EBAY IS JUST PLAIN " BROKEN " AND ITS OBVIOUS

[**selling**stuff**]

What is ebay going to do about this fiasco.  It's unbelievable how sales just dropped off overnight a few weeks ago, and they have not gotten any better.  I've been very successful here on ebay over the years, always have been one to just sit back and accept the changes, but it's very clear that everything is broken with this site.  Too many issues to even start naming them, but my biggest one is that of my close to 1500 listings, in a 24 hour period, by their chart, and the views my listings are getting, i'm averaging 300 views a day on all my listings, that means that only 1/5 of my listings are even being looked at each day which is just pathetic. It's never been like this, and sales are just horrible.  This is clearly an ebay problem, And not some **bleep** economy related issue. This has never happened in 20 years for me on here, and i've never been one to come here and complain at all, but something has to be done.  

[jvsd6263]

I had the same thing happen.  Bunch of sales, then nothing.

[inhawaii]

So if ebay wasn't "broken" and was working properly, you would have the same sales every day, every week, every month, every year?  No ups. No downs.  No dry spells?  If sales drop, ebay is to blame?

What has changed?  Did you ever stop to think that  people have changed.  The customers. Sometimes they buy a lot of your stuff. Sometimes they don't. Why do you or any other sellers take offense to that?  It's not your fault.  It's not ebay's fault. It's the people who buy or don't buy your stuff. 

If you're having steady sales and one week sales skyrocket, do you get upset at ebay? Is ebay broken?  Is it ebay's fault that sales have skyrocketed? Do you come on the boards blasting ebay because sales are so good?

Anywyas, if it makes you feel any better, I only sold ONE cheap item so far today and it's all ebay's fault!  Ebay is broken!     😉

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@inhawaii   I didn't look at both of those cards, but the seller has a huge amount of light gray text in his description in the one I looked at, and, yes, the name "Hannah Montana" shows up. (You can use your browser to do a "find" word search on the listing.)

Pretty sure the cards would NOT be showing up in this search if the seller had not done this enormous cut and paste, with scads of irrelevant detail.  

[inhawaii]

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@siamjane8 wrote:

@inhawaii 

Geez your right- it did just sell- thats great for my buddy. I did not notice because the results were the same as i reported for the last couple of weeks since he had listed it. 

   How do you feel about the search engine choosing to show nudes instead of any other vintage car parts ?

Is that what you think is working well?

I dont expect you to change my mind but I will tell you that I am very open minded and willing to look at all the aspects of a situation and i will often change my mind when new evidence presents itself.

I just do not get that vibe from you- you seem to think the search is perfect no matter how many people show examples of bad results.  Is this personal to you- were you on the design team or something?   

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No I don't thing anything is "perfect" and i'm sure ebay's search engine may have it's flaws. I'm just saying I don't think it's the cause for everyone "sudden" drop in sales. Go back in history. Sellers have been coming on this board almost every day for 10+ years complaining about a "sudden" drop in sales.  I'm glad we can civilly disagree. Have a great weekend! 

[nocoolnamejane]

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=netflix+board+game&_sacat...

As you can see in the link, I used those exact words and I stopped counting after 6 of them… 

[nocoolnamejane]

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@5594shelleys wrote:

Sales began slowing way before this disastrous economy took hold and the latest proof is that so many sellers posted right here that they were experiencing no-to-zero sales since mid-May.  Ebay owns this disaster. 

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For what it’s worth, people have been complaining about slow sales ever since I joined the boards, in 2006.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@inhawaii  LOL!  The seller also has the word "hologram" in his description. And I looked at the other card, same seller, same huge description text block....

So, why is ebay showing these two cards? Simple. Because the seller 's description contains the words Hannah Montana AND Hologram. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

I asked the following from my 31 yr old son, my 34 yr old son and 4 of their friends...all in the late 20's/early 30's.

1 is a Teacher, 1 is a 100k yr Sales person, 1 is a Construction worker doing 60k yr, 1 is a small factory worker, doing 30k, one is a Warehouse worker (specified sales) doing $52k a year. 

They all live in Orange County Ca, up to 50 miles apart

I asked: "Where do you go to buy things".

None of them said "eBay".

They said "particular websites or Amazon".

I asked them- do you have a 'collection' of something that you collect"?

