Has this Market Place had its day
Summary: ptbequipe expressed frustration with the rising costs and challenges of selling on a popular online marketplace, noting a significant decline in sales despite consistent efforts. jus468420 shared similar experiences, highlighting the complexity and expense of maintaining a shop on the platform, while auntietootieblue and jmdelisupplies also reported declining sales. Discussions included the viability of alternative platforms, such as starting a personal website, due to the platform's increasing fees and promotional demands. Some contributors, like wheretheloveb, reminisced about the marketplace's earlier appeal and simplicity. The conversation highlighted concerns about strategic changes on the platform and the impact on small sellers.
It's very costly, it also appears to be selectively managed, becoming more and more difficult selling on this platform.
This past few months my sales have nose dived, without any changes made by myself. I've been on this Market place since 2003 and of late have seen such huge changes in momentum, visits & sales.
I like the global reach aspect of the site however I cant help but think that its now time to consider going live with my own website
Shame really
ptbequipe
OPOct 13, 2026 at 12:37 PMVery interesting. 'as much as it pains me to spend more and more with eBay' I have took the step to invest into a promotional campaign at 9% 'low and behold' my items are now starting to sell since campaign start. I never had a problem selling items with or without a promotional campaign running however now it seems that without one running nothing is going to move.
This market place is far too expensive to use and to remain competitive, with fees being extortionate, top seller rating being lost far to easily and general costs of shipping via Royal Mail ever increasing.
jlovie
·Oct 13, 2026 at 1:25 PMHave you tried increasing the prices to cover the promotional fees?
Might be worth an experiment on a few items. e.g. promote 10% but put price up 10%.
wheretheloveb
·Oct 13, 2026 at 4:19 PMExactly what eBay wants us to do.... continue to feed their corporate greed.
If nobody promoted we'd still have a level playing field
pillarboxred
·1 week agoI've had one very successful sale this year: the item was genuinely rare and, unexpectedly, appealed to about six different classes of collector around the globe. I paid little for it at a car boot sale. I nearly didn't buy it. I could never have sold it so well without eBay because it was cheap, tacky, modern porcelain which traditional auctioneers would not have looked at but the bids came in from Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and around the world. The trouble is that items with those international and category crossover properties and a very low acquisition price are very hard to come by. Royal Mail are losing things, buyers are claiming they haven't got them, eBay is refunding them and I'm left with no money and without my stock.
palison_123
·1 week agowheretheloveb
wheretheloveb
·1 week ago · EditedHehe.... a poor reflection of my usual subject matter, as current and completed listings will reveal.
Tastes will of course vary but Page 3 quite an iconic part of newspaper culture and society of the time.
That book is actually quite rare and collectable.
Personally I preferred something not available on the bookshelves 😁
PS: read my initial post. I did not say the OP was selling tat
ptbequipe
OP1 week agoI must admit, I have a Sam Fox Calendar lurking about somewhere, god knows why and where it is.
palison_123
·1 week agoI know mate ..do
n`t take it to heartwheretheloveb
·1 week ago · Edited....has ebay had it's day ....?
It seems like if you're selling tat, it's doing very well (enter live listings just as one example)
Makes me really sad when I think back to when this site was full of quality, unusual, preloved, vintage or just good old secondhand goods. But more importantly you could buy and sell these things WITH EASE ! and as a seller you weren't robbed left right and centre to do so (unless of course you're a business on a private account).
It's taken a long time for me to feel this way. Ebay have slowly, bit by bit over the years been knocking small chunks off us, while at the same time putting ever more hoops to jump through. Even these discussion boards are a shadow of what they used to be
I made a thread some months back titled ....''the GOAT is no more''. I kind of wish some new owners would come in and get this place back to it's glory
ptbequipe
OP1 week ago · Edited"It Seems Like I'm Selling Tat" that's a new phrase on me.
My bad, see reply below.
wheretheloveb
·1 week ago · EditedSorry, you may have misread me.....
When I said...... ''It seems like if you're selling tat, it's doing very well''
I didn't mean that YOU personally are selling tat.
It was a general comment about the amount of rubbish goods on here. I did actually say if.
I agree with your main point and looking at your stuff, it's not tat.
Apologies if it came across the wrong way.
padanpcparts
·1 week agoIt didn't. The OP misread. I read it exactly as you intended.
ptbequipe
OP1 week agoI appreciate that, and upon reflection I clearly did misread your comments. More haste less speed I guess, I'm old enough to know better too.
Thank you for your input
auntietootieblue
·1 week agoI am having the same issues since July, sales were not great before and I was thinking it couldn't get any worse but it as, its just not viable to have a shop on here anymore. It's like they are doing everything they can to alienate sellers especially clothing, I feel they no longer want use clothing on this site.
