Over 80 millions buyer eBay??? Where are they??? NOT ONE sale for a month now and counting.

[timemachine777]

Hey eBay...How many of the over 80 million eBay buyers are actually buyers in the USA? It's been a month and I have not sold even one antique or collectible. Over the past couple of weeks I added a bunch of great additions, but only added hundreds of more views and loads of added watchers, but no sales. I use to have a sell through rate of over 40% on avg. Now it didn't even register at all. Not even a 1% level.

One item I just listed has over 200 views and 13 watchers in a few days time in a high buying sub category. What's up with that eBay? Do you have my listings disabled? I have had to stop buying on eBay myself due to the numerous listings that I have tried to purchase, yet the BIN, checkout, etc...buttons would be either greyed out or not functioning correctly.

Could this also be the reason why over the last two months the eBay phone lines have gone from a 1 min hold time to about 1 hour. I find that odd in itself since eBay just opened a number of call centers along the east coast, Mich, and Mo, to name a few. 

I couldn't even maintain my TRSP status, because I recently dropped below the 100 items per year mark and in the past month that number has dropped too 71. Next month it will drop even more at this rate. All I can say about that is that "Where not in Kansas anymore Toto". Something really bad is going on with my accounts and many other sellers. 

I am so glad that I don't rely on eBay for my income, or I would be on the street due to the lack of any sales this year with 4 active accounts and over 1000 listings. In the past eBay has always been mad money for me, but now it isn't even producing enough for me to buy a movie ticket to the show.

Word of mouth is the best advertising they say. Will eBay...every year you give use small sellers less an less to brag about when it comes to our success at eBay. You just give us more gasoline to throw on a bad fire. Hopefully the board of directors will one day see this as a major problem and get past being complacent, and right the ship. Us bilge rats just may make your competition the new eBay in less time than you think if we all start jumping ship in droves. BTW...Your most hated competitor is now expanding in the antique and collectibles market.

This slow squeeze that your putting on us with your seller unfriendly algorithms and policies, is going to leave you with nothing left in your hands when you finally open them up. Many of us know that you don't want us selling here as we are not large sellers, that sell new product only, but that was what eBay was founded on. You forget eBay roots and it's first sale of a BROKEN laser pointer. NOT a new one. Think about that as you count the multi-million dollar paychecks that WE made for you. Because without us there is no eBay, and no PAYCHECK. 

[bubbleman2010]

In the collectible and antique world demand and price are the two main drivers. Get into something to deep or something with little or no demand and you have to become creative to lure the buyer is.....

[auctionpet]

Please don't take offense. Many of your items are no longer desirable, mainly the glassware. Much is overpriced, especially with the shipping. This is why your not selling these items, people aren't even looking for them. There are tens of thousands pieces of clear and milk glass here that will never sell. I can't even sell glassware at the flea market for a few dollars! I see this type of stuff at local auctions just sit, table lots not even bringing $10. I stopped selling this type of stuff on line years ago.

Times change and competition steadily increases.

[mr_lincoln]

@timemachine777  The published number for registered Buying accounts is in excess of 165 million ... which means you have cause to be TWICE as ticked ...

I just put over 1/2 the items on 2 IDs up with Free Returns and simply cannot wait to rake in the dough from the 15% increase in sales on those items ... just bought some additional packaging material in preparation for the deluge of orders ... its been almost 24 hours since doing that so I am braced for the impact of more sales!!!!!!!!!

[timemachine777]

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@1786davycrockett wrote:

Same here, abe -- although May was only a HALF-bad month (sales only down 50%, rather than the new average of 60-70%), June is not looking too peachy:  only 9 sales, and a big goose egg for the last two days.

My new part-time job at Target provides me with an extra $1200 a month; so that makes up for most of my lost eBay business.  But it sure isn't as much fun as hunting for great old collectible books, toys, comics, records and magazines, and selling same to the appreciative set of buyers who used to flock to my store not so long ago.

Where'd all my buyers go?  And what happened to the "old" eBay?

To paraphrase an old radio show, "What evil lurks in the heart of eBay?  Only eBay knows!"

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You have to make it up some where. It's funny how many books sellers on eBay sell about 10% of their inventory every 90 days or 3.3% per month. I have about 80 vintage pb's listed with most in new to like new cond and I only sold 8 over the past 90 days. which is also 10%. Funny how that works out on eBay.

[mr_lincoln]

@auctionpet

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@auctionpet wrote:
Please don't take offense. Many of your items are no longer desirable, mainly the glassware. Much is overpriced, especially with the shipping. This is why your not selling these items, people aren't even looking for them. There are tens of thousands pieces of clear and milk glass here that will never sell. I can't even sell glassware at the flea market for a few dollars! I see this type of stuff at local auctions just sit, table lots not even bringing $10. I stopped selling this type of stuff on line years ago.

