Scavenger Life Episode 359: Painful Evolution

04/29/18 – 05/05/18

Total Items In Store: 2,398
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $60 (around)
Total Sales: $656
Highest Price Sold: $85 (Vintage Star Trek Hat)
Average Price Sold: $38.59
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 288
Number of Items listed this week: 43

I was most excited by two things that happened this past week:

1. Smart Post rates are back to close to what they were before the Jan. increase – see the posts from episode 358 at the bottom.

2. I went to an awesome estate sale. I was on the far side of town, about 45 min away, for a gymnastics meet and had to drive all the way back on a Saturday afternoon. So, with all the down time at the meet, I looked at the approximately 100 estate sales to pick which ones to stop at on the way home. I narrowed the list to about a dozen because of their proximity to the expressway. After studying all of the estate sales, I only found 1 that I was really interested in.

So, we stopped at the sale. I loved the sale. It had things I had never seen before. Most of the good stuff was from the 1940’s – 1960’s. My favorite item was about 50 1940’s Cracker Jack Battle Plane cards. When was the last time you saw those at a sale? I also found some Wings Cigarettes plane cards. I was instantly drawn to a Box of 1960’s US Maps. My first instinct was to buy the whole box of about 40. I had never seen anything like this before, but I didn’t even bother to look them up. I ended up getting the whole box for $7.50 – score. Then I picked up a 1969 Sports Coat. I knew it was from 1969 because it had the exact date on it and because it was pretty wild looking! Picked up a Football Game from 1940.

Those are the kinds of sales I am looking for and love to go to. I only come across them every so often, but they are so fun to go to and explore – almost like a time capsule.

Mark

Hey “ThriftShift” is my name! Glad you like it. It has a couple meanings I think. A second job after “regular” 8-5. Or changing a lifestyle to be more thrifty. Or shifting excess goods from one home to become income for another.

Total Items In Store: 839
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $51.80
Total Sales: $455.98
Highest Price Sold: $130 (Judaic Art Lithograph by Abram Egbi)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40
Number of Items listed this week: 27

I’m at the end of 20 years in the Marines Corps, and I have several friends who are in the same boat. One friend lives in Japan right now and has a storage unit 30 minutes from me full of furniture from a former marriage. She asked me to sell the furniture for her. It’s all grand brown furniture, very classic NC look. I didn’t really want to charge her 50% or drag it to an auction house; we are good friends. So I offered my teen daughter and her boyfriend a job. I went with them to the unit yesterday; they moved the furniture, took pictures, and I posted them on OfferUp, Facebook, and LetGo. The kids are getting 30% for the furniture. Anyway, they are happy to have made $80 for three hours of work so far, meeting people there and selling the furniture. My friend’s younger son also had a bin of 27 lbs of Legos, all mixed up. The teens spent 8 hours sorting it into bricks by color, mini-figures, and other stuff. It’s in lovely labeled gallon bags. I’ll put that up on ebay for them; they are getting $8 an hour for sorting + 25% of profit after fees+taxes taken out. Something funny happened “family-wise” too with the Lego sorting today. We actually all talked for several hours at a time, together, and joked, etc. It was nice. Normally teens are on the go. I got to hear about their lives and more. They were excited and I am happy to start having their help. Training them to take photos next for me. If any other friends want their help selling big stuff as they move onto other duty stations, we are saying 50% though.

I also applied for a PayPal Working Capital loan; I had planned to buy an expensive set of Tiffany flatware on an online auction in my town, but it got too high. So now I have money in my pocket plan to attend more auctions and really up my “high end” stuff; the teens will be attending with me and be my helpers. There is a great one coming up mid-June.

And here is my MOST awesome scavenge of the week: On Thursday I went to my favorite hidden charity thrift shop (no online presence). I bought a large leather duffel bag that I could tell was nice for $8. It sells for $650 new as a “Joseph Hanna Made in NYC” #102 “Antique Finish” bag. The donor of the bag was even there when I picked it up! She said “Ugh, I hate that old bag, it’s so cruddy looking”. It is GORGEOUS. Listed it for $590 OBO because it is beautifully distressed. Have a good week.

J&R,

I had an ah hah moment because of your comments on free return shipping in this week’s podcast. There is actually a double silver lining. 1. Buyers can not file INAD cases against a seller because of free return shipping being offered which then helps sellers protect their accounts from defects caused by buyer’s mistakes/decision making.
2. Free return shipping only means paying for the return shipping and not having to pay for the original shipping as one would have to do with an INAD case.

In addition, free returns may bring in more buyers because it addresses one of their concerns before and upon purchasing – what if I don’t like it or it doesn’t fit?

If returns remain low, this could turn out to be a win for sellers eventhough it is technically being forced by ebay.

Jay,
Yes, you are right.

Ebay needs to take INAD away as an option if sellers allow free return shipping for any reason.

It seems that ebay has still made INAD as one of the main choices for return which buyers are going to have to use to chose a reason for return, so it appears that either way a seller can still wind up with an INAD case due to buyer’s mistake in choices.

For now, ebay has configured it so that if a seller provides free return shipping they will back the seller as a way of pushing to make sure sellers do what they want. We will have to wait to see if they come through with how they handle buyers returning items and as to how they back sellers.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by AdventureE.

Week of 4/29-5/5
Total Items in Store: 2,095 (Up 41% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 124
Number of Items Sold: 80 (Up 7% YOY)
(Includes 3 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 1 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 16% (Down 5% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,142 (Up 19% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $519
Highest Item Sold: $120 – Vintage Lot of 500 Star Wars Paper Dixie Cups
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Troy leads the year at 10-8. (She is crushing right now!)

