EBAY STILL FLATLINED. Is the end near? What if sales drop below the cost of listings?

[darrellschweitzer_pa]

I am concerned I will not be able to pay for my listing and subscription fees out of declining eBay sales. With over 1300 listings I have sold one $3 item this week.

So I am thinking of, at the very least, a reduction strategy, which is to invite friends and customers over and sell them books from my eBay stock, deleting those listings as I go. If am am still losing money by having listings, I may have to cease selling altogether. Is this what eBay wants? I fear they may be suicidal and in denial about what they are doing.

The promotions seemed to help momentarily, but sales have collapsed again. The change is in eBay, not me, because I did far better with the same listings or the same type of listings before GTC. It wasn't even that Good Till Cancelled itself was a bad idea. I manually relisted most of my listings every month. Something has happened to make them invisible.

[cs497kcpope]

It looks like we all have flatlined!! I don't drink but I feel like getting drunk!! 😞  

[tunicaslot]

I'm having one right now after what I feel was inappropriate treatment to a poster in chat. For years I promoted this venue, made excuses for them and thought others complaining were sour grapes. Now I see that it's the treatment of it's sellers, non transparency and comments made by employees that should know better and in any other business would be reprimanded for their behavior.

[cs497kcpope]

So sorry to hear that! Were not all bad! If people would just treat others as they would want to be treated! That is my moto! 🙂

[coolections]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

Actually if you look at the OP's listings - what I see are niche specific magazines and books that are not over saturated on Ebay - less than 50 listings and a decent sell thru rate - so your explanation does not really apply to the OP.

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Correct. I took a look and "some" are in demand and get sales. If you read my comment the OP should go through "all" and eliminate the ones that are not in demand. Also many that I looked at are priced higher than the ones sold. That makes a HUGE difference. The OP should do better research on listings and pricing if he really thinks Ebay is near the end.

[mksports03]

We are experiencing the same, slow sales(down to less than half of what we were doing).  It started with the implementing of there gtc policy( we oppose this, it makes more work, and is limiting sales, we are convinced it was March 18th that sales slowed).  Will ebay ever see the light, and talking to the reps, lost cause. Good luck to everybody.

[linus.hux72fe]

To the op,

I know and sympathize. My sales on Ebay are in the hopper as well.

However, I think some may be tied to the search not working on mobile app. Anything and everything I search for has 0 results. I posted about that with a screen shot of my 0 results. Another poster responded that he had reported the problem to Ebay and that it's not a new problem. Ebay fixed the same problem just a short time ago. Perhaps this has something to do with the lack of sales. Everyone I know shops via their phone.

[moondogblues]

Hi Darrell...I looked through a page and a half of your listings, and did find one thing I will probably buy. But...you have a ton of listings and I can skim really fast but I needed HC or PB and the year right in the title and wasn't getting it consistently. If that info had been there I would probably have looked at all your books. I am a very hard core sci fi/horror/fantasy fan. Huge collector. Used to be a writer myself. Good luck to you.

[moondogblues]

"Actually if you look at the OP's listings - what I see are niche specific magazines and books that are not over saturated on Ebay - less than 50 listings and a decent sell thru rate - so your explanation does not really apply to the OP."

tunic...did you mean 50 listings overall or 50 niche specific...I went through at least 250 myself just now.

[popeye3165]

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@darrellschweitzer_pa wrote:

I am concerned I will not be able to pay for my listing and subscription fees out of declining eBay sales. With over 1300 listings I have sold one $3 item this week.

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Sorry to hear your story but sadly it reflects what so many sellers are saying since the GTC change. IMO the changes obviously did something to eBay's search algorithm and the connections to their 3rd party seller platforms plus many sellers have reported leaving eBay and those folks were also buyers.

[tunicaslot]

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@moondogblues wrote:
"Actually if you look at the OP's listings - what I see are niche specific magazines and books that are not over saturated on Ebay - less than 50 listings and a decent sell thru rate - so your explanation does not really apply to the OP."

tunic...did you mean 50 listings overall or 50 niche specific...I went through at least 250 myself just now.

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Hey moon - now I was looking at a couple specific books and checking their volume here for sale. I didn't check all the OP's listings. But you're right PB or HC makes a big difference and cool is right - it's gotten to the point when I go to list an item - if there are already too many listed and little to no sales - I donate it immediately - it's not even worth my time to list.

[tkinnebrew]

Hey I have a funny story , so I was getting mom's mail and she had a package so I opened it cuz that's what I do, and it was a bottle of olive oil (same kind they sell at aldi for $6).   So here's the kicker, it came from Amazzzon and she paid $20 for it.  I asked her why she did that and she said because it's easy....and she DID NOT pay taxes on it 🙂

[sweetpieces4you]

I just don't see where the ( GTC ) policy has Anything to with your inventory !! Books will sell regardless if there is ( 1 day or 30 days ) left on your listings !! If you maintain your inventory ( Some Work Involved , Yes ) and Cancel what isn't selling before it's being auto-listed and then list other Books,Etc that you want !! I'm not a Book Person but I do know there are many books that bring Big Bucks and Others that Sell for a Half a Buck !! Books are Always in demand but more and more people are finding them cheaper at Book Nooks,Yard Sales,Auction House Box Lots Full of Books of All Types !! And a large portion don't really care about condition!! As they will read them and send them back to The Book Nooks,Etc !! Many people are Buying the Online Readable books now as they don't have to clutter their homes with them !! I'm using a Kindle Fire right now and can purchase thousands of Books without having the book itself  !!  ( GTC ) in my opinion isn't your problem !! Books are Everywhere , That's Your Problem !! 

[coolections]

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@popeye3165 wrote:

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many sellers have reported leaving eBay and those folks were also buyers.

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@popeye3165 

IMO anyone who has 1300 listings and only sells ONE needs to make drastic changes as buyers simply do not want their stuff at the prices they are asking. Either that, or maybe follow your advice and do like you say others are doing.

[cs497kcpope]

Just curious? If none of us sellers are selling then who is? Wouldn't you think that eBay would be concerned? And change the algorithm's? 

[popeye3165]

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@cs497kcpope wrote:

Just curious? If none of us sellers are selling then who is? Wouldn't you think that eBay would be concerned? And change the algorithm's? 

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I'm also curious, can you point out where I said, "none of us sellers are selling "? It sure seems like you are projecting a FALSE NARRATIVE about something I NEVER even said. Thanks