From $4k a month to almost Homeless

[shippiesautoparts]

I'm not really sure what I'm asking for here except a general HELP! I've tried literally everything posted in the forums about slow or dead sales from promotions, to sales, to coupons, to sell simalar, raise prices, lower prices..

I was making about 3k-4.5k a month with about 100-150 listings and the more I listed the closer I got to zero in sales! I don't understand where I went wrong! It's like ebay turned off the switch.. I was making 4k a MONTH with 100 listings and now I have 350 and I've made $1247 in 90 DAYS!!! Like I can't even afford my familys medications let alone rent and bills but damnnnn, I have $35k in parts in storage...

I read that ebay dot ca has been having problems so in a "last ditch effort" I started ending all my .CA and started listing on .COM but shipping prices are insane from Canada to the US and giant sellers dominate with 50 000+ listings so I'm doing everything I can to stay consistent and keep going but I'm absolutely dead in the water! My whole family was and is depending on me and I have to tell them we have nothing and our business went under. I'm so sad

Please anyone! ask me anything! tell me anything! I WILL TRY ANYTHING!

[rocketscollectibles]

I can't help much, but one thing to think about is that it was christmas last month, i may be wrong but i don't think there is a lot of car parts under the trees. The money was there. In november people spend for christmas, in december people are broke, in january people recovering from it, my 2 cents. I'm a way smaller seller but december made me notice that my store was not adapted for christmas at all, it was totally dead too

Something else i notice with time is that sales are totally unstable, they comes in waves and i'm not sure anyone can know where it comes from except eBay. Sometimes i have 20 sales in 10 days, and i sell nothing for the next 10 days, it's suspicious

[femmefan1946]

shipping prices are insane from Canada to the US a

I don't understand this. Surely you were shipping to the USA from Canada before. Why would shipping have changed?

When you list on dotCOM you are using Flat Rate Shipping from an International Location, but that has more to do with deciding what your Flat Rate will be.
It can be Free Shipping (DON'T PANIC! Free shipping means you bury your cost of shipping in your asking price.) or it can be a price massaged for an average between Florida and California.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/information/app/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

One suggestion, since USPS rates are much lower than Canada Post, is using a freight forwarder like chitchat or stallionexpress, both of which seem to have many satisfied customers.

They also offer overseas and domestic shipping.

[reallynicestamps]

Going by your Sold items and by your FB, I'm unclear on why you believe you were making $3K monthly. Of  course that only shows back to October /21.

Are you adding in sales on other sites?

There are lots of other places now that don't have the coverage of eBay but can still produce sales from time to time, from Craigslist to Kijiji to FaceBookMarketplace. Those are generally local, cash sales.

There may also be specialist car part sales, which you might even have to research by brand name. I've never held a driving license, so I have nothing to offer there.

Don't forget, online sales are taxable. Paypal (and I would imagine now Managed Payments) does report gross sales to CRA, so I hope you have been keeping careful records to show your deductible costs as well as your taxable profits.

[rocketscollectibles]

Going by your Sold items and by your FB

Don't sold listings is unreliable? I'm asking cause its been quite a few times a see people using it as a reliable stat, but personally if i watch my sold listings in search i have like 50% of my sales not showing. I also have 2 sold listings that are actually unsold listings, and got marked as sold in the searchs for whatever reason when i ended them. It's very messy, i wonder if i'm alone

[shippiesautoparts]

yes, I thought about that too. most Xmas presents were not car parts but on the other hand when your car breaks down and you need a control module at Xmas time it doesn't really matter that it's Xmas because you need to fix that part to drive anywhere or go back to work after holidays.. and further if Xmas and money was the case then why are every one of my parts selling on everyday, even through Xmas and new years and holidays but just from other sellers? I study sold and active competition fairly well and always try and make my parts listing better and more price appealing to very little if any success..

I've also noticed the unstable sales and waves of sales.. its like nothing..nothing.. 1 or 2.. then nothing for weeks, then 4 in 1 week..

[ricarmic]

It has been my observation that lowest price does not mean sales. Visibility does.

You'll see other threads here bemoaning the same thing they're the lowest price and other sellers are selling stuff much higher than them.

Your key will be to find ways to get your material more visible than your competition.

If you haven't already, experiement with promoted listings (just use the minimal 1% across everything you sell for example). Our worlds are very different but that has made a tremendous positive difference for me.

If you aren't already, do searches of your stuff and see where you fall vs competitors, that will help as well. 

Title wording can make a world of difference.

Experimenting may make all the difference....

