How are everyone's sales this October?

[frecklesfinery88]

Our sales are unusually low. Anyone else? Listing Christmas items this week and trying to get into the Holiday spirit. Anyone else?

[dbfolks166mt]

I became a top rated seller plus in august and ever since then my sales have been WAY off the normal. I never had a day under 50.00 in over 20 years now its every other day. I did better when I had 3 day handling and WAS NOT TOP RATED and I have no idea why. I know its the economy a lot, but things I sold consistently -daily & weekly now take a month to sell.  I do see some competitive  sellers lowering prices to make sales below what I can do unless I want to loose money. Hopefully after this election it might get better once the right person gets in there.

     Dollar value is one way to look at it how has your sales volume been? You sold 385 items in the last 90 days how does that compare historically? I tend to focus on my ROI so I don't worry so much about my total dollar sales but the number of items I sell by volume and the ROI on those items. 

[totally_rad_movies]

My sales in October plummeted 60-70% compared to September.  Page views were about 800-900 day and now they are around 300-400. Really terrible.

[reallynicestamps]

@totally_rad_movies 

Don't compare to September.

Just as you can't sell snow shovels in July or patio furniture after Mother's Day, every month has its own retail pattern.

How were your sales in October 2023? 2022? 2019? (We skip the outlier pandemic years.)

How were your sales in September 2023? 2022? 2019?

And how does value in those months compare with value this year? You are already comparing number of sales which is a useful measure.

[totally_rad_movies]

Thats not really what I meant. My sales were very nice in September but they have been consistent at around those levels for 6 months then October hit and my page views and sales spiraled downward like crazy.

[trip98]

I can't tell until the month is over, but sales for the first 2 weeks are down compared to Oct 2023 by 60% if I average the sales out by week.

[lakefor94]

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@lakefor94 wrote:

I don't have any Christmas items, so sales run about the same every month. October so far, ~same as September. 

I did a repricing project in August to make sure everything has a chance to sell and items that have been out there 1 to 7 years are still moving well. Have not been listing new items and the old stuff has been picking up the slack.

It has cooled off here in Texas. Caught a 25 limit of catfish yesterday and taking the son-in-law out tomorrow to get 50 more. Letting eBay ride it out this month with no new listings. Spending time on the water. 

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Caught and cleaned 50 more Lake Tawakoni kitties yesterday.  Took 3.5 hours to put 50 in the live wells.  Had about 15 dinks we threw back.

FISH FRY

 

[baantiques]

Ebay knocked my hidden selling limit almost in half.

I'm able to weather it so far with other sources but it's getting harder.  I've been looking at auctions for cars to well (I'm pretty particular, only classics in good condition - no projects unless it's something very special), and not having much luck.

[erikstuff]

September was my worst month in 20+ years on Ebay.  It tied February for the lowest items sold (7)... but was even lower in total cost.   Unless there is a minor miracle October will be worse.  I just had my THIRD sale of the month.   The upside is... I don't have to go to the Post Office very often.

[selsa84]

Yeah, cause the president runs eBay. 

[etsvcs]

This is my worst month so far, I'm glad I did not quit my day job. 🙂

[norskmediashop]

its certainly not like it use to be on here, yet other platforms are flowing beyond better now that holiday season is starting to kick in a bit.

[reallynicestamps]

My sales were very nice in September but...then October hit and my page views and sales spiraled downward...

Which is why I asked about last October.
You are comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruits, both probably have seeds, both have edible skins. But they are not the same.

Selling in September is different from selling in October.

How are your sales in the various Octobers you have been actively selling?

Compare apples to apples and October to October.

[reallynicestamps]

yet other platforms are flowing beyond better

When I started selling here, circa 1998, eBay was almost the only choice.

Now there are dozens if not hundreds of competitors, some more specialized than others.

I list on a specialty philatelic site and get about half as many sales there as here, but slightly higher prices. They don't charge sales tax, nor a fee for handling sales taxes, but they have a flat mailing charge which is less than I need for some of my philatelic literature.

Not better or worse than eBay, just different.

There is no reason these days for only using one selling site.

[wheredidiputthatremote]

From October 2023 through the end of September 2024 my sales were abysmally slow (like half). First two weeks of October were very promising. This weekend has been dead.

[dbfolks166mt]

yet other platforms are flowing beyond better

When I started selling here, circa 1998, eBay was almost the only choice.

Now there are dozens if not hundreds of competitors, some more specialized than others.

I list on a specialty philatelic site and get about half as many sales there as here, but slightly higher prices. They don't charge sales tax, nor a fee for handling sales taxes, but they have a flat mailing charge which is less than I need for some of my philatelic literature.

Not better or worse than eBay, just different.

There is no reason these days for only using one selling site.

     Agree 100% I diversified long ago some of it driven by eBay's prohibited and restricted items list along with the VERO program. I sell a LOT of items on other venues that I cannot even list on eBay. Any seller that feels any sense of loyalty to eBay does so at their own risk and detriment. I have seen way to many posts on this forum about long time sellers that have had their accounts terminated for a variety of infractions and they are left with no backup or alternative in the short term.