Scavenger Life Episode 201: No One Cares About Why You Can't Sell On eBay

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There are people who go online to find reasons, or to tell you the reasons, why they can’t sell on eBay. I’m going to make it easy for these people: you shouldn’t sell on eBay. You shouldn’t start an online store. You shouldn’t work for yourself. Every reason why you think it won’t work is true. Stop wasting your time. We’re the anti-motivational people.

Why do we say this? Because running an eBay business isn’t easy. It’s better than most jobs where we’ve worked for other people. And if we stay on top of the thousand details of a daily store, it can be a fun flow. But ultimately, we have to self-motivated and constant problem solvers to make this work. If we get stuck in excuses and look for someone to blame, there is no one to make it better. Our customers don’t care why we aren’t shipping promptly. eBay doesn’t care why we can’t follow their rules. The bank doesn’t care why we can’t pay our mortgage. The IRS doesn’t care why the check isn’t in the mail.

This is why we like to surround ourselves with other Scavengers and sellers who are making it happen day in and day out. Having a community that solves problems is exciting. We’re glad you’re here. This podcast is about sustaining and growing as Scavengers.

After four weeks of traveling, not listing, and instead…working on other projects, we finally put in a full week into eBay. (We grossed over $6k while our store was on auto-pilot). In this episode, we share a special secret experiment that we started because of a great suggestion from an anonymous commenter (Update: Thanks MarkH!).

Here are the links we mention:
—Cool article with great photos showing the UPS headquarters at night as 7000 packages are sorted per minute.
—USPS announced rate changes effective now. It’s about a 5-8% increase. At least we all get good discounts.
–We mentioned before how we switched to Ting and now pay only $50 a month for two mobile lines. Ting is offering a $100 credit for anyone that switches by June 8. You must use this link (we get a credit too 🙂
–Everyone is complaining how slow sales are. Here’s an article that discusses how economists are trying to figure out why no one is spending right now. So it’s not just eBay.
—Amber linked to this page that lets you turn on your RSS feed for your store. This helps other sites index your items.

SEATTLE SCAVENGER MEETUP
When – Wednesday July 15th, 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Where – Denny’s at 2903 Pacific Ave, Everett, WA 98201
Why – Meet other Scavengers in the area & exchange ideas and share energy 😀
++Agenda++
Brief introductions
Share one Scavenger/Selling idea/tip that’s working for you
Mingle and have fun
Contact Info: Dan Mattson woodenboatdan@gmail.com 425 319-7800
Please RSVP by email or phone before July 15th
If you can’t make this meeting, please connect by email anyway for future meetups

And if you ever want to take a cool vacation in the Shenandoah Mountains, come stay at our fancy Farmhouse. Trash Elves always get a discount.

Here’s photo of one of the four loads of free wood we cut this weekend for next winter.