[shippiesautoparts]

I only started listing on .com as my sales plummeted from .CA I did not know I could list on both sites until then.. so live and learn, I had to learn that some postage due to weight or dimensions can cause a hefty shipping price and also I was only using Canada post to ship because I have a small business discount card through Canada post and it's what I was doing from the start..like when it was working.. if I went to ups, or fed ex, or Canada Post they are all pretty much the same quote to ship. I've never used a freight forwarder so I can look into that now and give er a shot..I have to research that more but generally doesn't that take way more time? like I get a sale and go package it right away and drive over to post office and ship it.. all within 1-2 hours of payment..and if I get it there before 3pm it's on the truck and moving..wouldn't freight forward take more time? 90% comps in.com have fast and free shipping so I had to do the same and incorporate into my price.. Im going to give you an example of the one that just happened. I sold a Ford dash bezel for $85 US to Florida and after fees and promoted fees I got $90 CDN, went to post office and it costed $94 to ship to Florida and that wasn't even Expedited.. that exact same part I also sold a while back on .CA for $110 CDN to British Columbia and it costed me $42 CDN for Expedited and that is literally the other end of the country! so i figured it can't be too much more to ship from niagara falls to Florida... but high prices for shipping cost was not concerning when I was making consistent sales to even up the high and low shipping prices.. its destroying me now that I only made 2 sales in January on .com and 2 on .CA but doing freight forward doesn't do anything for me if I can't make sales

if you want to message me from an item in my store I can send you screenshots of my traffic and sales, maybe you can help? or tell me what I did wrong?

[shippiesautoparts]

hold up, what are you even saying here? I'm not sure if you remember read your comment before you posted it but dam.. im trying not to be offended but ok let give this a shot..

I said in my post "From 4k a month to almost homeless" so I'm pretty sure no one can see I'm making 4k a month now because IM NOT.. I WAS making 4k a month in fact I found my screenshots because your reply really got me going.. if you like to message me through a listing I'm my store I'd gladly send you all the screenshots if you'd like to understand or see them.. got all my traffic and sales impressions too

1st screenshot was when I started doing good and totals were for 60 DAYS and not 90 days yet

$3358.13 CDN
60 day total
135 active
25 sold
164 unsold

next screenshot

$5221.24 CDN
60 day total
165 active
40 sold
1 unsold

next screenshot

$5348.12 CDN
60 day total
246 active
45 sold
24 unsold

next screen shot

$6555.04 CDN
60 day total
223 active
58 sold
5 unsold

next is when 90 Days total kicked in

$9067.29 CDN
90 DAY TOTAL
212 active
84 sold
26 unsold

I have a few more but I'm sure you get the point.. now my screenshot shows
$1241.28 USD
90 day total
149 active
14 sold
242 unsold ( just very recently because I'm ending .CA and starting to list on .com)

so please tell me what useful advice you gave me asking why you can't see I was making 3k a month and why for some strange reason you say all that stuff about taxes like I'm not already a registered business with the CRA and have a master business license in my hand 🙂 I also have an importer exporter license if you must know and my taxes have been payed.. to everyone INCLUDING EBAYS MONEY GRABS! to the tune of I'm almost homeless, but thanks for the sweet tax advice

[shippiesautoparts]

I appreciate this fully! thank you for your advice! and i have looked into visibility and also promoted listings..I've been using promoted listings for quite some time! and as for visibility I'm still working on that.. I have a hunch with the whole visibility thing at least for car parts sellers!! here me out please 🙂

if you look at any of my listing even on the fastest side of listing takes me 5 mins to fill out all information and post 1 part..

now go to ebays "third party applications" then "gold solutions".. they have a fancy little third party app called "WHI Solutions an ebay company" lolol
they say if I type in the part number that ebay will "auto map" that part to 1 listing for every single car model that part fits and will delete all associated listings when 1 of them sells! which is crazy when you think about it in terms of visibility and why I can't get any. I have 1 mercedes Brake booster active listing and it was hard to make! now if I pay this company then in seconds I will have 109 listings because my brake booster fits 109 different mercedes models.. they literally advertise that you can have 1000's of listings in minutes and that their average customer has 50 000 active listings.

talk about flooding the market and screwing my visibility for my tiny 1 listing Brake booster.. also they get unlimited free listings.

this service is $3500 USD A YEAR!! (PLUS FVF)

did I mention that this is a "third party application" but in their name it literally says "an ebay company" conflict of interest?

[dinomitesales]

Are you only shipping to Canada and the US? It looks that way from the couple of listings I clicked on.

You might consider offering International shipping - I know a few auto parts sellers that sell a good chunk of their parts overseas.

Don't worry about the shipping - just set it up as calculated shipping; if some person in Latvia really needs that part and you're the only one that has it available to ship to them then they'll pay whatever it costs to get it. I work part time at a Canada Post office and a regular patron of ours sells car parts - you wouldn't believe the number of parts he's brought in where the buyer has happily paid $500+ in International Xpresspost shipping.

