posted on December 4, 2000 10:53:49 PM
I'm wondering if the holiday shopping season could have a negative effect, rather than a positive effect on our auctions.
Our sales have plumeted since Thankgiving weekend. Until then we were doing great selling around 70%. So far this month our sales have been about 35% with items that normally do well receving 1 or 2 bids.
Possible causes:
> More competition (3 to 4 times more in some categories)
> People are busy shopping (at the malls)
> Sellers not selling items that people normally give as gifts. (used clothing and books)
I'm curious to know (if your sales are down) what items are you selling?
posted on December 4, 2000 11:29:52 PM
I'm going with the flow of the holiday season and selling vintage christmas decorations and ornaments. I had three auctions close today at a bit over $20, $30, and $40. My other Christmas items this week were from $9 to $15.
My books are going from $15 to $25. Video's are selling great $9 to $35. All my beautiful collectables are in storage at the moment hopeing they go back up in the future.
posted on December 5, 2000 06:24:33 AM
I think maybe so.
First off, a lot of people used internet shopping last Christmas WITHOUT success. We have yet to hear from the online store my husband ordered my Christmas present from. He placed the order, it was confirmed and that was it. Have you seen the UPS commercial where the little "garage" company gets their web site up only to receive 400,000 orders in the first few minutes? We think that's what happened. Reportedly, this kind of thing happened to a lot of internet shoppers. Ours wasn't a big name company and the online stores hopefully have it more together this year but some folks probably got spooked about online shopping of any kind.
Secondly, I used Ebay to buy three presents last year. Two were collectibles, one was books. The collectibles came through great but it was very worrisome wondering when and if they would arrive and if I would be happy enough with the items to give them as gifts. The books were OK too but did not arrive in time. Bidding on new, brand name items for gifts might be a different thing (or having it together to get the gifts way before Christmas) but I think you're right, vintage and antiques is scary - especially since there are often no return policies and you might not have the time to hassle with damage, misrepresentation, lost packages, etc. anyway. I will buy gifts off Ebay again in a heartbeat - but not at Christmas time. Too stressful!
By the way, I am a seller of vintage who is very careful with pics and descriptions and I mail same day/next day after payment. I hope I get a lot of Christmas sales and I'll do everything I can to make a transaction a success but I can understand why it's slowed down this year.
posted on December 5, 2000 08:28:41 AM
Last week was horrible, but the past two days are out of control..The BIN feature has me packing an item within 3 hours of posting it! I had three of the same game, all three sold in about 18 hours! All are paid for, shipped and gone! Games are flying off the shelves! (Thank Goodness, I really needed the space..I can't even have a tree this year!)
