is e bay damaged beyond repair

[reasonable..robert]

question.... is e bay damaged beyond repair ?

a lot of buyers and sellers both private and business have abandoned e bay some giving up selling some have gone to vinted which is now flooded with former e bayers and some like myself have a foot in both camps.

e bay appears to have back pedaled on SD as i can still use the normal option but with a trustpilot rating of bad 1.2% and the constant sell for free ad on tv  being run has e bays quest for a larger slice of the cake damaged the platform irreprobly (apologies if i spelt this wrong) or have e bay any intrest at all in trying to reverse its disasterous decisions and try and get members back.

[edwardian-dreams]

Always after the small people 

don’t have the guts to go for the big ones 

they’re all the same 

[akemp1]

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@edwardian-dreams wrote:

Thought she was after growth not constriction 

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Letting in a flood of cheap China-2-consumer imports does more to harm the UK economy than what little benefit it provides. A lot of the traditional methods of measuring economic progress are now broken in that they are not serving to improve people's lives and address their concerns so IMHO it's time that a government took a step back and had a proper think about what kind of country we want to end up with in 5, 10 or even 50 years times and therefore what kind of steps we should take now to achieve that.

Taking this back on topic if ebay want to stay relevant in this country they need to have a think about how their activities aligns with what the people want to achieve. Becoming a bad and expensive copy of other marketplaces does nothing to contribute to society and is unlikely to keep people using the site long term.

[edwardian-dreams]

I was thinking more of small supplies for very small fledgling businesses not flooding the uk with Chinese tat…the Chinese make good stuff too btw 

now their 135 and under tariff free orders  are going to cost a lot more..not sure how much more 

I thought Labour were all for encouraging business 

reeves obviously smelt trumps cologne here imo 

sorry didn’t answer your post properly ..economics makes my brain melt

half of it is utter rubbish the rest not even scientific…Jmho

anyway we’ve gone way off topic sorry

[magpiecorner1]

Good points.

Except......

Parrto's Principle of 80/20 has been confirmed by eBay in one instance, 80% of sales on eBay are new goods.

They have never stated that that 80% of their earnings come from new businesses.

Nor have they stated any individual turnovers, much less a list of the biggest sellers.

There are lists out there though, only yesterday I saw one which had the 100 biggest eBay sellers, based on feedback (which is very obviously linked to sales but not turnover).

Every seller in the top ten sell used items.  Every one!  Some sales will be vintage and some will be car boot (I spent many years buying and selling high value good quality vintage at car boots btw).

Music magpie is one, and they, apparently, sold £32 million worth of second hand goods on eBay in the 10 years to 2022.  And they aren't even in the top spot.

I really can't see eBay considering losing a major chunk of their income, and their USP, anytime soon.

I do think private sellers are a headache though, between the new reporting regulations and the fact that private sellers are not even a thing in the United States.  Now they are up against Vinted, which they have copied - and will be probably gobsmacked that there is any resistance at all to the BPF, cos that's how Vinted do it.  Vinted MAY be an issue for eBay if the business seller platform takes off, but they will be shaking their heads at this reaction by private sellers.

I am too - how is the BPF a problem?  Whilst it is adversely affecting very low value listings (which eBay probably do want rid of) generally income from private sales has gone up, not down because there are no seller fees.

And people have been buying postage from eBay for eons, only logical that they stick their nose in here, it's a money maker.

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EBay will only revisit this if it hugely adversely affects sales.  They might, because private sellers are the guinea pigs here, because they will be pondering BPF and simple delivery for business sellers.  But eBay have sailed through bigger storms than this one.  Anyone remember the introduction of fees on postage?

[wellingnorth]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

I am too - how is the BPF a problem?  Whilst it is adversely affecting very low value listings (which eBay probably do want rid of) generally income from private sales has gone up, not down because there are no seller fees.

Personally I would rather have seller fees than BPF, but my guess that one of the reasons ebay introduced it was because of sellers new to ebay listing an item for £20 and then surprised when they only received £17.50. So now you do get exactly what you list an item for (like V*nted), but for existing ebay sellers this is frustrating because they are used to listing an item for what they expect it to sell for. The way the BPF is implemented it is not easy to see what the price shown to buyers is on the listing page or even in active listings in My Ebay. And the upshot is that the search results are full of listings at odd prices. For me it looks weird, odd prices like this always previously indicated international listings and a currency conversion. I would guess that may be hitting sales, but that it is really just a hunch and only ebay will know that.

I was talking to a casual ebay buyer recently about the buyer fee and they commented that they had noticed the odd prices but hadn't understood why - as far as I can see the only mentions of buyer fees are after you get to the bid / buy pages.  I feel like some of these issues could be solved with different implementation. For example on the listing page you could let the seller set the amount they want to receive OR the amount the buyer could pay. Then in search results / listings on V*nted it's a lot clearer with a fee breakdown shown at every stage, but I suppose if they did that here you'd have private listings with the fee and business listings without which might look confusing and also make buyers wonder what the point is if you get the same protections for both. I'm not sure what the solution is there.

