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Death Piles killing you?
‘Fess up in this thread. Post photos of your Death Piles (DPs), tell us how you store (stuff?) the items you haven’t listed, justify why you’re really, truly, honestly an eBay seller and not just a hoarder with an eBay sales account, or give us your excuses. We’re not going to judge! We’re going to sympathise, empathise, share our tales of sales we couldn’t pass up, auctions that were amazing, or Yard Sale signs that had a magnetic attraction to the car and it turned into the drive all by itself.
Perhaps, in time, we’ll all encourage each other to actually get those items out from under the bed/in the attic/behind the boiler/up from the basement, and out of the house. Preferably into a listing, of course, but if needs must, there’s always Goodwill!
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I’ve got a long list of the items in my death piles. No photos yet. I’m actually working on some of them this week, so I’m hyped about it at the moment.
Sorry for the long post, but here is the list. I’ll number them so that I can keep track:
1) 5 Office electric typewriters: Need testing – I actually started on two of them today! I may need to buy ink cartridges and power cords.
2) Facit manual typewriter: I was going to sell this as nonworking, but my husband convinced me to fix it. I’ll give it a shot.
3) Food grinder – This is some kind of very heavy food grinder for Indian food. It needs to be tested.
4) misaligned art – a 3-D type art piece where the tape on one side has lost its stickiness, so the art is lopsided. I’ve got acid free tape and all the supplies I need.
5) 3 vintage bar lights – they were nonworking, and I decided that I need to replace the light fixtures in back. I believe they are worth the cost, but I’m wondering about the time. I’ve actually made some progress on this today.
6) a stack of vinyl records – I don’t even know if they are desirable, but I finally got a record player to test them.
7) a stack of CDs – I don’t seem to do well with selling old CDs, so I’m not sure that they are worth it.
8) a number of electric razors and hair trimmers – need to find out if they are worth anything, and, if they are, they’ll need to be tested.
9) Vintage table – do I have a box big enough or do I do local pickup? Just been lazy on this one.
10) 3 vintage cameras – my daughter will be happy to test them for me, but I first need to make sure they power on. I’ll need to find the right battery and buy film. One is only worth $30 or so; perhaps I just list that one untested. The last one is new and sealed. They also came with expired film that apparently does sell.
11) Several vintage men’s digital watches – I put batteries in them, but don’t know how to set the time to check if they work. I need to download instructions. Also have a newer watch that needs repair to the band or list as-is.
12) 2 power controllers & 1 data switch – something used in a computer room where many electronics need to be connected. Are they worth anything? How do I test?
13) Art projector – it didn’t work well when I first tested it. I thought it might just need cleaning or a new bulb, but I haven’t done anything. Is it worth it?
14) My dad’s old stereo receiver – holy cow, it has so many component connections, how do I test it? Am I too lazy?
15) Other of my dad’s old electronic equipment – I don’t even know what some of this is.
16) Matching bisque figurines – they were modified to be used with lamps by filling in the bottoms with cement or something. There is a screw that won’t come out. Do I chip it out? Sell as-is?
Items needing more extensive researching than what is easily available online:
17) possible Chatty Kathy doll – not marked, but my family friends used to be in the doll business, and it might be a prototype. It does have Chatty Kathy clothing.
18) China pieces, might be Sevres, couldn’t find the exact hallmark online, one piece is unmarked
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Hi Sharyn
no 3 might be a sev maker (Indian fried noodles) if it’s got a loose plate with holes at its base. Looks like a grinder, with a long handle.
I’ve got a death pile of bicycles… spring will come soon.
A death pile of books. I’m doing a shift tomorrow at a thrift shop sorting out their books, so that’s going to be added to their death pile. Which is huge, ‘cos they’ve got a policy of pricing just above what the market will bear. Shop-full of browsers yesterday, buying nothing.
A death pile of miscellaneous, which is going sometime to the car boot sale in Melton Mowbray to sell to the farmers’ wives.
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Antique Frog – Not exactly. I should have mentioned that it is electrical. See the link below – this is similar to what I have.
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Sharyn, you are WAY too organized. You can actually ITEMIZE your Death Piles! Holey toledo!
I have the top of the long shelf in the garage, an entire shelving unit in the garage, a full bookshelf next to the desk, an assortment of boxes under the desk, and a 16 ft by 8 ft storage shed packed to the rafters. Then I have an hanging shelf in the spare bedroom with clothes, and ad hoc pieces scattered through the house as well.
As to telling you what’s in everything? Shoes, clothes, hats, bags, decor items, DIY items, books; a whole hodge podge of stuff. If we have to actually list our DP items, I’m toast! 😀
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Amatino – Last year, I really sped up my listing. In addition, I got much better at donating/throwing out stuff that wasn’t worth it.
I started with huge death piles at the beginning of 2018, but I really worked it. (And your challenge did help!). I also added stuff along the way, but I know that what I’ve added is worth the repair/test/research.
The point is that my death piles are only stuff that needs the repair/test/research. Nothing else is left. It’s easier to get a handle on it that way.
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Excuses: my main excuse is that my photography drives me to distraction, to the point where I don’t even want to list any more. I love hunting for treasures, have my inventory storage, packing and shipping down to an art, enjoy the research, and don’t mind (too much) the actual listing process. No, it’s the photographing that kicks my heinie. I have severe ADHD, and a fair whack of OCD thrown in, so that not having my photos just so grates me so badly that I want to scrap them and redo them. If I could find an easy way to snap and list, my listing would take off!
I’ve tried using my phone to take photos, but the quality just isn’t up to par compared to a camera, where I can tweak and perfect the lighting, color, and so on. That being said, I have a return where the buyer says the colors are “too rich” compared to the item IRL. Sigh…
Photography has become the frog in my listing day. And because of the lighting being better later in the day, I can’t “eat the frog first.” I shall have to find a solution this year.
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If you are using natural light, then that is gonna cause problems with your phone camera for sure. It also limits you to when you can photograph.
You need to get some quality lighting – you can never have enough daylight quality lighting.
What you can do, is replace all light fixtures in the area you list with the highest wattage daylight temp lights you can get.
You could also use the cheap led shop lights. You can rig up cheap vertical stands for them with 2×4’s.
Bottom line, if lighting is holding back your photos, make this the year you do something about it!
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Where I photograph my items, I have 6 various clip-on or desktop lights I’ve bought at thrift stores with 100 watt equivalent LED daylight bulbs. I can move them, turn off individual lights, and all in I probably spent $10 on all of them. They work great, and greatly improved my photos.
Previously they all turned out yellowish from older lighting I had and the flash on my camera couldn’t compensate for the yellow hue.
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I also abhor photographing.
Try the app “DSLR CAMERA” in the App Store.
It lets you manually set iso, shutter speed, WB, and more on your phone. You’ll have to play with it a bit to get the feel.
It’s only .99 and a great DSLR app to start with at that cheap investment.
What I like is I snap the photo, and before it saves it it shows it to me and I can make any quick lighting changes or, if I don’t like it, re-take, just like on a camera.
Also when I save it it saves to my regular photo gallery, not one built into the app that eBay doesn’t recognize.
I do everything on my phone. Research, photos, listings, shipping, messaging, even promoting (via safari).
Lemme know if you try it and like it.
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ADHD’s are hunters, not farmers.
Tracking down great items is hunting.
Taking photos is farming.
It’s why you hate it.
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I need to compile all of my unlisted items. If I had to guess, it’s probably 30 individual items. Right now they are in my car, in laundry room, in shipping, or sitting in my living room. The pile is spread out so it’s hard to deal with as a pile. More like tiny minefields.
My unlisted triggers are 1. low dollar stuff bringing in profit under $10 per item. 2. Annoying to measure things (unsized items), or tricky sizing things.
OR, if I have a messy work area / table I don’t want to deal and they just pile up on that. Keeping my table clear is key -
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At the beginning of last year, I had 3 areas I allowed my backlog to live in. At the beginning of this year, I am up to 5 areas of backlog. 🙁
I used to never allow unlisted stock in the room I keep the bulk of my listed inventory in. Now, I have 10 bankers boxes crammed full of unlisted items. Ugh. All items purchased in the past 6 months, so barely backlog territory, but they’re heading there.
The majority of my unlisted stock is kept in bankers boxes, but I also have bags, piles, overflowing boxes, and 2 4 shelf ikea bookshelves full of unlisted items. I’ve also maxed out the available space to store unlisted large paper items in, as they go up to the “ceiling” (4 ft.) of my slanted roof on the ikea shelves. If they went up to a normal ceiling, I’d be in big trouble.
Last year, I had 3 4 shelf ikea bookshelves full of unlisted stock in. I’ve listed all of those items, and now the shelves are only full of listed stock. Yay! 1 of the bookshelves is now dedicated to keeping the majority of the listed items in my 2nd ebay store in. Larger items also go up to the “ceiling” (4 ft.) of my slanted roof.
I have 2 main areas of unlisted stock in that contain 20-40 bankers boxes apiece. The fourth area is my office, with the ikea shelves and scattered piles and bags on the floor, in addition to additional unlisted bankers boxes. A fifth area contains an additional 5-10 bankers boxes.
I’ve taken the past month off from serious sourcing, and I will most likely take an additional month or two off on top of that as well. I’m actively working through the backlog, and what I list from it is selling. If it’s not worth listing, I chuck it, but I am finding I don’t have to throw out too much.
I don’t allow any area to remain a “dead” pile. I sift items from one area to another. My unlisted ikea shelves remain full because I will remove up to a 1/4 of stock from one shelf, list it, and then refill it immediately with items from a backlog box, or new stock. All areas are kept active.
I’ve listed over 100 items this week, but none of it has been from the backlog. I hope to work on some of it today, but I also need to get some seasonal items listed from new stock I got in earlier this month.
I estimate that last year I listed through 20-30 boxes of backlog. It definitely helps for days (or months) I don’t feel like seriously sourcing. I am currently at 10,000 active items in my main store, and have sold over 16,000 items in this store. Definitely not a hoarder, but need to work a little harder to pick up my listing pace!
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Hi, I’m here for the Death Pile Anonymous meeting…
My name is Liz and I have about eleventy-billion books piled up in my laundry room and kitchen, (oh and office and bedroom). I bought um…about 1000 books at an auction in early December for $120. Turfed about 200 of them to the used book store. I have listed about 500 of them, (not all individually; I listed many of them in lots of 5-10 books).
I had drastically underestimated what I bought. I thought I’d only bought about 400 books, but now that I add up what I’ve listed, what I’ve sold, what I dumped at Half Price Books, what is still in my laundry room waiting to be listed…HAHAHAHAHA. I’m pretty sure I’ll be listing books until I die. I’m also pretty sure I’ll die trapped under a pile of books.
On the plus side, I’ve sold about $1300 in books in December and January. So, that’s a thing?
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Have some time today but feeling really unmotivated to list for some reason. Sales are crazy slow this week. So I decided to update photos of my death piles – finally! Thanks Amatino.
Behold my remaining death piles. Pretty much limited to the garage. Have about 5 bankers boxes in the guest room unlisted. Maybe 15 or so in the garage. Many smalls included though. I’m happy things aren’t really spilling out and the guest room closet is not packed any longer. Long way to go but I made progress last year without donating much. Not much sourcing last year either. I just missed a rummage sale because my friend was in town. I should thank her! I also have some Kondoing to do with our stuff, so there is another layer to all this.
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It has finally happened.It’s looking a lot like a hoarding situation in my Ebay room. The unlisted death piles are oozing like hot lava into our living space.I would like to join the support group.
How did you first approach your piles ofdoomopportunity? Did you start with purging, or maybe organizing into like items? I feel like I’m wasting time by sorting, but the one bin of random items at a time also seems rather time consuming.What works for you?-
I started by sorting which lead to purging.
The stuff that is obviously very cool and/or expensive gets pulled out and listed first.
Once I look at the items, there is usually an obvious “Yes” pile and an obvious “No” pile. There ends up being a “Maybe” pile, and I don’t deal with the “Maybe” pile until after the first “No” pile is disposed of (Goodwill, used book store, trash, etc). Get the obvious “No” stuff out of your house asap, because those “No” items can creep into the “maybe” category and then you’re back where you started.
Anything that I pull out and think “Omg, WHY did I buy this?” is a total no. If your reaction is not “Oh wow, I forgot I bought this! This is so cool!” and is instead “Ugh, I hate listing this sort of thing”, then it needs to go.
If I realize I’m spending too much time debating the merits of an item, then it’s probably a problem item and needs to go. The “Maybe” pile gets a fast, gut-level price check. Will it reliably sell, yes or no? If the answer is “Welllllll…” and I feel myself dithering with decision paralysis, then it becomes a “No”, and away it goes.
This is usually enough to get the ball rolling and force me to be realistic and not view items through rose colored glasses. Once I get the “No” pile out of my house, I feel like “Look! Progress! This is amazing! I’m going to be so organized!” and my motivation to power through a box or 4 of
nonsensefine merchandise is high. -
@Jo Welcome. I bought a bunch of bankers boxes to make sure all the spill out was contained. I started by sorting into like items because listing goes faster that way. It’s kind of nice to switch categories when you get tired of listing some type of thing. I bring one box at a time into the house so it seems less daunting. This way I can see and remember what kind of items that I don’t like to deal with listing or that take a long time to research. It all helps me decide what I will source again and at what expected margin. Anything new I buy gets listed first before I go back to the piles.
Personally, from unlisted I have only purged the items I bought with damage. I’m making myself list anything worth $10 or more as kind of a punishment. It’s all part of the learning process.