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,299
# Sold: 54
STR: 18%
ASP: $22.61

eBay Shoes
# Listed: 185
# Sold: 13
STR: 30%
ASP: $38.04

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 611
# Sold: 10
STR: 7%
ASP: $32.83

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 152
# Sold: 3
STR: 8%
ASP: $29.84

April 2018
Number of Items Listed: 477 – New Record
Number of Items Sold: 333 (Forecast: 349)

Monthly STR: 18% (Forecast: 18%)
Monthly ASP: $24.19 (Forecast: $25.89)
Total Sales: $8,054 (Forecast: $9,025) – Increase of 6% YOY

Loving the change in our business with a photographer. Veronica and I were talking how as of now, we don’t want to go back to doing it all ourselves, and feel we should have done this sooner (though we had to absorb the initial cost of the labor…and we still are a little). I didn’t list for two days this week as I had my contract accounting job, and we still listed 124 items. This is big too, as my contract job is asking for me to help with a special project a day or two each week for the next month or so. But with the assistance (and amazing photos he is doing), we can keep our listing volume up.

On the podcast, I have to say Jay and Ryanne, I love your thinking on Free Returns. At the worst, it is an experiment that you can move away from if it doesn’t work. But you also did some math and looked at what a “bad” month would be in $100 in paying for return shipping and realized that it is not a big deal and you can absorb this as part of your business in your Handling Charge. Whether as a Handling Charge, or part of your overall business, you are taking some of that potential cost and spreading it out across all your sales. It is something I’m glad to see more sellers doing: looking at the bigger picture, rather than just sale by sale.

Regarding SixBit, some information that I can tell you. Yes, the ability to have every listing backed up and relist/tweak/copy is nice. Like I discussed earlier, we had a return from Russia that was about 5-6 months old get returned to us. I just relisted. No new photographs, redoing a listing, nothing. Sometimes we get something that we know that we sold months ago that we can just tweak an old listing since it is in SixBit.

Also, yes, you can list directly through eBay and SixBit will import that listing. That is how we do things now. I list through SixBit, but Veronica lists through eBay and the listings are imported after that. She has a couple of final items to add to the database like cost and presets (the SixBit version of Business Policies), but not an issue.

Remote access I think would not work though. Since it is a database that will reside on your “server” (ours is my desktop), the employee has to be able to work in that capacity. But if you have them list through eBay now, these will still pull into SixBit. So they can work on your listings, just directly through eBay like you do now, and eventually these will pull into SixBit.

Shoot me an email if you have any direct questions. I can also give you some direct emails to some folks at SixBit that can answer direct questions. They are good folks.

I’m sure Mike will have the same information on WonderLister.

Store Week 4/29/18 – 5/5/18
Total items in store: 1654
Items sold: 16
Cost of items sold: $14.93
Total sales: $628.91
Highest price sold: $100.00 (Reindeer fur boots)
Average price sold: $39.31
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $314.75

I’ve been out of the loop and not posting for a while, but I thought I’d better get my act together and share my numbers to keep myself accountable and on track! Things have been pretty quiet, but this week was okay and I’ve had a couple of great scavenging weekends. It was funny to hear you say last week that you never see Pendleton anymore. I’m finding it everywhere the last few weeks and loving it! I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but it sounds interesting. I’ve been battling with INAD lately, and I’m almost afraid to listen!

Good Morning! Have not listened yet, thank you yet again for the consistent Sunday night/Monday morning go to.

4/29 – 5/5/18

eBay Store totommyto

Total store items: 524
Number of items sold: 12
eBay sales (not counting s/h): $423.94
Cost of items sold: $23.50
Consignment payouts: $75
Highest price sold: $75 lot of 5 ‘New Kids on the Block’ dolls
Average price sold: $35.32
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 0

Etsy Store Oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 452
Number of items sold: 6
Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $113
Cost of items sold: $17
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $35 vintage mustard color metal tool tote
Average price sold: $18.83
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 0

Last of my Northern family departs Tuesday morning. I cannot wait to get back to a consistent listing schedule! It is a great bonus that my idle stores are still producing decent income. As for scavenging, it’s more of a second or third level sifting and still discovering what I already have. I’m still dealing with a HUGE buyout from 3 months ago or so. Great things to list tomorrow, and we will see how the beasties respond to the feedings.

I have finally done real numbers for two months now. It is hard for me to believe that I bare backed my online selling for YEARS, not really knowing what I was doing or earning. When I needed cash, I simply worked harder, or even leveraged my business and took out loans. Once I sort all that out, it might lead to an interesting discussion! Now to the podcast.

Super interesting topic, listed to the show this morning. I think you made a really good decision on the free returns by adding the handling fee. I did the the handling fee a while back to help offset packaging costs, etc and now it helps with that return fee too.

Week April 29 – May 5, 2018

Total Items in Store: 930
Items Sold: 15 (1 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $78 (19.5% of sales)
Total Sales: $400.44
Highest Price Sold: $70 (1963 UK Pressing of With the Beatles https://www.ebay.com/itm/192479067906)
Average Price Sold: $26.70
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $115
Number of items listed this week: 11
Promoted listings test: 9 sales, $238.97 (59.7% of total sales), $12.50 fees (5.2% of sales)

From my all time best week ever last posting to my worst week this year. If you average the two together, though, I’m still well above where I need to be. Nothing too crazy sold this week, 11 of 15 sales were under $30, bread & butter.

Not too many picks this weekend, but I did manage to grab another amazing sealed record from the 60s – this is one of Rolling Stones early albums https://www.ebay.com/itm/192532358837).

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Brian Treasures from Grandmas.

Items in Store 914
Items Sold 18
Total Sales $474.00
COGS $62.00
Total Profit $412.00
Average profit $22.89
Average sales price $26.33

78% of my sales were either shoes or pants this week. While listing those cheap $20 or less jeans seems like a grind when doing the work, it pays off in a week like this. Pipelines, pipelines, pipelines! 8 shoes, 6 pants, 4 misc – that is how my week shook out.

Have a great week everyone. The trees are in bloom and the weather is great. It’s time to get some work done! I LOVE this time of year!

