No sales SEPTEMBER -OCTOBER 2024

[atozstopandshop]

Hello all.

Starting this subject as currently I am getting about 1/2 sales per day. 
In July-August(literally when almost everyone is in holiday)I had many daily sales with an low inventory,roughly 50 -90 listings. I had decided In September to expand my Inventory and I went up to 800 listings.
Guess what? Now I am getting about 2 sales/day.
I had adjusted my inventory,and most of the listings has at least 30 wiews/month.
My STR went down to about 1.5 from 4.5.
Could anyone share any advices on that? What can I do?

Thanks in advance to all of you.

[robbtyke132010]

Everybody ( & their mother) are sitting on their hands right now - sales seem well down for everyone. I am thinking of setting up a group session - EBay Anonymous.....

[atozstopandshop]

Very very strange and weird. Especially that at this times nobody is going holiday,trips,etc.

Wheather is very bad and everyone was supposed to get plenty orders during this times. 😞

[sweetnothings009]

no sales in 3 weeks.... something is off.

[cobwebcottage]

Buyers are becoming very wise to sellers who are registered as 'private' sellers with no returns when it is obvious that they are trading and should be complying with consumer law.

[vvvintagevilla]

I am selling on ebay for 9 years now with a 1000+ inventory. Generally sales are slowing since 2023 extremely due to a migration of sellers to other platforms as the fees ( sales fees and promoted listing) are eating up 30% of the sales price and you can purchase and sell with less fees elsewhere. Thats the general comment.

I made in August and September great sales however agree that this October 2024 is dreadfully slow compared to any other October of the last decade. Apparently the downwards trend is now hitting the Christmas season too.

[probi9246]

This is the worst it's ever been for me on here, basically since the no fees for private sellers came in. I'm guessing eBay's algorithm is pushing the influx of new sellers to the fore at the expense of sellers who are already on the platform. That or there is just more choice for buyers so that leads to less sales.

I sell vinyl records, some of which no other sellers in the UK are selling, and some of the other ones I have on are the best priced ones I can find on here.

Ironically I'm probably buying more stuff than I ever have on here. I searched for a particular record last week and seen a lot of UK sellers selling it, when I searched for it again recently the list was a lot shorter. Basically a lot of results that should have been coming up weren't, I had to jump through some hoops to try to find the records I saw in the previous search I did, using exactly the same search criteria.

[rikk-003]

ebay search dosnt work 
you sued to be able to look at an item 
be in that catagory and refine your search 
you cant do that now 
you cant refine or research in a catagory 
all you can do is traul through25000 random listings 
not time friendlt at all 
latest thing i bought day 1- still not dispatched ???
i started using etsy 50/50 they now accept paypal
still a lot of junk on their and gazumpers but i just avoid them
i sent an offer for a light in  email when listed as make me an offer 
no reply ...
you cant use make an offer as ebay forces you to enter details 
you can ask the seller to turn things of but i have adhd and cant be bothered keep asking and get no reply
saw a video on youtube sellers are buying cheep *bleep* on temu and relisting 4 on ebay
ebay needs to stop this happening 
there is much more 
but ebay dosnt seem to like buyers or  sellers 
i used to buy every day but cant find stuff now its 1 a week 
i am not affected by cost of living i have money and single so buy what i want 
but ebay dosnt help by breaking the website
 

[triple512]

It doesn't help that once "trade only wholesale" auction houses that used to sell mixed pallets of goods are now happy to sell to the general public, online and in single item lots...!

People that once came here to buy say a designer kettle that may have a minor handling mark but is essentially a failed delivery or warehouse damaged box item (basically brand new) but discounted accordingly to say 75% of the RRP, can now just go direct themselves without having to buy in high quantities and will save anything from 40-70% of the list price.

Sure you need to be wary and there are no guarantees, but we've seen prices at these auctions soar recently thanks to more and more private buyers purchasing items for themselves.

[factorysmile]

same here the worst months ever in ebay history. 2, 3 sales a day . Im not sure what' s happening with ebay.

other platforms are doing brilliant. 

[sweetnothings009]

not a business, a collector of gems and jewellery items for 29 years.

[cobwebcottage]

And all of them suspiciously brand new items. 

[mickelwhite3]

you are confused ......  they are classed as new if purchased and kept in boxes. Of all my listings some are indeed more than 10 years old and others more. If I purchase items from a certain jewellery company I keep tags on... however you will also find that my items are NOT all from the same source. I have been a collector of gemstones and jewellery items for nearly 29 years and my family were silversmiths. You have no idea.

[cobwebcottage]

Another private account too? How many do you need to sell your new goods on?

[myriad*seller]

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@atozstopandshop wrote:
Hello all.

Starting this subject as currently I am getting about 1/2 sales per...

---

I wouldn't worry, eBay will report their sales from all accounts to HMRC in January, so it is HMRC they will have to argue with, about whether they are trading as a business on a number of accounts. They have more than passed the reporting threshold.  If HMRC deem them to be trading, they will look at previous years sales, and whether they filed a tax return. 

HMRC fined 184000 people for not filing a tax return even though they did not owe any tax. Its a £100 fine for not filing this year, and £300 fine for every previous year they failed to complete a Self Assessment, EVEN if they do not owe any tax. 

 

@atozstopandshop

[sweetnothings009]

you do not appear to be listening.

[sweetnothings009]

I thought this forum was to be helpful .... not spiteful and insulting. 

[555njp]

A lot of people are dreading the budget today. Most are likely to be a lot worse off once it's delivered?

Regarding HMRC, yes it'll rid the site of some illegal traders but I think most by now, whilst still breaching trading laws will likely be correctly registered for tax.

EBay's current advertising campaign is pushing the free to sell thing and encouraging private sellers to sell more. I suspect this is just flooding the site but I do wonder how long it'll be before those new/returning accounts end up with HMRC all over them and disappear again?

Despite eBay's denial, if the rumour mill and reports on other threads are true, it would seem all private selling is soon to be limited to about £1000/yr.?

I suspect this is more to do with closing the GPSR compliance loophole than appeasing us business sellers though, plus it'll only work if individuals are limited to one private account.

If eBay is to survive as a market place, they really need to go back to basics. The search needs to work without manipulation and the whole promoted listings thing needs to stop.

I was trying to buy something the other day and the description wouldn't load because of the promoted stuff loading all over the listing making it almost impossible to buy it.

[rikk-003]

sorry i have adhd
no idea how to get back to where i was
i unfolded one reply in google but dont know how

[myriad*seller]

eBay fined 184000 people recently for failing to complete a self assessment tax return even though they owed NO tax as they earned under the personal tax allowance but did earn over £1000 a year.

HMRC are going to be overrun with all the new people they have to track and trace and issue fines to on the online sites like eBay, Vinted, eBid etc! 

Apparently it is £100 fine for late (or no) filing in the current year, and then they look back at previous years, and those fines are £300 per year. Plus interest if you actually owe any tax.

To be clear this is for people with a trading income over £1000 but below the tax threshold, so they did not owe any tax, but they failed to complete a self assessment tax return to prove they owed no tax! 

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jun/26/hmrc-fined-184000-low-earners-for-not-filing-return-de...