eBay

sanzibar17 · ‎06-10-2023

Most small businesses on eBay are suffering with lack of or no sales, so instead of trying to get to the reason why, what do eBay do? Try to claw back their losses by putting up fees for sellers, launch ads/sponsored campaign, charge further fees if you are put into the below standard seller category, even if you have 100% feedback. eBay was founded on feedback, but now it's all about metrics. You can have 96% positive feedback with thousands of negatives yet be a top rated seller. The system is unjust, wrecking people's livelihood, and skyrocketing buyers and sellers to Amazon.

cardxcraft · ‎06-10-2023

I've noticed this as well. Amazon will promise to ship, "get it tomorrow by 1pm if you buy in the next 3 hours' but often the order is delayed by several days. I would say about 95% of the time.

ms.rodriguez* · ‎06-10-2023

Exactly. Amazon is building warehouses all over the country too. Here on Long Island they are building a huge one just to take care of the buyers in the east end! You can NOT compare Amazon to items found on Ebay. Amazon even has their own airplanes!

sextons-sweet-deals · ‎06-10-2023

Here is my big question. Why is there no advertising from eBay?

I watch the daily news and they will report anything about Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and others even if they just fart to fill in time on their overextended news coverage.

Why was there no news coverage of the eBay vault or the eBay Authentication process? I find it hard to believe that the others actually pay for constant news coverage, but maybe I'm wrong.

I see nothing about eBay on the news here in Indiana.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-10-2023

@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:
Here is my big question. Why is there no advertising from eBay?

I watch the daily news and they will report anything about Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and others even if they just fart to fill in time on their overextended news coverage.

Why was there no news coverage of the eBay vault or the eBay Authentication process? I find it hard to believe that the others actually pay for constant news coverage, but maybe I'm wrong.

I see nothing about eBay on the news here in Indiana.

@sextons-sweet-deals the general lack of mainstream media interest in eBay continues to amaze and baffle me.

I half jokingly told a friend the other days it's crazy to me that anytime someone even whispers the word "union" within 5 miles of an Amazon warehouse or Starbucks store, dozen of stories are written about it, but there has been almost no major media coverage of the historic first union in eBay history recently established by TCGPlayer authentication workers.

There was also zero mainstream press coverage when eBay's Chief Accounting Officer Brian Doerger abruptly announced his departure from the company the same day that TCGPlayer founder/CEO also announced he was stepping down amidst the union fight and lingering investor questions and concerns about due diligence and risk disclosure in the TCGPlayer acquisition.

It still blows my mind that the head accountant of a ~$23B publicly traded tech company could take a walk with less than two weeks notice and no public explanation given without a peep from any mainstream business or tech media.

How many MSMS articles have been written about Amazon's sketchy advertising practices and how paid ads flood the site and affect the buyer experience....vs how many have been written on that same topic about eBay?

I've personally spoken to over a dozen journalists at outlets like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Insider, Bloomberg and more about the fraud and fake accounts here that were exposed last year when people received 1099-K forms for accounts that had used their stolen identity info.

Every single one of them passed on the story even though I had over 40 victims who were willing to go on record...one of those journalists even wrote a story about the same thing happening on Amazon a few months later and didn't even mention it *also* happened on eBay.

I could go on but its funny you mention buying press coverage - I believe you actually have it backward. The other marketplaces get news coverage (sometimes even critical) more organically with news orgs simply deciding certain companies or situations are worth covering.

eBay seems to almost exclusively *only* get paid coverage or very softball industry reports that simply regurgitate their press release statements about authentication programs, partnerships, acquisitions, etc.

I would absolutely love to know why covering eBay in the same manner as Amazon or other tech/ecom companies seems to be so taboo in the majority of mainstream newsrooms in US....and whether or not the fact billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has his own vast media empire has anything to do with it. 😉

yuzuha · ‎06-10-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
If someone has an instant need there's a B&M business somewhere near them that has what they need.