The post they put out about getting ready for peak period, if its anything like the last 3 months and the last few Christmas's ive had on here I might aswell but my shop on holiday mode for the next 3 months and cancel the shop subscription to save me the money.
jmdelisupplies
·1 week agoI have noticed our sales on eBay have dropped significantly in the last 2 to 3 months. They have removed a lot of single use items (i.e. carrier bags) but there are over 100 other sellers still selling them.
ptbequipe
OP1 week agoThere's something changed over the period you mention, changed quite significantly too. Dependant on how October goes for me I will make the decision either to stay or leave the market place, because I will no longer pay £94 per month for an option to have a shop, and the ridiculous charges on top of this also. Thanks for your input
the_brick_lodge
·2 weeks ago · EditedI think the problem is eBay doesn't have a USP, every other marketplace has something unique where as eBay just has it's brand name from the early days of the internet.
Competition is coming left right and centre and the new things eBay does are simply a reaction to the competition rather than anything original.
eBay has always been a fantastic idea in the hands of a very badly run company who do as little as possible and it will very likely just remain that way.
To be fair they do still manage to have a lot of buyers, sellers and goods sold through the platform but it does feel there is a lot of wasted potential.
ptbequipe
OP1 week agoOver the years I have received some great support, I have to say. However given how much it costs to sell on here 'as a business' I'd expect to have ease of access should I encounter selling or purchasing issues etc etc. Many thanks for your input.
coll_1398
·2 weeks agoYES defiantly
jus468420
·2 weeks agoEvery member of my family use Amazon these days, years ago it would of been eBay. I have been using eBay about the same time as yourself, and have noticed it just isn't the same place as it used to be.
Ebay years ago was pretty much the only place to go for deals, I used to sell thousands of pounds a month early on, those days seem to of disappeared now.
We are doing quite well still on here, but selling costs are eye watering and the site has become much more complicated. We run our own website which does well, and thankfully most of what we sell seem not to be hidden too much on the site.
We do not promote anything, never will, and we're thinking of drastically reducing our product range on here so we can get rid of the shop (People just don't visit it)
Prices on here compared to our website are at least 10-15% higher due to the fees, PayPal charges a couple of percent through the website.
The day eBay decides to take control of business seller postage will be the day we leave, I hate having to sell the odd personal item on here now purely because of Simple delivery.
Try a website, doesn't cost much to run, ours is through WIX, and you'll be able to reduce your prices to compete better then.
ptbequipe
OP2 weeks agoThat's great advice and insight into the reality faced by many on here. I pride myself on excellence with product & Service however I just don't feel that its reciprocated or rewarded on here enough now, unless your happy paying more and more for the opportunity. I will see what Amazon has to offer and compere a few things, I'll also be going live with my Website from April 27, as this place is pretty much finished.
Strange thing recently, I had a random call from the eBay Growth Campaign Team, advising me what to do to attract more sales, at a cost of course. But, from that conversation I can only have taken / took that things are being manipulated, to the degree that if you steer clear of some of the advised eBay hints, tips & recommendations my sales will continue to fall, due to buyers now apparently using the 'Advanced Search' options only, and without this my sales will flounders.
It is broken, that I'm sure of.
auntietootieblue
·1 week agoThats so funny, ebay growth campaign team, there's no growth to be had on here unless you pay extra fees to them. I don't know how anyone is selling on here without promoting, if I don't promote at least half of my items listed I get no sales at all 0 and I think they are pushing in the last 3 months hence why sales have been poor for me to promote all my listings at their stupid recommended rates of nearly 19% + VAT extra to their final fees, postage fees, transaction fee and whatever else they want to make up.
the_book_seekers
·1 week agoebay also has a monetization team intended to get the most out of the site. I imagine this is one of their most important teams. ebay is marching down the AI path. I wonder how long it will be before we're offered an AI assistant (for a fee) to take over some of the mechanical aspects of running businesses on the site.
palison_123
·1 week agoYes most people are now using Amazon.
They don`t even think of Ebay anymore.
The main reasons are always the same .Delivery time and Chinese sellers .
the_book_seekers
·1 week agoI avoid Amazon for the same reasons. So many cheap Chinese knock offs and problems with delivery (being in a rural area Amazon uses other couriers, normally Evri who routinely deliver late, deliver an opened parcel or just lose it entirely). Amazon never used to be like this.
palison_123
·1 week agoThis is true about Amazon and the Chinese knock offs but at least Amazon restrict a single seller having multiply account selling the same item on the first page you look at .
I`m in London so Amazon do deliver next day if you have their prime deal.
Maybe Ebay could have some-sort of prime deal for customers who want next day delivery .
jonatjonatjonat
·1 week ago"Maybe Ebay could have some-sort of prime deal for customers who want next day delivery ."
This is a thing ish....see Orange Connex.
It never really took off.
the_brick_lodge
·1 week agoI think it never took off because they aimed it as sellers rather than buyers, Prime is targeted at buyers and sellers have to use FBA to get the sales buyers want.