eBay is fixed against small sellers having regular sales

[richards*rock*collection]

I sell 4 things in a week then nothing for a month. It does not make sense, these gaps in selling, then no offers and no views. It is if my visibility has been turned off, switched off. I chatted with them and they said list more items. Did that and it did not help, still just 3 or 4 sales then a long dry period. I would like to buy things with the sales money on eBay, but because of the 2 month return window, I must keep the sales funds in my account in case of returns. It would be great to have steady sales so I can spend some money on eBay items for my household needs, because returns are few, but when there is the occasional return, I must be ready to fork back someone's dough. I have been selling on eBay for ten years and have a score of 1000, you would think I would have more sales by now. What I do get is just not enough for me to restock with high quality items like I want.

[ten_o_nine]

Many sellers are facing the same thing. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Only a small segment of the population are looking to buy what you sell.

There are many competitors selling items which compete with yours on Ebay.

Most of the buyers will have to choose between the items they want limited by their budget.

Products which may have higher demand than your rocks, are likely to have smaller profit margins than your rocks, but you might be able to have a more regular cash flow if you offer some "goes with" products with more demand but lower profits.

[redlinear]

Been battling the same issue for two or three years now. 
@tobaccocardyahoo  has made some good points as to possible reasons for this. 
And, there are even more similar/related reasons that could be as well, and/or a combination of everything.
   I tend to think a big part of it is eBay though.
Search Results are manipulated (toward what isn't known though).
It appears Sorting and Filtering is manipulated as well. 
Item Specifics, Compatibility, Promoted Listings...all play a part in search result manipulation.

AND Time. 
You're items must be seen in order to sell.  And they will be seen, at certain times.  (around 90 days is noticeable for my items). 
I'll have a quantity of 5 listing with no sales for months. I'll check "sold" items and see that other sellers have been selling these same items. 
Then one of mine will sell, and the rest will follow and all five will be gone in a week. 

[aeparts1]

My question is: Why does eBay not want small sellers? How does eBay benifit from restricting the sales of small sellers?

[giant_industries]

I feel as if Ebay is only allowing me to sell about one or two items a month these days.  As the OP said, there's 4 sales in a couple days, then...nothing.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@redlinear wrote:

I'll have a quantity of 5 listing with no sales for months. I'll check "sold" items and see that other sellers have been selling these same items. 
Then one of mine will sell, and the rest will follow and all five will be gone in a week. 

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And will the competitive listings still be there?

I often ignore the pricing that some of my idiot competitors place on items.

I wait them out and then my listings sell.

It can look a lot like what you describe.

Sometimes, I know that my sales of some items are made because I have some depth of related items and combined shipping on multiple items is what makes the sale.

There are so many reasons, other than search placement, which can explain this behavior.

My listings are pretty consistent in the number of listings which make the first 20 search placements. Which does not mean that everything which makes the top 20 is going to sell quickly.

I find some correlation Level of Non-Search Placements and sales. Views that are coming from search engines or other sources off Ebay.

I analyze a lot of data, or at least look at it, and no clear answers appear.

I have about 4.5k listings of long tail items. The only pattern which has held up over the years is which months have been good sales months and which are not. I am seeing my typical January surge.

[redlinear]

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@aeparts1 wrote:

My question is: Why does eBay not want small sellers? How does eBay benifit from restricting the sales of small sellers?

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I think the search algorithm is set up to attempt to spread the wealth among small sellers.  So that no small seller runs away with all the sales. (eBay wants more small sellers, not less. SO the attempt is to let different sellers like items get equal viewing time) 
I used to be able to make new competition wish they were no on eBay.  But not any more.  When searching "sold" items.  It sure seems me and my competition are all selling about the same amount.  (whereas I used to be able to make some adjustments and "I" would be getting all the sales)

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@aeparts1 wrote:

My question is: Why does eBay not want small sellers? How does eBay benifit from restricting the sales of small sellers?

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Many have made such claim but I've went in using differing PC's, using Proxies and don't see manipulation.  eBay has a "Fuzzy search" and if they didn't heaps upon heaps of sellers never get their stuff seen.   Ranking does change and that's dynamic based on a dynamic marketplace albeit none of us know that criteria.

