eBay

vickie31 · ‎02-27-2018

Is it me, or does it seem that ebay continues to focus their business model on the BUYER and NOT the SELLER. I have become more and more frustrated with the ebay experience as a seller each time they roll out a new change. Forcing top rated sellers (by holding their top rated seller discounts hostage), to offer 30 day returns? That is NOT fair on such items as holiday items and costume jewelry. I have experienced buyers using the items for an event or outing and returning them. And now...they're going to eventually force us into a 'box' with what to charge for postage? This whole 'guaranteed delivery' program is a joke....it only works (using USPS) if the Post Office is flawless in their delivery of a package which I have personally not experienced in some time. I have started using Mercari, their listing process is 1000% simpler, they have way better shipping contracts negotiated, AND the Seller does not have to pay a % of the amount charged for shipping.

Totally frustrated.........I guess ebay is focusing their business model on high volume sellers, not us lower volume sellers.

cargo11 · ‎02-27-2018

It gets interesting watching the short video - I only wish it was also written, the one gentleman I really could not understand - probably my old age - but I also have trouble talking to the outsourced Customer service. Seems the main focus is "FREE RETURNS" - I think my target audience is not really Ebay anymore. L.L. Bean learned the hard way with the "loss of revenue" - Ebay does not have to worry - it's all their sellers that will lose the money and NOT them. Guess the writing is on the wall - we are not fitting in well here - when you can go to a local Ant. Mall and buy something and they have a no returns policy - no headaches to deal with later - if the video quoted 75% check return policies before they buy - I am hoping the other 25% are shopping with me - buying an item and "keeping it" with no hopes to return. I pretty much have dropped clothing - no body shape is a normal - so the people that BUY TO TRY is increasing and I can't afford the returns like the corps can.
We'll see what pans out - after the stores intregrated into the main source and then the foreign/Chinese cheap stuff filling up the bandwidth - I think it may be time to retired from here.

mulberrys · ‎02-28-2018

eBay is gravitating towards the “retail standard” (as eBay calls it) comparable to Amazon and other online retails outlets, pushing for fast free shipping and free 30 day returns. The ongoing changes are a gradual death of non-commercial small sellers of misc. items like me.

When I started on eBay in 1995, the cornerstone of their business were the small sellers. It had 3 cent listing fees, non-complicated categories, and sales were high. Now if your listings numbers are too low to make the store fee viable (I keep about 100 listing open) the 30 cent listing fee hurts and risks more money if it’s doesn’t sell on a relist at a lower price, which means giving up on older listings (which took time to create) and creating more new listings.

I wish they would drop the listing fee and keep closing cost higher instead. This would also create more listings on the site providing the buyers more choices.

Hopefully a new company will rise to capture the small time seller niche eBay is abandoning, There’s a few good ones for specific item types (Etsy, Mercari, etc) but the general auction sites such as eBid and Bonanza aren't popular enough yet for an alternative.

peacelovejoyandrea · ‎02-28-2018

After 20 years of selling on Ebay and many years of running a pretty successful Ebay store, I am closing shop before my upcoming renewal date. There are just too many buyers gaming the system and I can't afford to sell on Ebay anymore. I am going to use FB , Instagram and Amazon to sell my remaining inventory. I hate to leave Ebay, but I just can't afford to stay. SO SAD!

luckythewinner · ‎02-28-2018

@vickie31wrote:
Is it me, or does it seem that ebay continues to focus their business model on the BUYER and NOT the SELLER.

It is not just you.

I think any most would agree that this has been the case for at least a decade now.

And I think that most would agree it will continue to be the case for the forseeable future.

After all, there are 1.1 billion items listed here so clearly ther are an awful lot of sellers who are willing to put up with it.

mistwomandancing · ‎02-28-2018

Is it me, or does it seem that ebay continues to focus their business model on the BUYER and NOT the SELLER.

Well... yes, certainly. Additionally, e-commerce IS focused on the buyer! The world of sales is focused on the buyer. As a seller, I'm focused on the buyer! They have the money. I want some of it, as much of it as I can snag.

yankeeyinzer · ‎02-28-2018

Etsy is great if any of your items are 20+ years old.

yankeeyinzer · ‎02-28-2018

Your Ebay store items look a lot like my friends' Mercari items. I'm slowly gravitating to that site.

vickie31 · ‎03-03-2018

Of course, we all are. However, offering free (or otherwise) returns on used clothing items after 30 days does not make good business sense to the seller. Nor does allowing someone to return a holiday item or piece of costume jewelry after they have used it.

happyseller1950 · ‎03-03-2018

I agree totally! I have been with them 18 years and am ready to call it quits! I can still sell through Facebook sites. It has just gotten too hard t make money through ebay. They have gotten to greedy. I may even quit before my subscription is up and pay the penalty.

tweetystwades · ‎03-03-2018

@yankeeyinzerwrote:
Your Ebay store items look a lot like my friends' Mercari items. I'm slowly gravitating to that site.

You can only post things through the phone app right?

lakeland_music · ‎04-16-2018

The real kicker about the Top Rated policy change, is the fact that you have to now offer 30 day FREE returns just to get the Top Rated badge. So previously when you just needed to satisfy the stat requirements to get the badge, but not the discount, now you need to give the free returns just to get the badge. I just got Top Rated status myself, I was happy to finally have that badge and now they are going to take it away.

lakeland_music · ‎04-16-2018

I think this picture says it all. This is what eBay cares about, this is what they cater to,
and we are not part of that vision of eBay's future. NEW EBAY STORE.jpg

brandibeach · ‎05-14-2018

Here's a voice louder than ours...TARGET closed it's eBay store April 2018!!! If eBay doesn't get the message now they never will.

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2018/4/1523666477.html

bradandamber · ‎05-14-2018

Frustated...Oh yeah...We are not far off from just doing live auctins about 5 miles down the road. We do them now but ebay has become a huge frustation. About to close the store this mont. Still pondering that. Will know in the last week of the month. We sell all kinds of stuff. The best thing about the live aution once a week ..No shipping charges and a flat fee to the auctioneer. We have been here think and then since 1996 when it was fun. This is not so much fun anymore. Shareholders take the #1 spot since ebay went public. Buyers #2 and Sellers last. At least small sellers. Major sellers on new merchandise is all ebay wants to sell. It's really ashame that they could not have split ebay into 2 companies. One for auctions and BIN and one for New items to take on the River. They can not compete withthe river and never will. They dont have enough forsight as to where to take the company.