eBay

pinetreecottage · ‎10-25-2017

With few to no views for days, and some listings with 0 views since the beginning of the listings, I guess I can assume my time with ebay has finally come to an end. I'm a small boutique seller since Jan. 2003, I never had the volume that some of you, but still did well. I used to sell most of what I listed. What puzzles me is, what's the difference between me selling an item for $60.00 and someone selling 6 items for $10.00 each. The fees are the same or better for my item, postage might be more, so higher fee.

Well, only the bots and the "geniuses" at ebay knows.

Just wondering if anyone else has been "sent to Coventry". Cheers.

katlover1952 · ‎10-25-2017

There is no doubt that it is much more of a challenge to sell on eBay now than it used to be. I started selling in 2009 & while I have never been a big seller was definitely easier to sell items. Now of course there is much more competition on eBay & I agree with you about the views. I often have very few views on items. I opened a store last year as it seemed free promos were coming to an end & could no longer be relied on (this is definitely the case also). While I do sell some items am definitely disappointed with the sell through rate but will keep plugging away for awhile longer anyway.

Sorry you are leaving eBay. I know that there are some on the Boards that feel eBay is trying to get rid of us small sellers in favor of the Chinese & big box stores. I feel they may well be right. I do know one thing it is definitely a buyers world in eBay compared to when I first joined (2003) & while I know it had to change I do think the pendulum has swung too far!

hlmacdon · ‎10-25-2017

@katlover1952 wrote:

Sorry you are leaving eBay. I know that there are some on the Boards that feel eBay is trying to get rid of us small sellers in favor of the Chinese & big box stores. I feel they may well be right. I do know one thing it is definitely a buyers world in eBay compared to when I first joined (2003) & while I know it had to change I do think the pendulum has swung too far!

All of the site changes, bugs and poorly written algorithms don't help, but I think there is a far more fundamental problem at play here. I think it just comes down to marketing and the image projected to buyers. With the way things are going ebay is really narrowing their demographic and marketing to the lowest common denominator. Instead of the front of the site marketing towards buyer's interests they get dyson fans, handbags, and phones. With the amount that handbags are promoted on ebay I'd be left thinking the site is a handbag site that happens to have a marketplace.

Categories that shouldn't get anywhere near the level of front page representation they do reflect the personal interests of certain executives at ebay rather than the actual marketplace. That is how you end up with sellers with less than 50 total feedback getting primetime front page direct marketing. When you bring in people from the failed brick and mortar department stores/fashion segment you get what we are currently saddled with, a marketplace with a branding problem. They need to bring in ecommerce savvy execs and get software development back in house and focus on marketing the products and categories that make ebay unique.

IMHO they already have the product, they just do a god awful job of connecting the buyer to it, and connecting buyers and sellers. The real mistake they have made is trying to promote and market ebay as a direct to consumer retailer rather than building up and promoting their merchant base. Every effort has been literally to separate buyer and seller instead of figuring out how to bring them together.

rose-dee · ‎10-26-2017

I quite agree with everything you've said above. I think eBay is the author of most of these problems, but I also think something else is going on that is adding to the problem.

Although I'm a "boutique" seller, I've been selling regularly and quite successfully on eBay for over 10 years. Like the OP, prior to 2016 nearly everything I listed sold within a few months at worst. Many very desirable items sold within hours or days. That doesn't happen anymore, and views (and watchers) are way down from 2 years ago.

Because I sell on two other online sites (and one in particular), I've had a different perspective on this issue, and have seen commonalities between the two. One of those intersections occurred in July, 2016. On both sites there was an absolute dead zone in sales for about 3 months after that point.

What happened in July, 2016? Trump was nominated. Things picked up somewhat during the fall of 2016, then died off almost completely on both sites after the end of November (when Trump was inaugurated as President). Ever since that point my sales on both sites have slumped down the ladder a few notches and pretty much stayed there. Historically over 90% of my sales have been to the U.S., so the difference between pre-2016 and now is very pronounced.

