eBay

jersey..authentix · ‎10-18-2019

I can open these discussion forums and find Many Ebayers are Complaining about the lack of sales. You can put me on that list.

So I am just posting my reason for one possibility. Wrong or right.

Ebay is a dinosaur. There are a lot of fresh faces now in the online sales arena.

Ebay doesn't stay current. They lack any effort to remind people that they are still around. I live in Canada, and I can not remember the last time I have seen any advertising. I hear they had a disastrous Comercial in the US that they had to pull due the flack they received. Goodgoing Ebay

You look at Amazon and Wayfair. They advertise the heck out of their site. Where would you go to do your online shopping? A Place that tells you every day "hear I am", or to a site where the only time you hear the word Ebay is in a Joke. Whats really bad is lately you dont even hear that much of the jokes anymore. Ebay is getting lost and forgotten.Ebay needs to pickup there sox and get the word out. Not just collect the fees.

xcomicstore · ‎10-20-2019

@csbbct wrote:
Where are the ads that promote eBay as the site that made them a household name to begin with - used, vintage, antique, and hard-to-find items?

Sure more ads would help, but I sell about 500 of those used, vintage, antique, and hard-to-find items every month. But not every used, vintage, antique, and hard-to-find item is salable, so one needs to survey the market before investing in inventory.

Also, many items that used to sell well on eBay, do not now, on eBay or anywhere else because people just don't want them any more. I've been selling military collectibles for 30 years, and while some items lose favor, the category is just as strong as ever.

monstertoybox · ‎10-20-2019

@doctor-of-style

"I believe you mentioned in another thread that you do not sell on other platforms. How are you, then, able to say that the reason for slow sales is eBay-related and not related to your inventory? If eBay is the problem, then why not close up shop here and take the inventory to Amazon or another platform?"

I am just trying to get rid of my items, not start a whole new store on another website. I do not want to sell online anymore. And I don't have the time nor the energy to move all my items to another website. I have spent MANY hours putting together my store here. They are limiting me, for whatever reason and I have to just hope that they will stop. I will say usually for Christmas I do very well here, but this year remains to be seen. Amazon also is a no go for toys, unless you’ve been on there for a long time, they do not allow new sellers of toys.

“So please, I mean no offense when I say, looking at your inventory, there's nothing particularly engaging about it. There's nothing vintage, nothing even more than a few years old. If I were looking at your store, I might think you were drop-shipping from Amazon.”

No offense taken, everyone can have an opinion. But all my items are 2-6 years old, most are not available through a retail store. I haven't bought anything since Oct 2017, so my items ARE over a few years old. Are you saying I look like a drop shipper because my pictures look good? At least that was what someone else mentioned. I take all my own pictures and only edit out the background of the first one, the rest are not edited. Which I have to add, takes hours to do, but I wanted my store to look professional. I am not a drop shipper, I have all my items in a room in my home.

“It's just that if you're dealing with modern product that is readily available online.”

This is an untrue statement. I have items that no one else on Ebay (or even Amazon) for that matter, has. So for you to say this shows me you haven’t looked at everything I have.

I am not going to comment on the prices individually. For every item you found that is high I have 5 items that aren’t and as I have stated (a million other times and shown in screen shots of sellers selling my same items at higher price) price is not the issue. The issue is Ebay is putting me on at 3:55am 3 days in a row (all on the west coast) (which again is only a recent sampling of patterns) and if Ebay is controlling the time and where my items are being seen then I have no control over my sales. Doesn’t matter if I lower my prices.

Honestly I don’t even know why I’m trying to defend myself again. You’re not going to look at anything I said, because you have an agenda, just like the others, to try to make me look bad and like I don't know what I'm talking about. I get it, none of you want to admit it is Ebay’s doing, which is fine. But I’ve been on here a long time and this site has changed a lot (and not for the better). I will be going out of business, but I didn’t just want to crawl under a rock and disappear. I wanted others to know that this controlling thing is real and it is destroying a lot of good, honest sellers.

That’s all I have to say regarding your comments, so go ahead and pick apart what I said …

If you want to see my proof of why I feel the way I do, I have a post https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Am-I-closed-Ebay-I-m-so-tired-of-NO-SALES-What-is-happening/m-... Page 14 message 320. I know you probably won't go look at it and even if you do, you will come here and pick it apart, but at this point I don't really care.

luvzena · ‎10-20-2019

@csbbct wrote:
Yes, I agree this must be very difficult place for sellers trying to sell new items unless their prices, including shipping costs, are lower than everyone else including every brick-and-mortar stores.

I started selling in 1998 soon after eBay started and at that time they did not promote themselves to be a bargain site for new products. They advertised to be a vintage, antique, collectible, hard-to-find and used item auction site. Rarely were new items sold here in the beginning. There were no Buy it Now listings, only auctions. You had to pay for every listing and the fees were based on the price you started for the auction - the lower the starting price the lower your insertion fees, so it encouraged sellers to start low and buyers had the potential for getting a great bargain. Over the years, eBay changed their focus and preferred to promote new Buy it Now items at a bargain, but not in the very beginning.

