eBay

honestabe411 · ‎12-19-2016

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?

timemachine777 · ‎12-19-2016

Dec 2014 39 sales

Dec 2015 16 sales

Dec 2013 5 sales so far this month

What's interesting is how everyone that I know personally, that sell on eBay are keep dropping in sales year over year by roughly 30 to 60%. It looks like the same thing is happening with some of the sellers on this thread.

honestabe411 · ‎12-19-2016

No it's not. I've gotten a few defects removed in the past with no changes to sales.

emerald40 · ‎12-19-2016

@timemachine777 wrote:
Dec 2014 39 sales
Dec 2015 16 sales
Dec 2013 5 sales so far this month

What's interesting is how everyone that I know personally, that sell on eBay are keep dropping in sales year over year by roughly 30 to 60%. It looks like the same thing is happening with some of the sellers on this thread.

I assume you mean 2016, but if some sellers are stating they are doing great, wouldn't that disprove the conspiracy theories and prove that sales are random and sometimes just pure luck that buyers bought from you rather than someone else.

I just bought another box of cards for my husband. I had two sellers who were pretty close, but all I needed was one box of cards.

timemachine777 · ‎12-19-2016

Yes, that was a typo, the clock ran out before I could edit it. It was suppose to be 2016. I've read that some small sellers are doing good, but many of them are claiming that sales for them are still lower than last year. If there was a lot of sellers posting that sales are up this Dec vs past Dec sales, I would agree.

However, the one person here or there, claiming sales are up, vs the numerous sellers that claim that theirs are down, make me side with the former. Plus more and more sellers lately are stating that they are down grading their accounts or closing their stores. Some are even stating that they are done selling on eBay. Some may even be friends of yours on the boards here.

yousave2005 · ‎12-19-2016

16.000$ in sales with 550 items listed, December 2011

2.700$ in sales so far with 2000 items listed, December 2016

same inventory, same pricing

emerald40 · ‎12-19-2016

@timemachine777 wrote:
Yes, that was a typo, the clock ran out before I could edit it. It was suppose to be 2016. I've read that some small sellers are doing good, but many of them are claiming that sales for them are still lower than last year. If there was a lot of sellers posting that sales are up this Dec vs past Dec sales, I would agree.

However, the one person here or there, claiming sales are up, vs the numerous sellers that claim that theirs are down, make me side with the former. Plus more and more sellers lately are stating that they are down grading their accounts or closing their stores. Some are even stating that they are done selling on eBay. Some may even be friends of yours on the boards here.

Just kidding you about the typo.

Remember, of course, that only a small fraction of ebay sellers post here. And for the most part those that do are having problems.

In my categories, I look at sold items. I can tell you that much of my watched list has been sold as well. For me that is a better indication that if you have a great product, it will sell.

magsmg101 · ‎12-19-2016

@honestabe411 wrote:
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?

Hi Abe,

Let me just say that is a question of perspective.

I am a small seller playing in a very quiet corner of the huge ebay sandbox.

December has been surprisingly good this year 9 items so far. I gave up the store (opened May 2014 closed May 2016) and have been using all 50 allowed plus some of the free promo listings that come my way.

December 2015 sold 3 items.

December 2014 sold 5 items.

December 2013 sold 8 items.

My strategy…..It is what it is… try to keep it fun/stress less.

I have given up chasing the TRS carrot.

I no longer fuss over watch or view counts.

I do not call CS.

Anyway Happy holidays to all and a prosperous 2017….. With fingers crossed.

I list in my pink PJ’s ….only after my 2nd cup of coffee…. and never, ever on a full moon.

lintbrush* · ‎12-19-2016

I'm already at 91.7% of my total December 2015 sales ... and there are still 12 days left.

I'd always love more sales, but I'm not unhappy with the way it's going so far.

ekmadonna · ‎12-19-2016

My sales have been down ever since I dropped from the anchor store down to premium even though i still carry the same amount of listings-over 1000. Last November I sold 86 items, this November 45 sold items with about 400 more active listings. last December I sold 96 items, this December so far I am at 46. I also got 4 consecutive monthes last year from october through january of 10,000 fixed price listings as a promo- The massive amount of free listings enabled me to list more at shorter intervals, 5 days instead of 10 and 30 days. hence I was able to sell much more. last january was my best sales month since i started selling full time 3 years ago. I sold 109 items, I do not see that happening again this year. I do not count on free listing promotions but they do help greatly with sales. I have been passed by on the last 7 going back to October. I believe if I would have gotten them my volume would have been as much or close to lst year.

cupidsandcherubs3 · ‎12-19-2016

I am doing fairly ok, but none of my Christmas stuff sold

magsmg101 · ‎12-19-2016

Seems what we need here is a mathematician or statistician or clairvoyant

I am open to any and all suggestion2

timemachine777 · ‎12-19-2016

@emerald40 wrote:
@timemachine777 wrote:
Yes, that was a typo, the clock ran out before I could edit it. It was suppose to be 2016. I've read that some small sellers are doing good, but many of them are claiming that sales for them are still lower than last year. If there was a lot of sellers posting that sales are up this Dec vs past Dec sales, I would agree.

However, the one person here or there, claiming sales are up, vs the numerous sellers that claim that theirs are down, make me side with the former. Plus more and more sellers lately are stating that they are down grading their accounts or closing their stores. Some are even stating that they are done selling on eBay. Some may even be friends of yours on the boards here.
Just kidding you about the typo.

Remember, of course, that only a small fraction of ebay sellers post here. And for the most part those that do are having problems.

In my categories, I look at sold items. I can tell you that much of my watched list has been sold as well. For me that is a better indication that if you have a great product, it will sell.

I agree. I don't know if many even know that the boards exist. Nobody that I personally know that sell on eBay even post on the boards. They tend to post on FB only. There are a number of forums and blogs that eBayer's post on also vs here due to censorship, or other reasons.

I would love to see the raw data regarding everyone's multi year month vs same month year after year, plus active inventory vs sold, to see what the trend is. Now that information would tell us a lot.

emerald40 · ‎12-19-2016

I never understood why people compare different years of selling.

There are just too many variables in my opinion that would account for why one year was better than the other.

Life is not static and neither are shopping habits and tastes and even the way people shop.

I know in my home as my husband and I are getting older, having a bunch of presents under the tree is not as important as it used to be.

We still buy for the grandchildren, but for us adults we are taking the money and going on a special vacation this summer.

timemachine777 · ‎12-19-2016

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.