eBay

cyberontix · ‎09-13-2017

I'm working on a non-fiction book that I hope to have ready for the holidays, so I cut way back on the eBay grind. What a breath of fresh air it was, just enjoying life and being rewarded in my own mind, not to mention having some hope that I can drop the day gig.

I am so sick of having to babysit all those eBay listings just to have them be seen, and working and working on new listings with the absolute worst tools around. I did a little on Betsy tonight, and it was a joy. I'm at a 50% sell-through there, while on eBay, I'm sure that awful, horrible Cassini thinks I couldn't sell a match to an Eskimo.

It takes forever to list new things in different categories here. TRULY sick of all the nannying. Just show my items and let me do my thing, eBay.

It's nowadays a race-to-the-bottom mentality, same as Amazon, except we're expected to manage our exposure through Pinterest and every stupid little social media widget out there. If you don't tweak everything about the Pinterest snapshot it takes you to eBay general, not your listing.

What a slog! Are they doing ANY advertising at all, or what?

And Seller Hub is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. So that's the data mining they've been doing all along to decide whether or not things get seen or not. Thanks for nothing. No use opting out, right, because that'll be replacing SM sooner or later, so why bother.

This venue hasn't been fun for me since 2011, when Donahoe DESTROYED it for small sellers. It's all about corporate and Chinese listings, and even worse, since search now favors shiny new listings, you have to constantly, CONSTANTLY relist as new just to be seen.

I have depended on this money since my wife went on disability in 2008. I can't anymore, unless I slave and slave at it, every single day. Every freaking day. Who can succeed with this search engine not knowing how to place listings fairly?

This place DOESN'T work for vintage anymore. It just doesn't. Things need to be able to be found, and they just can't. I do Google searches and eBay searches on other phones/PCs and my stuff is buried under stuff from other sellers who lucked out, sold one thing from the product line, and now they're just rooted to the top forever.

Such a Catch 22 dealing with Cassini. Vintage things take time to sell, so they have to be listed, but the longer they're listed, the worse cassini treats you.

This isn't an even playing field anymore. Why on earth can they not make that idiotic search engine just a bit more fair to people? It's been how many years now? What is wrong with these people? They need to FIRE everyone who's had a hand in Cassini and just... I don't know, FIX the stupid thing. This has really gone on long enough.

There. I said it. Let the heavens fall.

Eric

luckythewinner · ‎09-13-2017

If ebay is so horrible and you are doing so well elsewhere, why is it ieven part of your business plan?

If I had a 50% sell-through on another site, I would have left already.

cyberontix · ‎09-13-2017

It's a venue that I've been using for nearly 20 years. There's no replacement for it. Yet. And Etsy doesn't take collectibles that are newer than 20 years old. That's why.

tomuchstuff5 · ‎09-13-2017

@cyberontix,
I Feel your pain. When you relist as new list pay special attention to item specifics. They change and disappear somehow. I have had some success having specialty vintage items sold updating item specifics and also revamping titles.

mistwomandancing · ‎09-13-2017

I'm completely in agreement with you about the pleasure and value of taking breaks from eBay or any job.. or even just your routine! We close up shop every once-in-awhile and take a little trip or even just a couple of days to knock back here, get caught up in the gardens, nap in the afternoons, stay up late and read, whatever. Stores on invisible vacation mode. Never have had a problem with it in all these years. I think it keeps you sharper when you return.

I'm one of the members whose all settled in with HUB though, so used to it now that I really, really like it. Can put up listings the fastest I've ever been able to, and that's a big help to me for my efforts here.

I don't to the Pinterest or social media *promote your listings* stuff though. Well, I don't do any of that stuff with or without including ebay. No interest. Doesn't seem to hurt me a bit that I can tell.

Sorry to hear your wife had to go on disability, for several years now. Both my husband and myself would be, except we're OLD now, so not called disability.. it's social security now instead. - - - But it's been nearly a decade since 2008 for you folks, so yeah... there have been HUGE changes in the e-commerce state of online retail selling in these recent years!! It's definitely a You Snooze, You LOSE era now. I've been in retail sales most of my life, and I've never seen such crowded competition for buyer dollars in my life! Since the *easy* way every other person can sell it online on one site or another, AND every brick & mortar store now adding their online sites too, there's hardly room to breathe. These days, for every buyer dollar out there, there seem to be a dozen hand out trying for it!!!

I will say, though... if your listings are being placed decently in Cassini search, you really need to just learn a bit more about what how to *please* Cassini with your wording, etc. because I'm nothing special, but my listings are nearly always right up there front and center on page one.. not always first, certainly, but real close almost always. Learn Cassini, and make it work for you. It definitely pays off, and keeping abreast of change as it occurs (and it is ALWAYS occurring, year ofter year, in most any business) will really pay off in better sales for you, and a better and more profitable business. (There is going to be some tweaking to Cassini search, so I'm thinking now is the time to focus on bettering your listings even more than its importance before.....)

So you're working on a book! That sounds intriguing. Hope you'll let us know about it when the time is ripe to advertise and brag. That's exciting.

cyberontix · ‎09-13-2017

Absolutely, I'll let folks know about the book. And thanks for being cool about my ranting!

cyberontix · ‎09-13-2017

@tomuchstuff5 wrote:
@cyberontix,
I Feel your pain. When you relist as new pay special attention to item specifics. They change and disappear somehow. I have had some success having specialty vintage items sold updating item specifics and also revamping titles.

Totally. Field values disappear right and left in nearly everything.

My current favorite is the massive fail over UPCs and MPNs, having listings punted back to me for bad values when I'm reading them right off the item. How totally Amazon of eBay to have that going on for more than one second. Hire some decent programmers already.