eBay Dead Slow Sales 2019

[baydistributionllc]

If you go look at the archives you will find thread after thread of people complaining their sales have dropped off. I will have to admit that I have spent far too much time reading them and have even posted one or two. 

For me it was April 2017 when it just fell off. Wasn't all that that long ago I had my first day in 5 years without a sale.

They changed some things, that's for sure. Griping about it won't help us so I thought I would share some ways that I have begun to find an increase in sales.

1. Promoted listings is not a choice. If your complaining your sales fell off and you are not using promoted listings you need to go do a blanket 1% on everything and watch it increase immediately. They found a creative way to increase the fees in a way that looks like its optional. Its not optional.

2. Stagnant Inventory. I have read that sellers have gotten eBay reps to 'reset' their listings. While I believe they may have been told this I don't believe that whatever the rep did had any meaningful effect. I have read that doing a bulk edit and not changing anything gets it going. I don't see that being very effective either. It used to be that if you posted an item you could leave it posted forever and it would eventually sell. I think the new eBay is taking a lot more data points into account like views, watchers, identical solds, and who knows what else. If it doesn't like your listing, it buries it and shows it nobody. I have not been keeping items nearly as long and I have been a lot more aggressive in revising and lowering prices. I revise at least as many items as I post everyday and double most days. Sometimes its a $1 thats the difference in sold and not sold.

3. Offers to buyers. I have sold several items with this new feature. If its not an option on your dashboard you can manually type the link to get to it. Its available to everyone.

4. Offer international shipping outside of GSP. I have had lots of sales this way and printing the label for a first class international (up to 4lbs by the way) is as easy as printing a US one. The only difference is you have to sign it. I have had a couple people do something like pay $150 in shipping to get a $75 item, and that kills me on the fees but that rarely happens and I have yet to loose money on any deal because of it.

5. Returns and cases. I seem to notice a drastic dip in sales directly after I get two returns and/or cases. Just one doesn't seem to have an effect but it seems like if I get two inside of a week, sales suck for several days after. Anyone else notice this? This has led me to a point to where I will not sell anything with a defect. People are looking at the gallery photo and the price and NOTHING ELSE. I will sell new, and fully functional used, and that's it. Sometimes really expensive items still have significant value even if they are only partially working, I will not longer sell that. If I don't feel like the ENTIRE listing can meet the expectation created by just the first photo I don't list it on ebay at all. I guess what I am saying is be more selective with your sourcing.

6. Competition. There are a lot more people selling on ebay. I sure wish I knew how many sellers were on ebay three years ago vs. today. I really have been trying to find items that nobody else is offering or have few comps. I have found myself passing on things not because the margin wasn't there but because there are 3,423 other ones already posted. In the past I would have bought anything that had a sold comp with a good margin, not anymore.

So that was my goal of this post, just to share some ways I am finding a little traction. Hope it helps.

On a side note....

For going on three or four months I noticed a big decrease in return abuse and entitled cheats. I had a period of time with 0 open returns and quite a run with only 1.  This weeks I had 2 big fat cheaters. They were all cheap items that had returns anyway, and I got the items back, so not a huge deal. They only stole shipping fees. 

One guy asked a silly question about a set of waders I had posted. I referred him to the portion of the listing that answered the question so he couldn't use the semantics of my answer to start a return later. He didn't like that answer so he bought the item with the intent of returning it. Brand New Item. Has UPC. Has same information as all other sellers with same item and same UPC.  eBay was kind of enough to remove the defect, but having to call waste my time, kinda aggravating. 

I had a somewhat rare bible. It was in pretty rough shape. I wouldn't source or list the same item again. I took good photos of all the damage and described all the damage in detail. If I remember right this bible in good used condition goes for around $40+. This one sold for $20. 30 Day returns, no good reason needed to return it. Shipping was just over $3. Then of course they choose a reason that causes me a defect and say " I love this bibles I would never allow any one do this type of harm to any book let a lone a bible". What a looney toon.

I love how these people can come to ebay and treat it like facebook and at the end of the day it doesn't cost them a dime. They are not shopping for items, they are shopping for a problem to create. eBay does offer us one thing most other platforms don't, the blocked list.

