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In over 20,000 items we’ve sold on eBay since 2008, we’ve never had an eBay Scammer™. A scammer is someone who buys an item knowing full well they’re
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 302: How to Deal with Dreaded eBay Scammers Lurking Everywhere!!] -
Store Week 3/12/17 – 3/18/17
Total items in store: 1190
Items sold: 20
Cost of items sold: $63.10
Total sales: $757.88
Highest price sold: $150 (vintage letterman sweater)
Average price sold: $37.89
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0 (But I had one refund for an item damaged in shipping – Doh!)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $97.82Had a great weekend of scavenging this week at just a couple of sales. At the first I spent too much (more than I normally pay), but got some good stuff that I know will sell. And yesterday, I went to an estate sale where EVERYTHING on the property was for sale, and cheap! It was one of those where you just have to dig through everything and it was pretty stinky and dirty, but I found some treasures. I never usually buy things like cameras, but tossed one in my box there and it looks like the lens could be worth $400+. I also got some vintage magazines (most from the 40s to 60s, but some as old as 1913). They are in kind of rough shape, so I’m trying to decide if I should just cut out the cool ads and sell those. Hmmm…
Time to listen and list!
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Your employee has really made a difference in your sales numbers–also, yes, you are adding clothing again, and clothing sells, I would rather not do clothing, but still am chugging along doing only antiques and collectibles. My week:
Total Items in Store: etsy, 420, ebay, 216
Items Sold: 13 (5 on ebay, 7 on etsy)
Total Sales: $600.97 ($279.98 on ebay, $320.99 on etsy)
Highest Price Sold: $125 (antique ring on etsy)
Average Price Sold: $50
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Just by the title, this sounds like a super interesting show. Will be all ears tomorrow morning on the way to work.
Week 3/12/17 – 3/18/17
Total items in store: 875
Items sold: 22 (2 Amazon)
Cost of items sold: $157
Total sales: $1,051.42
Highest price sold: $200 (1930s Tiffany clock) & $450 (lot of 5 TDK MA-XG cassettes)
Average price sold: $47.79
Returns: 0 (although I had to refund someone when I couldn’t find the item)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $265
Items listed: 29Really a great week of sales. It started hot last Sunday morning and didn’t really cool off. The Tiffany Clock was a big sale on Sunday to kick the week off and then the 5x TDK MA-XG cassettes that I talked about on the What Sold post sold on Monday – Jay was shocked that I listed a cassette for $120 and I jumped on a $90/each offer I got on Monday for all 5 ($450 total). But also had the first ever item I can’t find. It was a Whiting & Davis gold mesh bag, sold for $60. I looked everywhere it should be and everywhere it shouldn’t be. Wrote an extremely apologetic note to the buyer who was super nice about it. Simply asked for a refund but said to contact her if it doesn’t turn up.
Didn’t go out to any sales this weekend, but I did find a guy on CL selling some super high end records. I paid up, but it takes my listings to a whole new level. Led Zeppelin Mothership sealed box set listed for $150, Iggy Pop Lust for Life true A1/B1 first pressing listed for $120, several Kiss albums, minty fresh Rolling Stones, and more. While I paid $200 for the group, have them listed for over $640.
Headed to London on Wednesday-Sunday for a long weekend & my wife’s birthday – flights paid for by eBay sales. Very excited to get away.
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Also, after the convos a couple weeks ago about Promoted Listings, I tried out a test. Over the past 14 days, I’ve had 15 sales from Promoted Listings for a total of $660 and paid a combined $37 in fees (about 5%). Those 15 sales account for about 32% of my sales. So far so good. I’m using my TRS savings to fund Promoted Listings.
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brian-
where you able to promote anything in your store or just items that have multiple quantities? on our smaller store, we can only promote multiples, but on our main store, we can promote anything.-
I can promote anything, but only up to 500 items per promotion – so I’ve basically set up different promotions for different categories to see if there’s a sweet spot. I’m not 100% that this is helping or if it’s just a placebo. I’m driving a ton more traffic to my pages (using the performance dashboard).
Here are some stats:
— 1/1 – 2/8 (39 days) – my listings appeared in 474k searches and I got 6.7k listing views (1.4% click through) and a total of $3,034 sales.
— 2/9 – 3/18 (39 days) – my listings appeared in 599k searches and I got 12.7k listing views (2.7% click through) and a total of $4,149 sales.I’m showing up in 26% more searches (I credit that to better titles & more interesting items) but getting 90% more click throughs (this I credit to listing promotions, showing up higher in ranks) and my sales are 37% higher.
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Here is this small-time sellers first time reporting numbers!
Store Week 3/12/17 – 3/18/17
Total items in store: 281
Items sold: 12
Cost of items sold: $9.05
Total sales: $157.96
Highest price sold: $24.99 (NWT Chico Skirt)
Average price sold: $13.16
International Sales: 0
Returns: 1
Money spent on new inventory this week: $22.95So, I am currently a snowbird in Phoenix and I took half of my inventory with me from Wisconsin (the rest I unlisted and left back home because they were breakable, too big, out of season, etc.) Since I have been here, I have been shopping at “The Bins” aka The Goodwill Outlet. We have one in Wisconsin, but they also have an eBay store and the items that you find there are broken and not usable for eBay plus it is about two hours away from me. I came here with about 150 item in my store and at a high was around 310 items. I am now trying to get my inventory down so it will fit in our vehicle to bring back home in about two weeks. Most of what I have in my store is non-vintage clothing so my average cost of items sold is pretty low, not to mention I am putting just about everything on sale to try to move it.
I am looking forward to reorganizing my inventory when I get back and hopefully getting my item average up when the snow melts and garage sales start up again!
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Thanks, Brian. I know a lot of sellers here keep their winter stuff up in summer and their summer stuff up in winter, but for this summer season, I am going to take down my winter items. I have only had two international sales since I started and I don’t expect that to change to be able to sell winter stuff to international buyers, so that will make me go through all of my inventory when I get home and decide which items that I didn’t take to Phoenix will be relisted and which ones won’t. My COGS is so low right now because mostly everything I am selling is coming from the Goodwill Outlet here in Phoenix, but when I get home that will change and I will have to source elsewhere. Thanks for encouraging me to post my small numbers!
