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Has anyone tried listing their items somewhere other than on ebay? I have been on ebay for 24 years and am not getting the attention I used to get. 80,000,000 ebay members and not one view on some items?!
25 comments
Has anyone tried listing their items somewhere other than on ebay? I have been on ebay for 24 years and am not getting the attention I used to get. 80,000,000 ebay members and not one view on some items?!
christworks
·5 months ago@julesdon I sell lots of places. eBay is still king and I expect they will be for many, many years to come. Your problem isn't the platform you are on, it is what you are selling. There is little demand for those things and still a lot of competition from other sellers who have been around for a long time and refuse to do anything differently.
Your other problem is that you are overpriced. For instance, your item titled, "Vintage Cast Iron Match Holder Safe Bug Fly" has some market for it. The all-in price is around $30 - that's the item price + shipping. You are priced at $75. Why is yours worth $75 and the others are worth $30? There may be a reason, and if there is you need to tell buyers. If not, you need to lower your price if you want it gone.
kibble-net
·5 months agoIn 24 years, trends have shifted.
Sadly, the generation that is most likely to buy ceramic plates and collectibles is passing on.
Why not explore a new niche?
sakic92710
·5 months agoeBay is a ghost town for many sellers. More than 90% of my listings has 0-5 views & most of those are 0-3. I have several ads on Marketplace & many, many views. It does not lead to as many sales as I would like. Between April 1-3, I sold 10 MP ads & 1 eBay item. From the 4th to today, I've sold nothing! 4 straight days.
jundedh2012
·5 months agoSame, my sales have slowed to a crawl. My views have tanked too, I've tried unpromoting and it doesn't seem make much of a difference at least for me. I m hoping sales pick up again
onefootflipper
·5 months agoI see a lot of issues here.
First is that most of the items you have listed is in longtail categories that are in long term decline as their fanbase unfortunately dies off. Putting these on other sites will not help you very much as the average user age of the other similar websites is much younger than the average user age of ebay.
Second, none of those other sites get a fraction of ebay's traffic. My main youtube sponsor is a crosslisting software and it works great, however 90 percent of my sales are still on ebay.
MOST of the other resale sites are pretty clothing focused.
You are selling postcards that could ship ebay standard envelope for 73 cents but for some reason you are forcing package shipping for $7.70.
Just glancing at your listings I can see that you are listing things at much higher prices than I would. The only item I actually price checked was that Vanilla bear, only one sold in recent history and it sold for half your asking price and your photos of that bear need to be redone, they are dark and shadowy and look bad in the thumbnail. Put him on a solid colored background and make sure he is well lit.
I would also suggest turning on offers on that Wilkie Collins set if they are not already on. Also retitling it to use a variation of the title on the only sold set in recent history. Yours is much nicer and it was missing one volume. Yet for some reason they chose that one over yours. I think anyone looking for a Wilkie Collins set will already know they are antique detective books and someone browsing for that phrase is not going to impulse buy a $400 set.
THE WORKS OF WILKIE COLLINS 30/30 Volumes Peter Fenelon Collier 1880/1900
julesdon
OP5 months agoI don't know why ebay has my postcards going so high for shipping, when my ads clearly states $2.00 shipping; I usually use padded envelopes
jonathanbrightlight
·5 months agoYour listings do not clearly state $2.00 shipping, because you configured them with USPS Ground Advantage shipping, calculated at $7.97:
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months ago@julesdon Your boy with two pumpkins card is now $1.50 USPS Ground Advantage.
No need to fix it properly,
I sell a few postcards. They are selected to appeal to collectors other than postcard collectors. I do not use ESE. I ship via GA packed in a 4 x 6 rigid shipped in a stayflat mailer.
I do not list cards which sell to post card collectors because they are too inexpensive for my labor.
I will not use ESE because I find it to be an unreliable shipping method, and I refuse to pack in a manner which I feel places the product at risk.