Simple delivery has similar issues I think -  with the implementation it's not clear to buyers which carrier is used, etc and for sellers could do with some sort of post order process to combine orders, adjust package size / weights, etc, as far as I can see it's not integrated into the bulk selling tools either.  Plus if the postage rates were cheaper people might actively want to use it and there'd be less need to mandate it. I feel like overall it's a bigger change than something like fees on postage because it's closing the platform down more, for me ebay's USP was it's flexibility and it's a move away from that. 

[jil_3862]

Yes, the current round of changes do seem massive. And they've been dropped in such quick succession, I can see why it feels overwhelming for some sellers.

But having been here since 2001 there is a great feeling of deja vue here. There have been many changes that have brought on wails of "it's the end of ebay", "I'm leaving", etc.

And yet, ebay are still going, still growing (if rather more slowly). You either roll with the punches and adapt, or you find another venue. Losing a few thousand members here and there means nothing to a giant like ebay, we are all easily replaceable.

[eastern-lights]

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@crafty_cat_lover wrote:

I've never paid for visibility and have no intention of doing so, but don't have a problem with lack of sales. Some of the items I've sold over the last three months have been newly listed, others have been listed for a while. It actually makes no difference to me as I'm clearing some of my late mum's stuff as well as trying to do a bit of de-cluttering of my own so I 'm not really concerned how long things take to sell.

I'm a private seller and Ebay is certainly not useless to me.

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Same here. I have never paid to promote listings. Stuff sells sooner or later if the price and condition are right.

[closetothedee]

Bearing in mind that the forums are full of complaints from disgruntled sellers and  buyers and that there has been a distinct lack of acknowledgement from eBay managers that the system as it stands is unfit for purpose, then the answer to the question is definitely YES 

If I was the Chief Executive I’d be reading the riot act to the managers responsible for designing and rolling out simple delivery and I’d be questioning the business acumen of the team who approved it. Think what you will about Marks & Spencer but its Chief Executive was very  quick to put out a public apology for recent computer issues and outline steps that had been in put place to minimise disruption.   To save anyone who thinks eBay is doing a good job pointing out to me  that this is a completely different sort of issue, I do know this  to be true, but it surely  highlights a willingness on their part to accept responsibility for things that have gone wrong and the need to provide clear advice to customers which is sorely lacking in eBay’s management.  
Where are they all I wonder?.    I’d like to think they’ve gone back to the drawing board,  and that in  view of their keenness to embrace Artificial Intelligence they’ll be taking  note of what it advises when management becomes aware of an issue.    So far they are down at the first hurdle because they haven’t even acknowledged that a problem exists.  No one likes to admit they’re wrong but sometimes needs must and my view is that they can’t afford to wait much longer. 

[theelench]

"But, once things calm down, ebay will still be the biggest and best marketplace for most buyers and sellers."

Isn't that only true because of ebay's  Unique Selling Point  --  its unique combination of businesses selling new goods and private sellers selling in the Boot-Fair / Collectables market?

Ebay doesn't come anywhere near amazon when it comes to new goods.

In my area of vintage glass and most other areas of collectables that I look at, etsy overtook ebay in listing numbers years ago.

Look at what happened to "Ebay Express" when it tried to stand alone as the Ebay New Goods outlet  -- it failed and had to be re-attached to the World Wide Boot Fair to survive.

Look at ebid.  Its survived for a couple of decades mainly on sales of low value collectables like stamps and postcards.  At intervals over the last ten years ebay sellers (mainly business sellers) have declared on these boards that it's a "Waste of time and effort" because "Nothing ever sells there", but mainly private sellers have been happily buying and selling to each other with little help from businesses to keep the site afloat.  

As ebay has progressively turned its back on the boot fair my sales over there have increased, as has its popularity.  In 3/23 I jotted down their total listing number while looking at how GS worked  --  just over 3.6M.  Today that number is over 4.9M.

I doubt that's because businesses are flocking to the site 🤞.  They are just some of ebay's lost private sellers.  More are leaving for etsy, amazon and FB every day.

Where will it find replacements for the patient long-term sellers it is losing who have put up with years of insult, injury and the outright sabotage of their sales?

I doubt they will find many among the "I want it now" generation that ebay and amazon has fostered.  So where will ebay and its business sellers be without its USP and its unique balance of business and private sellers is lost?

[vinylscot]

You've become far more negative of late.

The death of eBay has been predicted many times on these forums. While I acknowledge you're not going that far, 1.3 million listings (listings that is, not sellers) on another site is a drop in the ocean, even assuming, as you do, that these are lost eBay listings.

I've said this often before. You would be naive to think eBay doesn't have this whole situation gamed out in minute detail to cover for every potential scenario, from greatly increased volume (if the changes went down well, LOL), right down to a massive exodus of sellers and/or buyers. They will have plans for how to react in each scenario, should that scenario arise, and they will adapt if they feel they need to, not if you (or any other individual) feel they need to.

You mean nothing to eBay. Neither do I. There are very few individual sellers who do, and not enough will act to really make any difference.

You might not like what eBay is doing, but they know what they are doing. Maybe they don't want to be an online flea market any more. New buyers and sellers are always coming on board, and, in the main, those who leave won't be missed. 