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Active content won’t be shown and for most listings won’t change anything, but listings created with templates might not look good. There’s a video code in best practices on the eBay site but it doesn’t work correctly. I’ve reported it and will hopefully have a working compliant code shortly.
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Week 3/12/17 – 3/18/17
Total items in store: 250! (<– as of today, anyway)
Items sold: 9
Cost of items sold: $20.50
Total sales: $317.00
Highest price sold: $120 (vintage skirt)
Average price sold: $36
Returns: 0The biggest news of the week is that as of today I finally hit 250 listings. I’m going to keep going, but that’s a milestone I’ve been struggling to reach for a long time. What finally pushed me over the top was a big lot of antique slides which I bought at an auction two weeks ago. I’ve been listing some individually and some in groups.
Not a bad little week of sales for a small shop, and I was able to stay home with sick kids twice during the week — a perfect example of the kind of situation I’m looking for. An income with total flexibility. Still, always, looking for how to increase the income without losing the flexibility.
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Regarding Active Content… As I understand it, all active content will be disabled in July. YouTube videos rely on active content because of the link – so they too will be disabled. EBay is working on making one of the pictures that you can upload available as a video. No date has been given for rolling this feature out. We’ll see if it actually gets done.
That being said, your listing will still be up – it just won’t have the video viewable.
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J&R, I have a question about the process you outline in the blog post. I haven’t yet listened to the podcast.
Regarding the following steps:
– But if we still disagree, we immediately accept the return to move the process along.
– The buyer has 5 days to print a label and provide tracking. If not, the case can be closed on the phone in our favor.Is this label that the buyer prints one that you have provided and paid for, or do you tell them to ship it back with their own label? I’m referring to the situation where you don’t (yet) agree with the buyer’s complaint.
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So whose account does the payment for the shipping label come from at the time that they print the label? If it’s out of the seller’s account, is there an opportunity at a future time to get that money back if the INAD case gets resolved in seller’s favor?
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The charge for the return shipping for INAD is added to your ebay invoice. If you win an INAD dispute, you can get the shipping charge credited back to your invoice. I did it once, and talked to the appeals department, who applied the credit while I was on the phone with them.
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or if you’re in the beta returns program, you can dispute the reason for the return if INAD and you disagree and then you don’t have to pay shipping. the price comes out of the refund to the buyer, it’s just a checkbox to say ‘pay return shipping’. something like that.
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Numbers for Week March 12-18, 2017
Total Items in Store: 835
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $35.31
Total Sales: $454.85
Highest Price Sold: $81.90 (Vintage Disco Pant Suit)
Average Price Sold: $28.43
Returns: 1 (Long Funny Story for another post)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $46.91Bonanza:
Sold 1 item for $23.77Nice week of steady sales… I am averaging 2 sales a day now, which is great. I find that as I am getting more listings, it is taking more time to just “keep my number up”.. I am spending most of my spare time just listing things to maintain my current number. I committed to myself to replace daily what I have listed at the very very least, but push myself to try for 5 more if possible… I’ve got 4 little kids at home, so I am usually working late into the night when they are fast asleep… I am also trying to be a lot choosier when thrifting and sometimes I will only walk out with 1 or 2 things but I will take the few items that I can list for $40 or $50, instead of only $10.00… it takes discipline for me, for sure… hopefully it will start to pay off soon. I want to maximize my $ per hour, but still have a lot of cheaper inventory to sell off.
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Numbers for Week March 12-18, 2017
Total Items in Store: 392
Items Sold: 21 (20 ebay, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $52.22
Total Sales: $449.08
Highest Price Sold: $70 x 2 (Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Kit)Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: about $100
I visited the Goodwill Outlet for the first time. Verdict: Eh. I don’t sell clothes, so this place probably won’t be a weekly stop. I found a few vintage books, and a bag of 32 brass horseshoe shaped drawer pulls.
I also stopped at a few estate sales this weekend, and had a weird experience at each one. The first one, I asked for a price on a box of genealogy books. The guy running the sale thought for a long time, and then said “I don’t want to sell this. I think it needs to be donated to the library”. Hmm, ok…but isn’t that a decision for the family to make? Maybe they want/need the money more than they want to make a donation. He did let me buy the family bible, as long as I promised to love it and give it a good home. I’ll do my best?
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yeah, times like that make me hate estate sales too. we’ve had people do stuff like that ‘oh this is too nice to sell’ WHAT! so annoying people.
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Right? Like, why do you have this stuff out if you aren’t trying to sell it? Did you not have a conversation with the family about what they were keeping vs selling?
The last estate sale I went to that day was a “divorce sale”. It had a bad vibe, so I left without buying anything. I don’t need my inventory bringing me down!
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Our Store Week March 12-18, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1274
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $40.45
Total Sales: $531.33
Highest Price Sold: $60 (70s bell bottoms)
Average Price Sold: $34.55
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 49Not an amazing week, but I’ll take it.
When out picking, I think I get really caught up with the weird vintage one-of-a-kind stuff and sometimes pass up more everyday things, especially if they’re priced higher. An example: I bought a vintage 90s new in box Everlast punching bag. It was priced at $4, but it was half off. It sold in less than a week for $45. But if it was full price, I might have passed. I also bought a Lord Sheraton goat hair dusting brush for $1. Sold a few days later for $30 to a very excited buyer. Since first hearing Scavenger Life, I’ve learned to cast a wider net, but this week was a reminder that the net can always be cast even wider.
So my trusty 95 Mercedes Benz finally gave up a few weeks ago. That girl took me all over Southern California, but she’s finally had enough. I bought a second Benzo very cheap, hoping to fix it up, cannibalizing as many parts as I can from my first one. But I soon learned the Benzo II has electrical issues, which is way out of my league; I’m very new to car mechanics and a novice at best. So while I save the cash to get Benzo II to the shop, I started picking a few parts off of Benzo I. Just a few minor pieces: sun visors, dashboard inserts, etc. I can’t get crazy because I live in a rental with limited parking area; can’t turn the driveway into “Sanford & Son”. Plus, if I pick off too much, the junkyard will charge me to haul her away as opposed to paying me a little. Hurts to slowly strip her innards, but if I can make a few extra bucks, I’m gonna do it. If I had more space, I’d do this a lot more often.
