One of eBay's key problems is that it has to change its reputation. I work for a very small company (about 12 employees), with a third of them being in their 20s (I'm in my early 60s). I recently had to order something at work that we could not get from our regular supplier because it was on back order, so I checked eBay. A brand new one was available on eBay, so I bought it. When it arrived at work a few days later, the workers in their 20s asked me where I found it. When I told them I bought it on eBay, the four technicians in their 20s said we can't use stuff from eBay because it's used. When I told them it was brand new/unused, they said they thought everything on eBay was used, not brand new. None of the four technicians have ever bought anything on eBay, but all of them have Amazon accounts. Somehow, eBay has to reach out to the younger generations because many of them are under the impression that eBay is just an online garage sale.
eBay is destroying itself. They now have a menu of different promoted listing options. They're trying to squeeze every dime they can out of sellers while they are still around.
I searched on eBay for a black Ralph Lauren polo shirt size XL. A number shirts come up a few Ralph Lawrence, a few Adidas and other brands. The search is not the same as it used to be.
It'was bad for me also on Ebay this week. That's why I undestand your frustration. But keep going, that's Business. It will return again as good as before. Thanks.
Same issue with me Josh...a big slowdown. Not normal. Its so discouraging. They're messing with something. Worst part is as you say....we think we've done something wrong. If they would just tell us whats happening....
Hi, Gents. Another spirited conversation, (not as heated as I thought it would be based on your comments on your individual channels). I could see that Josh was a bit frustrated, understandably so, based on current sales history coupled with the April debacle. I reported last night on Jon's live that my recent sales were similar to what you both have been experiencing lately, but I am happy to report that the switch was turned on today, with 8 sales up to now. I wish the same for you both as well. One thing that I learned from you is to accept the erratic nature of eBay, stop the complaining. And to simply move on and do whatever in my control to improve my store. I thank you both for that. And I am looking forward to TWO livestreams on Monday, not just one. Life is good once again. lol Mike ftom NY
Perhaps something to consider: When you take your days away to go walk out in nature,spend time with your kids, you are investing in THEIR memory bank…..so for those days away have drafts up in Ebay that can be automatically scheduled to go live while you are away.They have that feature now for no cost. Then you are not punished for some days away.
That is exactly why I chose to work for myself and become a reseller. Family time is everything and time to yourself in nature is a GREAT remedy for all that ails us. Thank you for the reminder.
No way is that the items, they're turning stores on and off, we have five to ten thousand items there's no way the swings are that extreme organically, I get the recession, eBay losing buyers, plus inflation, but it's to extreme Josh your correct
If this is what both of you described as a “heated debate” in yesterday’s videos.. Then you two are the nicest people I’ve ever seen. Not saying that’s bad, just didn’t see any heat.
Maybe doing to many end/sell similar postings? I had a spell where i would just do sell similar on all ending today items... sales tanked. My theory is that the algorithm looks at ended items as sales and if you are not posting as many new items as you take down you take a hit. Conclusion .. try not to do more "sell similars" a day than you do sales. I don't think sell similar is weighted the same as new postings. Just a thought. Like everyone else, I have no real idea how it works. Just speaking from my personal experience.
Eric, I agree with you that this is a huge part of the problem. I think this is a really good point. I have to power through about 500 more end-and-sell-similars and then I can get back on track with listing.
Consistency is valued on eBay I believe. From stories I hear for those who do it vs those who don't, eBay wants daily activity. I have found buying large amounts of inventory, posting 5+ daily everyday of the year (I use scheduled listings) shows you are active regardless if you decide to take time away. The items you sell is always a factor, price of item, seller rating, etc. all help but daily activity is key to steady success in my opinion. I have 200+ items ready to go whenever needed and I restock every 3 months so I always have something new. End/Sell Similar also gives attention to the account. My sales are always consistent (knock on wood) no matter what I do. I too may have 2-3 days of 0 sales in the entire year but usually no more than that. Hope things turn around for you Josh and everyone else who are having slow or no sales so far this year.
