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So, this is the question I got on eBay from a Scavenger Life reader, and my answers:
“Numbers question in a hypothetical.
If a store has 8500 items with an average cost of $5 (or $42500 COG) and generates NIBT of $78,000 annually, and sells an average of 60 items per week (3120 per year), what is the turn rate, and what is the ROI per year (1x, 2x etc).
Is it possible that your slow turn rate can ultimately impact your ROI when factoring in “dead inventory”?”
Ok, so first the math parts. The Sell Thru Rate would be 2.82%. 60 sales per week x 4 weeks would be 240 sales per month. 240 sales per month / average inventory of 8,500 would be 2.82%. This is definitely a slow turning store, but that is the nature of hard goods (my assumption based on the numbers and your user name).
As for ROI, you are at 184% ROI per year ($78k annual profit on $42,500 invested). This might be a bit lower if you factor in investments in warehouse, packing supplies, etc., but we can keep this simple. Now on the whole, this isn’t too bad. $78k divided by 12 months is a $6,500 monthly net profit. Not too bad on only shipping and listing 60 items per week.
I would call this a 6X model, as you are grossing $93,600 ($78,000 profit + return of COGS of $15,600 (60 sales per week x 52 weeks x $5 Average COGS)) on an annual purchase of $15,600. Pretty solid. Another way to look at it is that you are at a 2X model, as you have to have $42,500 invested in Inventory to generate the $93,600 Gross Revenue (you have to have a high inventory to generate the level of annual sales).
Now, that difference between it being a 6X or 2X model is related to the low STR, and to your point that a slow STR impacts your ROI. The downside to ROI is that it doesn’t account for time. This is why there is some benefit for selling low ROI items that have a high STR: They can generate a higher MONTHLY ROI since you are converting from cash to inventory to cash faster… and cash is easier to store than inventory.
And yes, dead inventory drags down your ROI and your STR, but so do long tail items. The question is how to separate the dead from the long tail. Long tail sells eventually…dead may never sell. As long as the relisting fees and the inventory costs aren’t hurting you, the long tail stuff should eventually pay off, even with the tied up capital. But the longer you have to wait, and if you are paying inventory and relisting fees, then the ROI is going down, and you are potentially losing opportunity costs on that money you invested, as you could redeploy that money into better inventory.
For my own personal thought, if I was getting that low of an STR, I would prefer the store be a 10X store or higher. But that is just my opinion.
As always…Hike Your Own Hike.
Hope all this helps.
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Thanks Mark. It was actually a good exercise to see what the ROI is based on the items that sell (in his example the store is a 6X) and then comparing the same level of Revenue to the total inventory. That drop from being a 6X to a 2X really shows the impact of Sell Thru Rate.
It made me look at our own numbers in the same fashion. So for our store, we had an annual STR for 2018 of 13% and an annual ROI of 257%. So, with about 25% of the inventory level of the hypothetical store, we had 4 times the STR and 74% higher ROI.
Even more interesting, our ROI on COGS was a bit lower (we average about a 5X store), but our ROI on Inventory was 8.24, almost 4 times as high as the hypothetical store. So with similar potential returns at time of purchase (we each buy at about $5, and at 6X the hypothetical store is selling at $30 and we average around $25), we have better financial returns because we sell so much faster.
It really shows the impact that STR has on a return of capital. This is why I still hold that if a store is going to have low STR, the ROI on purchase has to be 10X or more. This is why J&R can be successful with a low STR store…they are averaging at least 10X ROI on their purchasing. They invest a little money, are willing to wait for years to sell, and get a large payoff. This type of store works, but you have to be willing to be patient, be willing to have a large inventory (and manage that cost), and stay the course.
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@Simplico:
ROI on COGS in the Hypothetical would be this:
Annual Revenue: $93,600
COGS: $15,600
ROI: $93,600 / $15,600 = 6.0ROI on Inventory Value would be this:
Annual Revenue: $93,600
Inventory Value: $42,500
ROI: $93,600 / $42,500 = 2.2While the Revenue is the same, what you are considering that generated the revenue is different. If you want to get the return on just the COGS of the items that SOLD, then you are seeing the profitability of your purchasing.