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I actually think it’s better to sort one box at a time randomly, and then list like items in that box at the same time. This is just for items that are worth listing – discard items that aren’t worth anything, but then list EVERYTHING from that box once you have finished sorting through it all.
If you list items from most expensive to least expensive, you will only list the expensive items. The cheaper items will go straight back into the box, and then you will just put them away as you sort through a new box. With this approach, a box will never actually be emptied out.
The best way to get through it is one box at a time. Clear the ENTIRE box out. Once all items have been donated or listed, then move onto the next box. Rinse and repeat.
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I recently heard a couple people say they sort by highest dollar value first to get started on a death pile. I like this b/c I tend to have my highest value items as the captain of death pile. It’s b/c it takes more research / fussing/ styling.
TODAY IS THE DAY! All my high dollar DPs will get listed today come hell or high water. -
One of the hard parts about this is that I have items I bought three years ago – like a coffee mug – that could be shipped at the time relatively cheaply. Postal rates have increased substantially since then. Such a bummer about having piles since you are stuck with your old decisions. But, there are cool items in the piles too to rediscover.
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Thanks for the replies. Intuitively, I do know what needs to be done, but have been feeling overwhelmed. It is true that this is an exercise in facing up to past decisions. Christine, I really hadn’t been thinking about the postage variable in relation to these items. Of course I do when I source, but yes, it’s a huge consideration with death piles. Liz, the instant feelings about items is indeed a good gauge! Reminds me of Marie Kondo – “Does this bring me joy?” I have 2 boxes that bring no joy in the back of the car already and will have a lot more by Monday, I’m sure!
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Here to report!! I did my high dollar death pile listings today. It included going to the alterations lady on a gown I was going to try to repair myself. NOT. So, I bit the bullet but at least that dress is in progress. It also included some silver polishing and I listed my dreaded trench coats.
All $100+ items, glad it’s over with. ha! Let the sales role in! -
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@bcfol440 Well done! May the sales roll indeed!
@Jo You speak-a my language! I tend to be overwhelmed – too much input makes my brain shut down and I just can’t see where to begin. I tried Christine’s trick of sorting by like and Almasty’s option to do one box at a time and they both work … kinda. It just seemed to overtake me despite my best efforts. Eventually I conquered the Death Pile Deluge Demon by combining the two methods.I went to the Home Depot and got the largest boxes they’d let me have from their dump pile. The smallest one was 30″ square! I put about a dozen in my garage and unpacked everything into those boxes. I taped a sheet of letter size printer paper onto the front of each box and labelled them by broad categories. For example, “ladies’ clothes”, “men’s clothes”, “toys”, “books and board games”, “home decor”, “DIY”, “electronic and computer”, and so on. I had a couple unlabelled boxes spare. Then I unpacked everything into those boxes. Every square inch of space was emptied into those boxes. It was both freeing and terrifying. I hadn’t realized I had so much!
Once I’d cleared everything, I had to use a trolley to move the boxes I wasn’t going to work in to another spot out of the way. Then I could go through one box at a time. I could split the general category down into smaller LIKE sections; so e.g. men’s clothes could be broken down into shirts, shorts, pants, ties, etc. Then I’d list using sell similar.
It helped for a while, but my listing process is too slow and it all got away from me again. I need a do-over, I think. However, I did manage to clear my entire jeans pile and my mens shirts, and a few other smaller piles. I think I wiped out my computer pile and made pretty good returns on those!
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A while back I got motivated and listed my coat/jacket death pile. In the last 90 days I’ve sold $1000 in coats/jackets from that listing spree. That is a $1000 that I would not have had if I didn’t light that fire and “Just Do It”. It can be very therapeutic to list death piles once the sales start coming in.
Hopefully this spring I can light that fire once again and burn through some more long dormant death piles.
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@Retro That’s awesome. I’m working on our taxes now and will need to prepare an ending inventory. But, we are feeling crunched with a lot of atypical 2018 expenses and home improvement that just added up so I’m getting highly motivated to list again and resist shopping. I would love to turn that stuff in my garage into profit right about now. I think you had the child who was ill, hope you are all ok and Ebay might cut you a break if you email them?
@Amatino, great job sorting. You are dealing with a lot of quantity! I think tackling by type will help you list faster.-
Well here’s the weird thing – when I check my late rate the other day it was explicably 2% points lower than BEFORE the new lates. It also wasn’t as bad as I thought – just 4 items went overdue.
I guess some old lates fell off the 12 month calculation at just the right time.
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@christiner Thanks. Only… I was just given a box with 20 (TWENTY!) pairs of men’s pants, 7 pairs of men’s jeans, a dozen baby clothes, a couple pairs women’s jeans, and a zip up hoodie. And here I was bragging that I’d cleared all my mens pants section! :'(
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I sorted and/or listed through 8 boxes of backlog this week so far! I’m definitely sticking to 1 box at a time to get through it all. If I’m not listing at the moment from a box, I am at least sorting/pricing items from the box and discarding items that aren’t worth it. I feel like any progress is good progress.
For items that I am pricing, I intend to list them within the week. I don’t want to find them again 5 years later, already priced but not listed (this has happened before). Ugh.
What helps is listing/sorting through 1 box of likes at a time, then moving onto another box that is completely different. It keeps it interesting.
It is encouraging to see the piles thin out. A good way to lead into spring garage sale time!
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You guys are doing great! So, after whining to you last week, I got busy on my death piles. My situation is much better now. I ended up deciding to cut my losses and re-donate a lot of stuff. Family harmony is priceless. I now have 14 sorted bins, 2 full 18″x40″ shelves of breakables, and one average sized closet of clothing. I have a strong dislike for cardboard boxes for storage and have been able to pare things down to fit into the bins and spaces I already have. It has been an epiphany of sorts, seeing exactly how much space I can use before I reach critical mass. Hopefully, those items will soon be joining the listed category. Unfortunately, I have to leave town again, so the listing will have to wait. I am excited though for when I come back, everything is organized and ready to go!
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I’ve only been lurking because my piles pale in comparison and my list rate is pitiful as a part timer but you all have been inspiring me to ramp it up. I hate clothing, so I’m digging into bags of family items that I’ve been keeping as worth too much to donate. Just grabbing one thing at a time and listing when I have a minute. I’m up to 187 listings which is huge for me. Thanks!
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@T I’ve done our stuff (mostly clothing) on Mercari because i hate clothing too. It’s super fast to list vs Ebay, they discourage returns, and I’m willing too mark it down and move it quickly. It also keeps the personal sals out of my Ebay store. Good luck with your piles. I envy the people with small ones.
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Finally got some photos done. Here’s my Album of Shame.
Not as much as I thought, actually, but still enough to be intimidating. I have boxes hidden under my desk, shelves next to my desk, and a box on the floor of my living room. Then in the garage is a whole shelf of boxes, the shelf being 30″ wide by nearly 17 feet long. Almost one half of my 8′ x 16′ shed is Death Piles.
Now that I’m looking around me, I’m wondering… should I pick an area to start and clear it? Say, the box on my living room floor, followed by the items under my desk and then next to my desk? Or continue with my current program which is wipe out all the clothing, that I hate listing, and then get to the “fun stuff” later? The Eat the Frog First principle?
Ugh. It may not be as much as I thought but it’s still something that I’d rather close the door on and go do some sewing instead. Too intimidating, I’d rather be an ostrich. 🙁
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You are brave to post the reality of the situation. Death piles are definitely a common hazard of this work, so don’t beat yourself up about it. Remember, baby steps and small, attainable goals. I might do the living room box first and then the under the desk stash. If you really don’t want to list them, organize them with the rest of the piles. Just get them out of your living space. Also, consider, under the desk might be bad Feng shui, preventing a comfortable welcoming to that space (Like I really know this stuff- just a feeling). I don’t know. I vacillate between wanting to cherry pick for value, and wanting to just get the big things done and out of there first. I think there needs to be some enjoyment in the process so you will keep coming back to do more. Also, there is a need to power through stuff you don’t enjoy. Maybe a balance between the two. I noticed the bark/tree/log lamp in the photo- I often have success with stuff like that when I use ‘Cabin Decor’ and ‘Rustic’ in the title. It’s good time of year for that kind of thing. Good Luck!
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@Jo Thanks. The comment on feng shui was spot on, in that I don’t feel happy in this space. We’ve been renovating our small house, but not got to the living room yet, and the entire room is not welcoming at all. Hmmm… hadn’t considered that.
Agreed I need to power through some stuff. Something has to give! LOL
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@A, I agree with that – getting the stuff out of your living and processing place. Either just moving it or tackling it. Then, I like the Almasty method above, switching from type to type to keep it interesting. It also helps me realize what type of items I don’t like to list or that are most time intensive.
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Yeah, I’m toast!
I decided that I needed to just MOVE stuff, not stress so much about the photos. I was given a batch of NWT baby clothes, ASP about $10 plus shipping. Figured that I’d just whack ’em up using my phone camera in the eBay app and get them DONE!
It bothered me all morning!
Finally, I went back and fetched them out, redid the photos, and put them back up again. I just can’t cope with crappy photo quality.
It’s going to take me forever to get through my Death Piles at this rate. 🙁 At least they were baby clothes, so easy to do. And I did compromise a little, I just took front, back, label and any detail if relevant instead of the full 12 photos that I usually work to get. Still… wasted day…. sigh….
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Part of me is having larger house envy!
I can’t fit that much unlisted stuff in our tiny space. I have the only spare room as my “office,” and it’s a mix of inventory storage, shipping space, photography studio, and unlisted backlog. Thank goodness it has a large-ish closet! I believe I’ve maxed out the storage capability of the room, but I tweak it ever so often, and have surprised myself with how much I hold there. I see myself being totally maxed out (depending on what the inventory is) at 1,500 items in my store (currently, 1,080).
The backlog often spills out into the adjacent living room and loveseat, which drives me bonkers, as well as the floor of my office. I start to feel paralysis when too many surfaces are covered, so I tend to organize loosely by type into bankers boxes and stack under the room’s center table. Loose items get stacked on top of the table, which would ideally be my packing station and cleared off each day…goals!
I also have storage – minimal inventory and all larger/unbroken-down boxes – in the rare basement we’re so lucky to have in this area.
I went from a listing goal with a number attached to it, to just listing every day when at all possible. Not always gonna happen, but a good and attainable goal that I’m telling myself to stop stressing over. More of the turtle than the hare. And I often take the time to re-organize my spaces so that they both work better for me and make me feel better/more productive working in them (not to mention keep it possible for my partner to ship for me when I’m out of town!).
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@SilverFoxFinds Interesting that you haven’t taken the next step to renting a storage unit. I’m in awe of your self-control keeping it all contained in such a small space! Respect!
Listing every day, even if it’s just one item, definitely is the goal, but at the moment, I’m not even making it listing one item a week!
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Yeah, I think I’m too disinterested right now in taking the operation much larger. I like keeping things compact, even the tetris-ing of my work space, though I’d love to be able to do some other things in this room, like get my sewing machine back out and give it a whirl!
There is a storage facility within a half mile of the house, so that is ideal if I wanted to head in that direction. Sourcing in this area isn’t great, so I’d have to change my situation a bit to source further afield/overnight. Happy to do that, just haven’t made it a priority yet. We shall see. I love (trying) to keep things as simple as possible, but also trying to keep an eye on my profitability – and enjoyment factors too! 🙂
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Death Pile Challenge Week!
If you have posted in this thread – challenge!
I challenge you to choose five death pile items. I don’t care if they’re armpit items or easy to list items, but you must choose 5. List those 5. You can list as many or as few of anything else as you like, but this challenge is FIVE DEATH PILE ITEMS LISTED.
POKER THROWDOWN: If you want o throwdown challenge, list those five and raise the odds! So, see my 5, and raise me… ?
Post your successes here next Monday! For poker throwdown, list the same day as your throwdown to give us a chance to respond during the week.
(Armpit items – the stuff we don’t want anyone to see. Nobody ever looks under your armpit, right?)
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I’m in. Tonight, I listed 5 death pile items: fishing lures. My husband’s grandfather gave him a box of vintage lures, and husband passed the ones he doesn’t want on to me to sell. Unfortunately, we don’t have any super-valuable lures, but there’s a $150-ish in lures in the box. My pics aren’t the greatest, though. The plastic clamshells for the lures have yellowed with age so it was hard to get decent pics of the colors. I may try retaking pictures outside later this week.
So, I see your 5 death pile items, and raise you 4 more, (more lures!)
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I know it is scary to consider, but you might consider selling it as new but take it out of the package. Photograph the lure with the pieces of the carefully opened package beside it.
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Listed my 5. Have to go pack orders and get to the Post Office now, so I can’t take up Liz’s Throwdown.
Yet! 😀
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Get to it! One of my lures already sold, so it was worth the tedium of listing these things.
Gotta love the names given by lure manufacturers. I have Bang-O-Lures and Tiny Chuggers. Baby Chuggers, too. The Tiny Chuggers are kind of cute, but my husband would probably roll his eyes if he heard me say that.
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I finally rewired three bar lights that I’ve had for close to two years. I listed one this week, so I have the two other that I will list this coming week.
I don’t know if a kick will get me to list more than just those two. I’ve got some outside of eBay stuff to do in addition to the holiday, so listing will probably be limited to the photos I’ve already taken.
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Here’s your kick up the keister!
The Challenge is to go read the article I created (link below) and set this up.
Report back on this thread when you hit #8!
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Thanks Amatino, I just watched the video this morning but I already started this method yesterday with your written out steps.
I put just one item to list in front of me at a time and a small amount of “list next” items nearby. I didn’t delve into the “list next” box until the first item was listed.