Person 1 had 0 feedback. I think they created a new account to distance what they were about to do from their real account. Person 2 had 1 feedback. Not well established members of the ebay community by any stretch. Returns for users with less than 5 feedback should require a look by an actual person at ebay before they are allowed to apply a defect. Even if it looks like it went through to the user, actual look prior to defect application seems like common sense.

So I know there are some people out there that had a big drop in sales, is there anyone out there that has kept pumping up items and found some success with any new techniques? Get any crazy returns?

Anyone out there sell 20 items instead of 10 and wanna tells us all who say the sales fell off we are crazy because you had a 100% increase? 🙂

[prairiesedgetreasure]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[191paula]

An employee of the post office says the decrease in sales because of Amazon.

[preciouspaper]

Couldn't agree more with your analysis.

[dasarock]

I was just looking at the few sales that I have had over the past 3 weeks...

every other sale is a promoted. looks like ebay is still manipulating search results. the law of averages and statistics would not ensure that exactly every other sale is promoted listing when other than the promotion each listing is identical per se'

I also spoke in person with 2 other sellers from france last night. both are extremely apprehensive of the tact ebay is taking and the results when when start implementing all the changes to the u.s. site over the past year or 2 into the ebay.fr site. I see they have already begun to implement in England as well

[j221971]

What? Really?

So if your analysis is true and we are in recession I'm failing to see how a place where small and large companies and individuals alike sell their items for less than the going rate would suffer such a catastrophic downturn in sales. I bought a pair of shoes here last week that were $10 to $15 cheaper than other marketplaces plus free shipping. So obviously people are looking for bargains and eBay has always been that place. Now, unless you take the GTC **bleep**, do promoted listings, do the managed payments, and/or pay a ton in store fees your listings are buried.  That is what I was trying to say and think I did say it. I was not looking for political leanings about taxes (because I would rather have my paycheck be larger and not loan my money to the government throughout the year) and global warming nonsense. eBay was still strong for me in 2008 when the bottom fell out of the economy because people flocked there to find value. Now unless you pay to play (some 17% to 20% of your sales with promoted listings and final value fees and the fraction of each sale to pay with a store subscription) your listings only show up with exact auction number or exact description because they killed key word search. 

I do this as a hobby to fund my other hobby. I thrift and resell items to buy running stuff and pay race entries so the money I make here is not my lifeblood. While I do OK, I have done way better as little as 3 months ago. So please spare me the political ramblings and realize this is not about Trump or even the CEO of eBay. This is about the fact that they are crippling the little guy and people are noticing and dealing with the results individually. I know I have quit my store (have to pay until 10-31-19) and I will only use the 50 freebie listings and be more selective about what I list. I'm a small guy but if too many small $100 to $300 a month eBay fee people leave they will sink the ship. 

[rfmtm]

The bottom line is search manipulation is a boon to some and the demise of others.  Totally unfair to sellers, especially those that follow the rules, and unbelievably frustrating to buyers, no matter how savvy they are.

[equid0x]

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@miguelcoins wrote:

My sales are non existing since may format of fixed pricing to not stop unless you do..Ebay got over swindling people with ebay stores and extra fee's being very greedy!  Must be a bunch of Millennial third world people that would do something so foolish and killing ebay off,,I really don't know how i will stay here with ebay stores..Very Bad Management ,,

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Sorry, the Boomers haven't retired yet. 

[equid0x]

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

Must be a bunch of Millennial third world people that would do something so foolish and killing ebay off - miquelcpoins 

You may have a very good point and it may  be  closer to reality than some  may believe . Poor management skills will destroy  a company  even faster than it has destroyed  some nations . Tulips 

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Yup, sure must be those Millennials who, if they have a corporate job at all, are still on the lowest rungs of the corporate ladder. It couldn't have anything at all to do with the Boomers who still won't retire and have been running the show since the early 90's. 

[equid0x]

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@eze-right1 wrote:

Oh, about selling more during the Christmas period, last year before the first week of Christmas, I found a new Disney Tinker Bell ornament and thought, hey, THIS will sell for SURE!
 Nope. 
 The whole month of December went by, no sale. First week of January, I decided to relist it. BAM! It sold in a couple of days! So I put two and two together and decided that they're stifling my listings. eBay had better get it together or else more folks will be selling and buying elsewhere. It's happening already.