I cater to an enthusiastic niche market. There have never been many competitors (I can count them on one hand). Yet they're all complaining about the same thing (I know them well and see their posts on Facebook and elsewhere). Very few of these discretionary items are selling, at least not at the happy rate that persisted for nearly a decade.

So aside from the ludicrous mess eBay has made of this site which has negatively affected sales, I think that worry about the state of affairs of the world (and of the U.S. in particular) and a general sort of mental malaise has gripped people. I think this nervousness is also spilling beyond U.S. borders into Canada and Europe. When you have confidence in the future, you can enjoy being a bit frivolous in the present. When you start hearing the "w" word, it's a different matter.

There are some very serious things going on right now with potentially damaging (or even devastating) outcomes, which understandably may make many people feel this is a time to tighten the purse-strings and hold off spending on non-necessities. That, I believe, is just compounding the problems a lot of us smaller sellers are facing on eBay and elsewhere.

Like the OP, I'm no longer certain I'll make it through another year on eBay.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-26-2017

I hadn't really considered the Trump factor.

I was very annoyed on the dotCOM boards in the past year or so when posters kept moaning about the awful economy, when the US economy was well into recovery and even beginning to boom.

I put it down the right wing conspiracy -- keep telling everyone that things were terrible and it was obviously that Kenyan's fault.

I'm not seeing that kind of discussion any more, which tends to confirm my notion. Of course, confirmation bias.

But I agree with himacon that the front page does not track the interests of the individual checking in. There is that strip of "stuff you've looked at recently" which is pretty mixed for Boardies who are looking at all sorts of items in the course of commenting on problems. The correction could be as simple as moving that up on the page and the Featured stuff lower.

hlmacdon · ‎10-26-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

I cater to an enthusiastic niche market. There have never been many competitors (I can count them on one hand). Yet they're all complaining about the same thing (I know them well and see their posts on Facebook and elsewhere).  Very few of these discretionary items are selling, at least not at the happy rate that persisted for nearly a decade.

So aside from the ludicrous mess eBay has made of this site which has negatively affected sales, I think that worry about the state of affairs of the world (and of the U.S. in particular) and a general sort of mental malaise has gripped people. I think this nervousness is also spilling beyond U.S. borders into Canada and Europe. When you have confidence in the future, you can enjoy being a bit frivolous in the present. When you start hearing the "w" word, it's a different matter.

There are some very serious things going on right now with potentially damaging (or even devastating) outcomes, which understandably may make many people feel this is a time to tighten the purse-strings and hold off spending on non-necessities. That, I believe, is just compounding the problems a lot of us smaller sellers are facing on eBay and elsewhere.

Like the OP, I'm no longer certain I'll make it through another year on eBay.

I'm sure macro events could have some effect on certain demographics. With my own experience, my number one market by far still remains the US and ironically my strongest period of sales would have been through the first half of the new political changeover. Overall I've found sales outside of the US have really dropped. Coincidentally those are the buyers where the majority of my cart struggles are. Certainly the cost of shipping these days doesn't help, but when you add checkout issues to a multi item purchasers buyers get annoyed to where they give up. Free shipping is not the solution as regular buyers know they are overpaying for shipping.

If I look at my traffic and sell through, the real struggle is getting buyers to spend time browsing my store. One feature I'd like to see them clone is how Taobao managers your saved sellers. In a one page view you get a list of all your sellers, with a row that can display their new items or sale items. It is a very handy feature to get a quick at a glance overview of what is happening with your regular sellers. A system like that becomes more of a relationship builder and fosters repeat business. Ebay on the other hand is throwing way too much attention into keyword searches. That is great if a buyer knows exactly what they are looking for, but it does nothing for those who browse and then purchase.

Most online retailers rely on sales/promo pages to help narrow buyer focus and for the typical ecommerce site traffic outside of these directed focus areas is considerably less. If we could get better tools for the buyer to explore within their favorite merchants I think we would see positive growth. You need something that helps replicate that walking the aisles/checking out the endcaps activity that we all engage in when we go to brick and mortar stores. What buyers care about is new items and price changes. Something as simple as show me all the new items from my favorite sellers that are net new listings (ie not GTC's that renew), highlighted sales or promotions, and the enabling of push notifications from there based on certain keywords or other criteria.