*Paul*
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Another reason never to ignore return requests: “Important: You won’t receive a final value fee credit if the buyer asks us to step in and help with a return or an item they didn’t receive.”
Regarding the beta returns program, remember to check your account balance to make sure you are getting you final value fee credit when you don’t refund the shipping. No need to wait for your monthy invoice, you can look for it using the desktop version (not mobile/tablet).
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@PaulDeLeo – interesting, I am a PaulDeLeo too (and one my my Twins as well) 🙂
Paul (from Paulo, the Greek and later Latin form of Paul) Leocadio (from Kardio Leonis or Lion Heart)
Cheers
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Hi Paulo, it looked oks like we may have more similarities based on your LinkedIn profile… both in Florida and IT professionals. Very noce to meet you here 😀
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Total items in store: 1233
Items sold: 33
Cost of items sold: $25
Total sales: $1081.56
Highest price sold: $125 (Vtg Tommy Hilfiger jacket)
Average price sold: $32.75
International Sales: 3
Returns: 2
Money spent on new inventory this week: $35 (estate sales)Good steady week. Our average price sold remains constant at around $30. Also our percentage sold compared to total listings remains constant at 8.5-9%. This is good. It shows that the more we list, the more we sell. And we rarely spend more than a dollar or two on each piece of inventory. We source from estate sales and local thrift stores. Rarely go to Goodwill, but will go to Salvation Army for their sales.
The week prior was our best week ever, thanks to the $1000 Polo hat! But removing that it was still a consistent week. The previous week we were around $2200.
And thanks for the shout on the pod about the Polo hat!! My kids were stoked!
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Thanks for sharing your big sale. It’s always fun to hear. But like hearing about Las Vegas jackpots, it fools new sellers into thinking its easy money!
We have found that consistent listing means consistent income. You found our secret!
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Hey Jay, having a small store (600 items as of today) I have solid evidence about this statement (the “solid evidence” is as known as my selling experience on eBay 🙂 ).
Every-time I drop my consistency in listing my sales drop. This is happening now, over last 2-3 weeks I accumulated a lot of sourcing with little, very little sales.Previously, with consistent sales, I had a marvelous week about 3 weeks ago.
Yesterday night I invested on a lot of listing. I listed a Publix HO train set and I sold it within 4 minutes after listing for another Florida resident for sure.
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Hey Guys, this is Troy in Colorado. I am the one that called on the Puerto Rico issue. Here is the full story, and as much info as I can give. Around the beginning of the year, we had a sale to someone in Puerto Rico that messaged us that they could not pay for the item because eBay was giving them a message that we did not ship to Puerto Rico. We looked at the sale and when we tried to send the invoice, it only gave us International Shipping as the option. We could not change this to Domestic shipping, so the cost was obviously way too high. We called eBay and the rep kept telling us that Puerto Rico was International to the US (something I have had to argue with 3 reps now and PROVE that Puerto Rico is Domestic Shipping). Eventually, the buyer asked to have the order cancelled. This has now happened to us 3 other times, the most recent in the past week.
I finally was able to get one rep to understand that this is a programming flaw that is losing us these sales (not that it is huge, as my wife and I do this full time, but still a flaw). The rep has had to be a liaison between us and the technical team, and she is not in a good spot (I told her I would love to talk to someone on the technical team directly and get her out of the middle). She said the techies told her that eBay is doing something in their programming to identify “non-continental US” shipments, so anything to Hawaii, Alaska, and US Territories are flagged the same. I told her that this made no sense, as two weeks ago we shipped to Hawaii with no problem. And I kept telling her that we have shipped to Puerto Rico in the past with Domestic Shipping with no problem.
The only thing I can think of that is triggering this is that in the eBay Site Preferences, you can ask to have an automatic note on your sale if it is “International”. I turned this on a while back as it is nice to see when shipping if something is International while we are packing. For whatever reason, these Puerto Rico shipments were flagged by that note as International, and that may have caused the issue.
I have since turned this flag off, and the rep is supposed to contact me again this week with what the issue is. It has been very frustrating, and not as much with the lost sales, but in dealing with the corporate bureaucracy (which is one reason that we left our corporate jobs and decided to do this full time). We keep having people that 1) don’t see that this is creating a problem for us and 2) keep telling with us that Puerto Rico is International!!! I literally walked a rep through the USPS site to show him the Domestic shipping from Colorado to Puerto Rico. At least he finally got it…
I have a link below to a screenshot from our last sale that I can show you that the shipping is defaulted to International for us to Puerto Rico.
Thanks for everything you guys do on the Podcast. Your podcast help me to decide that we can make a living at this full time, since you post your numbers. I was an accountant for 20+ years, so I was doing my own calculations on what it would take to do this full time, and seeing you guys posting numbers and doing this full time helped me decide to flip the switch, turn away from $100k+ per year at a job I hated, and do this full time. I’m loving owning my time now, and having a chance to see my family more. It is still a ton of work, and I keep LOTS of numbers (old accountants don’t change), but I love the work and the time!
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that’s so weird. because my store shows PR as domestic. so i wonder if that pref you checked off just permanently did something to your listings, which, i hear you, is SUPER annoying. i have sold several things to PR in the last couple months with no issues. it is always funny when you know more than the reps (or the peeps at the post office sometimes too). “i swear puerto rico is a US territory, i’m not lying!” makes you feel crazy sometimes.
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Puerto Rico is a US territory; is also a “protectorate of the US. I have my shipping preferences set up to exclude US protectorates to avoid potential hassles like Puerto Rico, which for example lost electric power in the whole country for 2 days recently. I don’t deal with third world type countries at all.
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i’ve never had a single issue shipping to PR. USPS has full tracking there. sold lots of stuff there with no problem. reminds me of the sellers who forever would not ship to HI or AK even though USPS fully tracks and insures packages there.
