Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality?

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- 05/13/2018 at 3:31 pm #39786
  Ryanne
  Keymaster
  Location: Virginia
  @ryanne
  A big conversation on the forums this week was about diversifying our stores by selling on other sites like Etsy, Bonanza and Mercari. But being on
  [See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality?]
- 05/13/2018 at 4:35 pm #39791
  totommyto
  Participant
  Location: Naples, Fl
  @totommyto
  This sounds like a great one, going to post numbers first, hooked on doing them now.
  
  5/6 – 5/12/18
  
  eBay Store totommyto
  
  Total store items: 524
  Number of items sold: 9
  eBay sales (not counting s/h): $712.01
  Cost of items sold: $25
  Consignment payouts: $166
  Highest price sold: $235 1:18 scale diecast car
  Average price sold: $79.11
  Returns: 0
  Spent on new inventory: 0
  Number of items listed this week: 10
  
  Etsy Store Oldfleatoymarket
  
  Total store items: 457
  Number of items sold: 4
  Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $63.50
  Cost of items sold: $7
  Consignment payouts: 0
  Highest price sold: $30 vintage Shaun Cassidy doll
  Average price sold: $15.87
  Returns: 0
  Money spent on new inventory: 0
  Number of items listed this week: 2
  
  To the podcast…
  Take Care
- 05/13/2018 at 6:37 pm #39793
  totommyto
  Participant
  Location: Naples, Fl
  @totommyto
  Hello Jay and Ryanne and community,
  
  I opened my Etsy account 4 years ago after selling on eBay for around 12 years. Another YouTuber presented the case, and it seemed like a wise move, take a loaf of bread out of the basket and put it someplace else.
  Etsy sales are anywhere from 1/4 – 1/10 of where my eBay sales are week to week. To be fair, eBay gets my better, higher value items, having the most traffic.
  The eBay platform is the ‘go to’ when someone is looking for the strange or rare. It is big time branded. It’s like if you need cola quick for a party, you grab a case of Coke, or if you you need a box of good cigars fast, you grab a box of Macanudo. Even though there is a better product out there perhaps, you just grab the household name brand, and your choice will get you by. Certainly this contributes to how eBay continues year after year, it is entrenched as the go to in most cases. Whether it’s pleasing people at the time or pissing them off, people throw their money there regardless.
  Etsy is a great place for my smaller niche items like miniature dolls, old keys, enamel lapel pins, and other such things. It feels like a real multiple pipeline to me, quiet in some niche areas for weeks, then a nice slew of sales out of nowhere. Also, I enjoy the curator aspect on Etsy when I list the more enjoyable items. There is a dormant collector inside of me that the Etsy process caters to. It is also refreshing to offer 1-2 days handling rather than 1 day handling. Two day Shipping on Etsy is fast Etsy shipping indeed compared to other Etsy sellers! If you can make it on eBay, especially TRS, it’s easy to be a standout on Etsy, all things being equal.
  Somehow, the Etsy buyers seem friendlier. I have never had a rough experience even as I close in on 800 sales, and the feedback just flows along nicely. Sellers do not leave feedback. What exactly produces this pleasant mojo I cannot quite put my finger on. I never did duplicate and cross list eBay to Etsy. It just did not feel right doing that. Many times while researching an item to list on eBay, the high item competition is a bummer. Go to Etsy and see a fraction of that same item listed. You can list with less competition and even sell at a greater price, not too much greater, but more in most cases. Perhaps the lower traffic balances that out a bit, with the item taking longer to sell, I’m not sure. It is also just a nice change to switch over and list on Etsy after doing a bunch of eBay listings. It really is an entirely different animal. The fees are lower although I cannot quote them, low enough to feel some relief while working the platform. I have had multiple higher end items that I have listed on both platforms. They seem to sell in both places rather equally.
  If I had never listed on Etsy, I doubt my bottom line would have changed. It does keep things fresh, and gives you a feeling of security that you have something in place to go to if things goes wrong. It seems to me like everyone should have a secondary platform where they can hit the ground running if need be.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:48 am #39819
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    We’ve heard the same thing about Etsy. “A nicer place to sell.” That should be their new logo!
    
    But for our need to have steady sales, we haven’t made that jump tp listing on Etsy consistently because then we have less time to sell on eBay. I dont know anyone who can list and sell consistently on both platforms.
    - 05/14/2018 at 9:08 am #39836
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      That’s a Nice little logo for the Etsy!
      Just to mention, my highest price sold on Etsy last week was a loose vintage Shaun Cassidy doll (with no guitar!) selling for $30 plus shipping. Two sold on eBay in late February for $30 and $31 new, mint in the box. Another loose figure in the same condition as mine sold with a guitar on eBay for only $20. There were a couple of dozen listed on eBay, one on Etsy. Certain buyers only like to shop on Etsy, period. It’s ‘A Nicer Place to Buy’. This is an example of the little niche areas where you can slip an item on Etsy and make the sale with a lesser item for better money. I’m not trying to sell Etsy here or anything like that, just stating some interesting live data. I experience this kind of sale often over there, and it does take some brain space and time.
- 05/13/2018 at 7:06 pm #39795
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  05/06/18 – 05/12/18
  
  Total Items In Store: 2,372
  Items Sold: 25
  Cost of Items Sold: $90 (around)
  Total Sales: $949
  Highest Price Sold: $90 (Johnston & Murphy Shoes)
  Average Price Sold: $37.96
  Returns: 4
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 275
  Number of Items listed this week: 0
  
  This week was a whirlwind of sales at the beginning of the week and a buying spree at the end of the week. All good, but very exhusting!
  
  I learned a new negotiating technique that I have never heard of before, it is called rain! I went to garage sales in the rain and the ones that were open were so glad to see a customer they would give me just about any deal I wanted within reason! Also, there was a neighborhood sale of over 85 houses participating that had a sale going on the whole weekend while it rained. This guy told me that their city only allowed them to have 1 garage sale every 6 months (I would like to see them enforce that). That added fuel to the fire because now I knew this was the only chance for most of them to sell their stuff.
  
  The sales whirlwind was strange – strong sales Mon – Thurs and slow the rest of the time. That is about the opposite of what usually happens for me.
  
  I will post my buying spree below.
  
  Mark
- 05/13/2018 at 7:45 pm #39796
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  The buying spree was because of a huge rummage sale that was going on. This rummage sale is one of the Big 3 for me in my area. The place is packed and I find tons of good items for good prices. On the first day, I packed a grocery cart (it appears that they borrow them from a local grocery store for this huge sale) piled high with some great stuff. So I go to check out and I have close to 20 pairs of shoes\boots which were $2 each. As the lady is counting them she asks me what I am going to do with all this. I said resell. She asked if I could really make money reselling it. I said yes. She said “Even after you pay for shipping?” I said yes. I guess she couldn’t believe that I would actually make any money with the items I was buying. She must have assumed that I would only get $5 – $10 for each pair of shoes and then after shipping costs I wouldn’t make hardly anything! Wow, I really had to laugh to myself. In reality, I paid $144 for about $1600 – $2000 of items. I have only gone through part of it so far, but the average price will be around $40 for each item.
  
  Then, that rummage sale had a bag sale and half off sale on Saturday morning. I filled 3 decent sized bags with some great stuff. The mens suits were 1/2 off, now only $2.50 each. I found 9 that were top quality and bought them. I think the diamond in the rough there was a Johnny Carson suit from circa 1949 – 1962. I know the time frame because of the Union tag on it. I will ask a good price for that suit.
  
  Mark
- 05/13/2018 at 8:08 pm #39799
  Nancy
  Participant
  Location:
  @nancy
  Mark a garage sale with shopping carts sounds like a dream scenario!
  - 05/13/2018 at 8:47 pm #39803
    Mark S
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @mark-s
    Nancy,
    
    Yes, it is a Church rummage sale with shopping carts.
    
    At first I didn’t get a shopping cart because I was not close enough to the front of the line to get one. But I quickly needed one. I kept asking for a cart but they kept saying that none were available. So I wanted to leave this sale, but I had a huge heavy Vintage Toshiba stereo receiver, about 20 pairs of shoes (I had brought a large garbage bag for these, but still it was large and heavy), 10 suits\jackets, and a whole lot more. How was I going to make it to the check out without a cart?!
    
    So I decided I was going to use a chair with wheels, what else could I do? As I started to load up the chair, one of the workers I had asked for a cart brought one to me! They really had great volunteers at this sale.
    
    So yes, I wish all rummage sales had shopping carts. My MO at these sales is to grab all the good stuff as fast as I can and ram it into a large garbage bag before it is all picked over. With nearly 5 years of experience under my belt, this is usually an easy task to spot the good stuff quickly. The hard part is doing it fast enough and having a place to put it all so that no one picks it up from me. Shopping carts would solve this issue for me at all Rummage Sales!
    
    One of the Big 3 Rummage sales that I go to does not allow you to bring anything in with you: no bags, no carts, nothing. That is the most challenging sale of all. I usually get a worker or two or three help me carry it all to the exit to pay for it.
    
    Mark
- 05/13/2018 at 8:52 pm #39805
  Blackcat
  Participant
  Location:
  @blackcat
  I wrote a long post about this but opted for the short version instead. I don’t like to ignore buyers. It sends the message that you are either too big of a seller to deal with customer service or that you simply don’t care about their buying experience. It’s very easy to just write back and at least apologize and remind them that they can return their item. Ignoring someone is just asking for a negative feedback. They are giving you the chance to be proactive and take care of the issue before it turns into a bigger issue and I’d rather have them do that than to leave me a surprise negative. But to each their own.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:53 am #39820
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Yep. It’s just a matter of technique. If a buyer writes us with a specific question, we always answer.
    
    If a buyer writes to just vent and not ask anything specific, then there’s no sense in engaging in conversation.
    
    For example: “This jacket isn’t as blue as I wanted!” Okay, that person just made a statement. They can return it within 30 days. They need to take an action.
    
    When we buy an item on Amazon and are unhappy, we don’t write to the Amazon seller. We just return it.
- 05/13/2018 at 9:36 pm #39810
  Marjean28
  Participant
  Location: Minneapolis, MN
  @marjean28
  Hi, I’m also going to quick get my numbers in here and haven’t yet had a chance to listen to the podcast. First, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there in trash elf land! Here’s the numbers:
  
  ebay big store (TJ Digs)
  number of items in store: 1209
  number of items sold: 41
  total gross sales, not including shipping: $608.89
  COGS: $57.81
  eBay & PP fees: $139.77
  number of unpaid items from auction: 2
  cost of unpaid items: $11.49
  number of returns: 1
  cost of returns, including shipping: $5.59
  net income (less COG, eBay & PP fees, unpaid items, & returns): $394.23
  average sales price: $14.85
  sell through rate: 3.39%
  highest priced item sold: $129.99 VTG Crown Trifari Necklace/Earrings Set @ auction, original COG $18
  items listed 0
  
  ebay small store (Diggers)
  number of items in store: 231
  number of items sold: 0
  items listed: 7
  
  poshmark @Marjean28
  number of items in store: 82
  number of items sold: 1
  total gross sales, not including shipping: $29.00
  COG: $0
  posh fees: $5.80
  net income: $23.19
  average sales price: $29.00
  sell through rate: 1.22%
  highest priced item sold, vince camuto new women’s shoes: $29.00
  items listed: 12
  
  Etsy (reclaimeddame)
  number of items in store: 54
  number of items sold: 0
  items listed: 4
- 05/13/2018 at 10:05 pm #39813
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  Total Items In Store: 388
  Items Sold: 10
  Cost of Items Sold: $86 + 24 (free shipping)
  Total Sales: $330
  Highest Price Sold: $50 several items – used and new including best offer
  Average Price Sold: $33
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of Items listed this week: 1 ugh!
  
  I enjoyed the discussion regarding other platforms, especially Mercari since I don’t sell clothes (Poshmark). I did a light bit of research about Mercari this week. Apparently it’s a big deal in Japan. One Youtuber soured on it after she was selling well, but then due to a USPS stuck delay, she lost her money because the item was ultimately delivered (so no insurance) but Mercari had canceled the sale by then and wasn’t helpful. I don’t think I would list expensive items on Mercari but I feel like Ebay is trying to advance in the marketpalce at this time at the cost of nickel and diming sellers so I like the cheaper shipping rates on Mercari. That plus Google prefers other sites, so it has my interest. I love Ebay and I hope they succeed with all of their improvement plans and draw in traffic. However, I suspect they are absorbing the negotiated commercial shipping discount, which kind of bugs me. I’m hardly seeing any discount after the last increase. And it sounds like the new returns policies are favoring buyers like Mercari does with their autobot style customer service to some degree. I might try fourth quarter as TSAtt suggested or our personal clothing on Mercari – nothing worth over $35 and see how it goes. R&J I would keep your ear to the ground. I do see your point about allocating fixed resources, but I think you should consider Ebay’s costs to improve and Etsy 4th quarter as an experiment.
  
  Meanwhile, not even getting any listings to Ebay lately. I did some fun social stuff this weekend. A serious treat for a mom like me. Also getting ready for a garage sale next weeekend. It’s kind of hard to part with items that might sell for more on Ebay but it’s more fun to source specifically for Ebay and work the piles. I just don’t have time to list it all. I hear on another’s site they are called “profit piles” instead of death piles. I like that better I suppose. Have a great week.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:57 am #39823
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Good point. We always keep our eye out for other places to sell. This is why I’m always asking people about their numbers.
    
    One scavenger wrote me last night and said he listed 60 items on Mercari and sold 10 of those items in a week. That seems pretty incredible.
    
    Again, it’s all about time. If you dont even have time to list on eBay. Where do you find time to list on Mercari 🙂
    
    (Profit Piles is what hoarders call it!)
    - 05/14/2018 at 9:27 am #39838
      ChristineR
      Participant
      
      Location: Southern California
      @christiner
      
      I know I know! My head’s totally in the game, but the rest of me is occupied. I listed to the podcast yesterday while watching kids at the beach. So I’m not sure why I’m worried about other platforms. For the record, my piles are no longer growing at least! 🙂
      
      But I think I’m a bit of a slow lister on Ebay even after all this time so maybe I could list faster on Mercari. That is intriguing. Did your email person say what type of items they sold there? I wonder if they are attracting younger buyers than Ebay. For you two artist types, I would think Etsy might make more sense for high prices and unusual items. I was really surprised back when you canceled your experiment so early after just listing furniture. But I have heard Etsy can be pretty dead at times except fourth quarter. They are rolling out changes to their platform too. Another key issue with this is Google recognition. I still feel like Google doesn’t like Ebay so much and Ebay still seems to be having slow growth in bringing people to the platform, plus they have scaled back on the advertising.
      - 05/14/2018 at 10:48 am #39849
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        ChristineR: “I still feel like Google doesn’t like Ebay so much” — Amen.
        
