eBay

laserpartshq · ‎08-14-2018

Is it just me or is EBAY Sales Dead ?

lecroy3 · ‎08-14-2018

62.6% down from last month; 46.5% down from this time last year. Great time to take a vacation. Sure enough two days in and two sales. Based on my experience, put your store on vacation to increase sales. Lol 🙂 if vacation setting is your chosen method to increase sales, make sure to increase handling time and send quick email to buyers thanking them for purchase and offering to cancel if increased handling time mentioned in listing does not meet their needs. Only had one cancel request in my years of handling "vacations" this way.

ten_o_nine · ‎08-14-2018

@laserpartshq wrote:
Is it just me or is EBAY Sales Dead ?

I am sorry to inform you that we held a public funeral in 2012, it was sad. Sorry you missed it.

keziak · ‎08-14-2018

@goodluckselling wrote:
Sales for us are way up for the past month. Over 50% but we have specific products that should be sellling right now, and will for the next 5 months so I am glad they are. It also tells me our listings are set up correctly on eBay.

It gives me confidence in my purchase orders that I am on target and will prepare for success based on this two week start to my selling season.

Good Luck Selling!

I was strongly up for a couple of weeks due to pushing auctions, but I basically sold what I had that was worth much. Recent auctions have gone unsold because they are less desirable and I can't blame that on ebay.

Meanwhile I just came off my biggest 2 weeks ever on Amazon. When people say "books" are dead, categorically, I say "no, they are not". Obviously most are not saleable, same as any product. But the right books on the right venue do well. The problem I have is that the golden age for books on ebay has long passed. I try to cultivate Zen about it but it's tough.

emerald40 · ‎08-14-2018

Go to the beach, go to the pool - everyone is on their Kindle.

Not me, I much prefer an actual book in my hand.

goodluckselling · ‎08-14-2018

Hang in there. I had what was probably the slowest summer I can recall, not just here but internet wide. I lost a lot of products due to out of production and added just a few new ones and they have done well enough in the two weeks that I know when the peak interest starts so I am more confident about the big wholesale orders coming in for the holiday selling season.

Good Luck Selling!

hyperrush · ‎08-14-2018

14 sales since january... what a relief.

One sale a day, tomorrow the entire Galaxy!

keziak · ‎08-14-2018

@emerald40 wrote:
Go to the beach, go to the pool - everyone is on their Kindle.

Not me, I much prefer an actual book in my hand.

I hope those Kindles don't fall into the water!

Ebooks are obviously a big factor in the book market but not The End as often predicted. For example, textbook/ebooks are getting more popular all the time, but the physical books are flying off my shelves right now, some within hours of being listed. That won't last beyond September but many other books will sell.

Here, not so much. I have a theory that because (a) the mega-sellers are a big presence and (b) because identifying condition is more of a PITA than on Amazon, that many people are just buying the lowest priced books without bothering to hunt for copies in superior condition. That can make a huge difference for smaller sellers trying to compete on more than lowest price.

emerald40 · ‎08-14-2018

The only books I buy on line are the textbooks.

I have one in college and one in graduate school.

Books are $1,000 new for each girl if I bought them from the bookstores at their colleges.

My girls went right to A and bought them slightly used for half the price. Books came and they were in great condition - hardly use.

keziak · ‎08-14-2018

I actually get the most pleasure when I can sell a course-related book (ex: assigned reading) at a steep discount due to condition. I don't make a fortune on these but can get the books into the hands of students at major savings as long as they are OK with defects like highlighting. As a parent of two college students, any bit of savings does help. Some might say why don't you throw these books in the trash? But I expect the college student who doesn't have to buy the books new for $25 are happy to get them for $8.

gopetersen · ‎08-14-2018

I still get daily sales, but that doesn't mean the overall picture is good. My sales have been dropping by about 20% per year.

The biggest drop, however, was after e-Packet was invented. That killed about 70% of my profitable items. Since then I've been mostly selling off inventory (and not restocking) and selling a few items that don't directly compete with items coming from China.

gopetersen · ‎08-14-2018

@keziak wrote:
...As a parent of two college students, any bit of savings does help. Some might say why don't you throw these books in the trash? But I expect the college student who doesn't have to buy the books new for $25 are happy to get them for $8.

$25????!!! These days many college textbooks cost between $80 and $180! Even when I was in college (many years ago) they averaged about $60 each.

keziak · ‎08-14-2018

@gopetersen wrote:
@keziak wrote:
...As a parent of two college students, any bit of savings does help. Some might say why don't you throw these books in the trash? But I expect the college student who doesn't have to buy the books new for $25 are happy to get them for $8.
$25????!!! These days many college textbooks cost between $80 and $180! Even when I was in college (many years ago) they averaged about $60 each.

Yes, but I meant course-related books (not the big textbooks) which come from one of my sources in quantity. I think they are for supplemental reading. They might be a sociology study, or literary criticism, or even just a novel. But often they are heavily highlighted or underlined, not nice copies but I can sell them cheap and still clear several dollars. I've even heard the theory that some students LIKE books already highlighted. I guess they think the good parts have already been flagged. Or, something.

gopetersen · ‎08-14-2018

@keziak wrote:
Yes, but I meant course-related books (not the big textbooks) which come from one of my sources in quantity. I think they are for supplemental reading.

Ah! Got it. 🙂

I couldn't afford the supplemental texts. I couldn't afford most of the regular texts either (I left home when I was 18). I thought I could use library books but then I discovered that professors are rotters. They can afford the text, but instead they borrowed the library copy and, at the universities I attended, professors could sign out books indefinitely. So... library copies were not available to cash-strapped students and since it was a pretty competitive atmosphere, my fellow classmates wouldn't lend me theirs either. So... for students like me, access to used books was very helpful.

bradandamber · ‎08-14-2018

@laserpartshq wrote:
Is it just me or is EBAY Sales Dead ?

Treading water.I have no motivation to add anything to the 16 I have on. Have tried all kinds of items and eBay will only let me sell sometihing at the end of the month and around payment time and thats it. Not leaving just fed up. That's why I downgraded to a starter sore. Dont care at the moment. Will start adding items in the fall and see what happens.

comicallycomic · ‎08-14-2018

Sales are there that is if your listing dont turn invisible. In my case as soon as the group by similar is pressed they dissapear completely from the list. Even though they are the exact item word by word, I'm not even in a very competative area. At first I thought it might be the part of the season and gamers are just not building much. However the customers I have gained over last few months keep on coming back and buying, they know my products, but the new one's dont see my listings like they used to or hardly at all. Might call Ebay in a couple weeks when my month ends and see if they can make me visible again, would be nice.