Dead Sales, no views etc Canada

[eyegotwhatuwant]

Hi is anyone else having zero sales, zero views etc? I pay a fee for a store subscription and have over 800 listings! I can’t believe I’ve had nothing in days. Help! Anyone!

[marnotom!]

I just viewed listing 324765818510 (CHECK MATE Dragon Pal).  Is there a record of that view?

I did notice that the pictures didn't show up, though, but I don't know if that's a problem on my end or eBay's.

[eyegotwhatuwant]

Oh great! That’s not good. I know there is pictures listed. I’ve tried sales, promotions and everything. Can someone at eBay look into this? Please.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@eyegotwhatuwant wrote:
Hi is anyone else having zero sales, zero views etc? I pay a fee for a store subscription and have over 800 listings!

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Can't quite believe your zero number, since ebay shows you have had 9 sales so far this month.

You are selling a lot of high priced collectibles so views will be a bit sporadic.

Some of your ebay.CA listings might benefit by using calculated shipping -- $35 to ship a small Pyrex pot in Canada seems a bit high.

Have you used promoted listings?  ebay does a bit of advertising of the promoted item and takes an extra fee if the item sells. Current promoted version is free with only a percentage taken when sold (I have used minumum fee of 1% for some sales).  ebay is rolling out a pay-as-you-get-clicks version later this year (I would not recommend, since it can be very easy to spend lots for no return).

-;-

[eyegotwhatuwant]

thank you for your advice! And yes it costs lots through Canada post. I wish it was cheap like usps. My feedback is not all from Sept. mostly from buyers in Aug leaving feedback on Sept. I have 3% for my promotional items. And put mostly all to see if it would help. And nope, did nothing. I put my items all on sale and nothing changed. Ive really tried everything. I thank everyone for their advice. Good or bad I will take all advice. Even an eBay rep to really look into this. I’m no pro but believe I should have at least one sale a day or even watchers.

[eyegotwhatuwant]

Any ideas on items that I could sell that would be more popular buys? My vintage items are mainly for the collectors I guess. 😉 Something that could bring in the customers for more views and buys.

[marnotom!]

Just viewed the listing again on my phone rather than my laptop and the pictures showed up fine.

[femmefan1946]

How do this month's sales compare with August/September 2019? 2018? (2020 was such an outlier with very strong pandemic induced buying that we really shouldn't count it.)

With so many Promotional Free Listings, I have downgraded one of my accounts from a Premium to  a Basic store subscription.

And you can still double the number of available listings by putting some on dotCA and some on dotCOM- watch out for parcel rates though.

Are you near either chitchatexpress or stallionexpress? These are forwarders who will accept your  shipments, carry them across the border, and ship using USPS which has much lower rates. Apparently they now also service Canada and overseas.

And yes, using Calculated Shipping will encourage nearby sales and keep you from losing money on shipping to Nunavut-- or Malaya.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/information/app/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

I was startled by the price of some of your hats- but you might be startled by the price of some of my books. One thing that does work is Free Shipping.

DON'T PANIC!

Free Shipping just means putting your shipping and packaging costs into your asking price.

Which is cheaper ? A trucker hat for $500 plus $30 shipping or a trucker hat for $530 with Free Shipping?

Best Offer has been pretty good as a promotion for me. I use the high/low parameters to weed out the lowballers and to take acceptable offers promptly, before the punter changes her mind.

I like Promoted Listings too. It's my observation (and anecdote is not data) that PL does not necessarily sell the PL item, but it does bring the punters in and they seem to browse my Stores and buy other stuff instead. I stick with a one percent rate because I am a cheapskate.

[needsmorerobots]

Not to sound the heel but maybe you should look at some at the advice you were given in 2019. This seems to be a recurring issue for you. Since you posted about this problem in 2019 and 2020, ask yourself if this is a seasonal thing that happens every year or is there something you haven't done yet to correct this problem.

