How are your Sales doing????
thedutymon
Posts: 4,323 ✭
Morning,
Just leaving for work for another 12 hour day and was checking E-Bay Sales over the last 24 hours and another $0 Sales day. Along with the Sales total for the last 7 days of $88.47 and the last month of $736.70. This makes this the worst Sales trend I've ever had in the last 3-4 years. Previous Quarter was $5853.51, and Quarter before that was $6888.68. Its like customers have dropped off the map!
I understand the enonomy and all, and the fact I didn't run many Auctions the last month (Too busy with work), (and Auctions Which I have proven too myself drive Sales) but this is just rediculous!
Anybody else have a snapshot of how there stuff is doing?
Curious if its my particular inventory or more part of a bigger picture happening. I know that here in the mountains of Colorado, Jobs wise, that we are where the rest of the country was about a year ago, we are just now hitting bottom. We went from local papers Employment ads advertised from 200-400 per day to 20-30 Hire Me ads, and that's it!
Officially told yesterday, No Pay raise second year in a row, My Health Insurance is going up 15%. There even making us pay $25 per Flu shot for me and the kids, Insurance has always covered this before! Wife's teachers pay has been cut second year in a row, another 5% on top of 6% last year, her Health is going to cost her another $100 per month out of pocket.
Neil
Just leaving for work for another 12 hour day and was checking E-Bay Sales over the last 24 hours and another $0 Sales day. Along with the Sales total for the last 7 days of $88.47 and the last month of $736.70. This makes this the worst Sales trend I've ever had in the last 3-4 years. Previous Quarter was $5853.51, and Quarter before that was $6888.68. Its like customers have dropped off the map!
I understand the enonomy and all, and the fact I didn't run many Auctions the last month (Too busy with work), (and Auctions Which I have proven too myself drive Sales) but this is just rediculous!
Anybody else have a snapshot of how there stuff is doing?
Curious if its my particular inventory or more part of a bigger picture happening. I know that here in the mountains of Colorado, Jobs wise, that we are where the rest of the country was about a year ago, we are just now hitting bottom. We went from local papers Employment ads advertised from 200-400 per day to 20-30 Hire Me ads, and that's it!
Officially told yesterday, No Pay raise second year in a row, My Health Insurance is going up 15%. There even making us pay $25 per Flu shot for me and the kids, Insurance has always covered this before! Wife's teachers pay has been cut second year in a row, another 5% on top of 6% last year, her Health is going to cost her another $100 per month out of pocket.
Neil
Actually Collect Non Sport, but am just so full of myself I post all over the place !!!!!!!
0
Comments
What are you selling?
My guess would be the so called recovery has stalled a great deal in September and unless you have items that are either very rare or very high in demand such as key stars rookieslike Jordan etc., it is slow. There are a lot more sellers then buyers it seems on these boards and that would indicate that you have many either trying to sell for cash purposes or they think prices are going lower in general. I have read tons of threads where the minute someone gets a sub back it is hitting EBAY vs. staying in their personal collection. This is a trend that suggests a greater number of net sellers then buyers.
I have only sold maybe 15 items and my auctions have done great but I am not a major seller at all and just have moved some things out to improve other parts of my collection.
the market is not eager right now to claim all that is available, there are far more biscuits than dogs.
i envy you for having a job which requires you to spend most of your waking hours earning the money you can't currently generate on eBay......there's a lotta folks who have neither a job or a biscuit.
and i don't feel too bad about your insurance costs, mine just went up 20%.....first premium due Nov. 1
the employer who pays it is me.
no "Yee Haa!!!", this must be serious.
But all in all, the economy is really going in the crapper. Home prices crashing, used vehicle prices going up, insurance going up...everything is going in a very bad direction.
