eBay

goldrushfinds · ‎10-06-2019

O.K, I know this subject has been discussed to death, but really, what has Ebay done now. This past week has been absolutely lights out as far as sales go. With each passing day any type of activity has dwindled down to nothing. It is actually scary, what is happening. I now feel like any sale is a fluke/miracle. Has this past week achieved a new low level of feeble sales activity for you, like it has for me? I want to know if this is site wide, and even though sales have sucked, if this is a whole new sucky level. I didn't want to have to take the extra time to list on competing platforms, but it now seems absolutely necessary for survival.

kensgiftshop · ‎10-06-2019

I don't know what they have done, but I haven't had an order on Ebay since the first week of last month.

Have A Great Day.

hurryagain · ‎10-06-2019

It started some months ago where I had noticed that there wasn't very many buyers, watchers or people browsing...looked at the topic here and realized that there were many long time larger sellers complaining about the same thing.

I stopped listing because with all of the glitches and MP looming, I decided to take a wait & see approach, besides, I didn't want to waste my time making listings in vain.

I really do feel for you and others who absolutely depend on this site for their living. For me, it was a nice little extra spending money but for those who depend on eBay for a living, it must be absolutely terrifying.

lex-talon · ‎10-06-2019

Has this past week achieved a new low level of feeble sales activity for you, like it has for me?

Absolutely. It actually started in August and sales have become harder to come by. Recently though, offers are starting to come in, albeit low-ball offers. I can't afford to be giving items away for much less than I paid for.

For awhile, honestly thought I was being punished or prevented from making any sales. For those sellers that depend on eBay to make a living to provide for their families,

it must be a scary thought.

valuestore · ‎10-06-2019

Anything that messes with the core of visibility is a big thing, the lower sales drop the more some are going to increase promotion, thats a race to the bottom for the sellers but its a boom for the venue. After some time the only ones left will be zero input cost products stolen, counterfeits, a hand full of one time sellers that dont care one way or the other, and the select ones that are waived or rebated promo fees. The future is coming into sight.

frodobagginskennedy · ‎10-06-2019

@goldrushfinds wrote:
O.K, I know this subject has been discussed to death, but really, what has Ebay done now. This past week has been absolutely lights out as far as sales go. With each passing day any type of activity has dwindled down to nothing. It is actually scary, what is happening. I now feel like any sale is a fluke/miracle. Has this past week achieved a new low level of feeble sales activity for you, like it has for me? I want to know if this is site wide, and even though sales have sucked, if this is a whole new sucky level. I didn't want to have to take the extra time to list on competing platforms, but it now seems absolutely necessary for survival.

My sales have usually been steady. It used to be around the 10-15th of each month I would go dark. Then sales were back to normal.

August of TY was one of the best Augusts ever for me. Almost $4K in sales and this was with an extended handling time of 15 business days. We were on vacation for 2 weeks then I was at my parents helping with my Dad for the other weeks.

September rolled around and i was back to my parents with an extended handling time of 20 business days. Sales were slllloooowww... BUT I felt like it was my issue with the extended handling. Plus I really have NOT listed new since November 2018. Just a few pieces here and there.

The last 3 days have been fair with sales about $150.00 per day on e bay. Etsy is dead this month and Poshmark had a really good $300.00 sale. They claim the average sale the first year on PM is $500.00. I have exceeded that so I feel I am ahead of the game over there....especially since i am just not into social media and all that sharing.

Something is amiss on fee bay for sure. I have found that running sales, promoted listings, tweeking titles and making small changes in the pricing DOES make a difference.

This quest stands on the edge of a blade...stray but a little and you shall fail to the ruin of us all.
"The Lady Galadriel"

pburn · ‎10-06-2019

Speaking strictly for myself, the June postal-rate increase and the laws requiring the collection of sales tax--neither of which are eBay's doing--have really slowed my eBay purchasing. I'll find something on which to spend my eBay Bucks, but I really haven't been shopping here much beyond that.

I'm an Amazon Prime member, so I've already paid shipping upfront for my purchases there. I might as well make use of it. They collect tax, too, of course, but at least the USPS increases don't have an impact on the total purchase price if I stick with Prime-delivered items.

goldrushfinds · ‎10-06-2019

Thanks for your input. This weekend for me so far has been a complete whitewash. Not a single sale and I have lost all motivation to list or acquire new inventory. Buying stuff to sell right now seems like a big risk (will most likely get stuck with it or have to unload it for next to nothing).

yuzuha · ‎10-06-2019

My August was good despite being on vacation for a week... September was slow, but a good part of that was my fault for not listing anything new. I've been listing a whole bunch of new stuff over the past couple of days - moving all of my crane game prizes over here from Mercari - and BAM, I'm getting views and watchers (on both the new things AND older things) again.

pink.fish.rule · ‎10-06-2019

@hurryagain wrote:
It started some months ago where I had noticed that there wasn't very many buyers, watchers or people browsing...looked at the topic here and realized that there were many long time larger sellers complaining about the same thing.
I stopped listing because with all of the glitches and MP looming, I decided to take a wait & see approach, besides, I didn't want to waste my time making listings in vain.

