I HAVE BEEN SELLING ON EBAY FOR 15+ YEARS AND HAVE NEVER SEEN SALES AS POOR AS THE LAST THREE MONTHS

[estatecompany]

I have been selling on Ebay for over 15 years and have never seen sales as poor as the last three months.  Since about the middle of April I have seen a steadily decrease in my sales, to the point where so far in July they are 75% down, from a year ago, same month.  50% down in June, 40% down in May, and 30% down in April.  Good sales January to March.  Can this all be over search engines and algorithms?  Ebay out of sync with the major search engine companies?  I've phoned Ebay many times since April, and most reps don't know what is going on.  I've even sent a letter to the CEO, over three weeks ago, by certified mail, and so far received no reply.  OBVIOUSLY something is disrupting sales and views by the hundreds of comments regarding SLOW SALES posted by the Ebay community.  I guess the people at Ebay never heard of the ageless saying that "IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT."  Irregardless of this well respected saying, Ebay continues to roll out annual or bi-annual changes, always disrupting my business, and seldom improving it.  PLEASE EBAY, GET THIS PROBLEM FIXED, TELL PEOPLE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS, AND STOP MAKING CHANGES UNLESS THEY ARE REALLY NECESSARY!

[azcomp2010]

1. I have won a bunch of auctions at super low bid AND guess what my bid get s canceled (They Ran Out)

2. seller posts Any problems don't turn me in , We fix for you asap. Then they run out your time promising to fix or just arguing. limits up and buyer is screwed.

3. Go to an actuion. Starting bid say 100. I enter in 101. All of a sudden Im out bid a bunch so I back out. Ebay still again raises the bid when I in fact did not make one. It all appears more and more day by day to be rigged.

4. Seller sends wrong item. Forces you to buy camera send them pics (Of Something They Them selves sent to you)

5. You prove seller to be 100% wrong and they offer you a fraction of what you paid to settle, Half or less.

6. BIG ONE HERE! Lets say I see wooden box 1 dollar so go there. Then forced to click on choice of lets say color, I like blue. BAM item is now 9.99 WTH ??? When I gripe about I'm told it's multipul choice **bleep** on that! I was coaxed there by fraud ad! This is happening time after time.

7.Here is one of me personal favorites. THis nasty warning on my posts when I need to contact the seller.

(((To keep everyone safe on eBay, please don't send messages that include contact info. Repeated attempts could lead to an account suspension or other penalties. Learn more about our member-to-member contact policy.))) I have a news flash for Ebay, When I spend my money and have a question because something is not right I am NOT going to wait maybe 48 friggin hours I make contact ! I **bleep**ed about this and told ebay if they think I'm a crook then just look at my account ans read the conversations. THey say they cant see your conversations right..... SO WHY THE NASTY WARNING LETTER. IS this something sent randomly to people ??? I do understnd there are MANY crooks that would cheat ebay in a heart beat (I'm NOT One Of Them) Go look at my emails if they suspect me of wrong doing investagate. Dont bore me and insult Just go check !!! Then act!

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In short I believe the reason or at least one of the reasons for total lack of most all sales is that people just like me are growing weary of being baited by phony prices ads and my fav (Multipul Choice) The price rasies because of say the color or the ad you came there for is the last choice and it turns out not to ba at all the item you clicked on to go look at. I used to buy LOTS of things here because of good prices and saftey. Ebay has slipped into nothing more than a cheap money changers position. Ads are misleading and some down right false. I just lost about $175.00 total cost on a Ip camera I made contact maybe 10 times telling them it wont work. First offer was (we send you 10 dolla you get fix local.....) After they put me off for a month or so my time to go to ebay for help was up. I wound up actually tossing it in the trash. I have had more bad things happe that just that. I'm not saying I'm done with Ebay I'm just saying I have ALREADY started finding other places to shop without (The middle man block game) Ebay between buyer and seller and telling me that I can spend what ever I want BUT don't even think of contacting a seller OR even worse Singing my email and post "Larry Anderson" THATS me name for gods sake. ANd I have made purchases and needed instant personal help or advice BUT Ebay saysNo No Larry you tell us, we tell them. and maybe you hear something in 48hours.... Grrrrrrr(*&&^%$#!@@*&^&^+_)(_

I saw a lot of real from the heart posts here from obviously the good sellers so I took the time to explain why I as a buyer have almost quit buying here at ebay at all. In my case it is indeed the bad sellers that is keeping you good ones from getting my money. I'm tired of misslead with all the phony ads and I been screwed more than a few times. All the fun is gone and I no longer feel safe shopping here.

To you that are the good people wondering whats wrong I offer you my personal story and opinon I hope this helps to understand the buyers view. And without (The Buyer) Ya'll out of business 🙂

[mar7479]

I couldn't agree more.  If someone can figure out how to allow sellers to give honest feedback to buyers, please let me know.  I want to know which buyers constantly don't pay, complain and request money, lie, are dishonest, etc.  Ebay seems to value buyers more than sellers by not allowing sellers to leave legitimate feedback.

[sandkey22]

Hello, I'm not a seller but a customer.  Recently I could not purchase anything beyond seaweed, because the moment I scroll down to the description section the browser freezes and starts acting haotically. It jumps up and down, apparently responding to my attemprs to scroll with a significant delay, and so it overshoots. I find this very frustrating, and so i leave.

