Something has changed ....and not for the better!

[stickerswa]

I have seen (and experienced ) the slow sale posts that are springing up faster than mormon door knockers on a Sunday morning! 

But ebay has changed something ...not sure what but the site is different. Here are some of the things I have noticed over 4 accounts over the last 3 months

Item quantities for sale changing to zero - Found this out when I noticed 1 item that sells well was not selling and found 5 others that were reset to zero. No I didnt let them sell out ...I keep all my quantities topped up !

Items that used to sell well are now not selling at all

Page views have dropped from hundreds to almost nothing. 

Email questions have dropped to almost none.

Used to get sales everyday but now it seems to be one day a week where I will sell 30 items and the rest of the week 1 or 3 items each day.

Anyone else having these trends?

[bbqhqnet]

Hi Melina

You don't have to feel bad about being grumpy with eBay! They are supposed to be our selling platform, and we rely on that platform for income - at least I do?

I was made redundant from a management job coming up 3 years Jan 2019 - now eBay is supposed to be my income base! I discovered; after a couple of years trying for another job - that though I could get lots of interviews, no-one wants 60-year males! Hey, no biggie - just spruce up the15-year-old eBay store and all will be well. And - it was, for a while?

Then - one week just recently, things started to go a bit weird? Sales dropped, mysterious at this time of year when BBQ stuff starts to really "fire up"? I complained to eBay CS - got one muppet, who was about as good as a hip pocket on a singlet - then someone who really knew their stuff - and presto - sales bounced back to normal - briefly?

Now - and it's too early to tell for certain, I seem to be back in the "dead zone"? Friday 19 Oct and Friday night, Saturday am, seem to be dead once again?

We sellers need to make a stand, and - NOT let eBay knacker itself and kill us all!! After all, we sellers ARE eBay - without us, there's nothing to sell, no $$ for them or for us?

I made a single post to this effect on the = selling platform the other day - but it was mysteriously taken down? Now I wonder if this one will make it?

[*tippy*toes*]

Hi BBQ, congrats on your new shooting star! 

[clubesquire]

What Tippy ^^^^ said.

Congrats and best wishes that things improve for you 🙂

Mel.

[chameleon54]

BBQ you mentioned in your last post that sales fired up for a day and then stopped again. I experienced the same thing when my selling account was compromised. Around 2 weeks of one or two sales a week, four or five sales in one day with questions etc then dead zone again for another couple of weeks. After that things returned to normal and sales are going reasonably well now, so I have my fingers crossed ebay have finally fixed my account problems.

As for relying totally on ebay...........I am in a similar position to you. Middle aged, grumpy old man who is no longer employable and frankly doesnt want to go back working 9-5 for a boss. I relied completely on ebay sales for my income for several years and had reached the point where I was going to have to rent a premisis and employ some-one to keep expanding. I went as far as trying a potential employee out, but at that point decided it was too risky to stake my future on ebay.

Instead of continuing to develop my ebay business, I started a sheep grazing business to spread the income risk. This has worked very well. The money I make from ebay is still quite handy, but I have enough income coming in from sheep now that I can glide through problems such as two months ago when my ebay selling accounts where affected by glitches.

[kopenhagen5]

Well done bbq. 10,000 plus with 100% and great DSR's. 

(Probably means you have done more like 15,000 plus)

[digital*ghost]

I don't know if this will help anyone, as I know everyone has different needs as desires, but in case it does, I was trying to make this point in my other post - there's a difference between an eBay business, and a business that's on eBay. When eBay started to favour big box retailers, my first thought was "oh, guess I'll have to become one of those".  (FYI, that was a few years ago, and I'm not even close   ). 

When I think about what I want to acheive with my business, though, I honestly don't factor eBay into the equation, even though most of my revenue is currently generated here - however, I want to build a successful business, not a successful eBay store, and as mentioned, the two can no longer be entwined long term with any degree of confidence. 

Kinda embarassing confession time, for direction and motivation, I often recall this scene in Breaking Bad

[video]

Ok, so nothing I do is illegal, BTW  And it's not like I go around making speeches that end with "I am the one who beads", but I'm not satisfied yet with what I've created - it's not about money, and it's not about the items; my long term goal is be a fully recognisable brand name, at least in the craft community, so when I think about this scene, it's more about the "go big, or go home" element to it; I just find this a little more appealing than a bunch of dudes in muscle shirts screaming it while they do cross fit or something. 

Right now, I'm using ebay just as much as they are using me, and I want to be in a position where I can discard them as easily as they could discard me. Walking away now will hurt me much more than it will ever hurt them, and I suspect that would be the case for many sellers who are reliant on eBay for income, and I also suspect eBay know it. To have any chance of eBay making real change, they have to become as expendable as we are, and right now they definitely aren't. 

[*tippy*toes*]

---

@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Well done bbq. 10,000 plus with 100% and great DSR's. 

(Probably means you have done more like 15,000 plus)

---

10,000+ with 100% feedback won me. We aren't quite into BBQ season here yet (still a bit cold), but when we are, I know where I'll be buying bits and pieces from. There are a few things I want to get to "enhance our BBQ experience" (I don't mean that in a sarcastic sense). Most I'll be able to get from bbqhqnet at what seems to be a good price.

[collect247]

My memory goes back a long way with eBay. They’ve made some demonstrably horrendous mistakes with dire consequences for some, and they know it. Sadly, they’ve learnt nothing from their errors.

O how I applaud you  clap clap clap clap.