What I believe......

[sakic92710]

A lot of people are trying to figure out why their eBay sales or any online selling might be failing.  As far as I'm concerned, there is little doubt the number of changes in the world, following COVID & how the inept politicians handled it, is the downfall of several things in life, including our ability to create an online income.  Never in my lifetime has it been so difficult to generate sales than it has over the course of the last 3 years.  I can have 1 decent day but then, almost nothing for the next 5-6-7 days.  On Monday, after any fees, I took in over $130.  Over the following 5 days?  $5.00!!!   2 weeks prior to that, I went 7 days without.  After what I receive to pay my rent, my bills are light.  Yet, I struggle to cover them!   I live in a small city where jobs are mostly parttime & many are food service or retail.  After 40 years in the work force, little seems available to someone like me.  Certainly, I would not get the hours I need.  These changes in the job situation are due to the virus.  I see nothing in my surroundings that have improved since 2021.  Online sales dropping.  Closing up booths at the flea market because rent could not be covered.  Prices going up steadily.  Rent increases by a large %.  Have you seen anything that is an improvement?   And........please.......no political nonsense.  Thank you.  🙂

[rugerskick]

I believe this lends credibility to the fact ebay's algorithm has a soft cap for sellers in it.

I have 1 or two good days, then 2-4 days of silence.  My routine is consistently the same, nothing I do seems to have any effect at all.  The only constant pattern is I do relatively well (for me) for 1 or 2 days, then the switch is turned off 2-4 days.  Been like this for at least the last 2 years.

[sakic92710]

Well, aren't you special.    lol  You have NO IDEA how many changes I've made in my life over the last 2 years to try to improve things.  Try walking a mile.........

[isaiah53-57]

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@sakic92710 wrote:

A lot of people are trying to figure out why their eBay sales or any online selling might be failing.  As far as I'm concerned, there is little doubt the number of changes in the world, following COVID & how the inept politicians handled it, is the downfall of several things in life, including our ability to create an online income...

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By its nature, COVID beefed up online sales - and Its not how politicians handled the changes, it's how established selling venues attempted to exploit the situation and failed - losing business with high fees and rampant fraud and leaving the doors open for competition to get a strong footing...

This site is on a quest to usurp 30%, 40%, 50% of your items selling price with their recommendations - Its freaking mind-blowing - And buyer theft doesnt seem to be a thing they care about - my guess is they count on it to keep revenue and user data numbers palatable come reporting time - I wonder what their user numbers, GMV and revenue would look like without all the accounts(real or fake) with inordinate amounts of cancellations and thievery here...

Most sellers with any amount of business acumen have long ago put "plan B" into effect at least to some degree...We plan B'd right on outta here like we were running from a fire surely long before most - We have always strived to utilize our own plan - not someone else's, especially when THE LAST thing their plan entails in your best interest...

Here's my prediction - This site - right now - is the best it will ever be...

[krazzykats]

It seems like your pie is the talk of the town!

You picked the ingredients, did the mixing and baking, and now it's the hottest item on the menu, with everyone lining up for some.

(I still think postage is killing us softly.)

[broto_64]

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@mommyscloset12 wrote:

This is very true. I have found I bought some absolute trash goods on Amazon- to which i have had to throw out. this has made me think twice about buying on Amazon

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Walmart is like that now, too... Lots of third party sellers, and that means dropshippers galore, many of whom can't answer simple questions about the very items they're selling. Careful perusal of the entire ad is often required (and yes I know we're supposed to read the description) but often there is slick salesmanship involved and just as often the search results are clobbered with the same-same-same item ... Sellers making multiple accounts to sell the same item, over and over, same sellers relisting the same item with one character difference in the title.

That's not even the tip of the iceberg.

This kind of behavior is very frustrating to buyers.
I know, I'm a buyer too, I get so tired of dealing with the proverbial hay stack just to find my needle.

I did report a couple of sellers the other day, they were selling aftermarket parts with the OEM brand name (that wasn't OEM), and ebay DID remove the listings! Wish I could remember exactly how I reported them, because that's another thing it is imperative to report listings via exact reason or it won't happen... Not to mention it feels like playing whack-a-mole but that's another whole story.

Thank you for understanding and sorry I had to vent a bit.

[chapeau-noir]

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@isaiah53-57 wrote:

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@sakic92710 wrote:

A lot of people are trying to figure out why their eBay sales or any online selling might be failing.  As far as I'm concerned, there is little doubt the number of changes in the world, following COVID & how the inept politicians handled it, is the downfall of several things in life, including our ability to create an online income...