But if you want to see the size of the store that it took to generate that annual revenue, then you use the ROI on the Inventory Value. This would be most important in stores that have a low STR. There has to be a lot more hooks in the water at any given time, since you never know when the right buyer will be looking.
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Thanks for the explanation. It seems like by “inventory value”, you mean expenditures, costs incurred in that year of all goods whether sold or unsold – is that right? Or does value mean some sort of estimated price?
The way I like to see my numbers net of all expenditures is Cashflow, but it doesn’t conduce to a percentage so I see why you like this number.
Computing, I find my ROI on expenditures (inventory+supplies) is 102%, ROI on COGS is 442%. Both of which are after fees.
Your 800% return on inventory number has given me some food for thought. Maybe I oughta make this store turn a little faster, and be willing to pay up for some slightly more popular items.
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@Simplico: By Inventory Value, I am looking at just the average Inventory Value of all goods available for sale for the year.
So in the hypothetical example, 8,500 items for sale during the year (I assumed that the inventory amount would be flat all year, as I don’t know if their store is growing), so the Average Inventory Value would be $42,500 (8,500 @ $5 per item).
For us, we averaged 2,315 items in our store in 2018 at an average of $5.50 per item so our Average Inventory Value was $12,732.50.
By using this metric, you can see what your total investment cost and return is in your store. You have a total dollar amount wrapped up in inventory, and you can see what type of return you are getting on that investment of cash into your store.
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Dead inventory drags down your ROI and your STR, but so do long tail items. The question is how to separate the dead from the long tail. Long tail sells eventually…dead may never sell. As long as the relisting fees and the inventory costs aren’t hurting you, the long tail stuff should eventually pay off, even with the tied up capital. But the longer you have to wait, and if you are paying inventory and relisting fees, then the ROI is going down, and you are potentially losing opportunity costs on that money you invested, as you could redeploy that money into better inventory.
If you’re buying stuff that doesn’t sell, then this is a problem 🙂 I feel that most scavengers here are comparatively paying so little for their inventory that those costs aren’t really holding them back. Plus people are selling out of their houses so there’s no real storage costs there. Plus people are doing all the work themselves.
So much different than a traditional business where inventory costs really are an issue. Plus that business is paying big money rent to store and sell those items. Plus paying staff to sell the items. This is when ROI and STR really becomes important to manage.
Scavengers are just dealing with a lack of time.
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@Jay: True, but time is the one thing that we all can’t afford to waste. If we spend time listing something that won’t sell, then that is time we can’t get back. We can learn from that so that we don’t make the mistake a second time, but we are still out our time.
Time is very expensive, as we cannot get more of it. If we lose money, we can always take on other work to get money back. If we lack skills, we can train and acquire those skills. But wasted time…there is no cure for that.
I get your main point and I agree, that for most folks, this isn’t an issue. But when you get large (over about 2,000 items) or you are going full time, trimming the dead stuff becomes more important.
Again, that just my opinion…I could be wrong…
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I consider trimming dead inventory to be one of my business’ unsolved problems. I don’t really have criteria for when to cull items, nor a process to identify them. I just sort of get angry at items from time to time when I see them in storage, and chuck them. But not at a scale that really makes a dent.
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@Simplico: At some point, that is a process to develop. For us, using SixBit, we can see all available inventory, when it was purchased, when listed, etc.
When we had the Easy Auction Tracker spreadsheet, we had the same thing. We had an inventory tab that we logged each purchase into, and when the item sold, it had a 0 for Available Inventory.
Either process works, and gives you a tool to research old items to see if you have bad pricing, need new descriptions, or if it is just a slow seller to hang on to.
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Jay,
You misinterpreted what I said on the podcast today.
I never stated I throw items out. I “get rid” of them by pricing them to sell and blow them out by that method.
There is rarely a loss “lock in”. I may not make anything, but I get my money back to put to better use.
