Does this car still have a throttle ?

[chameleon54]

There have been many discussions over the last few years questioning whether ebay throttle sales. I was in the firm believer camp and believe my accounts achieved incredibly consistent sales month in month out. I could budget on getting a certain income each month and ebay never let me down. The flip side was It didnt matter what I did, I could not increase sales.

Now .........The throttle is definately gone from my accounts. Sales are more natural and vary month on month. If I list more stuff, I sell more stuff. If I slack out, sales fall over time. My sales have also increased quite markedly over the last few months and although still down 30% on five years ago, I believe with some effort I could once again make a full time living from ebay. Something I never thought would happen again

. I have also noticed a marked reduction in references to throttling in forum posts over the last few months.

So the question is........ Has ebay unplugged the throttle ?

[collect247]

Maybe for you and me but for others I still hear that the throttle is very much on.

[padi*0409]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

Sales are more natural and vary month on month.

So the question is........ Has ebay unplugged the throttle ?

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That might be the CS rep tapping their right foot on the floor waiting for your next call Chamo..................

[outback_blends]

Yup the throttle is definatly still working. I can go a week with no sales then get $300 in sales over 1-2 days then nothing!  I had a store and the sales just melted to almost nothing. Closed the store and sales gradualy increased to pre-store levels. 

Not sure who is steering the ebay ship but they are not very good at it! 

[chameleon54]

I have always believed there where / are two seperate systems running. One is the lights on, lights off phenomina, where sellers experience a rush of sales and then nothing, the other is true throttling where sellers sales go up and down, but end up at the average figure month in month out.

While they sound the same, I suspect they are slightly different in that with the lights on, lights off system a seller does not sell a pre-determined amount each month, but achieves a percent of total sales in a catagory. As sales within a catagory fluctuate over time, a lights on, lights off sellers total sales fluctuate to corresponding level.

With throttling, I believe throttled sellers achieve a set monthly average sales figure, regardless of whether their catagories are up or down.I suspect true throttled accounts are much less common than lights on lights off accounts. .

What you describe is more like the lights on, lights off phenomina.

I did write a complete detailed thesis on how I suspect the system works some time ago, but not sure which thread it was on now.

Of course I could be completely wrong and it might all be our imagination. Whatever the reason, somethimg has definately changed in the last few months.

[eol-products]

I do not think anything like throttling accurs but I did increase items on another account which increased sales which was around the same amount the other dropped. So between the two stores it still averages the same per month. 

[chameleon54]

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@eol-products wrote:

I do not think anything like throttling accurs but I did increase items on another account which increased sales which was around the same amount the other dropped. So between the two stores it still averages the same per month. 

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I found the same thing when I believe there was a strong chance my accounts where being throttled. The average monthly sales where based on two stores which are linked in ebays systems. As you mentioned in your post, when one store was up, the other one was down, but total sales averaged across both stores where often within 0.5% month in, month out.

Now sales vary quite considerably, depending on how much effort I put in. It has been a very noticable difference. The only thing to change is I have downgraded one store from featured to basic, started a second basic store and kept my larger store as a featured store.

I do wonder if basic stores are not throttled at all and only featured stores with a certain $ turn over or sales numbers in a catagory are throttled. If this where true, by downgrading one of my stores to basic, my total turnover for the remaining featured store may not be enough to " qualify " for throttling. Ebay certainly track of our sales by our two main catagories ( rather than total sales ) and it is this information they use to set our average comparison sales graphs on the selling page................ Coincidence ?

[*tippy*toes* · Accepted solution]

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@outback_blends wrote:

Yup the throttle is definatly still working. I can go a week with no sales then get $300 in sales over 1-2 days then nothing!  I had a store and the sales just melted to almost nothing. Closed the store and sales gradualy increased to pre-store levels. 

Not sure who is steering the ebay ship but they are not very good at it! 

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That's one of the many reasons I have not opted to open a store. All the complaints of throttling and lights on lights off over the years seem to be from store holders. I don't feel I have been a victim to that.

For me, it's as someone else said. If I put the effort in and list new items, my sales go up. If I slack off with doing eBay stuff, sales drop off. 

[everard6920]

I've always been on the fence about throttling. I have ups and downs, and then I have other months (like this month) when sales are quite steady.

April is always horrible and I dread it every year.

Around 70% of my buyers are repeat - they know where to find my store, and don't use search to find my items - so hiding me in search results wouldn't have as big of an impact on my business as it might on someone else's.

[gumardee_coins_and_banknotes]

I have no idea what is happening, but my sales have droped 50%, but this happens every year, and I place the christmas buying as the reason why. I see that many other coins sales get a lower price and there is less of certain items, like Swiss Cantons, Montenegro, Roman coins etc. So I think there are less sellers and buyers these days.