Poor search results despite better prices

[mathman87vw4]

I'm trying to offload ultra low-end cards and I'm having extreme difficulty doing so.  It seems like nothing I have tried is generating sales.  I'm seeing some sellers move as much 2k+ units over 6 weeks and I'm thoroughly frustrated that I've only achieved 1% of that.

I concede that I can't compete with sellers in the ultra low-end space willing to do free shipping for 99c cards.  However, I see lots of sellers who charge high shipping fees and still making a ton of sales. Initially I charged a fair bit ($1.38) to cover postage and eBay fixed fees, but I mentioned in my title that I would manually refund shipping if they purchased more than one unit.  Recently I tried a bunch of things like dropping my fees to 48c, upping my promoted listings percentage but nothing has worked.  The same sellers consistently appear at the top with their high shipping fees and are making tonnes of sales.

It seems like the only thing people use is "Best Match".  Nobody seems to sort by lowest price + shipping; I would like to think I would have more sales if they did because I feel my shipping prices are competitive.

I like to think I filled out all of the item specifics fields to the best of my ability but it didn't matter.

I'm almost out of ideas.  The last thing I can think of at this time is photos.  The top-ranking listings seems to have photos for each variant.  Low-end listings have 120-200 variants and it would take forever to upload photos for all of them.  I don't have photos for every individual variant because it is so time consuming to add them.  It already took an awful lot of time to add all of those variants.

I've heard of terminating listings and reposting but it feels insane to put the exact same posting and expect different results.

Any guidance would be appreciated.  I'm not looking to make huge profits here.  I'm trying to utilize my spare time to recover as much of my money as I can.

[reallynicestamps]

One reason that your cards are "ultra low-end" is that they are  common.

Everyone has them.

That's what "common" means.

Nobody wants them,  or they can buy them from the local card shop where they can see what they are getting (not just a photo), and don't have to wait to get their choices.

I was given a small collection of post cards today, only about 500, mostly dated 1905-1930, which are better years . I pulled out 25 or so which I consider saleable, and the rest will go to a local dealer, because they are common.

Card dealers are often told to bundle, by player or by team or even by season, to move those cheap items. 

Buyers are more willing to pay for shipping a dozen cards than to ship a singleton.

[mathman87vw4]

That's what I thought too but then I see several eBay sellers move several hundred in a matter of weeks. I also find it astounding how many people are willing to pay a dollar for shipping and a few extra cents for each individual card after the first (which I don't do, I actually provide discounts). Eventhough I haven't purchased a common card myself but there seems to be a market for it on eBay and I'm trying to understand what they are doing that I am not. I don't know if these sellers are paying really high promoted fees, banking off high feedback scores, putting the right words in their search, boosting their search ranking through a bunch of photos, or something else. Bundling is something I am working on.

[reallynicestamps]

Possibly all of the above. You have only 33 current FB as a seller, and as you have seen many card dealers have sold thousands of cards over the years, building their FB which is a measure of trustworthiness. You were wise to use a buying account with existing FB to start selling. And you have only -- wait a minute......

[flipistics]

I've had very little luck with variants (in other categories). If you're set on using them, I would recommend you use some kind of language in the title to make it clear. Perhaps something like "Choose A Card" or whatever other sellers in the sports card world are using.

I'd also point out that you may want to rethink how you're selling the cards. Perhaps put logical lots together or something. Honestly, if you're selling a card in some cases for 0.99, even if you recover the full shipping value, by the time you pay for normal selling fees plus the $0.30 transaction fee, cost of shipping supplies, etc you're making next to nothing for the time it will take you to process and ship the cards. Some of the big sellers are probably relying on huge inventory levels to both get multiple items in each sale as well as eliminating the need to take photos (they've already taken them in the past, so they can simply tick their available inventory count up by one).

I wonder if shipping the items out without any protection in a PWE (you might want to write that out as most people probably have no idea what you're talking about) is also turning people off. I suspect getting rid of your entire discount section (which is rather complex), putting your shipping cost up to your actual cost, and just have (and mention in the description) flat rate shipping might get some better results.

Just some things to think about.

[mathman87vw4]

I appreciate your thorough feedback. It's not that I'm set on variants. I've just seen insane success from other sellers and I'm trying to figure out how to replicate that. Turbo listing one common card per posting feels more time consuming than variants. Regarding shipping, I didn't realize I may be conveying such a negative message. Lots of sellers don't actually specify it, it feels implied based on shipping cost. I am starting lower-end team sets. It moves more cards for less eBay units. I am also testing out "Choose A Card" verbage to see if that helps.

[reallynicestamps]

I looked up your account and it says you have over 400 lots listed.

But I can only see 12.

What's going on there?

The fewer lots you have listed the less time a customer is likely to spend browsing. And of course, the fewer lots the less likely you are to show up in Search.

Someone may be looking for a Rocket Richard card, just not the one you have listed (I know you don't - we're fantasizing here) but stay for the Wayne Gretzky rookie he didn't know he wanted. 

I've heard of terminating listings and reposting but it feels insane to put the exact same posting and expect different results.

The idea is to refresh your listings by ending them early, waiting a day or week, then relisting them as Sell Similar which puts them up as Newly Listed, a favourite Search for many.

The top-ranking listings seems to have photos for each variant.

You didn't think this was a real job? It can be.

You only list the variants you actually have. There maybe 100 variations, but it seems unlikely that you have all of them.