You can relate; rather than taking your earnings and buying more $30 retail items, you chose to purchase real estate with the money earning a greater return. Same principle.
(In macho voice) Again, why would someone have their money parked in an item that was a “buying mistake”, and not move on?
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No problem. I think we just have different philosophies and selling styles. Whatever works. We’ve gone round and round on this and seem to keep misunderstanding each other.
–We dont have cashflow issues, so no need to sell fast to make money for more inventory.
–We dont have an issue with storage so can easily hold onto items.
–Every day we sell “old items” for often good prices. It’s nice income on items that cost us pennies.From what I understood from your method, you get rid of anything over 90 days. How many items do you re-donate on a monthly basis?
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This is what prompted my message today; I don’t donate items or throw them in the garbage when they become stale. I mark them down and blow them out retail/wholesale.
You are correct we come from two different philosophies; I come from a retail background where managing inventory was critical.
Everybody’s situation is different, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
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Agreed. So everything always sells in 90 days? If you sell long tail items, I’m surprised you can sell everything in a short time span even at low prices. This is why we “list and forget” because we know that low prices doesn’t sell things quicker. Long tail demands patience for the right buyer.
Or maybe you focus on scavenging for only high demand items? Which means you spend more time scavenging and/or pay for more for items? Difficult to know unless you want to share your store.
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Traditional retailers depend on advertising and product exclusivity to improve their sales. I’m curious the power we have as scavengers to raise these rates for the type of stuff most of us sell.
So what are the levers you can pull to improve your Sell Through Rate and/or Return on Investment?
–Choosing different kinds of items to sell
–price you pay for items
–price you charge for items
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I think if this is possible at all, it’s primarily about choosing more popular things, even if you have to pay up for them or they don’t give a huge percentage return.
In my niche that would mean e.g., going for things more like Milwaukee tools versus weird specialty items – you won’t get them super cheap, but they will sell fast.
In a vintage niche, I don’t know so well what that would mean.
I am still hesitant to go to this kind of strategy because I believe my model is a better return on my time, even if it’s a worse return on money/storage.
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This is the key question I always have of sellers who talk about their eBay store like a traditional business. What are the levers you can pull to sell more?
If the answer is buy better product, then I feel people start getting into Amazon territory. Selling wholesale and private label is cool, but then you’re less a Scavenger and more just competing with any main street retailer.
As a Scavenger finding and selling random items for cheap. the levers are much less obvious.
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Well, tbf Jay, at least when I scavenge I see lots of stuff at auction that I kind of ignore because I know it’s going to be bid up too high. Good name brand tools would again be a nice example. I see tons of them, but they usually go for 1/3 or more of retail, which I pass by as “not enough meat on the bone”. But they ARE popular items and they would sell pretty fast.
The point being, I *could* start buying that stuff more often, which would mean higher costs but also higher turnover. I’m not convinced I want to do that, but I am pretty sure it is *feasible*.
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My other difficulty with the logic is that I am not that limited by cashflow. Meaning, when I find something flippable I usually have the cash to buy it. So the “compound interest” logic of “flip your inventory fast so you can buy more” seems misplaced. What stops me buying more is finding it, not affording it. (Given the buy/no buy criteria I’m using.)
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@Jay: The best levers that we have beyond what you mentioned:
— Great photos from all angles of the item
— Great descriptions
— Great keywords and knowledge of the item
— Marketing your store on social media relevant to your items
— Creating a blog and e-mail newsletter on relevant subjects to your items for sale-
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These are all true but I don’t think going from Adequate to Good in these areas really moves the needle that much. What you scavenge is the skeleton key.
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I spent 20 years buying used Automobiles professionally and ANY AND ALL profit is in the “buy”.
No different here. A bad buy, is a bad buy, is a bad buy.
Every once in a while we get lucky but more times than not we don’t. A bad buy wastes time, space, and capital that could be invested elsewhere.
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You’re comparing apples to oranges.