This seems to really work for me, as I’m not able to waste time digging through multiple items thinking there is something there that I’d prefer to list at that moment. I listed 10 yesterday using this method, some were really really old death pile items!!! Seems to work great!
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I keep my unlisted items in bins, just like my listed items.
I put an unlisted bin to the right of my listing table and pull items one at a time from that bin. Once I create the listing for the item I place it in a new bin to my left.
Once I have a bin of created listing items, I place it to the right of my photography station. As I photograph items and complete the listings, I place them in a new bin to the left of the photography station. I’ll keep 2-3 bins here so I can sort if need be. Once these “listed” bins are full, I assign inventory numbers to the items and place the bins out in my inventory storage building.
To be time efficient, I’ll usually fly through a bunch of photographs with the phone camera app, and then upload the photos to listings throughout the day in the “dead space” of the day. I’d rather be productive than play games on my phone. I actually don’t even have any games on my phone anymore – I deleted them all.
So basically it is like an assembly line process, one bin at a time. If I want I can follow a single item down the line, or I can (typically) batch process at any point in the process.
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Retro:
Sounds like you have a good system. What are you using for eCommerce software?Death piles are an issue here!
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If you mean inventory management, I just use ebay and the custom SKU.
I tried Sixbit and did not like it at all. The transfer of my ebay data was very buggy and the support wasn’t to my expectations. I had a 5 day window to implement and too many items were missing. I also couldn’t use my existing inventory system because I didn’t have unique SKUs.
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I have only a week left until my Student Showcase, then I plan to hit eBay HARD! I have used bins, but separated by type, like clothing all in one bin, books in a different bin. I’ve read about using one bin for everything, like Retro Treasures, but wondered how that works in terms of digging for stuff. I can pack a LOT Of clothes into a bin, but one large item, like a lamp, would make digging difficult. I’m wondering if rummaging through a bin could result in a mug accidentally being knocked out and broken. Or am I complicating things? Perhaps I should have just two types of bins – clothes & shoes, and everything else. It might make my life a lot easier! You may have just been the last straw that tips this camel over, Retro! LOL
Well done, Vintage Treasures! After next week, if you like, we can pair up for accountability. And then we’ll wipe the floor with the heavy hitters over on the Listing Challenge! 😀 😀 😀 😀
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Well actually I don’t do everything goes.
Clothes just go with clothes – its much more efficient that way. I do try and break it up though. For example, I want jeans spread out across all the bins. It sucks looking for a pair of jeans in a bin of ALL jeans. It’s much easier when every clothing bin only has a couple pair of jeans. When loading a bin I set it up on its side and stack the clothes in with the tag side towards the top. Once the bin is full I set it right side up and it is very easy to thumb through the items to look at tags without pulling items out.
Shoes are typically kept with only shoes. That is mainly because I like to batch process shoes.
I clean a bin, I list a bin, I photograph a bin. I have a couple bins in storage where I’ve combine shoes with random hard goods and toys. The bigger mens shoes typically go in the bottom of the bin and then I fit womens and kids shoes into the cracks and crevices so that the bins are as full as possible.I also have my metal shelving set up so that the bottom two rows are a bit taller so I can overfill my shoe bins. I don’t use lids on bins.
Now everything else gets put in random bins. Toys, electronics, plates, books, DVDs, games, etc. I like to mix all that up.
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I’m in, Amatino and I’d love to pair up for accountability!
My sister is visiting from California and staying with me this week so I’m relieved you’re starting next week, this week won’t be good for me listing wise.
Good luck with getting everything ready for your Student Showcase!
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Retro Treasures thanks for those tips! I really like the way you stack the jeans in the bins, very efficient when trying to pull the solds! Also interesting that you list first and then photograph the items. Any reason why you do it in that order? I’ve always photographed first and then listed…
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I list first for a couple of reasons.
1. I can do everything but the photos without even cleaning the item if that is necessary. Sometimes I’ll batch clean shoes right before photographing. It just flows together much nicer. I’ll also already know the value of the item and can determine to what level I want to clean the items. Not everything needs a very high level of cleaning.
2. If I find flaws I can go ahead and document them in the listing. If you photograph first, odds are high you will forget to document the flaws at least sometimes.
3. I can photograph all my items in the camera app and then upload to the listings at my leisure. I’ll photograph 10-20 items in a session. Then I walk away from my ebay area for the rest of the day. I can upload and post the listing in the downtime of the day – while watching tv, in the checkout line of the store, as a passenger when driving, even while using the bathroom (don’t judge!).
It does not require any “thinking” to upload photos to a finished draft and hit “list item”. I like front loading the real work.
It’s just far more time efficient. I’ve done photographing first before. It just doesn’t work as well for me.
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Thanks Retro, nice to know I’m not too far off the mark. I have bins sorted as clothes, shoes, books & anything else flat (puzzles, prints, etc.), caps/hats/bags, and anything else. I also have an E category for anything extra large, that doesn’t fit into a bin and has to stand alone on a shelf, and a Q category for clothing items that are stored on a hanger, like winter coats or formal dresses.
Vintage Treasures – you’re on! Starting the week after June 8th, that is! *wink* We have a professional photographer this year, so I can post the link to all the photos of the event.
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LOL. How funny this forum is! Look at the time and date of our posts, Retro, – yours is a whole day after mine, but mine shows after! 😀
You know, you are brilliant! I was photographing first and then listing after. I love the idea of listing before I even start cleaning! What a time saver! Then I’d know up front if it was even worth the trouble of cleaning or photographing at all. There have been several times when I’ve gone to the trouble of cleaning and photographing, only to discover it’s a low-dollar item. And then listed, because after all that work, it hurts to just donate it back to Goodwill. And then no judgement from me for when you do your uploads. I’m a huge believer in using every available minute of the day!
Oh, that reminds me! I went in for a waxing one day and was on a deadline for costumes. (I wax because it’s cleaner for longer, and with my dance classes, fuzzy legs are kind of a no-no.) I’m a long-time client of my salon, so I arrived, stripped down the nether half, and pulled out my sewing. “Please continue,” I invited. “I just have to get this done because I’ve got to have it finished for class tonight.” I sewed while they stripped. They thought it was the funniest thing ever, and it still comes up in laugh sessions a couple years later.
Back to listing – I shall change my format to listing first when I start listing next week. I’m actually getting very excited to start and make a HUGE dent in my DPs. My listing numbers are 100 for the whole year. I wonder if I can double that in a month? *rubs hands together with evil chuckles!*
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I agree with Amatino, Retro. You are smart to list first and photograph second – for all the excellent reasons you so helpfully listed above. I too will start listing first and then photographing my items.
I can add even more reasons for me to do so: My listing area is 2 floors above my photography and storage area, so if I photograph after writing the listing the item will already be in the basement where it needs to be stored. Also I’ll no longer have my desktop full of folders of photographed items that I have to search through for the right photos when I finally get around to writing up the listings. Thank you so much for answering my question about why you list first!
And no judgements from me on when you are doing your work, I’m impressed that you are that dedicated!
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Showcase complete. I’m DONE! So exhausted! But it was a huge success and I feel like a proud mother hen. They’re all clamoring to do it again! LOL Below is some photo delight.
Now, Vintage Treasures, ready to “kick names, take ass”*?
* Quote from Avengers Infinity War, in case you’re wondering why I got it wrong
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Yay! And… eeep? I’m excited but nervous. I really want to succeed this time.
So, what goal would you like to set? I’ve added an extra column to the Listing Challenge that shows the average per week and you’re at 23 while I’m at a measly 4. Sigh… How about we set a goal for the balance of June? There are 3 weeks, and we can revise our goals on Monday July 1st. We have to hold each other to the goals set – there will be penalties! LOL
For my side, I know how busy I am and I want to create a goal that is reasonable and achievable so that I’m motivated, not depressed by how far it is. I have a lot of work off eBay with running my husband’s business, the dance classes, and doing financials for a property group, so I need to factor in time for that. Plus I have to do our taxes that I extended. However, I always taught my daughter about excuses … “if it’s not burning, bleeding or dead, I don’t want to hear it!” LOL
Ok, if I double my average to date and round up, how about I have to list 10 per week for the next 3 weeks. More is great, less is not allowed.
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Umm, I’m also nervous about the follow through. And I don’t even have any valid excuses for not following through…
I’m thinking that I’ll commit to 30 listings per week. That will just beat my average by 1 more listing per day, but also I’ll commit to listing something each day for the rest of June. I seem to have a habit of listing a lot (for me) and then not listing anything for several days. So I want to try to break that burnout cycle.
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With you on that one! I really want to create a daily listing routine. That’s quite a jump in numbers, so I hope you can keep it up – 30 per week! I commit to listing weekdays only, with so much on the go, weekends are usually my days for catching up with housework and sewing and dog washing and chicken coop cleaning and so on.
Right, will check in with you here next Monday! Ready? GO!
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Moving over to this thread to discuss this and not cluttering up the Listing Challenge:
Not remembering the steps and then realizing I can’t even work on Step #1 was a bit of a downer!
I think I’m going to stay with my 10-a-week goal for now, but I’m going to work at making the items I’m listing those that surround my desk space. I have a full set of shelves next to my desk which are supposed to be for my office supplies and stuff. Instead, they’re packed full of death piles. My desk itself can only be partially used because it’s loaded with death pile items. Under my desk are boxes and boxes and boxes. Okay… one of those boxes is all my tax paperwork, which also needs my attention… but only ONE of those boxes!
In front of my desk on the floor are more Death Piles. On the opposite side of this side of the room is my sewing area and it’s piled up the walls with…. projects! Ha! Gotcha. 😀 It has some partially completed projects and a whole lot of I-need-to-get-to=this projects that are mostly piles of fabric with costumes or clothes in mind. I’ve tried to keep DP items out of there. That being said, I have decided that I’m going to sell some fabrics that no longer have my approval, so it’s possible that it could be considered a partial DP.
So… it’s mid-June now. My new goal is to list a minimum of 10 Death Pile items per week, and to concentrate on clearing my office space of DP items. I must either have them listed or donated by the end of July. Then I shall have Step #1 of the 8 Easy Steps ready to go:
1. Remove all items from your listing area except for the one item you’re listing. Have a dedicated listing space.
I made my goal of 10 items for this week, stayed up until 10PM to get it done!
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I am patting you on the back and yelling “way to go Amatino”! Of course my husband and cat are now looking at me like I’m completely insane. Next week I’ll just imagine the yelling and back patting. Seriously, congratulations on meeting your goal Amatino, and extra credit for setting additional clean up goals!!!
Thanks for stating that you were moving this over to this thread as I wasn’t sure where I should post my results for this. I’m not done listing yet today but I’ve already exceeded the goal I set for the remaining weeks in June of: 30 listings per week AND listing every day. I’ll post my total listings for this week tomorrow or Monday on the Listing Challenge thread.
As for the 8 easy steps: #1 – I’m struggling with keeping ONLY the item I’m currently listing on my desk. Right now there are 6 sewing patterns that I’ll be listing next on my desk. #2 (Small list next pile), #3 (List daily) & 4 (Do a listing sprint) I’m good with those so far. #5 I’m also struggling with: I used to combine listening to books while listing as something I enjoy combined with listing. But I had to stop that in order to follow #6 (Do not listen to content while listing). I think I’ll substitute music instead but haven’t implemented that yet and it’s as quiet as a tomb in here! #6 (Don’t listen to content while listing) I’m good. #7 (List more than you buy) Bought a bunch of stuff yesterday because I had thrift store coupons that expired yesterday (so I had to!). But thankfully the # of items I purchased was less than I listed this week! So good on 7 so far. #8 (accountability) Here I am being accountable 🙂
Amatino I want to say thank you so much for setting this up and being my accountability partner!
Also if anyone is interested I found following step 6 (don’t listen to content while listing) really helped me tremendously as far as getting things listed faster. Give it a try if you’d like to improve your listing speed! -
Vintage Treasures, I’m going to send you a pair of pom poms – you are my most amazing Cheerleader. Honestly, you always make me feel like I’ve climbed Everest. You’re such a boost to my ego! I truly appreciate you!
I spent this weekend clearing my desk and two shelves of my bookshelf next to my desk. I went though everything and either did the research and created a draft for the item/s, or decided it wasn’t worth listing and it went to a donate pile – outside in the garage in a box ready to go. I didn’t want it to just sit there waiting to be donated, I’m being proactive! My desk is now holding only those items that I created drafts for, and they will be photographed and moved out on Monday. With 17 drafts and everything cleaned and ready for photographs, I should make my goal this week.
The two shelves have been allocated and packed correctly; one is for stationery and business cards, the other holds paper racks on which the paperwork for each particular business is neatly put away. For example, I have reference works for eBay on one rack, dance information on another rack, the sewing machine invoices on another, and so on. It feels rather Stepford Wives-ish at the moment, but I’m loving it and keep stealing admiring glances! LOL.
While on this tidy-up mojo, I also tidied up and put away a huge pile of fabric. I have a loveseat again! The hubs walked in, looked around for a beat, and asked “are you going on a Minimalist kick?”
No, but I do have my own Personal Cheerleader keeping me motivated! -
Aww, Amatino thanks for that, you make me feel so good! You are motivating me to get to sorting and researching and donating. I’ll work on doing that this week. I’d be so nice to be able to open my office closet door without fearing for my life. Stuff just comes crashing out of there every time I open the door. I need to get going on that before something heavy hits me right on the head!
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Yay! Just passed my Death Pile listing goal for this week, so now I can go list new stuff.
