eBay Management Speaks: Is It What You Were Expecting?

by: Studiolines

@ the end
Prices on Ebay are for the most part are fair in everything I have seen unless you get the notion that the added filter features are there to save you money. They seem to be made to filter you to specific sellers. A buyer must go the extra steps to find the best deals.The best deals frequently have nothing to do with GD , Free Shipping or such. The simple lowest price with shipping drop down is all they ever needed if lowest price is the objective.

The fact is the free shipping and GD filter totally exclude some sellers with unique products because they will not even show those items on a direct search if they have filtered by FS or GD. 0 results.

Secondary or Resale markets will always have the ability for a wide swing in pricing. As a general rule supply and demand prevails eventually.

by: toolguy

@pace

You stated that CES was 10x the size as SEMA which is NOT true.

PS: I've been clean for 8 days!

SEMA had 2500 vendors, 140,000 attendance with 30,000 buyers (aka industry people, not spectators)

SEMA has been around for 54 years!

I grant you that CES is bigger then SEMA but 10x bigger as you stated!

Just the facts. . .Something YOU refuse to admit. . .

And as far as me being banned form eBay's boards that has nothing to do with this web site.

(I would NEVER ask David or Ina to ban YOU!)

Why would you ask them to ban me?

by: toolguy

@ The End

Almost everything is more expensive on Amazon because sellers have to pay higher fees there then on eBay. (unless it's sold by Amazon and not a 3rd party)

by: Snapped

So, Mr. Kupbens wants to ''remind [sellers] that [their] partnership and the eBay community, is what sets [eBay] apart.''

That's the gagger.  A big chunky one.  Off the charts.  

One has to wonder if, during Bob's 'reflections' on 'accomplishments', he may have been 'reminded' of his predecessor's rambling justifications for switching this out of control circus train down it's current rusting track. - - -

''We started by creating a future vision. This was critical because not everyone felt the impetus to change, given the amount of success we were experiencing. There’s a real push to keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working.....We talk and listen to customers, but for this kind of innovation, customers don’t always know what they want.......We had to create a vision of the future so people could let go of a very successful past.''

That very sucessful past so carelessly trashed in this future vision (now maddening reality) included no less than the most unique, diverse, generously sharing and sucessfully experienced sellers on the planet.  Alongside the rank amature with a single treasure.  Who could both profit using a simple and unique, globally available and exposed process.  And to whom was provided more help BY that community than eBay's help pages AND CS combined.  They also provided more valuable advertising than can be bought and 'market produced' today.  

And they provided a reliable (contrary to later claim) source of income to eBay, not just via sales, but because THEY also bought.  Sellers and buyers developed relationships.  

It wasn't sanitized to be sure, but it was human.  

THAT was a community.  An eBay community.  With proud membership.  And it WAS precisely what set eBay apart. Was.  

But ya'll had to 'let go' of all that shared success, right?  Turn it into the Orwellian, whip-cracking, outsource monitored, synchopantic cluster of cliques and disinterested, soulless 'entities' comprising what passes for the majority of eBay community now (not including of course those who are still trying to compete, nevertheless, yet dwindle daily).  Where communication is obstructed, censored, and regularly glitches.  Where distrust is cultivated, fraud is assisted and overlooked, and ideas and true innovation are rendered impotent by myopically decreed conformity to plagiarized jerry-rigged 'innovations'.  That's not a 'community'.  In the language of 'data' your bot's might understand, it's nothing more than a set.  And it no longer sets eBay 'apart'.  Except for the ratio of associated 'glitches' of course.  That's certanly unprecidented.

The sellers who used to be part of that real community though, mourn for it's passing.  It will never be again; it was ''let go'' too. Sickening to see that so blatently ignored.  

And sickening to see what WAS a working 'partnership' still being claimed, or as being 'renewed'.  No need to rehash the (fraction of occurring) offending incidents already noted here clearly in demonstration to the contrary.  And NOT (imagine that) even acknowledged.

But not surprising, and certainly not 'unexpected', no.  Not from this guy.  Not about a puff-laced back patting rap bulletizing eBay's latest 'improvements' on some announcement board that otherwise routinely lacks timely REAL announcements about temporary but severely impactful site 'anomalies'.  Not since eBay spoke, demonstrated, and has since aggresively (and passive aggressively) reinforced, this:

''“And so we put the words out there, we are backing up our words with action, and yes, is there going to be some noise along the way? There is.”

