No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Hey ya'll! Hope everyone is doing well out there. This is the worst week I think I've had in 11 months from selling through Ebay. I got a return request last Thursday for an item. I processed the buyer's request but apparently they never closed the request yet..ever since that day, I've had absolutely zilch. No sale. It's wild. Any Tips and or any insights from out there?

Thanks in advance,
Jake.
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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

When you say you processed the buyer's request, did the buyer return and you have already refunded? I don't know if it is accurate but I have seen the odd seller say that sales slowed down for a bit once an item not as described case was opened.  If it was a buyers remorse return it shouldn't affect you though. It could be just the natural ebb and flow of retail sales.

 

Off topic and just my opinion...I noticed that you are using subtitles. As far as I know subtitles are not searchable so I really doubt that you get any value for paying the extra amount per listing. 

 

Also, the characters that you have at the end of your listings are not supposed to be used and may be more of a hindrance than a help as far as search goes.

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Although you have been a member since 2016, you only started selling in 2021.

If you look back through your records, you will likely see an ebb and flow of sales, higher at some times than at others.

For me, including over 30 years selling collectibles both online (since1994- before eBay) and in our B&M store, our records showed that our slow period was December. Then picked up again in January.

But it took a few years of record keeping to learn our gut feeling was right, and to come up with a strategy. (Which was basically to do inventory during the period when things were slow, and have a targeted promotion that started on Boxing Day.)

 

Both 2020 and to a lesser extent 2021 were outliers for long time online sellers. Sales boomed while customers were stuck at home and B&M shops were closed.

 

I doubt the return and refund made any difference. Being late in closing it-- do you mean you got a Defect for not dealing with the customer complaint?
Appeal that to the customer reps at Chat/FaceBook/Twitter (the phones are not eBay employees).  One defect shouldn't make much difference, but a second is a problem.

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

When you say you processed the buyer's request, did the buyer return and you have already refunded? I don't know if it is accurate but I have seen the odd seller say that sales slowed down for a bit once an item not as described case was opened.  If it was a buyers remorse return it shouldn't affect you though. It could be just the natural ebb and flow of retail sales.

 

Off topic and just my opinion...I noticed that you are using subtitles. As far as I know subtitles are not searchable so I really doubt that you get any value for paying the extra amount per listing. 

 

Also, the characters that you have at the end of your listings are not supposed to be used and may be more of a hindrance than a help as far as search goes.

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Thanks so much for your detailed and kind words! Very informative. Yes, I just started selling 11 months ago. Worst stretch ever.. however like you said, these things happen. Apparently eBay sales are down a bit overall. Perhaps this is my bad time of selling?

Thanks for your input once more!
Jake
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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Thanks so much for your kind words and solid input. My sales have been pretty **bleep** good but I'll take your advice. I'll go edit the listings with the emojis. Let's see how it goes! Have a beautiful day fellow Seller 💯
 🇨🇦

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

What I do when I have quiet times is list as much as I can, eBay rewards folks listing more stuff with increasing visibility, or so it seems.

 

As a note, I live/sell in a different world (stamps) but I know in my community folks get irritated by "very rare" wordings for things that are listed for BIN sale for $12..... personally I would recommend reducing the use of that word in your titles as well, reserve it for items like the currently "megarare" items..... but I don't know your categories "rare" might be more normalized there....

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

If no one mentionned it yet, to me with only 90 listings this is suprising and kinda lucky that it's the first time you encounter a one week with no sales. I experimented multiple 10 days runs without sales past months and i personally roll with 200 listings. I did read more than once here sellers talking about having no sales for over one month, and with 500 listings. So having under 100 listings is clearly a main factor

 

Something i notice too as cards seller is your lettermail $4.00 shipping, this is like 3x time over the standard for one card shipping and unless there's big mistakes in cost it's clearly overcharged. Anyway i don't know the value of your card and if the total ends fair but for singles i'm not sure thats a model buyers likes

 

I guess you make buyers pay once and free shipping for additional cards?

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

@thego2corner 

 

Free Shipping.

DON'T PANIC!

Free shipping means your costs for shipping (and packaging and insurance*) is folded into your asking price instead of being a line item.

