Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Very slow weekend… anyone else?
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T-Satt.
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10/01/2018 at 7:34 am #49375
Normally I do between $300-$500 in sales a weekend. This weekend I sold nothing. $0.00 sales for Saturday and Sunday. I usually get a $0.00 day every 3 months or so. I have never had a $0.00 sale weekend.
Anyone else experience this? Very tough and nerving time.
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10/01/2018 at 8:08 am #49381
Good Morning Mike,
I had FOUR days of zero sales Sunday Sept 9 – Wed Sept 12, yet finished out with over $1,000 and 17 sold, almost a $1,000 day on the Thursday Sept 13.
It was no fun sitting on over 1000 listings between etsy & eBay, listing, tweaking, and nothing but broke crickets.
Enjoy when it turns around, as it will! I’m betting it is just your own unexplained cricket time, and hoping you do not have one like that again.-
This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by
totommyto.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by
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10/01/2018 at 8:13 am #49383
we went most of Sat and Sun without selling anything as well. but had some offers late last night that people paid for. it did feel sluggish.
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10/01/2018 at 8:22 am #49384
I sold one $11 item between Monday Sept 24 to this Sat Sept 29. I then sold two low value items yesterday. Yes, I am experiencing an excruciatingly slow period. Slower than any slow period in the summer.
I’m actually planning to call eBay today just to check that there isn’t anything wrong with my account. I don’t normally call them for this sort of thing, but it is so slow that I’m actually concerned.
However, I first need to call UPS. They seem to have charged me for a shipment within California that I had nothing to do with. Fun days.
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10/01/2018 at 8:27 am #49385
I’ve been unusually slow for this September, but I’m low volume anyway. When I get suspicious during a very slow period I open a different browser and do key word searches to see if my items come up but everything has always been normal. YouTube eBay guy Crazeenydriver once had a few zero-sale days in a row (unusual for him) a while back and called eBay about it to complain – IIRC he said they looked at his store and told him there was nothing wrong but all of the sudden his normal sales volume resumed.
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10/01/2018 at 8:41 am #49386
Friday and Saturday were very slow. 3 sales total for about $60 and that was taking an offer on something. Sunday made up for it with a $300 dollar day. I know around here kids are out for fall break and in most of the country it was a very nice weekend.
I haven’t ran the numbers yet, but September will be either my best month ever or 2nd place behind August. I have quit running sales since July, no promoted listings, no free returns, no free shipping, increased my active listings, added best offer to almost everything (over ~$15) and started accepting a lot more offers instead of countering or trying to get another $5 out of people.
Speaking of counter offers; I don’t know if it’s an ebay app issue or something else, but when I do counter, I rarely get a response anymore. I’ve gone to decline only with a message or just leaving the offer open if it’s a multiple low-ball from the same buyer.
Joshua
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10/01/2018 at 9:01 am #49387
Sorry it is slow. I do not have enough experience to make a determination of what is normal as I am just growing my store (150 items to 350 items in last month). I sold mostly small $ stuff, but I have 10 packages waiting for USPS pickup this morning, so I would call it a busy weekend. I did put all my old stuff on a 15% off sale about 2 weeks ago and have had some bites on older inventory that has been helpful. Hope you have a fruitful week, Daniel
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10/01/2018 at 11:47 am #49403
7 sales total Saturday and Sunday between both of my Ebay stores (nearly 9,800 items listed between both stores). Cheap items, to boot. Verrrrry slow.
Still, it gave me a chance to list rather than pack, so that was a nice break. I already have watchers on a number of items I’ve listed, yay! Also, I was able to spend some much needed time organizing the next few collections of items I want to get listed, so that will be fun to get to and list over the next few weeks.
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10/01/2018 at 11:53 am #49405
Thank you for all the feedback. Makes me feel better knowing it was not just me.
I now have two feet on the ledge not one.
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10/01/2018 at 12:41 pm #49411
September’s been dry over here too. Not just lower sales, but lower views also. I’ve put three lots of silver coins on $0.99/free-shipping auction. Less than ten views each in the first 24 hours.
Also had a rash of absurdly low offers.
I’m just telling myself that things will pick up come the holidays and slow sales now means more stuff to sell at better prices closer to the end of the year.