I really do feel for you and others who absolutely depend on this site for their living. For me, it was a nice little extra spending money but for those who depend on eBay for a living, it must be absolutely terrifying.

I can't advise you what to do, but I have made 5 sales yesterday and today from new listings I only put up yesterday so I wouldn't have had those sales without the new listings.

YMMV

yuzuha · ‎10-06-2019

@pink.fish.rule wrote:
@hurryagain wrote:
It started some months ago where I had noticed that there wasn't very many buyers, watchers or people browsing...looked at the topic here and realized that there were many long time larger sellers complaining about the same thing.
I stopped listing because with all of the glitches and MP looming, I decided to take a wait & see approach, besides, I didn't want to waste my time making listings in vain.

I really do feel for you and others who absolutely depend on this site for their living. For me, it was a nice little extra spending money but for those who depend on eBay for a living, it must be absolutely terrifying.
I can't advise you what to do, but I have made 5 sales yesterday and today from new listings I only put up yesterday so I wouldn't have had those sales without the new listings.

YMMV

Seconding this. I have put up a whole bunch of things in the past couple of days, and while I haven't had any sales yet, I HAVE noticed that several of my older items now have watchers that they didn't have before, so clearly the new listings have been attracting attention to my store.

iamtoplease · ‎10-06-2019

guess i'll provide my experience. some background..i usually sell about $1k gross a day across multiple ebay accounts. i do well in my niche so if sales slow down...it usually lasts for about 48 hours max.

however, since about sept 11th, i've noticed a slow down in sales of about 20%. once ebay's traffic reports 'finally' updated, i noticed a similar drop in impressions starting from about the same time. this sluggishness lasted for weeks until about oct 1st. since oct 1st, sales have slowed even more. it feels like traffic hasn't slowed (though promoted listing clicks has dropped by about 33%), but the conversion rate to sales have declined. this past week, i'd get most of my sales for the day in a 1-2 hour span...then it gets real quiet for the rest of the day. i haven't received any messages from buyers on their inability to pay so i'm not sure what the change has been.

wpt05 · ‎10-06-2019

I have been on eBay since 2002 and this is the slowest I have ever seen. I used to list a handful of items and they would almost always sell since I usually price them so low. I keep listing more and selling less. Dropping the price has not worked. I even listed some items at one penny with free shipping just to see if anybody can actually see what I am selling. It's been three days and still zero bids on those items too. There must be something wrong here.

I have bought many items on eBay and look here first to help other sellers. Sadly if I can't sell anything, I won't be buying anymore either.

If things don't change by the end of the year, I won't be back next year.

Best of luck to all of you.

hurryagain · ‎10-06-2019

@yuzuha wrote:
@pink.fish.rule wrote:
@hurryagain wrote:
It started some months ago where I had noticed that there wasn't very many buyers, watchers or people browsing...looked at the topic here and realized that there were many long time larger sellers complaining about the same thing.
I stopped listing because with all of the glitches and MP looming, I decided to take a wait & see approach, besides, I didn't want to waste my time making listings in vain.

I really do feel for you and others who absolutely depend on this site for their living. For me, it was a nice little extra spending money but for those who depend on eBay for a living, it must be absolutely terrifying.
I can't advise you what to do, but I have made 5 sales yesterday and today from new listings I only put up yesterday so I wouldn't have had those sales without the new listings.

YMMV
Seconding this. I have put up a whole bunch of things in the past couple of days, and while I haven't had any sales yet, I HAVE noticed that several of my older items now have watchers that they didn't have before, so clearly the new listings have been attracting attention to my store.

@yuzuha

@pink.fish.rule

Sure, absolutely, IF I needed the sales which I do not...thank God. I don't want to waste my time on this activity. I am still an active buyer and in regards to sellers, I am still very happy to purchase from them.

I will continue on with buying and maybe later, when most of the glitches and MP is running smoothly, i will re-consider selling again.

...and the added tax thing does not affect my buying decisions. I am still more than happy to buy from the sellers on eBay, I find that the vast majority of eBay sellers are awesome!!!

joe7900 · ‎10-06-2019

Total crickets since mid last week..used to selling 2-3 high end items/day..now nothing..

AND of course it’s a race to 0$ profitably with idiot sellers selling the same item I am lowering their prices by 10$ every 2 days..which doesn’t really matter, items I sell sell greatly with 20$ prices variations up or down, just a race to the bottom with some idiots 😡