Sales ? Where did they go?

[tdebuys]

Wow!  Been selling on Ebay for 20 years and NEVER did I list 250 items without a single buyer.  That is amazing.  I had a great month last month so I can't complain, but I can notice the total absence of collector sales this month.

Time to rethink this whole thing before the new year.  I hate wasting time.  Ya'll have a Merry Christmas!

[onefootflipper]

I am sorry for your rough month.

Glass is a category in decline and you are using auction format which many buyers completely ignore, particularly when shopping for presents.

Your items, photos and listings look wonderful. 

You might do better switching over to fixed price.

[tdebuys]

Suggestions noted. Thanks for taking the time to respond.  At this point I think it's best to just retire from the field until things improve.  It is certainly not worth the effort to list 250 duds.  LOL   I think you are probably entirely correct.  I just don't have it in me to make all the changes right now.  Maybe next year some time.

[dbfolks166mt]

     It happens. At this point most people are done Christmas shopping and the ability for shippers to meet delivery dates may become questionable either because of volume or weather conditions. A good portion of the country is about to get impacted by a major storm during the next week. 

     I always shut down about this time of year to enjoy the holidays, reconcile everything for tax purposes and start up again sometime in late January or early February. It's a nice break for those that can do it. Obviously if eBay is your main source of income that is probably not feasible. 

     I have also diversified across multiple platforms and forums ecommerce has become very competitive and I now only sell about 20% of my items through eBay and that number continues to decline. 

[onefootflipper]

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@tdebuys wrote:

Suggestions noted. Thanks for taking the time to respond.  At this point I think it's best to just retire from the field until things improve.  It is certainly not worth the effort to list 250 duds.  LOL   I think you are probably entirely correct.  I just don't have it in me to make all the changes right now.  Maybe next year some time.

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You might want to consider doing what I do.

I list everything fixed price. 

Once an item is almost 3 months old I go ahead and end it and then use sell similar reducing the price by 10 percent. I also very carefully research prices, which I admit would be much harder for glass since it has such a random factor and so many unique pieces.  Very few of my items make it to the second relist. 

If you happen to look at my store ignore the trading cards, or just search me using the price of $2 and up. The 10,000 $1.99 trading cards I have listed are not something I am really adding to the store anymore, but I still sell a bunch of them every day so I am not taking them down or reducing the price on them either. 

[dbfolks166mt]

You might want to consider doing what I do.

I list everything fixed price. 

     There are pro's and con's to both BIN and auction type listings. I generally tend to prefer the auction format for a number of reasons mostly because it affords me better time management. 

[714ricki]

Your listings & photos look great! You're probably in a niche where the demand is extremely low right now. You can try buy it now listings & use the free listings that ebay offers you on a monthly basis. Eventually, the niche gain attention again. The only question is when.

[tdebuys]

Yes I'm kind of in agreement with you about auctions and time management.  Health and age dictate that  I can't be here everyday to do all that is necessary when you may have daily sales and inquiries.  If I can't sell  using the  auction format, then I can't sell at all.  The cost to me isn't $ as much as it is effort.  Takes a lot of research time to look up each one of a kind item so you can identify it properly for your customers.   I'm not complaining mind you, just stating the facts.  And yes if I could sell a thousand widgets off of a single ad that would be great.  But, antique glass, collectibles, and their history are what I know and love. Certainly one can find better things to sell.  But l already have 3,000 pcs. of glass and so I'm kind of stuck no matter how ugly that market has become.   I just commented because in 20 years I have never listed 250 items only to sell a goose egg.   It's just a comment on reality and not an accusation about eBay nor is it a whine.  It is what it is.  I Just time to re-think what I'm wasting my time on.  I guess there are other things I could be doing.  Someone commented about markets coming back around again, and I agree with that too.  Only problem is I need it to do that in months, not years...LOL  I don't think there is enough time left for me to ever see it.  But, up till now it sure has been a fun trip.

[reallynicestamps]

As your auctions end, relist as Fixed Price/ Immediate Payment Required.

You can't sell what you don't list.

I have some years just closed my Store for December because collectibles are a slow sell before Boxing Day, when they tend to come roaring back.

YMMV

It's only 14 days to Christmas, not enough time for an Auction to end and the win to arrive in time for wrapping and giving.

By now you should have a pretty good idea of the value of your goods, so using the more popular Fixed Price (after Boxing Day) gives you 30 days, automatically renewed, to find that customer and 250 is Free Listings for a non-Store subscriber.

[chapeau-noir · Accepted solution]

@tdebuys  You can bulk list and bulk edit groups of your auctions to fixed price - if you're trying to clear items out, you can just use your auction opener for fixed price, or auction opener + $ - either one. 

Also, set your shipping out a bit - maybe give yourself 3-5 days to minimize days of packing sales and trips to the post office.  You'll be answering questions on auctions just as much as fixed price, so that won't change, it's just trying to lower the physical stress, it seems. 

I would look for collectibles to start up again after Christmas - right now emphasis is often on new items, or items people need now. 

[coolections]

You only sold 28 items in the last three months. What you were attempting to auction was really not actionable items. If you decide to return to Ebay list that stuff as BIN.

[tdebuys]

Well actually BIN doesn't work very well for me in past attempts. If they don't want to buy it at auction, then so be it.  And while 28 items is probably no big deal to you as you seem to want to use that number as a club to hit me over the head with, 28 items to me was a difference between us being able to go out to eat once in a while or sitting at home night after night.  I know I'm not important, but it's a pretty harsh comment when all we need are a few sales to make the quality of life much better.  I apologize for what probably seems to you as an unappreciative comment from an unimportant seller, but I have to do what is best for us and auctions have always been good to us.  Until this December it seems they just quit on us.   That's just what happened.  Thanks for taking the time to respond, but I have to pass on BIN.   If that is the only alternative, then I doubt the future is very bright for us here on eBay.  But after the new year I'll try again and see if it goes any better. 

[onefootflipper]

I don't think anyone is trying to insult you.  If "Buy it now" is not working for you then you might have an unrealistic expectation of how long it takes the average piece of glass to sell on ebay. 

Auctions vs. buy it now has been extensively studied by all the big brain ecommerce experts and apparently the overall result is that items at auction sell for 30-50 percent less than identical items posted buy it now.  That is why you don't see any of the gigantic sellers using auctions at all, and most full time sellers either rarely, or never use them.  My last one was about 10 years ago.

There are indeed a minority of successful full time sellers who actually make money who do use an auction format, however they generally use a business model of posting the starting bid at their break even point on the item.

[coolections]

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@tdebuys wrote:

I know I'm not important, but it's a pretty harsh comment when all we need are a few sales to make the quality of life much better.  

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I was not trying to offend you. Just stating facts that you sold 28 items. The actual numbers never came into my mind. You could have sold 100 items and my reply would have been the same. It is best to just use BIN and skip auctions.

[lightershop-dk]

They went to Etsy. Lower fees, shipping tracker works every time, better programming, better app, use video and send video in-chat, usable review system, charge currency, make custom specific in-chat sales. 

i just started using it 1 week ago and during that time i sold for 4 times the value as compared to ebay. it took me 1 week to setup. i spend 6 months on ebay and oh my dear lord i am not even finished yet. i realized today i was probably not ever going to finish setting up my ebay. 

- ebay does load faster when you have a bad connection! thats their only pro so far, lol