Scavenger Life Episode 444: Is Cross Posting The New Reality?

2019-12-29 – 2020-01-04

Total Items In Store: 3369
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $ 60
Total Sales: $ 594.27
Highest Price Sold: $ 75 (VCR)
Average Price Sold: $ 37.14
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 21.19
Number of items listed: 17

Gut Sales Report for the week: Slower sales, but that was expected.

Challenge of the week: I still have a lot of items I need to process and list.

Scavenge of the week: Nothing

Safety Update: After all the talk about keeping my inventory safe, I had an accident. Well, it wasn’t what was discussed: Containers falling on your foot, books falling on your head, containers falling on you. No, I went to measure a bag in a container and the metal retractable tape measure retracted and sliced my finger. Not sure what the morale of this story is, either “You can never be too safe” or “No matter what you do, accidents can happen”. I guess I prefer to say that the safer you are, the less likely it is that accidents will happen.

Mark S

I really appreciate that you guys spent some time talking about cross-posting because this is something I have been thinking about lately: the fracturing of the online secondhand retail market. It worries me because for a large part, it seems like it is disrupting the market (taking sales volume away from eBay and Amazon) without adding much to either the buyer or seller. We can leave Poshmark and Etsy out of it because they offer a more crafted, efficient experience for people shopping for higher end and crafty things. But the never-ending direct eBay competitor-aspirants – Marcari, OfferUp, LetGo, etc – are bad for everyone. For the buyers, they offer a much smaller selection for prices that aren’t better than ebay. For the sellers, it is as you said: the volume that gets sold is so low that it doesn’t compensate for the opportunity cost of spending time creating cross-listings.

Personally, I cross-list to Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. To my eye, Facebook Marketplace is the only new selling platform worth getting excited about. It doesn’t just disrupt; my impression has been that it has the power to meaningfully expand the broader secondhand market. I have seen scores of people my age (millennial) who share the strange standard prejudices against eBay and Craigslist (randos, danger in internet anonymity and non-accountability), become perfectly comfortable to buy something secondhand from their neighbor if it is through a Facebook account. My impression has been that this is creating both non-traditional sellers (much less daunting to try to sell something for the first time when it is a simple process through a Facebook account you already use every day), and non-traditional buyers (there is something reassuring when the seller is someone who lives near you with a Facebook account you can access anytime you like).

Unlike eBay, Facebook and Craigslist don’t have any strict listing requirements. What my Cross-Listing looks like is that while I list on eBay, I keep a tab open for each site. When I list something I think would sell locally, I copy/paste the title, description, and 1-3 photos. People are usually even less attentive to descriptions on local platforms, but when someone has any questions/requests, it is even more efficient to communicate over Facebook Messenger or Email than it is over eBay Messenger.

Dec 29 – Jan 4
Total Items in Store: 2823
Items Sold: 33
Total Sales : $611
* BELOW yearly average of $896
Highest Price: $100 (Kodak Brownie 8mm Movie Camera)
Average Price: $18.50
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $23
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 88

Another sort of soft week of sales. I definitely sold a decent quantity, but just a lot of $10-15 items. I’ve been steadily listing these buttons and I think I really hit my stride. I started out doing auctions because that’s where I noticed a lot of the higher solds happening, but I quickly realized that my buttons weren’t really worth the $50+ prices that these true antique ones were going for. So I’m sticking to BIN with slightly higher than average common button prices. So far though I’ve made about $180 off of these things and still have hundreds to sell.

Unfortunately, I got a 3-day restriction yesterday. Apparently I was dinged for having listed a hazardous material for the second time in a period of time. The first time a couple months ago was a vintage miniature fire extinguisher. I guess they used to be filled with stuff that caused health problems. This time it was a mercury tilt switch for electronics. Honestly didn’t know mercury was banned from eBay. I was kinda bummed out about it but at least I’m still making sales. I just can’t list any more buttons until Tuesday. I really wish eBay would have noticed that this was an honest mistake rather than resorting to instant punishment. It kind of feels like middle school again.

Hello, and a great podcast as usual. I sell on two platforms yet I don’t cross list. If I have multiples of an item, I may list on both.

