eBay

l-s-enterprises · ‎03-23-2019

If there is anyone out there that doesn't see this as another way for ebay to make money than they are crazy. Yes, there is a work around, watch your listings and end them before the 30 days. However, how many will forget .How many $.35 will they collect in new listing fees. How much before they can brag to stockholders and wall street that they are finally making money. When has ebay done something for you? I am having a hard time remembering when they actually had a good update for sellers. Last I looked we were their bread and butter.

So just to clarify, I prefer to let my 30 day listings end and then have the opportunity as time allows to rework them. Or maybe let them rest awhile while I use my free listings for new items. How many watchers will it **bleep** off to see a 30 day listing end at 29 days. I hate ending a listing with watchers as there are some people that wait until the last minute.

My suggestion to ebay would be to allow an opt out especially for small sellers. Will they listen? Doubtful

Oh, and allow me to opt out of the new seller hub. What a bunch of distraction.

weschurch · ‎03-23-2019

Yes, thats exactly how e-commerce.....or any commerce works for that matter works. Thats like me being mad at wal-mart because they are no longer selling something I wanted. Inventory changes for a variety of reasons.

jitterbug2003 · ‎03-23-2019

When I started selling again a couple of months ago I put up buy it now auctions. When I got to the bottom of the auction page I was making it said if I closed my auctions early there might be a fee on some of them. What does that mean?

ittybitnot · ‎03-23-2019

from reading the posts, I can see that some sellers will do anything that ebay asks.

Historically speaking you would be correct. Over the years, as more draconian measures were adopted to try to control seller's behavior (and raise ebay's take), ebay always "won" banking on them being the 'only and best' act in town for marketplace selling.

The internet is a big place, and eBay is no longer able to lure either sellers or buyers with that 'only act in town' reputation. It is simply no longer true, and long time ecommerce sellers know better. Astute buyers know better. Find it on eBay is basically a freaking lie with the manipulated search feature they employ. You will find an item on a Google search faster than you can on any eBay search feature. My "other marketplace" listings are on google shopping within an hour, no fees for such, no promotions, it just happens.

Yes, some sellers will still follow ebay's suggestions, which for some reason eventually become "manditory" from lack of volunteers. Yes, there are still buyers that come here looking for a one off part or item, that they may never be shown.

I was a seller since 1998. There has NEVER in my recall been a policy change here that did not benefit EBAY. That is why we all still make fun of the old GOOD NEWS FOR SELLERS mantra. It was not good news for sellers, rather a "wolf in sheep's clothing" .....yet ebay tried hard to "put that lipstick on the pig".

Now there are more options, no more "only act in town" mantra to keep you down and staying in the abusive relationship.

weschurch · ‎03-23-2019

@ittybitnot wrote:
from reading the posts, I can see that some sellers will do anything that ebay asks.

Historically speaking you would be correct. Over the years, as more draconian measures were adopted to try to control seller's behavior (and raise ebay's take), ebay always "won" banking on them being the 'only and best' act in town for marketplace selling.

The internet is a big place, and eBay is no longer able to lure either sellers or buyers with that 'only act in town' reputation. It is simply no longer true, and long time ecommerce sellers know better. Astute buyers know better. Find it on eBay is basically a freaking lie with the manipulated search feature they employ. You will find an item on a Google search faster than you can on any eBay search feature. My "other marketplace" listings are on google shopping within an hour, no fees for such, no promotions, it just happens.

Yes, some sellers will still follow ebay's suggestions, which for some reason eventually become "manditory" from lack of volunteers. Yes, there are still buyers that come here looking for a one off part or item, that they may never be shown.

I was a seller since 1998. There has NEVER in my recall been a policy change here that did not benefit EBAY. That is why we all still make fun of the old GOOD NEWS FOR SELLERS mantra. It was not good news for sellers, rather a "wolf in sheep's clothing" .....yet ebay tried hard to "put that lipstick on the pig".

Now there are more options, no more "only act in town" mantra to keep you down and staying in the abusive relationship.

This is so spot on!! All truth!!

Ebay has basically been employing sellers to "keep trying" because "we are EBAY and you can work in your pajamas".

The problem is you are Ebay 2019, not Ebay 2005. You arent even the biggest show in town anymore. If I'm going to jump through hoops to conform to your dictatorship, you best deliver sales and profit and the truth is you don't do much of that these days. Some people love the allure of Ebay past though and will do anything not to accept the writing thats clearly on the wall

kensgiftshop · ‎03-23-2019

@jitterbug2003 wrote:
When I started selling again a couple of months ago I put up buy it now auctions. When I got to the bottom of the auction page I was making it said if I closed my auctions early there might be a fee on some of them. What does that mean?

I've never seen that on the listing page.

What they could be talking about, if you end a listing and Ebay thinks you might be selling it off Ebay, they could charge you the FVF's.

Have a great day

ittybitnot · ‎03-23-2019

it said if I closed my auctions early there might be a fee on some of them. What does that mean?

It means if ebay suspects that you ended you listing early to "sell off ebay", they will charge you the final value fee anyway even if no sale occured.

Remember, if you are a seller, your word means NADA (nothing).

buyselljack2016 · ‎03-23-2019

@jitterbug2003 wrote:
When I started selling again a couple of months ago I put up buy it now auctions. When I got to the bottom of the auction page I was making it said if I closed my auctions early there might be a fee on some of them. What does that mean?

