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.

[membersinceaug2001]

The problems the sellers constantly complain about on here are the same as the sellers complain on Amazon.

Both sites are so rigged against us little guys.

[membersinceaug2001]

I found the article, it has a byline of the Washington Post.  Research by Deloitte, the accounting services giant.

Net worth of Americans 18 to 35 has dropped 34% since 1996.  They are paying more for education and basics like food and transportation, while incomes have largely flatlined.

Only 20% of consumers were better off in 2017 than 2007. 

[cadbury0007]

The landscape of selling online is changing.  Now that Amazon Prime is doing the one-day delivery, there is a possibility more buyers are giving it a shot.  In the last few days I bought an item from Amazon that I could have got on eBay for almost the same price, but Amazon had one day service and it arrived the next day after I ordered it.  That's crazy fast and it was a really good price too.  I don't have bottomless buckets of money to spend, so if I spend more money on the river, I don't have as much to spend here.  There was an announcement from Neiman Marcus a few days ago that they will start selling used clothing at a deep discount from new prices.  If they do well at it, more big box retailers will follow.  Used clothes online will suffer if the big guys take market share away.   Problems for all the smaller sellers online.

[turquoisetulips]

National Economic Accounts

Gross Domestic Product, 1st quarter 2019 (second estimate); Corporate Profits, 1st quarter 2019 (preliminary estimate)

1st quarter 2019:

3.1 percent

4th quarter 2018:

2.2 percent

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.2 percent.

Current Release

• Current Release: May 30, 2019
• Next Release: June 27, 2019

I don't think this was an opinion article.  I recall reading a survey was done.  I've read in other places about how wages today are still far behind what they were back in the 70's.-   membersinceaug2001 

Here are the latest and current statistics from the U.S Bureau of Economist analysis . Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

Personal Income and Outlays, April 2019

April 2019:

0.5 percent

March 2019:

0.1 percent

Personal income increased 0.5 percent in April after increasing 0.1 percent in March. Wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income, increased 0.3 percent in April after increasing 0.4 percent in March.

Current Release

• Current Release: May 31, 2019
• Next Release: June 28, 2019

And here are the latest statistics  on personal gain. As you can clearly see there's been no decline.  In fact ,,, an increase  . Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

it has a byline of the Washington Post- membersinceaug 

And there's the rub . The Washington post is commonly referred to as '' fake'' news  . Tulips 

[laurabeardsley]

Ebay might see the light when the next quarterly earnings report comes out. They can't keep zapping the sellers, giving them no seller protection and keep their support. It just does not work that way!

[tools*]

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

it has a byline of the Washington Post- membersinceaug 

And there's the rub . The Washington post is commonly referred to as '' fake'' news  . Tulips 

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You lost me at "The Washington Post... is fake news."

[rograc-37]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

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.

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Well said. It doesn't take long for a trickle long to become a flood if it continues to rain. And rain it has. By way of technical glitches, sellers forced to pay for the platform's lack of insight and direction. Inadequate and incompetent IT department (yes....all the way to the top).  NO VISION....NONE.

If I need a Dr. I'm not going to go to a painter. If an eCommerce site needs competent people to manage it,  it needs to be run by professionals of that environment, not word speak incompetents with a completely different background.  The trickle started a long time before GTC. It started when the environment changed from a thriving marketplace to a menacing and punishing site for sellers. 

eBay has effectively removed all the benefits of excellent performance and now only focuses on, perceived I might add, poor performance. That is of the seller of course and in their wisdom we are all bad, deserve to be bad, deserve to have restrictions. Extra fees to fill their wallets with money they haven't earned. In the end, it is truly criminal. Ironic since so many are lawyers?

[divwido]

If you products are not selling on eBay, then you need to find somewhere that they will. Move inventory across other sites-something will work.

[studio_haedes]

I think people prefer to believe that "ebay is against me and hiding my all listings because they want me to fail" because it shifts 100% of the responsibility of running a business away from themselves. Honestly I wish listings were hidden because i've been outbid on many collectibles recently. Someone must be seeing listings for that to happen.

[membersinceaug2001]

Point some percent is pretty much flatline, kinda like bank savings accounts these days.

[goldrushfinds]

And there's the rub . The Washington post is commonly referred to as '' fake'' news . Tulips

Oh please. You are not buying into the Trump mantra of "Fake News" are you? He calls the media the 'enemy of the people. He is a total nut and trying to spread mistrust in the media and our intelligence agencies. He is destroying our relations with our allies. He has exploded the national debt, given huge tax cuts to the rich, cut consumer protection and environmental regulations, and begun cutting interest rates when we have a supposed strong economy. This will not end well. But first and foremost, I do not like a president who undercuts our media. He is like a despot/dictator. He is the pot calling the kettle black (one of the biggest cons and liars of all time).

[rograc-37]

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@studio_haedes wrote:
I think people prefer to believe that "ebay is against me and hiding my all listings because they want me to fail" because it shifts 100% of the responsibility of running a business away from themselves. Honestly I wish listings were hidden because i've been outbid on many collectibles recently. Someone must be seeing listings for that to happen.

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Likely because the poor sod was willing to sell that item at any price to make some money. Of course, there are still buyers, when sellers are selling their souls just to stay afloat.

[cs497kcpope]

Politics are really a no no! Nobody wins that argument!