eBay

bilge21 · ‎02-10-2013

Because my sales have declined majorly in the last few months due to highly increased competition and a flood of chinese compatibles, enough to cost me my Top Seller rating and losing my discount, I will be closing my eBay cartridge store at the end of this billing period and just listing a few cartridges at a time for my current customers. There's no point in keeping the store open when my monthly fees start getting higher than the break even point.

Amazing how I went from $2500 a month in sales 3 years ago right down to $0 sales this month. At least my local and website cartridge sales have remained constant as customers start seeing that they get what they paid for in the chinese compatibles. Unfortunately, ebay has no category for environmentally-friendly cartridges, where myself and other remanufacturers could post thier wares. We just get lost in that flood of chinese cartridges. If eBay factored in DSRs and feedback scores in best Match, then perhaps I would be selling more, but ebay has shown many times that they don't care about the smaller guys that were thier bread and butter years ago. Nor do they care if those bigger sellers have worse DSRs and feedback than we do.

westernstargifts · ‎02-10-2013

Sorry to hear that bilge. Sales are way down for many of us because of eBay changes. I don't know why they don't give more weight to FB and DSR's. I seem to sell only the things that have recent sales and everything else sits.

Over the past few months I have also seen views in Omniture plummet and the drop in sales pretty much matches the decrease.

Maybe things will change again eventually and our sales will pick up again but I won't hold my breath.

brandeentertainment · ‎02-10-2013

End of this year for me I am actually very excited .. I make enugh at my real job and I can work OT anytime for $50 plus an hr so with my wife asking me to close up shop due to second kid I am happy to oblige..

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-10-2013

Sorry to hear that Bilge. Have you thought about shipping to the U.S. again to see if that would help? Also...why not put something like "environment friendly" right in your title?

bilge21 · ‎02-11-2013

Sorry to hear that bilge. Sales are way down for many of us because of eBay changes. I don't know why they don't give more weight to FB and DSR's. I seem to sell only the things that have recent sales and everything else sits.

Over the past few months I have also seen views in Omniture plummet and the drop in sales pretty much matches the decrease.

Maybe things will change again eventually and our sales will pick up again but I won't hold my breath.

That's exactly it. Ebay pushes volume sellers much higher on the list than anyone else. That makes it tougher for low volume sellers to maintain a foothold, especially in the face of increasing competition who have no problem with destabilizing the market by driving prices down. Good for buyers, bad for sellers.

Like you, I won't hold my breath. It would take a wakeup call for eBay to realize that the older sellers are leaving in droves. Perhaps the new rumour about eBay forcing sellers to pay for return shipping of items not as described (As posted earlier by Pierre) may cause even more sellers to leave.

It's come to the point that you no longer have control of your business on eBay. eBay runs your business whether you like it or not.

bilge21 · ‎02-11-2013

Sorry to hear that Bilge. Have you thought about shipping to the U.S. again to see if that would help? Also...why not put something like "environment friendly" right in your title?

All my listings have *Eco-Friendly* in the title and my ads state that I only use environmentally-safe packaging and padding, but because I no longer have the volume and I refuse to lower my prices to match the cheaper stuff (I refuse to call them "goods" lol) coming out of China, my ads basically end up way down in the back pages, even if a customer selects "Canada" only in the item location.

As for shipping to the U.S. again, that's a bit of a slippery slope as the ITC (International Trade Commission) in the U.S. has ruled in favour of some OEM manufacturers to prevent compatibles and remanufactured cartridges from entering in the U.S., which means that U.S. Customs will now seize imported cartridges that contravene ITC's ruling. This order also goes for some empty cartridges that were not first sold in the U.S.

Also, I have had a warning from Samsung's lawyers regarding a couple of Samsung listings on my company website, which I corrected immediately after consultation with my own lawyer (Gotta love having a favorite nephew who is a corporate lawyer, lol). After I fixed the problem. This all tells me that the OEMs are starting to get serious about the compatibles and copies coming into North America. Not much they can do about remanufacturers though, due to Canada Competition Act and the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts in the U.S., so I'm in the clear as long as I represent my cartridges as remanufactured, not OEM. However, they CAN and are doing something about the clones coming in from China so it's just a matter of time.

