Ebay is Broken

[jlstanton]

Howdy,

I'm not sure what eBay has done in the past month and a half, but the downturn is unlike anything I've had in 22 years on the platform.  Dear ebay, how about fixing all the glitches and putting the algorithm back to what it was when it worked.  You're not Amazon, and that's why it worked.  Why people prefer it to Amazon as sellers.  What you're doing now makes no sense.

I have seen my sales drop 55% in the past six weeks.  I have 3200 items on the platform with a value nearing $40,000.  My prices are the best where I have competition and very fair for when I don't (I don't exploit my being the only one).  During a four day period last week, I had 5 sales total totaling under $100, where my previous average was always over $100 a day.  Simple question, what have you done?  Please don't respond saying it's covid, the post office's fault, or that this is the typical summer downturn and that people are outside enjoying life, etc.  If that were the case, the other platforms I sell on would have similar downturns.  They don't.  If it's that I won't give you more money via promotions where I'm the only one selling an item, how about you simply say so.  Oh, yeah, you can't do that.  I can't sell to PO Boxes and a number of countries.  I've been told it's a glitch in the system.  I can't repost without these restrictions.  So, you are blocking me from a large number of customers, yet you won't fix the glitch.  How about when I sell something, you don't repost it.  How about you answer the phone.  So many things.....would be nice if you did what you did in the first 20 years instead of trying to be something you're not while wrecking peoples' sales.

Sorry to vent, but this isn't on me or summer.  This is all you eBay.  How about you have a rep call me.  You have my number.

Jack Stanton

[katzrul15]

We have seen our sales go from very consistent, especially in Holiday Collectibles, to no sales at all in Holiday Collectibles since the changes in March.  And yes, we have made change after change adding, re-adding to the item specifics.  They obliterated all our item specifics and replaced them with inane choices that have nothing to do with Hallmark Ornaments or the Series of ornaments that are/were daily searched.  We sell (or used to ) a lot of Harry Potter ornaments, both Hallmark and Pottery Barn.  Harry Potter is not even a choice for an ornament series - it is that sad and pathetic.

We sent over 200 ornaments to Amazon FBA and thru about 6/5, I think we have 11 left on the site.  We sold 2 there today and I have not sold 1 ornament since this change.  Not one.  

Right now, unless we have it with Free Shipping, 1 day handling AND promoted, it does not sell.  Really sad.  Our fees are up and we keep eating shipping fees to the West coast and TX.

They took all our pre-school toys that were non-Fisher-price and dumped them into Action Figures.  Think Buzz Lightyear and Woody, etc.  It is no wonder Buyers cannot find this stuff - when I search, I cannot find it either.

[collectfest]

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@jlstanton wrote:

I just hate that with the technology we have, they are stepping back 15-20 years in time, only, it wasn't this bad back then and people found what they were looking for.  I just don't get this thing they're doing.  Not at all.  I picked up some stuff recently that I'm having a hard time deciding to post it to ebay that normally would have flown off the shelf.  Not sure I want to spend the 20 minutes to post them (that's how bad it's become, when you just don't know if 20 minutes will be rewarded in any way).  Meanwhile I still have to pay my fees, which went up slightly after the change to managed payments, with me actually seeing the money between 3 and 7 days after the sale.  It's hard to deal with that.  

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Agreed, It was not work to try to find items I was looking for. It's a chore now. Now I have to listen to some posters advise me on how to find what I am looking for. Ok, well, had no problem finding them since 1999. But now, IT HAS CHANGED and not for the better in the collectable area. Not for me.

I have to believe eBay will address this. They must know there is an issue. Many of them are buyers too. They only reason I can see that they would not fix the issue is thy want collectables to go away. Who knows, time will tell.

Good luck to you.

[evry1nositswindy]

  I am not excited to read about the issues with vintage Xmas ornaments.  I start listing them in September, so hopefully that will be fixed by then.  My sales are down too.  I sold a lot more during the lockdown, so my sales are bound to be down, but it was a big drop off.

[katzrul15]

@evry1nositswindy 

Wait until you see the listing template - all holiday items, collectibles or otherwise, ALL seasons, ALL holidays are all crammed together.  I took all our vintage Radko down and most of the vintage Hallmark is down now also.  To do the IS revisions, you need the actual ornament to re-measure, know the exact shape, the year, the design, the whatever.  So many months of work gone.  This is first year in about 8 we passed on our Christmas in July sale.  Why bother.

