Goodbye ebay

[firkinspares]

After launching ebay business in 2011 it's time to go. 13 years, sometimes it was good. Mostly it wasn't. 

Ebay has become unprofitable. Taxes or fees on everything.. I can't make money. Add to that Royal Mail increasing prices far too regularly. 

I did LOL when ebay got spanked by vinted and ebay had to respond. You can feel the panic.

I still have a personal ebay account, and I'm proud for this one I tried to keep my 100% record of feedback most years.

Ebay needs to rethink why it was successful and return to that. 

[*knight-rider*]

I can fully appreciate where your coming from, though i've never had to earn a living from Ebay. Competition is just so intense today, especially from China, i don't know how you guys sleep at night worrying about the bills etc

Oddly enough, i was only thinking about this yesterday, because i'm selling off one of my collections and friday, someone purchased 8 item off me totalling £115, of which Ebay took the £15 and change, which got me thinking about the complaints about fees. My thought was, if i said to you, here's 8 items, sell them for me and i'll give you £15, you'd probably say take a hike, so at that point, i couldn't help thinking to myself that £15 was a bargain, because all i have to do is wrap the stuff and post it. 

Now i do appreciate that's different for you guys, because you havd to maintain that sales rate day in day out, so i don't know what the answer is to be honest. I don't think the answer is 'the good old days', because it was clearly different then than it is now, competition being the biggest issue i think, but i guess fees has to be one and i know you guys pay more than private sellers. Ebay certainly needs to look at something because you guys are just gojng to end up leaving hand over fist and that does nobody any good, even Ebay!

Whatever you do or go, good luck for the future, i hope it improves 😉

[thesmokingrunner]

Nice thought though it is, *knight-rider*, it's not simply a case of saying "here's 8 items, sell them for me and I'll give you £15" is it?

For that £15 it's you, the seller, who has to photograph 8 items, create 8 listings (filling in the Item Specifics, writing the descriptions and entering the shipping information) and then list them, then when they sell parcel them up (having sourced and paid for packing boxes/envelopes), create the shipping labels and ship the items. And it's the seller who takes it on the chin if the item delivery is later than eBay calculates it should be, it's the seller who takes the hit if the buyer decides to open a spurious NAD case and it's the seller who loses out if the buyer switches a return for something completely different, because eBay don't see the item so side with the buyer.

So on those terms I'll take your offer - you do the listing, you post out, you take the risk that you might lose both the item and the money. I'll take the £15 for doing bu**er all.

[vintagechinashop]

The problem is. EBay are charging you for visibility in a huge market and they kinda have you over a barrel there 

years ago I tried selling my items on another less successful site and sold zilch in a year and that told me that be it expensive at that time eBay was the place to be 

things have changed a little. More choice some offering no fees but I still find most of my sales ( in my category at least) come from eBay 

ebay will be here making money long after most of us have shut up shop. That's a fact   Fees hurt this month I've gone 5 days into the month without actually earning a penny because of the shop fee and that really hurts. On top of that of course eBay constantly think of new ways and tactics where they can extract even more money from a seller 

unfortunately as hard or unfair as it is you pays your money and takes your choice   I'm moving to retirement and have two rooms of stock that I need to reduce significantly as I'm sure it won't fit in my retirement flat once I make the move additionally I don't want to pack it up to sell

so I've just got to swallow the high fees but I completely understand those who don't want to or even don't have to. I still make a profit in here yes it's been eroded over the years but it's a means to an end for me. I can see that furniture van being loaded and trundling down to the sunny south coast even now 

[sheba-knows-best]

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@thesmokingrunner wrote:

Nice thought though it is, , it's not simply a case of saying I'll take the £15 for doing bu**er all.

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EBay has to provide footfall/clickfall of God-knows how many million worldwide, keep that visibility in the face of wild-west style competition (Vinted in my case), work out a package of protection (including some very good CS) to keep buyers and sellers coming back... the list is endless. Sure ebay does some of it well and some of it badly, and some of its employees are fab and some awful, and sometimes the scammers are on a roll, and sometimes they push their luck and finally get banned, but that's life. 

So will you take my offer? I'll do all that you specify and you take just £15 to sell  my items (and I still want the prices ebay can get for me, by the way, especially in the US). As if.

I continue with  eBay because for me, it is still easily the most lucrative selling platform (despite lots of competition trying to tempt me to move this year). 

@firkinspares Good luck with whatever you do next xxx

@*knight-rider*  Really interesting angle. I appreciated it. Fees do get me down but it was food for thought.

[flutterby-enterprises]

Its so sad that sellers are leaving, I think I may be soon.

My shop no longer paid so now on a basic one.

No sales in a week.

Glitchs listing, item specefics, all metrics vainshed yesterday!

I am just so sad I like Ebay, but I have new clothing accessories to sell, but not even list.

Will have to go back to Amazon and vinted.

When I enquire as to why my sales are zero...Its the pictures, promote.et etc.

I did all that to find I got more sales on Ebid than Ebay and far mor views (unpaid).

I promoted like I was told for a month....not one sale but tons of expense. The only sales I got were all unpromoted.

[four_mid_able]

Ebay was very good for quite a while but they can never return to that time because of too much competition ,glitches ,bad press ...... a never ending list.

All they are now is a big ship that needs many holes plugged constantly to try to stop it sinking.