eBay

kevincal20 · ‎07-15-2019

what a joke, seems something is going on here... i made some nice sales friday from auctions i had, and zip since. almost 3 days and no sales, no best offers. NOTHING. Nice... I guess its true, have heard people say that ebay sometimes hides or turns off peoples listings or something like that. who knows.

PS - I hate amazon. i hate apple too.

uncseniorsportsfan · ‎07-16-2019

It's easy to nitpit over a sellers listings, but most long time sellers have been successful for years despite those perceived flaws in some of their listings - in my case it has been 20 years.

I also don't believe that the drop off in eBay sales has anything to do with what some view as a poor economy - I sold quite well here during the recession when people had a lot less discretionary income than they do today.

And while I accept the fact that times change in any collectibles marketplace, I don't accept that as a primary reason for the sudden decline in sales.

Nor do I believe that eBay is "hiding" any individual sellers' listings, but I do think that they have added too many new search algorithms as well as duplicating "sponsored" listings so that many listings do not appear in any given search due to an overloaded search engine designed to show only a limited number of listings. And GTC most certainly has increased the number of eBay listings further limiting the chances for appearing in search returns.

Even for those that meet all the algorithm criteria listings may not show up unless they pay that sponsored listing fee for enhanced visibility or earn eBay more dollars by using managed payments. Under current management I do see not this as getting any better for those of us that won't play eBay's everchanging pay-to-play game.

JMHO

coolections · ‎07-16-2019

@gamersbaystore

Your are right. It is so much easier to blame eBay and have conspiracies then to look at the real reason for lack of sales.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@luckythewinner wrote:
@zamo-zuan wrote:
Sponsored listings are more expensive than listings that don't pay that fee. Sellers have to put up the sale price in order to pay the sponsorship fee.
If I sell 100 items at $5 profit I make $500.
If I sell 400 items at $3 profit ([paying $2 per item in promotion fees), I make $1200.
You are entirely dismissing the idea that a seller might keep his prices the same in exchange for sales volume.
I think that is an unrealistic assumption.

Sponsored Listings are just one example of the things increasing prices for sellers. Combine that with Free Shipping, Guaranteed Delivery, Free Returns, etc etc.

You're also dismissing the fact that 4x as many orders is 4x as much work load. That might work fine for dropshippers, but that would put more of a strain on staff that would reduce those profit margins to a portion of what they are.

If you're packing 4x as much as usual, that means you're paying 4x as much staff than usual. And somehow, you're able to afford even lower margins???

Your example isn't realistic. It would only work in the case of a dropshipper.

Especially if we use the "Trending Rates" of 4% that they claim. That would bring your margin down to $1 per item...

And let's be real. Sponsored Listings by all means do NOT make you sell 4x as much. Not even close.

It's also besides the point that customers won't WANT to pay more for the same item. The issue is that, obviously, customers are being led to items that are more expensive and don't even know.

It's the same issue with the 5% FVF penalty for those with poor metrics. Do you really think they can afford not to change their prices?

I'm fairly confident you actually get my point, so I'm not sure why we're having this discussion. It's obviously not an ideal situation if the choices are fully detailed. The potential increased profits from bulk are nullified by work load.

Let's be realistic. Businesses factor the workload, costs, etc in to their fees, and try to give the customer the best prices possible (thus being most competitive) while keeping a decent margin. On eBay (and all eCommerce), prices are so competitive, your margins are already quite low. There's no room to throw percentages of your profits, if there were, the seller would already have reduced prices to be more competitive.

The only way you could handle 4x the bulk of orders compared to your normal is if you invest in more staff. The only way you could do that is if you're margin is high enough. Note that I am NOT saying your net profits as you did in your example, because that is not all-inclusive and is not factoring work load. Your actual profit margin on the individual item is the number that is important, because that is where you balance work load vs profit.

Generally speaking, I agree with what you're saying. If your line of business is in selling very small, cheap, and cheap to ship products, the increased workload might not be too much. If you deal in larger items that need to be individually packed then I agree that the increased workload and packaging costs pretty much negates the increased sales from volume.

