Private sellers getting little interest from buyers?

[welshjester]

What's going on with eBay? I have excess stuff - luckily most of it I've gotten rid of over the past couple of years, I still have a bit more to go, mix of used & new items.

I've noticed though that some of my things get 0/low views and then when I check recently sold listings of the same or similar things that I'm trying to sell some people are paying at least £5+ more for the same item (like https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226875321642) from business sellers, and I even added an extra item to go with this example.

Anyone know what's going on? Poor visibility for private sellers or something? Last few months has been garbage for trying to sell almost anything, even if lowering the price to silly levels.

[honeymonster007]

With regards to slow sales how long do people like to leave a listing before reviewing it/them.

Tend to leave them for around the 30 day mark here and think about the price, description, is this item desirable ect but wounder if that's to short of a time. 

Do people just list an item and just leave it until it sells? or have a time scale when its time to call it a day with a listing?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Ebay should go back to those roots.  Shut at least 50% of the businesses in every category, so that it can put a lot of effort into stopping the rampant criminality that goes with businesses.  That means whether buying, selling, auctioning, faking and VAT and other tax and fee evading.

It is exactly what you said.  I suggest that you read it!

Getting rid of a criminal element, is not the same of arbitrarily getting rid of half the business sellers!

[technthread]

After 2-4 weeks if something here isn’t even getting views I pull it and list on another platform. That can work well, I may shuffle it across a few platforms before it comes back here. If it doesn’t work, once I’ve given up on it I usually end up re-listing on eBay with a promoted listing % of at least 10%.

One of the things I read a lot on the forums is people are loyal to one platform and won’t do this even if nothing is selling.

[ruby*ryan]

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@honeymonster007 wrote:

With regards to slow sales how long do people like to leave a listing before reviewing it/them.

Tend to leave them for around the 30 day mark here and think about the price, description, is this item desirable ect but wounder if that's to short of a time. 

Do people just list an item and just leave it until it sells? or have a time scale when its time to call it a day with a listing?

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I don't usually leave any of my listings for more than the 30 days, most will get ended and put back on (sell similar) or rested for a while, around the 17-20 day mark. 
I did recently try leaving on an item that was fairly rare on for over 30 days, but the viewing numbers were dropping, so I ended and did sell similar.
Because I am only selling stuff I no longer need, I do often drop the price when it goes back on - I figure a couple of quid is better than the zero I am going to get from the charity shop/skip, or 50p from the boot sale!

[ankocat]

I've had similar problems to most on this thread, but there is something fishy going on in with the site regards to visibility now that they've monetised it. It might not be intentional but for example, say you're selling something at £5, everyone else is selling it at £6. If you search "Price & PP Low To High" you'll probably be in the middle or bottom of the search page instead of at the top, with many people selling at £6 with higher postage costs in front of you.

A personal recent example is, I'm selling trading cards from 5 different sets (so 5 listings) I ended up getting a whole bunch of orders close together last month, all from different people on just ONE of the five, which can only mean the site accidentally showed people that listing by accident and none of the others, it's so weird.

[gatefittingsdirect]

Very quiet July so far for us on eBay, website is still doing fine though, although without the eBay fees, the website prices are approximately 15% less. Could be people just being more careful on prices and going elsewhere like Amazon etc. 

[48484]

You sum it all up absolutely so well.   Yes , ebay forgets there is a world outside that doesn't involve a computer screen load and the load of  hassle that sometimes comes with it

[johnwash1]

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@theelench wrote:

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@edwardian-dreams wrote:

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...

Just my opinion as a pensioner but in March / April last year I had Notice of Coding on my two  (small) private works pensions.

Due to increases in the State Pension I'd reached the point where I started getting (after tax) less in my bank than I did the year before, despite index linking increases.

I also do a (2 hour a day) part-time job where from having a Tax Code from what was left of my Tax Allowance, I went onto BR code.  So again my (minimum wage) pay rise was all but wiped out.

I'm probably not the only one that is seeing less going to their bank each month due to the insidious effect of frozen Tax Thresholds, although in total I am just less better off.

...

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I'm really puzzled by that.  Taxation doesn't normally have a negative slope.  Maybe you're on some other benefits which are earning related.

The BR code might be a temporary thing, and eventually you get a rebate, though that doesn't help your life right now.  https://www.taxrebates.co.uk/tax-guides/tax-codes/br-tax-code/

[technthread]

I’m on eBid and have sold nothing.

I tried Depop but stopped after they changed fees and postage policies.

Same with Etsy, I was useless on there, couldn’t sell a thing.

[technthread]

I just quickly tried the ISBN on one of your listings as I’m scanning books myself:

That Web TCL complete listing brought back a £0.19 offer from WeBuyBooks and £0.52 offer from SellItBack lol. It can add up though if you do batches, if the aim is to clear space I’d take offers and move things like those on if you’ve tried yourself and they don’t sell. 