To Bonnie from California

Hello Bonnie, hope this message gets to you. Last week you mentioned about your case when your buyer opened a claim on PayPal.
Decided to write to you because I had 3 of these cases. One of them – the first – was painful and I lost because I did not know how to deal with it.

Then I learned: I always assume good intent, no matter what, even on cheesy cases you can smell stinky tofu. The thing is this one seems to be a “semi-scam”, meaning some buyers on some occasions try to warp the system and instead of open a return case on eBay for whatever reason (my two cases were one, the lady clearly wore the Armani Tallier and wanted to send back after the party, and the other the lady wanted just see the purse (which she knew I lot more than I do) and did not have the guts to do it on eBay.

So both these ladies and the first buyer opened a case on PayPal, one of them called the Credit Card company and said she never authorized the purchase, the other opened a case on PayPal stating she never received the item.

Except for the first, the latter two were really painful, took me around 2 months to be resolved on my favor, I had to provide same information over and over each time it was escalated up in their claiming process.

Cheers

PH

I added free returns on my items a couple of months ago and I’ve had 2 buyers open INAD cases during that time on clothing items that didn’t fit. It seems that buyers who have become conditioned to being dishonest in order to avoid paying return shipping will continue to do so (at least in the short term). On the bright side, there has not been an increase in overall returns.

Tax, Mint, Accountants, etc.

Folks, up until 2005 I used H&R Block for my (then) family/personal taxes. That year specifically they got me a bill of over $16,000 to pay, it was when I have up on them.
Afterwards I started to use Turbo Tax and it was just fantastic.

The thing is, years later when I had opened 2 or 3 businesses, I hired 1800Accountants and they found me so many mistakes where I could be getting money back. In summary, it is worth every penny the ~$300 per year since what I get in return easily pays for the investment. Even though I have the entire Tax legislation and buy that humongous Tax book every year, does not compare with what these IRS-certified CPA know what and how to do it legally.

Today Mint, Quickbooks, Quicken, Turbotax are all the same company. For my personal finances I use Mint, and it connects EVERY FRIKKIN’ THING, any account (gas card account, all bills even local power and water companies here in FL, insurance, etc. etc, loans, blah blah blah including my sons’). It is fantastic first for personal/family planning (a month ago I mentioned how I loved MS Money and its discontinuation was like breaking up with the love of your life). Houses and Cars it keeps market value updated and you can compare with how much you paid and with whatever loan you make.

For the Quickbooks for my today’s 2 companies, even the e-assets (thing Bitcoin and Domain name) it keeps up to the market value x what I purchased or invested on).

I just love all of these

Business Policies

When Ryanne started to pound harder on the policies, I too decided to give it a grasp. The first step was painful, but so painful, but know is like Nerdvana.. Wow, it is really great.

Now I started to receive all messages that my Top Seller plus whatever whenever is in jeopardy. And I cannot understand why. The one time this happened they were very precise, pointing to my defect rate and which were the items that impacted that. Now I am in the dark, assuming this is the 30 days free returns thing.

This weekend they sent me another email to help me how to improve and get the stamp back after I lose it in June, they listed 39 items for me to change the price, like it was a mandatory thing and one specific item I had to adjust the policies (and it uses the standard policy of the shop: same day, 30 days returns, etc).

Even though for me these changes are exactly what Ryanne mentioned in the Cast today, the issue is when I get lost not knowing why.

I’m still confused about the buyer who returned an item as INAD because it arrived late. If Jay and Ryann are in the guaranteed delivery program, why didn’t eBay cover them for that reason? Was it because the buyer opened an INAD rather than whatever option is available to buyers that don’t receive their items within the guaranteed delivery window? IS there even a return option a buyer can choose if their item arrives late and it was purchased from a guaranteed delivery seller? I’ve never returned anything on ebay so I don’t even know what it looks like on the buyer’s end. I’m wondering if Ebay has made it clear enough to buyers about which steps they need to take if they do not receive their item within the guaranteed delivery.

Toys R Us stores are closing nationwide. Buy to sell these items.
From:eBay
Sent:Apr-05-18 07:27

Many Toys R Us stores are closing near you and offering deals on inventory popular with eBay buyers. Below is information about some of the top trending items available at many of these retail locations:

Friends, I received message above from eBay a while back. Follow a list of recommendations. We have 2 of those very close and many others around 30 from my house.

The thing is the “sale” price is horrible. The end price you would pay would never sell on eBay (generalizing because I focused only on items recommended by eBay and a handful of others I am sure I can sell).

Someone else tried this?

Ryanne – I’m curious as to how you determined that the bonnet was that old. Fabric deteriorates faster than other materials. How did you get the confidence to date it to the 1800’s?

In regards to the caller talking about the scam messages, I assume that the scammer can message a seller of a sold item. The username won’t match the buyer’s, but, if the seller is busy shipping, they might not notice that the message is not legit.

Week of April 29 – May 5
* Total Items in Store: 1147
* Items Sold: 15
* Cost of Items Sold: $30.05 + $4 Commission
* Total Sales: $254.03
* Highest Price Sold: $49 Vintage Brass umbrella holder
* Average Price Sold: $16.94
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
* Number of items listed this week: 22

Another slow/soft week of sales.

Hi J&R, Busy this AM, so just a few quick things: First, Thanks for the shout out! Second: Best of luck with Free Return Shipping, but I do want to point out two things:

1. The Free Return Shipping requirement doesn’t go into effect for TRS Plus until, I think, June. It is at THAT point that ebay will FINALLY provide a way for sellers to exclude International Sales from Free Return Shipping. UNTIL ebay does that, keep in mind that you are agreeing to pay the return shipping not just on domestic shipping, but international as well. As I’ve said to the point , probably, of annoyance LOL, I’ve been offering FRS for a couple years now—-I do have some international sales, and have taken a calculated risk that I wouldn’t get hit with an international return—and I’ve been lucky so far. But keep in mind, it IS a risk you are taking. When ebay first set up the free return shipping, I was told they would consider creating a way to exclude international, but as time went on, they did nothing about it. Now, finally, we are getting some action. But, at least until June, you are stuck with the risk.

