topic Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform? in Selling

Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

max-power-models — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 20:41:46 GMT

Sad reading through all these seller posts, low sales, manged payment systems. ZERO support from ebay. I stopped selling on this joke years ago. No fees, no frauds. No goal post getting changed all the time, no jumping through hoops. No Stress. Enjoy.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

chameleon54 — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 22:17:16 GMT

Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

Why am I still selling here ?

Despite its many faults, eBay is still the best gig in town when it comes to running a small online business. It still has one of the largest global audiences for used items and despite constant changes is relatively easy to use. Its possible to get listing times down to four minutes including taking photos for generic items and posting and packing is simple using eBay systems.

I have tried a couple of other online sites recently including two of the most commonly mentioned ( one of which was or is owned by eBay ) as well as professional B & M auction rooms and ebay leaves them in its dust for time spent on each transaction, sales results and costs. ( High profile B & M auctions charge 21% commission )

I recently offered half a dozen high quality items at the prestigious two night end of year auction with one of the major B & M auction rooms. Only one sold and that at the low end, reserve price. I put two of the other unsold items up for auction on ebay a week later and they both sold first round to international clients. The others will be put up for auction on ebay early next year.

As for the future ? I,ve recently had an unsolicited offer for my near city farm which is too good to refuse, so I might have a lot more time on my hands soon. Never thought I would say it, but spending more time poking around the op shops and garage sales looking for items to sell on ebay is starting to look like a good way to fill in the day.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

springyzone — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 23:07:28 GMT

Congratulations, chameleon, on the sale of the farm. I guess it is probably a bit bittersweet as you seem to have enjoyed the farming experience but it sounds as if you are excited about the future, too.

Max power models, I guess people sell on whatever venue works for them. I imagine every business has its ups and downs, even B & M shops during covid. And quite possibly quite a few sellers here sell on more than one venue, so they'd be in a position to make a valid comparison.

A lot might depend on what items you're selling too.

What platforms do you sell on? I've tried (as a very casual seller) to sell a few bits and pieces in the past on marketplace and it was extremely stressful compared to ebay. I probably underpriced the items but I was hassled by non stop messages and people expecting instant replies, as well as trying top barter me down further. Plus you get time wasters who say they'll turn up and don't. I don't sell on ebay now but in comparison I remember my ebay selling time as relatively peaceful and orderly. I knew when something was sold and paid for and all I had to do was post it off.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

paper-jack — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 23:25:42 GMT

You wonder why people are still selling on ebay? One fairly obvious answer is that many people, including yourself, are still buying online via ebay.

As a buyer I turn to ebay for items I need and can't find elsewhere and for items I want and there is an ebay seller with the best price.

As a seller of handmade items I have found ebay to be the cheapest and easiest online option. Fees? yes, but not as high as commission taken by craft shops, and they can be factored into the price.

For the service provided, ebay's fees and the managed payment system are quite reasonable when compared with waiting a month or more for payment from a craft shop (that takes 35% commission). Thankfully my ebay customers have consistently been genuine and not caused problems. Perhaps because they value buying from a local (as in Australian) craftsperson.

That is why I am still selling on this platform.

(NB my selling via this account is obviously not my handmade items. However, I do not regret selling my book collection on ebay. Far better to sell a book for a few dollars than give to an op shop to throw away.)

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

gutterpunkz05 — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 00:41:01 GMT

To make it really really simple, (but still probably not simple enough for OP to understand)

Not selling on ebay, is totally your loss

Now go and calculate how many sales, $$$, you have not made.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

sandypebbles — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 00:43:28 GMT

All I can say is, one can't be too busy with sales on this magical 'other site' if there is enough time to 'read through all those posts' on a forum where the site is a joke

Maybe it was a bon-bon joke?

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

jellybirddesigns — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 02:11:01 GMT

I'll just chime in here to say that whilst I continue to sell here as I do make some sales, I have opened up other avenues and revenue streams.

Up until late October, I just had this Ebay store and an Etsy store.

I have since diversified my product offerings completely and now I have 2 Ebay stores, 2 Etsy stores PLUS a website.

