eBay

gamersbaystore · ‎03-28-2019

While many are angered over the latest changes regarding GTC, and many others are speculating as to why their sales are dead, I suspect there's other issues than GTC that are just as bad, if not far worse. Those issues are related to bad algorithms that ebay put into place with the intent to undercut its sellers and force them to drop their prices, or risk having no sales.

What I'm referring to is ebay's habit of advertising identical products from other sellers right inside your own listings. While I've seen ebay do this in patches since as far back as 2015, as of right now, no matter what listing a buyer clicks of mine, ebay then starts promoting the exact same identical product from other sellers. The end result is a never ending price war.

Just in the last 2 weeks I've seen the prices of the games I sell fall off a cliff as other sellers try to compete for sales of the same items.

ebay has turned its platform into a dollar store.

At this point I'm not looking for alternatives, I already found one, and I'm in the process of transitioning to an alternate platform now.

But myself, like many others, are also stuck with the dilemma that we're locked into a year long contract with ebay for our stores. Even if I leave, ebay is still going to want their $60 a month. Whether to stay or leave entirely is something I'm still debating. But either way, I'm definitely focusing on an alternative platform to operate my core business; albeit, one that's far cheaper with far less costs of doing business, and one that doesn't advertise the same identical products I sell from competitors.

Your thoughts on this?

sharingtheland · ‎03-30-2019

@abfabvintage wrote:
Trust me, I knew the diff, just making sure someone read my post since we have so many grammarians here. Or is it grammarist? LOLOLOL. My English Lit Mother taught me well. Thanks, Sharing for sharing.

I knew you did; did you see my angel emoji ?

Tip for any college student here (yeah, sure): If you don't want to study up on the Beowulf poet or Chaucer or Milton or Every. Single. Thing. Shakespeare ever wrote, minor in English Lit. Then you can pick courses with only, oh, 20th century authors and breeze through those necessary hours. All A's.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

sharingtheland · ‎03-30-2019

@gamersbaystore wrote:
While I agree with what you're saying, we are not powerless here, and ebay would be foolish to think so. I have plenty of cards up my sleeve if it becomes necessary to use them.

Ummmm...

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

mandymontana · ‎03-30-2019

@grasshopperx wrote:
Everyone.. keep your eyes on ebays next prize. Never mind the gtc, that's nothing compared with what's coming...The mangled payment system. To snatch up all that money paypal used to get. It will shore up the site, bring in more revenue, and make it look more profitable to the vulture investors.. Then after they get everyone tricked or forced into it. I predict the fees will start coming right off the top Of every sale. and they will increase... Why not, the snobby craft site is doing it. There's so many fees over there, there is a fee tacked onto a fee. And doesn't amazon already do that? Why wouldn't ebay. It will not go well when ebay decides to plays banker. and it doesn't matter if all the buyers and all the sellers are against it. They're going full speed ahead. Ebay sees dollar signs. They wont care if they mess up your bank account.

Their fees are less than eBay's (9.7% total) and there is no hassle or schemes being played on sellers over there.

$0.20 gets you four months of listing. That's better than $0.35 per month and hassling gimmicks.

Worth a try anyways, Just Saying.

By the way, you do some very GOOD work on your items!

Without knowing much of the OOAK culture of refinishing dolls, I'm sure you would do fine but I'm not sure how competition is in your field.

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎03-30-2019

@mandymontana wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
Everyone.. keep your eyes on ebays next prize. Never mind the gtc, that's nothing compared with what's coming...The mangled payment system. To snatch up all that money paypal used to get. It will shore up the site, bring in more revenue, and make it look more profitable to the vulture investors.. Then after they get everyone tricked or forced into it. I predict the fees will start coming right off the top Of every sale. and they will increase... Why not, the snobby craft site is doing it. There's so many fees over there, there is a fee tacked onto a fee. And doesn't amazon already do that? Why wouldn't ebay. It will not go well when ebay decides to plays banker. and it doesn't matter if all the buyers and all the sellers are against it. They're going full speed ahead. Ebay sees dollar signs. They wont care if they mess up your bank account.
Their fees are less than eBay's (9.7% total) and there is no hassle or schemes being played on sellers over there.
$0.20 gets you four months of listing. That's better than $0.35 per month and hassling gimmicks.
Worth a try anyways, Just Saying.

By the way, you do some very GOOD work on your items!
Without knowing much of the OOAK culture of refinishing dolls, I'm sure you would do fine but I'm not sure how competition is in your field.

Except for when they suddenly reach into your back up bank account or cc to help themselves to money they're in no way entitled to.

