eBay GMV and Revenue Fall in Q3 2022 from a Year Ago

by: pace306

eBays stock went down (again) today after the announcement of its purchase of the trading card company

Its sorta obvious that only the San Jose mafia thinks that the trading card biz will last forever.

Dopes.

eBays numbers will keep dropping until they get a new BOD and CEO - one that actually "likes the idea of selling things to make a profit".

by: CT Bay

Showing people what was paid to be shown to them rather than what they we’re looking for isn’t going to work.

They can keep doing that and customers will keep leaving and going to a marketplace where the search produces accurate results.  

by: COVID-19

eBay's search engine has steadily been unusable. In this regard, they have got their wish. They are now just like Amazoo where actual product names don't matter so that even if you input something very specific because are you are searching for that specific item, you are flooded with hundreds if not thousands of generic bad results. The item you are looking for is BURIED somewhere within these hundreds / thousands of other listings. Now if you have the time to waste, you can maybe narrow things down further by selecting a "category" to dig some more. Buying things on eBay used to be very fun but now it's just Amazon-Lite.

by: HappyOne

Seems obvious to me that Ebay and Etsy are not adding any new buyers. What fees are they going to impose or increase now to “make” their Wall Street numbers?

by: forever long

I have been on eBay 25 years almost and my sales have gone down instead of up for me. If eBay would stop hiding my listings and as someone said a couple of weeks ago I  did a sell similar and it shows up nowhere on Google with the same exact title search. Then they wonder why there sales are down.  Stupid idiots  

by: Nonesuch

Wow.  eBay’s customer base dropped almost 11 percent over the past year:  from 152 million to 135 million.     If that’s part of their “progress against objectives” then their strategy must be to kill the company.  Ebay must be mighty thankful that the Postmaster General keeps raising postage rates, as it looks like that is the only revenue bright spot for them (since eBay takes a cut from shipping, higher shipping prices means free money for ebay.)  

by: Fried Chicken Addiction

Month 11, I have not bought or sold on eBay. I bought and sold for 22 years and made eBay & USPS thousands and thousands of dollars but Biden tax reporting threshold changes and eBay's managed payment credit card chrageback free for all abruptly ended the cash flow. Now nobody gets squat...and there are thousands of me's out there betrayed after years of loyal service that will never use eBay again. You think it's bad now eBay, wait, 11 months from now, doomed, doom I say.

by: Chicago48

I have no complaints vs Ebay this time because EB has been on fire for me.  Way more sales than Posh.  Posh is what is worrying, as they were just acquired by a Korean comp. and my sales have stalled.  As for Eb's revenue, across the board everybody from Target to AMZ has down revenues. The recession is taking a bite, but I still don't think we're in a recession.  Maybe the housing market is having a recession, but the sports stadiums are filled, concerts are full, celebrity merchandise and luxury goods are selling quite well, people haven't traded their SUVs for small sedans.  WHERE'S the recession?

by: cellarebayer

eBay needs to fix or replace its servers. To go a few days without sales with over 2300 listings should be unheard of. I fear they will find yet another way to make money off the back of the seller. They made their money from Promoted Listings. They should use that to service the seller and fix what is wrong.
They should go back to their roots. If they did, they would see that the advertising "you can find it on eBay" would bring in more money than just collector cards, high-end sneakers, and handbags.
EBAY, go back to your roots AND fix your servers and your search engine.  

by: Snapped

Quick, name a company that declares an INCREASE in ‘ad revenue’ of  %20 (that’s over twice the worst inflation rate reported monthly for the past year) while simultaneously somehow ‘shrinking’ by 5% in overall revenue  and twice that in customer base (during that same inflation period) - THEN still seems to find funds to ‘acquire’ a “leading technology platform” practically nobody’s ever heard of to compliment their own notoriously stable technology ‘innovations’ and support their ‘market focused’ pipe dream - and still had the audacious arrogance to claim all that eCom diminishment to be “significant progress” and bringing “even more opportunity and value to our customers.”

“Customers” who they apparently believe must be more clueless than they are.

You probably won’t need all three guesses.

by: Snapped

“ Biden tax reporting threshold changes..”

SMH

“ Back in 2012, it was an Obamacare requirement that businesses report payments for goods or services that exceeded $600 in a given year. That change was eventually set aside after then-President Obama admitted that it was “too burdensome for small business.”

“ There has never been a de minimis threshold for payment transactions, but prior to 2022, payment settlement entities were only required to report third-party network transactions for payees with more than 200 transactions and $20,000 in gross payments.

“ Democratic lawmakers recently unveiled bills that would raise the de minimis reporting threshold for third-party settlement organizations under Section 6050W to $5,000. The move would partially reverse legislation from 2021 that reduced the reporting threshold to $600 beginning in 2022.

Reps. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, and Chris Pappas, D-N.H., recently introduced the “Cut Red Tape for Online Sales Act” (H.R. 7079), which would raise the threshold to payees with $5,000 or more in payments regardless of the number of transactions. Companion legislation (S. 3840) was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

Both bills follow a December 2021 letter to House leadership by House Democrats asking for Congress to raise the threshold for 1099-K reporting for goods sold on marketplaces before the end of the year.”

