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.🤔🤔

🤔🤔🤔

[craftylittlecat]

It really is pathetic on here trying to sell at the moment. Up until November it was going great for me then it gradually went dead as a door nail. I'm pretty sure it is a problem with this site. I sell craft supplies and have sole more this last 2 week on a Facebook group for crafters than I have on here. Why should we pay £34+ a month for a shop that does b*gger all for you?

[fatbobfan]

Genuinely lot of food for thought there, thank you

[leadhills_scot]

Yes they do all deliver out here, however for some reason O/H likes to go out. He goes stir crazy staying indoors, me I hate going out sit most of the day reading/re-reading books. 

[exponential_developments]

I hate going food shopping, online i've never had an issue with it, in the evening here delivery is £1.50

[exponential_developments]

Interesting story in the Telegraph this evening, it's come up on my Apple business news, on about year on year sales in shops and online taking a massive hit and that shops are the worst since Jan 2021. the story is according to the BDO, says online sales are down 7.8% compared to last year.

[vintique*violet]

Or - and this maybe a stretch, but something that popped in my mind.. Do eBay block/hide listings?  Is the " algorithm" only allowing so many to be seen , then hiding, then showing others from different sellers? 

As this is affecting even private sellers with no views, watchers, sales etc not just businesses who have hundreds of listings. 

I just feel that what is happening is like someone is " tinkering" around with the platform visability. 

I can search for something and then search another day and the items  I have seen do not show and others do and vice versa.  I have cross referenced this with the Saved Feed and Recently Viewed  -not to mention sometimes my listings do not show.  It truly is bizarre. 

[vintique*violet]

If  a buyers fee is introduced I will never purchase from eBay again and I am sure I am not alone on this. 

[pulseofthedead]

Yes. Tonight. About 6.30 I typed vintage doll for search. Newly listed. One of the first to show me was some vintage dollshouse stuff. I clicked on his listings and bought a few.

 Strange I thought because I had just looked in the dollshouse section where these were listed and hadn’t seen them. So I went back to the dollshouse section to see newly listed and looked through to the time when they had been listed and they weren’t there. 
Was typing in vintage the only way to have seen his items. All very strange…

Ive just gone onto dollshouse to see what has been newly listed and there aren’t any listings at all. None in dolls or vintage toys…

Is it me or are they tinkering again…

[technthread]

---

@vintique*violet wrote:

If  a buyers fee is introduced I will never purchase from eBay again and I am sure I am not alone on this. 

---

I have done a bundle sale to a buyer on Vinted this evening. I sold them 9 items, the buyer paid £45.18 in total which includes £2.49 shipping and £3.44 buyer protection pro fee. Over there the buyers don’t seem to have an issue with the buyer fee. I was able to reduce the item prices because I don’t pay any seller fees and they are getting a 5kg parcel delivered for peanuts.

If eBay are introducing a buyer fee then something has to give. It is either reduce business seller fees (so we can pass on savings to the buyer via lower item prices) or lower integrated postage costs. I’m sure one way or another other costs will fall otherwise why bother copying Vinted without including any of the upsides.  

[vintique*violet]

I am not on Vinted or have used it,  and only a small private seller, I mainly buy on eBay - I will not purchase anything however it is " dressed." 

If the buyer fee is for buyer protection how does that work ? 

I also do not use any postal labels from eBay - I use the post office direct as they need our support. 

[technthread]

It’s difficult to break down if you’re not on there. The buyer fee doesn’t hurt sales over there in my experience so in theory eBay could also make it work here. 

The bottom line is if the buyer can pay £45 there and it includes a £3 buyer fee but I’d have to charge them £55 on eBay with no buyer fee the buyer doesn’t really care they just focus on the total they are paying.  

[vintique*violet]

Thank you - and what is the buyer fee for exactly? It covers what? 

Why would you need to charge £10 more on eBay, sorry I am not understanding. 

[technthread]

It is supposed to cover the buyer so if their item doesn’t arrive, it arrives damaged or is not as described they are able to get a refund. The system has many flaws but that’s basically it. 

