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eBay tinkering with search? Server Problems? Cause of SLOW SALE
 

Is ebay tinkering with search?
There's been a 90% decrease in sales since late august 2012 and I see lots of ppl at the eBay forum complaining too.

Exactly! Finally someone speaks the truth! Something horribly is wrong with eBay since August or so. Yes sure some items still sell well but generally I feel like sales are down big time. Not enough bidders, lowballers, spikes in views etc ... What in the hell is going on with eBay??? I don't think it's the economy. Yes sure the economy is not like it was before 2008. Back than eBay had probably 50 times more buyers who were willing to bid until their last penny! Today it feels like eBay is dying. In fact I felt eBay was dying for the past 3 years.

You too eh? I'm actually making notes from yearly occurences and I'm watching the trend.
Last year was summer, but my september picked up big time. This year is the opposite.

Yeah man. This year in my opinion is probably one of the worst. I am not sure if it's something to do with the best match and algorithm change eBay introduced and now are tweaking or what. eBay has great potential, it always was but if they made some serious error in it's core algorithm we are all ****ed ... Because they will either have to rewrite the entire code or to find where is the error. I am sure eBay is aware of the huge issue but obviously they will not admit it.

saijin you selling in the US?

This has been a issue for years, trust me. It is not the economy as I had gone shopping at a local mall out on Long Island just this past weekend, let me tell you people where spending like it was Christmas.

This is the time when the search started getting really played with in my opinion, keep in mind that I started selling around 1999 not mention still heavily an active eBay seller.

So it's the search then, that eBay is messing around with? Because I went from making some $$ to barely get by to practically zero this past 13 days.

Welcome to a problem people have been dealing with since way back. Google Rolling sever black outs/eBay.

These days your lucky if you get bids, fixed price with items listed in a store in the only way to go if you can afford to run your business this way.

Hmmm... I didn't know it was the search engine that eBay is messing with on yearly basis, I just started taking notes on everything since 2 years ago.

So if this is one of those things that will happen every year and it'll be better soon, then I just need to be patient and not worry.

That's pretty much it.

So what is eBay planning to do about it ? Are they EVER going to fix this or is it going to be a roller coaster ride forever ?

have to agree with banshee on that one, i get my best profit and base my business of fixed price. i have no experience at all with bids, but they are too inconsistent

I do Fixed price as well. No more bidding stuff...

Stan: You are saying that it's a glitch that they didn't fix or are they changing something?

sometimes the runs can be scary but they usually even out. i once had no sales for 3 weeks and then sold 10k in one week. it's a crazy world

what do you mean by "runs" ?

Runs=black outs. When you have a "dry Spell"

A good example is when I do a search from a friends computer in another state, or simply location the items shown are different in the search of simply not shown at all. Sometimes my auctions/listings would not be shown on my computer, then those same listings would show up like there was no issue with the server on a totally different area/location or computer.

But there is more I have learned over the years to overcome such issues as there are methods to fight back but I am just one of those stupid guys selling since 99' so :noidea:

a 'run' is like getting no sales for 3 weeks and then for the next 2 weeks getting enough sales to cover 2 months. it's the ups and downs of things, kind of like riding a wave

ah ok. It's an american slang?

yes, actually it's more of new yorker dialect :)

Do you mean that you log in using multiple IPs from multiple location throughout USA and then modify each time your listing in order to get more views. Just wondering ...

I am not sure what it is. I think when they introduced best match algorithm, they ****ed something up. All these server roll outs is because they are probably updating their system. This was not the case many years ago. As of late they are trying to completely change eBay into a different animals. I hope my speculations are right and the thick dust will settle down once day. I have seen spikes in eBay and it's has an incredible potential. If eBay worked well, many of us would be making thousands of dollars everyday now.

look into "rolling server blackouts", what you need to understand is that in one place your item can be seen, but in another location it will not due to this so called eBay "phenomena". You have to understand how it works to break it in relation to the so called "hot spot". But that is all the detail I am going to get to, all I know is my items get sold when other people are :doh:

Your getting warmer = best match, but there is some other factors missing. I am not going to put out my earning to come off wrong but eBay will make you thousands of dollars quite quickly if you know how to play the game.

you have to think ebay has advanced statistics and if putting someone else's listing in place of yours help it sell, they will do it. they want quick turnover. they do not get paid unless items sell so they could care less about who sells it, they just want it done quick

Hint..... the person who sells the most of a "product/item" gets the bump up

Thank you bansheezone !:clap:

Multiple accounts is the only way to fly, but I am talking years of work in order to come close to advanced methods of cheating the system.

I think this has been one of the most informative and civil replies I have seen in the forums, well done, all of you.

Btw, I do run "several" account, not just a couple or few... all same results, TSR / PS / even regular accounts.

Yeah well we all have multiple eBay accounts though I guess if you flood eBay by posting the same product on each account you will catch more fish.

Its not how many accounts you run, my point was missed. It's based how much you sell on them. Also how many times one specific item is sold by the account.

I have a min of a hundred accounts feeding each other everyday till they get to the top in my niche, and if I have competition they are removed quite easly :suspicious:. Having enough accounts to the point that if I am dented in anyway a quick repair can be done to maintain such a status in search. I have to put in 17 hrs a day here on this forum to keep up with selling accounts, then at the same time play on eBay all day. Four desk tops, and one laptop all running at the same time= me going blind fast.

Interesting thread - certainly would explain an awful lot of the sales turn downs I have been experiencing.

As has already been said it's feast and famine without any logical explanation

Bizarre:suspicious:

Does ebay need to do anything about it?

Nope. Monopoly after all.

What they will do is make more changes to mess up our selling plans.

The weak will fall.

The strong will fight

:juggle:

Also think of this, if a 'big company' sells your item on ebay and that company pays ebays thousands of $ in fees every month and they complain about you selling it cheaper, I am sure ebay can make you 'dissapear'

So I guess the only thing we can do now is wait and persevere ?

Slow here also. Was hoping September would get the ball rolling on sales. No dice.

Sadly that is all we can do. It WILL get better just keep doing what you are doing. It is the life of sales, DO NOT get discouraged!

Also sell on other venues, do not put all your eggs in one basket as they say.

Was thinking of going back to Amazon, but with them deleting accounts, I'm not sure if I want to risk my investment.

PS: I stick the thread so that it's not buried and we can keep updating it for future ref.

After reading some more on google, seems like the trend for this "almost no sale events" are in April - may and August - Sept .

What do you think?

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From what I have noted, yes.