Buyer Interest
Summary: doug1205 expressed frustration with reduced views and sales on eBay compared to other platforms after returning to selling. **peaseblossom** mentioned that sales typically pick up after summer, while boundarycoins noted that eBay sales can be sporadic and require patience. Other participants discussed challenges with eBay's algorithm, inadequate item descriptions, and removed negative reviews. Many contributors, including theelench and toffeecat66-7, shared experiences of moving to alternative platforms due to better engagement and fewer issues, highlighting that eBay has become less friendly to small sellers.
I've been off ebay for some time since all the complicated changes, but decided to give selling another go. I'm surprised by the lack of views for items when compared to other platforms! Where has all the interest gone? Or is it lost in the mire and confusion of a once simple system?
doug1205
OP5 days ago · EditedWow! I've actually sold something. It's not a vinyl, it's a printer cartridge. Hallelujah brothers!
doug1205
OP1 week agoWell I won't be selling anything on here. 4 good items on a 10 day auction. No bids, no watchers. A few years ago I probably would have sold at least two. Meanwhile I continue to sell on Vinted. I'll keep an account open in case I need to buy anything for the time at least. Oh dear.
toffeecat66-7
·2 weeks agoEbay live is killing ebay for the one man band seller!! The views are ridiculously low & forget the watchers most are other sellers just seeing how much it eventually sells for!! Vinted get many more views but want it for pennies most times!! These on YouTube are mostly being paid to promote the platform theyre selling on!! But also weve mostly zero consumer confidence & no disposable income either!! Carboots are the same!! All as become hardwork & unfortunately stressful!!
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoI get and sell far more on Vinted than here. Most small sellers are long gone. With the imposed fees its not worth selling anything under a fiver. But compared to 5 years ago this site is dead. Big business only I think.
theelench
·2 weeks agoI sell Art Deco glassware, mainly from the 1930s. It has a small but devoted following, as do many niche areas in the Pottery, Porcelain & Glass category. At one time, before ebay swept them all away and replaced them with (often) inappropriate IS, there were dozens of these specialist sub-categories, making it very easy for the search to find them by searching for such key-words as Art Deco Glass etc. Now (one of the sillier IS filters) is Tick the Decade - 1910-1920, 1920 - 1930, 1930 - 1940. Art Deco Glass is usually classified as being from 1919 - 1939.
theelench
·2 weeks ago · EditedI have (I started there when ebay introduced FVF on P&P) I will say no more other than its UK run. My last spell of 'gardening leave' was for a month, so next time it's 'Life-time. It's tiny, it's slow but it doesn't have Sponsored listings, Managed Payments, Managed Delivery and it's simple to use once you've got ebay's over-complicated maze out of your head. All it needs is more support and recognition.
There's no point in a site having ebay's millions of world-wide potential buyers if most of them are not interested in my niche area and those that are, aren't allowed to see my ads. I usually refer to ebay as 'obay' over there, it sums them up and as you say, for private sellers, its had its day IMO.
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoWhat do you sell?
theelench
·2 weeks ago@doug1205
I agree with you, the last couple of full years I sold on here (without promoting) I was allowed to sell 13 items in each year. Just enough to keep the flame flickering with the hope of selling more. The last year 5 sales and getting near to the point where I would be seen as an occasional seller, have my funds Held, so ebay could earn a bit of interest.
Decided that the hassle of Managed Delivery just wasn't worth all the effort of doing decent listings for so few sales.
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoYou might want to try Vinted, (they'll probably get me now!). Not the outreach of eBad, but I have done very well since January this year. I sell mostly vinyl records, but have also sold books, figurines, electrical items and Blue Rays. This site is a dead duck, for private sellers anyway, time to move on if you already haven't.
fargvs
·2 weeks agoAny Guest purchase made will not be seen in your eBay summary --- use the Order Confirmation email you received and/or see if you can trace it using this link ---within 30 days case options will be there if needed @doug1205 >
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buying-guest?id=4035&from=EBAY_AI&origin=EBAY_AI
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoWell now an item finishing this afternoon that I had a bid on has vanished. I suspect the seller took it down, but no notification from eBad ( suggested new name). I think once my ten day auction trial is over its probable I'll cancel my account, and just remain a guest buyer. Unless of course they sell but this site isn't working, and hasn't been for a long time.
theelench
·2 weeks agoTwo questions:
Did you 'volunteer' to pay ebay Promotion fees ? Ebay might say it's Free to Sell, but if you didn't cauph-up your buyers are passing by on the other side of the firmly closed shutters on your ad.
How many Watchers have your listings got? Not buying, just hanging around waiting for you to get desperate enough to send them a fire-sale offer price. Which they'll accept, pay ebay some Promotion fees and sell the item for double your price.
