case by case situation. Nothing goes in the dumpster to prevent dumpster divers from turning around and putting a $400 item up for $30 along side others we may have listed.
What I think we're seeing is a lack of people coming to eBay to shop, or a lack of serious buyers.
The problem right now is there seems to be no exposure for most items, even if a potential buyer searches for your one of a kind item, and it don't show up even if they type in basically the exact phrase or title you have it listed under the chance of them seeing it and buying it is pretty slim.
For those shopping on a handheld phone and trying to navigate the long lists of wrong items they didn't search for I can certainly see someone getting frustrated and just going elsewhere.
adamcartwright
·2 years ago@reelworks
Interesting interesting interesting comment.
Thanks for those insights.
vtgbeersigns
·2 years agoI've noticed this too Alot of stuff don't even get views anymore let alone sell. The app is getting harder to navigate and search for casual buyers is very cluttered with crap that don't sell. Hard to find really good items still do well on eBay but less than pre 2020 prices, but sourcing that kind of stuff for a fair deal is near impossible anymore. The economy is crap because inflation and people are spending all their money to get by. Businesses , California , even movie studios would buy Alot from me in the past and are now gone. Many sales lost because increased shipping rates that keep going up. I wish eBay would partner up with FedEx or UPS exclusively for a nice discount shipping large items that can be passed onto this customer and not put toward the 13% to 28% fees (promoted)..
maccnc11
·2 years agoSorry to have to tell you but eBay has gone Full Goose Pay to Play, LOL
bosscheetah
·2 years agoThis is basically the whole issue in a nutshell. eBay has really lot their minds as the whole reason for final value fees is so we DONT have to pay for advertising. The organic traffic is now non-existent and they are all-in on sellers paying to bring in traffic. They want me to do PPC on AND off site. As a marketing pro of over 30 years I can 100% tell you that eBay has lost their minds. They are not Amazon and for sure not Google. From what I can tell the only way to get decen visibility is jacked up prices with jacked up advertising. Search results based purely on which one gets eBay the most money.
stophere2save
·2 years agoi agree same with me.Although i feel ebay has something to do with it .I am not sure why ebay would pick on certain sellers to wreck there sales/I have been selling since 1999. i Have 2 accounts both accounts are at a halt.I am lucky to sell 3 items a week with 180 listings.,but heres the kicker.When i list an item i make it the least expensive so its the first one to sell after several weeks of the item not selling.i would go to completed items and see that my item is still the least expensive , but others have sold for more money from sellers with less feedback and even neg feedback and its not just one item this is happening with most of my items. they just down graded me from being a top seller. So the Bottom line is if your sales dropped significantly ebay is behind it.
maccnc11
·2 years agoeBay wants that Free money too, Pay Per Click, they got too Gimmicky , they want you in a Store that won't sell anything and never will, that's easy money for them, and can't be clawed back like in the case of a return, I figure they hide your stuff with no store, makes no sense I know but that's what it all looks like now.
jasoheat_0
·2 years agoI feel your pain my sales are through the floor , i cross post and sell a lot locally know ...
maccnc11
·2 years agoIt's a combo of a lot of little things that sent eBay down the tubes, like GTC, Sellers Hub, changing the Search Engine, and one big No No Buyer Requirements on Auctions and Offers, what that did was just basically lowered the price on everything you sell, less offers and less bidders spells less demand, remember eBay don't care how cheap your item sells for or whether you make a profit, they always get their fees.
cine-montage
·2 years agoI have over 2000 vintage items on my ebay store,my last sale was 3 weeks ago, what has ebay done to there own site, they are thrashing there own company, right now I can barely pay for my expenses for my ebay store,have been relisting all my inventory ,on my store,have lots of watchers, no sales. Very little traffic,people are bore with this site,and ebay does very little to promote there own company. Right now ebay has gone full AI ROBOT ON THERE WHOLE SITE,IM SURE THEY WANT TO ELIMINATE HUMAN BEINGS FROM THERE COMPANY, THE FUTURE IS BLEEK IT SEEMS ALL THESE SELLING PLATFORMS,ARE GOING IN THIS DIRECTION, THE FUTURE OF HUMAN KIND IS VERY BLEEK INDEED.
c.paruch
·2 years agoFor me as well! I will do pretty well for a week and then crickets! Send out 40-50 offers a day and no buyers. It almost feels like my offers are bot even making it to the potential buyers. Wondering if it is ebay’s algorithm. I had a negative feedback from a person who claimed tgst the lilly pulitzer dress she had bought from me might be fake. Frustrating because she never even messaged me…just went on and put a negative feedback. Right after that crickets in sales. By the way the item was new with tags and not a fake. Today i have a buyer clsiming a free people bookbag she bought is not real leather. I sent her the actual link from the free people site where it was purchased showing it was real leather. I get frustrated because if a buyer states item is not as described we really have no recourse but to refund them. Then if we want the item back we are out the shipping cost for the return. I also hate that we cant leave negative feedback for a buyer. Seems like ebay values buyers much more than sellers and there is really no way to talk to a human and get resolution. I have almost 1400 items listed and selling on average 1 item per day. I was selling 40-50 items a week so something has definitely changed! Frustrating! And i promote everything at 10%.