12/29 – 01/04/20 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 836
Number of items sold: 11
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $422.20
Cost of items sold: $33
Highest price sold: $125.00 – 1930’s lot of old auto/fire Insurance policies, paid $8, went to a really pleasant buyer in China who paid full price and paid Priority International shipping.
Average price sold: $38.40
Returns: 1 – $40 Guess watch returned from Israel, ‘Buyer changed his mind’.
Money spent on new inventory: $30
Number of new items listed this week: 9
Sell through rate for the week: 1.3
Number International sales: 1

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 635
Number of items sold: 7
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $136.10
Cost of items sold: $5
Highest price sold: $27 – small shabby wooden gold framed mirror, paid $1
Average price sold: $19.44
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 3
Sell through rate for the week: 1.1
Number International sales: 1

My Numbers for Dec. 2019

Total Listings: 1078
Items sold: 67
Gross Sales: $1769.36
Cost of Items sold: $271.93
Highest Price Sold: $90 – 2 sets of Noma Bubble Lights
Average Price Sold: $26.40 – Average Cost: $4.05
Spent on new inventory: $209
Number of items listed: 64

I’ve been trying to cut back on my death piles but an estate sale I went too (late in the day) had stuff I just couldn’t pass on. I got 5 sets of bubble lights, some old Motorola phones including 4 brick phones, some 1930s plane negatives and over 1000 1950s Kodak red border slides. The lights and phones sold very fast so I might of priced them too low, but still I’ve made $535 in sales from this lot so far and still have the negatives (on auction), slides, and what are either end tables or speaker stands to go.

2019-12-29 – 2020-01-04

Total Items In Store: 7,382
Items Sold: 107
Cost of Items Sold: $ 57
Total Sales: $ 1,221.86
Highest Price Sold: $ 75 (US Army All-American Jersey)
Average Price Sold: $ 14.98

A bunch of small-dollar sales over Facebook Marketplace/Craigslist, but those are trickier to keep track of.

Moderately better week than I’ve been seeing this winter. Sales starting coming right after Christmas, still catching up with shipments.

Yes, but I only ship through informal arrangement. I accept payment over Facebook, Paypal, Cash App, and Venmo. People give me their address, and I create a shipping label through a previous order on eBay – I’m sure this violates some sort of policy; I’m planning to create a Stamps.com account. This doesn’t constitute a large percentage of my FB sales, but it’s always interesting when people can send payment on trust alone. I buy quite a lot through Facebook, and I’ve had people ship to me as well.

Facebook did create a formal payment/shipping system. I haven’t used it myself, but I am a part of a group created by the Marketplace team for about a thousand high-volume sellers. People on there complain that the system is messed up in all sorts of ways, and caution not to use it until it is properly developed. I created a thread on this question there. Might be able to screenshot it if you’d like more info.

Yes, as a buyer whose order I did that through recently informed me :X I thought I was being clever by doing it through orders that didn’t include tracking. If Stamps.com offers the same rates, I’m just going to do it through them next time I have something to ship. Those orders were always rare enough that I never bothered to establish a serious process for it.

I’ve looked to Paypal before for this, but I think they didn’t have First Class as an option. Do you remember whether this is the case now?

@DantheDiner:
You will definitely confuse your eBay buyers by using eBay shipping like that. Might also mess up some of your eBay metrics. It could look like you have late shipping.

Like @Ryanne states:
You can use Paypal.com/Shipnow to print labels for USPS. They offer a fair price for shipping. I use this for first class and priority.

Or you can create a free account with Pirateship.com.

You can also create your own account with UPS (or Fedex) and print labels via their website.

These options are all subscription free.

Not being a clothing seller, I am fairly bearish on extensive cross-posting. Ebay works for most of my needs, amazon is handy for books/media, and kijiji for big stuff. Beyond that…

I think you want to spend your time in the place where it has highest value to your business. For me, and I suspect for most sellers, the lowest hanging fruit is almost always in sourcing – getting better at it, doing more of it, finding new places to go. I feel like extensive cross posting is going to hit diminishing returns real fast after you post to 1 or 2 sites. Not only is there the time spent listing in multiple places (maybe 10 minutes per site, which adds up), there is the additional logistical nightmare of ending items on the other sites when they sell, which not only takes time but, when it goes wrong, causes customer issues (which are themselves time consuming).

Anyway. I had a really good week on ebay. Buying spree continues but managed to maintain positive cashflow.

Sales c/w shipping income: CAD$3,516. COGS: $730, Fees: ~$481, Postage: $390 –> Gross profit: $1,915
Expenditures: $2,164 –> Cashflow: $871
Hours: 16
Listed: $2,700, 25 listings
Notable sales: 2 great sales this week: a huge lot of valves for $960 (had these for ages, got them at auction for $100 or so), and 2 PLC controllers for $900 (this is a recent ebay buy – I paid $300 for 12 or so similar units and sold 2 for $900 – so the lot is nicely paid off and still lots more to sell).

