eBay stock dropps 9% after PayPal report of "WEAK VOLUME TRENDS" due to eBay Throttling

[fastjag1]

EBay's stock tumbles more than 9% on Friday Oct, 19 2018 after PayPal suggests weak volume trends at former parent Co. eBay. This is no surprise to many of us sellers here on eBay who have experienced the throttling of our paid for US based Premium stores. The story about this can be found by Googling "eBay Stock Price" or here is a link to Market Watch story: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebay-stock-falls-after-paypal-suggests-weak-volume-trends-at-forme...

For all of the neigh sayers of the fact that eBay throttles & limits accounts we now have confirmation via PayPal. EBay has backed Chines sellers who had advantages of cheap shipping rates, production of counterfeit cheap knock off items produced in violation of child labor laws. However, the Chines free ride on the cheap shipping cost is coming to an end. Now what eBay? You slapped every US based seller in the face limiting our sales for years to push the sales of the Chines based seller. They won't be able to compete when they have to spend $20 to ship their $9 item!

     My personal experience with the eBay throttling model is this: I am currently in a 33hr blackout from sales with 1020 unique items listed. A slow day is 5 sales...I have had 0 in the past 33hrs! I can prove exactly when this started as eBay was nice enough to provide me with sales reports. In Aug 2016 I was on par to make $150K going into the holiday season where I make most of my sales. From Aug, 2016 to now I have been throttled to $70K per year. I combated this limitation of sales by DOUBLING my inventory by Aug, 2018. Result, a continued limitation to my sales. I doubled my inventory and my sales are still decreasing! Nobody can explain this away with anything other than eBay LIMITING/THROTTLING my account to an exact number. I pay for a Premium store and I am told I have NO LIMITS and that eBay does not LIMIT the amount of sales I can make. REALLY? I can prove this is going on and has been since 2012, however the past 2 years it has been an additional limitation to an exact number! This, eBay is why your stock is down 24% year to date! You can no longer hide the issues that CEO Devin Wenig has fleeced the eBay company while single handedley  caused the demise of 10's of 1000's of US based companies doing business on your site. IMO

[partz-n-carz]

Ebay instead of being a standup venue, Long ago decided to be a shell game in a dark alley. They are getting  what's coming to them. 

[gracieallen01]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

I agree tunica. If there are 20000 items returned on a search they may not shoe all of them. That is completely different from them saying we hate Bob and refused to show all his items just because.

Ebay makes a significant portion of money on Fvf. Why would they want to prevent sales? It makes no sense at all.

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Yes, a significant portion from FVF. 

Perhaps one should refer to it, not so much as throttling, but more like a 'hand-in-hand' experience, leading buyers to the 'better, more expensive, totally popular - and listed by the seller that pays-to-play in the upper percentages - version of the item(s) for which they are searching?

Just as many sales, to the same number of available buyers, but merely with more profitability by initially showing selected examples.

[tunicaslot]

But how is that any different from what is done in B&M stores? You want your item on the shelves at eye level and not on the bottom shelf  - the company pays for that. You want to set up a display so the customers actually will notice the item because they have to move out of their way to walk around it - the company pays for that. People want their items or stores to come up more frequently in google search - they pay for that.

Unfortunately - sellers don't see what's going on around them. Whether it be the newer changes here they need to comply with to gain visibility - the fact that Ebay is doing exactly what the other venues are doing, not paying attention to the amt of B&M stores closing - or the empty parking lots. I went sourcing yesterday and the thrifts were filled with customers. There were no big sales - but the thrifts were filled with many teens and millenials. Whether they love the thrill of the hunt or the ability to save money I don't know but the malls were dead even with their extra 50% off clearance prices.

[gracieallen01]

Well, it is a little bit different in a B&M, though at first glimpse, similar.  Yes, companies pay to have their product(s) capping an aisle or at the perfect eye-level as one treads down the miles of linoleum.  But, all of the products that the store concents/contracts to display are 'somewhere' in sight, in the store where a person WILL see it without having a search order.  Not hidden in the back of the storeroom or under a tarp on a pallet out on the loading dock.

There is a big difference between gaining 'preferred' position and just plain gaining visibility.

[superdave*]

I have been selling on eBay for 18 years and have NEVER seen anything like these poor sales, ever...I have 2 stores, one premium with over 5 THOUSAND items and a basic with around 250...My premium store sales have become almost non existent and I haven't sold a SINGLE item this month on my basic store, this is beyond ridiculous...I have been having more and more days on my premium store with ZERO sales, that used to maybe happen once or twice a year, now many days each month...Something is very, very wrong, I do not know what it is, but am praying that it changes soon...There is no possible way this drop is just a ebb/flow or coincidence, there is a "definite" cause/reason behind it...

[superdave*]

For example, for years I used to average several hundred dollars(sometimes much more)in sales on weekends, now it's maybe $100 on a good weekend, so far it's $40 this weekend and that's counting Friday, Saturday and Sunday...I don't really have any "seasonal" items, but sales used to "always" pick up this time of year, so something bad, bad, bad wrong here...

