WHY IS IT NOW HARDER TO SELL ON EBAY ?

[polly.the.cat]

Over the last 18-24 months, l have noticed an extra amount of effort and forethought that has been required by ebay Seller's to list items to Sell. Many factors have brought this about, a number due to changes in the structure by ebay themselves.

However, some have been brought about by the pure greed and unprofessional behavior of a number of ebay Sellers who have made it harder for those doing the right thing.

One reason has been the postage issue change, brought about by ebay because some sellers were posting and item @99c  and then charging $25.00 for postage, to help cover any loss through the 99c sale, if it did not increase in auction time.

The amount of negative media coverage through paper, tv media, and written articles in journals. A quick search through google will show you many of the concerns of the Buying public in relation to ebay, here, and in the USA & UK.  These facts do not do well for Sellers trying to make a "living" or make a hobby a $ profitable outcome.

ebay's New MBG has just added fuel to the fire, along with an increase in Fee structure, ebay Shop costs, AP Mailing costs, and the behind the scene costs that we do not always see or take into account, e.g. taking parcels and postage to the local AP mail outlet, vehicle running costs, etc.

Bubble wrap, envelopes, printing labels, printer cart/ink, assembly of said item, etc, etc,  all take time and effort, then there is ebay to pay at or near the end of your month, next month, it starts all over again.

Those Sellers, ( and they know who they are ) who do not do the right thing by their Buyer, create an environment that is then very hard for those doing the right thing, to survive in.  Some Buyers still believe in once bitten, twice shy.

So why is it getting harder to Sell and remail "afloat" here on ebay ?  Anyone else have some thoughts or advice ?

[carie6236]

I here what you are saying . I am so frustrated with ebay. I only use it now when i have surplus tings i need to sell or local pick up. I used to sell but every day it was one thing after anohter. hoop after hoop. I just tried to list something then.

everything good , i am logged in and it wants me to now tell it which ebay account i am associated with (no others) and what the name of my first pet is. ( how many hooops have you got to jump through) it is sooooooo hard. I could go on and on. I used to make thousands on ebay. it was amazing. but no it is impossible. i barely even try anymore. 

[davewil1964]

Polly does not use eBay any more, so I daresay your response to him, four years later, will go unread.

[*tippy*toes*]

A number of the responders on this thread no longer exist either.

                                               

[dontmissthese]

No it's not 🙂

Just saw a scary statistic the other day which roughly

translated to 1 registered seller for every 4 registered buyers.

No wonder selling is tough.

[davewil1964]

No it's not

What's not?

Polly asked the questions 4 years ago. What were the stats (applicable at the time of the question) back then.

[Anonymous]

Maybe what I predicted years ago is coming to pass.

Ebay bending over backwards to mimic Amazon as a

'new only' site by encouraging major sellers into their fold.

If anyone thinks that these guys are paying 4%-9% FVF on big

ticket items then they are mistaken.

The majors didn't much like the flurry of negs but smiled at

flood of new 'contacts' into their databases. Not every major has done

well on ebay but who knows how many new customers they enticed

with off ebay offers..

The likes of Kogan are basically using ebay as an advertising venue.

Billion dollar corporations can easily make billion dollar mistakes in

the knowledge that all they have to do is screw over those left standing.

There will be poor fools just trying to get by for years to come, thinking

ebay may keep them afloat.

A startling statistic I came across recently.

On ebay globally there is 1 registered seller for every 4 registered buyers.

[Anonymous]

lol

I forgot where I saw the statistic. Should have scrolled up.

Bloody heck but some of these posters are wound up tightly.

[springyzone]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Maybe what I predicted years ago is coming to pass.

Ebay bending over backwards to mimic Amazon as a

'new only' site by encouraging major sellers into their fold.

If anyone thinks that these guys are paying 4%-9% FVF on big

ticket items then they are mistaken.

A startling statistic I came across recently.

On ebay globally there is 1 registered seller for every 4 registered buyers.

---

I agree with you about ebay trying to become very much a 'new sales' site.

Maybe they thought the image of being a garage sale type site was putting them behind.

For me personally, the second hand items are what make the site different and more interesting. It's good there is also the wider choice of new stuff, but sometimes ebay is the place to look for that out of print book or the old collectable item.

Just re your statistic. It is a bit misleading, I think. It may be true in itself but doesn't really address the problem of how easy or hard it is to sell on ebay. For example, how many of the registered sellers are actually selling anything at any one time? And how often are the registered buyers actually buying? How many things, on average, do sellers have listed and how many items, on average, are people buying per month?

I know of many accounts, both buying & selling, where the people no longer use them very much. They're open but fairly inactive.

And I would imagine the sales are not spread evenly across all sellers. There would be some things there is more of a market for than others.

[Anonymous]

Valid points regarding the relative 'activity' of registered users.

It was just a jump out at me statistic. In these difficult times

it's not too much of a stretch to assume there are many more

new sellers who are just giving stuff away to survive.

[brerrabbit585]

For every buyer who doesn't buy much on ebay there'd be another one who spends HEAPS. I've seen buyers who go from zero feedback to 3,000 or more in a couple of years. Knowing the sort of things they buy (going by what they've bought from me and who they buy from), that's a LOT of money they spend on ebay.