Selling generally

[retromedia2]

I've asked this before but never received a relevant explanation. Ebay continues to claim there are "millions of buyers out there."  OK, so I list the same things I was listing back in the period 2006 - 2015.  Quality Matchbox cars, vinyl singles by the Monkees, Duane Eddy, The Shadows, Adam Faith etc - once all popular guaranteed-to-sell items. Back then, it was normal to get 15-20 views within an  hour of listing most anything in these categories. I have 41 items listed currently, the majority of which have views which increase on average one (out of millions?? not possible) a day....some have been there for a couple of months with less than ten views. There are less than fifteen watchers across all 41 items, stuff that back in the day would have sold very quickly. All are promoted! Photos are excellent.....descriptions comprehensive. Most everything MINT or near MINT. Obviously the majority of those "Millions of buyers" are not seeing the listings.  What has so dramatically changed? (I don't include the one $15,000 rarity - obviously that is a niche item)

[kelekt]

@stainlessenginecovers 

again...that is all YOUR OPINION. fine. what you like & want and what your family likes and wants is VERY DIFFERENT from what My Family likes and wants.

my daughter (in her 20s) AND her friends all collect. all of them. vintage & all kinds of things.

they all shop second hand, collect vintage and listen to vinyl records. these are cool kids in their 20s. they know A LOT about vintage and collectibles and love it = they are buying it.

NO PERSON can speak for or about all people and what they like/want.

my random collectibles (random cool and unique items) sell really well: ELSEWHERE 😉 

if Ebay is leaning towards junky mass produced stuff ( that you can get on Amazon for cheaper) that is the kind of customers they will attract and then truly be competing with Amazon.

I still shop here for some unusual vintage stuff but there is less and less available these days because if sellers can't sell it here they go elsewhere to sell = buyers who want all the good stuff go elsewhere, too. 

[gloryglorygifts]

Personally, I think it has to do with your competitors listings in the middle of yours, or the "suggested" sellers below it. I did a search using both Chrome and Firefox, for "Austin Cambridge '61 29b: 1/75 series"  and your listings are front and center. When I did the search on here, there are items from a U.K. seller that's selling them for under $10 with hefty shipping of $22, but that is still less than your price. My two cents is that it's a competition thing. Even if you promote the listings on here, those selling the same or similar will pop up in your listings. 

That's all I got for you. Sorry. It's happening to every seller on here. 

[a_c_green]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

Back then, it was normal to get 15-20 views within an hour of listing most anything in these categories

First, back then eBay counted the visits to your listings by bots from eBay, Google, etc. who were indexing your listings. They stopped counting those visits a couple years ago.

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That, as I recall, had a dramatic overnight impact on view counts. There were lots of posts from sellers wondering why their view count had plummeted and what had gone wrong. It gave an immediate and unpleasant clear view of how many users were actually opening a given listing.

At some point they also implemented a sliding 30-day window to show only the number of views in the past month, which caused similar questions about why the number of views was not only low but also going lower. 

On the plus side (such as it is), the listings can still come up in search results, so a good gallery photo and a clear , easily-indexed title can still help.

[adamcartwright]

@stainlessenginecovers 

See's Candies? 

They're doing great, from what I can see. The ones near me are always busy.

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@kelekt wrote:

@stainlessenginecovers 

again...that is all YOUR OPINION. fine. what you like & want and what your family likes and wants is VERY DIFFERENT from what My Family likes and wants.

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20 year Big Box Corporate Manager

It's a VERY educated 'Opinion' (backed by truth and facts). 

If your 20yr old blah blah collects, she is 1 of 1000 compared to 1 of 100 20 years ago. Fact. 

[yuzuha]

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@retromedia2 wrote:

I've asked this before but never received a relevant explanation. Ebay continues to claim there are "millions of buyers out there."  OK, so I list the same things I was listing back in the period 2006 - 2015. 

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There's your problem-- what was popular back then is not popular now. There are some items I used to sell even just three years ago that I don't bother with anymore because they don't sell these days. I'm still trying to clear out the last that I have of those things and they just won't move because the hype is long gone.

[luckythewinner]

Search on Ebay is the WORST of all sites though so good luck finding what you want even if it IS on this site.

I searched for Bob Seger Noah LP.  There were 4 results under Price - Lowest First, and all 4 were Bob Seger's Noah LP.  There were 15 results under Best Match, the same 4 from the previous search plus 11 that matched Bob Seger Noah but did not have LP in the title.  

[simba6]

It's a spot market.  There can be a lot of buyers but if none are looking for what your selling , sales can be slow.

Buying will shift to more useful items when the economy is not doing so well.  Inflation is still taking a toll on consumers.