To be perfectly honest - until about 13 months ago (Nov 2020), my sales on Ebay were quite good and this shop was trending upwards, but since they implemented the new item specific requirements, my sales definitely decreased month on month until they are a fraction of what they once were. Ebay is still a worthwhile avenue for me to continue to use, as a sale is still a sale, but I will be cancelling my store subscription at the end of the month to minimise expenses.

Selling through other avenues like FB Marketplace/Gumtree is very inconsistent. Lots and lots of time wasters. You put something up, you get dozens of messages asking if still available, you reply, and never hear from these people again. Like what's the point of messaging me? It's so weird.

As for what the future holds for me on Ebay? Hard to say at this point. As long as sales come through I will still stay around.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

chameleon54 — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 05:42:45 GMT

@springyzone wrote:
Congratulations, chameleon, on the sale of the farm. I guess it is probably a bit bittersweet as you seem to have enjoyed the farming experience but it sounds as if you are excited about the future, too.

Thanks Springy, I hadnt planned on selling but with some careful investing I can probably retire on the farm price. With Covid and inflation I,m not all that convinced about the economy going forward so have decided to " take the money and run " rather than gamble on things continuing as they are. I have still got the remote farm and leased hills properties so still plenty of sheep work to do. I might even buy another cheaper farm further from the city fringes.

As for ebay, I suspect they have changed the algorythms again to place even more emphasis on account activity. The more you sell, the higher your visibilty and sales, the less you sell, the lower your visibilty resulting in a death spiral that can be hard to escape from. My busiest account is going very well while my smallest selling account is just about comatose.

Ebay has stated publicly they are moving away from what they regard as " Low value ' buyers to concentrate on those who spend many thousands of dollars on the site each year. I suspect they are also discouraging lower volume selling id's that they don't see as profitable. It costs as much to maintain a low volume selling id as a higher volume seller.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

springyzone — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 21:06:30 GMT

@jellybirddesigns wrote:
As long as sales come through I will still stay around.
---------------
I guess that is the definitive answer for Max.
People and businesses will continue to sell on ebay as long as it is profitable for them.
Profits may vary or even go down and cause some complaints, but while there is still enough profit, people will stay.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

jellybirddesigns — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 01:53:53 GMT

@Springy - exactly.

Once I cancel my store subscription in a day or two, I will have no further expenses other than selling fees, so the listings can literally just sit there until they sell, which will happen sooner or later.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

minimum_56 — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 03:04:21 GMT

You may want to 'refresh' (end & relist) your listings every couple of months as ebay may 'delete' any underperforming listings...I can't remember how long a listing can 'roll over' without a sale - but I think there is a time limit (or there used to be).

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

imastawka — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 03:40:13 GMT

I remember reading it may be 12 months before they're deleted.

Could be wrong

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

twyngwyn — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 04:17:32 GMT

Inactive listings policy | eBay

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

jellybirddesigns — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 08:37:10 GMT

Thanks for that info!

I will definitely keep an eye on the listings.

Sometimes Ebay randomly puts listings into a tab called "Unsold", even though the listing may have had a sale in the previous 12 months. I will keep a lookout for anything that ends up in there.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

digital*ghost — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 07:23:05 GMT

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I have my own website, plus the eBay store, and one more store on another site.

I favour my website above the other two for obvious reasons, and I put the bulk of my effort into building it, which is working and I've started to get overwhelmed on occasion from the volume of sales that come through all three - consequently, I've started to think about culling one of the other stores (i.e. eBay or the other one, which is also a 4-letter word starting with E and ending in Y).

Not that long ago, eBay would have been culled without second thought. The other site is more expensive, but the buyer base suits me better and weekly sales are currently a lot higher than eBay's, and I guess if turnover alone was the only thing that mattered to me, that choice would still be clear (with awareness to the fact that because I have favoured the other platform over eBay, I've actually neglected my eBay store quite a bit the last year or so, which has - I'm sure - contributed to the waning sales).

The thing is... I dislike them them both. Quite vehemently at times, but I've come to realise eBay actually doesn't have the same contempt for sellers that the other one does.

If you need to talk to CS on the other site... good luck with that. You might - if you're very, very lucky, get onto chat, but most of the time you will have to send an email and cross your fingers you get a reply that's helpful, which generally takes 2+ weeks. Meanwhile I can hop onto eBay chat and get a resolution to a problem within about 20 minutes most of the time.

