Yet again Ebay are controlling sellers even more

pinkshoes

hubballi wrote: »

I keep hearing the same chorus "if you don't like it, go elsewhere, if you don't like it, go elsewhere" Perhaps you could all record a song.

I don't get why you're so stroppy over this; if you really don't like ebay rules, then don't use it. It's quite simple.

I hate Primark so I don't shop there.

Sellers may be hating all these new rules, but one thing it is doing is attracting many more buyers. I never used to buy on ebay, but buy quite a lot now due to the new rules, and sellers not being able to mess me around. Before the new rules, it wasn't worth the risk.

There are plenty of other places you can sell, but ultimately, you won't have as many buyers, so are unlikely to make the same profit.

By all means go away, sell elsewhere, then prove us all wrong...

hubballi

Nobody has responded to my earlier post about Ebay not helping me (the seller) when some nutter decides to ruin my 100% feedback and brag about doing it.

I was the one penalised. Again, why target sellers who charge reasonable postage ?

soolin

hubballi wrote: »

Nobody has responded to my earlier post about Ebay not helping me (the seller) when some nutter decides to ruin my 100% feedback and brag about doing it.

I was the one penalised. Again, why target sellers who charge reasonable postage ?

100% feedback is nice but not essential, I think sometimes sellers need to step away and look at the bigger picture. Keep your sales good and consistent, work on keeping your stars up and don't worry too much about the smaller stuff. Yes a neg can make you feel really grumpy, I whinged about my neg that I got a couple of years ago to anyone that would listen. However in a year that neg no longer shows.

As for targetting sellers who charge reasonable postage they haven't, they have bought in new rules to all sellers and they haven't singled anyone out for special attention.

StaffsSW

emweaver wrote: »

what are you selling? is this a full time job for you?

I've got one niche product that nobody else sells which keeps me ticking over through the year, but I also sell seasonal goods - buy them dirt cheap at the end of a season, around 5-10% of RRP, stick them in storage for about 8 months, then sell at large markup when they are back in season the following year. It's not that difficult, but it's a case of managing the cash tied up in stock for so long. But if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.
It's not full time - about 10-15 hours per week packing and admin. I spend a fair bit of time creating each new listing, but I'll sell multiple items from one listing so it's worth making the effort. I have automated feedback, sales reports, label printers etc and I make sure I have the right size packaging for each item to save time. There are a lot of busy fools on ebay - working 60-70 hours for maybe £200 profit per week.

I've also got a network of websites that pretty much run themselves now, so I gave up the day job earlier this year.

hubballi wrote: »

Nobody has responded to my earlier post about Ebay not helping me (the seller) when some nutter decides to ruin my 100% feedback and brag about doing it.

I was the one penalised. Again, why target sellers who charge reasonable postage ?

Given that most of the eBay outlets and Top Rated Sellers have less than 100% feedback, it is not the end of the world. It's an occupational hazard of selling to the public - as the old saying goes, "you can please all of the people some of the time, or some of the people all the time". One neg is not a trend, it's an exception. As long as it does not become a regular thing, it is not anything significant to worry about.

The seller ratings are entirely the opinion of the customer, not ebay. And it comes back to the same old saying. The scores are completely subjective and it is how the customers interpret them. Free P&P tends to lead to slightly more 3 star ratings - neither reasonable nor unreasonable, which although I don't agree with it, I can understand why people would rate it as such.

confused90

Just read most of this thread and in particular what grabbed me was a couple of guys telling stories of how cheap ebay is, ebay is not cheap!

i have made a living online since 2006 and i started on ebay, since 2008 i have been moving my business off ebay and investing the money i was paying in ebay fees into adwords for my own site and it is a phenomenally more cost effective way of generating sales, here's an example, my ebay fees on average were in the region of £900 per month (£6 fees on average per item so i was making around 150 sales a month) my sales equated to a profit of £1,500 per month (average £10 profit per sale)

Stay with me.......

now i invest that £900 per month in adwords instead and with an average cost per click of just 4 pence i am able to generate 22,500 clicks per month on my site for targeted keyword searches relevant to my product, my conversion rate to sale is just 2% (average for any adwords campaign) but this still equates to on average 450 sales per month as opposed to 150 on ebay in the same period, in money terms that's a monthly profit of £4,500 using my site and adwords as opposed to £1,500 monthly profit on ebay for the same marketing spend......

And that’s why ebay is not a cheap place to sell.......

CCFC_80

cyberbob wrote: »

So whats your point you have nothing to moan about if you don't use them eh

My point Einstein, if you read my post is that I stopped using them due to their continued unacceptable treatment of sellers !!

StaffsSW

confused90 wrote: »

And that’s why ebay is not a cheap place to sell.......

Compartively so, I agree, and Adwords and own website is definitely the way to go long term.

In my situation, because I'm selling in a very niche market, I can rely solely on SEO to gain traffc, and enjoy a good conversion rate from it. I tried Adwords once, but through naivity and inexperience, I managed to spend a lot of money, very quickly, for little return! I'm looking into it again though to promote other websites instead.

An issue to bear in mind though, is that business sellers look upon ebay very differently to private sellers. We understand and plan for the concepts of selling costs, but there are many private sellers who simply want "owt for nowt" - website and Adwords are not feasible for someone clearing out their wardrobe, and none of the other sites get anywhere near the eposure or traffic as ebay.

Ebay to gain customers, website to retain them has been a relatively successful strategy as well.

StaffsSW

andy46 wrote: »

My point Einstein, if you read my post is that I stopped using them due to their continued unacceptable treatment of sellers !!

Out of curiosty then, do you still make purchases via ebay, or have you stopped using it altogether?

And where do you sell now if not ebay, or did you just stop selling altogether?

TurkishDelight

confused90 wrote: »

And that’s why ebay is not a cheap place to sell.......

Yes probably you are right, but websites are not free as you know, and for many people they are not a option (for example the OP is a private seller ).

Ebay is not perfect, but for many it is the most viable choice.
For us the learning curve is too steep to justify a website (at the moment, but one day I'm sure we'll move on.) and the convenience of having a security, design, and payment structure already in place is worth paying for.

cyberbob

andy46 wrote: »

My point Einstein, if you read my post is that I stopped using them due to their continued unacceptable treatment of sellers !!

Well it looks like most sellers didn't agree with you as ebay still up and running i'm sure they really miss your business:rotfl: