In a recent video on social media a person filled their car tank (there have been countless memes and videos of visits to the gas station), and the total was $105.00 dollars. Gas, at an average of $4.14, has caused shipping prices to increase, but while I thought it wouldn’t affect sneaker sales, it appears I was wrong. Original Gangster Ice-T even tweeted a joke that he was robbed and called the police. The criminal? His gas pump. StockX, not stating that they are making decisions based on the gas prices, has adjusted their long-term policy for Level 4 and 5 sellers. Traditionally high-level sellers could contact a rep and get times adjusted, but in recent months policies have been changing on StockX. The screenshot below is of an e-mail to sellers on StockX. The message was sent on Friday the 25th. The note doesn’t really give insight into how the site has changed. In previous years the company didn’t charge for returns. This policy has ended. Now the company appears to buffering itself. Consider that most Level 4 & 5 sellers have systems in place that may require them to adjust their shipping times and it seems counterproductive for StockX to ding its best sellers. I’ve long stated that it’s impossible for StockX to continue operating without adjusting several aspects of the business. It appears they are slowly adjusting and it makes perfect sense. Sales have slowed across the board in resale.
eBay Is Also Adjusting
eBay ended their long standing no fees on sneakers above 100 dollars. While eBay still claims the best fees in the business, it’s becoming apparent that the issues facing traditional retailers are now shaping resale. One of the most blatant adjustments on eBay has been the need to add “Promoted Listings” so that items can gain visibility. This “unwritten” requirement when listing on eBay actually increases the fees eBay is claiming as the lowest in the business. While there are a ton of discussions taking place around the work eBay is doing, I think the most telling aspect is looking at a year over year comparison of a week on eBay. To imply that sales are down, requires proof. I took a moment to utilize a research tool to search the term “SNEAKERS” on eBay. The result gives a metric showing the decline in every aspect from Mar 28th to April 3rd, 2021 compares to March 21st to March 28th, 2022. The research tool only allows research over the course of a year. Since today is the 28th, I can only search from the 28th. What you’ll find below is that all of the following metrics decreased since last year:
| 2021 | 2022 | Percentage Change | |
| Average Sold Price | $99.15 | $91.00 | -8.22% |
| Total Sneakers Sold | 199,832 | 174,881 | -12.49% |
| Total Sellers | 56,803 | 51,589 | -9.18% |
| Total Sales | $19,813,342.80 | $15,914,171.00 | -19.68% |
This is a troublesome chart for a variety of reasons, but like StockX, eBay limits the amount of research which can be done on the platform. StockX lists sales for up to a year. To truly understand the gravity of this topic, research would have to begin now, and it would have to document every month in 2021. As the months arrive in 2022, numbers would have to be checked according to the same search requirements. This is only one researched post on the topic. the chart above doesn’t even approach the Sell Through decline. Look at the year over year drop off for these time periods. I will do an update on this post at the end of April to compare a longer timeframe. My predictions will be that sales in April of 2022 will show a decline of 13% – 18%.