Scavenger Life Episode 330: What Are You Working For?

[Ryanne]

What are you working for? We know it’s to pay your bills firstly. Once those are covered, what else? Working for ourselves can make you feel free from
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 330: What Are You Working For?]

[Mark S]

10/8/17 – 10/14/17

Total Items in Store: 2,084
Items SOld: 27
Cost of Items Sold: $150 (around)
Total Sales: $1621.80
Highest Price Sold: $850 NIB 1960’s Converse All Star Shoes
Average Price Sold: 60.07
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 182
Number of items listed this week: 17

My wife woke me up Saturday morning about 5:30AM to tell me that the Converse All Star Shoes had sold for full price for $850. Someone in Japan had bought them. I heard about these online for a garage sale. The sale started at 9AM and I got there around 12:30PM on my lunch break so I thought they would be gone, but they were still there. The guy’s dad had bought them for him when he was a kid in the 1960’s and he never wore them. After some barginning, I bought them for $52.50. I knew
these were something special so I listed them for $650. Got an offer for $250 within an hour of listing them. I knew right then these would sell high so I raised the price to $850. It only took 11 days for them to sell. Below is the link to them:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/332399738315

Even without the Converse sale, it was shaping up to be a great week with about $800 in sales. So I would say that at least for me, the busy season is in full swing.

Mark

[Ryanne]

wow they were New In Box? that’s insane!!!

[Mark S]

Ryanne: Yes, the shoes were new in the box as crazy as that may seem. I think the fact the they say “IRREGULAR” probably turned him off from wearing them. But that can mean anything.

Just when I thought it was crazy to find shoes from the 60’s still new, 8 days after I found the converse shoes I found another new pair of shoes from the 60’s. They weren’t nearly as cool as the converse, but they were Brown Leather Golf Shoes with metal spike from the late 60’s or early 70’s. Haven’t been able to pin that down, but based on the fact they were made by Sears and approved by Billy Casper – his career was in that timeframe. Also, I have found other shoes from the 60’s, not new but in excellent condition, so they are out there.

I learned a lot when researching for the converse shoes, here are some good posts that I will share. Not all exciting, but great information. The 50-things-you-didnt-know was the easiest read:

http://www.chucksconnection.com/history1.html

http://www.complex.com/sneakers/2013/05/50-things-you-didnt-know-about-converse-chuck-taylor-all-stars/semi-pro

simplicio: No, I didn’t have a search out for these. I just check the garage sales in my area when I am working from home and this popped up. I thought it was a long shot for them to be there for over 3 hours, but they were.

Mark

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Congratulations .. as Ryanne said.. “INSANE”. Good job. 🙂

We sold an antique pickle jar [called a pickle castor] last week. Listed for $375 and it sold for $250. One just never knows.

mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[Mark S]

Mike,

Any word on where Wonderlister is at on the export to Etsy?

I accidently asked T-Satt below, but you are the one that does the Beta testing for them and in the loop.

Mark

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Good morning Mark S:

Interesting you bring this up. Yes, got some information on this on Oct. 7th. which I can share.
As I mentioned in my reply to T-Satt, and as we all know, [big or small, part, or full-time sellers], Ebay is on the go. They have made 3 Release Upgrade Changes this year to date. Many of the older Updates contained warnings to everyone that changes were coming. It has been discussed here on SL that we all think Ebay is trying to stay relevant in the chase along with Amazon, Walmart, Target and the such and guess we all see the prime-time TV ad campaigns of Ebay.

Well those changes are hitting, and the tech team is reporting it is hitting hard and fast. When people use third party software and these software programs handle multiple platforms, then code changes that made to certain data fields within a piece of software can it can and does affect other areas, even if not directly pertinent to a specific app function. That is the beauty and the nemesis of a “relational database” structure.

Well when something doesn’t function right, the end user usually complains or creates an error report not to Ebay or Bonanza or Etsy but directly to the 3rd party software team. T-Satt probably does the same with SixBit. Something not working, ask the SB tech team not Ebay first.

Well Ebay’s huge amount of changes, updates, upgrades are creating a huge amount of inquiries to the 3rd party teams. I have had several issues over the past 6 weeks and almost every time, the answer is, yes, we discovered the same thing, it is not a WL issue but an Ebay issue. We are working with Ebay and will re-code as soon as Ebay gets it worked out.

Essential point, what I was told on Oct. 7th was the coding and engineering teams both are working full blast over time trying to keep the 3rd party apps working correctly to staying coordinated and straight with Ebay. This flurry of incoming inquires has derailed the time frame on their new projects and has pushed those further down the pike.

