Ebay Sellers - Is It Time To End Your Listings? Maybe! #blogboost

These days, eBay sellers, if they are 1/2 as smart as most of them seem, are reviewing EVERYTHING.. Because Best match is such a mess and finding your way to the top has gotten harder and harder for us "little guys".  

One of the things we've been told by multiple sources (ebay itself and lots of guru types) is that using Fixed Price is the way to go BUT don't leave non-selling items up there forever cause after a few months of no sale, Best Match love, like all so-so marriages, turns to icy distain and your item gets pushed closer and closer to the eBay curb...where NO one will ever see it.

In other words, after 3-4 months in your store, with NO sales and too many lookee-lous it's time to relist. 

But if you have, as I did at one point 1700 listings, or as a couple of my friends have, 2500+ listings or even 5000+ listings..how do you find the ones that need to be "reformed"?

eBay has a new trick up it's sleeve - on your MY EBAY page...check this out! (finally they did something right and since I'm complimenting them it's probably going to be taken away on Monday so use it quick)

I know, you're asking, "WHAT am I looking for?".. see that middle drop-down box? it is called Status.  That's where you normally look to see if anything has bids. Well now it has a new and very useful status i.e. WITHOUT RECENT SALE. 

If your items show up in here, it's time to end them, and rework them and relist them.  Not SELL SIMILAR, NOT RELIST .. Do'em over.  They need it. (because otherwise, they wouldn't be there. would they, now? )  I think, according to MY experience it takes about 6 mos for unsold items to get to that list.  But I'll let you know after more observation.

Ok, go look at yours!!

#blogboost.

Hey - my online career in a nutshell!! The history of eCommerce!

Hey ! I resemble this chart - (which is courtesy of zippycart) - I told you I'm older than dirt well here's the proof!


[Via: Shopping Cart Reviews]
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What I think of eBay's Town Hall yesterday

From the Wizard of Id site - courtesy of John Hart

So what next?

This blog is titled Ebay - For Fun and Profit but...

Have you set up another venue yet?

I tried I-Offer. Then in May when they were nagging me about signing in more often did, I though " BALONEY " so I deleted all the store listings. Done . In 4 mos there I had one sale for a box of trading cards. Not enough to waste any energy on.

Amazon
I sell books there. Currently only have about 60 listed. THAT changed this week and will change again soon as I add in some. I haven't tried the Pro-Merchant yet but will this month (July 2008). I'm not sure if I'll keep my books on ABE or not after I put them on Amazon. I might. But that's up in the air, right now.

The main attraction from Amazon is the abilty to list my glass and china there. I'll let you know how that goes next month

ABEBOOKS
I had a bookstore on ABE back in 2005 and it didn't set fire to the world but it paid its own way. Then they changed software or platforms or some IT thing. And my sales crashed. After three months I gave up. Based on my friends' sales there, I reopened in April 2008. So far, it's paying it's way again.

There are two things I have to do. One is to synchronize the prices on EBAY in my store with the prices on ABE cause I missed a $74 sale today on ABE by having sold the book on eBay 6 wks ago for $19.95. THAT hurt. It's my own fault too cause I knew the files needed to be doublechecked and prices corrected. And I didn't do it. BUT I will be later today. (7-10-08 I have checked and correct them so everything is sort of inline with the other venues. NOW I have to get more books on Amazon)

ECRATER
I could never figure out how to upload a "file" to them. Gonna look at that again this week too.

And I've found a bunch of places that have shops/shopping carts etc. So I"ll be exploring those and reporting back (in case anyone every reads this)

So where do YOU sell and how do you like it? Comments are public so you'll get some free publicity and maybe even some sales. Post your url. !! Please!