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I feel your pain. I only sold 10 items in December '18. This compared to the couple hundred I sold the year prior. I pulled nearly all listings the last week of December. I took a couple months off, re-grouped, and stuck my toe back in the water "full time"  with a re-tooled plan in April but with only 25% of my normal listings. Sales were "okay" but kept having issues with fraudulent returns, despite extensive efforts to avoid this, and pulled out completely in early August '19 when eBay refused, once again, to stand behind their own policies. 

Meanwhile, I have items listed on other sites and have sold something every day this week. 

[equid0x]

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@atoz4u wrote:

I agree. No longer inspired to even update bad photos. Done that with some of my item... and I just wasted my time on those items. Some sellers are selling those same items... several a day!???  So... I put those items on promotional payments 20% over the recommended %... STILL NEVER SOLD................................ I even put one on auction for free shipping and 99 cent start bid... still no bids? .....But other seller was still selling same item way way way way higher priced than that... and they gave NO description!....... NO sales on stuff that I use to not be able to keep those items in stock.?!............ I just don't get it. ...........It is obvious no one is seeing this item and the views are fake.......... who would pass up my 99 cent auction and buy it from a seller with a way higher price???....... And they have no description and 1 photo... I give full details and 3 photos? Very very frustrating to not be able to fix this problem.... No fixing is possible.... list of item description details and 3 better photos at 99 cents and free shipping is still not the answer???. Sorry... there is no fixing this problem. Something else is going on... that is out of our hands. Someone within eBay is getting richer off of this mess... you can count on it.

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I've noticed the same thing... competitors with poor photos, worse policies, one-liner descriptions, policy violating templates who are selling multiple of the same item I am selling a week for double the price and substantial shipping markup yet my item remained unsold. 

I strongly suspect that there is nepotism going on at eBay and some sellers with inside connections are getting prime placement that other sellers aren't getting. 

[equid0x]

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@atoz4u wrote:

I wish I could upvote you more than just 1 time. You are so correct in your examination of this issue. I was just talking to someone who bought 15 shirts from 15 different sellers... and they all were way too small... . He thought he was buying from U.S. sellers as he needed the shirts the week he was buying them..... He did not have time to go to the store to do his buying. He said they came way way way later than stated and all packages were not U.S. packages................ Not 1 shirt was close to his size........... . He said never again!............ Now eBay is not an option for buying anything anymore. ...........Anywhere else will be his choice... not eBay. I felt his pain and understood his issue as I had the same problem with me buying clothes. ....Nothing ever fit.... All children's sizes as far as I could tell... but the clothes were listed as U.S. size with U.S. size chart. No way were they U.S. sizes, nor a U.S. size chart was used for measuring the clothes I had bought. PERIOD.

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I didn't buy them here, but I have had this same experience with Chinese made clothing. Lists a US size but is obviously way, way smaller than the size listed. 

Either that or if it is the correct size when bought, it shrinks in the wash like no fabric I have ever seen in my life. 

[equid0x]

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@atoz4u wrote:

I spent the weekend listing sellers and their newest listings and their newest sold. I found that small sellers are selling less and less and listing way more more often. Big sellers are selling way way more with pages and pages and pages of relisted items every day. How can a small seller list that amount of listing each day? We can not compete with the pages and pages of listings added each day by those big sellers. Just examine what is going on. There are certain BIG sellers selling 1000's of items PER DAY. They are listing 1000's of items per day. I am seeing the same exact same items being relisted... diff photo... diff title... diff price...SAME EXACT ITEM. One big seller had 1 item listed for $40 and free shipping, $30 + $10 shipping, small size 1 certain color, different size, same color, different size, same color... ect with the sizes and colors and different prices... ALL THE SAME ITEM. Must of been a whole page of the one item scattered over their pages and pages of listings for that day. Clever on their part... and getting all the sales for that type color and size of that item. No other company choices except a few other big sellers doing the same... do some research and find out it is the one main co. with diff seller accounts. SAME PHOTOGRAPHER.

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They're doing the same thing in my category. I reported at least 12 listings, all from different "sellers", but all of which were using the same photos, same descriptions (maybe a different template), same general listing format, but at several different price-points all within $1 of each other. All of the listings were at least $7-$8 below the next closest listings. 

I ran the numbers on these items and there is no way this seller is making any money on these items unless they are stolen and even then its questionable unless they are selling at US shipping rates but actually shipping e-packet from China. 

My opinion? The US is being economically attacked by China using loads of fake bot accounts to try and tank our markets and make them unprofitable. eBay is either complicit or turning a blind-eye to what is happening. 