To my disappointment it has been decided to swap position of the Shopify and Etsy projects. I was asked to forward my Shopify credentials to the team and that the engineers will be working on the gateway to a complete Ebay store dump into the Shopify format first before the Etsy interface. The reason was that the Etsy project would require a lot of coding and the coders were busy keeping Ebay stable and working directly with Ebay, in a since helping them.

So, even though I already have set WL up with our Etsy credentials and some work has been done. We have moved 176 items over to Etsy, we have done it manually at this point and I am using WL only as a recoding vehicle at this point. The biggest problem seems to be working out the financial interface. Shopify uses any payment method including PayPal. Etsy has its own internal accounting – financial process. They only invoice every 3 months for listings, they do transfers directly to your account and bypass the PayPal process, or at least that is what I am getting from the information I have access to.
So, Shopify is going to come first, then after Ebay settles down, then Etsy will be picked back up maybe earlier to mid next year. Though I am still feeding some Etsy data into the WL Team, they seem state they will be doing internal experimentation on our Shopify Store first.

Here is one big Ebay glitch and what prompted me to ask for the creation of an archival Maximum highest price data field in WL. If you place a sale on your store, either the whole store, partial or by category, whatever, then WL and SB both report both the Original – Starting price and show next to it the now reduced price. But when the Sale ends the “On Sale” price changes but to an empty field and the original price should be the only price showing. This data, of course, all comes directly from Ebay telling the 3rd party apps what these prices are, now, and as they change on sale, etc. Well, I came to find out, only because I use an app like WL and could filter everything, that in some isolated cases, Ebay was not reporting back to WL the original price after the sale ended, but reported the Sale price back again and WL picked up that price. Then when these 2 programs synchronized the Sale price was reported as the NON_SALE price and our listing was now listed at a lower price. Then don’t know if any of you have ever noticed but Bonanza will also lower the price of your listing, randomly, by 1 or 2%. Then that number goes back to Ebay and then Ebay passes that along to 3rd party apps. In other words, we found some items that were originally $20, now listed at $16 [20% off but no sale running]. Then we ran another sale and Ebay glitched on a few and that $20 original item now gets relisted at $12.80.
After WonderLister team investigated it was discovered it is entirely an Ebay glitch. The Ebay engineering team told WL team that it is a problem and are working on it, but to date they have not been able to find what causes it since it is random, and they are trying to fix. It.

So, question for you. How often do you go through your complete inventory and compare what the current showing price is for your item as compared to what the original price was when you first listed it? Well, I probably think most sellers don’t. And, if you don’t cross list on other platforms, synch with Bonanza, run any type of Sales, or End and relist items at various intervals. This probably hasn’t affected anyone.

But we do, so this is what led to my request for some extra coding and for the creation of the “maximum price” column that was added to WL. I also spoke directly with one of the SixBit coders and they were not even aware of it. After I showed him how to spot check it they too now know about it and may be adding a way to check this.

Essentially how it works is within WL I have a folder that will show me any listing that is re-set in our Ebay store that re-sets back to a price lower than what we originally priced something at. If we lower a price on purpose those we are aware of and are no concern.
But all of this is to say that the Etsy project is pushed over until later along with a slower approach to Shopify until the coders and engineers can square all the Ebay glitches and get in smooth synch with them.

Hope this is not too disappointing to those using WL and waiting on the Etsy interface.
By the way.. unlike what Jay and Ryanne said one time in a pod-cast, I am not a techie person, I am an artist. Abstract painter and master printmaker specializing in Serigraphy. Accounting, business acumen and computer stuff was forced upon me by way of the nature of the way my personal world evolved. A jack of many trades a master of none.

Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art

[Mark S]

Mike,

Thanks for the update. I do cross list on Bonanza and TrueGether, but I have not seen the price errors that you are describing. But then again I didn’t go through all of my inventory as you mentioned, so it could be happening without my knowledge. But I do have a good handle on what things should sell for and so far it all looks right. But I will keep an eye on that. I have a spreadsheet that tracks what I listed the items for, so I can always look there also.

Mark

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Incredible shoes & incredible sale! Congrats!

[simplicio]

That is really cool. Did you have a saved search or something?

Sales: CAD$556, 4 items
COGS: $170
Gross profit: $289
Expenditures (incl. new inventory): $184
Net profit: $106
Hours: 5.5 hrs, $19/hr
Notable sales: HP Universal counter $10–>$150
Listed: 4 items, appx $475

OK week for sales, except COGS was too high (some items on commission). Spent a bunch of money on toner, should pay off handsomely but for now it’s just cost. Also got 3 obscure books on mediaeval literature for $0.50 each, I think they’re worth hundreds but we’ll see…

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Great to have you guys back! I couldn’t imagine packing like you do to do a long trip abroad…
I’m one of the fools dragging a big suitcase across cobblestones – picturing myself in Amsterdam, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Barcelona where that was the exact scene.

