Ebay Is Dead: Why Ebay Is No Longer A Viable Selling Mechanism For Selling Your Items Online

When eBay first started, it was a huge boost to the economy and small businesses everywhere. I remember as a kid hearing the adults talk about how they were able to make and sell things on ebay and how much it helped their bank account. These adults were middle-class, hard-working people on a low salary who worked a grinding low-paying 9-5 job. The job was rewarding personally, but didn’t pay well. The profits gained from ebay sales really helped them in their lives and boosted their standard of living.

A long time ago eBay was once good for small businesses

As a result, people everywhere were starting small businesses, because ebay was a viable and relatively easy and straightforward way to sell things online. Everyone from moms who made creative things, to families looking for an alternative way to unload all their things they had laying around the house, to real small businesses buying and selling things for a profit.

This all was great for buyers, too. For one thing, many things were cheaper on ebay than at the store. Buyers could buy the used version of things for a lot cheaper than a brand new item but that worked just as well. This was another boost to the economy.

Also, many things that were laying around people’s houses which was trash to them, was treasure for someone else. For some buyers, ebay was a lot like treasure hunting. For the first time, outside of yard sales which are not really respectable, buyers around the country had a new market to find unique and even rare treasures that would never have otherwise been available.

ebay-used-to-be-a-place-to-find-treasures

Flash forward to today. Today, the economy is in the gutter. While many, even most, people had jobs 15 to 20 years ago, today over 50% of Americans are unemployed (ignore the “6%” number that is often thrown around which is extremely deceptive and not true at all). With over half of America unemployed, many people have given up searching for jobs altogether. As a result, still needing to pay the bills, many are trying to turn to self-employment.

eBay fees are way too high

In the desire to start their own business, some of these entrepreneurs are trying out ebay for the first time. However, by the time all is said and done, they are in for an extreme disappointment.

15 years ago during ebay’s heyday, the total percentage taken out in ebay fees was a few percent. This number kept rising, but for awhile it was bearable. Today, however, after being tricked into listing a bunch of items for “free” – that is, no up-front fees for the first few items, sellers are shocked to discover that ebay alone now charges over 20% of the final selling price of the item. On top of this, if the seller offered free shipping, then shipping costs also cut into the profits. Further, there is also the paypal fees taken out which is a significant percentage of the sale – usually around 3% or so.

When the seller finally looks at their bank sheet and adds up the cost of researching the product to sell, the cost of packaging and shipping the item, and finally the near 30% – thirty percent – “fees” taken out by ebay and paypal fees, the seller is shocked to discover that for all their work and effort, they actually lost money on the sale. And this was for selling an item at more than double the purchase price.

Sellers lose money and make $0 profit on eBay

ebay-make-0-profit-every-time

Not only did the seller actually lose money by selling on ebay, but additionally 1 or 2 months later the shady buyer then decides they don’t want the item anymore. So they file a paypal claim and say “it didn’t work” and say it was “not as described”. They do not have to provide any evidence for this. Paypal will side with the buyer 100% of the time, without any evidence to prove the buyer was being honest. Often the buyer even destroys the item and then after they broke it they said “it didn’t work” and then return it.

First, keep in mind that the buyer already lost money on the sale due to the excessive fees. Second, since the seller offered free shipping, when the item is returned, this shipping cost is lost. Third, since the buyer broke the item, the seller now cannot resell the item. On the other hand, even if they can resell the item, it is no longer a “new” item so they cannot sell at the same price, they lost the shipping cost, and on top of all this they would still have another 30% taken out in ebay and paypal fees on the re-sale of the item, and also have to pay additional shipping fees if the item sells again. But then the sketchy buyer decides to leave negative feedback on the seller even though they lied about the whole thing and got their money back fraudulently.

However, keep in mind that in the first place, the seller didn’t even make any money on the sale – in fact they lost money. Therefore, since the seller lost money at the original sale price, it makes no sense to lose even more money by re-selling the item. As a result, assuming that in this case the buyer did not destroy the item, the seller returns the item to the store where they bought it to try to recoup at least some of the cost.

In the end, after all that work, not only was all the time and energy entirely wasted, but even after returning the item to the store, the seller has lost money for all of their efforts. eBay and paypal however kept their fees. Who won here? The seller definitely did not win. The buyer did not win either. Even the original store the item was purchased at did not win because they had to take a return. The only people who won here was eBay and Paypal.

My recent 2017 experience using eBay as a seller

ebay-fees-way-too-high

Here is my experience. Back in the day I did pretty well with eBay. I became a power seller and was able to make some money. Eventually however during Christmas I had a buyer buy a PlayStation, only to return it a few weeks later completely destroyed. PayPal refunded them and I lost the money. After that fraudulent return, I closed my eBay account and haven’t used them for years.

Then just recently I decided to give it another shot. I sold an electronic item which I found some on clearance at Costco for less than half of their original price. I bought them all. I spent time meticulously photographing the items, researching the going prices, and creating a detailed listing. I sold the items at over 100% of my purchase price even after taxes. I bought the items for about $50 each and was able to sell them online for $120 – which was a few dollars less than the going price on Amazon and eBay.

I even offered free shipping, counting the $20 shipping fee into the sale price so that my total sale price would be double what I paid for it. I expected eBay to charge me 10% final value fee, which I considered to be acceptable, even though exorbitant. With the knowledge and experience I had gained over the years in online things, all 5 of my items sold within 2 days.

At the end of the month, however, eBay sent me an invoice for my sales of $600 – 5 items at $120 each: $126 in fees. I was completely and utterly outraged. This came to 21% in eBay fees for the $600 in sales – and I used absolutely no additional fees like boosted items or bold listings or anything like that. And this did NOT include the PayPal fees. Moreover, despite having no paypal account connected to ebay, ebay stole the money directly out of my paypal account without any authorization whatsoever.

A month later after that, a buyer claimed that they had destroyed the product so now they want to return it. Paypal of course will side with the buyer and not request any evidence at all to their “not as described” fraudulent claim.

In the end, out of my $600 in sales, here is the breakdown:

Purchase price:
5 x $50 = -$250

Ebay fees:
-$126

Paypal fees:
5 x $3.78 = -$18.90

Shipping cost:
5 x $20 = -$100

Packaging cost (boxes):
-$15

Gas cost (driving to store):
-$5

Loss prevention (returned broken item):
-$120 (forced refund)

Totals:
-$250
-$126
-$18.90
-$100
-$15
-$5
-$120
_______
= $634.90 in total cost

$600 – $634.90 = -$39.90 net loss (no profit)

ebay-net-sales-loss-2017

What did I really earn from all this effort? (Hint: Nothing.)

This negative profit does not even count the time spent. Time spent is a real factor and needs to also be calculated. I spent around 4 hours total between going to the store, doing the research, taking and editing the photos, creating the effective html listings, packaging the items individually, driving them each to the shipping store, dealing with customer service requests, etc.

How much did I make for my time? Not counting the return I made $8.75 per hour. I would have been better off getting a job at McDonald’s or Walmart rather than going through all this effort to earn less than minimum wage. But I did not even earn this due to the return. In fact I lost $39.90 from this whole ordeal. And even if I can get ebay to refund the $25 final value fee on the $120 sale, and get paypal to refund their $3.78 fee, that is $28.78. This takes my net loss to -$11.12, and I still have $0 profit.