If I were packing 100 #0 envelopes at $3 profit ea, I might be willing to pack 200 #0 envelopes at $2 profit each, if I could sell that amount consistently. The same would not apply to packing 20 boxes vs 40 boxes.

goodluckselling · ‎07-16-2019

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@coolections wrote:
@rograc-37 wrote:
Cool, you keep disagreeing with eBay's UA over and over again. Why?
@rograc-37
Because your are taking the UA as you see fit. Because there has never been a seller yet who said an item was missing that I have not found. Because there can always be a possibility of a server going down so it is mentioned as a suggestion. Because some sellers have so many defects they are on the last page of a 30 page search. Because I have sold off and on for over 20 years and have never had an item hidden. Because those click through and impressions are rarely accurate. Because some seller have had restriction for selling fakes and selling items that are not allowed on Ebay. Because some seller try listing high value items and Ebay wants them to show they are not scammers. ALL of those reasons is why there is a UA. It is to cover themselves from people who "think" Ebay is hiding their items, and because since most are either not in demand, or over-priced compaired to their competition selling the same thing for less. It is to cover themselves for people with conspiracy theories. So as you read I do NOT disagree with EBay's UA and agree very much with it.
@goodluckselling wrote:
That is what I thought you meant I just wanted to make sure. May not appear does not mean will not appear. eBay has what is probably 3 dozen different ways to surface our listings on the platform.

In the past, both of you have commented in a topic where I provided screenshots of our items not appearing in search when sorted by cheapest price, among other search issues such as "showing all" showing LESS listings than prior.

Why give other community members the impression that this type of thing does not happen, when you have both seen the evidence?

It's very destructive to the community to mislead people in to believing that this type of thing does not happen, because it most certainly does. If you've seen the evidence, why act as if you're unaware of it happening?

It seems very dishonest, and borderline malicious considering people are coming here for help only to be misled. When we're the ones that are supposed to be providing help...

The truth is that I rarely read any of your posts. Generally I find them to long and confusing? Because of this I do not even look at your screenshots.

I can easily say you are misleading other users in the forum just as you are claiming I am.

Good Luck Selling!

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@rograc-37 wrote:
I don't know why people say promoted listings work. In my experience, when I've tested out the percentages, consistently I sell more at 1% than 7%. So, in fact, it's just an accident if they happen to get 7% at any given time. That makes perfect sense though. With the way the platform is programmed, who in heck could get that one right at all?

The line of code probably looks something like "If field x is greater than zero then......... hahahaha.
I've noticed similar, and the trending rates are obviously false. They changed the formula recently to apply the same price through categories, but in the past, I had items that specifically had no competition (you can see in the sponsored section when searching any other listings that are sponsored). No other were sponsored. Yet it claimed this item - with no competition - had a 0.5% higher trending rate than others in the category.

Obviously not true.

For any accurate trending rate, it would need to be on a case by case basis by item anyway. If there's nobody else using sponsored listings, how is 5% going to be any better than 1% when you show up every time with 1% anyway?

I've been playing with this myself, and so far, I can't really account for any large increase in volume as a result of promoted listings. There seem to be a lot more impressions, but those don't seem to be translating into sales. I'm wondering if the typical eBay buyer is smart enough to recognize the promotions in the listings and is skipping them and scrolling to the "natural" listings below?

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@coolections wrote:
@zamo-zuan @zamo-zuan
3 days without a sale is NOT a sudden drop. The OP's prices are mostly over-priced compared to other sellers selling the same thing. Lucky only looked at one. I looked at a dozen or so and some will probably NEVER sell at those prices. Take a look for yourself if you don't believe. Check sold listings. Also, people CAN see the OP's stuff and no Ebay is not hiding the OP's stuff as you want them to believe.

I can't speed for the OP's listings, but if the categories the OP is in are anything like the categories I am in, there sure seem to be a lot of sellers selling below cost.

For instance, there are some bluetooth headphones that retail for $45 new. Yet, there are sellers selling them open box for $6 with free shipping, free returns, promoted listings... add in ebay fees & paypal fees... where is the profit? There can't possibly be any profit on such an item unless they literally pulled them out of the dumpster for free - even then, the profit would be minimal.

I've noticed a HUGE uptick in these type of listings over the past year or so, and its not just on this venue, either. I don't see how any of these sellers can possibly be making any money. I find the listings to be rather dubious. The listings either have to be a complete scam, or the goods are stolen.

Another example... people selling video games or DVD/BluRays for $2.99 w/ free shipping and returns. Doesn't make any sense. The shipping alone is at least $2.66. Bulk #0 mailers are something like $0.17/pc. Add in fees, advertising... you're in the red.

I guess these could be "loss leaders" but I'm not so sure. The behavior seems way too prevalent, now. I'm not sure how everyone is staying in business if they sell everything at a loss.

Doing a CBA on something like this, with the risk of return, tells you right there that its less risky and probably cheaper to just throw it out or donate it. Why even bother listing if you're giving it away?

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@laserpartshq wrote:
EBAY is now collecting Sales Tax for almost half the states, so if you are unlucky to be selling to those states, you will see a huge drop in sales. If EBAY starts collecting in the other half, it will be the Kiss of Death for all of us.

