Critical Low Sales

[diverse_tattoo_supply]

Since after covid for the last few years my slaes fell over 85% Ive thrown away at least 8 thousand dollors in expired inventory in the last 2 years. Fell behind on all my bills Basically had to cancel TV service degrade my phone to lower pricing, and a bunch of other things I had to do.. And now I am struggling to pay mortgage, and thinking now about selling my home. Iv'e invested my life into this business sinse 2008. Things are getting really bad I hope there is some kinda of turn around, but a doubt it.  And also I tried everything like Promotion Coupons, and offer buy two for lower price, just enough not to lose any money doing it.  It somewhat seem to help a little bit but not enough to bail me outa of this mess. I used to make 12,000 to 15,000. a month on average, and during the busy season I've made up to 20,000. in a month. I been tring to invest what little money I have into other things. My heart goes out to all who are going throgh the same things with sales. Sadly Tony

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

I hear you man. It's true that inflation or hyper-inflation and the economy and war has played a small part. 98% of the problem is eBay and the shot callers that are temporarily employed there. If they could just go play golf and stop playing with the site and return it to it's better state. If they must tinker with it, they could stop trying to squeeze sellers and bring in more buyers. I used to look for things to sell on eBay, now I would put it on FBM or CL. 

[coolections]

Sorry for your problems. I cannot phantom anyone who averaged $12,000 to $20,000 a month getting so far behind in bills. Hope things pick up for you.

[onefootflipper1]

From what I understand lots of tattoo places went bankrupt in recent years. I would seriously consider trying to bulk onload anything you have left with an expiration date and pivot into a second specialty that is more recession proof.

[mike_jayroe]

Best of luck to you. Hope things pick up quickly.

I am selling just to get rid of things I don't want anymore. I am retired and thankfully SSA pays me enough I can pay bills on time. 

[miyasamaco]

I'm sorry to hear this but it's not going to improve on here. I used to do very well on eBay as just a side gig. After the sudden, abrupt change a few years ago, my sales suddenly and catastrophically stopped. It was most certainly an on purpose thing that happened to too many of us.

After losing so much, I realized that eBay intentionally changed for the worst. I closed down my store and moved on. It was awful to have that dependable income suddenly disappear, but I  couldn't hold out hope of better days. 

This is an ugly pattern repeating itself on the various reseller sites. Good luck.

[luxgoods]

Don't worry the CEO of ebay recently told the shareholders that he is planning "Magical Innovations" . That should fix everything!

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Many sellers on Ebay and all the other marketplaces are experiencing slower sales than in the past.

Many new sellers continue to become sellers on these online marketplaces, and only a few are truly qualifying sellers. Anything you have had any success with is being identified so that new sellers can compete with you, and me and most of the others who post.

The buyers are definitely being affected by the economy.

There are those who are only buying things they need.

There are others who have trouble paying for what they need.

There are still buyers who can buy everything they want, but there are many sellers who are trying to get their business by lowering prices (p*ssing in the soup).

[coolections]

Sorry to tell you but the CEO told "shareholders" he will fix Ebay's income. That actually has nothing to do with individual sellers getting things sold. That is up to the sellers to do that, not Ebay.

[cardxcraft]

I've mentioned here several times: Goldman Sachs has a recession occuring before the end of 2023 at 25%.  What we're experiencing now is the proverbial relative calm before the storm...we may not even go full on recession, but regardless, its sure to be some difficult times in the next 1.5 to 2 years.  

If we don't learn our lessons, collectively: welfare state, overspending, fed printing too much money it may get worse.  A record high 1 trillion usd in credit card debt says we haven't. 

What happens here in the USA reverberates throughout the fabric of  the global economy.  

Just something to keep in mind as we wonder what's going on with our Ebay sales.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@diverse_tattoo_supply 

Tony, your not alone in this. Today a report on the financial channel stated people in the US put 138b on their credit cards last year. Now the rising interest rates are going to create a real mess.

    If Tatoo supplies are all you deal with, get your ebay business card out there in ink magazines,  shops and such.

    Another poster suggested to expand into other items as well, maybe Rock concert tee shirts or some framed band pictures.

     I do wish you well.

[chapeau-noir]

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@cardxcraft wrote:

I've mentioned here several times: Goldman Sachs has a recession occuring before the end of 2023 at 25%.  What we're experiencing now is the proverbial relative calm before the storm...we may not even go full on recession, but regardless, its sure to be some difficult times in the next 1.5 to 2 years.  

If we don't learn our lessons, collectively: welfare state, overspending, fed printing too much money it may get worse.  A record high 1 trillion usd in credit card debt says we haven't. 

What happens here in the USA reverberates throughout the fabric of  the global economy.  

Just something to keep in mind as we wonder what's going on with our Ebay sales.

---

NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs' Chief Economist Jan Hatzius said on Monday the bank was cutting its probability that a U.S recession will start in the next 12 months to 20% from an earlier 25% forecast.

"The main reason for our cut is that the recent data have reinforced our confidence that bringing inflation down to an acceptable level will not require a recession," he said in a research note.

Market expectations of a so-called hard landing - a scenario in which the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes tip the economy into a recession - have been recently challenged by data showing slowing consumer and producer price inflation in June. Slowing inflation would likely lead to a more dovish monetary policy going forward.

Meanwhile, economic activity has remained resilient, despite significantly higher borrowing costs since the Fed started its rate-hiking campaign in early 2022.

So 80% chance of no recession at this time.

If you mean the welfare state of the ultra-rich getting a huge tax break that piled up the deficit, yes, that's a problem.

[cardxcraft]

no, exactly what a welfare state is; and not your liberal definition.   These are facts.  Do not ignore reality for the sake of your political views.  

Btw, your definition of a welfare state is ridiculous...your emotions rule.

[powell-memorabilia]

I wouldn’t plan my life around what economist predict. Have you ever seen how poor their predictions are? A lot of smart folks, sure, but groupthink is pervasive. Does anyone remember the predictions of $200 per barrel oil?  Investment banks used to tell us that natural gas would not ever be consistently below six dollars per MMBtu now, that would be seen as extremely expensive.

[chapeau-noir]

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@cardxcraft wrote:

no, exactly what a welfare state is; and not your liberal definition.   These are facts.  Do not ignore reality for the sake of your political views.  

Btw, your definition of a welfare state is ridiculous...your emotions rule.

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LOL - it worked!

ETA: I'll stop teasing you now.