Sales down 70% on last year... what is going on?

[knewdoors]

Unbelievable...been doing Ebay for 10 years and it's never been this bad..our sales compared to last year are around 70% down...18 days at the moment without a sale, when we usually have around 8-10 per month..This has never happened before..we have 100% rating..All of our listings are free to Aussie customers..we ship same day (business day) pop prepaid satchels in post..reg post the next business day....despite all of the reassurance from the reps..i feel something isn't right..is it the lights on lights off theory?? is that real? or just an urban myth...all i know is things have nosedived compared to previous years..sure there is amazon & facebook..& gumtree..product trends change to..but really 70% so drastic Ebay says everything is fine re: page views traffic is coming..the reps are terrible here..arrogant is a word that comes to mind..sure they cant make people buy..but i still think something ain't right and does one get "blacklisted" if you disagree with their views..ie: they choke your traffic..shrugs i have no idea..then i read ebay makes a stack from google ads and we are just providing content to them..what gives...???

[supermussolinibros]

ebay is an old fashioned way of selling - these days you can have your own website, the zuckerberg site is booming like crazy, and even gumtree is going great guns (for local and posted items-ebay are even promoting sendle on gumtree).

ebay will never be able to compete against social media behemoths like mr zuckerbergs site which are just getting bigger bigger and bigger - not to mention no fees, managed payments, massive amount of scammers using dodgy online payments facilitated by ebay.

ebay will most probably always be around but due to the amount of theft from small sellers has become suitable only for the big guns.

i gave up here a year ago and it's never been better.

i still buy here (way less though) as there are a ton of desperados selling stuff cheap, so often i can buy and sell for twice the amount elsewhere.

The thing i found here is that with dsr's and seller performance etc that ebay is not compatible for someone with a full time job working during business hours.

As always don't give up or have all your eggs in one basket but for me this place is incompatible with a working lifestyle.

[springyzone]

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@supermussolinibros wrote:

ebay is an old fashioned way of selling - these days you can have your own website, the zuckerberg site is booming like crazy, and even gumtree is going great guns (for local and posted items-ebay are even promoting sendle on gumtree).

ebay will never be able to compete against social media behemoths like mr zuckerbergs site which are just getting bigger bigger and bigger - not to mention no fees, managed payments, massive amount of scammers using dodgy online payments facilitated by ebay.

ebay will most probably always be around but due to the amount of theft from small sellers has become suitable only for the big guns.

i gave up here a year ago and it's never been better.

i still buy here (way less though) as there are a ton of desperados selling stuff cheap, so often i can buy and sell for twice the amount elsewhere.

The thing i found here is that with dsr's and seller performance etc that ebay is not compatible for someone with a full time job working during business hours.

As always don't give up or have all your eggs in one basket but for me this place is incompatible with a working lifestyle.

___________________

I found the underlined bit very interesting.

I have tried several ways to sell bits & pieces and for me, the FB Buy swap sell/marketplace experience was the one that I would classify as incompatible with someone in a full time job. It drove me crazy, with people sending messages with offers and expecting pretty well instant replies. And let me emphasize-offers. I don't think I have ever sold a thing there where people just paid full price, they all want a discount.

Gumtree is better for a working person but I suspect it is because it doesn't get as many people viewing so not near as many messages and the people seem a tad more patient when it coems to waiting a few hours for a reply.

Ebay is probably the best of them all as far as auto sell, no need to be there 24/7. People can commit to buy & then pay on the spot and you don't have to be involved in that process at all, you can come home from work, see a sale and deal with wrapping etc then.

Maybe it just depends on what you're selling on those other sites, but those have been my experiences.

[joz15au]

I agree, have never found it a problem working and doing eBay. Just a matter of organisation, and I can certainly do without the constant and random contact on those other sites. Also have to say as a buyer I have never bought off either site and would not consider doing so. I like to just buy now and pay with no to and fro with the seller unless there is something I want to know that isn't included in the listing and that doesn't happen often.

