eBay

timemachine777 · ‎06-14-2015

I Just posted this statement before deciding it needed it's own thread. I know I'm not the only seller that is consonantly experiencing eBay holding back our sales numbers for some unknown reason. As a buyer I have also experienced how eBay blocks me from not only purchasing an item, but also opening another sellers listing or hiding them from me completely as stated in an older post to Griff:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Current-Feedback-Test/m-p/23943165#M509512

I tried to boost sales using items guaranteed to sell. Example: I have multiple accounts and Recently I was adding more and more inventory to each account per day, however sales stayed the same per week and the total value of sales stayed within it's regular range. I decided to see what would happen if I listed a bunch of rare Salesman Sample Near Mint Pin up Calendars from the 1930's, so I listed about 5 per day and They did really well for sale numbers and OK on ended price. The result was that it pushed me above my normal sales level on both price and number of items sold for the month.

Here's the big issue... None of my regular inventory sold and even through I added some more Pin-ups and some very rare Near Mint Maxfield Parrish Calendars, and an Over sized Calendar "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) one from the 1930's for my next round, all my sales, on all my accounts have stopped since the 9th of this month and that's pushing me back toward my normal monthly range now.

If that isn't eBay controlling my accounts and what buyers see or can access, than I have the intelligence level of an Ameba. So here's my theory: eBay blocks sales for a number of reasons...

1. To use our better listings as bait for their sponsored ad portals to earn larger commissions from off site sales. ( I also wonder if they are practicing "cookie stuffing" too inflate those profits).

2. Bandwidth restrictions to enable eBay to cater to the Big Box sellers and Large Chinese sellers.

3. Trying to spread the wealth among the small sellers due to a limited amount of buyers.

That's main part of my theory list what's yours?

jlhdistributors · ‎06-15-2015

I have read how your sells have run and that is fine........And that may be your experience but many other sellers have not had that same experience.

I also kept sales records and it would be a simple matter for me to pull them up....In May, before Cassini was implemented my sales were running over 200 a month (around $7,000 gross) and this was consistant month after month.....That year (2013) Cassini was activated in June and my sales dropped by half immediately......The next month they dropped in half again and this trend contiuned until they leveled off between 30 - 40 sales a month.

During that same time frame, a large competitor of mine was selling 12,000-13,000 pairs of shoes a month.....Their sales began to jump by large numbers and within four months they were selling between 38,000-42,000 pairs of shoes......Mind you they were not top rated and I was during this period in time.....They were showing up consistently in best match and I was not showing up at all.....Their sales exploded just as soon as Cassini was iimplemented.

Of course I am going by their fb numbers, we know that their sales were much higher.

It is real simple......My drop in sales was more than a coincidence........This was the work of Cassini.

Read the article below.......http://blog.ebay.com/cassini-a-new-engine-for-a-new-identity/

Ebay herds buyers where they want them to go.

kathieskorner wrote.....So a seller that has been selling here since 2010 and sells primarily shoes is an expert on ebay from the complaints of a tiny fraction of those selling on the site.

There are many that don't know what they are talking about, but they are most certainly still doing a lot of talking. People that it has effected knows what happened. It is much too late to peddle those muddying the waters unsubstantiated ramblings to someone that might just swallow that propaganda. I will take the evidence over the spin.

Cassini: A New Search Engine for a New Identity
June 25, 2013 / eBay Marketplace

ocs_sports-and-fashion · ‎05-31-2016

I do 30K plus a month. And sales will swing from 10k to 3k a week with next to no change in inventory or listings. If that isn't throttling views I'm not sure what it is. Why do you think you sell 3 items to one state in a few hours then nothing from that state for 4-5 days... Or why is it randomly on a Tuesday morning well will pump out $1500 or 10 items between 6AM and Noon but the following Tuesday we will do maybe $200 the whole day. No business has those types of percentage swings... If the whole website had swings like that they wouldn't even have had an IPO.

eBay needs you just doing well enough to come back. They need other sellers doing the exact same thing. This gives them a wide net and takes power away from sellers. If you have one seller doing 1 million that seller is your only client and holds all the power. So to limit your risk and your clients control you make it so 20 sellers do 50k a month. Thus you now have the power over your clients and if one seller leaves it's no big deal. This is why they can force whatever changes they want. Making $ for yourself is addicting. They feed on that addiction knowing it will keep people coming back even after you get hosed time and time again.

