question to sellers

[2014sportsterguy]

How
often and times would you repeat listing a widgit before giving up and removing it. ?

I realize this is a general question, thanks

[ricarmic]

I am probably to the extreme on the patience scale... all my stuff is BIN.

I have stuff running for years, I had some stuff sell in the last month that has been GTC listed for 7 or 8 years....

I subscribe to the belief that someone out there wants it, I just have to wait until they find it......

My world is the stamp world, yours might be quite different.....since you're using a posting ID I can't tell what you sell...

[photosalp]

I've only been doing this for a year (almost) and I'm very much looking for the perfect answer, too. BTW, my category is stamps. Different categories will have different considerations. 

After the first go around I only relist on promos. I've got 4000 listings and lots more to come. I only use my monthly free listings for new material. 

Some material that hasn't sold here I've removed and placed on a different site. My success hasn't been great there, but to be fair I haven't devoted a lot of time the other site. (There's also a third site I list on that mirrors my eBay listings so I don't have to spend time listing and there's no problem with duplicate sales between the two sites).

When I have time, maybe next summer (it looks like it's going to be a busy winter here), I'd like to try a few different things to move some of the stock that seems to think it's found a permanent home here. I have a couple of ideas, but there are some successful, long time stamp people who frequent these boards and I'd love to hear their thoughts. I guess the past option is to pack stuff up into saleable lots and sent it off to auction. 

Sorry. I guess rather than answer your question I ended up more asking my own! But I think you raised a good question that crosses the minds of all newer sellers.

[photosalp]

I have stuff running for years, I had some stuff sell in the last month that has been GTC listed for 7 or 8 years....

For all those GTC listings you must have an anchor store subscription?

[ricarmic]

Hi Photo! Yes I have an anchor store.

I sell across various sites as well as a printed list (I have many customers who do not believe in computers!!!!)

Different things sell better on various venues, the best thing to do is experiment.

My opinion is that the faster you want to sell/get cash for something, the less you get for it - this is the same advice I give to folks with estates etc.

But as I said originally, I am probably a lot more patient than the average seller here in terms of turnaround time.

[pierrelebel]

"How often and times would you repeat listing a widgit before giving up and removing it. ?"

I guess every seller is different.

Like most stamp dealers, I have had items in my eBay store listed for over ten years.  I would raise the price a little bit every year.

One item (KEVII 1905 stamp proof from Newfoundland) started at $550 eventually sold, ten years later, for $1,000.  Sometimes it takes a long time to find the "right buyer".

On the other hand, if a seller sells technology, it depreciates very quickly and one should lower prices rapidly to get rid of the inventory before it becomes obsolete.

[rose-dee]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

"On the other hand, if a seller sells technology, it depreciates very quickly and one should lower prices rapidly to get rid of the inventory before it becomes obsolete."

---

Well, I suppose that's one of the few benefits these days of being an OOAK-item seller -- at least collectibles don't become obsolete.  

I'm not a stamp (or electronics) seller, and I use a combination of strategies.  To keep my costs down, I stick with a basic store (150 free listings on .ca -- and another 150 on .com if I want them) each month.  The majority of my items are GTC and, as the others have said, I find eventually the right buyer will come along.  

However, I also try to keep a group of 25 to 50 or more additional items that I cycle through every time there is promo -- although I don't always get to it.  Those that don't sell sit in my "Unsold" list until the next promo.  These tend to be the smaller, less expensive items, i.e. the ones less likely to sell quickly as store inventory. 

On the other hand, I have to say that turnover in general has slowed way down in the last 12 to 18 months.  Before that, I had less than a handful of items that had sat in the store on GTC for more than a year.  Now there are many.  

Fewer buyers?  Too much competition?  A combination of both?  I don't really know for sure, but one thing I would not consider doing at this point (from my own perspective) is moving up to the next store level.  I could fill it with GTC listings with what I have to sell, but until eBay in general gets busier, it isn't worth it for me. 

By the way, I used to fret a bit about those friendly reminders from eBay that "this item has had no sales in the past 16 months", now I pay little attention and just carry on.    

Best of luck to you!

[pocomocomputing]

For your store GTC listings, since they are an OOAK item, they tend to descend in search visibility as they have no sales (one item). I would suggest that anything with the warning 16 months be relisted using Sell Similar as it will give the GTC listing a fresh start. I would even suggest it for item that are GTC 12 months or every 6 months.