Did you follow what @femmefan1946 said in 2019, of dropping what isn't selling? 

Is the inventory you have now selling? I don't think $65.00 for an angel Garfield I find in thrift stores, $7 for ponytail holders found in a dollar store or $150.00 - $200.00 for a vintage cap (someone also pointed out this issue back in 2019)  from a company gone since at least 2007 would be listed as reasonable prices.

Maybe you do need to drop what doesn't sell and specialize in what does. Your inventory is all over the map. Maybe you need to narrow it down get a reputation for some things. Perhaps play with promoted listings while your at it. 

The other thing you can do is to try to be competitive with your prices. I check multiple sites before I deicde what value to place on an item. Even after the product is listed, I may come back to it later to reappriase. 

I've complained about a lack of sales myself. While eBay isn't perfect I'm learning there's a number of things that I can do to keep sales going. Last time I had this problem I just added extra details to my listings, added new items, reappriased products and made offers to interested buyers.

I hope you find a solution. 

[eyegotwhatuwant]

I appreciate your constructive criticism. My prices may seem high but it’s because many of them are new from 1978 and not used like the thrift stores may sell. To a collector it isn’t expensive. Just a collectors price and not a kids price. I only complain when I notice that my sales change. When it goes from 5 to 0 in a day for a week I have cause for concern. I do try to change everything all the time. Yes my store has many different items but it’s because I like having that. It’s called Unique store for a reason. I don’t least follow what everyone else is doing. And I’ve only been a more active seller since 2019. So my feedback isn’t from years and years ago. So I did quite well for a part-time seller. I just know with all eBays changes I’ve struggled to keep my store items in the search. I’ve called eBay many times and had them have to fix many things. Was just hoping to see if anyone had any other ideas. Thank you for your help. I do appreciate anything I can get.

[eyegotwhatuwant]

I’m definitely going to try maybe the free shipping with the changes to the best offer. I do get low ballers definitely when I do this. But great way to stop it. My hats do quite well only because they are all new from the 70’s and 80’s never worn. Harder to find the condition like this so I price higher and take offers. I take offers on everything, so it’s always an option if someone wants it for cheaper.
I do kinda panic with the free shipping. The lowest cost of a hat in Canada to ship is $20.00 with tracking. I’m in a small town so I don’t have the international shipping choices that some do. Have to use only Canadapost or expensive delivery services. Thanks for some great advice! Taken!!!! 😎

[dobo5250]

i have the same complaints-- but just recently have started to offer free shipping on my 2600 plus listings about 1500 listings  so far have been changed over --(it takes time to covert each listing but then i have also updated and found a few errors here and there doing this) now have free shipping --the rest still at $19.99 - i to only use canada post so i am at the liberty of canada post to charge what they want -- but i find that cp is ok  i still have not tried usa customers -- that is my next adventure -- but free shipping has helped to get those marginal sales on the books --don't make much money but then every little bit helps ---- hope you try free shipping on a portion of your listings and see after a month you will know whether it helps or not - wish all the best --keep us posted on how you do 

doker bohm

[eyegotwhatuwant]

Thank you so much for letting me know how things are with you and that I’m not the only one struggling a bit. I think I will try the free shipping. That’s only in Canada correct? See if it helps. Most of my customers are from the states so maybe it will help. 🤞🏼😉👍🏻

[dobo5250]

maybe some else here could advise you on free shipping to the states from here -- i have not tried it yet -- the only us sales i have had were bad experiences that cost me money -- but then again that was when i was just starting out  and scammers galore tried to rip me off-- i will try again but i will start with same postage i use in Canada $19.99 and see how it goes - maybe if i have positive experiences with American customers i will open my whole catalog -- again though i will go slow - 

doker bohm

[ricarmic]

We all have these slowdowns from time to time!