[south.coffee]

'DumTree' is full of idiots. I have a few larger size items impossible to squeeze into a satchel, like a lounge suite. The first and last line of the listing states it's location. 'Pickup is 3 hours east of Melbourne'.

Response has been exceptional, except every single one has come from buyers hundreds and thousands of kilometres away ? 'Whats a good time to come take a look ?'

Even giving stuff away on Gumtree for FREE is full of drama's. I think eBay's strategy for buying Gumtree was to offload all the rubbish items, rubbish sellers and rubbish buyers into one big cesspit and IT WORKED !

[supermussolinibros]

horses for courses-been making just on gumtree $1500 a month casual selling and most items have been posted since covid started.

those dumtree idiots and dumbook turkeys have been paying things like car rego, gas bills, rates - all fee free, no dsr's,chargebacks depositing straight into my bank, no 'lost' packages - geez some people are incredibly stupid.  Managed payments is helping to offload rubbish sellers, and driving rubbish buyers straight into my rubbish listings, with statements like "i looked all over the place and couldn't even find it on ebay, thank you so so much for selling this to me" and "oh you don't accept paypal? that's ok i'm happy to pay direct deposit" -  guess what IT WORKS.

[supermussolinibros]

unfortunately on ebay it's like i can't post the item for three days due to work "you horrible seller, i'm going to ruin you, i'm sending the bikies around to collect my item and i'm going to leave you a negative unless you post this item beforei commit to buy""

Change your handling period to 5 days and what do you get - "i'm lodging a case with ebay" or ebay saying this is an excessive period of time.As for fbook well if your phone dinging with messages drives you crazy then it's not for you-quite easy to say "can't do anything at the moment due to work but the weekend is fine"-having fifteen buyers wanting something means someone will always buy it no matter what.

Offers - wow you are precious, this is a normal thing, everyone wants something cheaper always, i find no issue with offers and it's not hard to say no-here on ebay they just scam you with a chargeback and you lose everything

[joz15au]

I work. I have a 2 day handling time but I always post within 24 hours of advice of payment so don't have buyers complaining. I don't do pick ups, or offers as I list at the lowest price that I am willing to sell for, and have no need to tell anyone to wait till the weekend. Your job is obviously different to mine as I'm pretty sure my boss wouldn't appreciate my phone dinging with messages all day, nor would I expect him to. I answer any eBay messages in my coffee and lunch breaks and nobody has complained about me being slow to answer questions, not that I get many as I try to give all the details in my listings. As you say, horses for courses so why can't you just accept that eBay works well for some people? It didn't for you and you went elsewhere and now you're happy. Good for you.

[digital*ghost]

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@supermussolinibros wrote:

Offers - wow you are precious, this is a normal thing, everyone wants something cheaper always, i find no issue with offers and it's not hard to say no

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Sure, that's why discount and clearance sales tend to be pretty successful in general, but not everyone feels entitled to it, or takes a listed price as some kind of "guess my sale price - it's no more than $X!" game - I had a look at FB marketplace a while back, and on listings that tried really hard to make it clear prices weren't negotiable, people would still straight up ignore it and start with low-ball offers.

If someone enjoys doing business this way, all the power in the world to them, but there's no way in heck I'd be prepared to negotiate and organise every single sale I make in that manner (this is my full time job, I don't need it to be a 3-person full time job just to be able to deal with people who need help every step of the way to come to an agreed price, an agreed delivery / pick-up method, place and time, and an agreed payment method). 

[cezm]

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@south.coffee wrote:
'DumTree' is full of idiots. I have a few larger size items impossible to squeeze into a satchel, like a lounge suite. The first and last line of the listing states it's location. 'Pickup is 3 hours east of Melbourne'.

Response has been exceptional, except every single one has come from buyers hundreds and thousands of kilometres away ? 'Whats a good time to come take a look ?'

Even giving stuff away on Gumtree for FREE is full of drama's. I think eBay's strategy for buying Gumtree was to offload all the rubbish items, rubbish sellers and rubbish buyers into one big cesspit and IT WORKED !

