How to stay motivated on here
Summary: technthread expressed frustration with platform limitations and sales challenges, considering strategies like using listing tools to stay motivated. cbennissupplies and jus468420 discussed issues with shipping and shop visibility, while vintagechinashop and others shared declining sales experiences. Participants highlighted the appeal of other platforms like Vinted and the impact of eBay's frequent changes. Discussions involved promotional listings' effectiveness and the influence of external factors on sales, with some considering leaving the platform due to persistent difficulties. Overall, the conversation reflected shared concerns over motivation and the future of selling on the platform.
I came back after a hiatus with a basic shop subscription and idea of listing near towards the 250 BIN limit. I managed 90 listings, 1 sale so at least my shop fee got covered.
I’m already putting new listings on the backburner and doing other things. It takes too long to list here I could have got the 250 up elsewhere by now. My only sale got posted on Friday with Royal Mail and the tracking hasn’t moved from the Post Office so it is already running late.
How do you stay motivated on here? I don’t tend to quit things but with eBay I get disheartened like no other platform. I’m considering using listing monster to blitz through listing as a solution to it. Any other ideas, what strategies do people have to break through it and keep going? I feel like listening to my gut sometimes and stop forcing it here when it is such an energy sapper.
dwhairandbeautystore
·3 weeks agoeBay is just not the same any more. I've also been on here nearly 20 years and it's the worst it's ever been.
My sales have gone from around £300 a day to around £50 over the last 2 years.
Well over 30% of everything I turn over goes on fees and postage. I'm then competing with the huge number of 'private sellers', some having sold thousands of items in my category, who are undercutting all my prices while avoiding most of the costs.
I've been really trying to drag it out over the last few months as I'm holding a lot of stock, and without refreshing it every few days my sales are dire.
Sadly, there has been a huge increase in scammers/thieves this last couple of months and although eBay have generally been great at helping me with these, it's just leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
I've cancelled multiple sales recently due to the buyers awful feedback history but even though I'm not losing the goods+money it's not doing me any favours.
They're also leaving me damaging feedback, which I am responding to in a less-than-professional way as I've really had enough of being taken for a ride.
I do list a few bits on Vinted too, but everyone on there wants boot sale prices for high end goods!
I'm slowly selling off some stock on my private eBay account now as I've really had enough of losing out to everyone else who's been doing that for years.
technthread
OP3 weeks agoIt’s definitely a challenge. I have a pile of items building that I don’t think I can really compete on price. There will be bits that I think I can still win the race with better photos etc but on the whole it’s not going to be worth it. Like for like I’d buy off the private seller on the items. In some ways to be honest I don’t get annoyed by it see some private listings of this type and think fair enough I get it, and just move on.
technthread
OP3 weeks agoWith the feedback the best thing to do if you really want to comment is set a reminder to reply the next day. Normally when you’ve cooled off you will word it better and not kick yourself for reacting too quickly.
dwhairandbeautystore
·3 weeks agoYeah that's a good idea. I suppose I just feel that if I don't reply straight away, I'm allowing their lies to damage my account further. I feel people are more likely to believe them if they only see one side of the story.
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks agoOut of interest, do you use promoted listings ?
technthread
OP3 weeks agoNot any more. I used to do 1% then I agreed to the 2% when they raised the minimum bar.
I stopped soon after they changed the rules around the clicks so an organic sale could still go through as promoted.
There was that and I noticed some PL fees were being taken instantly and others were taken a day or 2 after the sale. I haven’t had this confirmed but I took it that the delayed ones were actually organic sales and it took a bit longer to attribute the fee.
It also messed up my bookkeeping as I’d have to go back and figure out why it wasn’t reconciling. In truth that’s a flaw with my antiquated style of keeping records but it all added up to deciding that it’s easier to just turn the promotions off.
If things don’t sell here I have other ways of selling them so I don’t feel beholden to using every selling tool eBay suggest.
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks agoI feel that by promoting just a couple % it's not really going to make much difference. I've tried some items at 5 - 12% and even that didn't seem to help much.
I wish everyone would just boycott PL's and then we'd be back to where we were....... which was pretty damn good !
technthread
OP3 weeks agoI took that view. If everyone is promoting nobody is really promoting.
I do appreciate though that in some categories sellers have tried and tested promoting and not promoting and believe that they don’t have much choice or their sales collapse.
