Is it really that slow?

[M@ggie]

Went to the eBay boards tonight, first time in ages. Was amazed at the amount of people who were saying how bad sales were. Not newbies, either, but veteran sellers who had excellent feedback and quality items for sale (one old sparring partner was complaining, also. Was very hard not to think uncharitable thoughts, let me tell you LOL).


Did I just go there on a bad night when the negative Nevs were out in force, or is this what other people are experiencing? Also, most seemed to blame Best Match - has it made that much difference for most?


 

[*r3830*]

G'day M@ggie,

Don't know about sales - but we have certainly found some excellent bargains in recent times. If anything - competition between bidders appears to be down.

[M@ggie]

Hi, Loco!


Yeah, I haven't sold on eBay for ages but am always scouring the place for bargains. Apart from the really desirable, rare stuff (mainly collectibles/antiques) which always attract high prices, nothing much else seems to have much interest shown in it.

Very odd indeed.

[*r3830*]

I think a lot of sale opportunities were lost with the 'selling now' search being removed. I used to watch what was coming up and occasionally place a bid on an item. Now, you search for a specific item..... and you no longer see all the good things as their times finish. Pity.

[shyer]

I Now, you search for a specific item..... and you no longer see all the good things as their times finish. Pity.

Loco you just change the sort order from best match to ending soonest. You can also make that your default, instructions in best match thread here.

It is slow 10 years ago when I first started selling on ebay 9 out of 10 listed items sold at retail prices it drifted down to be 3 out of 10 by now mostly BINs last year. A flurry before Christmas . Dead till 14th on january now has settled down to 1 sale for 10 items listed. Last week zero.

Some people blame Pay$pal propoganda, some no ebay advertising, some best match ( I now like best match it saves me fees). But the real problem is trust. 10 years ago I used to get 1 buyer a month asking about pick up now I get nearly one a day. I do a lot of Post office COD (love the cash). In the sectors I sell in , in the US Amazon average prices are some 20% above ebay prices. THAT is PROFIT there is trust in Amazon, NO PAY$PAL propoganda there. One simple answer ebay has lost buyers trust.

90% of what I sold 10 years ago went to wealthy suburbs. Now 90% goes to housing commision areas. The smart people know ebay, feedback and pay$pal can not be trusted. 

[bnwt]

Feb - Mar are always slow

but strangely for me Feb was much better then I expected but Mar has been utter crap

everyone I know in retail is complaining at the moment

I know it's bad when the lady at the corner shop says it's dead

[cueperkins]

The smart people know ebay, feedback and pay$pal can not be trusted.

yep....they do....I bought and sold on ebay for 7.5 years from 2001, till 2008 when Paypal mandatory option came in, I stopped selling altogether because I won't be party to the extortionist practices of Feepay...I don't wish to deal with, join up, accept or purchase with POOPAL...end of story...

...we may have beat 'Paypal only' but that wasn't so hard really because it breached the TPA quite blatantly.....however, the paypal mandatory option snuck through because it didn't breach TPA, and Ebay knew that....talk about smoke screens.....

So.. even though I have a garage full of valuable collectibles I REFUSE to be forced to use a payment system that is a liability if the shite hits the fan, and whom treat their customers like shite....I only EVER used b/deposit when I sold on Ebay, and that was MY CHOICE....Ebay has changed a hell of a lot from the earlier years and no wonder many sellers and buyers are leaving in droves..

I received an email from a seller yesterday telling me that Ebay are about to crack down on sellers even further to get rid of the shonks, but all they're getting rid of is the decent sellers....the shonks find a way around everything....

Crikey, I have been noticing lately, that Powersellers take over an entire price range for pages and pages....how do you get rid of those from the search?...search Necklace.....You'll get one powerseller who lists everything at .99 cents...one that lists at 1.08, and another at 1.43, and then even another at 1.99....and it's not one or two listings...it's HUNDREDS of items in that price category....going on for pages before you get an independent listing in between it all.....What's the point anymore.....??

[*r3830*]

I mentioned some really good bargains earlier. How about this one......

We have been looking for a car kit to suit external antenna requirements for country use. We placed a bid $2 on what we believed to be a cradle that suited our phone - and gave access for the antenna. We won it for $2 (from what we could find, these things are blardy expensive)

Our parcel arrived today. Seemed rather heavy. On opening - we discover that we have received not only the cradle - but a full bluetooth carkit as well, that from what I can tell, has never been installed. (All-up, speaking around $300 in value - presently)

We've written back to the seller to ensure that what he has sent us is what he had intended. Such a bargain..... but feelings of guilt surround! There were no other bids on this item.... Goodness gracious!