Even IF the item was not completely destroyed and I could return it to the store for a $50 refund, then that leaves me back to +$38.88, and with 2 more additional hours spent on this ordeal (6 hours total) then my net hourly earnings from the entire ordeal would be $6.48 per hour. Ridiculous. And that is only contingent on being able to return the item to the original store as well as getting a refund of all fees. I only have a 90 day return window though, and that return window is almost up. I will likely not be able to return it meaning that I am in the hole with not only $0 profit but actually a net loss.

But wait – that is not all. There are still 4 more items out there. Now that eBay extended its return policy to 180 days, there are still 4 more months in which at any time any of these buyers can try to return the item. If that happens for each additional return I will lose an additional $120 for each return. Every return is a huge loss. Moreover, if a buyer does file a claim on another item then I will not be able to return that to the store because the 90 day return window will have closed. It will just be a further loss.

And all of this is for a sale of more than 2 times the purchase price of each item. Most items that most sellers will sell though will not be 100% profit – that is a very high margin. This means that if you don’t sell for at least 100% over the purchase value of the item you will definitely lose money – but even after that you will most certainly lose money. And even then, you are earning less than minimum wage, and even then there is no guarantee that you won’t take a big loss at any time – in fact, getting a fraudulent buyer is practically guaranteed to have a fraudulent return, because paypal will always side with the buyer and does not require any evidence. Paypal encourages fraudulent buyers.

minimum-wage-work

My time is valuable. If I wanted to work for minimum wage – or for free, or even pay eBay for my work – heck I wouldn’t be selling on ebay, I would work at a restaurant or in retail in some crummy job but paying way more than selling on ebay. I don’t have time to work for ebay to earn ebay ridiculous fees all for free without earning anything myself – and actually losing money myself while ebay profits off my hard work without giving me anything in return. (Fortunately, selling on eBay is not my business, I earn money doing other things.)

Conclusion: eBay is dead.

Ebay is a leech, a parasite, scamming good hard-working people into working for ebay except not getting paid for working for ebay and not getting any benefits and not even getting to list ebay as their employer. Ebay has all these good people working for them and ebay is not paying them. It is a scam – a racket. Profiteering. Fraud. Ebay is now the scum of the earth.

This is why eBay is dead. They got so extremely greedy and raised their fees so much that sellers can no longer make any money. Using eBay is tantamount to throwing money in the trash can, and this is no exaggeration. While ebay used to be a strong economic asset helping the regular people to make some much-needed extra money, instead, today in a time where nearly 100 million working-age Americans between 15 and 64 are jobless and unemployed[SOURCE], ebay is hurting the very people it set out to help.

[SOURCE] (Sources: Only 124 million Americans are employed full-time out of a
total of 205 million working age Americans ages 15-64, leaving nearly half of working-age Americans unemployed)

The only people making money on eBay besides eBay and Paypal themselves are sellers who sell millions of dollars in revenue a year – and out of this, the profit margin is extremely small. However, for the rest of ebay users, it is no longer a place to be able to sell things online and make any money. In fact, the risk is greater than the reward, and selling something on ebay is in many cases worse than just keeping the item.

It is not even worth it to sell things laying around the house. After all the fees and shipping costs, you’ll only make a third to a quarter of the selling price, and this doesn’t account for all the time and energy you spent making the listing, packing, shipping, dealing with customer service, etc.; and that also doesn’t include what happens when the buyer either returns the item or claims they “never received it”, leaving you with not only a loss but a broken item or no item at all and even a greater loss.

You would have been better just not selling the item at all and investing your time and energy into something that really does make you money. eBay just isn’t worth it anymore, and you can’t make any money on eBay when all is said and done. Worse, you will probably end up losing money, and possibly losing the item as well.

Are there any real alternatives to eBay?

etsy-ebay-alternative

So what are the alternatives? Is there any alternative to eBay for selling online? Sadly, the answer to this is no, not really. The only viable alternative is really craigslist; however, you can only sell locally in person which extremely limits your options and your market demographic. As far as an online marketplace, there is Amazon; however, Amazon’s fees are around 15%, which, while still way better than ebay, is still very high. There are many other online marketplaces like eBid for example but none of these are viable replacements for eBay.

Etsy is another eBay replacement if you make your own unique items. However, it is not a place you can buy and sell regular things, or where you can unload all your used treasures. I personally do not have much experience with Etsy, but I have heard great things. From what I hear, the greatest challenge is getting people to actually find your things, because most sellers do not make any money on Etsy due to this issue.

As a result, if you have things you need to sell, your only real choice is to put them on craigslist. Of course, the problem with craigslist is that it is rife with scammers. Moreover, it isn’t a place you can buy and sell items, just things you can unload at a loss to cheapskates. Still, even if you took a loss, you have no worries about paypal claims, chargebacks, negative feedback, destroyed items returned, lies about “never receiving the item”, or exorbitant fees and hidden fees. With craigslist, even though your target market is much, much smaller, and even though you have to field tons of scam emails and calls, at least you know once you exchanged your item for cash in a public place, you get to keep your money and the sale is final.

eBay is dead, and they killed it with their greed. Perhaps even they did it on purpose in order to intentionally destroy the individual seller marketplace (in favor of big business), or perhaps they just didn’t give a crap about anyone but their bottom line. Whatever the reason behind it, sellers who want to actually make any money and not lose money selling online, can no longer use eBay because it is a complete and utter waste of time, money, and energy.

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97 thoughts on “Ebay Is Dead: Why Ebay Is No Longer A Viable Selling Mechanism For Selling Your Items Online

  1. I myself no longer sell on eBay. Last item I sold was an item I purchased for $30 refurbished for 10 sold for 65. To make a long story short, In the end I made $8.

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  2. And now ebay charges taxes on all sales. Used items get charged taxes, whether a business sold them or an individual that just figured they’d sale one item of their own. And you are charged fees against the taxes just as the shipping and item.

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  3. I am an eBay Seller. Disappointed throughout the years at the greed and “disconnect” this portal has with it’s hard-working Sellers. With the pandemic, everyone shops online, but NOT on eBay. It has become obsolete and expensive. They constantly “make-changes” that we dislike but have no saying on…I am evaluating some alternatives right now…I will probably end up closing my Store next year for good… Thank you for your article!

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  4. Sounds like an ideal company for China, the kings of scammers. Let them have it! Being the copycats of the universe, they’ll be high and dry for years trying to catch up with whatever superior solution our Yankee Ingenuity comes up with. Scripture tells us that there is a law of reaping and sowing that has been loosely modified to, “What goes around comes around.” Ebay, enjoy the grief you are beginning to harvest.

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  5. I opened my eBay account on Sep 13, 2000. Twenty years later, all I can say is this company has turned into a giant steaming pile of horse sh*t. The fees are ridiculous. The random “holds” placed by PayPal? They held my money until the buyer received the item.

    This was the same item that not a few weeks earlier was purchased by another “verified” user. I dropped the item off at the Post Office and within an hour received an email stating the buyer wanted a refund.
    I called the Postmaster and retrieved my package. Nice try buddy. PayPal was more than happy to start the refund process, but didn’t take into account the item was already on the way. Had it been delivered, there’s no doubt I’d be out money and the item.

    I relisted it, and it was purchased again. PayPal puts a hold on the funds until the buyer received the item. Really PayPal? You didn’t learn anything the first time? Now they FORCE me to wait until my item shows up before the buyer cancels the purchase and takes off with my goods. Yeh. Right.

    I initiate a transfer of my remaining funds after both eBay and PayPal pirate their share only to have a 72 hold placed on it while they “verify” the withdrawal. “Verify” THIS PayPal. You and eBay and go down in flames.