Not long ago I had to speak to an Ebay rep for an issue That I dont remember now. But during my talk with the rep she told me that she was going to request a boost to my listings. She said they reserved this function for a few sellers at a time. Well guess what? After a few days my sales came back and continued. This makes it very obvious that Ebay DOES have some control over our sales or at the very least if and when our items are shown.I do not think that Joshs drop in sales has anything at all to do with what he is selling, that makes zero sense at all. How can it be very popular and no longer popular in one day, not possible. Jon you always tell people to change what they are selling, but if every seller changes to those items then those things will stop selling due to oversaturation. And what if the seller has thousands invested in what he is selling, is he supposed to eat his investment? Josh I had a few good sales around the first but then the last few days zero sales. However I have not listed anything new in the past week so that could have contributed to the zero sales. Hope our sales improve soon.
I've got an episode idea for you guys. The dynamic has been there for awhile with Jon pressing Josh, but maybe if you argue this issue head-on and assign sides you can both debate it explicitly: "If you're re-selling for a living on eBay, are you actually confident in the future of eBay/your business? Or are you being positive for the sake of being positive." List the reasons why for either side. I get why you'd want to be positive about the future and talk about consistency and doing what you can to put yourself in a position to succeed. I completely get that, and that's what people should be doing. That's something you can control. But my sales are also $0 since January 1st. There's overwhelming evidence that eBay is working against sellers. Testing out what Jon's said, I searched Google for a vintage concert shirt I've wanted for ages, and every single sponsored listing was a non-eBay site. Every single one. None of this stuff is positive. A debate would be interesting.
I’ve made the change from consumables to antiques and ephemera and it’s been awesome. My sales were crazy (in contrast to normal sales volume) after the Christmas cutoff for shipping and since Christmas it’s just increasing with number of items sold. So I have no clue what’s going on. I work outside the home part time so I have a 2 to 3 day handling time. It doesn’t seem to affect things. One thing I will NEVER do again is put my store in “vacation mode”. Every time I’ve done it my sales have tanked and it’s taken weeks and weeks to get back to normal. The first time coincidence but after more than 3 times that’s called a pattern. Also there were issues with their global shipping program that affected my sales but that’s a long story. But I found the issue and it dealt with Russian Federation and China. And things being changed in my listings regarding who I ship to internationally without my knowledge.
I’m low level seller. Sales are fantastic considering it’s heading to 2nd week of January. Over the years the major complaint of sellers: Updating during 4th Quarter. I wonder how eBay IT updates stores & other features.
OK- I am trying to imagine why this is happening again to Josh. It's hard to figure with his store so much larger than mine. My sales for the 5 1/2 days so far in 2024 are 86.5% better than the same time in 2022. Granted I have a little 1400 item store as an everything seller and I could have gotten sales just because I had stuff people wanted at the time. Jon - Also hard to believe that the reason ebay does not advertise more is because they are trying to drive out bad sellers. It is true that we do not want new buyers to be burned by bad sellers, but how does not advertising help to get rid of them? Anyway, good discussion!
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
So as you say eBay openly admits they Shadow ban sellers they deem unworthy? How do they make that decision? What right do they have to pick and choose who wins and loses...
Josh don't feel so depressed with slow sales its an average of what you turn over for the year. One part of sales slump is consistency did you put your shop in TIME AWAY for several days without finishing off some drafts daily? This can be another part you ended all your promoted campaigns and restarted them. A new campaign can take seven days to kick in according to ebay. Ties in with did you kill off all your items being watched when you ended and sell similar? How did you suddenly list 1000 in one day did you visually check these listings for item specs good key words any listing errors etc? Check your business policies something may have changed or a setting is off. Check what countries are blocked I once found ebay had blocked US altogether in my policy. Drastically changing your store in a short period with a combination of some of the above mentioned must be the cause of your slump. Did you suddenly end off site ads to? In your shoes I would check business policies countries excluded, promoted campaigns etc titles, images keywords on the new 1000 listings. I realize it may take time but there is something missing or incorrect which needs to be corrected.
I had a drop off on Jan 1st, was a little nervous but it appears to be trending up again. For the years I have been selling online I can say the site has had its issues from time to time. They will never tell us what happened. I wonder if they made some sort of change on the backend that only affected certain categories. I will say that I don't live in a major city so I don't have the ability to source nicer items so switching to a different niche is not as simple as it might seem. I would recommend that if you get in one of these weird lulls, to not panic too much and give it a couple days. It usually works itself out.
Question: when you mention your daily sales. Are you referencing the number eBay gives, which includes shipping and sales tax? Or are you referencing the actual selling price of goods sold?