Interesting side effect on tidying up my space – it still feels odd to have it all so neat and tidy next to me, but… (humans are never satisfied!) … I’m now looking at the new, neat shelves and thinking
“Do I really need that? Could I get rid of some things?”All I have is a basket of miscellaneous, like tape, highlighters, staple remover, a mug of pens, my gold testing kit, a box of business cards for the hubby’s business, a ruler, some staples, a box of tissues, and my acrylic photo aids. Unless I whittle down the miscellaneous, like only having one roll of tape, no, not really, I’m stuck with what I have! But it feels so gooood to have it all clear!
Do you think I’ve contracted minimalitis?
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I made my listing goal for the week and I listed each day. (One day I listed just 1 item and only to meet my goal of listing every day.) So on the 8 steps I’m good on all except the same 2 I had trouble with before, #1: have only the item you’re going to list next on your desk and #6: don’t listen to content while listing. My desk is messy, and usually I have more than just the item I’m listing next on it. And I had put an audiobook on hold at the library a few weeks ago and it came in so now I’m listening to a book while listing. I do pause the book when I really need to concentrate on the listing though, like when writing the description.
I plan on upping my game each week on this thread – this week I’m going to add 15 minutes of organization time to be accomplished each day. The stuff in my office closet is still about to fall on my head and my basement is a hot mess.
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You’re doing really great, VT! I wish I had your listing numbers, but as I’m growing each week, I’m content to move slowly.
As I’ve been struggling to get my listing area cleared so that I can have a dedicated listing space per #1, I’ve not really been doing that up til now. However, while I’m still surrounded, I have enough cleared that I’m going to say that it starts this week. #2 is kind of “on default” at the moment. I’m forced to list what’s around me as my ‘list next’, so I don’t really think I’m cutting it deliberately yet. While I did have a couple listing sprints (#4) I didn’t list daily (#3), and I didn’t listen to content, nor buy anything this week, and I do have you for accountability, so I’m set for #6-8.
So my goal this week is to mindfully practise #1-4, as #6-8 is sorted.
Question, though. what is your #5? I’m going to have to rewatch the video, as I’m at a loss on this one.
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I’ve been so, so good at listing what I buy. These past couple of weeks though, I’ve been slammed. A new Goodwill opened about a mile from me and being one of the first to visit it before the other resellers, it was a treasure trove of excellence. I bought about 17 shirts and coats, as well as some high end collectibles and a sewing machine for cheap.
I did this while in the middle of my Lego apocalypse. I finally decided to try to part out the sets I bought (a mistake in hindsight) and while I’m trying to get the clothes photographed and listed, my living room floor is a landmine of legos. Pictured is about 75% of the stockpile I got.
Maybe this is what it feels like to have children? LOL.
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They appear to still have a fairly good sell through rate, depending on the item. I guess I’ll figure out the reality once I start listing them. I paid $70 for all of these, and by my initial calculations based on the sets that they supposedly comprise, I should have nearly $800 worth. If it takes awhile, so be it. I just want them off my floor! 🙂
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Amatino, #5 is “Combine your listing practice with something you enjoy.” Which conflicts with #6 for me since what I enjoy is listening to books on CDs while I list. I meant to tell you about another youtube video that I thought was helpful with speeding up listing, it’s Bexa Boss Lady. Hope I linked it right!
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I went back and listened to the YT vid again and he says “going for a walk” or “doing meditation” or something like that. He says tag your listing time onto the front or back of your “enjoy” item, so list first then do what you enjoy, or vice versa. The theory is rational, but I don’t know that would work for me. I’ll give it a try though. Next week! This week I’ve already got my goals.
That Bexa Boss Lady is well spoken and clear. I enjoyed her video. And I wrote down her tips too. She only has five, and some of them are the same as 10KontheBay.
1. Lose perfectionism: steaming, looking perfect, color is perfect, styled properly, background white enough. Just ensure listings are clean and clear.
2. Have a small List Next pile
3. Break up listings into small sprints – 8 to 10 items in the same category
4. Have 2 or 3 listing sprints per day
5. Take photos of the measurements of the items and the tags information instead of writing them down
5. If you have a huge Death Pile, break it down into smaller chunks of 8 to 10 items in the same category and work with only that pile. This stops the Death Pile from becoming overwhelming. Small wins become big success.
Her #2, 3, & 4 are the same as 10K’s #2 and #4, just explained better. I used to do #5 but now that I’m following Retro Treasures’ plan of creating my drafts before photos, I find that I just whack the measurements into the drafts and it has saved me a lot of time. I’m a quilter, so I have a quilting mat on my desk all the time. It’s easy for me to just lay out stuff on the mat and get the measurements really quickly. So for me, #1 and #5 were the big takeaways, but she explained the middle stuff better than 10K, so thank you for this.
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My goodness, I had to hustle to make the Challenge this week. I am SO grateful I only set myself a goal of 10. There is no way I would have made it this week if I’d had it much higher, as I only managed 11 in total. All of them DP items, I’m proud to say!
With no internet, no phones, and no mobile, I spent my “down time” clearing the back section of the garage, with shudder-inducing cobwebs, enough dust to start my own bunny collection, and things that fall down when you move something else. The hubs has been huffing about not being able to get into that back section; his manuals are stored on a large set of shelves and the shelving is buckling under the weight of them, so he had a real need-to-get-there. Our water softener is also back there, and our chest freezer is en route too, so clearing it up made life a lot easier on multiple fronts!
As the week was productive only on the cleaning and sorting front, all my listings were done yesterday and today. This week my listings were large, unwieldy items that I’ve been putting off because they’re large and unwieldy. Feels good to finally get them out of the way, although the lamp took a couple hours to clean and photograph, a couple hours to research and list, and a couple more hours to pack up ready for storage and shipping. Almost the whole day on one listing! EEP! However, we can now get to the back of the garage for the first time in mkdmfmddmmmfmmfffmumblemumblemumble… I might be too embarrassed to say that one out loud. 😉 I have another lamp to list (a chandelier type thing) and all the large and awkward stuff is done. There’s one shelf of small and not interesting items to clear and Himself can have that whole section back. He’s been muttering about how it’s “his” and I’m “using his space.” Although, if I do clear that shelf, I might move the sewing machines that I’ve listed on eBay into it, because the shelf where they’re currently stored is close to the door and would be better suited to the repair business. Machines could go on that shelf on their way in, or on their way out, instead of sitting on my kitchen counter and dining room table!
Wow, this cleaning up kick really has some unexpected perks!
Vintage Treasures, thanks for being my kick up the keister this weekend. I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t had you in the wings.
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Hello DP Challengers (or should I say hello Amatino, hahaha)!
First of all, thank you for the clarification on step 5 on “How to eliminate your death pile in 8 easy steps”. I didn’t get that it was either “list and then do something you like” or “do something you like and then list”. One after the other, not simultaneously, duh! Okay so I’m still struggling with that one, sometimes I’m doing it, sometimes not, hopefully now that I understand it correctly I’ll do better. Also I’m still listening (some of the time) to audiobooks while I list, so step 6 is hit or miss for me. Step one is also hit or miss, sometimes I have only my next item to list on my desk, but sometimes I have more than just that item. All other steps are good!
I’ve decided to set new goals for July. I’ll continue with the 30 listings per week, and listing every day. But instead of adding a new goal each week and cluttering this thread up with my weekly goals I’m going tp post all of my July goals now and just report on my progress.
My 4 new goals for the month of July are: Source from 2 places I’ve never sourced from before, list 2 items I’ve never listed before, research items with the highest solds in my area for 30 minutes and figure out my ASP in June and up it by at least $1.00 ASP in July.
As you can see I’ve veered off the orginal premise of this challenge and kind of made it my own personal goal challenge. But I am getting a LOT more of my old inventory listed, so it’s all good hopefully!
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You’re doing so well, Vintage Treasures!
I’m good on steps 6-8, I need to work on steps 1-4. As soon as I have step 3 running, I’ll work out how to add an “enjoy” factor per step 5. I’ve not been particularly successful in implementing the steps. While I’ve cleared my desk, it seems to get cluttered daily, I think the sheer volume of stuff just overwhelms the space, so I don’t even feel like I’ve achieved step 1.
You know that saying: “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”? Have you ever considered that you can’t put everything in its place until you have a place for everything? It sounds silly, but that was a major EUREKA! moment for me. LOL. So when I clear a space, I consider it “properly” cleared only when I have created a place for everything that has been piling up in that space. I’ve also learned to consider what and why is piling up in a space. For example, I had a fancy place to put my purse and keys and stuff – and they never ended up there! They always ended up piled on the kitchen counter by the door. Now I have a cabinet installed by the door (we had to move the fridge over, bit of a hassle, but SO worth it!) and I put my purse and keys away with no trouble. Plus I have storage space to put a basket for invoices and receipts, a spot for sunglasses, and a small bowl on the top for small change. It’s the best change I made and now my kitchen is clean and tidy most of the time.
For July I’m going to stick with my June goal of 10 per week. And I’m going to mindfully work on step 1 and get my desk utterly cleared of stuff, plus I’m going to clear the other 3 shelves on my bookshelf and (deep breath as I stretch to new heights here!) I’m going to try to clear UNDER the desk as well. If I can do that, I think I can cross step 1 off as done.
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Not a good week! 🙁
I’ve been fighting off the flu for about two weeks now, guzzling Vit C and stuff, but I think all the stress just lately was one step too much and I was down and out. 4th of July was spent huddled in bed feeling sorry for myself. Happy holiday! Not.
Despite best intentions to get my listings done, I only managed 4 Death Pile items.
So, Vintage Treasures, what’s my penalty?
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Amatino: First of all pat yourself on the back for listing 5 things while fighting the flu! And if you’re disappointed in yourself for not listing more: forgive yourself and move on.
Now on to the penalty (it’s hard to type while I’m rubbing my hands so gleefully!) – For the next week you will write down the answers to these 3 questions first thing each morning: 1. “Today my top project is…” 2. “This project matters to me because…” 3. “One small action I can take to move forward is…”
It takes only a few minutes in the morning – I promise you! Try it for a week to see if it’s a motivator for you. It works well for me, I write while I drink my morning coffee. Sometimes it takes until I’m really really tired of writing the same thing day after day until I actually do the project, but whatever it takes to get me going is okay with me!
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I laughed out loud as I read your “glee” part! You are just awesome! I’ve written my 3 starters on the top of tomorrow’s TDL so that I START the day with them. Today, they’re at the bottom of the TDL, but I will close out on Sunday and report back.
Thank you for taking this seriously. I really appreciate it!
Well done on your achievements. I’m looking forward to hearing how your outside-the-box item works out.
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I met my goals (pretty much) for the Death Pile Challenge last week. I just squeaked through with the “list more than you buy” rule, with 39 listings done vs 38 items purchased. I went to a new to me place to source (as part of my July personal challenge) and it was awesome so I bought a lot… I’ve already sold one of the 38 items I sourced there. I’m within $10.00 of making all my $ back with 37 items left to sell. The item I sold was the big ticket item though, a $50 sale.
I’m still struggling with “combine listing and then something you like to do”, as well as “have just the item you’re listing next on your desk”. So I need to work on those two steps.
As another of my July personal challenges I bought something that I’ve never sold before. It rang up at $4.00 (but was marked $8.00 and I debated myself about buying it since I’m ridiculously frugal). I checked comps though and went ahead and purchased it; I’m pretty positive it’ll sell for $150 – $180. So I guess it pays to think outside the box!
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Amatino be sure to answer all 3 questions each day. If you just add the top project to your to do list it just feels like more crap to do, and you don’t want to be stuck on the wrong side of the bridge of death! Questions 3
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Oh, that’s brilliant! I enjoyed that! I missed the original Monty Python boat, and I do love catching up!
Yes ma’am. Answering the questions. I didn’t actually add them to my TDL, I just wrote the questions at the top of the day’s TDL page, so that I do them when I’m putting together my TDL. It’s the one thing that I tend to do first every work day – update the TDL – so it means that I will complete my quest… er… I mean penalty.
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Phew! The week is over and it has been a humdinger! I’m proud to announce that I was faithful and completed my penalty daily. I wanted to honor your serious acceptance of the Challenge, Vintage Treasures. So I was serious in my tasks. I did not realize how much of an impact it would have on my day!
To complete the questions, I had to be thoughtful and consider my end goal. This made me more mindful of what I was putting into my To Do List. Going over the TDL, I saw there were several items I could do in 30 minutes or less. What if I actually did them, knocked them out? Sure, it would take up a couple hours of my day, but it would wipe out a whole batch of numbers on the loooong daily grind. So I did them. The rest of the day was open for the bigger tasks that I could get chewing on. It was so freeing; I felt lighter, more enthusiastic, motivated.
So I did it again the next day. And the next. By this time, I ran out of small items to cross off, so instead I hit the items that weren’t short on time, but short on energy. These were often stepping stones. By turning my focus to the third question, I began to bite off larger chunks of the bigger items.
I’ve astonished myself. I cannot recall clearing so much of my weekly goals in a very long time. Things that were hanging over my head, things I’ve been putting off, things I would have put off in a normal week. All gone! Please note – we’re not talking eBay stuff here. I’m talking my FULL list. Everything from financials, to housework, to cleaning out the cat’s litter box. And the floor. And the walls behind the litter box. (I’ve ordered a bigger box, this cat has the aim of a blind farmer missing a barn with a rock salt shotgun!) (I can’t wait for her to learn there’s a HUGE litter box outside!) (We adopted her last month to replace the cat that got eaten.) (She’s a rescue, in bad shape.) (Hey… these parentheses are cool!)
