eBay

3brothersdeals · ‎08-17-2019

Have seen several posts like this lately. Thought I'd throw mine in.

Started here Oct. 1998. Closed my store and left Sep. 2018.

I was always about the money not the 'fun' of selling. Profit was all that mattered to me. I could pretty much endure anything ebay threw at me including JD's reign of terror that saw so many good sellers suspended. Just show me the money. But after almost 20 years, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get past the extortion penalty fee of 40% (soon to be 50%) for returns from scammers, liars and thieves with ebay playing judge, jury and executioner just so they can line their pockets with undeserved and unearned income. I just couldn't do business anymore with such a corrupt policy in place. ebay crossed the line from a barely tolerable and questionable company to dishonest one.

Add to that the postal increases, fee increases, pay-to-play schemes, broken search engine, forced best offer, endless glitches, broken AI, scams, counterfeits, China, abysmal outsourced customer service, manipulation at every turn with ridiculous and nonsensical changes that seem to come hourly. All with a reward of hidden listings and dwindling to no profits while piles of unrelated ads increased in almost every single space of my page.

In short, ebay has over time become everything I abhor. A narcissistic and smug monopoly that has lost it's soul and resonates discord, hatred, bias and greed. I just couldn't take it anymore and have gone to other more friendly and profitable venues.

Best of luck to those who stay.

pburn · ‎08-17-2019

So, you don't sell here anymore? You totally quit selling a year ago? Under all ids?

mam98031 · ‎08-17-2019

Just a curiosity question. If you stopped selling a year ago, what brings you to the threads today?

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

hurryagain · ‎08-18-2019

...and if he did sell, it was definitely NOT under this user name...

Not that I don't agree with a good amount of what he is saying...I just can't verify what he is saying under this particular user name.

richard1rst · ‎08-18-2019

To mimic mam98031 if you don’t sell here why do you care or complain about the situation.

But more to the point:

You don’t try to join a band if you can not play an instrument. Although those who can play do quite well.

You don’t try to join a basketball team unless you are extra tall (Bob Cousy notwithstanding). Although those who are tall do quite well.

You don’t try to fly a plane without training. But those who have the skill do quite well.

You don’t try to run a business if you don’t have “The Lobes”. Although those who have them do quite well.

Some of us here (myself included) do quite well. I just bought a fairly expensive antique Hot Rod. Paid cash for it. With money I earned on eBay.

MAYBE it’s not eBay’s fault.

MAYBE you just don’t have The Lobes.

MAYBE you just thought it ought to be “handed” to you.

And like everyone who fails it is always someone else’s fault - never your own.

Sorry, sympathy declined.

The sun'll come out Tomorrow
So you gotta hang on 'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Annie

this*old*attic · ‎08-18-2019

Interesting.

You don’t complain at others who do the same thing. A few are even long time posters.

mam98031 · ‎08-18-2019

@this*old*attic wrote:
Interesting.

You don’t complain at others who do the same thing. A few are even long time posters.

That isn't accurate.

But with that said, I did NOT "complain". My exact statement was: Just a curiosity question. If you stopped selling a year ago, what brings you to the threads today? And I still stand by the question. It is out of curiosity and nothing more. After a year being away from selling, what inspired the OP to come to the threads with this now? Simple question that a couple of posters are reading more into than was said.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

hurryagain · ‎08-18-2019

@mam98031 wrote:

@this*old*attic wrote:

Interesting.

You don’t complain at others who do the same thing. A few are even long time posters.

That isn't accurate.

But with that said, I did NOT "complain". My exact statement was: Just a curiosity question. If you stopped selling a year ago, what brings you to the threads today? And I still stand by the question. It is out of curiosity and nothing more. After a year being away from selling, what inspired the OP to come to the threads with this now? Simple question that a couple of posters are reading more into than was said.

This is exactly what I said here to the other poster - claiming people were trashing others...and my response was as below:

If you look at my post, you can see that i did not trash the OP -

"...and if he did sell, it was definitely NOT under this user name...

Not that I don't agree with a good amount of what he is saying...I just can't verify what he is saying under this particular user name.

And I wonder the same thing as @mam98031 does...what brought him to post this today? Curious as to why after almost a year after the fact that he shut down the store that he decided to post this...just curious... I don't think @mam98031 is complaining either - just curious - that's all.

Again - not that I don't agree with a lot of what the OP is saying...it is a common thread around here lately. I saw 1 post yesterday saying she's frustrated and done with eBay - still had items listed at the time - and today - poof! she closed it down alright - cancelled all of her listings so it's definitely a more & more common thing going on.

In the past, posters would complain much the same way but would not shut down - they kept on selling anyway. It seems to me that eBay has finally angered sellers to the point that they ARE leaving - for real this time.

kh-vince · ‎08-18-2019

Hello everyone,

This thread is getting a bit heated and off-topic. Please remember that it’s fine to disagree with others, but discussion should always remain courteous, respectful and on topic.