I do feel my sales on eBay haved been wonky this year.I really like Josh and Jon points of view every reseller will have different opinions and thats who we learn🙂
If Ebay is saying they want to crack down on bad sellers, they can look at outrageous shipping charges by some. This is a bigger problem than unprofessional looking packaging (that only happens occasionally). People are not even going to buy and be turned off by shopping on Ebay when they see bogus fees like that. My friends who shop too rarely go to Ebay anymore. This is a factor for them taking their business elsewhere. I haven't seen TH-camr's bring this up. It's become rampant on the site. I am not talking about padding the shipping a bit to cover expenses, I am seeing items weighing less than 2 lbs. with $35-$50 shipping charges! To my knowledge no other site allows this.
Normal ups and downs of eBay... Get used to "move quick and break things" it's the new normal. Beef up other planforms. I'd suggest getting a Amazon footprint build up for the "new" eBay.
I guess you could answer the opinion "it's what you are selling", if you listed some brand new iPhones for half the price in your store. Kidding... Would be an interesting experiment.
I feel for you but, my sales are always consistent when I am consistent. They’re actually growing right now. I never have zero days, or low drop days. It’s consistent. List daily and list highly desirable items with high sell through. It’s that simple.
My items are better than ever. I have a few pairs of nearly new Hokas listed and I have no views. Those usually sell within a day or 2. I’m listing regularly. Got to be EBay!
GET OUT OF EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING!! lol why do I have to keep telling Josh this. Remember April first time I came in your live..I said GET OUT OF INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING! Why you would ever join back boggles my mind. The less components of eBay you are in the less they can mess up!
Josh, just going out on a limb here. I know ebay said they were going to change some things to fix the search issues. Is it possible they rolled back the algorithm to what it was around april? Hope things get better man, if anyones store should be successful it should be yours and Jons
I don't know if there are any changes Josh has made or can make that made this happen or that will change it. As Josh kept trying to point out, it was sudden and completely out of character from his normal. It's not his items, and little tweaks here and there are certainly NOT going to change it. This is eBay, it happens, and it's usually because eBay is doing something in the background. IT SUCKS, especially because we don't know what's happening and eBay will tell us everything is fine. Even more frustrating is that it rotates through the sellers so we're left even more confused because others are doing well. I think all you can do, Josh, is continue as you've been doing and wait it out. Again, it sucks because everyone has bills to pay. Here's hoping things turn around for you this weekend!!
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
@@TheJoshGalt So glad to hear it! Well, not eBay in the background, but another company in the background. So frustrating, but at least it has been solved. Thanks for sharing, and I hope sales catch up this week!
I had consistent sales for a few years then April 1st came and my sales crashed, never did recoop. But Jan 1st sales started to come and getting many watchers 🤔
Would it be better to 300 good items in one store or two stores with 150 good items. If Ebay is throttling, us it would be better two stores. What do you think?
As an observer , these chats are coming across as Jon's views 70% and Josh's 30%. Think it needs to be more balanced. Each have their own you tube so this should be a blend of thoughts and ideas, hard i know!
To keep things flowing, we fill in for each other. Jon knew I hadn't slept the night before and drove 5 hours that day to make it to the pod in time, so he carried it. It was a super nice thing for him to do. Also, he does all the editing, stream hosting, etc. Moving forward though, we have a few guests lined up and I think you will like some of the podcasts we have planned.
Google needs to acquire eBay then it is free google ads then gobble up competition like Etsy to consolidate the market share to compete with Amazon. How can we petition for this to happen?
I think a lot of the times some of us have no sales/ drop and some do not is some kind of server issue, so if you are on the crap server that they are working on it doesn't matter what you are selling there is an issue.
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
@@TheJoshGalt Oh wow. That is serious. I use a 3 party software, but only to cross list directly From Ebay into the others. I do not use any other features, and i do not have it set up to remove if it is sold I manually do it. Have have no trust in automatic features lol.
@@bennystratton7734 I am curious where is everyone located that has the issues all the time . When I was in NJ I never had issues as much as I do now in Texas.
It's one day! You stated yourself that you made some drastic changes to your store. Give it a chance to bounce back. There is so much that is being thrown against the wall to see what sticks. The fact is, there has been a slow decrease in buyers for certain categories. Mainly collectibles due to economy. People are buying more items of necessity rather than luxury. Thats why "quality" clothing is a constant seller, cookware, shoes, etc.
