Ebay and other online auction powerselling tips and information

I am so happy and relieved to see you posting about this very important topic. We have seen a dramatic and drastic drop in our eBay hits and sales since Decemeber. At first, we thought it was something within our control - titles, descriptions, pricing, category selection, etc - and now we realize that it is due to eBay. Because we sell in a vast array of categories we know that it is a system-wide problem and not a category specific downturn. For instance, I met a fairly large jewelry seller at eBay Live! who told me that his sales were down 40-50% since March but he attributed it to the rising price of gold. We also sell a fair amount of jewelry and our sales are equally down but so our our sales of consumer electronics, home decor and pet products. I would love to hear from some other sellers about what their experience has been and what their plans are.

1. Nice chart copied from Alexa. It's important to note that Alexa only tracks the small number of people who download the Alexa toolbar, so it's a statistically flawed sample set.

2. When examining seasonality, please post Y/Y traffic numbers. M/M, etc are ineffective due to seasonal changes.

If you want to post "The truth" then post "the truth." Don't post incomplete truths.

If you look at the 2 year chart, the last 6 months is the first time that eBay has seen a downward trend in traffic.

In other words, eBay says this slowdown is seasonal, yet they didn't have the same slowdown last year in this "season".

As a PowerSeller myself I can tell you that we are not seeing nearly the traffic or bids we were seeing a year ago.

Less traffic, fewer bids, and higher fees...you do the math.

now look at ebays alexa stats! Their traffic levels are lower than they have ever been and still on the decrease. What the hell is going on with them? Their traffic has litterally been cut in half. Im sure sellers are hurting bad. and ebays solution seems to be to raise fees to make up for the huge decrease.

PayPal has had the same trend. Maybe all the ebay/paypal gripe sites are taking their toll: ie paypalsucks.com, paypalwarning.com, aboutpaypal.org

now look at ebays alexa stats! Their traffic levels are lower than they have ever been and still on the decrease. What the hell is going on with them? Their traffic has litterally been cut in half. Im sure sellers are hurting bad. and ebays solution seems to be to raise fees to make up for the huge decrease.

PayPal has had the same trend. Maybe all the ebay/paypal gripe sites are taking their toll: ie paypalsucks.com, paypalwarning.com, aboutpaypal.org

It is interesting to note that you can look at *any* major online retailer and see the same trend. For example, check out amazon.com, costco.com, overstock.com, etc. They all show the same concerning 50% (or more) drop in traffic. I understand the comment made earlier about using Alexa stats, but when you look at the huge retailers and see the same curve and trends, it's hard to dismiss it.

Also, I'm wondering if others agree with me that the downward curve and then sudden upward jump around the Fall of 2005 might have been (at least partially) attributed to the so-called "backbone wars" between providers? I wonder if the current downward trend has something to do with backbone infrastructure being overburdened with video causing a less than satisfactory buying experience and the customer says "heck with it, I could drive to the store or call them to buy this quicker than I can trudge through this shopping/checkout process."