[*r3830*]

Item number was 150422394491. We thought we were purchasing a cradle only - interested to see how you people read this.

[*Brum6y*]

*loco* ... I had a look at that listing and if I were looking at it, I would have expected the whole car kit - as you received - but I can understand how you may have got the impression it was for the cradle only.

1. You were only looking for the cradle and that was shown at the top of the body of the listing.
2. A statement that the "CKC-T7 cradle kit and BCKM01 Main Unit are purchased separately"
3. There is a big white space between the cradle description and the main unit description.
4. The pricing was consistent with a cradle only.

I get the feeling the seller copied and pasted the two parts from other web pages and didn't clean up the white space - but that's a guess.

The listing title does say 'car kit' though.


The seller isn't getting huge prices for their other things, but seem reasonable. There are the occasional 'hiccups' with a lack of bidding - but nothing truly harrowing from what I can see.  The seller won't have been happy with the outcome, I'm sure, but at least understands their obligations.

You just happened to pick the right time to bid on the right product ... Congratulations!!!!!

[*Brum6y*]

OK ....


Now - bringing out the soapbox...

[*Brum6y*]

... not enough.

Need a couple more.................................................

[*Brum6y*]

POWERSELLERS are NOT the problem!!!

[*Brum6y*]

The problem are sellers who dump bulk carp listings .. the fact they happen to be powersellers is incidental.


Let's come up with a title we can apply to THEM - Using the broader group "powersellers" is completely inappropriate.

Completely.

Totally.

Unarguably.

[*Brum6y*]

* packing up soap boxes *

[*CountessA*]

Glutlisters, perhaps.

[*Brum6y*]

Works for me .... Any advances on "GLUTlisters"?

[tellomon]

And now Ladies and Gentlemen, let us redirect your attention now to Circus Tent #2:

Bogan Buyers!

....any takers?








**************

The term bogan is Australian and New Zealand English slang, usually pejorative or self-deprecating, for a person who is, or is supposed to be, of a lower-class background and whose characteristics exemplify, often crudely, this background. The speech and mannerisms of a bogan, according to the stereotype, are such as to indicate poor education, a preference for cheap clothing, and uncultured upbringing. 'Bogans' tend to reside in outer metropolitan areas or large country towns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogan

[*Brum6y*]

* Shoulda known using a big font would attract Tello *

[*Brum6y*]

Adding my variant... we have

GLUTlisters
FLOODlisters  (has a certain rhyming appeal with blood-blisters )


Perhaps a contraction ... GLUTsters of FLOODsters..?

DUMPsters .... maybe.  It does invoke a pre-defined image ... but it is kinda appropriate in a way.

[tellomon]

* Shoulda known using a big font would attract Tello *

Nothing personal.

[*r3830*]

Many thanks for your thoughts Brumby. We received a response back from the seller early this afternoon, saying that the whole kit was inclusive. One would think that a person would have at least some idea of the value of their components. I do feel better that we clarified this with the seller.

Your thoughts on the 'cut & Paste' appear to be right. We note that he included input from the ZTE website in his add.

Many thanks again!

[cueperkins]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

[bnwt]

I think a better way to describe 'flooders' is  ............ chinese sellers

can someone confirm that chinese sellers pay no listing fee only a FVF

today I saw the biggest flood I have ever seen

do a search for 'canon 1000d remote shutter'

[tellomon]

Please, don't anybody go to eBay US and search for Cymbals.

Just DON'T DO IT!

[*Brum6y*]

I think a better way to describe 'flooders' is  ............ chinese sellers

can someone confirm that chinese sellers pay no listing fee only a FVF

today I saw the biggest flood I have ever seen

do a search for 'canon 1000d remote shutter'

What a classic.... I get 286 entries with over 250 of them from Mr Feedback=53,507 in Hong Kong.

[M@ggie]

Thanks for the input and thoughts, everyone. Most interesting.

So it's a combination of things, really. Be interesting to see if Deals Direct or other large online retailers are experiencing the same downturn.

Swampers

[*Brum6y*]

SWAMPERS

Yep - Like it, too.


Any other suggestions?

Hang on .... I'll start a thread for ideas and then maybe we'll have a vote.  Let's give them a name!!

[*smee*]

these Chinese sellers are far away and I wish they would quit it so how about

FAR QUITS ?

[*Brum6y*]

Now that's a classic piece of Smee prose...!