Ebay health $1200 back because of a dispute. Not to go into a deal but the buyer won the dispute and I lost $1200. It's been a month ago now Ebay has $1200 hold again on the same dispute he will not release the money, no fun selling on eBay anymore. I will never sell expensive items on eBay again learned my lesson.
It’s stupid that you can’t just list an item and people see it and buy it. But nope gotta have that algorithm. So what if your habits change so what if you do something different we shouldn’t have to worry about some stupid algorithm. It’s going to kill eBay
Do you think there are any issues with servers or locations? It's strange that John visits my area and his sales drop off. Sorry, John... it's the Calfironia curse! haha! Josh, have you ever been a Beta Tester with eBay? If so, they mess in there and it may account for broken links with updates. It happens to me.
With all due respect, if your sales are that bad, and you are spending this much time on youtube talking about your problems instead of fixing them, you are creating your own obstacles. You could be using all of this time to find more quality items to list that will sell. Imagine what you could accomplish with all of those hours back. The public sees how many hours you are on youtube. But I think I would be safe to assume there is at least that much more time behind the scenes shooting the breeze back and forth just like this video. Its fine when your sales are fine. But its so counterproductive to complain about bad sales while making these videos. Additionally, you have to mentally be able to handle bad days in this business. It happens, even to the best of stores. Bottom line is, it doesn't sound like you can continue to survive if sales do not pick up after a couple of weeks. Your 2023 was not a success if you are that far leveraged. I hope your luck improves. It saddens me to watch people who want to do this for a living not put in the work, but spend every waking day talking about it. Stop talking the talk, and start walking the walk. Press pause on youtube and fast forward on your ebay store.
Not a rant my friend. Trying to help. I understand the frustration and short reply. What I said was truth, even if you don't like hearing it. You are fully capable of turning things around. Don't be stubborn when you see a solution and sink your own ship. @@TheJoshGalt
@@premiumbaseballcards2384 The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
I dont think it was ever clarified... are you down month over month or year over year? Comparing Jan to Dec sales is apples and oranges due to holiday spending. Also, you guys are selling one off items, you can't baseline in that scenario. In Josh's case he's just relistibg items that have already been proven to be poor sellers. Why would you think that they would magically be in demand now? Yes, you may run into a sale here and there, but I would consider this the exception rather than the norm. You've already sold those higher demand items and havent replaced them. I would bet a full month of revenue that if you were focusing on high sell through items you would not have any problem moving inventory. IMO it always boils down to WHAT you are selling. All the hand wringing and finger pointing in the world won't change that. Folks need to be honest with themselves about this.
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
No way is that the items, they're turning stores on and off, we have five to ten thousand items there's no way the swings are that extreme organically, I get the recession, eBay losing buyers, plus inflation, but it's to extreme Josh your correct
One of eBay's key problems is that it has to change its reputation. I work for a very small company (about 12 employees), with a third of them being in their 20s (I'm in my early 60s). I recently had to order something at work that we could not get from our regular supplier because it was on back order, so I checked eBay. A brand new one was available on eBay, so I bought it. When it arrived at work a few days later, the workers in their 20s asked me where I found it. When I told them I bought it on eBay, the four technicians in their 20s said we can't use stuff from eBay because it's used. When I told them it was brand new/unused, they said they thought everything on eBay was used, not brand new. None of the four technicians have ever bought anything on eBay, but all of them have Amazon accounts.
Somehow, eBay has to reach out to the younger generations because many of them are under the impression that eBay is just an online garage sale.
I agree !!
eBay is destroying itself. They now have a menu of different promoted listing options. They're trying to squeeze every dime they can out of sellers while they are still around.
I searched on eBay for a black Ralph Lauren polo shirt size XL. A number shirts come up a few Ralph Lawrence, a few Adidas and other brands. The search is not the same as it used to be.
It'was bad for me also on Ebay this week. That's why I undestand your frustration. But keep going, that's Business. It will return again as good as before. Thanks.
Same issue with me Josh...a big slowdown. Not normal. Its so discouraging. They're messing with something. Worst part is as you say....we think we've done something wrong. If they would just tell us whats happening....
Hi, Gents.
Another spirited conversation, (not as heated as I thought it would be based on your comments on your individual channels). I could see that Josh was a bit frustrated, understandably so, based on current sales history coupled with the April debacle.
