Is it really "the economy'?

[pls-consignments]

"The US ecomony grew at a blistering rate despite high interest rates" - CNN

"US GDP grew at a 4.9% annualized rate over three months ending in September" - ABC

"U.S. Economic Growth Accelerated in the Third Quarter" - New York Times

"Amazon reports better-than-expected results, as revenue jumps 13%" - CNBC

Well, so much for THAT being a reason why we're seeing slow sales 😕

[doc-holmes]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

They might be paying their rent with them as well. 

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Yup. I always get my back up when I hear people go on about how if you have to put it in a credit card, you have no business buying it. Credit card debt is better than being homeless and hungry. Just saying. 

[ebeths_eclectic_collectibles]

It is harsh but can be helpful. Large retailers often make major changes in their assortment as consumer tastes changes. Of course it is often easier for them to take the los and move on to other kinds of merchandise than the smaller scale seller

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

Partitioning the website would make for a better shopping experience. Could find things faster and will more ease and not get lumped with other non really not so much related items. A better focus perhaps. But as you said it would require those extra clicks and backouts of the stores etc.

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Well yes and no.  In as far the UI we'd designed back then the dynamic's of Javascript which is a language built into Web Browsers now was very infant, there was no Asynchronous Javascript.  Basically that's how all this dynamic content is done now, basically named divisions on a web page that can be filled in "on the fly," didn't exist back then so we used "Frames" which are basically individual web pages we stacked into tables.

Now today, the cellphone via specialized APP be PERFECT for an Auction Mall for the exact reasons you cited.  Hounding to harvest high resolution results on huge amounts of data on these tiny high resolution screens on smartphones is just well... Tragic!  Yet they very much lend themselves to convenience and guided stepping of navigation.  Certainly developing a user interface towards an Auction Mall require some thinking and mockups but the ability to have top, bottom, left, right slide windows and/or panes is perfect point of concept to large scale navigation on a small device optimally eventually voice navigation augmented.

See now PL's sell that prime top level smartphone real-estate but eventually it becomes zero based, there are more "Renters" than there is real-estate to rent per se.  I've already experienced it numerous times, there my thumb is flicking up and flicking and flicking whilst the cat licks it chops waiting for my thumb to go flying off my hand which he then can hold as ransomware or something.  Its very frustrating.

Now back in the day when eBay first deployed stores as I recall they just had like giant text list w/ links to the stores but todays tech didn't exist back then.  No matter what one try, someone always vying try get top, like alphabetical...  Oh my, "AAAA Computers" Trumps (ooo that word) you're "AAA Computers."

That said trying make eBay into an Auction Mall lotta work but there are logical transitions that can be done towards the end goals and some of that right now.  Those changes/transition are beneficial NOW.  More Robust Storefronts capabilities be good place to start and in doing so always keeping mobile in mind as well as CO-OP selling.  What's that mean?  Well also part of The Auction Mall, essentially you lets say come across PC Software or I come across things you peddle, we can CO-OP via mutual approval.  Thus you're 12 software titles you found over at a Goodwill can inject into my storefront and say we make 4% pact.  You paid say $30 for the 12, they value out at $400, as we get em' sold for you (and you ship) we get 4%.

With ROBUST storefront software there are things like REAL HTML based Mailing Lists and much more.

Point all being there are steps taken across the platform slowly moving towards a "New eBay" versus one that is trying to compete against a web that is EVER changing.

For example, right now there should be #HashishTAGS for every item someone care list.  That way I can target merchandise listed to put on sale and MOVE to a sale category in the store set my promotion on the category and or tags, done.

Sit right inline for example towards eBay running "Sales Days!"  Maybe once a month or twice "Flea Market Days"...  I've already assigned 100 items with the proper TAGs and category.  Same with Apparel Days, Sneaker Days, Hobby Days on and on and on.  Need mechanism by which sellers can target such things committing inventories and now eBay has EVENTS that actually ARE high resolution advertising promotable via mobile ad networks, Spectrum, Roku on and on and can be done VERY cost effective versus trying blanket advertise.

Domain names for storefronts, instantly better indexing in search engines.  Create the Interface for price search engines,  make an APP than the sellers can hand about to target their stores... Can go on and on.  The Internet is either evolution or stagnation.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@ebeths_eclectic_collectibles wrote:

Much of the legacy media have much more rigorous standards than say Fox or newsmax. Standards in that facts are required to be verified before publishing the story. I don’t see the NYT hiding behind “we are really entertainment not news”

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This because Fox News, Newsmax etc do not make claim to actually be news venues.  They've been hit many a time with lawsuits and make claim that they are not a CNN or NYT.  Of course that didn't work well with the "Big Lie" about the elections and several reasons.  They might actually have gotten away with it had it not been for Tucker Carlson's as well as other anchors not to mention Murdocks texts.  Those clearly displayed the network principals were intentionally lying to and misleading the public and remember it wasn't about the public.  It was the network being sued for making allegations about the actual digital voting systems being insecure, manipulated etc.  Anyone who knows anything about those systems and topography knows its just not the case.  The systems in fact came to be because of the amount voter fraud that happened BEFORE said systems.  Fox settled the lawsuit, largest settlement of its type in history because if they didn't ALL the laundry come out.  That laundry would have desolated the entire Fox network, not simply Fox news and the communications between the "Political Players" and the Network would also have come out publicly.  That would have been way bad for the GOP, perhaps even endgame but even more so America and American's as a whole in front of the entire world.

