Sales always spaced too far apart. Normal, dead category, or something else?

[mystic_nights]

Hello all, 

I have been selling haunted jewelry items on eBay for 15 years and I have upgraded my haunted jewelry business in many ways as eBay and others have recommended. However, I just can't seem to make a livable income in selling my haunted jewelry, and listing high quantities of my haunted jewelry on eBay doesn't work either. It seems like no matter what I do, my haunted jewelry sales are just here and there, like once a week or every two weeks or once a month or every two months, causing what little money I make from selling my haunted jewelry to be spent instead of saved. I am trying to determine if the haunted jewelry category is dead or if there is no high demand for haunted jewelry on eBay anymore due to eBay disallowing pictures in descriptions, etc. Some say that eBay is too infested with trolls that gang up on sellers and only nitpick purchase their items over a long period of time, causing sellers to run out of inventory and or give up and some say eBay managers and employees do things to control the sales of their sellers, but I don't think that such things are the cause. I have been trolled often in selling my haunted jewelry though.  I have been trying to make enough money in selling haunted jewelry to make a living, and buy a new car, and a home, but that just seems not possible in selling haunted jewelry on eBay. I hear that other eBay sellers selling different things rake in the dough and live a ritzy lifestyle and that sellers that sell just regular jewelry, such as vintage jewelry make $4k per month. There are also other sellers that say all they ever make is just extra cash and some say they never make any sales on eBay. I tried selling just vintage jewelry and doing so brings me no sales at all, so I don't see how the vintage jewelry seller I know is making such good money. My SUV is 20 years old, has issues, and I live in a 30-year-old RV in a dump ghetto RV park with old tires that are too expensive to replace and could blow at any time. I have two university degrees and no career due to no careers at organizations that are affiliated with my education for many years. Some good school does. I would prefer to have my own business, such as my haunted jewelry business, be my career instead because it is more fun. I am not ever expecting to be rich from selling haunted jewelry, but I need to establish a career income with it or another career soon, or I fear I will be at risk of living in my SUV. Housing and other bills are so expensive these days.

I have a friend that makes and sells her own jewelry on another site and she says she is making a living in doing so and I have seen haunted items on other sites rake in the sales as Mcdonald's meals sell. My friend also says that she left eBay because it does not work very well for her in her selling her jewelry.  I also noticed that without my hundreds of haunted jewelry items on eBay, that the haunted category on eBay is only a couple of pages. The haunted jewelry category on eBay used to be loaded with thousands of haunted items back between 2006-2010 but then eBay made many changes, such as disallowing pictures in descriptions, and it is like all the haunted item sellers on eBay left eBay to sell their haunted items on other sites. I do get a lot of messages from buyers that ask questions about my haunted jewelry though, but many of them never buy any of it. Could it be that the haunted category on eBay is dead, or that there just simply isn't a high demand for haunted jewelry on eBay anymore, or could it be that eBay is always just extra cash for the majority of its users? At this point, I don't know what the reason is for me not succeeding in making my haunted jewelry business a profitable career on eBay, for I have tried everything to make it that for a very long time. Perhaps I need to try to sell my haunted jewelry on eBay and other sites to achieve the career income I desire. Really, not complaining here, and never giving up on making my haunted jewelry business my career, just trying to figure out if it is possible to make a career income from selling my haunted jewelry on eBay or not. All thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

[chapeau-noir]

@mystic_nights   Your photos are definitely much better, but I still suggest your gallery photo have more of a close-up of the pendant or main feature in the piece you're selling - you've got about a nanosecond to catch a buyer's eye when they look down a page of search results, and you want that eye.

[buyselljack2016]

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@bonjourami wrote:

LOL..second thread from her about this..drumming up business.

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oh, I'm not going to go looking because I don't want to disturb any ghosts, but I really think I look into the shadowed past may reveal that this is not the "second" post 👻

[redmodelt]

I wasn't going to say anything about that! 🙂

[mtgraves7984]

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@redmodelt wrote:

Selling Haunted items in a Dead category...LOL that is funny! MaHaHa 🙂

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@redmodelt 

Ironically, Sanford and Son's episode (this morning) was the one with the two coffins in Fred's house... the one with the mortician/buyer and his delivery of every "business is dead" joke ever told. I laughed at them again then, too. 🤣

[bonjourami]

"oh, I'm not going to go looking because I don't want to disturb any ghosts, but I really think I look into the shadowed past may reveal that this is not the "second" post "

I meant second post this week, I remember her previous posts.

[fashunu4eeuh]

”If you search for "Haunted Jewelry, Haunted necklace, or haunted rings" you will only find a couple of pages of haunted items if it were not for my haunted items. I am the largest haunted jeweler on eBay...”