A car loses value every month it exists. There’s an agreed upon market and blue book values. So if you don’t sell it quick, you lose money. This is true of all commodity items that are mass produced.
A vintage wool jacket doesn’t inherently lose value with time. It can actually gain in value depending on the market. Vintage items that are no longer produced and create nostalgia for people are timeless. They are slow to sell and there are few levers to pull to sell faster.
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I merely used the car analogy not based on depreciation, rather if I use the wool jacket analogy, if it’s selling for $100 and you pay $90 it’s a bad buy (obviously no profit, no pricing flexibility should they become “stale”, seasonal changes, etc) vs paying $5 as a “good buy” you’re always “in it” right.
The profit is in the buy, not the sale. A bad buy is a bad buy regardless the commodity.
No matter what it is if you pay too much for something it’s a “bad buy” and you’re better off cutting bait early and putting those resources into a “good” buy.
Sitting on a bad buy doesn’t fix it, only getting lucky does. If inflation is 2% annually (compounded), every item we have that sits around that long loses that value regardless of how Vintage it is.
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True. If you have a store where you pay $90 to sell for $100, there is indeed pressure sell quickly.
The point some of us are making on this thread is the same old one. If you pay $5 and can sell for $100 in a year, why sell for $25 now just to sell it quickly?
When inventory is cheap, selling quick isn’t always smart. But your math may be different for your store.
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If the item is worth $100 (retail) why would you sell it for $25?
However if it takes a year to sell for $100 it’s not “worth” $100 (unless extremely unique), getting $100 is getting lucky.
I never said $25, however I would never list an item for a “hope and a prayer” price. IMO you’re better off to put it on the money and sell it, turn the cash, and move on.
You speak all the time about abundance and waste in this country, so aside from your extremely hard to find items, there is always more to buy. Why sit on items and pay to have them sit around. Storage isn’t free regardless the situation. Everyone pays property tax somehow.
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Fair enough. I’m always willing to learn better ways of doing things, but we need to talk specifics. If not, we’re just debating vague ideas.
–What kind of items are you buying and selling these days?
–What’s the average time frame between listing and selling for you?
–How long are you wiling to hold onto an item before you call it a loser?
–Do you find that lowering the price is all it takes t sell an item?
–What levers do you use to sell quickly?
–Do you have trouble affording inventory because your money is tied up in listed items? -
Lemme day this as well.
You’re clearly talented with what you guys are doing with the real estate.
If I was in the exact same situation as you two with the time you have to commit to your other projects, I’d most likely run things exactly like you do.
Would I “set it and forget it”, not exactly, but it’s not in my nature 😊
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One last example NORITAKE IVORY CHINA GRAVY BOWL
I have a piece of glassware (ugh) I’ve had 88 views, the item is listed as MINT condition, I have 💯 feedback, the photos are ugh, OK, but good enough to see it’s a clean, mint item. The listing keywords are correct.
It’s been 60 days and it’s priced in the bottom 10% of the market.
It’s either undesirable, although 88 people have taken the time to look closely at it, or it’s just not desirable enough that of those 88 people no-one has said “it’s ok, I’ll pay more to this guy”. It’s a turd, get rid of it. If it’s the cheapest it’ll sell and I can move on, if not I can’t reinvest that whatever small amount in something BETTER.
There’s an old saying in my business “there’s an ass for every seat”, but it’s said tongue in cheek for “I screwed up, that car’s a turd, and it’s gonna take a miracle to find the right guy/gal”.
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–Do you just re-donate items like this if they dont sell in 60 days?
–Roughly what percent of your items dont sell within 60 days?
–What is the cost for you to just keep it listed?If you have a store subscription, you already pay for a certain amount of listed items. As long as your under your subscription limit, it costs you zero to keep it listed. You paid for the item, so by getting rid of the item now, you lock in the loss. You mentioned paying someone to photograph and list your items, so you also lock in that loss.
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You’re correct about philosophical debates. They’re not worth it and difficult in this medium.
One question, no answer required. If you increased the price of your rentals and no-one booked stays would you just wait until the right person came along to book space?
