February Sales Dead 2025 - Ebay Sales Completely Dead

[theglo-68]

Any thoughts as why would suddenly ebay sales would do ZERO since start of February.

We have been closely monitoring our sales and since start of January 2025 sales are down. But they have now completely died as soon as February started.

[aymanalvi]

The issue is what is buyer protection, Ebay have shifted seller fees for private sellers and called it Buyer Protection. Ebay have adapted the Vinted business model like for like. Infact ebay are mirroring Vinted style bisiness model.

Secondly holding payments for 2 days or more until item is delivered. Because Ebay say they want to make sure buyer is happy with the item so if a case is open ebay do not take funds from seller and just release the holding funds. Thats a big lie. Ebay systems are still working the old way and taking funds from sellers when a refurn is initiated. Ebay are holding the buyer funds regardless. So the seller is out of pocket for an item that sold and gone to the buyer and funds that were never paid but now have to pay back the money from their account and wait for another 2 days for the buyer payment to arrive. Its a total mess.

if you sell an item and ebay will force you to use Simple Delivery where ebay selects the cheapest option for the label which cannot be ammended after the buyer has bough the item. (Another Con by Ebay) So if you sell an item and your buyer says can you post it next day and your listing has simple delivery option selected the seller is stuffed. The only way is to refund the the buyer and relist the item again. But guess what if the seller chooses not to cancel the sale and just use their own label, the seller can’t because ebay hide the buyer address on simple delivery. you can call Ebay and they will be confused and not understand how to help Also Ebay keep the postage money even if you don’t use the label simple delivery. Ebay are off the rails right now. People need to take Ebay to the Ombudsman. This is not right!

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Actually, to be fair to Ebay here.

If an address on a label is not correct, because the buyer has provided an incorrect one.

It has never been the right thing to do, to amend that address and send it.

By doing so, you are catering to those buyers that want to scam you.  And this is entirely against the rules to do.  It has been for as long as I can remember.

As regarding holding fees.  They hold them until a couple of days AFTER the delivery has been completed.

So if in that time the buyer has had the order and they decide to return it, your funds will still be held anyway.

To be frank however, if a return is initiated and they don't hold the funds, you still have to pay it back anyway.  So I really don't understand what your actually complaining about.

[rosiemac333]

I don’t usually reply to posts, but you’ve been reading my mind. You put that so brilliantly…👍🏼

[aymanalvi]

Rosie, you made my day for being honest and not a sheep to follow as told. 

[theelench]

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@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

As regarding holding fees.  They hold them until a couple of days AFTER the delivery has been completed.

So if in that time the buyer has had the order and they decide to return it, your funds will still be held anyway.

To be frank however, if a return is initiated and they don't hold the funds, you still have to pay it back anyway.  So I really don't understand what your actually complaining about.

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"They hold them until a couple of days AFTER delivery...  

That's the minimum hold time.

But that isn't the point.  How would you like it to have it pointed out to your buyers that they need "extra" protection from you?  I'm sure you don't understand why private sellers feel insulted and undermined by ebays actions, because you're un-affected (so far).  Even though many of us understand that this is just another money making ploy for ebay, we know that most buyers don't and will think we're all more dodgy than some businesses are and should be avoided.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

They hold your money for most of three weeks!

Yet I don't feel insulted or undermined by it.  It's just the way it works.

I can say the same of more than one other site as well.

But at the end of the day, how do you expect Ebay to continue?  You along with many others seem to want everything for free!  It doesn't work like that at all.

And why on earth is it such a big deal if your just selling off your own personal possessions?  The money should not be that important, it's just a bit back from what was spent originally.

It shouldn't be something that your doing every day of the week, but sporadically.

The only time this kind of thing really makes a difference, is if you are relying on that money.

[aymanalvi]

Sadly your another Ebay user whonis playing catch up with the Ebay policies. 
I have opened a separate thread for this. 

Thanks for responding.

[aymanalvi]

Your talking on a different frequency, selling not wanting money, personal goods. 
Everyone selling on ebay is wanting Money to buy something else its not a charity website. Who say we want it for free, your jumping the gun here. You need to read between the lines. Buyer protection is not needed because the seller pays for items and covered by the postal service. Ebay was making money before buyer protection via seller fees. Now there is no seller fees. Ebay hold payments which they never did before.  Absolutly you have missed the point. Keeping playing catch up.

[cobwebcottage]

'Absolutly you have missed the point. Keeping playing catch up.'

You are all missing the point of this thread.

It was placed on the business boards as a general question of how sales are going and has now turned in to yet another moan about BFP and SD. 

Plenty of other threads and comments on seller central about this without turning every thread in to the same groans that have been repeated thousands of times.

[aymanalvi]

This thread talks about sales dead since Feb. All I have done and told you the reason. You can make your own story how you feel perhaps your sales are soaring high. Which is excellent news. Congratulation! 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

No, what you have done is said YOUR reason.  That doesn't necessarily mean that it is the reason for everyone.

And quite likely to be more to do with a depressed market than anything else, as sales are down everywhere pretty much.  Not just on Ebay.

You are complaining about something that has been done to death on other threads, which is all to do with private sellers, on a Business seller board!  Why do you not get that logic?

I'm done answering you, you have no logic at all and are just moaning about a change.

[rosiemac333]

You’re welcome. I know from experience, sometimes you ask a question, or say something and next thing you know you get a pile on. Often about stuff not on topic.

