Collectables sellers, I need your opinion about a situation here

[purse_of_the_legionary]

Hi, first, I have to say that I thought about that situation for weeks before to decide to ask other sellers, as I am doing today. I just can't understand what is going on, and why, maybe you guys can help me understand, and possibly give ideas or suggestions to help me find a solution for my business.

I am a seller of collectibles, more precisely very old coins, and it's my main incoming since 2006. I'm doing very well so far, with a perfect reputation and 99,9% score, DSR 4,9 to 5,0 in average. I'm providing a very personalized service, as I am in the collectables field, but since the beginning profit has compensate for the extra effort. I have an eBay store since the beginning, offering auction style listing and also items at fixed price. About the auctions, the market price for my category of items (ancient roman and greek coins) has been almost the same since 2006. The high exchange rate (I am selling in USD$) has been very exciting these last years when withdrawing in CAD$, but of course we all know that this is over now. Profit gets thinner for most of us. But that's not my real problem, exchange rate is just not helping another situation. Strangely, since last Christmas, prices are dropping when sold auction style. What usually sold approximately $150 now sells $80 or $90, what sold $30 now sells $15 or $20, and so on. Now all the time, but I see a huge difference in my incoming, that's what I know.

I have many repeat buyers, I have as many watchers on my items as before last Christmas. In appearance, nothing changed, excepted for the profit. End prices for my auctions have always been the same since 2006, I felt all these years that no bidder was missing an item ending below the market price, but some evenings of ending auctions, I feel that my items are sometimes selling very low, like if no bidder was present at that moment. It never, ever happened before January 2010... It was almost the opposite as it was before, my items were selling very often OVER the market price.

Now I work the same amount, provide the same great service, but I'm struggling. What happened ? A different eBay search tool ? Economic crisis in the USA (majority of my buyers are Americans) ? Any idea of what may have caused that very strange new situation ?

Thanks !

[purse_of_the_legionary]

Great cake, by the way ! 😄

About my AdCommerce campaign, it's been effective for a week now, I get interesting results in a way, but I am also frustrated at the same time. Here's what has been reported so far (the good news) :

*
672865
Impressions
*
888
Clicks
*
C $0.06
Avg CPC
*
0.13%
Avg CTR
*
2.17
Avg Pos
*
C $52.16
Cost

Here's the bad news :

# Bid/BIN # Items Sold Sales Amount Sales / Cost

9 1 C $23.48 0.45


I tried to understand the situation by myself, isolating the variables :

1) About my ad : I get clicks, the icon and the text are attractive, that's not the problem. It tells exactly what the buyer will see by clicking on it. Here's my ad text :

********************************************
Uncleaned Roman coins !
Authentic ancient Roman, Greek and
Byzantine coins at great price
********************************************

That's exactly what I am selling, nothing more, nothing less, and that's what you get when you look at my inventory. I have items for every budget (curious buyers, serious collectors, resellers, etc.) $25.00, up to $300+...

2) About the page that opens when other members click on my ad, it links to my store homepage. I know that it's sometimes better to link to a more specific page, but I never have more than 50-100 items at the time in my inventory, I'm not sure refining the results would help.

3) About where my ads are posted, I have only selected the categories related to coins buyers or ancient artifacts buyers. Anyway, AdCommerce revises and refuse categories if not relevant.

4) About my pricing, I continue to sell fixed priced items, just like before, but those purchases are not a result of clicked ads (made from repeat buyers or eBay core).

My visit have skyrocketed in my stats, but I'm loosing money in AdCommerce instead of getting a return on my investment... I would not talk about it if I would have 4 or 5 sales so far from all those visitors, which would mean that it worked a few times and only need readjustment maybe. But it's obviously, it's not working at all for me, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Any idea ? Thanks...

Eric

[purse_of_the_legionary]

Something doesn't look good in my previous post :

Here's the bad news :

# Bid/BIN # Items Sold Sales Amount Sales / Cost

9 1 C $23.48 0.45


Here's the correction :

# Bid/BIN

9

# Items Sold

1

Sales Amount

C $23.48

Sales / Cost

0.45

[pierrelebel]

"Any idea ?"

