OP, I have been saying for years that it appears that ebay has assigned me a quota for sales every month and if I do not add anything different in category or trendiness, I will make around 30 - 35 sales that will bring in about $300-450 a month. That changes if I add something different, or cut back on the number of listings or openly change my listing style, and the change is not always for the better.
To me this makes a whole lot of sense as there are literally thousands of sellers of stuff just like me and if ebay is doing quotas, it means that they are spreading the sales around evenly among every long term seller instead of favoring a few. And so, I have come to depend on the sales ebay is giving me instead of complaining about the ones I don't get.
OP, I took a look at the stuff you have listed (although with your name it's pretty obvious) and you are in luck.....I have been collecting superhero comics since the 70s (over 35,000 of them) and have just about everything you have listed so I know something about the reasons things are happening the way they are for you.
The comic collecting industry has changed drastically from the majority of collectors wanting to complete a collection to now just buying key issues, so the minute your keys are gone and you have not replaced them, then your sales are going to drop - or at least stablize to a level. I have seen this happen to new dealers all the time, they open a store, or set up at a show and at the end of the day, their stock has been picked clean of anything sellable and they are left with stuff that looks good, but has the desirability value of toilet paper. I saw a lot of common stuff in your listings.
The genre is also driven by media marketing. If there is a upcoming movie or tv show coming out, the character is hot and their books and appearances sell, but once the vehicle is released for a week, interest is gone and the sales plummet as the 'collectors' move on to the next 'big thing'.
You are not selling a necessity, you are selling a disposable luxury so sales will also depend on the economy. Obviously you will get more in a good economy and less sales if things tighten up. With the raise in gas prices and the summer approaching, sales are going to drop.
You could open up more stores and that should generate more sales, but I am sure that they too will hit a level - and your sales in your original sotre might drop because of the fewer listings. You might make the other stores category specific, like one with high end books, another with the other stuff, like music mags, and a store with markdown, clearance merchandise. People like the idea of getting something on sale and will often buy something on 'sale' over other offerings of the same item that are cheaper, they see 'sale' and start drooling like Pavlovs dog and hit the buy button. And buyers of high end collectables hate seeing their high end stuff next to common cheap stuff.
Personally, if I were you, I'd start grouping common like comics, like sets of mini series, maybe a year of a title and toss in something to make it more interesting and sell as a group. I would also do some selective pulling of merchandise that can be judged as stale. As a clothing seller, I pull the seasonal stuff when the season is over and then when I relist it 6 months later, it looks fresh, and even more important - ebay thinks it's fresh and fresh gets boosts in search. I'd be pulling comics that have something in production and then relist them once the company starts publicizing the movie/show. That way, you are not losing money to the smart quick flippers who buy really early and sell for much bigger bucks once the frenzy hits.
(*Bleep*)