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

weschurch · ‎03-30-2019

@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
@mandymontana wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
Everyone.. keep your eyes on ebays next prize. Never mind the gtc, that's nothing compared with what's coming...The mangled payment system. To snatch up all that money paypal used to get. It will shore up the site, bring in more revenue, and make it look more profitable to the vulture investors.. Then after they get everyone tricked or forced into it. I predict the fees will start coming right off the top Of every sale. and they will increase... Why not, the snobby craft site is doing it. There's so many fees over there, there is a fee tacked onto a fee. And doesn't amazon already do that? Why wouldn't ebay. It will not go well when ebay decides to plays banker. and it doesn't matter if all the buyers and all the sellers are against it. They're going full speed ahead. Ebay sees dollar signs. They wont care if they mess up your bank account.
Their fees are less than eBay's (9.7% total) and there is no hassle or schemes being played on sellers over there.
$0.20 gets you four months of listing. That's better than $0.35 per month and hassling gimmicks.
Worth a try anyways, Just Saying.

By the way, you do some very GOOD work on your items!
Without knowing much of the OOAK culture of refinishing dolls, I'm sure you would do fine but I'm not sure how competition is in your field.
Except for when they suddenly reach into your back up bank account or cc to help themselves to money they're in no way entitled to.

Which Ebay has been accused of doing hundreds of times

mandymontana · ‎03-30-2019

@weschurch wrote:
@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
@mandymontana wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
Everyone.. keep your eyes on ebays next prize. Never mind the gtc, that's nothing compared with what's coming...The mangled payment system. To snatch up all that money paypal used to get. It will shore up the site, bring in more revenue, and make it look more profitable to the vulture investors.. Then after they get everyone tricked or forced into it. I predict the fees will start coming right off the top Of every sale. and they will increase... Why not, the snobby craft site is doing it. There's so many fees over there, there is a fee tacked onto a fee. And doesn't amazon already do that? Why wouldn't ebay. It will not go well when ebay decides to plays banker. and it doesn't matter if all the buyers and all the sellers are against it. They're going full speed ahead. Ebay sees dollar signs. They wont care if they mess up your bank account.
Their fees are less than eBay's (9.7% total) and there is no hassle or schemes being played on sellers over there.
$0.20 gets you four months of listing. That's better than $0.35 per month and hassling gimmicks.
Worth a try anyways, Just Saying.

By the way, you do some very GOOD work on your items!
Without knowing much of the OOAK culture of refinishing dolls, I'm sure you would do fine but I'm not sure how competition is in your field.
Except for when they suddenly reach into your back up bank account or cc to help themselves to money they're in no way entitled to.
Which Ebay has been accused of doing hundreds of times

At least Etsy admitted an error and returned the money.

Ebay tells you it's to increase sales.

bermudawrecktangled · ‎04-06-2019

It's not so they 'Show' better, it's to allow the longer duration -- '30 days' to allow the listings to be indexed into Google searches. Short term duration listings 3,5,7 day listings didn't get properly spidered / indexed into google results, and subsequently Ebay missed out on potential traffic.

Also, the philosophy behind auto-relist, keeps all of the metrics of the listing; i.e. watchers, hits on the page, and Google stats. Unlike 'sell similar' which creates a new listing that starts from ground 0 in the indexing process.

It feels good to vent a little, but this thing boils down to a bunch of 'Quants' playing the 'MoneyBall' metrics game with online shopping. Amaz-socks & Ebaeletics.. Ebay will never win, but they will make the season exciting for the buyers, and the Sellers will go home as losers year after year; but they didn't spend much money.

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎04-06-2019

@weschurch wrote:
@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
@mandymontana wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
Everyone.. keep your eyes on ebays next prize. Never mind the gtc, that's nothing compared with what's coming...The mangled payment system. To snatch up all that money paypal used to get. It will shore up the site, bring in more revenue, and make it look more profitable to the vulture investors.. Then after they get everyone tricked or forced into it. I predict the fees will start coming right off the top Of every sale. and they will increase... Why not, the snobby craft site is doing it. There's so many fees over there, there is a fee tacked onto a fee. And doesn't amazon already do that? Why wouldn't ebay. It will not go well when ebay decides to plays banker. and it doesn't matter if all the buyers and all the sellers are against it. They're going full speed ahead. Ebay sees dollar signs. They wont care if they mess up your bank account.
Their fees are less than eBay's (9.7% total) and there is no hassle or schemes being played on sellers over there.
$0.20 gets you four months of listing. That's better than $0.35 per month and hassling gimmicks.
Worth a try anyways, Just Saying.

By the way, you do some very GOOD work on your items!
Without knowing much of the OOAK culture of refinishing dolls, I'm sure you would do fine but I'm not sure how competition is in your field.
Except for when they suddenly reach into your back up bank account or cc to help themselves to money they're in no way entitled to.
Which Ebay has been accused of doing hundreds of times

For refunds etc, yes, but not the way Etsy did it recently.

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

lindyslucky · ‎04-06-2019

My little experiment.

I had several pig figures to sell.

I googled pig figures.

And yes!! There was a vintage one just like I have...not yet listed.