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you block places due to how much the customer has to pay? what does it matter if they’re willing to pay for shipping? also you block PO boxes? you’re missing out on a lot of sales then. i just shipped like 5 items to PO boxes. and there is a workaround for Smartpost–
http://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/fedex-smartpost-po-box-workaround -
Yes, maybe I should rethink it. I have been fearful of trying your workaround–will it also work for bigger packages that have to go via Fedex Home Delivery??? Aren’t you having to list your items with Priority shipping costs? And even Parcel Post/Select is much more expensive usually than a Fedex option, and they won’t ship to PO Or UPO boxes. You have around 6K listings compared to my 1K listings, so you have a lot more PO Box buyers than I do. As you know, it’s easier to sell if shipping costs are lower, so I think missing an occasional PO Box sale is worth it overall. On first class packages I don’t block PO Boxes–just items where I want to use Shipsaver or Fedex Home Delivery; mostly nonfragile, over 16 oz. items. I sell a lot of bulky items like quilts and bedspreads, and those have to go fedex Home Delivery for the cheapest rates usually. It’s a dilemma.
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Keep this in mind at all times: You are NOT your target buyer!
What may seem expensive to you for shipping may not matter to your ideal buyer. I have sold $25 shoes that cost $20 to ship priority to someone in California. I’ve sold $10 items that cost $40 to ship GSP!
Turn those areas back on and just let it ride. The market will determine if they want to pay the high shipping.
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I wouldn’t throw “third world country” around so lightly. There are rural areas in the Southern US that could fall under that status.
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And as a funny tag, I wonder if eBay listens to Scavenger Life. The Podcast just dropped, I just posted our issue with shipping to Puerto Rico…and I just got a follow-up call from eBay. They called me at 6:15am! They called to say that they are still looking into this, so no change, but they called just the same.
They fear the wrath of the trash elves! 🙂
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Hey guys! Just got my store over 100 items! First time posting numbers!
Store Week 3/12/17 – 3/18/17
Total items in store: 105
Items sold: 8
Cost of items sold: $13.00
Total profit: $187.04
Highest price sold: $65.00 (vintage Laura Biagiatti sunglasses)
Average price sold: $23.38
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0Also one time I had someone I believe was trying to scam me. They didn’t have any feedback and kept buying this item and not paying. I would cancel the sale and block them and relist. They would create a new eBay account with just a slightly different name and do the same thing. This happened 3 times. I have no idea why because its not like they were getting the item. Does anyone know they reason for this scam? I have always wondered what they were gaining by doing that. It just seems like it was waste of time for them. Unless they thought maybe id accidentally ship them the item without them having paid for it?
Thanks guys! Excited to keep growing!!
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Week of Mar 12 – 18
* Total Items in Store: 715
* Items Sold: 16
* Cost of Items Sold: $13.45 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $256.01
* Highest Price Sold: $29 Brass pedestal
* Average Price Sold: $16
* Returns: 1 (chipped candlesticks)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
* Number of items listed this week: 3This was a normal week of sales for me. I did get an unusual number of sales Monday & Tuesday, which I assume was due to the snow storm. However, this past weekend was slower than normal. My kids had snow days Tuesday & Wednesday, and then a delayed opening on Thursday. I was still able to take lots of photos, but I didn’t get much listing done.
The chipped candlesticks were my fault. Thankfully, it was a small sale and I didn’t lose much. I did have more questions, concerns, and general contact with customers this week. One guy got freaked out when his package didn’t show up in his mailbox with his other mail, but tracking showed delivered. I submitted the issue through the USPS website, he talked to his apartment management, and then the package showed up. Not sure what happened, but he had expected me to refund him if the package didn’t show. I’m glad it showed because I didn’t want to have to explain that I wasn’t responsible for USPS mistakes.
I went to a live auction on Thursday. Because of my recent spending on inventory, I was very careful with what I bid on. I felt that the good stuff was bidding up higher than normal. I was happy with only spending $23 there. I also bid on a few lots on an online auction, but I only ended up with one lot. I couldn’t believe some of the prices. Sometimes people really get caught up in the bidding. Maybe bidding will level off when garage sale season is in full swing.
I did get that message from eBay regarding my two listings that have videos. I figured that I would hear about it in the podcast! Love the “trademark” on eBay Scammers and Grumpy Buyers in the writeup!
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About Ryanne and Jay’s second store:
I am investing a bit on branding, or re-branding my store. Changing the opening graphics (I have a website for the official business with the same name), and other things.
I decided to focus on collectibles of sorts and will try to have some branding around it.I was wondering if Ryanne and Jay’s second store would not benefit if concentrating on specific themes? This is just a comment, nothing based on extensive market research or detailed study, just really some brainstorming based on Schultz expertise and what I am considering doing.
Anybody sees any benefit from doing something like this to bump traffic, attention or sales?
Cheers
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The Mug-Trucker Hat Connection
The best comparison EVER!!!!!!!
Ever since I heard Ryanne talking about trucker hats a year ago in my case, I try to find cheap interesting hats (I do not know for sure the different between a trucker hat and a baseball style hat, even though some trucker hats of the 70’s style are easy to describe).
They have been good sellers for me.
Also, under the same scope, I look at mugs on the $1-2 range, like the hats. Never been able to sell one hehehehI had hats and mugs I accumulated from my old company. Almost all of them I sold well (got them totally free and they had interesting topics like the stamp of Windows 95 release day, exclusive hats of the first XBOX, etc). But the mugs I got over this year are all in my storage.
The comparison is perfect
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I have done the same thing.
I am now selling hats thanks to this podcast I never would of thought of it and they all eventually sell. I usually find them at the good will for about $2 each. I try to buy only ones that are unworn /or in really good condition. I’ve hand washed a couple with a stain or 2 on it and they came clean.
Does anyone recommend that you declare they are washed when preowned?
I sell free shipping between 14.95-18.95 and they usually move quickly. Of course if I found the $1000 hat I would be ecstatic.I already owned a lot of mugs (mug collector that I am) so I started a second id to just sell mugs and glassware. (I am only part time so I am using my 50 free listings on that site.)
I do sell about 1 or 2 a month so not a big deal and its always interesting to see the random things that do sell.
I do free shipping- bubble wrap then cut up cardboard & “make” my own box then put it in a padded envelope. Usually I can get it under a pound that way so about $4 to ship. When it is heavier I use the usps padded flat rate envelope for 6.50 (just went up in price.) Have not had any break.