Protections and other help for sellers during covid? ebay has suprised me with some of the initiatives they implemented and they continue to place visible alerts as well as extend ETAs in line with current delays. The other one? Still has 1-3 business days listed as the average delivery time for international express, and absolutely no PSAs surrounding delivery times, let alone anything like fee relief that eBay did.

Someone left you a bad review for something you mention explicitly in the description, show in photos etc? eBay will remove it within minutes, the other one? Lol, nah. They'll only remove a neg review if you're a "star seller" (and to be a star seller, you have to have a very high rate of full 5-star reviews, thus getting one dodgy review can exclude you from being able to get it removed 😆), and the review itself has to be about the postal service rather than your item. Occasionally they might remove one if feedback extortion was involved.

Need to block a problematic buyer? Here, you can prevent them from purchasing entirely. Over there, the best you can do is prevent them from following you and getting notifications about new items you list.

Don't want to pay for third party advertising? It's optional on ebay, as is on-site promotions with the other site, but not everything is, since you are permanently opted into paying for Google ads on sales at a rate of 12% of the sale total (including any VAT, GST or sales tax the site has to collect themselves) in addition to all of their other fees - this applies if you have ever turned over more than $10k USD in a 12 month period, so not only do they hurt sellers that may have had one good year several years ago, but it actively encourages sellers to stifle their own growth.

Charging parcel rates for an item? Try to ignore all the little passive-aggressive notifications that pop up on the other site, like "you are charging too much for postage, buyers sure won't like that" kind of stuff. Oh, and they seem to think US buyers are the only demographic that need catering to - so much so that they've introduced initiatives catering exclusively to US buyers that will hurt your search ranking (to US buyers) if you don't implement them, like providing free shipping to them on any item / order that is US$35+ 🙄

eBay is not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, I criticise them continually and will likely do so for as long as I'm here (request system needs a serious overhaul, and the protections that they introduced only for plus sellers, then expanded to TRS sellers, need to be made available to all). But - and it pains me to say this, to be honest - they are a lot better than I once thought they were, at least in comparison to other third-party platforms.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

davewil1964 — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 09:37:04 GMT

Well said, d*g.

Merry Christmas.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

digital*ghost — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 10:21:01 GMT

Thank you - and to you 🙂

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

springyzone — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 21:40:31 GMT

That's a wonderful review. I don't sell on either site so it was so interesting to read of the comparisons by someone with real experience.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

glenbankloel — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 21:25:21 GMT

Thanks for your comments Digi, we too sell on both platforms.

And yes we also struggle with the other E site, with their preferential US centred strategies, but buyers are more interested in Hand made items there- which works for some of our pieces.

We tried a website some years ago and struggled, many changes now in that space perhaps it's time to have another look, but won't be able to cope with 3 sites.

Would push us over the edge, (I would go a bit nutty), I am impressed that you can do it.

We all have to make our own decisions, and always good to hear some thoughts from an actual user of both sites, it is interesting.

Good Luck for 2022, Happy New Year.

Re: Why oh, oh why? Are you still selling on this platform?

chameleon54 — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 22:15:40 GMT

Some interesting observations there digi. Undoubtably there has been a shift in eBays attitude towards its sellers recently. The site used to be very buyer- centric in everything it did, often at the expense of sellers but this has changed. I suspect this is in direct response to experienced sellers leaving the site in droves over the past twelve months.

If you study the published data on registered ebay buyer and seller numbers it is clear that ebays buyer base increased over the pandemic, but seller numbers where static. Recently eBay has also actually experienced a decline in gross sales volume. When one considers that eBay would have gained very large numbers of new sellers as people where sitting around the house for months, often without reliable income sources, the conclusion is obvious that a corresponding number of experienced, high value / higher volume sellers have left the site.

This observation is backed up in the way my different selling id's are treated by ebay. For my two lower sales volume id's it was basically business as usual with no obvious changes other than those publicly discussed. At the same time, my higher volume selling id was receiving messages and inducements aimed at encouraging me to stay on the platform including practical assistance to counter some of the major concerns regularly discussed on the boards.

I suspect the shift to managed payments has had unintended effects for eBay and the numbers have been enough to get the attention of the suits in offices, resulting in a greater awareness of the need to value its sellers.