eBay

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎11-07-2025

Something has gone on in the past three weeks, I suspect people are not wanting to spend money on non-essentials at the moment (which is the category I sell in, no one needs what I sell).

I was just wondering what people are doing to try and boost sales.

I'm going to try and list some more items soon (I haven't listed anything in the dot com store since July, and in the dot ca store I listed some things shortly after the strike moved to rotating strikes). I think listing items helps with visibility, I have been in a big slump in my US store since I haven't been listing for over three months now.

I'm going to list some stuff on the UK site, I found out with my store subscription I get listings there, I am doing reasonably OK with UK sales, I'd like to target that market more with my Canadian and British Territories. I realize I can list on the dot ca, but I'm limited with how many listings I can do there and I'm almost out of space to add new items, so I need to do other stuff to get new items listed.

I managed to acquire lots of coins this week, so we're going to spend some time this weekend figuring out how much to list stuff for and which site to list on. I'm trying to diversify, especially since I have lots of items that are similar.

C.

marnotom! · ‎11-08-2025

@sapphyres-designer-jewellery wrote:

Something has gone on in the past three weeks, I suspect people are not wanting to spend money on non-essentials at the moment (which is the category I sell in, no one needs what I sell).

The US government shutdown is having all sorts of ripple effects.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/g-s1-96673/shutdown-government

videotimeplus · ‎11-08-2025

We are offering free shipping for now within Canada and it's helped with sales a lot. We lose money on some of the cheaper items but the more expensive ones make up for it.

mrdutch1001 · ‎11-08-2025

No longer shipping anything to the USA so am looking to other ways to seek out those Canadian buyers....Am currently focusing on my other selling site where my items sell best from November to March, and where there is far more possibility for more potential Canadian buyers.

easoss · ‎11-08-2025

For me, it's local marketplace sales. I'm finally selling items that I wouldn't have listed on eBay at anytime. Perfumes, instruments and large heavy items. I can also bulk out items easily like comics, movies, CD's. I still have a few cheaper listings up (Canada only).

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎11-08-2025

@marnotom! wrote:
@sapphyres-designer-jewellery wrote:

Something has gone on in the past three weeks, I suspect people are not wanting to spend money on non-essentials at the moment (which is the category I sell in, no one needs what I sell).
The US government shutdown is having all sorts of ripple effects.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/g-s1-96673/shutdown-government

That's most probably the problem (of things that are completely out of my control.) I'm working on what's in my control, so I will take some photos of new stuff this afternoon and am currently revising a bunch of listings to add COO and something in the title (if there's room) to indicate price includes tariffs.

I haven't repriced all that much stuff because lots of stock is stale, and I'm willing to let it go at half price if offered, so paying a 10-15% tariff and selling it at full price is OK with me.

C.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎11-08-2025

@videotimeplus wrote:
We are offering free shipping for now within Canada and it's helped with sales a lot. We lose money on some of the cheaper items but the more expensive ones make up for it.

On this store I do 3.50 for shipping (and 3.15 USD on the dot com store), but upgrade to tracking when tracked postage is only $6 if there's enough profit on the item to be OK with that. It reduces INRs and will help me if there's a strike again. I do the like Expedited Lite service we get on eBay, that's something I wish they had when I started selling 12 years ago, might have spared me some grief with buyers.

C.

ilikehockeyjerseys · ‎11-08-2025

eIS program not launching for most sellers in October was a real killer.

I understand that this post is going to be met with the usual few people who like to remind everyone that the eIS program isn't going to get the US market back, but it's not about that. It's about opening up international shipping to help compensate for the lost business. Even an extra few sales a week would be substantial for a contingent of sellers.

While I do sell on multiple platforms, at this point I plan to look at every single platform I'm not on and explore direct international shipping. It might result in me taking a lot of business off of eBay if those platforms work better, which is something that already happened a few years ago.

I have strong feelings about how the downfall of Canada Post and exceeding difficulties with exporting to the USA could be an opportunity for eBay to position itself as a major solution for online stores (both on and outside of eBay) who want a streamlined and efficient way to ship both domestically and internationally, but do not want to or do not qualify to use Amazon FBA. It seems to me like eBay is missing an opportunity to make the platform extremely relevant again in an era where they've lost marketshare to Shopify, Amazon, and other more niche platforms.

reallynicestamps · ‎11-08-2025

The first complaint about poor sales was posted in October 1995.

Compare your sales to October 2024. October 2023. October 2024.

We're only eight days into November so there is nothing we can easily compare to.

Retail has waves, and some move over weeks or months.

A slow day is just a slow day.

Now we do have some current problems.

Well one fat orange one anyway.

For the time being, it seems wise to work on domestic and overseas sales and not bother much with the (large and lucrative) US market.

EISCanada may help there, for those concerned about Claims from overseas customers.

EIS is designed to be a Seller Protection program.

We've managed through postal disruptions before.

Remember the current one started with an outright strike on November 15, 2024.

And shipping costs are not going away or down.

Like you I have been concentrating on listing new material. DH seems to be interested in that at last.

I listed a book at 4:40 yesterday that sold at 8:30. And I'm seeing more of those although still a tiny percentage of my long tail/slow selling stock.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎11-08-2025

@reallynicestamps wrote:
The first complaint about poor sales was posted in October 1995.

Compare your sales to October 2024. October 2023. October 2024.
We're only eight days into November so there is nothing we can easily compare to.
Retail has waves, and some move over weeks or months.
A slow day is just a slow day.

Now we do have some current problems.
Well one fat orange one anyway.
For the time being, it seems wise to work on domestic and overseas sales and not bother much with the (large and lucrative) US market.

EISCanada may help there, for those concerned about Claims from overseas customers.
EIS is designed to be a Seller Protection program.

We've managed through postal disruptions before.
Remember the current one started with an outright strike on November 15, 2024.

And shipping costs are not going away or down.

Like you I have been concentrating on listing new material. DH seems to be interested in that at last.
I listed a book at 4:40 yesterday that sold at 8:30. And I'm seeing more of those although still a tiny percentage of my long tail/slow selling stock.

Comparing sales to previous years shows me down around 60-75%. Having two stores has helped improve things a little bit from where they might be with just one store, but I only make around 20% of my sales on this store. I also have much cheaper items on this store to not attract as many scammers with my low FB score, the scammers often don't bother with the other account because of the feedback.

I've got piles of treasure all over the place that needs to be processed, and I keep getting new treasure to look at. We spent some time last night looking up the prices on some coins, we paid $1-5 for each coin and I was looking to see what they might sell for (generally $10-25 each). But people have to be interested in buying my stuff for me to have sales, and that's not something I can control. The only thing I can control is how I present myself each time someone contacts me or looks at one of my listings.

I remember you posting about DH's hoard and I can just imagine how much treasure you might find in those boxes. I'd be overwhelmed if I had enough stuff to fill boxes. I have one box that I put a bunch of stuff in that needs to be processed (in the way of stamps and small things), coins are kept separately. Sometimes I find something that I thought I was sold out of, so it's cool to have another one to list.

I think I just want eBay to be lots of fun again and it hasn't felt like a lot of fun in 2025 (which is one person's fault entirely, in some way shape or form).

C.