FINAL STRAW PART TWO!!

[meme6253]

Now they are actually asking me to send an offer on the Very Item that got Buried!, I stopped promoting it, So I assume now they would like to get it sold so They can at least get their 2%, The same 2% that wasn't Good enough before!, 

[sextons-sweet-deals]

Revise your listings to entertain 'best offer'. Not just buy now only.  Forget the promotion model. 

The ornament in your previous post / other member comments is way higher than other similar listings. 

I'm old enough to know about QVC sales. They started in 1986 on cable TV. Way before the internet. Buyers had to call and give their C.C. information over a landline phone for the most part. 

QVC was well ahead of the times and targeted the older / retired / elderly who watched TV late at night. 

I know because my mother was a buying junky. 

[tdl_collectibles]

It's probably because a handful of us probably clicked in to look into it earlier when you first posted.  eBay picked it up as an item of interest.   

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

If a seller has offers off, missing sales.  If sellers are not in the eIS program, missing sales.  If sellers do not send out reasonable offers to potential buyers, missing sales.

Anyone who's been part in a retail brick and mortar where bartering might take place like former game store I was partner in knows people like to haggle or for that matter even more at flea markets.

Get this, third party sellers are and have become a rapidly shrinking minority to retailers online who have the DISTINCT advantage of huge supply chains wanting move product and consigning that product at basically no risk due to price protection.  Not a single item ANY OF US have is worth a plug nickel until someone buys it and if they buy it and it puts $ in you're pocket sell it.  The days of "I want $nn for this" are coming to a rapid end.  I send and entertain offers on anything because everything is worth NOTHING until its gone, that simple.  eBay eIS provisions more protection that the Postal Service does, what more need be said?  

[luckythewinner]

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@tdl_collectibles wrote:

It's probably because a handful of us probably clicked in to look into it earlier when you first posted.  eBay picked it up as an item of interest.  

Exactly my thought.

The OP generated interest in his own item, and is now complaining that eBay reacted to that.

[meme6253]

Maybe that works for you, But not for me, I agree with what you have to say only to a certain degree, to many sellers here have no idea of what they even have & are selling way to cheap, which only cheapens the market, Then there are others selling way to cheap because their just trying to make sales out of desperation, Which is also cheapening the market, but in some ways you can't blame them,Then you have The promoted listing SCAM, & that's all it is!

[vintagecraze50]

My advice to you is the same as Retro. DO TRY to not be as sensitive to these offer suggestions. You are in a very tough environment anywhere now to peddle merchandise. If you can entertain that offer. DO IT! I JUST SENT OUT 16 offers this morning and I miraculously sold one. At a price I made excellent profit on because I priced it right and bought the item at the right price.

[vintagecraze50]

Also, as I am going to do more often now especially since we may get more eyeballs on this website because of Holiday season, send offers out to customers who have your item on their watch list.

[vintagecraze50]

One company that is WINNING at this, but at a short term loss nonetheless is TEMU. THEY ARE RAPIDLY getting the market share of customers in the US. Their advertising budget must be stupendous to do this but they are doing it to create a very very large customer base. 

[12345jamesstamps]

You are in the retail market of selling. And there will be sales and promotions and such.

We sellers can only assume this is happening or that. I have tried endlessly to figure out how to make more sales. I don't like cheapening my items for sales but when someone's else items show up under my "item" for sale....I will reduce my price of my item. Competition is fierce and welcome to retail.

[vintagecraze50]

You are in an environment of extreme competition and fewer buyers to purchase your item. You must do whatever you can do to get some money in your pocket instead of a picture on this website for people to mull over.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@meme6253 wrote:

Maybe that works for you, But not for me, I agree with what you have to say only to a certain degree, to many sellers here have no idea of what they even have & are selling way to cheap, which only cheapens the market, Then there are others selling way to cheap because their just trying to make sales out of desperation, Which is also cheapening the market, but in some ways you can't blame them,Then you have The promoted listing SCAM, & that's all it is!

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Perhaps so but the fact remains nothing is worth beano until its sold.  Cheapening the market can't be controlled nor does it necessarily hold true as it comes down what's someone willing to pay and if "Offers" are not enabled welp, never know as folks cant make an offer.  The days of "I want $nn" because that's what I value something at doesn't mean I get it even is once upon a time I did especially now given the horde of competition "for the dollar."

I bet donuts if we could look at eBay's numbers in high resolution we'd see eBay is loosing customers mainly due to competition for the dollar.  Like take my lady, shoppin', three times she's bought at Macy's or Kohl's versus here or Amazon or Poshie because $200 there bought her $800+ worth of product and no, not for resale.  Amazon came close once, $200 more, same stuff.  So there's a snowball effect, when sellers over value here and consumer continuously tend see higher prices they start dropping the platform.

Why suggested months back eBay be the seller.  Sellers tell them here's the range I'd like, they get it sold and if they can't get it sold, its removed and stays removed.  OR, they go to a reverse price format like Amazon, its the sole reason Amazon skyrocketed past and putting most other operations under.  Walmart is blowing past everybody due to their mandate which is low web price or remove listing and the pick in store ensuring quality assurance.  They've embraced the liquidations and delisted channel and are killing it online.  Last year I bought whats amounts to a $800 TV for $250 to my door... Ok.  Well, yes... But that's $250 I'm not spending someplace else.

