billy8156
|
posted on August 24, 2005 05:59:33 AM
First before everyone says "summer time sale are always slow blah blah blah" I know that.
However this June and July were some of the best summer time months I've had during my entire eBay history (which started in 1998). The year as a whole has been bad but June and July looked like this year was going to endup pretty good UNTIL AUGUST 1!
Just like someone pulled the plug on eBay I'm getting few sales. Every day in July I was selling 40-50 items. Starting Aug 1. I'm lucky to get 20 sales a day. I don't use eBay Stores, I just BuyItNow 10 day listings. I usually take homepage feature and cat. featured options. Are the homepage and feature listings getting less visability from some hairbrained eBay change I didn't know about?
HELP I owe eBay $6000 in fees from last month!
Billy
|
carolinetyler
|
posted on August 24, 2005 06:13:33 AM
OUCH! And here I was complaining about my $450 in fees for last month. I had a slow July - picked up in August, and now it seems to have come to a screeching halt in the past week.
Hang in there - September is just around the corner!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Caroline
|
neglus
|
posted on August 24, 2005 06:34:10 AM
Yikes Billy! I've noticed a drop in sales too - my auction vs. store sales ratio flip flopped this summer and I am now selling 65% store items VS 35% (and I'll bet August will be less than 40%) auction.
Until sales turn around you might want to explore ways to cut your fees , ie: list for 7 days instead of 10, only feature a couple of items and draw buyers to see your other items. Maybe a store would be a good idea as long as you are using FP on your items. A featured auction with links to similar items in your store can drive a LOT of business to store listings)
-------------------------------------
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards?refid=store
|
tOMWiii
|
posted on August 24, 2005 09:27:42 AM
Oh! Geez! I thought this thread was about Ralphie!
How many covert heros has this slimeball murdered?
|
sthoemke
|
posted on August 24, 2005 11:44:56 AM
50x30=1500/$6000=$4
Overall, you are paying eBay about $4 per item you sell (not including PayPal fees, etc).
What is your current sell-through rate?
I hope you are selling higher priced items to offset the fees.
|
bluroks
|
posted on August 24, 2005 11:53:36 AM
Same boat. We owe Ebay over $600 for last month. Ours is the opposite. Our store sales have totally died. And auctions are running now about 30% sell thru.
Had one very very good week in August and that was it. Been on Ebay since 1998 as well.
This is our worst selling season ever and that includes the 17 years in a Brick and Mortar store.
Read somewhere that a lot of people are saying Fixed Price sales are picking up.
We tried it for a while and might as well put them on auction. Was a bust.
Debating whether to close the Ebay store.
Have over 1000 items in it and it was a good selling place until the past two months. Just totally died.
|
sthoemke
|
posted on August 24, 2005 02:41:39 PM
eBay's stock has been in a steady decline for the last 3 weeks.
|
Roadsmith
|
posted on August 24, 2005 03:26:04 PM
I've had pretty good luck the last couple of weeks selling some collectibles for friends. Before that, though, in August sales were down. On TV a man on the street interviewer was asking people how they're coping with the higher gas prices, and most said they're putting off luxury spending, just buying the necessities.
On the other hand, I keep thinking that people will shop MORE on the internet to save gas. I wonder.
|
sthoemke
|
posted on August 24, 2005 04:42:02 PM
Or people will dump their items on eBay so they can pay for gas...
|
jake
|
posted on August 24, 2005 04:59:48 PM
There are 1.2 million more listings today than there was last year the same day. It looks like there is an infinite number of sellers vs a finite number of buyers. That equals less sales for each seller.
I've noticed there is usually one really, really good sales day per month. It seems to coincide with Google doing an update and listings get seen on there. The problem is, I can't figure out when that one day is until it is over.
|
MAH645
|
posted on August 24, 2005 05:37:08 PM
My store sales are doing better than my auctions. I'm not running many auctions, so I'm in good shape. When my sales really suck,I just sell what I can in the store and lay off auctions.
