sales

[mksports03]

Hi, I know it's that time of year, but sales and views lower than what we remember.  How is everybody else doing? Up, down or in between, please comment. Thanks and have a great day.

[supervendor]

My sales have been unpredictable for a couple of months now. I have no idea what's going to end up selling or when. This month I had a huge burst in sales and I suspect it was due to eBay's Eye of Sauron showing my items near the top search results for a couple of weeks. I've given up trying to understand the algorithm and instead just focus on selection, pricing, and listing frequency.

[mcdougle4248]

Sales are down 5% compared to January last year, however, the quantity sold is up 21%. For me, that is good news. January has always been my best chance to move out of my inventory of older, slow-selling items. Selling prices are lower than last January, however, older items are moving...onward and upward (I hope).

[spreadlovelikefire]

Full time seller here.  I've been a full time seller for 13 years now.  2023 was the worst year I've had in all the years I've been selling.  So much so that I went and started a new job on November 1st.  I've kept my store going, listing what I still have and slowly winding it down.  Sales were a fraction of what they have been for the holiday season.  Ebay is slowing dying.  I started this account back in 2005, started selling full time in 2011.  I've been around for several staff changes and made it through all of it with crazy policies.  I thought for sure that eBay would eventually come around and support their sellers again, but they are going in the other direction.  Not only are they not bringing any buyers to the site, they are chasing away long time sellers and long time buyers.  

More importantly, I have been able to make eBay less of a focus on my income by starting a new job.  I am able to get out of it at any point now and can walk away without any financial loss.  

[atlasesattic]

Absolutely horrible no sales in 3 days....figured there would be some activity due to ppl getting tax refunds...

[worldwide_ship]

I sell consumer electronics. I'm down about 25% this January. There are wild fluctuations so I suspect ebay is currently tinkering with the website. Yesterday I was getting a sale about every 2 hours now nothing in the last 14 hours 😖 

[aeparts1]

I'm up about 15% over the last 30 days, as of last night. Sales have been steady for the past year.

2023 was up about 60% over 2022.  2023 started slow for me, but came on strong.

I sell used car parts, manuals, tools, a few CD's, & whatever oddball items I can get at a good price.

[dentalsales4u]

My sales started taking a nose dive last October/November.

November, December & into January are usually my biggest months due to dentists buying for their year end tax write offs or starting the new year with new product.

Not this year.

I normally average $2,000 per day in sales. This month I'm barely at $700 a day.

Now I sell high dollar items, so it really doesn't take a lot to get to that level. I went 9 days without a sale and that's never happened to me in the 15+ years I've been doing this on eBay.

I always keep an eye on the competition and continuously adjusting price so that I'm at lowest price.

I'm wondering if it's going to stay like this for a while considering the economy plus an election year.

Also a lot of China knock offs don't help the situation.

Businesses are really nervous right now and are not willing to spend their money. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

It's a bit early for refunds. From what I read the IRS isn't even going to start processing returns until the 29th plus a lot of people don't get their W2s until early Feb anyway.

[dbfolks166mt]

     For me typical post holiday slump not only on eBay but across the other platforms and venues I sell on. I typically don't see an uptick until mid to late February factoring out the COVID years. Some of that may relate to people working on taxes, dealing with the current weather issues which seem to be everywhere. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

The weather plays a big part in buying.

If the customer is stuck indoors, browsing /shopping online should go up surely?

Being stuck at home was one reason for the COVID surge in online shopping.

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I think the same - I'm especially not seeing an emotional component here, but maybe it has to do with the market one sells in? It makes no difference to me, but maybe to someone who sells something else.

[reallynicestamps]

I'm also puzzled by taxes.

Don't American employers take the applicable income taxes directly from wages on every paycheque?

That's what happens here, then come April, most Canadians file their tax form and either owe nothing or get a refund.

So tax time is either a nothingburger or a time when we get a cheque from the government (of our own money, but it feels free.)