ebay quiet

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin wrote: »

Facebook can work for certain items as long as you don't mind 75% of buyers messing you around and never actually bothering to collect, it does also limit you quite a lot to local sales anyway.I've virtually given up on Facebook due to time wasters.

Facebook is better for adverting rather than direct sales, say you sell yarn, stick up a load of posts to engage customers:

Winter is coming, crochet yourself a cosy wolly hat.
Newborn on the way, why not make some cute booties?
New world record on largest ball of yarn!

Throw in some some adverts:

Buy 5 get 1 free offer now on!
Did you know we offer free shipping if you spend £30?
New range in stock, why not have a browse?

and drive people to your website.

The Boost feature on Facebook is pretty good as you can target by age, gender and interests. Business pages also have a shop to showcase products and offering a freebie in return for comments, post likes, etc (there are some rules about not asking for page shares and page likes) and then inviting those who engage to like the page can also boost interest.

Takes a bit of effort to keep people interested but can do well if you sell a product tied to an interest.

sillygoose

I have been making a steady stream of purchases but fairly small items, mainly due to the £20 Amazon free post limit (their loss)

Higher value, I am after a particular camera currently, used are insane with every one being bid to a stupid price close to new - for an unknown quality item against a few quid more for a new one with 2 years warranty. Crazy! All the new item sellers are asking between £20 and £80 more than the price in John Lewis or Jessops!

Could it be retailers are doing some good prices affecting Ebay generally?

LadyDee

From a buyer's perspective.

I used to buy a lot on ebay, but quite honestly I got sick and tired of trawling through pages and pages of tat - usually listed in the incorrect category, pages of identical items with just a tiny change in the title, misdescribed things, etc., etc. Even trying to exclude the Chinese rubbish doesn't work as many things are sold through drop shipping. It just takes too long now trying to exclude stuff by use of the 'minus' sign.

Many of the new things can be bought elsewhere - often cheaper. Currently looking at a particular toaster - cheaper new on Amazon with free shipping than 'manufacturer refurbished' on ebay. This is true of several things I'm currently looking to buy.

Sellers that claim they are private sellers when it's perfectly clear from the stuff they are selling that they are a business.

The ease of returning stuff free to retailers if it doesn't suit than the hassle often encountered with ebay sellers, not to mention sometimes illegal returns conditions.

Always the possibility of unknowingly buying fakes. Things wrongly sized - I could go on.

I am in no way suggesting that the posters on this thread fit the stituations above, but ebay has actually become my last port of call than my first. Am I alone? I very much doubt it.

ballisticbrian

I completely agree with you LadyDee.

mrcol1000

Much as everyone hates the way Ebay treats sellers. As Lady Dee shows ,if they didn't automatically take the buyers side, things would be a lot worse.

sillygoose

LadyDee wrote: »

From a buyer's perspective.

I used to buy a lot on ebay, but quite honestly I got sick and tired of trawling through pages and pages of tat - usually listed in the incorrect category, pages of identical items with just a tiny change in the title, misdescribed things, etc., etc. Even trying to exclude the Chinese rubbish doesn't work as many things are sold through drop shipping. It just takes too long now trying to exclude stuff by use of the 'minus' sign.

Many of the new things can be bought elsewhere - often cheaper. Currently looking at a particular toaster - cheaper new on Amazon with free shipping than 'manufacturer refurbished' on ebay. This is true of several things I'm currently looking to buy.

Sellers that claim they are private sellers when it's perfectly clear from the stuff they are selling that they are a business.

The ease of returning stuff free to retailers if it doesn't suit than the hassle often encountered with ebay sellers, not to mention sometimes illegal returns conditions.

Always the possibility of unknowingly buying fakes. Things wrongly sized - I could go on.

I am in no way suggesting that the posters on this thread fit the stituations above, but ebay has actually become my last port of call than my first. Am I alone? I very much doubt it.

Although on the plus side, I did recently have to make a return, I was sent something entirely different, its always a pain but I have not done so for a long time and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was for the seller to send me a return postage label to print and stick on the return.

Annoying when sellers ask you to reseal the package and mark it return to sender to get them a free return, I refuse as there is no tracking on it then and its 'robbing' the innocent post office of a sale for the sellers failing.

LadyDee

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Much as everyone hates the way Ebay treats sellers. As Lady Dee shows ,if they didn't automatically take the buyers side, things would be a lot worse.

It's not so much about ebay automatically taking a buyer's side that is making things difficult for sellers, the whole process of searching for and finding what one is looking for can now just be too time-consuming. Okay if one is looking for a one-off or very specific branded item, but checking out generic things, where the descriptions provided by the sellers is often incorrect or incomplete is so frustrating, and with alternative sources easily available, having to email sellers simply to find out what "large" means (as an example), then wait for an answer - if they even bother, means I now go elsewhere.

It is a shame for the good, reliable sellers that their businesses and livelihoods are at risk because their listings are over-whelmed by the rubbish ones and sadly ebay "just aint what it used to be".

sportsarb

LadyDee wrote: »

From a buyer's perspective.

I used to buy a lot on ebay, but quite honestly I got sick and tired of trawling through pages and pages of tat - usually listed in the incorrect category, pages of identical items with just a tiny change in the title, misdescribed things, etc., etc. Even trying to exclude the Chinese rubbish doesn't work as many things are sold through drop shipping. It just takes too long now trying to exclude stuff by use of the 'minus' sign.

Many of the new things can be bought elsewhere - often cheaper. Currently looking at a particular toaster - cheaper new on Amazon with free shipping than 'manufacturer refurbished' on ebay. This is true of several things I'm currently looking to buy.

Sellers that claim they are private sellers when it's perfectly clear from the stuff they are selling that they are a business.

The ease of returning stuff free to retailers if it doesn't suit than the hassle often encountered with ebay sellers, not to mention sometimes illegal returns conditions.

Always the possibility of unknowingly buying fakes. Things wrongly sized - I could go on.

I am in no way suggesting that the posters on this thread fit the stituations above, but ebay has actually become my last port of call than my first. Am I alone? I very much doubt it.

I'll buy books and the occasional video game on eBay. Everything else is Amazon.

patman99

I must admit that evidence seem to have had a bit of a surge in listings over the last couple of months. Maybe sellers are trying their luck on there.

I have an account myself that I use for items that eBay pull due to their ridiculous VeRo policy. I will admit that the last items I sold on it were some genuine Epson cartridges that would not sell on eBay. I actually got twice as much as I thought I would.

Since then, I have bought and sold more on Facebook.

Chrysalis

I dont make a living off ebay but I have some observations.

Paypal got sold, this suggests everything has not been rosy.
When I search for stuff, the results I consider odd, tends to be sellers with higher stocks of items listed first every time, this wouldnt surprise me as the likes of google have also fiddled with search results for years to maximise revenue e.g. placing retailers at tops of results.
I put 3 items up for sale last week, 2 have sold, one hasnt. There wasnt much interest in any of them, years ago I would sell things with lots of interest, I think the user base of ebay is dieing.