Selling dropping off

[66boos]

I've been selling on Ebay for over 20 years. I generally have 150 or so items listed at all times. Its been great side cash. However , I notice this year sale have dropped dramatically.  Someone PLEASE don't make it a political statement because even during the 2008 financial crisis , Covid in 2020 , etc,  I still had great sales. Anyone have similar experiences? 

[krazzykats]

The boomers are dying off and the generations following them pay others to build/fix things.  Less DIYers.

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[chapeau-noir]

Boomers are not exactly the fix-it generation 😁

[ten_o_nine]

@bigoljim47 

Recently, I received three returns for new watches due to "Does not fit", despite providing accurate measurements in the item description and specifics. The watches are standard size.

[gurlcat]

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@krazzykats wrote:

The boomers are dying off 

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This year?   

[12345jamesstamps]

I would drop 'vintage', 'antique', '1920's' and so on from the titles.

Just a suggestion...try it on some.

What are you exactly selling? Put the name first.

Buyers are not dumb and know if it's vintage or antique or this and that.

You can put those words in 'description' and / or 'condition'.

We are getting bigger sellers who sell 50,000+ items...the more we list every week the better we might get noticed.

And 'repeat buyers' are what we all desire.

It's 'think outside the box' now as to obtain someone to your store...not easy.

I currently have no sales today...LOL

It's been awful...so I just keep listing until I get tired.

Look and see what other items from other sellers on under your listing...and copy that with a tiny price reduction. Maybe change your wording around to their wording...copy can sometimes work.

As far as promoting...I find lowering the price is a better option for me.

[gurlcat]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

I would drop 'vintage', 'antique', '1920's' and so on from the titles.

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I've seen you suggest this before and I'm not sure why.  Lots of buyers use 'vintage' as a search term.  I definitely use it when I'm sourcing jewelry lots -I don't want a bunch of modern plastic Chinese garbage in the results, which is exactly what I get if I just search 'jewelry lot'.  

Also the OP said their sales were great until just this year.  So unless they just started using age-related terms this year, it couldn't explain their dropoff.  

[krazzykats]

I’ll just say this: I grew up in the boomer era where we fixed things, and since I am not dead yet, I still try to fix things and pay others to handle what I can no longer physically or safely do. 

It feels like every year I'm replacing more items instead of repairing them.  So why do I need all these tools?

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[gurlcat]

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@krazzykats wrote:

I’ll just say this: I grew up in the boomer era where we fixed things, and since I am not dead yet, I still try to fix things and pay others to handle what I can no longer physically or safely do. 

It feels like every year I'm replacing more items instead of repairing them.  So why do I need all these tools?

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 I think what you're describing is more about products than people.  The things you bought in your youth were made to last and be worthy of repair whenever something did go wrong.  The more recently-made things are mostly "disposable" because they're either too complex for most owners to fix themselves, and/or cheap enough that you might as well just buy a new one.   -Remember TV repair shops?  Notice how they don't exist anymore?  

[johnrj1226]

Lowes attributes their  success to more women being DIYers as they cater to them and all their customers and their environment is women  friendly - i.e. The will take the ir customers to the correct aisle an shelf bay plus a soft interior color  scheme vs a manly industrial scheme.  Lowes was a struggling fixer up chain out  of NC in the 1990s and HD was  booming but their customer friendly environment went straight down hill - they are trying to go back to return to the  days of yesteryear but the employees still don't  know very much. ..  Sold  material handling equipment to Home Depot and knew their regional manage very well in the  late 1990s and early 2000s  HD was scare of Lowes.

PS:  am almost a Boomer (44 model) and an avid DIYer my entire life - saved tons of $$  had to send 2   youngsters off to college and one to 4 years of trade school to become a journeyman - paid for all my college -  have 2 work benches in my man cave (aka my garage ) and a stereo system - luv music from the 60, 70 & 80s )..  Seldom paid for a  car wash, cleaned in  right in my drive way, always mowed my yard  - have 12K sq. ft  of lawn - that I laid  down every inch of sod.  TV and my cell phone was and still isn't  my social network..

BTW :   The Baby Boomer Generation – born 1946-1964 - Average life expecting of a '44 model (male)  -  77 years, 45 year model 78.  femaile  are  a bit longer.

[lb23cavaliersmvp]

Since the beginning of the year our sales are down ~ 30% but more concerning is the ~ 75% decrease in views. We can go 4-5 days without a sale and then have 3-4 sales a day. IMO you have relatively few listings and they are concentrated in 2 areas, tools and music. The latter are available on ebay and countless other sites so expecting to attract buyers for 3 used Bonnie Raitt CD and cassettes for $15 is unrealistic. It appears that you are asking close to full retail for your tools so I'd guess that there is a relatively small pool of potential buyers looking at your listings. Assuming you've been selling similar number of items over the years the current economic situation as well as a shrinking buyer pool are potential causes of your recent downturn. The solutions I'd consider are increasing the number and diversity of listings as well as being sure that the price of your tools are still competitive.  Best of luck.

[countrickter]

try using AI software..and type in what items are popular and fast moving on EBay. I have only been on ebay 12 or 13 years. After covid, I had to start finding better selection of items because sales were lower. Once you find those popular items , try getting them more often. Just a suggestion. I hope for the best. its hard out here but we can adjust and get better. Dont give up, we sellers believe in you!

[worldcoinauctions]

Oddly enough I'm selling more this year that last in the fixed price side, fewer in auctions. So it goes!

[sextons-sweet-deals]

It's just that time of year along with many other factors as we all know.

I'm down 71+% for the last 30 days according to eBay stats. 

With this heat dome over a majority of the U.S. for this week, maybe sales might pick up as people avoid being outside and shop on-line. 

[grandmasjewelry123]

Thank you for posting.. I think posters are missing the significance of your post which is world money is attracting more attention because of fear. I am not surprised you are doing better.

[reallynicestamps]

@gurlcat

We send our high value stamps to dedicated hobby auction. The June auction netted us $25,000 after commissions for DHs Small Queens.

There are a surprising number of stamp collectors on eBay, but most are fairly junior (this is expertise not age in philately).

We know what the audience is for each of our product lines and after over 50 years in the business we sell where we have the customers.