Taylor & NG mugs sells look them up
Starbucks do sell though I lowered prices on some
Warner Bros Disney the rarer the better
Tiki mugs
University Glass & mugs
Military Mugs I’ve sold 3 or 4 of them
Random ones I’ve sold: Raytheon Air Traffic controller mug, Zeiss photographic,Trek Bicycle, Amish Mug w a horse buggy & history, CIA mug
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Couple comments from the podcast..
For Returns, the fact that we can have a dialog at all and work out issues is amazing. With Amazon, sellers have to just eat it. I returned something the other day. I just had to choose a reason from a drop down menu and as soon as tracking hit the system, the money was in my account. All money gets returned including shipping. That gives me a ton of confidence when I buy on Amazon. I never have to worry if something is not quality. We might think Amazons return policy sucks for sellers, but I wonder how much more buyers there are because of consumer confidence. (Not advocating being a Amazon seller here).
On shipping to territories…I shipped a pair of sandals to Guam (Practicaly to China) for 2.50!!!blew my mind.
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Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1604
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales: $524.75
Cost of Items Sold: $44.05
Average Price Sold: $21.86
Average Cost of Item: $1.84
Highest Price Item Sold: $55.9 Franciscan china
Number of items listed this week: 39
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 217
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 128
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 103
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.5%
# of Hats Sold: 16 (66% of sales)Pretty typical week sales-wise. Nothing special there.
My find of the week was a 1970s HP calculator. It cost me about 50 cents (I got 2 items together from an estate sale for $1) and I plan on listing it for over $200. I don’t want to jinx myself so I’ll wait till I actually sell it before sharing more info about that.
Thanks for talking about scammers and how rare they are. I belong to Facebook reseller groups and I read Reddit and there is always talk about scammers but it’s a very uncommon thing. People just dont talk about their hundreds of smooth transactions so there’s a perception that that scamming is very common. It’s not.
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To Erik: I know, right! That is why it was so crazy that for my shipments to Puerto Rico, suddenly it is International. We have done this for so long, when we first got the message from the buyer that “we don’t ship to Puerto Rico”, I was really confused. It wasn’t until I was resending the invoice that I noticed that the shipping was saying International.
I’m sure that it is a bug related to the automatic note for International Shipping. That, or something on our account only.
I would love to ask Trash Elf Nation: How many of you use the automatic note for International Shipping? And if you do, have you had any trouble shipping to Puerto Rico (or any other Territory). I would love to help the eBay tech side know what is causing the issue.
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As we now officially started posting on the Scavenger Life blog (Troy & Veronica in Colorado), we will also plan to start showing our numbers. We have been doing this full time for about two years now.
Week of 3/12-3/18
Total Items in Store: 1,444
Items Sold: 71 (includes 1 Bonanza)
Total Sales: $1,761.82
Cost of Items Sold: $352.87
Highest Item Sold: $60 – Tom Ford Black Orchid Perfume (Veronica wins this week!)
Number of Items Listed This Week: 116Sales have been solid for us again this week. We always seem to do well this time of year. In fact, for some reason, February has always been our biggest month. Last year, our February was our strongest month ever, at $9,075 in Sales.
We will continue to work hard at our goal of listing at least 100 items per week. I will be out for two days working on an accounting consulting job, but I still have mornings and nights to try and keep the listing pipeline filled. I like to keep a pipeline of Men’s Clothing that have photos and the listing info ready to go, so that either one of us can list at any time (or anywhere – we listed from Panama for a month last summer).
Veronica loves the estate sale / yard sale items, and that season really hasn’t hit full swing yet, so I continue to fill the pipeline with clothes to keep us with a base of sales and cash coming in and if she gets low on her listings, she can list clothes to fill the gap. All about teamwork!
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Thanks for the advice on how to handle returns. I copied it over to where I can consult it if needed. One question though, how do you handle someone who doesn’t respond to your request for photos of damage? This happened to us when we sold a vintage Samsonite suitcase and the guy claimed that one latch was broken. We asked twice for photos but got nothing. Thanks!
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ok here is how that would work–
we have any cases that would be considered “our fault” (INAD, damage) to require us to approve it.
so buyer says suitcase is damaged.
we ask for a photo.
they never respond w/ photo.
after 30 days (i think that’s the number), the return case automatically closes.
(someone correct me if that’s wrong, but i’m pretty sure that’s happened to me)-
I waited a couple of days and sent the request again but meanwhile ebay was sending me some vaguely threatening sounding emails. So I called them and followed their advice. Well, of course, their advice basically threw me under the ebay bus. It’s hard to ignore those ominous sounding emails though.
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Week March 12-19, 2017
Total Items in Store: 128
Items Sold: 2
Cost of Items Sold: $0
Total Sales: $70
Highest Price Sold: $40 (dog crate)
Average Price Sold: $35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8
Number of items listed this week: 26This “week” is 8 days long because I decided I want it to start on a Monday in future. And I have sales to report! Woot woot!
Listing was slower than I’d like for two reasons: (1) trouble with photographs and (2) I’ve been migrating my inventory across to the new system, splitting my time between new listings and revising the old listings with the new SKU numbers. I’m thrilled with how it’s working out and can’t wait to get it finished. It’s taking up much less space (3 empty bins already!) and it feels good to have an unique item number for each piece. Much easier for tracking.
A older neighbor loves to go to yard sales and thrift stores but doesn’t need more stuff, nor has cash to spend on it. So she picks up stuff “for me” and I pay her cost. We joke she’s my personal shopper. LOL. I’m on the Death Pile Challenge, so not doing any shopping of my own, but the once or twice a month she turns up with something, I’m not going to spoil her fun. It’s my community good deed for the week. I’ll make sure to list 3 of the 4 items this week, so they don’t contribute to the Death Piles. The 4th item I’m keeping for me.
eBay sent me a special offer to open a store for only $5 per month for the first three months for a basic store. I’m going to wait until the last day of the offer (March 31st) so that I can start a new month with a new store. Also, because I promised myself that’s when I would open a store, and because I’d like to get 250 items in the store from day one. Lots of listing this week!
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Mar. 12 – 18
Total Items in Store: 586
Items Sold: 21
Total Sales: $893
Highest Price: $140 (Sirius XM Home Radio)
Average Price: $42
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $148
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0Another good week of sales! I’m loving these high sale weeks! But I’m keeping in mind how last summer was so I don’t get spoiled.
