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@seamstore that’s an awesome story. It’s funny how Ebay can seem so random and huge but we’re all just people on here.
@mycottage I have messaged my reviewer with the question about photos. It occurred to me that you could just put in your logo or something multiple times to fill in the missing photos. Seems kind of cheesy, but if it gets you more impressions, that would be cool.
I also asked him if I could get the listing report for my vintage listings, which are not my highest selling categories. You get three of these reviews and they have an agenda for each, but you have to wait a couple months to schedule the next one.
After my live pop up on the 11th, I’m going to work on ending and sell similar. I guess I will start with their photo recommendations. Regarding the % promotion, they just give the average and want you to match that. But I am wondering if some people are not promoting and other people are promoting at trending, that would make the average probably in between at the rate they’re asking me for. So I’m not sure I’m going to get results from giving eBay a higher percentage (6-7%) and then I worry about taking that percentage down having heard anecdotal reports of eBay stifling sales afterwards.
Thanks for getting into the weeds with me everyone. It would be nice to get some of these existing items moving. I’m definitely considering a shift to flat rate shipping in the future on most items. I think I have a pretty good handle on what things cost to ship most of my items fit within a cubic foot. I told the guy I go to Google shopping. I never start on eBay.
Interesting this is in the breakdown for the listing performance:
Daily impressions per listing
Click-through rate
Sales conversion rate
Recommended item specifics filled
Recommended item specifics to add
Brand
MPN
UPC
Number of photos
Number of keywords in title
Free shipping
Estimated handling time
14 Days Returns
30 Days Returns
60 Days Returns
Accepts returns
Seller paid returns
Promoted listings
Promoted listings ad rate
Order discount Multi-buy
Sale event + markdown
Best Offer
ISBN
Item Id
Price
Significantly not as described (90 Days)
Item not received (90 Days)
Negative feedback (90 Days)
Quantity available
Shipping fee
Item age in days (this is since last refresh)
Sales count in last 31 days
Custom label
Number of watchers
Google Shopping rejections
Actual handling time
Actual shipping time
Item condition
eBay trending price
Hm…is this the priority weight of Cassini? Unfortunately the trending price is blank. It looks like Google has not rejected my listings, though I don’t think they are showing them due to calculated shipping. If this was in order of importance, that is a bummer since I don’t want to add photos. Some items don’t need 8 photos.
Also interesting that I have a lot of this:
Click through: Your listings’ quality meets the top benchmark;
Sales Conversion: Your listings’ quality meets the top benchmarkso the additional pictures recommended are to get me more impressions. I was surprised he was happy with my conversion rate, it’s only 1.3% overall last 30 days.
I definitely have a hard time just working at the desk and not getting out. I need to join the gym too so maybe that will help with the no picking.
Yes, my helper did confirm they can see exactly when you originally listed the item. He did not say you get any kind of penalty for that though. They both said revising after 90 days. I often don’t have a second photo I want to move to the primary photo and I like how I do my titles (which conformed to what he suggested – brand, item, type; say what it is in 54 characters). So I don’t really like to mess with that either on my old listings. So if they were overpriced as I suspect and I am offering a lower price, then Ebay should set the formula to take that into account I would think but I’m not sure they do.
I have now looked at my top 10 categories and besides suggesting upping promotions to 6-7 (the average percent for those promoting) in some categories, what they wanted was a bunch more photos. They want 6-8 photos per listing. I have a lot of listings in these categories with new items and I have like 3-4 stock photos only. I’m not going to go back and take more pictures. IMHO my prices are probably why they haven’t sold.
In my top 10 categories, Ebay is giving me a rank “Your rank by sales (GMV) value: 534 out of 135,732 sellers in this category and condition” that is excellent in all categories. I’m not sure what that means.
Today I did try to send a coupon of an extra 5% plus I have my store on sale until Sunday. We’ll see. I set the coupon to go out to buyers from the last 3 months I think.