So where does that leave us who enjoy collectibles? Only big ticket items seem to be the hot spot with only a few exceptions. If you are a seller, I only see our hobby getting worse...possibly much worse. If you are fortunate enough to be a buyer, its a good time to buy and is going to be even a better time to buy later. Set up at a show and see how much stuff you can buy at insanely low amounts. People get upset when you offer them 10% of book or even 30-40% of what they would sell for on ebay...but for others, money talks and people will sell cuz they need that cash.
Shaqfu on ebay....he goes to tables with wads of cash and buys complete tables for pennies on the dollar. Sometimes he just cherry pics and dealers will sell to him for 15-20% cuz he is spending a couple grand or more with them. Takes money to make money as they say. A LOT of desperate people out there.
So when I hear of sales going down, it doesnt surprise me in the least. It's a reflection of the "real world".
These guys spending hundreds, even thousands on low pop cards must have lost a bucket load of cash...but some are probably in a position to not care. Im sure there are a few ready to hang themselves like guys on Wall Street who have lost everything.
No wonder there are guys Shilling like "He who must not be named" Avada Kadavra!!!
I was looking for a raw Bob McAdoo card recently, and there were 5 BINs, 4 of which were NESC's items. There are 6 available on Sportlots.
I think a lot of people have given up on selling stuff on eBay, and the customers have stopped looking.
My last 7 is $71, and my last 30 is $91. I've listed a lot less, because eBay restricted my 3000 FB, 100% account... I only sell 4 or 5 items a week, and got some 1s or 2s (apparently from one of the "I won my auction yesterday, where the **** is my card???" noobs... = 5% of my 30 day sales (1/20=5%), so I had selling restrictions placed on me.
In the same month, I've had two new sellers that I've had to file claims against for not receiving items. eBay continues to run off decent sellers, which leaves the NESCs/Sellers That Shall Not Be Named, and the new idiot thieves. The economy is a part of it, certainly, but eBay's ignorant practices exacerbate the situation.
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
Fiveniner, Im lucky enough to have a really great card shop near me. He deals mostly in modern but often gets great vintage that he doesnt even set out. All you have to do is ask. I think he has a customer base for most of that stuff so doesnt need to put it out for sale. But if anyone wants to open a shop, take a look at this guy....integrity, honesty, personality, and enjoys sports. The guy does a ROCKING business. Definitely a rarity that Im lucky enough to have near me.
What does your wife teach? I plan to teach composition and literature when I graduate.
BTW - I sell used books on Half.com/eBay and made almost $11,000 net last year. This is usually the slowest time of the year for books, but I have seen a drastic drop in sales this 10/10 compared to 10/09.
Also, grading being very inconsistant is not helping any of this in vintage cards. Lots of EOT on crack outs from PSA holders...This is very disturbing. One has to remember when cracking things out--that Baker and the boys used to grade lots of cards for PSA so there may be a large quantity of trimmed cards in holders.
Neil, I hope things pick up with your sales.
Mickey71
<< <i>Health care costs going up, what copays and what insurance is paying/covering is going down. It looks like the health insurance companies WANT to go out of business and just hand it all over to national health care. Maybe they are seeing what the next 10 years will bring and are saying, "Hey, we better make our money now before we shut down!" Believe me, I see it...I work in healthcare. The worse the economy gets, the more business hospital gets. It doesnt equate to being in the black. Medicaid, Medicare, and insurance companies are lowering the reimbursement rates drastically. And who are the patients using the ERs? Its all the people that our taxes pay for...not so many are those who have private insurance. Im so sick of seeing full workups on people who are there for a sniffle. Go to a regular doctor! Ok, thats my rant...lol...q]
MY GOLD TYPE SET https://pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/complete-type-sets/gold-type-set-12-piece-circulation-strikes-1839-1933/publishedset/321940
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
Aint that the truth! A large part of my law practice is estate planning and rich people are just waiting to see what the tax laws are going to be. We need some certainty so rich people start hiring lawyers again. Start with the tax laws and then I will have more money to spend on Ebay!