I don’t get business sellers being so resentful towards private sellers. They seem to rejoice when ebay makes changes that impacts negatively on private sellers.

It was private sellers who made ebay fly. It was private sellers who kept it going for eight years before ebay opened up to private sellers. They also seem to forget private sellers sales is their income, or some of it is anyway…rant over

[jokers_toybox]

As a Business seller I love private sellers, they often sell their stuff then buy from me.

What I have a problem with (and I suspect most others but not all) is the Businesses running under private accounts being able to undercut by avoiding fees creating an unfair marketplace.

Sadly this then becomes a blanket all private sellers are bad, which they aren't. 

[theelench]

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@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

They hold your money for most of three weeks!

What they do on vinted is totally irrelevant.  I have no intention of selling there or anywhere else as a business seller as I'm not a business.  If  you're happy to sign up to a new site with those conditions it has nothing to do with me or how I should view ebay's decision to impose such conditions on me.

Yet I don't feel insulted or undermined by it.  It's just the way it works.

I can say the same of more than one other site as well.

If you signed-up knowing that those were the T&Cs why should you be ?  Yes it is the the way it works and the way it's always worked.  It hasn't just been imposed on you after you had been selling for years without a blemish on your account.  I expect that the same goes for your other site as well.

Neither has it been touted as extra protection for your buyers, clearly implying that vinted regards you as a seller that they now need that extra protection from.  Which is exactly what ebay is doing here.  How happy would you be if vinted not only imposed this on you with no warning but told buyers that you were a dodgy seller ? 

But at the end of the day, how do you expect Ebay to continue?  You along with many others seem to want everything for free!  It doesn't work like that at all.

Ebay has been making $Billions p.a for years so you can't even try to portray this as some sort of urgent necessity to save the company, it was doing pretty well without this change.  Blustering about what I want from ebay means nothing because you don't have any idea about what I want.  I've been here for over a decade, paying Listing Fees, FVFs, even on my P&P costs.  I don't want or expect anything for free.  As you say it doesn't and never has worked like that.  Ebay has just decided, without consulting private sellers, that private selling will be 'free'.  

And why on earth is it such a big deal if your just selling off your own personal possessions?  The money should not be that important, it's just a bit back from what was spent originally.

It shouldn't be something that your doing every day of the week, but sporadically.

The only time this kind of thing really makes a difference, is if you are relying on that money.

Who are you to judge how big a deal selling my possessions is to me ?  Or how important WHEN I GET MY MONEY IS ?  The money may not be important to me but the PRINCIPLE of being labelled as an unreliable seller and discriminated against, is. 

On what authority can you tell me when I should or should not be selling?  Is only listing a handful of items on Sunday morning not sporadic enough for you, because that's what I've been doing for the last decade.  Perhaps, as a business seller, you'll soon be advocating that ebay should restrict private sellers to listing only on Tuesday and Thursday as it's clear to you that if they're listing any more regularly they're obviously not private sellers.  All pure prejudice.

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[aymanalvi]

Good luck! Wish you all the best for the future.

[theelench]

Just slightly ironic coming from a poster that for months interrupted and derailed sooo many threads on SC to change the topic to "You should register as a business".

This is just one that's gone off-topic.

[cobwebcottage]

And I will continue to call out privately registered sellers selling multiples of new items until it is a fair playing field.

Funny you should think it ironic when you constantly reply to threads on the boards ( mainly negative comments about Ebay) when you stated that you stopped selling on here around 6 months ago but mention your glass sales on Ebid whenever the opportunity arises.

[theelench]

And I will continue to call out what I consider negative aspects of ebay and its T&Cs.

Is it wrong to keep the situation under review?  There are plenty of others doing exactly the same and while doing so have also stopped selling.

Is it also wrong to make direct comparisons between 2 sites when they are both subject to the same market forces ?  Giving a more balanced picture can often be informative to those who don't mind seeing it. 

[cobwebcottage]

You are comparing yourself to the sellers who have recently stopped selling whereas you made that decision long before the recent changes and are now jumping on the bandwagon.

You are one of the worst ( if not the worst) offender for promoting Ebid on the Ebay boards. Is this to advertise your own listings as you don't have any on Ebay so how are you comparing the two sites when you haven't sold anything for months?

[theelench]

As on this occasion, I usually only mention the other site when another post brings it up.  Usually to tell everyone that "Nothing ever sells" there.  I simply rebut that by quoting my sales history which is a fact and verifiable by anyone who cares to do so. 

I will also contrast my declining sales here and growing sales there (both verifiable), usually when the topic being discussed is declining sales on ebay due to the increasing manipulation of the search and ebay's insistence that sellers Sponsor their listings.

I hardly think mentioning that my maximum number of sales there, in any one year, is 28 is a way of "promoting" the site, just a way of showing that silly statements like 'nothing ever sells' are un-true.  Many posters here mention that their sales on amazon, etsy, vinted or other smaller sites are better than on ebay.

Perhaps I should ask you, why is it that you dislike ebid so much that you don't like daft statements about it being countered?  You don't seem to mind when other sellers say they do better on any other platform. 

As for my advertising my stuff here, I'd compare that idea to my standing just inside the entrance to a huge shopping mall waving a piece of A4 paper with "Shop on E***" written in biro on it, it would be just about as effective.

Anyway, I replied to a post that asked why it was such a big deal that ebay has decided to hold onto private seller's cash.  Not to argue about another platform and a different topic.  I'm off to find that other thread on that subject.