Is anything selling on eBay?

[dobbslc]

I've got a few things up for sale on eBay and most items haven't even had a view on them so I'm wondering is everyone keeping their money in their pockets right now?
It seems hard to sell stuff, Farcebook and Gumtree are the same
Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[addjunkie]

Try vinted they seem to be trying to become what evil bay used to be. But I do agree folk are hanging in to the little spare cash they have

 

[8ob]

I've got a few things up for sale on eBay and most items haven't even had a view on them so I'm wondering is everyone keeping their money in their pockets right now?
It seems hard to sell stuff, Farcebook and Gumtree are the same
Has anyone else noticed this?

Unrest around the world has a huge impact on consumer confidence. I can wander around the retail parks atm and not bump into people.

Bob

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Last weekend I drove up to Yorkshire...roads were definitely clearer I thought. Maybe folk cutting back on non essential journeys too.

 

[Pete.]

Unrest around the world has a huge impact on consumer confidence. I can wander around the retail parks atm and not bump into people.

Bob

Are you sure that it's not just because they heard you were coming?

 

[Rust Warrior]

I did sell a stainless steel exhaust x-pipe on there recently, but it was listed for months before it sold.

What ebay are doing now that they never used to, is give you a "free" listing, but then they only show your post to a very small audience. Then, a few weeks later, they email you and point out that your item isn't getting many views so the magical solution is to pay to "promote your item": a way of frustrating you into handing over money to them to advertise the thing you're trying to sell. It's one massive con based on psychological analysis of ebay behaviour over the last few years. Although you'll make the sale eventually, it's how long you're prepared to sit on it before it sells.

Someone above has mentioned Vinted. I've not used it yet but I'm open to trying that out in case it's better. Oddly enough, things may backfire on ebay if they actually end up making less money by trying to fleece people, and hoodwink them in to paying up through underhand marketing tactics.

 

[dobbslc]

promote your item

I've had this on all my listings but they are doing it straight away now, costs something like 13% of your selling fee.
How are they restricting my views though? I didn't know they were doing that.
Not happy.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Try vinted they seem to be trying to become what evil bay used to be. But I do agree folk are hanging in to the little spare cash they have

I wonder how long it’ll be before Vinted gets bought out by EBay?

 

[Blobber]

I've had this on all my listings but they are doing it straight away now, costs something like 13% of your selling fee.
How are they restricting my views though? I didn't know they were doing that.
Not happy.

I think they've always been able to control the searches and what shows, lots of folk complained about it years ago but its all above my paygrade so no idea how they do it

It was slow/dead over november/december/january but just seen my ebay report and my sales are 161% up over the previous period

 

[Craig-S]

I wonder how long it’ll be before Vinted gets bought out by EBay?

Pretty much the same for most companies in this country, it all get sold off to large foreign conglomos, im not sure if its just greed to take money and get out or lazyness to build world class enterprises who resist US (mainly) multinationals......or I could be completely wrong as im a bit of a thicky.

Personally I sold all my gear on bookface and never had an issue

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I think they've always been able to control the searches and what shows

It's frustrating for buyers too, not being able to find stuff.

Vinted is good...I use it a lot to buy old jeans for use down the garage/allotment.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I've had this on all my listings but they are doing it straight away now, costs something like 13% of your selling fee.
How are they restricting my views though? I didn't know they were doing that.
Not happy.

It's not so much that they are restricting your views,
Paid for 'promoted' items are shown sooner in search results.

The more you pay to promote, the higher your listings appear.

If you are selling something unique like a M11 x 222mm torx head bolt then a buyer searching for that exact phrase will see it at about position 5 or 6 on the search result (with unrelated 'sponsored' listings above)

If you are selling something common like an M10 x 30 socket cap bolt then you have very little chance of it being seen unless you pay highly for promotion.
Ie, sellers selling M12 x 50 will appear above you in the search results if they are paying to promote.

Even if yours is the cheapest available and a buyer sorts by 'lowest price' yours won't be near the top of the list.

Tweaking you settings to add 'free' postage and same day dispatch can push you higher up the search results at no extra cost.

Read the terms fully if you are thinking about paying to promote items as ebay have a few surprises in there. Ie, if a buyer looks at one of your promoted listings then looks at your other items and buys something that you are not paying to promote you will still be charged the promotion fee!

 

[hotponyshoes]

It's frustrating for buyers too, not being able to find stuff.

Vinted is good...I use it a lot to buy old jeans for use down the garage/allotment.

I agree, the search is hugely frustrating.
I tend to type in what I am looking for then rather than looking at the item titles I look for the 'sponsored listing' marker under the title. Scroll down until the normal listings appear then actually start reading titles.

If I'm after something common at the cheapest price I also scroll past all the 'free 3 day delivery ' markers as well and any listings that start at 99p for a 'sample'

 

[hotponyshoes]

Another thing to do is check your 'seller dashboard'

You want a proformance level of 'above standard' and 5/5 on all the star ratings to get your items pushed up in search results.

If a listing has been sitting there for ages then 'revising'it tends to liven it up a bit. Even if you only drop the price by 5p then save the changes.

Buyers also get notified when items they might like become available so, if you have the time, ending old items and realising them sometimes gets them sold.

 

[dobbslc]

Even if yours is the cheapest available and a buyer sorts by 'lowest price' yours won't be near the top of the list.

So it getting pretty much pointless trying to sell stuff on eBay now then!

Read the terms fully if you are thinking about paying to promote items as ebay have a few surprises in there. Ie, if a buyer looks at one of your promoted listings then looks at your other items and buys something that you are not paying to promote you will still be charged the promotion fee!

That sounds fraudulent to me

 

[nickk]

I find the same,don’t use eBay to sell now,as I’m not prepared to disclose my bank details,but had my van on FB a couple of times since November and hardly any replies,placed on gumtree last week,no one,dropped the price twice. When we needed a new family car a few years ago,all the ones on eBay,bar two,were dealers,assumed that was we buy any car snapping them up.

 

[tigdlo]

ebay search is dire, like amazon, shows what they want to sell not what people want to buy.

 

[zzr1200]

Last weekend I drove up to Yorkshire...roads were definitely clearer I thought. Maybe folk cutting back on non essential journeys too.

I drove South to Essex last weekend, maybe we're trying to tell you something.....

 

[Olderisbetter]

I rarely use eBay, I.put items on Facebook more and when I.list it on market place I share certain item to my profile so people in my friends list can see

 

[Kram]

When you do an ebay search, theres a messsge at the tope, "showing most relevant results", click the show all button, and make it habbit to do for every search.

The other issue is some Chinese sellers ( pmq234, lathe tooling/carbide inserts for example), wont appear on .co.uk searches, I never understood why, but have to go to the ebay.com site to seach, then copy the item number to ebay.co.uk, to buy it. No problems buying or with shipping - many arrived quicker than they would from a UK shop.