**********************************
Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
|
rhpepsi
|
posted on August 24, 2005 05:53:30 PM
Some sales have picked up. I used to sell on Half.com BEFORE their out of business run. Now that they are back, I have loaded 1300 books and tied in a link FROM my eBay auctions to that site. It helped greatly on both ends. When buying my books, customers were able to jump to my ebay and visa versa. Also with 2000+ items on eBay, I went with the STORE routine, hey at 25 cents a year to list an item, definitely cheaper then messing with relisting fees. I list an item usually for 7 days(why pay the extra for a 10 day sale), automatically relists once, then if it doesn't sell,item goes into MY STORE.
|
buyhigh
|
posted on August 24, 2005 06:47:55 PM
Wonder how many of those new listings are coming out of China. I am seeing more and more of them.
buyhigh
|
carolinetyler
|
posted on August 24, 2005 06:58:28 PM
Jake - interesting observation, I've noticed it as well - particularly with certain store items. Over the past 2 days I've sold several netsukes (Chinese ivory toggles) that had been setting in the shop with no offers - then out of the blue I sell some to different buyers.
I also wondered if maybe Ebay does some featured shops or searches and I happen to be one?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caroline
|
buyhigh
|
posted on August 24, 2005 07:08:38 PM
If there are not a suffient number of items in a title search, Ebay lists store items. Not having a store, will leave it to those that do to explain.
buyhigh
|
libertywatches
|
posted on August 24, 2005 07:14:45 PM
My bill for ebay in June was $4500 I know that the summer is slow so I JUST listed items in store I only listed items that i make good profit on and i can effort to list theme at list 10 times and i actually didn't do too bad at all in august I made 1/3 of the amount of dollars in sales in compare to June and my fees to ebay only $600 I'm thinking to stay that way throughout the holiday.
|
neglus
|
posted on August 24, 2005 07:17:33 PM
caroline - I have long had a "faucet theory" about Stores. Some days faucet is "on" and some days it's "OFF". My sister sells postcards too and her store is "on" when mine isn't and vice versa. It must have something to do with the "search" but I can't figure out what it is! I thought maybe the glitch my sister found this weekend was a clue but it turned out to be her firewall - which is odd because she hasn't had that problem before or since and she didn't have the problem with ALL stores or "see sellers other items". Maybe firewall users can't see SOME store seller search results on certain days?
-------------------------------------
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards?refid=store
|
billy8156
|
posted on August 25, 2005 05:51:59 AM
Its amazing, maybe the eBay gods seen when I started this post yesterday....
Yesterday I complained about 20 sales day when I should be doing an average of 40 sales a day.
Yesterday I made a big bounce back. 69 sales! can't believe it, that is a record for me...I just might be able to pay that $6000 eBay bill form last month!
Amazing the difference in a day....that was all auction sales as I have yet to open an eBay store.
Billy
|
EclecticClutter
|
posted on August 25, 2005 05:58:16 AM
Summer store sales have been trickling in I've only got 278 items up right now and a few here and there was ok for me but
I'm one of those sellers who is coming back from summer break early so I can pay for gas. OUCH. 3 & 5 day auctions so I can get where I gotta get next week 
|
ebayvet
|
posted on August 25, 2005 03:33:12 PM
My advice is to open a store, and experiment with it. My store sales are fantastic (I am already at my highest sales per month since I started 14 months ago, and we still have 6 days left of the month!)
I've decided to put more items in my store, items that I would have put to auction a couple of months ago, and they are selling quite well in the store. I will be reducing my auctions by about 50%, focusing more on the store. I eventually will find time to work on a venue outside of ebay, I still feel pretty uncomfortable having most of my eggs in ebay's basket, but for now business is good and it is hard to find time to work on anything else.
|
carolinetyler
|
posted on August 25, 2005 03:41:54 PM
Billy - you really should open a store - people on this forum urged me to, I told them I'd blame them if it failed - but it didn't - they definitely get the credit on that one.
