eBay

rapidresol · ‎11-01-2019

We have been selling on Ebay for 15+ years now, but since March sales have struggled. Ebay seemed to make changes to the search engine meaning items we had sold hundreds of units of were no longer selling. They became almost invisible.

Today we only had 8 sales on EBay. A few years ago we were averaging 50 a day.

I would be interested to hear how other sellers are doing at the moment? I am extremely worried about the way things seem to be going!

mam98031 · ‎12-02-2019

@aliceinabundanceland wrote:
Marketplace is definitely not what I wanted to do lol!

I really wanted to make this ebay thing work. My husband and I had a store about 13 years ago, that was totally different (CD/DVD store) and we just could not compete with the "big boys." It was kind of a disaster. Once we discovered the one thing we loathed to do (drop ship) was what everyone else was doing, it was too late and we were out of $$.

Mine is different though, the old treasure hunt and resell, but Good Lord! I'm dying over here. I had to do something. If it weren't for FB, I would have to go back to work right now, so I'm very pleased in the short term.

I live in a large metropolitan area, with lots of meeting places and tons of "towns" , so I do feel I have a huge advantage there as opposed to sellers living in rural areas.

So, it's this and others for now, have had some small success with Mercari and Letgo.

That is a lot of time running around and expense with the vehicle to meet people and deliver things. That isn't for me at all. Much cheaper to ship things. Faster, easier and cheaper IMHO.

Whatever you do I hope it works out well for you.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

Anonymous · ‎12-03-2019

"This is the part that a lot of sellers seem to be steadfastly sticking their heads in the sand about. I see sellers here complaining about a lack of sales, and when I go to look at what they're selling... it's nice stuff, but it isn't stuff that younger buyers want, so they've effectively limited their own sales by only appealing to a certain (older) age group. That isn't something that can be blamed on eBay, that's just a shift in consumer demographics. I work B&M retail in a chain department store and the VAST majority of our customers are under 50. Sellers need to be appealing to those demographics if they want to see consistent/increased sales."

*Yes .So what you are saying is about 3 months ago ,All the Older Age groups just stopped Shopping on Ebay and now only the younger buyers are and I should go out and buy cheap chinese junk, Or young hip, trending NEW items to sell? Never going to understand why I have to go buy items to sell on Ebay.. I am not a store and a lot of us are just selling things we no longer need , I have been selling on Ebay over 10 years like this .... I went from Power seller Top rated Down to Not enough sales to keep top rate or power seller over a few months to maybe 1-3 Five dollar sales a month If I am lucky........

hobbykollectibles · ‎12-03-2019

It’s terrible!!! totally dead sales just like someone switching off the internet, no sales no question no bargain no offers… just wondering the views & watchers are comes from outer space???

I used to be a power seller 1 year ago but now... one month one sale, like dead/invisible store due to Ebay manipulate visibility of items, and the forced GTC also kill the buyer's intention of purchase, plus the cancellation of "ending alert" countdown, the potential buyers will just watch but won't buy just because buyer will think that the item will always be there so no need to buy it fast. As a result "BUY IT NOW" becomes "BUY IT LATER"...

glitterbug.2007 · ‎12-03-2019

I don’t know what eBay changed recently I think they changed something with item specifics and even though we have always filled in all relevant item specifics our sales have all put stopped I have no idea what is going on but I don’t see us carrying on selling on eBay like this. It’s bad enough the subscription fees, final value fees over the entire purchase price even though this is predominantly costs, promotion fees which are now a standard as otherwise you are invisible now on top of this they keep messing about and causing issues with listings.

glitterbug.2007 · ‎12-03-2019

I am in the same situation eBay does not care about sellers I don’t know what they have done but there were some recent changes I think October or November and since then sales are 50% down and dropping !!

trueartworx · ‎12-03-2019

Just continues to get worse. Had worse sale days in several years this past week. If they put up any more unhelpful announcements am going to close my store I think .

greenwalk7 · ‎12-03-2019

I agree with you totally about the change they have made with visibility, they have made my items almost impossible to see and find!! I have tackled them on the matter and told them it is unfair, and they insist key words are vital, but it does not matter how good your key words are, if you are not seen it makes no difference. So you can only hope someone will persist and find your items, but many people buy other items first because they simply get fed up searching, ebay AGAIN has ruined it because they just won't leave things as they were.

chastershop · ‎12-03-2019

How many listings to you have?

yuzuha · ‎12-03-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Never going to understand why I have to go buy items to sell on Ebay.. I am not a store and a lot of us are just selling things we no longer need , I have been selling on Ebay over 10 years like this .... I went from Power seller Top rated Down to Not enough sales to keep top rate or power seller over a few months to maybe 1-3 Five dollar sales a month If I am lucky........

Sellers don't need to buy things to sell if their only aim is to get rid of unwanted stuff, they simply need to be realistic about how much demand actually exists for what they're selling. I've had some collectibles that took over three years to sell because there just wasn't any demand to speak of for them. Nothing was wrong with the items themselves, they just were very niche and needed the right buyer to come along (of which there weren't many).

It's like a yard sale: some things will sell right away, and others will still be left sitting around at the end of the day. The good stuff sells first, and once that's gone, what's left is the stuff that isn't as desirable and will be tougher to find buyers for, which might take a while.

aliceinabundanceland · ‎12-03-2019

Me too

kathieskorner · ‎12-03-2019

I have been selling mostly vintage or used items for about 35 years now - at flea markets, yard sales, in my own brick and mortar store, and finally online. I still don't really know what is "in demand" and will sell right away and what will wind up collecting dust.

I used to have two yard sales a year to fund our basketball and baseball youth sports teams with items donated by the families of the players. I used to put the real junk as close to the curb as possible so the trash man could pick it up if it didn't sell. Envirably those items would be the first to sell. I just had a charity fund raiser yard sale and items that had been listed forever on eBay were big sellers - I deleted 24 eBay listings after the sale.

Yes, the right buyer often has to come along, but I've gotten numerous notes through the years from buyers telling me that the item they purchased from me on eBay was replacing something lost, broken, or worn out. A lady just yesterday purchased a 2006 championship shirt for her brother because his had worn out. It was her first purchase on eBay.

That is what I fault eBay for the most - focusing on cheap mass produced items found on many online sites and no longer promoting the used and vintage items that aren't readily found elsewhere.

overtheseasandfaraway · ‎12-06-2019

Me too. Nothing selling.

florapack · ‎12-06-2019

yep our sales are absolutely dreadful at the moment its like our products just arent getting out there at all september october november and december have been way down this year 2019 been a poor year. have ebay changed something ??????