Selling on eBay: it's gotten worse (long post)

[ianoid]

This is mostly directed at other sellers. 

 

Since the switch to stores (fixed price) being GTC (good 'til cancelled), my eBay stuff gets hardly sales. I used to do 30 day listings, but now I will have to relist and pay for auctions if I want more exposure. In the past, store fixed price relistings were free. So now I have to pretend everything is an auction, which means some weird minimum bid and then a buy it now or just a bid. It's a problem because I have a ton of stuff that I could list for 99 cents plus shipping that nobody would bid on, but in three months the right buyer might pay $12 for.

 

Most of the stuff I'm selling isn't marquee items that will attract much attention. A fixed price store is where most of my stuff belongs, where the occasional buyer will find what they are looking for. Relisting every month was just a way to get more attention. And give my stuff the occasional break from selling (yes I know about vacation settings). 

 

This is a problem for me because I do have a lot of extra stuff to get rid of and eBay was my best choice. 

 

Previously the event that hurt my sales the most was maybe 5 years back when the USPS raised international mailing costs substantially, so my international business cratered. 

 

As a buyer, I like that my searches aren't filled with jerks like me relisting the same stuff week after week or month after month. I suspect that new listings have plummeted since the change because so many of them were sellers like me who were regularly relisting for exposure.

 

But it's not like eBay has come up with a way to increase exposure to the older auctions, by finding things of interest. Their suggestion engine is almost entirely built on what buyers view and watchlist (which is why I never put anything I want on my watchlist). There is no AI or deep dive. 

 

I'm more tempted than before to use a web store and then advertise by posting on Facebook, Twitter and forums occasionally. It's hard because I have a pretty solid eBay workflow when I list and it just doesn't take much time. I have a bunch of services (Garage Sale for Mac, Endicia) that make it pretty quick and easy. And I don't have a lot of problems with buyers. 

 

The prototype for this is my friend's site, junksave.org . The site looks nice and has a good deal of related items. I think he does ok, but part of it is the professional presentation and the fact that he has so many high quality items. I have a ton of $10-$20 items that rarely sell. 

 

In the end, I just want this stuff gone. It would be nice to get some cash out of it as well. I don't just want to give it all away or donate it or throw it away. I want to convert it into a little money that I can spend, and send the stuff to someone that actually wants it. If eBay isn't going to help me with that, where to turn?

 

 

[Keatah]

I'm in the process of purging my excess Apple II stuff. And I don't want to go ebay. The wife wants me to get some money. So perhaps I'll do a low-cost giveaway. Postage + 10 or 20 bucks for good worthy items.

[taxman]

Or could it be that summer is the slow season for your items and that coincided with the new GTC rule? You could always end the listings right before they auto renew and create a new timeframe to relist on your own terms and that should get you better search position assuming someone searches by newly listed.

[atarivision]

I really dislike the Good Til Cancelled policy for fixed price listings. I have not been an active seller in recent years. But ebay recently sent me an offer for 500 free listings (no insertion fees) so I decided to try it. I listed around 500 DVDs (fixed price) and have sold about 60 so far. I am probably making a few bucks, but not very much, since these are generally items with a slim margin before I even take into account the final value fees and PayPal fees. But I will be mindful to cancel these listings before they auto-relist. If I paid insertion fees on hundreds of listings, I would probably either lose money or break-even, at best. In that case, as Joshua would say, the only winning move is not to play.

 

Since I am nearly certain that paying full insertion fees for a large number of listings would be unprofitable for me, I am currently considering whether opening an ebay store would give me any significant savings and allow me to be profitable while maintaining a relatively (for me) large number of active listings. I was wondering at what point (how many listings?) does it become advantageous (less costly) to open an ebay store as opposed to listing items as an individual (non-store). I suppose there is an algebra equation that one could set-up and figure out where the cost intersection is between listing as a private individual versus having an ebay store. Well, I may have to brush up on the quadratic formula and crunch some numbers, because after over 20 years on ebay (mostly as a buyer) I am potentially considering opening an ebay store.

 

With regards to relisting items to get better exposure or more views, I think it is overrated. Serious buyers or collectors who want a particular item will find it regardless. There are specific items that I am looking for. In addition to my saved searches with email alerts, I do periodic manual searches as well. I think most serious buyers and collectors probably do the same. I do not believe inventory that does not turn over is largely the fault of its placement in ebay search results. Inventory that does not sell (my own included) is likely either low demand, overpriced (above fair market), or a combination of both.

