eBay

movieman630 · ‎12-06-2019

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.

dentalsales4u · ‎12-06-2019

My sales have been strange since October.
Sales are up and then nothing for 4 or 5 days. Then a couple sales and then nothing again for days.
Then sales start up again like gang busters and then nothing again.
I keep saying it's like someone turned the lights off.
I check my competition and they are getting sales and their prices are up to $200+ higher than mine.
I honestly think eBay does this so everyone gets sales so they stick around.
Sales are like a roller coaster these days.

kathieskorner · ‎12-06-2019

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.

Perhaps eBay is throttling sellers with lower priced items so that higher priced ones will sell - that would mean more profit for eBay . Why else would sellers see higher priced items sold when researching items they have listed??

tr3ats · ‎12-06-2019

Thank you, I needed the chuckle! 🙂

eleanor*rigby · ‎12-06-2019

@monstertoybox wrote:
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, let me try to help.

No, you didn't say it. And I didn't say you said it.

Poster A and I were exchanging comments about sellers who believe their sales are throttled by "eBay employees sitting in front of a huge wall of switches," or after reading their critical discussion-board comments. That's what was being discussed. You were not mentioned--no one, in fact, was mentioned. You entered the exchange and assumed you were being discussed--you weren't. Neither Poster A nor I said that was YOUR theory.

I have no idea what your theories are, frankly, other than "we feel something is going on" because I don't follow your threads/posts. Maybe something is going on, who knows? My posts were directly related to sellers who think their sales are being throttled by eBay because of their discussion board posts. If that's your theory, then, yes, my post was directed at you (and others). If that's not your theory, then my post was not directed at you.

Not everyone in the community is against you. Not every comment posted is about you. Not everyone in the community is directing their comments toward you specifically. Not everyone in the community is familiar with your positions or knows what your theories are. Not every post is discussing something you have posted or that you have espoused. Sometimes comments are discussing other posters' theories or other posters' positions.

kensgiftshop · ‎12-06-2019

I haven't had an order on Ebay since November 15th.

I'm not a big seller, but usually have a few orders a week, until around August this year.

Now, if I get an order, I might get 2 -3 within an hour, then nothing for a couple more weeks.

I've been on Ebay since 2011 and never seen sales as bad as they have been the last 6 months.

Have a great day.

monstertoybox · ‎12-06-2019

@eleanor*rigby

A simple "No, it wasn't directed at you" would have sufficed. But, thank you for your clarification.

kensgiftshop · ‎12-06-2019

@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.

I don't know if they hide listings, but I think they show the buyers listings that Ebay wants them to see.

I can search something on Ebay and get no results, or very few.

I can search the same thing on Google and come up with a bunch of listings on Ebay.

Have a great day.

yuzuha · ‎12-06-2019

@monstertoybox wrote:
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.

Unfortunately, with media-based merchandise, the further away from the release of the media itself you get, the less likely it is to sell. I've got some merch from shows/games that are 5-10 years old by now. It doesn't sell very well anymore... why? Because the shows/games are old and most of the people who originally used to be into them have moved on at this point, and fewer and fewer new people are getting into them BECAUSE they're older shows/games.

With most of that kind of stuff, you have to flip it fast to capitalize on the hype. Now, sometimes you'll get a resurgence of interest in the media if there's something like a remake or a sequel (I made bank flipping copies of the original Xenoblade Chronicles immediately after the sequel was announced, and just this past January I sold a whole bunch of Tales of Vesperia merch thanks to the remake), but again, the hype will eventually die back down and then it will be hard to move the stuff again.

I can sell BanG Dream and Re: ZERO until the cows come home because those are hot right now. But my Pandora Hearts stuff? Probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

bargainbigly · ‎12-06-2019

We're seeing the exact same thing the past few weeks.

Massive days, then a day or two with little to no sales.

I don't think it's eBay turning the lights off. Everyday the past few weeks we've had buyers emailing that they cannot pay.

We're currently in managed payments.

From what I understand many buyers cannot checkout and this is the real problem.

It's not intentional. eBay is just having a really bad time tech wise due to some updates they made in October and then again November I believe.

If your traffic is still strong but sales are low, then you are probably being affected by the current payment glitches.

All the best and Happy Holidays.

monstertoybox · ‎12-06-2019

@yuzuha wrote:
@monstertoybox wrote:
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.
Unfortunately, with media-based merchandise, the further away from the release of the media itself you get, the less likely it is to sell. I've got some merch from shows/games that are 5-10 years old by now. It doesn't sell very well anymore... why? Because the shows/games are old and most of the people who originally used to be into them have moved on at this point, and fewer and fewer new people are getting into them BECAUSE they're older shows/games.

With most of that kind of stuff, you have to flip it fast to capitalize on the hype. Now, sometimes you'll get a resurgence of interest in the media if there's something like a remake or a sequel (I made bank flipping copies of the original Xenoblade Chronicles immediately after the sequel was announced, and just this past January I sold a whole bunch of Tales of Vesperia merch thanks to the remake), but again, the hype will eventually die back down and then it will be hard to move the stuff again.

I can sell BanG Dream and Re: ZERO until the cows come home because those are hot right now. But my Pandora Hearts stuff? Probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with this, as I have mentioned before quality Disney merchandise (from the Disney Store and the Disney Parks exclusively) sells very well on Ebay and is a little different then other toy lines.

Disney movies are classics, which means with every generation people have children and introduce them to these movies, even though they are older. So not only adults who are collectors are interested, but new young children are interested as well. We all know when these movies are released Disney floods the market with new toys. But as soon as the next movie comes out, those toys are gone and the new movie’s toys are released. The only place people can get these toys (after they are gone in the retail stores) are on Ebay or Amz.

As an example, when my kids were young I had such a hard time finding certain Disney toys from older movies, the only place I could find them was on Ebay and this still rings true today. Old Disney toys will always be popular for each new generations. My kids put them on their Christmas Wish List every year, because they loved the movies and watched them over and over. They wanted toys from those movies and luckily I was able to find them on Ebay.

I get messages from Mothers, Fathers, G-ma's, Aunts, etc so excited that they were able to find these kinds of toys here. Disney merchandise (especially the exclusive and limited edition items) are a little safer bet then many other toy lines.