Seven full days later and I’m exhausted and elated. I am motivated. I’m on a roll and can’t wait to see how far I go before I run out of steam. Let’s pray this is one of those self-powering rolls, so that I only go faster! LOL.
Re eBay, I completed my Challenge this week, listing all Death Pile items. I did not work through the 8 steps, though. I plan to incorporate those into my weekly schedule going forward, but I want to see how they fit into the new plan. I don’t want to lose all this forward momentum. Check out my numbers over on the Trash Elf Listing Challenge. I have a funny story to share there too!
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Amatino, excellent job!!! I’m super happy that the “Questions 3” was helpful to you! If you have a kick in the keister for me, I’m happy to hear it!
So as far as the Death Pile Challenge, I blew the “list more than you buy” step last week. I have a bad habit of “stress relief” sourcing/thrift shopping, had a stressful week and gave in to the temptation to shop it off instead of shake it off. No valid excuse for that failure unfortunately!
Otherwise all’s the same, I’m still struggling with “just the thing I’m listing on my desk”. And “doing something I like before or after a listing session”. I really need to work on solutions to those 2 steps… I’ve probably photographed items before completing the listing description on some drafts too. Also my “list next pile by my desk” seems to be growing rather than shrinking. Geez, looks like I need to work harder on most of the steps. OOPS!
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Let’s unpack that Step #1 and see if we can (to quote Tim Gunn) make it work!
Remove all items from your listing area except for the one item you’re listing. Have a dedicated listing space.
Now, first off, I note this is a two-fer. Do you have a “dedicated listing space”? I can tell you right now, I don’t and physically cannot. My home is a whopping 995 square feet and about the only thing that’s dedicated to one task is the shower! Everything has to do double duty, at the very least. My living room is split into three – I have my “office” in one corner, my “sewing room” in another corner, and my tv room/living room/drawing room/extra space for the overflow from one of the other corners room for the rest of it. It’s also the pass-through dogtrot, with the front door leading in and through to the dining room, which opens directly onto the deck. In Spring and Fall, we open doors on both sides and let the wind whistle through. This is Texas – any time we get cool enough to turn off the a/c, we go straight for the dogtrot and natural air conditioning!
In my “office”, I run 4 different businesses, with those file sorting trays on a shelf to keep the paperwork separate. So I can’t even have that as a dedicated space! I had thought about having a plastic tote bin on the floor under my desk in which I store my “to list” items, but that defeats my goal of clearing the space. However, I am about halfway through clearing another shelf on the bookshelf next to my desk. I can dedicate that shelf to the cause. So, if I were to operate in the spirit of Step #1, I would clear that shelf, and only stock that shelf with the 10 items I plan to list. Then, in accordance with part 2 of the step (Part 1? It’s listed before the instruction to have a dedicated space…) I would choose one item off that shelf and put it on my desk to actually list it. That could work… My only concern is that the shelf is a standard bookshelf shelf, so tall items wouldn’t fit. Unless I clear and add the top of the bookshelf to my “dedicated space.” I could put things on top and on the shelf directly below the top, giving me two “shelves” but one dedicated space.
What do you think, VT? Shall we create a dedicated listing space? Would that help you to conquer this one? I can see how it would work for me. I’d have a place to put things that isn’t actually cluttering up my desk or the floor around my desk.
Oooh… I can have a clear floor around my desk! Now, THAT would be novel!
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We’re supposed to be leaving in 20 minutes to go to dinner with friends, so I’m done for the week. And I juuuuuust slid in on both challenges this week!
The bookshelf is done. Very bottom shelf in the photo is the paperwork, with the little divider thingies separating each business. Next shelf up is my stationery shelf. I’m loving this shelf! It’s all exactly at hand when I need it. The space on the right there holds my camera when it’s not snapping photos of shelving to show off in this thread… LOL
Top shelf is my new dedicated listing space, loaded ready for next week with my 10 items.
The very top has not yet been cleared, I just ran out of time, but I have enough small stuff to fit into the current shelf. I’ll get to the top eventually. But for now, I have Step 1 – have a dedicated listing space, and Step 2 – Have a small list next pile. Yay!
Made the listing challenge too, as all my items were Death Piles this week. Only squeaked in, but I did it, so I’m thoroughly proud of myself. So as to not clutter up with double info, I’ll explain my week in the TELC thread.
My goal for this week is to maintain steps 1 and 2, now that I have them set up, and move on to Step 3 – List daily. I have to admit, I don’t. I make my listing goal somehow, but with a listing sprint, rather than a daily schedule. So this week, I’m going to work out how to schedule a daily listing time and make it into a routine.
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Congrats Amatino on meeting your goal! Your bookshelf looks fantastic!!!
I think I can say I completed the challenge? I said I would create a dedicated list next space and I have. It was as simple as putting a chair next to my (standing) desk where I now place my box of list next items where they are at arms reach instead of having them spread out on my floor and the top of my desk.
I had lofty plans for revamping my office, which I put a lot of time into at the beginning of the week. I cleaned out the 3 shelves in my desk and dedicated that space to the eBay supplies I use upstairs. I organized and put away all the stuff that was cluttering those shelves, which was quite a project in itself. To reduce my desktop clutter I hung a bulletin board above the chair holding my list next box and tacked up the papers (notes on items, scratch paper, my listing count calendar) I use while listing. I moved most of the sewing supplies in my office closet to the basement and stacked several boxes of list next items in the closet. I thought that if I placed 10 or 20 items to list in each box it would clear out some of my messy basement death piles and also force me to list stuff I usually pass on in my quest for fast and easy to list items. So I’m now working on forcing myself to list everything in each list next box before moving on to the next box. At the very least I’ve eliminated my wandering around the basement looking for stuff to list next time suck.
So I’ve done a lot and my office was in excellent shape earlier last week. But then I went to the Goodwill Outlet on Saturday. Oops. Office not as excellent now. Maintaining the step is the trick I guess. I’ll be working on it today to get it back to its former glory. All in all I’m really happy with the results, but I need to keep it up!
Amatino, I’ve got step 3 down, even if I sometimes only list 1 item in a day. So I’m going to continue to work on 1 and 2 this week. I’ll attempt to finish boxing all my deathpile items into list next boxes and jenga them into my office closet. There’s plenty left to work on with that project.
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Wiped out this week, VT, on both challenges. I only listed 3 and I didn’t list every day. I tried, I really tried. I even had a chat with the other half about creating a routine that would allow me to list daily and he agreed it was a good idea. Long story in the TELC thread on my week to explain it, but I totally accept that I failed.
This week looks awful, up front. I have dance schedules for tonight, Tuesday AND Thursday, and sewing machine runs as well. Plus, I forgot to mention on the other side that my hubs’ business has had an “upgrade” and we now have a Facebook page and a new website, both of which are my responsibility to build and maintain. Takes quite a bit of time, it turns out!
Oh well, excuses aside, I shall have to do some scheduling and planning and MAKE IT WORK! Only 2 listings a day, dammit, surely I can do that!
So, VT, what do you have in store for me this week?
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Well, since I failed also, no penalty for you. I didn’t finish boxing my deathpile items, or put them into my office closet. And of course since I said I have step 3 down I actually had 2 days during the week when I only listed 1 item per day. So I don’t think that qualifies as having it down, more like that qualifies as struggling.
So I will leave it up to you to choose: Either we can both work on last weeks commitments or take a week off and start fresh next week. I’m good with either choice 🙂
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Yes, I struggled too.
Let’s revive last week’s challenge and get it working for this week, then next week can be a fresh new challenge. Keep the momentum going!
So I have to list minimum 10, and do Step 1: have a dedicated listing area; Step 2: have a small list next pile; and Step 3: List daily. I have to list 2 per day to make my goal, so I’m going to try to work to create some sort of routine that makes that happen. Due to the number of businesses I work in, I only work eBay Mon-Fri so that I have 2 days for other tasks like sewing and housework deep cleaning and other fun activities!
For you? Box your deathpile items, put them in the office closet, and list 6 per day to make 30 per week? Do I have that right? And you have to get Step 1, 2 and 3 as well!
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Eeek, yes you have it right. Although I don’t hold myself to listing 6 per day… I just don’t want to have multiple days of only listing 1 item in a day. Some days I have other commitments jamming up the day so those days I list less than on days when I have most of the day free. But at least 30 per week and no more 1 listing days – fingers crossed! And boxing up more (not all probably) of death pile mess and jamming it into my office closet. That’ll take care of steps 1 & 2 & 3 I think.
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Update to my post on this thread dated 6/30/19.
In that post I stated: “My 4 new goals for the month of July are: Source from 2 places I’ve never sourced from before, list 2 items I’ve never listed before, research items with the highest solds in my area for 30 minutes and figure out my ASP in June and up it by at least $1.00 for ASP in July.”
First goal results: I only sourced from 1 new place. I did attempt a second but after I got to the sale I realized that the person running the sale looked familiar and I decided I must have gone to another estate sale run by that company a few years ago. I ended up getting to the sale at the last hour of the last day just trying to meet my “source in 2 new places July goal” and found out that this company has a fill a box for $5 for the last hour. So that was great to find out, as I got several hundred dollars of stuff for $5. So even though I missed the goal of 2 new places to source, I had a really positive outcome in pursuit of it.
Second goal results: I listed more than 2 items I’ve never listed before. One thing already sold for $150, which is great for something I normally would never have bought because I couldn’t figure out what it was in the thrift store. I only bought it to make my “list 2 items I’ve never listed before” goal. So another great outcome there.
Third goal results: Research highest solds in my area for 30 minutes, this was a fail. I only researched for 10 minutes. Apparently I don’t like research unless it’s on an item I’m about to list. I did find out that fishing equipment would be a good thing to learn more about and pursue in my area. Yuck, fishing…
Fourth goal results: I figured out ASP in June and I did raise it by quite a bit more than a dollar in July.
2 wins, a fail and a didn’t manage it but got good results trying. Not so bad.
My August goal is simple: To have 100 more listings on September 1 than I did on August 1st.
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Wow, VT, you’re really taking this seriously! It’s such a pleasure having you as an accountability partner, you motivate me to keep being better!
For July I said I was going to stick with my June goal of 10 per week and to mindfully work on step 1 and get my desk utterly cleared of stuff, plus clear the other 3 shelves on my bookshelf and, if possible, clear UNDER the desk as well. For my listing goal, I should have listed 46 for the month, which I exceeded, but I didn’t have a steady daily listing habit. I did get my desk cleared and cleared more of my shelf, although not all of it, and one whole box cleared out from under the desk. 3 partial wins. Not as much as I would have liked, but I’m seeing a huge improvement in my environment and my entire daily schedule and listing habit, so that’s a major win! LOL.
For August I’m going to work on Steps 1 through 3.
Step 1: I’m going to clear the bookshelf – ALL the shelves, plus my desk, which got itself semi-cluttered again. And I’m going to clear UNDER the desk. There are about 5 boxes under there, so this is a challenge. This will give me a totally cleared working area for future and will make Step 1 permanently DONE on the TDL.
Step 2: is everything that I need to clear away to achieve this goal. It doesn’t actually qualify as a small List Next pile, but the only way I can clear the area is by listing it, so for this month, it will be the spirit of the step, if not the letter of it.
Step 3: list 2 per day. There are 22 work days in August, so I must list a minimum of 44 items.
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Sounds great Amatino! Thanks for sticking with our game plan of accountability and challenging ourselves and each other. Sometimes it’s only the accountability part with you that keeps me on track. I appreciate your help in getting me up to a higher level and helping me to treat this eBay thing I’m doing as more of a business than a hobby. Good luck to us both this month!!!
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Report back for this week: made my minimum goal, although I didn’t get to list 2 daily. I only missed one listing day entirely, though a couple days I only listed one. My time has been so much about putting out fires and less about structure for so long, it’s really hard to create that structure effectively. I’m working at it, though.
Still working on steps 1-3 for this week, especially Step 3, and listing 2 per day for a minimum of 10.
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Awww, Amatino you made my day, you’re the best partner I could ever imagine having!
My weekly report: I did box 3 more boxes of unlisted inventory and I put those in my office closet. Continuing this effort is my goal for this next week.
I’m doing pretty well on having just the item I’m listing next on top of my desk. The chair with the list next box on it right next to my desk has really helped me to keep multiple items off my desk. So that’s step 1 & 2. On step 3 I did better on not having any days when I list only 1 item. My lowest listing day last week was 2 items.So I’m with you Amatino on still working on steps 1, 2 and 3 this week. I’d like to work up to having my lowest listings days be 3 per day. Not sure if I’ll get there this week though. It’s a busy week ahead.
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Working on my August Challenge trying desperately to clear the boxes under my desk. Dang… I pack EXCELLENTLY! I keep looking at the pile of stuff I’m pulling out and wondering how I managed to get it all in there in the first place! I’m not sure if I’ll manage to get it all cleared by month end, but I am trying! LOL
I’m doing pretty well on Steps 1 and 2. I’m keeping my area cleared and I’m pulling out a small list next pile as I go, selecting some items from the aforementioned boxes and working through them before I move on to the next pile. However, Step 3 is a bust. For folks who have just the eBay business, or a day job and eBay-at-night job, it might work. But for my crazy life with multiple businesses, a ranch with dogs who bleed all over my car on mad dashes to the vet (yet another one this weekend! Cut up his leg somehow and it went rancid, pus and blood and vet bills. Sigh…) – I just can’t seem to make it a list daily thing. I am, thanks to this Challenge, listing every week and making my minimum and some weeks exceeding my mins (always a good feeling) but there are days when I’m literally sitting down at my computer at 8PM at night to START listing! It’s just no bueno, and I’m exhausted.
