I guess ebay is out for me right now. I had hoped to sell lots for Christmas...but won't have the chance to now.
I just canceled all my listings..sigh...the VIEWS weren't there...so of course the bids weren't either.
I am looking into other auction sights..don't know if they'll be any better?
I sell kids clothes and maternity clothes..sigh.
The final straw was having the AUCTION 4 AMERICA pop up (like pop up ads I hate)when viewing pictures of auctions I wanted to bid on(no, they were NOT A4A auctions...but when I clicked the 'view item' button EBAYS HOME PAGE would pop up when I wanted to return to the auction)...
Has anyone else experienced this new 'pop up' ad for ebays home page? If not..find an auction that the seller keeps photos on another sight (they display the 'Click to View Item' tab...click on it to view picture.
Now backspace arrow to get back to the auction and ebay will show up!)
posted on September 24, 2001 08:50:00 AM
If ebay is getting very bad bidswise now, what do you think the alternative sites are expierencing? It went from almost dead to certifiably dead at the alternative sites.
posted on September 24, 2001 08:54:56 AM
It's not that ebay is dead right now. It's that they are shoving A4A down everybody's throat and all the bids are going to A4A auctions. It's putting sellers who need to make a living out of business...
posted on September 24, 2001 06:59:48 PM
I don't understand why you would cancel your current auctions. They've been paid for, seems to me it would behoove you to let them run and hope for that last minute bid.
posted on September 24, 2001 08:03:43 PM
It depemds on what the opening bids were. If Pania's auctions all were $1 NR, then cancelling them is better than having to sell quality stuff for a buck. OTOH, if they had a reasonable (profitable) opening bid, then it makes no sense to cancel.
posted on September 24, 2001 09:34:21 PM
eBay sales continue to decline basically year after year.
Why? Many reasons. We've heard ALOT of people say the category alterations make things hard to find and they are there to browse.
eBay is under the impression for some reason that people will continue to use the site and use search features to find what they are looking for.
99% of all buyers anyplace want to BROWSE not SEARCH. browsing is fun, searching is not.
eBay was our #1 point of sale years back, in fact, outsold every site we use combined and we sold via Onsale Auctions, PC Auctioneer, Z-Auction and many other business to consumer based sites.
Right now our webshop with all of its 1200-1400 hits per day outsells eBay 4:1.
It causes a cascade. Why should we list items at eBay when they stuff categories away making it hard for people to find? Atop that we sell in an area with lots of competition and lots of goods being sold be others illegit for resale.
Nothing is done to police the site of such things and users/bidders exit. With that sellers back off, more people dont come... Its a vicious circle of sorts and we have saw the EXACT same thing happen at many a business to consumer auction where consignors hose down customers and they leave. Then sellers leave or back off and it snowballs.
We've backed off considerably at eBay. We have over 2000 unique items in stock and run about 200 off at eBay now down from nearly double that. No use throwing money out the window.
Yet... other points of sale as someone asked?
Absolutely booming. eBay is the only point of sale we use right now (out of 14 all business to consumer) thats bordering on being non-profitable and we are considering pulling from the site completely. Be back again someday perhaps when they are able to do something about the myraids of bad buyers and bad sellers destroying the place.
How do we know this is whats happening?
Easy. We have well over 20,000 customers from eBay. For the past 6-8 months we've gotten anywhere between 25-50 emails a week from those customers asking where else they can buy from us at as they wont use eBay anymore. They got ripped off by other seller(s) and nothings done about it. I can show you sellers with 10 different accounts all selling the same goods on all 10 accounts.
So we know it from hearing from longtime eBay'rs and we know it by quickbooks accounting. We are seeing LOADS of people who bought from us at eBay in the past now buying at other business to consumer only points of sale we are partnered with and quickbooks displays the account history for us.
eBays non-payment management is another problem. We are seeing a considerable increase in NPB's.
Two weeks back I looked at competitor auctions, many (I mean many) have backed off huge amounts of merchandise.
Now is the perfect time for a Yahoo etc. operation to steal the gold so to speak but they dont listen either.
eBay is killing itself basically by total inaction against bad sellers and illegal goods sold on site. Buyers are TIRED of it bottom line and its also why buyers are becoming MUCH more hostile at the site.
Doesnt really bother us through I understand other sellers plights. We are at some of the top points of sale on the net and those buyers leaving eBay are absolutely delighted in using these other sites where they need not worry about paypal's or fraud and other issues. They are guarenteed the experience and our sales have gone through the roof due to it.
Yes.... I have tried to speak with eBay about it as we do truly care about the site, without it we'd never have gotten as far as we have. But it falls of deaf ears. They are basically going the way of Amazon. Not understanding buyers who like to BROWSE not SEARCH. Not understanding what sellers need to be effective. Not taking steps to elimintate fraud BEFORE it strikes some poor slob and changing the site around when its fine. Old phrase, dont fix it if it ain't broken.
eBays Buy It Now feature, no longer auctions. This is another mistake. People go to auctions to BID NOT to work trying to win to have some person just come in and buy it now.
eBay stores, great idea, do away w/ buy it now and use the stores. Unfortunately the stores are a complete joke in virtually every area of eCommerce on the planet. I mean that literally. I have read and do read TONS of info on eCommerce and the stores have been exclaimed a laughable joke throughout the assorted places that specialize on eCommerce reporting.
IMHO eBay needs to reverse virtually everything they've done this past year and then expend GOBS of money to bring the decent sellers and buyers back.
They should state flat out... ANY seller selling goods illegal for resale EBAY will prosecute itself and B. Any buyer who skips out on payment will pay not only the sellers listing fee's and ebay commission but an additional service fee of $10 will be applied to their credit card.
Sellers can have ONE account, not 50.
eBay needs reign the site in and start taking responsibility for what happens, if they dont, its doomed and thats guarenteed. We've saw it time and time and time again happen to excellent commerce sites.
Signed: WhyNot!
posted on September 24, 2001 09:40:20 PM
I dunno what all the fuss over A4A is about? Sure pageviews are down, but as far as I can see most of the A4A items in the clothing category (or any category), are junk, seems alot of people are putting up stuff they couldn't sell anyways.
I have one A4A auction up, something that wasn't selling well, but I need to get rid of & I can afford to take a $10 hit on the COST & SHIPPING of it.
Plus my pageviews seem to be up since the A4A started, if nothing else it's driving more people to EBAY, when they find that they can't find anything good in A4A w/ free shipping, they are looking at what else is available....
I looked all around the category I usually buy in, nothing worthy of my attention was listed A4A, and not "hot" items were listed that way either...
Yes Bidding is down, look at the stock market, look at all the unemployment going on.... Please hang on, it's not the end of Ebay/Internet/etc... I've thought that any number of times myself...
All that & a Bag of Chips Too!!
