Sellers that have been around for awhile...

[markscustomdesigns]

I've been here on eBay selling 2002. My sales peaked in 2010 and have slowly declined since. I've gone from low 6 figure sales to not even 20K last year.

 Just curious how others have fared over the years. I'm about ready to pull the plug on selling here I think. My sales have been increasing by an average of 20% per year on other venues that I've been on the same amount of time but no matter what I do here to try to save my sales they continue to drop.

[chapeau-noir]

@markscustomdesigns  eTailing has changed so much in the last 20 years that it's impossible for me to compare then to now, particularly since my selling has been changing along with it.

A lot is that eBay used to be the only game in town, now it's not.  I also remember the boast that eBay had ONE MILLION (!!!!) listings (was that in about 2001?), now it has 1.5 billion.  On top of that, more sites have diversified serving different markets.

[dirk12955]

Apples and Oranges.     I sell stamps.    Retired from doing a "Real Job" in 2017

I have slowly built inventory while putting my profits back into the business.    

1)    I turned my inventory in 2020  and 2021    A group of listings valued at 3X what I had 

listed in 2017-2018

2)   The current value of my listings is about  8-10% higher than last year

3)   I expect to do slightly better than 100% sell thru this year.    

4)   I offer "Free"  shipping and 1 day handling.   I ship 5 and sometimes 6 days a week depending on my mood

 and the phase of the moon.

5)   I offer good customer service including answering every goofy nonsensical question asked.

6)  I am constantly browsing for new or fresh inventory or inventory that can be added to 

items I already own and sell on a regular basis or items that sort of compliment what I offer.

7)   I try to make new listings "All the time"   Maybe 1 or 2 today and 25 or 50 tomorrow.

😎  I take advantage of eBay freebies.     

9)  My buyers pay for everything.   Postage,   packaging,  printer ink and paper,  FVFs,   Promo fees, the little 

white cardboard thing that I put a stamp in,   Everything.

I make a profit on everything.

Your mileage may vary,   But my mileage has gone from a part time hobby to retirement and working everyday in my bare feet and jammies.   

Everything I buy is purchased on eBay

Everything I sell is sold on eBay

[markscustomdesigns]

Yep..All products are not alike and the same can be said for sellers. I've been manufacturing the items I sell since the late 70's. I have not worked for someone else since I was 17 years old. Many of my items are custom made to order so most items have 2 day handling on them. I ship for free as far as not having a shipping fee but of course the cost of shipping is added into my selling price just like all other costs of bringing my product to market.

 I made new listings consistently and constantly added new products until about 2 years ago hwen it became evident that nothing I was doing was creating more sales.

Yes, I answer all questions, usually within a minute between 6AM and 11PM 7 days a week. Gotta sleep sometime!

I was selling more items in one month here on eBay then I sell in a whole year now. I've lost the discounts I used to get for volume making it worse.  I'm just starting to think that the time and effort I'm spending here would be more fruitful elsewhere. It saddens me. I've had a long run here and made a lot of money in the past. Sad to see my sales dying here.

[domin-tomas]

You've got to spread your wings! There are many sites out there now you can go to. You don't have to leave ebay just spread out to the other sites. If it wasn't for other sites and my web site I would go broke and have to quit if I was just selling on ebay. Ebay is not my go to site to sell anymore, I still post but don't expect to sell. I was selling up to $4000.00 a month now I sell around $300.00 a month.

[richard1rst]

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@markscustomdesigns wrote:

I've been here on eBay selling 2002. My sales peaked in 2010 and have slowly declined since. I've gone from low 6 figure sales to not even 20K last year.

 Just curious how others have fared over the years. I'm about ready to pull the plug on selling here I think. My sales have been increasing by an average of 20% per year on other venues that I've been on the same amount of time but no matter what I do here to try to save my sales they continue to drop.

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Your listings are in a narrow category - motorcycle accessories. At present you seem to have only 62 listings whereas Motorcycle Accessories comes back with 69,000 listings..

The first question would be how many other sellers have joined that category since you started thereby splitting the existing sales into more pie pieces.

Way back I was doing a big business in belt buckles. But then I noticed a downward trend (as other sellers came on board?). So I diversified. I now have umpteen times more listings BUT in umpteen times more categories. My sales have slipped a little, I would guess for a variety of unspecifiable reasons, but I am still doing fairly well.

Maybe you should consider increasing the number of your listings and broadening your category offerings?

[meme6253]

I am Very Surprised they allow you to sell all that NAZI Garbage

[joseh1445]

If you want your sales to grow, you need to post more stuff for sale.  That is 1 of the best advice that I can gave you.  

Good luck on your selling journey.

[domin-tomas]

Technically, we pay for a service through our store and paying fees. Ebay has an obligation to this service. Sense they are not providing a service that I pay for I wont be renewing the store come July.  This is like paying a contractor to install your cabinets and they just bring your cabinets for you to install and give the contractor full payment. Your paying for a service you didn't get.

[winebreath]

Agree.

[mr_lincoln]

@markscustomdesigns   For myself if items do not sell on this venue they get moved to another venue.  There are more choices today then 10 years ago for that so you are in luck on that score.  Some items I have obtained I never even bothered listing here because I knew they would sell better elsewhere.

Additionally, with the recent surcharges USPS will apply to larger and longer packages it will preclude certain items for me selling here ...

Markets change, business changes and Buyers shop around ... its just a business decision so it sounds like you are ready to make it ... you will feel better once you do ...

Mr. L

[onlinecentral]

Demand for the typewriter and printer ribbons, SCSI hard drive cables for servers and over kill home computers 15 to 20 years ago evaporated. I moved on to other items in different categories.

I read an article 5 or 10 years ago that demand for and sales of classic style motorcycles, popular from 1901 to 1999, had dwindled. That would account for less demand for your leather accessories to embellish them.

You should study Charles Tandy and Tandy Leather.

Figure out some different leather products you can make and sell to metal musicians, gothic looking people, camping, survival preparedness people, snow skiing, etc.

Do people embellish their SUV or pickup truck interior with leather? How about leather smart phone and ear pod cases? Something for pets.

You just need to figure out a better category to market your leather expertise.

[goldrushfinds]

It may be offensive, but it is history. We should not censor the past.

[timzbiz]

Yep, same as you. Peaked in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Down hill since.

[richard1rst]

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@domin-tomas wrote:

Technically, we pay for a service through our store and paying fees. Ebay has an obligation to this service. Sense they are not providing a service that I pay for I wont be renewing the store come July.  This is like paying a contractor to install your cabinets and they just bring your cabinets for you to install and give the contractor full payment. Your paying for a service you didn't get.

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Technically, your analogy is flawed beyond any reasonable structure. The only service eBay offers is a platform on which you can expose your products to the world. That they do.

They DO NOT GUARANTEE that you will actually sell anything. It is YOUR job to select a saleable item. You have 174 listings under Action Figures. But when you do a search for “Action Figures” it returns over 2,000,000 results.

If you are offering things no one wants or your listings are overwhelmed by literally MILLIONS of other listings for similar items that is NOT eBay’s fault.

We will now pause while all the trolls crawl out and accuse me of being an eBay shill.

WRONG

I am a shill for laissez-faire Capitalism. The underlying premise is “Find a need and fill it.” Not duplicate what oh so many others are already doing. Having a handful of items competing against MILLIONS of other items is YOUR deficit, not eBay’s.

Find something interesting that is unique and/or scarce.