When something doesn’t sell, the instinct is to look at the listing.
- The photos.
- The title.
- The description.
- The price.
I did this for years.
Every slow item became a small project. I adjusted, refreshed, rewrote, waited, adjusted again. It felt like work. It felt responsible.
Most of the time, it was the wrong response.
Over time, I realised there are only two reasons an item doesn’t sell:
- Either people don’t want it
- or people can’t see it properly.
Those are very different problems. Treating them as the same is how you end up stuck.
The mistake I kept making
I treated everything as a listing problem by default.
If something didn’t sell, I assumed I hadn’t presented it well enough yet. That assumption quietly removes the need to make a harder judgement about demand.
A listing problem is comforting.
A demand problem forces a decision.
Once I saw that pattern, I started asking a simpler question instead.
The only question that matters first
Is there evidence that people want this item at all?
Not hope.
Not theory.
Evidence.
Demand leaves traces. It always does.
- You see it in completed sales elsewhere.
- You see it in how quickly similar items move.
- You see it in whether people even bother engaging.
If there’s no evidence of demand, no amount of listing work changes that. All it does is extend the time you stay exposed to the mistake.
What a real listing problem looks like
A listing problem is narrow and specific.
It usually shows up when:
- Similar items are selling consistently
- Your price is in range
- Your item is comparable in condition
- But yours is being skipped
That’s rare compared to how often we assume it’s happening.
When it is a listing problem, the fix is usually obvious and limited. One or two changes. Then a decision point.
What it isn’t is an ongoing process.
If you’re revisiting the same item repeatedly over weeks or months, you’re no longer solving a listing problem. You’re avoiding a demand judgement.
What a demand problem feels like (but we misread)
A demand problem feels like silence.
- No watchers.
- No questions.
- No movement.
The mistake is interpreting silence as “not optimised yet” instead of “not wanted”.
Silence is information. It just isn’t flattering.
Once I accepted that, things got calmer. I stopped arguing with the market and started listening to it.
Why this distinction matters
If you misclassify a demand problem as a listing problem, you pay for it in time and attention.
You keep thinking you’re working on the item, when really you’re just keeping it alive.
When you correctly identify a demand problem, the next steps are different:
- You stop investing attention
- You consider reframing, bundling, or exiting
- You free capacity for better decisions
None of that is optimisation. It’s judgement.
The rule I use now
I don’t try to improve listings until I’ve convinced myself demand exists.
If I can’t do that, I don’t touch the listing. I touch the decision.
That single shift did more for my reselling than any tweak ever did.
This post is part of the series:
What to do when items don’t sell (and why optimisation isn’t the answer)
The full series links judgement-based decisions together, instead of treating each item as a problem to fix.
