New seller, items not selling

[thriftandtweed]

I have listed some vintage  items for around 3 weeks.  There have been views on some of the items, one or two wirh none.  I have had no sales and I have made sure I am selling close to or abit less than similar items.  I do not know why I have not sold anything, I put a lot of work into selecting items, photographs and listing.  I would appreciate some advice from sellers of similar items

[davewil1964 · Accepted solution]

I don't sell vintage items, but as a rule you are unlikely to get sales in the first month, especially if you are a new seller.

Happily I sold a couple of items I had listed for 12 years the other day.

[sugar249]

I just looked at a couple of items,   just taking the $8.00 mug with free postage,  I hope you dont sell it, as it will cost you over $10 to post it.   Do you want to make a loss.

[imastawka]

Same with the farmyard plate for $10 free post- extra postage cost and fees will mean a loss.

I almost caught up with Dave - I sold an item finally after 9 years.

[thriftandtweed]

I am not experienced in pricing or selling, but I will take on board your advice.  I try to find good quality items that I would personally have in my home.

[thriftandtweed]

Does that mean that the longer you are on Ebay, the more likely you are to sell?  

[sugar249 · Accepted solution]

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@thriftandtweed wrote:

I am not experienced in pricing or selling, but I will take on board your advice.  I try to find good quality items that I would personally have in my home.

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When pricing an item you need to consider amongst other things.

Your purchase price

Ebay fee's on sale

Postage

Packaging

Your profit.

Possibly other costs,  but depends how far you want to take it,

I have some mugs and I pay between $7 to $10.07 for postage (roughly),  I use Australia Post, and due to sales volume have lower postage rates, but I am guessing you will be paying $10.60, so anything under $10.60 for you will be a loss.

[siddieswans · Accepted solution]

My input may not seem helpful. You have chosen a VERY competitive market in which to list; but then I guess all eBay categories are very competitive. If you search for Vintage in Collectables for example, there are well over 1 million listings. Half a million for Home and Garden – anyway, you get the picture. Frankly it is amazing we ever sell anything.

Your photos are excellent, your descriptions seem to cover everything. As far as Free Post is concerned, I don’t see anything wrong with starting out making a small loss on items, until you get established. Obviously it is not a long term strategy.

I worry about “selecting” – are you actually buying these items? Most people who start out small with vintage items  sell items from around the home, or things that do not owe them anything (family items, gifts.)  (That's how I started.) As for needing to be on eBay for a long time to sell anything, I have been here as a seller for about 20 years. I don’t have the space to store unsold items for 12 or even 9 years, so at the end of every year I have a big % off sale, and then unsold items go to the real bricks and mortar auctions (where  you may look to pick up stock.)  But I do have a fair few followers I have collected over the years, and a good percentage of my sales come from repeat buyers. eBay algorithms mean not everyone sees all the items all of the time, so I would be patient.  Good luck.

[curraone · Accepted solution]

Not that I sell similar items, but trying to help.     My suggestion would be to remove "free postage" from your items, and either add postage costs or make it "pick up only".     Also I would put more words in the titles, you have 80 characters to play with.

[thriftandtweed]

Thank you for your feedback, particularly about being patient!  It is going to take time definitely.  I thrift for my items and to price them I usually triple this or sell for slightly under this.  I don't know if this is the best way to do this?