        Have you ever looked at the Traffic section on Seller Hub? I have monitored and logged their data for years. We used to get 100’s of hits per day from outside of eBay before Google slapped eBay. Now it is single digits and we have 2-3 times the amount of inventory.
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:00 pm #39880
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        One of the reasons we are building our own store with our own domain and will SEO our own site. Google’s bots and spiders will find it and crawl it. Then rank it and then when thoe keywords we used are typed into google our site will be among the selection a searcher will see and possibly come visit us.
        
        Ebay, nope, The Panda and Penguin releases of the Google algoruthm hit Ebay hard. Ebay was using a whole bunch of “black Hat-bad dirty tricks” to get themselves and sellers items searched by Google. Back link farms, key word stuffing, spamming, etc., etc. A lot of that was coming from within the sellers description areas and about me pages. A ton of Chinese [whoevers], had opened Ebay accounts and filled there description areas with “links”, “back-links” and tons being bought and sold on link farms. So when Google rewrote there algorythm to omit those types of links, Ebay went dead in the water just like all the Russian, Chinese and other black hat guys.
        
        So that is one reason Ebay has pushed all the sellers to clean up the description area, starting policing the sellers, created “Item Specifics” in hopes of pulling Google bots and spiders back. But also Ebay doesn’t want to allow a “clean link” either. A clean link “click here” or embedded link [those blue words] that take you to other pages, well Ebay wants nothing to do with a good, clean link that is going to take a viewer to a sellers own store. god forbid.
        
        Like in our case, I would love to have a clean link in my Ebay description that says, for more “Asian Ginger Jars-Click Here” and when you do, it takes you to MY PERSONAL STORE on the internet, outside of Ebay. Ebay is not going to let Google get hold of those types of links and they are not going to let us Sellers include them in our description area. try and see what happens.
        
        So very little comes from Google. Ebay just buys Google Ads and pays for the clicks to the Evay Categories. Once a searcher clicks on those Ebay Google links, then you will go to that category and you will see every seller under the Sun who has one for Sale.
        
        Right now if you search our store name, you can see that item from our store, but search for the “item” and you get a Goggle Paid Ad that takes you to the Ebay category and again you will see yours and all of your competition. If you have a stale listings, not using promoted listings [basically a kick back umm paid fee] to Ebay, you may not even show up at all.
        
        So, Ebay relies haevily as Jay has said before on it’s branding, it’s reputation as a shopiing place for deals, and then once the potential buyers type in Ebay.com, then that is when “Cassini” Ebay’s internal search engine takes over.
        
        Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:15 pm #39881
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Mike: Amen brother. I know you know the techie side of all of this way more than I do. I can see the data that leads to the conclusion…you can tell me why… 🙂
        
        I’m interested in how your Shopify site goes for you, especially the cost to list vs. sales you receive. We know what the cost to list vs sales are on eBay, so even if you get less sales on Shopify (less traffic), if the cost of listing vs. final sales is in your favor, you are on the plus side. Your process to cross-list from eBay to Shopify on WonderLister makes that efficient. And if you can get enough branding to get people to check your store regularly, you are much more in control.
        
        Very interested in your Shopify work Mike. Keep us informed…
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:46 pm #39887
        
        Paulo H Leocadio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @paulo-h-leocadio
        
        MDC Galleries: far from comparing sizes since my store is small, I have my domains, same name as my store, with some content.
        Did not develop it further since I wanted the cash flow to pay for it, but I plan to. Not as the store, possibly as a portal to eBay and branding.
        
        Actually those came before eBay since the business idea was other and I liked what Jay and Ryanne do and gave me the idea to fund the business through eBay
- 05/13/2018 at 10:49 pm #39814
  JFH
  Participant
  Location:
  @jfh
  I diversify, but other platforms take a back seat to eBay. I have an etsy hat store, an FBA store where I send in things I find at thrifts that are NIB, and also sell locally once in a while. My main problem is I love treasure hunting but hate listing, so I have to force myself sometimes. I need to improve pic and set up soon as well. I do think it is good to not have all eggs in one basket, but for now eBay is the king of the re-sell market. Week = eBay $711, etsy $50, FBA $80. Did not list much due to vehicle troubles.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:58 am #39825
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    “it is good to not have all eggs in one basket” is a sound motto, but like you said, it takes a lot of work to list in all those other places. Ultimately we need to have steady income so we focus our limited time in the place we know works for now (eBay).
- 05/13/2018 at 11:17 pm #39815
  T-Satt
  Participant
  Location:
  @t-satt
  Week of 5/6-5/12
  Total Items in Store: 2,105 (Up 42% YOY)
  Number of Items Listed: 116
  Number of Items Sold: 78 (Up 28% YOY)
  (Includes 1 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 1 Amazon)
  Weekly STR: 16% (Down 2% YOY)
  
  Total Product Sales: $2,062 (Up 63% YOY)
  Cost of Items Sold: $436
  Highest Item Sold: $76 – 1939 Mine & Smelter Supply Catalog
  Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Troy leads the year at 10-9. (I don’t think I will keep the lead for long…)
  
  eBay Clothing
  # Listed: 1,320
  # Sold: 52
  STR: 17%
  ASP: $23.54
  
  eBay Shoes
  # Listed: 194
  # Sold: 15
  STR: 33%
  ASP: $33.95
  
  eBay Hard Goods
  # Listed: 591
  # Sold: 10
  STR: 7%
  ASP: $29.84
  
  Etsy Hard Goods
  # Listed: 150
  # Sold: 1
  STR: 3%
  ASP: $39.82
  
  Regarding listing on different platforms. I would first say that if anyone is new in this business (less than one year), listing on different platforms would not be efficient. We like to FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Successful. Until you have a single platform down, trying to spread out will create too much chaos.
  
  I do like your thinking of only listing certain items on certain platforms. That would be the easiest way to handle the situation, so that the backend inventory management is simple. You don’t have to remove a listing on Platform A if something sells on Platform B (or try to remember if it is something that is crosslisted.
  
  Regarding the “business dudes” that say you should diversify and that it “makes sense”… You are right, that it takes work. And that work that you spend on cross-listing will take away from time that you spend on listing new items if you let it. It is true that you only have so much Time. We all have the three T’s (Time, Talent, and Treasure). For Veronica and I, we want to lessen the impact that Time will take on cross-listing. If you have a goal to list a certain amount of items per week, then you by God list that number during that week, and cross-listing is done on top of that.
  
  This is why we spend so much effort in having an efficient process for our business. If I think cross-listing will take 5 minutes, then I want to see if I can make it 2 minutes. Once we get it as efficient as possible, then I want to see if I can speed up some other part of the business so that we can use that time cross-listing (or any activity we want to expand into). Let’s see if we can use Talent to help our Time.
  
  And maybe we use our employees to save our time so that we can use some time to cross-list. We use Treasure to help our Time. Or we use SixBit to manage our inventory, speed up our listing, and get our numbers in order. It all matters in how these changes impact the business. You can spend money on software and people and go broke fast.
  
  Or you can manage your processes to be as efficient and effective as possible first, know your numbers, and then apply capital properly to expand.
  
  This is why we have not gone onto Poshmark yet, but we are considering it. The cross-listing I can do quickly, but until I can see an efficient way to manage our inventory on the backend, it will not make sense for us (unless the STR and ASP on Poshmark make it worthwhile).
  
  One other item I would like to add. Getting the most money for an item isn’t always the best strategy. If you can turn inventory faster for a slightly lower price, there are a lot of benefits to making that sale. It can’t be to the detriment of the business (at some price points, faster sales mean losing money quicker), but don’t discount velocity of sales. If cross-posting on another platform gets your item in front of different buyers (not all buyers are on all platforms) and gets it sold quicker, then you have more capital faster to buy more inventory and to pay your bills.
  - 05/14/2018 at 8:07 am #39826
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Agree with everything you say. If you can figure out how to list in multiple places in the same amount of time, then it makes sense.
    
    On your idea that its better to sell for a little lower price to sell quickly, I think this may work when you sell modern clothes where all the items are the same and buyers are just buying on price. For instance, you’re competing in clothes with sellers like Amazing Taste who are absolute machines. She’s slashing prices, free shipping, it’s brutal. Our “buy and hold” strategy wouldn’t work for that market.
    
    For most our items, they are vintage, weird items. People are buying for other reasons beyond price (quality, character). We have not had the experience where you can slap a 10% sale on these items and suddenly sell them much quicker. Or being the cheapest on eBay. It’s about waiting for the right person.
    - 05/14/2018 at 8:31 am #39833
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Jay: I can agree with that on clothes and shoes. But velocity also has impact on one-of-a-kind items. Since you are fishing for rarer fish, that don’t bite as often, it is more worthwhile to land that fish, because you don’t know when you will get another bite. And if it is a larger item, you will have to have it stored for even longer.
- 05/14/2018 at 12:10 am #39817
  simplicio
  Participant
  Location:
  @simplicio
  Interesting to hear your take on diversification… I have thought about it too but not from the angle of eBay failing or of increasing sales, more from the point of view of “what if I got banned”. I don’t think I’m in any danger of that, but it does cross my mind as a risk. But it doesn’t fuss me too much, really eBay IS my diversification from my main career.
  
  If the logic of using multiple platforms is “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, then the obvious move to me is NOT to list in multiple places, but simply to archive all your listing information somewhere. Photos, model numbers, descriptions etc., so that if you are no longer able to list on eBay, you just copy/paste to kijiji or whatever. Yes, it’d take some time to restart on another platform, but I think a listing every 5 minutes would be reasonable with all the info already compiled. You’d get back up & running pretty fast at that rate (a few 12-hour listing binges would get you back to 500 listings). Indeed, eBay listings are usually more detailed than kijiji ones so you’d be more than ready.
  
  Have I done this? No, but I really ought to do it soon.
  
  Numbers. Did a lot of acquisition this week, not much for sales.
  
  Sales: CAD$576, 3 items, COGS: $12 –> item profit: $481
  Expenditures: $458 –> after tax cashflow: -$90
  Listed: $3365, 26 items
  Hours: 12.5, -$7/hr
  Notable sales: ANOTHER cherry on top from my barcode scanner sale: sold all the batteries for $400. I think that’s the last of it. Man, what a great pick. $3835 from $580 spent ($2800 profit).
  Also got $90 for a bunch of old tractor manuals I grabbed for $2 a while back.
  Scavenging: a bunch of stuff from auctions last week. A weird oriental themed Roland keyboard, a bunch of laser guides for miter saws, lightbulbs, ac blower motors, papers for a fetal monitor, toner, an exhaust system for a Fort Mustang, a dishwasher control panel.
  
  This is why I laugh when I hear how people “curate” their “storefront”. My “store” is an absolute dog’s breakfast and if, God forfend, a normal buyer ever actually looks at it they’ll probably be reduced to gibbering idiocy by the sheer eldritch chaos of it.
  - 05/14/2018 at 8:11 am #39828
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Good point. What if eBay banned us? That would be a bad situation, but that’s why we learn eBay’s rules and follow them. Any seller who gets banned always has a dark part of their story they don’t want to tell: selling counterfeit items, not shipping on time, not refunding buyers. It would be smart to backup everything just in case.
    
    Our eBay storefront is a collage of the detritus of American capitalism. Its beautiful in a way.
- 05/14/2018 at 7:58 am #39824
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  I got this message From ebay on Saturday, “Your items are waiting in carts. Now make the sale. Lower the price by 5% on these items in shoppers carts, and we will email them to say their deal got better”
  
  I just saw that. They showed 10 items of mine. I lowered the price on 6 of the 10, we will see what happens.
  
  Mark
  - 05/14/2018 at 8:08 am #39827
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Many of us have gotten those emails the last couple months. We never got any sales by lowering the price.
- 05/14/2018 at 8:11 am #39829
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  Jay,
  
  Ok, i won’t expect anything from that then. If i do make a sale, then it will be a bonus.
  
  Mark
- 05/14/2018 at 8:13 am #39830
  Retro Treasures WV
  Participant
  Location:
  @retro-treasures-wv
  Items in Store 900
  Items Sold 18
  Total Sales $414.25
  COGS $61.00
  Total Profit $353.25
  Average profit $19.63
  Average sales price $23.01
  
  Nothing special of note this week. Running 10-15% off sales is driving my sales. I find it interested that pretty much every week I sell 18 items when I’m not listing.
  
  Of special note this week, tomorrow I report for orientation for Federal Grand Jury Duty. I will be at the federal courthouse for duty 1-2 days a month for at least the next 18 months. Ouch…
- 05/14/2018 at 8:13 am #39831
  tam from Tam’s Vintage & More
  Participant
  Location: Illinois
  @tamtam5
  I have not listened to this weeks podcast yet, I listen on Tuesdays (my Monday) at work but I wanted to say that I just listed our store on Bonanza a few weeks ago. I put almost zero effort into it aside from signing up and in return I have gotten… nothing. All I really have time for is one platform. I have sold here and there on Etsy over the years but that was always things I made. Etsy does seem friendly and homey! So for now, Ebay Ebay Ebay… and more Ebay.
  - 05/14/2018 at 8:25 am #39832
    Mark S
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @mark-s
    Tam,
    
    Yes, Bonanza sales are few and far between. I have 2nearly 2400 items in my store snd i only get 0-2 sales a month on Bonanza. For forecasting purposes, i assume 2% sales of my gross on ebay for Bonanza and Truegether combined. That is pretty close. Fir exampke, if i sell $25,0000 (no shipping inc), then i would expect $500 in sales from Bonanza and Tryegether. Not much, but for virtually mo extra work, i am fine with the that.
    
    I think etsy will be worth it for me when Wonder lister will export your listing there with little effort. From what others have said, i would expect only 5% of my gross on Ebay because i only have 400-500 vintage items for etsy.
    
