Sales down to nothing from January 1 2019

[ez-deals-4you]

Just wondering if it is just me, or if other long-time sellers have noticed a complete drop through the floor of sales that started in the beginning of this month?

[sammyboo43]

oh btw, this may help... it is not just ebay. I sell apps online through Apple and Microsoft and my own sites too. Dead! So it’s not only ebay.

but yeah, I’ve never seen it this low...

[bill7284]

Really? Gee, as a buyer of 15 years I see exactly why. I buy at least 80 percent less and probably will diminish from there. But that's OK, keep asking each other what the problems are and don't ask the buyers. When Meg Whitman left Ebay, it became an ego driven mess. It comes from the top and is no longer a joy to impulse buy. It's a miserable task and yes I still buy if I really really have to. That's it folks .

[johnjohnleprechan]

I have noticed that a lot of items which used to be surefire sellers now just don’t sell. Has anyone else noticed this.

[cindeen]

Same here. 23 years of growth then wham, November 2016 started the steady decline and it continues. After every election there's a slow down, but this is unbelievable.

[barclays_curious]

Absolutely, I'm a small seller but have been at it for many (many!  gulp) years.   I rarely have more than 15 items.
But I've had the same 15 sitting out there now for months.   In fact I lowered my prices to 'clearance' a few days ago and still nothing.   I have about another 10 items I want to list but I'm wondering if its even worth all the time and effort.

What I'm trying to figure out is, is this some kind of new Ebay search engine shenanigans, because people are shopping/selling on some other platform now.... or is it (what I'm most worried) a national trend of people just having less money to shop, aka retail apocalypse stuff.   I know a lot of the nations malls are all closing- where prices are higher- as well as department stores but Dollar Trees are springing up everywhere.    A lot of millenials now are saddled with school debt and not landing good paying jobs.   Are most people in the country just getting poorer?    Just wanting other seller's thoughts.
😕

[barclays_curious]

Im wondering about this new "feature" that I haven't seen before.   So I can assume Ebay wants to charge even more fees, and if you don't pay them they stick your listings at the bottom of the pile so no one sees them?
How many people are now using this?   

[nuclearomen]

no one uses the feature and wouldn't worry about where your items land in a search. People typically search specific items so unless your selling stuff that 1000 other people are trying to sell (i.e. phone cables and such) the placement won't matter. What matters is your price and offering returns. Ebay gets enough of your money as it is why pay them for some "premium placement" that won't help sell your item anyway.

[yuppiehi_52]

Nobody comes here because the people making the rules are so out of touch it aint even funny!  CBD sales are one thing that makes ebay a total joke!  Time for Ebay to join the 21st century.

[innovatilife]

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@barclays_curious wrote:

Im wondering about this new "feature" that I haven't seen before.   So I can assume Ebay wants to charge even more fees, and if you don't pay them they stick your listings at the bottom of the pile so no one sees them?
How many people are now using this?   

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I actually tried Promoted Listings and see if my sales changed. The results? The amount of sales remained the same, give or take about several percent or so. The only strange part is that over 90% of my sales are now from Promoted Listings. It doesn't make much sense since I was selling the same amount without promoted listings. I guess when you use promoted listings, eBay puts your listing in search as sponsored instead of normal and are now being charged extra any time a buyer clicks your item and purchases.

Do you rank higher with it? No idea... but when you list a new item, it always goes on the first page at the top of results for a day or so anyway (this is considering you aren't selling an item that has thousands of similar listings). If you price the item right and give it a great description and photos like I do, it will usually sell within that time frame.

The only beneficial thing about promoted listings is that it displays your listing as an ad in other people's listings. This would only be helpful if your item has hundreds or thousands of other similar listings. So for those items, I would just put it at no more than 1% (I'm already paying way too much for listing and final value fees).

BTW, my sales are great! I'm having another monstrous weekend!

[turquoisetulips]

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@weschurch wrote:

All these people wondering why sales are down?  I mean really? The writing has been on the wall for awhile. Ebay does not generate the traffic it once did - PERIOD END OF STORY!

No matter how many times Ebay wants to put it on you by "upgrading" your standing in the maze, the MAZE they created, No matter how many times some cheerleader wants to tell you its your pictures or some hogwash, the REAL REASON is the most obvious one, Ebay is fledgling. Its about time to accept it.