A long time ago I upped promotion on an item to near 50%. I still have it in a box somewhere today, it is maybe 3 years unsold. I had to accept that nobody wants it however hard I try to push it. I have dropped the price by about 80% I don’t think I could even give it away 🤣
technthread
OP3 weeks agoThinking back I tried to bump PL on a couple more items. It escaped my memory, I did manage to sell one at 10% or 12% PL rate and was happy with it but it wasn’t something I wanted to repeat too often, it was a sign of a bad purchase on my part that I had to do that.
the_book_seekers
·3 weeks agoIt's getting harder to be motivated. Days of logging on to nothing starts to drain the energy after a while.
vintagechinashop
·3 weeks agoIt’s definitely harder to be motivated on here these days. I recently downgraded my shop because the fees were not justifying the sales. I’m making an average of 6 sales per month back in the day I was doing that per day. I also have listings on other platforms and to be honest they are much better. I’m trying promotions at a low rate and I’ll trial that for a month. If it doesn’t work I’ll probably get rid of my shop altogether. Very sad because I’ve been selling for 12 years and since 2020 my sales have declined I try and refresh the listings daily but again it’s not proving to be worth my time
technthread
OP3 weeks agoI have managed 40 or so extra listings today around doing other things.
Only 2 items sold since last week but I am pricing up more than normal due to the fees and the free postage. I know it isn’t necessarily a great strategy but I was starting too low previously and then had nowhere to go with markdown sales and coupons so I’m just seeing what happens.
My listings elsewhere were outperforming for a long time but I dined out on it for months and have hit a lull. I have been slightly surprised at the view counts here, they are nowhere near elsewhere but a bit more than I expected given that I’m starting with items that I expect to be a harder sell before adding the more premium items. That’s assuming I do get there, I’ve only got 93 BIN listings left and I have never been overly enamoured with the featured shop fees.
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks agoSomething really strange is going on with this place. Notwithstanding that only a handful of members visit these boards, alot of well established sellers are are saying the same regarding low sales and low views / watchers. Ebay's always had it's ups and downs but the air feels really different this time.
It's hit me really hard and I'm dying to know what the reason is.... or is it a combination of reasons ?
When you've done something successfully for 20 years and then it just dies, there HAS to be something big going on.
I've recently uploaded some inventory to another platform (first time ever I've ventured elsewhere) and within 2 days the watcher and view list is about 4 times greater for the same items on ebay in a month !! There's also been a few sales.
technthread
OP3 weeks agoI think that Vinted found a really good formula of quick listing and the way the app works when you open it you’re straight on the home tab and see at least 4 new listings without even scrolling down.
Many times I’ve gone on to check a sale notification and ended up buying something that I see first, it is very unlike eBay, if I’m dealing with a sale here the last thing I’m doing is thinking about going to search for anything to buy.
It is simple and clever by Vinted. I buy coins, if I have one put right in front of me on the home tab that was listed 2 minutes ago and is a bit too cheap I can buy it in 10 seconds. That’s the thing there, I don’t do it because it’s not how I buy normally but you can just refresh search a few times and something will appear that is a no brainer purchase. I think they are ahead of eBay now in that respect and are winning that buyer perception battle.
I think eBay were harmed by the Digital Sales Reporting honestly. I know it applied to many of the big platforms but it spooked a lot of people, I remember reading the boards at the time. Prior to that maybe you’d go to managed payments and breaking the tradition of people using PayPal to buy and sell here. It’s a bit different when the funds go into the bank and the eBay wallet maybe hasn’t quite felt the same for people.
I’m sure there are so many reasons, whatever it is it is so hard to draw back some users who have moved on even with free fees for private sellers and regular funded coupons it isn’t so easy once people’s buying habits have changed. I think as business sellers we check lots of platforms and forget the average person has their go to app and tend to stay there, they don’t flit around as much as we do.
bojangled
·3 weeks agoAhh V*nted, loved it until I had issues with copyright. 1990s posters, originals, yet got suspended 3 times - restricted once. Customer service is horrendous.
Had a good 18 months on there, but eventually left the cashflow lack of inventory tracking, accounting tools, and all the other processes needed they really aren’t set up for - and I don’t think they really want pro sellers.
I’ve maintained a presence on here, and yes also downgraded to basic subscription. The shop structure needs a complete overhaul.
The summer is always tough for me whatever platform, there’s always distractions, be it World Cup, heatwaves, political landscape, cost of living etc
I’m using the time to prepare for Q4. That’s my motivation, hit the ground running.
technthread
OP3 weeks agoYeah, all of the above.
Sorry to hear you had problems over there, that’s the thing that always worries me about the place, AI takedowns or buyers making false reports with no real CS support.
