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sales suddenly stopped?
 

Hi guys, well... I have been going well... not suspended... so far... on my account selling average $1200 per month, but then... suddenly in march I have sold 0, yes, zero.

Has anyone else had this, or anyone else know what is going on? I don't understand I am panicking thinking perhaps someone in the forums on ebay has dissed me or something. I searched for my own items on ebay and they came up okay... I am cry :(

PS I was planning to travel to switzerland, lol , and now that doesn't look like it's happening unless things pick up... I thought this G20 thing might get people spending more but er it seems not ....

thanks, rafc

G20? what is that?

That's weird. Are you doing anything different?

you don't know about the G20 summit?? :boink:

MMAC, that's the thing, I am doing absolutely nothing different... my search standing hasn't gone down, I don't know what it is. I have nothing. From $1200 to nothing :faint:

ebay uk has been miserable the past weeks. Hardly much money and pages taking forever to load. Hoping for a little bit better leading to easter but who knows?

philly, the G20 summit is the world leaders getting together to......
(fill in the blanks):boink:

lol greenbean... but i am not trading on uk alone, i go on ebay us because on uk i wouldn't stand a chance. yes that's right $1200 worldwide. now $0. ebay want a 100 quid bill which i just don't have. they automatically took it but my bank will reject it because i dont have the funds (up to overdraft limit)
...darn things are dire...

about ebay uk though i posted a BNWT authentic calvin klein black velvet blazer , rrp $300 straight from macy's usa, perfect in every way, starting price 9.99 and it didnt even sell. remarkable.

i want to try and report my competitors who are selling LOADS but will i get more trouble than it's worth? i honestly dont know what to do i was expecting to make the same each month and so budgeted for 50% decrease for safety... but never absolute zero!!

I've noticed a sharp decrease in sales as well. I haven't sold my item, which usually sells 5+ a week in over two weeks.

rafc, it is a worldwide problem. Across the countries I am down 45% on sales. That said, I do expect that to happen with certain items.Reporting competitors is another story for another place;)

yes, it's been a hell of a year for business so far. so it's not just you, it's everyone.

The people that panic and give up lose. The people who dig deep and work harder will survive and expand their capabilities in the years to come.

I would normally say get started with your own online business, but that cost money to get going.

I do suggest keeping a close eye on the competition and see what's working for them.

Maybe your auctions aren't professional enough and people don't want to waste the money?

Your job is to answer every question a buyer might have before they purchase. Squash all the doubt and convert as many visitors you can.

Don't panic, get to work.

thankyou all , for your support, it is a good feeling at least to have company in this... it sucked enough already but i was getting by... then over this past month absolutely nothing, i have looked for more competition but no new sellers afaik. i was doing enough, i felt, for it to work, after many times of trial and error.

edit: Green bean, do you mean 45% down this past MONTH, or generally?
i know it was bad generally but this past month.........omg

johnnyboy, thanks for confirming that with me, i have no idea what on EARTH is going on over this past 1 month, yes one month! 1200 -> 0, i kid you not!!

Sadly,the last month. :faint:

omg that's 3 of us! there is a conspiracy! march killed all ebayers ? why? it was bad enough already, very slow, but could pay bills... :faint: somebody tell me when this will end...:help::noidea:

I marketed myself with items under $30 for people under 25 years old ...s younger people dont tend to worry about tomorrow or saving as much as those that are older .. i am down about 20% for match but still selling ...good luck to all!

Depending on what you sell, you probably see a decline in sales during this Depression. However, to have 0 sales it is much more likely ebay is screwing where your items pop up when someone does a search.

yeah -- that's what i thought, so i checked it using every combination of keywords imaginable and it doesn't seem to be any different from what it normally was.

hey, i thought this depression thing was getting better though?

Personally, I think things will be low for a while yet. Not being a doom & gloom merchant but that likely be the case.I intend to watch carefully over the summer period especially for US markets. That is a low low selling time for me. If I can break even, then I might just smile:pout:

dont be one of the lowlifes who report people whodoing well because yours isnt , work on what items you are selling and pick something that will sell , chin up mate

My friends, the reason why your sales have been falling is because of what some may call "Cabin Fever" is over. It's April, the weather is getting nice and naturally, people are not snowed in sitting in front of the PC. They are outside enjoying the weather, working in their gardens, walking, riding motorcycles, etc. I myself haven't been inside listing as much or buying, its just too nice to be inside. Sales will be slow esp during summer months until the fall. Sales are always great from Oct to March then they drop off.

Well, my March was good as I was able to finally unload $2000 of few designer items waiting to be sold. Bought in July..
But, because I have to do this in a snail pace, it really doesn't mean a thing.

so you're saying it's going to be like this until end of summer??

ps i'm not going to report anyone, i'm not that bad, but powersellers are selling loads while i have zero. i can't even pay my ebay fees and i don't know what ebay expects me to do, how was i supposed to know i wouldn't sell ONE single item all month when i usually sell 40?

rafc, it has been a trend over the past four years. Summer can be slow for sales. (Northen Hemisphere summer). Come September when school will restart, selling improves.