<< <i>The joke around campus has been "I'm staying in school for as long as I can" because there are just about zero jobs out there. I considered getting a part-time job at petco or petsmart now that my school work has lightened up...noooope, will not even give me an interview! And I have 20 years experience in the industry and a decade managing >>
How old are you?
While I agree that part of the problem is a poor economy, another significant part of the problem is that too many people are either not smart enough, not savvy enough or not energetic enough to start their own business. This is something that just blew me away in the past two years, when people would come on these boards and talk about being out of work for a year, etc. etc., and how tough things were for them. Meanwhile I'm looking at all kinds of low-hanging fruit on Ebay that could put $200-$350 a day into someone's pocket if they just wanted to dig in and work for it.
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<< <i>The joke around campus has been "I'm staying in school for as long as I can" because there are just about zero jobs out there. I considered getting a part-time job at petco or petsmart now that my school work has lightened up...noooope, will not even give me an interview! And I have 20 years experience in the industry and a decade managing >>
How old are you?
While I agree that part of the problem is a poor economy, another significant part of the problem is that too many people are either not smart enough, not savvy enough or not energetic enough to start their own business. This is something that just blew me away in the past two years, when people would come on these boards and talk about being out of work for a year, etc. etc., and how tough things were for them. Meanwhile I'm looking at all kinds of low-hanging fruit on Ebay that could put $200-$350 a day into someone's pocket if they just wanted to dig in and work for it. >>
I'm 29 -- started working full-time at eight in the family business
Staring a business has always been difficult, and even more so today. While there are some good deals on sites like eBay, that's income people cannot count on.
i guess working from home 16-18 hours a day beats earning some other schmucks' money from 9 until 5 after sitting on a freeway for an hour or so in both directions.....there is a lot to be said for the satisfaction one can derive from turning dirt into diamonds in their own mine.
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<< <i>The joke around campus has been "I'm staying in school for as long as I can" because there are just about zero jobs out there. I considered getting a part-time job at petco or petsmart now that my school work has lightened up...noooope, will not even give me an interview! And I have 20 years experience in the industry and a decade managing >>
How old are you?
While I agree that part of the problem is a poor economy, another significant part of the problem is that too many people are either not smart enough, not savvy enough or not energetic enough to start their own business. This is something that just blew me away in the past two years, when people would come on these boards and talk about being out of work for a year, etc. etc., and how tough things were for them. Meanwhile I'm looking at all kinds of low-hanging fruit on Ebay that could put $200-$350 a day into someone's pocket if they just wanted to dig in and work for it. >>
I'm 29 -- started working full-time at eight in the family business
Staring a business has always been difficult, and even more so today. While there are some good deals on sites like eBay, that's income people cannot count on. >>
There's no such thing as income that you can count on. And while starting and running your own business is indeed tough, it beats sitting in mom's basement smoking Bugler tobacco and watching The View.
<< <i>Boopotts, i respect your opinion, so much so that i took it as a call to arms when you posted something similar several months ago.....being unemployed is just a good excuse to become your own boss and get good at it, and you're right......there is still a lot to wade through on eBay, and the right amount of effort can yield rewards.
i guess working from home 16-18 hours a day beats earning some other schmucks' money from 9 until 5 after sitting on a freeway for an hour or so in both directions.....there is a lot to be said for the satisfaction one can derive from turning dirt into diamonds in their own mine. >>
I completely agree. But even if someone feels differently-- i.e., they'd rather pour slop from a bucket for a boss than work for themselves-- spending hard time online making a few hundo a day is definitely better than sitting around the house feeling hopeless.
I have made a lot of very bad career-oriented decisions in my life, but one decision I made that I'm still very proud of was my resolution to make sure I would always have something to fall back on if everything crumbled around me. I have a good job right now, but if that went south tomorrow I could pick right up and make an easy 60K a year with my own head and two hands.
Edit to add: Ha!! No sooner does this conversation start up then this article pops up on Yahoo.
