No Sales MKII

[dwtrading2015]

Since the No sales board was abruptly terminated, after 88 pages of contributions, I've tried setting it up again here

[theelench]

Perhaps you don't "get the resistance" and go on to talk about physical auctions.  What you are missing is that at a physical auction the ground rules would be made plain in advance of the auction.  You would then be able to make an informed decision about whether to take part or not.

As usual that's not what ebay is doing.  As always ebay hasn't made any effort to inform buyers that the ground rules on ebay have been changed and even many sellers will be unaware that they have been.

I've already had a brush with ebays bright idea to introduce this to making an offer when, out of the blue I found I couldn't.  Luckily it was days before the auction ended so I messaged the seller.  Neither of us knew how to turn ebays interference off and the seller advised me to just bid, which I did. 

I won the auction (against one other bidder) but for less than I would have offered, which is what I entered as my max. bid.   So who suffered?  The seller.  

Now translate that into an an auction where ebay has, without bothering to tell the seller or myself as bidder that they have switched the requirement on.  I try to bid in the last seconds, my bid is declined.  The item sells for one bid.  Another disappointing result for another ebay seller, who may still  be unaware that ebay has added this to their listings without permission.

You say (in a different post) that "its made absolutely no difference, to the number of sales that I'm getting".

Perhaps you're also missing that your sales numbers might be the same, but with auctions, the prices you're achieving could be significantly more if everyone who wanted to bid could have done so, instead of being barred by ebay in the last seconds.

As a buyer I have little objection (apart from the devious way that ebay is auto-enrolling sellers without their consent) to giving ebay a payment method in order to make offers or even bid on an item.  But as a seller I want to make the decision whether to use this or not. 

In my case it would be "Not", as in all the time I've been selling on ebay I can only remember having about 3 non-paying buyers in total.  I don't remember whether they were for auctions or BIN listings and I'd rather risk an occasional non-payer than risk loosing a bidder as they're already as rare as hens teeth.

[dwtrading2015]

I don't run auctions, but if I saw an interesting item to bid on but couldn't becasue ebay was missing my payment card number or something, I would be a bit peeved.  If eBay want this new policy to be enforced, then the moment you log in or search as a guest, you should be required to log payment details.  Immediately the flaw in the policy is apparent.  On Etsy, most of my sales are as guest.  Most of my online purchases else where as guest.  Like most people I can't be bothered registering with all the 'clubs' for one-off purchases.  Hence, for eBay, they are cutting out guest purchases.  eBay is very poor in understanding users.  People going through full registration to buy online went out many years ago.  eBay must allow simple easy browsing buyers to complete a guest purchase at checkot, not be forced to do so before buying.  eBay think people are 'in to' eBay and lured by some sort of community.  Most buyers want a widget, there it is, pay, done.  Name of the platform, irrelevant.

[dwtrading2015]

Breif note on the spanners views, 8 within eBay, 7 off site.  That puts in to my top 5 out of 40 for of site views.  That is a major turn around from the previous few weeks.

[gift_of_sound]

Just to let you know, I viewed it...

I have many of my items on eBay listed 20% cheaper than on Amazon and they just don't sell anymore while the same item listed on Amazon will sell perhaps 20 a month. eBay Sales are now mainly down to dropshippers having identified the cheapest place to buy and careful buyers that have identified a mistake on price. Old fashioned genuine eBay loyal buyers have all but disappeared, driven away by an eBay management team chasing short term "increasing revenue is king" policies. If I now have to pay eBay a fortune in promotion fees to attract google visits then what is the point of eBay anymore ?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I have to point out, that Ebay have told people that this is happening.  

I have had emails from them on all accounts I'm running, to state that this was happening.

So no, that is simply incorrect.

I don't run auctions as I stated previously, but get the none payments for offers that are accepted.  And this happens far to often, even with this switched on.  ie. this STILL happens!  The more that can be done, to stop it from happening, the better.  Frankly, I would be happy to lose out on a couple of sales etc, if the payments that should be made, are actually made.

And I should also clarify, that though the T&C's are not exactly the same as with a physical auction, I can guarantee, that buyers should not  bid, without the intention of completing the sale.  That is VERY much in the T&C's and applies in just the same way, to BIN purchases.  Which is exactly why buyers get a strike against them, when not paying for an item.  So whether they are forced to provide bank information, which they have to provide anyway to complete the sale, is actually irrelevant.

If you bid/offer to buy, you do so with the intention of completing the sale.

[theelench]

It may be incorrect for you, but I can assure you that I haven't received any emails on my account, which is used for both buying and selling and I'd point out to you that ebay's sole communication aimed towards me has been in the recent Seller Update.  Absolutely nothing aimed specifically at the buyers that this will affect.

The first I heard of it was on an ecommerce blog I read, US based and dealing mostly with US issues, when it was rolled out on .com and not well received for the same reasons as expressed here.  Yet 3months(?) later ebay rolls it out on .uk with the same faults.  I was reminded of it again when the "Death of Auctions" thread was started and pointed me to the .uk Seller Update.  Quite often the first private sellers know of changes is when they are discussed on the boards.

As has often been said on here, ebay does have ways of deterring non-paying buyers in place.  But yes, they could do more, but won't because on an ebay-wide scale the problem is minute.

As a business you might be "happy to lose out on a couple of sales", but private sellers who are perhaps lucky to get a couple of sales might not be so happy and as they're probably more likely to use the auction format, even less happy to think that they might be devalued because bidders are being stopped from bidding. 