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoThe answer to promoting fees is no. It's still not free to sell because for one, so called simple postage is overcharged and the buyer sees a different price than the seller which confuses what you pay.
I price my items mostly just right. I've been doing it for years. No watchers on ebay, lots on that other platform beginning with V. The point here though is that I've sold 80 items since January on V but in my previous last six months on here about 4 or 5. The ONLY reason I've returned is because V doesn't have an auction facility - yet. I'm giving it a ten day auction window and if nothing sells will not be listing here again. It's full of hackers and scammers by the way and you can't talk to a person.
kath3735_wxmjn
·2 weeks agoAuctions was the reason i decided to try here again, very few views and two sales with only 1 did on each. The final straw was the AI and my tie for sale being banned. Not worth the aggro, might just as well take the cheaper prices on the other site. Doing far better on there than i ever did here, even with my sometimes underestimated prices! 300+ views/90+ favourites, lots of cheaper offers but i eventually sold within the week for what i was asking. Same item listed on here previously - 3 views! I do not pay to promote anywhere, just take my chances.
doug1205
OP2 weeks ago · EditedYes indeed. In addition to my 4 auction trial items I have one Buy It Now, a 50 vinyl job lot. Not sold yet on V, oh what the hell Vinted but 204 views. Here 11! In 4 days. There really is no point in private sellers bothering with eBad. It's dead. Big business only.
kath3735_wxmjn
·2 weeks agonot sure even businesses are doing well on here, as a buyer i just give up in despair after scrolling through pages of the same cheap chinese rubbish (was going to use another word but do not want banning from here just yet!) and often just the same pictures. Often when i put in for a specific item i find anything but that!
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoInterim Report.
Well 5 days into my 4 low prices auctions with about 15 views altogether. In the "other", oh what the heck it begins with V, about 60 views with around 15 bookmarked. Ok no sales yet, but there will be by the end of the week. Where has everybody gone on here? Its a disaster not waiting to happen, it already has. Back in around 2020 I would have sold 2 out of 4 of the these or had bids by now. Unless there is a sudden turn around I won't be selling on here at all.
One good thing: No Moderators or Spies in sight so far. Have they had enough and bailed as well?
doug1205
OP2 weeks agoSo now, and it's only £2.65, an item I ordered as a Guest 2 weeks,ago hasn't arrived. Ebay say they don't recognise the item order number. Well sounds very dodgy to me. As I said,earlier, this,site has gone to the dogs.
doug1205
OP3 weeks agoHa. First enquiry I get is a hacker! This site has gone down hill remarkably quickly.
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks agoAs per your last sentence..... 'it's lost in the mire and confusion of a once simple system'
doug1205
OP3 weeks agoAn hour ago I listed exactly the same item on here and on my other platform which I won't name just yet, at the same price. 13 views already on "other", none on here. Something is not right with this site! Maybe people just can't find items.
boundarycoins
·3 weeks agoI’ve spent half an hour doom scrolling on the other site and bought 3 lots. I only went on to do a balance withdrawal haha. It’s got the knack of showing something as soon as the app opens which is newly listed and underpriced, it is a simple but very clever design.
eBay is more of a deliberate action for me to go searching I rarely get sucked into buying something as it’s recently viewed items then eBay live that I see first on the app and that’s unlikely to divert my attention from going straight to the selling section. The last thing I bought was a book from a saved search, I got notified when a seller listed a copy. The advanced settings like those are where eBay excel so I wouldn’t like them to go too basic like the other place but they should copy a few of the ideas and integrate them.
doug1205
OP3 weeks agoI have noticed any spies on here yet, err...I mean Moderators?
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks agoThis place is fast being taken over by bots. Humans are a very rare species
theelench
·3 weeks agoWhy the lack of interest?
I collect, buy and used to sell Art Deco Glass, I've had Saved Searches for several manufacturers that particularly interest me, for over a decade. This maker is very collectable and always has been. My search used to produce 150 - 200 results any day of the week and sales were brisk.
I looked at it again this morning. 304 results BUT, about half of them I saw about a month ago (when I last looked). On page 1, most recent listings, I counted 9 mis-attributed and 7 ridiculously over-priced. Of the 4 I viewed ALL had A.I descriptions, lacking measurements, any reference to chips or other damage and photos (sometimes many photos) that showed the same shot from slightly different angles, but NONE of the very places where any damage would be expected.
My impression was that the search results were full of ignorant, lazy sellers who had no knowledge of their item or what potential buyers would look for in a listing. From past experience I didn't bother to send any questions to the sellers. The last few times I did, I found the process tortuous and didn't get any answers anyway.
I then looked at the SOLD items, all 12 of them, between 11th and 18th of August. I remembered the "Good old days" when sellers knew something about what they sold. Wrote informative listings and took 5/6 good photos to back them up and sales were more like 12 A DAY. Now they (and ebay) seem to think that half a page of IS + some A.I slop will do the job for them. They're both WRONG.
upda8077
·3 weeks agoebay nowadays "censor" reviews, if you say something they dont like the company can have the review removed.
