eBay

ts-trade-uk · ‎09-05-2025

For months my sales have been slow on ebay I've tried a few things as I have a background in tech to try beat ebay algorithm no luck or change as a diy and hardware seller we can't use adds put the price up too much I like to offer good value for money not rip people off but seems ebay have decided no adds no sales so decided to try amazon I joined listed a few boxes of screws and within a few hours I was getting sales now I've been selling on there for over a week and my sales have x10 now why can't ebay do the same go back to the old search algorithm and get rid off the promo all your doing is driving us good seller away from your platform this is why new platform are doing well because your killing us with your fees it's cheaper to shop on amazon then here your not only hurts your sellers but also your buyers s

nigel_paul_wright7557 · ‎09-05-2025

As a seller it gets very frustrating when things stop selling.

I am getting short bursts of sales then nothing for a few days.

Ebay likes to make changes and many of these have made it more difficult to buy and sell on ebay.

Ebay was working ok so heaven knows why they need to change it.

honeymonster007 · ‎09-05-2025

Buy a lot of items that your selling but the first got to is Screwfix as you can normally get what your looking for the same or next day or even delivered the same/next day.

Have brought on eBay before as sometimes the smaller quantity's listed can be ideal, your packs of 10 packers for example the only downside is the delivery times of 2-3 days which means some forward planning on a job or juggling the day.

Amazon could work well for you with their next day delivery's 👍

therenewalworkshopltd · ‎09-05-2025

You make it sound so simple.

You must have registered your account quite some time ago and not just a week ago?

They are notoriously slow in getting accounts approved, so if you are actually selling, then you need to double and triple check that your account is fully approved. Otherwise, you are going to be sat there selling things, building up a balance and not able to withdraw it. Along with the fact that you will be waiting about 3 weeks or so before you actually start to get any money anyway.

Be sure to use the correct listings on there. There are very many that although they might look correct, they are not. If you use these, then you will likely get suspended.

The river has a VERY steep learning curve and something that you need to understand very quickly.

So only trying to warn you of the major pitfalls that I've seen time after time happen to new sellers.

As regards better sales, it's not that surprising, they have at least 10 times the number of people using the site. And what does help, is the catalogue system. There should only be one listing, for one item. Whereas Ebay, you can find 1000 listings, for one item..... So your not just competing on price.

The obvious disadvantage being that it is generally a race to the bottom over there.

As an aside, an awful lot of your pictures on Ebay are breaking the rules, you are not supposed to have your company name splashed across the images. Your not even allowed to use watermarks on them.

So I would suggest that you remove them, before someone reports you.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-policies/picture-policy?id=4370

But anyway, if you have been selling for more than 5 minutes, why on earth aren't you on other sites anyway?

It's not good to just rely on the one, where you can lose everything at once if you get suspended etc for some reason.

ts-trade-uk · ‎09-05-2025

I am getting short bursts of sales then nothing for a few days.

same here one day we have good sales the next it be dead for 2 days or longer

vintagechinashop · ‎10-05-2025

Same here. I sold an item on Sunday then nothing for 4 days then this morning 3 sales within 5 minutes. I’m always suspicious when that happens to me it sounds too coincidental

however my sales on V have been quite consistent this week true I have to sell things a bit cheaper there but there’s no fees or postage to pay so to me thats so much easier. I know eBay do simple delivery and zero fees for private sellers but I still get angry how it’s the business sellers that suffer for this. This month it’s cost me £102 to sell £230 because of the shop fee. Out of that I pay postage of approx £50 and packing materials so unless I have a good month on sales this month I’ll be making virtually nothing and when you consider your time it’s probably a loss. V on the other hand I’ve sold £125 and apart from the packing materials I’ve got £125 in my pocket

superchallenge · ‎10-05-2025

I think this is a problem that a lot of people don't consider when they're complaining about a lack of sales on eBay, to be honest.

People aren't going to wait 3 days for a 100 pack of M4 locknuts at £10.25 when they can get the same thing delivered next day from Amazon for £6.39, or pick them up from Screwfix today (if they have one local) for £4.25.

Plus, I don't know how many people would think "I need to get some DIY supplies...I'd better check eBay" in the first place.

typo_lee · ‎10-05-2025

You won’t regret joining. They are about 10 times as big as eBay. If we had not started selling on there as well as eBay we would be under by now. EBay is dead and is a dying platform in its current guise.

superchallenge · ‎10-05-2025

...for your product line.

Yet my eBay sales are up in terms of both value and number for the third month in a row, and tracking to be up by both metrics for a fourth. I hear the same from other sellers in similar and adjacent niches, too, both here and in the US.

As someone who buys custom vinyl and printing services fairly often, I've never once thought "I know...I bet I can get that on eBay" when Etsy, VistaPrint, Amazon, StickerMule, Noissue, and a million and one other services exist. Heck, if I wanted a custom nametag for my bike, I'd probably rock up at my local Halfords before I even thought about eBay. Maybe people are being pushed in a better direction with the rise of AI search? If I search for "where can I get a nametag for my bike?" on Google, the AI response doesn't even mention eBay. But it mentions Amazon and Etsy.

There are changes happening for sure, but the place most assuredly isn't "dead" no matter how many thousands of times you roll in here to declare it so. I see it as being in a period of reconfiguration. Maybe we're going back to the days of eBay being a place for second-hand and niche items, rather than being a place where the results are flooded with new items and services that would probably do way better on Amazon or regrEtsy?

theelench · ‎11-05-2025

"Plus, I don't know how many people would think "I need to get some DIY supplies...I'd better check ebay" in the first place."

I think you might be surprised just how many private sellers do just that, if not for next weekends DIY project then for the toaster that just went bang or a thousand other eventualities. That's why ebay was such a success for so long, there were enough private sellers doing that with ebay as their natural first port of call while checking on their listings.

It began to stop working when ebay started discouraging private sellers from selling here while encouraging more and more businesses. With the current round of new restrictions on private sellers the situation will only get worse.