That's why I chose Ebay to sell my items. My inventory is basically garage sale items; however, the garage sale market is kaput. No one in Phoenix wants old or used stuff. When I used to sell on Ebay, most of my buyers were from the East Coast. Those people loved my "vintage, antique, collectibles, and hard-to-find items." People near where I live are interested in mostly Southwestern stuff. I've been collecting stuff for 60 years, mostly while I lived in Chicagoland area. I had a small, but steady stream of East Coast buyers for many years. Now that I'm older, Ebay has created too many barriers and hoops to leap through for me to want to play the game anymore. A real turnoff.

So you're probably asking why am I commenting on these boards? In the hopes that they might come to their senses and revitalize the site and restore it to its original content. People can buy NIB stuff anywhere. Why would they come to Ebay for that?

bestdeal4youstore · ‎10-21-2019

Me too. I'm planning to run some ads on ebay. could you guys please suggest me a good bid? how about 5%?

turquoisetulips · ‎10-21-2019

@gamersbaystore wrote:
Speaking of advertising, I just read an article on e-commerce bytes today about how angry affiliate marketers are with ebay. It appears ebay cut their commissions by 30% or more. I fear those affiliates will just bounce and do business somewhere else. Driving Traffic to eBay May Lose Its Appeal

As if the lack of traffic here wasn't already bad enough. Even if ebay advertises, they have one other serious problem, they lost their rank with Google search. A lot of that has to do with the platform's negative public image, reputation is a strong ranking factor.

ebay doesn't comprehend basic SEO, much less how Google's ranking algorithms work.

Perhaps they simply do not want to comprehend . I think it's possible in order to reduce even more costs e bay has put too many employees at the helm with the general mindset of '' us first'' . In other words instant gratification for themselves and then they may worry about everyone else later . Even students who have finished last in marketing classes know how important advertising is ,, but when a business is wearing blinders woven out of the fabric of greed it very difficult to part with money . I'm not a super religious person but I do recall a verse in the bible that says '' Sin is only fun for a season '' . I took that to mean that a person can only get away with behaving badly for so long before it catches up to them. Tulips

laurabeardsley · ‎10-21-2019

Unless Ebay comes out with a statement to its sellers as to what is going on here and why sales have gone downhill so badly and what they are doing to remedy this it will continue to spiral down and sellers will leave. Possibly there is some strategy here that we are all missing that somehow benefits the stock which seems to be the only thing they care about right now.

bigsurfenterprises2007 · ‎10-21-2019

I'm with you. Over 13 years selling here and this has been the worst year ever! I have had 3 sales in the last 14 days. Pathetic. I used to have at least 2-3 sales a day when it first started getting bad last year. Before that it was 5-7 sales a day. Since then it has become so bad I am finally investigating opportunities elsewhere. My only regret is waiting this long to try another selling venue. I would say glad to know it's not just me but I cant. I feel sorry for everyone. It's like they finally took a great thing and ruined it. RIP eBay.

vintagecraze50 · ‎10-21-2019

One of the issues brought up by Elliot Management who are now on the board was that they felt Ebay did a lost of “WASTEFUL SPEND” . I do not know what they are referring to in that category because in their letter to them that is all they said. Perhaps they are now cutting back on wasteful spend, and collecting fees as a way to recoup. So, maybe the multimillion dollar advertising they did several years ago did not produce the results they hoped for. Who knows?

vintagecraze50 · ‎10-21-2019

We are hoping Christmas sales will be at least in line or close to what they were a year ago. Nor sure that is going to happen here but fingers crossed and if it does not we may have to consider other alternatives.

vintagecraze50 · ‎10-21-2019

People will always be interested in those types of items forever.

vintagecraze50 · ‎10-21-2019

I just read the blog on the new affiliate rates. I think that’s was a bad move.

vintagecraze50 · ‎10-21-2019

Stock is king here now. Sellers, not so important. Thanks Elliot Management.

csbbct · ‎10-21-2019

@xcomicstore wrote:
@csbbct wrote:
Where are the ads that promote eBay as the site that made them a household name to begin with - used, vintage, antique, and hard-to-find items?
Sure more ads would help, but I sell about 500 of those used, vintage, antique, and hard-to-find items every month. But not every used, vintage, antique, and hard-to-find item is salable, so one needs to survey the market before investing in inventory.
Also, many items that used to sell well on eBay, do not now, on eBay or anywhere else because people just don't want them any more. I've been selling military collectibles for 30 years, and while some items lose favor, the category is just as strong as ever.

I completely agree. I have been selling in various forms for almost 30 years and I have lost count of the number of times I have redefined my business. When something stops working, I adjust what I buy to resell. With the recent changes in USPS shipping costs, I am currently re-evaluating my purchases again.