In some cases, if you end an AUCTION with bids you may be charged the FVF equal to the highest bid.

Do not confuse an auction with a fixed price listing.

jameshen1 · ‎03-23-2019

So glad that someone finally started a thread about GTC.

cashvaluerecovery2011 · ‎03-23-2019

Im sorry. I guess I thought you knew what a rental contract was. A rental contract.......is well..........a promise to pay rent. Ive actually had rental contracts for brick and mortar businesses. In those contracts you are right..........there are some policies both for me the store owner and my landlord. If either breaks the policy the contract can be used for litigation and damages to be paid.

So ebay..........also is suppose to follow those policies if you analogy held any weight that is. Im not sure what else was suppose to be the meaning of your analogy if it wasnt to suggest exactly what I stated lol. If I was wrong then what was the point in mentioning a mall contract at all? I mean im reading through my contract with ebay and not seeing much that has absolutely anything similar to contracts ive signed for store front rentals in the past. <shrug>

Good luck selling back to you. We all need it.

goodluckselling · ‎03-24-2019

@cashvaluerecovery2011 wrote:
Im sorry. I guess I thought you knew what a rental contract was. A rental contract.......is well..........a promise to pay rent. Ive actually had rental contracts for brick and mortar businesses. In those contracts you are right..........there are some policies both for me the store owner and my landlord. If either breaks the policy the contract can be used for litigation and damages to be paid.

Good luck selling back to you. We all need it.

It is not that hard to understand? I talked specifically about policies in a rental contract. I did not mention anything about paying rent.

Go reread what I posted.

guitarglynn · ‎03-24-2019

Of course it is a money grab. Ebay has simply taken this GTC idea from another site because they see that the other site is having greater success. But I think they are putting too much stock into the success being linked to the GTC format.

Ebay missed the boat here imo. What happens is this, some other sites have clearly listened to the complaints of ebay buyers/sellers and come up with a site that is under cutting ebay in many ways. So while it may be category specific, it is still a big hit for ebay. They lose a ton of business as other sites basically build off of ebays customer base. But what happens is, these other sites make more and more money and they simply lose site of what got them to where they are and they start to become very much like ebay. And then their customers start to have complaints. If ebay recognized that, they could get all those customers back simply by doing the same thing that was done to them. Just under cut them. Give customers a reason to come back. It used to be, simply due to the size of the market that ebay always had the advantage. But like I said, it may be category specific right now, but other sites have built up markets on par with ebay. So they cannot simply use that to get customers back. They gotta do more.

So what does ebay do? They simply adopt the same practices of other sites, practices that their customers do not like. So why would those customers come here for what is more of the same, plus more fees ect..

And GTC goes hand in hand wtih the promoted listing feature. The promoted listing feature is for fixed price listings. They will tell you how " bumps " or " boosts " or ebays version " promoted listing feature " results in significantly greater sales for sellers. Your business will be booming if you take advantage of this feature. Whatever. With the new listing formats they are simply having our listings end up in what is the abyss of the market place. Spending the bulk of their time listed in the abyss. So this promoted listing feature contradicts the very idea of the value of the GTC format. They know darn well the GTC format will have our auctions in the abyss and our sales in decline.

That's how they push this promoted listings feature on us which is geared to do nothing more then hopefully make ebay significantly more money off of us. You ain't gonna make more money with this format. Ebay is gonna make more money.

castlemagicmemories · ‎03-24-2019

@jameshen1 wrote:
So glad that someone finally started a thread about GTC.

Yes, how refreshing~

betterdaysahead13 · ‎06-23-2019

I agree on all points. I HATE GTC!!!! SO UNFAIR to not have control over it and get charged anyway....or to have to end them early to avoid the listing fee? Awful. And the new selling hub is horrible. I need classic view for my phone as well as I travel and don't have a desk top with me. Ebay is really dinging the sellers and this is one seller who is fed up.

automotivepartsrecyclrs · ‎06-23-2019

We have used GTC for the past 4 years. Never had a issue with it. Once a item sells out you restock the shelf and the listing and keep going. It also allows us to have a track record per item.

We do not use any type of auction bidding due to nonpaying bidders. Buy it now with immediate payment is our only way to sell.

I think we get 1000 free listings per month so at or around the last few days of the month we check what is up for renewal vs how many free listings we have left. IF we see that we will run over we then cancel listings until we see we will not run over. Then relist those items on the 1st.

The slow sales most are talking about started sometime around March of this year. Actually they started over a year ago.

Our opinion is that it looks like a Ebay issue rather than a GTC issue.

We also KNOW for a FACT that on the 20th of each month after Ebay performs their evaluation that sales take a NOSE dive for a few days after.

Sales will also slow in the following areas: Getting a return, Getting netural or negative feedback and Inquires of where their item is. Also anything beyond 1 business day and your sales will decline. I personally experimented with this twice over the past 2 years while on vacation.

There seems to be a slow down each time Ebay has a update and or new feature they start.

We track sales on our own using data from paypal and ebay so we know exactly how we are doing per day/week and year.

Due to these slow times we just tighten the belt and deal with it. Ebays continuing slow sales have actually created some new oportunities for us. Other platforms to sell on are out there ready and wanting your business. So while If one is dormant you move over and work on another then come back to the slow ones to maintain and or If they have picked up then work them to get the added revenue out of them.

The promoted listings show very limited views M-F until around 4pm EST then they rise until midnight.