eBay

musicyouneed · ‎01-18-2015

I had a really great Oct, Nov and Dec, but Jan, sales have really slowed down. Probably buyers paying off bills etc.

Anyone else experiencing a slowdown, or is it just me?

2014sportsterguy · ‎01-18-2015

I'm finding sales in general or slow and taking a break, but every seller is unique.

Anonymous · ‎01-18-2015

It is the same for me which is VERY UNUSUAL! I am not happy and I suspect it is because eBay didn't put us into better search capability for the buyers to see our auctions and yet we pay for the store fees for that??

julieo459 · ‎01-18-2015

Have sold next to nothing. Spend most of my time refunding people that have been waiting 3 to 4 weeks for items sent just before or after Christmas.

nan*55 · ‎01-18-2015

Well I hope it picks up. I have just started listing again, after many months.

But what will be will be. I never get too excited about my sales anymore, If a items sells, fine, if not ..Oh well 😉

38e_avenue · ‎01-18-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
It is the same for me which is VERY UNUSUAL!

The same here. I had best December ever and expected a very strong January, but the sales dropped from the cliff. Very surprising.

Anonymous · ‎01-18-2015

Too bad as Canadian sellers, we cannot use E-Delcon which US sellers use with fantastic low postage rates and with tracking number. Then you wouldn't have to refund those people who were impatient due to long mail delivery which they cannot or won't understand it is a normal trend for much slower mail service nowadays.

Since I sold many items that required tracking number so I am lucky otherwise I would be screwed and get defects each time.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-18-2015

No. Pretty normal.

I took a break from June to November while we retired, closed the store, drove out West and bought a new house. Started relisting in November and have had increasingly strong sales.

But it may depend on your category.

Or the number of listings.

Most of my items are not 'gifty' - used books and dress patterns - or personal purchases-- stamps and philatelic literature for collectors-- so I don't see many sales in December.

My best months have historically been January through April, when people are indoors browsing the interwebs. So my items are selling pretty well right now. The worst are May-June and November-December. Pretty consistent over the past dozen years and several IDs.

And as my number of listings increases so do my sales.

There is always someone whose sales have dropped off. Has been since I started selling here in 2001.

It is useful, in my opinion, to keep monthly records of total sales, both numbers and amounts, for comparison from year to year. In our store, that was why we decided to have our only 'sale' in January (we didn't actually reduce prices, it was a different kind of sale and only applied to our past customers).

All too often, a seller will post here panicking because he's had no sales in a week and figuring the world has come to an end. Then things pick up again. And we don't hear from him until the next sudden dry spell.

lady.stark · ‎01-18-2015

I had great Oct and Nov too. However, December was awful. The year before (2013), December was so busy... but not last December 2014 😞 And January is just DEAD. Only 2 items sold in 20 days. It really sucks....

Anonymous · ‎01-19-2015

I wonder if those buyers who received the refunds, do or would they tell you that they have received their items and will pay you back? Or they consider refunds as a compensation for "late or slow mail delivery"?

I had some experiences in the past when my buyers (all of them in Europe) claimed they never received them and I refund them and not one of them have informed me that they have received their items or that their items were returned to me. As far as I am concerned I considered them as "impatient" buyers or scammers and put all of them on the block list.

I read on the other board, that one seller decided not to sell his items outside Canada & USA, I am considering to do the same but not sure as I have some items that the buyers in Europe always want to have. I can think and ponder before I decide.

pierrelebel · ‎01-19-2015

"claimed they never received them and I refund them and not one of them have informed me that they have received their items or that their items were returned to me. "

From time to time a buyer will claim an item is not received. I will typically refund and ask them to repay upon receipt of the envelope/parcel delayed within the postal systems.

Over twenty-five years in the mail order business and I would guess about half of them did send a payment a few weeks later when they finally received their purchases.

Otherwise, I automatically send a PayPal invoice - one month after the refund - asking for payment of the item delayed in the mail (the unstated assumption being that it has been received). Surprisingly a large percentage do pay and send apologies for the delay in not paying earlier!

2014sportsterguy · ‎01-19-2015

Refunds now counts as defects unless we jump all the stupid EBay rules...like it's their money, yea I know the reason but it's stupid.

ricarmic · ‎01-19-2015

My experience is like Pierre's - I was doing some review of other stuff around my losses, see separate thread, and 2014 results (so far) are that 30% of my "lost package"buyers did get the package later and paid me back. The "so far" is because some of the late lost packages in 2014 might still contact me and repay again.

I've used a customized version of this "form letter" that works well for me (in the stamp world) feel free to use whatever works for you:

This one translates well:
Hi BUYER! Your parcel was mailed as promised on DAY MAILED 14 to this address: BUYER ADDRESS. There is no tracking number, to get a tracking number would have added an extra $25 to the shipping cost. I am refunding your money out of my own funds now. If the parcel arrives later, let me know so I can send another invoice so you can pay for it again (parcels like this are uninsured so I lose 100% if they do not arrive). It is very rare for parcels to never arrive, over 99% of the time they just take a long time to arrive. Sorry for the frustrations around this parcel, hopefully it will still show up. Have a great day! RICARMIC

julieo459 · ‎01-20-2015

Everyone so far has just sent me an email letting me know they haven't received their items. I asked all of them if they could wait a few more days and assured them that I do refund buyers if item never show up. Sure enough one item showed up the next day. Some items shipped just before Christmas are still arriving, one from Dec 15th has never shown up. Anything shipped the first week of Jan is just arriving now. (even within Canada)

2014sportsterguy · ‎01-20-2015

Not a safe time to list, INR often is an excuse from buyers to say Item Not Reported..cost of mail order I guess, never had even one buyer repay me.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-20-2015

Anything shipped the first week of Jan is just arriving now. (even within Canada)

Which in my opinion is normal.

Today is January 20/

I would allow 10-15 days for arrival from Europe, a little longer for arrival in Eastern Europe.

Twenty days for arrival to or from North America.

And a slightly impatient and cynical 30 days from Asia. Asian sellers often use Surface shipping, which can take longer, but some of the scammers use that as an excuse that persuades naive buyers to put off disputes until after the 45 day deadline. And if the item is small enough to go lettermail, 30 days is plenty.