Hello I have had a misterable Christmas Season, I am not selling anything.

[sargeantsmith]

Hello this has been the worst Holiday Season in many years?  It is like pulling teeth to get a sale.  You almost have to give your jewelry away to get a sale.  I am considering putting all my jewelry away and hoping things pick up after Christmas but doubt that as it is usually a slow time of the year.  Anyone else having a hard time?  Thank you. 

[momcqueen]

I sell toys so, no, my holiday sales performance has been brisk.

I took a look at some of your listings and suspect you may be experiencing postage problems. You're listing on ebay.com, I see, but even with Standard International Shipping, I know it could never cost $35 USD or $45 CAD for you to ship anything to me in Winnipeg from Oshawa. 

[momcqueen]

Since many of your items are higher-end, may I suggest you add postage to your asking price and use 'free shipping' within Canada and possibly the USA as a attractor?

[momcqueen]

Oh, an you cannot use an outside website as a watermark for your photos.

ebay may have cracked down on your visibility in search as a result of you doing that. 

[momcqueen]

Also, more pictures in your listings would help to sell them. If I were in the market to purchase a $200 antique brooch, I'd want to see front and back, sides and close-ups. You've 12 pics for free with your listing, I use all of mine. 

[momcqueen]

Exact measurements..... et cetera. Perhaps fill in some of those Item Specifics too. That assists with placement in Search.

[westernstargifts]

I sell jewellery too, although not high end like yours and have not listed anywhere near the amount of product I usually have listed.  I had 9 sales in November and 2 in December.  I usually do $2,000 - $3000 per month at this time of year, not less than $300.

I usually find the period from January to March to be better for me than the pre-Christmas sales.  This year that did not happen but I still plan to list more in the new year and hope that sales will improve.

Good luck with your sales!

[vintagenorth]

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@sargeantsmith wrote:

Hello this has been the worst Holiday Season in many years?  It is like pulling teeth to get a sale.  You almost have to give your jewelry away to get a sale.  I am considering putting all my jewelry away and hoping things pick up after Christmas but doubt that as it is usually a slow time of the year.  Anyone else having a hard time?  Thank you. 

---

Have you looked at your listings? I see some doubles, for instance you have the same quilt and some other items

listed for sale twice. Have you checked for any Active Content in your listings? I think a lot of sellers are finding their sales down this year. Hopefully yours will pick up soon, you do have some lovely items.

[ricarmic]

I happened to notice duplicated? listings for some items:

Georgian Fabulous Rare Arts and Crafts Muskateer Face Hand Made Rare!!

and

Antique Mennonite Appliqued Quilt Adorable

Both have two listings, I don't have time to check to make sure they're the same item but at first glance it looks like they are the only thing different is the prices?

I'm surprised the bots didn't give you a hard time about them, but I may be missing something that is different in the descriptions....

[vintagenorth]

Ric, I don’t think the bots pick up because of the different prices, but they are still duplicate listings really. Doesn’t look good when the items are one of a kind antique items.

[sargeantsmith]

I am really struggling this year and am sure this will be my last. I have cognitive difficulties and have so much to sell. I have paid so much for my jewelry buying from England and Europe. I have always used buy it now but to get rid of a lot of lower end I think I will just use use 9.99 Auction. I went through my listings after you kindly looked at my site and could not believe it all the duplicates. I am so embarrassed. Thank you for all your help it is much appreciated. And please keep writing to me should you see anything else I should change Thank you again.

[femmefan1946]

I checked duplicates on my own listings last night and found 25!!

The easiest way to check dupes, in my opinion,is to click Title on the Active Listings page. This puts them in alphabetical order.

The duplicates show up easily.

If you do this on dotCOM, it's even easier because you get pictures as well as titles.

Be very careful of Auctions, especially at this time of year.

Not only are they a dying part of eBay (less than 15% of transactions) but they do not appeal to the 52% of shoppers who are using their phones.

I've noticed that most of the complaints about deadbeats are from auctioneers.

I suspect that the bidders thought they were buying and when they did not immediately win, went off an bought a different doohickey that was Fixed Price.

Immediate Gratification-- especially at this time of year.