I would also suggest pulling those items out from GTC and and change duration 7 or 10 days Fixed Price if you have any free store listings left in a month or there is a promo. Do this a couple of times and see what happens and then relist as GTC again.

I would also suggest that you take some items and switch to eBay.com to list if you just list on eBay.ca. I find that moving items after 3-4 months running on eBay.ca, moving them to eBay.com stimulates a sale. And from eBay.com to eBay.ca. Of course, shipping can be an issue if you use calculated shipping on eBay.ca. But I do remember that you use Flat rate so site will not matter.

Shake things up a bit to look fresher on eBay. Maybe even change titles slightly to see if they come out better in search. Change the price (even increase slightly).

[rose-dee]

Thanks, but I'm one of the luckier ones on eBay who has few competitors in my most important categories, so most of my items (whether "stale" or newly-listed) show up on page 1 or 2 of searches.  Clawing after good search results has never been much of an issue.  At least that's one of the few advantages I have over people who are selling what everybody else is selling.  

I regularly run new items that I know will attract a lot of attention, and that tends to stimulate sales.  Like the stamp people, I find sometimes the oddest things will sell once the right buyer finds them, and with a store it sometimes helps to leave it in the same place long enough for that "perfect" buyer to find.  

Typically (and probably unlike many other categories), items of mine that attract a lot of watchers tend to sell earliest and at the best prices. In other words, if I leave them in my store until they accumulate interest, they sell.  

On the other hand, as you suggest, I've tried cycling a significant proportion of my items through shorter durations or auctions, or using Sell Similar.  All that seems to accomplish is drop off my watchers -- who in my categories are usually potential buyers.  For the same reasons I doubt that changing titles would be an advantage for me.  Cycling items quickly has almost never stimulated sales, and has usually ended up being a net waste of time for me.  I've never done well with auctions either, even with the promos.  I simply run an occasional auction as a "loss leader" to bring attention to my store. 

I think you may be looking at this from a different perspective.  I believe there is a significant difference in selling with a store and without.  With a store, you develop a "persona" over the years -- branding can be a huge advantage.  I know this because I get a lot of Omniture results showing people searching directly by my store name or my pattern brand.  And I do know my demographic well. 

What I've discovered does usually help in my circumstances is running selective sales (price discounts), and adding whole groups of new listings at one time.  That almost invariably results in some of the items that have sat for months suddenly selling.  

I've considered listing on .com but have put it off because I dread having to deal with setting up flat rate shipping without the Canada Post options.  I've heard some sellers say they get better visibility and increased sales as a result by listing on .com, but as I said, better search placement isn't my particular issue.  

No, I think something else has occurred over the past 8 or 10 months that has radically shifted business on eBay -- factors that are for the most part out of sellers' direct control.  Things were going along very well up until about May of 2014, but eBay now "feels" different.  Many sellers have reported seriously decreased Omniture traffic, and that's true of me too.  

I've quite frankly become tired of trying to find workarounds for the results of eBay's tactics and mistakes.  It used to be that doing "X" would fairly reliably result in "Y", but not anymore. 

[musicyouneed]

It all depends on what you sell,  on how many items you have, whether you have a store, how big the items are, do you have storage, does anyone even want your item, do you have any views or watchers,  do you have to pay to list it each month, would you buy it for the price you are selling it for is the shipping too high?  

Research, if nothing you list is selling, maybe no one wants that item anymore, or there are just too many listings.  It may mean the price needs to be revised, or title, or type of listing, list on ebay.ca and ebay.com. List every day or at least every other day. 

You should have a 10 to 25% sell through rate.  (I remember when it was 90% sell through in 2003/04, but those days are gone).

Myself I research prices and I try to be on the lower side.  Every 2 months, if it hasn't sold, I research again and price accordingly.  If it has been around over a year, then my price is too high or no one wants my item.  

I found during the summer prices were higher because some of the large sellers closed for the summer.  So I got more money but only sold 1/3 as much.  Now that the large sellers are listing again, I have had to drop my prices accordingly.  

[2014sportsterguy]

Thanks again for your time to reply, lot of posts made sense.
as a general rule of thumb I do research on the advanced info.

My items are small so space is not an issue, guess it comes down to patience, thanks and best of season to all.

[photosalp]

I like the idea of shaking things up once in a while. Even in my short time here I've seen that work. I tried relisting stuff at the same price but with different durations or formats with some of the promos we've had recently and sold  material that I listed last December. 

Very good point Pierre about increasing prices on investment grade material. I hadn't thought of that.