When things are slow for me, these are the things I do:

-I check out the "competitors" who are selling similar stuff

   -are they selling whilst I'm not? (if not then it is a temporary "category" thing and not me)

   -if they are, what are they doing differently from me or me them?

-if I'm not keeping up with the competitors, what things can I do to make my stuff stick out from others?

  -I do free shipping on everything right up to Bankers boxes of stuff*.

  -check out promoted items (my current favourite)

  -check out sales (very limited luck for me)

  -etc

PS Regarding Hats quality, folks often forget for collectibles condition is everything. I see it in the stamp world all the time, a stamp that has a book value of $100 can sell from anywhere from ZERO to $200 depending on condition, and far too many folks who should be asking $5 for it are asking $80 for it! Stick to your guns on your mint hats!

*You can look at the rate tables and pick a fixed price that is "above average" which in the long run should work out ok.

Here is the link to the tables: https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/doc/en/support/postal-guide/business-parcels.pdf 

Here is the link to the table that tells you what columns apply to you: https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/rate-code-table-lookup.page 

[femmefan1946]

RE: Free Shipping.

I use this for both Canada and the USA - never for overseas.

Again- Free Shipping is NOT FREE.

You are taking your costs for shipping and adding them to your asking price.

Rather than a $500 hat with $30 shipping, a $530 hat with Free Shipping.

Some-many - buyers loooooove Free Shipping. Most do understand what's really happening, but the little thrill of *F*R*E*E* !!! overcomes that.

When you look at the CP rate cards, the differences in cost are usually small for LetterPost.

With high priced items, you will of course still be choosing  Parcel Rate, since that has tracking.

Tracking is a Seller Protection and well worth paying for.

@dobo5250 

advise you on free shipping to the states from here --

Most of my products are easy to ship Letter rate, being under 2cm and usually under 500 grams. Those are fixed rates in terms of destination.

If you are looking a Parcel rates, you will need a few postal and zip codes. I use 90210 for California ,32830  for Florida, K1A 0A6 for Ontario, etc.

Then having compared, decide whether to use Free Shipping or Calculated Shipping.

Note that if you are listing on dotCOM, you must use Shipping from an International Location and you must use Flat Rate. Free Shipping is a form of Flat Rate.

The USA is the world's largest single economy. (The EU is the largest economy as a coalition.)

We would be foolish to ignore all those greenbacks panting to immigrate here.

[ricarmic]

@femmefan1946  good thing you posted this, I should have mentioned that I am the same, I only employ free shipping to Canada and the US, all other international buyers pay on top of the "built in" shipping cost for the North Americans.

[triber]

This might not apply to you because I mostly sell low price items. My sales are down too, so every day I go to my oldest listings, and check prices on the item on Google and on eBay, if my prices are in the higher range, I am lowering them, it they have no or few watchers, I am deleting several of them and then doing a "sell similar item" with the lower payment. I have had several sales that way. I guess some of the watchers have probably been on there for a long time anyway, so maybe I should delete some of those also.

[ypdc_dennis]

I didn't look at your feedback, recent sales for most sellers are visible for 30+ days

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/eyegotwhatuwant/m.html

then in the Show only section (on left side) check Sold listings

...

To check your hits and views in your seller hub:

https://www.ebay.ca/sh/performance

....

For some of my listings on ebay.CA I offer "free" shipping for Canada, actual shipping for elsewhere. It does have the advantage that an out of Canada sale will have the bonus of no ebay fee on shipping.  The ebay.ca FVF on shipping is charged on the lowest of either your domestic rate (which for free is zero) or actual out-of-country shipping.

...

Another thing to try is make an offer to those people who are watching.

https://www.ebay.ca/sh/lst/active

will show the listings that are being watched.

-;-

[eyegotwhatuwant]

Thank you Ricarmic! I have sold many hats at high prices and if I price too high I have the option of “make an offer”. So I do accept lower offers. I did free shipping now on my Canadian Buyers so I guess we will see.