2. I don’t think ebay will get rid of INAD reasons for returns. For one thing, if a buyer has a legitimate INAD basis, as a seller I want to know. For example, if I sell an “antique” I believe to be old, but the buyer, perhaps more knowledgeable than I, says it is not authentic, I want to know, so I can re-evaluate it before I relist it. The other thing is: INAD claims can be brought AFTER my return policy (30 days) has expired. I don’t worry about an INAD during my 30 days, because the buyer can return an item within 30 days for ANY reason, and I’ll pay the return shipping. So, whether INAD or buyer’s remorse, I’m out of pocket the same amount. But if a buyer files an INAD claim after my 30 days has run, ebay (supposedly) will protect me from a false INAD claim (or will at least review it). So, INADs aren’t going way completely, but as a seller offering FRS, I have reduced the likelihood of a false INAD claim being made within my 30 days, because I’ve removed the incentive. Hope that makes sense.

J&R, I checked your store to see if free returns was advertised. It isn’t highlighted in the either in the initial search or in the listing itself. All it says is something in the return policy: “Returns: 30 day returns. Seller pays for return shipping. 20% restocking fee may apply | See details”.

I provided a link last week to a listing where I am providing free shipping and free returns, and it is well advertised in the search result and in the listing itself.

I guess my point is that the “free” returns is helping out with INAD cases, but the buyer may not be aware of it when they buy something. It isn’t a selling point if the policy isn’t advertised.

Just a comment. I still see your point in doing it, and I may implement it in the future myself.

Hi J&R – Thanks for the interesting podcast.

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2261
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales: $901
Cost of Items Sold: $63
Average Price Sold: $23.1
Average Cost of Item: $1.62
Highest Price Item Sold: $209.95 1962 New York Mets Baseball Yearbook
YTD Sales: $15681
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +29%
Number of items listed this week: 63
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 327
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 233
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 110
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.72%
# of Hats Sold: 29 (74% of sales)

My week got off to a good start with the sale of the Mets yearbook. (It was the first regular year for the Mets). I paid less than $1 for the program. I got a pile of magazines for $10 at an estate sale and the estate sale company was too lazy to see what’s I’d found in a box in the garage.

I’m glad you mentioned the pencil auction. I watched that one end and was amazed by the price. I haven’t seen pencils mentioned before.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to switch on free returns yet. I’ll be interested to see how you guys find it. I got an annoying returns this week. (2 hats sold to the same person being returned as defective where the notes say “doesn’t fit” grrrr…).

Hope everyone has a good week!

You did good splitting up the ephemera lot to sell individually. Unless they’re genealogy specific, you are not really going to get a lot for an unsorted mixture of unspecified town ephemera. Of course, other themes do well bundled up (Valentine’s, Christmas, Halloween, for example), but for town specific stuff, you are definitely better off selling item by item.

I built 2 new bookcases for my office this weekend to store unlisted books in and have found so many boxes of unlisted ephemera on the floor in my office. This is on top of the ephemera I already know I have to get listed that’s stored elsewhere. As much as I love dealing with it, you can really drown in the stuff if you don’t keep up with it. It’s just so easy to put it off to the side while you deal with larger items (books, in my case).

Returns– My stores have always been set to No Returns. So I’ll let you know how it goes for me. I just hate dealing with returns, even if I get less sales and don’t get the Top rated discount.

I just don’t like the online shopping culture that ebay is promoting on their site– where people who don’t return are subsidizing those who get free returns. I don’t trust ebay’s judgement in choosing this direction. But if I don’t have problems with my stores, then I’ll keep selling on ebay. I usually sell very unique collectibles, so I don’t think the return policy matters that much to my buyers.

Auctions– Jay, please don’t make generalizations about “people who sell with auctions.” I sell postcards individually or in groups, depending on what is most logical. Just because I occasionally use auctions (maybe 10 percent of the time or less), doesn’t mean I don’t research and only sell in big lots. 🙂 I respect your dislike of auctions and like to hear people with different ideas.

Many/Most postcards are worth $1-2 or less. So you may not want to sell every one individually. Some postcards are worth $100 or more, obviously.

Good luck with free returns! It isn’t really on my radar, I think because it’s ebay.ca. I just hope it doesn’t get in the way of partial refunds as that’s how a lot of my cases end.

On adding a handling fee, my thinking is that your buyer has a certain willingness-to-pay for a given item (say $50), and you’re already doing your best to extract that from them with a high BIN & make offer. Adding an extra dollar handling fee just means they’ll be willing to offer $1 less for the item, on average. But I think the extra “unexpected” line item in the invoice may piss off the odd buyer, so IMHO it’s a negative, not neutral. Just my two cents. As a buyer I’d rather see $49 + $10 shipping than $48 + $10 shipping + $1 handling. Still… it’s only $1.

Not a bad week for sales, and I went and picked up 2 out of town auction hauls. Both were somewhat disappointing in the flesh, but I’ll still make decent money on them. I have a lot to list this week.

Sales: CAD$603, 6 items, COGS: $47 –> Item profit $458
Expenditures: $542 (auctions) –> After-tax cashflow: -$138
Listed: 4 items, $1910 –> Replenishment (listed$-sold$): $2048
Hours: 14.5, -$10/hr
Notable sales: HP transmission line tester $20 –> $248 – this is the cherry on top from a lot of barcode scanners I made $2k on a few months ago. Buddy also had this in his storage unit and although I had a distinct clenching feeling in my wallet after buying the scanners for $500, I yoloed and bought it.

I am tempted to switch over to wonderlister after seeing some of the benefits of renewing listings so they don’t get stale. I currently use Auctiva, which certainly has its benefits (and many drawbacks), but nothing like what I am hearing from Wonder Lister. The advantage of using a third party listing service for me is the ease of posting. By basically copying old listings and changing a few words here and there + the picture, I can easily list 250 items a week and not feel like I am spending too much time doing it.

