Are You Ready for eBay Changes to Antiques and Collectibles?

by: lessthanthreerecords

I'm fed up with having to "clean up" listings that are perfectly fine to start with.  I sell on a lot of other sites, and none of them require this sort of frequent alterations to listings that have no actual errors.  eBay didn't require it either years ago.

by: Ric

I am betting that eBay realizes a serious decline in sales for Antiques and Collectibles after their ill conceived changes. Once again, eBay will 'fix' things until their fixes break the process.

Some sellers will jump through the new hoops wasting countless hours updating their listings and find their sales decline after doing so.  Other sellers will throw up their hands at all the busy work they will be required to complete and simply withdraw from the marketplace.

In a short time, item selection will decline adding to buyer disappointment and eBay will be left scratching their heads as yet another ill conceived plan results in declining selection and dwindling sales.

by: StumbleBum

I'm already moving out of eBay.  I haven't added a new listing in weeks and downgraded my store and changed it to month to month.  I'm totally fed up with the stupidity of the management as are many, many others.

by: HappyOne

All this dancing around is not going to help search. I have three long time saved  specific (3 word) searches that several years ago resulted in items I wanted and I bought. I am looking for certain items for my collections and resale. Each morning I get three Ebay emails with “finds” that only have one word or NO words of my saved searches. Most of these items are GTC items that have been listed for over a year without a sale - that I may have looked at the first time they appeared. Why can’t Ebay just sent me items with the three specific words in search - nothing less? What really “pxxxes” me off is when I do a new three word search and find in “sold” items the item I wanted sold at auction at a price much less than I was willing to pay. I have several times contacted sellers of unsold auctions to find if they were relisting or would sell as a fixed price to me with a purchase.

by: Rexford

Keep moving the furniture eBay.  Sellers are fed up with the busy work.

Frankly, I think this is more about eBay's insatiable appetite for data.   I feel like they could care  less whether sellers actually sell.  When your search is completely broken no amount of moving categories around and data hoarding is going to make a difference.

This past year I realized that all the time I spent jumping through the "add item specifics" hoop had very little if any impact on my sales.

Not playing this game anymore eBay.  I've moved on.  I am no longer your indentured servant.

by: Ronn

Listing stuff on eBay was complicated enough after they consigned Turbo Lister to oblivion. This is just another example of eBay's perfecting excruciating minutiae to another level.

by: Rexford

Ronn says "This is just another example of eBay's perfecting excruciating minutiae to another level."

Exactly Ronn!

by: I Must be Crazy

If eBay is consolidating categories, then it must mean there are fewer listings. The only reason eBay would go through this exercise is to give the buyer the illusion there is a broad availability of inventory when the opposite is true.

Lack of merchandise has been a problem for them for years. (In no small part due to their hiding of listings.) They have been unsuccessful at bringing in sufficient new listings. Result, a lack of buyers.

A continuous, slow, downward spiral.

by: postbuster

ebay BOD are proven failures!

For years they still cant figure out how to run ebay better.
How many Millions wasted for scrapped ideas? Fired people? Lost sellers?
In how many years?

In contrast:
I made an order from Amazon on 3/27.
( I don't like shopping there because they have a terrible inventory in comparison.  +1 ebay)

Tracking told me that I should receive it by 3/31, and I'm okay with that.
By 3/28 in the afternoon it was delivered!


While the business runs completely different from ebay, especially when it comes to product selection, it does not matter.
Amazon is CRUSHING it when it comes to getting orders delivered faster.

I like better quality, or hard to find items which is why I don't buy from AMZ often.
But it made me aware that when ebay wants to copy a different company and forces independent sellers (who stock their own items and ship them), into DESPARATE ideas with VERY POOR execution and support, of how absent minded and careless people will destroy something that they have NO BUSINESS in being there.

They have ignored a key fundamental of how well someone else does in a different style of online sales.
In trying to mimic another style, by MANIPULATING every individual into something that will not work, ebay has driven the ONLY ADVANTAGE they had away.  

Further exposing their ignorance and incompetence by running one of the top venues into the ground.
Being an executive for this company was a LAY-UP, and they just SH!T A BRICK!

by: toolguy

eBay, I don't love you anymore!

I want a divorce because you've been lying and cheating on me. . . . .

by: Snapped

eBay already made their cluelessly catastrophic changes to the A & C categories over a decade ago. Remember ‘store to core’?

Slam merging every marketplace nuance and User familiarity into a myopic take it leave it shoebox model? Fix price or perish by dearth of a thousand bids?

Well that’s not how it works so it didn’t. Now it’s Survival by tolerance, admitted or not for some.

Who now face this, and a design once again inspired by someone who thinks they know what works, instead of simply asking, or is using such drivel as cover for ulterior motive by driving a facade of concern.

There is a ‘concession’ of sorts bowing to the unwashed masses, contrary to years of recent history, but somewhat finally adhering to their own longstanding published promises, they attach a May 5 unleashing. Some time to ‘adapt’ then.

Compulsory nevertheless. Or as the obstinate might argue, not, ‘cause there’s the door.... The median though, more tolerance. Another bending of over stressed branches, unnecessarily induced for stated reason.