I know you are on a limited income, I know you depend on this to feed your kids, or get some extra cash but its clear as day from ant angle you look at it from.  Look at their growth rate, look at the changes Ebay puts forth and compare it to what your personal profit is. Ebay is surviving by bleeding the few faithful, and the few new users, for every cent they can to show profit and are STILL STRUGGLING. They have given up making money from your sales and have shifted making money on you listing (see the GTC grab) and trying to sell it to you desperate folks based on what EBAY used to be! You can't spend the last decade enraging your entire customer base without ramifications. 

The sooner you come to accept it the sooner the healing can be begin. I wish everyone the best

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Luckily  I've found a good venue where people ARE buying . This why  I plan to eventually phase this one  out . Seems the seller fees go higher as the actual  sales go lower . So you maybe right ,, all good things must  come to an end  . Tulips  

[barclays_curious]

I can see I'm getting a lot of views but nobody is buying.    Some of my items have 100 views!   And its not my prices....  I have a $1100 clock with a freaking $500 opening bid (??!), not even one bite.    Some of the stuff I'm offering at half retail value, $10, $20 off and weeks go by with no bids at all.    It can't be my ads.... they're the same as they were in the 00's and they sold then.    I take great care and time with pictures and probably too much in writeups.   
If Ebay is dead, then where is everyone going?    Because everywhere else seems even deader.
They're not shopping at Sears, Kmart and Toys R Us....

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/31/here-are-the-retailers-including-sears-that-went-bankrupt-in-2018.ht...

[joesoucie22012]

I only have a few listings on the river, ( about 15 ) and in the last week 3 of them sold, with an average sale price of $37.00. The problem with the river is it takes weeks to get your money. So I'm using my food money for postage. I will not eat for 2 more weeks but then I will have about $100.00. And on another site I sold something that was listed for four years for $23.00. I used that money for cat food. I have a small reserve in PayPal in case of refunds. And I did make a small sale on eBay yesterday. The first sale in 5 days. So on another site I deleted everything and then uploaded all my eBay listings. I hope that it will get traffic to my eBay store. I don't know what else to do. But my point is that stuff is selling else where. I'm thinking about cross posting but that is dangerous as you have to monitor very carefully. As for here. I'm not sure what happened and I have been reading everything and it seems to be many different things that I can not do anything about. And I know about your high dollar items not selling for even half here. It's the same for me. People are starving and going homeless. This is beyond horrible. 

[turquoisetulips]

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@redlipsstudio wrote:

its dead!

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@ez-deals-4you wrote:

Just wondering if it is just me, or if other long-time sellers have noticed a complete drop through the floor of sales that started in the beginning of this month?

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Nope , it's not just you ,, it's a lot of sellers having the same problems  according to what I've read in these forums for the past few months . Personally speaking my own sales are down to near nothing on e bay   as well. When I listed something new in the past ,, I'd get at least 10 views in the first hour . Now I'll get maybe 5 or 6 views over a three day time span. It seems the trouble began for many sellers when the GTC came about ,, but that might not be all that's wrong . For the first time since I began selling on e bay since the mid 90's  I've moved on to other selling venues without a single regret . I still keep my stuff listed here ,, but my profits are now coming from another site . Tulips 

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[nuclearomen]

policy changes and the way ebay is running this are the reason:

https://www.salehoo.com/blog/sick-of-ebay-try-these-alternative-places-to-sell

[turquoisetulips]

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@barclays_curious wrote:

I can see I'm getting a lot of views but nobody is buying.    Some of my items have 100 views!   And its not my prices....  I have a $1100 clock with a freaking $500 opening bid (??!), not even one bite.    Some of the stuff I'm offering at half retail value, $10, $20 off and weeks go by with no bids at all.    It can't be my ads.... they're the same as they were in the 00's and they sold then.    I take great care and time with pictures and probably too much in writeups.   
If Ebay is dead, then where is everyone going?    Because everywhere else seems even deader.
They're not shopping at Sears, Kmart and Toys R Us....

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/31/here-are-the-retailers-including-sears-that-went-bankrupt-in-2018.ht...

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It's really not dead everywhere  . I'm selling 3 to 4 items a day on another site now  where I can't even make that many in a month on e bay any longer .  It used to be great here  until they ruined it.  IMO Tulips