Ebay selling how things Changed over the Years. Will eBay get back to the way it was a fun Site ?

[theduke357tr]

First time posting on the community message boards in a long Time.

I was a Ebay member In the 1990 up to the early 2000s.

Now I came back a few years ago, I noticed so much has Changed.

I sell on other websites And don't seem to have To many problems with them .

Amazon is a hard site to work with I just closed that account out did not like selling on Amazon at all Its a whole different animal.

Now eBay I'm trying to build on, hopefully I can get back in the zone with it. Selling is hard on this site, Hard in away that IM NOT comfortable selling here. I Remember long time ago I Liked the site it was a great place to sell on and you would Waite for a check to come in the mail, this is why I came back. Now it is much different  every time I sell Now  people claim item was damaged in the mail or they want to return it and well One Item returned appeared to have a defect and when it was sent out it did not have the defect on the leather binding. it was sent back buyer claimed they could not read the print was to small, yet I had 10 picks of it with the print and the more.  ebay Side with the buyer more so then the seller and refunds the buyer. its a tuff site .

the audience or buyers changed. Is it poor management? what is causing this site to get a bad rap? I only have a few hundred Items on here and strongly thinking of only selling items that I can insure and send priority. Its just no longer a fun site as I have over a 1500 items on another site that I enjoy selling on . That site is not as big as ebay but I'M Comfortable with it as I don't have people sending things back and claiming items were damage in mail no nonsense, well some but The normal amount that goes with selling nothing like ebay.  Is this just me or do other sellers feel the same way. Well I will only sell certain things on this site maybe sell even less on here?. Ebay really needs to get back to the way it was days gone by. Just Expressing my self Here...

[luckythewinner · Accepted solution]

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@theduke357tr wrote:

the audience or buyers changed. Is it poor management? 

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Those are not the only two choices. 

The entire landscape of ecommerce has transformed drastically since you sold here 20 years ago.

There are 1.5 billion items listed on eBay, and there are now dozens of sites competing with eBay for visibility. Sellers have more options - third party sellers can list on Etsy and Amazon and Discogs and dozens of fashion sites. They can also list on big box stores like Walmart and Best Buy.  

Buyer expectations have changed. They want fast, cheap, and easy - not the yard sale experience. 

20 years ago, there were millions of people who were new to the internet flocking to eBay every year.  These newbies spent money like water until it dawned on them that the stuff they bought was not hard to find, it was just hard find LOCALLY.  But the supply of gullible fools dried up long ago. 

The Amazon model is annoying but it works. I just bought a dozen items on Amazon that I would probably only have found and bought on eBay ten years ago. But no one on eBay today could compete on speed and price, so I bought on Amazon. 

[natoman777]

So the biggest change that I have seen being on eBay since 1999 is that my sales have increased like crazy over the last 10 years.  No longer having to worry about receiving money orders in the mail, no tracking proof of delivery... don't miss that at all. 

People are only looking for what they are looking for now... in the past it was more like a garage sale.  You would just spend time looking with not too many results, now there are 1000's sometimes.  I personally have benefited from eBay changing over the years

[inhawaii]

Ebay started in 1995.

[pennysdream]

Thank you!!!

[theduke357tr]

I first Joined eBay in 1998 or Late 1997 -  typo above meant the 1990s

[no_no_badkitty]

I used to sell used auto parts. Not a lot , just stuff i didnt need. Always shipped with tracking and insurance. It became such a hassle that i just started recycling it all.  I would rather scrap a $200 alternator and get $5 out of it by just throwing it in my scrap trailer than go through the trouble of listing it, hoping it will sell, packing it up and delivering it to the post office. The alternator would sell for maybe $40-50 with shipping included, take out $30 for shipping costs, ebay fees and packing supplies and I make $20 if they dont file a claim and ship back their junk alternator at my expense. (Yes it happened) It takes at least 2 hours of my time to do that when you throw in the trip to the post office.  It takes me 30 seconds to throw it in the scrap trailer. I paid off my house during the pandemic scrapping cars. All I got from ebay was a headache.

[theduke357tr]

Why is it that I sell the Same products similar on Another Site that I have 1500 items on at the moment and I started selling on that site 3 years ago and have very minimal Problems on with returns maybe total of two and  0 damaged  in mail one item lost in mail over 3 years

Now Ebay I currently have 277 items. At one point I had 320 items on ebay.. Ebay I had returns and damaged in mail and yes one item lost in mail AND Complaints and people trying to buy things for nothing. Just harder to deal with and it makes me the seller discouraged when I spend time listing an item and taking pictures and trying to make it work then to get the chair pulled out from under me.

I had businesses over the years and owned rental properties and dealt with all kinds of things. 

Well its just frustrating at times seeing that I have way more items on another side and 99.9 percent of all transactions go smooth .

Also Ebay sides way more with the buyer and forces sellers to do returns. going to go about ebay a little different selling . Wright now Just sitting back looking at another way to approach Ebay as its a tougher site in my eyes. to make money on

[theduke357tr]

That's Great you have if figured out . sound Like your doing it right and its working for you. Thank you for your reply

[slati_2013]

There is nothing wrong with eBay. They have gone pro. It is now a serious, big business. Not the early days when it was a small business that many big companies held in contempt. Today all those companies now sell on eBay making the jobs of many small sellers harder. 

[yuzuha]

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@theduke357tr wrote:

I Remember long time ago I Liked the site it was a great place to sell on and you would Waite for a check to come in the mail, this is why I came back.

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Boy, I do not miss that part at ALL. What a pain in the rear that was. You had to wait for the check to arrive, then you had to take it to the bank and deposit it and wait for it to clear before you shipped the item out... why would anyone want to go back to that??

[rugerskick]

No its not going back.  

As its going now, it will keep slowly declining.  I say that because ebay has no course correction on the things they are doing, that are causing the slow decline.  They have no stated plans that will successfully work to improve sales and the site.

[lilyswan2]

those days a lot of sellers took money orders you could also cash at post office...

[deltilogical]

The gubmint won't allow it to happen - the gubmint demands to extract value (steal) from your labor.   They left it open for awhile to get everyone used to it.   The land is being fenced off now, and you aren't needed.

Because the gubmint also demands the monopoly on violence, they will kill you if you don't obey.   

of course its not fun anymore.  The politicians sucked the soul out of it like they do everything.

[theduke357tr]

REPLY TO MY SELF  Ebay is overall a great Site , I'm going to sell smarter on this site going to sell in bundles and going to do all dvds and disc in have it that buyer can pic and must pick 4 or five to buy for no less then 10 with shipping and going to look for items that don't take up space and sell fast for 20 or more will run a tight ship on this site.

Ebay has the Traffic. Forget Amazon that site My personal opinion they are evolving into self destruction and when it happens they will change maybe breakup into smaller companies .

my main site I will keep going like I have its a great site and I like listing on it