Get ready for the Christmas rush: uk-news@ebay

[reasonable-robert]

no doubt you,ve seen this

 

Get ready for the Christmas rush: Top delivery tips to help maximise last-minute sales

someone let me know when it starts please...😅😆🤣😂

the buyers will be here soon

[9150simon]

Lol!  Yes I've seen it and I thought the same as you.  My sales have been worse over the last week or two than they have been for months.  I think you will only experience the "Christmas Rush" if you are promoting to the max and beyond, but thank you for making me smile 😀

[lighting_signs_and_vintage]

LOL! Had no idea you could include pictures of the 3Bay site improvement team hard at work?

[robbtyke132010]

I sold a DVD just a few days ago for £2.39 - my Xmas rush in full swing!

[myriad*seller]

Don't worry. Husbands will be out on Xmas Eve doing their shopping for the morning..

You can post Special Delivery so it arrives tomorrow can't you sellers....😜

[robbtyke132010]

Same day delivery for my buyers!

[lighting_signs_and_vintage]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

Don't worry. Husbands will be out on Xmas Eve doing their shopping for the morning..

And if they leave it even later, Christmas Shopping At The All Night Garage (google it, great song!)

[theelench]

Special Delivery???

I'll send mine 2nd Class as usual.  ebay always tells me it will arrive next day or the day after at the latest.

It'll be a nice little livener whether it arrives Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

[myriad*seller]

Oh, I was married to the guy who wrote "Petrol Station Flowers, My Baby Gone To Her Mothers" 

[jefftopman]

I don't think it has been a good Christmas for sales and would even go as far as to say it hasn't been a good year. I would think this has been the same for both private and business sellers.

Lack of buyers on the site and the unwillingness of the buyers who are still here to pay the price for  items that is already priced rock bottom. Example tried to sell an exceptional condition music box set for 3 weeks at a bargain price with free postage for £125 buy it now. Supposedly even with eBay's huge amount of users it did not get any questions about it, except for some person asking would i sell it to them for £50. I removed the listing dropped it into a local music shop and within 3 days they sold it for £155.  Perhaps because buyers could see how excellent the set was with their own eyes .

Luckily i am coming to the end of what i have built up over many years of collecting and hoarding, just a few items to list in the New Year and i will leave everyone else worry about poor sales having said that if i sell one a month it will take until next October before i am done. I definitely feel sorry for business sellers at present since they certainly must be feeling the pinch especially if they are reliant on their business income to pay their bills and feed a family.

I wish everyone a great Christmas and an upturn of sales in the New Year

[wyntersemporium]

There’s a backlog of mail in my local Royal Mail depot. One of mine which is RM24 hasn’t moved in 5 days.

[theelench]

You're lucky, I'm coming to the end of what I have to list, but that still leaves me with about 200 items already listed on ebid.

What I found strange was the start of the year was my best ever over there and ebay was plodding along as normal with a sale about once a month, until April.

Then sales stopped dead and I've only had two each on both sites since.  One each in June / July and one each again in October, so I don't think it's all down to how the sites are run.

I put it down, at least in part, to the frozen tax allowances.  I'm a state pensioner, have a small works pension and still do a 10 hour a week cleaning job.  It was in March / April that Notices of Coding from HMRC and payslips from the private pension and PAYE job.  Both showed tax increases to offset the (in arrears) increase in the state pension.

The state pension increase had already been mostly swallowed-up by inflation so I was hardly any better off and the tax increases left me with less coming in from the other sources than I had 5 years ago, although they're both index linked. 

There must be many others like me, not rich but covering our bills with a bit left over for life's luxuries.  What's 'left over' has been shrinking since allowances were frozen.  Since then I've lost my WFA, inflation in the shops is still going-on and I'm reading that energy is going up again early next year plus horror stories about huge Council Tax rises next April.  All this AND allowances are STILL frozen for the next year or two.

The result can only be more and more people with little left to spend on anything apart from surviving and that is rippling out across the economy.   IMO it ain't going to get any better next year.

My ebay account is effectively dormant.  With four sales in a whole year it's not worth even trying when all my items get is re-sellers watching in the hope of my sending them offers low enough that they might make some profit in a seriously depressed market. 

Good luck with getting out by October, I wish I could even hope to do the same but I fear I'll still have most of my stuff in the bedroom waiting for a buyer this time next year.

[leadhills_scot]

For me there is no Christmas rush. After over 24 years on ebay this will be my final weekend, sales have been practically non existent for the last couple of months.

I'm eligible for my state pension in April which will work out more than I've been getting on ebay for the last few years. The rest of my stock will be sold to local people via my web site with some going to charity.

[insidethe93]

Dare I mention there's also the Christmas rush in the large eBay category of crafts, that occurs in late June and in July, levels out and maybe peaks again in Oct/Nov. Manufacturers of craft supplies promote new ranges in the summer so that craft shops can stock up and so that hobby-crafters have time to make their Christmas cards and gifts.

I'm an experienced Christmas crafts buyer and I still get frustrated by items flooding the market in the summer then selling out, selling out within days sometimes. Craft firms sell their next-best craft ranges come Oct/Nov, though they'd be upset to hear them called "next-best" but by and large they are.

Likewise other major events e.g. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Halloween.

Worth knowing even if you don't sell specifically craft items but things that crafters want e.g. double-sided foam insulation tape (used to add 3D to homemade greeting cards), mailing boxes (you can't expect crafters to make scores of Christmas cards AND then make the boxes from scratch).

[reasonable-robert]

yes pal i think my left over model buses will be going in to the british toy auctions at runcorn after xmas 

free collection £3 a lot listing fee and 15% fvf  and the worldwide buyers on the net and in the saleroom are willing to pay the right price 

inside infomation its called easy live auction..shh..

[9150simon]

Ditto - apart from the web site reference, I could have written that message.  I too am eligible for state pension next year, have miserable sales and will probably end up donating many of my items to charity.  It is such a shame as there are some lovely items in my stock which just don't sell despite me dropping prices over and over just to get things moving.  It's disheartening to say the least.

[reasonable-robert]

im afraid im looking at the same thing

theres some trains im watching which i might have a dabble at and take one last chance at it and look at it again after xmas but im on the verge of giving up the ghost.

[papers-mate-420]

 What is a Christmas rush in 2024? on ebay it is more like snail pace gone wrong lol it's 2 quiet so time 2 get my suitcase out and do a Del Boy and start selling on the street as there could be rush that way not on ebay, time 4 rest and chill with a cup of tea as no rush here lol 🤣😂😀😅

[lighting_signs_and_vintage]

This time next year...

...I'll have probably sold TWO DVDs!

Have just made my first sale in a week. Now feel duty bound to give free upgrade to Tracked 24...

[kath3735_wxmjn]

your forgot to add todays water bill increase, hope you do not live anywhere in Southern Water region, you will be out with your begging bowl!   Depending on what happens with this simple delivery i will not be on the site this time next year!