Friday, December 04, 2009

eBay Blues

If you had told me several years ago that I would today be thinking seriously of quitting eBay, I would have laughed. I would have thought you had a screw loose. But today I am thinking seriously of totally quitting eBay.


When I first started on eBay about ten years ago, it was an amazing place. Back then, I could put a wind chime on auction for 99 cents, and I would typically get more than I thought I would, and often a lot more.


Not so long ago, an auction would attract somewhere between 250 to 500 views. Often within the first couple of hours of listing, there would be a bid, or multiple bids, and perhaps nearly a hundred visits.


Welcome to the new eBay. Here is an example of what a dismal place it now is. I listed three auctions at around 5:00 PM yesterday. This is still during prime Christmas shopping days. This morning, two of them have had one (one!) visits, and the third has had two visits. Unbelievable! Back in the good lo' days, I expect those same auctions at this same time of year would have each have had over a hundred visits, not to mention multiple bids. What in the world has eBay done? Whatever it is, it is wrong, wrong, wrong.


In a nutshell, eBay now stinks.


Thank goodness I listened to a friend who saw this coming, and I set up a good website (Coast Chimes), and I also researched many other sites out there, and finally determined that one stood out (Etsy). I now get most of my sales through these two venues.


Yes, I would have laughed two years ago at the idea of closing down my eBay store and auctions. But sadly this is now what I will be doing. Because eBay no longer works for me.

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