eBay Sellers Get Some Welcome News

by: Ming the Merciless

The initial change was more Devin spaghetti heaving that clearly failed.

Businesses of any size are paralyzed in a climate of uncertainty.

Creating overall business climate chaos is what ebafia does best.

For example, ebafia business owners have no idea whether the constant changes mean they should liquidate existing inventory, buy more inventory, or sit tight. Let employees go or hire more.

Ninety day business models aren't the way to grow businesses. Ebafia sends out these "Grow Your Business" emails and holds hypocritical  webinars yet they hide listings, throttle sales, and refuse to fix seller damaging glitches in a timely manner. This doesn't "grow" my business, and it obviously isn't "growing" ebafia's, either.

I refuse to applaud ebafia for restoring something they never should have changed.

by: ebayout

How can these fools believe that they can extrapolate the effect of a SINGLE change which is running in the midst of a dozen OTHER changes?
Like the promoted listings farce...there's NO WAY to determine WHY a PR sold without querying the buyer. Correlation vs. causality.
Did I already say NO WAY?

by: mcposty

Too bad Noone will see the banner

by: Marie

This is welcome news.  Ebay's moving it to lower down on the listing never made any sense except to some people at Ebay.  Sellers knew it would not work and told Ebay so.  The voice of the sellers were heard in this particular case.  That certainly isn't always the case, but it is nice to see that this time it worked.

by: Philo

The one thing that doesn't sit well with me on this-  lets test out this feature on someone's lively hood.  If they are right cool, they get some extra $$$, if they are wrong, the end seller doesn't get to eat that month, oops sorry.

by: Baggage

Over here in the UK the banner has been moved to the bottom. We have been told that is where it is staying permanently . Needless to say my sales have been reduced dramatically as nobody will scroll down to see the promotion.

by: Shane

Will any of it matter once eBay changes search to ''collapse complexity''? They can put banners wherever they like on a listing, but if a buyer won't see that listing it's a moot point.

by: bb6

I agree with Ming the Merciless.  90 days of this 10 days of this 20 days of this, all live testing. Every day something changes on the page. I used to think oh maybe just a glitch, nope they are just playing with peoples listings all day every day. Oh we have a new idea change all your code for this great idea Martin in accounting had. Or maybe we can spend $.50 more and make it BOLD letters.  Lets put a picture of a blinking mailbox down in the description and maybe all those buyers from the 90s will come back.  They are just throwing the whole kitchen at the wall and its running down faster then they can throw it. Nothing sticks! People are actually running businesses here. How about you guys act like it too. Do they know what a 5 year plan is? I guess 5 years is just plan Z golden parachutes and on to the next company.

by: pace306

The sad part is that while eBay plays around with LIVE changes - and makes changes that effect YOUR bottom line, you cant make changes that effect THEIRS - and thats a violation in contract law.

When you sign in - you agree to the TOS "as is" - who says its a LIVING document?
No where that Ive seen beyond boilerplate text of giving eBay the ability to make changes to further improve the site, does it say they have the right to do this.

Thats specifically why they make major announcements IN ADVANCE (seller downdates) so that the other party in the contract (US) have time to agree or leave (cancel the contract).

Try changing YOUR end. You initially agreed to pay eBay in 30 days for your fees - but now decide you want 45 ...  see how that flies!

eBays platform is a rigged corrupt Sopranos game. Its my way or no way - andif you complain - we burn down your house (or your eBay business).

That smarmy Devin - will one day push someone with deep pockets, hard enough to fight back (in court) ... it wont be me .... but Ill be cheering them on and volunteering to testify.

As to the 2 AGs in NY & CA - Ive written them. You get back a courtesy letter and thats it.

Its easier to pick on Amazon - they are a bigger target, what a shame - its ebay who are the REAL criminals.

by: SalesBoy

When the heck will eBid or Bonanza or eCrater, etc. ever become successful enough to give sellers a viable alternative home to hang their hats?? It seems no matter how hard eBay's execs try to dismantle their once wonderful marketplace, the competing websites are unable, or unwilling, to take advantage of it to fill the vacuum created by eBay's clueless leaders.

by: bb6

"When the heck will eBid or Bonanza or eCrater, etc. ever become successful enough to give sellers a viable alternative home to hang their hats??"

