Yet again Ebay are controlling sellers even more

meknownowt

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m11/i10/s01
More reason to make the move, no wonder nothing is selling on ebay for a decent price any more.
I wonder if the free shipping had anything to do with googles decision not to include ebay, as the ebay price will look higher with the shipping included in the price.

soolin

meknownowt wrote: »

I am a little puzzled about the red herring? I sell on ebay, using only auction, and I also joined ebid some time ago, added some stuff and left them there, checking back each day to see nothing sold, just like you. Thinking it would be like ebay used to be, where all you had to do was list the item. But now, unlike others on here, I am finding the ebay I knew as an auction site is dying and is no longer what ebay used to be. If I stay there, then I suspect I will struggle this christmas, when this should be our busiest period. But now by time you take off the price of the products, and the ebay/paypal cut, and the fact the customers are no longer on ebay, then Then I have to start looking elsewhere, or the government will start to think I am fiddling my taxes, they are getting so little from me at the moment. So I am looking at those alternatives, as looking through their forums, and you see a lot of people that are selling stuff, as they are probably buying from each other, the same as they used to buy from each other on ebay and from people others like you and me. So at the moment I am looking through the advice on their forums, to see why they are selling on the alternatives, rather than trying to fix my ebay sales, as I just do not have the heart for ebay any longer. That was my point, as that should be the worry if you sell on ebay at the moment, as I can't see it getting any better and the fact the alternatives are growing so fast in such a short time, has to be having an affect on ebay sales, or at least they seem to be having an affect on my ebay sales, where our products are selling for the start price and if you raise the start price, all you end up with is no guarantee of a sale and a higher fee. I see people on the alternatives getting sales of the stuff I sell, so it really does look as if you are loosing another customer, as I will also buy in the same place I sell.

Sorry I do find your single paragraph style of writing difficult to read so apologies if I have misunderstood you at all.

My point was that I think you meant that sites like ebid were new and were poised to take sales from ebay, however ebid isn't new it is only a year younger than ebay and has never managed to do anything pro active at all. As a seller there I think they have lost a lot of good opportunities to grab people, but even the regular ebid sellers appear to be giving up and if you go read the forums you will see they are not very positive anymore.

In terms of value for money spending time on ebid listing things that never even get a page view is more costly that listing stuff on ebay that actually sells.I would prefer a small profit for my efforts, not no profit at all.

cyberbob

Your text is very difficult to read but I think I understand some of your points

meknownowt wrote: »

why they are selling on the alternatives, rather than trying to fix my ebay sales,

In any form of retail you can't just set something up and expect it to work forever. Retail in any form is ever changing. Just look at the high streets.

meknownowt wrote: »

fact the alternatives are growing so fast in such a short time, has to be having an affect on ebay sales, or at least they seem to be having an affect on my ebay sales,

I'd like to see some evidence that the alternatives are growing ebid which has been going for 9 years is dying a very painful death other than Amazon an play (which are quite specific) there really isn't much of an alternative

I'm not saying that you are doing this but there seems to be lots of complaints about my sales were fine last year and these listings/products have always worked. What people like one week they may not like another thats what retail is like. There has been a recession on in recessions people buying habits change. The recession has been an opportunity for a lot of ebay sellers to do well as they have realised people are out for a bargain. I find there is a vocal minority constantly complaining about ebay changes/sales etc when maybe they should be looking at there own listings. While the majority are doing OK and adapting If you actually do some research its actually cheaper to list now that it was a few years ago.

In the past year my sales have dipped I then took a good long look at what I was doing and others were doing and adapted my model. Now my sales are back where they used to be. If your not selling items maybe you need to look at the type of stock or your market

meknownowt

Sorry it has spaces when I write it but then they have vanished when I hit post, have tried to change something on firefox.and see if that helps

The proof is easy http://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php Just check the growth shown on there. just look at the amount of promotion by the users

I understand ebid is not knew, as I am sure I joined it when it first opened, along with another couple that went off with the dodo. The point is more the shown growth, I was watching the the offer of the three thousand dollar prize, and they still had over forty six thousand listings to go, and in less than two three days that prize was won. Now if anyone had said that was possible on ebid last year, they would have said they were mad, as I am sure none of the alternatives were over a million.

The other big problem I see that is also pushing me toward the alternatives, has been their forums, which are far from dead, and the amount of promotion and self promotion going on is extraordinary.
And the reason for that is easy, as like me where ebay is concerned you hide your ID, yet those from the alternatives have their IDs pasted all over the place. They have a thing on second life to promote sales. Every forum has their ID pasted with the same pride that ebay sellers once had.

