Ebay Sales Down

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

At the counter it is $8+ to ship cross country right now.

I print my labels the only time I wait at the counter is for a scan on G/A items and those are not often

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

At the counter it is $8+ to ship cross country right now.

Indeed, and it’s insane. Of course, counter shipping is for suckers.

[rwperu34]

Here is some comedy. I almost got myself a non-payer hit because I thought I was combining shipping, but it was different seller with a similar name

[byronscott4ever]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

Here is some comedy. I almost got myself a non-payer hit because I thought I was combining shipping, but it was different seller with a similar name

I once had the same buyer with two IDs buy the same day

[AM22RC21CR8]

Is there a way to find sellers who are offering sales like buy 5 get 5 free or 40% with purchase of 10?

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by AM22RC21CR8

Is there a way to find sellers who are offering sales like buy 5 get 5 free or 40% with purchase of 10?

I don't know if you can find a random seller that is running a sale, but if you're on a seller's store home page there is a tab for sale items. Up at the top you'll see;

Shop Sale About Feedback

When you click sale, it will take you to their sale landing page. From there you can click on any particular sale they are running and it will show you the eligible items.

There is also a button in advanced search, but it never pulls up any of my items that are on sale.

[GoodMorning]

Hey everyone,

I used to follow this thread closely a couple years ago. Back then, there were a few sellers here moving a ton of low-end singles. I remember Mr. One Million Cubs had 50,000+ active listings, mostly under $2 with free shipping, and relied on high-volume sales to make it work. I looked at his eBay page, and all of the listings seem to be gone.

At that time, eBay Standard Envelope was 57 or 60 cents, and has since gone up to $0.74, I’m curious if anyone is still running that model successfully.

If you’re still doing high-volume low-end:
What is the lowest price point you list at nowadays?
Have you changed how you source or price to keep margins workable?
Do you still do free shipping on sub-$2 cards, or did you move away from that?

I’d love to hear what’s working (or not working) in the current environment. Thanks in advance!

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by GoodMorning

Hey everyone,

I used to follow this thread closely a couple years ago. Back then, there were a few sellers here moving a ton of low-end singles. I remember Mr. One Million Cubs had 50,000+ active listings, mostly under $2 with free shipping, and relied on high-volume sales to make it work. I looked at his eBay page, and all of the listings seem to be gone.

At that time, eBay Standard Envelope was 57 or 60 cents, and has since gone up to $0.74, I’m curious if anyone is still running that model successfully.

If you’re still doing high-volume low-end:
What is the lowest price point you list at nowadays?
Have you changed how you source or price to keep margins workable?
Do you still do free shipping on sub-$2 cards, or did you move away from that?

I’d love to hear what’s working (or not working) in the current environment. Thanks in advance!

Onemillioncubs is selling on eBay Live now, which is why all his low end listings are gone.

I've never been set up to do $1.50 or $2 with free shipping cards. Right now I'm not buying anything that I would list for less than $2.99 + shipping. The way I've handled the rise in ESE cost is I've raised my shipping charge.

Where I'm running into problems is on the break between $19.99 and $29.99, due to the rising cost of shipping. I've pretty much stopped buying anthing I think should sell for $30. If I do buy it I pay my $20 price and list it for $19.99 and just sell it quickly. One thing that would help is if they raised the single card max for ESE to $25, even if they keep the $50 order max.

[ClevelandIC]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

Onemillioncubs is selling on eBay Live now, which is why all his low end listings are gone.

I've never been set up to do $1.50 or $2 with free shipping cards. Right now I'm not buying anything that I would list for less than $2.99 + shipping. The way I've handled the rise in ESE cost is I've raised my shipping charge.

Where I'm running into problems is on the break between $19.99 and $29.99, due to the rising cost of shipping. I've pretty much stopped buying anthing I think should sell for $30. If I do buy it I pay my $20 price and list it for $19.99 and just sell it quickly. One thing that would help is if they raised the single card max for ESE to $25, even if they keep the $50 order max.

For my $20 - $30 stuff I've been at $24.99 + $1.32 - if someone buys at BIN price, I ship with bubble mailer, if someone makes ANY offer - I counter with $20 and ship via ese. If the $25 spot doesn't work - I do $29.99 with Bubble Mailer Shipping.

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by ClevelandIC

For my $20 - $30 stuff I've been at $24.99 + $1.32 - if someone buys at BIN price, I ship with bubble mailer, if someone makes ANY offer - I counter with $20 and ship via ese. If the $25 spot doesn't work - I do $29.99 with Bubble Mailer Shipping.

How does this work if you're advertising Ground Advantage? or are you just advertising a generic first class service.

[Budler]

Originally Posted by GoodMorning

Hey everyone,

I used to follow this thread closely a couple years ago. Back then, there were a few sellers here moving a ton of low-end singles. I remember Mr. One Million Cubs had 50,000+ active listings, mostly under $2 with free shipping, and relied on high-volume sales to make it work. I looked at his eBay page, and all of the listings seem to be gone.

