eBay

grasshopperx · ‎07-25-2017

What in the heck has happened to ebay? seriously, It used to be a great selling platform. We did great on here and loved it for 18 years. It was fun to shop and sell. Then in 2014 with cassini, things took a nose dive. We waited three years and literally gave up. Moved to another CRAFT site. Which was great for awhile. Now it seems a ceo from ebay has been hired there, and things have declined . Such as views. The site has also become clutterd up, and miserable. We have been sold out to overseas sellers. Shame shame, How pathetic! any thoughts?

retrose1 · ‎07-26-2017

@uzumakey wrote:
This really disappoints me - ten years ago I bought an authentic 60s scooter dress for under $20 and a 60s winter coat for about the same. Prices on good vintage here were amazing. Now sellers know what good vintage is worth and are charging hundreds on Etsy. You can't even find a decent pair of vintage Levi's for under $50 now.

I have been buying and selling vintage clothing for over 20 years. And I sold a lot of it on ebay up until about 8 years ago when i moved almost all of it (I have a selection that goes to live shows) over to the other site you mentioned and took it all off ebay.

The reason is that when ebay changed and started luring mall shoppers looking for new stuff to buy it now, it became obvious that those shoppers did not understand vintage and expected it to be and act like the stuff they buy at the mall. I could live with that, but my wallet can not survive the buyercentric policies that ebay has been putting into place that allow the buyer to have zero responsibility in the transaction. That even with explainations that 60s sizes are different than those of today, that the 60s bell bottoms do not contain spandex, that the dress that is supposed to fit loose is not made to be form fitting, does not matter, that the buyer is complaining and therefore the seller should be refunding.

I recently bought something that is only 10 years old and will sell easily for $50-100 and I am not going to list it on ebay because I will not put my profit and account at risk. I thought about it for awhile because it is low scam, but no, I am not going to risk it. And I think that is why it is harder to find interesting stuff on ebay, sellers like me have learned their hard lessons and just do not feel secure enough about ebay to risk it.

And I am not sure how deep you look on the other site, but over 75% of my vintage is priced under $45 there, including cashmere winter coats from the 60s. The site specialized in vintage and when I click on the vintage option, the Chinese stuff disappears. Not like here on ebay who hides the things I am looking for to show me 'vintage' items fresh from the Chinese factories.

(*Bleep*)

berserkerplanet · ‎07-26-2017

>>Can you revise a listing with Best Offer and set the auto decline later after the listing is live?

Yep. At least on BO's I added.

>>Can you go into a listing with your auto decline amount and change the auto decline amount to another amount?

Yep. At least on BO's I added.

Have never has BO added to any of my listings in the middle of the night - dumb luck or low volume I suppose.

retrose1 · ‎07-26-2017

@readabouthorses wrote:
Pretty hard to set an auto decline to Best Offer when you didn't even put it on the listing in the first place. Can you revise a listing with Best Offer and set the auto decline later after the listing is live? Can you go into a listing with your auto decline amount and change the auto decline amount to another amount?

At what point in time do we totally lose control of what is in our listings?

As I said, I don't use BO and will be listing even less if they start imposing it on my listings, so i don't know the answer about being able to revise.

And I agree about ebay making things even more complicated for newbies than it already is. Instead of educating newbies about what they should and should not do, spell out the options and the risks AND putting limits on their account so they are not scam magnets, ebay seems to more concerned about how much profit they can squeeze out of the newbie as quickly as possible before they run screaming from the place, never to come back again after the thorough scamming they got here. ebay makes it sound easy and safe and so the newbies have no idea the shark and piranna infested waters they are about to dive into with their most valuable items.

And in the long run, sellers have zero control of their listings since ebay's TOS trumps anything we put in our listings and when case comes to dispute, ebay will give away our items and money.

(*Bleep*)

mr_lincoln · ‎07-26-2017

@vintagecraze50

@vintagecraze50 wrote:
I may be incorrect, but I thought the forced best offer was just the option that ebay is going to select automatically in the preferences section and that it can be reset by checking the box off if you prefer. I do not like the idea that it could not be checked off because then having to deal with tons of low ball messages with cheap buyers is not something I want to deal with at all. Somebody chime in if this is what is correct about the best offer issue.

I understand that for sure, I would just like to know for sure there is no doubt in the Buyer's mind that the rejection is being generated by eBay and not the Seller.