It was on ebay, I thought I could check sold, active, price.

The click took me to ebay's list of all pig figures.

How does this help any buyer?

Just sends one to ebay, not the item!

lugro_30 · ‎04-06-2019

@jason_incognito wrote:
So look at this from a buyer's point of view.

eBay has your back and gets you a good deal. If what you receive isn't right, they'll make it right.

or you can go to that other site. The one all the sellers dream of.

You're on your own. It is up to you to price compare, read all the fine print and become an expert in buying stuff.

Which site do you think the average buyer would chose? As a seller, the smartest thing you can do is go where the buyers are and play the game that site plays so that you can be favored and get the sale.

Or list the stuff "over there" where there is no price competition, where all sales are final, where the buyer can't do a return even if they get a box of rocks..... and watch your listings gather dust.

I've done physical retail the majority of my life. I can't tell you how many places I've seen fail just because they chose the wrong location, or how many poorly managed, poorly run stores I've seen thrive just because of their location.

Ever since the GTC was announced I moved 85% of my listings to that other site and the trendy one. Things have slowed down this past week but I’ve made 5 times more sales so far this quarter than selling here first quarter of 2018. I regret not making the move sooner. No site is perfect and the grass is always greener but sometimes when a site continues to make changes that make your life difficult and the sales are bad, it’s time to try something else. And that other site allows me to rate the buyer honestly. So before I make a deal I can browse the feedback and see what other sellers say about a buyer.

weschurch · ‎04-06-2019

@lugro_30 wrote:
@jason_incognito wrote:
So look at this from a buyer's point of view.

eBay has your back and gets you a good deal. If what you receive isn't right, they'll make it right.

or you can go to that other site. The one all the sellers dream of.

You're on your own. It is up to you to price compare, read all the fine print and become an expert in buying stuff.

Which site do you think the average buyer would chose? As a seller, the smartest thing you can do is go where the buyers are and play the game that site plays so that you can be favored and get the sale.

Or list the stuff "over there" where there is no price competition, where all sales are final, where the buyer can't do a return even if they get a box of rocks..... and watch your listings gather dust.

I've done physical retail the majority of my life. I can't tell you how many places I've seen fail just because they chose the wrong location, or how many poorly managed, poorly run stores I've seen thrive just because of their location.

Ever since the GTC was announced I moved 85% of my listings to that other site and the trendy one. Things have slowed down this past week but I’ve made 5 times more sales so far this quarter than selling here first quarter of 2018. I regret not making the move sooner. No site is perfect and the grass is always greener but sometimes when a site continues to make changes that make your life difficult and the sales are bad, it’s time to try something else. And that other site allows me to rate the buyer honestly. So before I make a deal I can browse the feedback and see what other sellers say about a buyer.

Its apples to oranges. I made the switch in 2012-13. Even then, when Ebay was only mediocre, as compared to the current "awful" state, I was shocked at the velocity and ease and wondered why I didn't do it sooner as well.

rixstuff · ‎04-08-2019

Big Box sellers, Chinese Junk Sellers, and Ebay "business owners",

None of the above. This is just a yard sale for me - always has been. At least online I don't have to waste a Saturday outside in the heat to make minor bucks. Better money, less time.

Sure there ARE other sites - Amazon included - but you cant list everything on those others sites. And the fees are often MUCH higher and they are hardcore with closing down sellers and dashing off refunds without making folks return the item.

partsman330 · ‎04-08-2019

To the OP:

You are correct on many points. Ebay is a platform where I have noted prices far lower than others. How do I know? I have a store on a different platform and anytime I look at Ebay to see what has sold I always see prices DRAMATICALLY lower than the prices i fetch the SAME items on another platform. I use this account to sell deadtsock/old appliances this is not my livelyhood. The constant pressure to offer free shipping/returns AND lower prices is madness. I reap an average sale price of 50% MORE than the average sale prices I observe here on Ebay on other platform.

Could it be there is just too much competition and the glut of sellers selling the same items are lowering the price? if so, there's not much you, me, or anyone can do about that. This is something I often suspect. When a platform has too much of the same thing you see prices drop and there are only so many buyers out there who want said product.

Its very possible there are other items which may reap better prices on here, but I don't know i only deal in certain things. But I DO know 100% for certain for my product there are other platforms where i can, and do get a much higher price than on here and deal with a small FRACTION of the hassles.

bimm_corp · ‎04-08-2019

@gamersbaystore wrote:
I'll disagree with what you're saying as well. Consider this, a buyer purchases a game, plays it for 3 weeks, then returns it for a full refund. If you can't see how this system would be abused, I don't know what else to say. free returns = a free rental service for buyers, those are the facts, no denying this.

It gets even worse with comic books. The scammer will buy a HTF golden-age book, scan the entire book, then return it, then post the scan as a PDF for sale on eBay. Quite a racket.