Great podcast, I wanted to answer a question on managed payments. I have opted in, there is no per transaction fee and they do not charge fees on sales tax if I am reading it right. Here is a link to the details:
https://pages.ebay.com/payment/2.0/terms.html#FeesJan2020

Concerning Cross Posting. I work along. Am retired and eBay is a great addition to my income. Have sold on eBay since 2003 and have almost 2000 items. I, too, sell anything that I think will sell. My passion is vintage glassware so Etsy works great for me. Have been on Etsy about 10 years. I also cross post on Poshmark, Marcari and Bonanza. Bonanza doesn’t give me many sells but it is easy because what I list on eBay automatically goes to Bonanza. When an item sells on one it goes off the other one. Etsy is my favorite next to eBay. My love and passion is vintage glassware. Etsy is great for this. Once you get used to Etsy it’s easy peasy. When I list a vintage item on eBay I just copy and paste to Etsy. I mainly list clothes on Poshmark and Mercari. Been doing this 2 years. Don’t sell a lot on either of these but do sell some. I just don’t spend lots of time sharing, etc. The only thing is to stay on top of everything. If it sells on Etsy get on eBay and delete and vice versa. If clothing do same with Poshmark, Mercari, etc.

Listened to your podcast today and this topic was of interest to me since I have done it several years. Just takes time and stay on top of it. Now you ask if I make much money on the other sites? Only on Etsy. Some weeks I do as good on Etsy as eBay. My income isn’t as much as yours or lots of others. I average about 2500 a month on all collectively. Just gives me extra fun money in my retirement and I love what I do. Am a widow and along so keeps me busy and out of trouble. lol

Items in Store 1518
Items Sold 44
Total Sales $1,778.00
COGS $148.00
Total Profit $1,630.00
Average profit $37.05
Average sales price $40.41
New Listings 167

Yes you read that right – 167 new listings! I was home taking care of wife and all 5 kids for 3 days this week. They slept alot so I got plenty of extra time doing ebay in the down time. Needless to say, New Years was quite uneventful.

Sales were amazing this week and I was really hoping to net a $2k+ week… but then the weekend happened. Crap sales on the weekend. Boo!!! Hopefully all of that listing pays off this week.

In other news, I got a new business credit card and have switched to using Pirateship exclusively for all USPS shipping and paying with said credit card. The card I chose gives me bonus rewards points for shipping purchases and I can confirm Pirateship is categorized as shipping in rewards. I’ll earn 2 extra hotel night stays this year just off my shipping costs. Woot!!!

I did run into a hiccup though – this card is an Am Ex and Goodwill does not take Am Ex. Doh! I think for a workaround I’m going to purchase a prepaid visa with my rewards card and use that at Goodwill.

I’m not setting any specific goals right now, but I am VERY focused listing as much as possible and limiting my inventory purchases. I want to start killing my death piles and turn them into profit generating inventory.

I do not cross post between my Etsy and eBay stores. I might be looking at moving some of my eBay inventory over to Etsy just because I’m annoyed with eBay at the moment. I don’t know if I should look into the cross-listing software or not. I would move the listing over and then delete the old one. That will be something for me to think about in the next few weeks.

Week of Dec 29 – Jan 4
* Total Items in Store: 1507 eBay, 34 Etsy
* Items Sold: 22 eBay, 1 Etsy
* Cost of Items Sold: $39.50 + $15.80 Commission
* Total Sales: $481.34 eBay, 17.75 Etsy
* Highest Price Sold: $84 Vintage Starrett Inside Micrometer
* Average Price Sold: $21.70
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 0

My sales often pickup after Christmas. People are getting what they really want, or they are spending their eBay gift cards.

I’ll start posting weekly again now that the holidays are over and I’m back on schedule! For now, my December numbers (which were quite good for my store).

December Numbers

Total Items in Store: 1050
Items Sold: 127 (1 Bonanza, 3 Discogs, 23 FB)
Cost of Items Sold: $1848 (35.6% of sales)
Total Sales: $5186
Highest Price Sold:
$300 Led Zepp II MFSL
$200 Nirvana Unplugged
$165 Radiohead Ok Computer
$140 RHCP Californication
$130 Biggie Life After Death
Average Price Sold: $40.84
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 38 (took on some family items and I’m taking 25% commission)

Really a whirlwind holiday season – a lot of sales, a good bit of family travel, a lot to do end of year for the day job, etc. Hectic, but all worth it in the end – maybe my highest volume of sales ever for a month and likely highest dollar sales. January through the first week has slowed considerably – swear I will start posting weekly again now.

Noticing above, my COGS are incredibly high. I like to keep them around 20% or lower ideally, but throughout December I was selling higher dollar items that had higher COGS, but wasn’t selling lower dollar items with little to no COGS to balance them out. Can’t complain, even though at 35%, I’ll buy something for $35 and sell for $100 all day long and I bet most of us would too.

This week I also plan on reconciling my FY’19 numbers. At first glance, 2019 was one of my best years in terms of gross sales nearly hitting $36k. I need to calculate all my COGS and ROI %.