I reported last night on Jon's live that my recent sales were similar to what you both have been experiencing lately, but I am happy to report that the switch was turned on today, with 8 sales up to now. I wish the same for you both as well.
One thing that I learned from you is to accept the erratic nature of eBay, stop the complaining. And to simply move on and do whatever in my control to improve my store. I thank you both for that.
And I am looking forward to TWO livestreams on Monday, not just one. Life is good once again. lol
Mike ftom NY
Perhaps something to consider: When you take your days away to go walk out in nature,spend time with your kids, you are investing in THEIR memory bank…..so for those days away have drafts up in Ebay that can be automatically scheduled to go live while you are away.They have that feature now for no cost. Then you are not punished for some days away.
That is exactly why I chose to work for myself and become a reseller. Family time is everything and time to yourself in nature is a GREAT remedy for all that ails us. Thank you for the reminder.
I actually Agree with Josh. It is not the items he is posting on Ebay.
Things used to be easier Ebay. Selling and sourcing are getting harder. I'm revamping my store to see if that helps.
No way is that the items, they're turning stores on and off, we have five to ten thousand items there's no way the swings are that extreme organically, I get the recession, eBay losing buyers, plus inflation, but it's to extreme Josh your correct
If this is what both of you described as a “heated debate” in yesterday’s videos.. Then you two are the nicest people I’ve ever seen. Not saying that’s bad, just didn’t see any heat.
One’s Canadian so
I watched a video by Logically Answered - title is What Happened To EBay - interesting and logical explanation of what is going on
Maybe doing to many end/sell similar postings? I had a spell where i would just do sell similar on all ending today items... sales tanked. My theory is that the algorithm looks at ended items as sales and if you are not posting as many new items as you take down you take a hit. Conclusion .. try not to do more "sell similars" a day than you do sales. I don't think sell similar is weighted the same as new postings. Just a thought. Like everyone else, I have no real idea how it works. Just speaking from my personal experience.
Eric, I agree with you that this is a huge part of the problem. I think this is a really good point. I have to power through about 500 more end-and-sell-similars and then I can get back on track with listing.
This is also my year of health. keep me updated on your progress and changes John
Will do!
Consistency is valued on eBay I believe. From stories I hear for those who do it vs those who don't, eBay wants daily activity. I have found buying large amounts of inventory, posting 5+ daily everyday of the year (I use scheduled listings) shows you are active regardless if you decide to take time away. The items you sell is always a factor, price of item, seller rating, etc. all help but daily activity is key to steady success in my opinion. I have 200+ items ready to go whenever needed and I restock every 3 months so I always have something new. End/Sell Similar also gives attention to the account. My sales are always consistent (knock on wood) no matter what I do. I too may have 2-3 days of 0 sales in the entire year but usually no more than that. Hope things turn around for you Josh and everyone else who are having slow or no sales so far this year.
Not long ago I had to speak to an Ebay rep for an issue That I dont remember now. But during my talk with the rep she told me that she was going to request a boost to my listings. She said they reserved this function for a few sellers at a time. Well guess what? After a few days my sales came back and continued. This makes it very obvious that Ebay DOES have some control over our sales or at the very least if and when our items are shown.I do not think that Joshs drop in sales has anything at all to do with what he is selling, that makes zero sense at all. How can it be very popular and no longer popular in one day, not possible. Jon you always tell people to change what they are selling, but if every seller changes to those items then those things will stop selling due to oversaturation. And what if the seller has thousands invested in what he is selling, is he supposed to eat his investment? Josh I had a few good sales around the first but then the last few days zero sales. However I have not listed anything new in the past week so that could have contributed to the zero sales. Hope our sales improve soon.
I've got an episode idea for you guys. The dynamic has been there for awhile with Jon pressing Josh, but maybe if you argue this issue head-on and assign sides you can both debate it explicitly: "If you're re-selling for a living on eBay, are you actually confident in the future of eBay/your business? Or are you being positive for the sake of being positive." List the reasons why for either side. I get why you'd want to be positive about the future and talk about consistency and doing what you can to put yourself in a position to succeed. I completely get that, and that's what people should be doing. That's something you can control. But my sales are also $0 since January 1st. There's overwhelming evidence that eBay is working against sellers. Testing out what Jon's said, I searched Google for a vintage concert shirt I've wanted for ages, and every single sponsored listing was a non-eBay site. Every single one. None of this stuff is positive. A debate would be interesting.
