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.🤔🤔

🤔🤔🤔

[leadhills_scot]

That did make me laugh.

We brought 4 packs of sausages and 3 large chicken and bacon pies yesterday. 

Although I don't think they believed me, I've made it clear to my doctors that I don't do exercise.

As for phones I only have a 2g mobile and use it as a clock or for when I have to log into the bank. Do use my debit card online but the powers that be would get rather bored with my normal shopping habits. 

[exponential_developments]

"4 packs of sausages", i'll be round in ten minutes....... 😂

[bojangled]

@exponential_developments Every day a school day. Ty.

Jo

[theelench]

I notice that several of your listings, both live and sold have "rare" and/or "retired" in the titles.

I sell (or tried to) vintage glass and before PL was introduced genuine rarities would invariably get plenty of views, with or without "rare" in the the titles.  Simply because collectors and even dealers would take an interest in items that they either rarely see or perhaps have never seen before.

I don't do PL and since its introduction, according to ebay's 'views' figures there is little or no interest in rarer items any more.   A small bowl (@£15) by Walther &Sohne that I'd never seen for sale on ebay in a decade got few views and had to be re-listed several times before finally selling, although it did get the usual troupe of Watchers.

More recently a rare Brockwitz bowl with only one other for sale on ebay (@£168 + Postage from the US of about £30) got 17 views, 3 watchers and didn't even get 1 bid at my price of £95 + £9 postage.

I simply do not believe the lack of interest.  Either there are very few buyers now looking on ebay or ebay is hiding non-sponsored listings.  I suspect the latter is more likely as back when I was a regular buyer on ebay of the same sort of glass it was a common experience to be searching for a specific item, but the first-time I would be shown one was when I checked Sold Items for my search, even if they'd been listed for a week as an auction.

[auctiongabble]

I too found that adding Vintage in a title when describing an item of jewellery reduces the chances of it being a result for searching unless the user has sepcifically added vintage as part of search.

Everything seems quiet atm, no offers, no messages, trickle of sales

[vintique*violet]

I simply do not believe the lack of interest.  Either there are very few buyers now looking on ebay or ebay is hiding non-sponsored listings.  I suspect the latter is more likely as back when I was a regular buyer on ebay of the same sort of glass it was a common experience to be searching for a specific item, but the first-time I would be shown one was when I checked Sold Items for my search, even if they'd been listed for a week as an auction.

Absolutely 100% I believe this too. 

They want you to pay to promote.

Every single item of mine now has a pay to promote button at the side in blue. 

So ( IMO) If I pay to promote then the listing will be shown as usual...nothing special about it, if listings are not visible when listing then I sure am not paying for them to be because eBay have somehow " restricted" or " limited"  or " hidden" them from view in the first place!  

[manvers-motor-spares]

We stopped selling on Ebay earlier this year, due to items not being returned and Ebay issuing refunds to customers. It's hard enough making a profit with the fees charged, but when you lose stock too, we decided to stop and now sell via our own website/store as well as retail store.
Too many scammers on Ebay wanting something for nothing, just my opinion.
Personally I use Amazon as a first call when buying anything, I think even with Ebay offering private sellers no fees, the rot has set in and it's just a matter of time.

[theelench]

The Brockwitz bowl was probably the last item I'll list on ebay.

I thought the previous two years with 13 sales each was just a little like being given enough carrot to keep me listing without promoting in the hope that I'd promote to get more.

If ebay are restricting my visibility because I don't promote, four sales is likely my new "Normal" which won't improve unless I do.

If I'm wrong and ebay isn't restricting my visibility, I'm thinking that the Search is now so bad with so many of my buyers not even looking at ebay any more, what is the point of listing just for the enjoyment of non-buying Watchers.  I'm here to sell stuff, not run a museum.

[lord_and_lady_m]

I wonder if eBay and Google have had a fall out. If people are just typing in what they need in Google and eBay doesnt show, then people won't remember eBay exists and look elsewhere first. 

No visibility on a Google search then eBay gets forgotten. I don't mean paid promotions either I mean just search rankings 

[johnwash1]

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@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

I wonder if eBay and Google have had a fall out. If people are just typing in what they need in Google and eBay doesnt show, then people won't remember eBay exists and look elsewhere first. 

No visibility on a Google search then eBay gets forgotten. I don't mean paid promotions either I mean just search rankings 

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Maybe ebay's search is now so bad that even Google can't cope with it.

[the_book_seekers]

Google is facing being broken up by US regulators. Won't happen for a while, but the fall out will be interesting if it does. Google might have to agree to some fundamental changes to stay intact which again might have some interesting consequences.

[michbut20]

It really doesn’t help when people click on one of your products then directly underneath description there’s “similar items” and “frequently bought together” which is pushing potential customers away from your shop. I’m paying £92 subscription fees to EBay, then commission fees and bank charges. EBay is taking money but not supporting businesses or protecting us from cheaper items listed. Everyone pays different amounts for stock, I’m not greedy but have to sell for a little profit just to at least pay their blooming fees! Etsy did the exact same thing and I stopped selling on that platform too. I wouldn’t mind if products were selling well but they are not! You wouldn’t walk in a shop and see an item you want to buy then look across in your shop and see products from another seller would you? It’s bizarre how these companies operate!!! 

[1956glyn]

Hi

True and it happens to my listings on our account which is private.

Also it is recommending other sellers across the top of my listings 😞 

Half the time my listings are all jumbled up 😞

[vintagechinashop]

That’s a useful tip. I’ll try that as I tend to bulk end and sell similar   I’ll try to drip feed throughout the day and see if it makes a difference 

[michbut20]

I don’t mean to come across as rude but if you are a private seller you’re already at an advantage above business sellers because you’re not paying the extortionate business fees businesses have to pay.  It’s highly more frustrating if you are paying fees and then EBay puts additional promotional listings on our store items. It seems like business sellers are just constantly dumped on by EBay and we are all getting very frustrated by it. 

[bittyboy101]

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@vintagechinashop wrote:

That’s a useful tip. I’ll try that as I tend to bulk end and sell similar   I’ll try to drip feed throughout the day and see if it makes a difference 

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Good luck 🙂

I did this all yesterday after being forced to take all my 60 items down due to the severe snow/wintery weather but now I had the chore of putting them all beck up on eBay.. so I did this by putting 5 up every couple of hours and I can now see they are all getting views and some watchers !  🙂

It seems that we are being throttled if we list more than 5-10 items within the same hour... the trick to beat eBay's over zealous listing monitoring software that drops listings into a sandbox is to list GRADUALLY and in small batches...

Listing too many items all in one go on eBay is now like classic PC Lemmings ! 

 

[1956glyn]

I totally agree with you but the point i was trying to make is.......its also happening to private sellers as well.     I agree that i am at an advantage because we do not reply on any income from Ebay.     At the minute i am listing to try and distract my brain from other real life issues.

[theelench]

It certainly is bizarre how ebay operates, chopping everyone's  ads. to pieces.  No-one should have to put up with that.

In the collectables market on ebay (or anywhere else?), if I search for one particular piece it's guaranteed that there will be a range of prices and it's not always the cheapest that sells.

Looking at "Brand New" goods I notice you have listings for Dunelm and Next items.  Are you selling at higher, lower, or the same price as your source?  Isn't it the same for all sellers on ebay?  The art/science of sourcing is a constant in selling anything.

As a private seller (in a one bedroom flat) I might have four sets of brand new curtains that I could undercut you on, but as a business you would buy cheaper wholesale than I can retail.  You have a shop to display your ads. to better advantage,  with four sets I wouldn't open a shop, so my solitary ad. would be lost among all the competition.  Perhaps, if your margins allowed, you might buy my cheap sets to get me out of the competition.  

I'm not having a go at you, I'm sure ebay's bizarre way of operating puts you at some disadvantage but, as a private seller, from my point of view it also gives businesses some advantages over private sellers.

[michbut20]

I don’t have the time or resources to purchase private sellers goods. I bulk purchase and sell my items within a very small profit margin but Dunelm products can vary depending where you source them from. Therefore some sellers may be able to sometimes undercut my prices and I can undercut theirs. I definitely do not make huge profits, i really wish I did. I cannot even downgrade to a private seller because i have a business bank account and soon as it’s connected to EBay I’m automatically flagged as a business seller. I have to work remotely from home due to personal reasons and EBay is not supporting business sellers, at least private sellers only pay when they sell something. Also private sellers are not technically supposed to use them as a  business so they probably have alternative jobs to support them. I unfortunately depend solely on EBay at the moment which obviously is causing extreme anxiety, stress and frustration.  I work very hard for little profit and completely stuck in a dire situation at the moment. 😔

[theelench]

I genuinely do sympathise with you as although my personal position isn't dire (ATM) I've seen it deteriorate to a worrying degree.  Stuck on the Old State Pension (and that not even the 'full' amount) with a small work pension from which I receive less each year due to tax thresholds being frozen and still do a 2 hour a day cleaning job which used to be virtually untaxed but (for the same reason) is now taxed at BR.  The reason for doing it is that my flat is leasehold and is due for re-roofing.  Once I was confident that I was keeping up with the inflation of that bill.  Now I'm not, as I can put less and less into savings to cover it, when it comes.

I thank God that I don't rely on ebay for any part of my income.  Even as a private seller trying to empty the flat of years of collecting 'stuff' that my heirs will only throw out, ebay's bizarre policies have made that process increasingly slow and difficult to such a degree that when Spring comes stuff that hasn't sold will start being delivered to any charity shop that will take it.

I can understand the frustrations of business sellers, at least in part, but their woes are (IMO) certainly not mainly caused by private sellers.  I doubt I will sell any more on ebay, the snails pace of sales just isn't worth the effort or hassle any more.  New private sellers may be flocking to ebay to try their luck but I don't think many will stick with it for very long when they discover the reality of private selling on ebay these days.

I wish you all the best for your sales in the future.  I wish I could buy some new curtains from you, but like so many others these days my budget just doesn't stretch to such luxuries any more.