That really depends on 1) where you live and 2) what you're ordering. I live in a big city with a huge selection of B&M stores within easy reach, but there are still things that I can't get from a store anywhere nearby.

sanzibar17 · ‎06-10-2023

I can't remember seeing an advert on mainstream TV channels in the UK in the last 5 years, This is what my post is about. They need to revamp the system totally, stop coming up with hairbrain ideas like metrics where a complete and utter stranger can decide if you are a good seller, and stop punishing sellers.

tabcu51 · ‎06-10-2023

@sanzibar17 wrote:
Most small businesses on eBay are suffering with lack of or no sales, so instead of trying to get to the reason why, what do eBay do? Try to claw back their losses by putting up fees for sellers, launch ads/sponsored campaign, charge further fees if you are put into the below standard seller category, even if you have 100% feedback. eBay was founded on feedback, but now it's all about metrics. You can have 96% positive feedback with thousands of negatives yet be a top rated seller. The system is unjust, wrecking people's livelihood, and skyrocketing buyers and sellers to Amazon.

No.

Amazon is just as bad.

Same with Walmart.

All of these online venues are flooded by players gaming the system.

Let me say it this way:

You blame "ebay" for all these troubles, but do you realize "who" ebay is?

sakic92710 · ‎06-10-2023

Once we started to see what the real views were on our listings, we began to see how eBay is becoming a ghost town for many small sellers. Especially for small sellers who hoped, for several years, to be very active sellers & have a decent income. For years, I did ok. Not amazing but could make a few hundred a week. Now? I cannot get $200-300 a month! I do only have 35 listings right now. Almost all of them have no competition. However, 20 of them have 3 or less views. I posted a new item & still await 1 view. After, I listed it on FBM. 24 views already. Millions of eyes on eBay compared to 1000s on FBM but a vastly larger audience on eBay? Tells us what we need to know about future sales here. Best of luck!

mam98031 · ‎06-10-2023

@sanzibar17 wrote:
Most small businesses on eBay are suffering with lack of or no sales, so instead of trying to get to the reason why, what do eBay do? Try to claw back their losses by putting up fees for sellers, launch ads/sponsored campaign, charge further fees if you are put into the below standard seller category, even if you have 100% feedback. eBay was founded on feedback, but now it's all about metrics. You can have 96% positive feedback with thousands of negatives yet be a top rated seller. The system is unjust, wrecking people's livelihood, and skyrocketing buyers and sellers to Amazon.

It is MATH. If there is a seller with 96% positive FB with thousands of negative FB, that means they have a WHOLE LOT of transactions. It is just simple math. Divide the negatives by the positive and you get the percentage for any given account. A high volume seller is not going to have FB that looks like us small sellers. It just isn't going to happen. They have a huge amount of transaction.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

stevemartin60 · ‎06-11-2023

Like clockwork....

jasoheat_0 · ‎06-11-2023

plus ebay has lost more than 25% of there buyers since 2019 a drop from 179 million to 134 , there GMV is down to where it was in 2013 , and there god awful search engine , these are a few of the problems ebay has ... and i didnt even mention there awful customer service

ed8108 · ‎06-11-2023

@sanzibar17 wrote:
Most small businesses on eBay are suffering with lack of or no sales, so instead of trying to get to the reason why, what do eBay do? Try to claw back their losses by putting up fees for sellers, launch ads/sponsored campaign, charge further fees if you are put into the below standard seller category,

I can think of two potential directions, that of adapting or leaving

powell-memorabilia · ‎06-11-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
And what does that say about people? I can remember a time when you ordered something through a paper order form through the mail and it took 6-8 weeks for delivery. Not having patience isn't a positive thing. It's annoying and unnecessary. If someone has an instant need there's a B&M business somewhere near them that has what they need. If it's a WANT... You can wait a few days.

Some of us do the math - do I really want to spend forty five minutes buying a widget from Home Depot (15 minutes to get there, 15 minutes shopping, 15 minutes to get back)? Maybe I need the item tomorrow, but loathe going to the hardware store.

dhbookds · ‎06-11-2023

My take is that there is nothing we can do about what ebay does/doesn't do........ scream/yell.........the only thing we can control is ourselves.......our listings/where we list/acquisition costs/service to buyers. It either works or it doesn't.....