However, I’m not sure if I’m being bloody-minded, but I don’t want to quit trying just yet. I’m wondering if I can create a schedule/routine that will work if I up the ante and go straight to Step 4 – set up a listing sprint. I’ve become much more mindful of HOW I spend my day and I’ve begun to recognize time snipers and busywork. Time snipers are those things that “just take 5 minutes” and before you know it, 2 hours have gone. For example, one of the unfortunate side aspects of my dance classes is liaising with other instructors. It’s good form, when one sends you a video clip/link in your email, to watch and comment or reply to the email. Which leads you to see something else and … rabbit hole.
To my delight, I’ve discovered an excellent solution to that particular problem. To my amusement, it’s a Chrome Extension called YouTube Rabbit Hole! Instead of all the links with suggested videos, you get a cute image of a rabbit in a hole. You can turn off subscriptions, links, comments, or choose just the ones you want to keep active. It has saved me a lot of time this week and I’ve been thrilled! I also realized that instead of sitting down at my computer first thing in the morning and going through all my new notifications, like catching up on SL posts and stuff, I can swipe through them as notifications on my phone. I can also quickly check my eBay to see if I have anything that needs my attention. Then I get stuck into manual labor for the first couple hours of the day, while my energy is high (I’m a morning person) such as housework, cleaning items to list, etc. and sit down to the time suck of my computer later in the day with a bunch of things cleared off the TDL.
This Challenge has been so good for me off eBay as well as on it. I’m hugely grateful, VT. It’s a lot of work, but for the first time in ages, I don’t feel like I’m rushing downhill through rapids without a paddle!
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Ummm Amatino, I’ve completely ditched my own August personal challenge of having 100 more listings on 9/1/19 as I had on 8/1/19. Right now I have 10 more listings than I had on 8/1/19, but before today I was actually had less than the number of listings I had on 8/1/19. And it’s August 11th already.
So there’s no way I’m going to be able to put up enough new listings to replace what sells plus 100 listings more than that. I’ve listed 55 items since 8/1/19 and I only have 10 more listings than I had on 8/1/19. So if 55 only gets me 10 I’d have to list 550 new items in August to have 100 listings more on 9/1/19 as I had on 8/1/19. I think? I’m so bad at math!
So my revised August goal is to list 150 or more things during August. I think that’s around 37 items a week (148) with August having extra days to do the extra 2.
I’m still doing pretty well with not having a bunch of stuff on my desk, although it’s not perfection. And as far as working up to at least 3 listings every day: Fail! I actually had one day last week with zero listings and it’s been forever since I did that. I guess once in awhile I just need a day off – I list 7 days a week… I’ve been working just a little bit on boxing up inventory and putting it in my office closet, I need to work harder on that too. So I’m just gonna keep on it and try to do better this week.
Amatino, I really don’t think you have to hold yourself to listing daily if that doesn’t work well in your life. Really it’s figuring out what works best that’s most important. You’re hitting your numbers and that’s what counts!
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LOOOOOOOL! That’s awesome. What a great problem to have – and reason to change your Challenge.
Yes, I’m beginning to think that I should aim for a weekly number rather than daily listing. If I list every week, and make my listing goals, that should work. Consistency is still consistency, even if it’s a weekly consist..ancery? rather than daily. (is that a word? No? Well, consistancery is my nomination for 2019 New Words submission! LOL)
BTW, for your acronym learning lessons, LOOOOOOL is like LOL (laugh out loud) but prolonged, as in you laughed with a lot of amusement, rather than being hysterically funny like ROFL or pee-yourself-funny like ROFLMAO or LMAO. And BTW = By The Way. You learned TWO today! *wink*
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Uh-huh, I learned 2, but remembering them is the hard part – LOOOOOOL!
So don’t know what to say here other than I’m still struggling with my summer listing doldrums. I had ANOTHER day with no listings. I’m a black & white type of person, which is why I list every way. As soon as I miss a day, it’s easier to miss another. I think: “I already screwed it up, what difference does it make?” So I need to change that mindset. I need to start thinking “Every day is a new day, and a new chance to list more” and all that positive junk! Which is easy to say when I’m going out of town and will miss 3 full days of listing. On the positive side that should give me a good break and make me want to list more when I return, especially since I’ll need to step it up to make my August goal – fingers crossed!
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Totally bombed out this week. I spent the entire week on my back – and I don’t want to do it again EVER! Read all about it in the Listing Challenge, so that I don’t duplicate it.
Hmmm… we both seem to have a challenge motivating ourselves, even with the motivation of the Challenge! Ha! I try to get around it by posting the mini-challenges occasionally, but if I do that too often, it will lose it’s novelty and thus its effectiveness.
Perhaps, if you have a Listing Sprint day, that would help? If WE have a listing sprint day, I should say. We MUST have one day where we do a listing sprint. That must be a set time (30 minutes? 2 hours?) where we have to list like crazy and then report back on how many we managed. Like a Step 4 Challenge specifically within the 8 steps we’re currently working on. What do you think?
(BTW – have you noticed how wonderfully we’re doing on Step 8?) 😀
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Amatino, whatever day works for you for a listing sprint is okay with me. I was going to suggest a day based on my schedule this week but I see that there isn’t really a day this week that is “good” for me, so any day you choose will be fine 🙂
I am so sorry for you about your back being out; there will never any penalty inflicted for illness or having to be out of town as far as I’m concerned. Your back being out is penalty enough! And is your back better enough for a listing sprint this week? It’s your call…
I’m determined to get over 30 new listings this week even with the loss of my first 2 days in my listing week. Usually Sunday is my biggest listing day so it’ll be hard to make that up… With or without a mini challenge I’ll need a listing sprint for sure! How about a 2 hour one, on any day if your back is up to it. I’ll make it work!
And yes, I’m super proud of us for doing so awesome on step 8! Neither of us has missed a week on our accountability step, we totally rock (on step 8)!!!
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Jeez, Amatino I’m back down to the amount of listings I had on 8/1/19 again. I guess I better step it up just to be ahead of where I was on August 1st.
I wish it was that all my stuff for sale is so amazing but I have a feeling it’s more because I’m frugal I price at the low end of the listings on eBay. I do like to get rid of stuff – the part I really like is the treasure hunting. So maybe that works out okay for me?
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VT, your “problem” is my dream-come-true! I would just love to be able to sell so much that I can’t keep my listings up to the number! Hope that makes you feel better. 😀
Okay, one 2-hour listing sprint this week. If you like, we can make it just that – one sprint. Any day of the week that works for you, and you must report back at the end of the week as normal, with the sprint information in your report. That way we can fit it into our schedule/back pain as it best works this week. Then, next week, we’ll choose a day for future sprints. I vote mid-week! If we do a sprint on Wednesday, it might just be the kick in the keister we need for listing for the rest of the week AND it gives us Monday and Tuesday to clean/prep/research so that we can really kick asp and take names!
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Great Amatino, at least one 2 hour listing sprint this week, on a day of our choosing. Do you think we need to have the same listing sprint day going forward? Although I know it’s a challenge and I should embrace that aspect, I have certain days that are better for me for eBay stuff. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, every other Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays are never great for me as I have other obligations on those days. So I would probably choose Monday as my listing sprint day. Since I start my eBay week on Sunday I could prep for Monday on Sunday. I don’t mind if we have different listing sprint days. Let me know what you think…
Yes my “problem” of not being able to build up my store listings despite listing every day is the best kind of problem to have, I realize that. In the future I just won’t give myself challenges around building up my store; just challenges on listing. That way I have the possibility of feeling good about the challenge rather than disappointed with my results.
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Hello Amatino!
I completed the challenge goal of a 2 hour listing sprint, I did two 2+ hour sprints on Saturday. Which saved my week since I had 3(!) days of zero listings last week 🙁
I wonder if going forward with listing sprint challenges we should each pick a day (mine would be Monday, yours Wednesday?) and we could do a half hour sprint on one day and a 2 hour sprint on the other. That way we are both sprinting on the same days but in time increments that fit better for each of us on that particular day. Since Wednesday is a tough day for me I’d do the 1/2 hour on Wednesday, you could do your 1/2 hour on Monday… Then we’d do the 2 hours on the other day. We’d still be challenging ourselves but in a way that might have better results. Let me know what you think!
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Hey VT. Well done, you!
I didn’t complete a sprint or my challenge. It was a total bust week for me. I’m still struggling with my back, I had a huge order to pack, and a run into the country to take collect a sewing machine. I also worked on financials, because I took an extension and now have to get all my taxes ready for October. Erk! I just totally lost all motivation for eBay this week, which is odd, considering I had a big sale go through. 🙁
I’ll take my penalty.
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You know what? Re the sprints, let’s go! I just had to rummage for a sold item in my shed and I hate hate HATE the piles of stuff in there not yet listed. I hate having to step over and around things because they’re piled, not sorted.
If Wednesday doesn’t work for you, let’s pick another day. Monday and ….? Two two-hour sprints per week.
And this week’s challenge? I’m going to double my numbers this week. Minimum 20 items listed.
I’m done! So done! Either I list this stuff or I just pile the lot in my car and go to Goodwill!
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Amatino, forget the “it doesn’t work on Wednesday” comment. That so doesn’t meet the spirit of the challenge, cause ummm, it should be a challenge. Anyway except for Mondays all my weekdays involve squeezing in listings around other stuff so one weekday is as good as another.
We should each pick a day that works for us and have the other day be the challenge. So you’re on for 2 two hour sprints, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. No penalty for having back problems either, not your choice and not your fault!
This week’s challenge for me is to make it to my 150 new listings in August goal. And to not have any ZERO LISTING DAYS!
Good luck to us both!!!
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So I made my listing sprint goals (2 hours on both Monday and Wednesday last week) although I think my Wednesday would probably be characterized as more of a limp than a sprint 😉 But I do like a challenge – and it was one!
This challenge made me realize that I’m going to have to be much more thoughtful and organized about being ready to list on Wednesdays. That being said, tomorrow is going to be quite a challenge also, since I totally lazed around today and did absolutely nothing to prepare for listing tomorrow. And I only listed 1 item today (my usual big listing day of the week). Although I didn’t have any zero listing days this week, I had 2 one listing days. I still haven’t gotten my listing mojo back – I’m not expecting to be reporting big listing numbers this week…
It’s good that I abandoned my original August goal of l00 more listings in my store on September 1st than I had on August 1st. After 150 (made my revised August goal!) new listings done in August I had just 23 more listings on September 1st than I did on August 1st. So yes, that’s great because it means I sold 137 items in August and while I do tend to complain a lot, I’m not going to complain about selling stuff, since that’s the whole point of eBay. Would be nice if my ASP was higher though (yup, I just had to get a complaint in there!) I need to work on that!
Other than cleaning up my basement unlisted inventory mess, working on the 8 steps and doing the listing challenge sprints I don’t have a September goal figured out yet…
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Well done, VT. How awesome you sold so much! \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ You’ve upped your listings, upped your sales, and when your Death Piles are gone, you can start actively search for higher priced items going forward. It’s a 4-way win: listings, sales, no DPs, and higher priced stock.
And yes, my child regularly tells me that I’m annoyingly cheerful!
This Challenge has certainly been a mind-muncher, hasn’t it? I’ve discovered so many aspects that I have to think through and reconsider. It has been mind-bendingly stretching, both mentally and physically. I’ve been seriously, consideringly, and practically working through my actual listing system. What an eye opener this has been. And all from one little video!
To my delight, I managed 3 sprints this week, although Monday was like a learner driver with a stick shift due to Murphy’s Law. I also managed my week’s listing challenge. I didn’t manage to clear under my desk, though, but I did end up clearing the top shelf in my kitchen!
Every now and th… er… once or twice a yea… um… far less often than I should, I climb up on top of my kitchen counters and clean all the cabinets and shelves up high. This time, when I took down all the Le Creuset cookware, I discovered that the weight of it all was actually pulling the shelf out of the wall! The hubs was very annoyed when I told him and said I should just sell it all.
“No,” I said.
“Why not?”
“It’s Le Creuset!”
“So? You never cook with it. It just takes up space and now it’s damaging the shelves!”
“yes, but it’s pretty!”
“Well, you can’t put it back on the shelves.”
“Ok, I’ll move the lighter bakeware up to the top and make space in the cupboard down here for it to be put away.”
“So you can’t see it. You don’t cook with it and now you won’t see it. Why are you keeping it?”
Uhhhhh ….So it all got listed. One of my listing sprints! 😀
I’m not going to Sprint tomorrow. It’s Labor day and I ended up working yesterday and today on listings and sorting out my eBay space to install my lightbox and the new Dymo Labelwriter 4XL I was given. I need to have 4 galabeyas sewn up for Tuesday evening, so I’m going to try to whip them up tomorrow instead of having sewn this weekend, as I usually do. So I will sprint Wednesday and Friday, if that’s okay.
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Morning. (Please note the missing “good”…)
Crappy week off eBay and I’m exhausted and miserable and don’t want to talk about it. *grumpy* I DID do a listing sprint and was thrilled to see that I managed to wipe through all 10 of my Challenge items in one listing sprint. I was so excited to try it again, but the wheels fell off the bus, the bus fell off a cliff, and an earthquake took the cliff to the depths. Bah humbug!
On to new beginnings. This week I want to try to do two listing sprints again. I also want to try something that the listing sprints inspired.
