As a seller, Ebay is going downhill

[deerslayer2k2]

So sad Ebay is going downhill Fast. I sold a purse description used, took pictures of all parts of the purse. NO returns is an option and I chose it. I washed and hung up the purse before selling it. I get an email from buyer claiming it has black,yellow and sticky gross on it. She says I found a new one for a little more.  As you can see by all pictures this item is clean as can be. I call Ebay. Shania says sounds like buyers remorse. We are in your favor. Call back on Friday. I ask why, she says thats when I have to call back. Later that day I get an email stating they decided in buyers favor! ????? So I call and talk with a supervisor, Christy tells me she gave me wrong info and they will take care of it. Just to take a picture of the purse when I get it back and show it is still clean. I explain, I took great photos, NOT tampered with, Option is NO returns, and description is AS shown. I get the purse back. NO black, NO yellow, NO sticky. So I take pictures and call Ebay again! I get Trudy an appeals specialist. She tells me NO i dont need your pictures????? Huh? I can appeal but the buyer gets her money back. Maybe even return shipping!! I made 7.00 on a Vera Bradley purse. I paid 20 back to the buyer plus return shipping. And OH ebay is gonna keep the original fees. So a 5.00 profit turned into a 32.00 loss!!!!   These are there NEW policies she tells me! Why have an opition for NO returns then???    I think I will sell my stuff on another site! Good luck EBAY  I have been with them since they started pretty much. Without Sellers you have no BUYERS!!

[ittybitnot]

Why have an opition for NO returns then???

That option is only good unless the buyer "finds something wrong"  (not as described) with your item/or files a claim stating so.  Buyer lying is allowed, seller complaints of same are not.  What happened to you is typical, and buyers often take advantage of the situation to have the seller pay for the return. 

No returns here, does not mean no refunds.  

[castlemagicmemories]

Sorry this happened to you, OP.  Thankfully, you got your purse back undamaged, because the buyer could have damaged it and sent it back.

Basically, buyer filed a SNAD.  That comes under the MBG, and sellers pay return shipping as you know.  THE MBG overrides your no returns policy.

You have the option of choosing to refund without requiring a return if you care to.  

Again, sorry.

[ripcityresell]

It's going downhill here too, except by going downhill, I mean it's gaining momentum and things are moving faster.

[annindallas]

No kidding. I want to talk to Newton and Einstein.

I want to ask, "stock and sales are falling faster than gravity. How do you explain this? What law in the universe did you overlook?"

[themonitorman]

The situation is even worse than it appears.

I'm just a small store owner, so bear with me.

Last year (2017) I maintained around 50-60 Listings. Sold 15-20 Items per month, always had hundreds of Page Views at any given time; always had 30-40 Listings with Watchers at any given time.

This year so far, I've maintained around 100-120 Listings - double what I kept last year. However, my total Page Views at any time, barely adds up to 200, and I'm lucky to have more than 15 Listings with Watchers at any given time. Worst of all, I am only selling about 5 Items per month.

I haven't changed anything about the way I do business, or the way I list items. The items I have for sale still cover the same broad categories as last year, and are listed for the same realistic prices as last year.

To say "the bottom has dropped out" of eBay Sales, is the understatement of the year. How could eBay Management so horribly mess up what was once a great venue for Sellers AND Buyers?

At this point, I could almost do as well, by selling out of my garage, or at local flea markets (at less expense to me)!

[annindallas]

You have some amazing items.

If you can survive another 6 weeks until the shareholders vote on May 30, it cant get any worse until then. I think.

If it dies on june 1st, if everything, everybody, is maintained, the directors, it will die like no corporation in the history of corporations. Something like that.

Those are cool items. You invested well. Can you last six weeks?

[themonitorman]

Thanks so much for the encouragement!

I have those items you see and hundreds more like them - still to be listed.

I wish I could say I had invested well,  but it was really my family that invested well throughout its history - probably without even realizing it.  Everything you see in my store are all family items.  Many of the items still to be listed, go back into the 1800s.  My family seems to have been cursed with a complete inability to throw anything away.  So now, 40, 60, 80, 100 years later - and me the last surviving member of my family - it's all worth money to someone.