Him and I might end up agreeing. I am positive and so is Jon, but I think we are both always looking to diversify from the platform.
I’ve made the change from consumables to antiques and ephemera and it’s been awesome. My sales were crazy (in contrast to normal sales volume) after the Christmas cutoff for shipping and since Christmas it’s just increasing with number of items sold. So I have no clue what’s going on. I work outside the home part time so I have a 2 to 3 day handling time. It doesn’t seem to affect things. One thing I will NEVER do again is put my store in “vacation mode”. Every time I’ve done it my sales have tanked and it’s taken weeks and weeks to get back to normal. The first time coincidence but after more than 3 times that’s called a pattern. Also there were issues with their global shipping program that affected my sales but that’s a long story. But I found the issue and it dealt with Russian Federation and China. And things being changed in my listings regarding who I ship to internationally without my knowledge.
I love the awkward silence start. LMAO! Wonderful episode guys, thank you!
This is the story of my life lol
That was my first though too @riannon13 🤣😂
I’m low level seller. Sales are fantastic considering it’s heading to 2nd week of January.
Over the years the major complaint of sellers: Updating during 4th Quarter. I wonder how eBay IT updates stores & other features.
We've had a great week so far, but today nada!....You just never know!
OK- I am trying to imagine why this is happening again to Josh. It's hard to figure with his store so much larger than mine.
My sales for the 5 1/2 days so far in 2024 are 86.5% better than the same time in 2022. Granted I have a little 1400 item store as an everything seller and I could have gotten sales just because I had stuff people wanted at the time.
Jon - Also hard to believe that the reason ebay does not advertise more is because they are trying to drive out bad sellers. It is true that we do not want new buyers to be burned by bad sellers, but how does not advertising help to get rid of them?
Anyway, good discussion!
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
@@TheJoshGalt I hope Ebay does not have a seller penalty box for this kind of debacle!
So as you say eBay openly admits they Shadow ban sellers they deem unworthy? How do they make that decision? What right do they have to pick and choose who wins and loses...
They will point to their TOS
Josh don't feel so depressed with slow sales its an average of what you turn over for the year. One part of sales slump is consistency did you put your shop in TIME AWAY for several days without finishing off some drafts daily? This can be another part you ended all your promoted campaigns and restarted them. A new campaign can take seven days to kick in according to ebay. Ties in with did you kill off all your items being watched when you ended and sell similar? How did you suddenly list 1000 in one day did you visually check these listings for item specs good key words any listing errors etc? Check your business policies something may have changed or a setting is off. Check what countries are blocked I once found ebay had blocked US altogether in my policy. Drastically changing your store in a short period with a combination of some of the above mentioned must be the cause of your slump. Did you suddenly end off site ads to? In your shoes I would check business policies countries excluded, promoted campaigns etc titles, images keywords on the new 1000 listings. I realize it may take time but there is something missing or incorrect which needs to be corrected.
I had a drop off on Jan 1st, was a little nervous but it appears to be trending up again. For the years I have been selling online I can say the site has had its issues from time to time. They will never tell us what happened. I wonder if they made some sort of change on the backend that only affected certain categories. I will say that I don't live in a major city so I don't have the ability to source nicer items so switching to a different niche is not as simple as it might seem. I would recommend that if you get in one of these weird lulls, to not panic too much and give it a couple days. It usually works itself out.
Question: when you mention your daily sales. Are you referencing the number eBay gives, which includes shipping and sales tax? Or are you referencing the actual selling price of goods sold?
We are generally talking about gross sales aka the blue bar number eBay gives us in our Seller Overview.
I do feel my sales on eBay haved been wonky this year.I really like Josh and Jon points of view every reseller will have different opinions and thats who we learn🙂
If Ebay is saying they want to crack down on bad sellers, they can look at outrageous shipping charges by some. This is a bigger problem than unprofessional looking packaging (that only happens occasionally). People are not even going to buy and be turned off by shopping on Ebay when they see bogus fees like that. My friends who shop too rarely go to Ebay anymore. This is a factor for them taking their business elsewhere. I haven't seen TH-camr's bring this up. It's become rampant on the site. I am not talking about padding the shipping a bit to cover expenses, I am seeing items weighing less than 2 lbs. with $35-$50 shipping charges! To my knowledge no other site allows this.