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Here's my prediction - This site - right now - is the best it will ever be...

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I actually agree with this. I do not think eBay will get better, but I don't think it's going anywhere, either.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@chapeau-noir  I agree with : "I do not think eBay will get better, but I don't think it's going anywhere, either."

with this proviso:

I think there's still time to make ebay better, but time is fast running out, and it would take radical changes that I do not believe current management is capable of making. I have long wondered if management's goal isn't to get ebay to a point where it becomes an attractive takeover target for someone like WalMart, and then sell the whole thing. (Of course, part of the problem is, I'm not sure it is a very attractive target at this point).  

[chapeau-noir]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@chapeau-noir  I agree with : "I do not think eBay will get better, but I don't think it's going anywhere, either."

with this proviso:

I think there's still time to make ebay better, but time is fast running out, and it would take radical changes that I do not believe current management is capable of making. I have long wondered if management's goal isn't to get ebay to a point where it becomes an attractive takeover target for someone like WalMart, and then sell the whole thing. (Of course, part of the problem is, I'm not sure it is a very attractive target at this point).  

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I think it will just keep bumbling along, trying this, trying that, running people through the C-suite revolving door, in and out. The bad will continue to be bad, the good will continue to be good.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@chapeau-noir  yes, that's the most likely scenario. 

[powell-collectibles]

Absolutely, I trust that you worked hard trying to get things better for yourself. But, when you approach is that you’ve done nothing wrong, and that others are to blame, the solutions are usually not what you need.

I interview a lot of folks for my team. When someone explains why they’re looking for a new position, and the reason is because somebody else has done something wrong, somebody else hasn’t given them the opportunity, situation is out of their hands, they don’t have a good manager, etc., I just move on.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@isaiah53-57 wrote:

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@sakic92710 wrote:

A lot of people are trying to figure out why their eBay sales or any online selling might be failing.  As far as I'm concerned, there is little doubt the number of changes in the world, following COVID & how the inept politicians handled it, is the downfall of several things in life, including our ability to create an online income...

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Here's my prediction - This site - right now - is the best it will ever be...

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I actually agree with this. I do not think eBay will get better, but I don't think it's going anywhere, either.

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I agree that the site (platform) has peaked and most likely not get any better and will not be going anywhere. Sales could/should get better but site itself seems to have peaked.

[paraquip]

There is certainly an element to people being out of money but at the same time I've been selling on ebay for 25 years and rode over the 2008-2010 Real Estate crisis but business has never been as bad (on ebay) as it is now....which mysteriously seems to have a correlation with sponsored listings and their ever increasing ad fees'

There is a lot of speculation about why this is happening but I like to look at facts and numbers.   Over the last 5 years millions of sellers have left the ebay platform.  Certainly what is see in forum posts is that many people have simply given up on the platform.   Additionally over the last 3 years "suggested ad rates" have doubled, tripled and quadrupled.  It's pretty common for me to see a suggested 13% ad rate where 18 months ago it was 4 or 5%.

So lets look at the pure math here......if ebay takes a 15% selling fee on everything and then takes an average 10% advertising fee blended across all listings..... it means they can afford to loose about 30% of their sellers, cut overhead by reducing employees and replacing it with AI and still turning a profit.  Objectively this is what ebay is doing.

AT the moment ebay's sales are almost 30% car parts and sneakers. and those guys can pay up to about 50% in fees.  You see here this is all going right?

I pray everyday that the public square and mammoth marketplaces hit critical mass so there is an alternative to the ebay platform.  As of right now they simply are not there yet.

HK

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@paraquip  ebay releases Q3 Results on Wednesday---if it is like most of the Quarterly Reports since the new CEO came on, any increase in revenue will largely be attributable to Ad revenue, not an increase in GMV (sales). ebay has basically become an adoholic. LOL

[luckythewinner]

how the inept politicians handled it

{snip} 

And........please.......no political nonsense

What I believe is that it is hypocritical to bring up politics and then say no one else can bring up politics. 🙄

[blacktopautoparts]

That is the problem, they have become so reliant on ad revenue than trying to grow the platform organically. Last quarter, their ad revenue was down, because less people were using their ads and their onslaught to push people to offsite, store, and promoted listings-priority. It is all become about the PPC model and this has to also be hurting them to some degree when you are now getting less and less sellers promoting. I have a screenshot from last week where I have 2 of the same items listed on eBay, but a tad bit different quality. One item was 15% and the other was 19% suggested ad rate. Now you know that these numbers are manipulated when you have the same exact listing up, but the items are a tad bit different due to quality.