Sales Stagnate for This eBay Seller

by: alaska

There are a hundred reasons why buying and selling on eBay isn't what it used to be. As a buyer I'm plagued by the relists of overpriced or boring items. There is so little ''new to the site'' items in the antiques and vintage collectibles categories that searching is largely a waste of time. Add to that the fact that most of our bookmarked searches don't work anymore because eBay has stopped recognizing the URL that eBay created in the past, and it's no wonder that buyers and sellers are demoralized. You can't buy what you can't find. You can't sell items that a buyer is searching for using a bookmarked search that doesn't work anymore.

by: Marie

I'm not sure I follow the logic.  If you only had 4 sales per month with a basic store, why would you upgrade to a premium store?  

Cassini became site wide in March or April of 2014.  Before that it was only in select categories, so you must have been in one of the testing categories.

Sales are down for me as well, but certainly not at that rate.  I hope it improves for you very soon.

by: TrickyMick

My sales are down since April this year as well... 60%. I sell used car parts. Some of them rare. Usually my 60 day sales avg is at 16k.  I called ebay CS to see if I had any black flags... because I had a week in April with 5 buyers saying ''snad'' to get out of return shipping, and a restocking fee.  Ebay CS told me '' weather is nice and people are probably out enjoying the beach, and not buying things on ebay''. I am 100% top rated plus.  Ebay CS, said your'' record is squeky clean, everything looks fantastic, thank you for being a great seller''.

I chuckled and said, you are probably right.... have a nice day.

As far as Cantseeme search... for a couple months I had superb sales... almost double.. because I made up my own crazy long part numbers... and the search was using part numbers as criteria to hide my listings and show buyers new parts that cost more... instead of old parts. Ebay figured this trick out.

I am trying other venues for my used parts with 0 luck... besides CraigsList.

Also like to mention.. I googled rare part number.. google results full page of paid ads ''new dealer part'' at the bottom of results Was mine on ebay.. I clicked on it, and it took me to ebay canada... i went to 2nd page of google results.. and saw my ebay listing again.. clicked on it and it took me to general ebay parts category... no sign of my listing, even the though my item description summary was in google search results.

I think Ebay put the cabish on google results, which I had down to a science for my parts.

by: Barbbie

I am guessing that the premium store was opened to try to get more sales. Who knows what works and what doesn't. At least he tried.
I have a competitor that has multiple stores (4) that they de-list everything on 2 and switch to the other 2 stores every year; therefore, giving them a 100% every year to start off with while the negatives fall off the old ones and all the listing are now brand new. They do better than me with this scam, but then, they are Chinese, so it may not work for everyone.

by: toolguy

@ OP

"I can state that I have not had a single sale since April 4."

"Over 4 years of research I figured out how eBay controls visibility and what type of programming it uses to do so,"

So why isn't your stuff selling if it's being seen?

by: Snapped

''Ebay CS told me '' weather is nice and people are probably out enjoying the beach, and not buying things on ebay''.

Apparently eBay CS is unaware that USPS just reported a 16% increase in pkg volume for the past Q.  No word on the other guys yet, but I'd wager they're up too.  So somebody's buying something somewhere.  Just not on eBay.

Incidentally, they're probably not aware the vast majority of the country lives nowhere near a 'beach', and unlike some far eastern island nations, the 'weather' isn't exacly sunny paradise in the spring in much Of the USA every day.

I'm sure they're 'working on it', though.

by: indomama

Well you have to evolve adapt your  as site requirements and best listing practices change> These days you need to make sure your listing is optimized for mobile devices, that all item specifics are filled in, have great photos, good keywords and offer fair or free shipping with more than one option for shipping choice if you can. And fast handling time too. I do all of this and my sales have steadily climbed for years now. Also offering unique product with out a lot of competition helps.    

by: handmedownheaven
Web Site

I am with the poster.  7 sales with a basic store the entire month of March.  3 during April, no sales during May.  I used to receive 40-50 sales per month before something changed.  I'm through with ebay

by: Jim Y
Web Site

My sales have been steady but not so great.  I think that there is way too much competition on eBay.  I only do this part time, so I can only list a certain amount every week.  I know I could sell a lot more if I had more time.  I keep wondering if eBay is losing more of it's audience to Amazon.

by: Tiffee Jasso

I got an email from Ebay telling me I needed to fix 96 items. When I took a look I was told about 80% would 100% not sell unless I reduced the price.

I am not reducing my prices and I am not going to sell my items at a loss.

The other interesting email I got from Ebay told me that my costs for Ebay, Paypal and shipping were 46% of my total sales counting shipping fees. The dumb part is that my prices are always lower than the max sale price Ebay quotes  for similar items.

The problem is Ebay's computer  interferes with both buying and selling based on defective logic and poor programming.

A couple of month back I tried to buy some penny sleeves from a seller. No matter what I did  the sale would not go through as the Buy It Now button would not work. So I tried to message the seller to see if he could help me. The message button for that seller was also disabled and so I could not tell him his items were blocked from purchase. All the other button or links worked but his. He had 100% feedback.

I do not have a degree in Business, but I do have a degree and have managed several businesses including a grocery market in my lifetime. If I had closed my doors to certain customers or hid the merchandise in the back room so they could not find it because I had no common sense,  I would have ruined every business I ever worked for.

by: Rexford

TrickyMick says *Ebay CS told me '' weather is nice and people are probably out enjoying the beach, and not buying things on ebay''*

LOL....funny how the weather hasn't affected Amazon one bit. What a cop out excuse.

by: Rexford

Many eBay sellers will tell  you that they will have a good sales week and then a week of crickets. Followed by a good week and then crickets. Constant rinse & repeat.

We all know what is going on here.  We also know if you hit your invisible sales limits the crickets chirp until the next month.

These patterns are all too consistent to not know that it is all manipulated by eBay so that the large enterprise sellers and the Chinese get prime time and the best visibility.

by: Windkissed
Web Site

My sales suddenly went down to nothing in April.  I haven't made a sale in almost a month.  I have never had a dry spell like this in 5 years of being on ebay.

by: Whatever

Tiffee - I got an email from Ebay telling me I needed to fix 96 items. When I took a look I was told about 80% would 100% not sell unless I reduced the price.

When I get those notices I simply delete those "offending" items and move them elsewhere. No point in fighting the ebay gods - I've also stopped listing GTC - now I do only 30 days and then decide wether or not to relist. If no hits - it's gone. Why in the world would anyone ever have an anchor store at the rate ebay is burying items? HUGE mistake especially in collectibles. I've so many an item that has sat in the B&M for years - the right buyer just needs to come by and find it - on ebay they basically can't

by: fifilapew

I used to spend between $2000-3000.00 per month on ebay (for years) on items to stock my own ebay store.

The less I sell on ebay, the lower my store spending budget. I am now down to $200-300 per month.

Ebay CONSTANTLY forgets that its sellers are also its buyers

we've all heard the old saying;
'bit your nose to spite your face'...however, it appears ebay has not. FOOLS!

by: fifilapew

sorry, should be *bite*

by: GotToGetOut

I have a premium store but only sell about 5k0 - 60 items a month with sales of $1500 - $1800 for January, February, March & April. In May, I re-upped my premium store's annual subscription for $59.99 (less than 5% of my sell through rate and then I had no sales for the first 6 days in May when I typically have 1-3 sales each day and rarely have a day without sales. I made a call to the customer service rep and suggested something was wrong and I now started to get some sales but I only have 16 sales for $450 halfway through the month. Don't know what happened in the beginning of the month -- it was very disconcerting to have no sales for no evident reason, especially when I'm committed to Ebay for another year.

by: VV

When I cut and paste the title of one of my listings into the ebay search and NOTHING comes back - well, toolguy please explain that.

by: JohnGermaine

They turned off the lights in my store on April 28th.  It's so odd!  Just as if a switch had been flipped. For the entire month, I have less than $200 for the entire month!  Nothing I have done changed - makes no sense at all.

by: simerivergun

Hello!  Ebay wants you to Sponsor your products over and above your Ebay fees.  The Promotion costs 5,10,15,or 20 percent of the sale, you set your own ad campaign. This is greed over and above the usual Ebay greed.  My sales increased 500% when I did 20% promotion and it cost me a lot in real money.  I had made no sales for Mother's Day and no sales for the past 2 months. I was desperate and panicked. I got sales, but I made no profit.  Does that figure out? I couldn't raise my prices over the ''trending'', so Ebay got all my profit.  Something is terribly wrong with EBay.