Jewellery selling

[word_of_mouth_jewels]

Hi I have been selling on eBay for over 2 years, since I moved here from Canada. It was slow at first since I had to build trust but I have always had happy customers and no issues or cases against me. I had one return once but it was over a typo, I wrote 19inches but meant 19cm for a bracelet and the buyer returned it and I paid her back BEFORE I even got the item in the mail, jsut to make sure that she would be satisfied with how the sale went etc. I always get the nicest emails and calls from my customers once they receive their items they always seem genuinely thrilled which is ofcourse pretty rewarding.

Ok so with all this said my sales have gone from brisk to non existant in the past 2 months, my prices have not changed or the items I sell, I am sort of stumped. I know the economy is bad but shouldnt that mean more people would be coming to alternative sales sites like eBay and Etsy for mroe expensive items? Just wondering if anyone else is seeing this as well. The weird thing is my sales outside of eBay have not nosedived, they have been steady if not increasing... This is what makes me wonder if it is eBay specific. I am jsut wondering if it is worth it to keep paying auctiva fees and ebay fees and posting listings if this is commonplace now.

I need to be clear, I have no watchers, no emails, no offers, and if I do get an offer it is a fake offers - those would be offers 1/3 - 18th of my asking price.

Any help would be much, much appreciated!

[lyndal1838]

Wow, lovely jewellery, but expensive.  Therein lies your problem....most buyers are very cautious of parting with their money these days.

What part of Canada are you from?  My OH was born in Winnipeg and has been here for 40 years now.

[word_of_mouth_jewels]

Alberta, OH is that your hubby? Sorry for an online seller I am woefully bad with all the lingo LOL. Winnepeg, another prarie dweller...you know what they say about the guy whose wife left him in Winnipeg and poor guy had to watch her leave for 3 days.

They are pricey. I use a real appraiser so my values aren't inflated. I price them around 50% of the value and then take offers quite a bit lower, I find people like to barter and I personally would prefer to jsut sell them as buy it now... I am not great at bartering. I do markets sometimes and enjoy them alot but I dread the inevitable bartering. My passion is the collecting, and if I was a millionaire I would just do that and then disperse my finds amonst my friends and family members. That reminds me I should buy a ticket for this weeks lotto LOL.

I see alot of my competitors claiming their items are worth 4 to 5 times what they are using really shady appraisals and it seems to work but I just wont do it. The thing is, up until 2 months ago it was never an issue. I have sold many items over $1500, $2000 and $2500 on eBay and from my website. It is just recently that things changed SO drastically I was wondering if anyone knew what had changed - you said these days, so do you think it is the economy?

The offers I get these days are so low if I was to take them to a pawn store I would get more. It is sort of mind boggling but atleast I have my website which hasnt been hit the same way. I always like ebay though as I found it a good place for new customers to find me, they have the reassurance of the ebay market for that first sale.

Thanks for your tips, I have a few mid range items I can list to test this out. I like to save them for the markets, not everyone comes to a market ready to spend a month's salary so I like to have something more affordable but listing one or two wont make much difference. I hope it changes closer to Christmas I have always liked eBay and I know buyers like to have a local alternative that has honest pricing instead of having to roll the dice with overseas sellers, or atleast it used to be that way lol.

[foxette-in-sox]

Absolutely gorgeous BUT

1-you can't request payment within 3 days as ebay allows 4 days before you can even open a non payer dispute

2-Not sure about your offer of laybye as buyer would have NO protection

Have you tried doing the occassional auction?

[chixfashionz]

OK, I have some news for you and it's not good.

Your problem - like most of us, is that you are fighting against eBay's Best Match.

I sell jewellery, too. I built my store up to an Anchored Store with 2,200 + listings. I was doing well and assumed that if I kept building the store and listings, mathematcially I would be guaranteed more sales and exposure...

WRONG - WRONG - WROOOOONG!!!!

Sales have been on the decline since Valentine's Day back in Feb. So much so that financially I was forced to go back to a Featured Store and shut off 75% of the listings. It really sucks, but so does eBay's attitude towards sellers.

Best Match is basically geared towards assisting stores in Asian countries, particularly China. eBay has been trying to break into the lucrative Chinese market for years, after a number of unsuccessful attempts.

Many of the Hong Kong listings you see swamping eBay offer free postage and are very low priced. It's what eBay want. It's what they perceive bargain hunters want.