Where is ebay going to get this form of support from its users, it just can't happen any longer as every one that uses ebay knows how fragile their account is, not one of us would say our ebay ID is .................................. let alone say come buy from us here.

And like it was said above the world changes, and people move on, which is what seems to be happening with the alternatives. They really are expanding, and then you get sellers with sales like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/sellingonebid/

On top of the loss of sales, the penny profits are just not worth the time spent and I suspect if I stay there I will end up turning into the same creature that has become the norm, as an ebay user, there just seems to be no respect or common courtesy on that place any longer.

I know you think that ebay is the future, but there is just too much growth in the alternatives, so that the only places that stand a chance will be the place you are willing to promote, and ebay for that reason is going to struggle even more in the future.

As for loss of sales on ebay, or the loss of profit, over the past three month ebays sales have just become so bad that, it is becoming a question of could I really warrant buying new stock, or could I really afford it., as ebay is not bringing in enough sales so this is possibly a good time for the move, as the fact of no listing fees would mean I could sell items at a higher start price, and at least stand a chance of breaking even, as one item sold on the alternatives will be equal to three or four things sold on ebay, the only difference will be that, I will not feel sick as I am sending the items out for nothing prices.

I'm back to work now, I suppose time will tell on this, I just think ebay sellers have to start looking at the change, as there does not seem to be a way to stop it.

So I suppose it may be time to shout Viva revolution, or Viva the alternatives, as the old king is dead or dying of an overactive something or other

soolin

The problem is that listings don't equal sales. On ebay in most of the categories I post in if I look at completed listings at least 50% and sometimes as many as 75% sold. If I do the same in the same categories on ebid there are no sales at all, absolutely none..zippo.

Just as an example I moved a whole block of stuff from ebay to ebid, I gave my repeat customers several months warning and I redirected them all to the same items on ebid. Nothing sold, absoltely nothing and it just keep relisting over and over again.

I started moving the stuff back to ebay a few at a time and they sold immediately. That's why I now list on ebay again in preference to other sites. At one point we had a very thriving ebid base of users here, even those have now gone and I think we only really get one other regular poster on the ebid thread now, they aren't even on the ebid forums anymore.

My books go onto Amazon though as they can sit there until they sell but any juicy ones go onto ebay as the markets are a bit different.

I would welcome another site if only to dual list and maybe find a new customer base, I've even started listing on Priceminster as I htought that looked hopeful, but nothing there so far.

Maybe ebay is slowing down, I certainly don't list as much as i used to because my most lucrative market was taken out several years back when RM introduced pricing in proportion, but when it stops working for me I will probably find something else entirely to do rather than just look for a look a like.

RFW

meknownowt wrote: »

Sorry it has spaces when I write it but then they have vanished when I hit post, have tried to change something on firefox.and see if that helps

The proof is easy http://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php Just check the growth shown on there. just look at the amount of promotion by the users

The 'proof' on there could be interpreted as the opposite. The 'powersellers unite' website is based on Ebay, it uses an Ebay term and logo, it shows Ebay with a substantial market share (if you interpret items listed as 'the market'). It shows currently that whilst Ebay had an increase of 250,000 listings, Ebid had none.

As Soolin said listings prove nothing on any site. Ebay has deliberately changed its model over the last 3-4 years to conserve and increase its buyer base, which is still very healthy. They measure their success on active buyers not sellers. Sellers are easy to come by for Ebay and will be for the foreseeable future. Affiliates are actively promoting Ebay across the web and earning plenty from it, I know one or two on here do just that;), there's no money in promoting any of the 'competitors'.

So disgruntled sellers will drop off for some time to come but as long as the buyers are still there and getting happier then no one at Ebay will really care. I actually think they could do more to get the message out so that they didn't annoy so many people, but I think that's more of a blessing and a curse for Ebay, the fact that they are considered public domain and often not looked upon a the billion dollar industry that they are.

I think the prevailing stat is that if Ebay Inc was a country they would be in the top ten of GDP!

meknownowt

The problem I am finding that, if I list my items for a price that will not hurt me on fees, then the customers ebay still have are buying, but not for any great price.

I have buyers, buying stuff from me to sell on their other venues like websites, and one had a market stall. That just would not happen before on ebay, if I listed something then I was going to get a good price for it. Now if I list most things they go for the asking price that I can't raise, as it just does not sell and the fees are too high to chance that.
Then there are a lot of things that I can't even sell any longer, as they go into free shipping categories, which if you sell auction does not work, as the postage cost is not set until you know how much it is worth. And on ebay at the moment you can't guess that any longer, as things are seen one week and then not the next.

