How are your sales?

Beachkid23

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My used parts are selling good. My other stuff not so well


Sent from a empty soda can!
 

Since January 1st - my sales are very flat. I had all BIN's, so I decided to mix things up and start listing 5 auctions a night to see if that changed things up. I've also found it very hard to find inventory - garage sales are dead and the local auctions are full of ebayers. Really looking forward to spring.

I did find something interesting. I bought a pair of binoculars at auction for $10 a little over a month ago. I put them on BIN for 49.99. After a week, I dropped the price to 39.99. Another week, I dropped it to 29.99. I then ran them another week at 39.99.

I put the binoculars on auction 2 days ago starting at 19.99, with a BIN of 39.99. An hour and a half later a guy did the BIN.
Vintage Jason Statesman 7x35 Binoculars Japanese Optics Mint | eBay

Is this just coincidence or is there a visibility difference between auctions and BIN's?
 

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I don't know I have 30 sales for the month but a lot of it's low dollar items. Just stuff that was ending on auction on New Year's Day from over Christmas holiday. I did sell a ring last night for $65 which was about $20 over spot missing stones. And a cuff bracelet for 52.

I had this uniform and I sold it once for $250 but it has four shirts and 4 extra pairs of pants to go with it. I had probably 10 people email me and ask if I would separated up but then somebody bought it. Long story short he keeps telling me he doesn't know how to pay. He needs it for his replica Mustang that he has fully remodeled. Then somebody else emails me with the same story they need it for the replica Mustang. Which was probably the same car just people using the same story. But I ended up not getting paid. So now I'm going to separate it out but I'm only listing the whole uniform first and not mentioning anything about the other parts. then I'll sell them separately as a uniform as well. So I started the auction at $99 it has a bid already with 24 views so we will see how this goes if eBay does not Pull it.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=151544501217

Sadly it's looking like this might be my biggest sale of the month. A lot of my listings have zero views on them which is often. I have probably 20 auctions but only have the one of you that they check when you list them and a lot of them are starting at $.99. I guess sending 70 g of 14 K gold will make up for not making any money. That's all going to the refinery.
 

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This is a poor time of year to sell certain items. Many people have just gone into debt for their Christmas gifts. I and a lot of much more pro sellers than myself wait until March when folks have their tax returns back and are feeling flush to list quality collectibles.
 

Since January 1st - my sales are very flat. I had all BIN's, so I decided to mix things up and start listing 5 auctions a night to see if that changed things up. I've also found it very hard to find inventory - garage sales are dead and the local auctions are full of ebayers. Really looking forward to spring. I did find something interesting. I bought a pair of binoculars at auction for $10 a little over a month ago. I put them on BIN for 49.99. After a week, I dropped the price to 39.99. Another week, I dropped it to 29.99. I then ran them another week at 39.99. I put the binoculars on auction 2 days ago starting at 19.99, with a BIN of 39.99. An hour and a half later a guy did the BIN. Vintage Jason Statesman 7x35 Binoculars Japanese Optics Mint | eBay Is this just coincidence or is there a visibility difference between auctions and BIN's?
I believe it's mostly a matter of timing .....having the right person look at it at the right time.....especially if it is a niche collectable.
 

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I have a feeling that ebay sales overall are not what they were several years ago. I'm sure revenues are increasing overall, but I don't sense the excitement that people used to have about it. I don't think as many people are shopping on ebay for fun. A lot of the new stuff listed on ebay is cheaper on amazon. ebay caught some lightning in a bottle, but it's gone now.

I think that if we tracked the price of an 'average' collectible on ebay, we'd find it decreasing year over year. Might be different for other things.
 

it's always fun to take one of those price guides for collectibles from the mid-90's and compare to what collectibles are selling for today. Money can obv still be made, but not much on the commodity antiques. That's why I am always on the lookout for wacky, weird, obscure stuff.
 

it's always fun to take one of those price guides for collectibles from the mid-90's and compare to what collectibles are selling for today. Money can obv still be made, but not much on the commodity antiques. That's why I am always on the lookout for wacky, weird, obscure stuff.

Yup, my take on the antiques is the generation that drove the prices up out of reality is retiring in droves and therefore their disposable income is not what it once was. The market has already seen the highs...


Sent from a empty soda can!
 

I think there are several things going on with antique/collectible prices. First, the internet made a lot more information readily available & facilitated sales. People saw what things were selling for & dug through their attic/basement to pull out items that otherwise wouldn't have made it into the market, increasing demand which lowers prices. Second, the massive increase in the amount of high quality fakes has made people gun shy about certain areas of collectibles. There are a lot of fakes in the pottery, glass, coin, etc categories that are difficult for the casual collector to spot. Rather than get burned they just don't buy. Third, there is a whole generation of collectors that are at or near retirement. Those people collected things that were relevant to their generation. As they die off there is less demand for those items AND items are released from their collections. That increase in supply causes a drop in prices. Finally, people that are collecting want things that are relevant to their generation. While there are some exceptions in general people don't want their parents collections. All of these things(& more) add up to a market where the old stand by items are dropping in price & new categories of collectibles are being born.
 

I'm completely in the doldrums, both on etsy and ebay. One sale in 2015 on ebay, only 7 on etsy. Even nice winter stuff that usually sells in a heartbeat, North face fleeces for example, are sitting with a few watchers and no bids! It's a bummer!
 

Yup, my take on the antiques is the generation that drove the prices up out of reality is retiring in droves and therefore their disposable income is not what it once was. The market has already seen the highs...

Sent from a empty soda can!

Agreed. That's using your noodle!
 

I think there are several things going on with antique/collectible prices. First, the internet made a lot more information readily available & facilitated sales. People saw what things were selling for & dug through their attic/basement to pull out items that otherwise wouldn't have made it into the market, increasing demand which lowers prices. Second, the massive increase in the amount of high quality fakes has made people gun shy about certain areas of collectibles. There are a lot of fakes in the pottery, glass, coin, etc categories that are difficult for the casual collector to spot. Rather than get burned they just don't buy. Third, there is a whole generation of collectors that are at or near retirement. Those people collected things that were relevant to their generation. As they die off there is less demand for those items AND items are released from their collections. That increase in supply causes a drop in prices. Finally, people that are collecting want things that are relevant to their generation. While there are some exceptions in general people don't want their parents collections. All of these things(& more) add up to a market where the old stand by items are dropping in price & new categories of collectibles are being born.



100% correct, and compounded by the fact that the rising generation has absolutely no disposable income. I don't even bother trying to move most of the art/antiques/collectibles I come across. The prices people are willing to pay are an insult to honest craftsmanship and honest business. I just take advantage of the low asking prices and keep them or give as gifts.
 

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