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I have been using Gumtree for 8 years. I've only ever had one offer, for 50% off, which I declined. I also had one fellow that laid on a sob story about being a poor student in Melbourne and wanted me to basically give him all my son's accounting/commerce textbooks.

I post a lot of items that I have listed on Gumtree so I think people are using it to search further for items.

When anyone asks 'is this available' I respond with 'yes, we are near the xxx street/xxx street roundabout'. Weeds out anyone who isn't close or doesn't want to pay postage

FB does stretch my patience at times but I've found that if a buyer takes the time to type out a message rather than use the 'is this available' button, it's more likely to end in a sale

EDIT: and I only accept cash or bank transfer - never had any problems (I refer them to my feedback here and elsewhere if they want to check)

[springyzone]

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@supermussolinibros wrote:

unfortunately on ebay it's like i can't post the item for three days due to work "you horrible seller, i'm going to ruin you, i'm sending the bikies around to collect my item and i'm going to leave you a negative unless you post this item beforei commit to buy""

Change your handling period to 5 days and what do you get - "i'm lodging a case with ebay" or ebay saying this is an excessive period of time.As for fbook well if your phone dinging with messages drives you crazy then it's not for you-quite easy to say "can't do anything at the moment due to work but the weekend is fine"-having fifteen buyers wanting something means someone will always buy it no matter what.

Offers - wow you are precious, this is a normal thing, everyone wants something cheaper always, i find no issue with offers and it's not hard to say no-here on ebay they just scam you with a chargeback and you lose everything

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Yes, I acknowledge that ebay certainly isn't perfect for sellers. No selling platform is though.

I'm trying hard here to think if I am too precious but you know what, I don't think I am, I think in general I am accommodating.

You say " quite easy to say "can't do anything at the moment due to work but the weekend is fine"-having fifteen buyers wanting something means someone will always buy it no matter what."

Actually no. The point you are missing is that that is actually sending a reply. Now I know I am not an expert on the phone & that's my failing but I wouldn't know how to cut & paste that & in any case, that is still 15 messages to be sent. I don't know what job you are in but I used to be in teaching and we would have been in enormous trouble had we been found texting on the job. You seem to imply that anyone at work can send a 'quick message'. I am amazed you believe that. There are many jobs where people are not allowed to send any messages at all, full stop. Not in company time.

What I was trying to get across is the point a lot of FB people expect a quick reply of some sort. Some will put up with a 12 hour delay but are frustrated with it. On ebay with a lot of automated purchases, the issue does not arise, no texting or messages needed in the process. That's why I said it is better for people in a full time job.

Second thing you said: Offers - wow you are precious, this is a normal thing.
Not necessarily, not on ebay.

I think digital ghost summed it up, there is a lot more work involved in back & forth messages to establish a price, establish a postale charge or pick up time etc than there is in selling eg a set price buy it now item on ebay.

Don't imagine I can't understand the advantages of the other sites. I have sold quite a few things on them and some I have arranged for direct deposit (I always lie and say i don't have paypal) and I am an honest seller in every other way, I post the things off. But here's the thing. There is no way on earth I would do what they do and pay a stranger via bank deposit, too risky.

Also don't go imagining there are no scammers on those other sites. A friend's son advertised his mobile on FB and the guy who turned up to look at it ran off with it, had a mate waiting in a car down the road. I also read-this was many months ago so hopefully has died down-that some radical extremists were calling on their members to answer ads on FB & G/Tree and kill the people once they got access into their home. I never heard that anyone ever did that, it's a bit out there, but pick up does constitute a slight risk.

The other thing you conveniently overlook is accountability. There are quite a few annoying people who say they will pick up or come to see something then never turn up. And one doozie I had  who cancelled pick ups, rescheduled several times and then claimed I was making it too difficult when  the exact time she wanted for her 4th reschedule wasn't suitable for me.

Don't get me wrong, I have had good experiences too & will probably use those other platforms again, but please, don't try to make out they are easier than ebay or more convenient or whatever. They are fee free but have heavier involvement in the sales process.