As for free returns, I started turning it on most new listings shortly after the seller update was announce. I omit bulky and fragile items from the program, as well as anything else that might take more than 5 minutes of effort to pack and ship. I also omit most clothing, since I don’t want to be in the clothing rental business. While I certainly have had my share of returns in the past 60-90 days, not a single item that was designated for “free returns” has been sent back. This covers thousands of listings too, so for me it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal.

I have been on Ebay since 1999 and am SOOO tired of trying to accommodate every Ebay whim. This Free Returns thing is the hardest to swallow. They argue that they are trying to keep up with industry standards, but I pay for shipping back to Amazon when I just don’t like something. I don’t get a free return. Where are they coming up with this “keeping up with industry standards” business? I’m sure I’ll fall in line and figure it out. But it is getting harder and harder for me. There…done complaining. Now back to listing!

April 29 – May 5
Total Items in Store: 1595
Items Sold: 29
Total Sales : $577
* below yearly average of $734
* above 2017 total week sales of $283
Highest Price: $50 (Large German Clear Sulphide Dog Shooter Marble)
Average Price: $20
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $50
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $42
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 62

After a record setting week previously, it would make sense to follow it by a soft one. Though $577 isn’t so bad. That’s about on par with what I make at my day job, though that’s not accounting fees and COGS. I wonder about the coincidence of removing free returns on everything and my sales drying up? I’ll give it another week and then turn it back on and see what happens. I’m all for experimentation, especially since I don’t depend on the sales to get by.

Interesting and thought provoking topic this week. It’s encouraging to hear your thoughts on all the change that’s happening on eBay. I’m with you about free returns. I can’t see any way that it benefits the seller, unless in the long run it attracts more buyers to the eBay platform. That’s a great idea about charging a $1 handling fee. If and when I turn free returns back on, I’m totally doing that (unless ebay takes that feature away too).

We went to look at a house on Sunday. It’s a beautiful two story home with tons of space, just what we need. The only problem is the drive to work and back…45 minutes. And it’s selling as an auction. So there’s no telling how much it’ll go for. But we’re hoping we can get it for less than $150K.

Total Items In Store: 386
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $126 + $32 free shipping/ins. + one item ours
Total Sales: $515
Highest Price Sold: $120 Cross stitch kit (paid $10 estate sale)
Average Price Sold: $43
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: about $30
Number of Items listed this week: 7

Pretty good week since I didn’t list while out of town the later half of the week. Continuing to sell off my RA inventory without replacing – probably 50% of the peak inventory level is gone now. Thrifted up by my dad’s house, so that was fun.

I’m planning to turn on domestic free returns when required for TRS+. As long as it doesn’t cost me too much I’ll leave it on and hope that I’m rewarded through better best match search results and maybe more sales, though I pretty skeptical about that last part. I’m sure I’ll be rational until I get a couple of $15-20 return hits. I’m on the fence about a handling fee because I hate the idea as a buyer of a seller profiting from shipping but probably don’t notice it. (I sometimes do not buy obviously inflated shipping cost items when shopping on Ebay on principle). I’m wondering if they will make a prominent toggle on top of the mobile search results like they did for guaranteed delivery?

I swear I saw a brief propaganda video from Ebay on Facebook the other day. It was made to promote free returns and reassure sellers about cracking down on abusive returners. It said their research projected over 20% sales growth to sellers who add it. I looked but can’t find it again to share unfortunately.

Have a great week.

I’m a late adopter in most areas of life, and am not opting into Free Returns. I’ve actually started adding more No Returns to many items (though most are vintage NOS or things that would ding a re-sell/price if it was returned; others I just don’t want to have to re-sell again). Still accept clothing on returns b/c fit is hard; I buy clothes on eBay and want the outlet for a return due to fit. I am starting to add handling fees to certain items that require more/better packaging and are sold at higher price points. Mostly $1 here and there, but some more.

Soft as heck week.

04/29/18 – 05/05/18
Total Items In Store: 926
Items Sold: 13
Total Sales: $325.20 (glad I was working another job last week!)
Cost of Items Sold: $23
Highest Price Sold: $80 – Vintage Brass Handleset w/ Deadbolt for Entry Door
Average Price Sold: $25
Returns/Refunds: 0, though an interesting continuation of the other week’s Return request of glass cooking pans, 2 of which arrived to the Buyer broken: I emailed the Buyer though the Return screen, emailed them separately through the eBay system (asking if they wanted to keep the unbroken ones for a partial refund, and asking that they don’t ship back any broken glass, etc), and never heard anything. So, after about a 48 hr grace period and silence on their part, I just accepted the return. They shipped a day within their return limit. Today, their package is delivered, using the label I paid $22 for, and inside is just the 2 broken pots. Messaged them again, then opened a case with eBay for help.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
Number of Items listed this week: 0 new, but relisted some things I had ended. Might start experimenting with 30 day vs my mostly GTC shop. Also may start looking into a Third Party Lister….assessing the business right now fo sho.

Half way through the podcast. Vented to my husband about the return policy. So I guess I have a few more days of discussing if not downright complaining. Will probably do what I usually do-let you pioneers with the bigger stores figure out what’s going on before I jump in.