I’ll bet the buyer who left the Neutral FB thought better of it and removed it themselves. And that’s why no notification about it was received.

Week Dec 29, 2019 – Jan 4, 2020

Items in store: 4436 Listings for 7317 Items
Items Sold: 104 transactions for 124 Items
Gross Sales: $7130.04
Highest Price Sold: $160 John Varvatos Suit
Lowest Price Sold: $12….pocket square
Average Sale Price: $57.50
Cost of Goods Sold $398, Plus consignment payout, roughly $1305
Number of new items listed this week: 0, took the week off to run end of year numbers and determine inventory values for taxes.
$$ spent on new inventory this week $0
International Sales, 28%
Repeat Customers 13

12/29-1/4

Total Items in Store: 2988
Items Sold: 29
Cost of Items Sold: $28
Total Sales: $983
Highest Price Sold: $95 (Wooden German Incense smoker)
Average Price Sold: $33.89
Returns: 3
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $67
Number of items listed this week: 37

New year resolution…post our numbers every week. I’ve gotten out of the habit of it. This last year was consistent for us. December was not great, actually about 20% under 2018. But this year starting well, and the entirety of 2018 was good. I just gotta keep listing. We do other side jobs and sometimes throughout the year those side jobs become the primary job.

Video games were mentioned in this week’s episode. I just bought a modified mini Super Nintendo System that has almost every Nintendo and SNES game ever made. I bought it on eBay. Apparently when the mini SNES came out a year or so ago, hackers figured out they could go into them and add all of the other games through some sort of open source website. I imagine that will almost completely kill off the 2nd hand market for used NES and SNES game cartridges.
I’ve been in hog heaven reliving my childhood playing Legend of Zelda and Dr. Mario.

Week of December 29 to January 3

Total Items In Store: 5209
Items Sold: 153
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $1576.26
Cost of Items Sold: $468.64
Total Profit: $1107.62
Highest Price Sold: $125.00 (Carole Towne Christmas Village People/Structures Lot)
Average Price Sold: $10.30
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Number of items listed: 188

My first sales report, though I have been following the podcast for a while now. I introduced myself a year or two ago, but just a quick intro… I have been a full-time online seller for 18 years (and 3 1/2 years prior to that part-time). I have always sold on eBay, but this will be the first year that I am no longer a seller on Amazon FBA which has always been at least 80% of my business.

Long story, but basically the NBA said I was selling a counterfeit T-Shirt. Amazon shut down my account immediately. I fought the NBA’s claim for 4 months at which time Amazon ordered me to remove my inventory from their warehouse at a cost of $15,000 or they could throw it away for me at a cost of $10,000. So, I had all 30,000 items returned to me (Amazon sent it back in literally 8,000 boxes – a process that I still have nightmares about).

In December, my lawyer finally got the NBA to remove their claim against me under threat of a lawsuit. Amazon opened my account back up for two weeks and then I get another email from them saying that my account has been closed again… This time because I owe them the $15,000 for returning my inventory.

Well, Amazon, because of your lousy policy of closing down a 17-year-old account (with sales over $1M each year for the last four years) on a single false accusation causing me to almost lose my business, lay off my employees and have my wife go back to a regular job just so we can make ends meet… See Ya – I’ll take my business elsewhere…

Funny thing is, I am a little relieved. I never really loved selling on Amazon like I always have on eBay. I am really optimistic heading into the new year. I don’t have to worry about employees, my wife went back to work as a Nurse and loves it since that has always been her passion (not to mention the insurance is great), and I can do what I have always loved… sell on eBay.

So, here’s to a great year!!

Thanks for the podcast. I really enjoyed this week’s episode:

My numbers for 5 days only (from 1/1):
Total Items in Store: 3454
Items Sold: 33
Total Sales: $752.05
Cost of Items Sold: $71
Average Price Sold: $22.79
Average Cost of Item: $2.16
Highest Price Item Sold: $169.95 USS PUEBLO (ACR-7) WWI era US Navy Tally Donald Duck Flat Cap Hat
Number of items listed this week: 3487 worth approx. $655
YTD Sales: $752
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +-16%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 443
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 290
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 191
Sell-through rate (for the week): 0.96%
Hats sold this week: 22 (66% of sales) worth $529.26 (70% of sales $)

My only high-value sale was also the most expensive hat I’ve ever sold. It was a lucky find at an estate sale. I paid a dollar or two for it.

I had a week vacation in the San Diego area and made time to hit about a dozen thrift shops. (I don’t normally source from thrift shops). I give much respect to anyone that can sustain a decent reselling business from thrift shops in a major metro area without sourcing clothes. I could never, in a million years, make that work I don’t think.

