Gangbusters sales all week and then STOP! Anyone else having this pattern?

[movieman630]

Things were great all week and for the past two weeks then all of the sudden yesterday things just stopped.  ZERO SALES.  Like someone flipped a switch.  Then before midnight one squeaked through for $15.00.  The same pattern happened 3 weeks ago and one squeaked in right before midnight for $10.00.

I don't know why this happens but I do know there's no way this is organic sales activity.  It's like someone just put my site on invisible vacation mode for a day.  I woke up this morning and still zero sales.  Is anyone else experiencing this same pattern? 

I can't stand this, it's not normal sales activity!  I wish they would just stop playing games with us.  They're literally playing with our lives.  My 2 year old and 5 year old depend on me.  I've been selling for over 10 years with great success until these patterns started.  Now growth is nearly impossible.  Please, whoever is doing this.  Stop.  I'm begging you.

[sakic92710]

Most of my days are in the 0-3 sales range.  The only time I have a good day is dependent on the $ value.  If I have a day with 3 sales, it might total $20.  The good days are when someone decides to buy a listing for $50 or higher.  Trying to run an average of $75-100 per day is completely impossible on eBay now.  I probably avg. $20 a day.  No one can live on that.  I can sell $100 in 1 day & for the next 2 days - $0.  There goes the average!   😞   Good luck to all.

[monstertoybox]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

As dhbook said upthread, eBay has to rotate all the items through, yes using algorithms. Although all sellers would like to be top of the search all the time, that’s just not fair.

while your sales are in an ON state, there are other sellers sitting somewhere wondering why eBay turned their switch OFF.

This isn’t lake woebegone. All sellers cannot be at the top of search all the time.

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I get that, but I don't think it is that I'm not at the top, I think it is that my items are not being seen at all. So I don't even have a fighting chance, when it is my "off" time. Good sellers should always be seen, we've proven that we are good at what we do. So even if I'm not at the top, I would love to still be in the list, and let the buyer choose who they would like to purchase from. Instead of Ebay trying to make that decision for them.

[eleanor*rigby]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

But can’t you imagine eBay employees sitting in front of a huge wall of switches, cackling merrily as they turn sellers in and off?

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth 

But first they have to read through the discussion-board posts to decide who to throttle. That's when some of the sales accidentally slip through.

[lostweekendshop]

Disagree that it’s “impossible” to average that amount in a day. I know several one-person eBay stores that do way more than that. 

[lostweekendshop]

You are seen. You have nice items. It’s just that you have items that are the leftovers of what you had last year, which were leftovers of what you had the year before. And as we’ve been over several times, prices on a lot of those items are not in line with what they’re selling for in 2019.

When my sales tanked in 2017, I couldn’t afford new inventory. So my expenses went way down, but my sales continued to get worse because with more time passing, I was left with a lot of the stuff that simply didn’t have comparable demand to much of the stuff that had already sold.

[corvettestainless]

It's not games; just the way internet purchasing is. I have a website, will get 1 order Monday, 1 order Thursday, 5 Orders Friday within 2 hours of each other, nothing for 4 days, then 2 orders 20 minutes apart from people 1000's of miles from each other. 

Here, same thing- usually 1-4 orders per day, avg $250 a day. Saturdays are typically bad, except 6 weeks ago (for no apparent reason or special date) I get 6 orders for over $1500. (I build show car parts, so Sunday/Mondays are usually best as this is when people have bought/picked up their car or went to a car show). 

Been this way since 2011 when I started. 

[monstertoybox]

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@lostweekendshop wrote:

You are seen. You have nice items. It’s just that you have items that are the leftovers of what you had last year, which were leftovers of what you had the year before. And as we’ve been over several times, prices on a lot of those items are not in line with what they’re selling for in 2019.

When my sales tanked in 2017, I couldn’t afford new inventory. So my expenses went way down, but my sales continued to get worse because with more time passing, I was left with a lot of the stuff that simply didn’t have comparable demand to much of the stuff that had already sold.