Thanks for all you guys do, the podcasts are done extremely well.
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You’re back to comparing apples to oranges.
–A rental property has a certain number of nights to rent in a year. Time is linear. If a night passes without being booked, that income is lost forever.
–An item in our eBay store costs us nothing to keep listed as long as we’re under our 10k Anchor subscription limit. We have plenty of storage. So it doesn’t matter to us if it sells in a week or three years.Let’s be clear. I think its admirable that you have a line drawn in the sand. Sounds like you’re willing to get rid of items you paid for if they dont sell in 60 days (and lose a little money). I’d still love to know how many of your items dont sell within the 60 day threshold.
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Untrue.
Inventory that does not turn costs you whatever the current inflation rate is, plus assuming an individual does not have unlimited storage it takes the space of an item that could be “working” for that business owner.
And I am not comparing apples to oranges; whether it be an eBay item, a rental unit, a stock, a bond, a car, etc., in business they are merely “vehicles” to put your capital to work.
If any of those examples are not appreciating they are costing you money sitting around unsold. Barring the 1% of the items on eBay that are truly unique there’s no arguing that fact.
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This is a great discussion, and it comes down to not only the return on capital but the time it takes to get that return.
We have on one side Mr Vintage (and Craigslist Hunter Pete to some extent) that have a drive to turn inventory over within about 60 days. The goal being that within 60-90 days, capital has been returned, with a profit, to be reinvested in new inventory. Basically, the Fast Nickle approach.
On the other side is Jay and Ryanne, who want to price high to get the most possible profit on each item to get a return on their time of photoing and listing as well as waiting for the buyer that will pay up for their items. Essentially, the Slow Dime approach.
The key for each reseller is what their line is between time and return of capital and profit. Yes, the phrase is “A Fast Nickle beats a Slow Dime”. But I would say the Jay and Ryanne approach can be the Slow Quarter.
So…does a Fast Nickle beat a Slow Quarter? Or do you get desperate and impatient and become a Fast Penny? Or are some items worth being a Slow Dollar?
Everyone has different lines that they want to follow. Hike Your Own Hike. But also do this knowledgeably. Think about how long you have sat on certain items and decide if it is a bad buy and you should cut bait. Also think if that lower offer today is worth taking so that you move the item, get your money quicker and redeploy the capital. But also make sure you aren’t settling on a low offer just to take it, when it is something that you know you should sit on and make more money later. If you really think you can get $100 for it, you may not want to take $65 for it now. Or has it sat for a long time and you really should take it?
This is the artistry of this game we play…
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At the end of the day, it is a game – with only a few rules and different ways to play it. I don’t see it having winner or losers though – I see it having a chain of winners.
Most items scavenger sell are unwanted – someone feels like a winner just getting rid of it. The thrift store that gets it feels like a winner selling it. The scavenger who buys it and makes a profit is a winner. And maybe it goes to a buyer that intends to flip it for even more and they win.
It’s a supply chain of winning – and everyone’s viewpoint is different in the process.
I’m personally all over the place now…I was a fast nickel guy, but now I have some fast nickels, slow dimes, slower quarters, and super-slow silver dollars – and the occasional super-fast penny.
The game can be played any way you want – as long as it is fun and makes you happy, keep on playing!
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We have “make offer” on almost all our items, so we’re always entertaining offers and taking lower prices. But we’re also setting a high bar for those buyers who want to pay full price.
Whats frustrating is that Mr Vintage is not actually saying there’s a cost to hold onto items. Just that they’re “losers” in his estimation because of an arbitrary 60 day deadline.
Other than inflation, whats the cost of keeping items listed past 60 days? Especially when the cost of inventory is so low. Let’s talk hard numbers.
We sell items every day that we’ve had for over 60 days. It’s madness to just throw away inventory you paid for. That’s actually a locked in loss.