Simply relying on search to bring up the lowest price doesn't help with discoverability. Enabling product identifiers doesn't really help either as ebay is taking such a simplistic approach there (ie there aren't enough specific filters to really narrow listings down as ebay are not experts within any of the niches). I would wager that most of the ebay buyers that frequently purchase items do so from a fairly regular group of retailers. By giving them better tools to get the latest updates from their sellers at minimal time investment you'll get more frequent buying activity. Throwing a search bar and some filters at a shopper does nothing to recreate an actual shopping experience.

rose-dee · ‎10-27-2017

@hlmacdon wrote:
"I'm sure macro events could have some effect on certain demographics. With my own experience, my number one market by far still remains the US and ironically my strongest period of sales would have been through the first half of the new political changeover. Overall I've found sales outside of the US have really dropped."

That's interesting. I'm curious as to what area you sell in, are you selling collectibles or new manufactured products? Electronics of some sort perhaps? I ask because over the past year my proportion of overseas sales has actually increased considerably.

"I would wager that most of the ebay buyers that frequently purchase items do so from a fairly regular group of retailers. By giving them better tools to get the latest updates from their sellers at minimal time investment you'll get more frequent buying activity. Throwing a search bar and some filters at a shopper does nothing to recreate an actual shopping experience."

This makes complete sense to me, since I also regularly buy on eBay and have my "favourite" sellers. Yet eBay made such a convoluted mess of what used to be a fairly easy-to-access favourite seller page that I don't even bother with it anymore. Perhaps they felt that the "Collections" feature would supplant it, but it doesn't.

I believe another change eBay made that had a direct effect on the "browse around and discover" activity was to severely limit the inter-connectedness of the Feedback pages. As a buyer, I used to find FB pages to be a wonderful browsing tool. For example, one could peruse a favourite seller's FB to see what other customers of that seller were buying, from whom, and at what price, which often led to discoveries of new sellers of related items. EBay broke most of those useful links when it made sweeping changes to its FB system for other reasons. Yet it seems they didn't consider what I called the "cross-pollination" value of that system as a driver of sales.

lukey9 · ‎10-27-2017

After the last 3 months of very low sales or no sales , few views on any of the items I am going to shut down for awhile. Christmas sales in Military items are very slow during the time & I don't have much inventory so it is a perfect time to shut down. Usually 90/95 % or more of my sales to the US & that is not happening . I think allot of it is what is happening in the US and the rest is the constant glitches on E-Bay that are too many to list. So after 17 years I finally will have time to do what I want to instead of sitting in front of a computer.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-28-2017

We found when we had the B&M stamp store that our slowest period was mid-November to Christmas.

Then came roaring back on Boxing Day.

Our thought was that the guys (most of our adult customers were men) gave themselves a collecting allowance.

Come Christmas, they turned their allowance to gift buying.

Then on Boxing Day all their pent up collecting angst came forward. And of course their January allowance was now available.

So we held our big promotion during Boxing Week and the first week of the New Year.

Worked great.

Take your break. Enjoy the relaxation. And get your Store set to re-open on December 25th.

rose-dee · ‎10-28-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:
We found when we had the B&M stamp store that our slowest period was mid-November to Christmas.
Then came roaring back on Boxing Day.

I think what many of us are experiencing this year is different than the usual, expected and predictable seasonal fluctuations. So many sellers of vintage, collectibles, OOAK type of items are reporting very, very long dry spells with only a few scattered sales here and there that I have to believe there are deeper factors at work. It just feels completely different now, almost weirdly silent.

What is most worrying for me (and from what I can see, many others) is that the dependable U.S. buyer market has dropped off a cliff since late 2016. For me this has been true not only of eBay but of the other sites on which I sell. Which in itself is perhaps a meaningful sign, since one of those sites in particular, unlike eBay, has been functionally very stable and more or less consistent in its seller and buyer features and appearance for the last few years.