On the subject of thrift shops, I visited the San Diego Goodwill outlet. The bins only had clothes which isn’t something I am interested in. Off to the side they had auctions of gaylords (or the euqivalent) of other things. (I missed the opportunity to see what they were selling at auction but I believe it is things like books an accessories). The auction was held entirely in spanish. The auctioneer and all the bidders only spoke Spanish. That was a strange experience.

(To Jay’s point, my local Goodwill outlet doesn’t have a territorial feeling about it. There’s a race to the new bins but once that starts it’s every man/woman for themselves with no restrictions that I’ve ever seen).

As the resident Mercari cheerleader, I have to point out that it is a really good option for people with time constraints and arguably the easiest to cross-post on. It’s quick and dirty. There is no social media component, square photo requirement, and your sales are final after buyer approves or in three days after delivery. Returns are rare and buyers I suspect are way less high maintenance than Etsy. You aren’t necessarily going to get top dollar, but the relative ease and speed of Mercari I think appeals to a lot of younger buyers and sellers.

The big advantage over Ebay is that things happen faster because your items are way more visible, though there is also more pressure to drop the price. And, possibly there are younger people who are not into Ebay shopping, so maybe worth cross-posting certain items on Mercari especially if you have your help do it after you’ve created the Ebay listing. Using my millennial coworkers as an illustration, they are not shopping Ebay much – unless they get there from a search engine, and they are very enthused about buying and selling on Mercari. They are looking for bargains and are very price driven but want quality.

ChristineR—Is there any way to search “sold” items on Mercari, to get an idea of what sells? I sell mostly long tail hard goods with some vintage/used clothing….not sure my stuff would get much interest there….

Jay –

Our sides jobs are:

*We both do some carpentry and the like. Currently we are doing some renovations on a house Rita’s step dad owns

*Rita spins yarn and does other fiber arts and sells that on Etsy and to local folks

*We maintain and clean a 2-family Airbnb for some folks who live in NY. We are in St. Louis

*Rita is a high school and youth Lacrosse coach

*And whatever other weird side gigs pop up

Yes, everything was authentic. That particular shirt had actually never been purchased on Amazon, so there is no way the NBA did a “test buy” – they just made the accusation and Amazon believed them.

I first started selling books, movies, and CDs via FBA in the early 2000’s well before they allowed sellers to sell clothing. When they allowed clothing sellers, I jumped on board and treated the sourcing of clothing like I did my media products. I just purchased large liquidation lots from large manufacturers and listed each item individually. It worked great for years without any problem.

Back then, it was perfectly acceptable by Amazon to have that type of model. It wasn’t until the last couple years that Amazon no longer wanted sellers like me. I’ll admit… I saw the writing on the wall a couple years ago and made the decision not to change my business model. My average purchase price was $2.00 and average selling price was $16.00. So, it was really hard to step away from that. So, ultimately it was my fault for failing to change.

But, now I am excited for the new chapter of my business and looking forward to what the future will bring.

Great podcast this week. I’ve been thinking a lot about cross posting for many of the same reasons people have mentioned. I think I would have to find a pretty seamless solution before I would consider it in earnest. I’ve occasionally cross-posted to Craigslist or FB Marketplace, but I haven’t found them very useful. I mostly only post some larger items that I’d rather not ship, but find dealing with the low-ball offers that make up the majority of queries frustrating and more high maintenance that eBay. That said, I did sell a set houses for a light up village over the holidays on FB.

Here are my numbers for last week. Fell a bit but still higher than my average run rate. About half of the sales were Christmas items. Must be people filling in gaps in their collections as they put them away for the year.

Week Ending 01/04/2020
Total Items in Store: 1152
Items Sold: 27
Gross Sales: $1,206.17
Gross wo Shipping: $941.45
Cost of Items Sold: $50.78
Highest Price Sold: $100.00 (Murano glass Christmas tree)
Average Price Sold: $34.86
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Sold via promoted listings: 14
Promoted Percentage: 51.85%
Average Days Listed: 229
Longest Listed: 635
New items listed: 0

With the kids being off from school and the holidays, took a break from listing. Getting back at it this morning. I’m going to miss the Christmas boost.

I occasionally list on FB Marketplace, though not with as much selling success as I’d like. Any type of item, just usually those that are large and unwieldy to ship via eBay. I listed a Bose Acoustimass speaker set this past week, and am still not sure it’s visible to anyone, as FB flagged it as inappropriate. I’ve found with the sales I have had, typically if you don’t get a lot of responses within the first 24 hours, it’s not likely to sell. Craigslist was another place I listed before I moved here; it’s a much less active market here, so I’ve been experimenting with FB instead. But all of that is more parallel-listing, rather than cross-listing…

As more of a part-time seller, I’m less interested in leveraging sales by cross-posting b/c of either the extra work involved, or the cost (3rd party software to more easily enable it). This could change, but more likely, I’d just separate the types of things I sell, and list on the platforms I think would bring the best price – more of the parallel-listing. For now, I’m just keeping it simple.

