How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing eBay Antique Sales – Appalling Downward Trends Continue in 2016

You are searching about How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing, today we will share with you article about How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing was compiled and edited by our team from many sources on the internet. Hope this article on the topic How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing is useful to you.

eBay Antique Sales – Appalling Downward Trends Continue in 2016

eBay Antiques – A Dead Marketplace in 2016/17?

It’s been about 2 years since I last wrote on this topic and I thought I’d share some developments since then.

The Context

Let’s give this some, I hope, credibility to begin with. Just who am I and what real knowledge do I have on this subject?

Well, I’ve been selling antiques (mainly clocks, watches, silver and some military items) on eBay since 2004. All in all then, that’s about 12-13 years, so I know what I’m talking about.

That’s why when I say that eBay has pretty much died as a sales channel since around 2013/4, I speak with knowledge.

Who is this aimed at?

Why do I bother? That’s simple because my target audience consists of two broad categories of readers:

  • buyers/collectors who wonder where all the eBay antique “opening bid” bargains have gone and

  • new up and coming antique dealers who have a passion for old things and think they can combine that with profit.

In this article, my messages for both parties will not be warm comfort but hard facts. Be warned!

Today’s reality

It’s almost impossible to get hard statistics on this topic, but I’ve seen some sources that suggest worldwide, only about 1 in 6 antique ads on eBay actually result in a sale. Most of these are of the cheap-and-cheerful variety consisting of items (of whatever genre) priced at less than 50 ($/£/Euro). For anything of higher quality and therefore value, the figure is likely to be MUCH lower.

In general, if you offer an item for sale at a fixed price (or minimum opening bid level) – it will almost certainly not sell. If you put on a low start opening bid and hope for a ‘result’ then 90% of the time you will be disappointed and take a loss.

An exaggeration?

Well, take this as an example. Recently I experimented with an open zero bid on a late 19th century French Bronze piece (urn) in the art nouveau style. It was about 15 cm tall and a very beautiful thing. It sold for 0.50p – yes, you saw that right, 0.50 PENCE!

New Traders – BEWARE

For business people, this kind of thing is a disaster.

You can continue to advertise all you like and help make eBay even richer, but in general, unless you reduce your prices to loss-making levels, you won’t sell anything. If you advertise at a fixed price or realistic starting prices, your ad will be ignored.

Now I know there is always the odd exception. Sometimes a piece will do well – but they are the rarity. I speak to hundreds of traders in many countries and the message is the same”eBay is a disaster for selling quality items“.

So, remember the next time you watch one of those TV antiques shows where people make a lot of money – it’s very likely staged and some of the valuations of the items “found” while hunting are completely ridiculous. Most of what you buy for sale, you will be stuck or end up selling for a loss.

*** WARNING TO NEW TIPS ***. One of the most common things I see now are beginning traders walking around markets and estate clearance sales with the much dreaded smartphone in hand. Time and time after time, I hear them look at an item and frantically search for it on eBay and excitedly proclaim to the person with them “look, people are asking XYZ amount for these on eBay – so this price here must be cheap”. Just yesterday I saw this happen no fewer than four times at a large estate sale.

WRONG! There is a HUGE difference between the prices you see people asking for an item on eBay and the actual value of the same to a professional. Some people on eBay are asking for amounts that are almost 100% higher than the realistic RETAIL value of the item. They have no chance of selling their stuff for anywhere remotely close to what they are asking.

Remember as a professional you need to base your idea of ​​how much you want to buy an item with the idea of ​​reselling it, based on what you have seen others SOLD for in a retail environment like eBay and then pay maybe. 75% less than that to give you room for tax, expenses and profit margins etc.

Buyers and Lovers of Antiques

Now there is or should be a salutary lesson here for you too.

For every dealer I talk to who moans about eBay, I talk to probably 3 collectors/buyers who moan that you just can’t find good antiques on the forum anymore or rather, not at reasonable prices.

Now here’s the conundrum – what do you mean by “sensible prices”? These days too many buyers interpret that to mean “next to nothing”. So, they do not bid, buy or bid but instead wait in the hope that the sellers will be driven in desperation to advertise their goods on open zero start bids, then they will get what they want for next to nothing.

Fair enough in a sense but be aware – this attitude helped to almost kill eBay as a viable trading conduit. If you think the price is not too bad, then buy the thing! Don’t just get paralyzed by indecision and end up doing nothing in the hope that you’ll see it again soon at a lower price.

If you continue your current behaviors, online antiques sales in an open bidding context will become a thing of the past. You will return to expensive High Street antique shops with big ticket prices or the same online. It’s the buyers who are killing eBay right now, so if you’re one, don’t complain about its demise!

General Market Forces

One final contributing factor that must be considered.

It goes without saying that people just aren’t buying antiques, of any genre, like they were before 2008 and probably even until 2013. All of a sudden the heat just went out of the market. There are odd “hot spots” like Chinese Art that might flare up for a few months before dying down, but overall, people just aren’t interested in buying.

That is, of course, to hit eBay hard.

This is not unique. Fashions come and go and while everyone suddenly wants (eg) flat pack “Scandinavian style” furniture of poor quality, albeit of clean design lines, then antique dealers specializing in say solid wood furniture from bygone eras will find great success.

These things go in cycles and have been seen before. This “antiques are boring” cycle may last longer than ones I’ve seen in the past, but it will swing back.

When it does, it may help things on eBay pick up – assuming there’s any viable eBay antiques market to pick up!

Video about How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing

You can see more content about How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing on our youtube channel: Click Here

Question about How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing

If you have any questions about How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing, please let us know, all your questions or suggestions will help us improve in the following articles!

The article How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing was compiled by me and my team from many sources. If you find the article How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing helpful to you, please support the team Like or Share!

Rate Articles How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing

Rate: 4-5 stars
Ratings: 1228
Views: 42648360

Search keywords How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing

How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing
way How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing
tutorial How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing
How Can I Find My 3 Month Old Ebay Listing free
#eBay #Antique #Sales #Appalling #Downward #Trends #Continue

Source: https://ezinearticles.com/?eBay-Antique-Sales—Appalling-Downward-Trends-Continue-in-2016&id=9636684

Related Posts

default-image-feature

How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Play Tennis The Abdominal Training Secrets Interview

You are searching about How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Play Tennis, today we will share with you article about How To Teach A 3…

default-image-feature

How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Play Soccer What Everybody Ought to Know About Coaching Youth Soccer – The Top 5 Factors For Fun and Success!

You are searching about How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Play Soccer, today we will share with you article about How To Teach A 3…

default-image-feature

How Can I Better Handle My 3 Year Old Classroom Four Tips To Handle A Child Who Lies

You are searching about How Can I Better Handle My 3 Year Old Classroom, today we will share with you article about How Can I Better Handle…

default-image-feature

How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Play Football Should Girls Be Playing Youth Football? NO

You are searching about How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Play Football, today we will share with you article about How To Teach A 3…

default-image-feature

How Big Should A 3 Year Old Corn Snake Be Earth Goddess

You are searching about How Big Should A 3 Year Old Corn Snake Be, today we will share with you article about How Big Should A 3…

default-image-feature

How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Identify Letters How To Find Out-Of-Print Sheet Music

You are searching about How To Teach A 3 Year Old To Identify Letters, today we will share with you article about How To Teach A 3…