eBay

sminuk · ‎02-08-2024

Very unimpressed with the fact that my listings now include direct links to other sellers "similar" items inside my listing. Presumably these sellers are paying the extra fees to "promote" their items. Thus when a buyer views my auction they get to see my photos, then some "Sponsored Items" then "Explore Related Items" before the rest of my listing including the description.

Does anyone know of any good alternative auction sites 🙂

podlingsmum2007 · ‎11-01-2025

I know you posted this ages ago but these promoted ads on our listings have got really big. A business sellers item the size of my tablet screen right in the middle of my listing.

reassuringly.crazy · ‎26-05-2025

I complained to eBay about this. They introduced ‘buyer protection fees’, but what are they doing for sellers?

I asked them, what are they doing when someone bids on my item but doesn’t pay? ‘We take this very seriously’. Yes, but what are you doing about it? Nothing.

As a consequence, the only way to guarantee payment is a buy it now with immediate payment. However that doesn’t stop the next problem, buyers who play the system. I’ve received my item, it has a scratch, or something doesn’t work, I want a discount. (10%, more usually 20%, or sometimes a figure like £50 is suggested). I am trialling / testing a method that will hopefully stop that.

Now, as a seller, you have competing sellers, the ones who pay to promote their ‘store’, with large ads right in the middle of your listing. EBay isn’t interested in you, only how much money you can make.

I’m setting up my own website in June. It will take a little time to learn to sell online myself, but eBay won’t be holding my money until after the item is delivered, and the transaction fees are no worse than eBay’s ‘buyer protection’. At least I won’t have people contacting me saying ‘can I buy this for half the price you have it listed for’.

pokeboxuk · ‎26-05-2025

And the real kicker is that they're heavily pushing 'pay per click' ads now, so they expect you to pay for people to click onto a page that has 50+ competitors' products listed.

Or even worse, 'offside ads' so you can pay for eBay to build a user base.

What exactly are eBay offering now? It isn't a user base of buyers (they expect that to be funded by sellers), it isn't a page where people can buy your product (product pages are basically ad pages now, and with the new 'attribution rules' just announced, eBay has more incentive to get people to click a few of those ads than to actually buy anything). And it definitely isn't a stable selling experience (there are new cash grabs daily). It seems like a decision-maker at eBay may be going through a manic episode and nobody has the courage to bring it up.