Jay, Author at Scavenger Life

Seller Conversation: What Were the Old Days of eBay Like?

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This week we’re talking with Sylvia (aka redleader98) about the “early days of eBay”.

When we started selling on eBay in 2008, online commerce was already at full throttle. We quickly learned that it was more beneficial to sell our items using “Buy It Now” vs Auctions. There were hints that older sellers were angry at eBay about something, but we didn’t really worry about it because we were happy to find a way to make a living. Once we found the eBay community forums, we learned about the big changes that eBay made before we joined. Sellers could no longer leave buyers negative feedback. Fees were substantially raised. Sellers who started out on eBay felt like they were stabbed in the back. I guess they finally realized eBay was a mindless corporation that was always hungry for profits. The Community Forums became a place to rant and rave. As new sellers, we certainly didn’t feel comfortable finding useful info there.

Sylvia was selling in those early days and remembers what is was like before the big changes. Online selling was still relatively new and eBay was one of the main places to buy anything. Sellers put anything and everything on auction and it sold. Early eBayers talk about how it felt like a gold rush. Beanie Babies were an actual thing people wanted to buy. I dont know if this is an example of the past always looking brighter, but it sounds like an awesome time.

Sylvia talks about the community of sellers that she belonged to. Before blogs, people met in person to help each other. They had regular meetings where they discussed eBay issues and helped each other solve problems. They even had a float in their town’s 4th of July parade! That is some super nerdy stuff.

I always remind sellers that eBay is still always in the top ten most popular sites on the internet. Though there is now massive competition for online sellers, there are infinitely more people buying online each day and this number is growing. It’s never been a better time to sell online. Plus, we now have these blogs and youtube communities to help each other. Yes–you must work hard and treat your eBay store like a business, but everything still eventually sells.

If you were around in eBay’s early days, we’d love to hear some of your stories in the comments. Instead of telling us how angry you are at eBay, we’d love to hear how you had to change your methods for selling online as ecommerce has become more sophisticated. Sylvia says she’d be happy to answer any questions that newer sellers might have about how it used to be.

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Episode 198: When Does it Make Sense to Quit Your Job to Sell on eBay Fulltime?

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This week we’re recording from the beautiful Pacific Beach in San Diego. This ocean adventure is a reward to ourselves for working a long week at a job we did in LA. Even though we sell on eBay full-time, we still take these jobs from time to time. It’s good money but comes with a lot of stress. Reminds us why we chose to sell on eBay full-time. In this podcast, you’ll hear us debate the pros and cons of working for someone else.

Links we talked about this week:
–This is the famous photo of Mikey and Wendy wirelessly printing eBay labels and shipping while camping.
–A great article titled: “Shopping for antiques to find my mother“. These are the people who buy our stuff on eBay.
–Alibaba is being sued by some major brands (Gucci, Polo) for allowing the sale counterfeit products. We all knew this was coming. Shows why it’s tough to sell these brands on eBay because there are so many fakes out there.

The Weekly Scavenger Numbers
Our Store Week May 10-16, 2015

Total Items in Store: 3817
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $49
Total Sales: $978.20
Highest Price Sold: $180 (Vintage painters box)
Average Price Sold: $46.57
International Sales: 0 (0 GSP)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $9
Number of items listed this week: 0

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Scavenger Life Episode 194: If You Don’t Spend Money, You Don’t have To Work So Hard!

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We’ve been enjoying digging into the newly discovered blog, Frugal Woods. It’s nice to find others who are documenting their process of “financial independence and simple living” (we like that tagline!) They recently posted about how to be frugal as a couple which is an extremely important topic for any couple/family deciding to quit their job and depend on eBay for full-time income.

The Frugalwoods team are interesting because they’re working hard making all their money now while they have jobs that pay big salaries. They’re extremely focused like a laser beam. Then they’ll buy their rural homestead, have a nice investment account and rental that generates interest and enjoy the simple life (at 31!) We’ve done it backwards where we quit our jobs and bought the homestead first…and are now building businesses to make the money we need to live this simple life. Good news is: there’s no one right way to do it. As Ryanne said in this podcast, the internet really has opened up all possibilities for people like us to disconnect from any one system of living.

If we weren’t equally frugal as a couple, this life we’re building couldn’t happen because it’s very narrow path we’re traveling. If we had a big expense like needing to buy a $20k+ new car, or a desire to take an expensive vacation, or requiring a diamond wedding ring, it’d immediately throw off our current investment in our future like buying another rental property or paying off our home. A huge expense like that would set our plans back for several years while we work hard to pay it off before we could start building again.

