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Original poster

No Ebay sales for over a month, very slow this year

83 replies

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 15:24

I'm a personal seller and I currently have twenty items listed - mainly clothes and a couple of other things.

I always list everything as Buy It Now and just let them sit there, and they sell whenever.

This time last year I was selling two or three items per month. This year, practically nothing. My last sale was six weeks ago, and the one before must've been about six weeks before that. I do get views and watchers but I think people just watch things for fun. It feels like the whole place is practically dead. I used to have best offers deactivated, but I've reintroduced it to some of my listings (with a minimum offer thing) but not received any offers.

Before anyone says it, I'm on Facebook selling groups and nothing ever sells there either. As has been mentioned before, there's a lot of discussion and questions but very little actual buying or selling going on.

I think people just like window shopping.

OP posts:

ByeByeCircle · 12/10/2018 20:12

And if it doesn’t sell I stick it on as a BIN.

But I do agree that things are so much quieter than they used to be. And I hate the best offers thing. People expect something for nothing

ScreamingValenta · 12/10/2018 20:15

tectonic Have you tried the fairly new listing format where you can add a best offer to an auction?

ToadOfSadness · 12/10/2018 20:15

I don't buy anything BIN as I always think they are a company.

Does it matter if it is something you want to buy? I look at feedback and read the listing, look at the photos. I don't care if they are a company or not.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General shopping

ScreamingValenta · 12/10/2018 20:18

You can check whether the seller is listed as business or private and filter your search results to exclude business sellers, @QuickPollPlease, if it's important to you.

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 20:20

@ScreamingValenta I haven't had a look at it yet, but there was a post here recently about how some people didn't realise the best offer was supposed to be offered above the starting price rather than below it.

OP posts:

ScreamingValenta · 12/10/2018 20:23

Oh, dear. I suppose you could put 'only offers above minimum auction price will be considered' in your listing, but then people often don't read listings properly.

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 20:25

Well I currently have twenty listings up and I'm thinking of changing just two or three of them to auctions to see what happens

OP posts:

dingdongdigeridoo · 12/10/2018 20:56

You can set the time your listing goes up, which means you can set it to end at peak times. I always used to ensure mine ended at times like Sunday afternoon/Friday night when people would be bored and browsing on their phones.

Perthshire2 · 12/10/2018 21:08

I have over 100 things listed on eBay at the moment and in the last month my sales have been better than ever, I’m having a big clear out and I’m a personal seller not a business, always listed BIN but take offers ect

I’ve sold over 50 items this month and my eBay fees show it :(

Maybe end all your items, check over your listings and re list them :) good luck op

WalkingTed · 12/10/2018 21:34

its an interesting dilemma

ive been in your predicament before so switched to facebook selling HOWEVER have a quick stroll thru the fb selling sites and they are (my local ones at least) full of people asking for stuff for FREE or AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE..... even better, we have several people trying to source free stuff as they are "helping a friend who has lost everything" but are being very picky with what they will take ... must match or coordinate, be in perfect condition and oh if you can deliver then that would be great also😉🤔🤔🤔

cinical? who, me?

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 21:38

Maybe end all your items, check over your listings and re list them

I could do it with some of them, but some of the others have lots of watchers...

OP posts:

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 21:42

But then again those watchers have been watching for months on end...

OP posts:

Perthshire2 · 12/10/2018 21:54

Tech

IMO watchers mean nothing, I know I watch items that I’ll never buy and stay in my watch list for ages as I forget about them,

I ended and re listed an item with 14 watchers and once re listed it sold within 6 hrs, it had been listed for 24 days and nothing, no offers just people watching it :(

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 21:57

Yeah that's what I was thinking. I also think that people are watching my three shiniest items because they look good in theory and it's their way of "owning" the item without having to buy it. Kind of like how you can walk around a clothes shop holding an item so it's yours for ten minutes.

OP posts:

Perthshire2 · 12/10/2018 22:02

Tech, if your gettin free listings id end and re list everything, you’ve nothing to lose :) x

MrsSkarsgard · 12/10/2018 22:03

I really miss using Ebay, I used to personally buy and sell on there a few times a year. I like secondhand stuff so used to love getting a pair of work trousers for £5 including delivery. When I would sell, I would get similar for my clothes but after a bad experience when Ebay sided with the buyer (they returned an empty package to me!), no more! Plus, with signed for postage being over £3 and fees from ebay and paypal, I am making £1 per item (if that) and coupled with the time taken to take photos, measure, write a description, list, answer questions etc , I'm working for nothing and making other people money. I can foresee that the business is going to let in trouble soon. It used to be a great marketplace to find quirky stuff and individual stuff but now it's mainly Argos cast offs and goods from China. It's just so tacky now...

YeOldeTrout · 12/10/2018 22:09

Is there still a way of setting a price below which you don't want it to sell, like a reserve price?

Set the starting price in the auction as your minimum acceptable price. Don't faff about with lower starting price.

Clothes struggle to sell well. I've sold 3 things on Ebay this week -- one was a ski clothes item.

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 22:39

Thanks for all your advice, everyone. I'm going to be relisting more items than I thought - some of them as auctions and some of them as new BIN listings, even most of the ones with watchers. Might as well restart.

OP posts:

polkadotpixie · 12/10/2018 22:46

I would definitely go for auctions, I always filter out BIN unless I'm looking for a specific brand new item from a company. If I just want a bargain from a private seller I only look at auctions

If you don't already, make sure your auctions finish in the evening when most people are available to bid and I've personally found Sunday to be the best day to end them

CheekyRedhead · 12/10/2018 22:50

I buy clothes from eBay and nowadays some starting prices are ridiculous. I've just put it down to people getting greedy.
I watch a lot of things that catch my eye but some i would only pay starting price for. Unless it's a premium brand in not going to pay a lot of money for second hand clothes

Original poster

tectonicplates · 12/10/2018 22:52

It's not sellers who are gready, it's Ebay with their fees. We have to put our prices up in order to make it viable to even sell in the first place.

OP posts:

delilahbucket · 12/10/2018 22:56

I don't buy or sell much personally on eBay anymore. I just find it's not what it used to be. High fees, no seller back up at all these days. The site has been in steady decline for years. Interestingly though, I run two business stores on there, with relatively good success, although the last two years have been dire and I have scaled down on there, considerably. It's just that sellers like me have been pushed too far and my heart is no longer in it when it comes to purchasing. Gone are the years when my go to place to buy ANYTHING, was eBay. eBay forgets that sellers are buyers too

ilovebagpuss · 12/10/2018 23:00

I agree with the fact it seems low traffic lately definitely last few months. I buy and sell vintage jewellery just a few bits and I am consistently having to relist when I used to sell most items on the first listing.

FrayedHem · 12/10/2018 23:03

I think with BIN if buyers see it's been on a while they'll expect you to lower the price at some point.

I do think things are generally a bit slumpy atm. I took some computer games to sell into CeX which hadn't sold on Ebay and I couldn't be bothered to relist. The selling queue was long, the purchase queue v short. When I got served they said they'd had so many trades that morning they may have to do a bank transfer as they were running out of cash. It was only 11am!

Abra1de · 12/10/2018 23:11

Over the last seven months I have bought and sold a lot of bags such as Mulberry, Demellier, etc, and L K Bennett clothes for various functions on both Facebook and eBay.

Prices have been much lower in the last month. I think people are more cautious about spending.

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