[dwtrading2015]

Interesting, had a not delivered case this morning.  Opened the case, found that the tracking was updated delivered and a time for today.  Thing is, the postage was standard RM large letter second class.  The number off the QR bar code hasn't updated tracking before.  First time I have seen this.  If this is the case that the standard postage is going to at least update the eBay system as item delivered, that is going to have a major impact on stopping all the false lost claims, for me at least.  I know a few years ago when they introduced the QR code the intention was to enable some degree of tracking, but the facilty was never implemented because of the premium people were paying for tracked.  I hope this is the new facility finally being implemented.  Should be given the massive large letter price jump recently.

[divine0606]

@dwtrading2015 Where are you purchasing the postage from is it from ebay? Because i think it only works when postage is purchased from ebay

[dwtrading2015]

Yes purchased within eBay.  Was thinking of going back to linkng to RM account, but they still ask that the mainfest is dropped of with post at the sorting office which is a pain.  Because eBay weirdly doesn't allow purchase of postage from funds available, I end up with each purchase seperately debited by direct debit from the business bank account.  Thank god I am not charged per transaction.  But if eBay has access to delivery confirmation when postage is purchased through eBay, then that is a big benefit.  If my bank stops the flat fee, TSB and unusual in having a flat fee, eBay are going to have to let us tap available funds to purchase postage.  I can buy absolutley anything else except the postage.  Wierd.

[leadhills_scot]

Large letter confirmation has been around for quite awhile with an RM business account. It does depend on the postie but most of my 2nd class large letters do get a scan.

Back to sales, only had 10 in June but so far this month is looking better. No matter only 9 months to go until I can retire.

[dwtrading2015]

Holly Molly!  Finally sold a spanner.  Sounds very Dell Boy that!  I have added a few more videos now, still playing around with the medium.  One thing I notice is that some sort of movement or action does help a lot.  So the latest variation has each static picture fading in and out.  I think it works a lot better. Comments welcome.

Please note, this is all related to 'no sales', the game is to figure out how to make eBay work to generate sales for us, get Cassini promoting our listings, so all discussion on what may or may not work is very welcome.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326130204724

[theshoecupboard]

Having sold nearly £2k in the last six days, nothing today! With this and my wife's account both running for nearly 20 years the number of days with zero sales can be counted on the fingers of one hand but now two in the last few months!

The erratic nature of sales has become more pronounced since promoted listings have come in (as an accountant of over 40 years I have kept spreadsheets for our sales and the expected seasonal variations were always understandable but not now). 

Having been going quite well, then nothing, it is as if our sites are suddently made invisible - even with promoted listings!!!!

'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark' as the quote says!

[divine0606]

I agree with @theshoecupboard something is definatley not right with ebay with its eratick sales to be honest I wouldn't trust them no longer. 

Shame really they've ruined the platform. 

[dwtrading2015]

There is definately an impact with adding videos, and also uploading them to YouTube.  The other item that had no views at all for many weeks, now 3 external views and that is the same as how many YouTube views there are.  Given this is still very much in the experimental stage, and it is a short time span, I think there is enough to keep persuing making and adding videos, and improving the *bleep*y first efforts.  And the other great bit, if they are arriving directly from the page link then there are no promo click through fees.  The total of off-site page views has doubled.  Watch this space.

[messier44000]

I cringe looking at my first YT videos, just like anyone else.

Keep at it. I`m up to nearly 3.4k subs on YT and 22-28k views PM, and has been montetized 

for a few years.  Took a lot of trial / error and patience finding the balance between pushing the 

product and keeping the viewer watching.

Have now got the confidence to put myself in front of the camera

[simplyc-accessories]

'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark' as the quote says!  I Agree 

Just been looking over my sales over the years and mine have plummeted downwards from Feb/Mar 24 a complete turn off or hidden listings. Nothing has recovered I closed my shop 2 months ago and ebay sent me an offer of a free shop for 3 months so I took it nothing to lose only my time. Not made a bit of difference to sales April £67, May £20 and June £30 the big total for July so far is ZERO. 

Why do we need a shop does it make us sales its not making me any when the offer is over I will close it again.

Something is broken somewhere and nobody at Ebay care as long as money is coming in to them they dont care where it comes from.

Promoted listings was the killer on this site I wont pay the large new promoted way on principle why should we, we paid shop fees and other fees its ebay place to show are listings. Then you have item specifics fill them all in takes time only to find them stripped out again the next day its pointless doing anything anymore while this site is broken. 

I do expected slower sales with the way the economy is but none its never happened before. Ebay site is no more my priority Etsy is doing better for me now I never thought that site would out do eBay.

[the-nutwood-collection]

Etsy is doing better for me now I never thought that site would out do eBay.

Same for me.  I only listed on Etsy because people I know in the craft community said they'd never buy from eBay because it was so naff.

After a very slow start, Etsy's gradually got traction against eBay, which really surprised me.  Etsy went into the doldrums earlier this year, but they've made a big, classy, advertising push and it's really picked up since then - even though the push is aimed at the gift market and I'm not in that market.  I guess they're attracting buyers to the site and those buyers are poking around to see what else there is.  They're also investing heavily in off-site ads which cost me more per sale, but are really bringing home the bacon.

[simplyc-accessories]

I have never done off-site adds and I still get regular sales. My items can be for gifts and I do get buyers who want gift packing. The differance in the way the buyer treats the seller on Etsy is so much nicer than the buyers do on eBay.

[the-nutwood-collection]

I didn't chose to participate in off-site ads, Etsy auto-enrolled me.  Given the choice, I would have said no - but it's worked out OK.

[dwtrading2015]

Wow, 'sudden death of sales syndrome' has struck over the last couple of days.

Seems all the efforts to pander to Cassini's whims has ultimately failed.  I am just a sideline spectator with minor drips of sales at the whim of an algorithim that has no consistency.