Bringing back bad memories. My construction loan in 1981 was 17% and we were completed in 90 days since NO ONE was building. Permanent financing was 21% at my "friendly local bank." Ended up with a "negative amortization" deal and owed more every year for two years until rates started coming down.

This was in one of my morning reads today:

"U.S. credit card balances failed to decline in the first three months of 2023 as Amercans found themselves increasingly burdened by the relentless grip of chronic inflation. Total credit card debt stood at $986 billion in the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit on May 15, showing a record 17 percent jump year-over-year. Total household debt rose 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2023 to a record $17.05 trillion."

Add THAT to the recent stories (shocking to say the least) that IN PERSON shopping is making a comeback and on line sales are suffering.

Buckle up folks, it's going to get rocky.

Feels like something is wrong. Sales are much too slow (Tuesday May 16 2023).

Our sales are more like pre-covid days - Covid years were bonkers with with buyers and now they have cut back but now for us more like our 'normal' -

I've been selling online off and on since 2004. It does seem like sales have ground to a halt lately. I'm not really surprised, though, given the state of the economy.

I've sold "unnecessary media" items on Amazon and Bay since 2001; concentration in sci-fi and comics, with many general books.. only 5,000 items on Amazon since I moved a year ago;sales since May 1st, seem almost non-existent. And there isn't a lot of competition for what I sell; most collectibles are 20 to 30 years old now, former store inventory. I will add another 5,000 items over the next 3 months, and hope this is just a temporary hiatus in sales........the Bay is worse.

Oh, I forgot to mention my pet theory is that the Amazon Re-verification that started about 3 ,months ago, has broken the site, because of sales velocity limits placed on sellers undergoing the process; I verified OK after 59 days, when I finally submitted documentation to satisfy the requirement. And other sellers are being required to do it a 2nd time (not me) after having been successfully verified first go-around.....site is broken.

My sales were slowed right after re-verification and have not come back full strength. It took 3 weeks to get them back up and they are still 30% below normal. I had to move some items to the bay to make up for the difference.

I am in the same situation considering dropping Amazon all togther. There is a programmer that is deliberately blocking sales as far as for me, I don't know your situation, but this perso was a relative is out to "ruin" me - Stopping sales on Amazon won't stop me.

So there's nothing we can do knowing all this?

What do you do in order to list Hallmark ornaments? I have sold before but now they are being flagged an intellectual property violation and they want a letter from Hallmark saying I can sell. Hallmark will not give a letter to random people who sell their own collection, they only give it to their store owners.