    Mark
    - 05/14/2018 at 12:55 pm #39870
      MDC Galleries & Fine Art
      Participant
      
      Location: Atlanta
      @huncrelan
      
      Yep.. and they are getting closer. I had a very surprising phone call yesterday. When I answered the person introduced himself and I recognized the name right away. It was the Senior-Head Design Engineer from WonderLister.
      
      We talked about 45 minutes and I also fired up TeamViwer and let him dance around my rig on WonderLister for awhile.
      
      The main purpose was to explore some changes to they have been working on for the Shopify Interface. He also did an update to my WL that is not even in Beta Testing yet. He wanted me to have first crack at doing an Automatic Transfer of my whole store over to our own private domain store at http://www.mdcgalleries.com. We have been using our Shopify store for testing for about 6 months.
      
      So, while I had him on the phone I asked where they stood with the Etsy interface. He said they had a large amount of the coding and design work done. But everytime they needed an answer to an engineering question and had to contact Etsy, that Etsy would take days to get back to them and his team would have to just park Etsy and wait. But he said that end of July was still going to be a target. I told him it would be nice to have it ready for the 4th quarter. But he said ready for us, the Beta testers, probably not for general public release.
      
      He also said it was the feedback from the Beta Tester that provided the data for the places that they needed to fix-patch.
      
      So with regards to Shopify.. here is what took place this morning. I had a doctors appoinment to be at at 9:45. So, I was in WL. I went to my Ebay Active folder and higlighted all of our 936 listing we have in our Ebay store. I then right clicked for a drop down menu that contained several commands. I high lighted “Send to Shopify” [I also see the send to Etsy selection, but that is none functioning on my beta version as of yet]. and hit enter. A message popped up and said sending 936 entries to Shopify.
      
      I got back from the doctor at 11:30 am. Guess what? All 936 items had been trasbfeered over to our Shopify store. And because of the Beta Tester feedback, the way WL is doing this is that in the Shopify description it is copying and placing in the description area not only our Ebay description, but then skipping one line and then adding the “Condition” area from ebay, then one line under that, WL is adding every single one of the item specifics appended to the bottom of the description. Then every photo we have posted on Ebay is also placed into Shopify.
      
      Now currently I have only clicked on “make public”, just a few of my listings in Shopify because we are still testing things, making sure everything is moving over correctly. I already see a few HTML glitches in the first bullit point of each listing and have found that Shopify does not like MSOffice HTML codes. So a copy and paste from MSWord did create a one line small glitch which we talked about yesterday. It is a Shopify thing not a WL thing. But I am going to maybe just for testing go ahead and make public all 936 items just to see what they will look like.
      
      The headers and collections will still have to be built and reported back to WL to automate but we will get it all looking pretty, pretty, once we have the guts worked out.
      
      The the final stage is for the Shopify to hook to and post everything WL sends to it on to Facebook, Instagram and Tweeter. tweeter is already coded and working perfectly. Every listing I submit to Ebay gets automatically sent to Tweeter. Have a bunch of people who follow those tweets. Can’t recall how many, but it all happens “automatically”. No extra work involved. That is the beauty of a relational database built on SQL {Searchable Queary Language].
      
      So everything you can think of for having a one master central control system built into one piece of software is what the beta testers are trying to feedback to SixBit, WonderLister and others. And it seems to be working slowly, bit by bit. Eventually whatever 3rd party app you are using for cross-milti platform listing will be your “Ground Control-This is Houston” calling all platforms station dealing with all listings, ending listings, selling notices and ending on the “related” platforms, messaging, shipping, running sales promotions, all from the one piece of software. The thing of it is, a lot of this is already available. Just looking around the edges and looking at reviews is not going to cut it. You have to buy into it, purchase it, commit to it, learn to navigate it, learn how to use all of the powerful tools on an advanced level.
      
      So just like what Ebay does by sending everything over to Bonanza automatically. Now WL is doing the same to our Shopify store and it will also do the same thing come early fall to our Etsy store. And SixBit is already doing it.
      
      Now for the future. just like selling something on Bonanza, what do you do. All you do is print the label from Bonanza and ship it. So, same will apply here to Shopify and Etsy. When something sells on any of the platforms that is under the MASTER CONTROL of WL, WL sends a message to that platform, kills the listing on the other platforms, tells Ebay and Etsy the item is no longer available and then duplicates the Sales data from the platform it sold on into WL. So I now have a system folder called Sold on Shopify, Sold on Etsy and when all is out of Beta Testing and working smoothly and they go Public, the goal is that we do not have do do one thing at all on any platform other than print a label and ship. We will get separate reports, separate sales status, separate tax info. and tons of built in reports all from one MASTER CONTROL CENTRAL.
      
      But all of this said by just this one user and is only my opinion. Trying to inform what these apps do and will be able to do. Will they do it for you, I would maybe think no. Why… How many people do you know has a spread sheet program so they open a spread sheet sent to them. But now ask the average guy to open up a blank excel or Mac spread sheet program and ask him to build, code and format the things that Quicken or Go Daddy does and they wouldn’t even know where to start. Or give a free Photoshop program to the avg. guy, then ask him to break a photograph down into 4 layers CMYK and do the color separartions to make that photo press ready to be printed by and litho printer. Nope unless you are in the trade.
      
      So I am thinking, my opinion only, that these types of apps are not for the entry level, Ebay newbie, and more for the moderate level sellers that are willing to invest the time into making these types of programs become their own private master command central.
      
      I have been working with WL and Sixbit over the last 3 years and still consider myself only moderatly capable. Compared to some here on SL I feel like I am a babe in the woods. But I do understand what these apps are capable of just like a Space Shuttle Pilot, I just need to learn how to fly it at an advanced level.
      
      Boy that is a mouthful that will probably get me crucified.
      
      Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
      - 05/14/2018 at 1:03 pm #39873
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Well said Mike.
        
        Question for the WL side: Do you sell on Bonanza? If so, how does WL handle the Bonanza sale? Does it record that sale (same as an eBay sale)? Or do you have to manually enter that Bonanza sale into WL to remove it from your inventory?
        
        05/14/2018 at 1:25 pm #39876
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        I would also like to know the answer to recording Bonanza and Truegether sales in Wonderliter because last time I checked, godaddy didnt do that. I record those sales in a separate spreadsheet tight now.
        
        Also, for some reaso , WL only tracks my shipping cost for fedex, not USPS. Can I assume that is one of those glitches they want to fix?
        
        Mark
        
        05/14/2018 at 5:34 pm #39898
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Mark: That is strange. So couple of comments. My version is showing “total shipping Costs” by the item and in “Sales reports” by the state, region, etc. And I see the “Total” shipping costs for the whole month [all items sold] and none are broken down by the carrier. These have to be my USPS charges because I hardly ever use FedEx and never UPS.
        
        Next to go to the Tools Tab, clcik “options”, then scroll dwn to “Shipping”. Make sure WonderLister has captured all of your Shipping Profiles that you are currently using. If not, then do a complete refresh using the Refresh from Ebay Tab to make sure WL pulls in all of the current shipping policies you have on Ebay. In other words get them in synch.
        
        Next make sure you have the latest version. They are making changes fairly quickly and you won’t also get an email update request. So go to their web site and download the newest version. Even if it is the same version, they sometimes make some small quick changes and leave the version number the same. remeber though the CHAT with us tab ties directly to the team in California, so they are on PST time zone. and are more closely tied to normal 9 to 5 type of hours and is sort of hit or miss. Also just shoot them an email directly. But I will ask when I am done here, because I usually get answered very quickly. Like yesterday I reported the Make an Offer Button went out and it was done before I got off the phone.
        
        As a safety vale: The NEW.. “Chat with us” tab should be showing in the lower left corner of your screen Use this for a direct chat link to the tech support team and ask the question.
        
        05/14/2018 at 5:55 pm #39900
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Just got an email back from the support team.. Ebay and PayPal ties into WonderLister and anything shipped gets pulled from those sources and should be showing in the Sales Report tab under the Shipping Column. Anything taken to FedEx or UPS and the label is printed through your UPS or FedEx account and you either scheduled a pick-up or took it in own your own and dropped off then those charges need to be added into the shipping charges column manually.
        But if you printed the labels through Ebay / PayPal and it was a fedEx label then it is included in the “Total Amount”.
        
        Now not sure of the exact numbers you are seeing, but now armed with this feedback, I suggest you contact them and make sure WL is capturing everything correctly.
        
        Oh and I am assuming you are on a paid level subscription and not the “Trial Version”.
        
        good luck, take care..
        
        Mike at MDCG in ATL
        
        05/18/2018 at 9:26 am #40270
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        To be clear, I am seeing “Shipping Charged” to the user on the sales report.
        
        What I am not seeing is “Spent on Shipping” which I would assume means my cost for the shipping. This column is all 0’s.
        
        That is the thing I don’t like about Wonder Lister, the documentation is not very good. Also, I send chats and they don’t respond. I tried calling them, but that says the google number is not available. I think they should improve in these two areas. My two cents.
        
        Mark
        
        05/18/2018 at 11:24 am #40280
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Hey Mark S. I shot your post off to the guys at Tech. Support.
        
        here is their answer, which I got back within minutes.
        Hello Mike,
        
        Yes, Mark S. created a ticket in our system in which he asked the following:
        “I see the shipping cost paid by the buyer, but I don’t see my shipping cost in the sales Reports.”
        
        We responded like in 1 minute after this was posted:
        The shipping cost you paid, is a cost you have to manually enter, for example, if you went to a FedEx store and shipped, naturally, WL has no way to know how much you actually paid unless you enter it in the system.
        
        Thanks
        
        So reading this it reminds me that WL and SixBit both pulls data directly from EBay. They don’t pull data from PayPal. If PayPal reports info. back to Ebay and Ebay is allowed to share it, then I guess it maybe could be captured. But as the tech rep. states, if labels or shipping took place another way as FedEx or FedEx Smart Post they probably don’t get that reported to them and in turn not reported in their reports.
        I also have to remind myself that WonderLister and Sixbit are not finacial / accounting programs and operate like FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Quicken or GoDaddy. Those are stand alone as you already know and tie into your bank accounts, PayPal, credit cards and the such and I personally reply on reports generated from those apps for financial reports.
        So maybe those costs can be better captured by the accounting programs. Personally i try not to manually enter data in most apps.
        
        Dont know if any of this is of value, but thought I would toss it in.
        
        Mike in Atl.
        
        05/18/2018 at 1:10 pm #40286
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        I am a little confused here. I am not talking about shipping I do outside of ebay, of course they won’t know that. I mean the shipping that is selected inside of ebay when printing the labels. I would think ebay and WL have access to that.
        
        That chat thing with WL is a little wierd. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t an interactive type of thing. I didn’t see any response in my email either.
        
        Mark
        
        05/18/2018 at 3:49 pm #40301
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        I can understand the confusion buddy.
        
        It is interesting what you have brought up so, I did a little double monitor screen and I see something I have the tech guys checking into right now.
        First, I never use the chat box because I have direct access to the tech support guys, the and the Owner and Senior engineer when they happen not to be too busy. I just shot my database over to them.
        
        They do have all of that data and it is being presented in a lot od detail, but just not where I think you are talking about.
        
        If I click on the SALES Tab, I get a fairly OK Sales Report that does have a default view showing that is a couple of screen scrolls wide to the right. When I scroll right I think I see the vertical column you are referencing and mine too is blank all the way down. iIt’s header is Order Actual Shipping, nothing in mine.
        
        Now while they explore this because that column I don’t think should be blank like that, so we will see when they send my database back. I want you to try something different.
        
        First on the left side bar make sure you are in the system folder that says ALL SALES [you may have to drop the directory down by clicking the dwn arrow and highlighting the ALL SALES LINE. Now, Up at the far top looking across the main tabs, click on Reports instead of Sales. On the drop down menu, click on Sales Report. Now right below the Sales Tab there are 2 fileds that need to have you to put 2 dates in. Just use 01/01/2018 and in the second box enter todays date if not already there by default. The right beside that 2nd date box, click on “Show Report”.
        Now you will be presented with 3 tabs. All Sales in this time frame by Date which you can filter like crazy to your hearts content, the next tab if you will click on it will show you all of your sales in that time frame by “Region” which is actually by state, and again you can filter by state, by highest sale per state, lowest sale per state, and again shows many columns of data to the right. Then the 3rd tab when you click on it shows you a Summary of all sales made during this time frame. Again about 17 columns of data showing but all compiled into just one line..total gross for those 17 column headings.
        
        Now back to the first tab called “Date Wise”. In my data base there are 42 columns across of data which includes a column for item sale amount, shipping charged, taxes charged [and of course this only shows for my state of GA. [I use this column to get my total for what I owe to GA for items sold within GA.] Adjustments, total receipts, ebat fees, final value fees, paypal fees our cost per item [COGS] Handling fees, then the column that says spent on shipping. Mine is blank all the way down, and that is what I am having them also check into. plus dozens of other rows to thr right, right on down to all of the buyers addresses AND PHONE NUMBERS!!
        
        So while they are checking, would you also do what i just did and see if we are now, hopefully on the same page. That “actual”, “true cost” we paid for shipping not showing up? is that waht you are referencing and if so they are checking into this right now.
        
        P.S. If haven’t used the Reports Tab and the Sales report from within that tab, it does have a lot of info. and if you right click anywhere on the page you can save the whole kit and Kaboodle as a .CSV file and open it up in excel, create your own formatting and headers and write a few formulas to get all the columns with num,bers to total up for you at the top of those columns. But you already know that.
        
        mike
        
        05/18/2018 at 4:09 pm #40305
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Just got a short reply. Both tech reps and a senior engineer is all over it. They are going through my most recent copy of my database right now. Funny they have a huge amount of my datbases because I send it to them several times amonth for the to use to work out things that are in beta for Shopify and Etsy. But both myself and them are changing stuff so much that I alwasy have to send a fresh copy almost with each question or issue that pops up.
        
        Their message says, we got, both depts working on it. They said based on what they are seeing, they have to check to see if Ebay is in actually sending that data and WL is just not picking it up and posting to the correct columns or if for some reason Ebay’s API is haywire again like the Items on Sale glitch and not relisted at the original price. What a screw up that was and it took Ebay about 6 weeks to fix it.
        