Which is cheaper - a $5 item with $1 shipping or a $6 item with Free Shipping?

Would a $5.99 item with Free Shipping be more popular?

Which sells faster-  a 99c card with $4.00 shipping? A $4 card with 99c shipping? A $4.99 card with Free Shipping?

While things are slow is a good time to experiment. See what works for you.

 

On low cost items Free Shipping is useful since people hate paying for shipping, even though they know it is part of the cost. They particularly hate paying more for shipping than for the item itself.

And on high value items, it can feel mingey and unfriendly to charge.

But keep in mind, the buyer will be paying your costs for shipping- it's never really free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Cookie Jar Insurance - a topic for another day

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Thanks so much for your input and thoughtful suggestion 👍👍 Great points you made. With this slow period, it's an opportunity to experiment 💯

You rock!

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

I factor in cost for bubble mailer and shipping while throwing in bonuses. Shipping costs are surprisingly more expensive than most assume.

Thanks for the input hombre 😎🍷

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Your sales are good. Strictly going with 'Buy It Now' listings, you have had 150 listings in the last 90 days, with 55 sales. You sold 37 percent of everything you listed in the last 90 days. 

 

The reality is, you currently have 86 items up as Buy It Now listings. That makes for a very small sample size. With a sample size that small, it is better to look at your listings over a longer period of time than to look day to day, or week to week. It is normal for items to take weeks to sell once they are listed. Maybe if they are more niche, months. 

 

With 55 sales in 90 days, you're getting about 1 sale every 2 days. That is a small enough sample size that it isn't outlandish that you could go a week without sales. 

 

Take a look at all 86 of your items. Search for them each individually on eBay, note the lowest total price shipped to Canada and the US for each item. That way, you can determine if your listings are overpriced. Look at the sold listings. Observe the the keywords or structures of the titles for the ones that have sold. Do any that have sold for more have certain keywords that yours don't have? Etc, etc. Are yours listed in the right category compared to the ones that sell? Look for things like that. Since you sell a lot of stuff that is similar, that info will be useful going forward as you list new items. I normally wouldn't advise doing this because it's a huge time sink, but with 86 items it should take you a few hours to really dig in. It would be a learning experience in terms of pricing, titles, etc. 

 

Maybe consider running a sale, even if it is only 10 percent off. That will help boost your visibility in the search, and 10 percent shouldn't be so great that you can't take that off your BIN prices. 

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

You rock!!! Thanks for the great insight. When you put it into perspective, it makes everything better for sure 🤣 I've decided to run some auctions from some listings that went unsold and some that are winding down. I really appreciate your input. Keep up the great work 👍

Thanks again 💯
 

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

You Daniel Sedin signed card is actually a 2000-2001 Upper deck not 98/99! I finished my signed set after 17 years!

 

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Duly noted Hombre! I'll edit that. Just checked back for proper information. You're absolutely correct 🤣👍
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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Your sales are good. Strictly going with 'Buy It Now' listings, you have had 150 listings in the last 90 days, with 55 sales. You sold 37 percent of everything you listed in the last 90 days

 

If you are checking sold listings on profils i'm not sure if it's accurate? I don't know if this happen to everyone but for myself it's totally messed up. I have like 30% of my sales not showing up, and i even have items showing up as sold listings in searchs, that i never sold (i freaked out a bit when i saw that i thought i missed orders)

 

 

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

marnotom!
Community Member

Just to add to the comments about sales often having a cyclical quality about them, when I worked in brick and mortar retail, our slowest periods were generally from mid-January to late February after people had received their credit card bills with all their holiday purchases on them.

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Thanks for the input Hombre 👍👍
It's been great to get some perspective!

Jake LS
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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

If the numbers I gave are not accurate, the OP can check his own records to see what ratio his items are selling at. A slight variance won't change the point that he is selling things at a pretty decent ratio, and with under 100 active listings the sample size is small enough that no sales for a week is possible without it being a reflection that he is doing something wrong. 

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No Sales in a Week. Any Tips??

Your input was great hombre! I did some price adjustments and listed some auction stuff. Got 4 items sold so far today. Really appreciate your sensibility.

Jake LS@thego2corner 🇨🇦
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