There were many occasions, when most of the items you see listed, nearly ended up as land-fill in north Jersey  somewhere.  But, as I mentioned, there's this curse ... 

Beware the curse!

I can hold out another 6 weeks - and probably more - unless Social Security also goes belly-up.

[caspeand]

Ya i agree totally.

It kind of forces sellers to go to other outlets.ut the CEO's and higher management still make the 6 figue income at the expence of honest sellers.While they cut tech support and in other areas.

For 1 thing as another poster posted about the views / hits it is best to post items in a store because after a week you may get a few hits.even if you use a lot of keywords and tags.I mean i used to sell stamps and coins and some of the stamps that are more wanted and i had used the Scott & Gibbons numbers and i only got $1.99 for 20 early USA stamps that had a catalog value of ovr 100 bucks but the views were only 8 after a week and only the one bidder.So without the views and bidders you only get what you start the item at and also if you use a reserve you loose also only ebay makes money and they are burning the bridge that made em Us the small time seller they mainly want big corperation to sell on the site now and nevermind mentioning paypain with their RANDOM Security hold which are funny because anything thta sell over $25 bucks gets a random hold even if you have been with them for over 5 years.

Now they are replacing the cruipt paypain with yet another company and i doubt very much that ebay will bounce back from this like i said all the ceo's and higher management make the money from kick backs from image hosting programs that require you to pay a subscription to have more than 12 images.

And another thing i understand the not allowing external links because of off site sale but when one provides information about his / her item to allow the buyer to know more about any item such as antiques or art they end your listing.

Ebay is just riding the final wave before it breaks and any sell that has any hope in making any type of profit has to list 10 times what they did and pay more fees in listings that get no views.Only they ebay exect's make the money on them on their final Days. Because with Amazon and Facebooks selling outlets Hipstamps have a better view ration than ebay this i know because i had listed the same stamps on both Hipstamps and ebay with the same wording and meta text ebay had 14 Views and Hipstamps had 84 in a week and it sold on ipstamps after that week and unsold on ebay.

So long ebay us small time sellers that were the backbone and made ebay what it WAS and made millionairs of the founder & CEO's just don't care about how they rip us off never mind paypain good ridden

[adkhighker]

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@themonitorman wrote:

The situation is even worse than it appears.

I'm just a small store owner, so bear with me.

Last year (2017) I maintained around 50-60 Listings. Sold 15-20 Items per month, always had hundreds of Page Views at any given time; always had 30-40 Listings with Watchers at any given time.

This year so far, I've maintained around 100-120 Listings - double what I kept last year. However, my total Page Views at any time, barely adds up to 200, and I'm lucky to have more than 15 Listings with Watchers at any given time. Worst of all, I am only selling about 5 Items per month.

I haven't changed anything about the way I do business, or the way I list items. The items I have for sale still cover the same broad categories as last year, and are listed for the same realistic prices as last year.

To say "the bottom has dropped out" of eBay Sales, is the understatement of the year. How could eBay Management so horribly mess up what was once a great venue for Sellers AND Buyers?

At this point, I could almost do as well, by selling out of my garage, or at local flea markets (at less expense to me)!

---

One way you could drastically increase the number of sales....and I am not at all trying to be snarky....is to try running some auctions instead of fixed price and start the auctions at a price low enough where anyone can jump in. I know that low start auctions aren't for everyone, but that's the way I sell almost all of my stuff on ebay and it's worked out well for me for over 18 years here. Yes, it's risky, but in the long run I end up doing better that way than how I could do by fixed price, and virtually everything sells because it's the buyers who are setting the final price, not me. I realize that what works for me might not work for someone else, but it's just a suggestion.