Instead, we’re always talking about our plans and what we want out of life. Every detail and purchase matters. We keep track of numbers and share them with each other. The specifics can change as we gain experience and information, but the direction is always the same. WE DON’T WASTE MONEY ON BULLSHIT. The most precious thing to us is our time and spending it with each other. Any purchase that would get in the way of this is laughed off. We recently shared our plan to aggressively pay off all our debt (ie the Mortgage) in the next five years. And of course, we love the life of the Scavenger. It’s the glue that keeps us together.

So if you’re striving for a different way of life by selling on eBay, make sure your partner is on board. (Frugalwoods has a guest post for single people). Many aspects of scavenging and selling can be fun for sure, but it is a lot of work. This is why every dollar we make on eBay needs to count towards our larger goal. If we had a big hole of wasted spending that sucked our profits each month, then I can imagine that we could get discouraged quickly as we list on eBay. The feeling of “what’s the point?” could loom larger and larger if we didn’t have a handle on our spending. (See the conversation about the Tightwad Gazette) Selling on eBay works for us because it’s a wealth generator versus just a sweatshop we’ve built for ourselves.

In this is episode we discussed these links:
–We use eBay’s “Private offer” all the time to sell items to people who simply ask us questions.
–A listener asked about our Ting referral link. We each get $25 if you sign up. But no matter what, please kill your current phone bill by signing up for any of the discount carriers (TracFone, Virgin, Republic Wireless). It’s the easiest monthly bill you can reduce.
–Are you a member of the Oregon Trail generation?
–This month’s throwback episode will also be the answer to one listener’s question: How we buy and sell artwork and How we pack delicate artwork. And check out the supplies we use on a regular basis to pack.

If you’re looking for a cool (and affordable) vacation spot, rent our mountain Farmhouse. And of course we give deals to all official Scavengers.

The Weekly Scavenger Numbers
Our Store Week April 19-25, 2015

Total Items in Store: 3905
Items Sold: 40
Cost of Items Sold: $241
Total Sales: $1,993.60
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Vintage persian rug)
Average Price Sold: $49.82
International Sales: 4 (3 GSP)
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $450
Number of items listed this week: 122

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Scavenger Life Episode 193: Seller Conversation- When Selling on eBay is More Fun Than Your Real Job

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If you are involved in our comments, Chicago Tony V is a relative newcomer to the community. His posts are clear and pertinent as if he’s not a newbie. We got to talking on email and decided he had a story that other sellers might relate to.

Many people sell on eBay part-time or as a side income. They work all day, are maybe even raising kids, and then list in the evening and weekends. Ryanne and I are in awe of you people. We sell on eBay full time and still struggle to juggle the details that eBay demands we keep track of.

It turns out that Tony doesn’t have another job, but he actually owns and help runs three businesses with multiple employees and grossing quite a lot of revenue. So why would he want to sell on eBay? Tony’s answer was intriguing:

“eBay reminds me of the law of cause and effect. If I don’t list, I don’t sell. This simple lesson is so easily spread across my other businesses. It’s a great reminder. Also, eBay teaches me that every customer interaction is important. Every detail has meaning. Again, all stuff that my other businesses could learn from.

I think in a way, eBay has just given me a new perspective. It’s like my own little science lab where I get to learn things that I can infuse into my main businesses. It’s been totally helpful that way.”

So turn on the podcast, start packing/listing, and enjoy the show.

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Mid-Week Open Thread: You Ask, Others Answer

We just flew home from Colombia and are happy to be home. Over our ten day trip, we sold 47 items for a gross profit of $2000. Not bad for traveling to another country. We told buyers we wouldn’t ship till Monday, so we have plenty of time to gather the items and package them. Calmly and sanely. Over the past several years, we’ve developed a finely tuned system for selling while traveling and couldn’t be happier.

Since we’re playing catch up this week, we won’t another podcast till Sunday. But let’s use this time to discuss anything causing issues in your store.

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

¿Bien o qué? Open Q&A from Colombia

This is a view from our window in Bogota where we’re working the next couple days. Since we won’t be posting a “what sold” video this week, we want to open up the blog to conversation. Perfect time to ask that question you’ve always wondered.

Both of us have been really impressed with everyone’s numbers because it means you have money to pay bills or debt. And more importantly, we hope that a successful eBay business buys you precious time to do the things you want to do.

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Scavenger Life Episode 167: Interview with Jenny from Haberdashery Portland about running both an eBay & Brick and Mortar Store

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It’s an open secret that we love doing interviews with other sellers because it gives us a reason to learn things we don’t know. Why else would someone talk to us and answer our every question for over an hour?

