With each change, it feels more and more like eBay wants to be Amazon.

[ccrbonline]

 I seriously wish eBay would stop trying to be Amazon; they're not. eBay is where I go to find one-of-a-kind or unique items that I can't find anywhere else - or items that have been discontinued that can no longer be purchased via standard retail channels. Amazon is where I go to buy furniture and laundry detergent.

As a seller of pre-owned women's clothing items that come to me on consignment I have clearly figured out that eBay would prefer I not be here. They want volume sellers willing to sell cheaply, ship for free, and take returns long after delivery. I can't afford to operate on that sales model forever if I want to be profitable and stay in business.

Fortunately, there are many options for developing my own website, as well as ways to drive customers to my website. Moving in that direction now. My customers are happy, repeat buyers, I have always delivered an exceptional product at a reasonable price and my plans are to continue to do so, just someplace else.

[-tenis]

Here! Here! I am also one who cannot become an Amazonite-Ebay style.  I am just a guy who lives at the end of a cul-de-sac that goes out and finds unusual, sometimes unique, interesting items and treasures that are never available in bulk. 20 years with da 'bay, over 13,000 sales is not to be sneezed at when one thinks about the time spent searching, researching, listing shipping and such from home. You and I are a part of what, in the early days, made Ebay strong and grow. Sure, I could go elsewhere and maybe will in time, which will not affect Ebay, but Ebay is quite capable of providing different rules to those such as you and me to keep on selling. Not looking for a hand-out, just a reasonable Ebay tip of the hat to the long timers, non bulk sellers, that helped put Ebay on the board to success! Cheers! Rob-Bob

[luckythewinner]

With each change, it feels more and more like eBay wants to be Amazon

Many of the people on this board recognized this a decade ago.

[myangelandmyprincess]

as much as it seems like they are trying to be amazon they are failing in one way.  Amazon has way better customer service. 

[willyb15020]

I agree and why would they there is already an Amazon. I wish they would of stuck to what they use to be a place to find cool unique items. THis place is so over saturated with the same exact items really nothing unique about it and really no reason to buy here if I can already buys stuff on Amazon.

[whatmorefabric]

Amazon's growth over the last 4 years has been in third party sellers.

There was an article by a gentleman who appeared on CNBC,  saying the exact same thing.     Ebay is made up mainly of 3 rd party sellers and ought to embrace it and the uniqueness  and quality of it's goods.      He wondered why Ebay wanted to be like the Dollar Store  now.

Amazon clothing is mostly garbage,  no matter who sells it.     My DIL buys cheap dresses because she works from home and  uses Skpe.    She only has to look good from the waist up.    She pins the dresses and ignores the fact that most dresses would be too short for a stripper.     My daughter use to love EBay for great gently used designer and better quality dresses,   now she goes to other sites because she does not want to wade through pages of cheap Chines clothes made for skinny,  non voluptuous girls.     She has a Ebay dress  that was so bad,   she  posted it on one of those sites for showing off your bad clothing from China.

[the_fancy_fox]

I made the comment once during a weekly meeting that eBay was chasing amazons tail, got a snarky comment back from Bob about how they were not chasing Amazon, they were going to be BETTER than Amazon...

I wonder if Bob ever thinks about where it all went south on him.

[birdsflowersanddogs]

I agree. I don't understand why Ebay wants to get away from the online garage sale and collectable and unique items reputation. There is money to be made there. But at this rate not here.

[sharingtheland]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  If ebay could make boatloads of money by focusing on used/vintage/collectible items, that's what ebay would focus on.  

Since ebay began, there has been a huge increase of ecommerce sites selling those types of things to the same limited number of buyers.

I'm not defending ebay; I'm just saying they would follow the money if it was there.

[ekmadonna]

Agreed, gets worse here each passing week. 6 sales in the last 11 days with over 1100 unique items listed everyday! A few years ago I would have had 4-5 sales already today. Lowest weekly total in dollars the last 7 days since I started selling with only 20 or so listings 6 years ago! It's getting pathetic really!

[xray731]

I use to feel the same way but am going to disagree with many here. Changes were necessary to keep up with marketing trends. Hey my sales are down but there are a lot of other e-commerce sites to compete with now - my category used to be NWT clothing. I've branched out and added - used, vintage, sought after trends, and unique items that aren't abundant. 

OP has items in an over saturated category as do I - with a heck of a lot of competition - not only here but with other web sites that are geared toward clothing. If you have buyers that follow you - then you have a leg up on many of us as I don't get a lot of repeat buyers.

The younger shoppers wanted - BIN, free shipping and now free returns. Despite myself always saying in the past - no one else does it - many other platforms have adopted a lot of those policies to keep buyers coming back - the same as Ebay is trying to. Guess I'm just sick of the whining as we CHOOSE to sell here and can pick up and leave at any time if we feel we'll do better someplace else. I've migrated to other venues and while it was great at first - sales are non-existent - so the bulk of my items continue to stay on Ebay as this is where I am getting sales. 

You just can't list items and forget about them like we could in the old days - you have to keep tweeking the titles, listings and pics until it grabs someone's attention. We all have to remember - when you do sell an item out of the hundreds of thousands of the same and similar items available all over the net - you should thank your lucky stars - someone took notice.

[the_fancy_fox]

I get what your saying and I understand what ebay is trying to do. BUT focusing on what the younger consumer wants is NOT the path to sucess. Most of them are just starting out and have limited funds. Market to those with the money.

The things I want to buy, well frankly, the search here is so messed up I cant find it. Many times I go to Google and it brings me to what I want thats for sale on Ebay. Why wont eBay show me that same item when I use their search engine?  Its not like this is a one time issue, it happens over and over and over for me. eBay trys to show me what they think I want, I wish they would figure out that I am perfectly capable of shopping by myself and dont need nor want their help or suggestions. I dont like feeling like I am being manipulated and I am sure most people dont either. When you feel your being cheated, well you dont come back.

Its to the point I rarely buy here. I find it offensive that they manipulate what I see in order to get the best deal for themselves. When I have to use Google to find the best deal on eBay, something is really really wrong.  I was doing some some doll reseach last week and I kept getting car parts. When I switched to advanced search for completed I got the top screen where it then wanted me to put in the make and model of my car to find the part I wanted. 

[auventera]

15 years ago I had my hay day on eBay selling thousands of dollars worth of items cheaply and easily with absolutely zero problems. At this point I refuse to list anything over about 50 to $70 every once in a blue moon because I just know something will go wrong and it will be my responsibility to give it to the buyer for free and I'm not willing to do that.