Ebay Sales Completely Dead **November 2024** ‌

[theglo-68]

Hi

We have been selling on ebay for over 10 years. Sales have been down since start of 2024 but its completely dead. Like we look at our stats from July to September and sales figures are less that what we are paying ebay for Promoted listings etc.

Although we have moved our inventory to Amazon and tiktok but wondered what has actually happened to our Ebay. It used to be aweseome but we now cannot even afford to list.  Listings are sat there doing nothing even with promoted listings.

November has been our difficult month so far as with Zero sales i mean come on there got to be something causing this loss. Is it new so called AI.

Please share your findings.🤔🤔

🤔🤔🤔

[spence0175]

No...just trickles

[exponential_developments]

I've mentioned this several times on here in conversation, so to keep it brief, i've always invested, no debt etc, started on March 16th 2020 building a new portfolio to build a full income, ie independence day.

Would have carried on happily on here, but to have the same amount of money as i used to tied up in stock for this would be insane, my suppliers now all seem to sell on here, i have low overheads, but the paperboy earns more. I'm down to about 18% of normal stock level.

I can't get my head around where ebay is going, people ask a veriety of questions on the weekly chat, which i have only recently started to look at, but few answers are given to anything of importance.

I get it that ebay has a mass of competition, but instead of embrassing sellers, they are going out of their way to alienate them, feels like if i closed now, today, ebay couldn't give a fig.

[cb-home-textiles]

Its our old suppliers being on here that hurts as only recently 2 have phoned me to ask why I don;t buy of them . When I quote there ebay price as being very near their wholesale price they just go quiet . 

Gavin 

CB 

[exponential_developments]

I had a snotty email form an area manager querying why my purchases had almost dried up, this is a few years ago, i phoned, to be told if i didn't increase my spending the price breaks would be alterd in the wrong direction..............I promptly closed the account.

[bojangled]

@exponential_developments 

81% up on last month, which was my worst month ever, however 10% down compared to November last year.

Doesn't feel remotely busy.

[bravergrace]

My sales are down.  Part of this may be "due to eBay " (because I don't used promoted listings).  Most of it isn't eBay-related, though -  I haven't listed any Christmas stock this year.

The thing is with eBay, it's high-maintenance, especially with single-quantity listings.  

There's the sheer slog of listing stuff: "What colour is this book?"  "What material is this pencil made of?" "What size is this A4 paper?" "Was this teapot made in 1859 or 1860?" "What production process was used to make this scarf?" "You need to add a video of this postcard".

And the soul-destroying, mind-numbing grind of ending and relisting every 3 months, for no reason other than eBay's one-size-fits-all algorithm.  This ends up taking up any available time, so I source and list less stuff.  Without the relisting nonsense, I'd probably list three times as many new listings.

[oilydub]

I think I'm in a death spiral, due to lack of sales stock on her reduced by 60%

What I do have on Ebay is all listed worldwide.

I sell used/ old stock motorcycle parts so no competition from China/Temu/Vinted etc.

Not had a single sale for six days (again)

Next year will probably be my last while I clear stock.

Far more profitable work out there.

[pg_kicks]

eBay mainly, Nike don't allow you to have your own site unless you are an official stockist so instead of shutting you down they basically allow you to run a shopify for x months then shopify close you down and make you fight for any funds. I also sell on StockX, going on Vinted, GOAT and a few others but eBay is the main one. If they just stopped the private seller issue it would eb perfect and theyd get even more sales so more money. I have no idea why they dont fix the issue, its win win for them.

[bravergrace]

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@oilydub wrote:

Far more profitable work out there.

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I'm in the fortunate position of not needing to work, but I do actually enjoy selling online - though I don't enjoy it as much as I used to.  I expect I'll retire gradually over the next few years.

[oilydub]

I will probably be taking rather early retirement next year.

Like many here I dabble in the markets & now find that far more enjoyable than Ebay.

I was intending to reduce the Ebay business to four days a week but it just seems more trouble than its worth.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@exponential_developments wrote:

Is anyone actually busy, be honest, i will check....lol.

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You gotta love a three-legged pony that just won't fall over...

[exponential_developments]

They all fall eventually....gravity.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@bravergrace wrote:

And the soul-destroying, mind-numbing grind of ending and relisting every 3 months, for no reason other than eBay's one-size-fits-all algorithm.  This ends up taking up any available time, so I source and list less stuff.  Without the relisting nonsense, I'd probably list three times as many new listings.

---

We are in the same boat with each new listing being a lot of work.  My speadsheet for 2024 estimates @time per item at 53.5 minutes but that includes everything sourcing, fixing, photographing, listing, packing. But it gives an idea...

But listing and relisting is a really fast job. Just end any each month that are ending that day that have zero watchers and sell similar. Also end any that day that are over 8 weeks old and sell similar. Okay, it can be a bit tricky if you forget. So I tend to do them every 5 days or so. I also time them to fit in with payday sales (so I want listings sell-similared - 14 days before I run a sale - so they will be eligible). The strategy can be fiddly - but the actual end and sell similar is minutes only... why does it take you so long?

[clear_out_time]

I have noticed that the ebay Uk site can't decide if it wants to be in mobile or desktop view.  I used to sell, and buy a lot on here before the pandemic and the search function was never as bad as now, from what I can see.  The coding of the site is dire, simple as.