BTW-- you know that Free Shipping just means putting the cost of shipping into the asking price for the item, right?

Which is cheaper: an $100 item with $25 shipping? or a $125 item with Free Shipping?

And if you use Free Shipping domestically you have no shipping fee on your international sales.

[maggiebvintage2010]

You have quite a number of spelling mistakes (eg, musketeer, not muskateer) both in titles and in descriptions.  Many titles do not state what the actual object is (Star Wars card, Musketeer brooch, porcelain brooch of woman's head).  Your Star Wars Episode 1 card is improperly described (no Princess Leia in that movie) and priced well above that series of cards on other sites. You have mistaken Art Nouveau for Art Deco in one listing.  Your Native American Art Deco (is there such a thing?) earrings are identical to a pair I bought in Nepal in the 1990s.  There is a distinct difference between a stick pin and a brooch, yet one of your listings describes a brooch as both a brooch and a stick pin.

Your Italian beads are millefiori, also called Venetian glass beads,formerly known as mosaic beads - are they glass or polymer?  There was no Victorian era in China - that would fall within the Qing dynasty.  Or was this made specifically for export to the British Empire, and made in one of the concession ports in a British factory there?  Your exact Christofle jury medal is available from an eBay France seller - your asking price (including shipping) is 230% higher.  Meissen is in Germany, not France.

Item #253297254757 and Item #292362967057 seem identical, and are the same as Item #253183587415 which is listed in your sold items as having been sold on September 30th.

If your photos were in the eBay photos instead of embedded within your description, people could look more easily.  Also a number of your photos are out of focus, which is not appealing to potential buyers, especially for jewellery.  Take better advantage of the 80 keystrokes allowed in the title, and check your sub-categories for accuracy - some contradict your description.  Item Specifics help people doing a narrow search to find your items.  You still have duplicates.  Do your listings comply with the change to https?  Are you taking advantage of the discounts on shipping labels found on Shippo and SnapShip - your shipping charges seem high.

My observations are blunt and to the point, but not meant to insult, only to help.  It may seem overwhelming to fix everything, but if you take things one at a time, a few every day,  you will be able to update your listings and have better sales as a result.

[momcqueen]

Your jewelry is really beautiful and it would be a shame to see it let it go for less than it's worth to you. Do you have any family members who might be able to help lend you a hand with this? 

[ricarmic]

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@sargeantsmith wrote:
I am really struggling this year and am sure this will be my last. I have cognitive difficulties and have so much to sell. I have paid so much for my jewelry buying from England and Europe. I have always used buy it now but to get rid of a lot of lower end I think I will just use use 9.99 Auction. I went through my listings after you kindly looked at my site and could not believe it all the duplicates. I am so embarrassed. Thank you for all your help it is much appreciated. And please keep writing to me should you see anything else I should change Thank you again.

---

Unless things are very much different in your categories (and I don't think they are)..... assume if you're auctioning the low end stuff with a starting bid of $9.99 that they're going to sell for $9.99 90+% of the time......

[triber]

I use this site at least every few days, especially when I do relistings.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm

It is a quick and easy way to find out if you have duplicates, I am always surprised when I find that I have them. Don't feel bad about it, we all make mistakes.

[sargeantsmith]

Thank you I did not realize I was posting to everyone I thought just to one individual who had answered me. I am embarrassed but I guess it is what it is and have to cope and look at each day as having positive moments. When it comes to EBay I will continue until I sell all my items or most would be nice. Thank you for all the support and kind words today. The only thing I cannot find you again on the EBay site only here in my email how do I get back to you through eBay? Thank you again:)

[sargeantsmith]

I do not understand the shipping that is not me I will call EBay tomorrow they must have signed me up for their program which I have said no to many times. I looked and did not see that shipping.

[edubb101]

Personally it has been up and down since October for myself.  I will send you some positive vibes through the power of positive thinking and i hope that you receive sales in abundance.  Keep on persevering.

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

It has been a lousy year for sales. They come & go in spurts. Steady sales for a few days & then 1-2 weeks of hardly anything. I really believe it has to do with eBay not promoting sales for vintage & collectable items. They are gearing towards the younger generation with new gadgets & technology.