Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Pick my Poison! (Poll for choosing what dreaded death pile items to work)
- This topic has 17 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 3 months ago by Retro Treasures WV.
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01/10/2018 at 10:38 am #30219
So I have some long standing death piles of things I really just DO NOT want to fool with anymore. I’ve put them off and put them off. I need to choose one this week and make progress. So…I put the vote to the Trash Elf community!
1: Plates/dishes
I have a tub of awesome plates, cups, and place settings that I dread listing/shipping. I had a smart post shipping breakage incident that killed my drive for listing dinnerware – the reason I quit smart post AND dinnerware. I gotta get rid of this stuff though. Some of the plates are very valueable (sought after lighthouse designs)
2: Coats/Jackets
I have an entire wardrobe full of coats and jackets that are not listed and taking up valuable space. What better time than Now? What better place than here?
3: Audio/video components
Ugh…the testing…the packaging. What a commitment. I did list a few larger A/V items in November and they’ve all sold and for really good money. I KNOW they sell and they sell quickly. Why do I put this off?!? I have $400 speaker sets, $100 amps, $100 components, $100 dvd recorders, etc, etc.
So there you go. I leave it to you, dear readers, to choose my destiny. Which of my dreaded death piles will I attack first? I’ll give this poll until tomorrow at 4pm quitting time to determine my weekend fate. Whichever wins I promise I will make suitable progress over the weekend and report back on Monday.
I hope this inspires others as well to share their death pile failures and work to tackle the one you dread the most.
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01/10/2018 at 10:50 am #30223
Wow – Your death piles mirror mine, except that I’ve accepted the task of listing and shipping dishes. However, I vote for the coats and jackets because of the time of year. Look at Jay and Ryanne sold items and you will see plenty of that selling right now.
My second vote goes to dishes. They are relatively easy to photograph and list, but I get you on the shipping. I have also dropped Smartpost for breakables. For a small stack of dishes, I will wrap them so that one layer of bubblewrap is between each plate plus the top and bottom. Then I “wrap” in cardboard. This whole cocoon should be relatively tightly wrapped. Then I wrap the whole thing in bubblewrap. Finally, I get a big enough box and use packing material to ensure that the cocoon won’t move around too much, but won’t break if a side of the box is pushed in.
I totally get the electronics issue. I actually tested a DVD/VHS combo in the Fall that I know will sell. I got to a point where I needed to test the ability to copy from DVD to VCR, and I didn’t have any blank VHS tapes. Now I do, and I should get a move on. As well as several other piles of electronics. Help!
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01/10/2018 at 10:53 am #30224
Coats and jackets first.
But the bigger strategy with death piles is to be honest with yourself: are these things you actually want to sell? We know you can make money from these categories, but are they becoming death piles because you have no passion for them?
There’s no shame in just re-donating items that you deem boring. Better to list items you enjoy.
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01/10/2018 at 11:32 am #30229
I have coats/jackets listed and they simply aren’t selling for me. I sell more coats in the summer than I do in the winter! But if that’s the winner of the poll then so be it.
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01/10/2018 at 11:49 am #30234
Anyone who sells clothes will tell you its brutal. Everything matters: brand, condition, size, color, price. There so much competition that you really have to know what you’re selling. Clothing is definitely a volume game.
With all the other stuff we sell, there’s a lot of forgiveness because there are fewer sellers.
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01/10/2018 at 1:40 pm #30245
I’d go with the coats and jackets first.
I hear you on the dinnerware, I hate listing that stuff and do my best to avoid it. However it doesn’t avoid me. LOL I have a bin of it to list that I have a $0.00 investment in … and it’s stuff that seems to sell…so the $$ factor wins. I’m slowly working through it. Thinking about how happy I will be to see the bottom of the bin.
I have a couple larger AV items to test and list also, testing may happen, but I prefer to wrestle with large boxes while not skating on ice, so listing may not.
Most days I try to list based on what I hate looking at the most when I walk in my garage/storage area. Listing that item might not be my first choice, but oh the happiness when I say goodbye….
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01/10/2018 at 1:54 pm #30247
I vote COATS! So easy to store and ship. I just sold a coat for $125 that I bought for $10. My coats have been selling well. But it’s all about the brands — the higher-end the better. I also just hold a high-end rabbit fur hat for $75, but unfortunately the buyer is returning it for fit. I’m bummed because it will probably take another year to sell… it’s an odd item.
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01/10/2018 at 2:00 pm #30249
I would list the largest items first. This will be the most dramatic way to reduce the size of the piles. Seeing the piles shrink will be rewarding.
Some of my piles are so old I have forgotten what’s in them. Last month I opened a garbage bag and found a nice NFL starter jacket. I couldn’t believe I had not listed it. I listed it and it sold for over $150.
There’s gold in them thar piles.