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  6. I have been selling on EBAY since 1998 , at one time listed as a power seller , but stopped using EBAY for awhile , now , since this past December. went back to selling , my comment is this , I have 2078 positives with no negative feedback since I’ve been on EBAY . I have 278 transactions since this past Dec. with
    one return which I reimbursed , @ damage in shipping , My seller account has me listed as above standard and I will be elevated to Power Seller this month because of sales amount .

    As far as I know , EBAY has a new program , or format to profile seller performance called Service Metrics , if you fall over 1 % of issues such as item not as described , EBAY CHARGES A 5 % penalty
    to their normal selling fees on each item you sell . You cannot view your Seller Metrics though !

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  7. Yes I was excited about selling a few of my personal stuff on eBay for the first time seeing how it all worked,I would have been lucky if I broke even ,I sold new good quality items ,as I don’t like to cheat people or b cheated ,do unto others rule plus a excellent rating,but I ended up on the losing side always giving folks a good break ,plus the fees on all sides are very high ,I lost some 40/10 dollars,plus I always provide free shipping as eBay let’s you know that buyers appreciate it and items sells faster , with exceptions on very high shipping price on certain products. eBay and PayPal have become billionaires working their way up to amazon status , it’s a shame if you don’t sell in bulk you’re going to lose.

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  8. Yup. Sales over the Last 31 days = $117. eBay just sucked $116.10 in fees out of my PayPal account. All the work of writing up descriptions and taking photos, boxing and driving to the post office, shipping Priority Mail, and they take every single dollar I produced without any explanation whatsoever. In all fairness, they let me keep $0.90… There has to be a class action suit coming.

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  9. You are absolutely right. I opened a store , thinking it would be a better way to sell my items. Boy , was I wrong. I made around $300 that month and by the time eBay and Paypal took their share , I ended up with
    $105.00.Wow , With all the time and money invested in eBay, It was a total upset for me. I called them and really had a heated conversation with them. I have been a loyal customer with them for 18 years. Now I am done selling with them and I told them so. I do buy things I need , especially with this Virus thing , where you can’t find what you need. It is now terrible for the small businesses on eBay, it didn’t use to be. I used to have a lot of fun selling there ,but it is nothing but a racket with them and Paypal charging such absorbent prices. I am done with eBay selling after all these years.

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  10. This is the most accurate description I have seen about what eBay really is. I have closed my eBay business account as well after a fraudster made a claim and managed to get both their money back and keep the item. eBay had zero concern. They also periodically withhold money and expect you to ship an item without the fees cleared in your bank account. Totally ridiculous. eBay is going down and PayPal along with them.

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  11. I am DONE selling on ebay, my final straw was a couple weeks ago when ebay allowed a seller to return a once perfectly good item that was clearly marked “no-return” . Not only was I screwed out of shipping both ways, they also took their final value fees. To make matters worse, the item was returned in un-sellable condition, so screw you ebay, you do not care for the sellers and allow deceptive buyers to scam good people .

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  12. Yep, I Googled “ebay is dead” because its true. I have been a seller since 1998, so I was the parent who was helped by the boom in your story. This fall was all so predictable when I saw the corporate start and IPO. My next prediction is that one day… in the not too far off future… ebay will call me to ask me to come back. I’m glad ebay is dead; they are helping cure my addiction to laziness and habitual button pushing. I look forward to not getting their $500 to $1000 credit card bill every month. I look forward to getting back to basics. Before ebay started we used newspapers, brick and mortar shops, courtesy, customer service, and worthwhile goods to make a living. We were self reliant.

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  13. Thank you for telling us THE 100.00%-TRUTHS. It is far-better for you to ”sound-negative” in exposing the truths of these global elitists’s global-scams on the unwitting-global-populations, ”than be-all positive, and in order to want to ”APPEAR COOL IN FRONT OF OTHER-PEOPLES just endup saying ”NOTHING.” Keep fighting the good fight, because most–people put-up fake-confidences on the outside, but are all cowards on the inside who all-runaway at the first-signs of troubles…

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  14. Great Article! Ebay is sadly a game of “relist, relists” and hope your stuff sells. The stuff I sell rarely required a relist just 5 yrs ago! WTF? I cant seem to build up a good amount of money in my PayPal Acct! Its like $400 up then down to $275 in the blink of an eye! As a result I got a PT job at $12hr & make money that actually aculmulates in my bank act! No more rifling around in dirty smelly used shi* at thrif stores & yard sales (gagging now) and spending countless hrs sourcing, researching, prepping & listing the stuff. Wow I actually have money in my pocket & more time on my hands!

    Then just before I quit Ebay They had the nerve to force Best Offer on my items & harass me to lower $. I also hated auto relist!! Even buying my items cheap I am lucky to make 25-30% after shipping & fees. I dont have a store & just cancel what does not sell at end of month then relist if something else sells.

    Nope..dont miss Ebay as it is today. Miss the old Ebay.

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  15. Sh**Bay is a dead dinosaur…unless its me, or folks just don’t like a good deal anymore. SO MUCH work is put into listing then waiting and its a huge nothing. Sh**Bay sucks!! This venue was never the best but Sh**Pal doesn’t make it any easier. Tell me. Why should I sell my worth for a penny? Then have Sh**Buyers CANCEL after the close of an auction? eBay’s dying out but its a PAINFUL process lemme tell you. Etsy will literally rape you but there has to be better selling venues out there. eBay’s a HORRIBLE racket. Wish they never came about tin the first place.

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    • Yes I was excited about selling a few of my personal stuff on eBay for the first time seeing how it all worked,I would have been lucky if I broke even ,I sold new good quality items ,as I don’t like to cheat people or b cheated ,do unto others rule plus a excellent rating,but I ended up on the losing side always giving folks a good break ,plus the fees on all sides are very high ,I lost some 40/10 dollars,plus I always provide free shipping as eBay let’s you know that buyers appreciate it and items sells faster , with exceptions on very high shipping price on certain products. eBay and PayPal have become billionaires working their way up to amazon status , it’s a shame if you don’t sell in bulk you’re going to lose.

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  16. Awesome article! I used to make thousands of dollars selling Coach, Dooney and other moderately high end purses on EBay. I’d list like 10 things a week and 1-3 things on average would sell. Is always see those starting bids turn “green” on my selling list.

    Fast forward 8 years later and I never sell anything. I’m talking Nordstrom current style items (like just purchased a few months ago and near mint condition) for 1/10th the retail price.
    I’ll re-list it 5x and get nothing.

    I don’t think it’s because the economy is bad, I think it’s because eBay now has this thing where you pay to get your listings at the top. Like google. And there are dozens of other ways to sell used stuff, like LetGo, OfferUp, ThreadUp, PoshMark, etc… that didn’t exist a decade ago.

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  17. ebay is dead b/c of it’s “NANNY RULES”

    you used to be able to sell alcohol, weapons, and various other adult only products once. that shit stopped and people started going to goodwill to flip garage sale quality crap for a profit which is laughable.

    i hope ebay goes bankrupt and i hope all their employees catch aids. from the CEO to the jerk off who clean the toilets in their san jose office.

    i hope they all die in horrible pain

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  18. There are better options for people who want to sell on the internet. Facebook, Etsy and Vinted for vintage items, Poshmark is also a very nice community. I am a small seller and I have made decent money selling on Etsy and Poshmark. eBay is not what it used to be and is on its way out.

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  19. After my recent experience “selling” 2 lovely, designer branded immaculate, hardly used sofas on eBay I’d advise any small, honest non business seller like me to avoid eBay.

    Cut a long story short, eBay’s grovelling to buyers means that if you have popular, sought after items that are expensive to buy new, your listings will attract time wasters, scammers and even trolls.