Week October 8-14, 2017

Total Items in Store: 930
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $89 (13.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $644.41
Highest Price Sold: $155 (c1962 Barbie Side Part Bubble Cut Platinum Hair in Red Velvet & White Satin)
Average Price Sold: $32.22
Returns: 1 (partial refund)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $33
Number of items listed this week: 10
Promoted listings test: 13 sales, $326.45 (50.7% of total sales), $15.10 fees (4.6% of sales)

Semi – slow week. A lot of low dollar & old items sold, which I’m quite happy are out. Ran sale on a lot of items I deemed as dead stock. Sold probably 4 of those items at a significant (40%-60%) discount.

However, this week is shaping up to be a record setter (assuming it keeps up at the same rate) – on Sunday alone sold 13 items for $840 (avg $64!) including 8 records and 2 of those vintage Barbies.

Picks this week were pretty much bread & butter – records, a couple small toys, etc – but the coolest thing I found were these two pieces of currency from the French Revolution. I love that they’re already framed/ready to hang – the frames even look like early 1900s based on the backing & nails.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Brian Treasures from Grandmas.

[T-Satt]

For us, reselling was the opportunity to work for ourselves and own our time and own our life, rather than feel like we were always working for others. Now it is moving to providing the capital to invest in other areas, like rental property.

Week of 10/8-10/14
Total Items in Store: 1,740
Number of Items Listed: 30
Number of Items Sold: 83
Weekly STR: 20%
Total Product Sales: $2,345
Cost of Items Sold: $419
Gross Profit for Week: $1,647
Highest Item Sold: $250 – Huge Lot 100+ Assorted Action Figures (I sold an Armani suit for $160 and STILL came in second this week!)
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 24-16.

Listings took a hit with me having to do a lot of prep this week for my annual hunting trip. Same will be true for the next two weeks while I’m out hunting, and I won’t be able to report numbers until I return. This is the other side of Scavenging…hunting, gardening, etc. It will be good to get some time with my youngest son who hunts, and to see my parents (my mother and father still hunt, and yes, even my mother can shoot…she has the biggest buck in the family, and that was just two years ago).

Veronica will be holding down the fort, and it has been tough sourcing recently on the non-clothing side. She may be forced to dip into clothes to keep productive. Though I am planning to get the Etsy side of SixBit up and running so that she can spend some time expanding our platforms and getting more sales.

[Mark S]

T-Satt,

Any word on where Wonderlister is at on the export to Etsy?

Mark

[T-Satt]

I don’t know as much about WonderLister, but I know Mike at MDC Galleries is really tight with them. We are using SixBit and expanded to use Etsy, and it is great! We can do a listing for eBay in the normal time, and in about 60 seconds (max), we can have the listing sent to Etsy. Very efficient.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

T-Satt: I posted a reply on 10/18/2017 @ 8:05 AM that contains a response to where WonderLister is with regards to the Etsy Interface. That info. is about mid-way down.

I have not heard anything new about the Etsy interface since that last post. But it is about time to check back in with the team and see where that project is on the “To-Do” list for the engineers.

Will post if I find out anything new or different from the Oct. 18th post.

mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[T-Satt]

Mike: Yeah, I saw that after I hit send. Now that I am back in the flow, I was going through the emails, which when you click the link takes you to the bottom of the thread. After I hit send and it posted, I saw your reply!

Thanks for the follow up!

[Retro Treasures WV]

Total Items in Store: 899
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $60
Total Sales: $674
Profit: $614
Highest Price Sold: $110 Chemistry Set
Average Price Sold: $33.70
Average Profit: $30.70

Great week. Last night I finally sat down and created listings for a tub of shoes. First time I’ve worked on listing in over a month. It felt…awkward. Lol!
I have a delay in photographing because we’ve been using the listing table to fold clothes and my wife “snapped” a towel to get rid of lint before folding and it broke one of my lights. I ordered some LED photography lamps as replacements.

Sold some cool items this week. This one was my favorite.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-80s-Gitano-Patchwork-Plaid-Blazer-Jacket-Wool-Blend-Mens-Size-L-Hipster-/263225452987?hash=item3d4975a9bb:g:lHEAAOSwFuxZxsoE

Picked that up at a thrift on the way home from vacation in September. It was one of those items that I see and just know there is someone somewhere in the world that will pay about any price to get their hands on it.

This weekend I did some arcade work for the pizza chain I maintain games for. If I ever go full time that hobby will definitely come to the forefront again. The home gameroom market has exploded the last few years.

[T-Satt]

Nice job on that jacket!!!

