Is Ebay dying?

swingaloo

Ive been selling on Ebay for some years now. Mostly clothing but some other odds and ends as well.

Recently Ive had about 4 months when I haven't listed anything because Ive been otherwise busy but started again last week.

Ive always done relatively well. I take great care to photograph everything in detail and do very thorough descriptions. I have great feedback, don't charge anymore than minimum postage and don't have any dodgy terms and condition to put buyers off.

Im not doing anything differently to what I have done for the last few years, Im selling the same kind of clothes, all good quality and don't list anything that's not in great condition.

At the moment I have 18 items listed which are due to end in 4 days. I listed them for 10 days so they have been there for 6 days now and apart from one of them which has had 12 viewers the rest have had either 2 or 3 views.

Not long ago I could spend Sunday afternoon listing and by the time I had got to the 5th or 6th item the first one would have had 8 or 9 viewers. It just seems odd that my items are now sitting days without anyone looking.

Is it just me or is that quite common nowadays?

theonlywayisup

It isn't dying for me.

I guess it's horses for courses and time of year. Do people want to buy xyz items in November.

If you sell Christmas decorations you may find it is busier now than in January?

swingaloo

Thanks for the reply. It may seem a bit silly but most of the clothing I sell is summer clothing, however Ive done the same thing for some years and have kept a diary of what Ive sold. Strangely enough this time of year has always been really good for me as people are going abroad and cant get summer clothing in the shops at this time of year.

Its always done really well Oct to Feb.

soolin

I'm having an exceptionally good month, but I don't sell clothes.

OP If you are a business then just double check your policies and terms and conditions, make sure nothing silly has crept in. If you are a private seller just selling second hand clothing the perhaps that market has died. There is such an availability of clothing available now that buying second hand from a private seller is perhaps no longer appealing.

RFW

It will always be dying for some sellers. Ebay itself will stagger on for a good few years yet, probably much longer if they shake it up a bit. I've probably been using it more for buying in the last few months than ever before. It's still the biggest (or at worst second biggest) marketplace.
I've still not yet been tempted to go back to selling, although it is always under consideration. My business was 95% Ebay 5 years ago, it's now zero and I sell more than ever. There are other places to sell.

forgotmyname

10 days is too long. If i need something enough to list by ended date then i wont go past 7 days.

The only way i see stuff older than that is by listing by price cheapest first.

Tried searching for your items from another location and without logging in? Anynonymous 3rd party user. See how your items come up in the search.

Trying to buy something from Amazon today and gave up in frustration, their search is much worse than ebay's.
They would have got a bonus because im a top gear nut and would probably have bought prime also.

fishybusiness

New item prices seem to have increased over the last year or so. I used to be able to make significant savings over buying locally for DIY items, car parts, odd computer part and household goods.

Now I find much more difficult to find those savings using ebay. For example last week I needed to purchase a part for my car, an old Audi so didn't fancy main dealer prices. Looked on ebay, genuine part circa £73, 2 day delivery. Called the dealer out of interest, £70 will be in in the morning they said. Local service and no worries of is genuine really genuine.

Used IT equipment on the other hand is ridiculously cheap on ebay at the moment, so I would expect business is brisk, but margins are low.

I am finding myself buying local much more often at the moment, the downside is the putting the time in, flipside is that I know what I am buying and am saving a bit of cash.

googler

I sell used music-related stuff from my own collections, and in the last year or so it's been dead.

Listings for 30 days on Buy It Now or Best Offer getting maybe 12 views over the whole 30 days, no watchers at all....

soolin

googler wrote: »

I sell used music-related stuff from my own collections, and in the last year or so it's been dead.

Listings for 30 days on Buy It Now or Best Offer getting maybe 12 views over the whole 30 days, no watchers at all....

I think the way we use and listen to music has changed, the same thing happened to books. I used to mainly sell books on Amazon with ebay as just a tiny sideline, then overnight the book market died. I went from perhaps selling 70 books every single month without any effort, to selling 4 or 5 at most. It wasn't that Amazon had died, it was just that people were turning to e readers and traditional books became less popular. I had thousands and thousands of book sin storage and made the decision to start moving it on and go into a different market.

I suspect it isn't ebay that has died for you, but your market. I realise that as a private seller it is different as you only have what you have, but I see the same thing happen in the business side of things. Someone will be selling a line month in month out and then that market just goes pop. Instead of looking at their stock they blame the market. I imagine I am like many businesses, you tap into a market and the trick is to get out before the crash- I sometimes manage it and sometimes I get left with stock that I have to just accept won't sell and take it to a charity shop.

I love selling antiques and collectables but am holding stock that I doubt I will ever see a return on, Wedgwood blue jasper ware for instance, I love it and just a few years back it made real money. Now I would be lucky to sell it at all.

The trick is always to know if it is the market or the site that has died.

ballisticbrian

My latest buying experience on eBay, checked sellers feedback prior to buy-it-now. Lots of feedback stating, "seller is shipping stuff off Amazon at a high profit".
Went to look on Amazon. It is indeed a lot cheaper but when you add the postage on (without Prime) it is 5p more expensive than eBay.
So in a nut shell, eBay sellers markup is the Amazon shipping.


I bought direct off Amazon willing to pay the 5p extra (but in the end got free delivery but that would be a massive digress from this topic)

fishybusiness

So in a nut shell, eBay sellers markup is the Amazon shipping.

Or just shipping, Amazon or not.

Local prices plus shipping = ebay price.