Make no mistake though, clearly eBay knows it needs sellers as 'partners'.  They just want them to be silent partners.  In a quiet, gated community where THEY dictate the color, and content, of YOUR mailbox.  And, via Bob-o-gram, wants you and anyone else it thinks it can still snowball to believe it knows all that better than you do.  

Can one really expect any more, any more?

by: Scotty

It is still amazing to me that maybe 10-11 years ago....my comments about ebay were 100% opposite to anyone that would listen....I couldn't say enough positive things about the potential for sellers on the platform.  Fast forward to now....and I am 100% the exact opposite to anyone that will listen telling them to turn around and run...run as fast as they can away and do not look back.  How this is accomplished by high paid ''executives'' is truly amazing....and, even more amazing, they continue to be employed and have their salaries.  I honestly cannot state one truly meaningful improvement in this time period for sellers....everything has been exactly the opposite and meant to purge sellers.

by: toolguy

@Scotty

I can think of a few:

They've hidden buyers ID's on feedback

12 pictures for free

50 free listings

eBay shipping labels

easier listing form

Best Offer

More search filters

by: guitar1

Wow, While I am impressed at the shear blow back Ebay is receiving on this. Their actions in recent years have been to simply ignore the problem.

As with the current shipping label issue that is mentioned on the ebay site posts. This has been going on for a few weeks, we have talked 5 times to CSRs and Supervisors who continue to tell us there is no issue with this problem, clean our cookies, cache, etc. Kinda like talking to a time share sales person, if they say this, state this.

AI is great, future is great. Quick delivery is great, Guaranteed delivery is simply ignoring real life. EVEN FedEx and UPS can't guarantee delivery 100% of the time, they have mistakes, machinery, weather, etc that cause issues. I get everyone wants to be as fast as going to the store, not going to happen with drones, or teleporting machines for many years. SO...... How about, just simply making a safe site the works, customers can see all listings in search and make their choice. Let the chips fall where they may, that is what we as sellers have to do every day anyways.

If I can give one suggestion to Ebay management, fix what's broken and keep what is working in place. Even Walmart has their focus, plan and direction in place LONG BEFORE 4th quarter.  

by: Ming the Merciless

@Tool

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

Can you?

by: Ming the Merciless

The crux of ebafia's #failing can be neatly summarized by saying that it takes more and more away and gives us less and less in exchange.

Not my kind of value proposition.

by: guitar1

Ming the Merciless Comment.  Comment well noted, I need the wisdom to know the difference, and Ebay is schooling us daily.

There was a time we were doing about 40% more volume on Ebay with 500 items. Today 1100 items, 40% less volume. However in our other venues we have constantly grown overall as a company for 6 years now at 20-30% per year total inspite of the severe drop in Ebay volume.

I still cannot figure out how Ebay keeps reporting sales growth unless the 1 billion sellers overseas are the contribution factor here.

I have a mild Database background starting in early Fortran (hard code) and later DBase construction design. Anyone with any amount of knowledge in this area can clearly see the differences in the data results from Ebay vs Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc. It's so clear is actually nuts that they can't see it.

Their new "price match" or as I am sure it is viewed internally their "suggestions for success" tool. Offers pricing I cannot even locate, Pricing from my own previous discount promoted listing, suggestions for naming things that simply don't make sense and even matches to products that are even close (a package of 2 versus the price on a 50 pack of an item, for pricing comparison).

Don't even start me on the feedback and return stuff, our returns are up 500% this year on Ebay and neutral everywhere else. I have people buying things on Ebay and returning one of them because they wanted to make sure which one worked correct, even though we put multiple photos, drawings, full description, etc in our listings. We had one buyer call one of our products a fraud because it did not arrive in factory packaging, even though the factory just sends it in bulk packaging and the listing notes such.

We are putting less and less effort into Ebay, unless they can figure out the problem, I believe the sellers will figure it out for them

by: The End

Ebay :
Where Overpriced Merchandise finds shelter.
It's not gold, it's spelter.
The fees drive the prices up.
'Til it makes no sense.
No meat left on the bone.
Let it get dusty.
Money is worth more than what you can buy with it
on Ebay.

by: Studiolines

@Ming
The Serenity Prayer has been my companion for a couple of weeks here. Trying to change what I can. Working hard on acceptance and wisdom
@snapped
I would share that with the Ebay discussion board too. You nailed it. They will never realize the monumental value of this statement and the reverse consequences already in play.
@scotty
same here on the praise until mostly this past year


"They also provided more valuable advertising than can be bought and 'market produced' today.  "
@ended That is such a simple solution, it is a problem, I agree. Time limits, 6 mos maybe-retirement for a min of 6mos. or move to another arena. Give listing and any watchers a 7 day notice. This is where a seller normally not open to make an offer might be receptive. Unique items often need the right buyer. Saturated markets might benefit from some measures to also limit term.  

by: Studiolines

Taken from what looks like a 2015 time frame website

Whether you are buying new or used, plain or luxurious, commonplace or rare, trendy or one-of-a-kind – if it exists in the world, it probably is for sale on eBay. Our mission is to be the world’s favorite destination for discovering great value and unique selection.