See my friend, the big guys know the internet equation as Amazon is king due to it, thats low price, free shipping, perks etc and since they consign goods under terms or in Walmarts case have fulfilment hubs using their already massive freighting abilities thats REALLY hard compete with.  Thats the big change online and in large part why sales seem stumble more and more at 3P venues because folks are spending, they're just spending elsewhere and Walmart is a clear indicator of that.

Promoted listings I've spoke of, mobile real-estate but they are a zero based sum, not the solution.  The more sellers promote the more real-estate on those lil' phones used and wham... Reach a point where it's zero based and sellers will see no advantage but since it costs them nothing pre-sale they'll continue on.

Here's a problem, if sellers willing to put say 15% in PL's they should have been putting that 15% against price from word go.  Now one can put 15% against the price and still not appear as the 15% PL's eat the mobile real-estate.  Now retailers using mobile real-estate dont tend need worry about thousands of vendors who amount to hundreds of thousands of individual listings.  The matter at hand is how to maximize mobile real estate for maximum visibility of sellers products that MATCH search criteria.  Matching search criteria either required FIXED listings so they can readily group on UPC, EAN, MPN PeePeeN (LOL) or need AI figure out what matches what hopefully!  That stuff is by no means a perfect science at this point.  BUT even if it were, the real-estate problem still exists and the only entity in online sales who has a working formula is Amazon, one listing, many offers.  That sits in contrast to how eBay sellers think more or less having to constantly re-price....

Why doesn't eBay create a similar format to Amazon?  Many reasons, once upon a time they did and sellers dont like "Race to the bottom" price competition, half.com went under.  But there is more to it.  Amazon will almost ALWAYS have new sold versus pre-owned unless the price variant is quite significant.  Amazon's solution was the "Buy Box" which is controlled by category managers and is SELDOM the lowest price and is OFTEN whomever has quantity.  If you have 1000 widgets and I have 20 widgets and you're widgets are $4 more each and both in good standing, you get the buy box.  For every one order I see you'll have 50, its literally that dramatic.  And yes... There are and have been lawsuits over it.

My solution if you'd read it in another thread is "The Auction Mall" but that WILL alienate many sellers.  It was never designed as a "Well we've bunch of sellers with a few hundred items."  No, its meant to be a Mall where in fact each major category and major subcategory is a Mall within the Mall and IS price competitive.  For an eBay well, that's completely moving all the furniture in the room around.

[vintagecraze50]

That was one of the MOST EXCELLENT AND INTELLIGENT analyses of the current state of affairs. Way to go Retro!

[vintagecraze50]

Oh and do not be stupid and use a high promotion rate and then jack your price to the high heaven’s. IT SIMPLY WILL NOT SELL.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Ebay is not an innovator any more.

The threads on this forum are often dealing with issues months after they arise on other marketplaces.

Ebay has issues to deal with which are more extreme than other marketplaces.

They are 100% dependent on 3P sellers unlike the big marketplaces for their revenue - Amazon and Walmart.

They are the first choice for money hungry offshore dwellers. Particularly those who need profit margin so they cannot play at Temu.

They have a longtime image as a place to sell the stuff in Grandma's attic, so they are not considered as a place to buy many classes of new product.

Sponsored ads came later to Ebay than other marketplaces and many sellers are wasting their money on promotion, because they have no clue whether it will help them or not. Those sellers bid up the cost of promotion so that many who could benefit are on the edge of failure when they are promoting.

I have no clue what % of Ebay sellers have no retail experience, but it is probably higher than Amazon or Walmart because of other obstacles to selling there.

Some other markets have different concerns. Walmart makes it easy for buyers to never see any 3P seller results in their search, and I and many other buyers there use that ability.

The FTC lawsuit against Amazon is targeting Amazon's past requirement that Amazon sellers offer their best price online on Amazon, and Amazon's suppression of its Buy Box from uncompetitively  priced offers.

You can't be found on Ebay because Ebay is organized wider than Amazon, while Amazon is organized to be deeper.

Ebay experimented with a catalog system with all offers under a single entry, and the weaker sellers complained profusely.

Ebay is structured as the sellers preferred, and the sellers are paying the price.

Ebay listens to its sellers far more frequently than other marketplaces, and the sellers are usually wrong in what they ask for.

When a seller starts their post with how long they have been selling here, and with their feedback percentage, we know they have been smacked in the head by the reality of being of being a retailer in the 21st century. Their longevity and feedback are largely irrelevant.

Amazon is a mass market site, Walmart is a mass market site. Success is selling 100s of thousands of item per year, and many Amazon sellers do. They buy products with their own brands on the product or buy national brands at prices which are comparable to volume retailers. They use Amazon to fulfill their orders because it is cheaper than packing and shipping for them self. They make decisions which make sense in the volumes they sell. Amazon screws the little guy as often or more often than Ebay.

And many sellers fail there, but they are more likely to recognize their failure sooner. When sellers face long time storage fees coming, the have their merchandise discarded or sent to liquidation. And much of that product is bought for liquidation by Ebayers. And much of that merchandise has already proved to be unmarketable, and not necessarily just because of price. I have the opportunity to review liquidation product, and much of it brings to mind "what were they thinking"