DECEMBER SALES

[honestabe411]

How's everyone SALES going this Holiday season?

I am down 30% less than last year. On average I sell 10-15 items a day. A low day is usually around 7, and high can be around 22 items. 

Yesterday, 4 items, and today only 1 so far. Seems like a horrible holiday season for small US sellers this season. I've heard the same from a few sellers, but I am sure there are some with great SALES this season!

I genuinely hope SALES are great for everyone! But again, how are your sales this year compared to last?

My last 31 days has dwindled down slowly and slowly this December. Probably he worst month this year. 

2 years ago I had 600 listings and made about double what I do now with 1,400 listings... hmmm

Maybe I'm in another blackout or something, but it does cause some anxiety as always when SALES are down. But I REALLY expected December to  be booming! Maybe everyone is saving for presents?

[lemarcheaupuces]

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@allstar-comics wrote:

My store is small 1500 s ft retail comic/toy store  We have those antique malls here and I have to disagree with you  Several have gone under and the only people who make money are the owners who operate it  You are not going to get the same type of traffic a online venue like ebay can generate with a indoor antique mall  Most of the people in those places are selling out and dumping what is ebayable into the doezens of local auctions that have sprng up  Those are full of all the **bleep** nobody can sell .  Glassware, beanie babies, 1990's toys, bulk comic books, endlessmediocre furniture and all the rejects (damaged/incomplete/poor condition collectibles

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not sure what we disagree on???...

that is what i exactly said.

the owner/operator makes the money.

i referred to a friend (antiques shop owner) racking up $20000 in rent alone, every month...

this is how most in this area stay open/survive.

re-read what i replied to you...

you totally misunderstood my post...

as for the indoor fleamarkets.

it is irrelevant what they offer...

they are very popular in this area.

another one just opened in ABQ.

they are more popular than Antique Shops.

because they are cheap.

people go there to buy furniture, home decor, pots and pans......

it is incredible the junk that sells there.

me i go there to find ebay items.

last time i bought a Sterling James Avery cross pendant, a Sterling Scandinavian pendant, a Royal doulton Figurine, a Josef Originals Fig... all under $10...

and that was just from 1 vendor...

already sold 3 of them on ebay...

i love these stores, just love them...

to each his own i guess...

[allstar-comics]

You are correct  I am in Florida and not south Florida where there is old money  Most of Florida sucks unless you have money already  Yes we have no state income tax  yes we have no snow  .  But jobs here are non existent or pay squat  Florida lost decent agricultural jobs with NAFTA and high land taxation.  never had industrial jobs (no unions here) Its all low paying service jobs, and even **bleep**pier retail jobs.  Obamacare wiped out full time for those jobs so even those folks got screwed Here we have tons of open retails spaces sitting and retirees with money are dumping their extra junk not buying more.   Basically my customers have very little disposable income and its never going to get better  On the plus side keeping a brick and mortar store I can buy a ton of great inventory for pennies on the dollar and that keeps me doing it

[rock-rollcafe]

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@bennynv wrote:

We are just selling discontinued and closeout items on here. 

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Thus the reason why sells have fallen off a cliff. Each year Ebay gets worse and worse as sellers raise their prices above the market demand, sell closeout, discontinued, and refurbished items and factory seconds. Buyers are tired of buying junk and having to make returns. Eventually they don't come back so of course sells keep getting less and less each year.

Also babyboomers are the collectors and are getting old enough they are downsizing and no longer buying those vintage items like they used to. The under 50 crowd doesn't care about grandmas overpriced cookwear and trinkets. The new breed of collectors want the vintage video games and such, not the stuff most sellers are offering they found at thrift stores.

[bubbleman2010]

ymeagain they also need milk you just can't imagine the hugemanatee I have to deal with. ebay has made this such a wonderful place to have discussions if they upgrade to the next level it will probably be cans and strings or smoke signals...

[ymeagainlord]

and a ruler to rap posters over the knuckles?

