eBay

robert22smithty · ‎10-17-2021

I have been getting most of my orders from one State. I found that to be strange, and began reading posts dating back to 2015. Many people said Ebay will target a seller items only to a few States. What really made me look into this more, is when I do a search on ebay, for any item, all the top results will be from that one State. Has anyone else going through this. Ebay Fees are getting higher, if you sell a $50 item, free shipping cost you $10, the item cost you $10.00. you will profit only $24.00. That is not included other fees. Nearly $30 in fees and shipping you paying out on a $50 item. And for Ebay to target seller products only in a few States is wrong. I made more money selling on another site in three months, than I did the entire year 2021 on ebay.

yuzuha · ‎10-17-2021

@robert22smithty wrote:
free shipping cost you $10

If free shipping is costing you money, you're doing it wrong. You're supposed to work the price of shipping into the item's sale price so that the buyer pays for the shipping.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-17-2021

No, ebay is not showing your items to people from only one state. Coincidence is statistically much more common than you might think.

postingid7659 · ‎10-17-2021

Absolutely eBay only shows your listings to certain regions at a time. The servers can't handle the traffic, so only certain places see listings at any given time. Sometimes nobody sees them. That's new this year. That's on top of how they manipulate searches to show people what their AI thinks the people want instead of what the people really do want.

Just about every week I sell multiple items most all go to the same region. Last time I even had two go to adjacent zip codes.

I would ignore anyone who claims otherwise, they have no idea what they're talking about. Some people are going to be eBay cheerleaders no matter how terrible it gets. They probably really like "Brandon" too.

inhawaii · ‎10-17-2021

Strictly coincidence.

Highway Patrol - Junior Brown

fashunu4eeuh · ‎10-17-2021

Hi, you will hear all kinds of theories regarding eBay here in the forum.

Most agree that eBay is not a transparent company, and we as sellers can only guess what might be true. Ebay will not disclose the secrets of their algorithms in their Cassini search engine, nor their methods.

So at the end of the day, all we have is speculation and anecdotal evidence. There is little iron-clad proof available about eBay’s inner workings. Without an insider or whistle blower, it is unlikely we will ever know for certain. But many are convinced, regardless, that their belief is fact, and they will swear to this.

What we do know from reading eBay’s own policies is that the platform does have a measure of control over Search results. How far they are willing to go with that control is another matter for debate.

As for my own conclusions, over the years i have seen many posts from sellers who prefer to blame eBay for low sales (or whatever), without taking responsibility for some of their own actions that could contribute to lower sales, which undermines their credibility.

So i believe anything is possible, but i prefer to consider what is probable first.

Anonymous · ‎10-18-2021

This week, my sales have been all over the US map. I'm shocked I got ANY sales at all with the category changes taking place right now for vintage and antique paper dolls. Views and traffic have been WAY down too.

soh.maryl · ‎10-18-2021

From eBay's point of view, what would be the reason to limit any listing so that buyers from only a certain area could see it, thus limiting the buying pool to Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, for instance?

dnasilver · ‎10-18-2021

So on $50 you end up with a profit of $20, that is one heck of a percentage that most businesses would love to earn. Who complains about a 40% return?

isaiah53-57 · ‎10-18-2021

@soh.maryl wrote:
From eBay's point of view, what would be the reason to limit any listing so that buyers from only a certain area could see it, thus limiting the buying pool to Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, for instance?

Really? ---How About GREED --- I live in NH and 70-80% of my sales are WEST of the Mississippi - I Live an hour North of Boston and I HAVE NEVER HAD A BOSTON SALE! -- Plain and Simply, my items can be weighty and an item of mine shipping to Texas(which is the state that I sell to most) will cost $10-$20 more in Shipping than Boston or New York - That is nearly $2-$4 more in Fees for ebay - There You Have it...

MYSTERY SOLVED ... though it really was never much of a mystery...

States I have NEVER sold to are Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut(among others)...See a Trend?

vintage-camerastuff · ‎10-18-2021

I do.

soh.maryl · ‎10-18-2021

Greed?

So if my listings are only seen by Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, rather than in all 50 states, doesn't it mean that eBay is decreasing my chances of selling by limiting the buying pool?

If greed is their modus operandi, wouldn't they be pushing me to be selling with worldwide shipping?

isaiah53-57 · ‎10-18-2021

@soh.maryl wrote:
Greed?
So if my listings are only seen by Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, rather than in all 50 states, doesn't it mean that eBay is decreasing my chances of selling by limiting the buying pool?
If greed is their modus operandi, wouldn't they be pushing me to be selling with worldwide shipping?

Are you saying they are NOT pushing you to sell worldwide? Huh? Of course they are - That amounts to MORE FEES on a Higher Gross.

The Same Concept applies to Domestic - On a Site that is over-saturated with sellers and items, WHY WOULDNT THEY show items located on the East Coast in a biased way to Midwest and West Coast Buyers and and vice versa - That tactic amounts to MORE FEES for the site owners per sale on average - which appears, when you take into consideration all their decisions over the last 20 years, to be just about all they really care about - THAT, so much moreso than the long term vision of growth and sustainability.

Look at where other Companies that put long term vision over short term gain in decision making are now - Let alone the R i v e r, Look at Netflix for instance - Back in 2011 they decided to split the rental and streaming sides of their company - a decision that was BOUND to cause a MAJOR drop in Stock Value - And it did - In Fact you could Buy Netflix in that time range for less than $15 a share - now they are at over $600 a share - Bold moves with Long Term Vision in mind pay off, whereas short-sighted companies whose only tactics are petty attempts of pilfering every last 1/2 pence out of your pocket end up digging their own graves...

dirk12955 · ‎10-18-2021

Tagging on:

What would eBay gain by limiting who and when your items are visible?

Car dealers don't hide inventory. They park the cars door handle to door handle and squeeze

every inch out of their available space.

One state? A confined area? Maybe ebay saturated that area with TV ads and you benefited.

A conspiracy under every rock and around every corner.

isaiah53-57 · ‎10-18-2021

@soh.maryl wrote:
Greed?
So if my listings are only seen by Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, rather than in all 50 states, doesn't it mean that eBay is decreasing my chances of selling by limiting the buying pool?
If greed is their modus operandi, wouldn't they be pushing me to be selling with worldwide shipping?

Oh and yes, I do believe they are decreasing your chances of selling - WHY NOT? They dont care which seller is doing the selling - In over-saturated categories, ebay's move to their PAY TO PLAY promotions are exactly that - a decrease in sales for those unwilling to empty their pockets and an increase for those who are -- But once again, this is ALL at the Expense of long Term Growth and Sustainability for the site and for sellers as time goes on...