I have not come to this decision lightly, as this is the third month of really bad sales, after a year or so of decreasing by drips, so I have been looking at this for a while.

The alternatives even have higher page ranks than ebay, and now they are getting promoted by google so any promotion for ebay will have to be paid for by us, which will mean more fees.

I do understand your reluctance to change, as if you sell the right stuff, then ebay are saying all the right things. But if they are unable to hang onto users because of their benefits for the select few then no matter what they say people will have no alternative but to look in other places for sales, and when they do, then they also take with them their buying power

Power seller unite is based on selling, it was just born from ebay changes. Some sell on ebay and others sell on alternatives and their own sites. It is designed to help people make the best of what is available, and the best of what suits you as a seller.

But the stats and the changes several of the alternatives did not exist when I first seen them, yet they keep growing as ebay, even with the inflation of the millions of free listings are decreasing year on year. I know if I check my own categories, then the drop is massive on ebay, where if check the alternatives the increase just keeps going every day in the same categories.

So I am going to be busy over the next week or so, as I try and tidy up the listings I had thrown on ebid and see what happens, when I follow the advice they have on their forum.
I don't know I actually feel exited about the challenge, as it is a bit like when I first started on ebay over ten year ago and it was fun, and the people were nice people.

See how it goes

StaffsSW

meknownowt wrote: »

The problem I am finding that, if I list my items for a price that will not hurt me on fees, then the customers ebay still have are buying, but not for any great price.

I have buyers, buying stuff from me to sell on their other venues like websites, and one had a market stall. That just would not happen before on ebay, if I listed something then I was going to get a good price for it. Now if I list most things they go for the asking price that I can't raise, as it just does not sell and the fees are too high to chance that.
Then there are a lot of things that I can't even sell any longer, as they go into free shipping categories, which if you sell auction does not work, as the postage cost is not set until you know how much it is worth. And on ebay at the moment you can't guess that any longer, as things are seen one week and then not the next.

The major cause of this suppression of selling prices is the glut of listings since the free insertion fees were introduced.

There is now so much choice on ebay for many people that you have to have a very good product, or a very good listing in order to make any returns. But hey - free listings! Woohoo! Cheap is good and all that... :rolleyes:

Coupled with the Outlets/Top rated Sellers/ Best match, ebay is no longer a case of "list it and they will buy", you do need to stay ahead of the game to be able to make a success of it.

It is no longer a place for lazy, complacent or naive sellers. Cheap listings come at a price, which is why i am not convinced that alternative auction sites that use this as a business model are not doing well.

Also, the ebay affiliate programme drives a LOT of buyers onto the site, around 15-20% of all buying traffic is driven from affiliate sites. All the other alternative auction sites are incentivising for new seller accounts, and in fairness they pay out well, but what use is a site full of sellers?
When I start seeing affilaite programmes for Ebid listings, or TV & Press advertising campaigns about products available to buy on CQout, then maybe I'll focus more of my attention on them, but for now, I'm attracted to the place where the most money is available for me to make.

And guess where that is?

toycollector

first post by long time lurker.

i have been selling on ebay for several years now and have seen a drastic drop in my earnings due to the 99p free listings. i had been increasing my postage costs to compensate this, but now i have just received a warning about my DSR's for postage being low and a warning about possible future account restrictions.

i think this is very unreasonable as no one is being forced to buy my items, my postage costs are very clearly written in my descriptions, and then to leave a low rating for postage is just sour grapes.

i dont think any ammount of whinging will change the rules, the only way to break the system is to use it to our advantage. today i have left feedback for about 20 items i bought recently and i left DSR's for all categories of 1 for all of them (even the free postage items) it only takes 4 low DSR's to get the warning, if every buyer did this within a month half the sellers on ebay would have restricted accounts and ebay would have to rethink their policies.

soolin

toycollector wrote: »

first post by long time lurker.

i have been selling on ebay for several years now and have seen a drastic drop in my earnings due to the 99p free listings. i had been increasing my postage costs to compensate this, but now i have just received a warning about my DSR's for postage being low and a warning about possible future account restrictions.

i think this is very unreasonable as no one is being forced to buy my items, my postage costs are very clearly written in my descriptions, and then to leave a low rating for postage is just sour grapes.

i dont think any ammount of whinging will change the rules, the only way to break the system is to use it to our advantage. today i have left feedback for about 20 items i bought recently and i left DSR's for all categories of 1 for all of them (even the free postage items) it only takes 4 low DSR's to get the warning, if every buyer did this within a month half the sellers on ebay would have restricted accounts and ebay would have to rethink their policies.

Oh I so hope this is just a troll and not a serious buyer :wall: