Hard Time On Ebay

I don't know if I'm alone in this situation, but I find it hard recently to sell on ebay, my things don't move, in some case I start at $ 0.99 , I see others seller sell the same thing and the bids go between $10 and $ 20 , mine don't sell. May be just a period of bad luck

I see you are in Canada - are your shipping charges high? A .99c lot is not a bargain is shipping costs are too high. Just one theory ...

Brian

I charge .99 for Canada and $ 1.49 for US , this is what it cost me, I'm not trying to make a living of it, it's just to sell my duplicate and purchase new stamps.

Your prices are reasonable! What does your seller profile look like - do you have a lot of transactions, or are you fairly new to selling on ebay?

I experience the same issues on ebay and I think it has more to do with the exposure small sellers get or lack there of. I've also experienced a ceiling monthly. I can have good sales daily until I reach about $500.00 and then I can go the10 days with zero sales till the end of the month. I've tracked it for over a year now and can tell you, I can predict when the sales stop. I also have reasonable prices and realistic shipping charges along with 100% positive feedback which is great. I see the same stamps I offer sell @ 10X what I list them for. I think the larger sellers with stores are given much more exposure. Perhaps when the incoming CEO takes control who has mentioned that small sellers are very important things will change. A level playing field would be nice for a change. Good luck on your listings and hold on till maybe it changes for us both!

I would say the same thing about ebay as you have. Unlike others, ebay is not my number one site for sales. Instead I have my own website from which I sell more from. It may have to do with me not having hundreds of items listed on ebay as others do.

Size does matter. The more items you have listed, the more likely they will be seen.

Also what exactly are you selling? There might just be a lot of supply on the current market.

There could also be issues with your listings as well. What is your ebay userid? We could give you some feedback and friendly constructive criticism to help.

I'm making an educated guess here, but if you're a newer seller with low feedback, that's probably the issue. Established sellers have enough followers that their realizations are higher, and the higher feedback rating inspires a level of confidence in bidders. In fact, when I see a new or low-feedback seller selling something on my want list, I pay attention, because I know there's a pretty good chance I'm going to get it for a ridiculously low price. By low-feedback I mean the total number of transactions, not a low % of positive feedback. The best deals that I've gotten on ebay were purchased from newer sellers, to the point where I've often felt sorry for the seller.

I also think ebay's search algorithms direct buyers toward sellers that sell and have sold a lot of similar items. Larger, longer-tenured sellers get higher rankings in "best match" search results. This pretty much cuts across all categories

I am continually amazed buy the sellers who vend a single mint or used 8 cent Canadian stamp for 99 cents with $1.50 shipping. These things are worth - nothing.

I believe 99 cents is ebay's minimum price for any buy-it-now item, in any category, eBay-wide. That's why if I need some cheap single like that, I look for it on BidStart, which has no such restriction and these items can be found at closer to their true market value. I have actually purchased "worthless" stamps for 99 cents on ebay myself (on rare occasisions) if it's something I really wanted and couldn't find anywhere else. Very few regular dealers are going to trifle with listing some 20-cent stamp, either on their own website or on ebay (or often even their own printed price list), so I'd venture to guess that more of these overpriced 99-cent listings sell than one would initially think.

area66, I do not know who you are on ebay or what kind of material you offer, but do you include large, hi-res photos (including the reverse) with your listings? As a frequent ebay buyer I can tell you that this often makes the difference for me, more so than the feedback stats.

So bad I want to sell you this one for 99 cents

Wow, thanks everyone this tread become very interesting, When I sell a Canadian or US stamp or any other stamps of more than $ 5 value , I have no problem, it's the duplicate accumulation of my world collection. But it's only since 2 months, may be a bad timing.

I think it has gotten harder over the last 5 years. I concur that the larger sellers have an edge but feel it is more than that. ebay has become a dumping ground for a lot of lower quality material and it is getting harder and harder to get your listing to stand out as a value.

Many folks look at the lower quality material and use it as a price point. "Gee, I've seen that stamp previously listed for a lot less than that" and disregard the fact that the previously listing they saw had faults (either mentioned of not mentioned in listing). Look at NY Stamps. Their listings get a huge amount of activity. Yet their terms and conditions clearly state that they are selling material that has been 'professional repaired, regummed, or reperfed'.

All of this makes getting bids difficult unless folks understand that you aren't offering lower quality material. Buyers who are willing to invest in better quality material are far less in number than those seeking a 'bargain'. If your listing is unfortunate enough to be competing with one of the larger sellers who is offering lower quality material starting at 0.01; then chances of your listing bringing a lot of bids is pretty low in this day and age.
Don

One thing that don't help, is that I'm to honest compare to the crap other seller say.

I concur with dudley. As a buyer, I am much more likely to buy when I can see the front and back of an item in a nice, clear photo. Also, as seller I try to add information both positive and negative that tells potential buyers what they would be getting. I've tried to figure out the same things area66 is asking about, without much success.