        They tell me that Etsy is worse than Ebay, if that is possible with internal software glitches and then getting back to the WL tea.
        
        They end their message will be back to you ASAP with a reply. Now who knows what they are going to say, experience tells me it could be a case of each of them [WL and Ebay] pointing fingers at each other. but they didn’t seem to be argumentative about it so far. 🙂
        mike
        
        05/18/2018 at 4:00 pm #40302
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        I have sent them two extra screen shots showing the “SPENT ON SHIPPING” Columns as all ZERO’s. I have had a couple of Questions back from them already. They are working on it right now. But I think you are dead on. The column saying ShHIPPING CHARGED” is what the customer should have or did pay, but the Column that says, Spent on Shipping I would think should be showing us what we actually did in reality spend on “True” shipping costs which may be either higher, lower, or spot on.
        
        Will report back as soon as I hear more.
        
        Mike
        
        05/18/2018 at 4:22 pm #40308
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        I can confirm what happens on the SixBit side. Our shipping cost pulls from eBay or Etsy directly for what we paid. Since we use Shippo for the labels, we don’t get the actual cost feeding into SixBit unless we use FedEx or Media Mail (Shippo doesn’t us those). When we use a Flat Rate pricing in eBay, then the Flat Rate Price shows up in Ship Cost. If we use the Calc rate on eBay, then we get a $0.
        
        I agree with how you use the reports. I could use this for some management reporting if I want to make sure that the shipping is in there, but I don’t want to double enter. I use the SixBit reports for what may Inventory Value is and for what my COGS are for any time frame so that I can see Gross Profit.
        
        05/18/2018 at 10:29 pm #40334
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        When I look at the database level, the data is not in the table. So, I don’t think this is a front end user interface error.
        
        I think that either ebay isn’t sending the data (most likely in an xml) to WL, or WL is getting that field and then “dropping it on the floor” instead of putting it in the DB (but only for the USPS data is being dropped, Fedex data is getting there).
        
        The table\column it should be going into is:
        [WonderLister].[dbo].[Transactions].CMP_ShippingCostToSeller
        
        The weird thing is that my Fedex shipping cost is in this field, but not USPS. That may be a clue.
        
        I deal with this type of stuff all the time in my regular job. It is just a matter of the developer tracking it down to see what piece is not doing what it is suppose to.
        
        Mark
        
        05/19/2018 at 9:32 am #40357
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Thanks for this info. Mark. I am not knowleable about the internal workings of dBase issues so maybe by pinpointing that location will help them. I forwarded it along to the team this morning.
        
        I wonder why, when you contacted them, they couldn’t resolve the issue, especially if you provided the dBase data location you show above. Seems like your contact with them would create a series of questions back and forth, they get it corrected, and then issue a new “update”. That seems wierd. With your knowledge and background seems like a straight forward discussion and a few screen shots would have clarified the issue and concern and they would have taken care of it. Unless they don’t know how??? That would also be strange.
        
        Sometimes it crosses my mind if I should have just gone with SixBit instead? I don’t know. Every time I get bogged down in details with WL and jump over to the SixBit site and review their data. Did so just yesterday. It does cost more, but SB has already gotten Etsy interface working where it is going to be months for WL. And I know it is going to be grueling to work through those details, just like it did with WL Shopify experience, though that is now working OK.
        
        I am much older now, going on 70 and I just get tired sometimes. I work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and have for decades. Sometimes I just feel way too tired for all of this stuff, Ebay, buying, selling, et,. al.
        
        Mike
        
        05/19/2018 at 3:52 pm #40377
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        I didn’t give that info to them about the table\column. I had to look it up and I guess I got lazy when I sent the message to WL.
        
        I think the WL product is pretty good. They just need to beef up their documentation and support. could see though if you were not good at technical stuff that WL could be confusing.
        
        Mark
        
        05/19/2018 at 3:56 pm #40378
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        Also, maybe you can slow down a bit. 12 hours a day, 7 days a week is a bit much even for us younger folks. Maybe just work less hours in a day or take a day or two off to recharge. Remember the old saying that you have to stop to sharpen your blade? Seems like the schedule is wearing you out and you just need to take a little time off.
        
        Mark
        
        05/19/2018 at 9:22 pm #40422
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        The younger folks could learn a lot from Mike…hard work gets results… 😀
        
        Every seller has their hours and goals, but I love the work ethic of Mike (and my parents)…
        
        05/14/2018 at 5:15 pm #39895
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Short answer [unusual for me]. No it doesn’t. But it does pick up the fact that the listing has ended and moves it automatically to the Unsold Folder. If and when I see items there, I move it to a folder I and the engineers create called Sold Off Ebay. Was using that for some testing. But is a work around for now. I have so few sales on Bonanza, that later on; I may even kill the listings off of Bonanza.
        But I just use the Sold Off Ebay folder for now. In up coming releases [revisions], there will be system folders created for the Shopify and Etsy stores with full tracking.
        
        This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
        
        05/14/2018 at 7:15 pm #39915
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Thanks Mike. SB is the same. Our issue is that since we have SixBit auto relist, if we don’t put the order in to SixBit when it sells on bonanza or TrueGether, the item will automatically re-list.
        
        Part of my Poshmark issue…
- 05/14/2018 at 9:09 am #39837
  Brian Treasures from Grandmas
  Participant
  Location: Hoboken, NJ
  @brian-treasures-from-grandmas
  Week May 6-12, 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 920
  Items Sold: 16 (1 Amazon)
  Cost of Items Sold: $92 (19.9% of sales)
  Total Sales: $462.75
  Highest Price Sold: $60 (1792-93 French Revolution Currency https://www.ebay.com/itm/192335189859)
  Average Price Sold: $28.92
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 3
  Promoted listings test: 8 sales, 197.79 (42.7% of total sales), $9.892 fees (5.0% of sales)
  
  On the slower side for the week, but not terrible. Over the past year+ I’ve been averaging closer to $600/wk, but this is week certainly fine and stable for me.
  
  I’m with you for the most part in list it and forget it. But with some recent spring cleaning and the new storage units in our basement that were installed, I’ve been reorganizing. In the reorg, I’ve found items that I totally forgot were there, listed 3+ years ago. So, I’ve sorted my items by longest on time listed and started sprucing them up – adding new product identifiers that might not have been there, adding to a description, etc. In this sprucing, I’m also putting into a group that will have a huge sale likely later this week. Will probably have at least 40% off this grouping, although I might up it even higher to see if I can clear out some old inventory. I even put a couple old listings into auction to see if anything happens.
  
  Another week of no picking as I make these moves/changes to my store. May 26 is the next Stormville Flea, which is just massive and often times featured on shows like Flea Market Flip. I hope to be in a comfortable place to go there and come back with a load of stuff.
- 05/14/2018 at 9:36 am #39840
  Paulo H Leocadio
  Participant
  Location:
  @paulo-h-leocadio
  About PayPal reversal Threats
  
  I have yet to respond to Bonnie from California response to me but, in my experience, the 3 cases I mentioned I had the buyers stating never received or never authorized transaction, after the threatening messages they immediately opened transaction not authorized directly in their Credit Card, which reflects on PayPal.
  
  My presumption is these cases all fall into the same type of “scam” (more people willing to take advantage than intentional Scam)
- 05/14/2018 at 9:43 am #39841
  Paulo H Leocadio
  Participant
  Location:
  @paulo-h-leocadio
  Investment Diversification
  
  First a curiosity: Ryanne mentioned that probably diversification comes from the stock market, so please let me add some curiosity about the topic:
  
  Diversification is mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes which was written in approximately 935 B.C.E.
  But divide your investments among many places,
  for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.
  
  Diversification is also mentioned in the Talmud. The formula given there is to split one’s assets into thirds: one third in business (buying and selling things), one third kept liquid (e.g. gold coins), and one third in land (real estate).
  
  Diversification is mentioned in Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice):
  My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
  Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
  Upon the fortune of this present year:
  Therefore, my merchandise makes me not sad.
  
  The modern understanding of diversification dates back to the work of Harry Markowitz in the 1950.
  
  🙂
  
  Also, My line of thinking is similar to Jay’s: if you will do the same on two or more platform you are just wasting precious time.
  Also, I agree that it’s potentially good strategy to sell specific category on expert sites (antiques and decorations on Etsy, Men’s ultra Fashion on Grailed, Women’s fashion on Posh, etc). If one is able to put similar dedication that Jay and Ryanne put, It is possible to maximize return by doing so.
  
  Does not work for me though.
  - 05/14/2018 at 10:54 am #39850
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Paulo: Excellent historical perspective on diversification. Love that.
    
    Amazing what we can learn from history and from those that came before us…
- 05/14/2018 at 9:52 am #39843
  totommyto
  Participant
  Location: Naples, Fl
  @totommyto
  How serious does everyone take this backing up everything on eBay subject?
  Are we thinking if eBay ever crashes for a time frame or actually fails, we might loose all of our data – listing info & photos?
  I do not even have my photos stored anywhere, certainly not my actual listings. There really has not been an instance where I needed my old item photos. I’m even negligent in keeping templates on eBay after listing an item. With some of my repeat finds, I simply reinvent the wheel when listing, but It does not require too much effort since I am so familiar with certain items. I kick myself at times when I do find something somewhat complicated that I listed and sold years ago and wished I had the data to list it easier. Not a real issue for me though. I guess a question would be, what is a simple way to store your photos sort of forever, and maybe your listings as well? I’m ignorant to all of the cloud business and backups and such. It may be time to close the circle on all of my hard work already completed and safeguard it. Others may feel the same way.
  - 05/14/2018 at 10:47 am #39848
    Mark S
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @mark-s
    Totommyto,
    
    Wonder Lister takes care of this for me. If ebay were to ban me for accidentially listing fske items or some strange thing like that, then i would want all of my listings with pictures available.
    
    I think it is a small price to pay – $5 month for 1000 items or less or $10 month for 2500 items or less. Plus all the other features. Of couse you are going to have to put in a little time in to implement and learn it.
    
    I view this like godaddy – a necessity.
    
    Mark
    - 05/14/2018 at 10:56 am #39851
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      Mark,
      Thank you, and I’m still shoe boxing with my taxes as well, so I need to get up to speed.
      Much, much appreciated.
    - 05/14/2018 at 11:01 am #39853
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Totommyto: I will second what Mark says and it is one of the items I like with SixBit. We had an issue once where we were blocked on eBay for a week (long story). With SixBit, we could have kept working and making new listings since it is on the desktop. Similar for when we lose internet connection. Rather than not be able to list, we list on the desktop and upload when the internet is back.
      
      As to backing up the photos, we keep ours on the hard drive via SixBit. There have been a couple of snags where we were glad we had the photos and didn’t have to reshoot. It is also handy that I can reuse a listing from a year ago to make a new listing since it is in the database. Saves time. It may not sound like a lot, but minutes can add up.
      
      For example, we had a pair of jeans that were sold to Russia last November go missing. We had to refund the buyer and we moved on. A few weeks ago, the jeans showed up on our door. So I just relisted them. Didn’t have to make a new listing, no new photos, nothing. Just relisted.
      
      Also, we like the idea that the photos and work that we did with the listing is ours, not eBay’s. If we get banned or kicked off or anything like that, we still have our work and can easily list on another site.
      - 05/14/2018 at 11:36 am #39858
        
        totommyto
        Participant
        
        Location: Naples, Fl
        @totommyto
        
        T-Satt,
        Thank you for the info. You mention Sixbit. After a quick search, Sixbit and Wonder Lister look close to being the same. Wonder Lister is $5 a month, Sixbit is $20 a month.
        
        05/14/2018 at 12:07 pm #39865
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Totommyto: Yes, they are similar. For us, the difference was that SixBit can do Etsy, and I also liked the look and feel of SixBit more. I liked being able to set up my listing screens the way I work so that the flow was as efficient as possible.
        
        Mike can talk a lot about WonderLister and what it can do. I think either are good platforms (like Coke vs Pepsi), but for us SixBit was a better fit for us.
        
        We are on the Enterprise level to get Etsy at $100 per month. Not for everyone, but it worked for our goals and we are net positive on the Etsy side and don’t plan to make a change as of yet.
        
        05/14/2018 at 12:46 pm #39869
        
        totommyto
        Participant
        
        Location: Naples, Fl
        @totommyto
        
        T-Satt,
        Got it, thank you, even though I have 450+ on Etsy, the $100 is a bit much at this stage for me. Wonder Lister may be my choice.
        Honestly, as someone mentioned on this thread, just the eBay store I run is my diversificatio since I work a full time. Etsy is a sub diversify for me, in Tandem with eBay and probably always in the back seat.
        
        05/14/2018 at 12:57 pm #39871
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        totommyto: Completely understand. It comes down to the numbers at that point. We are at a different place at $10k+ Revenue per month, so the $100/mo isn’t an issue for us. We started at the $70/mo level to get some of the reporting and relisting features that we wanted, so the Etsy add-on was only $30/mo, and that is paying off. And agree on the Etsy customers being very nice. Never had an issue over there.
        
        Though we have neglected Etsy a bit lately, and we are seeing our sales taper off. Veronica and I are looking at what and how to start having a regular cross-list time for Etsy. It is easy, but we have neglected it lately as we stay in listing mode with our photographer. He is off for a while at the end of this week, so we may take that time to get some cross-listing done.
        
        05/14/2018 at 1:09 pm #39875
        
        totommyto
        Participant
        
        Location: Naples, Fl
        @totommyto
        
        I don’t cross list eBay to Etsy. Just a gut thing. My items there are fresh to Etsy, besides the occasional multiples that I share between the two.
        Best of luck with your cross list flow later this week!
      - 05/14/2018 at 2:18 pm #39882
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        The only drawback to SixBit vs. WonderLister is that SB does keep all those photos connected directly to the database and that is why the SB Db is much larger than WL. What the team did at WonderLister is creat a direct connection to DropBox, Google Drive, and MS OneDrive. Then we keep our photos there arranged by year and month within our free terra byte of space. Then when we create a listing, WL sets the “path” which points to the hpoto on any of these 3 drives that you choose to store your photos. This techniques makes the WL database 10 times smaller in size than SixBits. But everything is still all linked.
        
