eBay Addresses Mandate, Tells Sellers Not to Be Discouraged

by: lessthanthreerecords

It's anyone's guess what any upcoming change may be, but I would put good money on it being problematic for sellers (and probably buyers alike).  As this recent item specifics change illustrates, it seems eBay's motto over the past 10+ years has been: "If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!"

by: Silver Ice King

Sellers, please dont leave the site yet, that would take all the fun out of the next round of unreasonable changes that we will be springing on you.  Please don't leave and rob us of the fun watching all of you getting upset with our next round of changes.  As more and more sellers abandon our site it makes us have to work harder and harder to come up with more ways to take money from those that remain instead of being able to relax drinking at Walkers West and eating wings which is how we prefer to spend our days.

by: pace306

"We don't want out sellers to be discouraged and leave the site."

Ummmm the cow already left the barn - now you want to close the door?

Between:

VERO
Abysmal customer service
forced managed payments
1 way feedbacks
NO seller protection
being the main driver of theft, fraud and deceit
selling seller data with no compensation for sellers
fraudulent 10k statements

and so much more - NOW that you are STILL monkeying with specifics - NOW you are worried sellers will want to leave?

Top Hatter, Mercari and Poshmark need LESS info and they manage JUST FINE TY VERY MUCH ...

Sellers arent as stupid as you think - they know when they are being hosed!

by: Covid-20

Off to the MySpace.com graveyard.  haaa.
Only DAYS left as per the ridiculous amusing inbox emails dictating the "Mangled Payments" edict.
Every passing day with yet another warning to add my banking info.

I'll be winning this round.

by: Bill

I was told that May 21st was to be the day that I had to join MP and I just deleted them in my account. I got a message in my account last Monday that it was my final notice and I would be shut down. I deleted it immediately and have not heard back since. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.  

by: Nothingnewecrater

Well I'm down to 25 items on eBay and 659 on ecrater. I been threatening to leave eBay ever since I started back in 1998. The transition has never been more appealing then right now. All eBay knows how to do is trash their own site and ignore the sellers needs. I will try things on ebay and when I start seeing more watchers then buyers. I will end them and list them at ecrater where I'm getting dozens of hits and only single didget hits on eBay. EBay may still be around because of larger sales. But they have all but ruined the old stuff market on their site.

by: Chicago48

The only way to "fix" Ebay and these item specific goofs is to have the executives get on Ebay as sellers and sell.  Experience what we experience.  I believe one exec is on Ebay, but they all need to get on it.

by: Chicago48

Nothingnewecrater--how's Ecrater working?  I was a "seller" (never sold anything) long time ago and closed my account.  When I search for things, I never ever see Ecrater in the Google searches.

by: mindelec

what i don't get is why i am having to type in author and title for books with isbns that *are* in ebay's catalog.  they already have the info!

by: Sierra

If eBay wants to make it easy for buyers to find what they want, then FIX SEARCH! Give us back the wildcard search that JD took away when he was sinking the eBay ship! And please DON'T go down the road that Amazon and Etsy have both taken ... showing shoppers ''things they might like'' (or, in my experience, probably NOT like and would have ZERO interest in buying!).  

by: Jono77

These changes are ridiculous. When you go to a record or book shop you browse through what is there. Effectively eBay has done away with browsing.

They are removing the shopping element. If you don't know a book or record exists then how will you find it without being able to browse the stock?

If you go to a restaurant they don't ask you what you fancy eating they show you a menu.

by: Jester

I usually refrain from jumping on the eBay beat down train here but I will say their searches have become so manipulated it makes it hard for me a long time eBay seller and buyer to find what I am looking for these days. Never-mind the poor new person trying to find something they want. It can take me 4-5 searches or more before I find anything like what I am looking for as I try subtle variations of word combinations that describe my sought after item.

by: thriftinginoregon

Searching has become horrendous on eBay it now takes a few different tries to get what I might want to look at and I am no longer confident that I am seeing what I need to. Put the wildcard back. You are hurting both the seller and the buyer.

by: Nothingnewecrater

@Chicago48 It's picking up for me lately. I was always on the lowest % tier 2.9%. But increased it to the top tier 12% couple months ago. And see a noticeable increase in sales. You have to really work on promoting your store so people can find your stuff. It's all hands on. I noticed ecrater isn't as visible as it was 10 years ago in Google searches too. That's why you have to keep promoting your store almost everyday. Everywhere where you can. EBay is a household name now and sales are in the toilet. Fresh eyes are always a good thing.

by: Frank Abagnale

Part of the problem with item specifics are for sellers that list a large variety of items and have little knowledge of the terminology used. If you're selling an art print for example, what is the difference between abstract, modernism and art nouveau?

And I love the answers from Tyler on the chat boards. He should really patent the terminology "thanked the seller for their insight and said he would forward it to whatever to (the department it supposed to go to)".

by: I Must be Crazy

This BS of trying to make listings more visible on external search engines has been going round in circles for years. To date, I don't see that any of it has made any difference. Ebay continues to pull in smaller slices of an ever increasing pie.

Sellers have been discouraged for a long time. They have been and continue to list inventory elsewhere if not leave the site entirely.

It will never get better. The managers of eBay have had billions of dollars flow through the company and could have built a new platform from scratch. Three times! They have chosen not to do that. They have chosen not to invest in their fulfillment infrastructure. Zero. What they have done is toss together their payment skimming scheme and continue to piece together the Cassini platform.  

by: CanBrit

The day I shut down my listings they sent me a message "Why don't you relist them?HAHAHAHA. In pig's eye.. I believe I'll take away their $50,000 in fees and put them back in my pocket

by: iheartjacksparrow

@Nothingnewecrater - I've been selling on eCrater since 2008. I pay fees in the 2.9% tier and don't do any self-promotion, and I'm very happy with my sales there. I have around 7K items listed, and buyers always seem to find me, so whether it's Google, Bing, or another search engine, I make sales. I also get a lot of repeat buyers which is nice. Of course, the very best part of eCrater is I'm not micromanaged to death, plus I'm not paying a ludicrous amount of fees.  

by: mattkdelima

Yes please leave the site. One fewer competitor. I'm sure your not-trafficked shopify store and Instagram page with 27 followers will be able to accomplish what ebay does for you and more.

by: Actual Seller

The problem here is that someone lied to eBay about how "SEO" aka Search Engine Optimization works and told them that if they keyword spam, Google will rank them higher.

This can not be further from the truth. Keyword spamming will actually derank you.

So now idiots at eBay who understand nothing want us putting the same keywords over and over for a better ranking and it is trashing the user and seller experience while hurting organic ranks.