[ricarmic]

Regarding the gold solutions, wow the related exposure from that is impressive.

It looks like it certainly separates the full timers from the part timers so to speak. It will be pretty hard to compete against that.

$3500 is just under $300 US$ a month which happens to be the same I'm paying for my anchor store (before fees), so I understand the related cost against sales. It is pretty hard to just jump into costs that size with no guarantees of success. Using your 4K a month, if you were able to reachieve that, it means it adds another 7.5% to your cost of goods sold. I don't know what your margins are, but as I understand it from others over the years, margins are pretty good - ie don't know if you can support another 7.5% off the top so to speak.

Have you been able to determine if the folks that are outselling you are utilizing this??

It the $3500 a year billed monthly like the stores, with a cancellation policy?

[shippiesautoparts]

at my peak in sales I was almost able to achieve it! it's funny you say that because when I was at about 4k a month I inquired about a third party application called hollander to help me expand and make more sales because they have this funky parts Fitment chart that goes into their listings that makes ebay search reference any vehicle in that Fitment chart! so now we are talking about that break part again that fits 109 cars.. hollander gives you 1 listing with that fitment chart that ebay references for search.. whi solutions gives you 1 listing for every single car the part fits!

so back when.. I discovered all this info I called and the booked me a zoom meeting with a hollander agent..4 or 5 days later he called and gave the pitch (was kind of weak if I must say) and I asked him for the prices and he said he would email me a price chart and lone behold... about $3000 a year $1500 set up plus fvf.. I was like danggggg I was doing OK but that was a little to much for me and I told him I would just need some time to jump up one more level before I could pay that much.. and looking at my impressions and sales chart not 2 or 3 days after that call everything started dropping down and kept going and mind you I kept building and posting more parts because I wanted to use hollander but sales never came back so I never thought about it until about 3 weeks ago when i looked to see if there are any apps I could use that aren't 3000yr with 1500 start up ( same with this other **bleep** whi I just found 3 weeks ago) called them too to find out 3500yr plus 1500 start up go figure..

I couldn't even really afford it then when it was good on eBay but now sheesh, I can't even afford the shirt I'm wearing right now! like I had to loan for my little brother so I could pay the refund of someone who claimed inad which now seems to be the only kind of sales I get! I'm just going to tell you the last screenshot I have of when it was good and what I have right now

$9067.29 CDN
90 DAY TOTAL
212 ACTIVE
84 SOLD
26 UNSOLD

now my screenshot looks like this

$1241.28 USD
90 DAY TOTAL
149 ACTIVE
14 SOLD
242 UNSOLD ( I just recently ended these about a week ago to start listing them on .com) so my total active listing were really about 350 ACTIVE about a week ago with the same 90 day total..

I can absolutely can tell that the comps outselling me are utilizing it because I see the patterns in the way their store is set up and templates and colors but only for car part sellers that use them and auctiva because I've seen them alot! hours and hours and day after day digging through comps, I started to see the same patterns over and over again! if you message me through one of my part listings on eBay I can send you a couple screenshots of all this so you can see but I can't post pictures on here it would only let me post 1 😞

as far as my conflict of interest ebay solution I don't know the other fees for their other apps but both mine were 3000 a year and 3500 a year and both had 1500 set up fees and only one was monthly


on a side note.. this proves to me I'm onto something 🙂 still too broke to do anything about it

[shippiesautoparts]

I appreciate this advice! and would like to give it try but as wicked scared!! I would say 40 to 50% of my sales more recently are inad and they want a refund! they don't want to send the part back either unless I pay for return shipping.. so usually I have to just refund them because I can't afford to pay the shipping to get my part back.. and they get my part for free.. ebay says car parts get a mandatory minimum 30 day return whether I accept returns or not.. so that makes me think that if I sell a 100$ car part to Latvia for $600 (500$ XpressMusic shipping) now fast forward 3 weeks and buyer opens a item not as described case and wants a refund.. now I have to refund original price PLUS shipping!! and pay to ship it back.. INAD scams killing small sellers on the daily 😞

can you please do me a favor and ask 2 things to you local parts patron that comes in? could you ask if he gets any returns on those far International parts

and if he has a silver or gold level solution? if he has one he'll know exactly what you are talking about and tell you who he uses..if he doesn't have you he will just ask what it is 🙂

I beg of you to ask them this for me!!! I would appreciate it so much! I will also look into International shipping but I have read so much about problems that I could not afford right now making 0 sales

[shippiesautoparts]

I realize that I can post pictures on her (only 1) so if ANYONE would like to message me through any listing in my store, I can send you all the screenshots I have of my traffic and you can see exactly what I'm talking about!

