Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

Going through a pretty poor patch right now. Hardly any views, watchers obviously mean nothing anymore (just sellers scoping out prices) and can't sell something for pennies.


 


Have any sellers gone through this patch where it feels like you are completely invisible to anyone with $1 to spend and how did you break free from it?

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Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

Fair point. As an aside, some items vary in price from one seller to the next. I sometimes run a completed listings check and do other checks to get a rough idea of the price of some things. If something has sold for X price, I know its value is somewhere around X and therefore why should it be listed for much less than that? You have to draw the line somewhere and have some confidence in your OWN product; even if the potential customers don't. This was a point made on here a while ago. If you try to get into a price war; you'll end up making nothing.


 


In the end, if something doesn't sell but you don't want to drop the price, then it's not worth offering it for sale. I'll be taking that into account from now on.


 


By the way, I just noticed eBay has introduced 50 Free listings where BIN can be added to auctions. That addition used to be 10c, so it's a nice incentive by eBay. I guess they're trying to gravitate all sellers to use BIN.


 


Another thing I noticed was how many sellers use BIN. I'm taking out of 1000 listings, 900 were BIN. Didn't realise just how many store owners there were on eBay...

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Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

It certainly happens



I remember times when one of our best selling products had a big decline and it was due to a competitor selling a very similar product but having something like 10 auction listings a day for it starting at 0.95c so they were all selling at a much reduced final price. 



We like to stand out a bit by having different item listing designs and staying on top of our customer inquiries. 



Sometimes though, you just have a bad month and you need to figure out where it's going wrong and mix it up a bit. This might be having one of your products starting at a low price to get views & hopefully they check out your other products (has worked for us in the past), or something similar.

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Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

Something may not sell on eBay after a few tries, but  it doesn't necessarily mean it can't sell or the price is overinflated. I've lost count of how many times I've re-listed items at a higher price after it's hung around for a fair while, only to sell it very quickly at the higher price. Not saying everything will sell eventually, I've had to cull a number of lemons over time, and there definitely are instances of very wishful thinking prices, but when you're not selling from a business perspective, you have a little more flexibility in terms of deciding what to prioritise - lower turnover with higher prices, or higher turnover with lower prices, or perhaps a happy medium.



TSY, just keep in mind that by and large, I'm waxing lyrical in this thread. My opinions, while based on my experiences, are just that - opinions based on my own experiences. There are so many different "markets" within eBay itself, even within the same categories, and what works for one person may not work for another. One thing I would suggest though is to expand your research. I've hinted at a certain site before, and because it contains a marketplace section, I can't name it expressly, but collectors can be completists when it comes to discographies. There is a lot of information available there, including sales history, you may find some of your releases are valued lower there, some higher, but it will also give you some insight to other successful selling platforms - listings there are almost wholly devoid of any personality from the sellers, as it's just a product page with the condition + shipping plus any TOS.

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Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

Gigabean, your items are selling really well. Congrats... 🙂 Obviously you know the electronics market.


 


Thanks, D*G. May try that site and came pretty close to listing something on there once but didn't go through with it. Once all these listings are over I'll be starting fresh, trying something new. Maybe just 1 or 3 day listings (since my Best Match is absolutely terrible) and maybe just a few things at a time. This week I had kind of said to myself that I want to get rid of this stuff and offer prices where it will sell. Well, I probably gave up on that somewhat but some things just don't sell regardless. Have a bunch of CDs for Vinnies whenever I can get round to it.


 


It's a credit to all the Store owners and whatnot who conistently sell alot of things each month and get regular customers.

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Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

I could have a fantastic spinning wheel in top condition and a popular brand and style.


 


It might not sell for 3 months but I would never give it away for less than I price it at because in the spinning and weaaving section it might be months before someone comes along looking for that particular wheel.


 


 


I find that the items don't sell at a good price over all because no one is spending big money on hobbies.


 


I have decided to try selling off some never worn jewellery and to be honest I didn't have my heart in it so maybe the listings were average.

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Ever felt invisible on eBay? How did you break free?

Never-worn jewelery will probably do well. Alot of jewelery and clothing sellers have flashy templates but aslong as your photos are clear and you give a brief description of the important features, that's all you need. People will either buy or not... if the market is big for jewelery, chances are they'll buy.

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