[jlstanton]

I'm hearing this a lot.  Good luck with it.  With a lack of sales, I'll just continue to pump up the other platforms which are performing well and come back to ebay if they ever bother to fix the issues.  Seriously though, I told them two months ago that I have exclusions in selling to anyone with a PO box, any american territory like Puerto Rico and Guam, and a whole bunch of other countries.  I go to revise the listing, change these exclusions, and update.  But they're still there.  I do not have these exclusions anywhere in my preferences.  So, after ebay reps blamed it on the Post office (for some reason it made sense to this person to say that the Post office isn't delivering to these places...let that sink in), then I got them saying it was covid, but in the end, after explaining that not everyone had these issues and that my ebay supplies were delivered to my F'ing PO box, they relented and admitted after four hours and five calls that it was a glitch and that they would fix it.  No fix, no nothing after two months.  Just more **bleep**.  So, how many sales have I lost to that glitch that they won't fix?  This is just gotten out of hand over hte past year.  It's stupid anymore.

[jlstanton]

I honestly chalk up these changes to really horrible managers being given power when they are just horrible at their job.  We're getting crushed while Amazon and other platforms are doing just fine, but these people continue to pull a paycheck and have a say in how things are done.  Hearing how bad people are getting crushed with categories being merged is sad.  Why do that?  Why is it that ebay is taking such a HUGE step backwards when everyone is moving forward?  Absolute idiocy.  I'm going to take around 90% of my items to other platforms in the coming months after 22 years on ebay.  It's just not possible to justify the time they want me to spend to make a listing while they drive customers away.

[domin-tomas]

You should have sold more.

[coolections]

Your lack of sales has nothing to do with Ebay being broken. Buyers will buy if they want your stuff. Period. You need to look at your listings, adjust your prices, adjust pictures, make better descriptions, remove items in low demand, add items in high demand, stay away from over-saturated categories, etc. Do whatever you have to do to get sales except blame Ebay for your problems.

[coolections]

OK, I took a look and it is very obvious. Books that are in low demand, 78's that hardly anyone collects, and 45's over-priced. It can take a long time for you to get some of that stuff sold.

[jlstanton]

Howdy,

Based on your comment, I'm not sure you know what is in demand and what isn't, especially when you consider I've been selling over $100,000 a year of this material on several platforms.  It would be nice if you could come back when you and your 2 rating have better condescending material for me.  I'll take my 22 years as a seller of such 'awful' material over your opinion, which seems to be based in your wanting to say something as opposed to speaking from experience.  Makes you look very unintelligent.

[jlstanton]

Looking at your profile, I'm surprised that someone who hasn't bought or sold anything in over a year would be commenting on a post like mine.  You're not a buyer.  You're not a seller.  What exactly are you?  An employee of eBay?  Curious.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@jlstanton wrote:

Looking at your profile, I'm surprised that someone who hasn't bought or sold anything in over a year would be commenting on a post like mine.  You're not a buyer.  You're not a seller.  What exactly are you?  An employee of eBay?  Curious.

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Hi, no @coolections is not an eBay employee. You will know when an eBay rep comments here—they have @ebay after their name. Not that they come here often. A few assist once in awhile with policy information and other generalities.

“Cool” is using a posting ID, as many board posters do, myself included. Have been an eBay seller going on 11 years, and never post with that ID. It makes my input not as credible, but i still wish to help where i can.

[postingid7659]

I have said this before but eBay is run by elitists who have no idea what eBay is and wouldn't be caught dead at a garage sale or flea market.  They just want to try to be Amazon Jr. and can't understand why no matter what they do things only get worse.  Then they take their severance and on to wreck someplace else. 

[postingid7659]

That would be an utterly out of touch eBay cheerleader who posts here all day but never really says anything. 

I've noticed I get emails where he seems to follow me around from post to post responding but I just ignore them.  

[coolections]

@postingid7659 

For a company who supposedly cannot run a flea market, they have been pretty good at lasting 23 years and still going. In fact if it was not for Amazon they would be the #1 selling site on the planet. Just because you cannot sell a thing and want to blame everyone for else for your problems does not mean Ebay doesn't know how to run a business. Why would you even want to sell here or post here with all the problems you have ?