eBay is a lost cause - Why I'm leaving

[retro_games_exchange]

I was selling really well for a while in the video games category. I had around 200-500 listings and would sell 5-10 items a day. Promoted listings came out and my sales and impressions tanked by around 80%. I called eBay and complained about my listings being hidden so their solution was to give me a week as if my items were promoted. I already knew at that moment it was so they could sell me on how great promoted listing was. I was not happy but my sales did boost for about a week. After that my sales continued to tank and i was only selling 1-2 items a week and only on weekends for some reason. So i bit, i tried to promote listings. I put a standard 3% promotion across all listings. My sales were back to where they were before all of this and it was going pretty well so i left it how it was. Slowly but surely my sales were tanking again to around 1-2 a week and only on weekends and eventually going to 2 weeks without a sale. I gave up and decided to try something new and ended my subscription and unlisted all my items. Good riddance.

[mr_lincoln]

---

@yuzuha wrote:

Were you listing new items regularly, or did you just list a whole bunch of stuff and then let it sit? Because if it's the latter, the results you got aren't surprising.

When you list a whole bunch of stuff, some of the stuff is inevitably going to be more sought after than the rest. The desirable stuff sells first, and then what you're left with is the less desirable stuff that will take longer to move. That's why you need to keep adding new things on a regular basis.

---

@yuzuha 

Some Sellers say you have to list everyday.  While that may work for some it is not the only way to list items and make sales.  I think after 8 years my listing "profile" has not changed.  When I acquire inventory I list it.  So figure weekly "clumps" of listings over an 8 year period and with steady growth in the early years ... since Covid results have bounced around a bit but then in 2022 I noticed a significant change in PLS results ... 

I am confident eBay has listing profiles for every Seller ... BUT I think what is emerging is the "pay to play" agenda for this particular venue and algorithms reward Sellers who use PLS regularly and penalize those who don't.  

I will be monitoring my BIN sales for the next few weeks ... we are nearing the end of the quarter this month so maybe sales will increase for a week, we'll see.  My next PLS will be probably some time in April in to May.   

[stevemartin60]

For every seller who quits, and mentions why on the way out, eBay takes ANOTHER dive in public opinion.

 Soon, no one will want to admit they sell on eBay, and that has been the way for quite some time in fine art and valuable collectibles. Eventually, that will be true of most categories.

[joliztoyco]

Yes. Because there's "millions" of sellers waiting in the Ebay seller queue? Not hardly.
According to their OWN STATISTICS, Ebay has been hemorrhaging buyers and sellers.
That's not a healthy business model...
Sellers are finding out that 13.25% of their money isn't enough to achieve sales on this platform anymore. They need to pony up 16...20...or even a higher percentage. And many are saying no.
 

[retro_games_exchange]

I would list around 40 items a week or so. I never slowed down until my sales slowed down and couldn't buy more.

[dbfolks166mt]

As more and more sellers join the 'internet selling' craze, there will more that will give up 10-15-20% additional to 'be on the top'. They are ok with making $1 instead of $3, but sell 10x more. All about the quantity sold. You are 100% correct about that and that has always been the trap of promoted listings. It becomes a race to the bottom. 

Pay to Play has been an industry standard on Search Engines for over a decade. Using the same 'term' was $1 to be at the top (this is for a click to your site and NOT for a sale) and 5 years later, that same 'term' is $6 to be on the first page of Google.

Sad thing is you are leaving, but there will still be 100 other sellers selling what you sold. Without a doubt as to whether they are making a profit or not only they know for sure. 

Buyers will not go without. Correct again but they make seek the item elsewhere if eBay sellers cannot remain competitive in the marketplace with regards to their pricing. 

eBay will not go without a sale or a fee. Maybe, maybe not. 

eBay will be here another 25 years simply because there are WAY more sellers for every item than there was even 5 years ago (pre-pandemic, which gave Millions 'time' to figure out selling online) Nothing is guaranteed in that arena and several years ago people probably said the same thing about Sears, Pan-Am, Oldsmobile, K-Mart, JC Penny, Woolworth, Borders, Tower Records..............  

[retro_games_exchange]

It's not really that it doesn't work, it's that it works for a little while until it doesn't so you add a couple percent more to your listing fees.

[retro_games_exchange]

I'm doing my own thing.

[retro_games_exchange]

I tested it and even lowered my prices on some items and saw that I had the lowest. Didn't make a difference.

[redlinear]

Promotions are an issue.  They seem to create a short term "boost", but thats about it.   
AND, If everybody is promoting, it's basically same as it was without...just costing everybody more.

Promotion is a pretty neat concept though. For EBay of course....But, for a seller as well.  IF, IF, IF it was done in a different manner.  
For example, a seller could somehow earn the option for a limited day (30?) promotion....if they wanted to.
Such as...
"Hey, @stevemartin60 !  You have done such a good job at whatever, we here at eBay would like to reward you with the option to Promote 500 of your fixed price listings, that have been running on eBay for 6 months or longer, for 30 days....If you want to."    "Keep up the good work and you can do this again in 6 months"

And/Or....Best Match goes hand in hand with Promotions.  Get to eBay, run a search, and "best match" is what you see without filtering.  (whatever "best match" means???).
It would be nice to run a search and see nothing except a short Filter Selection.  (new, used,  high to low, low to high, nearest).    And the Filter ACTUALLY doing what it says.   

[stevemartin60]

Good stuff.  Definitely steps in the right direction!

[retro_games_exchange]

And people will turn away as less is offered. There may be someone else selling the same item but they all are sketchy it seems. Anyone I purchase from in an auction for video games where the listing says its good, I end up having to return it or ask for a partial refund be cause the items I get are little more than junk. Burning buyers and sellers is never a good thing. Theres a reason some people don't buy from eBay because of sketchy sellers who seem to be the only ones left.

[stevemartin60]

There are some good ones left, and we've had it!  ZERO sales in the past six weeks will get your attention, even if nothing except extortion tends to get any attention, at all, to your listings.

[glasser]

eBay was the original internet disruptor.  Back in 1995, people thought no one will make money on the internet.  Ads were horrible and no one had a business model. eBay came along and figured out how to make money on the transaction not advertising. That changed everything. Now eBay has become and ad company.

How sad 😞

[nuclearomen]

GTC sales has dropped since they did the quarterly update, literally (again - since this happens EVERY quarterly "update" when they change things) - not by a few sale from every day to 1-2 every 2 day to 1 every 2-4 days and thus the current week 4 sales. I ended and created a new campaign (as often is needed after their Q updates), nothing, run coupon sales, nothing, sent coupons (with no proof any one actually gets them) - nothing, raised PLS elections - nothing. 

The GTC sales especially have been affected. I have talks with several other members privately and ALL have experienced the EXACT same results with their GTC listing. Some are having some luck with auctions (which I don't do). This is about algorithms not buyers, visibility not how many listings. 

[rugerskick]

"How can you sell it at a loss?"

"We'll make it up in volume...."