Total items in store: 381 Personal high number of listings
Items sold: 9
Total sales: $170 Better than most weeks last month
Highest price sold: $37 Eileen Fisher pants. Lower than I like, but I’ve had it for years. Good to be gone
Average price sold: $18.90
Returns: 1 I had her donate They were size AAA shoes that I would never buy again
Money spent on new inventory this week: $2 I treated myself to a round at the Bins. Only 2nd time this year, since I’m working on death piles. I had some oddball items and asked the clerk for prices. He said $3. FOR THE CART! That included a bread machine which I’m keeping

Oh, the $3 became $2 cuz he was having difficulty with the register. I questioned it to make sure and got it for $2

Getting my monthly numbers in

April 2018
43 sales
$ sold (minus shipping): $1397 (goal $1k, way over this month!)
Per sale average: $32.49 (goal over $25, highest ever!)
cost per item average: $3.50

Items in store peak for month: ~530

Returns: 0

Biggest sale: Goorin Bros 1333 Minna Fedora hat for $120

This month was big for two reasons, my store had its one year anniversary (started with 50 items and now have 10x that) and I had the 2nd best month ever (other than Dec 2017). I had a couple $200+ days and days where I sold 5 items! Those are fun days. May is starting out slow so we will see if I revert back to the mean. I hope not.

I too have been thinking about turning on the free returns, I’ve gotten so few that it hopefully won’t hurt in the future or have my rate go up a lot. I like the small handling fee idea also as an offset.

I feel tempted to go ahead and put in free returns and definitely raise all my prices to cover having to refund the initial shipping as well for any returns that come in. Buyers are going to figure out very quickly that any return they do just put in the item not as described and then they’ll go after getting all their money back anyways. Basically what I’m hearing from other sellers is that all their prices are going to go up to help offset the change of Ebay not getting involved with items not as described on returns.

I heard you discussing that Offer Up allows you to ship now, rather than being one of a million other local pick-up apps. I dont sell there yet, but you guys should look into the Mercari Selling App. They are a ship anywhere marketplace like regular online marketplaces. I’ve only been selling on there for a week and I’ve sold 20 items. It’s very active and its the only app based marketplace ive seen that actually works. They have a couple quirks, they make you offer ‘free shipping’ (but just add it into your selling price), and you do not receive payment until the customer receives the item and they confirm it’s ok. They only charge a 10% fee…. So far, im liking it.

Numbers: 4/29/18 – 5/5/18
Total Items in Store: 222 eBay & 120 Etsy
Items Sold: 15 eBay & 2 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $17.49 (Approximately)
Total Sales: $348.79 eBay & $24.95 Etsy (shipping paid by buyers excluded on Etsy) $373.74 in Total
Highest Price Sold: $64.00 (plus shipping) for 8 yards of: Moda Repro Cotton Quilt Fabric Collection for a Cause Hope Howard Marcus OOP.
Average Price Sold: $21.98
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $113.50
Number of Items Listed Last Week: 8 – I was out of town for 4 days last week so not much time was devoted to listing.

Regarding the caller on the podcast this week, the same scam was attempted on my husband when he sold a $600 watch he no longer wanted. As soon as the buyer paid my husband got a message re: the watch that said: “Oh, this watch is a gift for my Dad. Please send it directly to him at this name and address rather than the name and address listed in Paypal.”
I do think a novice seller might fall for this scam. My husband is not a regular eBay seller but he of course noticed that the buyer’s eBay name and the eBay name of the person who sent the message didn’t match and ignored the message.
I’ve never had this happen to me with thousands of sales but I assume this scam is only targeted to expensive items – which unfortunately isn’t the kind of thing I ever find to sell!

I forgot to add a major reason I like this Mercari marketplace. YOU CAN LEAVE BAD FEEDBACK FOR BUYERS…. Buyers in this community must behave and they are ‘policed’ as much as sellers are…..

Hey, who flipped the bozo bit? Or who turned on the faucet?

This was suppose to be a nice relaxing Tuesday in May. Tuesday is usually my low day, 1 maybe 2 sales.

But today I have had 5 sales on ebay for $226 (decent avg of $45) plus one on Bonanza for $28. I also had 3 good questions asked that I have had to answer. It feels like it does in December, but this is May.

Not that I am complaining, but is anyone else seeing this type of activity in their store today?

Mark

Mark, it’s pretty well all crickets over here. Sold 1 pair of vintage slippers in the last few hours…

Congrats on a great day! 🙂

April 29 – May 5

Total Items in Stores: 955 + 560 + 260 + 1077 = 2,852

Items Sold: 31 + 24 + 24 + 7 = 86

Total $ Sales: $701 + $323 + $270 + 90 = $1,384

High Price: $178 Carolina Herrera Dress, $61 Eileen Fisher Dress

Average Price: $16.09

Total Spent: $200

Returns: 4 (all had free returns but 3 were INAD also but because it didn’t fit! which makes no sense)

Listed 93

Notes: I had a bad cold this past week so I feel a little run down and pessimistic, although my numbers were good for me this past week so I should probably just feel good about it. I guess I’m weirded out by having great weekends and then Tuesdays and Thursdays will be like no sales at all, it just seems so random. The free returns thing has me a little bummed out, my husband keeps telling me to switch it back to buyer pays for returns – he is flabbergasted about the free returns thing, but I’m going to stick it out and see how it goes. I did have a really good sale this week, it was an auction on a designer dress, so having the auction go up high was kind of fun to watch. I’m just hoping the buyer likes it and keeps it. I met with a fellow ebayer friend this week, he does consignment stuff on ebay and he couldn’t believe that I do so many clothes listings. Having my daughter helping with the photos really helps me to go fast when I’m listing. I still haven’t really broken out of clothes and into vintage stuff, which was sort of my goal for this year; I still mostly do clothes. So ho hum, I’ll get out of my funk when this cold is completely gone.
Meantime, I’m very thankful for the podcast & this community.

P.S. I started cross posting certain brands from ebay to Poshmark. I haven’t been listing much on Poshmark, but when I did the cross posts it seemed to make me get some sales. I’m just going to cross post by a few particular brands so that when that brand sells I’ll know to take down the duplicate listing. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Poshmark is something I am interested in. Please let me know how it goes:

1) How long does it take to cross-list?
Like 2 minutes or less, very quick and simple, its just copying and pasting.

2) Men’s, Women’s, or Both?
Both.