We focus on partnering with our sellers, not competing with them. We are building stronger connections between buyers and sellers with product experiences that are fast, mobile, and secure. And we are transforming the individual selling experience to help you turn the things you no longer need into cash you can use.



We give sellers the platform, solutions, and support they need to grow their businesses and thrive. We measure our success by our customers' success.

by: Studiolines

A True Partnership

Theres more

At eBay, partnering with our sellers starts and ends with a promise to not compete with them. Our pure-play marketplace model means that when they succeed, we succeed. That's why in recent years, we’ve doubled down on our partnership through a best-in-class global customer service organization to support their businesses, a trust infrastructure that protects them and enables confident shopping and an innovative approach to sharing data and insights on what’s selling, when and at what price to fuel their business

by: eBay Shill Buster

We all know Devin and most of his 'changes' are complete flops, but when sellers quit objecting to this folly he is producing with a lot of far out and really crazy ideas on how he envisions transforming the marketplace, with sub par programmers who can not bring anything of real value to fruition, when we all give up and quit complaining about these terrible features and disruptions eBay has created that are gross negatives, then you know the company is finished, it is finished when the noise stops, because that means sellers have lost interest in the company.

This is the very thing that happened to Yahoo.

by: marty

Let's do it by the numbers. Since Paypal split
DJIA is up 29%
EBAY is up 26%
PP is up 123%
AMZN is up 133%

by: Not A FOOL

I was there in the beginning and muddled through over the years trying to gain the favor of eBay jumping through the hoops they put in place and watched my sales go up and down depending on eBay's mood. Not once over these years has eBay ever assisted me in a positive direction. At each hurdle, instead, they buried me deeper and deeper until I became disgusted. It's by my own efforts that I raised my sales up 500%, but not on eBay. Over the past 3 years, I moved my sales in other directions and away from eBay. Now I actually have customers that return again and again. I can be competitive. I can be customer service oriented. I can deliver in 2-3 days. I can get 100% positive feedback...and I can get that word of mouth boost in sales...just not on eBay. I've watched eBay commit suicide over the years and all by their own hands. Their We Don't Give a Crap About Sellers mentality while doing nothing any good business partner would do is not the model of a great business plan. I hear again and again from my Buyers that they're tired of all the problems encountered on eBay and just want to buy the way they used to. eBay can only do one thing to survive, and that's to cut out all the garbage they put in place and return to the original business plan that worked all around...or disappear into the worm hole they've created.

by: toyman

Great response by theheadphone company. Systematically dissecting the ebay pronouncement and showing how far they have their heads buried in the sand, was uplifting, to say the least. While I love this Forum, way too often people here just bitch and whine and repeat the same verbiage, over and over, just to get their name on the list of responders, without actually adding anything of value to the conversation.

That response (indeed, if it was Pace306, kudos my man, it was excellent!) needs to be printed out, taken to San Jose and posted on the front door of eBay Offices, much as Martin Luther did with the Edict of Worms, in 1517.

We have always believed in just keeping our head down and trying to incorporate every new, crazy, unnecessary change, as best we could, but recent changes to visibility have REALLY hurt our bottom line...and there is absolutely NO recourse. If you are set up NOT to be seen, you WILL NOT BE SEEN. No views, no sales...no matter HOW much you try to follow their every new whim.

Unfortunately, eBay leadership has shown no tendencies towards listening to their constituency, so I truly don't expect much to change in 2018.

by: Studiolines

@toyman
Your post should also go to the Ebay Discussion board. I do hope something changes besides more financial devastation for sellers in 2018. Help get their head out of the sand in San Jose.

by: toyman

@ Studiolines. Thanks. I really hope Ina reads all the way through this thread.
It has been a much more honest and thoughtful discussion of just how eBay is letting down its key users. This thread should probably be sent to an influential publication that could actually make some noise about how eBay has really run off the rails.