It occurred to me that I could schedule a 2-hour listing sprint into my day. And I could also schedule a 2-hour eBay “block” into the other days. What would happen if I actually schedule eBay time? While I have a listing sprint marked off on two days, the other blocks would be photographing, or cleaning, or sorting, or whatever. Then I would look at my day and figure out where that block goes, fitting it in accordingly, so that I work eBay every day, with mindful planning, rather than just squeezing it in. This might sound like a no-brainer to most people, but you need to remember that I have off-the-charts ADHD and this is a huge EUREKA moment for me.
Will report back next week on how it goes.
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Hey Amatino, I’m sorry about your week, hopefully it can only go up from there… I think your 2 hour a day eBay schedule is a great idea and will work out wonderfully!!! Wonderful brainstorming!
My week was a loser as far as the 2 listing sprints. And the amount of listings I accomplished for that matter. I didn’t make my listing sprint or my listing number weekly goal. I did one listing on Monday, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t take me 2 hours to accomplish that; I did zero listings on Wednesday. So a complete failure on my part on both listing sprint days.
I think I’m going to have to let myself just have 2 listing sprints period. On any days or even on the same day if necessary. I’m just not organized enough to manage a 2 hour sprint on my busy days unfortunately. Right now I’m not in the eBay mood at all (except for shopping of course) so I’m gonna give myself a break for awhile and see if that inspires me to get back to work. No goals for this week at all and I hope that works out!
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Ah, VT, I’m sorry. I understand the loss of Bay-jo, so a short break might be exactly what you need. I’d love to just walk away from it all for a bit, but I’m so overwhelmed with stuff, I either have to list it and sell it, or call it a day and take it all to Goodwill. I’m seriously contemplating dumping my clothes and just listing the not-clothes. I hate clothes listing, it’s time consuming and fussy and has returns. Except shoes. I like listing shoes.
Enjoy your week off and feel good about life. Now that it’s getting cooler, perhaps you will feel more like doing some listings after your mini-holiday. 🙂
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Well, I’m hoping that the “no pressure, no goals” idea has the reverse effect and gets me listing again regularly this week. Although I’d have to not include the first 2 days of this week: Sunday was a zero listing day and it looks like Monday will be also.
I’m really grateful that with my lack of listing I’m still getting sales every day. I’m just worried that good fortune will come to an end if I don’t get listing again pretty soon!
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I also worked on clothing this past week, and I don’t enjoy listing them either. I had my son help with some of the photography. I had him set up and move the clothing while I took photos. It did help a bit.
I do feel good when I get them done and out of the way. I feel that I trudged through something I didn’t want to do, but I did it anyway.
Good luck, VT, on getting that mojo back. I don’t know if you have a friend willing to work with you for a few hours, but it could help.
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Thank you Sharyn! Your idea is a good one. So far anyone I’ve tried to recruit to help out hasn’t been interested. But that’s something I should explore further if I seriously want to expand my store.
Regarding clothing I’m with you both. I don’t like it much but it seems to sell well and it’s super easy to source and ship. It also has a better return than a lot of my usual craft items. I need to stock more clothing in my store.
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I’m following along the conversation about death piles (or money piles). Hope you don’t mind me butting in.
I’ve not been as productive as I’ve wanted, but it’s improving. It needs to improve more quickly since I have a carload of inventory from an online auction to pick up today. I’ve listed about 10 items in the last 24 hours. But, that still seems like a snails pace.
Seems like I’m having a hard time focusing on what is the top priority to list:
– High dollar items that may take a while to sell
– Low dollar items that may sell more quickly
– Things that I spend more money on and should try to get a return on
Right now I’m trying to get clothes onto Poshmark and anything that might be of interest for the holidays on eBay.One of my successes has been going through a portion of my inventory more critically. I’ve made two small trips to the thrift store with things that just aren’t going to be worth listing. Most of my inventory has come from lots, so there is a lot of fun research that I get lost in before listing.
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@chaoticgood I’m kind of a slow lister as well, though I’ve become faster. I still have boxes of newbie death piles. What I did was reorganize it into like items since that helps list a bit faster. I then bring one bankers box at a time up to the listing space and it is very rewarding to finish one. I also wrote down all of the categories of items and highlighted them based on getting ahead of the seasonal demand. Knowing I have not too much time for listing, I’m going for holiday items next. I’ve been stubbornly resisting donating items, but with shipping costs going up and up, probably I should reevaluate. Good luck!
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Hello chaoticgood, thanks for joining in – it’s nice to have another voice on this thread!
I’m also a super slow lister. I’ve been trying to break my habit of writing a long description in my listings but I’m finding that habit difficult to change… As far as process, mine is much like ChristineR, I bring up a banker’s box and list all the stuff inside. But right now I’m trying to focus on holiday related items before it’s too late to get those listed and sold. When it isn’t holiday season I also struggle with what I should list first as far as high $ or quick to list. Quick to list usually wins.
I also need to send some low $ stuff back to the thrift store!
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Hey Amatino – thanks for the flat rate box full of clothing offer, but I’m going to pass since that would deprive me of the part of eBay I enjoy the most – the shopping! Speaking of which, I haven’t mentioned the 8 Death Pile Elimination steps lately and there’s a reason for that – unfortunately! It’s been a fail on the list more than you buy step for me lately.
I saw from the listing challenge that you’ll be working on taxes for the next couple of weeks and don’t expect to be listing, so with you concentrating on that I’ll concentrate on attempting to list more than I buy for the next couple of weeks. I wish us both good luck – I’ll surely need it!
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BAD you! *wink*
My 8 steps print-out fell off the wall and I need to find out where it went. Later… right now I really need to get my taxes done and sent to our CPA. As we have two LLC’s, 3 businesses, and my husband’s retirement income that has to be collated; it’s a huge job. As a fully trained accountant, I dropped our annual tax preparation bill from over $4,000 to only $800 by doing all the paperwork up to our Profit and Loss Statement – which is marvelous for our bank account but a major “why did I ever volunteer for this” pain in the patootie for me. I’m working on reducing the number of bank accounts we have, and I’m combining the two LLC’s, and trying to get to the point where our accounts are done monthly. This will make future years much easier. It just feels like a constant game of catch up, as our previous accountant was, hmmm, how do I put this? Lacklustre? She definitely didn’t do more than the minimum and it has taken years to unravel the clothes hangers from the spiderwebs and make sense of it all. I’m catching up though and, while we might not get there this year, I’m fairly certain I’ll get it done so that if not next year, the 2021 taxes will be a doddle!
Fingers crossed!
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Amatino, I’m so happy to hear you are feeling better! I know you are out again this week for any challenges due to tax prep but I wanted to check in anyway. I’m good with my pledge to list more than I sourced again last week with 7 items purchased and 25 items listed.
My challenge for myself this week will be to sort thru the death pile and donate 20 items that are either too cheap or too complicated to bother listing.
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Hi ladies, I’ve been out of the Ebay business except shipping but things are finally starting to calm down. My dad was hospitalized out of state, recovered, and now has moved into the condo I spent the summer renovating for him. Back to school busyness is pretty much done too. Have a three extra projects/distractions going on through November, but I’m feeling like I can get back to listing.
In the midst of all the chaos this summer, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it here but we got rats in our garage. :O We’ve never had a problem like that and live in the city. So, everything is coming out of the garage to clean even though we took care of that quickly. They didn’t get into my ebay stuff, but I started pulling out boxes to store at my dads and get them out of the way. And now getting to the point of this post – I took like 10 bankers boxes over to my dad’s condo closet while I undertake this. The sad fact of it is that the backlog still looks like a ton. Some boxes contain stuff from my parents’ house BUT STILL! I must say that all of this has me left with no appetite for purchasing (which I pretty much didn’t have time for lately anyway) and some urgency to list and price reasonably. Ugh to the death piles.
I’m still fairly hesitant to donate items, but I know there is some great stuff as well as some lower dollar stuff I would not buy now. I have some listed duds too.
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Hey ChristineR, welcome back! So glad you got all of this behind you. I empathize, I’ve walked that road and it’s not a fun one. However, I do have a humorous quote for the day to put you in the mood:
Don’t judge me… you haven’t walked my path, or ridden my broom! 🙂VT – it’s OCTOBER! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!
How about an October Challenge? ChristineR, you can do it too, if you like.
The Challenge is… drum roll… DONATE CHEAP STUFF!
Yup. You commit to going through all your DPs and finding ANYTHING that would list for less than $10 and DONATE IT! Thrift store, Job Center, Women’s Shelter, Uncle Jimmy’s Booze Bottle Collection; doesn’t matter. Just as long as you move it OUT!
Challenge is:
Minimum 31 items (one for each day of the month.)
32 – 50 items – bonus, you rock!
50-75 items – you’re a Death Pile Demon!
75-100 items – Death Pile Destroyer!
100+ items – are you kidding me? You have over 100 low-dollar items? What were you THINKING???!!! -
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I have a question. Many times I decide that an item in inventory just isn’t worth keeping. So, I put it on auction rotation until my town’s next freecycling event. This is an event where you can bring stuff you don’t want and take stuff you can use. I am the manager of this event run by the Friends of the Environmental Commission.
Our next event is actually this Saturday, and I have a pile of stuff that I had on auction rotation, and now it’s time to it get out of my house.
If I chose new items to put on auction rotation until our April event, does that count? Some cheap stuff will never make my inventory, and I’ll donate. But some I’ll put on auction until it sells real cheap or I take it to freecycling.
If it counts, I’m in!
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If you count everything you took off eBay for this Saturday’s event, yup. Definitely. If it’s still on eBay, no, because it might sell, so it’s still technically “active”.
Anything you donate or toss or get rid of in any form counts. If it moves out of your house/property/storage/all of the above, it counts. If you can still put your hands on it and it’s on or in any area that can be considered “your” property (a storage unit is not technically yours, but it’s “your” property while you’re renting it, for example) then it doesn’t count. In order to count, it must no longer belong to you in any form.
We’ll do this Challenge again, I think. Having a donate challenge is just as much a part of dealing with your Death Piles as listing stuff.
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OK, that makes it more challenging for me, but I’m game to try. I just ran into a casserole that I listed because it was there, but, really, it’s ugly. I’m a gonna end it right now, and it’s going with me on Saturday.
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@Sharyn I’m with you. We have a street sale on Oct 12, and I have to frantically finish taxes and still get my stuff sorted to get it to the sale. Gaaaaah! LOL. The race is on!
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To me, death piles stem from the one fact of eBay that is both a gift and a curse (I miss Monk). Once you know that things have a value, and that you can sell them for a value, you lose all sense of being able to throw ANYTHING away. It’s just harder. Last year I sold an old unused copy of Windows 98 that was still new in the package for $95. That’s crazy to me, and it made me realize that I need to look everything up before I throw/donate them. That adds a step before everything – which is simply “deciding if it’s worth selling”. Most of my piles come from that simple statement, in that I just need to decide. Once I’m past that step, the process of listing isn’t that bad for me. I have a small whiteboard that I write item specifics on (weight, measurements if it’s clothing, size for shipping, and where I’m going to store it), that I quickly write down stuff and put it next to the item and take a picture. Then I take my 10-12 photos of the item, store it away, and save listing for another time. Typically when I’m upstairs watching football on a Sunday, I’m going through pictures and listing things, one at a time. All photos are on the cloud, so they go from my phone to my iPad with no worries.
We accumulate a lot of things through this process of life. I’m older, so I have a lot of things in my basement that have piled up over the years. My father recently passed so I have a lot of his things down there now, but there are just other things that we just naturally gather. The day I started doing eBay was when I realized that people will Pay Me to clean out my basement. WHAT??? That’s crazy. But yes, if you are patient and willing to go for the 3-4 year ride, people will pay you to clean your basement.
So embrace the death piles, try not to add to them, and just attack them one at a time. They will eventually go away (a.k.a. Jay and Ryanne, I remember that podcast when they announced that). Everybody seems to be doing a great job.
Keep up the community. This is awesome. Thanks
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gfd_622, you have just listed why we have a support group for Death Piles! 😀
We completely agree with everything you say – with one caveat. J&R have pointed out that if you’re not listing and selling, you’re hoarding. There’s also mention recently that Death Piles drain the life out of you (on the 10 Things I Learned on SL post, IIRC) and that’s why we’re pushing to reduce those piles.
Personally, the idea that I can list and sell pretty much ANYTHING is a huge drawback to clearing stuff away. “No, don’t throw that out, I can SELL it!” rings so loud in our house that the Hubs is terrified of throwing out the trash in case I declare that banana skins are valuable because they make hot chocolate taste better! (They do, but I don’t think anyone’s going to pay me to ship them.)
Hence, this month’s challenge. We have to walk the fine line between holding onto our DPs so that we can check the value, versus morphing into Golem and petting all our preciouses.
https://imgur.com/t/my_precious/rCffiENThis month is about taking a deep breath, and letting some things go. A quick check online to see if it has value, and if it would list for $10 or less, move it out. After all the deductions for fees, payment processing, shipping, packaging materials, your time is worth more than the couple bucks left.
Go on, take the challenge. I double dog dare you! It feels good to make a little dent. 😉
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I’m in, no worries. I’ve spent most of this month looking at optimizing storage, which has helped tremendously, and in doing so I’ve put some stuff in the donate pile. I’ll keep doing that and reorganizing.
But to add to the fear of throwing out – One time I did sell a lot of 100 toilet paper tubes for $20 or so. Dang it – now I have a pile of those. But that’s an easy throw – so that’s one for me. I’ve tried to sell since with no luck. I’ll do more when I get home.
Thanks
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I’m joining in for October. I need to really be listing more, but getting rid of stuff that’s cluttering my mind and my space is really important too.
I feel a little bummed because I just took three bags of stuff to the thrift store the last week in September, but I’m aiming for the “Death Pile Destroyer” level.