This week I’m starting my service manual experiment. I acquired a cache of about 120 audio and video equipment service and operator manuals. These aren’t for cheap home equipment either. Professional recording studio stuff here. The service manuals all have these really intricate diagrams and schematics of circuits and things. I rescued them all from the trash bin at work. So far I’ve got them all photographed and cropped. Tonight I’ll start listing. Should be fun.
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Total Items in Store: 585
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $24
Total Sales: $141
Profit: $117
Highest Price Sold: $30 Born Sandals
Average Price Sold: $23.50
Average Profit: $19.50Still no listing activity on the home front. Closing in on 3 months without active listing. Having said that, it was a productive ebay week because I was working on TAXES!! YAY!!
Last year I used H&R Block software and it let me just input my COGS to the schedule C. This year I switched to TurboTax Home & Business, and it forced me into the true cash system. So…that means I had to take inventory. I’ve been dreading this for a looong time and have put it off long enough. A couple spreadsheets and several hours later, I have a true inventory spreadsheet and actual COGS.
Also this year I did detailed itemized home office deductions rather than taking the standard 300sq ft option. The tax savings was quite impressive. I even set up my storage shed as a business asset so I can start depreciating it. I am happy with my federal taxes but as usual I owe the state money. Every year I increase my state withholding and yet I owe more each year. Very frustrating. No wonder folks leave WV in droves.
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Week of 3/12-18
Total items in store 755
Items sold. 22 (21 ebay, 1 Bonanza)
Total sales. $299.62
Average sale. $ 13.61
COGS. $ 31.44
Returns-0 unpaid-1
$ spent on new inventory $ 33.33
# of new items listed. 35
Highest sale- $53 Toshikane chrysanthemum earrings from my mom’s stash so cost $0Much better week for me! I had almost forgotten about Bonanza until I had a great sale (Ralph Lauren perfume) on there. I actually sold the Toshikane earrings from my mom on an auction. When I researched them, the prices were all over the map. I didn’t see any other earrings like them, so I priced them at $30 and decided to let the market set the price. By the time the auction ended it had 9 watchers, which is a new high for me. I also sold a pair of Napier earrings in under 5 minutes, so of course I was kicking myself for not pricing them higher.
Scavenge of the week-I went to pick up some items I had bought at an online auction. One box cost me 34 cents and I bid on it because it had several framed cross stitch pieces. When I got the box home it was packed! If I don’t make over $150 on the contents then shame on me!
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My numbers for the week of 3/12/17:
Total Items in Store: 100
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $61
Total Sales: $452 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $65 – Nerf Vulcan (was an UPI last week)
Average Price Sold: $22.60
Returns: 0We are going to get spoiled in 2017! Sales have been very good so far this year. Historically Jan/Feb are good months for me and then it starts to slow down. But so far, March has been another good month!
My average selling price is lower because I am dabbling into some “multiples”…new items that I have 10-12 qty of but with a lower profit margin. I figured this was a good way to increase my sales without technically doing much more work. So far so good.
I am going on year 7 selling on eBay and I have only run into a “scammer” on 2 occasions….well, one for sure and one I just heavily suspect. I had a hard to find Barbie Happy Family Smart House with a family of 4 dolls. Bought for my daughters for Christmas when they were little, we were the original owners. For some reason the Kelly doll that came with it is considered the “holy grail” of Kelly Dolls…hahaha. They sell for a high price. Anyways, I listed the 4 dolls in a lot, separate from the house. There was only one other listing up at the same time as mine. Guess who bought my dolls? The seller with the other listing. I am sure she bought mine to get them off the market. When she received them she promptly opened a return, claiming the Kelly doll’s hair had been cut. It had absolutely not been cut and my pictures showed front & back of each doll. So she paid shipping and I got the dolls back. While all of this was going on, she sold her lot. I was happy to get the dolls in the same condition as I sent them. I was worried about that but they were fine. And mine got relisted and quickly sold to someone else. It was just a waste of time though.
Second scam was just this past Christmas. I sold a vintage color wheel to a buyer who’s user name had ChristmasColorWheels in it. He claimed damage and sent un unclear photo of a broken socket. I refunded without return because it “could have” gotten damaged in shipping (it was uninsured) although apparently the external shipping box had no damage. And he was from CA so the shipping back and forth would have been very high to get a broken item back. I decided to just eat it. But I was suspicious because of his user name. I did a search for the item and there was a new listing for a color wheel that looked an awful lot like mine…It was a very specific/rare brand and style color wheel and the only one on eBay at the time. The seller had the same City/State as my newly refunded customer. A bit too coincidental in my mind. I think it was the same guy with 2 separate accounts. No proving it though. And for my own mental health you just have to let these things go. They really do happen so very rarely. Twice in 2 years isn’t bad. And I was really only out any $ on that second one. -
3/12 – 3/18
Total Items in store: 388
Items sold: 7
Cost of items sold: approx. $33
Total Sales: $178
Highest price sold: $
Average price sold: $25.45
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $2,809Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 2 sales – $210, COGS – $60, fees – $23, profit – $127
Waist deep in taxes -
March 12-18 2017
• Total Items in Store: 722
• Items Sold: 13 eBay 1 Craigslist $100
• International 0
• Total Sales $828
• Highest Price $250 HeathKit clock
• Average Price Sold: $59
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $45
• Cost of items purchased this week $75Sold the video equipment rack on Craigslist for $100, when he came to pick it up he handed me a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge phone that was lying in the snow covered street in front of my house, it was run over and had a cracked screen but it still worked and was not password protected. I was able to get a hold of the owner but they said they already have a new phone and to just keep it. I got an estimate of $370 to fix it and that’s about the used value. Such a waste to just throw away, I think I’ll try and find some use for it. Maybe practice do it yourself screen replacement.
Whenever I put up something on CL that’s over 300-400 dollars I will inevitably receive numerous text messages immediately from far away area codes, asking if it’s still available and will I accept Paypal, along with a story about having a moving company pick it up and they’ll include an extra fee for my trouble. The language is always very easy to see through that it’s a phishing expedition so I don’t bother with a reply and block the number. I wonder how many people would actually fall for a scam like that?