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@ Jay.. [side bar]. Haven’t looked at your store in a while but for verification. I thought you had siad last year sometime +/- that you guys adopted a posture of not wanting to place “make an Offer” on things under a certain amount. I thought it was $19.95, then you raised it to $29.99. Do you still cling to that or as you say above, now have make an offer on everything or most things regardless of price and or what you paid for especially?
mike at MDCGFA in Atl
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Well that makes sense now that you clarified that. I knew I had seen some low cost items with make an offer and then you said above somewhere most things get make an offer so I was confused against the “Old” let’s try not waste our time doing offers on low priced items.
You guys have #3.99 buttons, I see, now that I did a double check and would wonder why you would take an offer on that.
Have ever put any type of auto accept or auto decline on the ones you do have make an offer on.
So on any of the $29.99 items you certainly wouldn’t take a $1 offer and you certainly would take a $28.95 so where would you draw the line? I seem to spend a lot of time reading offers at 30% to 60% range and then counter offering on the lower ones. I think Troy [T-Satt] said he sets an auto decline at 61%. Don’t know if he still does but thinking about that myself. Maybe at 58%, just leave me alone and let me work on listings and reworking a ton of our older listings now that we have SixBit going fairly well and cross posting a lot. Our Etsy sales seem to be moving on along very well now that we started the cross listing and more frequent uploads.
Just a wondering.
mike at MDCGFA
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@ Jay: Good point. That’s what we have been doing up to this point. Maybe just let it ride and wait and see how it is during 4th quarter. It’s not so much the quantity is the waste of time to open, read and decline the very low ball ones. But that just a short minute or so. And belive me it’s not that many in this sales climate.
Cheers
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@Mike: Yes, for just about every item, we set an Auto Decline “floor” of 60%. Don’t want to be bothered below that line.
I know that a lot of people want to start with 30%-50% offers of your asking price. We just get too ticked to deal with it. Especially the sub 50% offers. I would never do that to someone, so it just bugs me.
We already price somewhat to move (not too low, but rarely in the top 10%, so people wanting us to sell for at the lowest 20% of solds to me is just insulting…
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Yes, for those sellers who already price low and/or aggressively competitive, then make offer doesnt really make sense.
We regularly send offers on commodity items on eBay only to see they wont take off ore than 50-cents. Not sure why they even have it on. Assume they think it helps their ranking.
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I really only have it on for those buyers who just feel like they need SOME sort of discount, regardless how small.
Make offer is a slippery slope….if you counter, the buyer says “why are you willing to accept an offer this low if you’re not going to take it”, at least that would be my thinking.
I’ve never heard it improves your ranking? Is that true?
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I set my offers at the lowest amount I would accept (usually close to what I have an item listed for), if I’m going to accept less than what I’ve listed it for why not just price it there and move it quickly?
Savvy buyers will keep making low offers until one doesn’t auto decline letting them know what your floor is. I’ve figured that in their minds that’s what you’re willing to take and I figure it’s why it’s so hard to “bump” them once they’ve offered.
Would enjoy hearing your experiences “bumping” buyers good and bad.
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Troy,
I noticed many of your items end with a random (or so it looks) amount.
Do you use an AI program that is scanning and making pricing adjustments va the competition, or is that just an internal cypher system maybe letting you know your investment in that item?
Thanks,
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@Mr Vintage: Yes, I have some knowledge baked into the ending prices that tells me how old the item is. This helps when getting an offer, I can see how long it has been listed.
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“Long tail” is nothing but a “feel good” way of describing bad buys.
I get bad buys are unavoidable and it’s usually the root cause of “slow sales” regardless of the economy, seasonality, etc in an established store.
I’ve always been keenly aware of my failure rate. Out of 10 used items I purchase how many are low profit sales, losers, etc., it doesn’t matter if it’s cars, electronics, collectibles, clothes, doesn’t matter.
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–What kind of items are you buying and selling these days?
–What’s the average time frame between listing and selling for you?
–How long are you wiling to hold onto an item before you call it a loser?
–What levers do you use to sell quickly?
–Do you have trouble affording inventory because your money is tied up in listed items?-
1) I will buy and sell anything I can turn a profit on.