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

u_cant_take_it_with_u · ‎07-26-2017

@tunicaslot wrote:
My sales are up 51% from what they were last year at this time and I sell in an oversaturated category. Sales are only getting worse for those who don't know what is selling currently and not willing to use the tools Ebay gives you to make it marketable.

Like another said - before I smartened up and researched what was selling - I was buying whatever I thought was cute or that I loved - this does not translate into a sale.

You can still stay in your oversaturated category - but you have to learn to be smarter on what sells and what doesn't to succeed. If you continue buying the same old stuff that has sat in inventory for the past 3 yrs - you're just adding to the invenotry and not creating sales.

Then you must be selling donor organs, or funeral plans. 😉

hioctane62 · ‎07-26-2017

@timemachine777 wrote:
@emerald40 wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
I know Emerald, but I will pick it up when I see proof of any action on here. I'm waiting, Over the last three years we have experimented with everything. Still nothing. When and if that ever happens, I will be right there. Until then, it's a waste of time. I think many of us remember the good ol days, and cannot psycologically admit it has sunk this low. But it has.

_____________________________________________________________

The good ole days when ebay had no competition. You could buy something from pretty much anywhere in the world.

Now everyone has a computer and pretty much every B&M store has a website. And especially with new erchandise, why pay a middleman when you can go right to the source.

As far as vintage, we old folk are downsizing. And the younger generation is just not interested in collecting things like we did.
There has always been competition, and always will be competition. Competition is a good thing overall. Just look at the diamond district of NY, and other business clusters. They help bring in the buyers from all over.

As for generational collecting. There never is any major collecting base among the young. They're too interested in their friends, hanging out, and doing stuff with their money that's entertaining. There are a few that will collect stuff here and there, but that's usually it. People tend to forget their past.

People don't really start collecting until they are older and settled down, and get to the point that they want to latch on to many of their past memories. Then they start to collect. Some more than others also. Then when they really get old, they tend to shed the collection and box it up, as they look to become uncluttered, and downsize. They want to travel and get too, enjoy entertaining themselves once again, before they no longer can. They come full circle.

Thing is, the younger generation's past memories are going to be of I-Pads, Drones, ans mostly plastic cars made to last 10 years max. There is very little being made today that will be considered "collectible" in the future.

sharingtheland · ‎07-26-2017

Never did I think that a hideous end table with faux parquet wood top would be sold today as Mid Century Modern. I just watched two, in bad condition, go for some ridiculously high price in an auction yesterday..

So, who knows what will be nostalgically collectible in the future? Ikea Billy cabinets? Otterboxes?

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

phcd1 · ‎07-26-2017

@grasshopperx wrote:
...You would think Ebay could have an edge by promoting the small seller. But instead ebay wants to have the same exact junk you can buy anywhere else....

Exactly.

EBay HAD an edge, when they were founded. Now they are trying to be "just another online store".

timemachine777 · ‎07-26-2017

@hioctane62 wrote:
@timemachine777 wrote:
@emerald40 wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
I know Emerald, but I will pick it up when I see proof of any action on here. I'm waiting, Over the last three years we have experimented with everything. Still nothing. When and if that ever happens, I will be right there. Until then, it's a waste of time. I think many of us remember the good ol days, and cannot psycologically admit it has sunk this low. But it has.

_____________________________________________________________

The good ole days when ebay had no competition. You could buy something from pretty much anywhere in the world.

Now everyone has a computer and pretty much every B&M store has a website. And especially with new erchandise, why pay a middleman when you can go right to the source.

As far as vintage, we old folk are downsizing. And the younger generation is just not interested in collecting things like we did.
There has always been competition, and always will be competition. Competition is a good thing overall. Just look at the diamond district of NY, and other business clusters. They help bring in the buyers from all over.

As for generational collecting. There never is any major collecting base among the young. They're too interested in their friends, hanging out, and doing stuff with their money that's entertaining. There are a few that will collect stuff here and there, but that's usually it. People tend to forget their past.

People don't really start collecting until they are older and settled down, and get to the point that they want to latch on to many of their past memories. Then they start to collect. Some more than others also. Then when they really get old, they tend to shed the collection and box it up, as they look to become uncluttered, and downsize. They want to travel and get too, enjoy entertaining themselves once again, before they no longer can. They come full circle.

Thing is, the younger generation's past memories are going to be of I-Pads, Drones, ans mostly plastic cars made to last 10 years max. There is very little being made today that will be considered "collectible" in the future.