I know this may sound risky, but why don't you try to put one of your items to Gallery Featured or something...and pay $20 or $30 extra for that one listing? It cost you more, but it will draw people and they will be looking at other stuff you have too...I watch my counters on those, and they get waaaay many more hits than my regulars.:ranger:

thanks lyda, i may try that if things don't pick up over the next week... which looks likely...

i know about the "summer slowdown" but i was expecting maybe 50% decrease absolute maximum. i'm getting absolute zero. i've just seen a powerseller competitor in the niche market i sell in, i've counted, average of 7-10 sales per day, taking in over $500 sales per day, at least half of that has to be profit because i know the prices of the items. i don't want to remove other people but it just makes me mad i suppose, when i can't pay the bills because i have 0 sales and a powerseller is raking it in selling the exact same things... :(

Rafc, you have to get those negative feelings out of yourself and look at it as if glass is always half full, not empty. Be persistent ad things will change for the better soon.:yar:

Its all the f**in politicians going on tv telling people to stop spending that we are in a recession - some millionaire companys are going out of business because the people who mannage those companys were basically stealling from them - but thier are still filthy rich - THEY ARE THE REASON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY IS SLOWING DOWN - THEM AND THEY BIG MOUTHS GOING ON NATION TV TELLING PEOPLE NOT TO SPEND - THEIR MAKING IT 100 TIMES WORSE


BUT IM STILL MAKING MONEY - THIERS NO RECESSION FOR ME - =o)




eBanza.com

I agree, this summer is going to be bad.

But after that it will turn around.

I'm doing well because I diversify a lot, but overall things have slowed about 30% to 40% for me.

:thumb: The magic word diversify. Anyone should keep their options
open.

I'm reminded of a movie where an Alabama grad goes off to the army and he makes friends with this protruding lip guy who knows all about the shrimping business. Well, the Bama grad gets a boat and things are slow for a while, but then there's this storm and the Bama grad and his handicapped shipmate are the only ones left standing. They made a lot of money. They invested it in fruit or something... My point is if you weather the storm you can be just like Tom Hanks.

EBay hot list is helpful.

the problem is i don't know how to diversify. ebay is so tough that everyone has almost everything covered. i spent aaaaages finding and sourcing a product which i could sell with viable profit margins. i tried liquidations / clothes/ handbags but they don't sell at all, i can only ship to the UK because of airmail costs and it's not a big enough market. even if that stuff did sell i would make like 3 pounds per item, which would make the time packing and posting it as well as listing not worth it. i just don't know what to diversify to and i don't think any of you are going to tell me what sells because that gives up your secrets and i RESPECT that. i spent ages finding something i could sell myself, and now it is gone. still no sales... i usually woke up every day to find i had at least one sale... but nothing.

would it help if i doubled my listings? i mean, i have multiple quantity listings, one for each item, if i relisted while the other was running, i would have double the listings right, and then increasing the chances of me being on the front page?

guys, i have a contribution. maybe you already knew it but...

yesterday i just decided to list a few in auction format, usually all my items are in fixed price with best offer multiple quantity listings.
then suddenly the next day i had two sales from, ending a month long dry spell. they weren't from the auctions but from the buy it now listings. strange... but maybe they click from auctions into my store...

hopefully this will get better... i am hoping... :) please lord... haha

Glad to kno your drought is over!
Best wishes of peace & prosperity

thanks yaw!!

though i'm not counting my chickens, it was only 2 sales -- could be a "Dead cat bounce" ... :doh:

rafc,rafc, be positive.:thumb: Any chance of adding any sweetners until
you get more sales? Any item you can add to make the buy seem great

lol, i *am* trying to diversify but can't sort new inventory out until a foreign cheque clears and it has taken nearly a month (yes, that's right a month) and it still hasn't gone through yet. it was a large cheque and my finances have basically been frozen for a month, as well as exposed to the forex market... :mad:

hmm... looks like it was a "dead cat bounce" after all...

Does anyone here feel like they are doing really well when they have a lot of sales, and then get paranoid / wonder if you're doing something wrong when your sales decline?

That's what I'm like right now... on the one hand I'm thinking I should expand, diversify as you all rightly say, but on the other, I think maybe I am doing something very wrong right now, and that is the reason for my near zero sales, and if I buy more inventory that just leaves me further in the red than before...

my bank somehow allowed the ebay fees payment to go through (it was large) and now I have overdraft fees on top of that, despite my asking several times to reject the payment. Someone from the bank actually called me back saying "we can't guarantee that we will make the payment if there are insufficient funds in your account" . !!! I didn't even bother trying to put them straight...

WELL, I had a very good march, But this month... like the op said, it decreased by about 80% for me.

looking at alexa ebay as fallen alot recently. So it can be many factors, from summer picking up to the credit crunch. Though I think its better to market using a combination of ebay and search engines such as google to expand your online business.

You mean putting my eBay ID on google search engines?
Cuz I don't think I want to make an online store.