At that time, eBay Standard Envelope was 57 or 60 cents, and has since gone up to $0.74, I’m curious if anyone is still running that model successfully.

If you’re still doing high-volume low-end:
What is the lowest price point you list at nowadays?
Have you changed how you source or price to keep margins workable?
Do you still do free shipping on sub-$2 cards, or did you move away from that?

I’d love to hear what’s working (or not working) in the current environment. Thanks in advance!

As just a buyer I have known a few high-volume low-end sellers. That is where I got a lot of cards from as my want list is full of low-end stuff. The last one quit about a year ago. His reasons were.
1. Harder to find low-end cards at a fair price that will move and not set for months.
2. Cost of shipping.
3. Fee cost of sites he used.
4. The little profit he was making was not worth his time and effort. Easier to sell bulk and about the same profit.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by Budler

As just a buyer I have known a few high-volume low-end sellers. That is where I got a lot of cards from as my want list is full of low-end stuff. The last one quit about a year ago. His reasons were.
1. Harder to find low-end cards at a fair price that will move and not set for months.
2. Cost of shipping.
3. Fee cost of sites he used.
4. The little profit he was making was not worth his time and effort. Easier to sell bulk and about the same profit.

All of the above are true.

I used to list a lot of cheap stuff albeit not in the quality of others and it's a lot of time getting piles of cards listed and eventually packed out for mailing. COMC is where I went with my $2 cards. Now, I mainly list $3+ cards on eBay and only those that I expect a relatively quick sale (within a couple months).

It's definitely getting harder to find quantity of cheap cards as well. I scour shops, shows, flea markets, or wherever I might find cards. Bargain boxes at shows are getting fewer and farther between, are overpriced (by bargain box standards), or stocked with junk nobody wants. Boxes at shows are being replaced with showcases filled with slabs along with piles of Pokémon I only loosely deal with (and only if I have time after scouring sports stuff). Plus, there are more people looking for the same stuff and some attempt to buy the entire box. While I still very much actively pursue those boxes, I often find myself spending more time looking for sorted raw that can gem. The only reason I have any inventory recently is by hitting a multitude of card shows across state lines, but that well will gradually dry as it's usually the same dealers with the same stuff at every event.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

It's definitely getting harder to find quantity of cheap cards as well. I scour shops, shows, flea markets, or wherever I might find cards. Bargain boxes at shows are getting fewer and farther between, are overpriced (by bargain box standards), or stocked with junk nobody wants. Boxes at shows are being replaced with showcases filled with slabs along with piles of Pokémon I only loosely deal with (and only if I have time after scouring sports stuff). Plus, there are more people looking for the same stuff and some attempt to buy the entire box. While I still very much actively pursue those boxes, I often find myself spending more time looking for sorted raw that can gem. The only reason I have any inventory recently is by hitting a multitude of card shows across state lines, but that well will gradually dry as it's usually the same dealers with the same stuff at every event.

To add to this, I've noticed both the quantity and quality of cheap (call it $1.25 or less) cards available on eBay has gone down. So much so that I have changed the way I look for those.

[jamcas997]

I have a seller that I buy numbered, parallels , refractors and color prizms from for about 25 cents each. All I have to do is sit for one to two days at the local show and fill up a 3200 count box. It is a $300 cost most cards net between 55 cents and $4. I have graded a few also and netted $30 plus on show sales.

[beauspencer]

I remember Mr. One Million Cubs had 50,000+ active listings, mostly under $2 with free shipping, and relied on high-volume sales to make it work. I looked at his eBay page, and all of the listings seem to be gone.

I am still on eBay...and actually doing MORE volume. Pretty much exclusively selling on eBay Live now.

Up until July, I had 60K listings and after starting on eBay Live at the end of April the BIN sales were really slowing me down. Taking down all of my listings was the best decision I made.

[thenightman]

Been hearing about this hack a few times now, so I decided to try it out and I have noticed an uptick in views and sales.

eBay prioritizes the first 56 characters in a title for placement, so the most important attributes should go first.

So, instead of,

2025 Topps Chrome NBA Cooper Flagg Refractor RC Rookie

It should be,

Cooper Flagg RC Rookie Refractor 2025 Topps Chrome NBA

[jamcas997]

I have Always used the Players name first.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by jamcas997

I have Always used the Players name first.

Yeah. Even beyond the algo, as a buyer it's so much easier to tell what I'm looking at when listed that way.

[rwperu34]

November sales up significantly vs October, but down 23% vs last November. That's two months in a row I've been down about that much. So far in December I'm down about that much as well (granted it's only five days).

ETA: That was 9.4% of my average daily listed inventory. I want to be between 14-21%.

[jamcas997]

November was down from October, but not much. It was also much better than last November. December is starting slow but better than last 2.

