Economy is nearly dead. Can that cause low sales?

[john_wade]

I keep seeing tons of eBay sellers complaining about low sales. If there is a very weak economy caused by very poor leadership that would have an effect on sales. Crooks. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:

The problem is no one is held accountable anymore! Politicians or corporations!

Why did we go through the baby formula fiasco? Just one company in the U.S. produces! Really? What happened to the great American open competition in order for fair trade / prices for consumers? I don't have kids or grandchildren, but I know enough to see a red flag. 

We keep heading into more of a monopoly economy and the only way to clean it up is to keep removing the politicians with the 'for sale sign' on their back and pushing back on the corporations. 

I live in Indiana. The suppose 'Crossroads of America' state. That just really means drug trafficking, gun trafficking, and other illegal activities, but they do nothing. I was sent a notice about a credit for my 2023 property taxes a few weeks ago. I received my taxes this week, and they still went up. Looks like they claim my value went up, but even with the discount, my taxes went up just like they did the 5+ years. What a joke!

The roads suck here! I have to drive slow just to get out of my community due to all the Bumbs & holes. I believe the last time my community was repaved was in 2002.

We can easily go on and on here! 

 You're not wrong nor quite right.  I worked in polyticks about 15 years and it's far far far more complex than American's tend realize and they don't care to learn.  Right now people vote based on "Which is worse" and that exactly plays into the "Game."  It's the younger generations that are having none of it and moving towards being independents as they realize many things up to an including they're respective futures being spent by those that came before them.  Instantly things are far more complex than red and blue because its now young and old too and the older folks want maintain control.

America has 748 billionaire's commanding basically 5.7 Trillion dollars, we've 22 million millionaires more than any nation on the planet commanding 158 trillion dollars.  There's you're offset, the skewer as a significant portion of those 22 million command basically over another 40+ million, employee's, wealth, assets etc.  That the result of "Trickle Down Economics" which in reality is "Trickle Down Lifestyle."  It made for a vicious cycle whereby more wealth is accrued by the wealthy (globally as well as well as here) whilst the average middle class family never seems make gains, even with two adults working.  Before trickle down lifestyle that was not the case, two people working get ahead of the game... Keyword: Game.

Now towards rural America there was a plan, better than half of the Infrastructure legislation was slated for rural America but one side shot that down with basically, "You're not buying our voters."  That's exactly how things are seen, nothing to do with right or wrong, future or past... Any of it.  Money as money equates to all things capitalistic and lifestyle in America now for most folks and now its "Which side is worse as I need vote for the one who I think is not..." instead of change and demanding better.

Look at the polls, even with all the turmoil, economy, covid screw up, 1/6 based on complete fallacy resulting in Fox settling a lawsuit for 787 million dollars, 1/4 of the networks worth people still the blind mice.  Text messages public from every significant Fox host exposing the lie all propagated from politicians they literally texted calling them "Demons" and far far more.  But millions of Americans stay the path even when broadsided like that!  It's literally unbelievable.

Americans dont care to learn how we got to where we are and its taken 40 years, quite methodical and numerous think tanks warned people back in the late 80's about it.  It's coming true like prophecy yet back then even a blind man could understand what was being said.  Powers that be understood all too well, have people self-categorize, group, control them, give them a voice yet don't allow said voice to be empowered.  LGBTQ community didn't listen, that's how they made enormous gains over 40 years using the traditional ways America changes, they became truly organized and activated.  Nobody was going to tell them or trickle down upon them how to live.

People don't care until it comes 360 hitting them at home, they're lifestyles then they'll scream its someone's fault never looking in the mirror.  If they did or do and learn the history they'll quickly realize what's happened, how and why its happened and perhaps be activated towards a way out if not for they're own sakes that of those who come after.  The Boomers, Gen Z etc are the first Americans to leave the nation in a far worse state for the progeny than any other generations of Americans who came before them and simply don't seem to care.  They see "me", they see "you", they see "us" and they see "them" which is a formula that goes in the exact opposite direction of freedom.

I digress...

[ed8108]

There is a new normal, that of being poorer, & with time most sellers will adjust, having become accustomed to lower sales.

[chapeau-noir]

Whilst America rather came to a sort of grinding halt as did much of Europe many areas of the world did not. They continued produce goods, China for example, they just could not get it into many a mass market and now quite a bit of it is and has been being blown out at sale pricing online by the big boys.

Yes. Supply chain issues are probably one of the biggest factor in all the disturbance downstream in retail.  "Supply chain" including human beings - those who were hired on in online companies' hiring frenzy (when on or two of the big kids does something, they all follow like little ducklings) during the pandemic, are now being laid off. 

The peculiar situation here on eBay seems to be a combination of search and reporting problems acting on a shrinking platform facing more competition.  I'm seeing the same thing on Poshmark which has a cranky search engine and so many live shows now blowing things out pennies on the dollar that I feel like I'm trying to sell on a younger version of QVC.

[bryo_3145]

Society and the economy are in the toilet. God Bless America

[calgal19572014]

I agree. Last month I had a few desirable Native American collectibles that netted me a decent profit. This month without those collectibles I made way, way less. If someone is a serious collector they probably have the money or will make the sacrifice to buy the item. 

[1786davycrockett]

I always find it intriguing that so many of the individuals who continually complain about how much it costs to purchase gasoline (or groceries, or clothing, or housing, or ANYTHING) -- always seem to be the strongest defenders of the "free market" system of capitalism.

As if there were no connection between higher prices and "supply and demand."

