Something weird going on last few weeks on Ebay with views and sales

[eskays15]

Has anyone else seen a weird unusual decline in views and sales last few weeks ? 

January was quite solid but i've noticed hardly any activity on my store past few weeks.

I still upload a 2/3 new items every day as normal but have had hardly any activity which seems out of place for my usual activity. 

Anyone else feel the same ?

[eskays15]

Yeh I actually noticed yesterday the app wasn't working properly at all for quite awhile not displaying anything. 

It's become a joke really. 

[ehubsyd]

The strange thing is the overall sales for a particular item are not reduced.  But I can see all the major sellers' number are declining. 

[chameleon54]

Sales have been a bit soft for a few weeks for me. I suspect Trump has got the whole globe spooked. Couple that with Albo dithering over the election date and the Cyclone affecting the eastern seaboard and its not surprising things are quiet.

My Post office reports the same thing as others have mentioned. Mail throughput has slowed quite dramatically since January, so not just an ebay problem.

I did pick up a rare collectable at the garage sales yesterday. Listed it for auction around an hour ago for $150. ( cost me a couple of dollars ) Its had 8 looks and 3 watchers which is pretty good when compared to the other 40 auctions I have listed this weekend. ( only one bid so far on the other auctions ). Shows there are still a few people interested in the rare stuff and something must be working on ebay.

[trinkettreecarol]

my sales have plummeted especially in the last two weeks. I list 5 to 10 items every day and used to get at least 2 or 3 sales a day. im now only getting 1 or 2 sales a week!  I thought it was just me and that i was doing something wrong. 

[chameleon54]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

I did pick up a rare collectable at the garage sales yesterday. Listed it for auction around an hour ago for $150. ( cost me a couple of dollars ) Its had 8 looks and 3 watchers which is pretty good when compared to the other 40 auctions I have listed this weekend. ( only one bid so far on the other auctions ). Shows there are still a few people interested in the rare stuff and something must be working on ebay.

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The item has had 19 views in 12 hours so the system seems to be working fine. My other 40 auction listings the last couple of days are running at 0-3 views for 12 - 48 hours and there is some pretty reasonable stuff amongst that lot.

It shows there are still buyers searching ebay for the really top shelf, rare stuff, but not so interested in the more mundane stuff they can find reasonably easily. In other words they are just being very picky.

[ehubsyd]

I reckon sales is impacted by the weather event. 

[chameleon54]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

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@chameleon54 wrote:

I did pick up a rare collectable at the garage sales yesterday. Listed it for auction around an hour ago for $150. ( cost me a couple of dollars ) Its had 8 looks and 3 watchers which is pretty good when compared to the other 40 auctions I have listed this weekend. ( only one bid so far on the other auctions ). Shows there are still a few people interested in the rare stuff and something must be working on ebay.

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The item has had 19 views in 12 hours so the system seems to be working fine. My other 40 auction listings the last couple of days are running at 0-3 views for 12 - 48 hours and there is some pretty reasonable stuff amongst that lot.

It shows there are still buyers searching ebay for the really top shelf, rare stuff, but not so interested in the more mundane stuff they can find reasonably easily. In other words they are just being very picky.

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Half way through a 3 day auction and the item has had 60 views and 5 watchers compared to 1-8 for most of my other 40 auction items.  I havnt had a response like that to an item for a very long time and shows there are still people looking on ebay. You just need the right items. Photo to save the usual regulars claiming BS.

[siddieswans]

I sell vintage and collectables, and sometimes hit upon a desirable item. Back in the day – maybe 15 years ago – I would list something at auction and suddenly overnight it would have a HUGE number of page views, sometimes over 100. I remember asking about this on the old Power Sellers Board, and it was suggested that it was because someone had put a link to the item, or the item itself, on some specialist collector’s page on the Net – I suppose these days it would be Insta or Etsy or some such. Then everyone who accessed that page would be counted as a Page View. I had no idea but it seemed to make sense.

It was somewhat annoying because although the item usually sold, it did not always translate into the bidding war I was hoping for. These days my auctions rarely attract more than 30-40 page views (and of course mostly far fewer.) I just put this down to eBay not being the “go to” site for vintage and collectables it once was. Bidding wars are mostly a thing of the past, but still occur often enough to make initial listing at auction viable for me.

I do hope that all those page views and watchers turn into a profitable bidding war for you.

[chameleon54]

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@siddieswans wrote:

I sell vintage and collectables, and sometimes hit upon a desirable item. Back in the day – maybe 15 years ago – I would list something at auction and suddenly overnight it would have a HUGE number of page views, sometimes over 100. I remember asking about this on the old Power Sellers Board, and it was suggested that it was because someone had put a link to the item, or the item itself, on some specialist collector’s page on the Net – I suppose these days it would be Insta or Etsy or some such. Then everyone who accessed that page would be counted as a Page View. I had no idea but it seemed to make sense.

It was somewhat annoying because although the item usually sold, it did not always translate into the bidding war I was hoping for. These days my auctions rarely attract more than 30-40 page views (and of course mostly far fewer.) I just put this down to eBay not being the “go to” site for vintage and collectables it once was. Bidding wars are mostly a thing of the past, but still occur often enough to make initial listing at auction viable for me.

I do hope that all those page views and watchers turn into a profitable bidding war for you.

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Your suggestion sounds reasonable. The item is in a specialist field which has a small group of hard core collectors who would be very active on specialist sites. The number of watchers does not really correlate that well with the views either, further suggesting people are having a look, rather than intending to bid.

The item is a vintage, very high quality, Australian made, specialist item that was competing with mass produced items from OS.  It is not in my usual field of buying, but I was aware of the hard core collectors in this field.  It was purchased with several other mass produced items and while I didnt actually know the significance of it when purchasing, I grabbed it and stuffed it in a box as an afterthought as I could see that it was different to the others and very well built / high quality. The mass produced items are worth several hundred dollars with the box full of stuff costing $5.00 at a garage sale.

It highlights the importance of spotting quality and something different even when you don't know much about what you are looking at.

I'm not holding my breath on a bidding war as the economy is very tight, but it is certainly an interesting, ebay case study when things are much quieter than normal. 

[eskays15]

This past 7 days been absolutely dead and nothing happening on ebay at all. I just don't get it.