First Sunday with No Sales in Five Years!!!

[crazymodeltrains]

I've been selling on eBay for 26 years and went full-time around 2020. I specialize in model trains, averaging about 20 orders a day. Sundays are usually strong for me, so having zero sales today is extremely unusual.

I checked everything — listings are live, inventory is good, and I’m still showing up on the first page in search results. Nothing appears to be wrong on my end.

Could this be tied to the upcoming tariffs, the $6 trillion stock market dip, or just general consumer panic? Is anyone else experiencing a total sales freeze today?

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I had 1 today, but none yesterday 😞 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

---

@crazymodeltrains wrote:

I've been selling on eBay for 26 years and went full-time around 2020. I specialize in model trains, averaging about 20 orders a day. Sundays are usually strong for me, so having zero sales today is extremely unusual.

I checked everything — listings are live, inventory is good, and I’m still showing up on the first page in search results. Nothing appears to be wrong on my end.

Could this be tied to the upcoming tariffs, the $6 trillion stock market dip, or just general consumer panic? Is anyone else experiencing a total sales freeze today?

---

I too have been selling online for a long time. The stock market has always affected my sales, for better or worse. (Longer than this Ebay account has been in use for).

[caldreamer]

USA sales probably dropped due to horrible storms on the East Coast (18 people died).   International sales could be slowed due to anti-American sentiment because of the tariffs.    Everything is very uncertain right now and many people are hunkering down and only purchasing absolute necessities.

[tarotfindsandmore]

I've only had one so far, and a really weird week overall.  It's probably a combination of things, but we know it will pass.  I'm almost relieved to see others in the same boat (not that I want to see anyone struggle!).  I started my no promotions experiment Wednesday night, had a great Thursday, nothing Friday and yesterday, and then just one so far today.  I thought it might be the result of ending promotions but I guess not.

One of the positive reasons might be the gorgeous weather.  I took Clyde, my big doofy dog, out for a drive to get a pup cup earlier and it was just breathtaking.  Given the choice between doing that and shopping online, I'll take a sunny ride with Clyde anytime.

[slippinjimmy]

Yeah when people hear they are facing annual expenses to increase by thousands of Dollars and 10 times what is in their savings account they get nervous and stop spending. People with lots of money may keep on buying but that only helps if you are selling the type of goods they are interested in.

Add to that, millions of people are recovering from bad weather, millions of other people are watching hoops this weekend, not so many people are watching the Great 8 pass Gretzky's all time scoring record, a bunch more are at the ball game while more millions are out enjoying the Spring weather.

You sell train stuff, isn't the peak season for that during the Christmas season?

Personally the last week of March was very good, made up for a near dead February. This week has been pretty dead for me.

When I'm analyzing sales patterns I only look at months not weeks and even then I pay more attention to quarters and generally compare to last year not last week or last month.

In 2024 I had 4 or 5 months that were dead, 2 months that were really good, at the end of the year the total was more than 2022 or 2023.

[mr_lincoln]

@crazymodeltrains 

Trains are my biggest category too so really sorry that, thus far this weekend, sales are pitching you a shutout.

[chapeau-noir]

I don't sell as much as I used to, but even now if I went day by day in measuring sales, I would go mad.

Take the long view - you've got really cool stuff. 

[dirk12955]

As a 25 year seller with 3 selling accounts,   It's pretty bad

1)  Weather

2)  March madness

3)  Tax time

4)  401Ks taking a HUGE hit

5)  Who's going to get laid off/fired next?

6) Spring break

My third account just went to 76% down in the last 90 days

Seen it all,   Done it all,   Got the T-shirt

[ittybitnot]

@crazymodeltrains 

You have lots of nice products, and you have been a seller for quite a while.  So long as you KNOW how to deal with non-paying buyers, I would suggest you try turning  these off:

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

Buyer Rules:

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.

Click submit or save.

They do limit the payment options a buyer can use, and dispenses with "combined invoicing" for more that one purchase at a time.  Since you don't use auctions, you may get "offers" again as a result,  long time PAYING buyers will simply not participate in making you an offer on more than one item when they know now that they will be charged separately for each item.  Unless you specifically do not want to encourage multiple sales to the same buyer, (you will save money by doing so as well) then you should keep the auto-pay feature in place.  Otherwise, you might get paid faster for offers, but more likely earn less as a result. 

Good luck selling! 

[theteamsetguy]

@crazymodeltrains ,

Maybe all of the model railroaders are on strike?

[spacecoastparts]

Yeah today it's pretty bad, only one sale. Traffic numbers for today way down as well.

Not sure what the significance of this Sunday is compared to previous.

[ed8108]

---

@crazymodeltrains wrote:

I checked everything — listings are live, inventory is good, and I’m still showing up on the first page in search results. Nothing appears to be wrong on my end.

---

eBay isn't today what it was in the past, & govern yourself accordingly , stress can lead to health issues, accept what you lack an ability to change

[simply-the-best-for-you]

---

@caldreamer wrote:

USA sales probably dropped due to horrible storms on the East Coast (18 people died).   International sales could be slowed due to anti-American sentiment because of the tariffs.    Everything is very uncertain right now and many people are hunkering down and only purchasing absolute necessities.

---

Yup, BIL is stuck at a SE airport right now & they're estimating a flight out on Tues.  The day he was s'posed to get back.  The SE is hurting too, weather wise. 

[vintage-camerastuff]

Easter is right around the corner.  Everyone is saving there pennies for chocolate bunnies and jelly beans.