    1st sofa went on, some person with issues messaged me purely to troll me within minutes. I was scared so removed the listing promptly as it hadn’t got bids on it.

    2nd sofa, got bids on it fast. Just after the initial bids someone messaged me telling me to stop the listing and then relist it with the buy it now price I originally offered so she could buy it. Obviously I politely refused.
    The winning bidder asked to pay cash on collection. When I told her I agreed, but I’d prepare receipts that each of us sign and keep one copy each to prove she’d bought and collected it, she cancelled the agreed collection minutes before she and her partner were due to collect it.

    But that’s not the end.

    I will now get charged 10% “selling” fees! EBay call the charge a “credit” to use for future sales. What a cheek! No way. I’m going to go through eBay hoops to get that refunded after I’ve paid it.

    Never again. I’m going to try Facebook Marketplace.

    Also, if your item has to be collection only because it’s too large to post, like furniture, eBay imo are encouraging some very dodgy buyers especially for expensive when new items. Remember that once someone “buys” your item, obviously you have to give them your address.

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  20. YES, YES, YES AND the post office and fedex are more of the winners, while, as you point out, us sellers are the REAL losers. Like you said, when I first joined Ebay in 1999, it was GREAT, Now they just plain suck.

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    • how dead is it??? listed 10 harley mudflaps, im seeing views like 5 and 6 lookers after two days, unimaginable!!! so i end all listings, and put two on facebook and two on antique motorcycle swap, also facebook. all four sell in two days, been nice knowing ya ebay, some turn the light off!!!

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      • what every ebay was, it is NO more. somebody please turn the light off, the CEO who just quit, devin, forgot to. rather a simple business model for bankruptcy, shun the sellers who made you who you are. glorify the junk peddlers who do large volume and accomplish nothing. we have a walmart.com, don’t need another. ebay is so over done, it’s scary the stock is above $10 still. but we all know how that gets played out, 2 lifeboats and 100,000 people in line waiting. how many are going to have to jump overboard? i use ebay as free advertising and reroute people to marketplace to buy commission free at a better price. seems everyone know it also, this gig is on borrowed time, even the brick and mortar assets have been all liquidated and rented back. drove my chevy to the levy and the levy was dry, good olde boys were singing,,,,bye,,bye,,,bye,,,

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  21. 100 percent spot on and is getting worse with their buy it now listing are 30 days only. No 1, 3, 5 or 10 day listing. So, when you list your item you are so far back in the listing that nobody really sees it unroll it is listed for about 2 weeks. So sad.

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  22. I am a top rated eBay seller. I started from scratch in 2016 and just made Top Rated 3.5 Millions Dollars selling limit with 12500 items on eBay. Yesterday I shut down my store and cancelled the yearly subscription at a “PENALTY” of $599. Thats right, I am penalized for shutting down my store. For the last 2 years eBay made more money off of me that I did off of eBay. I now have credit card debt of $9500 thanks to eBay. eBay is dead, dead and dead. No one makes money from eBay except eBay. The subscription fees I pay to eBay are more than the profit I make and I am Top Rated. Top Rated means to me now I make money for eBay and not for me. I am gone, bye bye, see ya. I’m making money on amazon and going back to developing my own website. The $599 penalty I will have to pay from profits made on amazon.

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  23. This is 100% correct. Ebay will not even allow you to email them about this mess. They have their heads and ears in the sand.

    Also, they’ve turned into “tricksters” with their little gimmicks. They substitute some non-working gimmick and promote it as “helping sellers.” If they really want to help cut the final value fee in half!

    Most of this is being run from India, where they have impoverished folks thinking up ways to scrape another nickel out from people using Ebay. They sit around all day thinking of something they can change, call it a new rule, and then rake in some more nickels. They literally are draining the cow of milk till it tips over.

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  24. I agree wholeheartedly. I was duped into listing fifty items for “free”. I learned with my first sale that eBay holds the funds for 21 days on your first 25 listings. So in addition to all the risks the author mentioned, you have also paid up front to ship items you might never receive a penny for. You would have to be crazy to take a deal like that. I tried to cancel this sale and all listings and delete my account since I’m so soured by ebays deceptive business practices that I no longer wish to sell or buy through them,..and they wouldn’t let me. They are literally trying to force me to follow through with these listings. This is fraud.
    eBay is indeed dead. There are so many new selling platforms like poshmark, mercari, tradesy , facebook marketplace and Etsy that are just making it so much easier to buy and sell. They are becoming outdated and will inevitably be pushed out by these and other platforms yet to come unless they get with the program. Deceptive practices in a competitive market will sink them. I ended up closing my linked bank account and walking away from the debacle since my sales are far more successful on another site. I’m sure I’m not the only one. R.I.P EBay.

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    • y’all ain’t seen nothing yet!!! got an ugly word ebay is using more and more, it is called THROTTLE. These sorry ass cry babies are now throttling sellers by zip code. let’s say you’re selling a common phone, lots of them for sale on ebay, so ebay but an invisible 100 mile radius THROTTLE around who can see you’re item. if you are not inside the radius, you never see the item. ebay this this will help buyers get the item as fast as amazon, dirty sleazy ebay. if you ever used google adwords, you will understand. i listed the same item in four different zip codes on EBAY. LA, Cleveland, Miami and the motor city. view counts we not just different,,,extremely different!!! an ex employee from ebay spilled the beans a few years back, he said there are FOUR different throttles ebay will use to stop you from selling. i hate ebay and let them know everyday. i circumvent fees as much as possible. i list the same item ten times in different zip codes, and cancel the nother nine when one sells. screw them morons. many, many times my item is nowhere to be found on a mirror site. as soon as i see my item is hidden, i sell same item with ten different titles, ten different zip codes and ten different times,,lmao,,,it works!!

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          • sure can,

            sold motorcycle parts on ebay 20 years from north carolina, had customers all over the globe. west coast to east coast, japan, germany, down under,,ect… kids wants to move to florida, i say, why not. we mover to south florida. i can NOT sell nothing??? just trinkets, low $$$ items, under $200 or less. im viewing counts and WOW, numbers way down from the carolinas. sales crashed to almost nothing. so, i dig into the shipping address and OMG. every single sale in six months, is all buyers from florida??? why is nothing selling but to florida resident? same time im working an ad campaign thru google adword for a different business and i see this throttle radius you can use to drag in locals. OMG,,,ebay has me throttled to south florida!! i change back my zip code to NC, while still in florida and i have a HUGE month!!! then i read the story about ebay trying to be like amazon, faster shipping, only one way. see about!!!!!!

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  25. eBay definitely died when dropshippers and chinese sellers came onto the scene. I used to make handmade jewelry and there was no way I was going to list my items for $.01 and free shipping. I wasn’t a big ecommerce business, so it’s not like I could treat my products as a “loss leader” to build up sales and become a powerseller. I am so ticked off about eBay being invaded by Chinese trash. They’re even on etsy now. You can’t even sell clothes cheap anymore to people looking for a bargain without hurting your own pocketbook.

    It blows my mind that you can actually lose money if you’re not planning ahead for all the fees. You’re better off giving it away for free to someone in your community, and get a tax deduction, but even that is phased out with the tax changes for most people this year. We are getting screwed every which way. Frankly, I am frustrated with ecommerce, even as a buyer. I could literally pour through 40 pages looking for an affordable, decent clothing item on ebay and find nothing.

