A conspiracy theory in itself is believing that an entity ( here it is eBay ) is causing a certain event to happen.
Lately a *lot* of my sales have been from California. I live in North Carolina, and I have noticed a common buying market from California for *years*. I would dare to say over 75% of my sales go to the west coast. I am under the suspicion that eBay might throttle or even blanket local traffic, but show your items to people that would generate a good shipping bill - possibly to aid the USPS, FEDEX, or UPS? I believe there is something going on there- I am not unhappy about it, although the California buyers seem to see shipping as a waste of money, and always haggle the price to get rid of shipping costs, or continuously take advantage of the accidental slip up "free shipping" listings before I can even catch them!
Enough of my theory - what's something you've noticed that happens on eBay, that you are pretty sure is an eBay motivated ploy?
@caldreamer wrote:That's funny...I live in California and majority of my sales are on the East Coast (maybe there is something to your theory).
Another sale of a big ticket item tonight...Guess where it's heading?
California...No...really.
@autopartspuller wrote:Here is a thought to your "theory": Items that you get on the east coast are not as readily available on the west coast therefore, they would be willing to pay a higher premium for said item. Plus, they would need to search online venues for these items since, unlike NC where you (and I) are from, we can search local locations and get deals on same item they can not find in their location.
I have more than one selling account. Each sells different types of product. Each has a different area where a majority of my items are sold to. It's Very likely the product you sell and not a conspiracy 🙂
*Hugs* -Best of luck to you!
I can see the validity in your statements. I sell everything under the sun! It's just surprising how many of my sales are to California! I just had a big ticket item *$400* go to a buyer in....California. The shipping won't be huge, but I really think there is some kind of pipeline from my selling page to CA. Haha
@worldwide_ship wrote:I have a conspiracy theory that PayPal is batch opening up eBay accounts, buying items from sellers and then immediately asking to cancel the order to keep the fees.
That's actually....Possible?
I've heard recently that Amazon will set up bots to buy items and then resell those items and still make money on it. When you have the buying power of Amazon - even a few cents is enough.
@backroomnoir wrote:No sales for days, then 2 within an hour to different buyers in South Dakota.... hmm, interesting... very.
The ever increasing use of A.I. leads me to believe there is some kind of algorithm set up to make things like this happen....
@evry1nositswindy wrote:@membersinceaug2001 Hi fellow buckeye! Most of my sales are California, Florida, Texas, and New York. Higher taxes equals more fees for eBay since fees are charges on total. @mtgraves7894 first class goes by distance, so it applies to you. Further away equals more fees since eBay charges their fee on the total price, which includes tax and shipping.
I can't remember the last time I sold something to Oklahoma, or Vermont - really just anywhere other than the big ticket states....It seems like the traffic is being channeled. Sometimes I can list something here in N.C., and my grandparents only 30 miles away in another town cannot see my item on the current results. I have been selling like mad, so my items are getting good coverage at the present. When I was a basic seller, I remember not getting hardly any views or watchers....Now I have plenty.