[caspeand]

Hi 

You have the same type of items as i do and the same type of family collectrs addiction i have a lot of art and coins and stamps and even space flown items from the NASA shuttle program.eBay used to be good and its a shame for us because i used to depend on items selling their because I'm a Disabled Vetern and had depended on suplementing the VA Income i get if it wasn't for FaceBook and Amazon and Hipstamps I'd go hungrey 

I used to buy test equiptment from boeing & Litton in So California back in the late 90's and have gotten some neat stuff that was to be scrapped like the Inconell turbine blade one sold on ebay a few years back for over $900 bucks and they claimed it was space flown and i know from experance that space flown ones have a white carbon dust on the edges.But this seller was a big time buyer and seller of surpluss items and buyers beleive what ever they say.But when i listed the Book and mine i was 100% honest and ebay ended my items.The pocket repair manual came out of the pocket of a NASA space suit and was given to me by 1 of the Tech that overhauled the cockpit and that CPU Chip was a scrapped one from the main computer. from the late 80's because they replace every nut bold and chip on the challenger I even have receips from Rocketdyne & Boeing areospace with my name for the prov on them. I have 9 of those blades and had 2 manuals but 1 was confascated back them because of the inport law and at that time the shuttle program was active and when they discontinued the program i listed some item but never got any views or bids.I even have some minerials from the moon that i may contact bigger auction house's i have the lawyer that repersented miss Davis on her issue on her moon rocks and hopefully soon i can i need the money badly but the items are 1 of a kind literly along with some pictures i have but ebay isn't the place anylong You do have some neat items some of the same as I i have a lot of Art and maps from the 1600's its too bad about the greed at ebay now later and happy new year Austin

This Chip is cool it has chips in chips and that cold wire doesn't even measure on my Mitutoyo laser mic i had and the tiny chips that are picture below are less that 0.125 long i used a microscope to take the picture talk about Nano but these are from the late 80's unreal literly i had 2 of these and i had to grind the edges to open the module.The deinvestment value on these qwew $1.8 million i had bought totes of chips to scrap for the gold and platinum but these i kept wish i kept them all1 is better than none i guess

[gracieallen01]

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@annindallas wrote:
No kidding. I want to talk to Newton and Einstein.

I want to ask, "stock and sales are falling faster than gravity. How do you explain this? What law in the universe did you overlook?"

---

The 'Law of ebay', based on "The Theory of the Desperate Seller'.

[redline_auto_llc]

I get more fraudulent returns than regular ones. I have a collection of rocks that I received as returns. It takes up a shelf in the shop.

[dinpavent0]

Here is one, my husband got message on his ebay that buyer received package and was upset that not all 4 items were pewter, one was and the other 3 plastic. So I do my husbands listings most of time since I sell on ebay full time and he has another full time job. So he showed me message. I said I remember listing that, I clearly said that the 3 items were plastic. I opened listing and showed him. It was in the very first sentence.
Back to the message, the buyer says he was quite surprised when he got package and they weren't all pewter. Also he didn't know until he read listing again and seen it and that I had it hidden or buried in listing about materials. How are we going to rectify this??

ARE YOU KIDDIN ME???!!! Sorry apparently its our fault he didn't read ad. Also they was two short and simple sentences to description and the materials being said in first sentence. Well I just said If you are NOT happy you can return for refund. Haven't heard back.
Doesnt matter what you say in your listing. Yes and it is what it is here. Policies are policies, if someone reports that their item is not as described, you foot the bill no matter if you have NO RETURNS in listing. I just deal with it for now.

[drsam]

I started selling at eBay in 1995. I have a lifetime 100% feedback rating.  I was one of the first sellers. The president, Pierre, was a prince of a man. The whole thing was just great. 

Pierre left, and then eBay, in general, took a nose dive. eBay made it harder and harder and harder to be a seller--but I was still loyal. I even taught a class on how to sell on eBay--in fact, I taught it over 15 times in the past 10 years. I have recently quit that. There are so many ways that they have made selling on eBay more and more difficult. I don't need to list them as one can find the reasons all over the Internet.

All I have to say is-- I have had it with price increases, return policies that favor only the buyer, and listing difficulties. I just took off about half my listings. I probably will completely retire from selling at eBay soon.

I am an armchair eBay quarterback. I think I could fix a lot of problems, but I am probably wrong because I am a senior and see things quite differently than today's corporate ego heads.

Well, I just thought I'd throw in my two cents.