It's more like what Ebay has been doing to this site since 2008 on. Mostly what Ebay does and has been doing for quite some time is virtually abuse its customer base, the sellers. I wouldn't discount what's happening in the economy as inflation has been a creeping terror for almost 2 years now. In spite of what's claimed I seriously doubt that the economy has recovered the job losses inflicted on it from the lockdowns let alone created anything new. That said I think, and again it's just my thought, another reason may be that what Ebay actually is (as opposed to what it would like to be) has finally caught up with it. Ebay is an ad venue, that's all it's ever been, all it currently is now, and unless there's a change it's all it'll ever be. Ebay doesn't purchase, stock, sell, or ship anything to anyone anywhere. It's customers, the sellers do that. It was never designed or built to compete in a pure retail environment. It can compete with other ad venues but that's about it.
Using Amazon (the company its most often compared with) for comparison Ebay generated just over 10.4 billion in revenue while employing just under 11 thousand people. Conversely Amazon generated almost 470 billion in revenue while employing over 1.5 million people. Where the numbers end up in the final analysis after the smoke has cleared is another debatable question. But the raw numbers are significant and indicative of what each company is and what they do. One provides the ad space to facilitate sales while the other is actually engaged in retail sales. It has flexibility in cost and price control. It has a fleet of ground transportation as well as Prime Air. Ebay has none of that. All Ebay can basically do to affect its revenue stream is go after its customers. Eventually they'll beat that horse into the ground assuming it hasn't already if the loss of active sellers is accurate. Considering buyers do follows sellers, how many buyers were lost in the same time frame? Why were those active sellers lost? where did they go?
Before anyone comments let it be known I have no axe to grind with Ebay nor do I have an Amazon account. I have been a member here for 22 years. I sold until 2008 when the upcoming changes weren't worth the hassles and headaches but remained a steady buyer until recently. The drop in buying on this platform is a direct result of what Ebay has become. Its long past being "THE" place to go to, now it's just another place to go to. Nothing special or unique about it anymore. I certainly do not need Ebay to purchase cheap Chinese made products. I can go 1 mile from my house and find plenty, I can go 4 more miles down the road and find even more, or I can travel 7 miles to Florence and have access to all I could ever want or need, don't need Ebay for that now do I. And on top of that I don't have the warranty issues. Many manufacturers will not honor a warranty if it was purchased on Ebay. In fairness to Ebay the same would apply to any venue that wasn't an actual authorized retailer. We had an old saying when I was in the military, LEAD-FOLLOW-OR GET OUT OF THE WAY. They should take heed.
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
