Is anybody selling well?

[spence0175]

In all my 16 years of being on here, I have never, ever known it so bad for selling. I’ve sold 2 items in a week. I get certain times a year when sales are poor, when the weather is good etc, but this is the run up until Xmas.

 is there anybody on here doing well or making a reasonable amount of sales.

It can’t all be bad for everyone…can it?

[spence0175]

Trying to stay positive and optimistic

[the_bald_orc]

I'm doing ok, I am down 7.2% for the past 31 days compared to the same period last year, but I am low on stock and I was closed for a few days to decorate the office (so that's a me problem not an eBay one).

Sales are generally consistent at around 15-25 per day, and simply put if I had more in stock I'd have more sales. 

[typo_lee]

The buyers simply aren't here anymore compared to years ago. I've been selling on here for 25 years so feel like I can gauge how 'it was' and 'now is'. You have to sell on multiple platforms now to survive.

[spence0175]

I remember about 10 years ago, I was at a friends party ( girls night in) 3 weeks before Xmas and my phone pinged all evening ( when the bells alerted to a sale). I had about 20 sales in that one evening. I have never experienced levels of sales like that since.

Come Monday morning I went off to the PO with 3 big shopping bags of parcels, that was such a buzz…

Im now going to the PO with one or 2 parcels. 4 if I’m lucky..

[the-nutwood-collection]

As a private seller, I emptied the garage and later downsized my father.  Loads of stuff, all sold well.  Didn't occur to me that it wouldn't sell - it was on eBay, so it was sure to sell.  I remember the excitement - counting the watchers, waiting for the flurry of bids in the closing minutes of the auction, joyous at the final bid for the unwanted stuff.

In the early days of being a business seller, eBay my only platform, I had so many parcels that the PO (in a little convenience store) asked me to bring them in on Saturday and Sunday to prevent holding up the queue on Monday.  They gave me an RM sack to put them in.

Now, I'm surprised to find an order on the seller hub.  Sometimes, I forget to look, and find the order when I've finished packing.  However, it's not a problem.  The order will be so small that it takes me minutes to pack.

How times have changed on eBay.  Sad, very sad.

[orangerx-uk]

It's been dead, never seen it so quiet. We turned over £33 last week so I have closed up shop until after Christmas. Really can't be bothered with wasting my time hoping sales come in.

The positive however is that I have been able to get lots of things done around the house with all this free time I suddenly have.

[ghostbay-killah-420]

I am thinking about closing  up shop early b4 Xmas also as no point either unlist all my items and log out a week b4 Xmas and log bk in after Xmas I have had enough with ghost town ebay. 

[vintagechinashop]

A few years ago 2020/21 I was standing in my village post office with 8 or 9 bags for life filled with parcels every week  now I’m posting 8 parcels a week if I’m lucky even though it’s the run up to Christmas. It’s soul destroying  Yes I’m selling but I have 1500 listings some of these multi listings and to only achieve 8 sales a week it’s very worrying. 
I have a room full of stock and haven’t purchased anything for months and am not inclined to.   This is my back up income and the lack of sales is quite stressful   I really hope things pick up soon 

[orangerx-uk]

You're lucky it's your backup income, its the main income for me. I'm living off my savings now until I open up again next month.

[spence0175]

Ive completely forgotten about the excitement of an auction. I remember once putting on a doll thinking it would sell  for a few pounds.It sold for over £200. I screamed. My OH thought I’d gone mad…lol.

Those were the days…..

[spence0175]

It is very worrying. Unfortunately when a market is suddenly flooded with stuff   with so few buyers, this is the result.

Im hoping that things will improve a little after xmas when people have  xmas present cash to spend

[just-got-personal]

I need to be crazy busy in the run up to Christmas as traditionally it is very quiet for the whole of the first quarter in my sector.

Trouble is sales are poor right now and have been all year.  Subsidising my income from savings as I have been doing is not viable in the medium term let alone as a long term solution.  It's extremely concerning and Christmas will be anything but merry for me.

I looked into working tax credits as a possible top up answer but it seems far too difficult for the self employed to claim.

Jacking it all in and claiming benefits is the easy way out until I retire in 4 years time but that just isn't me and never has been.  I would consider myself a failure if I threw in the towel so near to the end!

Feeling pretty dejected and sorry for myself isn't a good look on me but I am struggling to style this one out.

[spence0175]

You have every right to feel like you do. It’s a worrying time for many. 
I was also brought up with a work ethic and know how you feel. You would not be a failure if you threw in the towel. It’s just a reality facing many at the moment. You have to do what it takes to survive…

[typo_lee]

We are exactly the same. 10 years ago it was a great atmosphere in the office packing sacks of orders and taking to the PO. Nothing like that now. We have to sell on other platforms now whereas in the past were to busy just on ebay to consider selling elsewhere. Funny how shopping trends change. People have definitely headed back to the high street and retail parks as I see them packed all the time.

[charmkeyrings]

I think Temu has played it's part.  They get more traffic than ebay.  I sell handmade but a lot of the people who could have seen & bought my items are shopping there now (according to Similarweb stats).  I don't have a problem with ebay.  They're just not as popular as they used to be and that's why sales are rubbish compared to say 5 years ago.

[typo_lee]

Agree with everything you say 

[the-nutwood-collection]

I agree that eBay's not as popular as it used to be, but what are eBay doing to remedy that?

I get lots of emails from Etsy showing me things I might like to buy.  Really super desirable stuff.  Every month there's an email showing me gifts for the new birth sign in case I'm struggling to find something for an upcoming birthday.  I never get emails like that from eBay.

All I've seen is an eBay TV ad where a couple are planning to sell some hideous unwanted tat.  What sort of a message does that send to buyers?  What incentive is there to log onto eBay?  eBay doesn't need more tat sellers - it needs buyers, and lots of them.  

[hudsonsclothes]

This is my first Xmas so I have nothing to compare it to, however, I am doing pretty well. 72 Items sold in the last 31 days. This is a part-time side thing for me at present as I work 40hrs+ a week in the military travelling around a lot and manage to maybe put in 10 hours a week on average, I would be concerned I think If I wasn't fortunate enough to have a full-time income to rely upon as it can be temperamental from what I have witnessed in the 3 months since I set up on here.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Yes, we are currently in the buying season yet all I am seeing is sell for free adverts.

It would be nice if there were some very simple adverts that might get a few more buyers looking on ebay.

The marketing just seems so lazy and repetitive, surely the marketing budget shouldn't just be used on the sell for free offer.

[the-nutwood-collection]

It seems to me that the eBay executive can only cope with one marketing concept at a time.

'Enthusiast Buyers' were going to be the saviours, but they were found to have feet of clay.  Now the obsession is with growing GMV.

Fine, I don't have a problem with growing GMV, but you have to grow the buyers as well.  There's no point in having loads more items if there are no buying eyes to look at them.

eBay's a dating site for buyers and sellers.  The problem is that it obsesses over increasing the numbers of one mating preference, but completely ignores attracting the other half of the match.