Seller thinking of quitting!
I have been selling for a year now. It has been fun but I am just not making a profit. I'm finding such nice and neat items to sell. Buyers looking but don't want to pay fair price. Only a small small percent buy and don't try to get me way down on price. I'm very discouraged! I messaged a potential buyer what I had paid for an item they sent a bid for and what I would be getting paid if I sold it for that price. I'm not into giving away items that I've paid for! I set my price according to others so I'm selling at a fair price. Buyer's are adding the shipping into items and not seeing it is the additional expense in getting the item. Just as with ordering online with anyone, the shipping is additional. Any advice from other sellers? Thanks!
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks for help! I appreciate it!
fashunu4eeuh
·1 year agoHi @leenor51
You have been holding your own for a year now. Selling online is not an easy gig yet you are managing the challenges and have built a strong foundation. It would be a shame not to build on it.
Before throwing in the towel, i think there are some changes you could employ that could help. With just a bit of tweaking of your titles, and thru judicious use of keywords, i believe you can improve traffic and sales.
The goal is to provide as much accurate descriptive information in the listing as possible that will best match the search terms being used by shoppers so they can find your specific items. My concern is that buyers are looking but some may not be seeing your goods because your item did not appear in their Search results due to a lack of keywords.
As sellers we all agree that thinking like a buyer requires us to describe the item from their point of view using basic facts such as brand, color, size, measurements, pattern, age or era, material, style, model etc.
But what is equally important in crafting titles is to avoid using words that will not draw eyes to the listing. Adjectives like “beautiful†or “stunning†wouldn’t be used by buyers to search for goods and therefore do not further sales or traffic to one’s listings. There are only so many characters available in the title and they need to be used to maximum effect.
In this same vein, repeating keywords in a title is also a waste of space. The most pertinent descriptors go in the title, additional keywords can go in Item Specifics and the Description. Below is a link to eBay’s Help page with more info on this that i think would be of much benefit to you.
https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/listings/listing-best-practices
On a different subject, i would suggest removing the blurb from your listings that promises a refund of shipping costs over a dollar difference. Why is this included in your listings? Are you using calculated shipping? Are your listed items weighed and measured so the shipping costs shown to the buyer are correct?
The concern that brought you to the forum is poor profit. Yet you are willing to give away a very modest overage in shipping that may cover your packaging expense. Why is this? Of course it is not appropriate, and against policy, for sellers to profit on inflated shipping costs, but that is not what is happening here.
It boils down to this—Your prices are your prices. You do not need to offer explanations or justifications for them. While commendable to care about costs for your buyers, it is not necessary for you to promise refunds on the possibility of a small overage.
@leenor51 Good luck to you, and hang in there. Please come back anytime you need direction.
az93
·1 year agoTake away best offer, set a price you can live with and wait.
cottagehillvanilla
·1 year agoDon't let slow sales/profits get you down, stay & enjoy the ride. Put your feet on the ground in the morning & say to yourself 'today is going to be a great day'. Buyer's (not all) will send along an offer and as it hits the wall 'see if it sticks'. Thats ok, politely decline, "thank them for their interest", (no explanation needed. They may be back with a full BIN, happens all the time. Shipping cost is one of those entities we cannot control, wishing you the best. ðŸ†
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoThe notion that sellers decide what a fair price might be seems misguided. The market sets the price. There is no fair or unfair. It isn’t a buyer's concern if your markup is 2% or 2000%. Expecting potential buyers to pay whatever price you think is fair just leads to disappointment.
sreu3058
·1 year ago^ ‘low offers’ not ‘lot offers’
gurlcat
·1 year agoYou can edit replies for up to 24 hours using the little menu arrow directly above the date/time.
sreu3058
·1 year agoWell, not everyone goes to garage sales or thrift stores. I never shop these places. So if I want to add to my Mikasa crystal, I go online.
To OP specifically, I personally loathe negotiating back forth for money/ sale, so of course my items are set to ‘no offers’ buy it now, but people still email me with lot offers. I simply state I appreciate their interest, but at this time, with my free shipping included, the price stated remains, thank you.
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks I appreciate help!
ryry-jj
·1 year agoYou have only been at it for a year....that is like a second in business time. Sales are slow all over. Raise prices, relist, take items down that have looks & watchers but haven't sold in the last 30-45 days..with the items you are selling, you are fishing for that one buyer...you need to keep working that line & tossing it into the lake. Remember, you don't have an endless well of inventory on the same products, you are looking for a single buyer on each item, keep fishing.
