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 bizzytop
 
posted on December 30, 2011 07:26:26 PM new
Well after selling on ebay since it started in 1995 back when it was auctionweb, 2011 and ebay has finally killed my ebay sales. For the first time since i started in 1995 i had more sales on amazon and even had more sales on my website than i did on ebay. Ebay has real taken a fall from its glory days, so i finally decieded to call it quits on ebay after all these years. It's been a good run but ebay just does not fit in to our sales strategy for 2012. Thanks ebay for all the great years. good luck to everyone still selling on ebay.

 
 ebayvet
 
posted on December 30, 2011 08:10:00 PM new
Ebay still falls into my sales strategy, but it does seem as time goes on, the number gets smaller. If I was still selling the same way I was in 1997, it would be a lot smaller. I was also selling in 1995, at that time Auction Web was a known entity, but I was doing well selling elsewhere.

 
 toolhound
 
posted on December 31, 2011 04:05:19 AM new
I started selling on eBay in 1998 and my sales climbed or stayed about the same every year untill 2008. Then they started a big downward slide. eBay was 75% of my income and now is about 25%.

 
 alldings
 
posted on December 31, 2011 04:34:58 AM new
I have been selling on eBay off and on for 11 years more or less as an enhancement to my old car hobby.
This spring I took advantage of being able to list for free. Back in the day I sold 70-80% of the stuff I listed. This spring sales were closer to 20-30% of listing hardly worth my time. eBay is still my best shot for some items the rest I will do yard sales, flea market, or Goodwill.
 
 hwahwa
 
posted on December 31, 2011 09:05:40 AM new
I dont know how many people have read in the newspaper,a small merchant who sells kindle accessories on AMZN has filed suit against AMZN.
It claims that AMZN has asked for a higher commish say 32 % instead of the regular 15% and threatened that its search engine can be tweaked in such a way that no one will ever find their products on AMZN Marketplace.
It also accused of AMZN of stealing their patent which is a devise to light up the Kindle.
See,I have been saying all along,these search engines are tweaked,someone who is a top rated Ebay seller found his items on page 11 in a search and he quitted.
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 cherishedclutter
 
posted on December 31, 2011 11:26:54 AM new
Bizzytop - what kind of items do you sell? I find it particularly interesting when personal website sales do better than eBay.

 
 bizzytop
 
posted on January 5, 2012 05:56:53 PM new
@cherishedclutter - I started selling used computer electronics way back in the days, then i moved to selling games, mostly chess games sold that till the end, these were high end chess games, not walmart type games, my chess website sold 3 times more than my ebay account, given i have had my chess website for over 10 years and have worked hard to get my name out there so i have a lot of return customers. Also sold custom made shirts and decal, which for that i sold more on bonanaza than i did on ebay. Ebay just does not seem to bring in any more sales for me. I have had to adapt to the many changes of ebay, but i guess my time is up on ebay because i just cant seem to sell hardly anything there anymore. I've been wanting to quite ebay anyway so this just helped me along. And since my other venues, bonanaza, amazon, etysy, and my 2 websites did very well when compared to ebay, it's time to just cut the cord and concentrate on these other venues.

Also noticed this board is very thin now a days, this used to be a happening place?

 
 shagmidmod
 
posted on January 5, 2012 07:51:21 PM new
I have finally, after threatening for years, started to create a new website for our business in order to leave eBay. We closed our retail store last year and have focused our attention at setting up our new warehouse and our small retail space in a dealer mall atmosphere. Now I am looking at changing our website to a checkout system, complete with a "Make An Offer" system built in that will auto accept or decline offers much like eBay has. I am sick of eBay and their tactics of squashing the little guy.

Not to make it political, but I have never understood what the difference is between government regulations and private business regulations when you are on the little guy end of the deal. I always hear one side talk about how the government regulates this and that... but I have never once felt that the government regulates me or my business in a way that affects us negatively. We pay taxes, we pay fees and licenses to operate and in exchange we have a quality of life that protects our business with a Police Department, the Fire Department, Roads, sidewalks, a postal system, a military that keeps us safe and protects our way of life, etc.

On the other hand, large corporations have done EVERYTHING they can to steal our money, both legitimately and questionably. They constantly change the rules and create a maze of confusion in order to keep us in line. We are more likely to give up and not fight their system and accept it as it is. These huge corporations have legal teams of lawyers who write the rules so that the little guy has absolutely no recourse against their massive wall of policies. Big corporations are what negatively impacts our business and personal lives much more than anything the government has ever done.

eBay and Paypal has done this... and more. I used to feel that I worked for myself when I was at my peak on eBay. Over time we have seen our personal identity decay to the point that we no longer work for ourselves... we work for eBay, but without the benefits of an employee.

I was speaking with my mother who is about to retire from Regence Blue Cross in Florida. She was complaining about the "levels" she has to achieve on the phone with customer service, how much time she must be on the phone vs. doing paperwork, how many customers she must serve, how they rate her in order to determine how much she will make and it finally dawned on me that this is absolutely no different than the BS we put up with from eBay with their DSRs, their Power Seller status, etc. Our business is no longer our business because we are controlled by eBay.

I am all for a "free" market that Capitalism is supposed to be, but the reality is that the "free" market is now in control by huge corporations... which in my honest opinion is the furthest thing from being free when they keep you on a leash and it is a do it our way or don't do it at all system.
[ edited by shagmidmod on Jan 5, 2012 07:56 PM ]
 
 hwahwa
 
posted on January 6, 2012 06:24:55 AM new
I watched a movie called 'Outsourced' on TV,an American VP is sent to India call center to ask the staff to work faster ,they have a system too,like 6 MRP per call,and the Indian staff is not achieving the goal.
The Indians do not understand why they have to learn to speak American and lie that they are in Chicago?and they dont understand some of the products they are selling like a small branding gadget so Americans can brand their hamburger patty like cowboys would brand the steer.
Cows are sacred in India and you dont chase a cow down the street to brand them .and branding your hamburger patty?????
Anyway,one day the company found cheaper call centers in China,for the salary of one Indian,they can hire ten Chinese.
The Indians were given one month severance pay,are they upset?
No,now that they have experience,they can find job right away and the one month severance pay is icing .
The Indian call center manager would have problem looking for work as he is not young ,he is 37 years old ,so what to do>
They found him a job managing Chinese call center.
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 hwahwa
 
posted on January 6, 2012 06:33:25 AM new
Ebay today is not the Ebay of yesterday,you cant sell the same old same old anymore,some categories just have too much competition,if you can go to a wholesale district to buy the Ebay goods,so can the other sellers,worse so can the wholesalers who sell you the goods,what is to stop them from selling on Ebay,many do .

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