        I talked with JC at SixBit twice about this technique and he said they were aware of this process but was overly inthusiasitic during the conversation. Then I hit the “magic” question / topic with him. SixBit only allows [unless they have changed], a datbase of a ceratin size. Then low and behold you will get a message saying your allotted size of the SB database is about reached and would YOU LIKE TO BUY MORE SPACE. So I hit JC with that, Hey JC guess if you guys did something that would make the SB datbase smaller and more compact, you would loose those sales for extra space, and boy was it dead silence for a long period, then a low, mumbled, yeah I guess so.
        
        I send my database the WL all the time because they study it for research and it takes about a minute for backup and send. Well I sent my SB database one time and two hours later it finially finished. That is because SB has all the photos saved “inside and with the actual text data” in its database. So I sent my whole Ebay store from with WL to our new Shopify store and it took a couple hours. do that with SB, holy cow, who knows how long to transfer all the data.
        
        Thought I would share some techy stuff to consider when comparing the two.
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:29 pm #39883
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Interesting on that point Mike. When I did the installation of SB for us, I can choose to have the photos inside the database or kept outside with a link to the folder on our computer. My database size is kept small because of this. I think that they fixed this issue with this toggle.
        
        So for us, our photos are in a folder on our computer. The listing links to that photo but is not in the database.
        
        My understanding was that the database size was a Microsoft SQL issue with size. The free version that comes on PCs can only handle a certain size, and above that you have to purchase the larger version. We are over 5,000+ listings stored in SixBit (between Active and Sold), and have plenty of space to spare.
        
        When I have done submissions to SB, the upload is a couple of minutes. Backing up the database does take quite a bit of time, as I’m sure it is backing up the photos as well.
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:36 pm #39884
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Yep, Yep, Yep.. Now that you bring it up, I do remember that long, long transfer being done on the free version. Also when I talked to JC at SB it was before they made that change. i bet you dollars to donuts, JC and the rest of the team talked it over and then inserted the toggle to keep the hpotos out of the datbase and you are correct agagin on the SQL limitations but once all those hptos are out of the database, it is a non-issue. Unless at some point..but wonder how many listings and photos that would be??
        
        I know WL has told me about a couple of sports memorabilia clients that have 100’s of thousands of listings but if they are trading cards that would only be 2 or 3 photos per card. Still half a million photos attached to 100k of listings would be humongous.
        
        Does SB allow you to put your photos up on a Cloud drive and let you drag and drop the photos from there. I had mentioned that to SB, so wonder if they broke the photo storage out of the database, but still only let’s them reside on the main rig that the SB program is installed on. Hhhmm.
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:45 pm #39886
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Mike: No idea on if cloud storage is an option. Since the database has to run on a server anyway, I don’t care too much. You will have to give JC a call.
        
        Funny, I talk with Steve the most. I’ll say hi to JC for you at eBay Open if he is there again this year. Steve and I are already set for some beers…
        
        05/14/2018 at 2:49 pm #39889
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Mike,
        
        The free version of Microsoft SQL Server db is 10GB. I think I am only at 3-4GB right now with about 2400 listings. One day I am going to hit the 10GB limit. I think to get more space with Microsoft would be costly. Does WL have a tool in place where you can archive off some data?
        
        Mark
- 05/14/2018 at 9:53 am #39845
  Paulo H Leocadio
  Participant
  Location:
  @paulo-h-leocadio
  Sea Shells
  
  Wanted to bring this topic since December, I am so lazy, more that I was, not even email I am managing to write.
  
  Anyway, I continue to find stuff in my house. One day I will get to my toy collection (actually already sold 2 of my Kinder Egg collections).
  
  I have in my studio a corner in the music shelf with statues and other music related items I buy from places like N’Orleans.
  
  At the very bottom I had two really large shells I collected with my family one in Cayman and the other in Grand Bahama.
  
  One Sunday I saw them inadvertently and too some pictures and listed. Before the end of the Sunday they were sold by someone in Saudi Arabia, full price, priority international.
  
  Also, in the description I had the origin description and how I collected them. 🙂
  
  It seems this is a segment to explore
- 05/14/2018 at 10:59 am #39852
  Nancy
  Participant
  Location:
  @nancy
  How and Why I diversify on etsy
  
  I don’t copy my entire store to etsy and don’t expect it to double my income. Right now I have about 700 items on ebay and 100 on etsy. I cross post because I have already put the majority of the work into the item by sourcing it, taking pictures of it, measuring and writing a listing for ebay. To cross post on etsy I copy and past all of that and the only extra time spent is creating tags (keywords) and longer titles. I don’t expect to double my income on etsy but if I make an extra few thousand a year on there I don’t have a problem with that.
  
  You may wonder why not just create new listings on ebay? Physically there is limit each day to what I can accomplish. If there wasn’t I would just keep listing more inventory on ebay. But that isn’t possible. So I take a break physically and cross post to etsy. Or do it in the morning while having coffee in bed. Or at night while watching a show.
  
  Now that I’ve been selling on etsy for several years I am so comfortable there that if things do go south on ebay I have no learning curve to ramp up on etsy.
  
  I also cross post on bonanza because there is zero work involved but I sell much less on bonanza than on etsy or ebay.
  
  I’ve dabbled on Amazon but I think it would take a lot of work to do FBA and I don’t enjoy that kind of work. I don’t like to shop big box stores and I don’t want to buy tens or hundreds of identical items.
  
  So that’s why I diversify. Jay I think you look at it in a very black and white sort of way. There is a gray area where there are still some rewards.
  
  ETA also there are some things that etsy does better than ebay. One of my favorites is that your listings never go away on etsy. Every listing I’ve ever made on etsy still exists there so if I want to I can list a similar item very easily or look back to check out what it sold for etc
  - This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Nancy.
  - 05/14/2018 at 11:03 am #39854
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Nancy: +1
  - 05/14/2018 at 11:18 am #39856
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    From what you wrote, you make a couple extra thousand dollars extra each year crossposting onto Etsy. So maybe $200/month? That’s not bad for doing a little work with your coffee. But its also not the kind of sales that are a game changer.
    
    I just want to remind everyone that just because we dont want to do something, doesnt mean other people cant do it. All we do is share our experience. We like to have a system that’s simple because it cuts down on stress. Making a couple hundred dollars extra a month isnt enough a motivation to list on Etsy.
    
    Time–Money–Stress.
    If we want more money, we often have less time and more stress. We want less stress, we have more time but less money. We want more time, we have less money and more stress. We are constantly working on the balance all three of these things.
    - 05/14/2018 at 11:43 am #39860
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      Jay,
      Yes, it’s the Baaa-laaance! It is so great to share all of these ideas and then pick and choose and experiment or not. Funny, many times I feel like I’m taking a break showing up for my regular job.
    - 05/14/2018 at 12:02 pm #39863
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Jay: You are clear about your motivation. You only really want to do something different if it is a “gamechanger”. It sounds like you would only make a move if it was to move completely from eBay to another platform.
      
      I know that from our standpoint, we don’t have to have something be a gamechanger to implement a strategy. Small moves can add up. We list 30-Day vs GTC because it is a slight bump in sales. We trim our processes so that we can get a few more listings done per hour. We run a periodic sale as we see that it gives a little juice to our sales. We use SixBit because we can get a bit more sales/get information/change listings efficiently, saving our time to do other things.
      
      Yes, for the most part, making more money takes more time. But if you can use talent to make it efficient, you can make more money in the same time.
      
      And stress…that is all internal. We aren’t saving lives here on eBay. As my old boss would say when the crap hit the fan during a quarter-end close and the VPs are unhappy… “Nothing is on fire. Nobody is bleeding. We don’t have a patient on the operating table. We are accountants having fun with numbers.”
      
      We do focus on the money we are making, so when sales are soft, yeah, we get a little stressed. That is the life of making your own living. But after that, we put that to good use and so something productive…like list.
      - 05/14/2018 at 6:54 pm #39911
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Our motivation could be called looking for “game changers”. But it’s really just numbers. A couple hundred bucks more per month isn’t much motivation to add more to our workload. It’s good you look for ways to make more money by being more efficient.
        
        I’m not talking about the stress that would come with saving lives, but the stress of a bunch of busy work that you constantly have to juggle each day. That’s all selling online is: juggling little tasks. The bigger your store is, the more little tasks. The more platforms you want to sell on, the more little tasks. Little tasks can lead to a lot of stress IMHO.
        
        I like that thread of the guy who grossed $2-million per year. 10 employees. Working 50-60 hours a week. Ultimately only grossing $150k/year. That’s nothing to sneeze at. but he had a lot of little tasks on his plate.
        
        05/15/2018 at 9:57 am #39958
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Yep, that would sum up how we run our business. We like to be as efficient as possible. If a small change will result in a higher STR or higher ASP, we take it. A small change here, and little tweak there, and small changes lead to big returns.
        
        For us, these small items are not stressful at all, because we look for a process to handle them. Yes, if you feel that you are juggling a lot of tasks, then it can be hectic. But when we feel that way, we create a process and a schedule to handle the small tasks so there is no stress. 30 day listings give us a boost vs GTC, so we have software that handles that for us. Cross-posting to Etsy is showing to be profitable, so we have software to do that for us. Shippo lets us pay for our shipping cost on our PayPal card, so we get 1% back on shipping. So we ship through Shippo. Using templates saves me time on listing, so I use them to be more efficient. I used to manually enter our transactions into Quicken, then I found software that gets my weekly accounting done in 10 minutes.
        
        For me, that is something I like to do. Set up a process to be as profitable as possible with the least amount of stress.
        
        05/15/2018 at 10:37 am #39968
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Yep, processes are good. And if you like problem solving, then creating processes can be fun.
        
        I think it’s also important to note that we all have different income requirements. From the way you share numbers, I feel you and your wife have set a strong income goal for yourselves. Makes sense since you have a couple kids in college and live in more expensive suburb of Denver (I think?) I enjoy your questions of other sellers on how to build an online selling business that really cranks out cash. Selling on other platforms on top of eBay would get you closer to that goal.
        
        Though making a lot of money scavenging is awesome, we have the luxury to balance our work/enjoyment balance because we have no kids and live in a very cheap area. And I guess our way of diversifying has been investing our eBay profits into vacation rentals. This decision makes us feel good in case online selling in general tanked, and we are able to have fun in a completely different business model.
        
        I’ve heard you mention Shippo. How is it different than just printing labels from eBay? (We also pay for our eBay labels on our credit card and get the points. Pay it off each month so no interest paid.)
        
        05/15/2018 at 10:50 am #39972
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Amen on the differences Jay. We are on different business models as our requirements are different. You guys are no kids and no mortgage, we are 2 kids and still a mortgage. That is one of the great things about this blog…so many people on different paths…but what works for one may work for another. All a great buffet…
        
        Shippo is easy. Links in your eBay sales with a click. For us, we like it because we can also link in our Etsy sales, and when we get a sale on Bonanza or Shippo, when I am entering the order in SixBit to remove from inventory, I also enter the information into Shippo. Then we can print our labels and most importantly, get a SCAN form for all our packages (regardless of platform) for our postal carrier to scan at pickup.
        
        On eBay, the only way to get SCAN sheets is through the bulk label tool, which means you have to print all labels at once. We did that when we first started Guaranteed Delivery. Problem was it wasn’t as efficient. We had to write the item and SKU on the package to make sure we put the labels on the right packages. And the tool had issues…not fun.
        
        With Shippo, we can print the labels one by one as we ship, and then when we are done, just print the SCAN form. Easy peasy.
        
        So we improved the process. Easy SCAN forms and 1% back on shipping.
- 05/14/2018 at 11:51 am #39861
  VintageTreasures
  Participant
  Location:
  @vintagetreasures
  My Numbers Week of May 6 – 12, 2018
  Total Items in Store: 210 eBay & 130 etsy
  Items Sold: 20 eBay & 3 etsy
  Cost of Items Sold: $29.00 (Approximately)
  Total Sales: $328.09 eBay & $18.00 etsy (shipping paid by buyers not included on etsy)
  Highest Price Sold: Anita Goodesign Gilded Christmas Machine Embroidery CD $49.95
  Average Price Sold: $15.04
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory May 6 – 12, 2018: $3.00
  Number of Items Listed this Week: 30
  
  Wishing everyone a great week!
- 05/14/2018 at 1:00 pm #39872
  Sharyn
  Participant
  Location: Central NJ
  @sharyn
  Week of May 6 – 12
  * Total Items in Store: 1140
  * Items Sold: 16
  * Cost of Items Sold: $49.22 + $9.38 Commission
  * Total Sales: $450.23
  * Highest Price Sold: $148 Vintage Pioneer Stereo Receiver
  * Average Price Sold: $28.14
  * Returns: 1
  * Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $94.44
  * Number of items listed this week: 7
  
  My biggest sale this week, the vintage receiver, was a full 31 pounds once it was packaged up properly. It has been delivered, and the buyer hasn’t said anything yet, so fingers crossed that it survived OK. I packaged it well, but I’m always paranoid about difficult to ship items.
  
  I think I should make an effort out different platforms to sell on. I’ve been doing eBay for over two years now, and I’m ready to try something else out. I have some crafty stuff I’d like to start on etsy, and I was interested in the discussion about Mercari. I’m still working on testing and fixing up items that are part of my deathpiles, and I’m trying to keep up with current purchases, but I’m making a goal to try out other avenues.
- 05/14/2018 at 5:50 pm #39899
  NiNjA BoB
  Participant
  Location:
  @ninja-bob
  Hello everyone, I recently, reluctantly have come to the same conclusion about the 30 day free return shipping. I have created my first business policy and am starting to see that I may not know exactly what I am doing. Ebay initially created a lot of different policies and only some listings are in there. I am assuming this is because the listings haven’t been updated and only the listings that have renewed are in the business policies section. My first question, is my thinking correct? And when changing handling time for vacation would I need to change the listing, then click the update listing button for each shipping policy with listings in it? I would call eBay and ask but it has been a crap shoot lately on getting a rep that knows anything past the standard questions, technical questions seem to through them for a loop. Not to mention the 45 minute wait times. Being an anchor store the wait times have been the hardest pill to swallow. Anywho, you two are awesome and I can’t say enough about how you two changed my life. I would not be living the dream if it weren’t for this platform. Thanks.
  - 05/14/2018 at 6:36 pm #39908
    So Cal Joe
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @so-cal-joe
    To change the handling time, you edit the policy in the Business policies section. Once you do this, Ebay updates all the listings for that policy.
    