My wife sells very similar things to what you are selling, and one thing I have figured out about her and her listings, she like shopping for items so much more than selling, that when sales are slow so feels so cant go out and source, lol. I tell her to do what she enjoy! Now I have a garage I cant park a car inside anymore.
leenor51
OP1 year agoThe shopping is fun! Thank for help!
lb23cavaliersmvp
·1 year agoNot trying to be a jerk but I think you need to take a fresh look at what you are trying to sell as well as the number of listings. You have a reasonable variety of items but imo most look dated. In today's market no one is going to pay ~ $100 for a piece of Mikasa cut crystal. Most of your other pieces of glass are less than $20 and are the type of items that can easily be found at yard sales for $5 or less. For what it's worth I would look for more and better places to buy with an eye towards items not easily found. Scanning ebay, since that's where your competition is selling, to identify items that command higher prices might be helpful. Best of luck!
leenor51
OP1 year agoI have stopped going for certain items now. I'm learning to look for what I see is selling and popular. Thanks for help!
gurlcat
·1 year agoTry this. Take 10 or so of your listings (preferably your oldest ones) and end them. Then go to your ended listings page, and one-by-one, do a 'sell similar' on those that you just ended. While you have each listing open, make sure all the item specifics are correct, maybe do a slight price drop, rearrange the photos, or any other tidying up that might need doing. Not that you need to do something to each listing; if any is already perfect then just leave it. The mere act of ending/SS'ing it will give it a new item number and eBay will treat it like a brand new listing, higher in buyers' search results. I just suggest the "tidying" part because it's a good time to kill 2 birds with one stone, so might as well.
If you sell one or more of those items fairly soon after refreshing them, consider doing it to all your listings, or at least any that are over 30 days old.
leenor51
OP1 year agoI do end and relist! Thanks I appreciate your help!
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks for help!
animal-house-8
·1 year agoSorry but my response was send to postcardcountry by mistake it was meant to be for leenor51, not sure why they do not have a edit feature here?
gurlcat
·1 year agoYou can edit by clicking on the little 'down' arrow in the circle, directly above the date/time stamp on the top-right of your reply.
az93
·1 year agoTo edit choose the checkmark on the far right side, just above the seconds
gurlcat
·1 year agoThis doesn't apply to your whole store, but I noticed in a lot of your listings (at least handbags and shoes) you have the word 'CLEAN' in all-caps in the title. -I would leave that out. It might not hurt to mention the cleanliness of those items in the description, but when I see it in a title it has a backwards effect; it conjures the idea of dirty used handbags and shoes. You want buyers to come with the PRESUMPTION of cleanliness, not the bold claim of it, as if it's a special feature. And then of course the photos should affirm the buyer's assumptions of cleanliness, which yours do (they are lovely).
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks for your help!
soh.maryl
·1 year agoAt what local retail store where you shop does the seller tell you how much he paid for that can of pineapple or that package of light bulbs?
leenor51
OP1 year agoI only did this once in trying to confer to the buyer how ridiculous their offer was. Thanks for help!
susanb1872
·1 year agoYou have nice collectibles. But some are not as desirable as they once were like the Fenton and Hazel Atlas so those might take a while. I gave up on silver plate items because young kids do not want Grandma’s silver plate serving dishes. I took all I had to the coin/gold shop and sold it for $1 a pound (I assumed they would melt it.) One suggestion--you have a listing of Corning Ware and Pyr-O-Ray. I would suggest selling those items separate since not all Corning Ware collectors want Pyr-O-Ray.
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks I appreciate it! Buyers go from liking one thing to another out there don't they!
postcardcountry
·1 year agoBuyers will eternally want a better price. For some of them, it's just getting "a deal". Others have the misguided idea that you shouldn't make money on selling an item. (watched a guy "looking up" every item he considered buying because he didn't want to "get ripped off".) Don't let them get to you, they are just part of the business.
I worked regularly for an estate sale company for years. Sometimes we offered 75% off on the last day. $10 item would then be priced at $2.50. People would still ask if we could do any better on the price.
