Struggling for sale

[thebarginfinder]

Hi,

I been on here a few months now selling collectables and car parts, My sales are and i will be honest are pretty poor, Ive sold some good items and have made some money here and there, I always have atleat 2 photo's of my items, i do my research on prices, I try to set fair prices, i find if its a low price i only get 1 or 2 bids and i end up selling way below its worth, Im getting sick of paying $50\60 a month on fee's and not seeing alot of return on my money,

Has any 1 got any surgestions on boosting sales, Cheers in advance.

[thebarginfinder]

Thanks for your surgestions, It was a concious decission to have basic titles and description, As when i started i had a fuller description and found my self talking half the day describing stuff and wasnt getting alot of hits then, So i went to laymens terms and tried to describe with key words that i thought were going to get a lot of hits in searches, What can ya do, As i have alot of smalls, maybe the markets are for me, If the people wont come to me, Go to the people.

Maybe i should just save ebay for specific items

[davewil1964]

Anything that goes as a parcel, you are probably better off using flat price satchels - no guessing then. Click and Send is the best way to go with these. Significantly cheaper than standard ones and they provide Paypal acceptable tracking.

[putney32]

Im getting sick of paying $50\60 a month on fee's and not seeing alot of return on my money,

as a casual seller, surely your first 30 items per cal.month are free of any insertion fees?

so, you could list 30 items a month and not pay any fees for listing, just the final value fees on the few that sell.

list 30 new items each month, dont worry for now about relisting if they didnt sell first time around,   that'd cut your costs down considerably.

$8 to post a torn,/dirty Postal Note?? why? it could go for .60c in an envelope with a stamp?:|

[thesoulyearns]

Bargainfinder, you're probably best keeping the description to the bare essentials like you've been doing. People will enter your listing based on your title, picture, item price and postage price. Focus on those things first and you will improve your hits.

It's been discussed before but even a one-line description can get alot of bids. For collectables, people like to think they've found a diamond in the rough similar to a garage sale. Simply present your item. People will create their own description in their minds. If you already have a bunch of people clicking on your listing, you needn't say much. Their imagination will do the rest.

[thebarginfinder]

Dont pick on my Postal order, " its vintage" 😉 Its also has history, Its prolly travelled in some hippies purse on there way to a beatles concert, Better then it sit behind glass for 25 years, 🙂

[putney32]

Dont pick on my Postal order, " its vintage" 😉 Its also has history, Its prolly travelled in some hippies purse on there way to a beatles concert, Better then it sit behind glass for 25 years, 🙂

if it went to a Beatles concert it certainly would be ''rare'' having been issued years after they disbanded;-)

[thebarginfinder]

whoops... 😛

[havishamandbaggins]

Hi there barginfinder, top of the morning to you. Based on my extensive selling experience here, spanning 7 years, you are right to reflect on the selling casual option. I once had a very well stocked vintage store of around 500 items ongoing & now sell casual with a new id to reap the free listing fee for auctions only. I once sold heaps here, but it's totally changed.

I moved my main shop elsewhere online, no store fee, 20 cents per listing which lasts for 4 months & 3.5% fvf when sold. And am selling as much there, as I did here towards the end, with far less fees.

$50 a month is a lot of moolah for an online store, when one has an average pov income... although you may find some diehard sellers disagree.

When the hike was introduced from 10 to 50 I was outa here full time. Many others folded, I was not the only one, loads of experienced sellers left, tired of the struggle. I have enough little bills to deal with on a monthly basis without ebay sticking their paw out for their share. Considering the traffic is not like it once was, the store fee is ludicrous so casual auctions work okay & it's free....jilly

[linen*junkie]

Agree totally, but also no bidders, but heaps of watchers, no one has the money to spend anymore....

[shipahoys_antique_and_collectable_centre]

Its definitely getting harder to get a sale here now, and would encourage anyone who was doing well on Ebay to diversify.  A lot of people blame the economy, but I believe it is more a case of taking any business model for granted.  What is here today could be gone tomorrow, especially when you are bound by the rules and regulations of a large organisation (in this case ebay).  We took a punt and created a website nearly 12 months ago, and have watched our sales grow strength to strength, whilst the opposite has occurred over here. Its not that ebay isnt  a great place to sell, but it no longer gets the amount of traffic it once did, and in my opinion is on the decline for smaller businesses. Our overall cost for a website is much less, and best of all, we don't have someone pointing a stick telling us how to run our business!  Cheers Paul