[flipper2flipper]

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@superdave* wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for 18 years and have NEVER seen anything like these poor sales, ever...I have 2 stores, one premium with over 5 THOUSAND items and a basic with around 250...My premium store sales have become almost non existent and I haven't sold a SINGLE item this month on my basic store, this is beyond ridiculous...I have been having more and more days on my premium store with ZERO sales, that used to maybe happen once or twice a year, now many days each month...Something is very, very wrong, I do not know what it is, but am praying that it changes soon...There is no possible way this drop is just a ebb/flow or coincidence, there is a "definite" cause/reason behind it...

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If you think that it's bad now, just wait until January 28, 2019 when the "proposed" new First Class Parcel rate changes become effective with:

1 - Higher rates

2 - Only 4 weight brackets, instead of the current 13 weight brackets

3 - Zone pricing, instead of the current flat rate pricing

https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202019%20-%20Notice123.pdf

[flipper2flipper]

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@superdave* wrote:

For example, for years I used to average several hundred dollars(sometimes much more)in sales on weekends, now it's maybe $100 on a good weekend, so far it's $40 this weekend and that's counting Friday, Saturday and Sunday...I don't really have any "seasonal" items, but sales used to "always" pick up this time of year, so something bad, bad, bad wrong here...

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Some of the problem may be being caused by a problem with Saved Search e-mails not being sent.

I have 100 Saved Searches, with about 50 of them subscribed to, meaning that whenever  a new item in my search is listed, Ebay is supposed to send me an e-mail notification of the newly listed items.

For the last month or so, I have only been getting notified of less than half of those Saved Searches, even though when I manually check the Search, I see that new items were listed, and I never got an e-mail from Ebay.

Anybody else having that problem with Saved Search Notifications ?

[superdave*]

Exactly, yes, same problem and sometimes they don't come at the usual time, sometimes hours later, eBay certainly has some tech problems...I have suspected all this could be related...

[robot-hands]

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@rschissler wrote:

I don't know why some sellers insist on adhering to this "throttling" nonsense.  What you and eBay suffers from is a lack of buyers.

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We only insist because ebay readily admits to it.

That's an important detail that is conveniently forgotten.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

They admit they do not show all items at all times. They do not and never have admitted to targetting specific sellers which is what the "throttling" people are arguing with absolutely NO proof.

I agree they show preference to some items and if yours is less preferred in a group of thousands, yours will never be seen. That is ENTIRELY different than Ebay blocking or throttling certain sellers for some bizarre invented reason.

Blocking specific saleable items for no reason makes NO sense when they make their money from sales. Probably the listings have bad titles, few pictures or are overpriced. 

[gracieallen01]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

They admit they do not show all items at all times. They do not and never have admitted to targetting specific sellers which is what the "throttling" people are arguing with absolutely NO proof.

I agree they show preference to some items and if yours is less preferred in a group of thousands, yours will never be seen. That is ENTIRELY different than Ebay blocking or throttling certain sellers for some bizarre invented reason.

Blocking specific saleable items for no reason makes NO sense when they make their money from sales. Probably the listings have bad titles, few pictures or are overpriced. 

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Hehehehehehehe!  That's was funny.  I was reading your description of it and I was thinking of the UA as a 'weapon of mass-throttling'.  To heck with the 1000's of bombs, just one H-UA bomb'.  Oh well, guess that really dates me.

[sapphireseal]

I'm not sure if it's intentional 'throttling' or just eBay's search engine being terrible but it has issues.  I've experienced this myself as a buyer. 

Searched for an item--not an overreprestented item but a vintage collectible that only produced two pages of listings.  Saw an item I liked.  Searched for the item 30 minutes later and it was gone?  Even though I was using the same search terms.  Was it sold?  No, it was not, but the only way I found it again was through my browser history.

I talked with other collectors afterwards and they all said the same thing--if you see an item you like "Watch" it IMMEDIATELY or you may never find it again.  This is not a good way to promote sales.

I think it's more due to eBay being inept than malicious, though.

[ittybitnot]

We only insist because ebay readily admits to it.

 That's an important detail that is conveniently forgotten.

Indeed.  They admitted in court when taken to task in Europe.  There are many news articles that show the same quote. 

“Ebau admitted that they indeed manipulated the ‘best match’ search results against ‘dropshippers’ relative to sellers not ‘dropshipping’ from online sites in order to ‘preserve eBay’s integrity’ and ‘protect purchasers.'”

“Ebay’s lawyer focused their argument on ‘dropshipping’ practices that are problematic such as, manipulations of seller metrics in their favour such as falsely using the ‘cancellation at the buyer’s request’ option and ‘frustrated buyers’ who bought items at too high a price. He also called dropshippers ‘crooks’.”

[rschissler]

Manipulating "Best Match" has nothing to do with what is meant by "throttling."

  Any seller who is dependant  on their ranking in Best Match to get a sale, should look for other means to sell.  Smart buyers don't depend on Best Match, so smart sellers shouldn't either.