Where did all the ebay buyers go?

[rflorek]

I think the increased shipping costs may have something to do with it. I've always sold "flea-market type" items: inexpensive, gently used items. I've only ever charged actual shipping costs: I weigh items before listing, and get all of my shipping supplies free from my office (recycling boxes, peanuts, & bubble wrap that would've gone in the trash). I always offer multiple shipping options where available (I see some people quote media mail shipping because it's so cheap, but their items truly don't qualify for that method). Even with my "cutbacks", sometimes the shippign cost exceeds the final sale price on the auction.

Even with listing & charging actual costs, I still get complaints about my shipping costs being too high. I can't make them any lower unless I want to lose money, and not that eBay charges final value fees on the total INCLUDING shipping costs, it will make it even tougher for small time sellers like myself

Sad because I've been on eBay since 1998 and I hate to let it go

 

[An_Island_Girl]

I no longer sell on eBay, but I do remember the "summer slump" well! Not as many people are at their computers in the summer, as they are out and about. Sales for us used to pick back up in September/October when the children were back in school, and people were just starting to think about the holidays.

I listed the bare minimum in the summer, as the bidders just weren't there.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I don't buy on ebay nearly as often as I used to. Once you add up the cost of the item and the shipping for each individual item, it's not worth it.

There sure are a lot of sellers from overseas selling brand name items on ebay.

 

[LovableGluttons]

An item may weigh only enough for a $2.00 postage cost but a box to ship it in can add a pound or even two pounds to the overall weight. Also a tracking certificate adds about a dollar.

My shipping and handling fees are not excessive because you can always pick up the item in person and pay no shipping or handling.

Ebay is either for things you can't find easily, notably collectibles, or for getting things really cheap. Nowadays shipping is an inherently expensive proposition so it is not worthwhile for sellers to sell by mail (including via eBay) stuff that buyers could just as easily find in local stores.

For me, for the past 14 years, this has been the key. If I can continue to provide an item in demand, for a low cost to me, then my sales will move. Sometimes life gets in the way and makes it difficult to get in the time to build my supply.

I include shipping in my price. I no longer offer auctions, just BuyItNow auctions. When I factored in the listing fee, the final value fee, the PayPal fee, then my costs with listing one item, starting an auction at 99 cents (which buyers seemed to want) and offering free shipping, I would lose money. When I have buyers ask me to lower a price on an auction, I list the fees for listing and selling, for the PayPal payments, then my shipping cost. When they see how much it costs to just have an item on eBay, they get it, usually purchase, and are good with it.

No, I do not likely make as much per item by using BuyItNow auctions, but it gives me the ability to set the price, the length of the auction, and my profit. I ship very fast, try to answer questions quickly. Many of my buyers are repeat buyers. When I take a break and have no auctions on eBay, I get many messages asking me when I'll list again.

I've had very little success listing household goods on eBay. If I price outgrown clothing in great condition for a dime a piece at a garage sale, people will still try to get it cheaper. I hate the sob stories and the haggling.

So if you have a hard to find item that you can get in bulk at a discount, you can make a tidy profit on eBay. Buyers do not want excuses when they purchase from eBay. They want the postmark to be within 24 hours of the day they paid, no exceptions.

 

[daraddg]

I used to buy on ebay all the time but I had trouble with getting my credit card hacked through paypal and closed that acct, everyone on ebay only seems to want paypal payments so I dont shop there anymore.

 

[SaraJayne]

I used to buy on ebay all the time but I had trouble with getting my credit card hacked through paypal and closed that acct, everyone on ebay only seems to want paypal payments so I dont shop there anymore.

That's another big reason why I (and many others) avoid ebay now. Paypal.

No way no how will I hand over my bank info, just so I can use your service.

 

[inkedupmomma]

i'm so confused and downright scared after reading this thread I just made my first purchase on ebay yesterday for a lot of 100 pins, using paypal... Should I not have?