    Good Luck.
    - 05/14/2018 at 7:03 pm #39913
      Jay
      Keymaster
      
      Location: Virginia
      @jay
      
      Yep, SoCalJe has it correct. We actually have learned to love Business Policies. Appreciate the scavengers that encourage us to look at them again.
- 05/14/2018 at 6:00 pm #39902
  JemiJuniper
  Participant
  Location: MD
  @jemijuniper
  I am part of the Instagram reseller community and “diversification” is a hot topic over there all the time. A lot of people seem to diversify themselves into insanity. I agree for the most part that putting your head down and listing on one platform is how you are going to get the most pay off.
  
  I do cross post some of my nicer clothing and shoe items to Poshmark and I’ve had some success there. I netted $800 in April with an average of 200 active listings and probably no more than an hour of work a few times a week. Ebay clothing sales are very slow for me so this investment in time is worth it. I already have the listing on ebay and I just copy and paste everything to Poshmark and a listing takes me about a minute to complete. I often do this in my “downtime”, when I’m watching tv with my husband or on sourcing roadtrips.
  
  Because clothes and shoes are so in the moment, you really want to get them as much exposure and get them sold as soon as possible before the next style comes out in 5 minutes. There are a lot of younger people who shop on Posh and don’t even know that Ebay exists. I tried also cross posting to Mercari which is as easy as Poshmark, but keeping up with items selling on 3 platforms was too distracting. I can easily handle 2 but any more than that seems to take away from my main breadwinner which is Ebay.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:00 pm #39912
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    “A lot of people seem to diversify themselves into insanity.” I’m going to use this phrase. Its perfect.
    
    I think women’s clothes is a good example of a category that might sell better on some of these other sites.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:19 pm #39917
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    JemiJuniper: Thanks for the information. You’ve given me a good thought as to if I decide to go into Poshmark maybe I’ll just start with my higher end items to keep it under control.
    - 05/14/2018 at 7:58 pm #39925
      JemiJuniper
      Participant
      
      Location: MD
      @jemijuniper
      
      T-Satt: The nice thing about Poshmark is that you can actively push your items in front of people with the sharing mechanism. It does take some dedication and work in the beginning to build up your followers but once you get a few thousand followers, they really start to do the work for you. I’ve only been on Poshmark about 2 months and I have a little over 10,000 followers who share my items all day long. The more you share, the more activity you get so it’s just a matter of how much work you want to put into it. If you have a teenager, paying them $25 a week to share your closet 3 times a day is a good pay off. lol I generally put about 10 minutes of sharing work in a day.
      - 05/15/2018 at 10:07 am #39959
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        JemiJuniper: Thanks for the info. I wondered how much time you have to spend sharing on Poshmark, as I have heard that is one of the keys to getting sales. Spending a little time at the end (or beginning) of the day is not tough to do (or to outsource).
        
        Are you doing men’s or women’s clothing? Or both?
  - 05/15/2018 at 4:35 pm #40008
    Marjean28
    Participant
    
    Location: Minneapolis, MN
    @marjean28
    Hey JemiJuniper,
    
    How do you like selling on Instagram? Is it worth your effort? Or is it a community for discussions only? Thanks!
    
    Marjean28
- 05/14/2018 at 6:09 pm #39903
  Annalisa
  Participant
  Location:
  @annalisa
  I just wanted to put an experience I had with eBay regarding the GTC or 30 day’s that might help. I have 3 different stores, my largest store of over 900 was the slowest. That was my original (1st) store. I talked to eBay about my declining sales and the representative “refreshed” all my listing saying sometimes the listings get old. He went page to page and in bulk editor acted as if he was going to make a change but didn’t and selected the submit changes button. He said that my sales should improve and they did! Maybe for those people who do not make changes often, like handling days, or such it might be a good step for them to do once a month.
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:21 pm #39919
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Very interesting… 🙂
- 05/14/2018 at 6:44 pm #39910
  Rydell Relics
  Participant
  Location:
  @rydell-relics
  RR Store Week May 6-May 12, 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 1601
  Items Sold: 54
  Cost of Items Sold: $60.20
  Total Sales: $989.48
  Highest Price Sold: $75 (60’s stag party record with nudie cover)
  Average Price Sold: $18.33
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $58.98
  Number of items listed this week: 44
  
  Thank you to everyone who responded to my schedule change post. I appreciate the insight and advice.
  
  Very excited to hear this week’s episode. I feel like I’ve been bombarded lately with people insisting I have to try Etsy, Poshmark, etc. But my thing is like most: I’m worried that it’ll be taking time away from a proven moneymaker to try an experiment on platforms that don’t garner as many sales. And I’m not at the point where I can take time away from eBay. Maybe as sales grow I’ll consider it.
  
  Paul
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:04 pm #39914
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Looks like you had a great week. Congrats!
    - 05/14/2018 at 10:41 pm #39933
      Rydell Relics
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @rydell-relics
      
      Thank man! Average price is low, but the volume was there. And I’m not crazy about getting up early, but you can’t argue with the results. I’m getting so much more done each day.
      
      Paul
- 05/14/2018 at 7:19 pm #39916
  Sue
  Participant
  Location: Wisconsin (Florida for the worst part of winter)
  @sue-saving
  Hmmm. My post is gone. I don’t know why that happens to me so much.
  Anyhoo. I don’t think it is bad to diversify as long as you’re meeting your goals on your primary site. I have a tiny bit of diversification by having my items on Bonanza (just started) Addoway (one sale in four years lol), 4 items on etsy, and one item on Poshmark.
  So far only eBay is working for me. But Poshmark is getting quite popular.
  Here are my numbers (again). Date: May 6-12
  Numbers:
  Total Items in Store: 964
  Cost of Items Sold: $135
  Amount of Items Sold: 25
  Total Sales: $898
  Highest Price Sold: $250 (leather Harley jacket)
  Average Price Sold: $36
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: 125
  Number of items listed this week: 43
  I’ve used Auctiva as a third party eBay platform, but just to keep track of my items beyond 90 days. I can go all the way back and see what I sold in 2007. It’s cheap and works for me.
  Sue
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:26 pm #39921
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    If you publish a post here and then immediately go to edit it, posts will disappear. We’ve tried to track down the problem but seems to be something about not enough time for the server to capture the post.
    
    So if you do want to edit your post, we encourage people to proofread before publishing, or waiting a couple minutes before editing.
- 05/14/2018 at 7:20 pm #39918
  Sue
  Participant
  Location: Wisconsin (Florida for the worst part of winter)
  @sue-saving
  I just checked on Addoway and it actually closed down on May 12th. LOL
  - 05/14/2018 at 7:27 pm #39922
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Another one bites the dust.
- 05/14/2018 at 7:59 pm #39926
  Doublythumbs
  Participant
  Location: Hopedale, OH
  @doublythumbs
  May 6 – 12
  Total Items in Store: 1609
  Items Sold: 31
  Total Sales : $1247
  * above yearly average of $750
  * WAY above 2017 total week sales of $372
  Highest Price: $250 (Peerage England Brass Fireplace Tool Set)
  Average Price: $40
  Returns: 0
  Cost of Goods Sold: $92
  Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $17
  Number of New Items Listed this Week: 42
  
  I had a very good week of sales! These 1K+ weeks are become more and more common, and I’m lovin it! Not much in the way of scavenging, but I did manage to sell a really neat set of fireplace tools for much more than I thought they would go for (and good thing too, because I spent $45 on them). But enough about eBay. I wanted to share the good news. We Bought the House!!
  
  I’ll start from the beginning. Steph and I have been house searching for a few months now with disappointing results. The only houses within our price range were these 120 year old homes with who knows how many problems. Not something we wanted to deal with. Well I happened upon this gorgeous bed and breakfast house that would be sold at auction. So I suggested we go to the open house and talk with the owner. The house was way nicer than we expected. And we became good chums with the old lady who owned it who was just looking to downsize. So on the day of the auction, there was a low first bid of $100,000. We jumped in at 110K. There was one other bid but we got back in at 115. And we waited for what seemed like 5 minutes. The anticipation was killing me. Finally, he looked at the owner, she nodded her head and we won! And at 40 thousand below our max budget! I’m still in a state of shock.
  
  The awesome thing too is, we just met with our loan officer and the monthly payments will be just about what we’re paying for rent, and now there’s so much room for my eBay business! It’s like a dream come true. And if it wasn’t for my eBay business, there would have been no way I could have made the 20% down payment. I’ll post some pictures sometime in the future.
  - 05/14/2018 at 8:14 pm #39927
    Doublythumbs
    Participant
    
    Location: Hopedale, OH
    @doublythumbs
    Our first picture as homeowners
    - 05/14/2018 at 8:15 pm #39928
      Jay
      Keymaster
      
      Location: Virginia
      @jay
      
      That’s quite the house! Congrats!
      
      What kind of eBay area have you staked out inside that place?
      - 05/15/2018 at 10:12 am #39961
        
        Doublythumbs
        Participant
        
        Location: Hopedale, OH
        @doublythumbs
        
        Thanks Jay! We plan on using most of the basement for storage and a shipping station (it’s nowhere near a flood plain thankfully). There’s a nice office area upstairs that’ll be for photography and listing. And from there, who knows? There’s like four other bedrooms that we can utilize. LOL
        
        05/15/2018 at 10:41 am #39970
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Can you share your decision/process on buying a house? I believe eBay is your full-time job. If so, any issues getting a loan?
        
        05/15/2018 at 9:30 pm #40041
        
        Doublythumbs
        Participant
        
        Location: Hopedale, OH
        @doublythumbs
        
        We’ve always fancied the idea of owning one day. After the flood incident last summer, we decided to start making the dream become a reality. But we were really dismayed when we began searching the market and seeing what we could afford without living on rice and beans. But we just kept saving our eBay money and waiting for the right opportunity to arise. One day about a month ago, I was looking on Auctionzip and one of the auctioneers I follow posted the house for auction, and I guess my gut instinct just said to give it a shot. It couldn’t hurt. The rest I described above.
        eBay isn’t my full time job yet. I’m a full time technical coordinator for a science learning center at a university. eBay is just something I started doing to make some “fun money” and soon realized it’s real potential. The loan process (still pending btw) has been pretty easy so far. Though our loan officer admitted that he’s always a bit leery when dealing with an auctioned home. But I think he’s relaxed after reviewing all the paperwork and seeing both of our excellent backgrounds and credit reports. There’s just a couple pieces of info we’re still waiting on to give him, but overall it’s going very smoothly.
        
        05/16/2018 at 7:43 am #40058
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        You do really well on eBay for just doing it part-time. Not sure why I thought this was all you did.
        
        Are you buying the house at an auction? I’ve always wanted to try buying land/house that way if we could get a crazy deal.
        
        05/16/2018 at 8:50 am #40063
        
        Doublythumbs
        Participant
        
        Location: Hopedale, OH
        @doublythumbs
        
        Thanks! I’ve worked really hard (maybe too hard) to get those numbers. It’s like a second job at this point.
        The auction was last Thursday. We got it for way below market value, surprisingly. I really thought we would be outbid. I think everyone else was just as shocked. My guess is, any other interested people didn’t bother coming because they thought it would go too high. And it being on a Thursday afternoon probably helped in our favor too.
        There was also the thing where the ending bid had to be approved by the owner. It wasn’t a foreclosure or anything. She was just elderly and had a hard time getting around in that size of house. So we thought for sure she would decline. But we have a long conversation with her the week prior at the open house and she was happy to let it go to a nice young couple.
        
        05/16/2018 at 8:55 am #40064
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Wow, thats awesome. Did you guys have an inspection done or title search before you bid? Or do you just get a chance to walk around and just buy As Is?
        
        05/16/2018 at 9:22 am #40067
        
        Doublythumbs
        Participant
        
        Location: Hopedale, OH
        @doublythumbs
        
        No inspection. Just “as is” mostly. There was a pest inspection done and was cleared. We checked out all the major points like foundation and mold and water leaks during the open house. The roof is kind of old, but is still in good condition. We predict we’ll need to replace it in around 5 or 7 years. There are some minor cosmetic issues like a broken step and the deck will need re-stained and sealed. But for the most part, the house has been kept up very well.
        We’ll probably pay to have a full inspection done anyways just for peace of mind. I’d rather know something is wrong now than when we’re already settled in it.
        
        05/16/2018 at 11:19 am #40074
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        “But we have a long conversation with her the week prior at the open house and she was happy to let it go to a nice young couple.”
        
        Reinforces the best advice I have ever received, and I try to live by: Business is 95% people, and 5% numbers.
        
        Coming from a numbers guy, you would think that this would offend me. But it doesn’t. Selling is about people. Life is about people. Make a big difference.
        
        05/16/2018 at 12:23 pm #40082
        
        Doublythumbs
        Participant
        
        Location: Hopedale, OH
        @doublythumbs
        
        That is great advice! And it’s so true! I put on my charming personality face in all my business dealings. When people feel more comfortable with you, they’re more comfortable doing business with you.
        
        05/16/2018 at 12:40 pm #40085
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        First thing I do at a garage sale…look them in the eye and smile.
        
        Same goes for everywhere else… 🙂
    - 05/15/2018 at 9:05 am #39947
      Steven S
      Participant
      
      Location: South Dakota
      @steven-s
      
      That’s great! Congratulations.
      - 05/15/2018 at 10:13 am #39962
        
        Doublythumbs
        Participant
        
        Location: Hopedale, OH
        @doublythumbs
        
        Thanks Steven! We’re so excited!
        
