Help - not selling

[miladyssewingbasket]

Up to now have successfully sold items on ebay. Not a lot, but regularly.  I usually sell on a 10 day Buy it Now Cycle. In about April I changed to a "Good Until Sold" format so I didnt have to keep renewing items.  Since then I have sold not a skidoo.  I have since changed my listings back to the 7 or 10 day format with no change. Did I do a naughty?  Im just looking for reasons.  

[unique_pre-driven]

Oh and Chameleon, hope you read this as me agreeing with you not the other.

[dazzledayz]

Actually, there are real problems with the local economy ATM.

All we ever hear about is the unemployment rate which is usually stuck somewhere between 5 and 6%.

Seldom do we hear about the underemployment rate but this is the one that counts.

A figure I heard quoted a month or so back (Aug or Sep) was 50,000 jobs created and all were casual or part time.

The ongoing casualisation of the workforce is really tightening household budgets.

Add to that the fact that real wages are not increasing in line with inflation and it starts to look a bit grim.

In the US real wages have flatlined since 1974 and while we're not quite so bad we're not too far behind.

Mortgage default rates are on the rise - currently at around 3% which is a new high in recent history.

The reserve bank is getting a bit worried about this number.

There have been some rather interesting opinions proffered by economists recently about the nett contraction of global market size.

Until recently any view opposed to free market capitalism would have been viewed as heresy of the worst kind.

Lately though, a few economic sages have been opining that maybe Milton Friedman was wrong and something has to give.

The Keynsian model is starting to be regarded almost wistfuly.

Heaven help us if govt has to step back in and start regulating; they're way out of practice.

I think that we, as small sellers, see the economic ripples a lot more immediately that govts and large enterprises do.

When disposable income decreases the discretionary spend is the first thing affected.

I don't really see any major improvements on the horizon either.

The deregulation of pretty much everything is now too well advanced to be reversed quickly or easily.

All profit driven entities will go on trying to grow profits at ~10% pa or face the wrath of shareholders.

As the available market goes on contracting that just has to end in tears.

X3n0m may be not too far off the mark I'm afraid

[beakychew]

I tend to agree @dazzledayz.

And it won't be surprising if mortgage defaults increase much more. High real estate prices and low interest rates, along with lax bank lending policies adds up to mass defaults waiting to happen.

And our economy is very tied to the USA and China. The USA has been printing money likes it's going out of fashion since the last recession, and can't keep going forever. And China's growth has stopped.

Economies naturally expand and contract, periods of growth are followed by recessions. When governments interfere by propping up banks (forcing taxpayers to cough up) and printing money, the problem is just postponed and made worse.

There are also distortions caused by big business and governments getting too close; the former having too much influence over the latter.

.... Just my .02

[chameleon54]

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@beakychew wrote:
@I tend to agree @dazzledayz.

And it won't be surprising if mortgage defaults increase much more. High real estate prices and low interest rates, along with lax bank lending policies adds up to mass defaults waiting to happen.

And our economy is very tied to the USA and China. The USA has been printing money likes it's going out of fashion since the last recession, and can't keep going forever. And China's growth has stopped.

Economies naturally expand and contract, periods of growth are followed by recessions. When governments interfere by propping up banks (forcing taxpayers to cough up) and printing money, the problem is just postponed and made worse.

There are also distortions caused by big business and governments getting too close; the former having too much influence over the latter.

.... Just my .02

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Just off to slash my wrists now........

OK I know the global economy is pretty sick at the moment and things may get worse before they get better, but is it really this bad ? 

The major economies printing money is a worry as eventually when things start to pick up it could cause an inflation spike, driving up interest rates and killing off any improvement. That is when we may start to see mortgage defaults as overgeared investors and owner occupiers cant cope with slightly higher interest rates.

But all this is years away as global economies are currently that sick that inflation and interest rates wont be going up any time soon. Stagflation is a real possibility, but this shoulnt lead to higher interest rates.

I suspect global economies where on the very brink of imploding 7 or 8 years ago when major banks such as Leehman Bros. collapsed, but things have stabalised since then. Sure there has been a lot of papering over the cracks going on, but this has been succesfull to some extent in restoring order to a fragile system.

If we do see a repeat of the share market and global ecenomic collapse of 7 years ago it will be even more spectacular this time.  Governments ( including our own ) dont have any resources left to stimulate ( read prop up ) consumer sentiment and dollar values.

A return to the depression type conditions of 90 years ago would be even more catastrophic, as society is now a lot less self reliant. Everything comes from a shop or multi national service provider. People have lost the ability to grow their own food, mend clothes and generally care for themselves and each other..

 Now thats a scary thought.

[*tippy*toes*]

For most mortgage defaulters I have little sympathy. Interest rates were low, they bought/built McMansions because their current wage dictated that they could afford $X a week in repayments and still have a bit left over to buy the 2x SUV's, a boat, a caravan, several holidays per year, all the technology that the kids ever wanted and everything else that the kids demand want.

Then there is a 0.25% rise and suddenly their whole world crumbles. They can no longer afford all these luxuries. They cry to the media that they're going to lose everything, they have to give up their holidays and the kids are now going to have to go without. The husband starts working more hours, the wife is sent out to get a second (or first) job to try and cover the extra expense of the 0.25% increase. Trouble is, they can't say no to the kids. The kids still want all their luxuries, so they get put first and the mortgage suffers. They have to then pay extra in child care and are never at home to enjoy the house that they simply had to have.