I have (or at least had) a very keen, interested and highly enthusiastic buyer market. Prior to this year, buyers often contacted me to ask what I was planning to offer next, or to make a request for a particular type of design. That contact has virtually disappeared over the past year, another ominous sign. For years I got regular requests for commissions through my website or elsewhere, so many in fact that I had to turn many of them down for lack of time. The last such request was in January, 2017, another strange first in over 10 years of working in this area.

It isn't just sales on eBay that have vanished either; the same special interest "crowd" has gone far more quiet on social media as well. I regularly take part in online groups related to historical costuming and such, and the happy chatter has died down dramatically in 2017. It's as if people are holding their breath, in a kind of stunned stupor, waiting for the next shoe to drop.

So I believe far more is going on than the usual, more or less predictable up and down swings. This may not be the case in some areas of selling. I'm sure buyers will still want the newest electronics and fashion gear, and I suspect (correct me please if I'm wrong) that stamp collectors are on a planet of their own, driven by the next possible acquisition, but in my world discretionary spending seems to have almost ground to a halt.

Oh yes, speaking of shoes dropping -- last night the U.S. Special Counsel (Mueller) finally brought charges. Against whom and for what isn't known yet, but will be soon. I'm expecting my "crowd" will be otherwise distracted and overwrought for quite some time yet.

noveltyguys · ‎10-28-2017

This has been so frustrating. I am sorry to hear all the negative news but at least it makes think it's not just me, I feel like you do.

One thing I learned along time ago is diversification. If you go into a drug store they are now selling groceries. Did you know the first thing that goes into any store is the coke machine? I can give many examples but you get the drift. Even with a wide range of products my sales are down. I have told Ebay since the increase in the fees and the 10 percent taken away from final fees my sales are down. Ebay isn't making as much money as they used to from me because I am not making as much money. Same for the rest of the sellers that are going through these times.

The problem is EBAY won't listen.

My profession is sales and these guys really don't know what they are doing.

ricarmic · ‎10-28-2017

For those that don't already know, I'm a stamp guy and I sell only on .COM.

This year has been bizarre.

Generally since May things have been slower, especially June and July. Normally I take my "ebay holiday" in August and did the same this year. Normally when I reopen my store in September, there is a brief surge in sales, however this year September was my best eBay month since 2013, the whole month was strong, but I do not know why!!!! I really wish that I had at least an inkling. I would love to experimentally shut the store down for a few days and open it again and see what happens, but I am worried about pushing away my regular customers who represent 66% of my sales so I have resisted that experiment so far.

Since the end of September things are back in the doldrums, October so far is 37% below last October.

I've been trying every little trick I've picked up in the last 18 years, some tweaks have been working a bit.

Auctions are abysmal, I've not really run much in the way of auctions in the last 5 years, things have certainly changed in their regard! I've been experimenting with them, I'm going to have to re-learn what works in the current world as opposed to what I was used to before. (I'm having auctions closing with 2 views total!)

I've been wondering if I've done something to reduce my visibility, but experiments on other people's computers show that generally I show up pretty good so I don't think that's the problem.

I've been watching newly listed items, doesn't matter the time of day they're listed, views on new items is generally very poor, with the exception of popular/high demand stuff which does get some views and quickly. This tells me buyers are still out there for stuff, however there probably is so much "regular" stuff, competition is heavy for it.

I also have the problem of this being my actual job, so I have to earn a living wage at it. I suspect in my domain there are more people who are trying to downsize their own material and using the $$$ to fund more purchases and/or other non-stamp things in their lives. Generally they don't have to earn a living wage doing it so stuff can be priced cheaper. It is also not clear to me how much the "global invasion" of worldwide sellers has changed things. At least in my world folks living in developing countries can't "make" stamps so it is generally moreso the different cost of living that gives them an advantage.

My experience on other online sites is consistent with my experience here so it is not an ebay thing in my world/experience.