3) How fast do items seem to sell?
It depends. The big downside to Poshmark is you have to do sharing and following etc., the more followers you have, the more likely people will find your stuff; the other downside is that I think the fees are a little more than eBay. The upsides are no returns, no listing fees, selling fees are straightforward – ie. easy to figure out how much they are, and shipping is extra and is paid by the buyer.

Our Store Week April 29-May 5, 2018

Total Items in Store: 1586
Items Sold: 31
Cost of Items Sold: $33.23
Total Sales: $686.95
Highest Price Sold: $59.99 (Blackwood Brothers 5 CD box set)
Average Price Sold: $22.16
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $6
Number of items listed this week: 59

Soft week, for sure. But I’m ok with it because I have a new way of working in place that is already boosting my productivity.

Last week, I came to realize that my entire way of working was, well, NOT working. I’m a night owl, so I would usually work from around 2pm to around 11pm, roughly the same hours I worked at the record store. I thought I was getting the same amount of work done as the 9 to 5-ers, but that definitely was not the case. Truth is, I wasn’t even close to getting as much done as I should have been. So I completely changed my schedule. I’m up at 7am, then work a full 8 hours, if not more. I am shocked and pleasantly surprised how much I’m getting done on eBay and in other areas of my life. I’m more motivated. My house is clean. I’m drinking less. I’m actually tired when I crawl into bed. I don’t think I’ll ever be a morning person, but I’ve been pushing through the discomfort and getting things done. Feels great.

Have a great week, all!

Paul

I haven’t listened to the whole podcast yet and am not ready to do my numbers, but I wanted to let you know Ryanne, there are a couple of possible answers I wanted to share with you. 1. you can get a list of your whole store through file exchange for free. just download the active (or whatever type) of listings you wish and it will be available in minutes for download, but the photos won’t be there. 2. I am working on a file exchange solution for enabling remote workers to be able to load listings into a spreadsheet and it would include photos, for free. I’m close to having that work. I’ll put my results in the thread that’s going about WL and 6bit in the random thoughts section. hope that helps some.

Can’t wait to become a senior in the sleep sense, not just the fact that I like nights in, comfortable shoes, and cottage cheese with applesauce, lol. 🙂 I need about 9 hours. Any less and a nap is definitely in my afternoon plans…

I do try to get up early and hit the ground running, hopefully after an evening of creating some drafts – I’ll start with photos to get some good and easy listing momentum, and keep going from there. I tend to slow down around 2p or so, and take a change of scenery with a podcast, cleaning, etc. Then back to it, unless something else takes precedence.

@KatieScott, feel better! You’ll get your cheer back. I was thinking the other day of how you’re killing it with clothes, despite wanting to branch out. Go ahead and go with what’s easy to you, and branch out with some good and obvious sourcing when it presents itself. And enjoy the easy shipping! I can’t do clothes to save myself, unless they are of that “good and obvious” sort; they’re just not my natural skillset, I’m learning (though obvious when I look at how I dress myself). I feel like, for clothes (and shoes, more often than not), I’m in the business of storing rather than selling, so wondering how to flip that equation… 🙂

@T-Satt: it’s borrowed from someone else on here! 🙂 Always aiming for the latter, and start to feel discouraged when I look around my office and feel its the former….oy.

Jay’s question: Do you get paid right away, or do you wait till the buyer receives the item and approves it? Yep, you have to wait until the buyer gets it and accepts it which usually takes a couple of days.

I spoke to Ebay in length today on setting up free returns. The person I spoke to was very candid with me and he said there’s no question that buyers are starting to frequently put “item as not described” in order to try to get free returns. He told me that Ebay is encouraging sellers to go ahead and set up free returns so that they don’t have to hassle back and forth with buyers that clearly just have buyers remorse.

I’ve already had two buyers lie to me this week about things they claim weren’t pointed out in the descriptions (that I know for a 100% fact didn’t exist when I sent the items to the buyers) . One actually marked the front of the garment and claimed it wasn’t shown in the photos!! I wish I was kidding. Now as to no surprise they want to know how they can “get a free shipping label,” to ship the item back. My guess is that it didn’t fit. All to get the free returns back. The worst part is that both of these buyers are Ebay sellers, they should know better.

So onto free returns I go.

I called Ebay and told them that I was going to just give the buyers a free return label, but that I wanted to make sure that my top rated status wouldn’t be affected by the buyer’s that claim “item as not described.”

The rep told me that it would affect my status eventually and to start free returns and that should help stop buyers from claiming something is defective.

To answer your question, when I called about returns I got an automated system at first that told me to deal with the buyers directly. Once I eventually got a rep on the phone she said that if this new buyer claims defective then I should call back and dispute it so it doesn’t affect my store. I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what the buyer is about to do, so I’ll be calling Ebay back today to dispute it. My photos are super clear that there was no mark on the item, so I’m curious as to which way it will swing. To be continued….

annie, I have had very few returns, period (I’m pretty small, and most of my items aren’t high return type items). In the last 12 months I’ve had one return. My buyer notified me he loved the coat but it just didn’t fit (yes, I had included measurements) I made clear that he should just return it on my dime, no problem, and he gave me glowing feedback.

I suspect some buyers will continue to make false INAD claims even if a seller offers free return shipping, probably because the buyer hasn’t checked to see that the seller offers FRS. Thing is, as long as they don’t actually file a claim, just give the INAD as a reason for the return, I don’t think it matters. They do it within my 30 days, I provide the return shipping label, they send it back, I relist. No stress, no calls to CS, just simple straightforward return. Even if I suspect the reason they give for the return is bogus, it doesn’t matter….I can handle it as I would a legit reason return.

I’ve seen sellers saying for a long time saying “Ebay needs to DO something about false INADs!” Well, like it or not, ebay has done something: they are promoting free return shipping as the solution. The more sellers provide FRS, the fewer false INAD claims there will be.

Jay – I haven’t had any problems on Poshmark with people getting the shipments. The only complaints I have with Poshmark are that the sales on Posh only really happen when you are actively sharing etc. and that the offers are pretty lowball (so you need to mark your stuff up).