        05/15/2018 at 10:17 am #39963
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Congrats Doubly!
    - 05/15/2018 at 7:55 pm #40037
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      You are Doubly blessed sir!!!!!!!!!
  - 05/15/2018 at 10:56 am #39974
    twizzle
    Participant
    
    Location: Massachusetts
    @twizzle
    Yeah, Well done Doubly!. Bet Steph is over the moon. You guys Rock!
- 05/15/2018 at 12:55 am #39937
  Rhianna
  Participant
  Location:
  @rhianna
  Total Items in Store: 2128
  Items Sold: 38 (1 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
  Total Sales: $867
  Highest Price Sold: $78 (Camera we picked up for $4 at an estate sale)
  Returns: 1 (fit)
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $85
  
  I find that trying to jump between all these different platforms is really frying my brain. I think I will stick with ebay as my main source with a few things here and there on etsy and amazon. On Amazon we are only adding a few puzzles that are new, they are actually selling right away, we just do merchant fulfilled.
  Had a little bit slower week than the last few weeks. I had a death in the family and my son graduating from college so I haven’t really gotten much done in the last two weeks. I am grateful that I have ebay as my full time job, it gives me the freedom to be able to step away for as much time as I need and it is there waiting for me when I return. I plan on getting right back to listing all my “to be listed” piles. 🙂 We also put an offer on a piece of land so hopefully we will start building our dream home soon, one that has a HUGE area for me to grow my business. Fingers crossed!
  - 05/15/2018 at 7:17 am #39943
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    You guys have really grown the business in the past couple years. Pretty amazing.
    
    Are you going to move to another state or stay where you? Building a new house is a big deal!
    - 05/15/2018 at 9:57 am #39957
      Rhianna
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @rhianna
      
      We were open to moving to another state but when this property popped up we decided to bounce on it. We are going to sit down with a builder very soon to see if we can build something that we need within our budget. We figure if we are not able to come up with a decent home for our frugal budget we can just turn around and flip the piece of land for more than we bought it for. We do have several family members who are builders, framers, ect. So hopefully that means we can get some kind of family discount right! HA.
- 05/15/2018 at 12:00 pm #39982
  jadowa
  Participant
  Location: Franklin, IN
  @jadowa
  Diversity for me is using each channel for a specific purpose. And, I don’t usually cross-list.
  
  I currently have 3 sales channels… Amazon is where all of the pristine brand new items go. Ebay is for NWOT, Lots, Collectibles, Used, and Unique Items. My third I just started about 6 months ago and is an app/website called Tophatter. It’s a live 30 second auction site. It’s a wild ride – the prices are all over the place. But overall it’s a nice additional revenue stream.
- 05/15/2018 at 12:06 pm #39983
  MyCottage
  Participant
  Location:
  @mycottage
  jadowa, I’ve looked at TopHatter before….what sort of stuff do you list there?
- 05/15/2018 at 1:56 pm #40000
  jadowa
  Participant
  Location: Franklin, IN
  @jadowa
  I sell in the collectibles category… Coins and stuff. It’s a totally different business model than my main business… It’s kind of fun though.
- 05/15/2018 at 2:35 pm #40001
  MyCottage
  Participant
  Location:
  @mycottage
  Thanks! How’s your sell through? Do all auctions start at 99 cents?
- 05/15/2018 at 4:06 pm #40007
  Marjean28
  Participant
  Location: Minneapolis, MN
  @marjean28
  I did my numbers in the post above. Now for my responses to the podcast. First, I love the podcast, any and all of them. We are pondering the thought of the possibility of the demise of eBay, but worse yet, what if Jay & Ryanne stopped doing the podcast!!!! GASP!!! It would be like if This American Life Went off the air…..don’t even think it 🙂
  
  My take away from the podcast regarding diversification is not that the intent is to duplicate sales volumes on other platforms, but to enhance the opportunity for additional sales through those platforms. While it may not be a game changer, it certainly may be a game enhancer. This is only plausible if it can be achieved without compromising the listing efforts on the main platform (e.g. eBay, etc.).
  
  As for listing applications, while it’s true that WL and 6Bit are desktop applications, both File Exchange and InkFrog are cloud based. File Exchange relies upon you hosting your photos to a specific URL which ends in .jpg. Since most of us don’t have our own servers (don’t you J&R?) that means getting cloud space somewhere for that. I chose dreamhost, which may not be the absolute best, but it’s cheap at $5/month. And InkFrog, which I also just signed up for because they allow for unlimited number of VA’s. I did try the InkFrog .csv file upload, but it was way to barebones for my liking. I love the idea of having a spreadsheet where everything that is boiler plate is pre-populated in the cells, and I can write formulas for things like the photo URLs. I was pretty please with myself by getting the formulas to take my list of photo names, concatenate and index them to follow a pattern based on the number of photos I take for the listings. Anyway, the whole spreadsheet doesn’t take that long to fill in. The key here is that the same items go together on one spreadsheet. It can be arranged to have more than one category ID on the spreadsheet, but I think that would be better handled through a SQL or Access database. The first day I did 20 and had issues with the photos being out of order. I solved that and I was able to fix that problem and get 27 more done today and it’s not even the end of the day. So, I’m feeling some confidence about being able to do 100/day. Once I get my process bugs out, I’ll look at hiring a VA that can do this for me. If there is anyone else who wants to talk shop about eBay File Exchange or InkFrog, please reach out! Jay has my contact info too if you want to email.
  
  I have one more thing that has been dinging around in my mind. When we post the weekly numbers, we put in COGS, but really, all we have been indicating is the cost of the item itself and that isn’t really COGS. COGS should also include all the other costs which go into selling the item, which would include, among other things, the eBay and PayPal fees. Just a thought to consider.
  
  Thanks everyone for your input on this forum. It’s invaluable.
  
  Marjean28
  - 05/15/2018 at 5:09 pm #40009
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Marjean: “While it may not be a game changer, it certainly may be a game enhancer. This is only plausible if it can be achieved without compromising the listing efforts on the main platform (e.g. eBay, etc.).”
    
    Double Amen!!!
    
    PS – Not to get ticky-tacky, but COGS wouldn’t include the selling fees. The fees would be an operating cost to the business, but not a COGS expense. COGS technically would be all materials that are shipped to the customer plus the labor involved in that product. To be “truly right” per GAAP, we should all include a cost for the packaging materials (poly bags, tape, boxes, etc) as well as the labor we are capitalizing for the item (in our case, a $2/item photographer charge). Even being the OCD accountant I am…I ain’t doing that…
    
    If we were running this on a standard cost basis, we could argue to add the fees as part of Standard COGS, but we would have to then allocate the variances we have in the current month, attribute that to the current inventory, and sell off the deferred variances. Messy.
    
    I think there are some companies that look at these as COGS, but unless you are creating a standard cost and accounting for variances, then I would not. For me…keep it simple.
    - 05/15/2018 at 5:38 pm #40015
      MDC Galleries & Fine Art
      Participant
      
      Location: Atlanta
      @huncrelan
      
      Yep. Spot on. And also include the procurement cost divided by the number of items per procurement trip. [the $.56 IRS per mile divided by how many items that trip] or use the procurement as expenses.
      
      all expenses [expensed categories], are determined by setting up a COA [Chart of Accounts], and using GAAP standard line item numbers, a seller then uses these catgories to deduct against the gross profits. I am more interested in what my Corporation Makes than what I personally make. A corporation is an entity unto itself and one needs to run their business so their “business / corporation” makes money, then pay yourself as an employee of that corporation or take Owner Distributions”. Then expense any thing you can lay your hands on. Toothpaste is a great polish, toilet paper is good to wrap items in for storage, toothbrushes are good to scrub stuff, all allowable as an expnese under the IRS rules and categorized under your COA as Cleaning Supplies or Janitorial supplies.
      
      By having a very detailed COA, which we set up in Quicken and then when we down load all of our numbers from all of our banks, paypal and all credit cards, they get automatically placed into the Chart of Accounts [COA] that we have assigned them to. Then from that we pull a P&L [Profit and loss Statement], every week end.
      
      This way we know if our company is doing well and where we stand. In some years we want to make sure our company is actually running in the red, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t make money or that we didn’t get paid. And we can track if we need to pay quarterly taxes or by running in the red, we have had some years where we didn’t pay any taxes at all. And that was by design and under our control. Using a fully detailed COA and a P&L statement we can tell when it is time to maybe buy that $900 piece of equipment.
      
      There is just no substitute for utilizing a full accounting approach to running ones business, expensing everything that you can and the COGS is just a part of it.
      
      In my opinion. But that is what we do here, share opinions.
      
      This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
      - 05/15/2018 at 6:01 pm #40020
        
        Paulo H Leocadio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @paulo-h-leocadio
        
        Fantastic MDC Galleries, this is what I do and for the reasons you mention. At the end it is more money in my pocket than if I was running as individual.
        
        Also, a question if I may: do you mind elaborate a bit on “And also include the procurement cost divided by the number of items per procurement trip. [the $.56 IRS per mile divided by how many items that trip] or use the procurement as expenses.” This piece I did not understand and apparently do not have knowledge on.
        
        Thank you
        
        05/15/2018 at 6:20 pm #40025
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        That was just a short response to T-Satt talking about detailing the COGS. One could crawl deep into the weeds if one wanted too and track the “real actual cost of an item” by being so darned detailed that you could take your “procurement costs” and even figure out what part of the procurement costs went into the cost of an item. But that is way too deep. So the easiest way is just track mileage for ALL buisness trips and use the standard IRS of $.56 per mile. That was all I was saying, in reply to T-Satt topic of being detailed and tracking COGS in Great, Great detail. I was mentioning it as to show how crazy and OCD [as T-Satt calls himself at times] can get if one wants to split hairs into a thousand pieces. Then mentioned the mileage allowance at the standard rate as a comparison and that it is much easier to do it that way and just expense mileage on your COA as an over all expense. That was all I was trying to say.
        
        Please don’t do it that way, use the standard mileage deduction.
        
        For those who don’t track mileage, get yourself an app like MileIQ or others and by allmeans track your mileage. it is a large part of our expenses each year and reduces your taxable groos profits, thus lowers your taxes. It is a great deduction along with your home office deductions. square footage and the share of utiilties divided into that office square footage]. it all adds up.
        
        And as we all here at SL will tell anyone asking about these issues and are desireable of running an online business full time, here it comes Jay… Please seek out the help of an accountant or CPA. Not a tax form filler, but a person who has a degree in accounting and stays up on the tax laws. Ask them everything your heart can think of, and then some more. Ask how do I,… Why do I have to…, when do I have to …, how should I organize, do i need a license, why get a license. If you can ask it, do so. A CPA will be your full time business best friend.
        
        Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
        
        05/16/2018 at 11:16 am #40073
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Amen on that Mike. Only get as detailed as you need. I have spent 20+ years in accounting and finance, with the majority of that time in cost accounting. Taking every cost that we use in manufacturing (materials, utilities, labor, maintenance and repair, overhead, etc.) and identifying what the true cost of manufacturing was for each item. Lots of spreadsheets, lots of numbers, lots of data. And good information…if done right. I’ve seen other processes where they have gobs of data, but no information.
        
        If we want to include fees into COGS, we can. If we want to put procurement into COGS, we can. Whatever works for getting to meaningful information to make good business decisions.
        
        And yes, get a good business and tax person to talk with (those two may be the same person, or maybe not). Makes all the difference in the world.
    - 05/15/2018 at 5:54 pm #40019
      Paulo H Leocadio
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @paulo-h-leocadio
      
      Right on T-Satt!!!!!!
      
      Getting ticky-tacky hhehehehe, from my Revenue (or income) I have 3 cost centers with actual revenue: Sales, Income Resulting from Sales Shipping and Refunds. That is my gross revenue or total income.
      The for COGS I have 7 cost centers that basically reflect your items above.
      However, I have one COGS cost center for delivery and one for the Fees. I attribute the variances on an annual basis and then apply to inventory. On these two items I think I am making mistakes.
      Anyway, from the gross income minus COGS I have my Gross Profit.
      Then I have other 7 cost centers for non COGS expenses (here is an evidence I am doing something wrong because one of the CCs is for Fees and Comissions, I think this is where the darn eBay fees would also go).
      Then subtracting that from Gross Income I have Net Operating Income (which in my case would equal a non GAAP metric, the EBITDA and Net Income.
      My rationale for both shipping and fees seems to be wrong since one way or the other they are operating costs and no way materials.
      I think I will change it in my Quickbooks.
      For now I make my Net Income = Net Profit because I do not have the ITDA part of EBITDA hehehe
      - 05/16/2018 at 11:27 am #40076
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Paulo:
        
        We are similar on Gross Revenue, though we break out by platform (Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Bonanza, TrueGether) and Shipping Revenue.
        
        So are you applying a standard cost for your expense types and capitalizing to your inventory? And then allocating variances somehow?
        
        I would love to see a copy of your reports (you can xxx out the numbers) just for reporting. tsatterf@yahoo.com
        
        For me, the only COGS I would care to report are Inventory (Purchase Price only) and Shipping Expense. For us, Revenue – COGS – Shipping would be Gross Profit. All other lines are Operating Expense. Again, you can argue some other lines like Labor and Packaging, but since I only use Quicken and Excel (not QuickBooks, that is overkill for me right now), I want to keep it simple.
        
        05/16/2018 at 4:42 pm #40115
        
        Paulo H Leocadio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @paulo-h-leocadio
        
        T-Satt Love to share, I am sure I will get a couple of great advises and recommendations heheheeh
        
        Which report you want to see? For me it is just a matter of generating on QB.
        
        I too break down by platform, each one is under the top level cost center (I am about to change the numbers, not decided yet).
        
        “So are you applying a standard cost for your expense types and capitalizing to your inventory? And then allocating variances somehow?”
        Not a plain flat standard cost, more like expected expenses. The variances enter in an Operations subline to even things
        
        “For me, the only COGS I would care to report are Inventory (Purchase Price only) and Shipping Expense. For us, Revenue – COGS – Shipping would be Gross Profit. All other lines are Operating Expense. Again, you can argue some other lines like Labor and Packaging, but since I only use Quicken and Excel (not QuickBooks, that is overkill for me right now), I want to keep it simple.”
        Hmmmmmm, After these chats I am seriously considering to reclassify shipping expenses as operational instead of COGs. I have a CPA i have like a contract, however I build my CoA myself and he or his team ever argued with my methodology. However after what you and MDC Galleries commented, I took a look in some books and, at the high level, all of them say the way I am doing is WRONG
        
        05/16/2018 at 4:57 pm #40116
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Paulo: Wrong is a strong word. It is accounting after all. As we say in the biz..
        
        What is 2+2? Whatever you want it to be…
        
        All kidding aside, I would keep it as simple as it can be, to be accurate to what you need for tax filing as well as for management reporting. I like seeing Revenue by platform in our financials. SixBit also gives us a Gross Profit by platform. I can use that and see how each is doing.
        