If one were to ask why would eBay manipulate things which I don't believe they are and I am a software engineer and generally speaking know how look for that sorta stuff (Amazon does surface product or at least used to) there are several possibilities.  Control earnings, favor the more anchor and better producing sellers, control the marketplace better to slowly rid sellers due to for example Governmental regulatory measures looming and others.  But like I said I don't see it and I have looked from a programmer/web developer aspect...  That is to say using proxies and "scrubbed PC" to connect in assuring I am getting different connection servers geographically etc.  I dont see it.

Now like I said, I know Amazon surfaced product, still might.  The reason there likely simple they need control third party earning as they are a retailer.  They dont want 80% of all sales in the hands of external entities thats too dangerous to the company and understandably so.

Big problem at eBay is no consistency in peoples listings. Sellers assume consumer know how to properly search for product and that is the farthest thing from the truth.

[redlinear]

@tobaccocardyahoo 
Yes, competitors are still there.  It's not as if somebody is destroying my sales for a particular item.
It's more like 10 competitors with the same item,  have all sold one or two. 
We are all out there, and each of us are getting fairly equal sales of like items.

And I agree, that one item that one guy has that's super cheap?  I'll let him have that sale, and I'll price mine higher so that maybe I'm next.

Just about decided that Price (within reason) doesn't matter.  
Getting cheaper isn't going to help much. At least not consistently.

The O/P says eBay doesn't want small sellers having regular sales?
I disagree.  EBay does want small sellers to have regular sales. ALL small sellers. 
What they don't want is a couple of sellers having all the sales.

Or that's sure what it looks like to me.

[redlinear]

@tobaccocardyahoo 
And we have pretty close to the same amount of listings. 
Three(ish) years ago, On my way to 1000 listings.  I noticed if I had 800 or so, I'd average 8 a day.
900 would be 9 a day.  1000 avg 10 a day.
SO, I'm no dummy.
I now have 5000 and average.........10 a day (ugh..LOL)

[redlinear]

@retro_entertainment_collectibles 
  When I have a Part Number in a listing 6 times (title, description, and everywhere item specifics asked for a part number).   AND knowing that a Part Number is super important to eBay and Search.  There are four Part Number places in item specifics.  FOUR, it must be important.
And I search that unique part number.
Sort Low to High.
And my item is down there at the bottom, cheaper than all those above it, and it's UNDER the words "results matching fewer words".
Looks a bit manipulated to me.
AND I get it.....Promoted Listings have to be search manipulated (somebody is paying for better placement).
BUT, not when you filter Low$ to High$  (that's being manipulate also, which is wrong for shoppers)

[tobaccocardyahoo]

The Amazon A9 search has always shown a bias toward items with a strong sales history.

An item which was frequently bought when a specific search was done, has gotten better placement.

Some believe that that is no longer the case. But I believe that it is, although there are provisions for category managers to put their thumb on the scale.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of folklore about the Amazon search, most of which would be a challenge for any programmer to implement. And Amazon software engineers aren't up to those tasks.

[redlinear]

How about a hypothetical (for now) scenario.  How would you "expect" this to show up in a search, Sorted low to high?
I list 5 exhaust snorkers.
1) 2001 Chevy 1500 5.3L Engine left exhaust snorker 1628572 
2) 2002 same
3) 2003 same
4)2004 same
5)2005 same
   All are listed at the same time, $5 cheaper than anybody else.

I'm fairly certain that if I get rid of the year, and search the rest of the title, then sort from Low to High.
I will not see all five at the top of the page.

Not even with the word Snorker in there LOL (well, maybe because of that word)

[luckythewinner]

It would be great to have steady sales so I can spend some money on eBay items

If making steady money on eBay were easy, everyone would be rich. Big box stores spend countless millions paying experts to figure out what will make a profit, and even they get it wrong sometimes. 

What I do get is just not enough for me to restock with high quality items like I want.

So you want enough income

to offer the items that will give you enough income ...

to offer the items that will give you enough income ... 

to offer the items that will give you enough income ...

It seems like your cart is in front of your horse.