Lacks Motivation...

[sin-n-dex]

Anyone else just not "feel like it" when it comes to dealing with their eBay enterprise?

I literally have 400 things to list (about 300 military type things, and 100 coins) for the B&M store, plus about 100 stamp lots for me. I just don't have the motivation to sit and fill in the various fields of SixBit to make up these listings.

I'm wondering if it's maybe because my job of the day is spending the whole day filling in forms and doing up letters to send to customers. It's kind of like listing items, only I can't choose to not do it if I don't feel like it... after 9 hours of that, I guess I don't feel like doing work all evening too.

But I think the lacking in motivation goes a little beyond just doing up listings... I don't feel so excited about packing and shipping. I was shipping around 25-30 items a week, but now it's around 10-12. I was coming home from work to spend Friday evenings packing orders (which is a bit of a process because of Customs paperwork), but since there's so few items I'm procrastinating this until dinner time Sunday (to make Monday morning courier pick up).

Maybe if things were still selling as much as they were three months ago I'd feel a bit more motivated. I always tend to want to list more of something when there are sales.

C.

[chapeau-noir]

It gets to be a grind and sometimes I need to take a break from it, then I feel better.  We all need holidays, particularly if you're doing this on top of working a day job.

I keep thinking of looking for some kind of off-line job but it's hard to find work during a pandemic when even minimum wage jobs get slammed with applications and you're 67 years old.  I can earn more flogging stuff here and on social media, and doing deliveries on my bike.  Bleh. 

A break may be what you need.  

[patd3283]

The lack of sales, even small ones, certainly is a de-motivator!

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I'm with Pat.  I was doing well sales-wise during the Summer (which is normally really slow) & now that my biggest sales months are here (Sept/Oct) & sales are pathetic, I have a hard time motivating myself to list.  I have personal stuff going on too, but the lack of sales is the biggest issue to me. 

[sahan_k_mart]

Have you any idea how to grow sales???

[femmefan1946]

I've got a small stack of postcards all ready to go, scanned , described , HTML in place, and I keep looking at them and saying , meh.

I have much more fun listing sewing patterns and books which do fit my own interests.

For some reason, this week has been postage lots and books. The postage goes to eBay sellers so someone is making sales.

I have also decided it's time to list my Coronation Street memorabilia before all the fans of 20th century Corrie die off. (It's a British soap that has been running for about 60 years and one of the original cast is still appearing from time to time.)

[duncanvr]

If you can afford to give yourself a few days off and put your store in vacation mode. Sometimes more sales come after taking the store off vacation mode. Also are you using prmoted listings? I do a low ad rate between 1-5%. It picks up a lot of watchers and then I send offers to watchers. On Promoted listings I bulk edit the rate up or down a couple of % three times a week. This seems to give your store a short boost. The promoted listings is alway picking up new buyers for me. When I get a sale I send the buyer my ebay store landing page link and tell them to bookmark it. This gets buyers back in. I have had terrific sales in the past week selling old stamped envelopes and stampless letters.

[mam98031]

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@duncanvr wrote:

If you can afford to give yourself a few days off and put your store in vacation mode. Sometimes more sales come after taking the store off vacation mode. Also are you using prmoted listings? I do a low ad rate between 1-5%. It picks up a lot of watchers and then I send offers to watchers. On Promoted listings I bulk edit the rate up or down a couple of % three times a week. This seems to give your store a short boost. The promoted listings is alway picking up new buyers for me. When I get a sale I send the buyer my ebay store landing page link and tell them to bookmark it. This gets buyers back in. I have had terrific sales in the past week selling old stamped envelopes and stampless letters.

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That is because when you come off vaca or now called Time Away and your listings need to go active again, they all have to reindex on the site.  That is likely why you and others see a little boost in sales.  Same thing will happen if you bulk edit all your listings.  Like maybe changing you return policy or handling time.  Every time you do that, all those listings must reindex.

[mam98031]

I'm with the others that you need some time away.  Now that doesn't mean you have to leave home, you just need time away from Ebay.  Plan something FUN.  You can social distance while still having fun.