[Sharyn]

Week of Oct 8 – 14
* Total Items in Store: 1079
* Items Sold: 17
* Cost of Items Sold: $36.34 + $73 Commission
* Total Sales: $485.34
* Highest Price Sold: $146 – 4 yds Blue wool crepe + coordinating lining & buttons
* Average Price Sold: $28.55
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $51.75
* Number of items listed this week: 25

My highest sale was a commission. My highest non-commission sale was two mannequins to one person for $70 + $50. It was a local pickup, and I found that the mannequins will be used in an art exposition scheduled for the end of this year!

My parents were in town a little over a week ago, and they brought a huge amount of stuff. They and their friends use me as their dumping ground for things they no longer need. Not a problem! I still went to an auction on Thursday because I wanted to get out of the house. In general, though, I’m trying to not spend much on new inventory until I catch up.

Earlier in the week, my camera battery ran out of power, and I couldn’t find the other battery with the charger anywhere. So, I ordered a used OEM charger and battery for delivery this week, and then ordered a replacement brand that would be delivered earlier. So, I got the replacement on Thursday and was able to take photos on Friday. The used OEM set arrived early on Saturday, and then I found my original stuff on Sunday. I had plugged it in the guest room probably because I was using that room the last time I photographed stuff. Duh! I guess I am now triply protected against my absent-minded self.

[Idahoarder]

Store Week 10/8/17 – 10/14/17

Total items in store: 1583
Items sold: 29
Cost of items sold: $21.74
Total sales: $985.36
Highest price sold: $180.00 (Bella Notte Duvet)
Average price sold: $33.98
International Sales: 5
Returns: 1 (wrong size)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $2.87

I have a family member who is in charge of her grandparents’ estate, and she asked me to list some things on eBay for her. I normally don’t do this, but I’d like to help them out and I think they probably have some really nice stuff (although I haven’t seen it yet). We were thinking about starting a new eBay account, just for the estate (so it won’t mess with my taxes and stuff), but do you think this will make it harder to sell? I have an established store with great feedback and would be starting from zero. Thoughts? They also have a lot of valuable cars and car parts (Model T, etc.), that we definitely don’t know about, so those would probably be better at an estate auction or to local buyers. She does have someone who can identify all the parts, but he is very emotionally invested, so that could be difficult.

Looking forward to listening while I list today!

[T-Satt]

I wouldn’t start another store. I would give each of the estate items their own SKU (ESTATE1, ESTATE2, etc) and in your COGS when you do your tax filing, the cost is the same as what you are sending to other people.

This is how we have done it, so that the only profit we show is on our commission.

[Idahoarder]

Oh, that’s a good idea. I really didn’t want to set up another account, but I want to be sure to keep it all straight.

[ChristineR]

Hi Ryanne – my comment disappeared after editing. Thanks!

[Simon]

Hi R&J – Glad you guys are back to a regular routine. Thanks for the podcast!

My numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 1992
Items Sold: 42
Total Sales: $1032
Cost of Items Sold: $85.31
Average Price Sold: $24.58
Average Cost of Item: $2.03
Highest Price Item Sold: $210 Lot of 4 Kenwood 2-way Radios
Number of items listed this week: 48
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 272
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 129
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 64
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.11%
# of Hats Sold: 35 (83% of sales)

Quite a busy week. Hope this continues.

My highest priced sale was a set of 2-way radios that I actually got for free at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago. The person running the sale didn’t think they were worth anything and told me to just take them for free. Amazing. I didn’t know if they were worth anything until I looked them up when I got home.

The latest page to get the new eBay UI look is the bulk feedback page. 🙁 The new design just slows things down for me. Too bad they couldn’t leave that one alone. I might have to switch on auto-feedback. I’ve avoided doing that because I like to make my feedback a little more personalized.

[Beverly – Far Out and Fabulous]

ON THE CALLER WHO HAD A BAIT & SWITCH:

Contact eBay for Business on FACEBOOK. Give them all the info, your seller id, full name, email address, explain, what has happened so far, link to item, picture of item returned.

[Beverly – Far Out and Fabulous]

ON THE CALLER WHO HAD A BAIT & SWITCH:

Contact eBay Business page on FACEBOOK. Give them all the info, your seller id, full name, email address, explain, what has happened so far, link to item, picture of item returned.

[Beverly – Far Out and Fabulous]

Sorry, I don’t know how my post posted twice. I was not repeating myself.
Sorry, I don’t know how my post posted twice. I was not repeating myself.

[skydog]

Hi guys.

Week of Oct. 9-15th, 2017
Total Items in Store: 495
Items Sold: 23
Cost of Items Sold: $71
Total Sales: $552*
Highest Price Sold: $45
Average Price Sold: $24.00*
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4.50
Number of items listed this week: 21
*does not include shipping charges (paid by buyer)

Sold a nice pair of Nike running shoes for the $45 sale. Have cut back on sourcing until I get through some of the winter clothing I have been hoarding all summer. My other job, real estate sales, was busy this week so I spent little time listing.