Example: If you sell a $200.00 item to a buyer in Calif, they will pay an addition $20.00

I haven't notices any drop in sales I can attribute to Sales Tax. I think most buyers expect to pay sales tax, since they already pay it for everything else they buy. I think the item would have to be very expensive for sales tax alone to be a huge contributing factor.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

In OPs defense with the photos... I've noticed lately that eBay is reducing the resolution of my uploaded photos to 2 Megapixels... but the photos are being shot at 13 megapixels. At some point in the past, I am almost certain that the photos were being stored with a much higher resolution... like 5 Megapixels or so.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@coolections wrote:
@rograc-37 wrote:
Cool, you keep disagreeing with eBay's UA over and over again. Why?
@rograc-37
Because your are taking the UA as you see fit. Because there has never been a seller yet who said an item was missing that I have not found. Because there can always be a possibility of a server going down so it is mentioned as a suggestion. Because some sellers have so many defects they are on the last page of a 30 page search. Because I have sold off and on for over 20 years and have never had an item hidden. Because those click through and impressions are rarely accurate. Because some seller have had restriction for selling fakes and selling items that are not allowed on Ebay. Because some seller try listing high value items and Ebay wants them to show they are not scammers. ALL of those reasons is why there is a UA. It is to cover themselves from people who "think" Ebay is hiding their items, and because since most are either not in demand, or over-priced compaired to their competition selling the same thing for less. It is to cover themselves for people with conspiracy theories. So as you read I do NOT disagree with EBay's UA and agree very much with it.

I posted an example thread here of an item that was not showing up in standard search immediately after posting, and could only be found by typing in the item number directly.

I've given multiple examples in the past of what I have found that seems to cause this behavior. In particular, there seems to be a correlation to catalog listings and the existence of certain item conditions that are not present in the catalog listing(ie, no tab on the screen), for whatever reason that may be.

I know another one took a full 24 hours to show up, but I paid for a 30 day listing, and only got 29 days of exposure.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@this*old*attic wrote:
It will even out once folks get used to something they didn't have to do before.

I live in Cali, and sold a $90 item to a Cali resident yesterday. She didn't complain.

Not to mention, all the online platforms are in the same boat - we aren't suffering by comparison.

And to be honest - I never shopped online "because of" the lower price without sales tax.... I always did it for the convenience and hard to find items. No tax was just a perk.

There are definitely people who shopped online to avoid sales tax. They're typically the picky cheapskates you probably don't want as a customer anyways.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@goodluckselling wrote:
@rograc-37 wrote:
@goodluckselling wrote:
@rograc-37 wrote:
@coolections wrote:
@zamo-zuan @zamo-zuan
3 days without a sale is NOT a sudden drop. The OP's prices are mostly over-priced compared to other sellers selling the same thing. Lucky only looked at one. I looked at a dozen or so and some will probably NEVER sell at those prices. Take a look for yourself if you don't believe. Check sold listings. Also, people CAN see the OP's stuff and no Ebay is not hiding the OP's stuff as you want them to believe.

Cool, you keep disagreeing with eBay's UA over and over again. Why?
What part of the UA are your speaking of?
To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer
That is what I thought you meant I just wanted to make sure. May not appear does not mean will not appear. eBay has what is probably 3 dozen different ways to surface our listings on the platform.

Lets talk about the left side bars in a search result that has more than a dozen different filters to refine your search down even farther. Things like returns accepted, or free shipping. If a buyer uses these filters and your listings does not have these attributes regardless if it is the exact item the buyer searched for you will not show up in that search filter.

Buyers can filter for all kinds of refined search results, price range, distance from my location, TRS only, fast and free listings, etc. eBay does a lot of email campaign targeting specific buyers who showed an interest in the items in the marketing campaign and it is possible you may not appear in the ad campaign.

Does that sentence make sense for eBay to have in the UA, based on some of these scenarios I am speaking about?

This is why eBay added that to the UA. Because of the many different ways eBay can surface your listings it would be wrong for eBay to not included that sentence in the UA.

Good Luck Selling!

The biggest problem with search currently is that it only shows results from a single category for a particular set of keywords. The user must select other categories to view the results in those.

This gets even more interesting when the catalog listing is setup to use a category that is not the default one eBay returns results from on a keyword search. I have a listing for some Sony headphones with a mic on them that eBay insists on placing into the cell phone accessories category based on a UPC match to the catalog, but virtually 100% of the sold listings are in the headphones category. When you do a search, the headphones category is the one returned, not the phone accessories category on the catalog listing.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
You're right~pictures and accuracy/quality of listings is important. Buyers may just pass over sub par listings in favor of ones better crafted.