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<< <i>The joke around campus has been "I'm staying in school for as long as I can" because there are just about zero jobs out there. I considered getting a part-time job at petco or petsmart now that my school work has lightened up...noooope, will not even give me an interview! And I have 20 years experience in the industry and a decade managing >>
How old are you?
While I agree that part of the problem is a poor economy, another significant part of the problem is that too many people are either not smart enough, not savvy enough or not energetic enough to start their own business. This is something that just blew me away in the past two years, when people would come on these boards and talk about being out of work for a year, etc. etc., and how tough things were for them. Meanwhile I'm looking at all kinds of low-hanging fruit on Ebay that could put $200-$350 a day into someone's pocket if they just wanted to dig in and work for it. >>
I'm 29 -- started working full-time at eight in the family business
Staring a business has always been difficult, and even more so today. While there are some good deals on sites like eBay, that's income people cannot count on. >>
There's no such thing as income that you can count on. And while starting and running your own business is indeed tough, it beats sitting in mom's basement smoking Bugler tobacco and watching The View. >>
A steady paycheck at a job is money you can count on -- err you know what I mean. This is what so many people are missing in their lives right now and what they want back.
Now, if you mean extra income, I think working at a gas station would be better IMHO. But starting a business, and keeping it as your main income is an extremely hard to do and almost always requires a little bit of luck. If I had bills to pay and a family to raise, I would be looking for something to give me a steady paycheck, but that's just me...and why I have no children of my own
<< <i>That's a good article. During my first 2-3 semesters in school I thought it was crazy that I would buy a used book for $50 and sell it back for $10 then see them re-sell it for $50 -- now I visit book sales, library sales, thrift stores (all in my spare time) and last year made almost $11,000 profit selling used books online through eBay and Half.com -- This year I am already past the $11k mark and at the fraction of inventory sold from last year (carrying less books and selling them for more). This used book business is something I do very very part-time and is rewarding beyond belief. >>
Oh yeah there is still a lot of money to be made on eBay. Sports cards are not the market to make it in right now, unless it is wrastlin' cards.
Really though I have been making a killing this year flipping Magic the Gathering cards and collections on eBay. This week alone I am having around $1500 in auctions end with an investment of around $700 total in those cards. What is great is I have a couple major online websites that also buy cards from me so for every $1 I sell on eBay I have been selling around $1.50 worth of cards to them.
The money is out there to be made, sadly I think the best way to make money right now is taking advantage of other people's misfortunes who are desperate for quick cash to pay their bills. Craigslist is huge for great deals from these types of people.
You are right about the wrastling cards as you call them. I could flip tons of my cards that I get made fun of for buying for 300% to 1000% profit. On average every wrestling item I have sold as been at least a 400% or more gain with some much hgiher. That is why I find it so amusing people make so much fun.
Take your Magic the Gaterhing cards, making 50% every time is awesome. Who cares if it is not some legendary baseball player.
<< <i>BrendanB,
You are right about the wrastling cards as you call them. I could flip tons of my cards that I get made fun of for buying for 300% to 1000% profit. On average every wrestling item I have sold as been at least a 400% or more gain with some much hgiher. That is why I find it so amusing people make so much fun.
Take your Magic the Gaterhing cards, making 50% every time is awesome. Who cares if it is not some legendary baseball player. >>
Almost nobody makes fun of you for buying the cards you like (wrestling).
Either way you collect what you like and if you can make money doing it that is a great bonus.
I turn my profits on sales into more Wrestling All Stars cards. There is no card dealing profession for me what so ever.
I would agree though that if you can remove the emotion from this game you can make a ton of money if you are not fooling with the crowded legendary baseball space.
My sales on ebay have been down this year over last couple and prices down also, I would say in the 10-20% range. The good news is I have a good job and its a great buyers market, almost too much good stuff to buy I need to slow down.
You are now the world's biggest hater champion!! Get a life bro.
In real life you are probably just as lamb as he is.
<< <i>Why hijack every thread with your stupid lamb comments. >>
Can we get a copy of your degree from this prestigious financial institution your always talking about?