People will continue to latch onto what drives their fancy when they get older. They will buy comics, toys, and things that remind them of their youth. They will collect to decorate and or horde also. I see all the time still. The majority of the people I deal with are from 40 to 65, and anyone outside of that age range tapers off as they get younger or older.

readabouthorses · ‎07-26-2017

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@vintagecraze50
@vintagecraze50 wrote:
I may be incorrect, but I thought the forced best offer was just the option that ebay is going to select automatically in the preferences section and that it can be reset by checking the box off if you prefer. I do not like the idea that it could not be checked off because then having to deal with tons of low ball messages with cheap buyers is not something I want to deal with at all. Somebody chime in if this is what is correct about the best offer issue.
I understand that for sure, I would just like to know for sure there is no doubt in the Buyer's mind that the rejection is being generated by eBay and not the Seller.

I asked today on the Ebay For Business Facebook post about this if the seller can then go into the listing with the forced Best Offer and set up their own auto accept/decline and Ebay Jessica said yes we can. So I guess if I were a seller and this was forced on me then I definitely would set up the auto accept/decline for just a few dollars less than my BIN was set for and let it roll.

ymeagainlord · ‎07-26-2017

@readabouthorses wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@readabouthorses
@readabouthorses wrote:
@plumbingspecials wrote:
The playing field has changed, so the rules also have changed. You need to keep up on the new policies in order to be successful here.
Hard to keep up with new policies when half of them are so secret that on a few know about them!

Just heard about the forced Best Offer for new and occasional sellers where eBay decides if an offer is lowball and rejects it. Sellers are slowly losing control of Fixed Price Listings.
Okay, that's a new one for me on the B.O. comment ...that statement makes no sense because what I see is that the venue tries to drive prices to rock bottom so the site can compete with other online sales venues not really caring much for the individual Sellers' profit margin. So in that comment, if Home Office decides a BO is too low from the Buyer are you saying THEY reject it and the Seller neve sees it? With the latest expansion fro 3 to 10 B.O.s back and forth between the two parties to me that means more haggling, or more opportunities for the buyer to try and get a price down ... NOW, if you were to say that the new Best Offer acceptence was going to be controlled by Home Office, meaning a Buyer makes an offer and Home Office decides sure, that works and Accepts if for the Seller THEN that would be totally out of control ...
@mr_lincoln

I just found out about this Best Offer thing yesterday on the Ebay For Business Facebook page. Someone asked about it and an Ebay rep responded with the info on the fact that Ebay would reject lowball offers. When I pushed for what they considered lowball they claimed like a $1.00 offer on a $100 item. I could not get a good response on whether the seller actually even knew about this offer that ebay rejected on the seller's behalf. It just make me so upset that I said my piece on that Facebook post and then had to get out of there to cool down. I just don't feel comfortable anymore even doing Fixed Price with the FORCED Immediate Payment Required and now this FORCED Best Offer ... what's next? I'm not sure I want to even stay here anymore as a seller.

Hmmm...I wonder when eBay will start auto accepting what THEY feel is a "reasonable offer"?

Slippery slope if you ask me. They have ZERO right to determine what price a seller will or will not sell for.

One wrong move and they could find themselves in court in a heartbeat (and I doubt bleating "we're just a venue" would work for them in that case.)

Crusader Cat is watching

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - L Tolstoy

"You are entitled to your own opinion, you are not however, entitled to your own facts."

rixstuff · ‎07-26-2017

@uzumakey wrote:
This really disappoints me - ten years ago I bought an authentic 60s scooter dress for under $20 and a 60s winter coat for about the same. Prices on good vintage here were amazing. Now sellers know what good vintage is worth and are charging hundreds on Etsy. You can't even find a decent pair of vintage Levi's for under $50 now.

Etsy isnt what it once was. Their stock prices are down so they are weeding out little sellers and doing many of the same stupid things that drove many sellers from Ebay - refunds withou return, suspending sellers with 3 complaints or "low ratings" (whatever that threshold is - my aunt has 4.75 out of 5 and got a warning, with over 2000 sales ON ETSY!)

do.you.read.me · ‎07-26-2017

New selling form vs old selling form

berserkerplanet · ‎07-27-2017

What is the "new" selling form?

I'm using the awful, huge whitespace, single page advanced form that supplanted the old (but totally usable) 2 page advanced SYI form.

Are you telling me there's another "new" advanced form beyond this that I haven't seen yet?

