Coronavirus - Are your sales up, down, or no change?

[andrew547]

I'd like to understand how this virus situation is affecting ebay sales generally. I want to see what's happening, figure out what to expect, and survive this thing as a seller. Generally, are people buying on ebay more, less, or no change?

So, are your sales up, down, no change? To what do you attribute it to, if anything?

I'll start. My sales are up significantly the past week or so. I sell things that are not at all related to health or the coronavirus. However, there could be other reasons for the uptick. I got sick a year ago and didn't ship a bunch of orders, and that blew my top seller status and ebay handicapped my listings for a year. I just got top rated seller status back, and that could explain the sales increase.

[jsweet]

I was hoping the economic downturn would lead to more bargains on ebay but so far that has not been the case. Prices on test gear and other equipment seem to be up even higher than usual which has surprised me. Maybe I just need to wait a few months for companies to start going out of business and liquidating.

[drbc1111]

sounds like your are a great ebayer/customer

[herway]

My sales have gone slowly down over the last month, nothing sold for the last 2 days. I know many people in the United States are well off financially and do continue to buy, because they cannot shop at the stores. I would think on-line sales would be better than they are. Just my 2 cents.

[wiseman8899]

I never sold, only bought from eBay, but allow me to give you a buyer's perspective during this COVID19 pandemic.  I had not bought a single item since July 2019 on eBay.  I used to buy a lot via eBay and some are pretty decent orders (in terms of dollar amount).  The problems are it had become extremely unsafe to buy expensive items from eBay, if it was delivered by USPS, even though the delivery confirmation said it was delivered, but quite often it was delivered to the wrong address (one expensive item was delivered to my neighbor who did not tell me until I checked with him).  When that happened, the buyers had no recourse.  If it was delivered by either UPS or FedEx and required a signature and I was not at home, I had to drive to their pick up place far away and in unsafe neighborhood to pick it up.  Not worth the troubles.  It is much easier and safer to order stuffs from Amazon.com who had the best delivery system at this time and their return policy and customer service are much better.

Another problem is those 8% or 10% discount offers from eBay are pain on the neck to use because you never know for sure on which item the offers will work and they often expired in two days, how can any one bid on anything?

Recently, I had received many second offers from many jewelry seller on eBay, on items I had been watching, from 5% - 30% discount but during this strange time, I do not really need more jewelries.  This is reminiscent of 2008-2009 when many gold jewelries and collectibles were sold for peanuts.  With already 17 million unemployed and many expected the number would jump to 43 million I believe many dealers who are selling expensive and luxury collectibles and items may suffer.  Of course, there may be many rich oversea customers who are ready to jump on bargains.  Therefore, any eBay sellers who had survived the last recession may very well survive this one.  A good seller will always survive because their number one goal is their customers and not profit .  Wish all of you good luck.

[moondogblues]

"Unpack with gloves and leave the items out for a few days."

We wipe down with alcohol, move the items to a 'holding' spot, and then use hot water and soap on our hands. So far, so good. The cut up cardboard gets burned.

[hoppe_mik]

Sales have tanked! 80% down hill. 

EBay motors is mostly what I sell in which is considered essential across-the-board. Retail parts stores are prime time right now. 

I do have a bunch of vintage computer items listed that normally would be skyrocketing. 

17K and sales last month down to for 500 this week.  

Time for me to switch gears.

As far as the coronavirus goes it's no different from any other year we've had the coronavirus for almost every year at has the same properties as all the other ones. It's just a liberal economic agenda typical b******* from the left!

[selektabunch]

looks like your stuff is still there--Why would feebay cut your listings?