Normal ups and downs of eBay... Get used to "move quick and break things" it's the new normal. Beef up other planforms. I'd suggest getting a Amazon footprint build up for the "new" eBay.
I guess you could answer the opinion "it's what you are selling", if you listed some brand new iPhones for half the price in your store. Kidding... Would be an interesting experiment.
I feel for you but, my sales are always consistent when I am consistent. They’re actually growing right now. I never have zero days, or low drop days. It’s consistent. List daily and list highly desirable items with high sell through. It’s that simple.
My items are better than ever. I have a few pairs of nearly new Hokas listed and I have no views. Those usually sell within a day or 2. I’m listing regularly. Got to be EBay!
GET OUT OF EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING!! lol why do I have to keep telling Josh this. Remember April first time I came in your live..I said GET OUT OF INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING! Why you would ever join back boggles my mind. The less components of eBay you are in the less they can mess up!
So true, I have a valuable textile still stuck in Korea. 😞
This is true.
Tommy, how do you really feel about eBay's International shipping? ha!
Strange, though, that I have International Shipping and my sales are good...... Hmmmmmm.....
Yeah I've seen enough complaints about veros and parallel import issues from other sellers who were opted in, I know I don't want to deal with that.
Josh, just going out on a limb here. I know ebay said they were going to change some things to fix the search issues. Is it possible they rolled back the algorithm to what it was around april? Hope things get better man, if anyones store should be successful it should be yours and Jons
I hope not. I think I have resolved the issue. It was a shipping problem relating to a data issue from my third party shipping software.
@TheJoshGalt awesome! Glad to hear!
I don't know if there are any changes Josh has made or can make that made this happen or that will change it. As Josh kept trying to point out, it was sudden and completely out of character from his normal. It's not his items, and little tweaks here and there are certainly NOT going to change it. This is eBay, it happens, and it's usually because eBay is doing something in the background. IT SUCKS, especially because we don't know what's happening and eBay will tell us everything is fine. Even more frustrating is that it rotates through the sellers so we're left even more confused because others are doing well. I think all you can do, Josh, is continue as you've been doing and wait it out. Again, it sucks because everyone has bills to pay. Here's hoping things turn around for you this weekend!!
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
@@TheJoshGalt So glad to hear it! Well, not eBay in the background, but another company in the background. So frustrating, but at least it has been solved. Thanks for sharing, and I hope sales catch up this week!
Lots of things in the media category have super slow sell thru. Are yall checking the sell thru of each item you purchase for listing?
I had consistent sales for a few years then April 1st came and my sales crashed, never did recoop. But Jan 1st sales started to come and getting many watchers 🤔
@@bennystratton7734 I always use promoted listings between 5&9%
Would it be better to 300 good items in one store or two stores with 150 good items. If Ebay is throttling, us it would be better two stores. What do you think?
As an observer , these chats are coming across as Jon's views 70% and Josh's 30%. Think it needs to be more balanced. Each have their own you tube so this should be a blend of thoughts and ideas, hard i know!
To keep things flowing, we fill in for each other. Jon knew I hadn't slept the night before and drove 5 hours that day to make it to the pod in time, so he carried it. It was a super nice thing for him to do. Also, he does all the editing, stream hosting, etc. Moving forward though, we have a few guests lined up and I think you will like some of the podcasts we have planned.
@@TheJoshGaltYou don't have to play second fiddle, let your light shine 😂
@@hazelcowie3368You called it. Jon actually spoke a little over 40 solid minutes of this one hour video.
Cover half your screen, you can watch a Josh only podcast narrated by Jon. Just joking bros lol
Josh … it might be a good idea to seek guidance from someone in the antique category such as Auction Professor about your store issues.
I'm good but thank you.
Imagine letting your business get so out of hand you can’t advertise it.
Please explain
I get it, thank you. This is a good point.
Google needs to acquire eBay then it is free google ads then gobble up competition like Etsy to consolidate the market share to compete with Amazon. How can we petition for this to happen?
I think a lot of the times some of us have no sales/ drop and some do not is some kind of server issue, so if you are on the crap server that they are working on it doesn't matter what you are selling there is an issue.
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
@@TheJoshGalt Oh wow. That is serious. I use a 3 party software, but only to cross list directly From Ebay into the others. I do not use any other features, and i do not have it set up to remove if it is sold I manually do it. Have have no trust in automatic features lol.
