Conspiracy Theory

I know online sellers have periods of ups and downs, I've said this to myself many times. But COME ON! I have had very very little sales numbers this past month. I attributed July to the fact that I was out of town for most of it and didn't do much listing other than maybe one or two items. I did upkeep my current listings and relist items though and since I've been back home I have still only had a few sales. Earlier this year it was not uncommon for me to here the little "Cha Ching" on my phone mulitple times a day, now I'm going 2-3 even up to 7 days without a single sale and I am beginning to thing eBay has it out for me!

I don't get it, I'm a top rated seller, I have just under 50 quality listings and I'm slowly adding new listings every day. I don't want to open a store; this has gone back and forth for me a lot but I decided a while ago that I just don't want to have a store for various reasons mostly because this is just a hobby and I don't list enough or have enough storage space to do a store. At any rate, eBay calls me a LOT. So much to the point of annoyance and they want me to open a store so my conspiracy theory is that since I won't do it they are now blocking my listings from even being viewed! Is this anyone elses conspiracy as well or am I nuts? My other gripe is that as a top rated seller I am supposed to receive FVF discounts and I only get a discount on my invoice once every few months, sometimes longer. Granted I'm sure if I called them and talked to them about it they could probably look at my account and give me some answers but I haven't gone that route yet mainly because I don't want them to hound me about opening a store again!

Anywho, I hope everyone else is having a better sales month than I. I've been trying to concentrate my new listings on seasonal items like backpacks and fall clothing. I had 2 sales in a day last week which was shocking in itself but it was for items I'd listed that day that were Back to School related.

I bought this backpack at the St. Vincents the other day and it sold 2 days later for $29 - shipping to CA.

Its not just eBay thats slow either. Etsy has also been very slow but it is always slow for me so nothing that unusual. I am getting a lot of views and traffic to my shop but no sales so either my stuff isn't that desirable, my photos aren't good enough, prices too high or something! I need to cool it on shopping for a while until I get some of my bigger items cleared out.

I don't even have any other sales photos to show you so I'll leave you with a cute before and after project I finished and actually sold! Its a little key table that I picked up at a yard sale for $2. I sanded it down, stained the top, painted the legs baby blue and then put several coats of poly on the top to make it shiney; all supplies were things I had already so no extra $ invested and it sold for $20!



Before - Black Peely Chippy Paint -- $2 Cost



After - Trendy, Cute little table! Sold for $20 locally!

 

Adding some character to your photographs so people can see how to use them is always a great idea, I think the trendy props on the table really helped to sell it.

Wishing, hoping and praying that sales pick up soon and maybe some of my more valuable items will finally go to new homes... Putting it out in the universe like Lorraine over at CLAMCO says! Until then we will just keep concentrating on having as much summer fun as we can while the weather is still nice and school hasn't started.