Looking for 1970 MLB Photostamps
- uncut
Positive Transactions - tennesseebanker, Ahmanfan, Donruss, Colebear, CDsNuts, rbdjr1, Downtown1974, yankeeno7, drewsef, mnolan, mrbud60, msassin, RipublicaninMass, AkbarClone, rustywilly, lsutigers1973, julen23 and nam812, plus many others...
sorry drinking before start of tonites game...
Looking for 1970 MLB Photostamps
- uncut
Positive Transactions - tennesseebanker, Ahmanfan, Donruss, Colebear, CDsNuts, rbdjr1, Downtown1974, yankeeno7, drewsef, mnolan, mrbud60, msassin, RipublicaninMass, AkbarClone, rustywilly, lsutigers1973, julen23 and nam812, plus many others...
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<< <i>Why hijack every thread with your stupid lamb comments. >>
Can we get a copy of your degree from this prestigious financial institution your always talking about? >>
Maybe he got his edjamacation from here
I am in the white shirt, you guys already know what I look like
Here is my Economics major and Business minor from Rollins College in Winter Park, Fl, graduated magna cum laude
My liscense plate on my car
There you have it
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
<< <i>If I graduated magna from somewhere, anywhere... I bet I'd be able to spell words like "license" with dam near 100% accuracy. >>
Dpeck has trouble with 3 or 4 letter words like "damn"
<< <i>Snooki >>
Exactly that's what I was thinking
A friggin Jersey Shore episode
Let me add I have no problems with fake racks or used Porsches but posting pictures... really!?
Home from my 12+ hour day (Travel time on top of 10 working). I see this got some good mileage until it went off track a little bit towards the end here. Anyway, interesting reading, I am hearing here a lot of what's been going on my mind. As much as we all want things to be on the uptick, in reality they aren't. Two years ago I had the best job I ever had, today I characterize it as the worst I've ever had (Long story), but as some said....I have a Job!!
Putting it into perspective and keeping it card real, I recieved the package with the two POP 1 1971 GEM MINT 10 Milk Dud Boxes, which I was going to throw straight up on the Bay with a 10 day see what happens, but now I am paused. I think I am going to wait till after the Election, I think that is what a lot of people are doing nowdays!!!
I really like the comments about the Health Care situation and the fact, that I believe as well, that it is just a matter of time before as a For Profit Industry it is gone. In fact over the last couple of years I have divested myself of all funds that have any type of Health Care component, because when it does go, as it should, like the rest of the Industrialized World....Government Health, Health care Stocks won't be worth the paper there printed on!!!!
Have a Great Evening, and I hope Sales pick up a little bit....Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Even though Baseball is Boring, last nights game was a little fun to watch!!!)
YeeHah
Neil
By the way, my used Porsche 911 Turbo as you call it has 23,000 miles on it and is a beast.
My wife with the fake rack, is out of all of your leagues.
My worthless degree from Rollins College just so happened to help me land an awesome job.
As soon as the stones quit getting thown I will quit fighting back.
I am a very serious card collector that is why I am here. I happened to collect wrestling cards. Big deal.
The wrestling cards I collect just happened to be the strongest cards on the market.
I am not leaving the boards. You guys almost got your wish on the last wrestling thread and the personal attacks were out of control. Too bad. I enjoy keeping up with cards and your just going to have to deal with it.
<< <i>This is a rich thread! A guy has a degree from a college I have never heard of, an old Porsche and a girlfriend with a fake rack. Ohhhhhhh, I am impressed. What's next you going to post a picture of your 1040? Come on dude, really!?
Let me add I have no problems with fake racks or used Porsches but posting pictures... really!? >>
Given some of the dragons the guys on these boards are bunking up with at night-- and yes, I've seen enough 'family pictures' here to confidently assert that not all who frequent these boards are particularly discriminating in their affections- posting pictures of a fine looking gal who at some point was your amour isn't a bad way to flip the finger to your antagonists.