eBay

vintage*finds · ‎01-21-2016

EBay isn't what it used to be. There was a time when if you had 19 watchers on an item, you'd have fun watching the feeding-frenzy in that last-minute scramble. Today, it seems, 19 watchers are tire-kickers. I think they are watching as a way to keep it on their radar should you drop the price on a relist. I got one bid on an item last night that had all those watchers and the one bid came from a buyer with zero feedback. No payment yet, so we'll see how that evolves. And this is an item that once upon a time would have gotten well over $100 even in less-than-perfect condition.

Oh, I miss the good ol days. Today, it's so hard to predict how things will go.

dgour98 · ‎01-21-2016

I believe i posted something to this effect last winter. Of course nostalgia is powerful and it always makes things seem

better "in the good old days". There are so many things that make our lives simpler today on ebay, paypal shipping print-outs for one, and paypal itself. Instant payment, instant ship.

In the good old days i used to sell wordwide. I first started off on yahoo auctions (which were free) then i heard about this ebay site.

I used to sell items and wait in the mail for a check, or money order. Then the buyer had to wait untill his check cleared. A process that took maybe 7-10 days (2 weeks) or so. Then "Bidpay" came around and we could ship right away. (free auctions on yahoo, plus Bidpay had no chargebacks, a $10 sale was a $10 sale). It was fun selling around the world, buyers would ask for stamps on the package. The more remote the location the more fun it was to ship, and then get an e-mail weeks later how they received the item and all was good. Everything woud sell eventually. Before we had to go to the pawn store or comics store or local flea market to find that coin, comic, rare item. All of a sudden it was everywhere. That rare coin from Germany was common there and we could buy it from them for peanuts. So many other items were in the same boat...screw that flea market dude now we can have anything we want online.

Today things are much more easier to sell with paypal and the postage printing. BUT things are harder to sell with all the fees and rules. No way will i sell worldwide now. I even want Canadian buyers more than US buyers because i know the item will arrive faster and cheaper. On the other hand if i get a buzz to buy Fantastic Four #87 tonight i can find it right away.

Life is better since ebay, but ebay has made things more complicated than they need to be. (GSP is an example) for sellers and buyers, but they have made things easier at the same time.

Nostalgia is powerful indeed.

sylviebee · ‎01-22-2016

I don't notice the decline the way others do and I think it has to do with the fact that my items have changed with the climate. I don't like to post about "me" here, but it's one of those mornings.

I sell two types of items. One group consists of the things I own and want to get rid of, and the other is the business (antique purses).

The former group is a PITA. Those items sell slowly and eventually they'll all go to the Sally Anne's. Packing is often way too much work and shipping cost matters.

If not for all the promotions I would have trashed a lot of that stuff long ago.

The other group was planned and eventually I'll sell only purses. I chose purses first and foremost because I LOVE them. I knew I'd be living/breathing purses for a long time so I had to have a passion for what I was selling.

I also chose them because they are easy to pack, shipping cost isn't an issue, and because I could see that there was a great market for them.

There is no doubt that the market has changed, but as collectors have changed, so have I.

Ten years ago every piece listed sold crazy high no matter what the condition, quality, or rarity of the purse.

Today collectors are very very selective. I attribute the change to the exposure brought about by the internet.

When I chose my item I was also looking for something with a wide price range so I could continue to grow and upgrade over time.

I started at the extreme low end and made a lot mistakes as I was learning how to buy.

Currently I'm selling off my mistakes and lower end pieces with a few good pieces thrown into the mix, and then I'll move on to selling the good stuff only.

If I have the time, energy, and enough motivation left I'll move on further to higher end bags like Judith Leiber, Hermes etc.

In short, I don't know the detailed history of each bag the way historians do, but I do know what collectors want.

If you have what they want, they will come.

vintage*finds · ‎01-22-2016

Silvie, those bags. What an amazing collection you have. It's quite an investment. I just sold a group of three ... too cheap, I think, even with flaws. Vintage clothing and accessories used to be my bread and butter, but I've seen large lots of them go for as little as $10. on eBay auctions. The auctions are no longer fun to watch for me. So I'm squirrelling it all away now. I've done the antique mall booth thing and I've sold at Toronto's Harbourfront years ago, as well as St. Lawrence Market, but I hated all the packing and unpacking. I may have to return to these venues again.

That said, I'm not totally unhappy with my sales of other items on eBay. I mostly do BINs now and I'm more patient that I used to be. I'm learning to pick more carefully.

sylviebee · ‎01-22-2016

@vintage*finds wrote:
Silvie, those bags. What an amazing collection you have. It's quite an investment. I just sold a group of three ... too cheap, I think, even with flaws. Vintage clothing and accessories used to be my bread and butter, but I've seen large lots of them go for as little as $10. on eBay auctions. The auctions are no longer fun to watch for me. So I'm squirrelling it all away now. I've done the antique mall booth thing and I've sold at Toronto's Harbourfront years ago, as well as St. Lawrence Market, but I hated all the packing and unpacking. I may have to return to these venues again.