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10/01/2018 at 1:01 pm #49413
I’ve had some odd messages this weekend from buyers who said they couldn’t complete transactions – not sure if it was widespread, or just issues with these two users (one had 14,000+ feedback, so they weren’t rookies to the system). Other sales went through OK.
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10/01/2018 at 1:33 pm #49420
For us, it was a very solid weekend. Looking at our Seller Hub, we were at $586 on Sat and $580 on Sun. It was across the board, with clothes, shoes, and hard goods.
One thing I do notice that has me concerned. On our Seller Hub, there is a graph that shows how your store sales in $ compares to the past month and the past year. We are up in Sales 22% vs Last Month and up 19% vs Last Year.
The concerning part is that it also compares you to the “market” in those periods. For us, it chooses Casual Shirts and Jeans, as those are the categories where we had the most listings this month. The “market” is DOWN 4% vs Last Month and DOWN 5.8% vs last year.
I talked with Griff on this, and it includes new and used items sold on eBay. So the clothing market on eBay is shrinking. More sellers (he stated, like we know, that there is oversaturation) but LESS sales. We have seen a downward trend in pricing in many areas as well.
I think the Amazon impact with new clothing, and Poshmark on used clothing, is impacting sales on eBay in these categories. Something to watch for.
I would be interested in hearing what categories others on Scavenger Life show on their Seller Hub, and what the “market” graph is showing for sales Year Over Year.
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10/01/2018 at 2:52 pm #49431
My sales this weekend were pretty strong. I made about a third of my sales for the week over the weekend. (The weekend is often very slow for me). For the month of September I was up about 10% over the same month last year.
In regard to the seller hub stats that @T-Satt asked about, the Hat & NCAA/college “market” is down 3% in the last month and down 3% over the same period last year.
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10/01/2018 at 3:02 pm #49432
Thanks Simon:
Not good that now we see other categories that are down YOY…
I wonder if we can access this data for all categories somehow.
I would love for others to report what they see on the Seller Hub, especially the YOY numbers for the market…
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10/01/2018 at 5:31 pm #49436
Here are the stats from my seller hub:
Magazine Back Issues is showing that I am down 3.4% compared to the prior 31 days, while the market is down 7.5% over the past 30 days.
Antiquarian & Collectible Books is showing that I am up 9% YOY and that the market is up over 10% YOY.
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10/01/2018 at 5:32 pm #49437
Thanks almasty. At least ONE segment of the eBay market is showing up YOY.
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10/01/2018 at 6:55 pm #49438
Antiquarian & Collectible and Hats.. down 4.3% last month and up <1% last year.
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10/01/2018 at 7:39 pm #49439
Necklaces & Pendants and Casual Shoes, market down 3.5% last month and market down 1.5% vs. last year
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10/01/2018 at 8:20 pm #49441
Nonfiction and Fabric are down 3.6% in the prior 31 days and down 2.0% compared to a year ago.
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10/01/2018 at 10:07 pm #49445
Anonymous
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Us too. Zero sales this weekend and Sept was slowest month in a year
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10/02/2018 at 7:44 am #49452
This has been the slowest month for me in the last 3 years. Even including the summers. I went all week without a sale last week and only 2-3 low ball offers. I’m not one to really think about slow periods but this is really weird. I had 2 sales on Sunday but there’s been nothing since. This is starting to really worry me.
Does it matter if you put promoted listings on all of your listings? I never really paid attention to the promoted listings until it started showing up within the listing page. Now I’m wondering if I need to add this to all lists? Some listings? If everyone does it then I don’t see how it does anything other than give Ebay more fees.
I usually average about one sale a day. Going a whole week without anything is scaring me. I currently have 1,100 items and I’ve been steadily building my inventory since 2015. I’ve sold on ebay since 2001 but wasn’t all that serious until around 2013/14 and started my store around 2015.
Donna
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10/02/2018 at 7:55 am #49453
It’s never a bad idea to experiment with your store. I would caution letting desperation color your choices because then it becomes a race to the bottom.
Since you’ve been selling online for a while, I assume you’ve experienced ups and downs which is normal in any retail business.
