Sales

[swanlakeballerina]

Hi,

I have been selling for 22 years+. Lately, I have 0 sales and have not had any questions or sales for approx. 2 months. This has been the worst year ever. Has anybody else experienced a situation like this? I am in a quandary as to what has happened to EBay? Any thoughts? Please advise.

Thank you

Frenchlady

[dolcetreasures]

I would check your prices verses comps. I’m not familiar with your markets but I notice a pair of Ferragamo pumps that are used and way overpriced. The market won’t accept it at the moment. I can buy similar style Ferragamo pumps at Woodbury Commons or Vineland Outlets regularly and those are NEW. 

[inhawaii]

What do you mean what has happened to ebay? You have 250 items listed and no salles for a month. No offense but obviously nobody is interested in buying what you are selling at the price you are asking.  Nothing is wrong with ebay. I have about the same amount of listings as you. I have sales every day.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I see a lot of your items priced in the $50=$60 range. When people are feeling uncomfortable about things economic, this has always been a price point which is hurting.

[adamcartwright]

@swanlakeballerina 

Why don't you go through your listings and compare prices with current sales.

You have some beautiful items, and I bet if you lowered prices to be more competitive, you'd start to see some action fast.

[conservitvs]

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@swanlakeballerina wrote:

Hi,

I have been selling for 22 years+. Lately, I have 0 sales and have not had any questions or sales for approx. 2 months. This has been the worst year ever. Has anybody else experienced a situation like this?

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@swanlakeballerina 

I’m sure many, yes. Historically, summer months are always slow. 

[baydealz]

Market dynamics - just not as much demand...I'd categorize many of your products as 'luxury goods,' not necessarily fancy, but not necessarily staples.  People buy with excess cash.  Similar to me, you sell 'needle in the haystack' type items - lowering the price most likely won't spur demand.  You could try 'best offer' to see if that gets someone to offer the price they think is fair, and where'd they buy it, but most likely you'd just be lowering your margin for someone who would have paid your price.  Your target buyer wants that item.  The easy commodity stuff is what's been selling, and the race is to the lowest price.  Rents are up, staples are up, wages are stagnant.  eBay is actually a good venue for unique items, it's just that with all it's viewers, it still may sit for a while, a long while.  You could try listing locally, and get that impulse buyer,  but at a much lower price - so it's a balance between volume and pricing.  

[lakefor94]

I would suggest doing markdown sales. Maybe start at 10% for 30 days and then go to 20% and so on to see if you can start moving a few items.

Imo, price is king in today's market. 

[pls-consignments]

I will have to disagree with my tactless friend. You DO have items that people will buy, but like the rest have said, people are now price-sensitive due to economic instability. That is why he is selling and you are not. His item price points are much lower, with a much larger buyer base. Yours are much higher with a rapidly shrinking buyer base. Additionally, try other things such as offers, sales, or end/sell similar 10 of your least viewed items every day, and lower your prices by 5-10%. This should help. 🙂

[chapeau-noir]

Your items are nice, great photos, but prices are very high. 

That box lot of ribbon, for instance, I might hope to shift for $30-35, not $160, etc. 

Collectibles are a super-saturated market (like clothing, which I'm in) with relentlessly dropping values as more people divest their collections but fewer people collect those types of items. 

[inhawaii]

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@pls-consignments wrote:

I will have to disagree with my tactless friend. You DO have items that people will buy, but like the rest have said, people are now price-sensitive due to economic instability. 

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"Nobody wants to buy what you are selling at the price you are asking."

Didn't me and you just say the same thing?   You with a lot more tact.  😉

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi @swanlakeballerina Took a look at your listings, and had a few thoughts. Cool items like yours need to wait for the right buyer. But while you are waiting, I think with a bit of tweaking, you can spur some sales on, just by addressing some of the basics.

One thing that immediately jumped out was the need to rework your titles. The titles are filled with extraneous words that are not serving your needs, or your shoppers’ needs well.

For example, the listing entitled “Rare, Amazing, Antique, German Wax Doll Lamp In Unbelievable Silk Thread Outfit”.  There is a lack of suitable keywords needed to draw those interested in such an item to your listing. Shoppers are not going to input superfluous adjectives in the Search bar like “amazing”, or “unbelievable”. Those words are wasting space in your title that could be much better utilized by including keywords the buyers will  use in their Search parameters.

Keywords are primarily product descriptors that relate to the item directly, like color, brand, size, material, age/era, model number, etc.

You mention in the description that the original label remains in the doll lamp, and have shown a photo of it. That’s all good. Yet there is no mention of the info found on the label anywhere else in the listing. It should be included in the description at least. That is an omission that could prevent a buyer from finding your item.

Using Google translate, i see the label says “Souvenir of Vienna”. Your title states this is a German item, which it may well be, yet Vienna is in Austria. I would want all those details to appear in my listing to give this item its best chance at being found. 

Doing a bit more research, i found that these wax doll lamps are referred to as boudoir doll lamps. The heads are made of wax but the bodies are chalk-ware. Those details may also be important as possible keywords to draw more interested buyers to the listing.

Punctuation in titles is not generally necessary, can waste valuable character spaces and can, in some cases, actually be a hindrance to SEO (search engine optimization). So omit its use as much as possible from your titles.

I have to run now, but will return with some further thoughts.

[johnrj1226]

You are offering the market place items I will classify as collectables - every body and their brother are too.

e.g. just on eBay . eBay sellers are only offering the  market this many  items - 

94,000,000+ results for collectables

Your 250 items are just  a spot on the wall that shoppers need to sift through to find something that trips  their trigger.

 Plus there are other online sites that offer similar  stuff too  plus  every thrift store, estate/yard  sales and so on are you competition too.

Hint:  Branch out and find  something that not so many peddlers  are offering.  Selling is  a whole  lot like fishing - if you want to  catch fish you don't go to where all the other fisherman/woman are and never share your  secretes  of success and ya' spit on the bait/lure before you throw you line in the water just for good. luck.

I was a  sales person for 41.5 years,  sold primarily fork lift trucks, there were 10 to 12 brand names in the US market, annual sales of new equipment ranged  from. 100K to 250K unit in a good year, sales activity jumped up and down with economy.   When times got tough I had to change my  sales tactics to  take care of my family - did that by offering  something different that benefited the  customers needs (solution selling vs $$ selling of the "me too" sellers.  Oh ya' you  have to  work to find the secretes to success and when you do, get ready to change 'cause competition will find your secrete  sauce.

[ebooksdiva]

You’ve been selling for 22 years+ ? Then you should already know online sales are either feast or famine depending on time of year. 

[pickapaper]

@swanlakeballerina 

@fashunu4eeuh gave you some really good advice above about your listings.  I only looked at a few of your listings and noticed a couple of other things. 

On your "bakelite silverware", you might want to use the word "flatware" instead of "silverware".

It looks like you have a duplicate listing for the turnhead twin dolls.  If you don't have two sets of these, you might want to delete one of the listings.

The Disney Cookware title could be improved by putting Mickey Minnie instead of "character" and mention "utensils".  Something like "Disney Mickey Minnie Childs Metal Cook Ware Utensil Set 1960s 1970s NIP".   (NIP = New in Package)

It is sometimes hard to do (since it was ingrained in us in school) but commas and apostrophes and periods and the like are not necessary in titles and take up valuable space.   Keywords are more important for people to find your listings.