(I did have the blackhole New Jersey problem on eBay when someone hacked into my account and purchased as though they were me and sent it there – in the end it got resolved & I got my money back.)

Oh, annie, just want to be clear: I’m not saying you should not contest existing claims, I just think you might be able to avoid them in the future by using FRS.

Here’s my numbers:
sales count 21
net $331.58
average price $18.96
STR 1.72%
#items in store 1222
returns 2
cost of returns $50.49

My returns were for a lot of craft books and a pair of glasses. In one instance the books didn’t include the cds that were originally with the book. I missed that and didn’t include that information in my listing. My fault completely, I issued an immediate and full refund and fell all over myself apologizing. The buyer actually left me positive feedback. The other return, the pair of vintage glasses, occurred because the buyer said they found a lower price from another seller. I had sold the 1970s Gant aviator glasses for 39.99 plus shipping. The other seller was only charging $17 for the same pair. My was returned, but I realized an $8 restocking fee. So, at least there was some offset. Sales were lighter than prior weeks, with no real boost realized from either promoted listings (which are glitchy on many levels) or sales (which I went as deep as 40% off with little bump in sales). I did run a number of auctions, approximately 122, but they all ended in this week’s numbers on Sunday & Monday. I’ll be able to share those positive results after next week’s podcast.

Oh, and I listed approximately 50 items.

Talk soon all. Marjean28

Had a fun time last night.

I recently drove 3 hours to pick up an auction haul that turned out to be rather disappointing when I arrived. I bid blind on some boxed kits (PTO shifters, if you care), and when I got them it turned out the kits had been raided for parts. So it looked like I paid $50 for about $100 worth of stuff, hardly worth the drive (had been hoping for $1000+).

The lot came on a pallet with a huge pile of other junk. Random gaskets and screws and rusty old chunks of metal. I threw out quite a bit in a bin at the auction site. Brought the stuff that wasn’t rusty or broken home, figuring I’d look it up just in case but probably take it to the dump.

Well I processed it last night and lo and behold, the random steel brackets I got are commercial semi-truck parts that are long-tail, but should bring $200-400 each. Plus a bunch of other unprepossessing stuff like a rev limiter. So I’ve just listed $2000+ of stuff I didn’t know I was getting, while what I actually bid on will get me just a little better than breakeven.

<jackie_chan_drunken_master.gif>

It’s been a totally crazy week and I’m just now (Saturday) getting around to listening to the podcast. I am definitely seeing the spring slow down. I went three days in a row with no sales! Whaaaaat? I had a better week than I anticipated given the 3 day drought, but nothing to get overly excited about. Of course this slowdown coincides with the best two garage sale weekends of the year. Combining the two weekends I spent around $170. Hope the new stuff starts selling!

eBay April 29-May 5

Total Sales. $94.18
Items in store. 1,000
Number of items sold. 14
Avg. sale. $6.73
COGS. $7.18
Ret/unpd/canc. 0/0/0
$ spent on new. $92.05
# listed. 51
Highest Sale. $12.00-Red Fostoria coin candlesticks

Just getting here to post my numbers. It was a very discouraging week with sales that tanked. I haven’t started my business policies yet. I tried once, got scared off, and backed out. Maybe I’ll try again.

Date: April 29-May 5
Numbers:
Total Items in Store:
Cost of Items Sold:
Amount of Items Sold: 20
Total Sales: $568
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Weathertech floor mats)
Average Price Sold: $28
Returns: 1 ($40)
Money Spent on New Inventory: $383
Number of items listed this week: 21 🙁

Did anyone mention yet that Scavenger Life was mentioned on Ask Griff & Lee today? Someone called in to verify if eBay reps no longer get involved with INAD cases, until after the case is closed, and mentioned that he heard it here. Griff said there are no changes to how they manage return cases. He then went on a rant about why eBay wants to make returns easier for buyers, and against making business policies based on fear of what might happen instead of actual data. That’s what I love most about Griff. Keeps me grounded with reminders that the best policy is to do what’s best for my customers, instead of worrying about protecting myself against what MIGHT happen. Who needs the stress?

It was a good segment. If you want to listen, it is segment 2 of episode 504 found here: https://www.voicemarketingradio.com/

Rob,
I think it is very important that all sellers listen to the segment you included, so I am putting it in a seperate thread to make it highly visible.

Hi guys, I’ve been catching up on your podcasts when I can and I also was always concerned about a full business shut-down/ glitch. Are your listings retrievable? Rather than a total store shutdown, I would worry more about violating something unknown / being reported, etc. and automatically becoming suspended or shutdown. Although my store has always been legit, I always wondered if our accounts were accidently deleted, suspended, shut down IN ERROR, does Ebay preserve all the listings. How many times have you clicked on an item and seen “Sellers Account Suspended”. I’m sure they didn’t have a say in that matter, so what happens to those sellers/and their listings? I don’t know.
Anyway although I too am not a big fan of third party, I always keep a bookmark link for File Exchange (FE) for their tools. I’ve built very complex Excel workbooks with drop downs and everything you can image to be used as a Bulk Lister and found could not keep up with Ebays constant changes….but they have a tool to download: All Active Items (.csv)
The download backs up:
All Item IDs
Titles
Start Price
Quantity
Custom Label
….all for free subscription to FE.
I have 625 items in my store and it puts all the above info + some to a nice spreadsheet.
If listing high volume like you, might want to make it a monthly routine to just download actives.
As far as backing up photos, I would guess you’d be paying for that
You can also download Sold, Archived, + more for past 90 days all in a spreadsheet (to search for a keyword in Excel for example)
Its my monthly backup routine for Titles/prices/custom Label…Also I quit my wage slave life and am pushing hard to net what I was at that job….with two kids! Thanks guys!

I have screen shots of FE steps, if you actually really cared. Later