    Amazon is a joke with their imported clothes sized for a tiny Asian. I could waste hours at a big retailer website trying to find that “treasure deal” and waste more time looking for coupon codes, and then you have to meet that minimum purchase threshold to get free shipping. I don’t like breaking down cardboard boxes and dealing with all the packing material. I’m ready to turn back to brick and mortar stores, but now they are disappearing because online retail has pummeled them.

    It’s very hard to find clothes sometimes because I am a size 14/16 petite. Too big for tiny Asian clothes. Too short for clothes designed for average height people. I would resort to sewing, but even finding affordable, good fabric is ridiculous. This summer, I will be putting all our stuff into a garage sale, and I’m sure there will be cheapskates that show up who try to even steal. I’ve heard crazy stories from others who have had it happen to them even though they were charging only 25 cents a shirt. If I had a bigger yard, I might be willing to make a bonfire with all the stuff and throw a party. Bartering will be back.

    Prices in the stores are ridiculous, too. The quality of all the merch is taking a dive. China is killing us from the inside and they were smart to do it. Make a strong country weak and then take em over. They are genius.

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    • The invasion of the China cheapies is frustrating. In fact, the only deals to really be found nowadays are on eBay are on junk from China. I’ve had a lot of success buying and selling on Mercari and unexpectedly Facebook marketplace. I don’t buy on Amazon anymore either. I have had almost solely bad experiences myself, and feel that our annual prime membership fee is just a complete and utter waste of money. Lately I’ve heard a lot of griping about them and eBay. Sadly they are two companies resting on their laurels while their competitors sneak up on them. They’ll go the way of Borders, Toys r us, etc. because they can’t keep up with the competition.

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  26. Amazon and eBay are favoring sellers from China now. I ordered an item from a seller from China on eBay because I couldn’t source it locally. The item never arrived and I could tell after communicating that they were just a drop shipper.
    I did get my money back. But I don’t see the trend changing.

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    • I’ve had one good purchase through Amazon in a the past several years. One. My son ordered a cell phone case a month ago, it still hasn’t arrived and we have prime. We’ve never once had two day shipping. It’s always a week, usually two. I ordered a China cheapie piece of clothing that did not resemble the pictures in the least, and both kindle fires we purchased seemed to both experience an internal implosion and die at exactly the same time three months after purchasing. We made the mistake of paying annually for our membership and had hoped a least we’d get video streaming out of it. But that’s a joke. It took six months to cancel Audible. They just kept charging our card. (Btw, you can get most of their audio books free on YouTube) Thankfully our prime membership is up at the end off this month. We will not be renewing.

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  27. 18 years, 1,000,000.00 in sales, averaging 121.00 per sale and a Chinese seller selling beads for .05 can maintain a better seller rating because of volume? Seems like if I were Ebay I would try to be a little less offensive to the sellers that make them the most money.

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  28. I have been with Ebay since 2000. I agree that it is in decline. I was looking around their site and came across an article that Ebay posted about the diversity of sellers on Ebay. Out of the maybe 30 pictures I did not see a single Chinese seller. Seems to me that there should be a lot of Chinese sellers pictures in the article. And I suppose people don’t know how shipping from a foreign country works. Our government pays basically to have the item delivered to a USPS station then the fee is figured from the post office to the buyers location. Hence the very low shipping fees the Chinese pay to ship items here. It is not like that if we ship to China.
    Ebay just keeps strangling the geese that are laying the golden eggs.

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  29. After watching a couple of videos from these so-called ebay gurus who sell you their crap courses. I give it a shot by listing small kitchen appliances with higher value. I’ve sold 3 of them before & after xmas worth more than 1.9k USD. Recently, I got their bill. Totally, I was shocked at the $433 fees. I was expecting to get a profit but I was losing. I would never again use eBay as long as I live. They’re a bunch of greedy bastards! I wish they would be no longer in 5 years from now!

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  30. Been selling on eBay since about 2002. Was good up until about 2011ish. Been a slow race to the bottom ever since. As much as I can complain about the Fees and not caring about sellers I’ve found Amazon is even worse in those regards. With ever increasing postal rates going up 10% here in 2019 and no relief from eBay with fees and slower sales. I’ve decide it’s time to just scale down to hobby sell. Went to work full time for the first time in my life a month ago. Recently turned 30 for perspective.
    As much as there are challenges there it gives me pc of mind not obsessing anymore over the scammy buyers and racing to ship items out so my metrics stay up. Good luck to those who carry on but all good things come to an end. The small e-commerce seller on third party platforms, I think is pretty much over when it comes to making a full time income.

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  31. EBay seller for 15 years…over 25,000 feedback…and have had an EBay store continuously since they first were introduced.. And I will be closing my store this upcoming August (when my yearly contract expires), despite still having thousands of items in inventory. Never thought this would happen, but traffic on the site has slowed to a trickle, and the fees are now astronomical. Bottom line is that I barely make any money from my efforts, and am at risk of losing money if I continue on the site. Gets worse and worse every year. Time to pull the plug. And when a seller like me pulls the plug, Ebay is in big trouble! Farewell! I’m sorry you ruined a once great thing EBay!!!

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  32. Yep! Just read the insightful article. Believe me you, the points are SPOT ON. I’ve been a eBay seller since 1999. Started with selling sports cards and other stuff that I had collected since college. I was hooked on making money aspect. In 1999 to the early 2000’s before digital downloads, CDs were the in thing. Listed my groovy 70’s and 80’s music on CD. Buyers were bidding WAY ABOVE what I imagined. Like $48 for a Partridge Family CD, etc. So, I found a on line store, where I can buy new Partridge Family, Osmond, etc CD’s and VHS video, and sold on eBay for way above price and was making a decent side income. A good thing always comes to an end, when digital downloads took over, and CDs were phasing out.

    Fast forward to 2008 – 2011, I found custom gaming laptops were selling after I sold a few of my own used laptops on eBay. So, I would custom order high performance laptops through a well known company and sold them with NO problem, and that was the period of the recession. $900 on up for a lappy. Then some family matters that I have to tend to and stopped doing it in 2011.

    Fast forward to recent years and FEEBAY has changed the selling climate with their NAZI style enforcement of sellers and anti sellers policies. Can’t do that and this BS. Small time mom and pop sellers is what MADE eBay, and FEEBAY throws us little sellers under the bus.

    You can see WHY AMAZON is a trillion dollar company and FEEBAY is the way it is….

    FEEBAY is only a venue to try to sell your personal stuff, and get a little cash for it, before giving the items to GOODWILL…. BYE BYE eBay, you were fun back in the day, but GREED and DISLOYALTY is your DNA now, but Karma’s a witch with a B in front!!!

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  33. 14 years of honest selling and buying …your article NAILS it! The scammers and non paying winning bidders is at an all time high…took me 3 auctions to finally get a paying buyer! This week my account was restricted indefinitely due to my younger son falling behind in shipping out and refunding. He should have been restricted, i get that …but I am now forever restricted too and they won’t do anything about it. My other son doesn’t even live with us (2 years since he moved out for college) He has 6 years of great selling history and they restricted his indefinitely also due to “linked account restriction”. EBAY disregards good standing clients and harbors fake scamming accounts. It’s become like “craigslist”.

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  34. Yup, that has been my experience also. After years of doing well the fees went thru the roof and I started losing money along with all the wasted hard work and effort. What they say their fees are and what your bill is at the end of the month became 2 different things. Ebay is a ripoff. Only big business can make it now like everywhere else until they run out of consumers like us that have went under.