THEN TELL ME IM CRAZY 🤪
seriously, message me though! I have the rise and fall of my ebay store in screenshots to share with you 🙂

[intimewithmusic]

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@shippiesautoparts wrote:
I realize that I can post pictures on her (only 1) so if ANYONE would like to message me through any listing in my store, I can send you all the screenshots I have of my traffic and you can see exactly what I'm talking about!

THEN TELL ME IM CRAZY 🤪
seriously, message me though! I have the rise and fall of my ebay store in screenshots to share with you 🙂

---

Hi. I feel for you. This past year has been full of ups and downs. On top of it eBay is reinventing itself and piles of new sellers are jumping onboard to compete with us due to economics. That said, because you asked, here's my 2 cents after looking at your "store". 

 One of the values of having a real eBay store is that prospective buyers see you as a more serious player than those who have an accumulation of listings without a store presence. I get that having only 137 listings  in the past have been productive and paying $20 bucks a month for a store that represents your own brand and identity wasn't something you thought needed. That brings me to another observation. 

 Sellers who have a very narrow product type are vulnerable to shifts. All the eggs in one basket so to speak. Trying to propel your existing parts back into income may be more work than diversifying. It seems to me the auto world is huge. Probably more so than mine (music world). You might consider putting your auto knowledge to work by adding every automotive category that is selling to your portfilio that is not selling. If you have outside hobbies you might add non auto categories that may be seasonal to cover dry spells. 

  I understand having 137 x $100 listings is easier than having 250,000 magazine listings like Mr. Magazine. However he makes a ton of money selling them to auto enthusiasts who are probably your customers already.  I wanted to buy one of his magazines. The landed cost with shipping was $60.  Shipping smaller auto related items to the USA is much easier to compete than shipping anything over 2 kgs. Tracked is $14-25 bucks. A Caddy hood ornament?

  Those are my observations. Look into was IS selling within your comfort zone... under 2 kilograms with a world wide market. Racing/Nascar/ Hood Ornaments/ Catalogs/ Manuals/Vintage logos/ Magazines/ Motorcycle and ATV Accessories and on and on. Auto never ends. Vintage calendars bring big money at Christmas.  Get a real store to tell your story. Stock it with thousands of items some of which are seasonal. 

  It may take away the vulnerability produced by facing the ever growing competition in your current narrow marketplace.  Covid has forced ALL of the brick and mortar stores to go online. Auto & music. I think it means facing them with a store that has real substance and diversity. 

  I hope something here makes cents! All the best to you! 

IT

[maximus7001]

When we ship parcels to USA we use UPS through Netparcel. All UPS is tracked. Massive discount compared to counter rates. The last item we sent from Winnipeg to AZ non residential measured 9" x 7" x 5" 4 pounds. With $99 added insurance on top of the $100 it comes with it came to $22.25 Canadian. 4 days by ground.

Our most regular weekly items going by UPS are 9" x 7" x 5" 1 pound comes to between $8.50 and $13 (the 13 is for really bumpkin places in the middle of nowhere, rare). Minus about $1.25 if it is non residential.

[intimewithmusic]

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@maximus7001 wrote:

When we ship parcels to USA we use UPS through Netparcel. All UPS is tracked. Massive discount compared to counter rates. The last item we sent from Winnipeg to AZ non residential measured 9" x 7" x 5" 4 pounds. With $99 added insurance on top of the $100 it comes with it came to $22.25 Canadian. 4 days by ground.

Our most regular weekly items going by UPS are 9" x 7" x 5" 1 pound comes to between $8.50 and $13 (the 13 is for really bumpkin places in the middle of nowhere, rare). Minus about $1.25 if it is non residential.

---

It sounds like you get a good deal through Netparcel. I don't think we have that in Kelowna.

The thing with UPS is how to get their best price. When I first opened my account with them the sales rep phoned and she gave me a great discount. I didn't use the service for a year after that and they deactivated my account.

Last year I used them but through Shippo. The discount wasn't as good and Shippo charges a service fee of $6.50usd per UPS shipment. I reactivated my original account with UPS. This time the discount wasn't as good as the original one.  (They knew my volume would be low.) Still it was better than going thru Shippo. Now I take my larger stuff to their UPS store which is close by. 

With our current discount we ship via Canada Post to the USA & domestic if the item is under 10KGs (22lbs size wise approx 50x50 x50cm). Over that it goes UPS. We don't have enough large shipments to get the good deal you seem to get. Lucky you!

[maximus7001]

Netparcel is through paypal. If you have a ups store or depot where you are then you can buy labels with netparcel and drop off at the ups store or depot.

You must use chrome browser for netparcel to work correctly.

https://netparcel.com/home.action