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knowing how to replace screens is a valuable scavenger skill. i found an ipod nano once on the ground with a cracked screen, it still worked great. replaced the screen, sold it for almost $100.
i never put my phone number on CL for texts. i only do email. maybe i’m totally missing out on sales this way? i never thought to actually just put my phone number. i guess i’ll try that!
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Thanks for the detailed rundown of your returns process. 🙂
My numbers for the last week:
Mar 12-18 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 262 // Ebay 235
Items Sold: Etsy 23 // Ebay 10
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $23.06 // Ebay $51.55
Total Sales: Etsy $186.55 // Ebay $186.90
Highest Price Sold: Knee-high Converse shoes $40
Average Price Sold: $11.32
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 45 (Listed at $797) -
March 12 – 18
Total Items in Store: 420
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $2
Total Sales: $327.78
Highest Price Sold: $52.00 – Set of Vintage McCoy Kitchen Canisters
Average Price Sold: $20.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $1.06
Number of items listed this week: 26Happy to say that my sales bounced back significantly for me this week. Sold nearly twice as much this week as last for whatever reason. I try to keep my head and emotions down and just keep listing things as best I can. I have a goal right now to get over 1000 items in my shop, and I am trying to focus on that as my metric for success.
Of course the money coming in is important, but it isn’t my sole source of income yet, so I feel I can focus on just building the shop to what I want it to be.My family will be out of town for the next few months, so I will hopefully really be upping my listing game as well in the next few months.
I’m very new to this, and so far I haven’t encountered anything I would consider scammy. That said in the few months I have been doing this seriously every month someone has purchased something and then not paid for it.
There’s nothing wrong with this per se, but I just find it weird and outside my experience. I don’t think I have ever purchased something and then not paid for it. I can imagine a lot of reasons this would or might happen, but it just seems odd that it recurs so frequently. Who knows.
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Regarding Active Content. I also received the eBay letter, luckily I only had one listing with a YouTube video to fix. I found the fix after trying a few different “Fixes” online and in the eBay forums. Below is HTML code that works and will pass the eBay mobile checker:
You will need to type this code in, not cut & paste as the above is a link to an image. Also, you need to change the YouTube link to point to your video.
Here is a link to the listing that I used the above code in:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201554998164?
I hope this helps.
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just curious, where did you get that code?
is there a place we can just copy and paste that?
i’d hate to have to type that out.
or you can paste it here using the ‘code’ tag above to insert code like this—-<a href="link.com">-
Hi Ryanne, I’ve been trying to find where I got the code from, but with no success (it was early in the morning and searching my browser history was no help). I tried the Code tag above and also running it through a code converter for blogger to change all of the <, “, and > tags but the code would not show up in the posting after I submitted it. About all I can do is offer to email it to anybody that sends me a request at my email: skoepke AT stevelist DOT com. I hope this helps.
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ok i’ll try to put this here, people can copy and paste, just replace the YT URL with your own–
<!-- BEGIN VIDEO --> <div style="position:relative; text-align:center; margin:auto; width:100%; max-width:600px;"> <div style="width:100%; padding-top:75%;"> <div style="position:absolute; left:0; right:0; top:0; bottom:0; margin:auto;"> <object type="text/html" allowfullscreen="true" data="http://www.youtube.com/embed/63QvK35ux28?rel=0" height="100%" width="100%"></object></div></div></div> <!-- END VIDEO -->
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Hey J&R: Question about your “Return Policy SOP” [standard operating procedure]. Where do you see your 20% Restocking fee play into the picture? I have had people email me asking for a return then later get a “never mind” note from them saying they were not going to pay that high of a re-stocking fee. In those cases it acts as a deterant to them making a return. Also with having it, we have applied it a few times to returns during the refund process.
So what are your opinions on having it, using it, when to apply it, and how do you use it to leverage your position on a return and your thoughts on it even being seen on your sites?
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Total items in store: 319
Items sold: 8
Cost of items sold: $100 (all new RA items)
Total sales: $292
Highest price sold: $68 (Pillow sham – paid $21 clearance last month)
Average price sold: $37
Money spent on new inventory this week: $0 challenge met
# items listed: About 10My daughter was sick and home from school and I took the opportunity to list a bunch of bulky items, including some studio art pottery, paintings, and train cases. The art and pottery is a challenge with the pricing and some of the pottery marks were hard to identify. Thanks to those in the forum who assisted. It felt like a slow week but was better that I thought when I ran the numbers. Hoping to keep attacking the backlog, continuing with more bulky items.
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I haven’t run my numbers in a few weeks, but a few smaller sales this past week. Too busy wrapping up the house project. Broke down and decided to hire someone to come in and finish the tile in the master shower so this week is a little more open to listing which will help cover the cost of bringing someone else in.
Re: Scammers – No issues with that yet. In fact, just today I had the reverse of a scammer when a customer emailed me to let me know that PayPal refunded them the money due to some fraudulent activity on their account and wanted to know how much they owed me since they were happy with the item I sold them. I let them know the payment was still in my account and they owed nothing more. I was just kind of shocked at the situation!
But all of that has made me wonder about how many bad experiences both sellers and buyers have had on eBay to be so surprised of quality sellers and buyers. I often get comments thanking me for my honesty and customer service. I just do what I would want done for me and thanks to Jay and Ryanne, I always look for the positive in selling!
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Keep an eye on your account. I had an incredibly weird paypal issue similar to this where paypal refunded the buyer and let me keep the payment even though I never shipped the item. Eventually the buyers CC filed a chargeback. The customer told me paypal had already made them whole, so I didn’t do anything. Paypal took out the money and hit me with a $20 chargeback fee. Paypal told me the customer was lying and they never refunded them.
….Why in the world would a buyer lie about paypal refunding them after finding fraudulent activity??
I did get the fee back after arguing with paypal, but it was a very strange issue that left me quite frustrated.
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Hello Everyone,
Have a few minutes for a quick post. Last week was on the slow side (about $200.00) but the week before was 1,126.00 (625.00 was a fabric sale).
