DROP IN SALES SINCE NEW BUYER PROTECTION 4TH FEB 2025

[lo.maggi]

Has anyone else noticed lack of sales since the buyer protection update 4th february 2025. I used to sell quite a lot and virtually sold nothing since 4th Feb. Can anyone else relate to this and what can we do?

[specialk1937]

ebay know they are on to a good thing, and instead of being satisfied with
their lot, as they have grown, they become complacent, start to get greedy,
and end up by taking the *bleep*!

[embicycle]

Wow that’s bad , I am the same doing zero myself having been averaging £500-600 per month ( but I did tend to probably spend £250 of that buying stuff ) … but it’s a nightmare ! ..Our problems  probably do not matter to the hierarchy at EBay … I’m no economist but my turnover must have been £10,000 per year , multiply that by thousands and even allowing for the fortunes they are spending to woo new buyers / sellers it does not add up ! … they must know it’s not working . Decent folk like us are being punished for no reason .
What do we do , I am treating it as a break , but my options are limited , sell the really good items very cheaply and pay fortunes to promote them , skip my lesser items to the tip , or sit tight and wait … 
Best of luck , hope things turn in your favour .


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[mle_supplies]

Its getting silly now.



No Sales but I still have to pay listing fees.



So instead of eBay paying me, I'm having to pay eBay (I'm sure that's the
wrong way around)



Vinted is looking more and more like the way to go

[hayes1645]

Or Gumtree

[dmishka1]

Yes I have.

[zagrebear]

I would say that I sell 50% less in the 7 weeks since February 4th and getting worse, not to mention waiting for 2 weeks to get paid as most of my stuff is posted without tracking.

It has been a disaster for private sellers and if eBay don't see this then we are wasting time trying to sell here.

[jetie-39]

Hi there

Yes totally. 

I have had a bag up for over four weeks, which was unheard of in the past!  Hardly any watchers (although we all know they can mean nothing), no enquiries, and just radio silence, and I have four items up for sale!   Not a single bit of interest, it's really weird!

Tbh the buyers protection is not much, therefore, I wouldn't say it would be enough to put others off, unlike Vestiaire Collective who charge a fortune! 

Good luck with your sale/sales and let's hope it's the after Christmas overspending and now as it is coming into Spring that things start to pick up.

Any thoughts anyone?

[specialk1937]

Yes, I agree, if ebay doesn't see this as a wake up call then the rot will
have truly settled in!

[wanni88]

Sadly ive asked to have my account closed after six years of using ebay 

I changed over from private seller to biz and i was no longer able to print of labels to post had to refund 4 people and had bad feedback which ebay said they would remove in two hours which they have not 

on top of this the fees after changing were massive should be a flat fee per listing instead making it fair for all people no matter what type of account you have 

Im now looking at other companys which is a shame as the ebay app is so simple to use 

Be well All 

[hayes1645]

Wishing you the best of luck.

[majorgates]

I'm a private seller and my sales have completely stopped since 4th February! Surely can't be just a coincidence! 🙄 I haven't even had any more of my items watched and my views are even going down! Worst decision eBay has made and I've been using eBay for nearly 25 years!!! I noticed there is an option to promote your listing for a percentage fee of the sale. I expect they must be using some algorithms to prevent people from viewing private seller listings so we are forced to choose the promote listing option! 🤬😡

[andha-21]

They offered me a £15 voucher against promotion fees but I'm not going to use it. 

Never used their promotion system before and still did okay, not about to help them with a fake unnecessary revenue stream now.

[hayes1645]

Don't fall for it!!

[lyndylooops]

I suspect blocking private listings from searches is exactly what ebay are
doing. As I mentioned before their SEO both on their own internal search
engine and on Google et al has always been woefully flaky butve checking
recently (as I'm selling some of my rareish/niche books etc) they haven' t
been found on either ebays own search or Google,Safari etc. EVEN USING
EXACT WORD MATCHES and KEYWORDS (INC LONGTAIL) IN LISTING TITLES,
DESCRIPTION OR ITEM SPECIFICS!!!! Instead, unrelated results- presumably
from business sellers or paid for promotions show up. My background is in
SEO. Not charging to list and sell is a ridiculous business model;
previous system seemed fair enough. Penalising buyers for the privilege
instead lacks any intelligence! As does the new ridiculous accounting which
would be impossible to justify to HMRC if you were lucky enough to go over
the threshold for business sales and is also unlawfully witholding client
funds. Gross incompetence or deliberate sabotage? ... Etsy SEO heaps
better tho customer service isn't great and lots of scam emails. Instead of
stealing Vinted business Ebay have shot themselves in the foot and pushed
them and other competitors right back up the polls again! And are driving
sellers and buyers alike back towards face to face selling which in the
long run would be a good thing!

[parsley2003]

Just had a message my sales have fallen by 70%. Wow what a surprise maybe it's because of the mess Ebay have created and i took everything off. Now some back on mainly to test what's going on with this SD rubbish and i've sold a bit. So i get wonderful advice how to powerlist, nothing new is going to be listed on here 

[clarkey1964]

I have removed every item and will be going else where 

[embicycle]

Mine have dropped 94% and soon to be 100 , I fear 


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[rosslee21]

Hi Maggi I agree with what you are saying.  Sales are very slow indeed and only since new changes on 4th February.    I do think that Ebay are slowly but surely trying to get rid of private sellers.   HMRC asking for nat. ins. number.    Can't do anything on Ebay until you relent and give this detail.   I had to furnish the detail yesterday but I am now taking items off Ebay with a view to closing Ebay in four weeks time.  The increase in sellers closing their Ebay Accounts is significant but if that is what Ebay wants then they will have to bear the brunt of Sellers reviews on what the are doing, especially in this very trying economic time we live in.

[rosslee21]

There may be something in what you say about time of year in selling, but this is ver nigh the end of March 2025 and it is still bad.   Ebay for private sellers is all but done.

[clarkey1964]

Once my last few items have been paid for and received, after 24 years I will be closing my account, they won't get an NI Number from me so it's check out time