I too use the auto accept / auto reject feature when I accept offers on items. Yes, then I don't see the rejects, just the accepts. I remember having one item a particular bidder went up in 50 cent increments until he hit the accepted amount.
If you are getting "offers" in your messages....I mostly respond "I am unable to accept your offer at this time." Sometimes I get the "your shipping is too high", to which depending on the item my response is "read my feedback. I don't throw the item in an envelope and stick a stamp on it." Others times I just reply "thank you for your comments".
I am confident in my pricing and confident in my shipping costs. You need to build your confidence.
animal-house-8
·1 year agoWe sell about the same things and I generally only use best offer on select items. Never tell buyers what you paid, why would they really want to pay any more than you did unless it was a rare collectible that is not found on ebay. Buyers really do not care about your profit margin they are not going to adjust what they want to pay so you can make a profit just doesn't work well. How are you sourcing your items mostly, thrift stores, auctions? Ebay ad rates I have found you have to be at a min. of 4% and that really doesn't do much. I wouldn't give up yet it's a bad economy right now people are penny pinching just like I am but this creates a great buying opportunity also to acquire items in the future. If your able to take say $15 for an item and make a profit then list it for $15, listing it for $25 BO hoping someone may give you more than you want leads to slow sales it seems like when I tried it.
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks for your help! I only told this one buyer in that buyers are really unreal sometimes. I just voiced it back to this one that I could not accept. Thanks again.
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks for help! Appreciate it!
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks so much for help! I appreciate it!
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoBuyers ... don't want to pay fair price. Only a small small percent ... don't try to get me way down on price.
Best Offer.
Add BO to all your listings, since you are getting offers anyway.
But.
Raise your asking price. You don't have to be the lowest to get the sale. And some consumers feel (not think , feel) that the more they pay the better the item.
Now.
Put automatic Accept/Reject parameters onto your Best Offer.
Say you want to get at least $90 for your doohickey.
List it at $100.
Add Best Offer with an automatic Accept at $90 and an automatic Reject at $89,99.
You will never see the Rejected lowball offers.
The customer gets a very nice Notice from eBay encouraging them to try again.
If you prefer, put the automatic Reject at $75.
This allows you to accept or counteroffer on Offers that come in on slow moving stock.
Another way to use Best Offer is to check your Active Listings for Send Offer-Eligible.
Click on that button and choose to send a Best Offer to viewers and watchers who have considered your item, but who have not yet bid.
I do this, but only use this type of Best Offer on deadstock- items that have been on my shelf "too long". And I am very easy going about what "too long" might mean, since stamps take up very little room. YMMV
leenor51
OP1 year agoThank so much! I appreciate help!
pastimpressions
·1 year agoOh, and also, if I am reading your opening post correctly:
In an effort to explain your prices to a potential buyer you are disclosing your cost?
Please don't do that. If you are? Maybe I misunderstood your opening?
I respect that you are attempting to be honest & transparent.
However, that type of "transparency" is not appropriate for a seller to disclose.
For a variety of reasons, it is unhealthy & unwise.
cardsforauction
·1 year agoSame thing as I thought.
My reply to the OP.
Why are you telling potential buyers the price you paid for the item? That's a big, no. The buyers are just going to want a lower price. Just bad business practice.
Your items are very nice. If you were selling those items years ago I think they would be easily selling, but today they may take a little more time to sell, maybe weeks or months. That's just my opinion, of course.
Good luck on your sales.
leenor51
OP1 year agoI only told the buyer that the amount they offered would be ridiculous for me to accept in what I paid for it. This is why I asked for help from others. This is the one and only time. Thanks for help!
pastimpressions
·1 year agoWell first off.
Hang in there & don't give up. Your items are very nice & your prices are very reasonable.
Secondly, if you have 200+ sales in just over the one-year mark on eBay IMHO you are doing great!
You are doing great with your number of sales, so your issue than is despite solid sales flow your margins are too small to keep you interested in selling. Is that correct?
In that case you can only do one of two things (or both):
A. Seek out/source quality finds at a cost that will give you your desired margin at current asking prices.
B. Raise your prices.
Don't quit. Again, in my very humble opinion a lot of sellers would LOVE to have garnered the volume of sales that you have in only your first year.
Hang in there. Best of Luck. Find the finds that will translate for you!
leenor51
OP1 year agoThanks so much! I appreciate help!