puzzled in 2024, not sure what to do

[keziak]

I increased my auctions but basically the only thing selling are manga. Which is great, not complaining. The problem is all the other stuff not selling. I am trying to puzzle it out but coming up with nothing. There could be an argument that auctions are not the way to go, that I should switch to fixed price. If I listed all that at fixed price my house would explode from storage. I do have a climate-controlled unit, should I stash listed stuff there? 

If this is a legit trend for 2024 I will have to do some hard thinking about how to use ebay. I've talked before about walking away but that is scary. Maybe not as scary as buying and listing stuff that won't sell though. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

It's also the visibility algorithm.

I don't promote. I had an item which was listed since 2020 with zero interest. Within a week and a half I sold all 3 I had.

That tells me that after the first sold, ebay decided it was worth showing to searchers, then I'm sure after the 2nd sold it got pushed even higher in visibility.

ebay likes to show what sells. Period.

[redlinear]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

It's also the visibility algorithm.

I don't promote. I had an item which was listed since 2020 with zero interest. Within a week and a half I sold all 3 I had.

That tells me that after the first sold, ebay decided it was worth showing to searchers, then I'm sure after the 2nd sold it got pushed even higher in visibility.

ebay likes to show what sells. Period.

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I agree!  The best way to sell on eBay is to sell on eBay (makes sense if you think about it).
I also have what we call the "90 day" sales.
My inventory locations are "dates".   Items I list this week are put in a box labelled 1/24 (1st week of 2024).
I'll sell a few things out of that box this month.
Then, sometime in March, I'll be pulling several items out of 1/24 box, usually all on the same day.

Tends to happen 1st around the 90ish day mark.
Although, the same will happen again several times down the line. 
This happens every few days here.  I'll be pulling several items (in one day) out of an older box.
I know time has something to do with visibility (being seen) also.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Now if we could just work out how to get that first sale (or 2) LOL

[monster-deals]

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@keziak wrote:

I increased my auctions but basically the only thing selling are manga.

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Has ebay fixed the shipping for manga to allow media mail yet?

I stopped listing under manga and just put them in graphic novels.

I know ebay doesn't know the difference between a graphic novel and a TPB but what can you do?

[redlinear]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

Now if we could just work out how to get that first sale (or 2) LOL

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I don't think anybody actually knows that. LOL
But you are correct.
I don't delete old listings for just that reason.  I think anything will sell. Just needs to be seen.
And as of the last few years....it'll be seen, just may take awhile.

[keziak]

thank you. I think a lot of my prices are probably  stale.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

If we're talking the immediate allot of people are tapped out after holiday spending, thats a given especially with all the retail mania that was going on and is likely to continue.

Media is basically a dying breed, DVD's are waning in the light of streaming.  Best Buy who I read is the largest seller of DVD's in America as of this year will no longer be offering them in store or online.  Books well... entire coming generation are not much of readers, video and audio and more so the former than the latter.  I recently heard Ollies stores may be vastly downsizing their book sections.

Problem is what the Boomer and Gen X liked is definitely not what Gen Z likes.  Atop all that much of that generation is hard pressed right now, especially those with students loans be they still schooling or already out.  Gen Z apparently to serve their purchasing addictions are now the largest segment of "Friendly Fraud" accounting for over 60% of chargebacks last year.  I said in another thread, an anonymous poll was done among that generation, thousands of them and they dont have a problem at all rippin' folks off even though they know its wrong.

[keziak]

that's an interesting approach, thank you.

[yuzuha]

I'm going to be very blunt here: you keep making post after post about stuff not selling and having tons of stuff you haven't listed yet and how you're running out of storage space and yet you continue to go out and acquire new inventory on a regular basis. STOP DOING THAT. Put yourself on a buying moratorium, list all of the stuff you have that is sitting around unlisted, and then DON'T BUY ANYTHING MORE until you've cleared out some of your old stock.

Your problem is not auctions vs. fixed price, it's that you keep acquiring more stuff at a rate faster than the rate at which the stuff you already have is selling.

[craigster-2013]

Auctions suck for the seller, & as a buyer I steer clear of them.. Who wants to wait around a week to get outbid at the last min trying save 2 bucks?!

[yuzuha]

I'm going to be extremely blunt here. You keep on making the exact same complaints over and over and over again about running out of space, and yet you steadfastly refuse to stop acquiring more inventory regardless.

I genuinely don't know what you're expecting. If you're bringing in stuff faster than it sells, of COURSE you're going to have a storage problem. What you need to do (and yet you seem to refuse to consider this possibility) is to stop acquiring new things, focus on listing the stuff you already have that isn't listed, and clear out a huge amount of stuff before you bring ANYTHING new in.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Inventory creep is a real issue, especially when you have limited storage space. Basically caused by, as you said, more coming in than going out. It's hard though to stop buying new stuff to list thinking maybe the NEW stuff will sell if the 'old stuff' doesn't?

[chapeau-noir]

I'll have to agree with @yuzuha and I think I've also mentioned this before. Stop acquiring and do some serious pruning of what you have now until you have the cream of the crop. Ask yourself what your time is worth - is it worth diddling around with nickle and dime stuff that's a tough sell, moving boxes around and worrying about storage?

I know these are shifting grounds, but that's retail for you. You're a pro - have confidence in yourself to NOT have to keep acquiring (there will always be more stuff) and know what to keep and know what to let go of. I've been through this, too, so I'm in your corner here.

[jupiter_collectibles]

eBay seems to be destroying itself. There's no other way to explain it. The constant changes and glitches. Not one of them actually for the better. Now they're pitting sellers against each other to see who will pay them the most money just to get exposure, not even a sale. Eventually people will move on, get sick of it. It's honestly sad because eBay had so much potential.... 

[parrotfestival]

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@jupiter_collectibles wrote:

Now they're pitting sellers against each other to see who will pay them the most money just to get exposure, not even a sale. 

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🤣I never really thought about it this way, but you're completely right. The idea of adding an extra 12% fee on something I'm already paying about 18% real fee on always seemed ludicrous, and it really is just fighting against other sellers in a race to the bottom.

To make money with high fees you need higher volume, but to have higher volume you need lower prices so it makes no sense. I just realized my listings aren't showing up on google anymore despite being the most relevant item; I did find this post on google though.