So quiet!!

[melinachristina]

We’ve been through quiet periods before, but this has to be the worst I think, not that I’m complaining really. I’ve been awfully sick. God I’ve been sick. Retirement is great, but getting old isn’t.

Were lucky to have a few lookers (emphasis on few), let alone some tangible watchers. Same for us on other sites too. The only items selling at the moment are the cheapie cheapies.

Weve also listed items of historical value and superb provenance that ordinarily create great interest and always a sale, always - barely a looker even!

I Just find it interesting how steady consistent sales can more or less stop overnight, and not just here. On our other sites we sell mainly to the US. It’s not so bad but sales have still halved.

Just interesting. I hope everyone else is doing okay, especially those  who rely on this sort of income to put bread on the table.

Melina.

[kopenhagen5]

[padraicpaul91]

Without getting into the 'what ebay is doing wrong' debate, I will point out that this time of year has always been my worst. I'm about 25% down on yearly average but this is expected.

However, my turnover is much higher than for the same period last year, which was worse than what you are experiencing just now. 

I have adopted a few strategies that seem to be putting me ahead of my direct competitors in sales.

What I find difficult to understand is the changing patterns of when customers do buy. Once, Sunday (worldwide = 40 hours) accounted for 40% of my sales. Now that could be a Tuesday or a Thursday. In other words, once upon a time, I would have consistent sales, most days, with a bump at the end of the week. Now I may have 3 or 4 days without a sale,including Sundays, and then one or two peak days.

[twyngwyn]

everyone shopping for Mothers' Day??

[joztamps]

---

@twyngwyn wrote:
everyone shopping for Mothers' Day??

---

And following 10 days' holidays for lots of families.

[kopenhagen5]

...............and schools went back.

(Perhaps gentlemen are piped up............)

[melinachristina]

Ha! Or piped out Kopes.

Seriously though, it is a declining market and I’m pleased we decided to ‘unload’ when we did, albeit just a little bit late.

Whats got me untrigued with this lull though is the suddenness of it and the following steep dive in lookers. It’s as if all pipe-sters world wide decided, putting buying totally aside, “Nup, ain’t even gonna go lookin at pipes no more”. It’s just weird.

Never mind. That’s what thumbs are for - twiddling ... lol.

Melina.

[pirie_online]

I have found it has dropped off since I've changed everything to auctions after ebay changed their 30day BIN listings til GTC meaning I would incur huge fees.  It seems people aren't interested/can't wait for auctions.  Will reconsider how I list when they fall into unsold & may just have to maintain 40 BIN listings.  A store just isn't worth it for me with my low sales (home seller only)

[chameleon54]

According to the seller hub thingy, my largest selling account sales are down on the previous 30 days......

Spoiler

By 0.6 %...........

My second selling accounts sales are down compared to the previous 30 days.......

Spoiler

By 1.0 %.............

And my third selling id is up.............

Spoiler

By 19 %..........

Those first two accounts are eerily similar...........

I have noticed a drop off in sales in the last week or so though.

I hope it doesnt last too long as I have just inspected a bulk lot of stock today. It is some of the best stock I have come across for several years and is going to cost a lot of money and put us under a bit of pressure for a month or two. It is rare automotive stock from the 1930,s to 1950,s. It originally came from a well known city, car dealership and has been stored for two generations. The original owners son is now in his late 70,s and is cleaning the old stock up.

It is a bit scary to be buying in expensive stock when things appear to be on the slide, but the time to buy is when you find the stuff and the big, bulk lots of rare vintage car parts are becoming a thing of the past. The other thing is the tip off about the stock came from a network I have been working with for some time which is proving to be a valuable source of stock.

It is one of the local service clubs, staffed by retired, ex proffesional senior citizens. They all know someone who is cleaning up their lifes collections and they are looking for a buyer who will take everything and pay a fair price. . I need to keep buying from them at good prices in order to maintain the network.

The arrangement is working very well for all concerned and could be worth considering by other sellers looking at ways to access quality stock.

[*tippy*toes*]

---

@pirie_online wrote:

I have found it has dropped off since I've changed everything to auctions after ebay changed their 30day BIN listings til GTC meaning I would incur huge fees.  It seems people aren't interested/can't wait for auctions.  Will reconsider how I list when they fall into unsold & may just have to maintain 40 BIN listings.  A store just isn't worth it for me with my low sales (home seller only)

---

I am still lucky enough to have the $1 weekends, which I take advantage of. All my listings start and end on the weekend. I run both auctions and BIN. Any BIN that is finishing within 7 days of next weekend is ended and relisted. Auctions are not set to auto relist, so are manually relisted each weekend to take advantage of the $1 FVF.

However, we all know that nothing ever lasts with eBay, so it's only a matter of time until the $1 FVF promo comes to an end. Once that happens, all my items will go back to being auctions, with the 8 free relists enabled. As I am concerned that buyers might not want to wait for an auction to end, I will be putting a note at the top of my description stating that I am happy to end the auction early if the buyers would like that, and to contact me. Majority of my auctions end with only one bid, so it's not like I'm going to miss out on a bidding war or anything.

I also list my auctions with a BIN option.