Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 16923 Location: Texas

Within the next few weeks I’ll be shutting one of my eBay shops for good and withdrawing from the marketplace. It’s not because I haven’t made good profits, it’s because eBay has forced me out of the marketplace.

As many of you know I’ve traded in second user computer products for many years, but last year was tough economically. Due to the need to maintain my income I set up a totally separate eBay business with a new User ID and a new eBay shop selling 2nd hand clothing. For several months trading was brisk, supply was (and still is) practically unlimited, and I quickly gained PowerSeller status and when Top Rated Sellers were introduced both my eBay selling IDs qualified instantly.

Once eBay started measuring low DSRs it was a different story however. Whilst my computer ID has no low DSR scores, my clothing ID had a couple of low scores and quickly lost Top Seller status. These were low DSR scores from July 2009, well before eBay announced that they’d start measuring low DSR scores.

Now I’m faced with the predicament that as of April 1st, based on the DSRs from July 2009, the account will be below standard and be demoted in search, because of the DSRs received before eBay changed the rules.

There’s only really three options open to me:

more.. link to news article

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1146

or...Option #4 - Just keep doing what you are doing until you are either suspended from ebay or it is no longer profitable.

I spend a lot of time (probably way too much time) measuring my "best match" search standings, so when I lost BOTH my PS and TRS, I expected to see a huge drop in visibility. Guess what...no measurable difference at all.

My listings views and overall traffic are up, as are my sales.

The only thing that hurts is the loss of my 20% FVF discount

All I know is that I am 100% fixed price now, and when I search for BIN items, best match is useless. I think most people are searching by price.

"Diversify" has been the mantra of ebay sellers for at least the last 3 years. Anyone selling in volume on ebay without some other venue option is simply foolish. No seller can completely control all of the factors ebay is currently using to determine whether you will be allowed to sell there. You can be a perfect seller, with a perfect product, with the lowest price, and STILL get downgraded or kicked off by circumstances completely outside your control.

One of Chris's wisest points is when he says:

f eBay don’t start measuring average DSRs on a category by category basis I suspect they’ll drive many more sellers off the site, or at least force them to change the products they supply.

Been there, done that. I've dropped 2 complete product lines over the last couple of years for no other reason except that they generated sub-par Ebay FB.

My wife wanted to sell about 3 dozen expensive used suits on Ebay, and I told her I could not do that on any of my accounts because I valued those accounts too much to burn on used clothing. We will probably sell it all on Bonanzle. Same thing with about $1,000 worth of used sporting equipment. No way I put that on ebay.

I'm sure there are a LOT of other sellers thinking this same way.

Jerryb · Joined: 15 Mar 2009 Posts: 418

funny how ebay doesnt really care if their system works or not.

I do BIN by newest first- for collectables this works best. I've nailed some nice deals and have triple bucks for the next week. nice return.

I tried 99c auctions with a spare account.. charged 44c shipping... 2 jerks dinged my DSRs for excessive shipping. lol... some buyers are simply pigs and there seems to be an overly abundant supply of them in the bottom feeder levels. Wait until the free 99c auctions kick in in april.. A lot of sellers will get horrid DSRs from the nasty old lonely men and the kids mom and dad give $20 to to let the computer babysit them. $20 you can ruin 20 sellers.. virtual computer vandalism at its finest.

I see all kinds of sellers with really bad feedback and DSRs on ebay selling.. it appears to me that Ebay is NOT doing anything to these sellers so i would be a lot less concerned about it. My suggestion.. totaly ignore the dashboard area on my ebay- how many people have worried and had ruined days from viewing it?. it was set up to upset us all and cause us to fear ebay.- just ignore it and do the best you can.

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

I find it interesting that he deals in second hand computer products and has no low DSRs. That is one area on eBay that is ripe with fraud and buyer dissatisfaction.

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4764

I read it and all I could thing was yawn. Another amateur who thinks he's big time. Just the fact that he sells computers and clitoris tell me he's not focused on either business, but rather he's hacking his way through with hammer rather than cutting a swath with a sharp blade.

CS

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 16923 Location: Texas

Stockmiser: "I think most people are searching by price."

Amen Stockmiser! I'm still not listing any of my items on ebay (at this time) but do regularly shop over there due to PRICE.
More competition among sellers usually results in less cost to the buyers. When searching for an item I always use the "advanced/customized search" and chose "least price + shipping"
Sometimes this works to my advantage and sometimes I wait a while. It also depends on how popular the item is IMHO.