The reason there are few haunted items on eBay is because it is not allowed to be sold here. It is against the Intangible Items policy. I pointed this out to you on your other thread. You are flirting with losing your selling privileges if you persist in flouting the rules.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/intangible-items-policy?id=5038

“Intangible items or things that buyers can't confirm that they've received are not allowed. For example:

• A ghost in a jar
• Someone's soul
• Spells or haunted items”

[jayjaspersgarage]

"Now THAT"S how you drum up business for one of the best cozy mystery writers (my sister) with more than twenty books published to date"

'Kudos to your sister, my sister is also a published author. She is a retired Chicago cop, and has had three books published on cases she worked on.'

Awesome.  I am one of the editors and plot developers.  I love a good crime mystery.

[kensgiftshop]

@mystic_nights 

"I have made many wishes with this necklace of the Mage Genie and they all came true!"

Make a wish with your haunted jewelry and your troubles will be over.

Or does the magic only work after someone buys it?

[reallynicestamps]

r if there is no high demand for haunted jewelry on eBay anymore

It would certainly be a niche.  That you are the major seller here puts you at the top of that niche. That's a good thing.

Less important that what your competitors list is how much do they sell?  Many sellers here are hobbyists, although there are rumblings that the recent decision by the IRS to demand 1099s from online sellers with a gross income over $600 may make many who have not been declaring leave online selling entirely.

due to eBay disallowing pictures in descriptions, etc.

Doubtful.

You have up to 12 free pictures available and are only using three or four of them.

Those pictures will show up on phones-- which photos in descriptions won't easily-- and over half the buyers are shopping on phones.

BTW - Is there a reason you don't show the back of your pieces?

Speaking of phones-- your multi coloured text on a black background - in addition to being very out of date- is hard to read on a small screen.

Consider redoing your HTML coding to be something more readable.

I hear that other eBay sellers selling different things rake in the dough and live a ritzy lifestyle

And I am Marie of Roumania.

To make a living from eBay you would need a lot more than your 200 or so listings. And it would help to add a few new pieces every day.

One way to do this is to close your unsold lots as they come to the end of their listing period, then relist them as Sell Similar a week or so later.

Although eBay defaults to Best Match, "about to close" and "newly listed" are also very popular searches.

a friend that makes and sells her own jewelry on another site

Don't hold yourself to only one site.

While eBay has eyeballs and reasonable rates (AZ has more eyeballs but unreasonable rates, etsy and poshmark aare cheaper but don't have the same eyeballs), there is nothing stopping you from listing on multiple sites.

Now let's look at your Terms and Conditions.

Blue on black is unreadable, but since the policies are unenforceable, that may not be too important.

You can have a No Returns policy. You cannot have a No Refunds policy.

All that happens is that some customers will decide that No Returns is unfriendly and will move on. Others, more savvy, will realize that they may be able to get free stuff by claiming Not As Described when you refuse* the return.

You cannot demand that only positive feedback.  EBay will not remove negative feedback on demand, there are only very specific reasons for FB removal. Again, unfriendly terms leading to back button.

On a more positive note, have you looked into international shipping?

The Global Shipping Program is a Seller Protection which allows you to sell internationally while shipping only to the GSP plant in Kentucky with cheap USPS tracking. In addition, most of the MBG does not apply to forwarded purchases.  You can pick and choose which countries you want to ship to.

Aaaand - I just looked at your shipping and you DO ship internationally with the GSP.  So your ToS that says US only is misleading. 

I would also suggest opening a new account for buying. There is no good reason for letting your customers know where and what your sources are.

You might even open a new account for unhaunted jewelry, which should be easier to find.  And some buyers would actually be turned off by the idea of haunted jewelry-- I've had odd reactions to my estate jewelry purchases ("Eew, dead woman's ring!" Yeah, it was my late mother's. )

And Item Specifics.

IS are used by SEOs - which means basically Google.

Instead of waiting for your customer to find eBay and your listings, Item Specifics allow a customer looking on Google to find you based on the Item Specifics you have listed. And the more the better.

Another problem- none of the listings I looked at gave the materials the pieces are made of.  Glass? Jade? Ruby? Garnet? Silver? Sterling silver? Pirate gold?** Pot metal? German or Tibetan silver?***

*Although you may have a No Returns policy, you are allowed to demand the return before refunding. You may have to pay for return shipping. Which is cheaper than losing the entire payment.

** Pirate gold is 9k. I have the 19th century engagement ring of my great-aunt which is pirate gold, natural seed pearls and opals.

*** These are pot metal with no silver content worth mentioning.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Ok, I admit it.  I had to peek.  Even though I couldn't read that wall of text, I'd never even heard of haunted jewelry.   What will they think of next  😀