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Hey folks, how are the donations going? Here’s your Week #1 motivation:
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Donations to the thrift store and the garbage & recycling bins going quite well here. I got rid of 21 death pile items last week.
I’m a contender for the WWYT, but my excuse for that is SEWING PATTERNS! I have tons of them and most of my 21 discards this week were patterns. Just getting rid of my incomplete patterns added up pretty fast. Once I start adding in the not worth selling (even in a lot) complete patterns who knows? Sadly, this competition is one in which I could really excel 🙂
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VT, I spent an hour going through clothes today. I have bags and bags and bags of clothes, most donated to me by my well-wishing neighborhood. I’m horrified to see exactly how much I have. For example, I have one trash bin bag full of tank tops. They’re nice tops, but $6-8 max, so they’re in the OUT pile. I have a sinking sense of foreboding that I’m going to be in the WWYT category too. 🙁
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I only counted things I decided to get rid of after this challenge started. I already had piles for my freecycling event (happened yesterday), but I didn’t feel it was right to count them. I still managed 16 items.
I did make the attempt to go through several bags of clothing. These were from my parents’ friends who were downsizing. I think that the husband, being retired for several years, realized that he didn’t need his work clothes anymore. So, the bags had mens blazers, pants, and matching pants & blazers (ie suits). Good enough not to donate, so I failed there. But, I’ll find stuff. I know I have it!!
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Sharyn, it’s the October Challenge. If you got rid of them in October, they count.
Well, I’m toast. Finished going through one Death Pile of clothes this morning and I’m mortified to confess that I have 111 items on their way to Goodwill. Or, as they say in Hobbit-speak, eleventy-one items. And I’d guess this is maybe a quarter of the clothes I have on hold.
Thing is, so many of these USED to be good items, that went for the $15-$30 range. Now the market is flooded with the race to the bottom and I can’t unload an awesome Chico 100% silk for more than ten bucks! And I have to deal with returns and free shipping too. I’m getting out of the clothing market, going to stick with my weird and wacky instead. So this is kinda a win for me: cleared the DPs, made space, made the Hubs happy, and opened up time for better research and more listings on the items that actually are worth my time. And lesson learned: I’ve lost about $250 profit here, and about 5 hours work. I’m definitely going to be more careful about what I hold onto in future!
So, I’m clearly in the lead in the WWYT category. The walk of shame! 😀
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All righty then. Add 15 to the pile, and I’m at least at the minimum 31. In going through the items I ended, I realized that I did not bring all of them to my event, so I’ll need a trip to donate. I’ll add that in next time.
I hear you on the clothing. The thing is that men’s clothes is a bit better to sell than women’s, so I kept those bags I talked about earlier. I’m much more pickier with the women’s than men’s.
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Ok, I’m done. It’s 5PM, I’ve worked through the entire weekend, I just want to put my feet up now and relax before the new week hits me.
Do I get an Executive Pardon if I explain that almost all of these clothes were donated to me and, instead of sorting through them, I just stuck them into storage until I got around to it? No? Huh. Okay, then. I’m very mortified to say that 217 items went to Goodwill this week. Adding my 111 from last week, that puts me up to 328 items so far. And I’m only halfway through the Clothing Death Pile!
Oddly enough (probably because they were all donations and therefore no cost to me) I don’t feel upset about the loss of income, just freed from the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head for this stuff to get listed. I checked everything, even if I didn’t think it would be worth anything (just in case it’s some obscure brand!) and anything that sold for $15 free shipping or less went out. Huge piles out, just one box of listable items remains. It feels good! I’m glad this is the challenge this month, even if it’s so embarrassing to admit to this. However, lesson learned! Sort items before storage! Or, even better, just list, dammit! 😀
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Hahahahahahaha! Ain’t this the truth? 😀
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Am I the only one still in the Challenge? Y’all gave up because my numbers are so high? *wink*
Slower week in the clearing out this week. Only 32 items out. taking me up to 360 items for the month. Hmmm… I know I can make 400 before the end of the month. Wonder if I can hit 500?
How horrendous is this? That I actually may have five HUNDRED low dollar items to get rid of!
Truthfully, I probably could sell all of this, but I’ve reached the “enough” point. You know how some days you walk through a sewer and you only need to wear rain boots, other days you need a snorkel? Well, I’m so far under … “water”… that my snorkel is flooded. I’m just done. I want to clear my space and just have the stuff left that I want to focus on with no fear of returns or issues like the eBay chaos of last week. The loss of income here is too awful to contemplate, but most of the stuff is donated, so not really a total loss, apart from the loss of potential income, but it has been in my storage shed for nearly two years now. I just want it out. The stuff that’s left is either higher value clothing or hard goods, which I actually prefer to list, enjoy researching, and are unique.
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You hit the nail on the head Amatino: you’re unbeatable! Once I got to 100 over my initial goal of 20 items out and then went above the 100+ items mark I stopped counting, but I also didn’t work on getting rid of stuff last week. So I’m probably still under 150 out.
Congratulations on your hard work, determination and persistence! I’m patting you on the back, and yelling “Great job, way to go, Amatino!”. Instead of looking at it from the possible loss of income perspective I see it as you moving ahead, not being stuck and making the best decisions for your peace of mind (as well as your husband’s). Going through a lot of eBay angst for low dollar items is NOT worth it. Of course I say as I continue to list my $6.00 plus shipping craft crap – sigh. But at least the craft stuff doesn’t come back for fit reasons…
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VT, I think I’d keep the craft stuff and list them too, if that were me. I have, in fact, kept several sewing items that are low dollar. But they’re so small and easy to list and ship and, as you say, no fit issues. Unlike clothes. Clothes take So. Much. Work! I have a 24″ light box and now a 9″ lightbox and I love them. They make photos easy. I can use my phone and list several items in an hour. Earning $4-5 for 10-15 minutes work is quite acceptable IMHO.
About 99.5% of the stuff that’s going is clothes, with the 0.5% being random Chinese junk or items that I just couldn’t be bothered to list or ship (bedside lamp from Big Lots, anyone?) The stuff that is always a huge issue to photograph, pain in the ass to measure, long list of item specifics, and then the person returns it because they don’t like the color/fit/button on the left wrist. Gaaaah!
Nah, I’m heading towards only having stuff that interests me and high dollar sewing machines. I’m up to almost a dozen of those babies waiting to be listed!
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I’ve had to focus on listing, and I’ve left organizing and other stuff off to the side. New listed stuff goes to the floor in the basement. I don’t even want to spend the time to put it away.
My daughter decided to take a look at the cameras that I haven’t had a chance to list, and she asked if she could have a cheap 35 mm still in its wrapper. So, that was one.
I had an old iMac where I had removed the hard drive and had the screen as a separate piece. I had thought to list it as is, but couldn’t figure out how I’d ship it. Did I need to protect it from static electricity? Did it still have sensitive information in the RAM? So, off to the recycling center it went. I did list the power cord.
Anyway, those with a few other items brings it to about four since I first reported my numbers. I know that I have a few books that never made it to freecycling, so I’ll get those out of the way and meet the 31 minimum items somehow!
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Another 83 items out the door, taking me up to 443 items, and still another 4 days to go. I’m beginning to run low on stuff to sort, so it’s starting to slow down and I feel MUCH better about the stuff I have left. I know it’s worth something, which is always an incentive to list!
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I don’t think I’ve done my actual numbers in here:
1st Week of October: 27 items
3rd Week of October: 12 items
Last week: I’ve got a bag with three items right by the door. I have another box at work that I am hoping to get to the drop-off.
And I finally got a hold of the donation list for a local childcare center that specializes in learning through arts.Since my husband is in charge of the Thrift Store drop-off, (and he’s reliable with taking care of it in a timely manner), I’m going to go ahead and tally at 42 for the month so far.
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Slightly risqué one for the last post of the Challenge! 😀
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I keep adding to my pile of stuff I want to donate, but it hasn’t actually left my house yet. I’ve got to do that before the end of the month; otherwise, it just isn’t going to count. I think that I will at least get to the challenge of one item per day.
Amatino – Knowing what you’ve said about yourself in the past, I think that this challenge was particularly helpful for you, and I don’t think you realized how much when you proposed it. You are getting rid of mindblowingly boring, cheap stuff and freeing yourself to move on. I predict that you will start listing like crazy in a week or two and completely blow us away!
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I’m at another 5 or so items to donate. I dropped off all my previous donations already so just 5 to go now. I’m not sure if I’ll make the drop off before the end of the month, we got a lot of snow here yesterday and are expecting another 15 inches by Wednesday. So I’ll be busy building a snowman 🙂
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Lucky you! The most snow I’ve ever encountered was a light flurry that started as I looked out the window and stopped as I got outside. This was in the UK when they had blizzards that dropped snow up to roof height. Where I was, in a tiny corner of Scotland, we managed to make it down to a chilly 50′ and only that one flurry, as mentioned. All the neighborhood were utterly baffled by the strange weather. It took my visits again, 2 or 3 times, before my friends figured out that every time I turned up, the weather got “warm” (50 is warm?) Eventually, they told me not to come back because I caused “a drought.” In Scotland, two weeks with no rain was a drought! I joke that I carry the sunshine in my heart, but seriously, everywhere I go, it warms up. We actually had snow here once. It lasted the night and was melted by morning. Sigh… Guess I should be grateful. I am grateful, I’m not a huge fan of freezing weather.
If the “donate” items make it into your car and get dropped off as soon as safely possible, you get a snow pass and can count them in October.
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VT, this made me laugh and think of you! Here you go!
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Funny Amatino! And I loved the comic depicting what “Howard” might donate that he doesn’t use anymore.
We didn’t get as much snow as predicted here but I’m still only driving if it’s mandatory. So thanks for the free pass on getting my last 5 donations to the thrift store. On my way to my volunteer shift yesterday my car fishtailed and I was lucky that there wasn’t another car close enough to hit. As much as I adore my Tesla it’s perhaps not the best car for driving in snow… I think we only got about 8 inches of snow but now it’s just 12 degrees from a low of 5, so pretty cold! Wish you were here to warm it up faster!!!
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I made sure to get my stuff to the Goodwill yesterday so that I could count them all! I had about 33.
I might have missed a thing or two in my somewhat disorganized / somewhat organized methods I used, but I’m nowhere near what some of you have accomplished! I did accomplish the target count, so that is what counts!
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I’m gonna say 136 for my total, although I’m not exactly positive of that #. I think I was at 136 and then added another 5 or 6… My tally sheet is in my desk somewhere but I don’t want to spend any time looking for it. My new listing count is so dismally low this week I’m hoping I spend the time listing instead of searching. Congratulations (in advance) Amatino!!!
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67 this week, so my final tally is… scrolls up to check last week…443 … making it 510!
Wow! I honestly figured I’d go over the 100 mark, but I never considered I might cross 500. Mind. Blown!
Lesson learned: sort stuff that is donated BEFORE putting it into storage! Actually, the other lesson learned is “don’t take clothes!” One tote was packed with men’s shirts that I actually sourced, rather than were donated to me. The entire tote was emptied and checked and only 4 t-shirts went into the donate pile. Gave ma a boost to know my picking’s on point, even if my sorting sucks!
Well done to everyone who worked through this Challenge, even if you only made the minimum. You made a dent in your Death Pile, and that’s what it’s all about!
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Congratulations, everyone, on getting through The Big Purge. I hope you all feel very accomplished and happy to have made a dent in your Death Piles, and feel more encouraged to list what you have left. Listing creates a dent, as well as purging! *wink*
Head on over to the Listing Challenge now. I have a special November Challenge for you there!
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Time for the annual death pile photos. Piles for 2020 I really made good progress this year. On the other hand, it’s still a lot of stuff.
I really didn’t buy a lot of inventory this year at all and basically discontinued RA. Skipped most of the rummage sales and way fewer thrift shops. The few times I shopped, I mostly kept to fewer, higher value items.
Lately, I’ve just been grabbing a box. But looking at these photos makes me realize that I’m now leaning toward cherry picking the higher priced items though I still feel obligated to step up on the things I purchased unless they are under $10-15.
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Wow, ChristineR, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an organized set of Death Piles! Very impressed! I’m embarrassed to show mine! But, this is a Support group, so I shall be brave. 😉
I have one side of the storage shed stacked to the ceiling, and some piles on the other side. I have the top shelf of the Hubs storage shelving filled with boxes, and the shelves around my packing area are overflowing. There are a couple piles inside the house, but they’re mixed with personal stuff, so I’m not sharing photos, it would be too difficult to explain what’s DP and what’s just in storage until we can build shelves/closet space. Our little home had little to no storage when we bought it, so as we’ve been renovating, we’ve added closets and stuff. Just about halfway done!
On the positive side, I’ve cleared out a lot of stuff from the Big Purge last year, so I hope that I can wipe this out in 2020. I cannot tell you how excited I will be to only have one load of new stock to deal with at a time. I’d like to get to the point where I go out sourcing, come back and list it, go out for more. I know some folks like to have a small pile of inventory waiting for them, but with so much on my plate, I’d rather be in a constant state of influx that having to deal with Piles ever again.
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My name is Brian and I have death piles. I was doing ok with organizing, but my son moved back home and took over my eBay room. Then a house down the street needed cleaning out and I filled a storage unit with lots of sellable stuff for the flea market. Then I did not set up at the flea market. Then a friend called and said his aunts house neede cleaning out. Then my other job got busier than I thought it would. I’m a hoarder! But, it is mostly eBay worthy stuff, I just need more time to list. I am planning on not buying anything else until I am back under control…….
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