The seller had 99.6% good feedback, and I thought paypal was a sure fire way to not get scammed...

Please tell me I wont completely regret this!

 

[LovableGluttons]

i'm so confused and downright scared after reading this thread I just made my first purchase on ebay yesterday for a lot of 100 pins, using paypal... Should I not have?

The seller had 99.6% good feedback, and I thought paypal was a sure fire way to not get scammed...

Please tell me I wont completely regret this!

If your items do not arrive within two weeks, contact the seller and give them the opportunity to explain. If you do not receive appropriate response and do not receive the items as described in the description, you have PayPal to use as a resource to receive a refund of your payment. The seller should provide you with a tracking number for your shipment.

If the items you receive do not match the description, and you pursue a refund through PayPal, you may need to return the items. If this happens, make sure you photograph the items before you ship them back to the seller. Also, make sure you purchase delivery confirmation.

I have had a few issues with some of my eBay purchases, but the majority were wonderful and problem free.

 

[n2mm]

I sell on ebay and agree, the fees are out of control. After the fees are taken out of the profit, it is hard for us little sellers who do not have a store to come close to making any profit. My DH used to work for the Disney Catalog so I have over 10 years worth of stuff I've been cleaning out of the closet and it's hard. You spend so much time writing, taking pictures, cropping the pictures and setting things up to only sell 10-20% of the things you list. I do free shipping on many of my auctions, esp. pins and hats, so that comes out of my profit along with the shipping supplies. Summer time is the worse time to sell and stay away from the holidays. However, I'm also a buyer, so there are bargains to be had out there. I try to find a fair price when I list my stuff. I do research to see what others are asking and what the item may have sold for previously and try to find a middle ground. As for selling clothes -- that is hard. I retired this year and have tons of designer clothes and I've tried listing them for nearly nothing, but it's the shipping that kills these sales. The clothes weigh so much which increases the shipping, even parcel post. We, the sellers, don't set the shipping rules or prices. We now even have to pay a fee on the shipping we charge (9%). Not much I can do but keep listing things. I have hundreds of Disney beanies and thousands od Disney pins and it will take me probably the rest of my life to sell this stuff alone.

 

[mom2val]

!

 

[ellone]

I used to buy on ebay all the time but I had trouble with getting my credit card hacked through paypal and closed that acct, everyone on ebay only seems to want paypal payments so I dont shop there anymore.

Sellers 'want' paypal payments because ebay requires it. You can no longer say you accept money orders or checks for your items. Unless you're a big enough store and have your own credit card processor, you accept paypal.

 

[Glenn]

I used to do ebay. Only 4-6 times a year and from $5-$25. So I am probably not someone that ebay wants as a buyer. Why haven't I bought anything in awhile?
Paypal. Sorry I am not going to give out financial information to paypal just to be able to buy something. Why not allow small sales without pay pal? Yes ebay wont make income off of paypal but then if I dont buy anything they lose more.
Lots of junk. The buy it now ads swamp most of the searches I've done. Where it used to show a handful of pages it now shows dozens of pages of the same stuff. I dont want to dig thru all this mess.
Shipping: It can be expensive when they charge just the actual costs. But when they rack it up it makes me just say no thanks.
So ebay is out for me until things change.

 

[curly5]

I pretty much left ebay and went to craigslist for buying and selling. It's local and free. Maybe that's where a lot of ppl went to.

 

[timmac]

I think, as a few PPs have already stated, it's just simply that not everyone has unlimited extra cash to blow on eBay. Unlike groceries to eat, gas for the car, etc, much of what's on eBay is a discretionary purchase for people.

High quality items or not, when people don't have money to spend, stuff won't sell as high (if at all)

 

[timmac]

I use to use eBay back when it started and kept using it until a few years ago (buying and selling). eBay decided to weed out the small sellers because they didn't want the fleamarket appeal. They did so by raising fees on sellers which made small sellers not able to make any profit.

