I'm ready to box everything up, throw out the cheap stuff and take long break

[divwido]

I know that eBay is supposed to a great site and it was.  But now, I'm lucky to get a sale a week.  Now I cannot sell items that start at 2.95.

Is it time to pack up  and wait for a better day?

[drusalina · Accepted solution]

Don't throw stuff out.  Take it to your local thrift store.  I took 2 truckloads to a Hospice thrift store.  And some no kill rescue pet shelters have thrift stores to support their operations.   Some even pick up your stuff.  You can get a credit on your taxes for your donations.  It felt good to donate my stuff, knowing that they would be put to good use.  

[emerald_door]

I'm hoping it's just the time of year.  

[dguystuff]

You too?

[dguystuff]

I hear people saying that sales are bad.   If sales are bad, then that means ebay isn't making any money either.  And this is a publicly traded company.  Know where i'm going with this?

[dariudaudery_0]

Sales are terrible.

It feels like when eBay started updating couple months ago they broke something.

[katzrul15]

Not sure how to answer.

Only you know your ebbs and flows.  We usually sell 4-8 Hallmark items per week on off months.  Since the category clump debacle, we have not sold 1.  Not even an offer.

We're still selling other items, but squat in our main line.

The fact that we are so top heavy in one category was a natural progession, but a lazy one for us.  We know better, but did it anyway.

Things that are selling are items that sat all thru holiday rush :  beach items, crocs,  beach towels, sold 2 badmitton sets, grill accessories, misc beach towels and cup holders and mens running/bike accessories.  Sold a ton of tervis past 2 weeks and funky colored dog leashes that we could hardly give away before. 

Not one ornament.  Our Christmas in July sale will be the biggest dud.  No one is thinking Holidays.  They are thinking bike paths, first vacay in 2 years, real graduation ceremonies, birthday parties, need a new Dog leash, BEACH!!

I don't remember how long e-bay saves your listings.  Starting from scratch is a bear.  If you do take a break, be aware of those time lines.

And you would be missed.  Friendly, helpful posters make everyone's day better.  Your posts always help, make me think.

[sunrize33]

I have shut down selling to take a wait-and-see approach but evidence dictates smaller sellers and those with unique items are going to the wayside by design to make for a more professional, bulk sales type of venue.  At this point, the fees, eyes on products, and tons of glitches in the system makes this place way more stressful than should be tolerated by casual, part-time sellers, who have hot times while at others taking breaks.

You can no longer keep up with everything in one organized place due to time-lapses and strange charges and glitches again all seemingly aimed at making you not want to make 50 cents on a ten dollar item.  The overhead is really bad around here considering eBays wars with google paypal and others.  In short, there are few eyes on the majority of items here of late and just look in this forum at all the issues, yet some want you to grin and bear it -- suck it buttercup, and appreciate your 50 cent cut:)   The place is wonderful, right?

[divwido]

That is a great idea and I have a LOT of things to donate.

[katzrul15]

Buyer buying habits are really fickle right now.

Just because you sold it before is zero indication it might sell now.

Other posters allude to a "shift" on this site.  I personally think that is part of these changes. 

Wouldn't it be nice if E-bay just told us what the "end-game" is/will be?

Especially as we paid for our inventory with *real* money, not lillipuddins or monopoly money.

[newlifeforoldstuff2]

I am selling most of my items and all of my nicer vintage pieces on other sites and have no problems and actually sell better there since starting to switch. I am getting better prices too. It is only ebay where I have issues with horrible daily glitches and scam buyers. 

[katzrul15]

Good for you!  We keep sending boxes to FBA, but the cost of selling goes up, especially if it does not move timely.  We had closed on a couple of other sites....guess we need to re-think just being on 2.  Hard to keep track of everything, though.  We tried selling a few pieces on RL and it just sat there.  Books never moved on Abe, even when textbooks or collectible and were selling here.  

Guess there is not a 1 size fits all deal that works well anymore...:(

[postingid7659]

It could be worse, one of the few sales I've had this week was an item I'd already sold and forgotten to take out of inventory.   It had a lot of hits but zero watchers and I really did not expect it would sell if I had it here.  

[veronicabooksandart]

1) Item specifics help increase the visibility of your listings on both eBay and on external search engines. The more data you give us about what you’re selling, the better we can match your item to what a buyer is looking for, either through query search, left-hand navigation filters or category merchandising pages.

Translation: Tool-bound IT broke the search. There's no way to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

2) I'm not able to quantify that for you. The only time item specifics would harm a listing is if a seller is entering specifics that do not match the item listed.

Translation: SEO is a duty - not a priviledge.

3) Ultimately as a platform, we want to connect buyers to your items. This includes making sure our search options can provide relevant items when they use filters. The most effective way to make sure the filters are working efficiently across items is to make sure all sellers are following this best practice.

Translation: We need this to filter out your items.

4) We're in the business to help our sellers make sales, so ensuring sellers are following best practices that we know will help them have a successful business is part of the expectations and requirements we set on the platform. We don't want our sellers to be discouraged and leave the site.

Translation: We're conscripting sellers to become an army of social-media warriors like Bonanza.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5) The long-term plan is to make it easy for buyers to find the items they want and bring sales to our sellers. We'll continue to make improvements towards that aim, though the particulars aren't something I can share.

Translation: You won't like it. Trust me.

[mam98031]

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@dguystuff wrote:

I hear people saying that sales are bad.   If sales are bad, then that means ebay isn't making any money either.  And this is a publicly traded company.  Know where i'm going with this?

---

There are ALWAYS stories of some seller not having good sales.  And there are ALWAYS stories of sellers having great sales.  No matter the day or year, this is something that is always on these threads.  It isn't a new subject or one that is a rare unicorn.  It is always going on.  With 18+ million active sellers it will always be going on.