Where have all the sellers gone?

[sortuda]

This might sound an odd question - I've been a bit out of the ebay loop as a buyer and seller for a few years until recently, but it appears that after the new payment policy a huge number of types of items/sellers have just vanished. I even wrote to ebay about this but of course never got a reply back.

Where has everyone gone??

I used to spend hours combing through page after page of truly unique and great antiques, wonderful coffee sets, great old vintage jewelry, odd brick a brack and I noticed right after the new payments I would type in a search term and literally come back with maaaaaybe 2 pages of items. Impossible! Click 'include description' and it's not much better.  I used to get pages and pages of listings and my sister and I could spend hours combing through pages in tandem browsing pointing out great items we each might like.

I know something is up as this is what is happening with almost everything I'm interested in. I honestly buy more on ebay than I sell, and I know something is not right. I seem to be getting more pages of ***bleep*** now for searches with new modern items results, overseas items, nothing am interested in. My thing is unique, one-off, vintage, antique, unusual, and ebay USED to deliver those results. Sure, I found some things tonight that are 'vintage', etc but nothing quite looks or feels the same somehow. Things are either China ***bleep*** being sold as 'vintage' or it's bottom of the barrel, -where is all the old quality vintage and antiques?

Has something happened to the search function? Have most of the quality dealers left? Are the fees now just too high (um yeah, I know that's a 'yes' but ...?)? Am I the only one noticing this? 

[eye_of_the_tiger]

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@sortuda wrote:

Where has everyone gone??

To the eBay Community to post about this. 

[soh.maryl]

OK -- pretty sure I've not posted anything in disagreement with your viewpoint.  

[keraz-0]

I never said anywhere in my post that I was not going to pay taxes.

No way bezos pays more in donations than he would in taxes. No way Musk pays more in charity than he would in taxes.

[yuzuha]

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@keraz-0 wrote:

The IRS goes after small sellers because we are nobody and are low hanging fruit. Whats next. Rummage sales?

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Dunno about where you live, but yeah, around here you pay taxes at rummage sales. Always have.

[mam98031]

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@keraz-0 wrote:

I never said anywhere in my post that I was not going to pay taxes.

No way bezos pays more in donations than he would in taxes. No way Musk pays more in charity than he would in taxes.

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Are you sure about that.

https://marketrealist.com/p/jeff-bezos-charity-donations-2021/

[jcalaz2003]

Old post but wanted to rezpond anyway. Ebay is failing because they do not care about or want the "small" Sellers selling their used / unwanted items anymore. Ebay wants to be another Amazon with listings from major retail outlets and websites who can absorb the exorbitant Ebay fees, free returns and product loss from dishonest Not As Described claims without even noticing the indiscernable "blip" to their bottom line. I will never understand why anyone looking to buy 

... lets say a Samsung Watch 4, for example.... would want to spend hours combing through hundreds of listings on Ebay for China knock-offs, refurbished, Pre-Owned Samsung Watch 4s at the same price ( sometimes a few dollars more or less) as offered in BestBuy, Walmart, Target stores AND on their own websites. They're still paying the same price and sales tax and then have to wait for shipping too?

I will still look and, sometimes even buy something on Ebay but unless there is a benefit for me to buy here vs. somewhere else, my Ebay purchases are much more the "rare exception" than the rule. also, after hearing  and reading more and more stories about Sellers getting ripped off by dishonest Buyers and Ebay's forced refunds and ever-changing rules and fees, I have deleted the last of my listings today. 

[mam98031]

@jcalaz2003 

"Ebay is failing because they do not care about or want the "small" Sellers selling their used / unwanted items anymore."  Have you taken the time to look at Ebay financials?  They are a LONG way from "failing".

"Ebay wants to be another Amazon with listings from major retail outlets and websites who can absorb the exorbitant Ebay fees, free returns and product loss from dishonest Not As Described claims without even noticing the indiscernable "blip" to their bottom line."  Not really.  Ebay welcomes the used items on the site.  If you are someone that has never sold on any other site other than Ebay, I understand that you may not be aware that other similar sites are quite a bit like Ebay.  Some do have lower fees, but others charge more.  So it is a mixed bag.  Paying 12.55%, which is likely your FVF is just not that expensive for the exposure you get on this site.

INADs are important to Ebay too.  For several reasons.  Buyer aren't happy when having to return an item they really wanted in the first place.  And Ebay makes less money on an INAd than a completed sale.  But buyer satisfaction is extremely important because we want buyers to return to Ebay not buy once and disappear.  None of us will be able to grow that way.

We don't all live in a metropolitan place.  One where shopping at a Target or Walmart is easy.  Some people are home bound for a variety of reasons and unable to get out to a store even if they are close by.  Some people simply prefer to shop online instead of going to the stores for whatever reason they may have.  We don't all shop the same or live the same lives.  We are quite a mixture of all kinds of needs and wants.

Keep in mind that it is the nature of places like this to have the sellers or buyers with issues to come here and express them.  In a community such as this it is rare for a member to come here and post a feel good story as those threads get very little pull.  Also keep in mind that it is a fraction of a fraction of members that come to the threads to express themselves.  Sellers are over 19 million strong worldwide on Ebay and active buyers is over 180 million.

So the opinions expressed here by buyers or sellers is my no stretch of the imagination a major consensus of buyers or sellers.  

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.