Ebay sales Dropped Why so Slow?

[snowbirdmn74]

Picking up on a thread that was recently closed down pertaining to Slow eBay Sales.  I have been selling on eBay for years and have noticed a dramatic decrease in sales.  I sell mainly winter gear and normally have several sales in Sept at least that is how it has been since 2009.  This year nothing...  I am in the process now of clearing out my remaining inventory here on eBay.  Hopefully they can turn it around as many small sellers are also buyers.  I buy on eBay when I sell on eBay.  When I don't sell on eBay on don't buy on eBay.  Am sure this is the same for many small to mid size sellers.  

What are the rest of you seeing on your end as small to mid size sellers?

[lostnfound101]

... hey notta problem ... that's what some of us are here for ...

... we share suggestions and help within a "shared" Community" ...

[hidy-hoo]

Absolutely, lost....as long as the posted information is correct ~ and to get a true perspective one should consider all sides of the coin, which includes constructive criticism, imo, as well as opinions that are diametrically opposed to yours ~  but if one doesn't agree with that they can avail themselves of the report button, which is something I never do, but to each their own.

These quotes sum up my perspective on constructive criticism perfectly:

 

There is an interesting thread on the Selling Board about slow sales for the holiday season that you guys may find helpful, especially post #11

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/3-years-of-eBay-Xmas-sales-are-an-eye-opener-as-to-the-future/m...

[lostnfound101]

... regarding that reply #11 -   

... not interested with selling sheet music here.

... thanks' anyhow.

[loveyourimagination49]

So, that's all you got out of that? Sheet Music?

Well I guess you chose the option not to be informed.

I'm sure this post will travel with the rest.

Merry Christmas.

[mrmuffinmanvw]

Well I have tried some more of the ideas that came up here and it seems that when you feed ebay more of your money with the promoted listings things start to happen.But the only way it really works is with listing groups of the same item. So I tried it and more buyers are looking and some are buying. The items that seem to be selling are the low priced items but a sale is a sale at this point. I really think the buyers are real tight with what they are buying and ebay has its problems to. I just wanted to touch base haven't been on lately.

[lostnfound101]

---

loveyourimagination49 wrote:

So, that's all you got out of that? Sheet Music?

Well I guess you chose the option not to be informed.

---

... perhaps we've overlooked reply #85) here ... sometimes our imagination gets the best of us.

... MrMuffinMan -

... hey Great to hear that Ya scored some action ... and I'd Agree Much that a Sale is a Sale ...

... am gettin' about the same as that which You'd mentioned, I get a good amount on the hits and now I see more watchers too ... in turn and as Ya said it appears that many Folks are just plain tight ... recently I spoke with a few different Suppliers I've had in the past, and many are here, listing at near dealer costs on the items too ... they're just trying to move inventory, regardless of profit ...

... I'll be listing way more of the inexpensive stuff soon, yet I'm not gonna bite on the promotions deal ... have found one Cat in particular that I'm doing Great on for hits, I'd mentioned this a few posts ago ... and as luck has it, it's a Cat that hasn't yet been refined into 10,001 seperate sub-categorie too ... emphasis on "yet" ... seriously tho, I stoked just a few listings there, and have seen way more hits there than my other predominant Cat's ...

... kinda like I thought, Folks just want to browse at random rather than be steered ...

[loveyourimagination49]

My imagination is just fine, That was meant as a general comment, not to YOU specifically.

[lostnfound101]

... LYI - ... iI sense a bit of conflict between the two statements made with that, but that's okay, we're among Friends and we understand ... and I say this in jest, so Please do Not become offended or angered ...

... my point is, much of what was mentioned in post #11) of the other thread has already been implicitly mentioned here by none other than (no names mentioned) two days prior to post eleven ... but that's okay too, do refer to my small paragragh above ...

... next point is - ... when we find that we have a sudden drop in sales by all means do NOT take it as personal, do NOT do an immediate absolute steer of 180 degrees with our visions of our Biz, and do beware before we take advice ... repeatedly I've listened to CS tell me that I need to consider an offer of free shipping ... well if I offer free shipping then I gotta raise my prices, and to that they typically agree ... and if we as Sellers are inna spot whereas we already have competition undercutting us by 15% to 20% 30% and more then where are we gonna be once we raise our prices ...

... nobody knows our own Biz like we (individually) do ... nobody knows our own finances like we do ... and nobody knows our own capacities/capabilities like we, ourselves do ...

... when it suddenly goes slow then consider to check them completed listings that pertain to our own Goods ... see if it's actually selling or merely being given away ... and if all else fails, punt ... lol ... but seriously, if any new Faces are checking into this thread, and if Ya happen to sell Goods within the same Categoreies as I, then the best advice is, sell inexpensive items for now, and don't be too quick to give away the Store ... it'll pick up again, it's just gonna take time.

[mrmuffinmanvw]

Lost I was thinking and that can be dangerous for me. I have some listings that are pretty old and relisted and sell simular several times. These were before all the changes here on ebay. Do you think if I ended them and deleated them and started fresh listing for them that maybe they would get more hits and watchers and maybe sales on ebays new platform? Maybe they  just hit the scrap heap of ebay listings or slipped between the cracks. Just a thought. Think about it for a while and let me know your thoughts.

