Lets Chart February 2005 Sales

[shoplineca]

After a really disppointing January on eBay for some, if not many or even most, I thought we should examine our eBay sales each month, comparing them to previous years' sales and our budgeted or anticipated sales and keep a running thread on how we did.

I am not suggesting that we state what our sales were aside from reporting that they were up or down by a certain percentage and profits were up or down by a certain percentage.

Its one thing to hear eBay suggest increased sales in certain markets or idustries however we must remember that they are charged and paid to drive business by bringing buyers to see our items, whether it is a "HOT" item by eBay's definition or not.

Malcolm

[sunward-hobbies]

Wasn't really selling this time last year.

I usually see an increase in the last 7-10 of the month. January was slow.

February is ahead of January, so far.

Angelo

[systemagic]

January was very poor.

It eclipses February,however, which, so far, has $40 USD total in gross sales. Worst month ever with far more going to eBay/PayPal than realized in profit. (A pattern that will become permanent with the rate increases)

While I'm managing to keep one hundred and eleven items listed part of the reason for the downturn is that I've had to replace my Toshiba laptop's motherboard 4 times in it's first year of use. I'm currently awaiting the arrival of the 4th board. The last replacement was 3 weeks ago.

I'm probably going to lose PS status soon and am looking into getting back into publishing.

[systemagic]

I used to be one of eBay's more ardent defenders. When the local news featured a story that could negatively affect eBay they'd receive an critical email from me within half an hour of airing it. Now I see eBay as the queen bug in the ALIENS movie. My role in this movie is as a human food source pasted to the wall and having the life sucked out of me.

[shoplineca]

This is by far the worst month of selling on eBay for me.

I cannot believe the dramatic change from a great late fall into a trmendous Christmas season to a flat January and a February that has me looking at systemagic's $40 in sale with jealousy.

Malcolm

[ellingtons]

"Lets Chart February 2005 Sales"

That's easy - just draw an arrow.......pointing straight down...

:(

[whoscloset]

Thanks to the last 2 days, February is now way ahead of January. Lots of purchases directly from my store.:-D

[ospreylinks]

January was soft.... February is soft.... I expect March to be soft.... April, probably soft.... May, ya it will probably be soft.... etc etc etc.....

Jeff

[scouttech-outfitters]

This January was very poor, the last January did pretty good (it was actually my first real month of selling...) but unfortunatly the hot item from last year (computers cases) are not selling anymore for me...February is doing very well...I almost have it up to the level of my far sales (I am hoping it has something to do with my new listing strategy and not just luck...)

[customcharmsonline]

Sounds like it was just US but January was as good as December for us!! Sorry to hear that wasn't the case for everyone. We did well above our monthly average in January. I think it might be the nature of our product though. Lots of people are getting into charms and stuff so theres not really a "slow" time

[scouttech-outfitters]

I can beleive it! My first month of store operations last year in January were higher then sales all the way to early August 04...Who woulda thought?

[coastwindchimes]

January horrible. February has already beaten January... not bad at all, if it keeps up. Tim.

[ospreylinks]

How are others doing this second half of Feb (I know the second half just started..... oky then the second third of the month).

February started not bad for us, (not super, but respectable) but the past week, not a thing which is real strange.... (hardly even any inquiries).

Jeff

[shoplineca]

I had about 9 things listed with multiple items (total of about 35 items). Not a single inquiry, not a single bid, not a single item sold.

The strange thing is that I have sold out of the same items I listed before so I thought that I would do well in February.

All listings ended yesterday and I am not listing until after February 18th at which time I may decide to list on another auction site or two instead of eBay.

Malcolm

[systemagic]

Last night I sold 2 items doubling my total sales for the month. Last night I also paid my eBay fees which totaled far more than my profit for the month-to-date.

I was actually considering leaving my store open because I've come to realize that I'm probably just not a flea market seller at heart and the best you can hope for from consignment stores is to break even - a little cash flow. When confronted with the evidence of a single eBay store sale for the month of February the fees make consignment look pretty compelling.

[systemagic]

Last night I also ran my 5 auctions through the search engine and found that only 2 of my items showed up in the search results.

[muminlaw]

February's looking about average for antique and vintage postcards - around a 40-50% sell-through rate. Tokens, when we can find some that aren't really common, seem to have about a 90% sell-through.

We've got one on right now that we started at $19.00 - it's at $227.50 with 3 days to go and our regular snipers yet to be heard from. I expect it could double which would be super! Sure wish we could find the rarities like that a little more often!

Glenda
"To Golf or Not To Golf? What a stupid question!"

[sunward-hobbies]

The month started out good. Much better than January and on the way to becoming a good month all around.

This last week. Slowed down.

Angelo

[bh542]

Congratulations Glenda!

It ended at $1295, WOW!

Andrew

[muminlaw]

Thanks Andrew! WOW is right!! And he's paying by international money order, so PayPal doesn't get their fingers in the pie.

That one sale assures me of PS status for another month or two - it was getting to be close.

Glenda
To Golf or Not To Golf? -- what a stupid question!