[crn303]

PLEASE NOTE … eBAY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

YOU HAVE NO PROOF OF THAT STATEMENT !

[vinylscot]

Of course eBay know what they are doing. They may not be doing it very well, or to your liking, but they know what they're doing.

[theelench]

Yes, 1.3M listings is a drop in the ocean to ebay but it's a 30% increase on ebid in 2 years. 

Two years in which ebay has tightened the screws making selling increasingly dependent on Sponsorship for visibility.  Replaced all the old categories in favour of IS, wrecking the ability of buyers to search effectively for the collectables they're looking for.  Increased payment holds generally and now made them compulsory.  Now the (visible) BPF and (what looks to me so far) as the systematic overcharging of private seller's buyers for delivery.  Lastly (as a glass seller) the frightening prospect that SD is set-up so badly that even if a buyer wants to exclude one carrier (evri) it's so vague that they can easily end up ticking "Standard" and getting their appalling 'service'.

Ebay might have gamed every eventuality, but are they necessarily correct?  They regularly get the number of UK bank holidays over Christmas and New Year wrong, although they are in the £1 diary I buy every year.  We're still suffering from the inadequacies of the IS maze and after several years of trying with their very own proprietary calculation, could not get their delivery guesswork to work properly.

The unique combination that made ebay what it is and was fundamental to ebays success in the past is being undermined, alienating the sellers who made the mixture work.  I think expecting to replace them with the "I want everything now" generation, who will want instant sales, quick payouts and consistently decent results for their efforts is skating on thin ice, to say the least. 

That a virtually unknown site has grown by a third in 2 years does, I think, show the depth of the negativity that surrounds ebay these days and I don't think that trying to recruit a new generation that knows no better will reverse that.

[vinylscot]

You still don't really get it.

Very few people are happy with these changes, but eBay is big enough to make the rules, and everyone else can either follow their rules or leave. Their implementation and communication does leave a lot to be desired - I'll give you that.

Bottom line - if it doesn't suit you any more, move on. eBay will survive perfectly well without you. 

It's completely irrelevant that it isn't what it used to be. Very few things are.

They have already thought of everything you're bringing up. None of it is news to them.

[theelench]

Oh I do get it and I have moved on, to the other site which is still something like how ebay was.  At least from the point of view that sellers should be left alone to do their own thing provided they don't get complaints from buyers and bring the site into disrepute.

Evidently they still make a profit on their shoe-string operation, but they don't seem to want to compete with amazon and rule the world.

I'm only hanging about to see how this chapter ends and (perhaps) guide a few refugees to where they (might) be happier.   

[mawels_87]

Why does eBay for buyers only have the 3 offers policy on making an offer? So many times when making offers potential sales go completely  dead because of this. And can never go back to a the previous counter offer the seller made. This just doesn't happen in real life like when making offers in a car dealership. And this surely doesn't happen when using Vinded. You can always go back too a sellers previous offer if they decline a new offer.  I often feel here it's a waste of time having the offer button on eBay as it's so restrictive.

[superchallenge]

Because if you had unlimited offers, the buyers would offer you £1 for your £20 item that sells all day for £20. You'd counter at £15. They'd offer £1.10. You'd stand firm at "only" giving them 25% off at £15 for absolutely no reason other than they asked. They'd offer £1.20. You'd counter at £15. They'd offer £1.30....then £1.40...then £1.50...and it would go on forever.

Most chancers don't roll into their local Ford dealership and offer to pay 5% of the sticker price on the off-chance that the dealer is either stupid or desperate. On eBay though, they absolutely would...and do.

[mawels_87]

So many times I've made offers on eBay and can't go back to a previous reasonable offer a seller made, so walk away every time. So many times offers are auto declined using up all the 3 offers limit, so walk away every time. So many times I've made an offer for it to auto decline, so try messaging the seller to agree an offer. So then once agreed I then make the agreed offer for it to auto decline yet again, so end up with no more offer limit, and end up going in circles, or yet again walk away. As a sensible buyer I find buying on eBay so much hard work and just often don't bother as Vinted I have none of this unnecessary hassle as the offer system works well for buyers and sellers. I buy most used items from Vinted now because eBay have far to many barriers to buying. I often feel eBay doesn't want to sale anything.

[tressygirl]

If your offers are being auto declined,  that is because you are not offering enough,  the seller has set a minimum amount they will consider, less than that,  and it's auto declined.

After 3 offers declined no point asking and agreeing with the seller an ' offer ' price that option is now not open for you,  for that item.  If they do agree,  ask them then to change the starting price of the Buy it Now to the price agreed, you can then buy from that BIN link,  and pay straight away.

@mawels_87 

[mawels_87]

Yes I know all this, but its all unnecessary hassle the leads to so many potential sales going completely dead. It's happening so many times that it has become not worth making offers on eBay anymore. I've been using Vinted for about two years and potential sales rarely go dead. My purchases on eBay in about the last two years have gone from about 100s too almost about 0 since. I have been using Vinted as the offer system there is user friendly and very really leads the dead sales. I've purchased 100s of item on Vinted without any hassle. I guess this is why Vinted has been doing so well.