The BIG mistake all these people made was, they looked at the rate NOW. Not once did they consider if rates when up, even a small amount, could they afford the repayments. Then when it does happen, they realise they can't. They didn't consider buying a smaller home that was a more reasonable price. No, they had to have the 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a formal lounge, a lounge, a sitting room, a family room and a rumpus room. They had to have a formal dining room, a regular dining room an eating room and an eat in kitchen. They had to have a 4 bay garage, a pergola, a Queensland room, an entertaining area, a pool, a spa. Sadly, a lot of people who insisted on owning these monstrosities no longer have kids living at home, or the kids are getting ready to leave home.

They had to have these monstrosities because it was better than all their friends have got. Their friends would come around and oooh and ahhh over their lovely big home with all these rooms that will never be used, yet have to be furnished and cleaned. Their friends will be so jealous, so will then be tempted to also become up to their eyeballs in debt to keep up and go one better.

When we bought our home, I think rates were up around 7-8%. Before we even spoke to the bank, we looked homes of varying prices. We then sat down and crunched the numbers to see what we could afford, not just then, but into the future if rates went back to the 80's figures of 16%. When we decided on the house we bought, we worked it out that with out wages at that time, rates could get to 20% before we had to start worrying. Since then, we have had several wage increases and our weekly repayments are less than most people pay for rent.

Of course I have sympathy for those who have fallen on hard times from losing their job, relationship break up so only having one wage, other legitimate reasons. I have little to no sympathy for those who way over capitalised because their life would be over if they didn't spend over $1mil on a home with the home being the size of Buckingham Palace.

[beakychew]

It you look at it from a purely money-making point of view, times of recession and other changes are when big fortunes have been  made or started. Businesses and homes are usually undervalued and few people have enough currency to buy them. So for those who are prepared, and can recognise it, a recession can be an opportunity.

And it won't last forever. We tend to have long slow booms, and shorter more drastic busts.

[springyzone]

On the whole, I agree with what you have said and I don't have sympathy with people who cry poor because they have been cut off from some grant or other & now they have to struggle to afford the investment property & the McMansion.

Or they have had big bucks coming in, squandered it, then cry 'poor me' when it runs out.

But.. I am not sure where you live Tippy. I am in an outer suburb of Melbourne. One of my married kids has just been looking for a home. Now, they were in a tiny place, a house but unit size. Sold in 48 hours with 2 offers. The market is very hot at the moment.

Bought a slightly bigger house (not a McMansion but one with a lounge area which the other really didn't have) as they are expecting a second child. Over 40km out of town, very ordinary suburb, certainly not a dear area.

Even so, there is not a lot on the market much under half a million & every place in the lower to average price range is selling fast.

I worry as obviously interest rates will rise eventually & not everyone is on big wages, my daughter & her husband certainly aren't.

But the reality is young people are facing steep house prices, there would be practically nothing of any kind under 400k and even that is a lot of money.

[sandlash]

I have had poor sales for a while now, no sales over the weekend. That's when I usually have a few buyers. I think eBay has been destroyed after they decided to  let the big retailers sell on their site. I think they forget who helped eBay in the beginning.

[chameleon54]

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@beakychew wrote:

It you look at it from a purely money-making point of view, times of recession and other changes are when big fortunes have been  made or started. Businesses and homes are usually undervalued and few people have enough currency to buy them. So for those who are prepared, and can recognise it, a recession can be an opportunity.

And it won't last forever. We tend to have long slow booms, and shorter more drastic busts.

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I,ll let you in on a little secret, so long as you promise not to tell anyone else. ( you might find it handy when the next stock market collapse happens )

We traded shares full time for the most volitile six months of the crash. We had two systems we used. One was conventional charting techniques to buy and sell stable companies that where regularly oscillating  YAWN BORING YAWN.

The gold miners where good for this as they had the added safety of a gold hedge against inflation and economic uncertianty.

The other game we played was much more profitable, reliable and a little more unconventional.

At the time of the crash, cash was king and money was simply unobtainable for individuals or companies. We had just sold a number of rental houses before the crash and where reasonably cashed up. We purchased $1000 parcels of shares in around 30 companies that looked stable but needed capital. ( mainly blue chips ) This included companies such as the big four banks, Qantas, Lend Lease, AMP, Westfarmers etc. etc.

We waited until they had a capital raising at heavily discounted prices and then purchased the maximum $15,000 lot of shares that we where legally able to buy. These where often purchased at a 30% - 40% discount to the last trade. In most cases the stock price would decline on the capital raising, but rarely to the full extent of discount. As soon as the shares where alloted we dumped them onto the market, usually making $1500 - $3000 per trade, but made over $7000 on the best trade.

We only got caught once and that was with Elders shares. We held them for four weeks and still managed to get out with a $600 profit. We made 17 capital raising trades all up and made a profit on each one.

Whilst not for the faint hearted, this system proved to be almost fool proof and worth thinking about if we ever experience another crash. Like everything though, big rewards require big risks and you could easily lose the lot.

Like I said though, ITS OUR LITTLE SECRET, dont tell anyone else     

[*tippy*toes*]

I do understand what you're saying Springy. We left the city because real estate prices had escalated to a point whereby we would have really struggled to be able to afford one (one of many excuses for leaving) and we were earning more back then that now. I do feel for the younger folk today because a lot won't ever be able to afford their own home.

I used to get annoyed at those TV shows where they would auction houses. You'd see all the people out the front of the house and they'd speak to some. You'd hear them say something like "this is John and Jane. John is a primary school teacher and Jane works at the local 7/11. They are prepared to bid as high as $950,000 today". Like seriously? They are the ones that then find themselves in real strife when interest rates go up by 0.25%.

I know not everyone can leave the city for many reasons, including work and lifestyle, many like the city, but surely living in the burbs would have to be cheaper than spending over $1mil for a 1 bedroom apartment in the inner city.