I'm in this same boat, have been using eBay for about 13 years now, on and off. I think the biggest problem, at least in my recollection, came around 2000-2001, when the number of sellers was dramatically increasing; unfortunately, a great many of them weren't really running much of a business or offering unique items, but rather, were simply cleaning crap out of their closets and basements. There was definitely a sense by a lot of short-term participants that they expected to be able to use eBay as a get-rick-quick scheme.

Plus, as a seller you can only leave positive feedback anymore.

This is one of many things I don't especially like about eBay lately. Although from (their) business perspective, it makes sense to be pro-buyer.

 

[arihillfarm]

I've been buying and selling on Ebay since 1998. I still buy there (mostly car parts and car maintenance items as the prices there are good), but after this last round of selling off DD's outgrown clothes and outgrown baby clothes from my sons, I'm finished selling on Ebay for good except for an unusual or rare item. I was getting tired of going through the time to get good photos, write the listing and pay the fees to list only to get on average, about .75 per items after all of the fees and this was for brand-name excellent condition kids clothes. My shipping fees were reasonable too. I started taking what didn't sell and everything since then, to Goodwill and using itsdeductible.com to come up with fair market value for tax purposes. Sadly, we'll do better on the tax break overall for donating the items than we do by trying to sell them, but it's a win-win for me (less work to donate) AND for Goodwill.

-Astrid

 

[n2mm]

Sellers 'want' paypal payments because ebay requires it. You can no longer say you accept money orders or checks for your items. Unless you're a big enough store and have your own credit card processor, you accept paypal.

Yes, I agree. I had forgotten this when I posted earlier. I use to sell when ebay first started, then stopped for 6 years. When I came back I was shocked that I had to have a paypal account or I could not sell. They would not let me do MO anymore. So as a seller, (and a buyer) we don't really have a choice if we want to use ebay. Almost all of my stuff is Disney stuff --though I do have a mountain of Hallmark ornaments -- mostly Disney -- from 15 years ago!

 

[seashoreCM]

Worth pointing out ...

Before you complain about exorbitant shipping fees, think of how much it would cost you to drive to a store that is not quite in your town center to go buy the item (if you could).

 

[miztressuz]

Worth pointing out ...

Before you complain about exorbitant shipping fees, think of how much it would cost you to drive to a store that is not quite in your town center to go buy the item (if you could).

For a 7.95 shipping fee, I'd have to drive more than 55 miles round trip to make that a deal. For anything less than 55 miles round trip, it's cheaper to go buy the item (if you could).

I ship things so do I understand it costs money to ship with the packaging and all, but I agree with a PP. If it comes in just a manilla office envelope with a $1.73 postage - no extras like confirmation, ins, etc - you can't tell me it costs $6.22 for that manilla office envelope. I think that might be why eBay has included the shipping price in the FVF (which I still think is ludicrous) as people probably used the "handling" to get around some of the fees. Sucks as I still have one more item I was going to use eBay to sell. Since it's a couple hundred dollar item and I was just trying to get back what I paid for it, eBay seemed to make the most sense. Maybe I'll consider craigslist but I was trying to avoid face to face with the crazies

 

[Disneyliscious]

Worth pointing out ...

Before you complain about exorbitant shipping fees, think of how much it would cost you to drive to a store that is not quite in your town center to go buy the item (if you could).

Yes, but many stores are offering free shipping or other discounts that make buying a new item cheaper than buying used on eBay.
For antique or rare items, I would buy local or never buy at all. Too many scammers on eBay. For sellers, PayPal is a scammers DREAM.

Pay for your item, receive item, file a SNAD with PayPal, return ship a box of rocks with DC, get your money back. Easy as pie and the very reason I refuse to use them. The ONLY think PayPal requires when returning an item to a seller is that you provide a DC. That have no way of knowing what you actually ship back to the seller. Then, said scammer gets his money and the item to resell for himself.

You should really take a gander at the PayPal board on the eBay forums