vanpatrick2005
·2 years agoHang in there if you have the patience and can afford to lose money slowly over a long period of time. Too many sellers on too many platforms (which by the way are killing it, like TEMU and TikTok and Posh and...) The young people I work with that I have recently polled have rarely, if ever, bought or are currently buying off eBay. One nineteen-year old girl with wide, innocent eyes asked me "Ebay? Its still around?" One guy told me he buys strictly off the Wal-Mart web-site and the big, bad gorilla in the room AMAZON. One young guy told me car parts are OK to buy off eBay, but the rest is for old people (he was needling me, I expect, because I am 56 years old!) All in all, this isn't the old site, basically the truth is times change, buying habits change (where are those Ty Beanies I got wholesale and made a ton $$$ in the nineties now LOL) people change. Good luck, I am in the same boat so I am rooting for you!
queensofeba_y
·2 years agoSame here. It is one of the only platforms that are this terrible. Others are doing great. Ebay is definitely nothing like it used to be.
trbothunder
·2 years agoI'm having the same problem! I think things will pick up in November after Trump gets elected and straightens things out. people will start buying again!
tdl_collectibles
·2 years agoeBay is still the 2nd most visited "shopping" website in the world, so are the alternatives really that much better?
animal-house-8
·2 years agoWell you have many items to choose from and you have wonderful feedback, I wonder if you use any kind of advertising?
extremegamingcomputers
·2 years agosales have tanked dramatically since inflation started and that's a normal reaction from customers, people are suffering and more suffering is on the way, people have to eat first before buying non food items unless it's a necessity. people are not upgrading their items unless it goes broke. So yeah everything is linked to gas prices and greed
mcbklyn2470
·2 years agoFirst, congrats on your 100% Positive Feedback rating, you're the type of seller eBay should be promoting and trying to keep on the site. Your situation is all too common lately.
Unfortunately there are a lot of overseas scammers on here taking your business, no doubt. And even when we tell eBay about them and their shady practices nothing is done. I don't think I'll ever buy on here again, you're more safe buying direct on the Chinese e-commerce sites, unfortunately.
Seems like Etsy is the only US based site still credibly doing what eBay used to do, before they handed the site over to Artificially Stupid Bots. And even Etsy is spiraling downward. I blame the need for constant growth to make shareholders happy. Sure you're growing now, but eventually people will leave after being burned too many times.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI'm finding Etsy's credibility to have almost completely eroded. I still have some favourite sellers there, but I'll no longer sell there myself, and I did well on that site for some years.
extremegamingcomputers
·2 years agoalso with cost of usps shipping that keeps rising, pretty soon we will not be able to compete with amazon free delivery, ebay needs to put its foot down and negotiate with usps otherwise customers will switch to amazon due to the cost of shipping because we have to keep raising our prices as well to cover those inflations and fees and I'm sure ebay will read my messages so please react before it's too late.
maccnc11
·2 years agoProblem with that is eBay would make less money than just letting the cost of Shipping continue to climb, the more it cost to ship the more eBay can fee you for collection, States don't care either more Tax money for them too.
daddyray31
·2 years agoI have used facebook Marketplace for some local sales. No fees and customer pickup.
After getting shafted on a refund on eBay thinking about opening a store on marketplace.
pinktoe4
·2 years ago1000%....... This isn't the ebay it used to be by any measure. I'm out!
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoNow I have that song "Dear Enemy" running through my head. "...you're dead to me."
micastreasurebox
·2 years agoI thought it was just me! My 90 days total is less then 1/2 what it’s been consecutively for 2 years. I’m shocked how bad eBay is tanking this year. Amazon and TikTok shops have taken over. Anyone have luck on Mercari?
cambriachick
·2 years agoWell, I really can't see you making it all the way to my comment, but I'll chime in. A couple people mentioned that your pictures are dark. You also should crop them, get rid of the junk in the background. If a listing has been on eBay for more than 4 months, end it and relist it in a couple weeks or months even. Or mark the old listings down drastically, maybe 50% off.
You have a lot of listings, so maybe you can go through a page or two a day. At least you'll be doing something to help the situation.
yuzuha
·2 years agoAgreed. Good lighting is absolutely crucial for clothing or textiles or anything where buyers might be trying to match colors to coordinate with something they already own.
adamcartwright
·2 years ago@cambriachick @sued40333
Agreed -- Photos are too dark and some of those prices I saw need to come down.
In this economy, clothing prices need to be low to sell -- just my own experience, unless you have something special.
sued40333
OP2 years agoThank you answering in the conversation. Some of my old pictures need a redo. I don't find my prices high at all compared to a lot of other sellers. I know some ebay sellers have hurt the system. I just recently purchased through 3 sellers and had a bad experience.
stuff4divas
·2 years ago@sued40333 oh! u r still here. what happened? did things change around for u? if so, plz share something positive
deosil111
·2 years agoDon’t t bother putting the effort in to go somewhere else. it’s the same everywhere. I’m hoping it gets better after this contentious election year