Adios Ebay.

[ammolitehunter]

I started my shop 10 ears ago selling quality ammolite jewelry and Ebay gave me my start for which I am grateful.

The business slowly grew over the years but so did the problems-- chief of which was Ebay allowing volume junk jewelry sellers to compete in the fine jewelry space--so much so in fact that Ebay gave precedence to the volume junk sellers and put mine and other sellers of fine jewelry way in the back of their listing precedence.

I wrote in many times about this but mostly got a deaf ear and nothing was done.

So four years ago I opened my own stand alone website and paid my way in Google ad adverts--and the website grew.

Today I am marketing top quality ammolite under my ammolite jewelry from canada name world wide and sales are very good indeed.

Meanwhile back here at Ebay my shop had dwindling sales because I was being lumped in with junk sellers and things were just going from bad to worse.

I am very glad I took the initiative four years ago to diversify and not rely on Ebay.

I now have my own shop and also list at another popular site that discourages mass junk sellers.

I will be closing my shop at Ebay shortly.

Good luck to all.

[themagicmountain]

nawlinson, thank you for your comment.

I wish that more people would explore the overall issue.

Many American businesses, Ebay included, are slaves to a corrupt Wall Street dictatorship that creates monopolies like Amzon, and favoritism policies and laws with the politicians they buy, both sides.

There also is the USPS problem. They sold out small and medium American business to the Chinese and take money from the American public to subsidize them.

and most of the media? Just shills for Wall street, playing all kinds of mind games to keep Americans subservient.

[themagicmountain]

leadguard, That simply is not true. Many items are hidden in the search, and therefore all potential buyers don't get a chance to even see it.  That's not a free market, and not a proof of the value of the item or lack thereof.

[themagicmountain]

USPS plays a part in all this. The Chinese could not sell so much junk for so cheap if the American public wasn't forced by the USPS and their handmaiden politicians to subsidize cheap Chinese shipping.

Some people believe some of them are even getting a kickback- in other words, free plus. There is some sign this might be true.

And the Wall Street/multinational criminals have been selling us out to the Chinese for a while now.

[coolections]

With the Ebay marketplace competition has grown tenfold in the last few years in over-saturated categories so it just does not work for everyone.  Sounds like you made a good decision. ADIOS AND GOOD LUCK !!! 

[timzbiz]

Sorry to see you go, but happy to hear of your website's success.

[castlemagicmemories]

OP,  just took a peek.

I had never heard of ammolite but now I know~~it is gorgeous!

Absolutely stunning!  

[themagicmountain]

The problem is not oversaturation in categories. It is miscategorized, fake garbage, with many multiple duplicate listings filling up categories so buyers can't search

[ted_200]

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@mistwomandancing wrote:

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@iart wrote:

It's very clear that ebay would much prefer a $15 sale to a $300 sale.

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I think it's more a case of eBay preferring a thousand $15 sales to only five $300 sales.

Sales has always been a Numbers Game.  For eBay, this pays off for them many times over. 

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There was never any need to make this an either/or proposition.  If they'd just show the items the buyer actually wants, and stop trying to force something else onto them, they could have the $15 sales and the $300 sales. 

[ted_200]

Many of our items are rare and value is unknown. We start our auctions well under what we suspect the value is. But there aren't always enough bidders especially when ebay reduces visibility in favor of mass-market junk.

And the best way to sell a $300 item for $15 is to start it off at $15.

We're not new here.

That's exactly what they've done.  Most of your bidders for those rare items stopped looking on eBay years ago - because it was a good way to waste a bunch of time on Chinese counterfeits and mass-market junk and auctions with a start price well over full retail.  Now it's an auction house with 150 empty seats and two bidders, and you can't start that item at $15 under those conditions.  Between the Chinese junk and their site policies and functionality that does not support Auction selling, they've pretty much killed that golden goose. 

[ted_200]

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@themagicmountain wrote:

The problem is not oversaturation in categories. It is miscategorized, fake garbage, with many multiple duplicate listings filling up categories so buyers can't search

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Fine jewelry, vintage jewelry... I used to sell both here.  Fine jewelry is loaded up with fake stones and fake metal items, vintage N.A. and Mexican jewelry is loaded up with stuff that isn't vintage, isn't N.A., and a lot of it isn't even a fascimilie of such.  It's just a pile of imported garbage that belongs in some other category. 

