eBay auction views down?
Willymac
Posts: 206 ✭✭✭
Anyone else noticing the views of auctions they have on eBay have dropped dramatically - like folks are not browsing things like they used to - or did Ebay’s category changes give them more algorithmic control over non-promoted items or what?
Or is it me?
Thanks?
2
Comments
not sure i ever looked at views? is this something you can only see on your items? or everyone elses too? and i assume we are talking actual views not watchers, right?
Remember the old days when peeps for some reason put view counters in the description of the listing...
what are you selling? that makes a big difference. widget coins are not going to draw many looks
I will say this -- I know that I'm looking at ebay less and less, for several reasons:
1. Lack of product that I want to buy (I think that there are a lot of people who bought in the last 2 years and don't want to sell)
2. Increase in prices for things that I might consider buying
3. Ebay's increase in fees and reduction in use of ebay Bucks (that makes things cheaper)
4. Ebay's decision to start collecting taxes (which was always going to happen, and is fine, but it makes everything more expensive)
Maybe others are doing the same?
kevin
You can see them in your seller dashboard - how Ann folks have viewed your auctions
Selling across the board random to nice graded…
Just saying viewing traffic seems to be down over the last few months
I also think people have less extra $ in their pockets recently. Inflation has increased the cost of plenty of stuff.
Several good responses in this thread.
Adding in the final 2 phases of a bubble, no it will not correlate to every card and every sale of course, its will be the market in general:
4. Profit-Taking
In this phase, the smart money—heeding the warning signs that the bubble is about at its bursting point—starts selling positions and taking profits. But estimating the exact time when a bubble is due to collapse can be a difficult exercise because, as economist John Maynard Keynes put it, "the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."
5. Panic
It only takes a relatively minor event to prick a bubble, but once it is pricked, the bubble cannot inflate again. In the panic stage, asset prices reverse course and descend as rapidly as they had ascended. Investors and speculators, faced with margin calls and plunging values of their holdings, now want to liquidate at any price. As supply overwhelms (Junk wax era anyone? 1990 Huge Population PSA10 Leaf Frank Thomas' anyone?) demand, asset prices slide sharply.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
It's not just you Willymac, I've been experiencing the same problem. I sell vintage baseball cards so I thought the decrease in views might be because buyers are starting to concentrate on basketball and football cards.
Bubble aside I still think the HOF and particularly serial numbered or inserts will drop but hold maintain an elevated value long term respective to what they were 24 months ago…
Def a slow down…
I think there was something wrong with the system, because I had a bunch of auctions that ended Wednesday that had more watchers than views.
Not saying this is the case for your example, but the app now let's you add things to your watch list as you scroll, without ever having to actually view the listing. Say I'm looking for "1975 George Brett PSA 8", and 15 of them come up priced lowest to highest, I can "watch" the bottom 5 or whatever. If one is ending soon, perhaps then I view it, make a bid, and see what happens, while the other 4 stay on my watch list, but I never actually look at them because I ended up winning the first card.
there was a article about e bay about 6 weeks ago, they lost 2.5 million buyers due to the state tax and less promos, like e bucks, now at only 5 percent, when they used to offer up to 10 percent and coupons
Any commodity will always be a commodity and your Keynesian analysis is spot on, no matter what that commodity is.
If you have a lot of graded cards listed, keep in mind that there are millions of newly graded cards on the market with all the ones that have been submitted in the last year and a half. A lot of the same cards are on eBay right now so with more cards available there will be fewer views per card. You should still get the same price as the other cards listed.
And to comment on the post about the bubble busting….I need it to hang on for about 6 more months so I can sell some of the cards I currently have in grading!!! But I do agree the bubble will bust at some point in the near future. Then again when Topps and Panini lose their exclusive licenses, the value of those cards could increase even more. Who the hell knows!!
Not being able to send cards in to PSA at pre pandemic pricing and return rate has certainly diminished interest in the market. I've sold a ton of stuff of all varieties on e-Bay the past two years and have seen the recent lull myself. I have totally lost all interest since the time out (among other issues) and really don't feel like waiting for things normalize to join back in. I've moved on to other interests, as I feel many others have.
Here’s two cards I have up on Ebay now both say 0 views but have multiple watchers and bids so something must be wrong on Ebays end.
I think a slowdown should have been expected for several reasons. We inflated significantly during the peak of COVID when everyone was shut in. Even though there are some lingering effects, most people were able to get out and do other things over the summer. There were and are other places to spend money. EBay changing their policies with respect to how sellers get paid may have reduced inventory which in turn may have discouraged buyers. With EBay becoming slightly less of a "one-stop-shop" for all things collectable, there may be a dilution of serious buyers as experienced by sellers. The overall market is going through a correction which means potentially less liquidity for buyers and might leave them feeling "less wealthy".
Winter is coming and it's possible IMO that we could see a dead-cat bounce before continuing to downward trend over the summer of 2022.