@@bennystratton7734 I am curious where is everyone located that has the issues all the time . When I was in NJ I never had issues as much as I do now in Texas.
It's one day! You stated yourself that you made some drastic changes to your store. Give it a chance to bounce back. There is so much that is being thrown against the wall to see what sticks. The fact is, there has been a slow decrease in buyers for certain categories. Mainly collectibles due to economy. People are buying more items of necessity rather than luxury. Thats why "quality" clothing is a constant seller, cookware, shoes, etc.
Ebay health $1200 back because of a dispute. Not to go into a deal but the buyer won the dispute and I lost $1200. It's been a month ago now Ebay has $1200 hold again on the same dispute he will not release the money, no fun selling on eBay anymore. I will never sell expensive items on eBay again learned my lesson.
The frustration with Ebay there's nowhere else to go.
It’s dead…. Period !
It’s stupid that you can’t just list an item and people see it and buy it. But nope gotta have that algorithm. So what if your habits change so what if you do something different we shouldn’t have to worry about some stupid algorithm. It’s going to kill eBay
Do you think there are any issues with servers or locations? It's strange that John visits my area and his sales drop off. Sorry, John... it's the Calfironia curse! haha! Josh, have you ever been a Beta Tester with eBay? If so, they mess in there and it may account for broken links with updates. It happens to me.
Yes, I beta tested PPC ads.
With all due respect, if your sales are that bad, and you are spending this much time on youtube talking about your problems instead of fixing them, you are creating your own obstacles. You could be using all of this time to find more quality items to list that will sell. Imagine what you could accomplish with all of those hours back. The public sees how many hours you are on youtube. But I think I would be safe to assume there is at least that much more time behind the scenes shooting the breeze back and forth just like this video. Its fine when your sales are fine. But its so counterproductive to complain about bad sales while making these videos. Additionally, you have to mentally be able to handle bad days in this business. It happens, even to the best of stores. Bottom line is, it doesn't sound like you can continue to survive if sales do not pick up after a couple of weeks. Your 2023 was not a success if you are that far leveraged. I hope your luck improves. It saddens me to watch people who want to do this for a living not put in the work, but spend every waking day talking about it. Stop talking the talk, and start walking the walk. Press pause on youtube and fast forward on your ebay store.
Good rant 👍
Not a rant my friend. Trying to help. I understand the frustration and short reply. What I said was truth, even if you don't like hearing it. You are fully capable of turning things around. Don't be stubborn when you see a solution and sink your own ship.
@@TheJoshGalt
@@premiumbaseballcards2384 The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
That’s great! So happy for you!
Here comes one of the eBay boomers. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤡
I dont think it was ever clarified... are you down month over month or year over year? Comparing Jan to Dec sales is apples and oranges due to holiday spending.
Also, you guys are selling one off items, you can't baseline in that scenario. In Josh's case he's just relistibg items that have already been proven to be poor sellers. Why would you think that they would magically be in demand now? Yes, you may run into a sale here and there, but I would consider this the exception rather than the norm. You've already sold those higher demand items and havent replaced them.
I would bet a full month of revenue that if you were focusing on high sell through items you would not have any problem moving inventory. IMO it always boils down to WHAT you are selling. All the hand wringing and finger pointing in the world won't change that. Folks need to be honest with themselves about this.
Sales are back today, but I appreciate the comment.
The mystery has been solved. On Jan 1st, the 3rd party shipping platform that I use updated their software. Their software is connected directly to my eBay store. The software update removed all the tracking from all my shipped items on eBay. Those items were all marked as shipped, but they were missing their tracking numbers. I have spoken with eBay and resolved the issue. Sales are up and running again.
😂
Josh, as for now are you doing international shipping ? 6 months for me with no international sales 🫤
I am still doing international shipping Julie, but I get very few international sales. Most international sales are to Canada.
@@bennystratton7734 I am opt in the new program since 6 months ….. zero sale !! Wondering if I should opt out I am discouraged 🫤
@@TheJoshGalt ok, using the program Josh ? Or you settled another international service ?
@@juliedubois5650I use eBay international shipping. Sometimes it asks me to ship to the hub and sometimes it asks me to ship internationally myself.
@@TheJoshGalt thank you
No way is that the items, they're turning stores on and off, we have five to ten thousand items there's no way the swings are that extreme organically, I get the recession, eBay losing buyers, plus inflation, but it's to extreme Josh your correct