My neighbor and I get outside in the sunshine with our dogs and a glass of wine from time to time.  We sit a good distance away from each other but not so much we have to yell.  We will let the dogs play and we chat.  We do this for a good couple of hours.  It is very refreshing and relaxing.

Now I think you need more than a couple hours away from your computer and these tasks that just are rinse and repeat type of things.  But my point is find some ways to have fun.  Outdoor yard games, rig up an outdoor movie with a tarp and a projector if you can get your hands on it.  A Picnic, hike, or a drive in some relaxing scenery.  Plan a few things and forget about all this stuff.

You also may want to solicit some help.  If you know someone that has the knowledge you'd need them to have, they could remotely create descriptions for you.  Or pick up stuff from you and take pics for you or both.  Packaging and shipping would present more of a problem but if you could get some of that normal stuff handled by someone else, even if just for a little bit, it may give your mind some relief it is in need of.

I hope you find a way to distract yourself and just get your mind off this for a few days.

If you like crafts.  Take time off and start whipping up some of your holiday gifts.  Or get some of your holiday shopping out of the way.  Or both.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@sin-n-dex. I am feeling the same way, it's this miserable year that we can never get back. It's like I have lost all my zest for the fun things in life. I just want to sit in my chair with my feet propped up and my doggie on my lap! ( but the latest issue of People mag with both Jon Bon Jovi and Lenny Kravitz in it sure sparked something!) Take a small break, those feelings will subside eventually!

[dhbookds]

As others have said.......maybe a break.......  but if it's just procrastination.......try setting an alarm clock for 15/30 min and saying you are just going to work that long.  Once I get started......the enthusiasm returns and I keep on usually way past the time allotted. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

I'm never motivated lol

To be totally honest, the only thing I like about selling online is making the money and doing the actual research, which for some items can be extensive.  I don't like writing descriptions and I abhor taking photos, which are kinda sorta the most important things about selling online lol  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The research part is fun, as is acquiring stuff to sell. I'll jump at both of those opportunities. The listing and photo taking, not so much. 

[corvettestainless]

Is there someone you can hire to do this work? Making something for doing nothing sometimes is the way to go. 

Maybe even 'teaching' someone, a little at a time, will spark some personal interest?

[little*blackdog]

It's always a lot of work to take those photos, write those listings!  If the sales aren't flowing, there is a lack of motivation, that's for sure!  I don't have an answer but can identify with your post! 

[sin-n-dex]

Just a general reply (rather than answering each post)...

Getting someone to do the listing for me is not an option, because I'm the someone the B&M store hired to work for them. So basically by not keeping up with listing and selling is hurting the b&M's bottom line, but for me it's my commission for making sales that suffers.

I don't feel as though I've made very much money for myself (for all the sales I've had, most have been offers I sent out, which can be deeply discounted to get the item to sell, better than not selling).

Part of the lack of motivation is because it's become a job rather than a hobby (because it's for someone else). I was really happy about all the stamp sales I made this year and have prioritized stamps over coins and tokens, but that's because I get to keep everything I make when there's sales. I have a bit more motivation when it comes to listing the stamps.

I will be taking a bit of a break in about a week... no work for two and a half weeks, so the only work I'll be doing is my bookkeeping side business (I only have one client, but I've got 8 hours worth of work to do for them), and I can list auctions. I'm getting quite a bit of renovations done in my home while away from work and will need to be hanging around the house all day while they put in new floors. We're also going to paint one of the rooms which will be a two day job (one day for blue walls, another day for white trim and ceiling). I'm excited about picking up the paint tomorrow. (Well at least I'm excited about something this week).

Another thing that hurts motivation is when there aren't lots of items showing up on my offers page. Usually Sunday and Monday are great for people adding items to their watch lists. I don't send offers on Sunday because it's not enough time to complete the sale for Monday's pick up, and I wait until Monday night to send out offers (after work basically). But in the past few days I've been getting only one or two new items showing up each day, and of course no offers being accepted.

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, and I get to do one of my favourite hobbies - cooking. (Actually it's eating, but I need to cook it first. I don't like other people's cooking). We've got a turkey and ingredients for stuffing, cranberry sauce, apple crisp and moroccan carrot salad. I expect my Sunday will be busy making all these things.

C.