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  35. While i am fed up with ebay and have started my own website, I must say that I have not had the sort of negative experience that you describe. Do you exaggerate? If not, how do those fees add up so astronomically? Mine do not; if they did, I would have dumped ebay years ago. I have no special deal with ebay; I have been a seller for 17 years. I am in a niche collectible category, so maybe that makes a difference. I have had only one return during my tenure on ebay, and that was about eight years ago (I relisted the piece and resold it immediately). Lack of buyers, which I associate with the faulty ebay search, has reduced my sales, which appears to be the same situation for most sellers. But there is still sufficient profit to make selling on ebay worthwhile. I am perplexed at the degree of your negative experiences.

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  36. Couldn’t agree more. I spent years selling faithfully on eBay with 3428 feedback and 100% rating but they treat their sellers like dirt with extortionate charges, rudeness and complete ignorance with their senseless rules and zero customer care (unless you’re a buyer). The final straw for me was getting barred for putting a collection of dvds in one listing rather than separately (which many were doing and still do) where they said I was dodging charges (absolute nonsense as I had a shop that I paid £20 monthly for which had hundreds of free listings). I’ve moved to ebid now which I must admit seems to be very quiet but I don’t care, I won’t be going back to eBay and hope they burn.

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  37. We (our company) have been selling on eBay for about 4 years and although we’ve had our moments we are optimistic. You make your money buying the item not selling it is what we have learned over the years and building these costs into your sale price. I’m not an eBay groupie but have learned how to make a decent profit using there platform as disastrous as it may be at times. Amazon blocks most of our items because they are mostly electronics and they 1) forbid sales to overseas buyers and 2) have so many deals with manufactures who will not allow you to list your item. They also do not let you sell many, if any used items such as those we may carry. Routers, telecom equip, pumps, motors etc. And although we sell on Amazon it’s not a viable alternate to eBay. We do not craft our own products either so other alternate sites are not an option. All in all eBay still offers a seller more freedom listing items and for that reason I believe they will continue to grow and capture a fair percentage of the e-commerce market.

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    • If you had begun before 4 years ago then you would have had far more sales! In reality, today you need about 200% profit margin (or extremely high volume) to make any money on ebay anymore. It didn’t used to be that way. Sadly, such a high margin is nearly impossible to find without inside connections or manufacturing and distribution centers; and such high volume to become profitable at low margins is nearly impossible on ebay today.

      Only a real full business can have any success on ebay. Ebay used to be great for the little guy and for struggling people to make some money on the side – students, mothers, and people just trying to get ahead. It was great for America. Not anymore. They killed it for the little guy; now, only huge ecommerce stores can make any money.

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      • Yes, you’re correct, I started selling on ebay in the late 90’s. I was buying my items at yard sales and estate sales and made extra money to supplement my income. Right now I have 5 items on listed and have lowered the price on each about 3 times and all have been listed for over 30 days now. With the new buy it now 30 day listing with no other options, every 30 day it is automatically delisted and you loose your watchers. What a scam.

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  38. Glad I found this article… hits on many points. I have been with Ebay as a part time seller, buyer since 1998. I was never a Ebay-store or pro seller, but I’ve been 100% positive feedback on long-term accounts and have always sold electronics, paintball gear, extra weight lifting supplements, and even my college textbooks on Ebay. Whatever I sold I always put up a good Ad, had mostly good buyers over the years and never had issues. But then Ebay policies went crazy in 2015-2016 or so, and no buyers, they regularly scam sellers and return items via paypal/Ebay disputes (after they rent / use / break / return it) and they will always side with buyer – even when I post pictures of the item powered up and working as it should. Ridiculous. It’s so bad now I’m posting really good electronics deals that would normally sell every time, but now I get 50x watchers, and no buyers.

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  39. Also as a buyer ….. It’s hard for ebay to compete with prices in Amazon, Groupon and wish and etc. When ever I go to ebay I find that the prices are over the top (even for used items most of the time), and I can get a brand new one for same or lesser price in Amazon. And Amazon replaces any defective items which ebay does not. But it’s definitely sad to hear the seller perspective and the fee scam. This article gave me a different perspective for sure.

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  40. eBay reflects the culture of corporate greed. They find and invent ways of stealing from you, making you work for them in the pretext you are running your own business, typical conditioned modern slavery mentality. It’s just a matter of time before folks come to terms with this thievery. I am not surprised that the small almighty eBay will die an inglorious death.

    Bury her!

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  41. I began selling on ebay in 2000, I sold vintage car parts new and used and made a ton of money. I also sold everything from vintage toys, musical instruments and specific vintage collectibles… I did well albeit made less each passing year, since 2009 it’s been dreadful.

    Fast forward to today and there is NO TRAFFIC on ebay, and it is not that people aren’t looking or spending on the things I have, they are just buying and selling differently, EVERYTHING IS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, and as I won’t be heading that route anytime soon, throw it all in the land fill for all I care.

    Ebay ruined it for themselves and everyone else… High fees chased sellers away, a closed email communication process put shill bidder fear in buyers. For me the big thing was they don’t let you communicate openly anymore… I’d rather talk on the phone and get a feel for whom I spending with ask all the questions, rather than get 15 glad hand emails from a seller.

    In short… I pray for an alternative daily… The problem is ebay has bought each and every good one that came up.. Aren’t there anti-monoply laws somewhere ?

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      • But not an auction platform.. You set your price and dicker with the possible buyer. I want an old eBay style platform again and not told I have to use PayPal in order to join and sell my items. I use postal money orders only or local pick up. When I say sold as is “No Refunds” that’s what I mean. Craigslist would make a great auction site but if you live in a depressed low income area you can’t give away your items as it is set up now.
        I have a few items listed for 1/4 of the price eBay sells them for and can’t get rid of them.

        DonTheBaptist

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        • I had someone try to return an item as defective after 3 months! No kidding. Thank goodness PayPal actually sided in my favor for a change. Scammers everywhere.. Ugh

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  42. Even though the fees were a bit High I still used to sell quite a bit on sh*tbay even just a couple years ago. Problem is the only time you’re going to have a negative on your record is if you’re a seller…and you’ve done nothing to aggravate a buyer. All they have to do is be in the mood. Or simply say that the item is ugly. Even sellers are lacking the warm customer service effort that is so seldom seen in Commerce today. Although there are good sellers who do care. I probably have about 4 accounts. I only sell through one. Actually I haven’t sold anything, if I’m lucky I’ll just get a few Watchers. Who never buy. I also experienced some rather costly technical problems with both eBay and their best buddy PayPal. Amazon, used to be a really good front for selling until I discovered I hadn’t been paid anything by them and I was being charged, too bad. eBay is definitely a dying dinosaur if not on already dead one and I know the process is a bit painful, but we need a better solution.

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  43. Totally agree that Ebay is a dying beast. It’s a real shame as they have completely lost their way and always side with the buyer regardless of any information you give them. I was turning over $200’000.00 per year and the Ebay fees were killing us. I’m so pleased we’re out of it now as we ended up working for Ebay and getting very little out of it despite working 18hrs a day.

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  44. I do ok on Ebay. I’ve sold there since around 2008. It used to be great, I made so much money. Now I don’t make nearly the same at all. This venue started doing stupid stuff right from the start. When I started it was several months before that douche bag JD showed up. Then he showed his stupid pictures that looked like children drew them explaining “Disruptive innovation” or some such nonsense. THEN he referred to sellers as Noise and took away Neg feedback for buyers. From there on they made so many stupid changes that seemed to negatively impact sales. I started spreading out to other venues and my own website. Etsy is great, it brings in a lot if you have the right products. Their fees are so low I can’t believe it. Amazon is where I started but I don’t sell there anymore because they’ve creeped into my category and my sales completely stopped. But every single policy change I’ve seen ebay make has been an attempt to copy Amazon policies verbatium, but they can’t execute properly because they don’t even understand some of the policies they copy. It is clear they wanted to copy Amazon’s Defect rate system, they tried and did a terrible job. Ebay’s search engine is like King Midas in reverse, everything it touches turns to shit. They show you what they think you want to buy, not what you searched for.