As a business seller on eBay we pay fees to eBay on our sales. We also have to pay a shop fee or a listing fee per item. Some of us also pay more for promoted listings. I can’t sell an item for the same price here as I can there and end up with the same profit.

There are a lot of different examples I can give but let’s say I sell something small parcel sized on eBay for £10 including postage. After eBay fees I may have around £8 then £3 postage so I am left with £5. 

If I sell the same item on Vinted for £5 the buyer will pay roughly £8 total including the buyer protection fee and their shipping costs. The buyer gets a better deal from me there. I can’t sell it for £8 on eBay as I’ll end up with £3/£4 rather than £5 on Vinted.

[steuk.gvtbkz]

I’ve noticed this too, Vinted seems very busy though  

[vinylvinnie]

Just looking at the new payment conditions, and we it looks like we are going to be royally screwed.  That said, if there are no sales, then any holding of payments by Ebay won't make any odds!

I have loads and loads of items up for sale - last week I got a disbursement of £2.03, this week it has more than doubled to £4.33.  My listings may not be the prettiest, or most complete, but I used to get around £300 per week.

Ebay has died!

[theelench]

I did my usual thing of deleting all the ebay emails this morning, they're usually just ads. and junk mail, although I did notice one was about payment conditions.

Tried looking at my Messages and there's one from ebay about the new conditions but clicking on it takes me to a couple of lines but no way to scroll down to see the rest.  Clicking on the link takes me to a lot of articles about selling and getting paid (all old?) and nothing specifically about these changes.

Is there somewhere that I can read what has actually changed??

If not can you summarise the changes?

As a private seller ebay seems to think it's entitled to Hold funds for so many reasons and as often as it likes.  I'd like to see what they're up to now, I'm guessing it's nothing good or it wouldn't be so difficult to find?

Thanks in advance.

[algirdas4you]

yesterday received, maybe thats it

At eBay, we’re committed to making our policies clear and our services easy
to use. We wanted to let you know that we’re updating our Payments Terms of
Use
<>,
effective from 4 February 2025.

We’re revising the Payments Terms of Use to better describe the payment
services we provide to you. As part of this revision, we have clarified
which payment options are typically made available to buyers on the eBay
website. Further, the terms related to settlement and availability of funds
have been revised for sellers residing in regions outside of the European
Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.

If you do not agree to proposed changes, you may terminate these Payments
Terms of Use, pursuant to Section 12 (“Term, Termination”)
<>,
without any extra cost at any time before 4 February 2025.

Thanks for being part of the eBay community.

[algirdas4you]

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/payment/2.0/terms.html?mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=e99011.m2.l1&mkcid=8&bu=442822...

[555njp]

---

@theelench wrote:

I did my usual thing of deleting all the ebay emails this morning, they're usually just ads. and junk mail, although I did notice one was about payment conditions.

Tried looking at my Messages and there's one from ebay about the new conditions but clicking on it takes me to a couple of lines but no way to scroll down to see the rest.  Clicking on the link takes me to a lot of articles about selling and getting paid (all old?) and nothing specifically about these changes.

Is there somewhere that I can read what has actually changed??

If not can you summarise the changes?

As a private seller ebay seems to think it's entitled to Hold funds for so many reasons and as often as it likes.  I'd like to see what they're up to now, I'm guessing it's nothing good or it wouldn't be so difficult to find?

Thanks in advance.

---

On another thread (sorry I didn’t check the facts myself) but basically the change is that for private sellers, eBay will hold funds from a sale until either 1/ Delivery is confirmed or 2/ 14 days, whichever comes first.

[orangerx-uk]

We just had last weeks eBay pay out... £33 I think it costs more in fuel back & forth to the post office.

I have closed both our eBay shops as it really isn't worth the time and inventible hassle with late deliveries.

Sales have been on downwards slide since last December with the postal strike and we are around 50% down on previous years.

I figured I never really take any big blocks of time off from eBay so I am going to put my feet up and enjoy December and open back up in January and see how things go.