I had a guy there yesterday claim an Austrian 5 Schilling coin wasn’t genuine because it’s not like the one he has. Ignoring the fact they are dated 20 years apart, a complete re-design and different metal content. Now he won’t respond after I sent him the breakdown on both types to clarify the matter. I am having a lot of that now where people who were clearly never interested in coins are all of a sudden silver stackers having done very little research into what they are buying.
Bump into a few more buyers like that and the account can just get unfairly suspended.
I hope you have a better end to the year. I’m feeling more positive about it now I have drafted out more of a plan than I had 2 days ago.
theelench
·3 weeks ago@technthread
"I think as business sellers we check lots of platforms and forget the average person has their go to app and tend to stay there, they don't flit around as much as we do."
I agree with you, the average person is very much into 'tried and tested' and what they are comfortable with.
Where ebay has gone wrong (IMO) is there have been so many changes for so long.
Add into that the faults, glitches and pitfalls stemming from the continuous changes and ebay has become, to many, a new untried site on every visit. Unfamiliar, unfriendly and all too easy to get things wrong, leading to problems whether buying or selling and when they do, where is Customer Service?
Basically all there is is a robot that doesn't understand or answer the question.
jus468420
·3 weeks agoGet Royal Mail to collect, you know its on its way then. From previous experience, the postie doesn't always pick up from the Post Office same day.
I'm considering getting rid of the shop, looking at my sales it's obvious people just don't visit it, simply buy from searches.
technthread
OP3 weeks agoIt’s the home collection fee that puts me off. I like to see the postman as little as possible as it means waiting in, I’ve taken to diverting parcels I’m receiving to the depot a few times. I got a parcel last week that was split open and over £100 of silver coins lost so I’m pretty fed up with Royal Mail at the moment.
I don’t really rate the shop either, I don’t complete the setup or do my own categories. It’s just the cost makes sense vs not having it, I’ve sent 104 items live so far now and I’d be at £37.44 insertion fees with no shop.
This will be a place to have some items listed and then I can easily find the details and take them down from here for live selling shows when I decide they have had a good enough run. That was the plan with Vinted but it’s just not manageable to organise anything there, I’ve got the listings down to 750 or so now from over 1,000 by crashing price on the better stuff and getting it sold. Most of the rest there just needs to just be got rid of and it leaves me with 500 or so unlisted items to deal with. Once I’m through, unless the live selling keeps me interested longer term I aim to wrap everything up.
the_brick_lodge
·3 weeks agoIf you buy the postage from eBay Royal Mail will collect for free and you can name a safe place if you have one.
If you fill the void in parcels with packing material and tape around the part of the box where joining seam is they shouldn't split open unless unusually abused.
technthread
OP3 weeks ago · EditedAh I forgot about that. Yeah that’s right the only thing is the cut off time through eBay, I’m sure anything after 9/10pm won’t be booked for next day but on click and drop it runs a bit later, maybe nearer to 11pm - midnight. I’m still rusty.
I’m really OCD with packaging, it’s items I buy that are the problem. The one I mentioned is from a much larger seller than me, this was a small order relatively to what we have been doing but I won’t be doing business with them anymore as they package like an amateur, don’t listen and it’s not the first time.
the_brick_lodge
·3 weeks agoYeap I don't know why eBay's cut off is earlier, if my bank can move money in seconds you'd think eBay could book collections until the same time as Royal Mail can but there you go.
Not much you can do about others and their packaging I guess, worse case I had was half a tonne of stock spread across the back of the courier's trailer, guess I should have been happy the incredibly wobbly pallet containing the other half a tonne somehow made it through unscathed.
cbennissupplies
·3 weeks agoroyal mail tracking is always slow to catch up friday post office will only get scanned Monday maybee saturday depending if wind is in right direction.
motivation on ebay Humm that died for me a long time ago ebay drains you the more you put in the less human you become. listen to your gut instinct ! just take it one step at a time and dont burn out
technthread
OP3 weeks ago · EditedI could have posted it on Thursday but I thought no, a fresh start I’ll train the eBay EDD’s that I’m not doing that anymore. Immediately stressed when I checked the tracking, now I remember why the eBay metrics had me by the goolies.
Thanks for your reply yes I will give it a bit of thought. I should be doing things that don’t put me in a bad mood, I would be a lot more productive that way.
cbennissupplies
·3 weeks agospot on, there are to many things on here that raise the blood pressure, ask my doctor LOL