Sales Down to Zero

[epsilon_publishing]

I was selling about 15-20 items per week from September thru the first part of February, but for the past 4 weeks the bottom has fallen out. Two sales to returning customers,  4 (FOUR) people who purchased $100+ items who did not pay, and a suspicious return of an expensive musical instrument.

Except for the two returning customers, no sales in the last month, when I was averaging 40-60 sales a month for the previous 5-6 months.    

Most of my items are BIN's, but I have 5 auctions going on, and they have plenty of watchers, so people viewing my listings are not the problem. 

BIN, I usually price a little high, will auto-accept 75% of that price and will consider 50% of the BIN price.  A lot of times I end up selling items for 50%-60% of the BIN price.

The downside of that, if I sell it for 50% there's still the FVF based on 100% of the BIN price, so I can understand why sellers don't want to sell much below BIN.

So is it just the slow season? I know that February is the slowest month (in my experience) but a zero? and things should be getting better in March, right? It's the Ides already, and my sales are still at zero.

Lesson learned....NEVER rely on just one company (or the government, for that matter) for a source of income. You can never tell when the rug might be yanked out from under you. 

Oh, to top that off, I sold an expensive musical instrument and the buyer wrote me and demanded to return it. (I had previously had the local music shop check it out and they verified it was in good playable condition). He opened a case in Ebay's resolution center, after waiting 3 weeks. I provided the receipts and doc's from the music store verifying it was in good shape and that seemed to settle the matter. 

After another month, he opened a case in Paypal for a refund. I told Paypal, fine, we accept the return.  

When I got the horn back it looked like someone had taken a hammer to it.  No, the PO is guiltless, the packaging and box was undamaged, and the instrument was inside an unharmed hardshell case, except someone took a hammer to the plastic carrying handle.  

Funny thing is, my mental alarms were screaming at me to cancel this sale, all during his questions, comments and negotiations to buy the instrument. Intuitively, I knew this was not going to go well, but I am greedy...

[slippinjimmy]

I looked at a few of your listings, they have all been up for a long time if you are not adding new items your sales will naturally decline until all the interesting and/or priced right items are gone and all you are left with are things nobody wants or nobody wants at the price you are asking.

Most of my items are BIN's, but I have 5 auctions going on

I don't see any Auctions under your id.

The downside of that, if I sell it for 50% there's still the FVF based on 100% of the BIN price

This is NOT true, fees are charged on the selling price paid by the buyer.

[duncanvr]

I recommend you set shipping rates for the international countries you may ship to. At the moment it looks like this to a prospective overseas buyer.

Shipping:

May not ship to Australia

Now that may put some international buyers off.

You only have 3 following your store this is not enough repeat buyers are you using social media to help boost your visibility?

I also suggest a plain white background for all your images.

Have you tried send offer to watchers feature I did this and got some good sales out of it.

Promoted listings if your not using it you should be using it at trending rates but make sure your sale prices cover promoted listing fees.

Store size I think you need more items you need to add more on a daily basis throughout various times of the day. 250 items would give buyers more to look at.

Food for thought I hope the suggestions help.

[weyland_pubs]

My sincere apologies, I thought I was logged in not under this old ID. I posted to get advice, and thanks for advice from both youse guys, but I screwed up and asked for advice about that stillborn and barely breathing ebay store. That store has had fewer customers than a store selling sun-tan lotion during a blizzard.

[weyland_pubs]

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@duncanvr wrote:

I also suggest a plain white background for all your images.

Have you tried send offer to watchers feature I did this and got some good sales out of it.

Promoted listings if your not using it you should be using it at trending rates but make sure your sale prices cover promoted listing fees.

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Thanks for the critiques... I did try sending offer one time to watcher, and he did buy it... 🙂 I should know, I advised one person on how to better market his service and he became rich, but I need to become more active in  marketing instead of sitting and letting buyers come to me.    

Are you using social media to help boost your visibility?

Does social media help you? How do you know if it is helping? Any tips on how to get started with it? 

[jaysmusthaves52]

Where would I find this feature to send offers to watchers? I'm not seeing it in the Seller Hub and can't find anything about it in the Help section.
Thanks

[juststuffisell]

WoW. Did you have insurance on the item when you shipped it to the buyer? If the buyer said it was damaged, I suppose you can file a insurance claim with the carrier to see how it goes....

I hear ya on the alarms. It seems that the people that contact you the most trying to negotiate this that and the other are always the ones that turn out to be problems. I will say, it is probably always best to take an item back straight away without hassles as you never know when you will have a vindictive buyer and those guys can cost you a lot of money.

As noted on another thread, you bet it is slow. A lot of people did not get the tax refund they expected. No,... a lot of tax filers where shocked with the outcome of their taxes.

Cheers

[rixstuff]

That is absurd! Where on EARTH did you get the idea that you pay the full FVF when you accept an offer of less than the BIN? You pay 10% of what you sell it for - 10% of a dollar or 10% of $1 million.  STILL only 10%. Ebay does NOT EVER get the FVF of the LIST price, only of the SALE price.  With a misinformation like this, NO WONDER sellers hate taking offers!  I do 2/3 of my sales with offers - have for years (and not just here either - also on other sites).

[rixstuff]

 You are offering a rather odd mix of items.  Not saying there are NO buyers but finding some for those items will be difficult

Your prices for such odd items are rather high.

You don't have very many items listed - I expected many more listings and a bigger variety

Consider collecting up the slow movers into lots and maybe start some auctions for some at much lower prices.  Definitely get more auctions (I find my sales are slow if I don't have at least a third of my items at auction) and list MORE items.  Think of what most folks (of all ages) would buy so you aren't hanging all your hopes on a small niche.