This is a strange thing however. I had 220 plus items with watchers sent a few offers out and on Sunday morning my watched items were down at 125 items.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by jamcas997

This is a strange thing however. I had 220 plus items with watchers sent a few offers out and on Sunday morning my watched items were down at 125 items.

I'm certain many folks add items to a watch list in hopes of getting one of those offers. Then, when one shows up not as good as hoped, off the watch list.

I've had good success using that send offer option when either needing a few extra bucks or moving the more stale inventory. Stuff overall is moving relatively quick these days so I don't use it as much as I used to. I've listed around 50 cards in the last month and sold 75. Wishing I held on to some of the stuff I sent to COMC.

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

I'm certain many folks add items to a watch list in hopes of getting one of those offers. Then, when one shows up not as good as hoped, off the watch list.

I've had good success using that send offer option when either needing a few extra bucks or moving the more stale inventory. Stuff overall is moving relatively quick these days so I don't use it as much as I used to. I've listed around 50 cards in the last month and sold 75. Wishing I held on to some of the stuff I sent to COMC.

Let me revise eligible items for offers. When you send an offer the numbers come down. I had over 225 eligible items and sent about 25 offers out and went down to 122 when it should have been about 195-200 some. A lot of the items are under $3 and I am not sending offers for $3 free shipping items when it is usually the lowest listed. I have also never seen a dip that far of eligible items change.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by thenightman

Been hearing about this hack a few times now, so I decided to try it out and I have noticed an uptick in views and sales.

eBay prioritizes the first 56 characters in a title for placement, so the most important attributes should go first.

So, instead of,

2025 Topps Chrome NBA Cooper Flagg Refractor RC Rookie

It should be,

Cooper Flagg RC Rookie Refractor 2025 Topps Chrome NBA

I started tinkering with my titles, but didn't like the way they read. Finally I asked my consultants (Gemeni and Chat GPT). It turns out I was already pretty damn close to optimal. The only thing I needed to do is move PSA back a little bit.

What I used to have;

Player PSA 9 Year 1st Bowman Chrome Auto Refractor /499 Yadda Yadda

Now;

Player Year 1st Bowman Chrome Auto Refractor /499 PSA 9 Yadda Yadda

[rwperu34]

Alright. I got sucked into an hour long convo with Gemini. The end result is I am going to start running 1¢/free shipping auctions as a loss leader on a regular basis. The key point Gemi made is if I run two a day (out of 2,000 listings), even if every item ended at 1¢ it would cost me less than $75 a month. Obviously they won't all end that low. Even if those buyers aren't the one's that come in and buy my higher priced BIN (althoug it happens), this should help boost my store and search ranking and overall sales. In theory.

I've currently got 245 items listed under $2, all with zero cost basis. There are another 30-50 on march to under $2 in the not too distant future (I lower prices incrementally every 4 weeks). Some of those cards would eventually sell, so that's another part of the cost. But most of what I have listed under $2 right now (especially at 99¢) is pretty bad and headed for a Card Show Ready Lot.

The one area where I'm going against the reccomendation is I'm running them 7 nights a week at 5 days instead of just Sun/Mon/Tue at 7 days. Although thinking out loud here, what I might do is run them at 5 days except for the one's that start on Sun/Mon (run them at 7). That leaves me no 1¢ auctions ending on Fri/Sat. Then again, do I want to ignore the Fri/Sat people or should I try and draw them into my store as well? Maybe just a straight 7 every night.

ETA: My first two, starting tomorrow, are guys that got traded this week. Perfect!

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

Alright. I got sucked into an hour long convo with Gemini. The end result is I am going to start running 1¢/free shipping auctions as a loss leader on a regular basis. The key point Gemi made is if I run two a day (out of 2,000 listings), even if every item ended at 1¢ it would cost me less than $75 a month. Obviously they won't all end that low. Even if those buyers aren't the one's that come in and buy my higher priced BIN (althoug it happens), this should help boost my store and search ranking and overall sales. In theory.

I've currently got 245 items listed under $2, all with zero cost basis. There are another 30-50 on march to under $2 in the not too distant future (I lower prices incrementally every 4 weeks). Some of those cards would eventually sell, so that's another part of the cost. But most of what I have listed under $2 right now (especially at 99¢) is pretty bad and headed for a Card Show Ready Lot.

The one area where I'm going against the reccomendation is I'm running them 7 nights a week at 5 days instead of just Sun/Mon/Tue at 7 days. Although thinking out loud here, what I might do is run them at 5 days except for the one's that start on Sun/Mon (run them at 7). That leaves me no 1¢ auctions ending on Fri/Sat. Then again, do I want to ignore the Fri/Sat people or should I try and draw them into my store as well? Maybe just a straight 7 every night.

ETA: My first two, starting tomorrow, are guys that got traded this week. Perfect!

That's an interesting thought and something I may try.