Market v eBay

[sakic92710]

So, at a newly reopened flea market, after being shut down for 9 weeks, I had almost $200 in sales in just a few  short hours.  It was very quiet there.  VERY!   With MILLIONS of people on eBay, over the course of a normal 2-day weekend, I've sold a flickin' $3.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's unnatural.   Good luck to us all.     🙂

[yuzuha]

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@coolections wrote:

Apples to oranges. People would much rather buy an item they can view and have it "in hand" rather than paying outrageous prices sellers asks on line and very high Canada shipping cost.

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Exactly. Don't underestimate the power of impulse buying. One of my friends sells handmade crafts on Etsy and she always does far, far better business at craft fairs and flea markets than she does online just because people can wander by and pick up/feel/hold things up to themselves to see how they look.

[luckythewinner]

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@sakic92710 wrote:

So, at a newly reopened flea market, after being shut down for 9 weeks, I had almost $200 in sales in just a few  short hours.  It was very quiet there.  VERY!   With MILLIONS of people on eBay, over the course of a normal 2-day weekend, I've sold a flickin' $3.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's unnatural.all.     🙂

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On this account for Sunday, I see a Best Offer item sold (originally priced at priced at $102.92) in addition to a $4.94 item. I don't see a $3 item, but granted I am looking at USD prices not CAD prices. 

To get that $200 in sales at the market, how many hours did you spend driving there, standing behind a table, and driving back?

Because while you were at the market, you had to spend zero time behind a table to get those sales on eBay.

That's what I love about eBay - once your "booth" is set up you don't have to go there and stand in it to get sales. 

[sakic92710]

What you see for Sunday is actually Monday to me because eBay goes by West Coast time.  Market is 8 mins from home.  I was there 5 hours.  $37 an hour?   I'll take that every week.  How much time did I spend listing the  500+ items & got $200+ all week I made on eBay?  Good luck to us all.     🙂

[chapeau-noir]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

We shared a booth in antique mall for a while - they had a section for sellers that had older, but perhaps not 'antique' items.  Thankfully, the person I shared it with was there a lot and keeping track of things.  She passed during covid and the antique mall was recently sold.  It is now an BBQ/ice cream place.  lol  

All of her stuff(s) and mine are all in boxes in our storage area.  Have thought about doing a couple of outdoor sales that are coming up this summer - one is at the fairgrounds.  Just not really my comfort zone.  Have no idea how you do this by yourself.  I keep trying to get DD to consider doing one with me to test how it goes.  No dice.  

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You have to have eyes all around your head.  The vast majority of people are great, but I nabbed someone trying to get behind my table to grab something back there, I had petulant fashionistas grabbing my vintage hats like they were baseball caps, and squealing millennials (of both sexes) taking selfies with my stuff, then throwing it back.  Fortunately, much more other people (of whatever age) were great. 

Big challenge is going to the bathroom - the guy next to me who had masses of stuff and four tables watched my area while I went, and I watched his area.

Comparing online sales and fleas isn't particularly useful - they're very different venues and there are different motivations for doing them.

[gamersbaystore]

Sales are at a snails pace for me as well. People are being really tight with their money right now. Which I'm surprised given all the stimulus money. People are only buying the absolute cheapest items I sell. I had one buyer try to negotiate over 46 cents the other day, not kidding.

I was planning to sell at my local flea market too, but after going this past weekend I was met with disappointment to see no one was buying anything. The flea market was packed too, over a 1,000 people! All were leaving with nothing in their hands.

I'm running promotions right now to try and increase sales, like buy 2 get one free, and up to 20% off on certain items. It did help to some degree. One buyer purchased 7 games, and another bought 6 DVDs. But hardly anyone else is biting.

[2013grotz]

Interestingly, I see a flea market event coming up that I could set up at.  Probably won't try to go for obvious reasons.  Oddly enough (I didn't mention it before), ebay was generally more lucrative for me than that.  Again mismatched market.  The interesting thing for the area is a major charity has started setting up monthly sales for dirt cheap (25c an item for most part).  Most people's things are going to that instead of the local sellers to source out, and coupled with the deals they have (and it being indoors), I wonder if any flea market is going to work too well.  Good news is I can source stuff from that sale for ebay pretty well and have done well with those sales, assuming I find something suitable.

[coolections]

Does not matter one bit what you say about our USPS service. YOU charge buyers here 3x more than your competition on shipping, thus the reason for very little sales you get in the US.