[technthread]

Last one:

Professional Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 - SellItBack offer £1.27. That’s more than you’ll get on eBay after packaging costs. 

I won’t do any more 😆 but 2 out of 2 got offers 

[collectors201010]

I also took down my collectable listings and put them on sale via traditional auction house. Does ebay have a general problem with reputation of not weeding out fake products?

[johnwash1]

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@technthread wrote:

I just quickly tried the ISBN on one of your listings as I’m scanning books myself:

That Web TCL complete listing brought back a £0.19 offer from WeBuyBooks and £0.52 offer from SellItBack lol. It can add up though if you do batches, if the aim is to clear space I’d take offers and move things like those on if you’ve tried yourself and they don’t sell. 

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Many thanks.  Even those offers, if they do free post and collect from me I'd be happy.  The alternative would have been to put them in a charity book skip, which would also have been fine.  Unfortunately our local one got removed and won't be coming back.  Someone put dog poo into it.  When I'm elected Benevolent World Dictator there are people I'll line up against the wall and...

[good.karma_86]

Maybe there are just too many sellers on eBay now. Buyers are getting savvier too — many will add items to their basket or watch list, hoping to get a discount offer sent to them. I’ve even sent a seller a message about an item, and not long after, they sent me an offer.

I don’t think the cost of living is quite as limiting as some make it out to be. People are still spending — just more cautiously. They’re more selective, comparing prices, and prioritizing what they actually need. These days, when I’m looking to buy something, I check a few popular deal sites first, then a cashback site that offers instant cashback. In the past, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with that extra effort.

I’ve also noticed eBay seems to have offers running constantly — I’m not sure if that’s new or not, but as soon as one ends, another starts. So if I’ve decided I’m going to buy from eBay, I usually browse the “Deals” listings first, which I assume are mainly from business sellers.

That said, I still try to support local independent shops and charity stores whenever I can. Charity shops especially always seem to be busy — people are still out there spending, just with more intention.

[neovass0]

I know there have been many threads about buyer protection since its introduction, but as a buyer I am surprised by how much it has, maybe subconsciously, put me off buying in the last few months. You look at the purchase price, then you see the buyer protection fee highlighted, you see postage fees then on top. It feels less of a bargain price in a way, and I don't know why, lol. I would rather fees for private sellers was never scrapped. Back then, you'd see a listing and think, well they have to pay fees, etc and the price is probably fair.

[gjalp]

Whereas I moved some things to ebid and got sales

[gjalp]

Since the change in BPF, Im now selling again. I sell mostly items under £2 (and custom delivery).

As a business, we launched a website this month and sales have taken us by surprise. Regular buyers are ditching our ebay listings in favour of our website. We wasn’t expecting that! I think ebay has brought in a general malaise and both private sellers and small businesses are worn out by all the changes. 

[aj8]

I am having the same problem. After April this spring virturally no one is buying anything even when someone ticked an item, gave a discount but that interested person didn't come back to buy it. Very depressing. I dont understand why Ebay had changed the set up. It's ruined my chances for selling anything.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Maybe you should consider changing your account type to a business then?

Customers will then be given their consumer rights and as a consequence, more likely to buy from you.

[suelel1968]

@honeymonster007 hi i posted this on another thread a few weeks ago, but it is working for me. I now have 7 items to post on Monday and its been a long time since that happened. My sales conversion rate is up to 1.8% from 1. 2 in about a month. Im as disillusioned as everyone else by the way, but I think sellers have to make an effort to. There was a guy moaning abour not selling some scruffy sandals the other week, he had the size and the color wrong, still has! 

“Around that time Ebay stopped fees altogether, there was alot more competition. Also, there was previously the incentive to "sell similar" to get the 70 or 80% off fees offer. When they removed this they removed the motivation to carry out this this task. So anyone who didn't continue to relist (sell similar) will have found themselves pushed down the search list to a place where people rarely bother to scroll. There have been occasions when i have searched on my exact title and still couldn't find it. I carried on with SS each month for items with no views. And every other month for items with views and my sales conversion rate stayed high at 2.8%

In Feb we got BPF, which put prices up, i adjusted them down.

In April, i added postage on without reducing price so that when the big Simple delivery change over happened i wouldn't pick up the higher postage rates expected. And I waited and waited an nothing changed over to SD . I didn't want to change prices untill the change over was finished and my Sales conversation rate tumbled. 1.2%

In June, I reduced prices back to what they were, did SS on those items which I know postage was exempt from SD and the sales started to come back. I can't do it for all items as some will convert to SD and become pointless.

I also started listing more items which are exempt or for which SD prices are appropriate. I think the algorithm liked that to. Sales are going up, views are good. 

I always send small offers to those that "watch". I review sold prices rather than listed prices to set my price. There's a long way to go to 2.8% but I'm a nerd who follows the statistics and i think I am winning in the always difficult summer months."