JAN started out strong, thankfully, though as soon as I noted this grand return of January riches to my Mom, it dropped off, bah. 🙂 Still planning on the strongest month of sales in the last year; we shall see. In other news, my store item count is the lowest it’s been in over a year – need to remedy that in the coming weeks.

12/29/19 – 1/4/20
Total Items In Store: 797
Items Sold: 17
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs): $640.05
Highest Sold Price: $110 – 8 Vintage Johnson Bros English Transferware Bowls
Average Sold Price: $37.65
Cost of Items Sold: $26.35
Returns/Refunds: $0
Money Spent on New Inventory Last Week: $0
Number of Items listed last week: 10 or so

Hi Everyone,

I don’t comment much, but had to jump in on the subject of cross-posting. I use “List Perfectly” and I list on four platforms (Ebay, Poshmark, Etsy & Mercari). My store is very diverse. I sell whatever I want and in many different categories. The key to cross-posting fast is to start with Ebay for a couple of different reasons. If you start with Ebay, you don’t have to worry about square photos on Poshmark. Whatever you do with your photos on Ebay copies perfectly to the rest of the platforms, even if you use a photo brightener. Just have one shot that is a tad further away that you can use for your Poshmark main photo. I have the least expensive level of List-Perfectly. I don’t save anything to that site. I simply copy to each platform direct from Ebay because there is an option to bypass saving to List Perfectly. The key is to use a template for clothing and other items that you sell a lot of. I put all the measurements and details in the template. Everything carries over to the other platforms. It’s just a matter of minor tweaks for each of those sites to get the listing in there right (Etsy takes the most time). Posh and Mercari are simple to copy to. So basically with every listing that I do on Ebay, I also copy to usually three of the other platforms, and other platforms are available now, too. I higher recommend listing on multiple platforms because eBay is different now. You need other platforms to fill in for slow eBay sales.

I have a Google spreadsheet for my inventory where I use colors to identify which platforms I have listed on. As soon as something sells, I take it down from the other platforms. Yes, it takes a bit more time, but it’s worth it. Things sell on all of the platforms. Etsy is the slowest of all platforms for me.

I hope this helps. Oh, and I do shop at the Goodwill Outlets in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. I find great stuff, and I highly recommend going. I go off to wherever the massive crowds have left and find boatloads of good items.

Debbie

Hi Mark S. To clarify what I mean by Etsy being the slowest, is that I get the least amount of sales from that platform, but I usually get a higher price for the items that I sell there. Now I do not promote my listings on Etsy and that could be one of the reasons why my sales are so slow there. Also, with the way in which I suggested to make templates on Ebay, is because all of that information will be pulled into the body of each of the other platforms that you cross-post to. In my eBay templates, I include some of the item specs that are in Ebay fields instead of just checking the boxes in the Ebay listing. I do that so that nothing much more is needed when I cross-post. In Etsy, your title will work perfectly. You will just have to fill in some of the Etsy specific fields. In Poshmark, it’s a breeze. You just need to shorten your title a tad because they don’t allow as many characters, and make sure that you leave a little bit of space on the sides of the photo you want to showcase so that it will fit the Poshmark frame, perfectly. You can also move your photos around in Poshmark. I charge at least 20% higher on Poshmark than Ebay so that I have room to negotiate because everyone wants to negotiate there and the commission is 20% on Posh. On Mercari, you will just need to put the weight in, because that is their requirement. I do charge for shipping on Mercari. Mercari only charges 10% commission, and I love that. Different items sell better on different platforms, as I’m sure you know. You will learn which items sell better on each, so I would do some experimentation. Since you don’t have to pay any commissions on Posh or Mercari until the item sells, what do you have to lose? 🙂 I love List Perfectly. I do believe that creating eBay templates and listing first there, is the key to cross-posting fast. I hope this helps. Let me know if I failed to answer any of your questions.

Debbie

For those of you who are interested in cross posting but don’t want a monthly fee, there is a site called https://vendoo.co It is signup for a free beta version. So, not sure it is ready yet and you would probably be a tester for it, but it would be free for a period of time.

Mark

This year I decided to get better at taking care of my store, so I started working on the “needs updates” section of my Bonanza store. What a pleasure! The photo editing section is amazing, the information is easy to input into item specifics, the postage section gives you simple drop downs. I was awed and delighted. I’m definitely going to up my Bonanza game when it’s this easy.

Oh, but let me wax poetic on the photo editing! Crop options are multiple, you can use the free background burner, everything works cleanly and quickly. Honestly, I think I’d rather post to Bonanza and then import to eBay than the other way around, if there were such an option.

