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There is probably a better word for this- I actually call it “listing fodder”..
So, at least for me, when I can’t list CONSISTENTLY, sales drop off dramtically. When I don’t have time to take photos & make listings, I use filler items that aren’t worth much, but have a wide variety of one thing, like trading cards of a certain type, where I can pretty much just “sell similar” and change one word and one picture like 10 times very quickly.
I may be listing crap that (almost) no one wants, but it never fails- as I start listing my “fodder” items, I start selling totally unrelated stuff (that is actually worth something).
Any thoughts on this, or does anyone else so something similar?
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I don’t do this as I haven’t been making the time to list even the small easy stuff right now (but that should change soon), but I do know that I have good sales following even small listing pushes when I can do them. It sounds like a great way to keep the sales flowing when you are short on time!
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I got a big ziploc bag full of digimon cards at a flea market for $2, so that’s working for me at the moment!
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I occasionally do board game parts. I’m currently creating quick listings for Mouse Trap parts. I buy the game for $1 and then list every part individually. I just search completed listings to sell similar to save time. I can crank through a batch of listings pretty quick that way.
I have a stack of Yu Gi Oh cards I may get around to some day for more filler listings.
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Nancy- I don’t make anything on the cards- even if I sold any. If I did, it’s not even enough to speak of, but I guess that’s the thing about them. I wish the filler made more money, then I wouldn’t need to list anything else lol.
The beast (eBay) seems to get mad at me when I don’t feed it 🙂
Always Be Listing = FEED THE BEAST!!
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I’m glad to know this. I’m trying to get my listings up over 100 to see if sales improve, so I’m listing a lot of low priced items just to get stuff on there. I do have a stack of t-shirts my boyfriend wants me to list, and since they are all the same, I may save some to put up quickly when I need them.
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T-shirts can be great for quick listing. I started a second store for just t-shirts and I just get a “stack” of about 10-20 ready when I have an hour or two for taking pictures. My process is to get them washed and recorded in my inventory spreadsheet (comes in handy if you have over 20 t-shirts) and then I take photos of a batch of shirts all at once. Right now I just put them flat on the floor with some daylight bulbs in my lights. Once those photos are done, I fold and stack the shirts next to my computer. It is easy to take a shirt off the top of the stack and get it listed in about 5 minutes or less. My listing is quick when I take the time to get all the other stuff completed before hand.
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I’m confused, (and not trying to pick a fight). Why list things that don’t make you any money? Why not list things that will make you money, instead?
If you get rid of the things that don’t make you any money, you will have more space and time to list the things that *do* make you money.
Used game pieces, I understand.
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I go in and look at listings that are fairly old that are going to end soon. I then end the listing and sell similar. I change the price, sometimes only by a penny. This seems to help as I believe these are considered new listings.
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Sorry, maybe I should’ve made this clearer in my first post.
I have plenty of inventory to list that will make me money, and plenty of items already in my store. Maybe it’s not like this for everyone, but if I’m not listing every single day, my sales drop drmatically.
Ideally, I’d list the items that make me money- but I have kids, and sometimes at the end of the day, I don’t have enough time, energy or sanity to photograph, research, and draft 20 regular items. I can list 20 filler items quickly and not see the same dramatic drop in sales that I would if I listed nothing. I don’t do this everyday. It’s just to keep up the momentum that I seem to get from making consistent listings.
For some people, this doesn’t seem to be an issue. For me, it is.
I hope this makes more sense now- I don’t want anyone to get wrong info from this, but it could be helpful to anyone else who has similar issues.
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So what would happen if you listed, say, 5 good quality items a day, rather than 20 “filler” items a day?
Twenty items a day is a pretty aggressive pace to keep. Do you worry about burning out? What are your sales like per month? (# of items/gross profits).
Not trying to pick at you; just curious. I have a kid, too, plus animals (young dog, old cat, and 3 chickens), and we homeschool, so I totally understand the time-crunch. I would go nuts if I tried to list 20 items a day, every day. If I get 8 things listed, I feel like a hero!
As for “filler” items, I guess I have a few of those listings. It is usually the stuff that I say “This would probably sell at a yard sale or flea market, but it’s a pain to haul all that stuff outside and wait all day”. Those sort of things get listed as an auction, with one of the freebies I get each month. Sometimes those things sell and sometimes they don’t, and I sort of don’t care one way or the other about them.
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I do the same as you, Thrifted Sister. I only tend to list postcards/small things when I am too busy on other tasks to focus on listing normal, larger items correctly. I can easily list 10-30 postcards in less than 30 minutes, and then move on with my day. I have also found that this helps maintain a normal rate of sales, and doesn’t lead to sales lulls. Listing is everything.
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With board game parts, I can easily photograph and list 30 parts within an hour. 30 parts that bring $3-8 each in profit is very much worth my time. No COGS, minimal storage, etc. It is a fun experiment and I could see how it could easily become a niche store in and of itself.
Always be experimenting and diversifying!
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I know sellers who draft as many listings as they can on one day when they have abundant time, but only activate 5 at a time on any one day and leave the rest in draft form. The next day, activate 5 more from that large list and so on. I am pretty sure Ryanne uses the scheduled listing feature to do this automatically, I guess if I have a lot of time on my hands, I might try this to keep feeding the beast and have new listings each day to bring my items at the top of the search.
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I’ve done a variation of this in the past that *Fair Warning* could be sketchy in eBay’s eyes. I created a nonsense listing and priced it at the top of the category. For instance “Post Apocalyptic Zombie Radioactive GI Joe with Canteen” price: $2000. Item was just a beat up GI Joe doll missing an arm and wearing no pants. Views eventually topped 1000+ while my other legit listed items saw increased views and stimulated a few sales.
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