SALES

[clemsantiques]

Good Morning    I am concerned     I have been selling with Ebay since 1998   a Long time.    However,  lately,  there are little to NO sales.     I use to do approx 7 items a week.....Now,  1 item every other week.   

   IS IT JUST ME...  or IS EVERYONE DOWN ????

  IF SO........What do you feel the cause is..???    

  Kindly jot a line    I  would appreciate it

[kabilab]

Predicated upon 59 yrs. of selling. 28 as a one call closer and 31 in retailing, I have experienced, as have most, great yrs. and ain't yrs. Early in my career, I was taught that if one has what people want at a price they are willing to pay, a sale usually occurs. The difficulty is in aligning the two parts of the equation for profit. Unfortunately, I do not have any answers for today's economy.

[sumsum70]

Everyone has their own theory, but I think eBay did something that has a detrimental effect on traffic/sales/visibility/whatnot. Fairly certain whatever it was happened right around the same time sellers were told the view count would not include bots. My 90-day dollar number was always in the $60k range before May, today it sits at $41815.03.

If low sales were solely an economy problem, I would expect it to be across all modes of selling. For my items, it is not. I sell computer equipment via pittsburgh CL and sales have not changed. Some weeks I may only have 2 or 3 server sales, but others are 10-15. There has been no 3-month long sales decline locally, just here.

Best advice - find other ways to sell or things to do. My business generates many pallets of computer scrap, so I use the time that I am not dealing with shipping, scammers, lowballers and eBay nonsense to break that stuff down and sell it.

[umoraski]

Join the Club - We are in a Recession, even though the government says we aren't.   People are spending their money on gas, food, utilities.  I just lowered my prices, however after shipping and the tax, the buyers are still paying a lot more for getting the items to their front door.   

[krazzykats]

I'm waiting it out.  That is probably what many people are doing right now.  If I compared my purchases (2019-2022) before Covid to the current day, I'm pretty sure they are way less.   Why?  I only need specific things, and that doesn't include many collectibles.  It seems like only clutter now.

My sales have been down for months because of what I sell.  I have a lot of collectible seasonal items.  I also have many other things I want to sell off.   But I will wait whatever it is, inflation, stagflation, recession out.  This is not a source of income I depend on.

And hey, I sure would like to maybe buy a newer car as mentioned for les$...Will wait and see.

[kaylybon0]

i have a feeling as this economy gets worse and eventually crashes that will be the end of Ebay. stock up prep because it is going to get a lot worse. 

[lawnmowerpartsstore2]

That sounds a bit scary to think about

[onefootflipper]

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@purple-rain-store wrote:

I just found this out per a YT channel: Angela in Resale Land. 

Maybe this could part of the issue?

Check your "business policies," for default payment. Especially since

you started selling on here before managed payments, (like I have)

when it was Paypal processing all payments. 

You might have items getting put into an old 

payment policy, "paypal default!" 

I'm hearing if this is happening to some or most

of your listings & you've been having little

to no sales, this could be a reason why! 

I just checked mine; by going into Seller Hub, clicking 

"site preference's," then "business policies" & sure enough

there was a payment policy, "paypal default," which had

listing shown for it.

So I went into the each of the listings, fixed 

the "payment," policy to "buy it now" & was able to delete the "paypal 

default" payment policy.  

I would be curious to know if anybody else finds this 

in their payment policies & sees active listings under 

"paypal default" payment policy as well.  

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It errors out everytime I try to create, view or modify that paypal default policy. Although I am honestly having plenty of sales. My summer crash ended at the end of June.

[purple-rain-store]

did you look at the way over to the far right in that column to see if it had any listing

using that "paypal Default" payment policy? 

[ogaugeminiaturefigures]

My electric consumption last month was 2% lower than same month last year but 53% higher bill dollar amount.

[yuzuha]

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@fallgold4031 wrote:

In my opinion, here are three things that are happening: (1) The market is changing.  Younger people no longer are that interested in older items or collecting things.  This has changed even over the last 5 or 6 years.

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They are interested in collecting things, just not the same things as older people. The older people are busy downsizing their stuff and the younger people don't want said stuff, so what you have is a glut of certain types of items on the market as everyone tries to sell theirs off and no one who wants to buy them.

[lawnmowerpartsstore2]

Good idea

[maryndelaware]

I think the economy has a big play in this but also , it's summertime. People are out and about more. They are on vacations and just enjoying the outside whether it is gardening, pool, social gathering. They ren't sitting in the house bored as much. I think it will pick up in September.

[lawnmowerpartsstore2]

Maybe so, but even the Lawn and Garden category is much slower then the past during this time of year

[femmefan1946]

There's a thing called "survivor bias". Those who have slow sales have time to post here. And we don't see the sellers who are too busy to post.

Since you have been selling since 1998, you must have records.

How were your sales in June/July 2019? 2018?

2020 and 2021 were outliers due to the pandemic surge in online buying, but you can use them with care.

You can also look for patterns. I find my dead period is November /December when my customers are buying for others -- and not used items for themselves. But I get a huge boost on Boxing Day and January to March is as busy as I ever get.

Your patterns will differ. Most sellers do much of their business in the fall and leading up to Christmas.

[5594shelleys]

Selling since 1998 also. Simply put, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore - "a phrase that has come to mean that we have stepped (were pushed) outside of what is considered normal; we have entered (are relegated) to a place or circumstance that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable; we have found ourselves in a strange situation. Outside of normal, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, strange … Unlike in the movie, however, we cannot close our eyes, click our heels three times, think, “there’s no place like home,” and return to the normal, familiar and comfortable."

(Additional source of income outside eBay is highly recommended.)