And I would never ship in an envelope with a stamp for postage. All of the same issues as ESE without the possibility of tracking. This means I do not sell items that I expect to get the buyers who like ESE to buy. I put my money where my mouth is.
reallynicestamps
·5 months agoI usually use padded envelopes
Which can be folded to stuff into a narrow slot or small mailbox.
Padding is overrated.
I use cardboard stiffeners for postcards, in a postcard slip and then a paper envelope.
Most are domestic and go untracked with stamps, because exports have to be declared and that take me into tracked parcel territory.
12345jamesstamps
·5 months agoMight want to isolate to a certain category for a bigger audience.
And $8.75 shipping for a post card...when I can mail one for just a forever stamp.
reallynicestamps
·5 months ago...when I can mail one for just a forever stamp.
EBay really pushes tracked shipping.
But frankly on low priced goods it is uneconomic and more importantly, unnecessary.
I can ship domestically for $1.24Cdn but my lowest tracked cost would be $12or so.
Canada Post could lose a lot of my shipments before I lost money on refunding disappointed customers.
And you can even buy discounted US postage on eBay right @12345jamesstamps ?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/167747622261?_skw=postage&itmmeta=01KNMTRZ2SMFBZ56MZNNX8819S&hash=item270e899575:g:v9gAAeSwtjporyAi&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAAwGfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCe8xFfbP6C%2Fy5yAsqSW%2Fs0%2BFu3xNl%2FlleVe4hSbZ%2FxwBb7ADA3kUYatEW6zY3iBAsvgOQb5F2bhCISCDjVhkNAZBQONPzxtgSjKCqOBiqWtmy%2Ff%2F5d6lnd4nutV%2BDdp%2F5dqDdopenWv0Z%2Brc%2FZVHSA8hWW%2BaJN8pXaF0PpcBNiAdOvsy%2FWdbk1YL76yYqrtpcw4bvUUs%2BddnEuzb5iX3VI%2BSn6wHClZ%2BBpZfMJsDZ42g%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8bx45qtZw
12345jamesstamps
·5 months agoSomething is currently going on with ESE.
I have one seller sending me a replacement...the ESE shows no USPS tracking and I have another one with no tracking with USPS arriving late. I think after 2 weeks it is considered late for one stamp bought...😄
The sellers were using ESE but we don't know where the items went.
onefootflipper
·5 months agoThere is nothing "currently going on" with standard envelope. Almost all problems with the system are related to overpacking the envelopes or not printing the labels correctly (I had a few problems when the program was brand new because my label printer was set to too fast of a speed, I slowed it down and the problems instantly vanished).
I have had them seemingly teleport to their destination having never gotten a scan, I have had them vanish out of tracking only to still get positive feedback on the tiem. I have had them go to one side of the country and then back to the other. However that is all the sort of stuff that just happens invisibly to stamped mail anyway.
However there is just no systematic issue going on with them, never has been. There is no functional difference to the postage system between a standard envelope and anything else with printed postage on it. Which is a good chunk of the mail these days.
I have shipped something like 20,000 standard envelopes since the program began, I am in regular contact with card sellers who ship 50 of them per day. I haven't heard a grumble out of any of them for at least 2 years now.
I really only hear about these "problems" from stamp sellers who prefer to use stamps on everything and from people who happen to sell postcards in addition to their other offerings. The people who ship 50+ per day seem to have no complaints at all.
I thought you shipped everything with stamps?
Also, you might not realize this, but do you know what a standard envelope seller does when they can't find the item? They just buy the label anyway and refund when the customer says something. 73 cents and they don't get dinged for an out of stock. That is why you can't cancel them anymore. Those ones in route to you may have never shipped, or could have been overpacked and gotten shredded in the sort machines.
dirk12955
·5 months agoAs a seller who uses primarily ESUS shipping in the USA, I echo the sentiment
that "Something is going on" mentioned by James.
Many of the orders I've shipped are getting delivered visa USPS
without the tracking updating even a single time.