[allstar-comics]

I dont disagree a all  Yeah we have a lot of that type of store  but the economy is so terrible in Florida that eveybody is a picker  Here you into Target and half the people have smart phones looking up every clearance item to see if they can make a buck.  This economy is brutal  Here the auctions and thrift stores are full of picked over **bleep**

There is a huge massive flea market Webster.  Might be the largest in the South .  Used to be you would go there  and the place would be packed with vendors with quality antiques and collectibles  Yeah a lot would be ebay price or even make believe fairy tale price  Now no customers, half the vendors and the vendor stalls are fiilled with rubbish.

I think everybody nees to realize things are changing  Business is getting tougher and more competetive.  Ebay back in 1997-2002 was a gold mine.  People stuck in their ways didnt want to embrace it  I was buying from dealers weekly who were so old school they woudnt even try ebay  .  Times are different , everybody and their brother is trying to ake exgtra bucks online and the customers have increased to absorb all this inflow of inventory

Were all going to face that same thing  Ebay and online selling is changing.  Its my belief that soon if not already you will not be able to make consistent money selling anything that can be easily sourced from a wholesaler  Too many folks doing it and all racing each other to the bottom.  You have to find items with high margins that are not readily available.  Too many idiots that thing if you sell a thoussand items at a loss or little profit it somehow morphs into making money.  I cringe at some of the stuff i see that is brand new that people are dumping below wholesale thinking they are making money  Those ebay/paypal/shipping fees add up quick

[timemachine777]

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@runaround1111 wrote:

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@timemachine777 wrote:

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All I said was that this was my totals for those months last year. I never said how or why. 

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That is not all you said. You said your totals are strange and Ebay does something to cause those totals to be strange. You said when you get strange numbers like that you call Ebay then you can have sells again. If you call Ebay and your sells magically start back up then there is an obvious assumption on your part that either Ebay will not allow buyers to buy more from you, or that Ebay hides your listings until you call and complain. Which is it ? Ebay hides your listings, or Ebay does not allow buyer to buy your items when they see them ?

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OK, lets put it in context. This  is the entire section of the post that covers the sales pattern that I outlined. I don't see where in the original post that I stated anything about calling eBay and then sales started up again. The 2nd copy below shows my response to you, where I stated that I called eBay in regards to the sales total pattern, and that it would have continued if I didn't call them. 

I say it yet again...Do you READ the posts before you comment on them?

[To account for the variables, you use controls. when I see patterns that are uniformed in a way that appear created, it raises red flags for me. For example last summer on this account my monthly sales were as followed: Jun 21, July 11, Aug 22, Sept 12, Oct 23, Nov 13. Every other month, sales were up by one. The pattern 21, 11, 22, 12, 23, 13. is not a natural monthly selling pattern because it's way too uniformed in a split pattern. 

Nobody can in all honesty say that there is nothing wrong with having a selling pattern like that. If a pattern appeared like that on the stock market, the market would crash because investors would claim that the market is rigged. Investors collect market data constantly to determine when to buy and sell. Some have a better read on the patterns than others. Example: Warren Buffet...The Oracle of Omaha.]

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@runaround1111 wrote:

So your new theory as to why you get no buyers is Ebay only lets buyers see your stuff on the 11th,12th,13th, then again on 21st,22nd,23rd ?

Do you actually read the post before commenting on them? 

Those numbers are the monthly sales totals in order, from Jun to Nov. It would have continued if I didn't call eBay in Dec to report it.

[sakic92710]

I found all of fall to be pretty lousy with a couple of good weeks thrown in.  The last 6 days - 3 sales; all on Saturday.  I have many interesting listings where there is zero competition yet, they still sit there.  Fixed price with best offer options. No offers???  Keep trying to find best online options.  2017 will see an improvement?  Good luck to all!  Enjoy your holidays.

[timemachine777]

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@fern*wood wrote:

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@timemachine777 wrote:

It depends on what you collect and look at that will give you some insight as to market trends, and a host of other answers. I'm a pattern person. I can naturally spot patterns in a lot of things. Patterns can be natural or unnatural (created). Patterns tell us a lot about the cause and effect of real life events, and that's why data is so valuable. eBay is a data hog and collects massive amounts of it. They look for patterns. 