And yet, when they are point blank asked if they would prefer strict profit controls instead, they gather up their pitchforks and pine-torches, and scream the loudest against "socialism" in America.

Apparently protecting millionaires is far more important than feeding their own families, or affording a roof to put over their heads.

Irony of ironies. . ..

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Whilst America rather came to a sort of grinding halt as did much of Europe many areas of the world did not. They continued produce goods, China for example, they just could not get it into many a mass market and now quite a bit of it is and has been being blown out at sale pricing online by the big boys.

The peculiar situation here on eBay seems to be a combination of search and reporting problems acting on a shrinking platform facing more competition.  I'm seeing the same thing on Poshmark which has a cranky search engine and so many live shows now blowing things out pennies on the dollar that I feel like I'm trying to sell on a younger version of QVC.

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Very interesting perspective @chapeau-noir.  See I dont tend have that competition selling old PC software as what was a mass market once upon a time when 30 pound CRT's sat on desks is now quite vertical market.  Stuff I have just sat and sat and sat for years on end and now collectors are springing up.  I mean I get messages of "I'm only interested in the box."  Like huh?  LOL.

I'd presume sooner or later all those products produced stacked in warehousing will run dry and/or be destroyed and perhaps online retail be somewhat less aggressive.  What's really funky to me is WE KNEW OF THIS!  Pandemic stood as the #1 Global Threat in the US Gov. and many others eyes, more so than war, rocks from space, global warming etc.  One of the *** BIG CONCERNS *** all the way back into the early 90's about climate was not beaches becoming ocean, not hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.  It was pathogens frozen in Permafrost that haven't seen light of day for thousands upon thousands of years, since ice age being released coming back.  When it was found microbial life survive just fine in space, the harshest environment known to man all forms of flares went off to those who read.

US had developed comprehensive plan deal w/ Pandemic, with SARS we did so twice, SARS and MERS along with several others.  Covid hits and the government here just threw away that entire playbook and atop that lied to every single citizen in the nation not just once, buckets of times.  It's just unbelievable and future history books are not going to write kindly about it nor those folks who in reality indirectly killed millions.  Of course they don't see it that way... Yet if I had some communicable disease such as say Herpes and happen pass that on to someone else they be in my face yelling, "Look what you've done!"

It's said other generations lived in interesting times but I've the notion when history writes of our days its not going to be deemed interesting at all, it's going to be deemed in far far darker terms.

[reallynicestamps]

All those workers in their new jobs are making out their income tax forms this month.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/employment-rate

[moondogblues]

Economy dead?  In my little tourist town the restaurants are packed and there was a cruise ship in port today.  People everywhere spending money...not dead here!

[dbfolks166mt]

     The economy is not totally dead but inflation has reduced the consumers buying power when it comes to discretionary expenditures. A lot of people are focused on needs more than wants and some buying patterns have changed. A lot of it depends on what you are selling as well as where the consumer is located. Looking at eBay's most recent quarterly report the market is still pretty active although it has slowed a bit. 

     While I have not read the entire report yet the international market continues to grow and by the end of 2022 represented over 50% of eBay's transactions. That growth is possibly one reason eBay is lobbying for sellers to sell internationally and why the EIS program is offering some pretty good seller protections. There are 5 countries, The United States, China Japan, Germany and India that account for more than 50% of the total world GDP and of course China and India have, together, about 36% of the worlds population. The US only has about 5% of the worlds population. 

[bejucoflatsflyco]

I don't understand the reason. I suspect it has not much to do with the economy.

I am a Global Top Seller, Above Standard in USA. My worst day the last 30 days was about $150 then yesterday I sold one item for $3.49 and that was all.

Yearly I sell close to 200k, yesterday was the worst day in over a year. I haven't done anything different, I do not have any cases open. Sales are not happening. My impressions have been going up but, conversion keeps going down. I have been selling the same stuff for over 2 years. I have 1690 listings today, rarely miss a day listing.

I have no idea what's going on nor if there's anything to do from my side. 

[dbfolks166mt]

All those workers in their new jobs are making out their income tax forms this month.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/employment-rate

     Great reference link. Good one to compare with the inflation rate(s) and not difficult to see that prices are outpacing wage increases. 

[coolections]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

What about the necessities? (Such as auto parts).

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People go to Pep Boys, Autotrack, Napa, etc. and other parts places for those. You have just way too much competition so you will probably never get an upswing. Sales will most likely remain as steady as they currently are for you.

[bryo_3145]

It all boils down to corruption and greed. The working person gets punished. We are becoming a communist country. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@bryo_3145 wrote:

It all boils down to corruption and greed. The working person gets punished. We are becoming a communist country. 

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Huh?

Have you ever been to an actual communist country, believe me it doesn't resemble anything like America nor could America even resemble one if it took 100 years.  History very clearly portrays no matter what the leadership genre and no matter at one time in human history the working people live at the behest of those who provide.   Corruption and greed stem back to the caveman and not so much the cave woman.

What happened in America is basically in the 1970's and early 80's the lifestyle given the rest of the world moving ahead as well through time was deemed unsustainable.  That gave rise to the Reagan Republicans as it was deemed Americans are not responsible enough to manage their own lives and more so finances.  So trickle down economics came into play and that sect gave rise to the New Progressives.  Both have the exact same goals simply different mechanisms of achieving them.  By the time the late 1980's came into being many a think tank of very notable people charted the path that we are on, quite predictable and again nobody listened.  Instead, they treat politics and politicians, civil responsibility like a ball game and now here we are left trying make choices about which party is worse and vote based on that instead of demanding better.  It's that simple and that complex.