[mdav_ba]

Heya Muffin!

You got me thinking and I remembered someone from the old thread posted a link about doing close to what you are saying and that it helps. It was about the newest search engine Cassini.

From Google:

>Cassini has totally changed the rules for eBay sellers. Back when eBay used their 'Voyager' engine it was all about the eBay title. It was easy for some sellers to appear high up the eBay search with poor listings. Now Cassini takes into account your description as well as item specifics and much more.Jan 9, 2015<

She also posted this link I had saved and there were listing tips on it. Maybe some of this might help

http://www.multichannelselling.com/ebay/cassini-search-engine-tips/

[lostnfound101]

... that may be a Good link to look into there MrMuffinMan ... I don't know a whole bunch about the cassinni parameters ... for now I'm tryin' to find a way to gain the exposure that I had just a few months ago ...

... I had an Excellent Sunday, and it was way better than any typical Dec Sunday within the past few years ... now I set, broken hearted ... lol ... been posting the smaller ticket items and even that isn't shakin' 'em much ... tell Ya tho, found yet one more Cat that hasn't been mega-refined and sure enuff, anything I post there gets a buncha hits right off the bat ... in less than an hour I scored almost twice as many hits as compared to 3 or 4 days worth of hits from my typical cats ...

... as to why them hits aren't equating to sales is anudder story I guess ... I figure sooner or later the Folks are gonna start shoppin' for Themselves once all the Gift List is completed ... I hope ...

... until then, my only hope is that I get a few Riders/Buyers doing specific item searches here for stuff like mine ...

[lostnfound101]

... this might sound (look) more like a gripe (and it is) yet it's sumthin' that we gotta work around with the new-fangled algorithms that aren't worth a nickel ...

... few years back I used to pin-point one particular Motorcycle that's quite a popular Bike with the Collectors, it's a mid 1970's Yamaha RD ... last time I restored one was round about 2007, and back then a search here would turn up a lotta applicable parts ... back then I'd do a search for 'yamaha rd350' and I would turn up maybe 800 or so listings, with a lot of it being valid hard to find goods ... here's that same search today -

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=yamaha+rd350&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=yamaha...

... 23,286 listings now verse maybe 800+ a few years back ... it'd be true that there's a llot more Folks listing parts for this model yet once we get into the 5th or 6th page of 'best match' search results we start to see common 13/16" 12) point sockets that are now titled "spark plug tool (fits yamaha rd)" ... on page 6 I actually found 3) sissy bars that fit the RD too ... all in all, lots of junk that doesn't even apply yet it shows with keyword spamming ...

... my point is, this used to be a really Great site for findin' rare and hard-to-find parts for many vehicles ... emphasis on "used to be" ... I consider myself as an avid Collector type, and there ain't no way that I'm gonna sift thru 23,000 listings of junk that doesn't even apply to a vehicle at hand ...

... and if any of us are looking for a rare NOS  shift knob for our 1969 Mustang GT here Ya go -

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=yamaha+rd350&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=yamaha...

... only 6,685 results there, I'm sure somewhere in that clustermess there may in fact be an actual applicable item ... of we can settle for some imported cheap universal fit knob that (FITS MUSTANG GT) ...

... funny thing is, when I use the keywords (fits mustang gt) inna search the results won't list the actual items that use those same spam keywords in the parenthesis in the title ... when I do the actual (fits mustang gt) as a keyword search I get a whole page of rims along with a "sponsored" seller's listing for valve stems that fit mustang gt rims ...

... sooooo, if'n we're looking to list items, definately do a search beforehand to see what we find, and then work or shall I say "try" to work around the flawed algorithm ... and if we happen to be a Collcor of early 1970's Muscle Cars or if we happen to have a nice stash of actual hard-to-find NOS and OEM type parts to list here, well then follow the yellow brick road ... lol ...

[lostnfound101]

... whups I made a bad with that second link that I'd mentioned and it does indeed appear that I repeated that Yamaha link instead ... anyhow if anyone's interested, the search keywords used were "shift knob mustang gt" ...

... not that it matters much, but, I guess the point is, search search and search before we invest invest and invest with Inventory ...

[mrmuffinmanvw]

Hi everyone been slow on the thread and I hope this means everyone is getting some sales. I went in a different direction and it gave me a decent December. I just wanted to wish all well and a Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings which ever applies. I will be trying some different things I haven't had the time to get to so stay tuned if I see some results I will pass them along.

[mdav_ba]

Heya Muffin!

Merry Xmas to you as well (and everyone else on the board).

I had an outstanding november and December. It only got slow in the past few days, other than that it was record breaking days in those months. I am expecting it to slow down to how it was as I am thinking that because I sell DIY Jewelry making stuff it got super busy because of that, it is just a lot better than the past 2 Xmas seasons. Plus as you know I tried the "Promoted listing" thing and it really worked for the stuff I sell. 50 sales from that in the past 30 days.

Will check back in after a few weeks when the holidays are over and keep my fingers crossed