[tools*]

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@yellow-snapdragon wrote:

Buyers are lemmings who go back to the same sellers over and over even if said sellers are charging 2-6x more for the same items other seller are listing their items. SMH. Worst 2 weeks I've had since I started selling on eBay 12 years ago. What to do?

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I wish.

[vintagecraze50]

No it’s not helpful. It’s slightly sarcastic. Better to say that for whatever reason there are not buyers on here enough to fill the pockets of every seller.

[masterblasterplanet]

To your point, I control what I can control. However eBay isn't controlling what they can control. They continue to increase fees and figure out new ways to charge those fees. But as sellers what do we get?

The fact is eBay is timid when it comes to advertising and focused (eBay Motors) when they do especially when you compare eBay to Amazon.

Amazon spent 13.5 billion U.S. dollars on advertising in the United States in 2022. Amazon is the largest U.S. advertiser in terms of spending for the fourth consecutive year. Amazon’s ad expenditure increased by nearly 30 percent in 2022 compared to 2021 where they spent 10.4 billion dollars to advertise in the U.S. market.

Comparatively in 2022, eBay spent only 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in advertising. eBay spent aprox 1 billion dollars in 2022.

= The last two years Amazon spent 23.9 BILLION DOLLARS in US ADVERTISING vs eBay who spent only 2.2 billion dollars in US ADVERTISING. No wonder Amazon is doing so much better than eBay.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

But only if you don't pay it off in full each month.

[vintage_buy_sell]

There is also a 'saturation' of thrift store flippers, I sometimes think we have more sellers than buyers these days. You look at Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. everyone is posting videos of finding and flipping 'Thrift store treasures'. I see it when I am out hunting for new items, everyone in Goodwill is on eBay checking the prices of stuff to resell. 

Makes for a lot of competition, so, yes, it is very hard right now to be a 'vintage' reseller. 

As for the eBay platform, I think eBay wants us all to pay more for 'ads', I tried them all out and my sales  and views did not change for the worse or better, only my profit dropped paying more and more to eBay to help them attempt to stay relevant as an eCommerce platform.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@vintage_buy_sell I agree about the competition. It has grown tremendously in the reselling business, and that has a two pronged effect: Much harder to acquire good stuff to resell at profitable prices, and much harder to sell stuff at profitable prices. A lot of things have gone from being a seller's market to a buyer's market. And, one other thing about the reseller market: many of aren't going to buy much on ebay (even if we are making good money) because why buy from a middleman when we spend much of our time buying as low as possible from the original source. 

And of course the competition isn't confined to ebay---so many more venues now for resellers, both online and in the B&M world.

The bar to entry has fallen dramatically: anyone with a smart phone can become a seller. I've watched YouTube gurus admit they weren't even sure just what a particular tech item did when they sold it, but all they needed to know when buying was "what are the comps?"  It doesn't take a lot of money to get started, and , unlike years ago, it doesn't take a lot of knowledge either.

So, yeah, it is tougher than it had been. And unfortunately, I don't see ebay doing much to really help its resellers get a leg up on the competition. 

[yuzuha]

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@vintage_buy_sell wrote:

There is also a 'saturation' of thrift store flippers, I sometimes think we have more sellers than buyers these days. You look at Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. everyone is posting videos of finding and flipping 'Thrift store treasures'. I see it when I am out hunting for new items, everyone in Goodwill is on eBay checking the prices of stuff to resell. 

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And the problem is that quite frankly, most thrift store stuff isn't worth much of anything/isn't going to sell for ages (if at all). Nine times out of ten when I go to the thrift store I leave empty-handed because nothing there was worth grabbing to resell. There's a glut of stuff available but very little of it has a decent ROI.

[chapeau-noir]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@vintage_buy_sell I agree about the competition. It has grown tremendously in the reselling business, and that has a two pronged effect: Much harder to acquire good stuff to resell at profitable prices, and much harder to sell stuff at profitable prices. A lot of things have gone from being a seller's market to a buyer's market. And, one other thing about the reseller market: many of aren't going to buy much on ebay (even if we are making good money) because why buy from a middleman when we spend much of our time buying as low as possible from the original source. 

And of course the competition isn't confined to ebay---so many more venues now for resellers, both online and in the B&M world.

The bar to entry has fallen dramatically: anyone with a smart phone can become a seller. I've watched YouTube gurus admit they weren't even sure just what a particular tech item did when they sold it, but all they needed to know when buying was "what are the comps?"  It doesn't take a lot of money to get started, and , unlike years ago, it doesn't take a lot of knowledge either.

So, yeah, it is tougher than it had been. And unfortunately, I don't see ebay doing much to really help its resellers get a leg up on the competition. 

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Agree with the above, and also that eBay could do better at least with holiday advertisement, but TBH, I do not think it will ever be as it was. That time has passed, just as 'bringing the magic back' of eBay 2004 has passed and is NOT coming back. It is as impossible as that old saying of trying to put your foot in the same place twice in a flowing river. It is not possible. We can wail about 'the economy' all we want, but it's only a small part of the entire picture.