eBay

dobo5250 · ‎01-10-2025

since the postal workers have gone back to work my sales have almost non existant -- mnay reason i guess

-one - usualy at this time of year my sales are slow about half the sales -jan bad month for my products

-two - xmas season is very slow for my products

-three my views are way up but i believe confidence is lacking in finishing sales

- three- i have tried multiple different sales and change of shipping costs and prices --once we went back to can post but so far nothing is working- maybe iam confusing the customer ?

i guess i will have to revert to my old way of selling again with free shipping and very low prices 50 % off 60 %off where i don't really make any money just enough to cover cost of doing business with returns wiping out any gains i may have had earlier in the year -expenses what they are storage/ebay store fees/ return costs-ups/canpar/fedex extra shipping costs

last year figures just in i made about 2.19 per hour that i invested in this ebay project -just enough for a cup of timmy's coffee but not enough for a starbucks

hoping this turns around soon -- as i have only so much left to loan from to cover costs

a bit of a whine i know -- i apoligize for the tiny rant -- but more of this is on my self for getting into this mess a couple years ago - when i had a chance of a course correction in finacial planning - i guess i yinged when i should have yanged

good luck all

byto253 · ‎01-10-2025

I know from previous posts that you went sour on selling to the US, but you may wish to take a look at that again. Perhaps there were categories that you have more trouble with and you can open it up for some items?

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-10-2025

Successful selling is about the product>uniqueness, quality, price points,supply & demand,target market,etc... Slow sales relate to the nature of the items listed>hardware store items are often items that are needed now not with a wait time for shipping, plus hardware store items are often less expensive purchased locally....and there is the fact that locally purchased hardware store items can be quickly returned/replaced if not right size,right fit,etc,etc. Sometimes we sellers bring slow sales upon ourselves by the very nature of the items we decide to list on eBay. Often the very items that have sold well for a great length of time just no longer do so...

Buyer habits change and we sellers have to change right along with them..

As a long time seller on eBay I also have encountered this scenario...However, I never put items "on sale"...I don't do "sales">if my competitive prices aren't good enough then so be it...However, I am slowly depleting my on hand inventory of "lost sellers" by donating locally so that I can put my time and effort into other more enjoyable things. We can't undo what we may have invested in, but we can feel good about having a good run and it was good while it lasted. How we approach reducing the inventory without too much financial loss will vary from seller to seller. For myself, very little $ was invested in the first place so it is easy to reduce the inventory and I will continue to "do it my way". Hindsight is always great and there are times we wish we had done things differently, but what is done is done.

The handknit items sell well on another site, not so well on eBay anymore... and that is the direction I am taking...no longer will I put much time and effort into listing/selling this other "stuff" on eBay, most of which I have been listing here for the past several years. I will put my efforts into a category that has current interest rather than listing "stuff"for which there no longer is much intertest and/or demand for anymore...

You will have to decide what is best for you. Whatever that is, good luck.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-10-2025

- three- i have tried multiple different sales and change of shipping costs and prices --once we went back to can post but so far nothing is working- maybe iam confusing the customer ?

Unless you have a product that specific customers buy repeatedly from you, each transaction is unique and the customer saw your listing once and will never look for that item again.

Making changes daily might have an effect, but because eBay allows up to 24 hours for revised listings to "index" and relist.

But changes in price once a month?

Unlikely.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-10-2025

@reallynicestamps wrote:
- three- i have tried multiple different sales and change of shipping costs and prices --once we went back to can post but so far nothing is working- maybe iam confusing the customer ?

Unless you have a product that specific customers buy repeatedly from you, each transaction is unique and the customer saw your listing once and will never look for that item again.

Making changes daily might have an effect, but because eBay allows up to 24 hours for revised listings to "index" and relist.
But changes in price once a month?
Unlikely.

From my recent testing...the past 2 years or so....promoting can have a major impact on sales. When it was first released as an option, low low rates did trigger sales. Those low rates are no longer low. eBay's suggested/recommended is getting higher and higher. On my last recent test the suggested rates were 14% ++ in the categories I sell in. (1 item suggested 20%). Of my last 20 sales 7 that sold were promoted. Basically 1 in 3. It used to be 1 in 5 or 6.

If you do use promoting it has become a game of whackamole with larger sellers winning in most cases. They have the wiggle room to get away with higher rates. If you don't use promoting, it is a big depend on the categories you list in and how your sales will be.

marnotom! · ‎01-10-2025

Even brick and mortar retailers see a drop in sales in January compared to the previous month.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-10-2025

Yeah, DH's BFF was a meat packer with a retail butcher shop. He called January "Hamburger Month" because that was what people bought that month.

He did not see any difference in wholesale shipments to wealthy shops or to low income area shops. And his own shop was the same.

OTOH- January to March has been a busy period for us in collectibles. We figure that collectors used their "allowance" to buy gifts in Nov/Dec which have been slow for us historically, and then had a pent up demand by the time January rolled around.