BTW: I checked later and eBay didn't take down any of the reported listings, even though they were all very obviously duplicates running on different seller accounts. 

[equid0x]

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@echo_and_zip wrote:

eBay is 'the canary in the coal mine'... the economy is NOT 'good'... most people did NOT get a Tax Cut... they got a CUT in what they could DEDUCT from their taxable income... most people did NOT get a raise in pay... many work 2-3 part time jobs w/ NO benefits... the current group did NOT improve health ins. costs... they made it WORSE... the CEOs & rich stock holders are making out like thieves... which they are... stealing from little people who work for them & our children & grandchildren, as the National Debt EXPLODES... a Recession is here, despite them denying it, like Global Warming... it's here.

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I'm not sure I totally agree with this. I do agree that the economy is not as strong as all the newsies would have you believe it is, but my sales are much stronger on other platforms. 

The fall in sales here seems to be directly linked to changes this platform. Other platforms are up for the year and 2 of them much, much stronger than I would have expected. 

[seattlesportstuff]

Elliot will do a hostile takeover once Aiyden stock aggreement thru forced MP is done. They do not want US Sellers anymore. Cost to much to maintain small accounts. All they would have to require a business license on the account.

[gemstone_merchant]

This thread is basically all the sellers that use ebay are complaining and leaving so I think I'll do the same but first: 

I am a small individual seller who was initially hired to setup and run a big box top rated store that specialized in selling rough minerals for making cabochons for jewelry. From what I've been experimenting with is that you cannot make any sales unless you sell for dollars AND run promoted listings with a 1% blanket for over 600 items. Even the store with 600 items made spotty sales since everyone is a cheap a** and expect 25 Lbs Boxes to be shipped to them for free when the market price of the item costs $200+ and its being sold for $30. I've talked on the phone with a buyer who complained that he had to pay for shipping when WE covered over half of the shipping cost. The Top Rated store that I was running was also involved in the Ebay store subscription that costs $60 a month. I did the calculations for the sales to fee ratio and that store was barely scraping by due to the insane ebay fees and market manipulation. 

As for me? I'm a smaller seller who specializes in the sale of loose gemstones on the Ebay platform. My store isn't a big box but I have roughly 30 high value items listed at a time so I can avoid B******* insertion fees. People expect me to sell them CUSTOM gemstones for dollars when I already priced them lower than market value to maintain competition. Typically, custom stones will run at a 70%+ PREMIUM on top of standard market value and cost of the rough stone for people who purchase them. But no. The people who use ebay are cheap uncultured bottom feeders who can't afford to part with large sums of money for LUXURY goods. My store policy is "If you pay trash prices, you get trash products." which is common sense. But people who make a $3 order comment that the stone "Wasn't worth the money." Well no S***. You paid $3 for a bulk package of gemstones you 1/2 brain-cell buyer. 

The buyers are not the only problem. The next problem is Ebay corporate charging fraudulent fees that if you call they immediately refund. Every time I make a sale (Which is not often) I check what I'm being charged and if it checks out I pay directly after the item sold. If you wait for invoices to come in it gives Ebay a chance to slip in additional fees for things you NEVER paid for. I know this because when I was running the big box store Ebay owed them back $300+ from fraudulent fee charges from things they slipped in over the course of several years. 

Ebay also allows India and China to knowingly sell fake fraudulent gemstones and market them as authentic and natural. These Two-Bit scammers are allowed to flood the marketplace with their filth which lowers the credibility of real sellers who are running honest businesses. For example, Indian sellers often sell "Natural Emerald" but 100% of the time it is a quartz crystal that was DYED emerald green and sold to buyers. Another is "Natural Ruby" which they sell a lab created synthetic to buyers who unknowingly purchase them. Not everyone is a gemologist so authentic customers are easily taken advantage of on the market by scammers. Which in turn causes them to distrust the market and assume EVERYONE is a scammer. 

In a week I'm going to Air Force Basic so I will probably have my family run the store for the time being. But when I get back I'm going to pay the $200 1-yr bond that is refunded if there are no incidents and migrate my wares to Gem Rock Auctions which only specializes in selling real gemstones to collectors and jewelers. They also have people who maintain quality control so if a scammer shows up they are banned off the site and loose their $200 bond so they all stay far far away from that place.