It’s the end of an era! As I mentioned in this post, I’m closing my eBay Store. This doesn’t really mean much as I’ll still be selling on eBay and other platforms. But it does represent a big shift that’s been going on behind the scenes.

I used to have thousands of items listed in my store at a time, now I have less than 100 items up for sale. I used to juggle two or three Trading Assistant clients at a time, signing new ones every time I finished a contract, and now I’ve only got one with no interest in signing another. He even offered me more items and I refused them. I used to have a big stack of packages to go out every day and now leave a meager package or two for my carrier each week.

All of this is tied to the most important difference: I used to make more money from selling things online and writing about e-commerce than I did from fiction writing and that’s not true anymore. If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense, the saying goes, and I’ve been following the paychecks which means reserving what little time I have these days for the stuff that pays the most.

store closed photo

Photo by Random Retail

This shift hasn’t happened in a vacuum. I spoke in this post about how I’ve also been reevaluating the time I spend on this blog and whether it’s worth continuing unless there’s a big shift in its profitability.

Listings items is very time consuming because of set-up and whatnot compared to writing and much harder to do here and there in the little moments of time I get to work. I’m not selling less because the market has changed. I’m selling less because how I work has changed now that I have so little time. Listings items wasn’t giving me a good time to payout ratio. An hour spent listing an item for sale means a single paycheck once in the future and then I have to list something else to earn more. An hour spent writing a play means a continuous future income in the background while I work on the next thing and that passive income and investment in future earnings is hard to refuse. Even a freelance article with a single time payout benefits my career more in the long run than a single item listing.

So I’m pulling back on selling. That means I list items here and there, when I find the time, but I’m not longer taking on new clients and trying to hit items listed quotas. I’ve transitioned from PowerSeller to casual seller and it’s weird… but also feels right for my life right now. My goal at the moment is to slowly work my way through all the remaining collectibles inventory I’ve got on hand (which is still a ton, mind you) without acquiring more* and then decide where to go from there.  It may mean getting to the point where we no longer sell collectibles, just our own products we produce ourselves (such as our collectibles guides). Or my daughter may start school and I’ll have so much time on my hands I’ll be right back up to my old volume. I cannot see this happening here in this reality but who knows? Anything could happen!

But I’ve had an eBay store and been a part of the PowerSeller program for so long, it’s weird to be saying goodbye, even if I’m still selling and may someday be back.  It does feel like the end of an era but I’ve never been one to fear change so, in a way, it’s left me feeling a little freer. I know I’m not the only long time this seller making this change recently. Would any of you who have downsized your selling or changed your business like to chime in on how that transition worked out for you.

*= Within reason. If I see a good deal, a sweet TA contract or an item I can flip, I’m not going to be stupid about it. I’m still me, after all. 😉

Photo by Random Retail