2) FOR ME: Anything that takes longer than 60 days is either mis-priced, mis-marketed, or is undesirable. If something is undesirable to an above average number of people than it’s not worth my money.
3) After 60 days it’s a bad buy (excluding something so obscure it’s worth sitting on).
4) Assuming my photos and listing descriptions are quality, price and promotion (promoted listings) are the only levers we have on eBay.
5) I have no “affording inventory” problems.
Not only are the points I’m making the same any retailer would promote, eBay pays attention as well; if you turn quick I’m convinced (don’t ask me to prove it) you show up in searches more often and higher on the page. It only makes sense; eBay makes money when we sell, not list. EBay is a selling site, not a shopping site. As their business partner why wouldn’t eBay promote someone who has a high turn rate vs someone who doesn’t? I would, and they’re a lot smarter than I.
99% of the Vintage items we all sell on eBay aren’t obscure or rare. We are living in a historic period of the largest generation retiring, downsizing, and passing away and all of their “stuff” coming to market. There’s always more to buy tomorrow, so why not sell it, take your bite and do it again?
This is why every corner in America was converted to a Pharmacy in the late 90’s/00’s as Wall Streets anticipation of this demo passing into their golden years.
Hypothetical non accurate numeric example: Vintage silk jackets from the 80’s aren’t rare. I just don’t understand someone sitting on a hypothetical $100 sale while I sell 10 for $80 each, especially if I have someone doing the “in between work”.
After it is assumed that the first two P’s are satisfied, in this case photos, and placementa (which is driven by price) eCommerce is a price driven model (even unique items) wether someone wants to admit it or not.
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Got it. This is good info. Lets strip out all the philosophical stuff.
–How large is your inventory?
–Do all items sell within 60 days?
–If not, what do you do with items older than 60 days?
–Whats your average selling price?Even TSatt has a growing inventory the more he lists. Things just dont always sell fast. But if you have a store where all your items sell within 60 days, then we can all learn from you. You mind sharing your store name since you know our stores?
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It’s plausible to me that eBay rewards quick turnover with eyeballs, but if so, why are they being so damned coy about it? If it is supposed to encourage quicker sales, why not say “Hi, we’re giving you higher placement because you’re selling stuff quickly”? Wouldn’t that impact seller behaviour more reliably than a bunch of mixed signals and whispered conspiracy theories?
Only thing I can think of is, they’re worried that if they state the metric, somebody will game that metric. So on that logic it’s better to be opaque. Seems a little too clever for ebay though.
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@Mr Vintage: There are some things that are true long tail, and others that are delusions.
Some things just are rare and take the right buyer, and that buyer may take a while to be in the market and to find your item. To your point, you need to buy right to begin with, but some items are worth sitting on for a while until that buyer shows up.
Sometimes…it is just a bad buy that we tell ourselves is long tail. That is to be avoided.
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Some items need to be in the system long enough for google to pick them up. That is the benefit of “good till cancelled” for long tail items.
I wish ebay would supply more metrics on listings. The big hitters I want to know is how many people got to my listing from an organic ebay search, how many came from an ad, and how many people came in through a google search. That data has to be there. It would be very actionable data as well that would make ebay MORE money!
I’ve started to relist my generic items such as run of the mill shoes and shirts. Getting a boost in views is worth more in those cases than the google search boost.
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Mr Vintage,
Every once in a while someone comes on this forum with an all-knowing presence, starts telling folks how wrong they are, and never posts specifics on their own business. So what you are doing has been done here multiple times, which is why Jay is getting irritated.Kick your shoes off, loosen up a bit, and share a bit more specifics to back up your ideas and it’s all good.
How long have you been selling on ebay?
What’s your average sales price, Average Cost of goods?
How many items do you have listed vs how many items do you sell a month?These are basic questions that answers can be provided without giving away any personal or identifying info. If you can’t provide any of this data to provide a frame of reference for where you are coming from, well…then this will likely be the last I try to engage with you.
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