2021 compared to 2020

[keziak]

I was emailing with a friend who has a large Ebay and Amazon business selling, in part, books and media like I do. I said that I am currently selling a lot of the same ilk as last year but having a harder time attracting bids on auctions. His opinion was that last year lots of stuff sold online due to people staying home and out of stores.

Do you agree with that assessment? Or does it always just boil down to offering what people want, never mind societal factors? I know many of you consider auctions a poor way to sell but they have loomed large in my business.

[chapeau-noir]

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@keziak wrote:

Right. It's auction listing day for me and I sit asking myself what of anything I have are actually of interest to potential buyers, or is it a case of wasting time and listing feels listing stuff just because I have it? 

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I feel like that a lot!

[coastaltechsolution]

I know that feeling

Best way to look at it is cannot hopefully sell it if it isn't listed  

No guarantee on the sale 😁 

[femmefan1946]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

EBay gives us a comparison for sales which to my thinking is very misleading.

Comparing the previous 31 days to the current 31 days, is too short a time period, but worse the period keeps moving.

So if you  sold $5000 on October 6  then averaged $100 a day for the rest of the period, your 31 days on Nov. 6 would  be $8000.

But by Nov 7. with that fabulous one-off day in the past. the 31 days would only be $3100.  A huge drop-- back to normal.

I try to ignore those because I can go from 50% better to 7% less from any given day to any given day.

@keziak 

Same boat here.
My big annual purchase is the Times-Colonist Book Sale which fills a curling rink for three days. People line up from 5am for the 9am opening.

But they were cancelled last year  and this.

The thrift stores are not great for books however, I was able to pivot to sewing patterns and that has been the saving grace.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@femmefan1946   I agree 100%. I've looked at ebay's Seller School programs on traffic and sales stats, and ---unless I missed a course or two LOL---they really just tell you basics--here's where you find the report, etc---but they don't provide information on how to best interpret the data. Harry Temkin, the guy who was in charge of setting this stuff up, came from a background of supplying data to stock analysts----guys who are trained and experienced in "reading" graphs and interpreting data. The average ebay seller doesn't have that kind of background, and ebay doesn't provide the context sellers need to understand what is actually important and what isn't.

And, your example is especially true for smaller sellers....many of us don't really sell enough to see real trends, especially short term....

[keziak]

I skipped book sales this Fall. The big sales were advertised as downsized and/or in small spaces. Plus capacity limits. I knew this meant that I would be in the line of people who did NOT get in at first - I would bet good money that the "usual" crowd would get in first and have a party with less competition. Not good for my blood pressure. 

Oh well! Feeling sorry for myself seeing my auctions go down in flames tonight, and other "good" stuff with few views. 

I told myself sternly that if I stop with all the auctions I would have gobs of time to list on Amazon so do that and stop thinking about what sales SHOULD be like here . 

[katzrul15]

@keziak 

The inventory you have been listing on here vs Amazon - is it viable for Amazon or better suited here?

Could you focus more on Amazon, stop doing auctions on here and focus on e-Bay as FP long-tail only, get a sale when you get one and focused more on Amazon on the regular sales?

Just seems like you want this rectangular peg to fit into the e-Bay round peg and it is not working, only frustrating you?

[craigstevensstudio]

very true.... covid money being paid to people stimulated the economy.  add to that that everyone was stuck at home, add to that, ebay has been treating sellers like crap, other sites have stepped up and ebays business is being syphened off.   the covid money spickett has been turned almost off as well.   bottom line, this year will see a dramatic reduction in ebay sales revinue.   (here me now, believe me later....)

[keziak]

Yep yep, that is really what I need to do, been skewing that way more lately.  Tons to list on Amazon. I also have a lot to list at auction and maybe should just wait on that until after the holiday season=competition. It's just that the thought of my income from ebay crashing makes me kinda nervous! Not that anyone hear wants to be my shrink.

[femmefan1946]

I have about 150 books listed on  Amazon.

But they sell here.

I spend more time on AZ removing books sold on eBay than listing or selling.

Plus they are really difficult when I find a 1960s First Edition from a popular writer who didn't hit for a few years after the book came out. Easy to find in the 1990 paperback, but scarce as the hardcover first.

[keziak]

Different kinds of books sell on either Ebay or Amazon, with some limited overlap. I finally got to 1000 books on ebay in my store but I am more likely to remove them when the books sell on Amazon though the vice versa happens some.

There is consternation on the Amazon board right now among sellers of antiquarian books because suddenly you have to include the manufacturer's sale price when listing. How is one to know that for, to use your example, the 1960's first edition of a book?