Simple answer: When one of those companies pays for advertising!!!
Customers need to know about these sites in order to feel comfortable enough to buy on them. These companies need to go out and drive up investors and raise millions so they can advertise but they seem comfortable living in their parents basement and trucking along with what they have.  

I agree though the doors being held wide open and no one wants to step in.  

by: Rexford

Ming, once again, you nailed it.  Your post is eloquent and accurate.  What good is a banner if your listings are hidden from view?

I don't know what lever eBay pulled on or near January 1, 2018, but it was a doozy as sales have plummeted further, to the point of one or two sales per week.   The lever that they pulled in June, 2017 was impactful but the January 1st change seems to be the one that is intended to be the final screen door on sellers' behinds that will push us off the cliff.

Without a doubt some gloating seller who still hasn't been impacted (but will be) will chime in and tell us how great things are, and to that I say "enjoy it while it lasts".

by: toolguy

I've NEVER used that feature as a seller.

Most of my stuff is used and I don't offer a discount if you buy more then 1 item except combined shipping!

Now on the other hand as a buyer I had to ask a seller what the "promotional sale" was that I saw on their feedback page. They would explain I would get a % off if I bought more then 1 item. . .It was at the bottom of the listing page where I DIDN'T see it. . .PS: I need a set of Leopold Scope Rings, I'm not having any problem finding them on eBay, LOTS to choose from!

by: eXtinctBay

OK. Problem Number One Was Fixed.

They still need to restore the number of watchers on the listings- the spot where they were noted before is still blank.

Yes, it appears they are showing watchers on some listings, but not all of them.

Watchers show there is interest in an item.
Interest in an item instills a sense of urgency to make a purchase decision.
It has been proven that the higher the number of watchers, the faster an item sells.

This site is SUPPOSED TO BE for selling stuff and making money, isn't it??

WAKE UP, eBay!!!!!

by: eXtinctBay

OK. Problem Number One Was Fixed.

They still need to restore the number of watchers on the listings- the spot where they were noted before is still blank.

Yes, it appears they are showing watchers on some listings, but not all of them.

Watchers show there is interest in an item.
Interest in an item instills a sense of urgency to make a purchase decision.
It has been proven that the higher the number of watchers, the faster an item sells.

This site is SUPPOSED TO BE for selling stuff and making money, isn't it??

WAKE UP, eBay!!!!!

by: fifilapew

As usual Ming nailed it AGAIN!

You're the master code cracker dear Ming...written with complete respect

by: Filadelfos

"eBay they would watch it and if sales declined they would move it back to the top."

Once again, eBay tests a half-baked idea at our expense... they always think they know better than us... those of us who are in sales for a living!  They are incompetent managers & a bunch of programmers... neither of which know thing one about retail!

by: dander

At least they admitted the new idea didn't work and are going back to the good old days

by: Moonwishes

>"When the heck will eBid or Bonanza or eCrater, etc. ever become successful enough to give sellers a viable alternative home to hang their hats??"<

Not sure why you popped ecrater into that line, but you can be fairly successful on ecrater. Ecrater sales by my calculations has increased sales by about 30% in the last year or so. One of things that a seller there has to do is promote their own products. Because I do, I only have to pay fees on usually less than half if not less of my sales. Other sellers there refuse to promote their stores especially using social media. It doesn't take that much time. I have found that many sellers that have trouble on ecrater, are failing due to lousy, titles, description and/or fussy pictures and lack of their own promotional efforts. It is always so much easy to blame the venue that it is to blame yourself for lack of success. I do as much advertising while selling on ebay as I do on ecrater with the exception of Pinterest as it wasn't around when I was still selling on ebay. This is my business, so I will promote my business, not wait for the venue or someone else to do so.

Ecrater, if nothing else is seller centric. They understand that if we are successful, then so are they and of course it helps greatly that they aren't a publicly traded company that has shareholders that need to be satisfied. The more we get good sellers to ecrater, the better we all will do. When ecrater makes changes, they are good for sellers. I don't think they have come up with a single 'new' change that has been detrimental to sellers. Our biggest problem is Google and their obsessive need to keep changing their algorithms.

by: toolguy

Some of you claim eBay search DOESN'T work!

Well then how did I sell 8 items yesterday if search isn't working???