[turquoisetulips]

That's besides the point of Trump lying stating anyone can have one that wants one! erstaz 

Nobody thinks the president was purposely lying . The new covid virus was just sprung on the whole world suddenly . Facts and information  about it  have been changing rapidly .  CNN reported back in March that the covid 19 was just a simple flu virus and not much to worry about .   However  now that more accurate information  has come in we know that wasn't true.  The president is simply listening to his medical advisors  and is trying to keep us updated as more reliable information comes in. Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

And yes, as was stated above, nobody should ever get their news from this "president". He is not a serious or responsible person. In fact, he - the president of the united states - just 2 days ago, said he takes no responsibility for his administration's response to this disaster. Mind boggling. Incomprehensible. I was going to say he has the mind of a child, but I know children who are more competent than he. andrew 

You do realize that the president has been  receiving  his information and advice  about the covid outbreak from his expert medical advisors,,  correct ? He spoke of this at the recent press briefing yesterday when asked by the reporters . He said he always listens to what they say . Every president in our history has done the same thing concerning their advisors  . However if you want  to blame our president  for the covid 19 deaths  then it's only fair that you also should  blame every world leader  for the deaths in their countries  because this is a GLOBAL epidemic . Otherwise  if you're  saying all this because  of political bias  then  you're just making a bunch  of moot points . Tulips 

[kh-stanley1]

Hello everyone,

Since this thread has once again gotten a way off-topic, please bring the discussion back to Coronavirus - Are your sales up, down, or no change?

Political comment is welcome on The Soapbox, not on Buying or Selling threads.  Further political comment may be removed without notice for breaching:

• Avoid repetitive or disruptive threads and posts.  Members should only post one thread per topic on the most relevant board for the issue or question.  Topics or posts that are disruptive may be removed without notice.

Thanks!

[lostweekendshop]

Amen!

[chapeau-noir]

Some hoax - its killed 100,000 people already.  That's quite a hoax.  I'd say that even exceeds tin hat territory.  ROFL - Even FOX finally dropped the conspiracy theory and got onboard in...what...mid-March.  So we're all pretty well agreed on this from the President on down that it's definitely having an effect on everything.

Some stats from Bloomberg site - B&M retail clothing shopping has dropped 99% due mostly to closure.  However, online, clothing shopping has also dropped. Since I'm in Fashion I'm looking at this particular sector, and there has been a definite knock-on effect even online - my sales have gone for regular and healthy to very few here and there - more on another website where I sell, but it appears that at least in this category, online sales are following offline sales, just not as precipitously.

I'd think people would at least need more tops and shirts for all these webcam meetings but as well, a little goes a long way when you only have to put something decent on the upper half for an online meeting, then can change out of it afterwards. 

[lostweekendshop]

Try not to engage with folks who are determined to make every problem, real or imagined, the direct fault of one political party.

[chapeau-noir]

---

@lostweekendshop wrote:

Try not to engage with folks who are determined to make every problem, real or imagined, the direct fault of one political party.

---

I generally don't, but outright lies bug me and sometimes I just have to squash the bug(s).

At any rate, I'm more interested in discussing how online sales may be tracking offline sales - I had expected less of a cratering than has happened, at least in my sector. 

Odd aside to this - I had to pick up salon supplies from our local salon - they're on lockdown along with everything else here, the little mall where they are located (which is also a town center of sorts with dance hall, etc.) is locked and bolted.  In order to pick up the supplies, I had to arrive, call the owner, who then brought out the supplies in a small brown bag, she was masked and gloved, I was masked, and she handed them around the door.  It felt like some kind of crazy drug deal or something.

Since I live in a tech hub, many people are still working full time, but being based at home, they simply don't need the supplies and services they had before.  It is thought that, at least in this region, it may signal a permanent change in telecommuting habits.

[lostweekendshop]

It's been about a month since the entire nation really started paying attention to this, so I've been using that as my jumping off point to track sales.

First two weeks were slower for sure, but not horrific. Sales have been a bit better than that, and with most of my sources for inventory closing, I haven't been spending nearly as much. 

This past week was the first one that really felt anything close to how sales were over the previous several months. I also started selling on another niche platform last week and have been really enjoying it; only a sale or two a day, but it's so easy to cross-post my eBay listings that there's very little sweat equity needed on that platform thus far.

At any rate, I'm holding strong so far. Again, not being able to source has helped minimize expenses. Right now, sales could go off a cliff and I could be financially OK until later this summer. But then, I live pretty modestly, in part because being self-employed gives me that dose of reality that if things go sideways in the world, I need to be ready to roll with the punches.