    Ebay has destroyed itself, sellers of items of value have very little confidence in ebay now thanks to their MBG policy and the suggestion that buyers are dealing with a thief with every turn but not to worry since big momma Ebay has got your back. These are the same protections offered on every online venue mind you, the difference is other locations don’t need to plaster it everywhere and imply how easy it is to abuse in order to get a sale. The other venues are also not setup in the event that a scenario arises with fraud, that they still keep the commissions to the sale.

    I would like to see ebay survive, but they need to be bought out by a competent company in order to do so, the marketplace that could be “run by monkeys” is apparently being run by even less intelligent humans at the moment. Shareholders should at least demand that they get some Monkies running the show, these humans don’t know what the F they’re doing.

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  45. Good article. I was on Ebay for 15 years with spotless feedbacks. 2 years ago I sold an item and was frauded by a new eBay user. Ebay sided with the 3 feedback user and tried to steal my money back. Fortunately I smelled the air and cancelled my credit card just before. Anyway I was glad it happen as selling on Ebay was way to expensive and that forced me to find alternative channels, which I did.

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  46. Yes you are all correct. Ebay does not help the sellers. FEES ARE EXHORIBANT. 10% for selling, even a small value item; are you kidding? With postal costs so high nowadays one cannot even break even. So sad this has happened. I say BOYCOTT Ebay and don’t sell or buy anything.

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    • And what about final value fees on shipping costs ? That should be illegal. The heavier and larger the parcel the more money they make off of you. I still have a hard time believing that they get away with that nonsense.

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  47. I have been an Ebay member since 1998 and have 5 accounts. Recently I closed my premium store and decided to purchase 1000 upc bar codes to transfer my Ebay items over to Amazon. This week made 4 Amazon sales to 1 Ebay sale with just 1/3 the items listed so far on Amazon. Also joined several Facebook pages including a local yard sale page with 40,000 members already,made about 6 sales so far with many other inquires!

    Ebay throttling is a big problem as well since 2013 split with paypal ,Ebay is limiting monthly sales and their Cassini search engines are killing our searches as well. Perhaps an effort to get back at Paypal by limiting commission fee’s ,Ebay has since added fee’s to everything from bulk category fee’s for basic/premium store owners netting them far more profits from relisting in bulk (example -records/cd’s music category 15 cent a listing if you have basic/premium store plus 5 cent buy it now fee, now times that by hundreds or thousands of relists per month over several months,compared to a few sales commission fee’s) Not to mention 1& 3 day auctions now a buck fee killing more frequent sales with quicker auction times.

    Back to flea markets,antique malls and collector shows and I will use Amazon as my main listing format and facebook!

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  48. I use eBay as a LAST resort. They treat sellers like garbage, the other sites don’t do this. There are so many options now.

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  49. Unfortunately nothing seems to be getting any better. The poor representatives who have to take our call and feebly attempt to answer our most basic questions to no avial have pushed me away.

    I no longer have any love for eBay and cannot wait to complete our exit.

    I called the other day and spoke to a representative about Promotions Manager and asked him at the onset “are you familiar enough with this feature to answer my questions” and he said yes. Then I said I picture you wearing a bicycle helmet and shoulder pads to protect you from all the sellers who are calling angry to which he replied “you have no idea”

    Even the employees have had enough and I’d love to see what eBay’s attrition rate is because it seems I often get someone who has literally NO CLUE what they are talking about.

    I told the gentleman I had 35 sales that just expired and with the old Markdown Manager I could simply edit the start and end dates and re-launch the sale but I cannot seem to find anything that simple with the new Promotions Manager and he told me that I wouldn’t. He said that isn’t a feature which I already knew. He said he was going to forward the “suggestion” from me with hopes they include that feature with future revisions.

    I have already said this easily 100 times (seriously I have spoken to 100 eBay representatives over the last 90-120 days) but I couldn’t help but utter “why didn’t someone at eBay make sure that these features functioned to support the sellers before launching and not fixing and editing on the fly over a 6-12 month period of time?

    I was told the only way is for me to “copy” the ended listings and then to go through the process to re-list it. I said “if I do that then the “ended” listing remains on my main page along with the new “active” listing and I don’t want all that clutter of junk. He said you can delete it and I said I know but that’s yet ANOTHER step I have to take and additional work that I am being tasked with by eBay who’s suppose to be making my job easier not more complicated.

    It’s beyond bizarre and I have had eBay and ex-eBay employees both tell me that they were involved in a lot of these development meetings and that eBay blew off their suggestions/complaints that things were dysfunctional because come hell or high water eBay was launching this new platform to appease investors and more for aesthetics over functionality and that eBay was more concerned about its stock increasing in value then pleasing sellers because the stock increase would yield far more revenues then 10% of our sales.

    Of course I nor anyone else for that matter has a way to verify that but when I am thinking that eBay is set on a course of self destruction and nothing makes sense then I hear that and it’s the only logical explanation.

    When a company treats a customer that way it’s time for that customer to move on. I (my company) provide the best possible customer service to a customer then 99% of the sellers on here. We will drive 30 minutes one way to the office on a day that we are closed so a buyer can come by and pick-up a $25.00 item that they desperately need. 99% of the sellers on here don’t even answer a message on weekends or in the evenings we’ll answer them from 6 a.m. to midnight and sometimes beyond that 7 days a week 365 days a year.

    We don’t do it because we need that $25.00 we do it because that is the way that we do business and how we treat our customers. We treat them like they are the most important because they are.

    So when eBay (the vendor) treats us (the customer) with such disregard and disrespect, well it’s time to move on.

    I have NO idea what the mindset of eBay and its officers and directors is but it’s very short sighted almost like they are getting ready to sell it off or something? Maybe they have been infiltrated by Amazon operatives who are dead set in destroying it all together?

    There is no defense for the treatment of my company over the last six months.

    They give us ultimatums all the time not suggestions. Those ultimatums cause us an enormous work load and to keep stride with the rate we are creating new listings at 25-40 per day with only one person doing the listings we are having to work 25-30% harder, that translates to man hours and we are exhausted trying to keep us and every time we do get caught up we are BLINDSIDED by yet another eBay policy or feature change that we must now conform too.

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    • You are 100% correct. I have been selling on EBay since 2003. I am now forced to leave because sales are non-existent. Cassini cut my sales in half. Since then I have declined 90%. I pay more in fees now than I make every month. Ebay is full of Chinese garbage. I have purchased 3 items from China. All three were fake. The worst part is that China subsidizes shipping cost so we cannot compete with their phony items. When you complain to Ebay, they tell you it’s your fault!!!!! Go ahead, keep China and keep Cassini, I am taking my business to Amazon.

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    • The new 2018 summer updates are yet another example of eBay clinging to its “Punitive Management 101” theory.

      EBay has recently admitted that if you have too many items, vs your “peers”, returned for “not as described” they will punish you by limiting your search results. Before I knew this I recently accepted 2 returns for brand new items N.A.D. (Not As Described) simply because I didn’t want to create bad feelings with buyers by opening a case and challenging them and the price to ship the items back was cheap, and I knew eBay wasn’t going to penalize me for the returns. But now oh yes they are going to penalize me, because their new policy is RETROACTIVE.