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10/02/2018 at 8:50 am #49457
I will second Jay’s advice. Experimenting is one thing. Promoted listings, sales, etc.
NEVER act out of desperation…
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10/02/2018 at 8:18 am #49455
When I search through eBay, I see a few listings here and there that are “promoted”. I don’t a huge number of listings being promoted. A better strategy might be to run a sale.
I have been feeling the same. I went six days with one $11 sale, and I have a little under 1200 items in my store. The very few sales I’m getting are some of the lowest valued items I have.
For peace of mind, I called eBay and talked to a customer rep. I said that I was being overly paranoid and could she check my account. She said that nothing was wrong, and she went through all the items that she looked at.
So, do a few things that might help, but try not to go overboard. At least, that is what I’m trying to do.
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10/02/2018 at 8:53 am #49458
Very interesting, and a bit concerning, that the eBay market is primarily down Year Over Year.
We should all watch this and adjust accordingly. Maybe they are losing to other platforms, so we need to think about shifting with where the buyers are going. If so, how do we crosspost efficiently?
I have some thoughts for how we can adjust.
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10/02/2018 at 3:44 pm #49488
Yeah I’m familiar with the ups and downs with the selling cycle but this month has been particularly down and I don’t feel like I’ve done anything different. I don’t list nearly as much as you (Jay and Ryanne) but I’ve been doing my usual but I don’t seem to be getting the same results. I don’t usually pay that much attention but this has been so extended that it really feels down.
I’ve added the promoted listings to my higher priced items to see if that helps. I was just wondering if most people add this to all items or at what point this option seems to make a difference. It’s weird how they charge a different percentage for different items. I’m not sure why some items charge almost 10% and others only 3%.
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10/02/2018 at 4:31 pm #49490
I’m not sure why some items charge almost 10% and others only 3%.
Those numbers are supposed to represent what other sellers are paying in that category. You can change how much you pay with the slider under the number. How much you pay affects how often your sponsored listing gets shown. (Apparently.)
I put up a bunch of promoted listings a week or so ago and there was no effect.
Of course, I don’t claim to have the first clue what the problem is these last weeks.
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10/02/2018 at 5:36 pm #49494
I don’t have promoted listings turned on for any of my listings. It just seems like a bad bonus fee on top of everything else.
As a buyer, I get annoyed when I scroll through listings and see the same listing repeatedly because it has been promoted.
If I didn’t want it the first time, I won’t pick it all of a sudden because it has been promoted. -
10/02/2018 at 5:40 pm #49495
My point is that sometimes things are slow just because people aren’t buying. They aren’t buying on your store, or my store, or on Amazon, or anywhere. And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. Big corporations have no real solutions to slow times other than spend more money on advertising or slash prices.
Some sellers think if they turn off this or turn on that they can manipulate the system and “boost” their sales. Who knows. Experimentation isnt bad, but sometimes it sounds like the MLB pitcher who must wear his lucky underwear or he might lose the game. If futzing with their store makes them feel like they have power, then that’s cool even if its a psychological balm.
One month isnt enough data for us to freak out. If we’re talking about this in December, then I’ll worry.
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10/02/2018 at 5:53 pm #49496
I agree with you Jay, except on one point…
Superstitions work in baseball. I played for too long to not see it happen…
The Magic Feather works…
🙂
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10/02/2018 at 5:09 pm #49491
“Fast Food and Hats”
Prior 31 Days, Up 12.1% (Market Down 8.4%)
Prior Year, Up 77.4% (Market UP 9.8%)As far as my gut feelings on slow days and zero sale days.. they do occasionally happen to everyone and they aren’t fun. It does seem that when you keep “doing” the same thing over and over (ie: running the same daily sale, or continuously promoting all your listings, etc.) it seems like the newest greatest “thing” that you were doing seems to loose its effectiveness over time. Have you noticed the same? Whenever I “change it up.. ” so to speak and try something entirely new that hasn’t been done, that seems to immediately jostle the algorithm and can start sales flowing. I think Cassini likes general activity, tweaking old listings, etc. but nothing helps more than a new stream of listings coming in.. that’s when I think the old listings get a “boost” and old stuff starts to sell. Sometimes strange things will happen, old listings will sell in groups.. I have inventory bins listed alphabetically in chronological time order. (So for example I know A1 was from 2016… Z2 is going to be from 2018). Sometimes oldies will sell and I’ll be pulling 3 items from the same old bin from 3 years ago – stuff I was on the verge of donating. It has happened too many times to not notice it. It’s like the algorithm is giving a cyclical boost through all my items once a month – or whenever it decides to do so.
