So who else has been seeing a pattern of alternating good/bad days since mid Feb?

[blurryrobot]

Because I sure seem to have that going. 

It's not as visible in my "number of sales graph".  Some of those "good" (mediocre) days I sell 5 items to make the total, other days 10, but Ebay seems to be doing some sort of rationing here since mid-Feb based on how many dollars they think I should be making per day. 

I can't see any other way to get such a clearly inorganic pattern. Suspect there is code that looks at day 1's sales and if they seem 'excessive' it clamps down somehow on day 2.    And the reverse, if they seem 'insufficient'.  And I think that whatever constants they are using, are turned up too high, which is making this visible as an alternating overshoot / undershoot. 

Now, some of you are going to look at the daily average and think, well, that seems pretty good. But in fact it's terrible.  Because my livelihood is running a full on curio shop with a good proportion of my inventory listed, 6000+ items.    

But regardless of what level sales should be, they should NOT be so obviously alternating like that.  
THAT is not organic.   That is not recession.  That is clear manipulation by the platform. 
And counterproductive to themselves too, because they get a percentage of sales. 

For goodness sake Ebay, TAKE your fees.  But let my customers shop!

[goldrushfinds]

Thanks for at least one rational person here

[goldrushfinds]

"Geeks gone wild", you know I kind of like that. Maybe a potential new music group (comprised of Ebay sellers)

[gotta-have-it-collectables]

Long Enough ...That's how Long Son!

[chapeau-noir]

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@pcobra93 wrote:

My sales are bad following a day I mention FBI, CIA, NSA, ATF and Let's Go Brandon....I think they are listening to me!!!

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Don't mention 'woke', then. 🤤

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I've been seeing a pattern of alternating good/bad days for the last 20+ years.

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[rugerskick]

At least you had sales every day. 🙂   I not only have had less sales but many desert days where the switch has been turned off and no one is seeing my store or listings.  

[blurryrobot]

Oh for goodness' sake, some of you people with your talk about conspiracy theories.  I'm not talking about UFOs or Kennedy or whatever.  I'm talking about a GRAPH of an operation which we KNOW is driven by a human-coded platform modulating interactions between a large customer population and a database.  Visually revealing patterns is a major reason we graph things to begin with. 

And, scoff at "pattern recognition" all you like, but I used to analyze charts of machine operations on a pretty regular basis, and I found that patterns had a way of signifying that something wasn't right.   A raggedy random variation around an average?  Sure, that's normal.   Not ideal if the range is too broad, but natural.  

But if you saw a chart where an operation was alternating hi/lo, would you scoff and say, "reddit says patterns aren't real"?  Of course not.  You would do a quick check to see if something was wrong.  You might even ask around and say, "Hey, is anybody else having this happen on their machines?"

Well anyway that's what I would do. 

[blurryrobot]

Very possibly.  There are some known issues with search right now.   Did you search by the keyword for the pattern or did you enter it under specifics?

Specifics, honestly, are suffering in many cases from an impossibility of standardizing the seller lexicon on most goods.  It's a nice idea but even in things like depression glass you have people entering American Prescut, Prescut, prescut, presscut, press cut, Prescot, etc.  Which are easy enough for a human to figure out, but seem to give Ebay's search functions the vapors. 

[theteamsetguy]

@pcobra93 ,

Brandon?

[pcobra93]

If you really want to blow your mind, make your own graph for the last 2 years breaking each sale down to region (Northeast, Southeast, Upper Midwest, lower Midwest, West and Northwest....the regions Ebay uses in their rolling visibility Algorithms) then further break that down by date and time. You can follow and know what areas your sales will be in each day and by the hour.....or what days you won't have sales because your items are not visible in searches.

[spreadlovelikefire]

Mine has been pretty consistent.  You have to go by your monthly total, not daily.  And compare that to the same month last year.  

[oszika]

I bet eBay's algorithm is programmed to prioritize sellers (big & little) based on eBay's revenue interest. For our everything vintage store January was flat and low, February was 80% up, now we're 20% down. Most likely they manipulate search. Live with it, this is their business.

[vintage-camerastuff]

DITTO!

[skincare-n-stuff]

I'm in the belief that it's just not the right people looking for items that I have available on some days, and then on other days they find interest.  It's clearly based on what you sell, but it is kind of funny how it can be a drought and then all of a sudden a deluge.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

PREACH IT BROTHER / SISTER!

February was a bust. Probably the worst month I ever had or at least in the top 5 since 2001. 

March started the same, then all of sudden on the 4th, I had 9 sales. Nothing on the 5th or 6th. I have one sale today after sending an offer.