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[littledoom]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:51 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Yeah, I guess. My philosophy is I can wait to try to sell it for $30, or pay a $1 to sell it sooner and get $29. Even on the rarer books, the promotion seems to get more looks. I try to maintain a minimum margin of 2x my money on what I sell, and most of the time, I shoot for at least 3x. On a lot of my books, I have plenty of room where I'm making 4x or more, so if an extra $1 in fees moves the books, it's worth it to me.

Also ebay's language is "IF" the "item sells from promoted listings" .. but if I set all my listings to promoting listings the fee will apply.. the word used should be "when"

[Jesse-Lee]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:51 PM, littledoom said:

Do you stick to the 4.1% ad rate or bump or lower it? What is a good rate? I'd essentially want to be at the top of search results

I just stick to the recommended rate, which is typically the 4.1%. Once you start chasing the top, that's when the money piles up. I used to buy social media ads and Google AdWords ads as part of my job (not for comics but for companies) back when the online ad stuff was taking off - like more than 15 years ago, crazy! And I also used to do a lot of organic SEO. So I'm pretty comfortable with the "boosted" and promoted listings - I can see the value in it to a point.

[Jesse-Lee]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:59 PM, littledoom said:

Also ebay's language is "IF" the "item sells from promoted listings" .. but if I set all my listings to promoting listings the fee will apply.. the word used should be "when"

Yeah, that's the "cover their a$$" language - once I decide to promote, I just take it as fact that I'll be paying. But again, for me, it's worth the extra to move stuff quicker. eBay has been as dead as a doornail this month, but I had 4 promoted items sell today alone. And I don't have a store or a big presence, I usually have somewhere around 50-60 listings at a time.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Jesse-Lee

[littledoom]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:01 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Yeah, that's the "cover their a$$" language - once I decide to promote, I just take it as fact that I'll be paying. But again, for me, it's worth the extra to move stuff quicker. eBay has been as dead as a doornail this month, but I had 4 promoted items sell today alone. And I don't have a store or a big presence, I usually have somewhere around 50-60 listings at a time.

What happens when two or more sellers "sponsor" the same item at the same rate? Which yields highest placement? Or is it who's done it most recently?

[littledoom]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:01 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Yeah, that's the "cover their a$$" language - once I decide to promote, I just take it as fact that I'll be paying. But again, for me, it's worth the extra to move stuff quicker. eBay has been as dead as a doornail this month, but I had 4 promoted items sell today alone. And I don't have a store or a big presence, I usually have somewhere around 50-60 listings at a time.

"Promoted Listings Advanced campaigns let you promote your listings in the top slot of search results and pay per click on your ad. Advanced campaigns give you the high visibility you want and the control you need with a daily budget, keyword targeting, keyword bidding, and reporting"

 

Holy sh** that's crazy

Edited May 28, 2022 by littledoom

[Jesse-Lee]

On 5/27/2022 at 10:06 PM, littledoom said:

What happens when two or more sellers "sponsor" the same item at the same rate? Which yields highest placement? Or is it who's done it most recently?

If it's dollar-for-dollar (like both have a $20 item and both choose 4.1% for example), then in a perfect world the ads would show equally. But it wouldn't surprise me if there are things in the algorithm that tip the scale in favor of a higher-volume seller for sure. In online ads, it's a bid process - so if you had $100 and I had $100, and we picked the same keywords to advertise for - say "comics" for example - I could bid 10 cents per click in a keyword where you might bid 8 cents a click, in which case my ads would show more/higher.

That's all a major simplification, but I'm sure eBay's algorithm is pretty sophisticated. That said, I've seen my own promoted listings show up when viewing items, so at least I know they're out there,

Edited May 28, 2022 by Jesse-Lee

[Jesse-Lee]

On 5/27/2022 at 10:08 PM, littledoom said:

"Promoted Listings Advanced campaigns let you promote your listings in the top slot of search results and pay per click on your ad. Advanced campaigns give you the high visibility you want and the control you need with a daily budget, keyword targeting, keyword bidding, and reporting"

 

Holy sh** that's crazy

Oh man, it goes so deep. Back when I was doing ad buys it was the wild west - and it was only a small part of my job at the time. I was self-taught on SEO, and in my spare time I was buying domain names, building small content sites on them, moving them to the top of organic search rankings and selling them for thousands. Now it's a full time job for people - and it's usually a team of people or a firm doing targeted ad buys and full-fledged SEO campaigns even for smaller companies and mom-and-pop shops. Ad re-targeting, geo-fenced delivery, it's crazy.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Jesse-Lee

[littledoom]

Along with the 30 day views, views have gone down because 40% of views are bots according to an ebay rep

[1Cool]

My views are down about 28% so I’d agree things are starting to grind to a halt.  Con season draws away buyers and summer is always slower.  

