Selling

[rmdigiovanni96]

What is up with selling on Ebay nowaday's?? I used to be able to sell tons of items, now hardly anyone even views my auctions. Are they blacklisting people??

[rschissler]

" eBay makes enough money from their  big ticket sellers, and the "promote your listings' , they don't need us paltry small fries clothing sellers who do not buy into their promo's .  No, they don't need us; so the $4.70 final value fee they make off us is a spit in the bucket."

That's ridiculous nonsense. The bulk of Ebay revenues, still comes from final value fees.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@mommyscloset12 No need to contact ebay security...it's not that kind of bot. Google and other sites send bots to ebay and most every site on the web, in order to index the web for their search engines. They are not a security risk, they are benign. Years ago, ebay counted these bot "views" the same as a view from a human, so new listings often got a bunch of views when they were first listed and, unbeknownst to most of us, many of those were bots, not humans. (Bots, needless to say, aren't really potential buyers, humans are.) 

Once ebay began pay per click ads, they realized they needed to distinguish between bots and humans, because no one wants to pay for clicks (views) from a bot. So now ebay filters for bots, and tries to show us only human clicks (views). Some bots get through the initial filtering effort, but the filter eventually picks them up and removes them from the count.

While this was necessary for the functioning of pay per click ads on ebay, it was quite depressing to some people, because, when the transition first happened, we as sellers discovered for the first time that items that had been getting, say, 5 views almost as soon as they were listed (suggesting real buyer interest) , well, now they were getting zero views because all five of those were bots, not potential buyers. I think it came as a bit of a shock to discover that our items weren't drawing as much interest as we assumed.

Add in the fact that ebay's counts have also been glitchy in the past, and frankly, I would not put too much reliance on the 100% accuracy of the counts. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@mommyscloset12 " The view numbers on the others seem to drop off/decrease/disappear as the week goes on."

That's normal. It's a ROLLING 30 day count. Here's a screen shot of the pop up you get if you click the view number in active listings:

Note the drop down menu in the upper right---I can choose 30 days, or 7 days or 90 days, or the past 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. Play around with that on some of your older listings to get an idea of how the rolling 30 day look back works. 

And also note the tiny print note at the bottom of the screen shot: "Total views shown here may vary slightly from other references due to latency delays."

So, again, it isn't really worth worrying about a view count going from 1 to 0, because either the 1 has dropped off because it has now been 30 days since that view was recorded, or it has been removed because it has been discovered that it was a bot view. 

Before ebay went to the 30 day default in Seller Hub, they were showing a TOTAL count since the beginning of the listing. So if your listing had been up for a year with 90 views, it was showing you a count of 90 in Seller Hub. But when ebay changed this, 30 days became the default time period , and so the item might have gone from 90 to 10 on the day the change was made. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@mommyscloset12 wrote:

my-cottage-books-and-antiques. Thank you for your replies. I did find them both  very helpful.  You managed to get beyond the emotional frustration and cut to the chase- talk in scientific and tech terms. Something Useful. I really appreciated it. You mentioned 'bots'.  I do check the details of my security scans and have seen "bots" mentioned as well as Trojan horses, malware, ad ware and worms.   I think my next step is to try contacting the eBay security with this problem. If there is a glitch in their security they need to fix it because it is probably effecting others as well. This is not the first time I have noticed this. It has happened on items I have had listed for a few weeks as well as the relist I specifically cited. The view numbers on the others seem to drop off/decrease/disappear as the week goes on. Again, thanks a million, much appreciated.

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The views are a rolling total of 30 days so they're going to change. There's no security issue here - don't worry about it. I've actually had items sell with 0 views because the rolling count has meant previous views have dropped off. With 2+ billion items on here and less than 130 million buyers, view counts are going to be very low unless the item is very in demand, and lower still in clothing and jewellery sections because of over-saturation.

The best way to increase views is through optimising your listings - good titles, improve photos, etc., because title keywords match search terms, and really good photos catch the eye.

[she-sells]

I think that ebay can't be bothered with small sellers..  It is why I think they should break the site up to 3 types.  BIG RETAILERS for NEW only,  Mom & pop niche sellers & Garages sales ebay ( where I fall under)

[mam98031]

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@she-sells wrote:

I think that ebay can't be bothered with small sellers..  It is why I think they should break the site up to 3 types.  BIG RETAILERS for NEW only,  Mom & pop niche sellers & Garages sales ebay ( where I fall under)

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Unlikely to happen.