I just wish they'd be honest about it. And for those of you who think eBay isn't to blame... Well why are you reading posts from people blaming eBay. You had to have gone looking for it. You're weird.

acalexollie · ‎05-31-2016

@kathieskorner wrote:
We were all just waiting for the cheerleader to come along...

I've never been called an ebay cheerleader before - I've hated most of the changes made since JD came aboard. But I have been in the business world long enough to recognize that all the problems sellers complain about on this site aren't ebay's fault anymore than little Johnny not doing his homework and failing a test is the fault of his school, his teacher, or his parent.

This Blame Ebay for all that isn't working is no different than Blame Bush or Blame the Republicans or Blame Obama that is prevalent in today's politics - we have to find someone to blame rather than take ANY responsibility for our own actions (or inactions).

I've been saying it for many years...

Fact is so long I can blame something or someone else for my problems, I don't have to accept responsibility for them.

And so long I can do that I can expect things to change on their own, and continue to blame outside people/places/things when they don't.

For myself I believe the problem is so convoluted it can't be fixed, but the reason why I believe sales used to be better?

Because when sellers first come here they are oblivious to all the rules and the metrics they should meet and all the potential trouble spots to do with INR and SNAD cases and all these other things, all they do is sell for the sake of selling and ebay might care because they don't know much about ebay.

Then, they learn...

And they learn...

Now they're all schooled but the problem is they're selling according to a pattern and a rhythm dictated by metrics and statistics.

That is the problem.

The seller has in fact become ebay

I bet the same happens to every Customer Service representative as well.

And buyers as they learn the ropes, other areas as well...

Because sellers and buyers and CS alike really do have to know ebay if they don't want to be taken advantage of.

And once they know, they have in fact become ebay.

The very ebay they're blaming for their problems.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, I can believe the sickness filters through every level of the corporation.

Every last person who gets paid in some way from ebay, heck even the Post Office employees 'bend' a little if you think about it...

timemachine777 · ‎05-31-2016

@ourcitysneakers wrote:
I do 30K plus a month. And sales will swing from 10k to 3k a week with next to no change in inventory or listings. If that isn't throttling views I'm not sure what it is. Why do you think you sell 3 items to one state in a few hours then nothing from that state for 4-5 days... Or why is it randomly on a Tuesday morning well will pump out $1500 or 10 items between 6AM and Noon but the following Tuesday we will do maybe $200 the whole day. No business has those types of percentage swings... If the whole website had swings like that they wouldn't even have had an IPO.

eBay needs you just doing well enough to come back. They need other sellers doing the exact same thing. This gives them a wide net and takes power away from sellers. If you have one seller doing 1 million that seller is your only client and holds all the power. So to limit your risk and your clients control you make it so 20 sellers do 50k a month. Thus you now have the power over your clients and if one seller leaves it's no big deal. This is why they can force whatever changes they want. Making $ for yourself is addicting. They feed on that addiction knowing it will keep people coming back even after you get hosed time and time again.

I just wish they'd be honest about it. And for those of you who think eBay isn't to blame... Well why are you reading posts from people blaming eBay. You had to have gone looking for it. You're weird.

I keep detailed records of all my sales, and to what state and when. I know every single item I have ever sold over the past thirty years. B&M, Group shop, Mail order, Phone auction, live auction, Online, etc. To date on this account alone I have sold 663 items in the past 2 years. To date, on all my eBay accounts I have yet to sell to HI, ND, SD, and MT. Basically no sales in these states: AK 3, DC 4, DE 3, ID 3, NH 2, NM 3, RI 2, WY 1. Even my own state lacked any sales until I complained that something was up, and I suddenly got a few sales right away, Which included an onslaught of sales that week from MA, and other New England states.