I'm on windows 10 professional, google chrome, the latest machine and fast internet connection.

The last easy experience I had was probably this spring (don't recall when exactly) but it has been impossible to buy anything new lately. 

This problem with the user interface could be why your sales are down. I know I could not buy anything for this very reason.

[sandkey22]

Hello, I'm not a seller but a customer.  Recently I could not purchase anything beyond seaweed, because the moment I scroll down to the description section the browser freezes and starts acting haotically. It jumps up and down, apparently responding to my attemprs to scroll with a significant delay, and so it overshoots. I find this very frustrating, and so i leave.

I'm on windows 10 professional, google chrome, the latest machine and fast internet connection.

The last easy experience I had was probably this spring (don't recall when exactly) but it has been impossible to buy anything new lately. 

This problem with the user interface could be why your sales are down. I know I could not buy anything for this very reason.

[emerald40]

Looking for diamond earrings for my daughter for her birthday/ moving to Washington State for grad school purchase.

Trying to take advantage of ebay sales / offers.

The day ebay had 15% off - Asked 3 sellers for more photos.  1 photo is just not enough.  Explained in email I was trying to take advantage of sale, so if I could get them same day.

No response from any of them.

Today, trying to take advantage of 10% ebay bucks.  Contacted seller for more photos.  Explained I was trying to take advantage of offer.  Said maybe he could send me some photos this weekend.

These are aound $1,000 purchases.  I have over 800 perfect transactions.  I give only positive feedback.

You would think these sellers would hustle a bit to make that sale to a buyer who is obviously very motivated.

[atikovi]

Sounds more like you have a virus or other computer problem. I use old Windows 7 and Chrome with no problems here.

[ryanrobyn]

Message suggests coins sell well. I used sell lots of coins until the returns were all replaced with junk ones and counterfeit coins became a monster issue. Now I just sell at coin shows.

[ryanrobyn]

Sales have been decreasing for about 3 years now while Ebay demands sellers jump through more hoops. I have 2 stores with over 2000 items. So far this month I have a total of $115 in combined sales. Not even enough to pay my fees. I used to sell from $3000-4000 a  month on each store. And if you just cancel your stores you must pay BIG cancellation fees too. With all the claims for items as not described continue to mount up get used to having to pay the increased fees too.

[tunicaslot]

Your selling in an oversaturated category and 2 years ago P and Merc were not the trending places on the net to buy used clothes like they are today. I sell clothing too - you have to make use of what's out there as the younger folks are using these other sites more frequently or joining Facebook groups and buying clothing lots instead of pieces.

[equid0x]

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@emerald40 wrote:

Looking for diamond earrings for my daughter for her birthday/ moving to Washington State for grad school purchase.

Trying to take advantage of ebay sales / offers.

The day ebay had 15% off - Asked 3 sellers for more photos.  1 photo is just not enough.  Explained in email I was trying to take advantage of sale, so if I could get them same day.

No response from any of them.

Today, trying to take advantage of 10% ebay bucks.  Contacted seller for more photos.  Explained I was trying to take advantage of offer.  Said maybe he could send me some photos this weekend.

These are aound $1,000 purchases.  I have over 800 perfect transactions.  I give only positive feedback.

You would think these sellers would hustle a bit to make that sale to a buyer who is obviously very motivated.

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I think a lot of sellers are just as discouraged as the buyers. For my own listings, most of the buyers who ask a lot of questions don't buy anything. A lot of times I am being asked for information or photos that are already in the listing. There is little incentive to assist those who can't find or read the most basic info to begin with, as you will then be practically guaranteed to have more problems down the road. 

You have to also understand, from a sellers persepective, to send you more photos is a whole process. If they sell many things, you have to:

- Go to the storage area and find the item on the shelf

- Unpackage/unwrap it

- Put it on the photo table and light it up

- Take a bunch more photos in different positions

- Get those photos off  the camera and into the computer

- Review them

- Retake any bad photos

- Upload them to eBay

- Possibly edit listing to include new photos or send  them on to requestor

I could see that if a seller thinks the existing photos sufficiently show the item enough to sell it, they may not oblige your request. 

[jerrythecrazyguy]

Wow! Another bad thing eBay has done to sellers. Didn't realize there were cancellation fees.

[momandpopcybershop15]

I'm going to Etsy my sales are down 86% from last year

[websitebuilder]

There is an old saying "Numbers do not lie but people do" I to called about a 75% drop in sales, proplems with promotions and search ingines. The next day their silly little charts and graphs had me at a 42% increase in sales and above the rest of Ebay. The truth I had not sold one more thing and was not shure I could pay my Ebay fee's. Anouther saying " Don't **bleep** down my back and tell me its raining"  

[ekmadonna]

still barely under $300 for the month, 12 solds, 1100 listings at all times with new items added pretty much everyday. I average $1300-2000 a month in sales. BY FAR THE WORST 4 week period EVER selling here going back to July 16th When the KICK ASS slogan came out! That is the truth.

[ryanrobyn]

Message to me was:

You are selling in an overly saturated category

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Guess you didn't look beyond a few listings as I also sell lots of books and craft items on both stores which are not clothes.