Why are things getting bad on ebay

[jeff-second-chance-silver]

One of my ebay store has over 11000 items listed and only 3 sales the last 2 days. The other one has 5200 items and has only 15 sales. Both top rated. Things have gone horribly south in the last few years.  

[simba6]

Sales have slowed  over the past 15 years.   It used to be they would drop off after Christmas and then pick back up and drop off for summer.  Again pick pack up in the fall drop for back to school.  And pick up before Christmas.

But then they stopped picking back up.  They did keep the seasonal drop offs however.  All in spite of increased buyer protection, the DSRs  and free returns.

[sakic92710]

I started sending a lot to auctions a few months ago.   Each as been successful & I sold about 98% of what I sent over.  The first time around, they sold for over $1500.  I ended up with $1100.  Items just sitting forever on eBay.  No one wants my stuff?  Guess that theory doesn't hold water.  I've been in about 5 auctions & each one was a win for me.  Each one went over my expectations except for 1.  It equaled what I hoped for.  Believe it or not, I have one auction on eBay & it will sell!  Amazing!  lol   Good luck to all.   🙂

[farmalljr]

I'm just at the point, if I make back more than I have invested, I'm good. I'm sick and tired of all the time it took to get this stuff listed up, only to have it sit, unsold. For months/years.  Markdowns, coupons, promotions, none of it works. It doesn't matter what I do, sales just don't happen. At least sales HERE don't happen. 

2-3 years ago, stuff was moving. Not just because of covid, but because I got views. The first and hardest "hit" was when they hosed the postcard category. Ever since, sales have never came back. I was consistently selling 5-10 postcards a day.  Now I can't hardly sell 3 a week. 

Not even going to get into the issues lately of not even being able to buy labels through eBay for the last week. CS's suggestion? Buy labels someplace else, they are having a "glitch". LMAO. What else can you expect from the same people who can't manage to hold their market share?

[berteletha]

Portland, Oregon used to have incredible antique shows.   After the pandemic, the shows started up again, but are awful!!  Most of the great dealers are gone and the new dealers are making money selling junk.  What a sad situation.  I am not wasting my time attending anymore.

[803collectors]

March sales have been down dramatically for me.  I keep a pretty good eye on my numbers and compared to January my gross sales are down 50% and compared to February my gross sales are down 30%.  Slow weeks/months are going to happen.  You have to focus on the big picture and look at year over year sales, they usually tend to be pretty stable unless you have changed your business model or something dramatic happened to the economy.  Good luck to all of you and keep pushing forward.

[inhawaii]

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@miyasamaco wrote:

The people in charge are complete !@^%$ and don't want anyone here except the large sellers (the CEO said as much).

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Where did you read/see this?

I would love to read/see it myself.

Would you care to share with us?

[inhawaii]

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@5594shelleys wrote:

No matter the cheerleaders.  Things are bad on eBay. And have been bad on eBay for a number of years. It isn't your store; it's eBay. 

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What about the sellers who are doing well, some exceptionally well,

The ones you don't see here complaining about slow sales?

inhawaii

(ebay cheerleader)

[vintagecraze50]

I believe the CEO’s strategy also focused on getting people on here who have big bucks to spend on these ultra expensive what they call Enthusiast vertical, meaning high priced stuff. The logic would be that these people would spend more on other things on here. Having more authenticated stuff here in those categories as well for these folks to trust buying it here. Selling more high end brings in more FVF TAKE. Promoted listings and the I’m a gambler pay per click also a way to increase revenue. I just hope these high spend people will be spending on me.

[rugerskick]

Going on day 3 of the store effectively having the switch turned off by ebay.  

[vintagecraze50]

I experimented somewhat with lowing some prices and for some odd reason it had not much effect. There has to be a good base of buyers on here looking for this stuff. There seems to be a drop off at least in what we sell. That could be because of people having less money now to spend on things that are in my store. And because I have had to raise prices this year. Some of my repeat customers may not be able to afford that.

[sumsum70]

"switch turned off" is exactly what it seems like. Normal eBay for me is steady views and watchers, sales every day, lowball offers, fair offers and mostly dumb questions. When the switch is off, all of that stops.