[hippychick1960]

my own sales have been almost dead on here for 2 years...example: 2 sales in the last 3 months. Hence I have taken most of my listings off here and will probably take the rest off in the New Year.....am so fed up with ebay like so many other sellers saying the very same ..... no sales etc makes for very disheartened sellers.

[1956glyn]

We tend to be old school too 🙂

lol at Sprugg as i have never heard of that before

We have gone into shops to be told to order online........then they complain that shops are closing because people are buying more and more online.   Currys are a prime example.   Our local large store has very little stock in it 😞   So we order online and it says in stock....then delivery is delayed and after several weeks we just cancel the order.

We also tend to just go to the physical shops but this is not always possible when one of our fav clothes site does not have a shop just online (Arne)

[bravergrace]

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@sheba-knows-best wrote:

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@bravergrace wrote:

But listing and relisting is a really fast job. Just end any each month that are ending that day that have zero watchers and sell similar. Also end any that day that are over 8 weeks old and sell similar. Okay, it can be a bit tricky if you forget. So I tend to do them every 5 days or so. I also time them to fit in with payday sales (so I want listings sell-similared - 14 days before I run a sale - so they will be eligible). The strategy can be fiddly - but the actual end and sell similar is minutes only... why does it take you so long?

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It takes so long for a few reasons:

(a) I have twice as many items as eBay listings, so I need to rotate them.  Using "sell similar" doesn't leave an indication on the unsold list of which ones have been done.  So the ones that haven't been "sell similared" need to be marked in some way - which I do by using "sell similar" and rescheduling them for a future date, with a note added to each one to remind me when it was ended.  This is fiddly, and it leaves a note on the listing when it eventually goes live, which has to be removed manually and individually (because you can't remove eBay seller's notes en bloc).

(b) Some of my lines are quite slow sellers - particularly books, but also some specialist items of clothing and accessories.  This means they can be listed (on and off) for several years before they sell at a decent price.  So the listings need refreshing from time to time - pictures get corrupted, or eBay changes its item specifics from "Publication Date" to "Printing Date", or  or "First Edition" to "1st edition", thus leaving literally hundreds of listings needing to be manually upgraded so the filters work - or they get downgraded in search because they are deemed to be "lacking compulsory item specifics".

(c) eBay unspecified errors when dealing with relisting.  On average, I get one of these in every 5 or 6 batches - the type that says "198 items have relisted successfully.  2 didn't work", but it doesn't tell you which one, so you have to check all of them to identify the problem one - and then when you try to redo it, you end up with a duplicate listing because (despite the error message) the item did in fact relist first time,  but with a 15 minute time lag).

[fatbobfan]

Thanks for posting your process,  some food for thought in there

I dont have an immediate answer but guessing the process might be able to be sped up. Hope so, as I think your avenue of stock rotation is a good one. Could rotating by date work, guess we all have our own systems, a top tip I was one given is by using 'blocks' of inventory, these blocks would be appropriate to your inventory I guess. I see you use different colour back drops, some blue some brown, some white, could the colours help in a new system EG Monthly/Quarterly, hope you get where I coming from.

Photos - I 'now' take at least two maybe three 'Main Photo' and rotate these when I sell similar I beleive its a good practice to fool the algorythm its a new listing, I get the odd corrupt, would be interesting to know why but if it helps just add extra photographs or duplicates in the original listing and if corruption occurs just delete but have some spare so to speak. Having a few Main Photo's would help with a refresh. 

Unspecified errors, I dont know what system you process on, personally its Desktop PC, is we are talking about the same errors, you can choose the error listings before relisting/sell similar and remove or note accordingly.  So if the red warning appears in the top left deal with it first, filter them out before processing the batch.

Post processing, is there a reason, a common factor?

The only post processing errors I recall  getting is the PL standard not being applied to the listing, this is easily resolved and the system highlights it in listings. Can the filter tools assist post processing?

Just an observation from someone like you with 1.5k listings we find spreading all 1500 over 30 days more easier to work, 50 a day so if there are error's or issues (guilty of the dreaded creating of duplicate listings at least twice a year) You've mentioned 198 with two error's might be quicker and less frustrating if it only 50, you can prep for holidays and weekends in advance, sometimes I'll prep a week ahead 7 batches of 50 and do 350. which I agree is very slow but its a choice, we dont know your working routine and may not have the time/want to do daily but 50 is defintely easier from experience, again another tip shared from someone else, but for me works.  

Just reread this and I do recall a common processing issue,

Mentioning for others and it may or may not be specific but Business Policies often create processing issues, if I go away for a day and have to elongate my dispatch time, the system processes my change and then allocates random listings with new system created 'copy' policies. So if Im away and want to change things edit/relsit, I cant process as there are duplicate policies. The only answer I have is to keep your policies up to date, I only editing/sell similar issues when Im away when I dont really have the time/inclination to resolve but forced to which I resent when Im away and made worse by trying to resolve by a mobile, more time consuming

[sticky-art-uk]

The platform is dying and ebays answer is to ram sponsored ads and offsite advertising down your throat. ebay - sellers are DONE!! Literally had enough!

As sellers we're all sick of paying ebay extra money to just get adverts seen, the more sellers that do it just cancels out the process!

I don't have to pay to be seen on Etsy or Amazon!

[exponential_developments]

I honestly do think in its current form ebay's finished.