I just think it would be nice for eBay to advertise to remind people how great this site still is to find used, antique, vintage, hard-to-find, unique, collectible, and discontinued items. As I said before, it's what made them a household name to begin with and to this day there is no site that is better in that arena. There are many sites, however, that are far better than eBay when it comes to brand new items! If eBay doesn't streamline their search engine to make it easier for buyers to find what they're looking for and doesn't fix their endless glitches, eBay will no longer be the best in any arena.

doctor-of-style · ‎10-21-2019

And I don't have the time nor the energy to move all my items to another website.

That's fine if you don't want to sell online anymore, but the claim the above claim is not true. How many hours a week do you spend on this forum posting about bad sales? It seems like every thread on the matter I've looked at, you're right in the middle of it. That's your choice, but lack of time is not a valid reason for not moving to a better platform for your items if you have this much time to post on here.

This is an untrue statement. I have items that no one else on Ebay (or even Amazon) for that matter, has. So for you to say this shows me you haven’t looked at everything I have.

Naturally I did not look through 600 items of yours. The items I mentioned were ones I picked at random. I'd be willing to bet that most of your inventory can be found at comparable or better prices on here or elsewhere. That is part of the problem, and that's not me taking a shot at you. It's me being realistic about how the market for many categories is saturated online. The end result is more competition and, for some, a notable decline in margins.

Honestly I don’t even know why I’m trying to defend myself again. You’re not going to look at anything I said, because you have an agenda, just like the others, to try to make me look bad and like I don't know what I'm talking about.

I don't have an agenda. I'm simply trying to offer some possibilities as to why your sales suck. I believe redrose was trying to do the same. But it seems like you're not open to any other explanation than it's eBay's fault. If you want to immerse yourself in conspiracy theories as to why you've got stale inventory that people don't want, that's fine. But someone providing possible reasons that conflict with that doesn't mean they have an agenda.

Your victim mentality is unbecoming. eBay is flawed, yes, but I learned the hard way that putting all of your problems on eBay doesn't fix anything. And most likely, there are other, more valid explanations as to why sales have dipped. I've sold on eBay for more than 15 years. Things have changed. I think someone here said that "ordinary" no longer sells. And that's true. I think back on some of the stuff I was able to sell on here 15, 10, or even 5 years ago and realize I couldn't do it now. Not because eBay is hiding my listings or throttling my sales. But because those things are no longer in demand or the market is so saturated that they're not worth selling.

In business, especially eCommerce, people need to be able and WILLING to adapt with the changing times. Those that don't, die. It's that simple. It's not a popular opinion, and it's easier to blame the ebay boogeyman.

monstertoybox · ‎10-21-2019

Once again (like others) you choose to see and comment on what you think makes your point valid. The majority of actual sellers on this board are having the same problems as me. Are we all just making this stuff up? All I’ve done is come here to talk about my issues, and to show why I think that it’s Ebay controlling when and where I’m seen. I didn’t ask for your comments on my store or prices, and as I’ve shown price doesn’t matter. I could see if my prices were outrages, but I’m on the low end on most.

As you left out of my statement I don't have the time nor the energy to move all my items to another website BECAUSE I have spent MANY hours putting together my store here. So why should I have to move? I like Ebay. I want to be on Ebay, but I want to be in control of my listings. Simple as that. You are right I am on every thread, because almost every thread has to do with the same issue I’m having and surprise they’re all about low or no sales issues. Normally when my store is busy I spend all this time doing stuff in there, but since my sales have flat-lined I have turned my attention to voicing about my issues. I have no motivation to do anything more on here until they fix the problem.

“Naturally I did not look through 600 items of yours.” That first sentence, of your comment, says all I have to hear. Your point is not valid if price is not the issue, which it’s not. People buy higher all the time, as I’ve shown in the screen shots. And surprise something good happened with my store today, maybe someone is listening, maybe there was actually something wrong with my store, but I got 4 sales today already. I haven’t had that many sales in a day for months. And before my store was having issues this was a normal day for me.

I am not open to what you are saying because you are saying that it is my pricing (which it’s not) and that I have common items (which I don’t). And telling me I have “stale inventory that people don’t want” is just really mean and untrue, especially since you haven't looked at all my items. I did get 4 sales with that stale inventory today, so I guess someone likes my "stale" inventory. 🙂

Putting the blame on Ebay is my last resort. I have spent many hours (and years for that matter) working and tweaking my store. I have literally tried everything and nothing is helping … well until today. I have adapted with every suggestion they have given me. Maybe they fixed something? Hopefully it stays that way and I won’t have to be on the board ever again. I would rather just be working on my store.

Ebay may not be a “boogeyman” as you state, but in my opinion, they are in control of everything and if you don’t believe that, that’s fine, but you will never convince me otherwise. You know what is unbecoming, you bad mouthing me just to prove a point. Whatever, we can go back and forth, but the MAJORITY of people reading this know what’s real. So you can waste your time on more words if you like (but look above in blue).