YMMV.

dobo5250 · ‎01-12-2025

what a great post very insightfull renderings from a expetienced seller -- i think you are right about just evrything you said--if only i could afford to stop and get off this freaking merry-go round of ebay --- but thats not to be i guess -- so i have to find the right combo of sales discount up to 40 % off this week- with-free shipping -- high promo rate over 10% now that will make at least some customers buy something to keep me going or maybe next week i try 80 % off (max they allow) and really high shipping rate to make up lost sales revenue with a even highere promo rate maybe 13 % -- won't make any monet at all but at least cash flow will happen--- iam hoping to steave off the crediters ebay and visa

bbut thanks for the input great post to read

sin-n-dex · ‎01-12-2025

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Yeah, DH's BFF was a meat packer with a retail butcher shop. He called January "Hamburger Month" because that was what people bought that month.
He did not see any difference in wholesale shipments to wealthy shops or to low income area shops. And his own shop was the same.

OTOH- January to March has been a busy period for us in collectibles. We figure that collectors used their "allowance" to buy gifts in Nov/Dec which have been slow for us historically, and then had a pent up demand by the time January rolled around.
YMMV.

Jan 2024 was my best month in history... I had auctions going though, and I don't have the same popularity with auctions this year, so I it's not repeatable I don't think.

But I did notice sales are usually down in December, and they pick up in January.

C.

38e_avenue · ‎01-12-2025

@sin-n-dex wrote:
Jan 2024 was my best month in history... I had auctions going though, and I don't have the same popularity with auctions this year, so I it's not repeatable I don't think.

But I did notice sales are usually down in December, and they pick up in January.

C.

Similarly, December 2023 was my best month ever (I sell here since 25 years). Also January to March 2024 were very strong. And - of course - I did fall into an infamous trap - I did overinvest in summer, expecting the best Xmas saison ever. I even ordered extra packaging stuff from Uline for 600 bucks. Unfortunately, this Xmas saison was one of the worst I ever had (about 35% of the previous year's sales). Luckily, January 2025 goes slightly better.

flipistics · ‎01-12-2025

@38e_avenue wrote:
Similarly, December 2023 was my best month ever (I sell here since 25 years). Also January to March 2024 were very strong. And - of course - I did fall into an infamous trap - I did overinvest in summer, expecting the best Xmas saison ever. I even ordered extra packaging stuff from Uline for 600 bucks. Unfortunately, this Xmas saison was one of the worst I ever had (about 35% of the previous year's sales). Luckily, January 2025 goes slightly better.

Me too. Ordered about $1000 in shipping supplies from Uline, then had to shut down with the Canada Post strike and lost all of November and most of December. My January 2025 appears to be on par with last year so far, and that's with a lot of items still not relisted.

I'm ready for the next postal strike in May. This time I have alternative shipping all sorted out, and without the Christmas rush they shouldn't be too overloaded. I'm not ready for Trump potentially getting rid of the de minimis and throwing tariffs on everything though. There's always something. Thankfully a healthy percentage of my sales are within Canada.

sin-n-dex · ‎01-13-2025

@flipistics wrote:
@38e_avenue wrote:
Similarly, December 2023 was my best month ever (I sell here since 25 years). Also January to March 2024 were very strong. And - of course - I did fall into an infamous trap - I did overinvest in summer, expecting the best Xmas saison ever. I even ordered extra packaging stuff from Uline for 600 bucks. Unfortunately, this Xmas saison was one of the worst I ever had (about 35% of the previous year's sales). Luckily, January 2025 goes slightly better.
Me too. Ordered about $1000 in shipping supplies from Uline, then had to shut down with the Canada Post strike and lost all of November and most of December. My January 2025 appears to be on par with last year so far, and that's with a lot of items still not relisted.

I'm ready for the next postal strike in May. This time I have alternative shipping all sorted out, and without the Christmas rush they shouldn't be too overloaded. I'm not ready for Trump potentially getting rid of the de minimis and throwing tariffs on everything though. There's always something. Thankfully a healthy percentage of my sales are within Canada.

My big investment in 2024 (for shipping stuff) was return address labels. I bought 500 when I was with Chit Chats to send out untracked letters (with stamps on them, or eBay postage), and a few days after they were delivered Chit Chats closed my branch.

Then I found Stallion Express, but treaded carefully and only bought 140 labels. I used them all, so I bought another 1000 in October, went away to Asia and while I was gone got a message from Stallion that they would only accept THEIR labels going forward. I did a shipment with their labels and put my return address labels on them (to add colour and make my envelopes noticeable) but it caused delays with shipping and I came to the conclusion perhaps the address labels confused the handlers into thinking it wasn't their postage (because their printed return address was covered up with my label). I was in a panic, but a few days later it was sorted out, so I decided not to try that again.

So basically $200 wasted on labels I can no longer use... I'm hanging on to them in case something changes later, so I'm prepared. I don't like hanging on to useless things, but you don't know when the situation might change. My account ID is not likely to change at these places, so the label is still good if I need to use it again.

C.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-13-2025

But I did notice sales are usually down in December, and they pick up in January.

Our retail shop was a stamp store. January was busy. December always dead.

When I sold wood stoves and patio furniture, December and January were also dead until the Spring Home Show in February. when the new patio furnishings came out.