Hi 'jt' -- I did a search for the Lancome Bi-Facil on both .ca and .com just now, and your listing shows up as #12 of 80 on .ca and #19 of 259 on .com. I got the same results with my alternate ID.
Clearly something odd is going on in the background. However, I question whether the drop in sales is directly related to search. I'm a bit of a canary in the coal mine in this respect because I'm in a very unusual seller on eBay, in the sense that I have many products that literally can't be purchased anywhere else and are unique in the world (I do have a couple of U.S. competitors selling somewhat comparable patterns, but not the same).
So, for example, doing a search on .com with my alternate ID using "Edwardian blouse pattern", my listings are 7 of the 21 listings shown. Using a search for "1912 Blouse Pattern", I have 6 out of 8 listings shown (the rest of which are actually not relevant results for these keywords).
I should be getting a good share of the views, watchers, and sales, right? Yet those numbers have dropped precipitously in the past 3 months, and this month I had a "first" on eBay in over 15 years of selling -- nearly an entire month without a sale! My last sale was Jan. 28th, and I just sold two items yesterday.
Admittedly I'm not running discounts or promotions at the moment, but that hasn't made much difference in the past. People can't buy what I sell anywhere else. It's a dismal prospect, continuing to pay 20% to 25% fees each month, but perhaps things other than eBay's own efforts are affecting sales. It's nearly the same story on the other site where I sell, so I have to conclude that factors other than eBay itself are at work. Who knows what exactly! Too many sites selling too much stuff to not enough buyers? Or the "Trump effect". All I know is that items that once got snapped up in a flash are now just sitting, and sitting, and sitting.
