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Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Ebay is pretty depressing these days. My low priced items are not selling well. Items are getting very little views. Sales are slow. Not like it used to be. Kind of worried about the future of eBay. It is hard to get accounts established these days.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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..

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

I did experience a 50-65% drop in sales earlier in April over 20 account however I’ve noticed it’s picked up in late August bust still well below compared to last year 2017, but sales have definitely dropped not sure what’s going on but something is a miss have you checked pricing and what your competitors are selling at?

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Yea but it doesn't help when all the sellers are in China selling for $0.99.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Time to stop selling when you don't have the advantage...

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Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Yh I’m seeing a lot of Chinese faking their location to get sales and delivering 10 days later but eBay don’t give f*#ck.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

I was selling really good on Ebay at one point, now I´m not doing so good. I know this feeling you´re experiencing right now.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Both sales and page views on some of my items has dropped by around 50% since July but I saw a slight increase since last month in another unrelated category.

I think it depends on the category and other sellers/pricing in that niche.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

My sales are Boomin! Account Creation Flawless Victory

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

its always rough, but gotta get thru it lol

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

I can't complain. The marketplace has changed a ton since I became a seller. You've just gotta roll with the punches - adapt or find another way to make a living.

Nothing to get depressed over IMO. A depressed seller isn't a motivated seller.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

When you can't beat them....

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Interacting article I found today which is related to this thread in some way or another. See below.

Why convenience shoppers aren’t buying on eBay
By Chris Dawson September 7, 2018 - 9:00 am
eBay is becoming an increasingly difficult marketplace to buy on when you want an item delivered promptly. It’s no surprise that Amazon (even with their more than one-day delivery for many Prime items) is winning as it’s the default choice for consumers when they want fast shipping with their item delivered tomorrow or in some cases today.

eBay talk a lot about ‘Retail Standards’. They use retail standards to justify why sellers should do things like offer 30 day returns, have great images and offer free postage but you’ll never hear eBay talk about retail standards and next day delivery. Today’s retail standards for delivery is that you can get your item tomorrow, either as default or as an upgrade. Some retailers, like Next, will allow you to order up until midnight and still deliver tomorrow.

There’s no kind way to say this, but eBay do not meet retail standards for delivery speed and that is part of the reason that buyers aren’t loyal to eBay. Certainly for many products buyers aren’t in a hurry and are willing to wait to receive their purchase, but for other products they simply don’t shop on eBay and go to places that do offer retail standards on delivery speed. When buyers want convenience they go to Amazon.

What’s really sad about this is that many of the merchants offering fast shipping on Amazon and winning sales also sell on eBay and tear their hair out wondering why eBay sales drop whilst Amazon sales accelerate.

So what’s gone wrong with eBay? There are many problems which can be traced back over a decade and today seller behaviour driven by decisions made years ago is still exacerbating the situation.

Fast & Free is not fast shipping
eBay highlight Fast & Free on listings but this is a program that was rolled out in 2012 when the world was a very different place. If you offer delivery in three working days or less and ship for free then your listings qualify for the badge.

Three working day delivery may be free but there is no way that in 2018 that this can be considered as fast shipping. With the proliferation of next day courier services tailored for ecommerce and Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 24 services, not to forget good old 1st Class post, there is no reason that sellers can’t get items delivered tomorrow. eBay introduced cut off times to assist sellers who can ship later in the day for next day delivery to highlight their service, but when fast delivery is mixed up with ‘Fast & Free’ three working day services the badge is entirely devalued and frankly should be a bit of an embarrassment to eBay.

Free postage = Economy Delivery
In the early 2000’s, eBay started to insist that sellers offer free postage in many categories. Their reasoning was that buyers love the convenience of free post and, to give eBay their credit, many buyers do and the mandates changed the face of postage on eBay forever – when the behaviour was mandated sellers were forced to offer free postage and in later years when the mandate was relaxed many sellers continued to do so.