[Doublythumbs]

Oct. 8-14
Total Items in Store: 717
Items Sold: 11
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $367
Highest Price: $175 (Vintage Cast Iron Elephant Cigarette Dispenser and Ashtray)
Average Price: $33
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $40
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $254 (LOTS of scavenging while on vacation)

It feels good to be back home from vacation. And I bet you two are feeling the same! Putting vacation mode on my store really turned out nice. Nobody minded not having their items shipped until we got home. Yesterday, I packed and prepared 17 items for shipment. It took me a couple hours, so I can’t imagine how long it took you, Ryanne, to pack over 200!

We did a lot of thrift shopping in several different states on our trip. We probably hit up at least 30 stores. I must say, we were a little disappointed in Georgia. Just not a lot of good stuff. But South and North Carolina were gold mines. And so was Virginia actually. And it seemed like the further away you got from major cities, the better stuff there were. Maybe because there are fewer people and the better stuff doesn’t get picked through at fast. I found some cool stuff, but I went all out at one Goodwill in SC. I’ll occasionally check out the music section for old stuff and I’m glad I did this time. Someone must have donated their entire old school metal and hip hop cassette tape collection. I went ALL OUT and spent $120 on over 200 cassettes. Lots of obscure bands and groups that I’ve never even heard of. I was both excited and nervous about dropping that much cash on something that I don’t have much experience with, but my good feelings are hardly ever wrong. I even got a 10% discount when I asked about it. 🙂

One of your callers this week had some good advise about going to Goodwill Outlet stores. Gloves are VERY important! There has always been broken glass and sharp objects in those bins every time I’ve gone. The best gloves are those mechanics gloves that can be found in the automotive aisle in Walmart. They’re about $15 a pair, but they’re just right for protection and finger mobility. Another piece of advice is to go with a partner. It’s a good idea to have someone watching your cart while you’re elbow to elbow with other people because you WILL get stuff stolen out of your cart otherwise. It’s a whole different world in those stores, and it’s not for everyone. But I think I’m lucky in that at my closest one, people are at least respectful enough to not claim ownership of entire bins like you guys mentioned.

[BethGreen]

My numbers for the week of 10/8/17:
Total Items in Store: 101
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $51
Total Sales: $523.91 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $125 (4 x Mr Clean Carwash)
Average Price Sold: $52.39
Returns: 0
There is a $95 item included in these numbers that I am almost certain is going to end up a UPI case. Huge Hot Wheels Racetrack sold via GSP. 🙁

My highest sale this week was the Mr Clean Carwash Devices…all were brand new, all found in the same day at a community-wide garage sale. I found the first 3 at one house, priced $1 each! Later in the day a different house had 1 that I paid $3 for. Sold them all to the same buyer for $125 (cost $10 to ship them). Not the first time I have found these and they are always a quick seller. I also sold 2 of the deluxe Halloween Costumes this week that I mentioned in last weeks post. Those 2 paid for the 8 I purchased. Funny how we were just talking about multiples of new items and about half of my $ sales this week were from these multiple quantity items. I hardly ever actively source these things. But except for 1 dud purchase ($35 worth of kids robes) every multiple I’ve done has been very successful. I see myself doing more of it in the future, just to round out my pre-owned item sales.

Glad you guys are back. I really look forward to the podcast on Monday mornings and miss it when you don’t get a chance to do one! Happy 4th quarter everybody!

[Edward]

I have finally started listing a bunch of items again and more items seem to be selling.

One of my profitable sales was someone in California bought two of my 1970’s canvas newspaper delivery bags I used when I was a teenager in Oklahoma City. They had been hanging up in my parent’s garage for about 40 years and I brought them home on one of my visits back to see my family. I finally listed them for $70 each and got offers of $50 each in just a few hours. I wasted no time in accepting those offers. I could not get the buyer to tell me why they purchased old newspaper delivery bags; I wonder if someone from a prop shop bought them.

[Blackcat]

You can definitely change your active page back to the way it was. I know because I’ve done it. I still have my 1-500. I called ebay and it was something under my subscriptions. She told me one thing to do and that wasn’t it and she told me another thing to do and that worked. It’s something you need to subscribe or unsubscribe to. I’m sorry I can’t recall what it was called. Call ebay and tell them you want the look of your old ebay back. It may be the sales reports plus or the selling manager. I don’t recall.