That said, I'm not totally unhappy with my sales of other items on eBay. I mostly do BINs now and I'm more patient that I used to be. I'm learning to pick more carefully.

Thank You vintage. An investment? Yes, it is, but t's the best investment I have.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎01-26-2016

@sylviebee wrote:

treasure, no offence taken.

Just because an item is rare, does not make it desirable to collectors.

For example, a purse from the 1800s might be extremely rare and the only one in existence, but that doesn't make it desirable.

In addition, just being high end does not make an item desirable either. It takes more than that.

The items I am selling all have strong history of selling well and they will continue to sell elsewhere once some other ducks are in a row. It's Ebay where things no longer sell reliably and that is not a good representation for the rest of the market!

thD

sylviebee · ‎01-26-2016

Treasure, I am truly sorry that you are offended by my comments.

I was responding to your two posts above. I was not commenting on the items you are selling.

If you go back and read what you posted the way someone else would, I think you'l understand why I misunderstood your comments.

Even though you might not have intended to say that your items are rare and high end so they should sell based on those qualities alone, that is what you wrote.

Now that you've responded, I understand that you did not mean to convey that message.

hlmacdon · ‎01-26-2016

Please forgive the long winded diatribe that follows.

The overall retail market has been in decline, so in part the ebay marketplace is representative of that trend and certainly not immune to it. It's rough out there in retail at the moment as disposable income levels are declining with the sharp rise in costs of mortgages and household bills. For most national retailers ecommerce sales continue to represent a fraction of retail sales and they are having difficulty gaining traction without substantially cutting net margins via subsidizations of logistics and sales/promotion. For a volume retailer (outside of high margin categories) it is not unusual to gross sub 10% for ecommerce sales, with net working out far lower, so that gives you some idea.

This is why many large retailers do not sell on ebay or restrict categories, margins are already too compressed. At the same time the constant push to promote national retailers and structure policies and marketing more conducive to large retailers has forced a lot of small sellers off ebay. This in turn hurts the selection that ebay offers, particularly in non-mainstream products. This is what ultimately drives buyers away, as many come to ebay looking for unique products not the generic imported goods that dominate large ecommerce sites.

Curated niche categories is something that ebay should be looking to target more aggressively, it has certainly worked well for similar sites. I suspect many sellers would do better if ebay had more database tags and filtering options that were more specific to categories, rather than relying on the blunt instrument of "best match" which is a poor algorithm to solve this issue. In my own experience with ecommerce sites that sell millions of skus at a time, when the sku count grows enormously you can't rely on search alone to drive customers to product. In fact it kills sales, and that is part of what you are seeing. Buyers need to be able to quickly and efficiently filter by relevant options that are specific to the product. Ebay has only just recently figured out that some basic database tags (ie very limited "item specifics) are somewhat important for search engine indexing...I mean realllllyy?

If you want to grow on ebay, logistics are pretty key, and you need to be competitive in that realm. Canadians are hampered by the lack of competitive services with Canada Post so that is a huge factor. Buyers expect tracking, reasonable shipping costs, and they expect items to arrive quickly. In the "good old days" that wasn't a factor. The way current policies are structured the buyer/seller relationship is adversarial from the get go, which makes buyers much more selective than they may have been in the past. It is simply not enough to have the right product unfortunately. You need the logistics and the reputation to compliment. The frustration of small Canadian sellers is certainly understandable in that respect as it is hard to drive reputation without logistics.

mr.elmwood · ‎01-26-2016

Retail sales continue their unrelenting increase, year after year growth.

https://ycharts.com/indicators/retail_sales

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sylviebee · ‎01-26-2016

hlmacdon, I'm not sure how well your observations generalize to the types of items most of the sellers posting here offer for sale.

I'm not always sure what the divide is between what's referred to here as "small sellers" and the rest, but eBay sellers dealing in collectibles, used items, end of line merchandise etc., are usually small sellers, although some aren't that small at all.

In any case, the rules that apply to the overall retail market may not be generalizable to "small sellers." (What the heck is a curated niche market?)

Many have experienced a decline in sales. There's an ongoing debate here of whether this is the fault of eBay and how it organizes the search etc., or if other factors are to blame.

I've argued that there's been a change in how buyers buy on venues such as eBay, and not in how much they buy or spend.

Others feel that eBay has let them down and somehow sabotages their efforts.

I'm pretty sure that the big box store type of sellers are thriving and the dynamics that drive our market are very unlike theirs.

mr.elmwood · ‎01-26-2016

@sylviebee wrote:
hlmacdon, I'm not sure how well your observations generalize to the types of items most of the sellers posting here offer for sale.

I'm not always sure what the divide is between what's referred to here as "small sellers" and the rest, but eBay sellers dealing in collectibles, used items, end of line merchandise etc., are usually small sellers, although some aren't that small at all.

In any case, the rules that apply to the overall retail market may not be generalizable to "small sellers." (What the heck is a curated niche market?)

Many have experienced a decline in sales. There's an ongoing debate here of whether this is the fault of eBay and how it organizes the search etc., or if other factors are to blame.

