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Since our item categories overlap to a certain extent, here's my own experience lately (deep breath: this ends up rambling on, and I've spent so long on it, I can't waste the rest of the night editing it! 
)
Out of the blue I had a crazy busy week about three-four weeks ago. It included a long weekend, but it didn't stop then, it kept going til at least wednesday. I had a lot of items up, and sold between 10-15% of my stock in a week, which is way above normal, especially considering I didn't have any unusually exciting things up. I'd wake up and stuff would sell before I got out of bed.
Then last week was dead. I sold two items, which was well below normal. This week has been just as bad so far, but I've pruned my stock right back with all my old $1 weekend fvf's ending. I'm intending to start a store at the end of the month, and hit it with a couple of hundred listings off the bat, so we'll see what happens.
IOW I've experienced unusual volatility lately, which I can't explain by variations in my listings, and I don't see any obvious single factor which would explain it. What does this mean? No idea, frankly. But I'm just assuming it could swing back the other way again - also for no obvious reason.
I have a couple of questions / observations, and these are for anyone.
1) I never search via 'nearest item'. Well.. almost never. Now and again I look to see if there are any 'local pickup only' stuff that I'd want, but being in Tasmania, there almost never is. My question is, do you think people use this search method often? Because I'm in Tasmania, I assume almost everything is going to be either a) on the mainland or b) overseas, so it doesn't make much difference to me. I DO search via distance on Gumtree, but that's local pickup by default.
2) When I do search I nearly always switch to 'Price + Postage - Lowest First', then eliminte items that fail on condition. I often toggle between 'Australia only' and 'Worlwide', but that's about it. A few friends have told me they also search by lowest price/postage, and I'd rather assumed it would be how most people searched, assuming they used anything other than the default.
This is important to my pricing strategy, becausewhen there are many copies of something, I often find the cheapest listing in comparable condition, and decide if I can undercut it and still make a reasonable profit. If I can't, I generally don't even bother listing it at that time. My ratationale is someone looking for the item really has no excuse not to buy from me. However if most people aren't searching by price, I should adopt another strategy.
I realise the average poster here is more ebay-savvy than the average buyer, but FWIW which method do you use?
Sorry if I've morphed into another topic. My hunch about your current drought - I'm going through something similar, though so far shorter - and it was preceeded by a super-lucrative week, so for me it's been feast and famine lately. It doesn't sound like your experience, though it might be too early to say for sure. If other people search the same way I do, I wouldn't have thought the incorrect distance reading would make a huge difference, but it's fasr from clear whether they do.
Again, If people search the way I do, lowest price first (and I'd love to know what percentage of people actually do) then so far as I can see it nullifies any manipulation by ebay - otherwise there'd be no point having that search option.
Ity also struck me that a fair few of your items are unique - they're literally the only example on ebay, internationally. No variation of 'bon jovi 1995 australian tour poster' shows any other listings but yours. This being the case, it shouldn't matter how far from the buyer you are, it's still going to be the only one showing up, unless they're overseas and have disabled international listings.
FWIW, if I hit a consistently flat spot which doesn't seem to be going to change, I assume I need to change something about my listings. Price is an obvious strategy, but in my case not always the answer. For instance I know that I list items which don't sell, simply because they're so niche that there's simply nobody searching for them that at the moment.
Is any of this useful? I hope the distance-from-buyer glitch is resolved. Whether it's the cause of your drought or not, it could be symptomatic of other ebay glitches that are affecting your listings.
Good luck and sorry for rambling.
