Why aren't my items selling

[meelo_darling]

Greetings, 
After many years selling on ebay US I am trying my hand at Ebay Australia. I am still learning about the prices things sell for here. 

I have many items listed for auction but so far my sales rate has been low. I seem to top out around $200/month (which I assume is too low to be due to sales throttling...?)

Would any of you be so kind as to tell me why you think my sales aren't going better? Are there any obvious changes I could make?

I would love to lower my prices further but since I offer free shipping, dropping my prices much more means I wouldn't make any profit. However, I am still interested in what you think about my pricing and any other reason my auctions aren't more successful.

Also, most of my items are only available for purchase in Australia. I could consider opening them up to international sales, but I am concerned about buyer fraud if I do so...

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! 

[chameleon54]

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@meelodarling wrote:

Gosh, your average sale is quite high, which is very good! Do you have any suggestions for sourcing such high-value goods?

A lot of my stock comes from medium sized businesses that employ perhaps 20 people and generate stock that is surplus to their needs. I have built up long term relationships with them and buy their surplus stock in bulk pallet loads. Sometimes with interstate companies,  this is just done using email messages with stock list, price and a few photos. Basically all done on trust, but as these are proffesional businesses it usually works out OK. The companies simply send the pallets of stock through their usual interstate freight companies and I drive to their state freight depot with a trailer and pick it up myself.

Auctions of large businesses that have closed down or gone into recievership are another source of quality stock.

That is where i have gotten stuck. One of my first auctions (for a vintage piece) resulted in a fraudulent claim by a buyer. So I figured my safest bet was to sell low-dollar items, thinking they might be less subject to fraud? (But obviously, the profits are much less as well.)

For myself, I only wish to sell items I can purchase in bulk. Generally I hope to avoid the one-offs -- since we all know listing auctions takes a lot of time out of our day!   

Many of my items are one -offs sold as good to cancel BINS through a store. Some of the items are fairly obscure, but I price these up with very high mark ups and just wait for the right buyer to come along. One item I sold this week had been listed for over four years. I originally paid $5 for it and eventually sold it for $45.00. I,m not necasarilly recommending this system though as it means my sell through rate is low and my items do not always feature very high in searches. This system used to work well several years ago, but the way ebay is structured today, it is not the best business model.

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[chameleon54]

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@meelodarling wrote:

Hi chameleon, your comment about self affirmation items was very insightful. This sort of product might have more appeal in the USA for sure (I am finding that out!).

Without giving up your trade secrets, do you have any thoughts about what kind of items (generally) have broad appeal in the Aussie market? Thanks in advance for any wisdom you can share.

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This is one of those " how long is a piece of string " questions. I suspect that small sellers will always have trouble competing in a market segment that is already saturated with bulk items. Most succesfull small ebay businesses find a niche product that the big boys cant supply.

When my daughter was around 11 or 12 she wanted to purchase packs of Justin Bieber stickers that where advertised in globally distributed fan magazines. You know the ones, big " Justin Bieber " posters, Justin Bieber quizes etc. The stickers where not available in Australia. We found out who manufactured the stickers and imported little boxes of 50 sticker packs which the daughter sold on ebay Australia for $3.50 each. She did a roaring trade for a number of months, spending time after school each night packing and posting her days sales. She ended up buying a new iphone with her profits.

The moral of the story is to find something that people want, that is not readily available. I know that sounds hard, but I often see holes in the ebay market for specialist items. Often this is for obsolete things that are no longer commonly available, but some people still want. eg. Vintage stereo equipment fans often have trouble finding the stylus ( needle ) for high quality vintage turntables. Vintage radio restorers need the original valves. There is a couple of ebay sellers who buy bulk lots of valves, for maybe $1 each. They clean and test them and sell them as proffesionally presented, tested, working condition for $15-$30 each. ( sometimes a lot more for rarer ones )

[imastawka]

Tsk Chameleon, norti 

You have to be 18 to sell on ebay.

[chameleon54]

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@imastawka wrote:

Tsk Chameleon, norti 

You have to be 18 to sell on ebay.

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   On my account with adult supervision of course. .......    Come to think of it, she was just helping me pack the stickers......

[chameleon54]

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@meelodarling wrote:

Gosh, your average sale is quite high, which is very good! Do you have any suggestions for sourcing such high-value goods?

That is where i have gotten stuck. One of my first auctions (for a vintage piece) resulted in a fraudulent claim by a buyer. So I figured my safest bet was to sell low-dollar items, thinking they might be less subject to fraud? (But obviously, the profits are much less as well.)

For myself, I only wish to sell items I can purchase in bulk. Generally I hope to avoid the one-offs -- since we all know listing auctions takes a lot of time out of our day!

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One real life example was an arrangement I had with a large earthmoving & cival construction company. They purchased most of their equipment new and financed it with five year lease agreements. Once the lease was up, the equipment was traded on new equipment, again with another five year lease.

The company carried stocks of fast moving spare parts such as filters, belts, hydraulic components etc. in the workshop for their equipment.  Once the equipment was traded in, the parts where obsolete and just cluttering up workshop shelves. The service manager would simply pallet them up and freight them to me, to sell on ebay. It was just obsolete junk to the service staff and they where happy to see it put to use and get some dollars back for the annual christmas wind up. I still paid them enough to make it worthwhile for everyone and some of this stuff was worth A LOT of money to the right buyer.

All up a good arrangement all round.

[luna-2304]

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luna-2304

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[chameleon54]

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@imastawka wrote:

Tsk Chameleon, norti 

You have to be 18 to sell on ebay.

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Just a few other ( true ) stories to illustrate the niche markets that can be succesful on ebay. One of my nephews who was at high school ( but was 18 YO of course stawka )  imported boxes of very high quality skate board and trick bike components which he sold on ebay. He was selling up to $600 per week.

I know of another business that imports high quality American racing go cart and speedway components and has built a good business very quickly.

I purchased a collection of several hundred old farm machinery brochures for $2000 a few years ago. It sounds like a lot of money but some of the best brochures made $150-$250 each and one single page brochure from the early 1980,s sold for around $300. I had to do some research on some of them, but I ended up selling over $15,000 from that little box of brochures.

OK, so most of these are examples of interest to men, but there must be plenty of niches in the chick market too. Vintage sewing & craft collectables sell well. Vintage kids toys are good items. Do you know what the illustrated panel from a 1970,s Kellogs cornflakes box with toolybird motifs is worth ? One I was watching, sold on ebay a couple of years ago for around $700. Specialist Ice Skates ? early Australian and Clarice Cliff pottery ? Occult & pagon supplies ?, rare garden seeds ( watch state border restrictions ) ? I hear multi coloured rose seeds and pink bannana seeds are very popular ....... ...................... There is a thousand and one niche markets that small sellers can supply, that the big boys are not interested in. It just takes a bit of homework and some lateral thinking.

[meelo_darling]

I love hearing all of your thoughts and ideas and hearing the different ways you guys go about finding items. (Also, the earlier feedback about my auctions helped me tons [heaps]!)

When I sold on ebay in the past, I had a very busy work schedule so I did it on the side with minimal strategy. Just sort of selling what I no longer wanted. Now, I have the time to put more elbow grease into it and seek out niche markets.

Thanks again to everyone who has chosen to share their thoughts. I will check back in case anyone has anything to add late in the game.