        This is also why I split out the PayPal downloads for each sale into 4 lines (Product Revenue, Shipping Revenue, PayPal Fees, Sales Tax Collected). Then I can see Shipping Revenue vs Shipping Expense, a true Product Revenue without Shipping, PayPal fees are shown as an operating expense line (they are really similar to a bank fee), and Sales Tax Collected for annual reporting.
        
        Just shoot me an excel download from QuickBooks of any reports you are looking at on a regular basis (daily/weekly/monthly). Anything you make a decision on.
        
        And anything you are reporting to your tax person. They may have reasons for certain things, so I wouldn’t change anything (don’t mess in someone else’s sandbox), but it would be an interesting review.
        
        As to your standard/variances…you are a brave man. I do cost accounting for a living (well, contract now), and I ain’t doing it for this business. Way to messy for my taste. I can back of the envelope enough for the big things to make buying and pricing decisions, and that is enough. But if you get good info from it, more power to you!
        
        05/16/2018 at 6:21 pm #40117
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Yep.. dead on as to how I do it. PayPal.. is just a commission/fee just like a bank fee. Actually it is a credit card merchant processing fee, but a fee is a fee.
        
        Pull same type of reports from WonderLister.
        
        All expenses run through the business credit card and I just pull them down into Quicken and they are by now all memorized by Quicken and just fall into the correct categories. I prefer the Quicken P&L rather than any type of report from Ebay. I also use the percentage column so I can what percentage of our income each category is representing. That way if I wish to lower a category then it shows up easily by doing it this way.
        Also I know you know, but there are national averages by percentage that represent different industries. I could easily see in mfg. certain categories that were 2 or 3 percentage points higher then national averages and also our historical averages. I call the president of the company and all he wnated to know were what were the flags I saw. I would report our Advertising has moved from 6% of our gross Sales up to 9% of our gross and that is 2% over average for companies of our size in our industry. We ran 18 million dollars per year by watching those averages. If payroll went up by 8 to 12%, then who hired who and at how much? Then I would have to reun the numbers to see what impact those hires had on our productivity and if they carried, then they were good to go. If not someone was going to be let go. But all done by categories and percentages.
        
        Man we are so closely aligned it is spooky sometimes when you post.
        
        Mike in Atl.
        
        05/16/2018 at 7:31 pm #40120
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Yeah…nobody wants to be like an accountant… 🙂
        
        05/17/2018 at 11:34 am #40173
        
        Paulo H Leocadio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @paulo-h-leocadio
        
        T-Satt: having these conversations are the funniest part of this. I just love to discuss these details, discrepancies, particularities, how one do versus the other. In summary, I am in Nervana now.
        
        “All kidding aside, I would keep it as simple as it can be, to be accurate to what you need for tax filing as well as for management reporting.”
        Yes the KISS philosophy is the best (keep it simple stupid heheeh), I am a complicated person, but I try to build as simple and as detailed as needed to reflect actual and plan for my goals
        
        “I like seeing Revenue by platform in our financials. SixBit also gives us a Gross Profit by platform. I can use that and see how each is doing.”
        Me too, I do it by whatever (since the LLC has other income sources as well)
        
        “This is also why I split out the PayPal downloads for each sale into 4 lines (Product Revenue, Shipping Revenue, PayPal Fees, Sales Tax Collected). Then I can see Shipping Revenue vs Shipping Expense, a true Product Revenue without Shipping, PayPal fees are shown as an operating expense line (they are really similar to a bank fee), and Sales Tax Collected for annual reporting.”
        Exactly the same here, I too have cost center for each one. What I need to do is move the eBay and PayPal fees to operating cost center (already moved the shipping to customers as operating and the COGS version is now Freight-in as per the IRS Guide-book for small businesses accounting.
        
        “Just shoot me an excel download from QuickBooks of any reports you are looking at on a regular basis (daily/weekly/monthly). Anything you make a decision on.” Later today in your inbox
        
        “And anything you are reporting to your tax person. They may have reasons for certain things, so I wouldn’t change anything (don’t mess in someone else’s sandbox), but it would be an interesting review.”
        I think just the above. I am being audited this year (not like Trump, I am really being audited) and these details might have affected that. At the end of the day they are huge part of expenses.
        
        “As to your standard/variances…you are a brave man. I do cost accounting for a living (well, contract now), and I ain’t doing it for this business. Way to messy for my taste. I can back of the envelope enough for the big things to make buying and pricing decisions, and that is enough. But if you get good info from it, more power to you!”
        Indeed, however moving towards the changes I delineated above, this will certainly change to as consequence.
        
        Cheers
- 05/16/2018 at 1:47 am #40051
  SilverFoxFinds
  Participant
  Location: Virginia Beach
  @silverfoxfinds
  Traveling this week for some vacay, though not of the very restful sort: Seattle –> Olympic National Park –> Oregon coast –> Portland. Drinking in lots of great views, enjoying fresh air, and looking forward to seeing old friends in Portland (starting tomorrow). Have had the shop on 10 day handling, and can’t quite tell if this has deterred some sales, or if the light sales/slowdown is just continuing to come on…
  
  Reflected a few weeks back on where to take my shop, now that I’m approaching my limit of 1K items – and considering the larger conversation on diversification. Etsy is really the only other place I’d consider at this point (I already sell some items, or try to, on Craigslist and NextDoor). But, I’m going to continue to lean hard into eBay. I don’t have goals of being a large shop/continued growth in size, so far haven’t found interest enough in attaining TRS and sweating out (relatively speaking) the changes eBay rolls out to enhance their own goals. I feel like I’m still a bit of an experimental full-timer, and realize this is both because I can afford to be (no kids, low cost of living/lifestyle) and because I’m trying to eke out more on the “living” side, rather than the “making a” side of that equation. I’ll be interested to see how this changes or doesn’t over time. In this vein, I’m appreciating the conversations here, big and small, regarding different practices, goals, and lifestyles. Scavenger diversity! 🙂
  
  My soft and light numbers:
  
  05/06/18 – 05/12/18
  Total Items In Store: 927
  Items Sold: 18
  Total Sales: $611.43
  Cost of Items Sold: $61
  Highest Price Sold: $140 Wolfman Luggage Motorcycle Tank Bag (commission sale) – https://www.ebay.com/itm/MINT-Wolfman-Luggage-Tank-Bag-w-2-Extra-Side-Pockets-Map-Pocket-Strap/322939899548
  Average Price Sold: $33.97
  Returns/Refunds: 0 (though the Visions glass cookware saga continues….I’m hating eBay on this one right now)
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $15
  Number of Items listed this week: 10 (traveling)
- 05/16/2018 at 9:02 am #40065
  Jen
  Participant
  Location:
  @jen
  “You can’t be passive. You must be innovative, creative, and generous. You’ve got to work a few years like few people will so you can spend the rest of your life like few people can”. Just thought I would share this from an article I read this morning. I know that is what we are all here trying to do. So grateful for this awesome community that inspires me every day!
  - 05/16/2018 at 11:29 am #40077
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Amen Jen!
    
    You have to go at life. Play life on offense, not defense.
- 05/16/2018 at 4:00 pm #40106
  Steven S
  Participant
  Location: South Dakota
  @steven-s
  I’m diversifying by selling on CL & FB Marketplace, it’s easy and if it’s local you just need to entice them with a couple pics, let them view it in person.
  I have no reason to believe eBay would ever go belly up or become a nightmare for the average seller but I could see using FB and CL to generate the income I need even in this smaller mid west market, plus if you will ship it would open up plenty of other buyers on specific FB groups.
  For now I just dabble in it, eBay has the audience.
  - 05/16/2018 at 4:22 pm #40109
    Paulo H Leocadio
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @paulo-h-leocadio
    I still have a few things on Etsy and Grailed, however I am phasing out.
    I keep the sites I can synchronize since they don’t demand anything in terms of extra effort.
    Like Sue said like a year ago, Etsy is very good. People there buy things I cannot sell on eBay (Arts and Antique for the connoisseur for example), however the income does not pay comparing the fees.
    
    I also diversify having a second LLC for my Engineering Consulting. Even though there are contracts that last a year, others that last a month, usually the pay is just crazy (remember Istanbul? I got $33k per each month I was there plus a few days working from home).
    
    I was building a backlog of contracts but I decided to not take the “cheap” ones so the volume is much smaller.
- 05/17/2018 at 10:47 am #40170
  buytikiselltiki
  Participant
  Location:
  @buytikiselltiki
  As usual, the show sets my mind on track – so thanks…
  
  From this low vantage point, eBay has the largest, most consistent audience for the old crap I love – everything else is “niche – y” and any time spent searching out other venues would be time taken away from the basics of listing and selling.
  
  I do have some gigantic vintage guitar amplifiers that could probably go on reverb (everyone says so) but as usual that seems like a place where dealers gather to justify how much their stuff is worth. People say how cuddly and cozy it is, but the market is limited by definition.
  
  Same with LPs – it’s all discogs, discogs, discogs, but the ebay transaction system works, I’m familiar with it, and just can’t bother to learn the insanely complex grading silliness, ( a weakness).
  
  Also liked the “reverse auction” comment (anyone else remember Freemarkets?) because that’s the way it really is now – if ebay would PROMOTE the availability of “best offer” it would be more powerful.
  - 05/17/2018 at 12:16 pm #40179
    Steven S
    Participant
    
    Location: South Dakota
    @steven-s
    Big vintage guitar amps sounds interesting.
    I’ve had luck on eBay, FB Marketplace and CL selling those along with big mixer boards.
    Check for a local musicians exchange page on FB, we have a couple for this area.
  - 05/17/2018 at 12:56 pm #40187
    MDC Galleries & Fine Art
    Participant
    
    Location: Atlanta
    @huncrelan
    Actually that is sort of the way it already is now. Ebay changed the wording from “Best Offer” to “Make Offer”, then changed the amount of times a seller and potential buyer can go back and forth from 3 times to five times. So, if used correctly that is sort of a mini-acution in “reverse”. I say $100 in my listing, the buyer says $50 [1st offer], I counter offer and say half off is too low how about 20% off at $80 [2nd offer], they then say, still too high how about $70 [3rd counter offer], then I say let’s meet in the middle at $75 [4th offer] and that usually does the trick, every now and then I get a last counter at a dollar less, [5th offer], OK you win and I take it.
    So the new 5 Offer status has allowed us to really offer discounts but convert a lot of sales. If it was “Make A BEST OFFER”, then only one price is offered by the buyer and it is a take it or leave it situation for the Seller. Now with the 5 opportunities to make everybody happy we convert a lot of first offers into Sold Sales but at an amount higher than the first offer they come out of the chute with.
    
    Here is an antique booth axiom [technique used many times]. The tag price sets the ceiling [you won’t get this a lot of the time]. “He who says a number first, usually looses. So by putting a price on your listing or on a tag, count on probably not getting that. Then the buyer throws a number out, that sets the floor. That takes two manuevers. With these parameters set, Ceiling and floor, we now do what I call “the dance”. We then come down 15-20%, they come up 10-15%, in other words we come off the ceiling and they come up off the floor [we are dancing]. Then one or two more downs or ups and we have ended the dance and both parties are happy. I am going to guess we have about a third of our items come in with an offer. Then I engage them in the dance and maybe convert, 75% [guessing] those into Sales.
    The buyer goes low because the good lord says you have not because you ask not. So most seasoned buyers, ask. I also do the same when we buy. Last day of an estate Sale, everything is 50% off marked, well I engage, haggle and usually get 75% off. Just last Sunday, $600 of items for $150. My cost.
    
    Also ask, always try for a discount, expect, your buyers to do the same, dance with them and then close the deal.
    Following AdvenE comments, it is just a cold line of SOP’s [Standard Operating Procedures. Learn the drill, recognize when they will dance and close the deal. Online or in person, buying or selling.
    AND ALWAYS REMEMBER, “he who mentions a number first always looses”. That is why we price so high on our store listings and used to on the tags at our booths.
    
    We run 15-20% off sales frequently, so that is the first and second offer, so to speak, we list at $100, then auto. discount at $80, [perceived value and bargain, we dance and are happy with 40% off, WHY.. We had that built into the price in the first place. Some times we sell at listing price and smile all the way to the bank. Too bad they didn’t use any of their 5 “Make Offers” Ebay now let’s a potential buyer use.
    
    Standar Operating Procedure.. always have your dancing shoes on.
    
    Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
    - 05/17/2018 at 1:17 pm #40191
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Well said Mike!
      
      Nice hearing someone else that uses that phrase: Whoever says a number first loses.
    - 05/22/2018 at 11:10 am #40632
      Paulo H Leocadio
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @paulo-h-leocadio
      
      Mike, my pricing strategy goes that way as well.
      
      If I expect to sell a product for $100, I price it $120 or up (depending on the product I make it 2 times).
      
      Also the forever going free shipping, for the few products I have on free shipping, my pricing also includes the (usually First Class) shipping embedded.
      
      In my case specifically I have more traction on sales when it is free shipping, the challenge is I got really “screwed” a handful of times for that.
- 05/17/2018 at 3:00 pm #40201
  buytikiselltiki
  Participant
  Location:
  @buytikiselltiki
  Mike, thanks, yeah I mis-spoke, I would love it if ebay would promote “Make an offer” For a few weeks my listings all had an offer call out, at least on mobile:
  
  https://imgur.com/a/6Qyfh5l
  
  Now it has disappeared, apparently replaced with the guaranteed delivery message. I think they should herald trumpet “Make an Offer!!!!” (just checked and my listings say “or best offer”)
  
  Love the “never mention a number first rule.” that and “don’t panic!”
  
  Steve, yeah, Fender started making the REALLY BIG cabinets in 1968, ~41″ high, don’t want to separate them from the matching heads (which is all people want to buy), and I NEVER WANT TO CARRY THEM ANYWHERE EVER AGAIN – and no one else does either!
  
  Where has the SHOWMANship gone in todays world?
  
  Only have 3, should go CL and just get it over with…
  - 05/17/2018 at 4:05 pm #40216
    MDC Galleries & Fine Art
    Participant
    
    Location: Atlanta
    @huncrelan
    Also it must have been interesting for the roadies to haul around a Hammond double keyboard organ. Think they were Hammond B3??? and with the Lesley speakers.
    
    Goggle Hammond organ solos and just listen to those for a short while. Boy what a sound and great solos by very famous musicians.
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