      And who are my “peers”? I sell mainly clothes and mainly used and vintage items. Are my “peers” Chinese sellers who sell cheap new dresses for $6 and free shipping? People aren’t even going to bother returning something like that. I am a top rated seller so I offer returns and always try my best to make the customer happy. So now I feel like I have to challenge every return for N.A.D. if I know I am right. Quintessential punitive management.

      At one of the last updates they cut the top rated seller discount from 20% to 10% of final value fees. Attacking their top rated sellers.

      Now to be a top rated seller you have to offer free returns- just as Amazon blocks buyers who are abusing their liberal returns policy. EBay does not have the clout to block buyers so sellers on eBay will be left to deal with them if they want to be “top rated” – I no longer will be. Quintessential punitive management.

      Now they have come up with this policy of an item has to be listed for 14 days before it can be marked down. I have been listing items for 7 days and relisting them as “similar items” every 7 days – because I had read that listing them as similar items, instead of just relisting gets better results in search. So if I relist as similar item I will never have an item I can mark down because it will receive a new item number and I will have nothing that has been “listed” for over 14 days. So where I have been typically running a sale on some items starting a day before the listing expires I will no longer be able to do that – and it has generated most of my income lately.

      So bottom line is it will hurt my sales and it will cost eBay the lost final value fees on sales I lose and the money I spent on relisting fees (I have a store but always ran out of free listings by doing this) and the buyers won’t have as many discounts from me. So eBay has created a lose lose lose situation. I am sure I am not the only seller who does this. I think the logic for this wonderful policy was they don’t believe the buyers are smart enough to know how to spend their own money or how much to pay for something and don’t want them to feel the price was jacked up just to mark down – or something equally dumb.

      I am not a regular eBay basher but good grief.

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  50. The Paypal 6 month return window has upped the scam levels. You will know you have a scammer because their name will be a little different on Ebay and Paypal. This is because they’ve burned thru accounts before. For example a well known scammer of vintage guitars names Elai Yekeshel has Elai Skel as his Paypal name. Also known as Elai Jacobs. Because he’s burned thru accounts with return fraud. But thats not all. He continues to do this changing his name a little and using addresses all over the US and Canada. How does a guy have one account in Nashville, another in California and another in Vancouver, BC all using PO boxes yet “confirmed” with paypal? He waits 5.5 months then returns. But theres more – he will send the empty box return COD. Knowing the seller is unlikely to actually pay COD charges for a return Paypal already held the money for guess what happens next? Thats right Paypal refunds him. Even though the return has not actually been made there is a tracking number so Paypal just sides with Mr PO Box that uses abbreviated version of his actual name. He does this for a living. Thats what is left on Ebay. No real people use it anymore. Clear out your Paypal and stop using Ebay. Credit cards are financial institutions and governed. Paypal is neither. Guys like Elai Yekelshel/Skel/Jacobs are Paypals user base. Scammers stealing for a living out of a van down by the river.

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  51. I use to be a power seller on ebay quite a few years ago. I did so well, I was making more than my husband salary net. Then the fees started climbing, and I moved over to a website, and did even better.

    I keep wondering why someone doesn’t put up a competing auction website. If I had the resources I would do it myself – I’m not greedy – I’d do it for a $500k salary a year – heck even $250k, and let the sellers reap the full benefits of their sales!! All it will take is someone who’s not looking to pillage profits. So it sounds easy, but what exactly is stopping someone? There was once a group who announced a competing website, and put it up, but a few months later slinked into the darkness! Lootslinger or something like that.

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    • They tried but did a bad job. Look at ebid, perfect domain name, failed at execution. Who uses ebid? No one I know. Case in point. Others also tried but did not do a good job. Only reason anyone still uses ebay is because they know the name because of millions of dollars in advertising and an established brand name. Ebid and competitors do not have that, and also ebid is not nearly as good a site as the original ebay (the new ebay sucks despite being an updated design, the old ebay was best).

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        • Mark,

          Take a look at a new powerhouse, called CYCLE DOPE. I sell motorcycle seats. since jan 1st 2019, EBAY=1 and CYCLE DOPE=8, ebay is that DEAD!!! The liberals at FACEBOOK, might have a chance at sales, been getting hits on facebook marketplace. ebay and craigslist are the same, run by same idiots. i use EBAYS FREE listing just to get FREE EXPOSURE, i then direct my customers where my product is, much cheaper than ebay, NO FEES,,,,CYCLE DOPE!!! WORKS EVERY TIME.

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  52. Superb article i reshared it to my communitys , you point about hourly pay is a vey valid one, i went from earning £6.000 a week in the 2000’s then in december of 2016 being totally drained working over 12 hrs a day on ebay just to live i decided to work out my hourly pay and it came to £1.67 about $2.20 that was the day i thought no more,

    i was good at ebay but from easily no stress earning 6k a week to 10y-15 years later earning 600-800 a month working all hours god gives, there is a seriously bad pattern
    1) the fee’s and people knowing how to scam ebay wet up so less profit
    2) to many competitors at auction houses and car boots everyone got the ebay bug and it pushed stock costs up, people at flea markets could research how much there stuff was worth that was a big killer

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  53. 1.Sadly, ebay has been taken over softly by Chinese exporters selling items for $10 or less (plus free EMS shipping); perhaps it is about time that JD or Alibaba purchase the dying ebay & resurrect it.
    2.JD, the ex-CEO, has invented all the BS…suspension,limitation,fee increase,5 star feedback,one way feedback,, etc to kill the sellers (he simply hates these crooks for making money off the innocent buyers)
    3. 90% of the Power Sellers in my areas have gone fishing in amazon lakes
    4. 1500 employees laid off last year, paypal now separated from ebay (left to rot)…no morale,no vision,no customer support,no restructuring (except to increase fees year after year like terrorists)
    5. To avoid being scammed by “knowlegeable” buyers; avoid selling anything expensive & pray regularly;do not contact seller support; as U are guaranteed to be pissed off by its attitude
    6. Buy from ebay, get your products + refunds & sell items at craigslist to make real money…reverse the credit card charge & burn paypal at your command!
    7. Short the stock price of ebay, it will crash very very soon.
    8. Form a seller club & sue ebay for millions in Class action.

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  54. Here’s my Facebook post when sharing this article that is SO timely….

    OMG…. I am also done with selling on eBay. A member since like 1999. This article nails it. For me, my problem is buyers who don’t receive their item immediately, file a claim and eBay closes it and refunds their money in 24 HOURS !!!! Both times, I had already shipped the item. I don’t log on to ebay every friggin’ day. Along with the requirement of having a Paypal account, a business that they bought and take a big cut. Also the fact that eBay now takes a percentage of the shipping costs , I am done…… They make the money ..not me. Plus virtually NO customer support available. There are disruptive alternatives out there….

    THANK YOU for this article.

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  55. I agree with you kinda, ebay is more and more difficult to sell, sales are way way down, their fees are way too much.. I need to pay no more then 20% on the dollar to make money. I have sold industrial equipment on ebay full time since 2000. From 2005 to 2016 my yearly gross sales exceeded $600K, This year I expect a 40% reduction ins gross sales. I agree the economy sucks, and ebay is no longer the household name it used to be. There is reasons for this, like the Chinese now being allowed to sell on ebay.com instead of ebay.china and the big box sellers getting preferred treatment. There is also many free apps to sell on like facebook and craigslist that are 100% free that is stealing buyers or at least diverting potential buyers away. BUT have you tried those sites? 80% flakes, 10% wannabes, and maybe a few sales of you want to sell for half price.

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