Question
Ebay sell -through rates have crashed in the last several days by almost half.
Number of item listings is crashing too.
Have you seen your sales affected this week?
Answer
I usually don't sell during the summer.
However, I did put up a couple hundred listings for the recent 10-cent promo. I was very pleased with my results since the total listing cost was very low--but sell-thru rate was not even 25%. I would've been very upset if I had paid full-rate listing fees, but since it cost so little to list it didn't matter that the sell-thru was so low.
But, no way would I be pleased with under 25% if I had paid full price to list those items!
I won't be listing at all until late August or early September, unless Ebay offers another FLD or 10-cent promo.
Answer
Sales have seemed slower with the 10 cent listing items that I put up......slower than the 10 cent promotion that they ran a short while back.
Summer doldrums would be my guess. Everybody has something else to do right now.
Pre 9-11 sales would pick up the first week of September and hit a cresendo around the 10th of December. After 9-11 sales just never much recovered but were better last year.
I think if we do not have another terrorist strike on our soil this year that we might see sales at near pre 9-11 rates.....if we are very, very lucky. However, I also believe that it depends on how confident folks are about our leadership after the elections.
Just my 2 cents......
Dee
Answer
Daggy stock has been getting a low sell through for me. 2 weeks ago I had a very strong sell through and good results. The fall since then has only reflected the stock I have been listing.
Ebay has made SYI harder to list on again. I doubt that has a big affect on listings, since most people are automated, but it will reduce my listings unless they restore the old system. I am sick of them making it harder and slower to list - it defeats their own interests.
Kevin
Answer
Comparing last week to this week is like night and day. I would say the quality of our items has generally decreased this week although marginally, and yet the hits are less than half of last week and the sales are dismall. I would like to blame the summer but last week was just as much the summer as this week according to my calendar. We didn't list anything between Feb. and July so I have no stats for that time period. I don't really want to slow down now that we have some momentum going again but the listing fees really hurt when there are no sales or everything that sells goes on one bid.
I just read this over and it is just a big gripe but thanks for letting me get it off my chest!
Answer
I need to revise my comments above. Today I have Greta Garbo postcards that came from an original 1930's collection, finishing. This is the third run of 34 of these cards that I have listed. The first run had a surprisingly high clearance of about 70%, the second run cleared about expected at 55% but had a few that kicked higher in price (the result that I expected across the board). The majority of today's run has finished, and at this stage I will sell 3 out of 34 cards (less than 10 percent). The quality, condition and starting price is the same as the last two runs, and all images are different - so the eyes have not been picked out of this collection. This much difference in results is inexplicable - the collection / cards are genuine and have been represented properly.
Hmmmm, Kevin
Answer
Things have been holding steady for me since March here, especially through my eBay store, I'm getting lots of traffic & sales there compared to the first couple of months of the year.
Answer
Just awful. Items are getting 1/3 the price of just a few months ago. I listed some stuff for dirt cheap and it went for the minimum. Mostly just a give-away. I'm sitting on stuff 'till Christmas and then will probably not overstock next year.
Answer
Sales have been terrible for most of the summer.
I am in the process of looking for a 9-5 job again.
Answer
Sellthrough this week so far is at 86%. Sounds good, maybe, but we run 1 cent no-reserve auctions and sellthrough is usually 96-98%.
It's not great but it could be worse.
Angel customers are still bidding and they're getting some good deals, which pleases me.
One new customer passed my name around at her workplace and now her co-workers are picking off the 1 cent auctions. I don't lose money when an auction closes at 1 cent but I don't make a lot, either. Will they morph into angel customers? My experience says it's unlikely.
--