This is especially problematic because some of your listings say "see photo for damage and sold AS IS" but the photos aren't good enough to show damage. If an item has cosmetic flaws, then take explicit pictures of the flaws

True, but also note the damage specifically in the description. You can state it in the title and the condition field at the top as well. No surprises. Buyers may miss details in the pictures if they don't know it is there or where it is. That is what the description is for, and many buyers view see pictures as a stunt designed to pull a fast one on the buyer, as in, if they don't see it, they are stuck with it, even though they know about the MBG, they prefer to avoid potential problems.

I don't know why saying "see pictures" is a stunt? Isn't one of the major complaints with online sales the fact that the customer cannot physically see the item? Viewing the pictures is about as close to this as you're going to get.

I agree that sellers should be pointing out major flaws in their descriptions, but at the same time, some items that are older and more "distressed" - it is virtually impossible to point out every single flaw the item might have in the description.

coolections · ‎07-16-2019

@equid0x wrote:
I posted an example thread here of an item that was not showing up in standard search immediately after posting, and could only be found by typing in the item number directly. I know another one took a full 24 hours to show up, but I paid for a 30 day listing, and only got 29 days of exposure.

It has been like that for years. I'm surprised you didn't know that. And to the Zumozan or whatever his name is I never read those long winded posts and never saw a screenshot with Ebay hiding his stuff. With that said I have shown him several times that is listings ARE there. His competition sells the same things for cheaper and his only other problem is he used to be on top of search and thinks he is the only one allowed to be on top. Yes, search changes daily and sometime items may go from page one to page 20.

equid0x · ‎07-16-2019

@coolections wrote:
@equid0x wrote:
I posted an example thread here of an item that was not showing up in standard search immediately after posting, and could only be found by typing in the item number directly. I know another one took a full 24 hours to show up, but I paid for a 30 day listing, and only got 29 days of exposure.
It has been like that for years. I'm surprised you didn't know that. And to the Zumozan or whatever his name is I never read those long winded posts and never saw a screenshot with Ebay hiding his stuff. With that said I have shown him several times that is listings ARE there. His competition sells the same things for cheaper and his only other problem is he used to be on top of search and thinks he is the only one allowed to be on top. Yes, search changes daily and sometime items may go from page one to page 20.

I've heard that claim here many times over the years, but I have only experienced it a few times, myself. Maybe its because I've been here since '01 and have a good track record... eBay doesn't hold my listings like they do with other newer sellers with less history? Dunno.

Typically, when I post a listing, it is visible right away. If I do a bulk posting of new listings I typically spot check them to make sure they show up correctly.

yuzuha · ‎07-16-2019

@rpalma wrote:

You have some interesting things, but mostly things that are collectible or hobby items, so sales could easily vary.

You've obviously sold quite a bit on ebay.

Having said that:

Your pictures aren't good, especially for the price range in which some of your items are listed.
You have pictures of items where the color is off and you don't have a single picture that shows the entire item (Japanese Chinese tiger scroll and also I can pretty much guarantee you this isn't Japanese and Chinese...). You have pictures of items with your hand in the picture. You have pictures of rectangular items that are shown at an angle when you should be photographing them directly on.

This is especially problematic because some of your listings say "see photo for damage and sold AS IS" but the photos aren't good enough to show damage. If an item has cosmetic flaws, then take explicit pictures of the flaws.

It's just not that hard to take better pictures, so you should take some time and improve your pictures to make them more professional and so they show more detail. Start with your highest priced items and work your way down.

Also, while I would not normally suggest cleaning up used collectible items, you have a pair of Puma shows you are trying to sell for $50 that are dirty and have poop or something brown on the soles. You couldn't take 5 minutes to wipe down a pair of shoes you are trying to sell for $50?

And, for the one listing I read in detail, Japanese Chinese tiger scroll, you have no real description ("scroll as shown" except there is no photo that shows the entire scroll) but several paragraph of weasel words explaining how you aren't responsible if the buyer doesn't like their purchase. This isn't a professional. Try listing dimensions. Try showing a picture of the entire scroll. Try showing closeups of any identifying marks (including on the rear) and damage. Try describing the material. Don't list it as Japanese since it isn't Japanese. If you don't know where it's from, write "Asian." Try describing the provenance. Where did you get it from? How old is it? Get someone to translate the characters on the scroll for you. Pretty sure it's Chinese and not Japanese, but it's stylized so it's a little hard to tell.

None of the tiger scrolls are Japanese.

Signed, someone with a degree in Japanese studies who has taken courses in both Japanese AND Chinese art and is a regular visitor to the Freer/Sackler Gallery of Asian Art