This week we talk to Jenny Davis of Haberdashery Resale Clothing Co. in Portland Maine. She has both an eBay store and a brick and mortar store that you can actually visit in person. We wanted to know more about what the difference is between running a store vs just selling online. We especially wanted to hear if she had insights into the ups and downs of the retail cycle throughout the year. Stores that depend on foot traffic know how sales get slow at certain times, while online sellers seem to be surprised when people aren’t buying every second of the day.

Opening up a B&M shop always sounds romantic because you become part of the community, meet people and have a place to call your own. But then we think of the rent, utilities, employees, and hours where you must be in one place all the time. We were surprised by one especially cool trick: Jenny not only sells clothing, she BUYS clothing. So she gets people coming in to sell her all kinds of stuff. Since she can pick and choose, I bet she gets her hands on some upscale fashion. The Scavenging comes to her! We also like how she discussed what she sells in her shop vs what she sells on eBay. That balance is important.

Let us know if you’ve had experience running a B&M store and how it’s better/worse than eBay. You can see more of Jenny’s items on her instagram account. She’ll answer any of your questions in the comments.

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Scavenger Life Episode 166: What’s Happening In Your eBay Store This Week?

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The Weekly Scavenger Numbers

Our Store Week Nov 30-Dec 6, 2014

Total Items in Store: 3481
Items Sold: 46 (3 bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $168
Total Sales: $1,988.89 on ebay, $260 on Bonanza
Highest Price Sold: $250 (vintage schoolhouse lamp)
Average Price Sold: $43.21
International Sales: 5 (4 GSP)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $95

Family visited this weekend and were our first official guests in the rental house. eBay profits have helped us get this new business off the ground and we hope to start generating income early 2015 by renting to vacationers. It’s taken a three years to remodel the house, and we did it without taking on debt. Like our eBay store, we just do a little bit every day.

Our sales were solid this week. Sold about 10% of our store inventory in November. We’ve also been spending a lot lately. (Not on holiday stuff; just things that needed to be paid for.) If you are looking for a holiday gift for the Scavenger in your life, don’t forget about our one-of-a-kind mugs.

Some listeners sent in several cool links:

Chris from Flipping a Dollar sent us an article about how LL Bean is struggling to keep up with demand. Good for resellers like us because vintage LL Bean stuff always sells.
Flim in Queens, NY mentioned Size.ly, a site that creates embeddable listing templates for your eBay listings.
The Beach Thrifter posted about how the Japanese deal with their trash, recycling, and scavenging here and here. We love seeing how other cultures do it.
Steve shared this embed code that lets you put Youtube videos in your eBay listings so they’ll show up on mobile devices (see below the numbers).

We’ll be posting another “what we sold video this week”, an interview with seller who owns a brick and mortar store, and listeners questions. Don’t forget that you can call and record your question at (540) 407-8486.

Steve’s eBay Video Embed code–
Just paste this into your listing:

 <object height="385" width="340"><param name="movie"   
 value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XXXXXXXX?  
 fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess"   
 value="always"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XXXXXXXX?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="340"></object></p></div>

In the address bar of your video on You Tube you should see something like this –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0I_7xxEojQ
This is the name of your video, just copy and paste the characters after the watch?v= into the code above, Replace the 2 sets of XXXXXX.

Viola, so many more people will now be able to see your video without having to go home and open up their laptop or desktop.

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Open Thread: Q&A

This weekend is our Thanksgiving celebration. Ryanne’s family has traveled to visit us on a non-busy weekend (but we’ll be busy doing family stuff).

We’ll do our best to get the podcast up on Monday morning–but in the meantime, enjoy this open thread. Perfect place for you to ask a question that has stumped your eBay brain. Someone here will know the answer.

Scavenger Life Episode 165: What’s Happening In Your eBay Store This Week?

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Welcome to our post-Thanksgiving extravaganza. Sales were slow this week (which seemed to be the norm for all retail), but we do discuss how we cleared out most of the inventory in our living room by going on a photographing spree. Ryanne talks about how she makes our “what sold” videos. These videos show how we scavenge without any preconceived notions of what has value. We received a negative feedback, made an expensive mistake, and dealt with a couple buyers who didn’t read our listing close enough.

Don’t forget to call (540) 407-8486 and leave us a question, comment, or story. This podcast is boring without you.

The Weekly Scavenger Numbers

Our Store Week Nov 23-29, 2014