The auctions will drive the store traffic and vice versa. Some unique and higher end items will do better in a store, since they have at least 30 days to be seen.
I've saved some money as well, since listing each item in your store is only $0.03 - or something like that. So I stopped my fixed price auctions and put it all in the store.
Even when auction sales stunk, I still did some store business. I highly recommend it. You really don't have much to lose, as if it doesn't sell in the store, you can use the send it to auction feature.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caroline
|
Roadsmith
|
posted on August 25, 2005 05:15:10 PM
I have some questions for all you Stores people. Do any of you sell unique collectibles, or is it mostly the same inventory stuff over and over?
And does anyone here have all his/her stuff in the Store and no auctions going?
I ask this, because I'm not sure how I could drive business to my store given what I sell--it's all over the place--all over the world of collectibles A to Z plus books. I'm very timid about doing the work to open a store and feel that I'd need a mentor right here beside me to do it.
I'm not stupid, you understand, just scared of anything new that involves technology.
|
ewora
|
posted on August 25, 2005 06:57:23 PM
I sell a little bit of everything in my auctions and in my store. I put links in my auctions that drives traffic to similar items I have for sale in my store. Ladies size 10 or books about parenting...whatever.
|
sanmar
|
posted on August 25, 2005 07:35:36 PM
August has been one of my best months in the past six months. I am not a big seller, but my sell through this month has been over 90!
Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
|
neglus
|
posted on August 25, 2005 07:50:29 PM
For one thing, your Vendio gallery is an exellent way to drive people to your store. As you know I just sell postcards but I put a link in my listings to "click here to see my other Timbuktu (or kalmazoo or michigan etc) postcard" and I put the HTML right in the listing.
I use this as the basic HTML (I have it right in my default listing text) and customize:
DANG! HAd to take out the HTML because it was too wide!
Instead of a search you could provide a link to your custom store categories (you get to create them when you set up your store) so the link could say : "click here to see my other vintage jewelry listings" (or whatever category you will put the item in)
I think Tom makes buttons instead of word links.
-------------------------------------
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards?refid=store
[ edited by neglus on Aug 25, 2005 07:52 PM ]
|
Roadsmith
|
posted on August 25, 2005 08:27:07 PM
Thanks for some good answers here to my questions.
I almost never have "similar items" in my collectibles areas--in the past weeks I've sold everything from roulette wheels to old seed catalogs, maybe one in a hundred items has a similar item that I could put in a store.
Now I have about 100 pieces of ephemera that I'm getting ready for launching later in the fall (getting a total knee replacement in a week or two and won't be able to get up and down stairs for a while), and of course those are similar items. Usually, though, it's a variety like china, coleman lantern, aluminum glasses, Bauer bowls, a cat Christmas stocking, etc. etc.
Well, you've given me some food for thought!
|
carolinetyler
|
posted on August 26, 2005 05:44:24 AM
I sell antiques and collectibles, and have had the store open for about 2 months. I sell in all categories, I don't specialize, and it has done well.
It was easy to open, about the same as posting an auction. I haven't kept up with it as well as I wish I had. I've only kept about 20 items in there at a time. I use the best offer feature and up the price about $20 to make up for it.
There's only been 2-3 offers that have been really low, and of course, you can just reject them. But for the most part the offers have been fairly reasonable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caroline
|
neglus
|
posted on August 26, 2005 06:08:56 AM
Some people use the store as a "parking place" for items they are not ready to launch as an auction due to season or whatever. Others use for items that don't sell at auction. At 3 cents and item (+16.95 subscription fee) you can afford to load the store with LOTS of items. Ebay has made it easy to change format from store to auction (unfortunately Vendio has not made it easy but it's not too hard). Some people completely empty their stores and list everything as auctions during FLD or listing sale days. That being said a store isn't for everyone. You should have enough items listed to make the $17 monthly subscription fee worth it.
-------------------------------------
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards?refid=store
|
