Just a decline or the end of a platform?

Sales have definitely dropped after they changed the way they charge commissions. We, as PRO sellers, were absolutely fine with the commissions we paid. We would have also accepted a store commission fee, over the sales commission.
Our experience shows that users are not very likely to return once they have left a website because the prices of cheap products were increased through the Delcampe fee. I repeat, they will probably NEVER come back!
Ultimately, the only way this can be undone is by Delcampe, it’s not going to solve itself in any other way.
We were very hopeful about this marketplace; after growing year after year from when we started up until now… at least up till April 2024.
I’m just surprised that nobody from the Delcampe Team has said anything about this really serious issue.

Agree, DC is quiet about the development, consequences and results of the new platform changes. I wonder why?

Hi
I'm curious to know the platform where you list now (if the name don't start with e* ), because my clients list items on some platform but peraphs you use one I don't know and I like to add

Thanks !
Roberto

I stopped selling completely as the changes to the platform didn’t look viable any longer. Dropping 18000 listings to none. My stock was of a very good standard many better items and sales over the years have been very good. I have started adding to my collections and buying postcards from one off websites and auction sites. I’ve added about 100 postcards 90% from the biggest auction site and the rest from sellers websites. I’ve looked through ebid and found nothing but the most disappointing thing is I can find nothing on Delcampe to add as the prices are very expensive and it’s loosing its quality as good long term sellers are lowering there stock.
I was a pro seller but it was not my main business Delcampe need to understand there is another option for sellers and it’s very a very difficult climate for sellers who run sales as their main income.

I'm not overly pessimistic about DC's future, but their lack of transparency is concerning. The fact that they haven't communicated how recent changes affect members speaks volumes. Unlike in the past, they no longer share key data such as monthly or total users. The information available today is outdated, often from 2019 at best. Why is DC becoming so secretive? Sure, it's a private company, and they don't have to report anything, but it would be a trust-building action.

It's interesting to come back to this discussion after a few months. I closed down my small shop (mostly postcards, a few hundred listed at a time), which I had been running since 2018 alongside another on "the other place". In about six years, I sold about 600 items for £4,500 turnover so perfectly useful as an adjunct to "the other place".

But after the loss of a goodly portion of the US market (not Delcampe's fault) ; difficulties selling to the EU because of Brexit/IOSS (ditto, to an extent) ; and now the recent Delcampe changes, it simply became untenable.

So everything is now on "the other place". I transferred the best 200 or so items I had listed here in August and about quarter sold within weeks. And of course I can sell to the EU and all the US there.

I share the sadness that others have expressed . Delcampe was different enough to use as a secondary selling site. I have stopped buying much here too - the extra 30p/item makes bulk ordering a nonsense. If they reverted that to 30p/an order I would come back as a buyer, if what was offered was still good.

And having had a significant involvement in professional public relations/media in the past, the Delcampe communications on all this has been - as others have noted - well below par. It all seems to be an opportunity lost.

Thanks for sharing - interesting!

Here is another problem to put into the mix, from a buyers perspective. Yesterday I tried to buy an auction lot on DC but the system has a problem - It went directly from ”You are currently the highest bidder" to “sold” - to somebody else! (they did send me an email after the fact though, saying “my bid has been exceeded,”) Watching the screen live, there was nothing I could do, no 'bid' button re-generated, I just had to accept that I lost the purchase to a system glitch!
Not only did I lose the purchase - just think about this - 5 'watchers' on the lot and DC appear to have effectively stopped the sale from running its due course. How much potential income is that costing the seller????