Patience!

The sales report is always several days behind. It is only after a minimum of a month that you can start an analysis of cost/rewards.

888 clicks in a week is great! Potentially, it represents 888 buyers that may come back to your eBay store to buy. Not every buyer buys on a first visit.

Patience!

[purse_of_the_legionary]

I'll be patient, but that's a lot of clicks for not so many new watchers and new newsletter subscribers. Almost 65$ spent so far, and no additional bid or sale since my previous post...

[axe_n_gear_music]

It's summer time too, so most sellers do experience a slow down of traffic regardless of advertising. (Depending of course on what you sell- sporting goods and recreational/hobby sales for many sellers actually peak at this time of year).

But I do agree that 888 clicks in a week is great, and will likely pay off in the longer term! The seed you sow today make take a while to grow into something beautiful!

In my 6 month report, I am showing approx:
32 million impressions,
38,000 clicks,
Cost me 485.00 dollars,
Netted 97 sales,
Total sales amount - almost $7,000.00

So I would say it has been ok (not great though, really, and who knows if many of the buyers would have bought from me regardless! - but it's still pretty cheap advertising either way.

Cheers,
AXE

[ricarmic]

Something I have noticed some of my regular buyers doing is using my ad commerce ads to find me, the part in question is whether they would have purchased from me again this time (or ever?) if they didn't use the ad? Did it remind them of me and cause them to buy something else now instead of later or ever? That is hard to say.

There are so many pieces (and related costs) of selling I am looking at the overall picture with the various fees to make sure the overall cost of finding customers is worthwhile. So far the use of ad commerce has been beneficial, as is eBay overall; it is still cheaper than it was in the pre-intenet days trying to do it via ads in magazines etc.

I'm soon on my eBay summer holiday, but when I reawaken my ad commerce ads in September I've got more experiments to do to try to make them as efficient as possible.

[purse_of_the_legionary]

" The seed you sow today make take a while to grow into something beautiful! "

I don't understand how it will take time before to get results from this week's clicks on my ads, as I don't feel I have more watchers than before on my items, nor significant number of new newsletter subscribers. Only more traffic, so how is it possible that those members keep an eye on my items or my store in that case. They won't memorize my store address for sure !

I have a question about that. If a member X clicks on my ad today, add me to favorite sellers, and finally buy an item 3 months later (example), is it going to appear in my Adcommerce report 3 months after the ad has been clicked by that member X ?

Thanks !

[pierrelebel]

" is it going to appear in my Adcommerce report 3 months after the ad has been clicked by that member X ? "

NO, only sales generated within 30 days of clicking are shown.

Sales are NOT shown on a daily basis. It takes several days for AdCommerce to report sales (it is a relatively new feature, stil in beta). For example, if someone clicks on your ad today, buys something immediately, it will still show 0 for several days. It may be Wednesday or Thursday before the sale is recorded by AdCommerce and shown in the report.

As often stated, advertising does not always show immediate positive results. Name regognition is one of the most important factor in advertising. Repeating the message over and over makes a difference... eventually.

Advertising on eBay through AdCommerce is no different than any form of advertising: the message needs to be repeated often for consumers to act.

"is it possible that those members keep an eye on my items or my store "

Not necessarily. Often buyers will see a listing and feel good about the seller because "he is well known" (meaning they saw his other advertisements over a long period of time).

Did I say PATIENCE ?

[pierrelebel]

For example, when checking my AdCommerce report, I see ZERO sales from June 21st.

It is just a delay in reporting. Nothing to be alarmed about.

Now, checking last month, I noticed that some days show zero sales despite having 100+ clicks. It is good old law of average! You can't win them all.

Also, as suggested earlier, you may want to work on your store homepage. The addition of promotion boxes is nice but you tell little about yourself other than
" FAST SERVICE AND GREAT COMMUNICATION SINCE 2006 *"

Fill up the box. Advertize yourself, your service, your reputation, your expertize, etc... In other words, blow your horn, nobody else will do it for you. Give "clickers" a reason to continue looking at your store and buy from you.