Amatino,

I’ve heard those things about Bonanza….if Bonanza could draw the amount of buyers ebay draws, they’d be a great choice. I sometimes wish ebay would buy Bonanza and let their tech guys run some of ebay’s departments LOL

Maybe this will be the year I’ll give Bonanza a try…

Ok, what is going on. Ryanne did you coax Jay into going out to one of your sheds and lock him in for a few days until you and your helper changed every single one of your Ebay listings over to FREE SHIPPING!

After all these years of Jay digging in his heels on Free Shipping and being a staunch advocate for “Calculated Shipping”, how in the world did you get him to give up the ghost on this subject.

Jay’s mantra of not building in the prices out to a certain distance like zone 5 or zone 6 and closer buyers having to pay more and as a seller further buyers costing you guys more.. I have to assume, you went all in…Free shipping on almost everything you have in your store, what criteria did you guys decide on using to cover the free shipping?

We have always built in a Zone 6 charge by weight and size, except for any DIM Weight and sizes. But now I see you don’t have too many items below the $10 mark and into the mid twenties, so I again I am assuming you guys built something into all the listings.

Did I miss that you announced this move or did it just recently happen and I just never noticed.

To Jay.. Welcome to the Dark side! Jack up the prices, add $10 to $20 to every listing, turn on make and offer and Free shipping and let it rip. LOL 🙂 🙂

Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art

Jay, I don’t sell much on Bonanza, but I absolutely love their background burner. It’s free if you list with them and there are some times, e.g. white item, where the burner is worth it’s weight in vibranium. However, it has been absolutely no problem for me to list with them, I ship from PayPal so I don’t pay the shipping surcharge and no, I’ve never paid for anything on there. The one time I had a query their Customer Service was phenomenal.

Apart from the background burner, the other major bonus that I’ve found is that their posts are in the Google search algorithm and I’m being found on Google. In fact, when you go to your Dashboard, you can see a bunch of Google analytics and links to improve your listing for Google search. A lot of the sales I’ve received have been through the Google search function.

For the little work I have to do on the site (they pull everything off eBay) and the zero monthly fees I pay, and the bonuses I get from my free account, the 10% commission they earn from occasional sales is utterly worth it to me. It might be interesting to see if I get an increase in sales from investing in the business. Seeing as cross-posting is the topic ATM. 😉

They went through a short period of not syncing. It hasn’t been a problem for a while now. I got into the habit then of opening my eBay account and checking the Ended Items when I pulled the Bonanza info. I’ve kept doing it since, Seeing as the orders are usually only one or two at a time, it’s quick. The peace of mind is worth the extra step.

I’m sure it’s a step most cross listers are going to have to incorporate anyway.

A discussion popped up with us and our helper today when she asked about where we buy such a cross mixture of items.

This is a side bar of that the Cross-Listing Topic and that discussion.

Preface: Sure, cross listing shows your goods and wares to other buyers who may not frequent Ebay. But I say “Buyers” loosely here.

What if nobody wants what you are selling, PERIOD, no matter where it is posted or cross posted? Industries and niches do deplete or disappear entirely and for that reason, the decline in a sellers Sales are a result of something he has no control over?

Clothing sellers have been talking about low sales stating there is so much competition from other sellers, so many Guru’s telling stay at home people just clean out your closet and make a full time living, quit your job, etc., etc.

Well check out this link and keep in your mind… what if nobody wants used clothes anymore. New clothes costing less than old, used? So much discarded that the supply out strips the DEMAND by a huge amount.

We hear about all the buying going on at Goodwill, but we have discussed here on SL that some members, us included, know GW dumps a ton of stuff, grinds, shreds up stuff, etc. If truth be told, how many people who buy at GW stores, bins or thrifts are just re-sellers. Then all those people are just selling the same stuff, that so few people want it, or if they do, it must be sold cheaply and in volume to make a living.

CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE… Quick, easy real. Then think about your store if all you have is a vast amount of clothes. Will cross listing on 10 platforms help you to sell more overall and how much longer can you survive.

I know there are sellers here on SL who make lots of money selling clothes, but at what type of physical effort and constant slaving away hour by hour. Sure, you may sell a $100 pair of socks you got for free occasionally but is that sustainable?

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/no-one-wants-your-used-clothes-anymore?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I have personally seen someone we all know here on SL that were over 6 figure sales make major changes in their high volume store from used clothes in the $25 to $35 with Calculated shipping go to $9.95 avg. price, running sales, offering free shipping, free returns and has Make an Offer turned on for the whole store.

So why, I ask. Well after reading the link above, it hit me, things like the article states that is running and happening behind the scenes is a 10-year process of “changes”, that slowly affect the whole perception of a Market. And if a seller hasn’t diversified the type of inventory then what once was a “niche” is either dying or dead already.