Thank you for your cooperation.

hurryagain · ‎08-18-2019

@kh-vince wrote:
Hello everyone,

This thread is getting a bit heated and off-topic. Please remember that it’s fine to disagree with others, but discussion should always remain courteous, respectful and on topic.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Exactly!...and thank you!

luckythewinner · ‎08-18-2019

@3brothersdeals wrote:
In short, ebay has over time become everything I abhor. A narcissistic and smug monopoly that has lost it's soul and resonates discord, hatred, bias and greed. I just couldn't take it anymore and have gone to other more friendly and profitable venues.

So it's a monopoly, but there are multiple more appealing competitors you can choose as an alternative?

3brothersdeals · ‎08-19-2019

To answer some of the questions posed here.

I used to source about 300k per year of B and C stock inventory to sell here under a different ID. Mainly tech items like tablets and watches. Averaged $1200 to $2000 in ebay fees per month. In September of last year I closed my store and never looked back. I still source but list elsewhere now. I have a FT career and always used online selling for fun money anyway.

After quitting sourcing inventory for ebay, I took a nice long break. During that time, my wife would hand me an old handbag or piece of jewelry and ask me to sell it for her. For several months i would list it on ebay and other platforms as a test. About half the time it sold on the other platforms. Around March of this year, I decided to sell on other platforms exclusively including my wife's junk. My ebay fees for this year were less than $30 total. I don't sell as much but my profits are higher. More importantly, my outlook and general attitude has improved immensely by no longer being tethered to ebay. Even joyful if you will.

While I come to the boards, I don't live here nor post very often. To me it seems that the complexion of this board has changed a lot from a genuine free-thinking discussion board to cheerleading, criticism and censorship. But I still lurk mostly for now and do enjoy reading some of the posts.

In any case, I do wish sellers here the best of luck, especially ones who feed their families from this place.

hurryagain · ‎08-22-2019

Thank you so much for coming back to this post and letting us know why you posted this when you did. I was genuinely curious to know why you decided to post this topic and to see your aspect of things going on a year later. To find out that you are still selling on other venues and that they are a better fit than here is also interesting to me.

"Your outlook and general attitude has improved immensely by no longer being tethered to ebay."

Sounds like you are doing better with less time invested in selling on the other venues...eBay...listen up!

I am happy that your quality of life has improved once you disconnected from selling here. you are not the only one who has said this. I have seen several other posters who have said very similar things and when I looked up there user id - YUP! they stopped selling here alright.

Too bad...eBay was such a fun and genuinely interesting place to buy & sell. I hope they one day realize that and go back to their roots.

membersinceaug2001 · ‎08-23-2019

@3brothersdeals wrote:
To answer some of the questions posed here.

I used to source about 300k per year of B and C stock inventory to sell here under a different ID. Mainly tech items like tablets and watches. Averaged $1200 to $2000 in ebay fees per month. In September of last year I closed my store and never looked back. I still source but list elsewhere now. I have a FT career and always used online selling for fun money anyway.

After quitting sourcing inventory for ebay, I took a nice long break. During that time, my wife would hand me an old handbag or piece of jewelry and ask me to sell it for her. For several months i would list it on ebay and other platforms as a test. About half the time it sold on the other platforms. Around March of this year, I decided to sell on other platforms exclusively including my wife's junk. My ebay fees for this year were less than $30 total. I don't sell as much but my profits are higher. More importantly, my outlook and general attitude has improved immensely by no longer being tethered to ebay. Even joyful if you will.

While I come to the boards, I don't live here nor post very often. To me it seems that the complexion of this board has changed a lot from a genuine free-thinking discussion board to
cheerleading, criticism and censorship
. But I still lurk mostly for now and do enjoy reading some of the posts.

In any case, I do wish sellers here the best of luck, especially ones who feed their families from this place.

Boy, ain't that the truth!

kathieskorner · ‎08-23-2019

Some of us here (myself included) do quite well. I just bought a fairly expensive antique Hot Rod. Paid cash for it. With money I earned on eBay.

MAYBE it’s not eBay’s fault.

MAYBE you just don’t have The Lobes.

MAYBE you just thought it ought to be “handed” to you.

Congratulations on your ebay success. However, very few of the sellers that post here have almost 12,000 listings. eBay is not a one-size-fits-all marketplace.

I've been here since the early days, and based on the number of items I have listed through the years and the limited amount of time I have put into eBay, I think I have done reasonably well. I also sold at flea markets and craft shows and had a brick and mortar store before I ever sold the first item on eBay. I never expected the easy successes of the pre-recession eBay to last, and as the marketplace has changed and with postal increases I have changed what I sell here. Nor did I expect that eBay would become so manipulative and trash what made them unique.

I do blame eBay for the stress that many long time sellers are now experiencing. Best offer, free shipping, free returns, promoted listings, Asian favoritism, search manipulation and constant changes have all made it more difficult and more costly to sell here. Some sellers, especially those of us selling used and vintage items who have refused to play eBay's recent money grab games, have been more impacted than others. Quite a few have left, some of us keep chugging along until eBay comes up with the straw that breaks the camel's back.