For some other reason then. Has to be. Cluelessness alone doesn’t explain it.

by: DevilishlySarky

Yeah , cos( using the example the mod did) - the world is full of 150 year old bookcases looking for new owners isnt it ?
I cant believe the blindness that compounds ebays ability to make a progressive change - or none , for that matter .
Lets just imagine you ARE looking for this elusive bookcase........
Item specifics you may require
material , size , colour number of shelves - that should cover it ,
NOW  , if you were the seller of such an item - Any wooden oak 6 shelf 3 foot bookcase ought to show - AS ITS IN THE BLOODY TITLE  imagine not being shown a bookcase that absolutely fits what you were after because its the wrong age
Yes , I know a drowning man will pull anyone else he can grab down with them too ; isn't what this smacks of ?
Yes . I also know this isn't about bookcases either , but thats the one that ebay spolesman used
Why is it they are Faffing around with stuff that doesnt matter while all the time ignoring stuff that smacks you in the face every time you open your PC
My messages were down for a large portion of last night, who knows what that cost me where the night before , giving quick positive replies got me a sale in the hundreds ......
So ,lets forget about the"its not you its us" message - we KNOW damn well its not us - we're SURE its you , so tackle that instead of confusing the commercially GIGANTIC vintage bookcase market.

by: dave w

Change the categories fine lets do it.
Only one proviso.
Get a professional who knows that particular category and knows what buyers are looking for and what search criteria that is searched.
Won't happen they will get the village idiot to set it up and organise the categories.
Then they will wonder why it goes wrong, sellers leave, customers leave.
Is any of this any wonder when when you look at the board of directors of ebay and see not one of them has any experience in on line selling.

by: railady

This appears to be another idiot ''create a catalog'' move. I don't think anyone in eBay management understands that most shoppers do not think of eBay as a catalog store and likely do not want one.  

I really do not believe shoppers use ''categories'' very much at all. I believe they use keyword searches, thinking that is most effective.  Ebay is full of sellers who do not know what kind of antique/collectible item they are selling - an auction is the best place to determine a ''value'' if you do not know .  So pigeonholing into a category is backwards thinking.

This does not bother me anywhere near as much as when eBay created sub-categories and then charged for listing something in TWO ''categories'' - when either category was a great fit, and it was a very tough choice to make picking one over the other, unless I wanted to pay an additional charge.  THEN we have the ''sub'' category choice, of which I MUST choose one or I cannot list the item. Maybe I would really prefer leaving the item in a main category but NO I absolutely MUST pick a subcategory, which may be borderline incorrect, even.  

by: SoniaD

What a joke on ebay's part.  We migrated our antique, art and high end collectibles listings to Ruby Lane 6 years ago.  Up until 2 years ago, we still purchased some antiques on ebay.  Not any more.  Stale inventory,  or hidden--who knows.  A ton of new "old" fakes drowning out one or two good reputable sellers.  We don't waste our time looking much any more.  Still sell a few low end collectibles and high end books--maybe a couple of sales a month off about 30 listings.  And once we're in moved to mp, we'll be gone from even those.  Better places to sell and buy.  

by: Covid-20

Speaking metaphorically, Ebay is that street urchin perched at the foot of an exit off ramp with his tin cup out - holding a cardboard sign.
Anything and everything to try and ensure or maintain them getting their dopey percentage from a sale.
Don't get me wrong, business is business. I get it.  Everyone all around is in it for profits, but the shameless transparent unabashed methods that they use are hysterical.

The countless spam emails in your inbox for one.  
''𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚!  𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑬 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒔𝒆 ?? 𝒆𝒕𝒄...𝒆𝒕𝒄... 𝒆𝒕𝒄...''
''𝑯𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒘!  𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒕𝒄... 𝒆𝒕𝒄.... 𝒆𝒕𝒄... 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚!''

How about the now recently defaulted FORCED sellers layout page with the ''SEND OFFER TO BUYERS'' layout complete with dongles under each and every listing.  Push push push , sell sell sell . . .  Don't worry about losing profits. Some money is better than NO money mentality. JUST BE SURE AND GET US OUR FEES FIRST AND FOREMOST!

I know homeless people living in tents that have more self respect than this nothingburger of a company.  
Ebay is the three-card monte of Ecommerce. A joke in bad taste.
They are akin to a city mayor who indulges in a fifth of vodka for his lunch every afternoon. Unreliable, erratic and desperate. I can only assume their board meeting memos are written in crayon.

by: Bparty

Postbuster your experience with Amazon is completely opposite of mine. My last 2 purchases from them were disastrous. The first they cancelled 5 days after it supposedly mailed says it was lost on the way out of the building. The next it was a week late. I  almost never buy  from them, repurchased the lost items on ebay and delivered timely.  

by: postbuster

@Bparty

Good to know.  That sounds more par for the course.
The main point is that AMZ has distribution everywhere and they are on top because most buyers care more about wanting something 'now' rather than something of quality.

Otherwise, I don't have a lot of experience on AMZ because I don't care for their inventory or their superior thinking in mistreating the employees.

And recently this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/biden-singles-out-a
mazon-for-not-paying-federal-taxes/ar-BB1fbin8?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

Amazons excuse is using something called an R&D tax credit.

Without creating more reading...
Does Amazon assume to wipe out ALL PROFITS from taxable income?

by: RKTOYS

eBay is sort of a poster child for a phenomenon I've noticed over the latest few years where software rarely, if ever, improves for end users.  There are surely many complex processes working behind the scenes to ensure that no good ideas are heard, let alone implemented.

by: Toledo Maude

After 21 years of selling on eBay, I will shortly call it ''quits'' from eBay.  The managed payments is ''the straw that broke the camel's back''.

As best I could I ignored eBay's ugliness and this additional chaos to my collectibles category is something that I will not miss.

Hello, Etsy!