Fact, we are just numbers & user id's
Exactomundo. We are not people. We do not have lives, bills, expectations. We are only as important as the next payment on account that we make. I have been reading, for years, "They don't care about me". Well, yer right, they do not. They never will.
10% of the sellers make 90% of the profit. The other 90%, well, sure glad I'm not part of that group. That any of us even got this far is astounding.
A few decades ago, it was absolutely impossible to set up a business without facing a big outlay for a B&M location, paying rent, taxes, levies, maintenance fees, interest on loans, employee wages, and facing the possibility of much worse losses than here if things went wrong -- including things completely beyond a business owner's control, like changes in traffic flow, bus route changes, construction projects, even weather, that would affect customer traffic.
So ... keep perspective everyone. In many ways, the ability to sell on eBay is a big gift. A lot of sellers seem to forget that fact. My hope is that the eBay ship, although listing a bit lately, will right itself and sail on, with us happily back on deck again (can't resist the nautical imagery -- I'm in NS, remember).
For comparison purposes, I like to look at the success rate of professional sports players. The stars make it, how many do not. How many "get to the show" for only one game. For fun, I look at the NHL draft. Depending on the year, maybe only 35% of those drafted ever got in a game. Back in the early 90's there were eleven rounds, 300 players drafted, 180 of them never made it. That is on top of the THOUSANDS that graduated from the amateur level every year. They have run that down to seven rounds because guys just are not making it.
Even those that make it, are done after 2 1/2 seasons. Drafted at 18-19, a year or two at the AHL level, into the pros, done at 25. Retired, finished, out to pasture at 25. For every Crosby, there are a thousand who never make it.
I used to sat "If I can do this, anyone can". Well, that is not true. As George Carlin is alleged to have said "Consider the average IQ of 100, half are below that". Being successful on eBay is being successful at running your own business. Vast majority cannot do that.
Yeah, Nice Stamps, I guess this is "The Show". I wonder how many never made it? How many listed one item and the whole thing went sideways and they did not know what to do?
I had my first sale, twelve years ago, last month. That is a long time. There was a fellow, on another board, about the same FB as mine. He lost money on every single sale, ever.
I used to get jealous of those with FB of 10K+. Then, I started looking at their average sale, $1-$3. Buying FB to look important.
Our OP has backed off from the sinking ship remark, but, mind you, might not really be that far off the mark. How about, limping into port for a complete re-fit!
I had my first sale, twelve years ago, last month. That is a long time. There was a fellow, on another board, about the same FB as mine. He lost money on every single sale, ever.
I used to get jealous of those with FB of 10K+. Then, I started looking at their average sale, $1-$3. Buying FB to look important.
Our OP has backed off from the sinking ship remark, but, mind you, might not really be that far off the mark. How about, limping into port for a complete re-fit!
"might not really be that far off the mark"
I was at the postal station yesterday, it was a quiet day (as usual) and spent some time talking to the manager while waiting for customers to show up. She has been there for over fifteen years.
She remembers well the days, five to ten years ago, when they had two long line-ups of customers, mostly eBay sellers, waiting to purchase postal services for parcels going all over the world but mostly to the USA. In the last few years, the crowds have gone away. Today, it is dead.
Now, that does not mean that eBay is losing business? On the contrary. Their financial statements have consistently showed increased volume (except for the 2008 slump). How does one reconcile a set of facts with a seemingly contradictory set of facts?
Sellers are different. Many of those individual sellers who enjoyed their time on eBay are gone. They have given up for a variety of reasons including huge fee increases over the years, changing policies, micromanaging by eBay, increasing fraud and abuse, etc.... Many (like you and me) are still around and have adjusted their pricing structure and policies to reflect the current reality. Then you have all those huge retailers, new to eBay, and using eBay as an extension to their own websites. They have more than made up the slack left by individual sellers who have given up. For them it is only business. Do not care about feedback or stars and accept a certain level of fraud and abuse (built into the price).
And, life does go on.
