Selling on eBay these days is depressing

[dallis]

DSR's no longer count towards your metrics.

Try to keep up.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by aking

thanks so much for those encouraging words.

Hey man, just keeping it real!

It's why I haven't gone there yet.

[walkingupwards]

Originally Posted by StealthJet99

It has been more difficult with the competition. Between being reported by the bigger sellers and others charging much less than you it's harder to make a profit on the smaller priced items.

Reported for what violations exactly?

[wilburnet]

Originally Posted by Pandoras_box

Poor DSR will sink them in a short time and they'd disappear from page 1. There isn't a chance of escaping late deliveries these days.

That wont bother the chinese seller, they will just open another account.

[SaiJin]

honestly one of the biggest issues are the competitors who play dirty trying to get people into trouble.

[vptom]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

honestly one of the biggest issues are the competitors who play dirty trying to get people into trouble.

I've noticed this as well. I've had some of my ebay and amazon accounts be attacked the last 2 months. The biggest is that they claim the item is fraudulent.

On one ebay account, they called up ebay and said I shipped out a gun (they ordered tissues) and that they were scared. That froze my ebay and paypal account instantly. I had to get the police and post office involved to prove that I didn't ship out a gun. Even after reinstating the account, they reset my selling limits to 20 sales a month.

They latest thing I've seen is being threatened with f ake reviews (amazon) unless you pay them via bitcoin. I've talked to a few other amazon sellers and they have seen the same thing. The scammers are hitting whole categories on amazon one product at a time.

It's a scary world and it will get worse. Make sure you have enough accounts to mitigate a risk to these things. Also look to building your own site, we don't have a fraction of the sales, but none of the scamming or competition issues either.

[yankee]

Ebay is easier today that it was three years ago. If your items are not profitable. As for people who say creating accounts is really hard, up your game because it has been super easy the past 2-3 years.

Amazon is brutal. Brutal, brutal brutal.

[Camaro2SS]

Amazon is nothing like it used to be. When I joined Amazon few years ago I was doing 100k/month today I can barely do 30k and it’s getting worse by the day. Amazon has been completely overrun by Chinese Amin the exact same way Chinese overrun eBay. There was an algorithm change in April 2018 on eBay. Seller who complain about slow sales on eBay are experiencing lower ranking because their accounts were flagged. It's really simple - some accounts, especially drop shipping accounts are being flagged by eBay therefore your sales are down. Overall eBay sales are nothing compare to what it used to be even 2 years ago. I went from banking 500-$600 profit a day to around $80 on eBay. And this has nothing to do with competition.

[walkingupwards]

Originally Posted by Camaro2SS

There was an algorithm change in April on eBay so seller who complain about slow sales on eBay are experiencing lower ranking.

How exactly is eBay going to know what sellers are complaining and thus drop their sales down?

[james13v]

Originally Posted by Camaro2SS

There was an algorithm change in April on eBay so seller who complain about slow sales on eBay are experiencing lower ranking.

lol, I'm sorry..... what??? Just, what?

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by walkingupwards

How exactly is eBay going to know what sellers are complaining and thus drop their sales down?

All they would have to do is monitor the eBay community forums. Sellers gripe about declining sales there all day every day.

Really doesn't sound like something they would do though. Seems like it would lead to a lawsuit against them.

[newjerseymax]

Originally Posted by nate

I thought the same thing, but I know others are having the best year they've ever had. Im guessing its the items. I placed a order last week with all new inventory hopefully I picked the right stuff this time around. Its been SUPER slow for me since May and I'm damn near broke..

Hey Nate,

I think your near me. I was thinking about hooking up Bitcoin Mining rig, but don't know technical. Also, I can get electricity free so hit me up if interested in possibly teaming up.

[Camaro2SS]

Originally Posted by james13v

lol, I'm sorry..... what??? Just, what?

I meant to say that eBay sellers who are constantly complaining about slow sales were most likely flagged by an algorithm. eBay has ability to flag your account for variety of reasons, it could be as simple as being constantly rude and argumentative with your customers, excessive order cancellations, excessive refund rate. Eventually your account is going to be flagged by their algorithm and then reviewed manually. As a result your items will be ranked lower.

[Camaro2SS]

It is also important to remember that eBay is slowly transitioning into an Amazon like venue. As many of you probably already know, eBay is introducing catalog similar to Amazon's Buy Box. This means that all products that are similar or the same will be cataloged under one listing and whomever has the lowest price is going to win the "Buy Box". I believe these changes are also impacting sales and search results. So it is a multitude of things of course. I do however believe strongly that eBay's ability to funnel sales to whomever they deem is a lot more controlled now. I know they have been flagging accounts silently for many years now but they just got a lot better at it with time.

[ashi]

yea auction did not finish good

[james13v]

Originally Posted by Camaro2SS

I meant to say that eBay sellers who are constantly complaining about slow sales were most likely flagged by an algorithm. eBay has ability to flag your account for variety of reasons, it could be as simple as being constantly rude and argumentative with your customers, excessive order cancellations, excessive refund rate. Eventually your account is going to be flagged by their algorithm and then reviewed manually. As a result your items will be ranked lower.

I know exactly what you meant, and I'm saying that your claim is bogus. Ebay isn't punishing sellers that complain about slow sales.... that's called a conspiracy theory.

[phaz0rz]

I love conspiracy theories.

Plenty of them are later proven to be true. An idea isn't automatically false because people conspired.

[RigorAndMonroe]

Start selling higher ticket items

[Camaro2SS]

Originally Posted by james13v

I know exactly what you meant, and I'm saying that your claim is bogus. Ebay isn't punishing sellers that complain about slow sales.... that's called a conspiracy theory.

According to you my claims are bogus but eBay was forced to admit in a lawsuit with SaleFreaks that they do flag drop shipping accounts and then lower their search visibility. In fact if your account has been flagged as a dropshipping account, there will be a 3 digit code to identify it with.

[phaz0rz]

Did they admit the part about flagging sellers who complain about slow sales?

I'm not taking sides in this debate - just asking for a friend.

[james13v]

Originally Posted by Camaro2SS

According to you my claims are bogus but eBay was forced to admit in a lawsuit with SaleFreaks that they do flag drop shipping accounts and then lower their search visibility. In fact if your account has been flagged as a dropshipping account, there will be a 3 digit code to identify it with.

that's something that is actually SMART and completely understandable from a business perspective. Ebay wouldn't want drop shippers on their site and would want to lower their rankings, so that people that actually have the items, are the ones selling the items. Not even remotely close to your assertion of what ebay is doing.

[Camaro2SS]

Originally Posted by james13v

that's something that is actually SMART and completely understandable from a business perspective. Ebay wouldn't want drop shippers on their site and would want to lower their rankings, so that people that actually have the items, are the ones selling the items. Not even remotely close to your assertion of what ebay is doing.

I don't think it's smart of eBay to try and get rid of drop shippers altogether or lower search results of accounts that were flagged for drop shipping. eBay benefits greatly from drop shippers because now buyers are able to purchase products that are higher quality instead of a cheap Chinese junk we typically see being sold on eBay. I used to fulfill my own orders for many years until I decided to migrate and become a drop shipper. While I still condemn this model and feel like we are spamming eBay with more of the same identical products, I do think that eBay has benefited greatly. No longer eBay is considered a place where you buy only used items or cheap Chinese junk. What eBay doesn't like about drop shippers is the amount of cancellations due to items being out of stock. A lot of online businesses these days are switching to drop shipping model because it allows for faster shipping time and gives online businesses more time to focus on product research and marketing instead of on fulfillment. So I would say drop shipping is the future of online commerce.