We'll see what the future brings, but eBay may be in for a big shakeup sooner or later once the OEMs start bringing thier well-paid lawyers to target eBay.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-11-2013

All my listings have *Eco-Friendly* in the title

Oops, I see the eco-friendly now. I must have only checked one listing before I wrote that and it is probably the only one without that in the title.

Samsung MLT-D104S Toner Cartridge for Samsung SCX-3200 ML-1665 MLT-104

bilge21 · ‎02-13-2013

All my listings have *Eco-Friendly* in the title

Oops, I see the eco-friendly now. I must have only checked one listing before I wrote that and it is probably the only one without that in the title.

Samsung MLT-D104S Toner Cartridge for Samsung SCX-3200 ML-1665 MLT-104

Ah. That one was my latest addition to the eBay lineup.I must have somehow forgot to add the Eco-Friendly tag.

In any case, my eBay customers that want to continue to buy thier cartridges from me can find my website and email ddres on the invoice and the business card I include in every order. I will honour the eBay prices for those customers. just have to let me know you've bought from me on eBay before. 🙂

pierrelebel · ‎02-14-2013

" my eBay customers that want to continue to buy their cartridges from me can find my website and email..."

Closing an eBay store does not necessarily mean not having an eBay presence.

If the sales volume does not justify the expense of a store, one can still list on eBay, using the auction format to continue advertising the availability of the products.

eBay currently offers 50 free auction listings every month. FVF for auctions (9%) are generally lower than for fixed price for items in your proce range.

It may not be a perfect solution but it will help produce some sales at a much lower cost.

Good Luck.

pierrelebel · ‎02-14-2013

"my eBay customers..."

About eight years ago, I decided to use my eBay customers to build a mailing list for my website. At that time, it was simply a matter of compiling email addresses from the feedback forum (they were available without time limits) and eliminating duplication (I had about 30,000 feedback at that time including much duplication).

It worked and produced exceptional results.

Now, this is no longer possible as eBay removes the email information within a few months.

However, the information can still be compiled from PayPal where the email addresses are not removed. It is time consuming (more so if you check mailing addresses to eliminate old American custiomers) but one could get a list of one hundred satisfied customers in a few hours. Then it is just a matter of reminding them your environmentally-friendly cartridges are available from your website.

Good Luck.

inuk_the_polar_bear · ‎02-14-2013

Peculiar that I have thought I was out of business about 5-7 times in the last five years and something would happen and I was back in.

I am moving from Winnipeg to Belleville Ontario. I have, up until last week, never even been there. For sure I would be out of business for lack of supply. Nope. Through meeting a seller on Motors Board, I am walking into a situation where I will have more work than now.

Find another way. I have bounced back so many times, I feel like a Yo-Yo.

pierrelebel · ‎02-14-2013

" am moving from Winnipeg to Belleville Ontario"

Welcome to Belleville, the Friendly City ! 🙂

bilge21 · ‎02-14-2013

" my eBay customers that want to continue to buy their cartridges from me can find my website and email..."

Closing an eBay store does not necessarily mean not having an eBay presence.

If the sales volume does not justify the expense of a store, one can still list on eBay, using the auction format to continue advertising the availability of the products.

eBay currently offers 50 free auction listings every month. FVF for auctions (9%) are generally lower than for fixed price for items in your proce range.

It may not be a perfect solution but it will help produce some sales at a much lower cost.

Good Luck.

I'm definitely not going out of business, just closing the store on eBay and listing a few select cartridges with the free listijng option now and then. Though tye listings will likely be way in the back of the search, it's still a presence.

Your idea of an emailing list makes sense and even though eBay has cut out the email addresses, I still have every single email address of customers that paid via paypal in my archives. Simple matter of bringing them up in my mail search. Thanks for the idea, Pierre. 🙂

mr.elmwood · ‎02-14-2013

Welcome to Belleville, the Friendly City !

Pierre, I just realized you live there. I was there Sun-Wed last week house hunting. I had never been to that part of the world ever before. It is very friendly.

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