It is not like the old days on Ebay.
Far fewer people spend their lives buying here.
There are many items which people do not buy used, even though times are tougher than they were not that long ago.
And more people get brand new Chinese goods, delivered in a day from Amazon with easy returns.
If money is short, the risk is lower to buy from Amazon and if you do not like it, drop at Kohl's or Whole Foods and get a quick refund, so you can buy something else. And not risk a cranky Ebay seller who believes any buyer who wants a return is a scammer. And a slower Ebay returns and refund procedure.
A lot of buyers who haven't bought on Ebay recently, still think of it as an auction site, and having to deal with a 7 day auction and not necessarily concluding a sale when the auction is over. So they stay away from Ebay.
Everything can be working properly and you can be getting no traffic on your listings some days.
For many sellers, it is essential to offer your products on multiple marketplaces, but some of the same issues apply on other marketplaces. Used is not only unattractive, it may be banned, Some will not allow you to list branded product unless you are buying wholesale from the manufacturer or their authorized distributor.
And your brand new merchandise may be picked over with only the stuff which belongs on the clearance shelf still available.
I can go into thrift shops every few months and see the same stuff on the shelf as a previous business and see only stale merchandise.
Goodwill in our area is discounting some merchandise 50% one day a week and running bag sales another.
The past few weeks they are offering an additional day of 30% or 50% on donated merchandise.
They have so much coming in that they have reduced the donation hours. A lot of that donated merchandise shows up on online marketplaces competing with sellers like you.
Its been a long time since the last round of hard times. Some of us were around to see them, others are too young. They manifest themselves in many different ways. Some of us are affected more than others. Some of us want to deny there is a problem.
I see the effects on my sales by seeing more peaks and valleys, but my profits are not needed to put food on the table.
When I actually had to deal with peaks and valleys in the past, I increased the number of listings I had, and increased the sites I sold on.