I ended 25 listings yesterday morning. These were listings that would normally have traffic and sales, but have not for the past week. Relisted them as "sell similar". Within several hours, these items had views and BIN sold a server, a camera, a switch and 6 hard disks. Also got two offers, accepted one of them for a higher value switch and ignored the other offer for being a lowballer.

I can't say for sure if ending and relisting is why I resumed sales. If things return to being slow / no sales today, I'll do the same thing tomorrow morning and see what happens.

The listings I did not end and relist are things I either don't expect to sell often or things that naturally come up in Google searches like Axis M3005-V.

[farmalljr]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@miyasamaco wrote:

The people in charge are complete !@^%$ and don't want anyone here except the large sellers (the CEO said as much).

---

Where did you read/see this?

I would love to read/see it myself.

Would you care to share with us?

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Don't know why you have to be reminded what eBay has already stated. You already know this. The CEO already made a statement about "low value buyers" and their lack of any focus on them. If they don't care about low value buyers, they don't care about low value sellers either. 

If your store is doing well, count your blessings. Many are not. I don't sell in their high value verticals, and I bet you don't either. I'm not, and I don't think others are either, attacking those of you doing well or ok selling. 

There are more than a few of us that are upset about all the money and time invested here and not getting traffic. No matter the reason for the revenue, we all have time and money tied up in this. Asking for a fair and balanced opportunity to sell, isn't a big ask. Especially when we are paying for it. 

[philaqtrmasdepot]

I have been selling on eBay for 25 years. Sales have slowed progressively over the last few years. Sure, the pandemic and some people going back to work has a bit to do with it, I guess. I think the yearly shipping cost increases by the Post Office, FedEx, and UPS and other shipping companies has a bit to do with it also.  For example: USPS wanted $94.50 to ship an item I sold. UPS wanted $26.50 for the same item. I'm using UPS now more than not. I was the #2 and sometime #1 user of the USPS in my town not anymore. The Post Office manager asked me why I do not use them so much anymore. I said their fees have increased and I save by using other shipping services. Also, there are other sites that people are going to such as Facebook Market Place, Etsy, Mercuri and so on. I find that a lot of people on eBay are starting to look for cheap items or items that not many or no one else sells. I do ok with what I sell. I'm retired and this is now an income supplement for me. I used to rely on eBay as my main sales site back in 1998 and so on up until a few years ago. Not anymore. I'm starting to use other selling sites along with eBay that have no fees for selling or at much less selling charges.

Just a thought.

[mr_lincoln]

@philaqtrmasdepot 

Nothing wrong at all with that approach and smart internet entrepreneurs need to have more than one venue to sell items on.  That's just smart business.  As to sales being down on eBay it has less to do with the economy than eBay making changes to the venue.  I and some other Sellers in diverse categories are seeing similar downward trends across the board.  Sellers SEE trends and patterns, they are not stupid.  eBay is changing the algorithms to accommodate the latest PLA BETA (Promoted listings) feature where Sellers compete for the highest spots on a returned search by paying AD fees upfront prior to anything selling.  They came out with this latest twist last year but since it really only benefits the really big Sellers selling commodity type items or auto parts, etc. it must not be doing well.  The reason I say that is they recently sent out advertisements for it offering $ 500 in AD Fee credits ... that pretty much tells the story right there.  

I often have items that either nobody else has or very few have and they sell through pretty fast.  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I do think one thing that is probably hurting sellers of used, vintage, and antique is: lack of marketing.

ebay's intense focus on the Focus Categories and Enthusiast Buyers and refusal , for example, to market the site itself during the last few Holiday seasons, in combination with the rapid and continuing increase in competition for this kind of stuff (both online and offline) has really harmed ebay's ability to bring buyers to the marketplace. 

If ebay doesn't take off its Focus Category blinders, its going to see a serious reduction in the amount of neat old stuff on the platform. I remember years ago sellers were upset when Meg Whitman said "Sellers go where the buyers are" rather than "buyers go where the sellers are", but Meg was right: Sellers (and their inventory) will go where they feel the buyers are buying, and right now, in many categories, buyers are buying elsewhere, and ebay is doing far too little to attract them to come here.