So, for complete clothing sellers, would cross posting on multiple platforms be of any benefit at all. You will be a newbie to those various platforms, no book-marked items, no followers. You are just becoming a seller in a market of used clothes nobody wants and you are spread thin, taking on more work to keep up with everything and all at the same time all the gurus are pounding their “quit your job, make your living on line” to newbies and driving even more competition.

Then on top of that, many newbies do not understand how to properly markup items, price their goods, or understand the difference between Gross and bottom line net profit. So, their answer is to just lower their prices.

I the long run, the variety that JandR focus on keeps them “Internally Diversified” and their sales stay relatively up because as the market “DESIRE” for certain things shift and they, as well as us, have a variety of items to present to that shifting buyer focus.

At what point does selling clothing almost fall in the category of stamp collecting and selling into that market. You can cross post to 50 different platforms and your sales may still be low due to an almost non-existent buyers’ market.

I don’t have any answers and really no hard line opinions on what is best, but if some markets are diminishing, would it be better to spend time to find things to sell, that are more in demand and not in a declining marked or caught in a race to the bottom that the buyers are creating not the Sellers?

OK… I know, a wall of text and I owe Jay for the bandwidth used. 🙂

Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.

Agree with previous posters that there is a flush of new sellers jumping on the bandwagon thanks to the many social media influencers and Sellers they follow. Some will do it well, and many will not.

I myself do buy clothes and shoes on eBay, and generally prefer to buy a quality item secondhand, than create any demand for new items (and save money, and I hate to shop). Also in social media, there are plenty of folks and influencers who are pushing back on fast fashion (and climate change) and vowing to only buy secondhand, to go on buying hiatuses, or make their own clothes. There are hashtags and monthly and even annual pledges in this vein. So, they’re going to buy their items and fabric mostly from eBay and Etsy and other small businesses (they note as much in the posts they share). I think this trend will continue, though the Buyers will have a much more saturated marketplace to sort through – both a blessing and a curse.

Hadn’t heard anyone else mention this, so wanted to share. I’ve been craving more/new hobbies, and have started following various sewists over the last year. Also, several minimalists and frugal folk. Demand for secondhand is strong.

Mike, the article you mention is by Adam Minter, author of a book mentioned on the forums before, and which I read recently: Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale. He goes into more detail there…it’s really a quick read, well written and lots of engaging stories, but he definitely emphasizes the challenges faced in the used goods market, with some emphasis on clothing and electronics. It’s a fascinating read, and his reference to the Chinese (and others) producing cheaper and cheaper goods reminded me why I don’t have much sympathy for the ebay sellers who complain incessantly about ebay and “Chinese sellers”. This is NOT an issue created by eBay. New, low priced goods are not going to go away.

In some ways, I think we’re dealing with a double edged sword….more and more people are willing to buy second hand goods, but also more and more people are trying to sell second hand goods. And the second hand market is becoming a little more like regular retail….Goodwills are redesigning their stores to be more like a nice retail shop, for example, but also, trends come and go faster than before. It often seems that what is popular one month is out of favor the next. And I’m noticing the rise of what I think of as the equivalent, on a small scale, of brandname merchandise versus generic. If I sell something on eBay, it’s generic. If a YouTube guru with thousands and thousands of followers offers the same thing, it’s the equivalent of a brandname product, and will likely sell for more than I’m likely to get for it. While there’s room for lots of “brands”, I wonder at what point we hit a saturation point? The proliferation of YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc gurus/resellers seems to be growing at an amazing rate.

Another “trend” I’m noticing (or at least, it seems like one to me). I think it’s true that there may be fewer “collectors” these days, at least, as we used to think of them. But I’m seeing the rise of buyers who I think of as “Set designers/decorators” God help us if Mid Century falls out of favor with these folks LOL I think it is one reason we can sell such a variety of stuff. I’m sure there are some people who collect, let’s say, only Pyrex. But my guess is many of the people who buy Pyrex also buy, say, 1950s era wastecans because they want the entire house to look a certain way, like in the lifestyle magazines and TV shows….So, the breadth of what can be sold grows wider.

I’m just rambling…..I’ll shut up now….LOL

I was reading an article about fashion this morning, and the comment was made that young people today are leaning more towards owning less stuff and being more conscious of the environment. My feeling is that this is not restricted to fashion. This will have a knock down effect in all markets.

Amatino, Yeah, that’s what we keep hearing….but I remember when the media reported on young people as if they were all anti-materialist hippies….many of whom grew up to build and furnish McMansions….so, I’m not entirely convinced that what young people are saying and doing now is what they will be saying and doing when they get a little older. Maybe, but I wouldn’t want to place a really big bet on it.