@theelench wrote:
Just a couple of questions which I'm genuinely interested to see your answers to.
First question. Why did ebay, consistently over several years, always recommend that my auction start price should be 99p ?
Second question. Having failed to get a bid at (say) £15, did ebay recommend that I re-list (as BIN) that I reduce my price by £x to (say) £12. when it could see that I had some history of selling for the original asking price?
Why was ebay trying to reduce my value to ebay by consistently under-valuing my sort of collectables? Especially when I was often trying to sell something that had sold on ebay 100 times before, giving them a sales record of that item achieving prices of around my £15 asking price?
I don't know, boss. I don't work for eBay. I would imagine they had some sort of statistical analysis from tens of millions of transactions that suggested unsold items in general have a chance of selling second time around if they're relisted at a lower price. And while you can see that a specific item has sold 100 times at £15 in the past because you know the market, depending on the item, it could be tough for a computer algorithm to see it. Especially if it's some sort of collectable that doesn't have a UPC/barcode that would allow direct comparison.
@theelench wrote:
You say: "And which anger business sellers.... because they're sick of trying to get visibility for their items among broken teapots...etc."
Not so in the area of collectables I'm into, where most auctions are from private sellers, giving business sellers ample opportunity to re-stock cheaply when they foolishly followed ebay's advice. It's also noticeable that businesses are able to buy themselves to the top of P.1 of the results by sponsoring their listings, which most private sellers do not do, they rely solely on the quality of their listings for visibility.
Not sure why that's "noticeable", but it's a fact that any seller, business or private, can promote their listings. Same way that you can pay to "bump" your listings or your entire profile over on the other site that people are apparently flocking to.
@theelench wrote:
You say: "That isn't my opinion on visibility... you only have to look around to see that's the consensus."
Yes, it's the consensus of you and other business sellers.
I'll cut you off there. If I directly say "this is not my opinion" then that is very much what I mean. I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't then tell me that I said that it was my opinion. Thank you.
@theelench wrote:
You and they ignore or down-play any other views, usually citing ebays growing aversion to low value 'tat'. But until ebay wrecked it, collectables was not so low value, it was a continuously thriving market for 20 years or more.
Again, I'm not downplaying anything. I. Do. Not. Agree. With. The. Changes. Made. How many times?
I sell collectables - usable ones, sure, but still collectables. I sell between about £9 and £300, and my sales are up 29.1% over the last 31 days. Tastes change. Maybe people are buying less stamps and model trains these days and that's why some people's sales are down. Maybe next month my sales will be down 29%. I don't know. But I wouldn't say that markets in general are massively affected by changes in eBay's policies. Which are changes - to clarify - with which I DO NOT AGREE.
@theelench wrote:
Who will be the first suffer when the dust settles? The businesses that also thrive in that market as their buyers disappear to sell elsewhere.
Maybe. But then again, Amazon seems to do alright when most people don't even know you can sell on there. My local Pets at Home does alright without having an area where you can sell your dog. I can't flog a half-used tube of toothpaste at Boots, but they don't seem to be going anywhere.
People will buy from wherever has the thing they want, at the price they want. It's why so many scam sites appear every other day and so many people get drawn in blindly because they think they're saving a couple of quid. Price drives 90% of purchase intent. There are people that actively HATE Amazon, who will whine and moan about Bezos and all manner of other things, then still go and buy from them if they need something next day and can't be bothered to go to the high street. Why would eBay be any different? Are we saying that somebody will go and sell an item on Vinted for £5, see an item they want on eBay that's going for a fiver when it's usually worth £15, and then not buy it out of principle?
Come on, now.
@theelench wrote:
Finally, have you talked to anyone who isn't an ebay seller recently?
I suggest you do, at my workplace, my local pub, friends, neighbours, and relatives very, very few have bought anything on ebay recently. I myself looked to buy three (non-collection related) items last year. Two I found cheaper elsewhere. The third, a diary (in May or June) I did buy because I couldn't find one anywhere else was still double the price I paid in December on the High St., even after the Business seller sent me an offer.
Yes, I have. They regularly buy from eBay if they're looking for collectables, and the only question they have when it comes to getting rid of something is "Is it too big to post?" If it is, it goes on Facebook Marketplace. If it isn't, they list it on eBay. One tried Vinted to get rid of some clothes in January, and I genuinely don't know how it went. Hasn't said anything about it since, so take that how you will.
@theelench wrote:
Without all us tat sellers you're going to find selling anything a lot harder than it was when we were cluttering up your site.
I don't recall saying anything was tat.
If you want to call it that, that's up to you.
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