As a example I bought a 2TB ssd usb hard drive, it turned out to be fake so I wanted to return it, the seller was not helpful and I had to go through ebay to get my money back.
When I did get my money back eventually I reported the drive as fake and sent ebay the proof I thought they needed (as the seller had many more of them for sale), and ebay said "not in violation of our policy", so the seller gets to keep selling fake drives to buyers
My next thought was to leave a negative review so others know they are fake, and ebay removed my review, when I asked ebay what happened to my review they said we are not allowed to let others know they are fake.
So I wonder how many reviews are removed by ebay because those reviews will affect sales and ebay will earn less in commission.
Apparently there are other words we cannot use as well, so that is what has happened to a lot of negative reviews, ebay has removed them, and they will not tell you they have done that. And as ebay is full of fakes, dodgy companies etc there should be a lot of negative reviews and less positive reviews on here, so ebay balance it by restricting the negative reviews companies get.
End result less and less people are shopping on ebay as it can be a bit of a minefield nowadays.
doug1205
OP3 weeks agoOh yes I know. I've been banned from here at least 4 times in the past because they cannot deal with cricticism at any level. Really they are mainly interested in businesses, not the small private seller. Despite 5 years as a top rated,seller it made no difference. So I jumped ship 18 months ago because nothing was selling following the complicated mess they've made overcharged and procedure. Early days this time,aroynd, but early indications are not promising. Despite the cost of living crisis and hot weather I still sell regularly on other unnamed platform's. I mainly came back.because of the,auction facility and worldwide outreach, but...Well I will reserve judgement for the moment
kath3735_wxmjn
·3 weeks agoI left a year ago and thought i would try again, hardly any views, 1 sale a few weeks after starting and then another sale recently. Then they decided to ban an item saying it was police uniform (tie), it was a school one which i informed them on appeal. Rejected by AI again (who would have guessed!) so i deleted all my items, listed elsewhere, 3 out of the 22 sold in the first day for the same price. I also got a lecture from one of the mentors! on here about i was pricing all wrong, etc etc. Only been doing it for 10 years and used to be happy on here until all the new stuff hit the fan.
doug1205
OP3 weeks agoI was here for 7 years, top rated seller. No problems until they reorganised the whole buy/sell system, which makes it not worthwhile selling anything under a fiver. The mentors or rather eBay spies, argued with me and I missed them off so much they banned me from these forums about 4 times. After two days of opening a new account, I already have serious doubts about staying. It's a mess and seems infested with hackers for a start. There are better options out there.
1956glyn
·2 weeks agoHi Kath x
I think the bots have gone mad. Constructive advice yes but no way would i be lectured. Just do what may work for you.
boundarycoins
·3 weeks ago · EditedFor me I think it’s quiet and then I’ll get a couple of quick sales which I could have only got here on eBay. Like today one was GSP to the USA.
If your views are really low but you know the items should sell and are priced ok then don’t lose heart with it too quickly. I think it has become a platform that needs a lot more patience than it used to. I don’t have a lot listed to know how it works here on a bigger scale but sales seem to come in waves and then it dries up for a bit. You don’t get that instant hit of engagements like some other places but you also don’t have to think the chance of an item selling has gone if something doesn’t sell in the first week.
suelel1968
·3 weeks ago@technthread people used to say that eBay "cancelled" you to stop you selling. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, but it sure does feel like it sometimes. The only theory i subscribe to, is when it rains, things sell better.
boundarycoins
·3 weeks agoThere are quirks with eBay where one day you’ll suddenly get a few sales quickly from buyers who all live in the same town and that sort of thing. I try not to read too much into what the algorithm is throwing out anymore as it is so complex and yeah there will be a lot of coincidence and factors that eBay can’t control mixed in.
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks agoInteresting.
It's been like this for me aswell. Collectable items that I know inside out, and which would have gained dozens of watchers in a few days are now seemingly invisible on the site. They would have normally sold within a week. I'm certain it's the algorithm thing, promoted listings, and the absolutely useless ebay search engine
boundarycoins
·3 weeks agoThere is a bit of luck involved sometimes which overrides the search and algorithm so anyone listing always has a chance.
For eg I got a bid on an auction and the bidder was a seller of items completely unrelated to it but I had some of those up for sale too. It looked like they stumbled across my auction via that route. That’s the kind of good old days eBay type sale that I notice now and again so a sale can always spring up out of nowhere however the search or algorithm is functioning.
**peaseblossom**
·3 weeks agoAugust has always been the quietest month on ebay. Should pick up when the kids go back to school and in the run-up to Christmas.