Something that may give more of an explanation is the aging of the primary collecting base here in North America. I still produce a printed price list and have a decent group of collectors who don't have/believe in computers (if you can imagine!). The list is generated every 3 months and it seems all too frequent that we've lost another 1 or 2 or so who's health has declined to the point they cannot continue, or they are no longer with us. That group is likely the "oldest" of the collecting base, but if I'm losing say 5% to 10% of them a year, it does not take long for it to have a significant impact (two ways, not only they aren't buying, but their stuff is likely being sold and creating a surge of "supply" against lessening demand so to speak).

So far the things that have been helping are to continually be listing new items, so I've been trying to push that as much as I can.

I will note that I resisted the "HTTPS" situation, and about half of my items are affected. I've seen no change in the sales rate of the affected items, so I'm glad I didn't bother to change them, there were nearly 1700 items affected.

So there you have it, that's my diatribe for the day.....and I'd better get back to listing more stuff!!!!!

dutchman48 · ‎10-28-2017

I and many others are in the same boat. Sales since June are dismal and getting costly.

I am running about 17% in Ebay fees per month which is far higher than I would like to see.

As far as stamps, which I do collect.

I have half a garage full of stuff and about 20 feet by 7 feet of Albums which I have to go through. Right now, I have all the common stuff I want and don't buy any more albums for their stamps, or packets, or kiloware.

I have to go through all my used to put into Scott and Minkus International pages before I buy any more. I have lots of extras that are going to be hard to get rid of.

All I am purchasing at this time is uncirculated singles and sets for my various hingeless and specialty albums. I will probably not live long enough to go through all my used and file them all. Many countries I have both hingeless for MNH and self printed for used.

I also don't collect anything modern other than Canada.

I am probably not the only one going through this scenario or situation. A lot of stuff has been coming on the market and everyone is trying to sell as their kids have no use for it..

There is also a glut of common stuff everywhere at this time and prices are not great.

Many collectors have gone to pre 1940 collections as there are just too many stamps being produced worldwide and the prices are just going up as far as face value goes every year. Most you can't get face value for after a few years.

I am sure we and other sellers and collectors know that good scarce stuff sells very well but are out of most collectors pocket book range.

My tokens I sell are the same. I used to have a very large Canadian collection with many duplicates. I used to buy and sell with no problem. I have sold most of my personal collection and have been selling duplicates for over 10 years. I no longer buy any as the collector base as such is almost gone.

Most people collect specialty or themed ones and the rest all have most of the common stuff. I have seen the market get smaller and smaller and prices go downhill over the years.

This is just me rambling so take it for what it is worth as these types of discussions could go on forever.

dutchman48 · ‎10-28-2017

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the ridiculous postal costs are killing Canadian smaller seller of collectibles.

It will get worse next year with another possible strike situation as well as changes to what can go letter mail.

The price of shipping to the US has certainly killed that market for tokens.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-28-2017

I suspect (correct me please if I'm wrong) that stamp collectors are on a planet of their own, driven by the next possible acquisition,-- rose -dee

They are very different from your ladies. Because I assume most are seamstresses?

Men don't have the same attitude to money as women. They are..... different. I mentioned that 'allowance'? Do you think your buyers have an actual monthly allowance or do they buy when they feel their need and their pocketbook happen to align?

Men don't shop as often as women. I have to be very focussed when DH is along with me shopping. No browsing. In and out.

It is a money saver in some ways but I find it stressful.

Have you been watching Crazy ex-Girlfriend? They had this number the week before last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu3FE7BswYI

rose-dee · ‎10-29-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:
I suspect (correct me please if I'm wrong) that stamp collectors are on a planet of their own, driven by the next possible acquisition,-- rose -dee

They are very different from your ladies. Because I assume most are seamstresses?
Men don't have the same attitude to money as women. They are..... different. I mentioned that 'allowance'? Do you think your buyers have an actual monthly allowance or do they buy when they feel their need and their pocketbook happen to align?
Men don't shop as often as women. I have to be very focussed when DH is along with me shopping. No browsing. In and out.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

You might be surprised to hear that one of my best repeat customers is a man -- I believe he has theatre connections, so he always comes back for more (of the antique patterns in my own line). I've had quite a few theatrical costumers purchase my patterns over the years. It's easier and less expensive for them to buy a ready-to-use pattern than to have to hire a designer.

