eBay Owes Sellers an Explanation - No Sales for Years 2019

[clothes_whisperer]

I have been selling on eBay for years. 

Not a heavy seller, but I was able to get by for a while, thankfully.

Then all of a sudden a few years back things took a turn for the worse, a steep ongoing decline in sales.

So much chatter and no explanations! All these theories, milk us for more money to promote listings that still don't sell...and it's not our SEO, our items...it's greed!

eBay WE WANT ANSWERS! 

[frippislandsc]

I hear ya. Same here. I closed my store so I just use the free listings that are given out and that is it. I am a long time seller as well. I work from home and I sell across other platforms and it has been a slooooow summer.  Every morning I log on to Ebay and check my ending listings and set my timer on my phone so that I can remember to end listings.  am not giving Ebay any extra money for nonsense.

[luckythewinner]

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@clothes_whisperer wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for years. 

Not a heavy seller, but I was able to get by for a while, thankfully.

Then all of a sudden a few years back things took a turn for the worse, a steep ongoing decline in sales.

So much chatter and no explanations! All these theories, milk us for more money to promote listings that still don't sell...and it's not our SEO, our items...it's greed!

eBay WE WANT ANSWERS! 

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I don't think eBay has any answers for why any particular seller's sales are declining. Nor conversely do I think they have any idea why other sellers are doing just fine.

But generally speaking, I think sellers are a little too quick to dismiss the appeal of their own inventory as part of the issue.

[patd3283]

You seem to run a lot of auctions and start them at 99 cents.

That doesn't work anymore.  You need to start them at a price that you can accept and go from there.

The good news is you sell larger sizes which seem to be more in demand. 

[njrtsr]

Skip the 99 cent auctions. They attract bottom feeders and the prices you're getting aren't worth your time and effort. Pick a wage you'll like to receive based on the time you spend on a listing and do the math, then set that price as the minimum bid.

[mam98031]

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@patd3283 wrote:

You seem to run a lot of auctions and start them at 99 cents.

That doesn't work anymore.  You need to start them at a price that you can accept and go from there.

The good news is you sell larger sizes which seem to be more in demand. 

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Why do you make that decision for another seller?  If it isn't working, then I'd think that Lucky wouldn't run them.  Certainly a decision for Lucky to make.

[josell-10]

If it's not compelling it's not selling!

[rosszonebricks]

I agree with this. We live in the 'Amazon Prime' generation. People want to BUY NOW they don't want to BID and WAIT. Set fair prices and use Buy It Now and not auctions.

[tvcollectibles]

I noticed a lot of your items are from June or before. Those before will start appearing WAY down the list of people's searches.

I had that problem of my items being seen properly even when I searched myself because they were down the search list of ebay.  This, of course, happens when relying on Good To Cancel, which ebay forced on us.

Then last month, I began ending my older listings then relisting them.  That put them UP the search list and suddenly my sales improved since people were seeing some of them in their searches more.

A lot of times, people only go so far down the search list then stop.  That's when Good To Cancel works against us.

[upgradedendmills]

When searching for resale items and there seems to be a lot of them listed, I sometimes skip over the first couple of pages of results looking for stale items and more motivated sellers. There are bargains to be had lower in the search if you are willing to put in a few extra minutes of effort.  I don't ever try to squeeze a seller but this has gotten me some very good buys and also helped the seller.

[tellin93]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@clothes_whisperer wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for years. 

Not a heavy seller, but I was able to get by for a while, thankfully.

Then all of a sudden a few years back things took a turn for the worse, a steep ongoing decline in sales.

So much chatter and no explanations! All these theories, milk us for more money to promote listings that still don't sell...and it's not our SEO, our items...it's greed!

eBay WE WANT ANSWERS! 

---

I don't think eBay has any answers for why any particular seller's sales are declining. Nor conversely do I think they have any idea why other sellers are doing just fine.

But generally speaking, I think sellers are a little too quick to dismiss the appeal of their own inventory as part of the issue.

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Exactly.  When you're trying to sell in a super full category you need  items that aren't "average"

[zamo-zuan]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@clothes_whisperer wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for years. 

Not a heavy seller, but I was able to get by for a while, thankfully.

Then all of a sudden a few years back things took a turn for the worse, a steep ongoing decline in sales.

So much chatter and no explanations! All these theories, milk us for more money to promote listings that still don't sell...and it's not our SEO, our items...it's greed!

eBay WE WANT ANSWERS! 

---

I don't think eBay has any answers for why any particular seller's sales are declining. Nor conversely do I think they have any idea why other sellers are doing just fine.

But generally speaking, I think sellers are a little too quick to dismiss the appeal of their own inventory as part of the issue.

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Do they have an answer for why the top seller market share dropped from 40% to 25% and has sustained that level across varied categories? 

We can keep working with theories and presumptions on each extreme that "everyone" or "nobody" is doing fine... 

Or we can look at actually verifiable data that show across the board drops that are not arguable. 

The top sellers are not ones that "dismiss" their own inventory, they are the most successful sellers on the entire site. So how is it explained that even they are even seeing drops in categories where the market is up...?

[abfabvintage]

@mam98031 

Ummm, I think Patd thought they were replying to the OP, but inadvertently replied to Lucky...and don't think they were making a decision for the OP, just a recommendation. JMO.

[tellin93]

Markets change, especially as newer generations start to enter them.

The yo-yoing stock market isn't helping either, and buyers are going to newer venues, with better more reliable apps.

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@clothes_whisperer wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for years. 

Not a heavy seller, but I was able to get by for a while, thankfully.

Then all of a sudden a few years back things took a turn for the worse, a steep ongoing decline in sales.

So much chatter and no explanations! All these theories, milk us for more money to promote listings that still don't sell...and it's not our SEO, our items...it's greed!

eBay WE WANT ANSWERS! 

---

I don't think eBay has any answers for why any particular seller's sales are declining. Nor conversely do I think they have any idea why other sellers are doing just fine.

But generally speaking, I think sellers are a little too quick to dismiss the appeal of their own inventory as part of the issue.

---

Do they have an answer for why the top seller market share dropped from 40% to 25% and has sustained that level across varied categories? 

We can keep working with theories and presumptions on each extreme that "everyone" or "nobody" is doing fine... 

Or we can look at actually verifiable data that show across the board drops that are not arguable. 

The top sellers are not ones that "dismiss" their own inventory, they are the most successful sellers on the entire site. So how is it explained that even they are even seeing drops in categories where the market is up...?

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[richard1rst]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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The top sellers are not ones that "dismiss" their own inventory, they are the most successful sellers on the entire site. So how is it explained that even they are even seeing drops in categories where the market is up...?

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An overly simple explanation to be sure but consider this:

If there are 100 item sold and 10 sellers then each seller will theoretically get 10 sales.

If the market increases to 200 items sold but now there are 30 sellers then each of the original sellers will see a drop in sales to 6 items each even as the market is up.

Basic law of supply and demand.