Enough with the algorithms

[sakic92710]

No sales today is not only improbable; it is impossible.  Tired of random days of interference with eBay's algorithms.  It was a very strong week of sales & I give full credit to eBay for that.   No reason what so ever for it to discontinue.  Just allow the natural flow of visibility!  Thank you.   I don't want to hear from the "conspiracy" peanut gallery.   It's not a conspiracy theory.   There IS limitations at any given time.  I could be really busy tomorrow.   It's happened not too long ago.   0 on a Friday then 8 sales on a Sat.  I prefer something EACH day.   🙂    Stay safe all.   

[fashunu4eeuh]

Why impossible? Retail is ebb and flow. Nothing is guaranteed.

[magic*moonbeams]

I'm not sure what your point is... 😕

I'm not a big math person, but I do know that my sales are half of what they were a year ago.. (I used to have 300-325 sales within 90 days, now I'm at 150 if I'm lucky....)

It's not conspiracy...it's fact.   Yup sales are random.. I could sell nothing for 3 days and then sell 10 things on a single day....Everything in life is random...

But eBay does NOTHING to advertise... I see Amazon, Poshmark, Etsy ads EVERY day..... when is the last time I saw an eBay ad.... Um, gee.... IDK,  MONTHS ago...?

They collect all these extra fees from "ad fees" promoted items, etc... but they just pocket it, cuz they ain't advertising shhhh....

[chapeau-noir]

I'm not sure if we want eBay to advertise if their last several attempts are any example. 😣

[im-poor]

I agree, The same happens to me.

[goldrushfinds]

Yes, it is impossible. I have had unrealistic swings in sales volume, which are statistically impossible. A seller I follow had no sales from April 2-10 (and the person was not on vacation setting). That is 9 days with no sales. The previous 9 days before April 2, all had at least 1 sale, many with 2-4 sales. That my friend is statistically nearly impossible. 

[katzrul15]

I don't want to hear from the "conspiracy" peanut gallery.

Concur.  There have been a lot of changes recently on this site, but some of the randomness of sales and fluctuation has occurred for us for months.......even back in the holiday time frames.

It would be nice to have the sales neat and tidy and each day - but online sales vary so much.  I do personally believe the search function has major issues - I can search for the same item in Chrome and then again in Firefox and same wording again in Edge and get a different result each time (different order the listings appear in, different items all together, etc) - I get why the featured rotate, but do not understand why a different browser shows me different search results.

Do think the site is so flooded with new listings from the listing increases given to store sellers and that too is part of the issue.  Have found the hard way that if you do not take the time to complete all the fill-ins on the e-bay template, etc, those items for us are invisible unless searching for the exact title we have up.  

E-bay's search is a mess.

[gadgettatic]

Hi sakic92710.

I just recently started a thread called:

Problems with making contact with ebay sellers. Anyone else having this problem?

I've been using ebay since the early 2000s and recently I've noticed something as well.

I've tried to contact ebay sellers using the contact seller option when asking questions or negotiating.

Once in a while I may not get a reply. It does happen.

But recently I'm having some concerns on ebay sellers not replying back to my messages.

Its not just 1 or 2 anymore. Its a bunch.

I even had a ebay seller mention to me that they never received most of my messages.

Another thing I know is you can't use words such as paypal when making contact,

even though paypal is an option when paying for ebay items.

I just wanted to let you know about that.

Thanks for your time.

[katzrul15]

@gadgettatic  - so you think e-Bay is throttling the bulk of messages, but just between Sellers?  or you're trying to do it as a potential buyer?

Not sure I understand.

[gadgettatic]

Hi there.

My situation is that as an ebay buyer. Hope that clears this up.

Thanks for your time.

[slippinjimmy]

If it's impossible why do you post on a regular basis that you had a day or two with no sales.

I must have read this "impossible to have a zero sales day" from you a dozen times over the past couple of years.

[katzrul15]

@gadgettatic 

Sellers can choose to not receive questions on their items, but usually you would know that when you go to "try" to send one and cannot.

I cannot speak to your specific issue(s), but we get quite a few emails every single day.  Guess we each need to be grateful for what we do get.  Sorry about your issues as a buyer.  (p.s.  I won't buy from someone who does not respond to a question I pose.....but interesting theory based on your experiences).  Thanks for sharing.

[inhawaii]

I firmly believe that if your stuff aint selling .... that means nobody wants to buy your stuff. Period. No algorithms involved.  

[inhawaii]

---

@goldrushfinds wrote:

Yes, it is impossible. I have had unrealistic swings in sales volume, which are statistically impossible. A seller I follow had no sales from April 2-10 (and the person was not on vacation setting). That is 9 days with no sales. The previous 9 days before April 2, all had at least 1 sale, many with 2-4 sales. That my friend is statistically nearly impossible. 

---

I have news for you. That is NORMAL. 

[farmalljr]

I am not a whiner, when it comes to selling here. 

Here is an observation. Sales are down 33% for the past three weeks. Yes, I know there is an natural ebb and flow of sales, and that people can and do hold money based on how they think the economy is doing. 

However, I know eBay is trying the PPC model of promotions with selected sellers. I also know when I was switched from PP to MP, there was a two week disruption of sales. Whenever eBay make changes, it DOES have some effect on sales. Usually those disruptions are over with in two weeks. It's three now, and it can even be seen with my views. Views are down 20% over last month. Sales are down 33%, as I already said. 

That isn't whining, it's stating how I as a seller, have been observing and accept what is going on. I don't like it, but I am aware of what is happening. 

Though I will say, a lot of sellers are not doing things they need to do, to maximize their possible sales. I can only imagine how slow sales would be, were I not working every day on my store. But it's slower sales, none the less. Sure, we can blame the economy, or whatever. But if you are totally dismissing internal eBay issues, you are not looking at the situation clearly.