I've argued that there's been a change in how buyers buy on venues such as eBay, and not in how much they buy or spend.
Others feel that eBay has let them down and somehow sabotages their efforts.

I'm pretty sure that the big box store type of sellers are thriving and the dynamics that drive our market are very unlike theirs.

Wise words indeed.

I was experiencing less than orgasmic sales about 14 months ago. I changed a few things and have been on a sales run ever since December 24, 2014.

Why?

I changed this, I changed that, I looked at what the competition was doing. I still do. I compete with the high priced sellers. Less work and a better profit margin.

Despite the Chicken Littles of this world, disposable income is at an all time high and increasing. More people have more money to spend than ever. Retail economies are racing at a breakneck pace, but, much has changed in the last two years.

If you are "doing what I have always done", you have been left behind. That is the most basic tenet of retail. Stand still and others will race past you.

The 50% swing in exchange rates over the last 3+ years has allowed me to do all sorts of things and compete, more than effectively, with American sellers. I can beat their prices even with "free" shipping.

"Good old days"? These are the good old days. I am making great money with minimal effort.

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gifts_of_elegance · ‎01-28-2016

Its visibility that counts, not how low your price is.

Recently I had a 25% off sale on my bracelets. for a whole week. Only one sold on the very last day out of 80 bracelets.

I also have run 15% sale on all my items for three days and didn't get a single sale with 1,200+ items.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-28-2016

I'm wondering how many of the posters here are Boomers like myself?

And perhaps that's one reason we are seeing declining sales.

The Boomers drove the market from 1946 (when we started arriving) through construction jobs as schools were built (I never attended a school that did not have portables), and then homes for the new families as we married, and cars and furniture and books and collectibles and and and.

The youngest Boomers have turned 50. And we are outnumbered by the younger generations.

The Baby Bust of 1965 through 1980. The youngest of the Bust are now 35.

Then the Echo of 1981 to today .... BC will have 5000 new elementary school pupils this year above the normal intake. There are as more under 50 now than there are over.

36.8% of the population is between 20 and 44.

http://www.ccsd.ca/factsheets/demographics/

Are your items interesting to those younger buyers?

When we were setting up our household we bought cheap and attractive Golden Oak furniture, 40 years old and still sturdy.

in 2016, forty years ago was 1976. And I have noticed an interest in Danish Modern of that era among the nieces and nephews.

sylviebee · ‎01-28-2016

Your post makes me think of something like Royal Doulton figurines.

I'm far from an expert on those, but I believe they appeal to an even older crowd than the boomers.

When all those collections come up for re-sale in the very near future, I wonder if there will be any buyers left alive.

I just can't imagine someone in their 20s or 30s collecting Royal Dolton.

gifts_of_elegance · ‎01-28-2016

@sylviebee wrote:
Your post makes me think of something like Royal Doulton figurines.

I'm far from an expert on those, but I believe they appeal to an even older crowd than the boomers.
When all those collections come up for re-sale in the very near future, I wonder if there will be any buyers left alive.

I just can't imagine someone in their 20s or 30s collecting Royal Dolton.

@sylviebee wrote:
Your post makes me think of something like Royal Doulton figurines.

I'm far from an expert on those, but I believe they appeal to an even older crowd than the boomers.
When all those collections come up for re-sale in the very near future, I wonder if there will be any buyers left alive.

I just can't imagine someone in their 20s or 30s collecting Royal Dolton.

They don't and never will, but will probably appreciate it more as they get older and its the older generation that has the money.

What is the age group that buy your purses?

sylviebee · ‎01-28-2016

@gifts_of_elegance wrote:
What is the age group that buy your purses?

12 - 112

Lady GaGa's been know to take them out on the town so LittleMonsters love them.

Before her Carrie Bradshaw now and then, and before her Stevie Nicks.

gifts_of_elegance · ‎01-28-2016

@sylviebee wrote:
@gifts_of_elegance wrote:
What is the age group that buy your purses?

12 - 112

Lady GaGa's been know to take them out on the town so LittleMonsters love them.

Before her Carrie Bradshaw now and then, and before her Stevie Nicks.

So its a flash in the pan, a passing fad, just like the Cabbage Patch Dolls, Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo.

sylviebee · ‎01-28-2016

Antique purses are like Cabbage Patch Dolls?

gifts_of_elegance · ‎01-28-2016

You wrote:

"Lady GaGa's been know to take them out on the town so LittleMonsters love them.

Before her Carrie Bradshaw now and then, and before her Stevie Nicks."

That tells me its just a fad with people who want to imitate Lay GaGa and before them Carrie Bradshaw and Stevie Nicks.

They might not be like a Cabbage Patch Doll, but what they have in common is that both is a passing fad.

Prove me wrong. Tell me you have been selling these purses successfully since you started on eBay in 2004, or 2008, or 2012?

gifts_of_elegance · ‎01-28-2016

I know that a lot of your purses are handmade and stitched with petite point and needlework. Some probably count stitched. I know how much work goes into these items but I also know that there is no value placed on them by the general public. I stitched before eBay for about 20 years.