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10/02/2018 at 5:54 pm #49497
It’s hard to get motivated in times like these. It’s hard to ‘spark’ and keep feeding the monster. I feel the frustration with everyone. If that helps.
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10/02/2018 at 6:01 pm #49498
LAwoman: Amen. Always hard to work your butt off and not see immediate returns…
Why most people don’t work for themselves. Lots of upfront time with little to no return.
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10/02/2018 at 7:24 pm #49502
Promoted listings and sales are great if there are many of the same item out there. If you have a unique item with 1 to 3 listing of the same, what’s the point of a promotion?
Are you going to move up from position #3 to position #1? Will it even matter?
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10/03/2018 at 10:08 am #49523
As a buyer, all the promoted listings, bold/highlighted listings, etc. etc. are just annoyances. If I’m looking for something, I’m going to sort through everything that matches to get the best deal for me (condition/quality, price, and shipping).
It’s just a way for eBay to make a few more dollars off sellers, but do they have any real factual information by item type/category that your listing will sell quicker? I haven’t seen it. Most of my items probably don’t even have statistically significant data behind them to justify spending money to “promote” them.
If anyone’s sales are down through mid-December, then it is time to panic. My sales keep going up year to year as I become a smarter scavenger and seller. If your trend is going down significantly, then you may want to re-consider what you are selling. Not everything year to year has the same value.
My goal on eBay is to make the most $ for myself – not to make extra $ for eBay.
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10/02/2018 at 7:31 pm #49504
Fortunately for us we had a strong weekend. Between two people we started packing between 8 am and finished at about 4:30 pm, just in time to drop off at post office. We probably had 100 orders during weekend, we usually have between 70 and 80.
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10/02/2018 at 7:49 pm #49505
Selling 25 items a day is incredible.
–What do you sell?
–How large is your inventory?
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10/03/2018 at 12:14 pm #49526
I had a good weekend. 5 sales for $160 on Saturday and 9 for $307 on Sunday. My weeks are always hot and cold. I’ve finally gotten used to it. My sales graph on the “my ebay” main page looks like a heart monitor read out with all the peaks and valleys. I’ll have a day or two of no sales, then a spike, then nothing, then spike, etc.
I don’t really see a pattern to it in regards to what I do or what day of the week it is. I can influence the trend by listing since some new listings will always sell within a day or two.
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10/03/2018 at 12:59 pm #49529
Retro: Funny you talk about peaks and valleys. We have had 2 days in the past 30 where sales were over $600…both were right next to days were we had only $160.
Sometimes retail don’t make no sense on a given day. Weeks at BEST for the smallest measuring stick on results…
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10/08/2018 at 10:04 am #49750
We’re in the fashion category (mostly preowned) and we had a very strong just over 1K weekend which is great for us. Actually, the past two weeks have been very strong. Our seller hub shows 29% increase over last year. I hope it keeps going in this direction.
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10/08/2018 at 11:37 am #49766
Atomic: We have seen similar results, where we are really starting to take off. Very nice on the $1k weekend!!!
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10/08/2018 at 11:01 am #49758
Hi everyone, I’m in the middle of a promoted listings experiment right now-
It’s looking like a fail at this point. I have 2 identical items (new old stock racing shoes- apparently valet parking drivers love these shoes. They kinda look like red suede pumas)
the promoted listing is 129.00 7 views
unpromoted 90.00 . 16 views 1 watcherthis is month 2 they have been up. the prices are high’ish but not unreasonable with the make offer option.
the first month i was fooled at first by the promoted items views- then realized i had the wrong size imported when i created the listing. there is a big difference between 10 and 10 1/2 in demand….i have 10’s
anyway thought i’d pass it along for you. i also believe in the on off algorithm that exists in my tiny universe. and bigfoot.
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