Most of the auction bidders in these categories just stopped shopping here because of it.  Now you have to list it Fixed Price, otherwise your 99¢ auction might have you selling a nice Navajo ring for $6.  And Fixed Price is a slow proposition since there are very few buyers for real items that cost real money now. 

[mistwomandancing]

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ted_200 wrote:

Many of our items are rare and value is unknown. We start our auctions well under what we suspect the value is. But there aren't always enough bidders especially when ebay reduces visibility in favor of mass-market junk.

And the best way to sell a $300 item for $15 is to start it off at $15.

We're not new here.

That's exactly what they've done.  Most of your bidders for those rare items stopped looking on eBay years ago - because it was a good way to waste a bunch of time on Chinese counterfeits and mass-market junk and auctions with a start price well over full retail.  Now it's an auction house with 150 empty seats and two bidders, and you can't start that item at $15 under those conditions.  Between the Chinese junk and their site policies and functionality that does not support Auction selling, they've pretty much killed that golden goose. 

---

I don't think that's true at all.  Just a single example would be if you put JADE BOWL in search, and then asked to be shown highest priced first, on down.  Amazing bowls priced in the thousands!!  And that's just a single search.  You can find it all here... still.  Amazing treasures.

I think many of us inhabit the cheapo end of eBay and for some reason have come to believe that is all there is to eBay.  But HIGH END is here in every category I've ever looked in.  I certainly can't affort the wares up in that rarified price range, but it's fun to window shop.  And it's obvious there are a lot of people with a LOT of money shopping for treasures here on eBay!  I know of one shop owner in New York who buys here for his shop.  I expect there are many more.  It's Big Bucks.  It's just that most of us don't know much about that high level, so all we see is the sludge that settles to the bottom, where we shop.   

[hawgryders]

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@ammolitehunter wrote:

I started my shop 10 ears ago selling quality ammolite jewelry and Ebay gave me my start for which I am grateful.

The business slowly grew over the years but so did the problems-- chief of which was Ebay allowing volume junk jewelry sellers to compete in the fine jewelry space--so much so in fact that Ebay gave precedence to the volume junk sellers and put mine and other sellers of fine jewelry way in the back of their listing precedence.

I wrote in many times about this but mostly got a deaf ear and nothing was done.

So four years ago I opened my own stand alone website and paid my way in Google ad adverts--and the website grew.

Today I am marketing top quality ammolite under my ammolite jewelry from canada name world wide and sales are very good indeed.

Meanwhile back here at Ebay my shop had dwindling sales because I was being lumped in with junk sellers and things were just going from bad to worse.

I am very glad I took the initiative four years ago to diversify and not rely on Ebay.

I now have my own shop and also list at another popular site that discourages mass junk sellers.

I will be closing my shop at Ebay shortly.

Good luck to all.

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Congratulations on your initiative --- you had the foresight to know when this venue no longer met your needs

I would suggest one thing --- scaled back yes --- but you should keep a presence here --- it costs you virtually nothing to have the worldwide exposure --- however minuscule you believe it is ...

[karafuzeart]

Do you yourself sell on here and if so how long and what products? I have yet to see anyone happy with anything on ebay!!1 In fact as a buyer for twenty years I honestly would do anything to have another option like the old yard seller that would be an alternative to not just sell but buy!!! THE ONLY REASON THE BUYERS ARE STILL HERE IS BECAUSE THEY LIKE UNIQUE ITEMS OR DISCOUNTS and they know that ebay is the only site people really can sell that stuff or used or vintage on...Etsy is great but for crafters...Amazon is too big and too new for me!! But Ebay is too greedy and shows no care fore the selling side of their business which is what will in the end make them equal to Myspace

[karafuzeart]

Totally agree....and prefer eBay to Amazon anyday!

[vintage_sterling_spoon_rings]

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iart wrote:  
Last week we had a $300 book up for auction (and it was priced very well but ebay hid is way back in the search reults). When it didn't sell ebay sent us a note suggesting we drop the price to $15.55.

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Thanks for helping to bring this ongoing problem to light...  Unfortunately you're not alone.

After having called eBay weekly about the problem for the last month... Last week 8 of my 10  listings were close to the bottom of a 300+ item list at EOA. And I'm a top rated seller with no dings.

This has been going on now for the last two months and recently sales have dropped from 30% of items listed to ZERO SALES the last few weeks.

I'm retired and eBay for fun (and to keep busy) but I feel bad for those who count on eBay as a source of income because eBay has spent the last several years showing sellers that they're not reliable or trustworthy.