January Sales start early!

If you have been anywhere near the shops this weekend you can’t fail to have noticed all the signs in the shops advertising price cuts of up to 50%. Whilst the media are busy writing hundreds of stories claiming this is due to the ‘credit crisis’, that’s not entirely true as this type of promotional sales have become quite common over the last couple of years.

What was unusual were the tactical/discrete sales that were in abundance a few weeks ago with just about every major retailer sending out discount vouchers to just about anybody. This had the advantage of not cannibalising retailers sales to those that are less price sensitive as they still paid the full price if they weren’t in possession of a voucher.

With the economic downturn more of us full into the price sensitive category and hence why every retailer was keen to make us feel special with one of their magic vouchers.

But hey, not wanting to be beaten I reneged on my post from a couple of weeks ago when I said I had made my final sales on eBay this year and held my own January sales as eBay were once again offering a free listing weekend (those boys in California must be really struggling to attract sellers at the moment!).

I managed to sell eight items that had previously failed to sell, although the fact that they had previously failed to sell twice reflected in the low sale prices they achieved. However despite this I was still able to make a £20.41 profit after my Paypal fees and postage costs.