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Quality Disney items only get better as they age. You can't find them in the retail market place, only here and Amz. So I will strongly disagree with your statement. And besides for 4 days my sales were great and these "stale items" as you call them sold really well (for that short period). Along with last year, I never had a down day. It was constant sales. 

Pricing has nothing to do with it. As an example. I had a Zurg figure that was listed for over a year and never sold. Last week I decided to raise my price by $10 and it sold the same day I did it. In fact I had 3 of them, and all of them sold (at the higher price) within 2 days. When it had been on Ebay for over a year at the lower price. They were sold during the period when my sales were normal, so it was simply that they were able to be seen. 

[monstertoybox]

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@eleanor*rigby wrote:

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

But can’t you imagine eBay employees sitting in front of a huge wall of switches, cackling merrily as they turn sellers in and off?

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth 

But first they have to read through the discussion-board posts to decide who to throttle. That's when some of the sales accidentally slip through.

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To you this might be funny, but to those of us who have been financially hurt by this, it really is not. We feel something is going on, so to make it seem like a joke, is not helpful. 

[eleanor*rigby]

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@monstertoybox wrote:

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To you this might be funny, but to those of us who have been financially hurt by this, it really is not. We feel something is going on, so to make it seem like a joke, is not helpful. 

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I just really think it is far-fetched to think that eBay throttles sales based on discussion board posts. I know you "feel something is going on," but this particular "theory" is pretty far out there. When sellers throw out theories that are so far out there as to be, well, unbelievable, they tend to lose supporters . . . 

[lostweekendshop]

these "stale items" as you call them sold really well (for that short period).

Don't use quotation marks around a phrase you attribute to me saying that I did not say. I said you have nice items. I said those items are left over from last year, which were left over from the previous year. By your own account, you have not purchased new inventory since the fall of 2017. So where's the inaccuracy in what I said? 

Your issue is that you take a conflicting opinion so personally that you are unable or unwilling to consider it at face value. Anything that doesn't support your theory that eBay has, for reasons no one knows, decided to single you out and periodically make your items literally invisible to other users is received by you as some sort of personal attack. And that's simply not the case. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@dhbookds wrote:

Think about it logically.....ebay has millions of items for sale.......they move up and down a ladder otherwise the item in first place and last place would always be in the same place......  they aren't hidden, but at times aren't on the first page that tends to produce the most sales......  How many buyers and how they buy (cheapest item, most "attractive listing" etc) at any given time determines which of the same item gets sold.

Beyond that, if you sell one of a kind, buyers looking for THAT item will never buy from you  after you sell the one you have.......  The sales aren't "repeatable" .

Retail isn't steady, doesn't have a "pattern" over a long term........ask any Brick and Mortar seller.......

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Yes, I "get" all of that but here's the thing:  The main account I grew by itself ... then the 2nd ID I grew by "sharing" known good selling items with the main account -  switching them back and forth (never for sale at the same time on both IDs).   Andyes, some were one off or say 1 of 5 in all of eBayland ... that is how the 2nd account slowly and steadily grew, which is how I cultivated the main account, slow and steady growth over time.  So as mentioned, was STILL doing that when the 2nd ID tanked ... did NOTHING different ... and items would sell on one account and not the other regardless of where the were first listed (meaning sometimes I would have the first listing cycle on the 2nd ID and other times the main ID).  When eBay opened up Promoted Listings to Collectible categories and offered the quarterly $ 30 ad credit I took advantage of that by running one PL Campaign  per quarter ... it help BOTH accounts grow ... continued that during the 2nd ID tanking ...

I wanted to see if it would recover and it didn't ... had nothing to do with search placement other then items on the 2nd ID apparently were NOT being seen or returned in search ...

