Now getting nagging emails when EVERY listing ends telling me to "lower your price"...

[yestergroove]

This started about two weeks ago.  Now every time an auction ends and I need to relist, I am being bombarded with nagging to "Lower your price so it sells".  My prices aren't that high.  I am not a 'drop shipper'...these are my own personal items.  I know what my stuff is worth.  

So my question is this:  is ebay "keeping score" of whether or not we do lower the price when they "instruct" us to?  And is this gonna be used against sellers somehow?

I noticed it when they stopped allowing the little popup window to relist.  Now they force you to go back to the whole listing page to relist.  

I pay my fees.  And I pay my $20 a month (which really doesn't save you that much money when the items you list aren't in their "Specified Categories":  ie: vintage records, vintage electronics, and other "COLLECTIBLES" that they don't consider a "collectible").  I don't need to lose money just to "make a sale".  

[mr_lincoln]

@yestergroove  About the only advice I can offer is to ignore the emails ... I have a separate email address for the eBay business so my regular one does not get overrun with unecessary messages and I can sort and delete as required.

If you were hoping for really good info from Home Office on how to improve sales the list might include topics like:

1. Revise your titles to noticed more in Search, here's a link to guidelines that will help

2. Run Promoted listings in these categories, this will improve sales and with the $ 30 per quarter Promoted listing credit you can reduce your cost to promote

3. Run the Mobile friendly checker on items in these categories because our records how 75% of all purchases of those items are on a mobile device

4. Make sure your Auction listings end on a Weekend day and our records indicate Sunday is the best day for Auctions to end

5. Double check the picture formats you use and our policy so the main picture is best suited for Google Shopping Search

Instead of:

1. Lower the price

2. Lower the price

3. Lower the price

4. Lower the price

5. Lower the price

[where*you*crowin]

When I get them now its most like a reminder to raise the price and list somewhere else that is not in the race to the bottom.  It surprisingly has been working quite well.   

[*coins]

I ignore that stuff. I try to price everything slightly lower than the lowest item currently for sale, so I am always the lowest. They still send that anyways.

[jennieaa]

I set up an email rule that sends all of those into a folder other than my inbox.  Then I will be able to delete the entire contents of the folder.

[yestergroove]

Thanks to all. 

I do some of the things that mr_lincoln mentioned, so I know I'm on the right track.  I haven't ventured into any of the "mobile checker" stuff, because I don't really use a "device"...I'm a dinosaur that does all things internetty on an actual computer with a big screen that I can actually SEE.    

And I try to list so that they end on either a Saturday or Sunday.  I basically wait until either Wed or Thurs evenings to list as 10-day, 'cause I am NOT gonna pay an extra ten cents just to say WHEN I want to list.  Those quarter and ten cent and 35 cent charges add up, especially during "lean" weeks.  It almost makes me regret doing the $20/mo store thing, because a lot of what I'm selling right now (computer stuff and vintage vinyl records) is not considered a "collectible" and if I want to use Auction format, I still gotta pay the quarter.   

And yes, love the "reminder to raise the price"...I'm already near the bottom...I ain't in any hurry to race in that direction.  I actually have done that before, and yes the item sold.  Sometimes I think some people don't bother to look because a low price to them means it MUST be in crummy shape, etc.

I will now ignore the admonishments to "go cheaper", and have set up a filter to send 'em all to a folder.

Good to know I'm not the only one!

Now, if I could just figure out why it's always the "buyers" who are the ONLY bidder on a 99-cent auction who are the ones who end up never paying...

Insert the old Bartles & Jaymes "Thank you fer yer support" gif here.

[coolections]

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@yestergroove wrote:

Every time an auction ends and I need to relist, I am being bombarded with nagging to "Lower your price so it sells".   I know what my stuff is worth.

---

Everyone says that. In actuality it is only worth what someone is willing to pay. At auction there is no reason to get no bids if the item is priced right and the item is in demand enough for a buyer to purchase. Rarely should an auction end with no bids.

[grasshopperx]

Dont pay any attention to it. Ebays artificail intelligence is IGNORANT. There's lots of reasons an item doesnt sell. Number one being it isnt being seen on here. Ebay has been telling me to lower my prices for years. After 20 years of selling my type of items, I think I know what to price them at.

[vintagecraze50]

Interestingly enough, I have gotten recommendation for a decrease in price email on items that we have already put on sale using the promotions manage. Ah, NO! Also , interestingly enough, these items are listed for sometimes 2 x the price on other websites. Ah, NO!. On the ones that we have not already put on sale we lower the price in small increments. Mr Lincoln gave some good advice in prior post on revising titles, pictures, etc, and am considering promoted listings now with the credit.  Not in this like most people for the race to the bottom.

[vintagecraze50]

There is the right buyer at the right time at the right price and items that are not priced at the bottom of the barrel do sell, they just do not sell as fast as Ebay wants them to sell using the artificial intellectual that is often off track on what these items should be selling for based on prices not just here but where people are shopping elsewhere. Keep lowing your prices and loose your profits and give the profits to Ebay in the mass sales they get. Sounds like a great business plan. 

[tunicaslot]

Have to agree vintage - my last email to lower my prices showed prices I had on the items 3 days previously - I had started a 20% off sale 2 days before - I'm not sure where the holding pattern is for these emails but they're sitting somewhere as they don't have current data.

Yesterday afternoon - I received the sell your items in peoples' carts by lowering your pirces by 5%. Again with the old prices as I had marked most of these items down 25% at 3AM EST. I did use the tell us what you think option to let them know these emails are ridiculous. But they will catch those new to the game or unsuspecting.

[vintagecraze50]

There is some logic in this if you are wanting to get rid of stale inventory and wanting to buy other inventory that you think you will make better profits on, so do not throw the baby out with the bathwater on this. Lowing the price can help you even if you loose some profit from some items.  So use this accordingly and the best way you can. Just do not go broke. LOL.

[grasshopperx]

Right. Of course anything would sell at 99 cents. That's what ebay wants. It's artificial brain mixes things up all the time. A person may have a nice piece of silver jewelry worth say 50$. The computers scan thru all the silver jewelry.... see all the chinese junk selling for 99 cents and the US seller gets an email. Lower your price. Ebay should BUTT out. Sellers know what their items are worth. But the bad part is? Then the ebay smart brain computers shuts the 50$ silver jewelry listing off... (cassini)  I  wont play the games anymore.  Besides, realistically it takes time to sell things, Sometimes no one is looking, sometimes no one even sees the item. All kinds of reasons, not always the price. keep your prices at what you want.

[grasshopperx]

Tunic? Do they even read those emails? I do that all the time. Tell us what you think button?

[vintagecraze50]

Yes, that 's correct. Partnering with Ebay is fantastic for the most part, but the partner wants to make sales as much as we do, and when it is the right time to reduce the prices we as partners will do that but not until a good analysis of how our sales have been going for those items not just in the short term but in the overall yearly picture. If we really wanted to completely rid our inventory at bargain basement prices we would sell at the flea market.