2 are part-time musicians- don't 'collect' per se- but if they want something (guitar, drums, amps, mixing boards)- they go to the local swap meet, or check CL or Offer Up; or to a specific website for new things

The 'Teacher'- 32, female, not married, no kids, lives with parents, collects nothing. Wants nothing

The 'Salesman'- 40- lives with Girl Friend in 'her' condo. 1 of the musicians above. Collects 502's (kidding- but not into anything)

The 'Factory Worker'- 32, lives with parent and parents 'girlfriend'. Into Off Roading- dirt bikes etc. Collects Coins/Gold/Silver. Goes directly to specific Websites for Coins and Dirt Bike stuff.

The 'warehouse worker'- 35; single, has a married girl friend; Into recording and music. Collects nothing else and when he needs something, hits up specific websites, CL and Offerup

So- this is the new buyers of the 2020's. They are the 'prime' buyer that advertisers drool over. 19 to 49. 

The world is changing.. just like the weather. 

If you sell used clothes, watches, designer stuff, old antiques/collectables/glass ware- stuff found in any Goodwill- you are only going to slip deeper into oblivion.

Sell automotive stuff- fewer can and want to 'work' on their cars'. Very few are 'into' their cars. 

I don't know where we are going in the retail selling world, but places that were 1 of a Kind 

(Best Buy could NOT wait to get rid of Circuit City- then BB started dying)

(HD and Lowes couldn't wait to be the last 2 standing (20 yrs ago there were 15 big box hardware type chain stores)) and now they are struggling.

Kmart, Sears gone

Kohls- dying

Swap meets- dying out- same old stuff- so old, it's faded from sitting in the sun for 20 years. I watched the Orange County Swap Meet go from 'fully filled by sellers' in 2015 to closing half of it 5 years later. 

I don't know the answers, but there is NOT just an 'EBAY' thing going on with sales. It's a whole new world out there and whatever you knew 10 years ago, or have 30 years experience in, is now pretty much worthless.

[inhawaii]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@inhawaii  LOL!  The seller also has the word "hologram" in his description. And I looked at the other card, same seller, same huge description text block....

So, why is ebay showing these two cards? Simple. Because the seller 's description contains the words Hannah Montana AND Hologram. 

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You mean ebay is NOT broken?   😉

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@inhawaii  And, sure enough, it also has the word "Cup" (as in Stanley Cup, World Cup, etc) in the description.

I would say these cards are a good example of why ebay recommends that sellers keep descriptions simple and focused. LOL

[inhawaii]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@inhawaii  And, sure enough, it also has the word "Cup" (as in Stanley Cup, World Cup, etc) in the description.

I would say these cards are a good example of why ebay recommends that sellers keep descriptions simple and focused. LOL

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YOU are a genius!   😃

I guess that means ebay's search is not broken, it's working TOO WELL.

Dang it ebay!!!!!!

[newdealpawn]

I agree with sellinstuff.  Definitely broken, current leadership definitely to blame.  This applies to eBay AND the American economy, took both sets of leaders a little less than 18 months to turn high functioning, well performing entities into the fiascoes we have today... New leadership HOPEFULLY = better results for both.  One bright spot is if a person has a little holding power, some real bargains to be had on items that will resell well if conditions improve down the road... 

[nocoolnamejane]

It's got nothing with politics, the economy around the world is in the toilet right now, in countries both with liberal and conservative leadership.

[siamjane8]

I would actually say that the item specifics based search has led to this problem. When we had a keyword weighted simple organic search years ago sellers could not spam their listings.... Everyone had the same 80 characters. Now they can bloat the item specifics with buzz words that throw off the search relevancy. 

[kathieskorner]

I don't come here to complain - I come here to gather information on what other sellers are experiencing and to share my observations as a long time seller.   I currently have 4 ebay accounts all selling different types of items - 22-14-5-5 years old.   And I have extensive monthly and annual sales records by account. 

While sales fluctuations are normal on a month to month basis - they tend to even out on an annual basis.  From 2017 thru 2021 - my 14 year old account (sports and military collectibles} normally averaged 15-20% more sales on an annual basis than my other accounts.   2022 has been an anomaly - there are few ups and downs to my sales with a straight line down from March to date for three accounts.  For the first six months one of my 5 year old accounts has had as many sales as my other three accounts combined - and that is continuing in July as well.      

As an experiment this month I switched 10 long tail zero views in June listings from my 22 year old account to the one experiencing the 2022 sales increase - making absolutely no changes to the listings.   Two have sold.    Am I the only one that finds that strange?