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.

[turquoisetulips]

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@tkinnebrew wrote:

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 🙂

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I think olive us should take  the ease of online shopping into account .  🙂  Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

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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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Oh of course not . That makes too much sense . Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

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@popeye3165 wrote:

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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

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I don't think kcppe meant that you  said '' none of us sellers are selling''  . It was just a generalized statement  about what they see happening . Tulips 

[candd205]

"Olive Us"

Cute.. 🙂

[upgradedendmills]

The OP has nice listings. I see a problem with 1300 listings being all in one niche market. If that specific market is down, his sales will approach zero with no variation in product line to carry him over or attract new buyers. I have done this to myself in the past, but for the last few years I have been trying to sell a larger variety of items in different price ranges and it seems to help some.

[selsa84]

Search has been rather bad lately and there are no shortage of new sellers. My sales are down also as are many many other sellers.  Ebay has changed alot of options that have hurt sellers here on ebay. Gtc is just one of the many issues hurting sales. Search is worse now than ever before.  Items going missing every day from my store , sometimes 100 or so at a time.  hope this helps and i hope your sales pick up

[cs497kcpope]

Thank you turquoisetulips, It was a generalized statement, from what I have  experienced and from what I see and hear on just this board! If our items are not being seen then how are we going to sell anything? 😞  You must admit that there is something terribly wrong with search? 

[beez5720]

May was good. The Spring Update came out on June 3 (I think) and since then, sales tanked. I think when ebay sends members notifications of changes, ebay buyers run away because change here is seldom "good". A good portion of them come back to the site, just before the next platform change that scares everyone away again. It's a vicious cycle. The survivors of these cycles are fewer and fewer, and yes, I believe that is eBay's goal, to eventually tank so bad that they need to declare bankruptcy and either our wonder-full government will bail them out or ebay will get swallowed in the river.

[tunicaslot]

There are things terribly wrong all over the place. My seller hub shows 2 unsold - there is nothing there - I relisted everything. I opened 2 UPIs and both buyers paid but it's still showing as opened in hub and says I can now get my FVFs refunded. My notification bell keeps lighting up telling me I sold an item for an item I sold and shipped this morning. If the simplest things are buggy - can you imagine what the rest of the site is like.

Also as has been said before and another poster made note of it to me - she was researching for similar items to price one she has. Manufacturer is 2 words and all that was popping up was Caribbean tops. She finally found a sold Caribbean Joe and displayed in the listing is all sorts of Caribbean Joe tops - but they don't come up in search.

[rixstuff]

Here is something else to consider. I started selling videos and did pretty well but after a time, every body had changed over to DVDs and those last videos I had I unloaded in lots for not much money.  Then I sold off most of my DVDs and CDs and again the last to go didn't get much because now every body streams online.  You have some awesome hard to find titles but I think there are just fewer book buyers just as there are fewer collectibles buyers and fewer antique/vintage buyers.

So yes, I think your idea of local sales or maybe making lots might help.

[tunicaslot]

Spring Update was announced April 30th - GTC was announced at the end of Feb - People started seeing slow sales in March and many did walk and continue to walk away from the venue to this day.

I don't profess to buy a lot - but many of those sellers did and word of mouth travels quickly - so for every dissatisfied seller that says they will no longer buy here - you probably have 3,4 or more family members following suit. Ebay jumps in with both feet instead of considering the consequences.

[badassbugs]

Ebay had become a place for scammers only. Ebay wont be around in 10yrs Ebay=Scammers paradise

[equid0x]

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@tkinnebrew wrote:

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 🙂

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Sounds like its time for a market test 🙂

[equid0x]

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@coolections wrote:

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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.

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It might be useful to know what the typical sell-through rate per day was beforehand. 1-2% of on-hand stock seems typical for me when everything is working right. 

[equid0x]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

There are things terribly wrong all over the place. My seller hub shows 2 unsold - there is nothing there - I relisted everything. I opened 2 UPIs and both buyers paid but it's still showing as opened in hub and says I can now get my FVFs refunded. My notification bell keeps lighting up telling me I sold an item for an item I sold and shipped this morning. If the simplest things are buggy - can you imagine what the rest of the site is like.

Also as has been said before and another poster made note of it to me - she was researching for similar items to price one she has. Manufacturer is 2 words and all that was popping up was Caribbean tops. She finally found a sold Caribbean Joe and displayed in the listing is all sorts of Caribbean Joe tops - but they don't come up in search.

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For about a year now, anytime I process a return and issue a refund, the items pop-up and say they are eligible for UPI, indefinitely.