[Beige]

Store fees go up from $60 per month to $83 in Australia

That's nice.

 

An adjustment is coming within the next 6 months I'd say.

 

Just look at people offloading their big books on these very boards.

Couldn't find an SA Marvel mega-key on here for ages - now you're tripping over them in every thread.

 

People warned of a correction - it's happening.

[1Cool]

Wow - my listing views are down 40% compared to two months ago   It's getting to the point that it's rare to wake up to even one offer where as last year I'd get a half dozen books sold overnight and maybe 4 or 5 offers.  Summer is slow for sure but this is getting crazy.

[Jesse-Lee]

On 6/7/2022 at 8:26 AM, 1Cool said:

Wow - my listing views are down 40% compared to two months ago   It's getting to the point that it's rare to wake up to even one offer where as last year I'd get a half dozen books sold overnight and maybe 4 or 5 offers.  Summer is slow for sure but this is getting crazy.

It's odd for me - my views are way down too, but between May 27-June 5 (so just over one full week), I sold 15 books. That may not sound like a lot to some, but I'm a low-volume hobby seller - I usually have between 45-60 books listed at a given time. I don't have big books; my average cost per sale is probably in the $15-20 range. But I still wonder if something is going on with views - I had a couple of books where it would say like 5 views but it would sell. I do promote pretty much all of my listings through the "promoted listing" service eBay provides.

[1Cool]

On 6/7/2022 at 9:49 AM, Jesse-Lee said:

It's odd for me - my views are way down too, but between May 27-June 5 (so just over one full week), I sold 15 books. That may not sound like a lot to some, but I'm a low-volume hobby seller - I usually have between 45-60 books listed at a given time. I don't have big books; my average cost per sale is probably in the $15-20 range. But I still wonder if something is going on with views - I had a couple of books where it would say like 5 views but it would sell. I do promote pretty much all of my listings through the "promoted listing" service eBay provides.

Thanks for the info.  I've got about 900 items up for sale right now and none have the promoted listing add on.  Maybe I'll pick a few of the higher priced books to promote and see if that helps sales at all.

[1950's war comics]

i couldn't find the "sold" listing when i just looked a minute ago , are they moved to a different place to see them ?

 

[Beastfeast]

On 6/7/2022 at 9:26 AM, 1Cool said:

Wow - my listing views are down 40% compared to two months ago   It's getting to the point that it's rare to wake up to even one offer where as last year I'd get a half dozen books sold overnight and maybe 4 or 5 offers.  Summer is slow for sure but this is getting crazy.

My views were down about 25-30% last week until I finally sucked it up and started listing at least 10 new items a day.  I'm still down but now only about 1%.  Sales are down about 1% from last month.  

[mrwoogieman]

I got a message from eBay recently saying that they changed the view count to eliminate what they believe are bot views. 
 

 

[1Cool]

On 6/7/2022 at 9:01 PM, Beastfeast said:

My views were down about 25-30% last week until I finally sucked it up and started listing at least 10 new items a day.  I'm still down but now only about 1%.  Sales are down about 1% from last month.  

I'm pretty much doing the same thing since it does seem like sales flood in when you post up new books - even the books that have sat forever.  I was out of town for a week so now it's been a couple weeks without any new books and the sales completely cratered.  I wonder of it's just buyers looking at new postings or E-Bay has some algorithm that bumps up listings of people that list new items. 

[littledoom]

On 6/7/2022 at 11:01 AM, 1Cool said:

Thanks for the info.  I've got about 900 items up for sale right now and none have the promoted listing add on.  Maybe I'll pick a few of the higher priced books to promote and see if that helps sales at all.

Promoting listings has boosted my sales. It’s the way to go! Even if you promote all your listings you won’t be charged the fee if the buyer doesn’t purchase directly from the sponsored link. 

[evilskip]

Sometimes I will check the bid history on auctions I'm interested in. I took a look at one today and a bidder has had over 750 bid retractions in the past 12 months. How in the %$#@ is that even possible?

[valiantman]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:18 PM, lightninglad said:

I recently listed something and a few hours later it showed 3 watchers and only one “view”. Explain that to me? I think the “views” are a bit wonky sometimes.

I do searches on eBay and see things that are well-described with a photo in the results page. I'll click "Watch" without actually clicking the auction link.  I think that would be 1 watch and 0 views.