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Why would EBay want buyers to buy less? That’s what’s going to happen if they hide items. It makes no sense that they would do this intentionally.

and several sellers have pointed out it works that way in other retail markets too. Sales used to be more level because buyers had to come here. We had a bigger buyer pool per seller. Buyers believed things were rare. Now there are many other places they can find their items, some have stopped buying/collecting and there aren’t enough sales going around to satisfy all the sellers selling those items.

unless you believe that eBay wants less profit and is intentionally throttling people, I don’t see how this request would help. There is no magic to fix the markets. Things have shifted and they’re not going back.

[monstertoybox]

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@eleanor*rigby wrote:

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@monstertoybox wrote:

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To you this might be funny, but to those of us who have been financially hurt by this, it really is not. We feel something is going on, so to make it seem like a joke, is not helpful. 

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I just really think it is far-fetched to think that eBay throttles sales based on discussion board posts. I know you "feel something is going on," but this particular "theory" is pretty far out there. When sellers throw out theories that are so far out there as to be, well, unbelievable, they tend to lose supporters . . . 

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Did I say this? Maybe you're thinking of someone else? I think they throttle for other reasons, not because of posts. Guess I'm confused.

[monstertoybox]

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@lostweekendshop wrote:

these "stale items" as you call them sold really well (for that short period).

Don't use quotation marks around a phrase you attribute to me saying that I did not say. I said you have nice items. I said those items are left over from last year, which were left over from the previous year. By your own account, you have not purchased new inventory since the fall of 2017. So where's the inaccuracy in what I said? 

Your issue is that you take a conflicting opinion so personally that you are unable or unwilling to consider it at face value. Anything that doesn't support your theory that eBay has, for reasons no one knows, decided to single you out and periodically make your items literally invisible to other users is received by you as some sort of personal attack. And that's simply not the case. 

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Call me confused again. I never said anything about a "personal attack". I just love the way things are twisted in these threads to make the poster, that is bringing up the problems, seem completely unreasonable. They aren't singling me out, there are plenty of other sellers saying the sames things I am. 

I put quotations around "stale inventory" because that is how you make it seem, by repeating that my items are left overs from previous years and in other posts where you've told me to clearance my items. I'm taking that for "face value", because this means to me "stale inventory". By the way they are not left overs, some of the stuff I didn't list on Ebay till this year. They may be older, but like I've said before, quality Disney items don't go out of demand. 

I'm not taking anything personally, I'm just simply defending what I think is happening to my sales. 

[monstertoybox]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

Why would EBay want buyers to buy less? That’s what’s going to happen if they hide items. It makes no sense that they would do this intentionally.

and several sellers have pointed out it works that way in other retail markets too. Sales used to be more level because buyers had to come here. We had a bigger buyer pool per seller. Buyers believed things were rare. Now there are many other places they can find their items, some have stopped buying/collecting and there aren’t enough sales going around to satisfy all the sellers selling those items.

unless you believe that eBay wants less profit and is intentionally throttling people, I don’t see how this request would help. There is no magic to fix the markets. Things have shifted and they’re not going back.

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I don't believe they want buyers to buy less, but they are controlling who gets the sales, so someone is happy, but someone else is left out.

I've written about this before and I think it still holds true, so I'll copy it in here:

There have been many theories on this board (and the internet) as to why this is happening. You would think it is counterproductive, but my small FVF is nothing compared to getting a new seller to sign up for a store subscription (by giving them a honeymoon period, by search result placement) or to keeping one of their very large sellers happy (again by controlling search).

There are lots of sellers and more coming everyday, but buyers are what counts for Ebay, which is another theory that there’s just not enough buyers (they have to spread the sales to keep everyone happy).

Or maybe it’s unintentional, their site is full of glitches, people mention there are server problems (not enough or they are too old) and they are constantly live testing things or it could be their AI (artificial intelligence) / algorithms have completely messed up the search engine.

Maybe it is a mixture of everything.

WHY it’s happening is just a guessing game, trying to figure out what would make sense. The point is the controlling (of when and where we’re seen) is happening and sellers are feeling it more and more. So much so, that some really good sellers that have been on here for a long time are going out of business. They’ve tried everything (me included) and nothing helps.