[Linda Shields]

Since you asked, Jay, I have been working to pay off our home mortgage early. We only have 3 more payments to go and will be totally debt free by the end of this year. I had been selling more as a hobby for a while before I decided to have a goal other than occassional large purchases. So I got serious and began working a bit more seriously.
Yesterday I asked my husband when I first started sending extra money for that, and how much have my Ebay sales actually paid off anyway? Honestly I had no clue, I really hadn’t kept track. I didn’t think it was much. So he did a little research and told me I sent in my first extra money on the mortgage in 2007. At first I just sent in an extra $1,000 on random months. Then as my store grew more I began sending in $1000 every month. Then my store grew enough that I started sending in a regular monthly $2,000 per month. When he told me the total amount I have paid down with just my ebay money I was astounded— $110,000.00. Wow. Just my Ebay “hobby” money cut our mortgage payoff time in half!

[T-Satt]

Outstanding! That is AWESOME!!!

[Idahoarder]

WOW! Good for you!

[Doublythumbs]

Heck yeah, Linda! That’s some good inspiration right there!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Linda… Just absolutely fantastic. What a great accomplishment. My hat off to you. Kudos. 🙂

Mike in Atlanta

[Linda Shields]

Thanks you guys! I shared that to encourage everyone that if you have a specific goal, and just plug along slow but sure, it will become a reality sooner than you imagined. Just keep your eye on the prize every day. It sure helps to have the encouragement that you find here in Jay and Ryanne’s community of trash elves!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Yep…As many of you guys know we closed down 6 antique booths 2 years back and began moving all that inventory to our online ventures. The closing created about a hundred bins of items and a bunch of furniture being placed at our in home storage. Well by slowly “plugging away” as you say, as of this month, all but 2 bins are gone. Either listed, donated or dumped. But during this time we have “slowly” invested into our basement studio. And also as of this month it is ready to go so we can start back to doing my abstract paintings, artwork, small sculptures, decorative clocks, mirrors and prints. Also have a a complete wood working shop set-up for sculptures, doing our own framing and canvass stretching. It was 2 years in coming, but everything is now in place and supplied. Now we can make some of the items we are going to sell. That will be more of a labor of love than listing “glass and brass, rusty old, items”.

Here’s to having a plan of action. And Again, Kudos to you for that pay off. We have a shop slogan and maybe now you too can have the time to participate..
“Live to Create and Celebrate..Buying, Creating and Selling Eclectic Fine Art and Decor”

Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta

[Sharyn]

Mike – I’d love to see some of the items you make yourself. Do you have a photo to post or a link to share?

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

That will be coming, but in a few months. First thing we are going to be doing over the next 4 to 6 weeks is pull out and open up the portfolios and start to list all of the prints we have stored. Most of those I did the printing for other artists that did not have the equipment or skill sets to do their own limited edition print runs. As part of my payment I recievd a various amount of signed pieces from the limited runs I did for them. Most runs were under 250 pcs. and i usually got 10 pieces form the run. Also I printed many posters for shows that were some museums and galleries and going to list those also. those are already finished back in the 70’s-80’s and should be listed first.

Also we are going to have our assistant listing a large MINT US Commemorative Stamp Collection I have that I started when I was a teen. I have every US Stamp printed since 1920 in single MINT condition and also a complete collection of those years of each stamp in a 6 pc. block page. We have decided to do all the stamps by lots by the year, but still that is approx. 80 to 100 listings for the single stamps and then the same if not more for the plate blocks. Stamps are special in the since that there is a published value in the scott catalogue [based on condition of course and mine are all MINT and in protective sleeves]and those Scott numbers have to be referenced.
Lastly will be the paintings and constructions. The paintings are large 36″ to 48″ square and large. Most will have to be Photographed carefully for color accuracy then due to size maybe in some cases unstretched and sold rolled, especially if International.

So at periodic times items will be posted.

Mike in atlanta

[Sharyn]

I have an extensive stamp collection from when I was a kid as well – mostly used stamps. I belonged to a trading company where I would create booklets of duplicate stamps, and I had to write the Scott catalog value underneath. I spent hours in the library looking up prices. I suppose that should be online these days.

I can’t imagine having to look up all those values in order to list each stamp or groups of stamps. Maybe some day, although, I could start with a box of duplicates I have. I still have a large backlog and several death piles, so I can’t imagine doing that unless I decide to stop sourcing.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Yes.. We have a subscription to the Scott Catalogue. Got it a few months back, knowing this stamp project was coming up. Used stamps that have been hinged and have hinge marks or missing gum on the back don’t have much value. Even if 80 years old unless it’s a rare one. Just my opinion, but probably best to let the used ones go in bulk lots. Try an auction starting with a buy it all price. It would be a waste of time to look up Scott No’s. and their prices for used stamps.

