Sales always spaced too far apart. Normal, dead category, or something else?

[mystic_nights]

Hello all, 

I have been selling haunted jewelry items on eBay for 15 years and I have upgraded my haunted jewelry business in many ways as eBay and others have recommended. However, I just can't seem to make a livable income in selling my haunted jewelry, and listing high quantities of my haunted jewelry on eBay doesn't work either. It seems like no matter what I do, my haunted jewelry sales are just here and there, like once a week or every two weeks or once a month or every two months, causing what little money I make from selling my haunted jewelry to be spent instead of saved. I am trying to determine if the haunted jewelry category is dead or if there is no high demand for haunted jewelry on eBay anymore due to eBay disallowing pictures in descriptions, etc. Some say that eBay is too infested with trolls that gang up on sellers and only nitpick purchase their items over a long period of time, causing sellers to run out of inventory and or give up and some say eBay managers and employees do things to control the sales of their sellers, but I don't think that such things are the cause. I have been trolled often in selling my haunted jewelry though.  I have been trying to make enough money in selling haunted jewelry to make a living, and buy a new car, and a home, but that just seems not possible in selling haunted jewelry on eBay. I hear that other eBay sellers selling different things rake in the dough and live a ritzy lifestyle and that sellers that sell just regular jewelry, such as vintage jewelry make $4k per month. There are also other sellers that say all they ever make is just extra cash and some say they never make any sales on eBay. I tried selling just vintage jewelry and doing so brings me no sales at all, so I don't see how the vintage jewelry seller I know is making such good money. My SUV is 20 years old, has issues, and I live in a 30-year-old RV in a dump ghetto RV park with old tires that are too expensive to replace and could blow at any time. I have two university degrees and no career due to no careers at organizations that are affiliated with my education for many years. Some good school does. I would prefer to have my own business, such as my haunted jewelry business, be my career instead because it is more fun. I am not ever expecting to be rich from selling haunted jewelry, but I need to establish a career income with it or another career soon, or I fear I will be at risk of living in my SUV. Housing and other bills are so expensive these days.

I have a friend that makes and sells her own jewelry on another site and she says she is making a living in doing so and I have seen haunted items on other sites rake in the sales as Mcdonald's meals sell. My friend also says that she left eBay because it does not work very well for her in her selling her jewelry.  I also noticed that without my hundreds of haunted jewelry items on eBay, that the haunted category on eBay is only a couple of pages. The haunted jewelry category on eBay used to be loaded with thousands of haunted items back between 2006-2010 but then eBay made many changes, such as disallowing pictures in descriptions, and it is like all the haunted item sellers on eBay left eBay to sell their haunted items on other sites. I do get a lot of messages from buyers that ask questions about my haunted jewelry though, but many of them never buy any of it. Could it be that the haunted category on eBay is dead, or that there just simply isn't a high demand for haunted jewelry on eBay anymore, or could it be that eBay is always just extra cash for the majority of its users? At this point, I don't know what the reason is for me not succeeding in making my haunted jewelry business a profitable career on eBay, for I have tried everything to make it that for a very long time. Perhaps I need to try to sell my haunted jewelry on eBay and other sites to achieve the career income I desire. Really, not complaining here, and never giving up on making my haunted jewelry business my career, just trying to figure out if it is possible to make a career income from selling my haunted jewelry on eBay or not. All thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

[luckythewinner]

You just typed a one-thousand word post telling us that (a) this category is dead on eBay and (b) the only people having success with it are not here. 

Then you wondered whether (a) that category on eBay is dead, and (b) whether you think you will find success here. 

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@luckythewinner 

Well at least you were " lucky" to get that out of this post, I couldn't get past the word " haunted" mentioned 27 times!

[mtgraves7984]

Kill me now... 🙄

[ckimodog]

lol

[bonjourami]

LOL..second thread from her about this..drumming up business.

[dhbookds]

As said, you've answered your own question......  If you are in such dire straits, it's time to be honest with yourself and ask how much energy you are putting into this so called career......  Have you studied solds on Ebay?  Almost every one with "haunted jewelry" as a search term,  has "witch" in the title........Do you list in additional markets?  Do you belong to groups where you can advertise?  Do you change up your listings to make them more attractive?  Do you research trends in the paranormal to try to appeal to whatever "hot" topics or ideas are in vogue right now?

To be blunt......selling anywhere takes a lot of effort to be successful.  To be successful to the extent you are looking for takes more than throwing up a bunch of listings with what you "think" may appeal to people. 

Just my opinion. 

[jayjaspersgarage]

"LOL..second thread from her about this..drumming up business.

Would that be a ghost drum I hear in soundtrack as the curtain falls on this seller?

I read one sentence and clicked away.  I am going to do a promoted listing on "Haunted" matchbook covers from New Orleans during Mardi Gras.  Better yet I will promote my sister's book, 'A Flair For Beignets', one of the Sadie Kramer Mystery series books set in New Orleans.

Now THAT"S how you drum up business for one of the best cozy mystery writers (my sister) with more than twenty books published to date.  😁  

[jda04121]

Isn't haunted by definition dead?

[katzrul15]

---

@bonjourami wrote:

LOL..second thread from her about this..drumming up business.

---

OP did not like the responses on the other thread from yesterday, so started a new one?

Sounds like the OP's buyers have Ghosted their wares? 

[redmodelt]

Selling Haunted items in a Dead category...LOL that is funny! MaHaHa 🙂

[katzrul15]

@mystic_nights 

Have you spent any time with Terapeak (it is Free to all Sellers) to see what the sell-thru rate is for "haunted" items?  

Minus Halloween or the need for White Elephant exchange, curious if there are sales trends at all?

[bonjourami]

"Now THAT"S how you drum up business for one of the best cozy mystery writers (my sister) with more than twenty books published to date"

Kudos to your sister, my sister is also a published author. She is a retired Chicago cop, and has had three books published on cases she worked on.

[*_forum_id_*]

....dead category....

Love the pun.    

Stop spamming the boards.

[mystic_nights]

Thanks dhbookds. I have done all that you have recommended but joining groups, which I do not find is needed. I agree with you about how you have to put forth a lot of effort to be successful and I do just that. I am just trying to determine if the haunted realm on eBay is doing good or if it is fading away. If you search for "Haunted Jewelry, Haunted necklace, or haunted rings" you will only find a couple of pages of haunted items if it were not for my haunted items. I am the largest haunted jeweler on eBay. I think my haunted jewelry business will do well and eventually become a successful career one day. It just takes time and I am just wanting to be sure that the haunted category on eBay is doing good because if it isn't then it does not matter how hard I try to make my haunted jewelry business successful because there wouldn't be many sales. I also recently upgraded my haunted jewelry listings with really nice white background photos which look very professional. I also started making my descriptions shorter for my haunted jewelry that is $100 or less and my more expensive haunted jewelry has long descriptions, and doing so allows me to have an enormous number of haunted jewelry listings within a much shorter time frame. That said, thanks for your input, thanks for your input others, and I'm just going to keep hammering away at listing my haunted jewelry on eBay and will also expand my haunted jewelry business to increase its revenue and all of you have a great day!