Hi @yesterdays_news_vintage. . Sorry your sales are so slow. I know it's of little comfort, but if you browse through the forums you'll see you're not alone. Unfortunately you sell two types of items that these days are difficult to shift -- used clothing and vintage items. One category is over-saturated on eBay especially, and the other just doesn't have as many buyers out there interested in such items.
All the aside, I looked at some of your listings and read what you said you have tried. Here's a few observations and suggestions for you from my perspective which other posters may or may not agree with. But for what it's worth, here's my two cents...
eBay-Specific Listing/Selling Options You're Employing
GOOD:
-- Free returns
-- One-day handling
-- List at least one item every day, usually more
BAD:
-- 30 day listings (with automation rule to relist)
-- 10 percent promotion level
-- Free shipping*
Why bad? The 30-day listings with automated re-list are essentially making your listings "Good til Cancelled" (GTC). When GTC listings renew every month, their "stats" carry forward. If your listings don't have high engagement numbers (number of views, watches, sales) then they are deemed less desireable to buyers by eBay therefore eBay drops them down lower in search. Roll GTC listings over enough times and your items will be practically invisible as your auto-renewed listings with low engagement stats will cause your listings to continue to sink down lower and lower in eBay search results. If nobody sees your stuff, then they aren't going to buy it.
The "refresh" eBay CS tried to do on your store was an attempt to wipe out the stat history on your listings. You can do the same thing yourself by manually relisting expired items using "Sell Similar" as opposed to letting them relist automatically. With 800 listings, I know that's a lot of work, but since you list a few items every day, then most likely your items don't all expire on the same day. My store is only about 250 items which means I have to deal with an average of 10 items a day to relist. Yes, it's a pain, but ever since I stopped letting my items renew automatically and manually relisting them using "Sell Similar" my sales (like you, mostly vintage and some clothing) haven't been as slow as they had been when I was using GTC. IMO, the extra work has been worth it.
The 10% promotion level? This is personal bias, but to be honest, I really don't think it helps vintage sellers a whole heck of a lot, and given the competition in the clothing categories, I don't think it accomplishes much there either except increasing your selling costs and lining eBay's pockets. At this point, if I were you, I'd concentrate on keeping my costs low and my sell-though rate as high as possible. IOW, I wouldn't throw good money after bad, by paying for promoted listings.
*Though you didn't mention free shipping, I see that on many of your items you are offering it. Yes, I know eBay encourages sellers to do it, but I will tell you, when I looked at probably 10 or so of your items my initial reaction was that your prices (not universally, but in many cases) are too high. My guess is that is because you are offering free shipping and rolling that cost into the cost of the item (which of course, you need to do). But, the result is many of your items seem excessively high. More about that, below...
I also would be careful about offering free shipping AND free returns -- especially on your clothing items which tend to have higher return rates to start with. Since your net profit relies on keeping overhead costs as low as possible, I'd be cautious about essentially ensuring you'll have to pay double shipping costs on your clothing listings because you are offering free shipping and free returns.
Your Listings
GOOD:
-- Generally the quality of your photos are okay and you have lots of them, though I have a personal aversion to clothes being photographed flat/on the floor and I know I'm not the only one. If you have a plain light colored wall, trying hanging the items up and photographing them that way. At least a prospective buyer won't be turned off by the thought of the items having lain on the floor.
-- You seem to be making good use of the Item Specifics fields. Good, because with eBay's move to a catalog-based system, Item Specifics are becoming as important as the item's headline in terms of search. If eBay doesn't provide enough or the type of specifics that would describe your item accurately, don't hesitate to add your own.
BAD:
-- As noted earlier, I think some of your items, especially the vintage (non-clothing) items, are priced too high. $25 for a package of 12 little girl's Goody hair barrettes? Or, $35 for a lot of vintage handkerchiefs? $14 (when shipping is added) for a Rubbermaid silverware drawer organizer? All of these items which aren't unique or rare can be picked up for a buck (or less) at a yard sale. Yes, eBay saves shoppers the trouble of "yard-sale-ing" but I'd really, really have to be motivated to buy some of your vintage items at the prices they are currently at. To improve your pricing , don't look (only) at what other sellers are asking, look at SOLD listings to figure out what similar things are *selling* for.
-- I found a lot of the "boilerplate" copy in your item descriptions to be off-putting. (Basically, pretty much everything below the tilde ~~~ line). Telling people that most of your items are sourced from estate sales so they should expect some dirt or grime doesn't sound very appealing. I know you have about 800 items in your shop, but you mean to tell me you can't take a few minutes before you take photos to clean/wipe things off? The purpose of your photos and descriptions should be to entice buyers not make them pass your by or say "eew, yuck." Or, if that's how you want to sell your items, then you definitely need to be selling them (no pun intended) for "dirt cheap."
-- Some of your listings have out-dated information talking about you will be on vacation in June/July. It's now October. When a prospective buyer reads that it, again it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the professionalism of the seller. Your goal should be to make the buyer feel confident from buying from you, not make them wonder if you can be trusted.
Marketing Strategy
As many other posters have noted, not only has the eBay platform changed in terms of what it takes to sell here, it also attracts a different type of buyer than it used to due in no small part to eBay's own efforts of concentrating more on new, mass-marketed products.
The other thing that's changed over the years is the number of online platforms that are out there including for selling used clothing and vintage items. IOW, there's a lot more competition in terms of places a buyer can go to find such items -- eBay is not the only game in town anymore -- and prospective buyers know that, too.
So my other suggestion is to diversify -- not only in the types of items you are selling but also in the selling platforms you use. IOW, generally, it's better to not put all your eggs in one basket like you are doing now. Do some research and see what is selling best where, and for what price, dip your toe in and see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised...
Hope some of the above will be useful and good luck!