Times change and competition steadily increases.

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Good observation ... we've seen things at multiple live auctions get few or no bids.  I like having some dishware for sale from a diversity standpoint but they are indeed slow movers.  Pyrex however sells but pricing is tricky ... the really rare patterns or very old pieces in good shape bring decent money but the run of the mill stuff often sells for less then the shipping cost.

[slideshopper]

I noticed one of your items will need a complate new title to sell. It is the hour glass Decanter. It is a KLUK Kluk by Holmegaard. Fill it up and slowly pour it out, then you will know why it is called a kluk kluk

[siayan]

You had a sale on June 3. 

[bonjourami]

Do you think it has anything to do with the 1.5 billion listings worldwide on Ebay?

[auctionpet]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@auctionpet

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@auctionpet wrote:
Please don't take offense. Many of your items are no longer desirable, mainly the glassware. Much is overpriced, especially with the shipping. This is why your not selling these items, people aren't even looking for them. There are tens of thousands pieces of clear and milk glass here that will never sell. I can't even sell glassware at the flea market for a few dollars! I see this type of stuff at local auctions just sit, table lots not even bringing $10. I stopped selling this type of stuff on line years ago.

Times change and competition steadily increases.

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Good observation ... we've seen things at multiple live auctions get few or no bids.  I like having some dishware for sale from a diversity standpoint but they are indeed slow movers.  Pyrex however sells but pricing is tricky ... the really rare patterns or very old pieces in good shape bring decent money but the run of the mill stuff often sells for less then the shipping cost.

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Yes, some of the pyrex remains popular! I started selling mine locally due to shipping, like you mentioned. I was referring more to the clear glass and white milk glass.

[emerald40]

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@timemachine777 wrote:

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@honestabe411 wrote:
I feel you TimeMachine. Sales here have been extremely slow for me as well. From 7-12+ a day consistently for years to 1 sale in the last 3.5 days and..300-375 sales a month to 70-100 a month. Getting very odd around here.

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Even though I don't sell clothing myself, I track a lot of clothing sellers because you guys tend to carry the same brands, so it's easy to see what's going on between accounts on the surface because I can compare apples to apples. I'm always trying to figure out ( using what I can see ), why one seller is killing it month after month, and year after year, when their counterpart is starving for a sale. With everything equal on the surface, it's what's going on behind the scenes that is the real answer.

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Many sellers have loyal buyers.  I do the same.  When I want something I have a short list of go-to sellers.

And alot of my sales are from long time customers.

[bubbleman2010]

I love selling glass and in reality thats where the monster money is hidden at,but folks don't know what it is or when it was made and just walk right on by....

[paulhua3]

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@bonjourami wrote:

Do you think it has anything to do with the 1.5 billion listings worldwide on Ebay?

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That and the fact that the sell-through rate on old glassware is abysmal.  If I had that stuff I would box it up and drop it off at some thrift shop when they weren't looking.

[bonjourami]

Me too, cant blame ebay for those items not selling.

[timemachine777]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

Just a thought  Maybe consider putting your smoothing plane up for auction?

They are actually doing well at auction right now.  -  https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=vintage+stanley+smoothing+planes&_sacat=0&LH_Auction=...

Good Luck Selling!

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I can no longer sell anything in an auction format on eBay, and if I'm lucky to do so, I get just one bid and end up selling the item for way less than everyone else did. A while back I listed a rare Charles Sawyer print Moonrise Cottage in near mint cond, and kept getting no bids. After a few tries, I changed it to BIN an doubled the price. Still no action, so instead of relisting it on another venue, I just let it ride.

I kept checking the active listings every week to see if anybody else put one up for sale. Plus I'm always a buyer if I can get a deal on this specific print. Finally mine sells for 125.00 plus shipping. Nice. I also checked the active and sold like I always do out of habit. Shocked and somewhat PO'd.

There was one that just sold in an auction format with 1 bid for 25.00 plus 15.00 S&H, and it was in Mint cond. I would have bid on that one in a heart beat. But it never showed up in any of my search results. So much for eBay showing everything. I would have went as high as 50.00 plus S&H to resell it.

[njrtsr]

1: Lower your prices. Your prices are too high!
2: Add new listings. With OOAK listings, the best, most sought-after, and most appropriately priced stuff sells first. Then you're left with the dredge. If you don't keep listing or lowering your prices you will eventually have a store full of stuff that nobody wants. If you insist on high prices you can't only (yes, only!) have 50 items for sale and expect stuff to fly off the shelves.