Aside:

The "Preview listing" button seen above on the "new" SYI advanced form was moved there by me from the bottom of the page - it stays stuck to the side there as the page is scrolled because I got tired of scrolling to the bottom from the HTML description box and back again continuously. Takes about 15 lines of Stylish CSS to implement in Firefox. (Also enlarged the HTML and Rich Text editing boxes to be more usable on my 1920x1080 monitor by showing a lot more of the description in separate code blocks)

Might as well toss the Preview Listing button mod along with the others changes in here if anyone wants to play with it:

@-moz-document url-prefix('http://bulksell.ebay.com/ws/'){

 /* Move PREVIEW button from page bottom to left margin and   3/22/17 */
 /* let it float on page to be accessible when editing description or */
 /* photos, etc like old SYI from w/ button under description box     */
 /* There appears to be a bug (feature?) on the SYI form with edits   */
 /* made in the edit box NOT always being saved unless the mouse is   */
 /* moved a certain way? moved down? Clicking in whitespace in left   */
 /* margin before clicking the preview button seems to do the trick   */

 body#body.hd-min>div.pagewidth>div.pageminwidth>div.pagelayout>
  div.pagecontainer>div#CentralArea.CentralArea>div>div#editpane.edp.sngl>
  div.main-area>div#editpane_cnt.cnt>div#actionbar.act-bar>div>
  div#actionbar.large-btn.btn-m-r20.btn-wr>input#prv_Btn.sbtn
  {
  position: fixed !important;   /* make button float w/ the window */
  -moz-transform: rotate(-90deg) !important;      /* make vertical */
  top: 35vh !important;         /* move it up (or down) as desired */
  left: -50px !important;       /* move all the way to left margin */
  padding: 4px !important;      /* decrease/increase  button size  */
  opacity: 1.0 !important;      /* adjust as desired 0.0 - 1.0     */
  background-color: #ffff80 !important;
  color: blue !important;
  font-weight: 600 !important;
  }

 /* Make the Standard description box taller 3/22/17 */
 body#body>div.pagewidth>div.pageminwidth>div.pagelayout>div.pagecontainer>
  div#CentralArea.CentralArea>div>div#editpane.edp.sngl>div.main-area>div#editpane_cnt.cnt>
  div#editpane_cnta>form#editpane_form>div.inner-cnt>div.hgh>div>
  div#editpaneSect_Description.def>div#editpane_desc>div>div>div#descDiv>div#rteDiv>
  div.rt.tab.rt-std>div.std>div.ifrmc>iframe.ifrm
   {
   height: 75vh !important;
   background-color: #f0f0f0 !important;
   }

 /* Make the HTML description box taller 3/22/17 */
 body#body>div.pagewidth>div.pageminwidth>div.pagelayout>div.pagecontainer>
  div#CentralArea.CentralArea>div>div#editpane.edp.sngl>div.main-area>div#editpane_cnt.cnt>
  div#editpane_cnta>form#editpane_form>div.inner-cnt>div.hgh>div>
  div#editpaneSect_Description.def>div#editpane_desc>div>div>div#descDiv>div#rteDiv>
  div.rt.tab.rt-htm>div.htm>iframe.ifrm
   {
   height: 75vh !important;
   background-color: #f5f5f5 !important;
   }

 /* Make Item specifics fit 3 per line to reduce vertical waste 3/22/17 */
  body#body>div.pagewidth>div.pageminwidth>div.pagelayout>div.pagecontainer>
   div#CentralArea.CentralArea>div>div#editpane.edp.sngl>div.main-area>div#editpane_cnt.cnt>
   div#editpane_cnta>form#editpane_form>div.inner-cnt>div.hgh>div>
   div#editpaneSect_ItemSpecific.def>div>div>div#editpane_itmspc.sec-msk.msk-is>
   fieldset>div>div.eib-mul-col>div.itmspc-cntDiv>div[class^='eisi']
   {
   width:25% !important;
   min-width: 250px !important;
   }

}/* end moz-document url-prefix('http://bulksell.ebay.com/ws/') */
/*-------------------------------------------------------------------*/

readabouthorses · ‎07-27-2017

I remember some posts with the Ebay blues when people were trying to figure out how many listing forms there were. I think at that time we were told there were 4 different ones: Quick Listing Form, Advanced Listing Form you got when you clicked Sell Your Item, the New Quick Listing Form and the New Advanced Listing Form. The Sell Your Item form is the older version of Advanced Listing Form and was supposed to be retired "soon".

Sometimes I wonder if Ebay even knows how many listing forms are floating around out there in their system.