Like you, I used offer expensive jewellery. It was 9ct, 10ct, 14ct and even some 18ct solid gold. I've stopped listing them; sales just evaporated to the point it was no longer worth paying the listing fees month after month.

eBay is not what it used to be. And that's what I read from PowerSellers who have been on eBay 10 years or more. Expect it to get worse, because eBay management don't give a hoot about you, me or anyone else. They see China as their doll and they are manipulating Best Match to suit Chinese sellers.

[suitcase_of_memories]

ebay are pushing to be the online MODERN Wallmart/Target, they are no longer interested in small sellers, hence all the new 'changes' coming re Free Postage - 1 day delivery - 'no background' boring photos - 30 day money back guarantee etc...this is what Modern Retailers are offering & these are the sellers ebay want now that all we small home sellers helped them become a household name.

If you aren't prepared to offer the above terms/conditions then  you will find yourself buried in the listings that never see the light of day. When you think of the NUMBER of items that must be listed by different sellers AT THE SAME TIME how can you possibly all be showing in that same 3 or 4 seconds ???  You need to find the old threads re 'black-outs', this is where listings appear & then mysteriously 'dissappear' for a few days.

You need to encourage your buyers to save you to their Favourite Sellers so they can automatically click on your View Sellers Other Items from the ebay page, that way they can actually be guaranteed of FINDING you in the myriad of unfindable listings.

Anyone who believes their listings are on show 24/7 of their listing duration haven't done their research.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

I have just had a look at your listings. Are you serious with those prices? I had very similar items for 1/4 of your prices. Have a look at - whoops I can't mention that auction site here but ... suffice to say they have items like yours, 10k gold, sapphires etc for HEAPS cheaper. Perhaps that's where your customers have gone.

If you send me a PM I will give you the site.

[*sparklz*]

Rabbit who are you to tell them they are over priced?

You generally deal with fake silver items as you state here a lot.

You have no idea what the OP has had to pay for their items or their overheads and then the profit margin so how can you judge the asking prices without all their info of costs involved?

People will only get what they pay for and there is NO negs for the seller and no over priced comments so ALL the buyers are obviously more than happy to pay for quality items.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

Rabbit who are you to tell them they are over priced?

You generally deal with fake silver items as you state here a lot.

You have no idea what the OP has had to pay for their items or their overheads and then the profit margin so how can you judge the asking prices without all their info of costs involved?

People will only get what they pay for and there is NO negs for the seller and no over priced comments so ALL the buyers are obviously more than happy to pay for quality items.

You may actually be surprised at how much I know about the wholesale jewellery business😄

And, I don't generally deal with fake silver items at all - you know NOTHING about my expertese.

What a seller has paid for an item has NOTHING to do with it's real value. I know sellers who pay hundreds for the same items I (or anyone in the know) can buy for $50.  A seller can put whatever asking price they want on their stuff, but, I do know wholesale jewellery and I do know that most shops put 400%-500% mark up on their stuff, so recommended retail is almost immoral. No wonder they can have their 50% off sales. They are STILL making a huge profit.

So, having said that, any official valuation that you have done on jewellery isn't worth the paper it's written on except if you are making an insurance claim.

One example, I bought a gemstones actually an amethyst, took it to a very reputable jewellery store for a valuation - paid $95 for the valuation from memory. The certificate says $2,000 - guess what I paid for it? $80. I told the valuer this and he said, Yes, that's about right for wholesale.

Let's take our engagement ring - 45 years ago I paid $35 at a recognised wholesaler. S had it valued the next day at $500.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

It's no good, I'm going to have one last thing to say re Jewellery Prices.

I am talking genuine sterling silver here. I gave my sister a French Rope chain. Some time later her house was broken into by some lovely children from down the road. She lost quite a few DVDs, and some jewellery - the chain being one of the things stolen and never recovered.

She filled in an insurance claim. What are we going to value the chain at, she asked. I said, well I paid $90 for it but it would be worth a lot more in the shop. So, we went down to a local jewellery store and I showed the jeweller a duplicate chain - one that belongs to her-indoors. She valued it at $499 so that's what SIS put on the insurance claim, and that is what the Insurance company paid to the Jeweller for the replacement chain.

Let's see. $90 V $499 ]:) ** And, by the way, a large Jewellery store would buy that chain cheaper than I could as a one-time ex-seller - so maybe it's more like $60 V $499.