eBay

double_identity · ‎08-04-2018

Hello. Business has been getting worse over the last year. Since getting treatment for cancer I haven't been able to keep up as much as I did before. I decided to close my store.

I know that without constantly listing new things, my search placement is really bad right now. But with closing the store I can't list new things. I was looking for advice on how to sell off my remaining goods.

Funny thing is that a while ago I tried free shipping to the US which is costly for me but it really didn't improve sales.

I am in the midst of changing my listings to auction format. Not really sure if that will help.

I am not going to start my auctions off at $0.99 as I will lose my shirt. I tried that before and without good search results my auctions ended at $0.99.

Any one have advice for me?

kawartha-ephemera · ‎08-04-2018

Cancelled my store subscription in early 2017, I'm selling a bit less volume but I'm able to list when I feel up for it, not because I have to. Much happier now.

Most of the time I sell ephemera, postcards, photos, documents, just about anything that's printed on paper I've sold over the years.

During July, eBay offered me two 500 free listings promotions, the first allowed either auctions or fixed price , the second was limited to auctions only.

Taking full advantage of these offers I relisted a lot of old low dollar inventory with just a few new listings in the mix. I used fixed price for a lot of these relists but the majority were auctions.

The results were interesting. The sell through rate was low as I expected but the surprising bit was that the auctions sold significantly better than the 30 day fixed price listings despite being available for a much shorter period of time. The overall desirability of the items resisted was the same for both listing formats.

During July, it seemed to me that fixed price listings were not being seen as often as they had been in the past. Just my opinion.

Most items don't draw multiple bidders these days. Price your auctions just like you would if they were fixed price. If you would price an item at $20 fixed price, start the auction at $20.

Do not add BIN to auctions. There can be scheduling and shipping logistics benefits in having a group of auctions ending on a known date. In my experience adding BIN does little to increase sales.