[mitzi531]

I know I can look this up somewhere, but I get lost navigating Ebay. It took me 5 minutes to find the forum. 

I have two questions.

How do I send a watcher a private email? Do I select watcher and the email address comes up? This is legal? I already got in trouble for doing something illegal. SO MUCH to read. 

OK no excuses. 

I have a scale so can I pay postage through PayPal for something not Ebay? I  have something to return to Shoes.com and their policies are convoluted. 

Is it illegal to tell you if you ever buy shoes from Shoes.com KEEP THE BOX THE SHOES COME  IN. They will not take  the shoes back without the EXACT box.

[duncanvr]

How do I send a watcher offer? Go to HUB then open your fixed Price BIN listings. Next select the offer to buyers option (see screen shot). Then review in your list which ones say send offer to buyer. Click that under the listing a new box will come up. Put in your offer price and eBay does the rest.

[duncanvr]

Does social media help you? How do you know if it is helping? Any tips on how to get started with it?

Yes I have a facebook group for my niche and I use the facebook icon at the top of each eBay listing page and it boosts views straight away

I also have a Pinterest group and use the Pinterest icon on the top of each eBay listing page which shares the eBay item link

Suggest you advertise your eBay lots on social media and gain followers there. It definately helps. I think if you share an eBay link to Facebook or other media it creates backlinks somewhere on the Internet.

You need to get yourself seen in google when someone is searching for your eBay stuff you need to come up at the top. Search duncanvr eBay I am on the first page of results in google, this can only help. You can see my marketplace review there to and eBay ranking

I also do promoted listings on selected items above trending rate, this helps

[weyland_pubs]

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@mitzi531 wrote:

I know I can look this up somewhere, but I get lost navigating Ebay. It took me 5 minutes to find the forum. 

I have two questions.

      1) How do I send a watcher a private email?

     2)  I  have a scale so can I pay postage through PayPal for something not Ebay? I  have something to return to Shoes.com and their policies are convoluted. 

     3)  Is it illegal to tell you if you ever buy shoes from Shoes.com KEEP THE BOX THE SHOES COME  IN. They will not take  the shoes back without the EXACT box.

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1) the next post tells how to do that, and there is another method, just cut-n-paste the phrases and google it...

2) Go to paypal type this in URL box: "https://www.paypal.com/shipnow" and you can print your own labels. You may have to create new address.

3) I am no attorney but I once wrote a "Courtroom" software game. It seems to me that the box could be considered part of the whole package or deal when you bought the shoes. Think of it as similar to selling a musical instrument, like a clarinet  - the clarinet is not whole without the case. In any case, it makes it easier for the shoe co. to resell their shoes - after returns, even if they are still brand new, who is going to buy them without  the case? 

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, sorry to hear your sales have dropped off. You’ve kind of gone thru the wringer lately.

In the future, i recommend accepting returns rather than fighting them. A determined buyer will find a way to force a return if they have to. And returning one in the state you described makes me wonder if someone took out his frustrations on it prior to returning. We’ll never know, sadly.

This is just my opinion, but i feel it is best for the seller in the long run to get the item back quickly and process the return without delay. Even tho you had great documentation, an unhappy buyer can wreak havoc on a seller, with impunity, as you experienced. Better to have the item than lose both item and money as does sometimes happen. In this case, an expensive instrument is now devalued, with no accountability. 

Every seller is free to offer no returns, but in this current climate of “the customer is always right,” it can make sense to accept returns regardless of circumstances, as eBay or PayPal can force the return and leave the seller in worse condition than if he had simply accepted it to begin with.

[weyland_pubs]

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@juststuffisell wrote:
WoW. Did you have insurance on the item when you shipped it to the buyer? If the buyer said it was damaged, I suppose you can file a insurance claim with the carrier to see how it goes....

I hear ya on the alarms. It seems that the people that contact you the most trying to negotiate this that and the other are always the ones that turn out to be problems. I will say, it is probably always best to take an item back straight away without hassles as you never know when you will have a vindictive buyer and those guys can cost you a lot of money.

As noted on another thread, you bet it is slow. A lot of people did not get the tax refund they expected. No,... a lot of tax filers where shocked with the outcome of their taxes.

Cheers

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I did not have insurance on it. Not sure if that would have done any good. They can claim the instrument was not in good condition, but with no visible damage. The buyer said it did not "play right". He send several messages, says " Is not playing right Natural F,E,D sounds wrong. High keys not working as well."  He says he will take it to "music tech," but he never does. He says "It has an air leakes. And the neck stays lose." I send him documentation from my Music shop showing their minor repairs and they certify it as in good playing condition.

After another 3 weeks I get refund request from Paypal. Evidently he went to file complaint with Ebay, but the 30-day period had expired so he went to Paypal. I call Pyapal and they agree he has to ship it back to me to get a refund. 

I get it back, I okay the refund, WITHOUT inspecting it. It looks okay to me. I play clarinet but i know beans about sax's. It looks okay to me, except for the broken handle on the case.  I take it to music store, for the man to fix the broken case handle. The repair guy picks up the sax, stares at me. he says, "I hate to tell you this, but it looks like someone dropped this down a flight of stairs, or banged it against a wall." He shows me how one set of keys is out of alignment, a hinge is cracked, etc. $220 estimate for repairs, which I consider okay, I can still sell it for $600 maybe. with all this , shipping, two trips to repair, what I paid for it originally, I will come out even.

What I mean by my mental alarms going off, it was the messages I received. And he never claimed it was damaged, nor provided photos. My mental alarms said, "we are departing reality here, and into some interpretation of what the proper sound of a Saxophone is..."  This buyer is hearing something my music shop did not when he said  "it does not play right."   When I did not agree with this, I got it back, damaged.  

Hope you never have a customer like this guy!