No Sales in November and December

[justjillianr3]

I've been a small seller on eBay for a decade. I usually average selling 5-8 items per month since most are collectibles. I have had ZERO sales in what should be the 2 best months of the year. In October I sold 10 pieces of turquoise. What has happened? Am I alone? I've never posted before but am so alarmed and discouraged that I wanted to share.

[audioarchive]

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@coolections wrote:

@grasshopperx

It has nothing to do with cheerleading. Is that the best you can do ? To the OP, you have not added anything NEW in the last month or so. The items you sold are gone. Buyers have already looked at your current items and have seen them for months. Without adding NEW items to your listing then you should not expect as many sells as in the past. It is kinda like going to an estate sale. The first hour 100 items sold, the 2nd hour 30 items sold, the last hour 3 items sold. Once the good stuff at the reasonable costs are gone it is expected to slowly have less and less people interested.

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Don't get all logical. You know the 'truthers' don't like logic...

[kattinsanity]

I'm not testy--I just can't stand the word "haters'. 

[tunicaslot]

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@justjillianr3 wrote:

eBay has screwed sellers this important Holiday season. Someone has made a deal on the corporate level with big suppliers/retailers like Overstock etc to take sales away from dedicated sellers. My guess is eBay will have very poor EOS results to show stockholders in Jan/Feb.

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Being most of your items are preowned jewlery or collectibles - with only 4 NWT clothing items listed as of now - I don't think that even if Ebay made deals with Overstock - it would affect your selling here.

It's more about what you are selling - the price you are asking - and the fact that customers have a multitude of other venues and social media sites to buy on. 

[tunicaslot]

I wish people would sit back and look at things logically for a minute. What is happening to Ebay is no different than what is happening to many business across the nation. Ebay was one of a kind - it was the whale in the ocean - now it's just another fish fighting to survive as so many other venues and opportunites have opened up wherein people can sell and buyers can search for things they want.

Most businesses will only survive if they change when the market changes and people's spending habits change - they have to keep up with the trends. Eventually they have to make changes again - it's a continuing growth process - and being Ebay is still a household name 20 yrs after the fact - it's done well to survive this long when other .com businesses failed.

If your business isn't thriving here - you may have to examine your own business and if what you sell is still a viable product or is it last years trend. 

[grasshopperx]

 It all depends on what people are selling. High end items sell slower, but none the less should sell IF they are seen? There should be buyers out there for all types of items and prices. High and low. Not everyone can, nor should sell i- phones.  Sure, 99 cent overseas junk sells fast. IMHO this site is getting so bad, bogged down with such a lousy search, glitches, over loaded with repeat overseas goods. That it may not be worth the time nor the bother to list items. As for the cheerleading thing. I dont listen to the experts that never sell anything themselves. Just makes me wonder that's all. We have been on here 20 years! I know the difference.  I see this site TANKING. very sad, sad sad.

[grasshopperx]

You make a good point. Like Sears! Never thought I'd see the day they had problems.

[kattinsanity]

I know~~I saw on the news last night they are down to 3 dollars and something a share.  Even at that price I wouldn't invest thinking I would eventually make any money.

[yuzuha]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

If your business isn't thriving here - you may have to examine your own business and if what you sell is still a viable product or is it last years trend. 

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I had to do that about a year and a half ago because my own sales pretty much stopped dead.  It was exactly what coolections said-- I had been selling used collectibles/stuff from around my own house, and after a while all of the really desirable things had sold off and what was left was stuff that didn't have very much demand.  I had also made the mistake of listing everything as GTC, so the lack of sales was just pushing it all further and further down in search.  I changed it all from GTC to 30-day fixed price listings, added in some new stuff that I'd bought for resale, and tried to make it a practice to list at least a few new things every month and boom, my sales came right back and have been fairly steady ever since.  It wasn't eBay, it was me.  Once I figured out the problems and fixed them, I haven't had any major sales droughts since.

[rschissler]

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@kattinsanity wrote:

I'm not testy--I just can't stand the word "haters'. 

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That's cool, I get that.  I really don't like it either, just like I don't like "cheerleaders", "eBay employees" or "shills" characterizations.

[treasure_acquisitions]

I have sold on ebay for a very long time and for me its always been the same this time of year. November and December i get little to no sales. I have always assumed it is because people are spending there money on New Christmas Gifts for thier loved ones and they dont want used items or they dont want to chance the shipping.  My sales always pick up again after the 1st of the year.

[baantiques]

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@treasure_acquisitions wrote:

I have sold on ebay for a very long time and for me its always been the same this time of year. November and December i get little to no sales. I have always assumed it is because people are spending there money on New Christmas Gifts for thier loved ones and they dont want used items or they dont want to chance the shipping.  My sales always pick up again after the 1st of the year.

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I've gotten shut out of holiday sales by Ebay before (as proven by page view data), but it hasn't happened since I started selling things that aren't really given as gifts.  Since that happened, I've always suspected that Ebay does the same thing as Amazon, with the difference being that Amazon (at least at the time) was at least up front about it, and notified the sellers that weren't among the lucky chosen few and would have their listings restricted for the duration of the holiday season.

[Anonymous]

The main reasons behind the slow and non-existent sales:

1. Low birth rates in the West = no new consumers = go make some kids now!

2. A lot of people have been selling their collections and saving money up just in case. Once they're done, the sales will return. No one survives without a hobby.

3. Wars, migrant crises, wild fires etc. and those affected by all those events are temporarily out as consumers.

4. Planned obsolescence in electronics and consumer goods eat up a lot of collectible budget.

5. A lot of consumers are turned off by the extremely low prices of collectibles. Low prices = low confidence in investment. Raise your prices. Natural reaction when one sees prices going up, it's time to buy!

[seattlesportstuff]

Can you say Chinesebay?

[selsa84]

You arent alone. There is no shortage of postings in the community forums with 10's of thousands of the same thread about low sales. I wnet from 6500 a month to 1200 a month. I promote listings and my listing impressions go 30% down as do my views. Other venues are doing extremely well for me since its Christmas. This Chrsitmas is the LOWEST on ebay ive had in 7 years. Good luck and i hope your sales improve!!