To account for the variables, you use controls. when I see patterns that are uniformed in a way that appear created, it raises red flags for me. For example last summer on this account my monthly sales were as followed: Jun 21, July 11, Aug 22, Sept 12, Oct 23, Nov 13. Every other month, sales were up by one. The pattern 21, 11, 22, 12, 23, 13. is not a natural monthly selling pattern because it's way too uniformed in a split pattern. 

Nobody can in all honesty say that there is nothing wrong with having a selling pattern like that. If a pattern appeared like that on the stock market, the market would crash because investors would claim that the market is rigged. Investors collect market data constantly to determine when to buy and sell. Some have a better read on the patterns than others. Example: Warren Buffet...The Oracle of Omaha.

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You chastised me for not reading your post, and I took your word for it that I missed where those sales numbers were from last year, but I still don't see it in there. I know you said it later on but I responded before that.  

Again, that wasn't the most important part of my post, but it was the only point you responded to.  I asked what did you report to ebay when you called about the pattern?  How does your new theory of sales right before your fees are due make sense after seeing your own sales numbers from last year?  

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I stated last summer not this summer. As to reporting the pattern. I call the advanced selling dept. and got the Asian call center. Before I could really address the issue, the rep transferred me to a supervisor in the Austin Tx US call center. All I did was ask her what could have caused a sales pattern like that. She stated that in her 8 yrs at eBay, she never saw any account with a pattern, let alone one like that. She stated that she wanted to escalate it and forward it to upper management also. That was it.

[timemachine777]

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@allstar-comics wrote:

You are correct  I am in Florida and not south Florida where there is old money  Most of Florida sucks unless you have money already  Yes we have no state income tax  yes we have no snow  .  But jobs here are non existent or pay squat  Florida lost decent agricultural jobs with NAFTA and high land taxation.  never had industrial jobs (no unions here) Its all low paying service jobs, and even **bleep**pier retail jobs.  Obamacare wiped out full time for those jobs so even those folks got screwed Here we have tons of open retails spaces sitting and retirees with money are dumping their extra junk not buying more.   Basically my customers have very little disposable income and its never going to get better  On the plus side keeping a brick and mortar store I can buy a ton of great inventory for pennies on the dollar and that keeps me doing it

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I got stuck spending 3 months down in Fort Lauderdale during the summer, when I was a kid, and I hated it. It was as flat as the eye could see, and all the houses were painted in pastels with flat top roofs. I did like Key Biscayne a little. 

[fern*wood]

"I stated last summer not this summer."

When I speak in this month of December and speak of summer, I say last summer.   So me not getting that you using "last summer" didn't refer to the summer that just passed warranted you making a point of asking me if I even read your post?   How nice of you.   

Thanks for letting me know what the rep said about your sales pattern.  I wish I could have seen their face.

[timemachine777]

Just a difference of semantics I guess. I do know she was perplexed, based on the tone of her voice and her comments. She was also doing a lot of typing even though I didn't get to say much, since she was reading notes left by the other CS rep that outlined the call and reason for the transfer. 

[gratescape]

Right now i'm down over 20%, looks pretty dismal. Hopefully lots of people spend their Xmas money on here.

[rock-rollcafe]

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@timemachine777 wrote:

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Do you actually read the post before commenting on them? 

Those numbers are the monthly sales totals in order, from Jun to Nov. It would have continued if I didn't call eBay in Dec to report it. 

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Yes, I do and nothing makes sense at all. So you say by calling the customer service the sells magically allowed you to get sells again. Did they say why you did NOT have sells in the first place ? Did they turned you off, didn't allow buyers to buy your stuff ? Did they hide your items ? Did they say your items are over priced compared to others selling the same things ? You never answer serious questions but ramble about the same patterns that mean nothing.

[thevintagesilvershop]

Well, I am having a dismal December.  Not just Ebay, either, but all venues.  I sell vintage and collectible items.  Here's my history over the past few years for December (numbers rounded to nearest thousand except for 2016):

2012: $17,000

2013: $16,000

2014: $11,000

2015: $13,000

2016 Dec to date:  $3,500

Worst December I've had in more than a decade.