Increasingly Impossible!!

[meme6253]

It has become increasingly Impossible to try to operate a business properly on this platform, To properly support a business, you need a certain amount of sales to put back into the business,such as inventory, supplies, & multiple other expenses, & that is not happening here, not anymore, I feel I am being strong armed into increasing PL's & offering free shipping & free returns, & If I do not succumb my sales will forever be suppressed, Not what I signed up for when i started!!

[sailinship]

Anyone who can't feel the sales $ allocation as a tangible experience is just delusional imo. I will make one suggestion that I have found around that, possibly. I've begun shipping immediately. My sales are so slow, why not. If I get a sale, I package it and buy the label from ebay right then and there. HOWEVER, and here's something we all must consider, my metrics regarding tracking/label on time, are not so hot right now. So, maybe Cassini is attuned towards improving my failures by rewarding me. In other words, the search engine may be providing personalized service to each ebay member. If not, it will be, I'm sure of that.

[sailinship]

I never use best match. EVER. Best for who? If I'm not controlling the perimeters of the search, then it's not best for me.

[duffy4444]

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@joliztoyco wrote:

You can spin it any way you want it. And the fact that your word salad didn't have a single mention of "Promoted Listings" which is what's causing crappy sales and frustration for many sellers is telling.
Me? I'm going to follow your "advice" and work on developing a "perky attitude".
That should really help sales....

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@joliztoyco:

   I didn't have to mention Promoted Listings... If you had read what I said in my post and actually thought about it, you would have seen that PL participation or non-participation, and eBay's part in it, is inherent in the context of the post.

   Good idea about following my advice and working on developing a "perky attitude". And take a deep breath while you face keeping things in perspective. The first step in solving perceived problems and "helping sales" is clearing one's negative attitude and gaining a willingness to try new things. It's amazing how one's outlook can improve with a simple thing like willingness - especially in the business of online sales at eBay.

   Positive breeds positive, negative breeds negative... It's a choice.

Cheers, Duffy

[sailinship]

I think you need to "Perk" harder. You're just not doing it right.

[sailinship]

This is exactly right, listing more, will get you more sales. BUT, that was true 20 years ago. Anytime you list, a certain percentage will sell immediately, or very soon. What's different now is that if you play the "List it and forget it" game, you must end and sell similar, and I fear that this wont work for long. Ebay just doesn't want stuff sitting around anymore is my opinion, and I get that. 

I just hope that they don't make the dreadful decision of bringing back listing fees in order to get stuff off the site, and I also have a horrible feeling that just that, may be coming. But I hope not.

[farmalljr]

You can "not buy it" but million dollar sellers have said as much. There are limits and there are such a things as selling too much too quick here. 

eBay can and does control your traffic and your sales. I mean, you might not want to accept that, but that's how it is. 

I realize when you were posting like a mad man, you were making more sales. Think about this from another angle.... If you list 50 a day, and only sell 5, how long before your store is a bloated behemoth that is all inventory and no sales? Are all those things listed, not selling, also not selling from other sellers at all? So what is the solution, you think? End items that are 90 days old and make a new listing? I don't think that works either. eBay knows what you have listed and what you have sold. So like they aren't going to clue in your just making a new listing for a product you have been holding already?

Point being, eBay hides stuff. They control what buyers see. Not us. And if your "reward" is only selling 1/10th of the stuff you list everyday, sooner or later you have to deal with it. You end up with a massive amount of stuff that isn't going to sell because no one sees it. 

A lot of stuff listed is priced competitively. Yes, there are extremes both ways. However, it makes zero sense to run this show the way eBay is. After a period of time, sellers will move on because no one wants to just be an unpaid warehouse. 

[sailinship]

As a buyer, and a comic book collector on ebay for decades, I find it super hard to find what I want now. The search engine just constantly keeps clearing what I choose on the left, or in the advanced search, in particular, choosing to show me high shipping cost foreign listings of AMERICAN comic books. It just doesn't work right. I'll type a thing in, and get 50 things that have nothing to do with what I want. Well, not nothing, related, things that ebay thinks I might also like, but not helpful when I already have to scroll through a hundred of what I really want to find the best condition one. 

For the first time in over 20 years, I am looking for collectibles on other platforms. I still buy here, once in a while, but not nearly as much as I use to due to that pushy search engine.

[baantiques]

No one is sitting there saying “oh, Floyd has sold too much” and then pushing a button to limit Floyd’s sales.  But eBay definitely has hidden seller limits.  I think it’s probably done algorithmically.  I’ve been watching it for the better part of a decade and it’s gotten to the point where I can predict with descent accuracy when throttling will occur on my account and how long it will last.  I can see repeating patterns in past sales and views data, and I can see when a pattern is developing.  The magic numbers seem to be daily sales (sell more than a certain amount in one day and you get hammered the next few days.  The trigger for me seems to be $500.  I can sell $400 a day for a week and nothing happens, but cross the $500 threshold and I won’t break $100 for the next 2-4 days), 30 day rolling period (sell more than a certain amount in a 30 day period and there will be a predictable slump in sales until your 30 rolling total drops back down), and the 90 day rolling total (reach a certain threshold and sales will drop by 50-60% over the next 30 day period.  These are just a few of the observations I’ve made, backed by data from EBay.

My next foray is going to be examining which items are not getting seen when I have 300 vs 1500 listings.

[1funkydude]

I didn’t single out anyone. 

[redlinear]

It all comes down to Best Match and Promotions.  And and Item Specifics.  

[meme6253]

OK Good To Know!

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Are you sure that's the title you used, because I don't see them in your listings page either.

[yuzuha]

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@redlinear wrote:

I think it's a combination of search algorithm, promotions, and filters.  We all cannot be on that 1st page.

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I think it really is as simple as this. If there are 87 pages of results, someone is going to be on page 1 and someone else is going to be on page 87. And no matter what algorithm they use to determine who ends up on which page, some people are going to be screaming about how it isn't fair and how they deserve to be on page 1.

[farmalljr]

That might be believable, had I not seen other wise. 

For example, there are listings that some sellers fill out NO item specifics. They sell. Compare that to other listings, where the seller fills out all item specifics, and a similar title, price, etc, and it doesn't sell. 

Item specifics should be a deciding factor first. These specifics are what are supposed to trigger a best match for a search. It's not always the case. 

Records and postcards are two categories where I have REALLY noticed this comparison. I'm sure there are others. 

If a sellers isn't willing to "work" and do a listing how eBay wants, why is that listing getting traffic? Remember your comment about "working"? More work means more sales. Does it?

[sakic92710]

Impossible to find it now but you definitely said it. I joked that you must be selling $5 banknotes for $3.   My sell through rate??  LOL  0.000001 in 2023.  I'm down to 3 listings now.  Will be 0 by the weekend.  I cannot come up with $950 that will keep me from being evicted after Easter.  No home; no internet; no storage space for anything I own.  No way to sell.  It all comes to an end.  Good luck to everyone!  I wish you well!