Running out of good inventory to list so I have been listing lots of clothes. I get Chico’s LOFT and JCrew off a .50 rack at my local thrift store.The items list for 10.00 up to 24.00 not great but for now it’s what I can get. Church sales have started and I did get a few nice items. A venetian glass bowl made in Murano Italy for $10.00 listed for 299.99. Picked a signed R.C. Gorman lithograph paid .50 but that I will keep. Also found 3 yards of Waverly fabric for 3.00, listed it for 199.99. With the church sales and garage sales comingon I am sure to start picking up items I can sell for 30.00 and up. My helper was slow to get started but after a few days she is getting the hang of listing. I can see my store growing which is my dream. -
Sold a brand new Samsung smart watch for $338 on eBay, which is around the upper price for this item on eBay. The buyer paid right away and also sent me a rather long message through eBay. He states that the watch I sold was about $12 cheaper than the Sprint store in his area and the Sprint store would have charged him tax on top of that as well. He goes on to hint that my item might not be legit or there’s some caution to be exercised. He said he will message me two more times concerning this item. 1) He will let me know when his item arrives, 2) He will let me know after he receives the item and configures it to his liking. He didn’t ask me to do anything nor did he actually ask me a question so I didn’t respond. However, I am now the cautious one as I expect him to have buyer’s remorse. Wasn’t much I could do since he paid right away so I hope he keeps it. I’m not asking for suggestions on what to do since there currently is no issue. I guess I could add a restocking fee.
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He sounds like a cautious buyer to me. We all know there are scammy seller on eBay, so I would be a little nervous buying expensive used electronics on eBay.
As long as the item works as advertised, I don’t see any issues. As we say, if the buyer is unhappy, then you just tell him to return the item so you can resell it.
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In regards to the Samsung Smart Watch — If you sold it as New and Sealed, and he opens it and works on it, and then wants a return, wouldn’t eBay side with you that he has altered the item and can’t return it? I have had this with clothes, where a buyer claimed that there was an mark on a shirt that I didn’t mention, said he washed it and it didn’t come out, and then wanted to return it. (I checked my photos and I couldn’t see the mark he was claiming). I contacted eBay and they said that since he washed it, it was now altered and they denied his return. Would that also apply in this case? It might be worth a call to eBay for their take on this.
Customer satisfaction should always be our goal, but he should also realize that if he takes your item that is new and sealed in box, and now returns something you have to sell as used, you are taking a hit as well.
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That is what the restocking fee is for -to help offset whatever loss is incurred by the seller.
I wish I could remember where I read it, (I think it was somewhere on here!), where a buyer returned an obviously used item, after claiming it was INAD. If I am remembering correctly, ebay refunded the buyer and told the seller “tough luck”. The seller contacted Paypal, and they refunded the seller, and I think paid for the cleaning of the item, too?
Does this story sound familiar to anyone else?
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Ebay
Total Items in Store: 9150
• Items Sold: 139
• Net Profit $2754.40
• Highest Price $375 Singer Sewing Machine
• Average Price Sold: $19.81
• Returns: 2 (clothing)
• Cost of Items Sold: $285
• Cost of items purchased this week $45Good week, immediately sold one of the singer machines for $375. Other high sellers were a $152 Wiseguy dvd set (shrug) and $85 for a set of Ballantine’s WWII books. Separate from ebay I sold $375 worth of torn up firefighter uniforms to our scrap buyer in Germany. On Amazon we sold a full set of Hardy boy books for $303 and a religious reference book set for $285.
Glad the server was switched over I could read the boards for a little while and then they would error out on me. Thought it was just me having issues for the past few weeks.
Just this week I was hit by a scammer, I use that word because I believe it applies, we had a return request on last week’s beachbody dvd sale. A local beacbody trainer donated their entire stock to our local thrift store. About 15 various sealed sets and another 10 sets that were opened. We sold 12 of the sealed sets without problems, the buyer of the most recent set claimed that when he opened the box it was empty. No Dvd’s, manuals, papers or anything. Our shipping weight indicates that package was 3lbs when we mailed it out, I emptied out a similar opened box and it weighs 10oz. Spoke to ebay rep and they said it would basically come down to our word against his and he provided pictures of an empty box so they would side with him.
They did say I could report him and they would keep track to see if he continued making claims against sellers. If it turned into a trend they would get in contact with me. Will see what happens, in the meantime I issued a refund and ate the $150.
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I often wondered if the mailing weight alone would make a difference in a case like this. I am such a small seller that I go to the post office with my packages and wait for a receipt because it proves 1. I mailed it on time and 2. the weight at the time of mailing. I guess that really doesn’t matter to eBay. I can take a picture of an empty box, but that doesn’t mean that’s how it was received!
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Can you contact the post office, and ask if they have any documented record of what the receiving weight of the package was? They’ve got to weigh those packages at some point in the journey. I don’t know if that would sway ebay. You might try your luck with Paypal, too, and see what they say. Sometimes they come through when ebay washes their hands of a problem.
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I don’t think there is any weighing process after acceptance unless the receiving office thinks the package was underpaid and there needs to be a collection of money for insufficient postage. But if eBay won’t accept the acceptance post office weight, why would the accept a day or two later at the delivery point. I don’t get why the weight at acceptance doesn’t prove it to eBay…what more could you do?
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Very late posting numbers, but wanted to get them in.
3/12 – 3/18/17
Approximate # of Items in Store: 200
# of Items Sold: 6
Average Cost of Items Sold: $4.67
Total Sales: $310.90
Highest Price Sold: $125 – Handbag
Average Price Sold: $51.82
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $16.84
Number of items listed this week: 5 -
I listened to your #302 podcast today since I’m trying to catch up. I may have some insight as to why the last caller said Puerto Rico is now an Intl shipping on ebay.
If one digs thru the USPS rules & regs if you ship an item with a value of $1500 USD or greater to Puerto Rico you are required to fill out a customs form. This may be why ebay bounced it to an intl shipping.
Also remember that ebay will not let you change the sold value after the sale is completed. So if I am correct in this case it would probably be easier to just bring the shipment to the post office in person and declare a lower value. Then take that tracking number and input it manually to your ebay account for the transaction.
This $1500 limit also applies to other US Possessions. It’s even more complicated if you are shipping from one US Possession to another, although I doubt any one here has ever done that.
I have shipped plenty of 1st class and priority packages to Puerto Rico without issue, so other than the $1500 limit I can’t think of another reason why PR shipping would get bounced to Intl.
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