posted on February 14, 2003 03:58:44 AM
In a one week period we have learned N Korea can wack us with a nuke, Bin Laden is sending crypted messages in his audio's, the terror alert system was ratcheted to "high" and of course, were almost certian to attack Iraq. Needless to say, my items ARE NOT recieving the bids I expect them to. I do not have Duc Tape for sale and I have never listed plastic sheeting, hot items for sure. Is anyone else seeing a sales lag?? Unfortunately, I think things will get worse before they get better.
posted on February 14, 2003 06:25:07 AM
Sales are bad for me, too. And I think you've very succinctly listed all the reasons why.
The state of the ecomony was a bad enough reason before, but now we've got multiple doses of bad stuff to deal with.
Last year on my garage sale travels, instead of being one among many buyers, I was often the only one there looking. And the folks selling told me that no one was coming to even look, unlike previous years.
The good part of that is it means less competition when you're trying to acquire inventory. The bad part is trying to move the stuff after you've bought it.
posted on February 14, 2003 01:50:08 PM
Yeah, the da&mn media and govt has people spending their time and money on duct tape, plastic, radios and batteries.
But things had drastically dropped off for me last summer and have never really picked back up. I think the overall economy is worse than many want to admit. Reports last week that consumers has pretty much stopped using credit cards. Debt growth is down across the boards.
If gasoline stays at $2 a gallon for very long, the economy and eBay sales will get even worse.
posted on February 14, 2003 05:34:31 PM
I was at the local Fred Meyer last night, the candy and card isle was packed with the last minute valentine buyers, then I noticed the jewelry department, surely it would be busy with last minute shoppers, not a soul in sight, I knew it had to be the economy as men are always buying last minute jewels right???
Just look at gas prices, I think it will get worse not better and yes my sales are down down down...
posted on February 14, 2003 11:48:11 PM
One of the best weeks I have had since Xmas. Over $1000.00 in sales on 65 auctions. Sold 57 of them. Can't beat that with a stick.
posted on February 15, 2003 12:04:06 AM
I've had a steady increase in sales since Christmas. I think sales depend on what you sale and how you market it.
"Being critical and judgmental requires little effort, what
requires
effort
is tolerance and compassion. Far too many take the easy path of
criticism."
--- Author Unknown
posted on February 15, 2003 07:32:18 AM
I think they are mostly losing sellers who sell poor merchandise. My sales are great and continue to run at about a 92% success rate. Overall everything looks good here.
posted on February 15, 2003 01:57:23 PM
If sales are down then how come everything I bid on, I get outbid! >
BTW, I've been bidding on cooking magazines, video tapes, CD's.
I haven't sold anything since last August and have considered listing but now am not so sure ---after all I don't have cooking mags, video tapes or CD's to sell
posted on February 15, 2003 02:20:47 PM
I was just on Amazon was going to list some new books...forget that,they are giving them away! I'll still with E-bay.
posted on February 15, 2003 02:26:03 PM
I did a batch of selling in January, after being away for a while. I did reasonable starting bid, no reserve for antiques. It was pretty much a crapshoot - some didn't do much, some went way over what I expected. One item generated four messages asking if I would end early and sell to them - I didn't, and of course none of them bothered to bid anyway.
What I see on ebay pretty much reflects the real world of antiques right now: Cheap will sell, extraordinary/rare will sell, mid-range china/glass (300 - 1500.00) slow moving.
I would still list carefully selected items, but you can't just send to ebay indiscriminately and expect a great return.
And of course, if you have anything you really just don't want hanging around anymore, you will know within a week whether or not it will be out of your life.
Oddly enough, some things that used to do better on ebay than live auction are now doing the opposite; I hope the people I see buying them aren't planning to put them on ebay. Listening to them at the auction previews, it seems that they still hope for ebay miracles.
posted on February 15, 2003 02:31:36 PM
I've had far better sales in January and February than I did in November and December. In fact, January was one of my best months ever!
