posted on April 22, 2001 08:23:22 AM new
Is just me or are bidders drying up of late.
My sales have been slow the last couple of weeks. Anybody else find sales slow? Any possible reason?
posted on April 22, 2001 09:07:31 AM new
Join the club Ellis
My sales have been down over the last two years figures by about 20% for the last 2 weeks
WHY?
There's the $64,000 question. There are many reasons.
There are a LOT more sellers in almost EVERY category. The economy. The fact that most collectors collections are getting to the bursting point from the availability of so many items that they collect.
I collect a particular obscure european comic character (Asterix the Gaul)
In the decade B.E. (Before ebay) I had a whopping total of 4 items in my collection.
Since the dawning of A.E. (After eBay) I now have over 300 different items from pencils and figures to postage stamps and cigar bands!
I have enough good items to start a bloody museum if I wanted to.
Now I ONLY look for the most rare items in my collecting category before I add any more.
Since eBay began I have started 6 totally unrelated collections of things I "LIKE"
I just got no more room. I have things I was sure I "HAD" to have packed up in cartons in the basement. In the garage. Even at my mom's house 3000 miles away!
Of course I now "LOVE" all of my collections and dont have any place left to show them off so I've had to just stop buying almost EVERYTHING!
I think that since most of us on eBay buy things that we "collect" as opposed to buying things we "need", that eBay has reached a saturation point
I think that if the biz slows down enough that the casual seller gets out the hard core sellers will pick back up.
I am probably in the top 10% of sellers in my category and have been around long enough with enough repeat buyers and word of mouth that I should be OK.
One thing I have noticed is that a LOT of newbies have tried to jump in thinking to make a quick buck and they're finding it not that easy. The problem is that these newbie sellers are having a tuff time getting started and are burning buyers either through greed or ignorance and THAT gives all sellers a bad rap, especially with the newbie buyers who may get burnt by one of these fly-by-night sellers and get turned off on the whole ebay experience.
I have faith, that just like the stock market, this too shall pass and also just like the stock market, if you play the game for the long haul, you WILL come out ahead in the end.