However, you're right that the majority of my buyers are women who are interested in historical re-enactment, on-site history events or just having fun with friends. I doubt they have a budget for such expenditures, although I do get quite a few who tell me they're preparing in advance for a special event, so most are probably not mere "impulse" purchases -- they know the era and the type of garment they want, and find me through various channels.

Ah yes, shopping with goal-oriented men -- get in, zero in, grab, pay and run. Every woman needs a female friend with whom to spend a leisurely, pleasant afternoon browsing and snooping around the latest bargains, preceded by an equally leisurely lunch.

Where I now live, such opportunities are scarce unless I want to spend my afternoon in Walmart or drive 2-1/2 hours to Halifax. I do really miss that part of Victoria, having lived there 17 years. It has some wonderful strolling and browsing possibilities. When I worked in an office in Market Square, it was very hard to resist poking around the Johnson Street shops at lunch hour. I still have things I bought there years ago. But now I digress...

rose-dee · ‎10-29-2017

@dutchman48 wrote:
I and many others are in the same boat. Sales since June are dismal and getting costly.
I am running about 17% in Ebay fees per month which is far higher than I would like to see.

That's a key point that I meant to mention earlier too. For years I kept my eBay costs at between about 9% and 11% per month. I just noticed last month was 21%!!

Getting squeezed on that end, along with (no doubt) higher Canada Post rates in 2018, when taken in the context of dramatically lower sales, is going to make it very hard for a lot of smaller sellers to hang on.

One poster above mentioned diversification. I honestly don't know that that's a productive strategy on eBay right now, given all the terribly buggy site issues. I'd considered it, but it seems like throwing good money after bad under the present circumstances. Although I do rely on my eBay business income, unlike ricarmic, I don't need to make a full-time living from it, so as long as I'm making a small profit, I can keep going by cutting expenses in other areas. But I feel for those people who do completely depend on what they make here.

hlmacdon · ‎10-29-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

That's interesting. I'm curious as to what area you sell in, are you selling collectibles or new manufactured products? Electronics of some sort perhaps? I ask because over the past year my proportion of overseas sales has actually increased considerably.

Collectibles for the most part. Sales outside of ebay haven't experienced the same dip so it isn't a seasonality thing. From anecdotal conversations of others in the business, same results - ebay dropping off while outside of ebay remains steady. My customer base is male, but cuts across a very broad demographic range in terms of ages and incomes. I track what prices competitors sell products for in my niche on ebay and outside of ebay very closely, and people selling outside of ebay are fetching much higher prices while lower priced items on ebay go unsold. That is a particular interesting phenomenon as that hasn't been the case in previous years.

One of the recent changes from this year that seems to have broken things is the changes to the cart with eBay's mandate to force immediate payment required and how that can break the request total from seller feature. I have buyers that can use it and buyers that can't use it. Ironically it seems like deadbeat accounts have no problem using request total where as reliable long term customers have problems. For overseas buyers it is a major pain point given the high costs of overseas shipping. That would be find if ebay had a proper shipping backend that you could work with to accurately setup combined rates but that isn't the case. A great example of ebay unnecessarily inserting themselves between buyers and sellers and causing lost sales. You need to be accurate to the gram/ounce if you sell in a category where multi-item transactions are common and buyers are educated and know that free shipping on multiple items means they are paying far more than needed.

Another change I suspect effects international sales is the highlight of ETA dates. For domestic shipments that serves a real purpose, but with international shipments there is a balance that needs to be struck to set customer expectations and it is arguably pointless given the customs variable. I'll consistently see feedback left for international transactions (my own or other sellers) where the feedback comments are arrived much sooner than expected. In those cases the delivery times would fall into the standard time frame rather than exceptionally quick. Instead of promoting the quality of the seller ebay promotes metrics that are outside of the control of the seller.

scale-surge · ‎06-05-2022

ebay is a **bleep** stain today compared to what it used to be. Customer service ha ha forget it. I used to sell like mad on eBay now I have 6 completely diffrent items and ZERO views after 3 days! Use Kijji or Amazon. F*** you eBay.