In the Selling on Ebay podcast this week, they argued that the item and price the buyer is looking for should rank so much heavier than how long it has been on the site or the seller’s activity level, etc. I agree with this. It seems like Ebay assumes it’s a dog and 90 days is definitely not a lot of time in vintage flatware – just as one example – for the buyer to come along.
@mycottage definitely let me know what happens. I am speculating that Ebay treats 90 day + listings as “once a dog, always a dog” unless you revise at least the title and maybe photos. I have tried clearance pricing before on long tail low dollar and it has not worked for me. OTOH I have sold old listings after ending and selling similar more often.
Some podcasters have reported that if you later scale back on your promotion rate, Ebay tanks your sales. So I’ve never gone over 3% except for clothes 9%.
Ooof no picking. That is hard. I’ve been picking with Halloween and the pop up markets in mind, but seriously need to just about quit and get through some piles. I have a bad feeling about sales in 2026.
I listed on 7 last week but we were away. I’m still keeping my calendar. In September I sat down to list 13/30 days. Pretty disappointing. I tried listing after daily coffee but that was a challenge since I’m not getting up at the same time each day. Giving a lot of thought to trying a stricter schedule for myself.
@VL how fun to run a shop. Best of luck with all of the changes you have coming. I hope things go pretty smoothly.
Yeah I’m totally not a bookseller but my kids had a couple of those pop up books so I tried it. One thing I noticed about the comps is that the standard title sucked. A lot of book sellers include technical stuff /authors, but I threw in unicorn, etc. which I feel like people might be searching for. There are a lot of active listings. The other books are just for making decor bundles. I’m certainly out of my league with the booksellers.
Cool finds.
I went to the high school flea market which I usually skip. I bought the following items, each for $1: fairy pop up book, deluxe cover stories book, a large basket, a wooden art carved mushroom, 2 unused premium sticker books, a vintage linen pillowcase, 3 rag throw rugs in great condition. Also got a chalkware dog for $4. Most of this I’ll take to the farm sale coming up, but I listed the pop up book for $25, and still need to research the sticker books.
I also bought about 25 vintage books at $1-2 apiece at the Planned Parenthood book sale.
Man I kind of blew it this week with only 9 listings made 3/7 days. I did some fun sourcing this weekend and I’m feeling super motivated to list before we leave on vacation Wednesday.
@seamstore I like that approach. Are you doing that fee as a handling charge?
I listed 20 items last week but didn’t list any more days, probably only 3/7. My sales were crap over the weekend and it’s really tough to get motivated but I’m feeling better today. I’m getting cranky waiting for Ebay to throw me a bone. In the old days, I would see sales the day after a big listing day pretty much every time. I have been putting off starting cross posting but I think I will do that this weekend. I’m running a little better discount sale since yesterday and sold a few lower dollar things.
@Jaepete who do you watch on Youtube? Btw at Ebay open in a a workshop there were two guys from the trust and safety team who were really great. They actually acknowledged audience members who mentioned missing listings and phantom listings as an issue in their own stores. I guess when they don’t want to admit things directly, the are allowed to talk about their own stores.@japete it’s not too hard to run the numbers and see how you end up for the year. I’m calculated and do not pass on the discount. I ran my numbers for last year and using the profit to buy any non-recycled materials (mostly large bubble wrap and packing foam), I came out with a $400 “profit”, which is pretty much breaking even on shipping. So, I really like calculated shipping for this reason.
However, yesterday I started an experiment and put some retail arbitrage items on flat rate shipping at 1 and 2 pound rates. I looked at some recent sales on similar weight items going across the country and went a little under that. I’m hoping the Google crawlers will come and find those items, some of which are Christmas. I’m going to check after 3 days since they said at Ebay open it takes that long for the crawlers to find your item.
@Mycottage Commonwealth picker. Thank you for putting a name to what I was discussing. I’m so low tech.