I would not even be questioning the lack of sales to these states accept for the fact that I sell lots of items per year to these states through other venues. Plus, when I complained about no NE sales and then I get an onslaught that week and the following weeks. That makes one really question what's eBay doing to our account sales. Many sellers on eBay only have eBay accounts so they have no way to really gauge their online business.

richards*rock*collection · ‎03-09-2017

ha ha! your really funny man, it's their web site, not yours, they know what they are doing, and they are just keeping you out of trouble.

coolections · ‎03-10-2017

@timemachine777 wrote:
I know I'm not the only seller that is consonantly experiencing eBay holding back our sales numbers.

Not sure if you are the only one or not but i have never been held back.

As a buyer I have also experienced how eBay blocks me from not only purchasing an item, but also opening another sellers listing or hiding them from me completely.

Not sure if you are the only one but as a buyer I have never bee blocked from Ebay from buying and have never not been allowed to open another sellers listings.

I have multiple accounts and Recently I was adding more and more inventory to each account per day, however sales stayed the same per week and the total value of sales stayed within it's regular range.

Adding more listings will never guarantee you to get more sells. If people don't want what your selling do to demand or price or condition the sells will never increase no matter how many you add.

I decided to see what would happen if I listed a bunch of rare Salesman Sample Near Mint Pin up Calendars from the 1930's, so I listed about 5 per day and They did really well for sale numbers and OK on ended price. The result was that it pushed me above my normal sales level on both price and number of items sold for the month.

Good, sounds like the trail you did worked. When you sell items in demand at the right price you will get more sells. Sounds like you're learning.

None of my regular inventory sold and even through I added some more Pin-ups and some very rare Near Mint Maxfield Parrish Calendars, and an Over sized Calendar "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) one from the 1930's for my next round, all my sales, on all my accounts have stopped since the 9th of this month and that's pushing me back toward my normal monthly range now.

It could be that the first round was the ones people wanted and maybe the second round was the over-priced ones so no one bought. Of course the original regular inventory you already knew no one was willing to buy.

coolections · ‎03-10-2017

@kathieskorner

Don't worry about the name calling. Those who have trouble selling things have been using that name for years as an excuse for their problems

americana1234 · ‎05-26-2017

I don't know but i noticed it and thank you for your post.

@timemachine777 wrote:

I Just posted this statement before deciding it needed it's own thread. I know I'm not the only seller that is consonantly experiencing eBay holding back our sales numbers for some unknown reason. As a buyer I have also experienced how eBay blocks me from not only purchasing an item, but also opening another sellers listing or hiding them from me completely as stated in an older post to Griff:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Current-Feedback-Test/m-p/23943165#M509512

I tried to boost sales using items guaranteed to sell. Example: I have multiple accounts and Recently I was adding more and more inventory to each account per day, however sales stayed the same per week and the total value of sales stayed within it's regular range. I decided to see what would happen if I listed a bunch of rare Salesman Sample Near Mint Pin up Calendars from the 1930's, so I listed about 5 per day and They did really well for sale numbers and OK on ended price. The result was that it pushed me above my normal sales level on both price and number of items sold for the month.

Here's the big issue... None of my regular inventory sold and even through I added some more Pin-ups and some very rare Near Mint Maxfield Parrish Calendars, and an Over sized Calendar "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) one from the 1930's for my next round, all my sales, on all my accounts have stopped since the 9th of this month and that's pushing me back toward my normal monthly range now.

If that isn't eBay controlling my accounts and what buyers see or can access, than I have the intelligence level of an Ameba. So here's my theory: eBay blocks sales for a number of reasons...

1. To use our better listings as bait for their sponsored ad portals to earn larger commissions from off site sales. ( I also wonder if they are practicing "cookie stuffing" too inflate those profits).

2. Bandwidth restrictions to enable eBay to cater to the Big Box sellers and Large Chinese sellers.

3. Trying to spread the wealth among the small sellers due to a limited amount of buyers.

That's main part of my theory list what's yours?

americana1234 · ‎05-26-2017

I noticed it and am not happy about this either. I asked a representative and they chuckled and just laughed it off like I should laugh with them. Not impressed.

kh-gary · ‎05-26-2017

Hello everyone,

Due to its age, this thread has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to discuss a similar issue. Thanks for understanding!