Lack of Sales

[laserpartshq2]

It's been 6 days since I've seen a sale, what's going on at EBAY ? I realize what the state of the economy is in and it is only going to get worse under the present administration. Many of my items are under what it cost to ship them, add to that , EBAY's exorbitant fees and you have no sales I guess.

[dryophelia]

The current economic situation is not limited to one country or one leader. 

The ‘exorbitant’ fees have been about the same for years, 12-13% of the total payment received from the buyer. 

One can’t price below what it costs to ship and hope for a profit. 

[lakmalus]

I'm new to eBay selling. But, according to my buying experiences, I think pictures of your items are not get the buyers attraction. It is better you should try again with new photos.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Lose the red backgrounds.

I know it was supposed to "stimulate" buyers, but tbh to me, especially with certain items, it's just nauseating and a turn off.

[onefootflipper]

Most of your store is die cast that other sellers have at lower prices. You might want to go back and start price checking against your competition.

[gamersbaystore]

Its not the economy, its ebay. Look at your traffic figures, says all you need to know. ebay changed their ranking algorithms over the summer, handing mega sellers the majority of traffic, while cutting small sellers out of the equation entirely.

ebay's Lannone stated the platform was looking to prop up their top 20% of sellers earlier this year, and he wasn't kidding.

I have over 1,000 movies listed for sale right now. If I search for any movie I have listed, the same handful of sellers now hog up virtually every last page of search results.

My organic traffic is now the lowest its ever been in my entire decade of being on this platform. I am lucky to break 8 or 10 views a day now from organic traffic.

The situation has gotten so bad I started moving my inventory to alternate platforms. Listing on ebay is like listing into thin air now.

[toybrats]

First , it's never a good thing to bash the current administration because rightaway you are ticking off many approximately half of the readers on this forum (if not more.)   The economy is bad everywhere so do not blame the government.  It would not have mattered which party won in 2020.  Go to google and check out other countries and what they are going through.  Next, diecast, I sell it too.   The market is over-saturated.  Common stuff is hard to sell to make a buck.  There are so many big sellers that buy the stuff wholesale and then price it the same as buying it in Target. Of course, if you priced yours a few dollars higher, you won't sell it.    I have had some cars on ebay for years.  Eventually, if a collector is looking for a particular car and you are the only one that has it on ebay, it will sell.   Perhaps you can sell some other types of items if you are pressed for money.

Goodluck.

[gamersbaystore]

Biden's administration stood idle as the Fed raised interest rates multiple times this year, all while allowing the postal service to raise its rates thru the roof, in fact causing more inflation as a result. Such illogical policies have had a horrible impact on our economy.

Postage rates have a similar effect on our economy as gas prices. Any time postage rates go up, it drags down the entire economy. Those higher postage rates push consumers to spend less, including on platforms like ebay.

I would agree there are other factors that are hurting the economy, such as the fallout from Covid, supply chain issues, global wars, etc, and I would not Blame Biden nor his administration for these issues.

The biggest issue I see facing sellers right now isn't just the economic downturn, but more so ebay's own policies. Even if the economy were great, ebay latest ranking algorithms pretty much spell the demise of the small seller as we know it.

[laststopgeneralstore]

Why blame eBay when eBay has nothing to do with you not getting sales? Also, the fee's have been the same for years and are not that much at all. If it's that bad then sell locally for cash.

[dolcetreasures]

Not only are the actual fees higher, the fees are taken from the total sale including tax. The international fees for most countries have doubled and they are a stacked fee, not to mention all costs are taken from cash. Then let’s talk about promoted listings fees which are then levied on top of everything else.

So while the superficial number is not that much higher for the FVF, the amount that people are paying is dramatically higher and there’s no leveraging of credit card points and cash back anymore. 

[richard1rst]

---

@gamersbaystore wrote:

Biden's administration stood idle as the Fed raised interest rates multiple times this year, all while allowing the postal service to raise its rates thru the roof, in fact causing more inflation as a result. Such illogical policies have had a horrible impact on our economy.

Postage rates have a similar effect on our economy as gas prices. Any time postage rates go up, it drags down the entire economy. Those higher postage rates push consumers to spend less, including on platforms like ebay.

I would agree there are other factors that are hurting the economy, such as the fallout from Covid, supply chain issues, global wars, etc, and I would not Blame Biden nor his administration for these issues.

The biggest issue I see facing sellers right now isn't just the economic downturn, but more so ebay's own policies. Even if the economy were great, ebay latest ranking algorithms pretty much spell the demise of the small seller as we know it.

---

Please get your logic straightened out. Those 2 highlighted statements are at odds with each other. And unlike you I always blame the person in charge (at this time it is Biden) for "the fallout from Covid, supply chain issues, global wars, etc".  But then I always believed  Harry Truman had it right  "The buck stops here".

Additionally, both the Federal Reserve and the Post Office are independent agencies that do not take their orders from the President.  And postage rates did not go "through the roof" unless you live in a very low roofed building.

As for "eBay's own policies" you find the workarounds and you adapt. Something about the darkness and the candle come to mind.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

That's correct, the inflation is global and many nations have higher rates than the USA, the UK last month was 10.1% in compare to the USA's 7.7% rate, Germany posted 10.4% a new record, much of Europe is in the 10.7% range, the Netherlands last month was a whopping 14.3%.  Irelands is at a 38 year high.

There's hosts of factors involved nor can we foresee the long term impacts of the pandemic now endemic.  The Spanish Flu back in the day signaled a downturn in economics globally when along in time several additional events resulted in The Great Depression.

It's been reported in America anywhere between 40 & 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck making their bills and whilst things might have seemed grander before Biden the reality is we were and are in a pandemic. Many of the bills rung up past have not even really come due yet more or less those of Biden.  The prior administration promised cut US Debt but instead exploded the US National Debt in just incredible fashion in as much as 38%!

I recall many folks who'd told me, "We need to run America like a business!"

I'd reply, "And exactly what business affords you freedom on the job?  The ability for the common American to make choices on that job.  The ability to grow and make choices as you see fit vs the way the business see's fit."

It's one of the most moronic statements I'd ever heard, if gonna run the land like a business than we've perfect example called China as that's how its done.

[5594shelleys]

What? We do need to run America like a business. An honest business. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

That's true and traditional America amongst others, "The buck stops here" as we expect leaders to solve problems whether they created them or not.  America's ability to solve domestic and/or global problems has become more and more difficult as social divides continue along the lines of party before people.

[axiombody]

I blame the new Ebay CEO his policies have killed Ebays sales.  Him and his administration needs to go and I would be able to sell again. The company was perfect before he changed everything.