On our MINT stamps the usual going price is what is called the wholesale price. especially if we want to attract stamp dealers. That will be the Scott Mint Value less 60%. So a stamp with a dollar value we could hope to sell for about $0.40. But do that by year of 36 to 40 issues per year = about $15 per year x 80 years = about $1,200 for our US collection. But we do have various issues in various years that will go for $dollars$ per stamp which we roughly calculate the single collection going for may $1,500 and up. After that the plate blocks of all of those will go for maybe 2 to 3 times this. We are hoping for maybe $3,000 but that is just hopes. But guess you can see why we really need to go ahead and start on this project. We are creating a special stamp listing template in WL and will show our assistant how to do them and maybe let her just focus on those for a few weeks / months??

[Linda Shields]

I love your story, Mike. I am not as talented as you are by any means but I have an upstairs studio sitting pretty much unused where I used to spend some time every day Creating something. I love to make jewelry, write, sew, and particularly make one of a kind art quilts. I just start with an idea or some pieces of fabric and work on it one step at a time until it tells me it is finished. I used to make traditional quilts for many years until after 9/11. That affected me so kich I wanted to express my feelings about it, so I created a memorial wall hanging about it bever since then that was the only way I could make a quilt, to express something. Perhaps that is how painters and sculptors work. I so look forward to your return to the arts!

[Linda Shields]

By the way, I can’t believe that someone was actually going to return a duvet because they didn’t know how to sew on a button. Obviously a helpless person. I would gladly sew a button on for anyone willing to pay $25. LOL

[Idahoarder]

I’ve also had a few of my listings disappear. I had some Sami Laplander seal skin boots listed. They had a lot of interest at first and then after a while I happened to think of them and wondered why nobody had inquired or purchased them yet. I went to look and both pair were gone. I investigated and realized that selling anything made from a marine animal is apparently prohibited, so maybe that’s why. But eBay let me list it just fine and I never got any notification that it was pulled, where I have received this notice on other items before. Now what the heck am I supposed to do with these awesome boots?! I originally thought they were reindeer and someone messaged me that they themselves were Sami and that these were seal skin, so I changed it. Maybe I’ll try reindeer again! Haha.

[Linda Shields]

Maybe list them as “vintage”? I think that’s allowed.or just “fur”?

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Linda Shields.

[Idahoarder]

It doesn’t matter when they were made, which I thought was weird, but I guess it’s probably the same with ivory, etc. Listing them as just fur is a good plan!

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week Oct 8-14, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1406
Items Sold: 28
Cost of Items Sold: $50.39
Total Sales: $734.10
Highest Price Sold: $110 (1940’s deadstock silk shirt )
Average Price Sold: $26.22
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
Number of items listed this week: 66

Finally starting to pick up for me. I stepped up the sourcing and listing this past week, and it’s beginning to pay off. Last week I picked up a huge lot of reel to reel tapes; about 180 for $20 bucks. Already sold a few prerecorded ones for almost $100 bucks. I also took Best Offers on three vintage items that had been in my store for a while. The first was the silk shirt, then one buyer bought two vintage 60’s girdles for $65 each. All three items were Promoted Listings.

Jay & Ryanne, welcome back, and thank you for the extra long podcast!

*Paul*

[Linda Shields]

I have the opposite problem of the person who called to say his listings are missing. Like this evening I randomly noticed an item listed in my store that I sold last week! This keeps happening to me causing me to get a defect for not in stock. I KNOW i did not relist that item since it sold last week. Argh! Glad I stumbled across it.why is this happening? Does anyone remember the website that will tell you if you have multiple listings?

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Linda… Here you go.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm

Fill in the two fields in the upper left corner and then it only takes less than a minute and you will get a list of all duplicates in your store and color coded.

I run this periodically and do find dups. for whatever reason. Found 6 just yesterday. And as you said, why??

Good luck
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[T-Satt]

Nice tool Mike. I had not heard of this. Do you have this view in WonderLister also? I used your link to check our listings, and it found a possible duplicate, but I know it isn’t, I just had two shirts that I used the exact same title, but different pictures (the condition was different so I listed them separately). I have this view in SixBit (checking for duplicates) and it had the same info.

This subject fascinates me, as we have never had this happen. In fact, we have had warnings when we had identical listings by mistake. I know eBay will allow the same title as long as the Gallery Photo is different, but it will not allow the same title and same gallery photo.

Weird…

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Good Morning T-Satt: Thank Goodness for Coffee. Been getting up around 5:00 or so since Sept. Sales really started to kick in mid-Sept, so been trying to put the hours in.

Had that tool for a while. I have a folder on my desktop that I created called Utility Tools for Ebay and that has been sitting in there for awhile and i use periodically to double check WonderLister and to see if they both jive. Yes, the tool can confuse items due to the titles being similiar. Think that is why they color code them, to help with that.