However mandating free postage came with a problem. It lowered the service that sellers offered across just about every category on eBay. No seller was going to offer a next day delivery service for free when they could offer economy postage for free and so economy became the new norm. Some sellers continued to offer additional postage choices for express delivery but few buyers take up the option as it’s too difficult to find.

Mandating free postage turned eBay into a 2nd Class economy shopping destination and that still hasn’t changed today. If you shop on eBay expect slow shipping as the norm with fast shipping being the exception.

Trying to find Express Delivery on eBay
When you search eBay, definitely want to make your purchase on eBay, and search to find an item with express delivery, you really do have to work hard. There is no search option to display items which even offer an express delivery option and your only real option is to view items with the Fast & Free badge and we already know that’s a Slow & Free three day service.

There’s no point sellers offering express delivery and fast shipping if buyers can’t see it and the only way for a consumer to find items on eBay with express delivery is to click into each and every search result until they find a product that can be delivered tomorrow. Is it any wonder that consumers shop on Amazon, click the Prime search option and look forward to receiving their purchase the following morning rather than shop on eBay?

Doubtless eBay look at their metrics (as do sellers) and decide that there’s no point offering express delivery because buyers never choose it. Well think about it, buyers never choose your express delivery option if you offer it, not because they don’t want the service, but because they can’t find it. Buyers who want express delivery don’t even bother starting their search on eBay, they simply start their search on Amazon.

Chinese Sellers
eBay have encouraged cross border trade and nowhere in the world more so than in countries such as China and Hong Kong. International trade supports sellers in China with ultra low postage rates into the UK and sellers from the East have flooded eBay with cheap products.

There’s nothing wrong with Chinese sellers selling on eBay, any more than UK sellers listing on other overseas eBay sites. The problem is that many Chinese sellers claim that their items are located in the UK when in reality they are not. They may claim to be in Liverpool or Hounslow and even have a UK returns address but, when a consumer makes a purchase, the goods are flown over to the UK in bulk. Often they are pre-labelled in China ready to be delivered by Royal Mail or a UK courier but delivery is always slow.

eBay is riddled with Chinese sellers masquerading as UK based with UK shipping and they get away with it most of the time. If a buyer leaves a negative feedback comment then they offer to buy them off with a partial or full refund.

The big issue here is that even buyers who are aware of Chinese sellers and specifically want to buy from the UK so that they get fast shipping can’t eliminate Chinese sellers from search results. Selecting the item location “UK Only” will display a raft of search results, many of which today will be from Chinese sellers claiming to be in the UK who will in reality ship from China with abortionately slow delivery.

eBay seem to ignore sellers with a business address in China, claiming to have their stock located in the UK, who offer 3 day despatch followed by a ‘five day economy courier’ service. Think about it, name me one courier within the UK who offers a five day service – even myHermes deliveries take place within three days and there simply isn’t a five day service available. These sellers are misleading buyers with their item location to manipulate search and eBay aren’t clamping down on them.

Some sellers lie.
eBay turn a blind eye.
Buyers are disappointed with a slow service or don’t buy.
Amazon wins.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

It has been a great week for one account that isn't usually a good performer for me. My solid accounts seem to be on similar pace as usual.

I'm seeing that it is tougher and tougher to get sales on new accounts, pushing new accounts further and further down in search results

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

This world is full of lies.... look around you

__________________
How to use Paypal correctly
Run multiple portable Firefox, 1 user account
How to add new PP to eBay
How to clean photos
Best image resizer

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Yea its just eBay is one of my streams of income. Seems like thats no longer the case. I will have to find another method of selling. May have to move to Amazon.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Amazon would probably beat you down and kick you off within the first couple of months :/

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Yes when you can't beat the Chinese, join the Chinese :)

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Is it really I wasn’t aware of that 😬

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

thanks so much for those encouraging words. :s

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

DSR's no longer count towards your metrics.

Try to keep up.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Hey man, just keeping it real!

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

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Reported for what violations exactly?

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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. :nerd:

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

yea auction did not finish good

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

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.

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

I love conspiracy theories.

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

:pop2:

Re: Selling on eBay these days is depressing
 

Start selling higher ticket items