The State of eBay

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I sell much less on Ebay then I used to and reporting requirements have nothing to do with it. I've been reporting my Sales on Ebay since 1998 or so (as I also do when I sell stuff on Net54), regardless of their requirements. I just assumed all that could be tracked if they wanted to, anyways.

Also has nothing to do with return or feedback policies, which I learned haven't really affected me over the long haul.

Listing takes twice as long as it used to for unique items, requirements for item specifics is a pain in the ass. I used to be able to just type out very detailed descriptions, and a search engine that used to actually make sense, would be able to find your item easily, through either a Title or a Title/Description search.

The search now is awful. They've prioritized making people sift through pages and pages of unrelated stuff, rather then picking out the very specific terms I've thought hard about putting in my listings, so the right people find my items easily.

They've also made it harder for me to put my unique spin, graphics and stamp on my listings, by prioritizing "Specifics", over an actual, well thought out and professional looking "Description".

I've tried using their "AI" tool to write descriptions, and it was almost comical how much more time it took me to go in and edit the inanities that it would spit out for me.

Item categories have been bastardized to become almost indistinguishable, in the search to complicate things with "Item Specifics".

Attempts to integrate combined shipping into your shopping cart has become a complete mess, whether it be with auctions, or BIN's. I spend an inordinate amount of the trying to get shipping policies to "match up", until I just throw my hands in the air and go "F#%k it!". It is what it is, and I'll deal with it when it becomes an issue.

And the fees......they go up up up, even when they don't go up. They just figure out something else to ding you for, and pretend it's still the status quo. Every time I get a payout now from Ebay, I scratch my head and go to myself "That's it...they must have made a mistake?".

They claim their fees are in the 12.35% in most categories (15% in Books and Magazines for some damn reason). Then there's the monthly store fees to get those rates. Then there's the fact they take a full final value fee cut out of Shipping Costs/Tax Collection/VAT Collection for overseas customers...and you discover that heavyish piece of memorabilia you sent to Washington State/Louisiana/Oklahoma/Ireland/etc..., cost you 20%+++ what you sold it for.....and they did exactly zero work for you, outside of providing a simple software platform for you. (ok ok, they did the incredibly generous task of collecting and reporting the sales taxes for me from other states, since they no longer wanted to just be a "venue", and wanted ME to also be their "Brand", for the bargain basement price of a 12%-15% vig, of revenue that I don't see at all.)

Also lost my meager 10% discount on final value fees (though that only applies to the item itself, and not the final value fees on the shipping and tax charges), when I lost my "Powerseller" (groan) status, because I didn't have enough "transactions". Had plenty of revenue to meet the requirements, but apparently Ebay is more impressed if you have (200) $10 transactions, then if you have 50 $100 transactions. Also, I'm pretty sure I discovered, if a single buyer purchases/wins 5 different things from you, and you ship those items to them in a combined package, that only counts as (1) transaction in their reports.


Sigh! Rant over.

Fini!

I forgot about how awful the listing process is. They keep changing it too. If it only took twice as long to list I would be ok with that but each time they tweak it I say to myself they must really be trying to get small timers like me to go elsewhere.

And I too alluded to the search feature in another recent thread. Figured it was just me since nobody commented but when you search, you get back results that include items whose titles do not share a common word of what you typed in the search along with other unrelated items.

[rjackson44]

Hey guys the search engine is now horrific horrible

[ricktmd]

Yes that is a fact. An ebay search usually returns items that have nothing to do with your search . The items likely come from people who pay ebay promotional fees.

It is also a fact that listing an item has become more difficult and time consuming. They also tweak the listing process regularly. Items do sell and there is no similar site to change to and they know it

[Rich Falvo]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having trouble with search results. I have some very specific saved searches and a few of my searches often get results that don't exactly match.

[Exhibitman]

I think the lack of quality listings is mostly due to the fee increases and hassle of listing. When my real cost approaches 20% why would I DIY eBay list when I can consign instead?

[Vintagedeputy]

I’ve bought a couple of things, but haven’t sold on eBay in many many years. Probably won’t ever again. I loved it in the beginning when you could just sell your personal property without government interference. It’s a mess.

[Topnotchsy]

eBay has gotten worse in silly ways.

Others have mentioned a number of them:
- Items sit for years. No cost for listing means no incentive to lower prices or remove things that you have up and are not in a rush to sell
- Ruined search - I have no idea what is actually going on when you search particular words, but it certainly is not pulling up items with those words. They removed the askerisk option years ago which was a massive help and it has gotten worse and worse
- They started allowing people to send offers to others who viewed the item, even if the item is not watched. Another example of pushing items in front of people that they likely don't want.

All that said, it is still a platform that occasionally turns up gems. A large percentage of my collection comes from eBay over the years. In the last few months (which has been a very good stretch by eBay standards for the last few years, I've won around 10 auctions, each of which was a reasonably difficult item to find. (I do have a number of collecting focuses, so there are more options out there for me.)