Market Saturation: is there a cure for this plague?

[vintageantique77]

I assume this theme is a horse long ago dead and thoroughly beaten, but I'm feeling social, and want to talk about it with my fellow sellers. Several items I occasion to selling - vintage telephones, vintage photo slides, etc... Have seemed to reach a point of market saturation on eBay.  Just several years ago, some of the items I had listed would have been snapped up in a second, and now they sit for weeks, sometimes months before getting a single watcher. What is the solution to this saturation? How has it impacted you as a seller? Do you think eBay will experience a resurgence in the near future?

[byrd69er]

In my area, estate sales are now multi-estate sales, but they don't advertise it like that.

They combine a new estate sale with all of the bleep that didn't sell at the last six sales. Now this sale has loads and loads of leftover bleep.

Tables and tables of glassware and common tools , enough  christmas ornaments to decorate Central Park, piles of beenie babies, workout equipment to the ceiling, multiple coffee makers and bread making machines, 50 pairs of shoes, four wheel barrows, six G. Foreman grills.

This is one estate? Wow.

Exit.

[kelekt]

I meant "my daughters friends in their 20s" not her 20 friends LOL

[bach4231]

I live in Nashville, exactly the same here. Seems to be a trend.
What’s ridiculous too is the huge prices and then big markdowns last day(and a lot of stuff still doesn’t sell), if they priced them fairly to begin with, probably would’ve made a lot more profit.

[bach4231]

Exactly , and the estate sales where I live are full of what looks like rather new overpriced run of the mill mass produced staging furniture, artwork, knickknacks... it’s really bizarre.

[heyyoufoundit]

My sales have tanked too. I think demand has fallen, but its more about saturation and oversupply of product. No 'thrill of the chase' anymore for collectors searching for items.

Still see collectibles selling at decent prices on other auction house sites though, probably because the buyers don't have to wade through as much **bleep**..., but I don't agree with those that say ebay is hiding items, turning off sales etc., when I list something here at a bargain price just to get rid of it, it usually gets snapped up pretty quick...probably by another flipper...

[jewelbiz]

But I spend my days wracking my brains what to do......

to no avail.....

I’m old, too old to change much as to my work life I’ve had for my entire life time.

It all used to be fine but not now.

No answers!

[bach4231]

I’m not sure it’s a common occurrence, but I’ve read complaints on here that the buyer listed on eBay the purchased item before the seller even shipped it!
And ITA if one missed out on a good buy too bad, that’s not the actual value of the item.

[vintageantique77]

I agree. Sometimes you have to get things so cheap, as to "flip the flipper" of sorts....Pass the buck.
I still find the occasional "STEAL" on here, though. It's pretty rare these days. You have to be there RIGHT when it's listed - for instance the vintage telephone market. I swear there is someone sitting there 24hrs a day just cruising the new listings. they ALWAYS snap them up!!!!!

[coolections]

I doubt there is really a cure for market saturation with the internet explosion and so many sites to sell on. As long as there is unemployed, retired folks, working moms, homeless and disabled people selling to make buck, there is no cure for saturation. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.

[vintageantique77]

I'm sure that has happened!

The only issue with selling things of value cheaply on here is that uneducated buyers use eBay as a source of what they should pay for items. I guess it's sort of an ignorant way to handle business, but it's just the way the herd mentality has set the pace.

[chapeau-noir]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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@vintageantique77 wrote:
I personally still LOVE vintage items, but I like to get them cheap. I even love it more when I find them for next to nothing!
I don't go to estate sales to pay $40 for a pyrex dish....I'm trying to get it for like 4$ or maybe a little more.

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Me, too! I don't buy them to collect, I buy them to USE daily, and they're impossible to find anymore in the thrift stores because...they're all listed for sale online.

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Bingo.  It's getting harder and harder for me to find even contemporary to sell, between acquisition prices and the big thrifts putting their best stuff online (I can't blame them, they don't exist to be inventory resources for people  like myself) or raising prices to over eBay levels (while ebay levels are dopping).  The little thrifts are even more expensive because there's no such thing as "they don't know what they have" because ebay, Etsy and Amazon are only a few keystrokes away and they do check everything.

I'm seeing a spin-down on this whole reseller scenario, a repeat of what @southern*sweet*tea described happening to vintage/collectible availability only in acquisition of inventory as well as selling.  I don't sell much vintage anymore, I used to sell it regularly then moved it to Etsy (but Etsy has taken a real nosedive if you're not selling cheap n' cheerful, shipping it for free with 20% off and paying for ads to do it - it's worse than here, believe me).  FWIW, I'm in my mid-60s and have never been a collector save of books (which I read) - it has to be something I use, like Pyrex (which is popular) - many in my generation never got the collector bug but man, we have this stuff from our folks!

[joesoucie22012]

Except, try to find one in like new condition with it's original dust jacket in same condition. Those are still scarce.......

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@joesoucie22012 wrote:

Except, try to find one in like new condition with it's original dust jacket in same condition. Those are still scarce.......

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Very true about the dust jacket. Most are non-existent. Or the commemorative Betty Crocker with the slipcase - I've got a commemorative listed without the slipcase...sure wish it did have the slipcase!

It's really, really hard to find old cookbooks in like new condition, because they were actually used daily in real life in the kitchen, and food accidents happen in the kitchen. When you do find them like new, you're gonna pay for it lol

[wastingtime101]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

The one thing that made Ebay great is that anyone can be a seller. The one thing that makes Ebay bad is that anyone can be a seller. That's why we're at the point we are today.

Yes, everything is flooded, and that's great for vintage buyers, but not so much for vintage sellers.

The gate has been opened, the horse has escaped and he ain't coming back, thanks to the internet.

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Tell that to all the sellers stuck in 1999 who refuse to adapt and want eBay to revert backwards. Without the mega sellers and the new items this place wouldn't stay afloat. This is a large publicly traded company and you can't go that far back focusing on inventory that's saturated in a market with declining demand.

Could some other company pop up as a market for vintage that is selective about sellers they approve based on the quality of items and listings? Yeah, I can see the potential for that to work on a small scale. Sellers won't see sales like they used to be when selling online was something very few attempted and everything posted at auction sold on the first go with multiple bidders. Not for no-longer-hard-to-find vintage items, at least.

Today anybody can download dozens of apps with a touch of the screen, all dedicated to selling. Anybody can flood the market with the contents of their house, their grandpa's house, whatever. We even have apps to give stuff away for free just to get rid of stuff without putting it in the landfill. Buyers choices are limitless.

There's no going back no matter how much people beg eBay. Adapt to the current market or move on. People don't have to like the choices but life is full of lousy decisions.

[chapeau-noir]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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@joesoucie22012 wrote:

Except, try to find one in like new condition with it's original dust jacket in same condition. Those are still scarce.......

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Very true about the dust jacket. Most are non-existent. Or the commemorative Betty Crocker with the slipcase - I've got a commemorative listed without the slipcase...sure wish it did have the slipcase!

It's really, really hard to find old cookbooks in like new condition, because they were actually used daily in real life in the kitchen, and food accidents happen in the kitchen. When you do find them like new, you're gonna pay for it lol

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That's definitely the magic of ephemera.