 

Finally, I understand the desire to open a web store. But like most restaurants and other small businesses that launch, more will likely fail than will succeed. This is not a criticism, just an economic observation. Any start-up web store selling items similar to what can be found on ebay is bound to be facing a huge uphill battle. Just like I do not expect any burger joint to overtake McDonalds, it would be similarly tough to compete with ebay. Although ebay's fees are substantial, especially for smaller sellers, with their 3 bites at the apple (insertion fees, final value fees, PayPal fees), I think the traffic generated by ebay's millions of users somewhat offsets the substantial fees. No doubt there are some web stores that succeed. But I guess everyone must evaluate there own situation and decide if they would be better off opening their own web store versus selling on ebay.

 

[Greg2600]

What's really hurt it is international bidders, they constantly have payment issues and I have to relist, relist, relist.

[adamchevy]

My eBay listings have been a bit slower lately, but as long as I’m patient I still get the price I’m looking for.

[eightbit]

Things I would have sold in a flash using fixed price listings now sit for 30-60 days (or longer) if I leave them there...with like 17 views after a few weeks. It sucks. The only way you are going to sell anything fast now on ebay is to put it up for auction...exactly what they want you to do. I try not to sell on ebay nowadays and just try locally or here on AA. But even then sometimes the only way I will be able to sell a particular item is there...even if it takes forever.

[AMenard]

I'm grateful to those who list stuff on ebay, especially those who takes the time to test their stuff instead of posting "untested" stuff. I'm grateful because in my neck of the wood, Province of Quebec, people don't put any value on older stuff. Even antiquities are easilly thrown away. This makes retro gaming and computing harder to do here since very few items were kept once they were replaced. Some brands of computers are really hard to come by locally, like Atari 8bit stuff for example. You can sometime be lucky, like I was this summer with a big Commodore lot from an ex pirate BBS owner who passed away, but those are rare.

 

 

[Cobra Strike Down]

I, too, used to sell really well on eBay. It's significantly harder now to get the same attention over the last year or so. Fees have gone up, people yelling at you because "you charged me taxes" which I have no control over. Just a pita. Glad I've slim lined my collection and gotten to a point I rarely have to sell anymore. Can't stand the place these days.

[Keatah]

Slimming down collections seems to solve so many problems. Of which there are many threads discussing the topic.

[amiman99]

As of Oct 1st 2019, you have to pay tax even if the seller is out of state. The tax is also applied to shipping!!!. I found out about it today when trying to pay for an item.

This will change everything!

[sirlynxalot]

I'll just join the chorus, as a seller I dislike the new ebay bin rules.  My personal preference was to do 7 day BINs. That was a quick way for me to find out if my price was too high or not as I could read into the number of views / watchers an item got and decide whether the price is right for the market or not.  Reviewing the price and/or relisting every 7 days also helped the item jump up in the listings if there were a lot of listings for the same item.  I feel like it was easier to sell stuff compared to now and it was convenient to review the statistics in 7 day intervals. 

 

A lot of my stuff sells for $15 to the right buyer, but would sell for maybe $5 in an auction, at which point I'd lose a lot of money.  Every time I have put something out to auction over the years it has gone for much less than I expected and/or what I felt like I could get by sitting around with a BIN for 2-3 weeks...

Edited October 6, 2019 by sirlynxalot

[Jettgogaming]

I have been experiencing my good til' cancelled items lingering and sitting for months too. I honestly think auctions are the best way to go these days. I also think people don't list appropriately and this too can really affect their listing and the traffic or bids it gets. I come by way too many items that don't have good clear pictures or details, so why would I want to bid or buy something if I can't determine the condition or quality of the product? And nowadays, if you want to actually start listing on eBay and you have slim to none feedback because you are new to the scene, good luck! There are so many established sellers now it's almost futile to start a brand new handle and sell. I also think the shipping feature really screws with people's perception. If you just tuck the shipping fees into the price of the item and then list it as "free shipping" this sometimes makes your item sell a lot faster because the buyer subconsciously thinks they are getting "free shipping." 

[AMenard]

On 10/6/2019 at 1:42 PM, amiman99 said:

As of Oct 1st 2019, you have to pay tax even if the seller is out of state. The tax is also applied to shipping!!!. I found out about it today when trying to pay for an item.

This will change everything!

Why? There isn't really an alternative to eBay for retro gear and part. 

Posting WTB threads on forum or Facebook doesn't really work for me and, at least for me, retro gear is hard to come by locally.

Beside, check with your state/province revenue service. For example, used goods are exempted from tax in my province if it's a person to person sale, so I could ask for a refund during tax filling.