If Ebay didn't want small sellers, we simply would not exist.  They don't have to have us on their site if they don't want to.  Besides, the vast majority of active sellers on Ebay is about 80% small sellers.  So we actually have more power than you think we do.

[chapeau-noir]

I understand the thinking, but breaking up the site would be a real nightmare involving decisions I'd rather others not make - eBay is too much of a mixed bag with too many sellers overlapping. 

However, their stats report that 20% of the sellers here sell 80% of the product. I would submit that many small sellers are actually very low volume or are casual and occasional sellers, and the site is simply too big for them. I think eBay could actually stop banging on about sneakers and mainstream luxury, which seem to be slipping away, anyway, and give a little love to these  sellers rather than trying to break up the site.

[fbusoni]

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@mommyscloset12 wrote:

I am very new to selling on eBay and have only 41 items listed so i probably don't have any right to comment on this subject  but i too have felt something is going on and have felt it has to do with pressuring us sellers into buying into "promote listing" I listed my items (all women's clothing) for what I believe was a fair price. These items are mine. They are New garments never worn, and never will be worn that have been in my closet for a few years  collecting dust and taking up space. I am a retiree 69 years old and I wanted to sell them to make extra money, downsize so i can get the hell out of my house and sell it. I refuse to give these brand new clothes to goodwill. I did my homework, looked at other listings for the exact same article, took the pictures, revised the pictures, wrote my descriptions, revised and revised my listing descriptions. Dropped my prices  but not down to rock bottom  for example from $90.00 for a wool jacket  to $80.00  but certainly  not down to the $20.00 something that eBay suggests.  For 1 month I was selling a few pieces(mid sept) now nothing. I get Send Offer banners. So I Send Offers and still nothing. Subscribing ( and they are subscriptions!!) to these Promote Listing cost us sellers more money and gives more money to eBay. By the time eBay is done  with us, we sellers will be making nothing only forking out money and turning over all our money/proceeds  to eBay for OUR  goods. Yes, I get that eBay is a business, but are they big business crooks too?  A hell of a lot  of sellers on eBay are retirees, disabled people and working people trying to make ends meet. this recent behavior from eBay is nothing but a pressure tactic to get us sellers to

subscribe to Promote Listing bull crap. I am outraged!!.

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@mommyscloset12 

Anyone who comes to sell on eBay or anywhere else online, who is under intense pressure (as you admit you are) to change their personal circumstances, will be unsatisfied with their experience here, especially if they are new and have never sold online before.

"I am very new to selling on eBay" --  no offense, but you have not been on eBay long enough to be nearly as outraged at eBay as you appear to be.  

Yet you sound for all the world like an eBay seller with 30 years experience here whose account was terminated for no ostensible reason.

With 41 items listed, and being as new as you are, it is pretty unlikely you will attract many buyers right off the bat.

I'm 65 and retired and been selling here for 25 years.   Some of the time I too send offers, and hear nothing.  I lower my prices, and no one responds.   People might send me counter offers for 80% less than what I offered them.  That's par for the course here because you are dealing with the general public.   

And yes -- you better believe that eBay counts on desperate sellers (who need money STAT) to buy eBay's lousy promoted listings software service, which is not guaranteed to do ANYTHING to help your sales, and often lives up to that very promise.

As for your brand new merchandise... yes, its frustrating.   But value is in the eye of the beholder.   As for eBay, it's suggesting $20 for a $90 item because that's what its computers are programmed to recommend... its not personal.  

And yeah, eBay is a business whose first loyalty is to its shareholders.   Nothing new there.   If you opt to purchase promoted listing subscriptions, you are exercising a choice.   eBay is not "screwing" sellers because the terms and conditions are all there to read and no one is pulling the wool over your eyes.  

I have found that the old motto, "hope for the best, expect the worst" is somewhat applicable here.   I have no expectations of making sales on any given day and am always pleasantly surprised when I do.

If you are on Facebook, I highly recommend FB marketplace.  You will encounter a far greater share of cheapskates there, but the good news is that if you sell locally (do not ship), you do not have to pay any fees.   

And whatever you do, don't "promote" your listings on FB.   

[aeparts1]

My sales for the past 30 days are up 60%.

I'm about even year to year.

I try to sell things people want.

I am diversified, I sell a variety of items.  Tools, vintage car parts, repair manuals, cast iron, & more. Anything I can make a lot of bucks on.

[wayneosjewelry]

our sales tanked in october. no real reason but the election or ebay upgrading stuff?