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01/10/2018 at 2:07 pm #30250
4 votes for coats and 1 for A/V equipment. I’m already feeling quite motivated. Maybe I’ll go ahead and pull the entire wardrobe of coats and dump them in my ebay room to get started this evening. I know I can easily list the entire lot this weekend.
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01/10/2018 at 2:07 pm #30251
I would offer that because you are working on death piles, you don’t work on just one but instead a mix. Because you already have some disinterest and lack of motivation, working on a death pile consisting of one kind of item may just add to your disinterest and lack of motivation causing you to become bored, easily distracted, and less productive than possible.
I would offer:
1. Set a low goal for how many you will get listed over the weekend – 10.
If you keep the expectation real and within your ability to actual do, this may help with motivation and increase work productivity.
2. With the total number of items in mind, go “shopping” in your death piles about 1/2 before you are going to begin listing. Take only the number of total items to meet your goal and do not include anything that is going to require extra time, attention, and work because it has some kind of known defect. Make sure to go “shopping” no sooner than a 1/2 hour before starting your listing process in order to avoid creating another death pile. Do not overthink the items you grab. Focus only on the ones that grab your eye, you are interested in, or you know you can actually flip for a profit.
3. Take those items you have “shopped” for and work on them with your new found interest. You will probably find that they go pretty fast.
4. Give yourself breaks – maybe after 5 items you take a 10 or 15 minute stretch break.
5. Once you complete the full amount you pulled (they will probably go faster than you think) go take a good hour long break and make sure to refuel yourself with food and drink.
6. Set another realistic low goal for how many other items you think you will be able to list and then repeat steps 2 through 5.
7. After you have done this at least twice, find one item that may require more time, energy, and effort. Work on that item to determine if it is worthy of being listed. If so, list it. If not, throw or give it away. If you are going to give it away, put it some place else away from your death piles and other items so it is physically gone but available for donating.Most likely, you will find that by the end of the weekend, you have listed more items than you expected, reduced your death piles, gotten rid of or donated items, are in better spirits than expected, and found a new interest in listing the items from the death piles.
Happy listing!
- This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by AdventureE.
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01/10/2018 at 2:24 pm #30254
Plates/dishes. Get back on the horse that threw ya.
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01/10/2018 at 6:53 pm #30277
I agree with a mix. I pick about 10 to 15 things from my death piles each day. I need to list these before I can move on. Slowly but surely the piles are going down.
My problem is listing the items that are in the $15 range. I debate with myself should I list or donate. Many sell but I want to try to list higher priced items. It takes the same amount of time to list a $15 item as a $100 item. These low priced death piles are killing me. Do I sell or do I donate. Do I combine two items or a bigger lot. I am definitely changing my buying habits. No more smalls!!
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01/10/2018 at 9:12 pm #30284
I have the same issues with listing low value items. There is really no cost to them, as they usually come with box lots. The only question is whether or not it’s worth the time and effort to list, or just discard/donate.
Of course, I’ll bundle, whenever practical to raise the listing sale price. I sell a lot of books in groups.
Generally, unless I can get more than $15 for an item, I tend to donate it, especially if there are a bunch for sale and few solds.
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01/11/2018 at 8:39 am #30296
I just list them. Once I’ve went through the effort of getting it to the listing table and inspecting/researching it, I might as well finish it to at least get something for my effort.
Oddly enough, these “throw away” items always sell. The best one I had was a pair of womens pants. They were not a great brand, and they had been badly hemmed. Add to that they were an ugly green that had color fading from bleach damage!
They sold in like a week for $10. I fully expected to get a return request. Nope! Positive feedback. Just goes to show you never truly know what will or won’t sell on ebay.
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01/10/2018 at 7:25 pm #30278
I know a thing or two about piles. I’m eating all of my vegetables determined to list what I bought, even the cheap stuff. I suggest doing lots of like items and rotating. When you get really tired of testing, cleaning or listing one type of item, switch to the other. I physically move a box full and when I take it back down listed to store it, it makes me feel good. Good luck!
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01/10/2018 at 8:36 pm #30281
i vote coats. it’s cold right now and coats are selling!
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01/11/2018 at 9:28 am #30302
I agree with the coats and jackets first. Mostly because IT’S COLD OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW. Personally when deciding which items to list first from the death piles I prefer the method of selecting the largest items first because it clears more space in the death piles. I take photos of that whole category, then carry it all to my office and make it my week’s goal to make that pile disappear. It becomes very motivating to empty out the office so it looks like a room again.
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01/15/2018 at 11:03 am #30480
The poll says coats – so I did coats. I listed 11 coats. Several of them were $100+ listings.
My wife was ill this weekend so I was really busy with her and the kids so I couldn’t list more. I’ll finish up the wardrobe of coats this week though.Feels good to tackle something I’ve put off for a long time, and valuable items at that!
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