In the last month or 2 my ESUS domestic mail
there's been some taking 2-3 weeks to go a few 100 miles.
Not a packaging issue whatsoever, Simply USPS
not scanning the stuff along the way, Or at all.
onefootflipper
·5 months agoNo ESUS stuff is hand scanned. That sounds like an issue with your local hub's equipment or a general backup. When the mail gets backed up it doesn't process in the order it was recieved, it tends to instead go the exact opposite order as that (they start filling up a big trailer or storage room with overflow and then when they finally start working on it the last stuff that went in there ends up being the first stuff out. None of that would be specific to standard envelope, that stuff is exactly the same to the post office as anything else is. You just don't see it when it is stamps.
12345jamesstamps
·5 months agoThis is being replaced since it never made it to me.
And I also have another missing in action.
I am buying...all those who do not use ESE about 35 sellers this month...got their items in 3-5 days.
julesdon
OP5 months agowow, I did not realize the postcards were listed for $8.75. My listing actually states $2.00
inhawaii
·5 months ago80,000,000 members and not one of them looking at your 60 items?
It's not unusual.
60 divided by 800,000,000 is 0.000000075.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zydIvSDXS7Y
(How do you embed a video here?)
meme6253
·5 months agoYou have some Great items, But I would lower my expectations,The collectible market in almost all genres has been on the decline for awhile now & the market has become saturated leaving those interested in these types of items with an overwhelming amount of choices, Then throw in the low consumer confidence & The cost of everyday goods, Hang in there your not doing bad.
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months agoGiven the type of items you are selling, and their limited appeal to the masses, I think that your sales over the past 90 days are impressive. Admittedly, some of the prices you have sold at are well below what a dealer who bought in days when there were more collectors would have paid for the item.
I frankly do not believe that there is another venue as good as Ebay for you to be selling your items on. But you can try Etsy vintage for a few bottom feeding buyers.
I do not believe that most of your auctions are the appropriate way to list in the 21st century, but you might, from time to time, actually have two competing buyers.
I am loath to recommend buying more of the types of item you have listed, but if you own more, list more and adjust your expectations of when they are going to sell.
reallynicestamps
·5 months agoI also have sold on the APS site, which is restricted to members, so a smaller audience but dedicated (and wealthy).
Currently the related site I use produces about 10% of my sales.
dirk12955
·5 months agoI tried Bonanza and it was a waste of time for me.
Etsy and I were not a good fit.
Hip stamp? I can buy all day
but couldn't make any sales.
Mercari was a waste of time same as Bonanza.
chapeau-noir
·5 months agoI'm a little surprised that in all this time you've NEVER listed elsewhere? Ever?
It's extremely common to multichannel since with the fragmentation of the market, some things sell better on other sites. Those sites depend on what you're selling, so it's important to do your research.
I was selling elsewhere before I started here in ?2001 or something and have always sold at least a couple of places, with sometimes 50% plus sales coming from elsewhere.
I'm out of the country so closed my shop, but I sell a variety.
Ebay does remain the best multipurpose site, though.
ETA: For what you're selling (slow market) and the small number of listings you have, you seem to be doing quite well, though!
bonanza125
·5 months agoYes Facebook and Etsy. Yeah the demand is probably very low right now.
dirk12955
·5 months agoThe collectibles market has evolved in 24 years. The items I couldn't keep
in stock back in 2000-2005 are now worthless since Gen Z is uninterested
in Collector plates, Hummels, Longaberger baskets as examples.
Anybody remember Beanie Babies?
What was thriving market on ebay 10 years ago
in my case has become a struggle. The buyer (If interested at all)
has too many choices to pick from.
I was researching a stamp yesterday and found an example
of what I wanted list on ebay for $1.10 shipping included.
That's my competition. How about YOUR (The OPs)
competition? How they doing? Any sales?
My youngest is 25 and she collects none of the traditional
things that people have always collected.
Some niches are thriving, Some are not.