SUNDAY BLUES!

[vintageista]

For years & years Sundays have always been my best selling day until lately...today I had 2 sales for a total of $18, one of which was a bid on an auction item from earlier in the week! It wasn't too long ago I could count on $200-300 every Sunday! I'm not sure what has changed, but somehow I am in a different rotation and am getting NO action on Sundays any longer. My eBay fees are due this week and I am beginning to doubt if I will have enough in my PP account to pay them! Last Sunday I had 90 items ending on auction (which usually helps sales) & I only sold 2 out of that 90!  It is not just summertime! I know it is slower in the summer, I have been on eBay since 1998, I am well aware of the seasonal patterns, but it is much worse...even the new TV ads (which are pretty good) don't seem to be helping to increase traffic!

Everything is in a rush to the bottom, too many sales ending at $.99 which isn't helping anyone, the USPS is making more than sellers on most items! I sell mostly vintage & other clothing and the vintage categories are filled with Asian sellers describing brand-new items as VINTAGE! Yet when I attempted to list something CLEARLY DESCRIBED as Vintage-Reproduction I got a message at the top of my listing telling me I could not do that! Guess it only works if you lie, or more than likely the China sellers have DIFFERENT RULES!

This is the 3rd Sunday in a row with lower-than-normal sales and I am beginning to panic!

[paulieshere12_5]

Its prime yard sale time in the USA. Maybe people arent looking to buy vintage as much from EBAY in the summer unless its really cheap? Ever consider that?

[mr_lincoln]

@vintageista  It depends on what one is selling ... I checked page 1, 5 ans 10 on your listings ... clothing is a saturated market so yes, perhaps with all that is availabe on the site you get your things put in a negative rotation, not sure how it works.  Someone else posted to start Auctions at the lowest price you will accept that includes fees, profit, overhead, etc.  I NEVER use  the .99 auction start but then I sell a diverse group of collectibles.

Try adding some different things to your offerings, children's books, toys, games, etc.  Its summer and parents may be looking for other things their kids can do other than sit in front of the TV or with a mobile device in their hand, or toys & games on rainy days when the pool is closed.

As for not having the $$ in PayPal for the monthly bill ... that is a MUST, transfer $$ in to the account because a delinquent payment will not help your situation. 

[timemachine777]

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@keziak wrote:

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@timemachine777 wrote:

@keziak

Off topic here. That Owl that your petting (If it's you), looks more like your petting a troll or something, because the image is so small.

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at least you can tell it's an owl though! I wish it was me. 

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I had to enlarge it.

[timemachine777]

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@u_cant_take_it_with_u wrote:

I absolutely agree....However, you can't have a thriving SELLER venue, without simultaneously having a thriving BUYER venue.  Buyers have become ultra-cheap, skittish, and so terrified of making the WRONG move, that they don't move at all. As that trite cliche goes...."You can lead a horse to water, BUT......"

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That's because eBay trains them to be that way. eBay pushes the sellers to do everything possible to keep their prices at rock bottom even if it's a loss. It's classical conditioning. When Pavlov conditioned the dogs in his experiments, it didn't take long for them to become trained, but it would take a Herculean effort to untrain them. 

[kibbie9]

I experienced the exact same thing you did. Perhaps the other sellers are correct in saying China is hurting our sales big time. Also, with Ebay pushing us to start item bidding at .99 is ludicrous when we paid big money for our items to begin with. As a rule, we sellers price our items well below market or retail, but to price it so low, following Chinese tactics makes no sense. It does not even pay to photograph or write the listing for the item. EBay's competitor sites are not doing that great either, especially because no one ever heard about them. What to do?