Ebay debacle or what?
Summary: sid75_fr expressed concerns about declining sales and visits on eBay for vinyl records and other items, noting a positive shift to Vinted where sales are better. francexpressdeal acknowledged a general decline across all sites and mentioned that initial success on new platforms could be due to novelty. Other participants shared similar views about eBay's decline, citing increased fees, reduced visibility, and poor customer service as major issues. Some mentioned shifting to other platforms like Vinted, attracting both individual and international buyers. There is a general sentiment of dissatisfaction with eBay, and many are considering alternatives while expressing loyalty to the site due to long-term usage.
Hello.
Personally, I’ve been an amateur seller (and buyer) of vinyl records for a very long time (since the ebazard era), and I’ve noticed a drop in sales but, even more worrying, a huge drop in visits. It’s hard to tell whether this only affects vinyl sales or whether it’s more general.
After testing it, I started moving over to Vinted, a pretty messy site but one where I sell quickly and almost always for more than on Ebay (at worst the same price); the difference is just insane. Records that had been sitting around for months on Ebay without any visits sometimes sell within half an hour of being listed. Again, I’m selling a large number of records to a single buyer (which hasn’t really happened on Ebay for quite a while), and above all, the sale amount is paid in full (whereas on Ebay the fees are multiple and even apply to shipping costs, lol, I’m not a shipping-fees merchant), in short Vinted beats Ebay by knockout despite its major flaws. My only regret is not having realized it sooner.
Basically, I feel like now only the “Lives” for selling Pokemon cards and I don’t know what else interest Ebay, and they couldn’t care less about the rest.
Well, after more than 25 years on this site I’m not going to abandon everything, but still, it breaks my heart.
Do you have this impression too, or is it specific to vinyl?
I look forward to your replies.
Fred
orchide832012
·1 week agoYes, me too, I realized that eBay had become worse and worse for selling 1 to 2 items a month and when you sell, most of the time, dishonest people!!! item sent with tracking and photos to back it up, and from the moment the seller claims the item hasn’t been received! with proof of delivery on July 20, eBay says that the buyer is the one in the right?? In the story, you end up getting ripped off out of the item and the money too. This is the second time this has happened to me in 1 year, I get the impression that eBay favors scammers and us poor people pay for it!!! without being able to do anything because they pretend not to understand or worse say they received nothing despite the evidence... in the end eBay is becoming complete nonsense!
sid75_fr
OP1 week agoHello. Fortunately, I’ve never had this kind of problem in 26 years of selling on Ebay, for vinyl records, comics or board games the buyers I’ve dealt with have always been honest, same when I’m a buyer, no problem. It’s more the number of visits and the sharp drop in sales that worry me. I saw that quite a few things are changing in September, Ebay seems to have seen that Vinted’s way of working had something good about it and, as far as I understand, that’s where we’re heading, we’ll see how it goes. But clearly the migration of a large part of my listings to Vinted is irreversible, I’ll leave fewer on Ebay, especially for direct purchase...
frelonverre
·6 days ago@orchide832012
I don't want to generalize, but these excesses are only possible with secure payments, the very thing all the naturally anxious, institutionally educated people who swear by the precautionary principle have been calling for
this world we have left those who oversee us to put in place
in short, as you make your bed, so you lie in it
frenchpuce
·1 week ago · EditedIn the end, it’s nice to see that I’m not alone, even if the economic disaster is only just beginning. I also started by selling on ebazar, and in fact for more than a year now my turnover has only been dropping very significantly. I’m even starting to wonder whether I should stop this activity and go back to some kind of salaried job, even though at my age I suspect it’s going to be extremely difficult, especially since for me the worst is yet to come. Knowing that private individuals, like with sales on Vinted, will no longer have any fees, while professionals will still be required to pay fees. As if it weren’t enough that we already have to pay social charges, which I don’t dispute, if on top of that we now have to pay selling fees (even on shipping costs) that private individuals won’t have to pay, real competition between private individuals and professionals on Ebay will be impossible. So for now I’ve started moving over to Vinted, where professionals are not taxed any more than professionals, and for the few items whose price I can’t set, I’ll pass myself off as a private individual on Ebay. Maybe that’s not legal, but hey, at some point you’ve got to eat.
wendysurplusuzemain
·1 week agoebay has become a real DISASTER... lousy and pathetic customer service, more and more restrictions, obligations, decisions made without justification, listings removed by their AI and of course, a drastic drop in sales. On top of that, new EBAY nonsense (as if they weren't already good at that...), now there's no way to reach them by phone.
IN SHORT, ebay is to be avoided
paleolibro
·1 week agoIndeed, complete debacle on eBay in terms of sales
lechatcarre
·2 weeks agoIt's clear that E-bay has lost some of its shine...that's the least you can say.
A seller for nearly twenty years now and also drawn in by the customization of listings, auctions, and other features of this site, I can see that my sales are plummeting despite thousands of listings.
Fees keep going up over time, the site's "improvements" make it more complicated to use, listings no longer have the visibility they used to, in short...E-bay is losing its way and is in the process of losing sellers and buyers... Sad...
francexpressdeal
·2 weeks agoHello @sid75_fr
no, this isn’t specific to vinyl, but the drop in sales is general. And it affects ALL sites.
As for the fact that you made sales on a competitor site, that’s just linked to the “novelty” effect. That’s what always happens when you arrive on a new site.
That said, the fact remains that eBay has serious problems, I’ll give you that.
sid75_fr
OP2 weeks agoOkay, for the novelty effect, I hope it'll last more than 3 months then ;-) And at least it allowed me to clear out records that were no longer even being looked at on Ebay, and above all it allowed me to reconnect with international sales to Italy, Spain, the Netherlands or Belgium, which have become more than rare on Ebay (Shipping costs issue? ).
But anyway, whatever my personal case, Ebay and its auction specific feature really appealed to me and I'm very sad about the current rout...
frelonverre
·2 weeks agohello @francexpressdeal
you know, for my part, refusing certain diktats from the site, it's been a few years now that I've moved my sales elsewhere, I stay mostly out of loyalty to a site that allowed me to make a living
my wife is still there and indeed at two sales a month and has been for a long time, we're a long way from eBay in the early days
we'll see if eBay gets absorbed by another site and that one becomes more attractive
I don't really believe it
sid75_fr
OP2 weeks agoYes, like you, I’m going to leave the announcements up out of loyalty; you don’t just erase more than 25 years in one go, but I am indeed gradually removing all the announcements that are lying around and are no longer visited at all. What a waste.