Ebay is making it literally impossible to find listings. Recreational sellers may as well give up.

[70rag428]

I've been selling on ebay for 26 years. The days of setting up an auction or "buy it now" listing and getting prospective buyers to actually view your listing page, are gone. Ebay is basically forcing sellers to buy into their "Reach more buyers on eBay" option which supposedly puts your listing closer to the top of  search pages. The problem with that is the cost...it's 12%! Last I checked, ebay fees are around 13% of the sale. Add that to the 12% ebay wants for reach more buyers feature, and now the seller cost balloons to 25%! Sellers that buy into this feature, now leap ahead of sellers that don't have this feature....And they don't even have to sell the same basic thing. Their listings get priority even if they're selling something completely different. The result is, recreational seller's listings get no exposure. They are completely buried. All of my listings are lost in the ebay twilight zone, where listings go to die...Out to the corn field.     

[stainlessenginecovers]

Pay per view; Pay per click has been around for 20 years on ALL 'search engines'. 

Nothing new.

How do I get my 'thingy' on the top of the 1st page if there are 100 or 1000 others?? 

26 years ago there were 3 listings for a 1969 Olds Cutlass Mirror.

Now, there are 400+.

You are NOT the lowest price for your items and there are 5 other listings RIGHT ON YOUR LISTING that show this. 

Price shop and be the lowest. Or not sell and simply list for the fun of it. 

Your choice. 

[inhawaii]

I've been selling on ebay for 26 years. The days of setting up an auction or "buy it now" listing and getting prospective buyers to actually view your listing page, are gone.

Ebay can't make people view your page.  If they are not interested, they wont view it.

The result is, recreational seller's listings get no exposure. They are completely buried.

I'm a recreational (part time) seller. People are somehow finding and buying my items ... and i'm not even enrolled in promoted listings.

[woodcliffonthehudson]

I know how you feel.  Been on eBay since day 1 practically, back when you couldn't even list items until you had 10 feedback and you could create any IDs you wanted without any verification.  I built up an ID planning for this to be my emergency exit if I got laid off.  Things were going great until about 3 years ago when I had a scam pulled on me and my account was closed for over a month. Went through hell to get it all up again. Then the big push for more fees to have your listing seen got even more intense and my sales went from 4 or 5 a week to one every week or every other week. I got laid off last year. My plan had always been to go fully into eBay and make that my new career but I can't survive. Have to do trade shows and other selling options now and try to keep the inventory straight (remember to take it off eBay when sold).  It really is horrible. 20+ years of planning down the drain. Something sells now and it's a pleasant surprise.  At least its a place I can keep all my inventory searchable and organized.  Just didn't expect my semi-retirement to involve all this extra work (traveling to shows, setting up, carrying all this equipment and supplies as well as inventory around the country).  The way Customer Service is designed is also a nightmare (for those who don't have Concierge service) but that's for a different post.

[woodcliffonthehudson]

Yes, pay per click has been around a long time but I'm paying for a service already.  I have been using a service and then the rules changed and my service was diminished while my commissions increased.  If I list a house with a realtor and they came back and said, well you have to pay extra for your listing to actually be seen then why am I paying a commission when you're actively working against me?

Just so you know, if you have something to list with an actual auction house the fee is usually about 15% but they do all the work (photograph, description, etc).  If it's something good you can get as little as 0% commissions and in some rare cases part of the Buyer's premium too.  

To me this is the equivalent of what has happened with Amazon Prime or Netflix.  You're paying for a service because you're supposed to be able to view movies, TV, etc.  Now for the good stuff you still have to pay-per-view even if it's an old TV show. What was the point of the subscription in the first place?  Those are the parallels I'm drawing.

[70rag428]

Disregard - I posted this in the wrong spot.

I research my "thingy's" and compare them to what others have sold similar thingys for , and I determine a price based on my research. Also, when you say you found other sellers selling the same item at a lower cost, you're not comparing apples to apples. For used classic car parts, condition of the item must be taken into consideration when determining a price. By the way, I looked at what you're selling, and you're not exactly giving things away. I knew it was a mistake coming to the community. It's always the wise guys like you that  come out of the wood work. Thanks for the help buddy.

[70rag428]

I research my "thingy's" and compare them to what others have sold similar thingys for , and I determine a price based on my research. Also, when you say you found other sellers selling the same item at a lower cost, you're not comparing apples to apples. For used classic car parts, condition of the item must be taken into consideration when determining a price. By the way, I looked at what you're selling, and you're not exactly giving things away. I knew it was a mistake coming to the community. It's always the wise guys like you that  come out of the wood work. Thanks for the help buddy.

[70rag428]

Good for you...Maybe I should start selling Quicky the Rabbits...LoL

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@woodcliffonthehudson wrote:

Yes, pay per click has been around a long time but I'm paying for a service already.  I have been using a service and then the rules changed and my service was diminished while my commissions increased.  If I list a house with a realtor and they came back and said, well you have to pay extra for your listing to actually be seen then why am I paying a commission when you're actively working against me?

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@woodcliffonthehudson 

Your analogy is not even close to 'apples and oranges'.

Much more like 'apples and roof tiles'. 

A 'realtor' would ABSOLUTELY put 6 houses on a 1 page ad in that 'Realtor Magazine' (Greensheet, Whitesheet, Las Vegas Real Estate magazine for example etc.) that are selling for $1,000,000 and up while YOUR house, selling for $300,000 would NOT get that same advertisement.

A person can go to a 'realtors' site, JUST like they can on ebay; and input 'size, price' etc. to HONE DOWN the results.

It is up to the 'shopper' to 'hone it down' or they will 'see' what others are willing to 'pay to be seen'. 

Same as on ebay.

Your listing is not 'hidden'....it is just NOT on the 1st page if there are 1000 of the same items and 50 'other sellers' are willing to pay MORE for their item to be seen.

Pay per view, Pay per click works. 

Period. 

[pls-consignments]

Yes, we're all frustrated. Get in line.

However, keep in mind that the 12% is only a "suggested" rates. It's part of the sales pitch. It's no different to any other ad campaign for life insurance, tax relief and drug companies. But this one is marketed to it's own sellers. EBay wants more of the cut. They are hoping that you come to the conclusion that you must raise your ad rates to their suggested percentages in order to see commensurate results.  

[inhawaii]

I didn't find you comments wise guy-ish at all. 

[inhawaii]

Ebay is making it literally impossible to find listings. 

You have 29 items listed. Doing a search, i'm able to find all 29 of them.

[gurlcat]

You can apply far less than 12% promotion if you want, as little as 2%.  

[highdesignerfashion]

Yep, they are already charging Sellers over 15% + in Seller fees, then they try to persuade us to do advertising campaigns which have been ineffective. What happened to valuing your Sellers and providing us with the exposure on your platform for your high fees?

[woodcliffonthehudson]

Well, maybe I wasn't clear.  I used to be a realtor here in NJ.  We use NJMLS (New Jersey Multiple Listing Service) and all houses realtors have for sale are listed.  To be clear, you can search on it and the results you get are purely up based on search criteria with no listings put further up on the list because they paid more. Also, once someone clicks on your listing you don't get other listings shoved in your face before you can read the description of the one you selected to view.  That's what I was comparing it to. The apples to apples comparison being two listing services of items for sale where payment is made by a small fee of the lister and a commission at sale from the seller.  My mistake was expressing my thoughts incorrectly, forgetting not everyone or every state is familiar with the NJMLS process.