So, a few facts in case those matter.

“Biden” had little to do with this.  The ARA passed 12/‘21 ‘re-establishing’ the threshold was through a GOP Congress.  Still is.  probably will still be after Tuesday next too.  

And, paperwork ‘burden’ aside (and it is a burden, no question), no additional tax liability was established.  Certainly, the ‘change’ may lead to confusion, but no more (or less) tax will be owed than if no ‘report’ was made.  Just a bit harder to ‘hide’ - for now.

Though based on the ‘consensus’ here regarding diminished eBay sales, sounds like almost everybody will owe ‘less’ taxes regardless.

Question is - if ‘you’ believe Biden (et.al.) is the villain here, are you going to contact your GOP rep to vote for these DEM bills that reduces this ‘burden’?  ‘Cuz they tend to disregard fact too, and stonewall everything blue on ‘principal’.  As if hey had any.  

by: 3TimesALady

"eBay reported 135 million active buyers at the end of the third quarter compared to 152 million at the end of Q3 2021."

Wait until they see how much more those numbers are going to bottom out when the 1099-K forms start hitting those small and P/T sellers who had no idea they were coming.  

by: epuise

eBay... Making MORE PROFIT (Fees on Postage Hikes, Promoted Fees, Fees, Kickback on Postage)... while making LESS -SUCCESSFUL- SALES... Simply amazing... HOW do you show a LOSS when USPS gives your Postage Vig a 5-10% HIKE every 3-6 mos.?

by: epuise

I read the heinous 'return for any reason w/o PROOF testimonials on Chats... So... I REASEARCH EVERY ITEM I post on eBay, now... IF I can't NET a $10 profit... GUARANTEED (if it sells), FOR MY WORK... AFTER: COGS,Postage, FEES, Income Taxes... It goes to Flea Mkt or B&M... I had an idiot ask me to tear the Calendar of a 1900's Trade ad I had for $9.99 'Free' (I pay) Shipping (Auction, end, watcher, no bid), asking if I could sell just the Calendar for $5.00 'Free' Shipping... After Fees, Postage, Time/Gas to go to P.O.... LOL... yeah... work & LOSE money ? No thanks... I can get $5 NET... all day long... Elsewhere.

by: Rexford

"Our third quarter results demonstrate significant progress...blah, blah, blah."

And there lies the problem, or at least part of it.  Revenue falls and the clothes-less emperor views that as progress.

A meteorite could fall on the entire eBay campus and if he were reporting to Wall Street he'd  be boasting about the newly acquired real estate.

by: poetryinpower

It's hard to align an individual seller's results to eBay's corporate earnings.  So many product categories aggregate into total eBay sales.

Category specific corporate sales data would help.  I wonder if it's possible to find such data.

by: pace306

Of course eBay is at fault here - hiring DOPES and retreads, but the real "villain" here is Wall Street

WS should be PUNISHING them hard after stunts like this, but yet gives them a pass.

Revenue of $2.4 billion, down 5%
Gross Merchandise Volume of $17.7 billion, down 11%
GAAP net loss from continuing operations was $70 million

The ONLY reason eBay made any money (besides the free gift from USPS/shipping - an unjust gift that keeps on giving)(hence the MAFIA designation) is:

The company's total advertising offerings generated over $290 million in revenue in the third quarter, representing roughly 1.6% of GMV.

And, Sold eBay's remaining shares in Adyen for approximately $120 million

eBay has now tried to "reinvent itself" 3? 4? 5? times and each time its a failure.

Trying to go "Mad Max" on your sellers all day, every day will NEVER make you successful.

I dont think theres a person on the planet that knows what eBay wants to be, most here know what eBay DOESNT want to be - the manager of a website that sells things.

What ever/which ever is the easiest thing or way to do something is what eBay does - and after awhile/over time - it doesnt work anymore.

But WS eats this stuff up like free candy on Halloween.

Ill wager $1000 - we will "be here again" next year!

by: toastedmutt

No matter which way they spin it, bottom line is eBay lost. Again.

Wake up Your Lordship Iannone - 95% of the world's population does NOT collect trading cards, does NOT purchase overpriced and overhyped sneakers, does NOT covet designer handbags or Rolex watches.

Collectibles category going vertical next?  Lots of Asian fakes out there and more counterfeit merchandise being manufactured every day.  Think the antique and collectibles dealers will ship their items to one of your not-so-perfect authenticator warehouses?  How much more will you charge those sellers to authenticate a glass vase or an art deco lamp?      

by: toolguy

eBay is a roller coaster of profit and loses, it's been that way forever and will be for a long time coming.

The bottom line:

As a small seller eBay is easy and cheap to get into

As a buyer I can find hard to find items for dirt cheap if I wait long enough

by: Ubiquitous Salmon

@toolguy

I can find hard-to-come-by, discontinued items or parts for older appliances, etc., on eBay as well. Prices for some of those item have gone up (some ridiculously high), but, for me, it's the shipping cost that's prohibitive these days.