Ebay is making a bunch of changes which include a lot of coding, which I will address in my answer to Mark S in a minute. But all the code changes is causing not only problems for the thrid party coders, but also within Ebay. Thus all the “it must be a glitch” coming from the reps when everyone is calling and asking for answers. Like J&R mentioned, they still have a ton of links back to old pages intertwined with all of the new pages they are creating. In the old days when Cobal, Fortran, Machine language was in use, it was called “spaghetti code”. Personally, I don’t think they even know what issues are going to be created by re-coding and just wait for the sellers-buyers=users to start complaining and they then try to fix it on the fly. But just my opinion.

Yes, and just like SixBit [which you also know does much of the same thing] WonderLister has several fields that flags things for us. It breaks out items into separate folders that flag items on sale, not on sale, at auction, active, Past end time, Potential Duplicates, Out of stock, Error in the picture gallery, missing sku No., duplicate SKU’s [helps me a lot when I create a duplicate sku in error manually], duplicate EANs, system errors, etc., etc.

And two that I am prode to say I helped motivate the WL team to include in a recent update and that is a folder that holds any listings that I edit within WL but did not hit resubmit. So this folder tells me that a have several items that need to be bulk re-submitted and WL also coded a new datafield based of a recommendation I made a few months back and that is “Historical Maximum High Price”. What this code does is identify the highest price I have ever placed on an item and holds it forever. The only time this price will change is when I enter a price that is higher than ever entered before. This is a safety net for when cross listing on various platforms, i.e. Etsy, Bonanza, Trugether, our own site in Shopify, etc. Many times we may run a sale in one platform and not the other. So if we ever get out of synch by having this column we can always reference and manually reset price back to the highest price we ever placed. This column can’t be edited by the user. It is just an archive field. Also if we ever sell something and find something down the road and use one of our old listings and click duplicate for relist, there is the historical price of that item so we don’t have to research again. It has it’s uses.

Take care and have a great day and fourth quarter…
mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art

[Linda Shields]

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Linda Shields.

[Linda Shields]

X

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Linda Shields.

[Ryanne]

Linda Shields wrote:

I love your story, Mike. I am not as talented as you are by any means but I have an upstairs studio sitting pretty much unused where I used to spend some time every day Creating something. I love to make jewelry, write, sew, and particularly make one of a kind art quilts. I just start with an idea or some pieces of fabric and work on it one step at a time until it tells me it is finished. I used to make traditional quilts for many years until after 9/11. That affected me so kich I wanted to express my feelings about it, so I created a memorial wall hanging about it bever since then that was the only way I could make a quilt, to express something. Perhaps that is how painters and sculptors work. I so look forward to your return to the arts!

[Linda Shields]

Thanks Mike. I found one other. Strange. How are you so organized? 😊

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Ha-Ha.. 🙂 I don’t feel organized. But thanks to tons of apps / software tools most things are within a “search” away. Tons of items in “My Favorites”, many folders created, tons of items organized within MicroSoft’s Outlook Contact Manager and I use MS OneNote to create daily messages for things To-Do or To-Buy, etc. Also bookmark SL replies that I wish to reply to if I get time. But other than that just work 15 to 16 hours per day 7 days per week. AND that is the Gods honest truth.

mike in Atlanta

[dearmila]

Oct 8 – Oct 14, 2017
Total Items in Store: 358
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: approx. $20
Total Sales: $358.46 (excluding shipping costs)
Highest Price Sold: $63.48 (Anthropologie jacket )
Average Price Sold: $17.92
Returns: 0
International Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 13

Had a couple great days of sales this week, but it didn’t last… but I know I have to list a whole lot more. Took a couple weeks off sourcing, but back to the bins this Friday. It was fun to hear about one of the caller’s 1st experience at the bins. YES, eat before, get a good night sleep… I have it kind of down now… charged phone, earbuds, small backpack containing: water, my wallet, charged charger & 2 zip IKEA bags (instead of using the Goodwill plastic bags that are a waste, too thin & hard to carry). I never source the bins that people are waiting for, it’s too crazy. I find lots of good stuff in the bins nobody’s looking at. Thank you as always for the podcast!

[Ryanne]

reposting steve’s numbers, because they got deleted by accident—

steven s wrote:

Oct 1-7 2017 $

• Total Items in Store: 851
• Items Sold: 31 (29 eBay 1 Bonanza 1 Truegether)
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $1910 ($1815 ebay $80 Bonanza $15 Truegether)
• Highest Price $180 Model kit
• Average Price Sold: $62
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $450
• Cost of items purchased this week $0

One of the things I like about this job is happening upon things I want for myself like this Preway fireplace, I’d been on the lookout for awhile and found a couple but they were priced over $500, this one came up on FB marketplace, drove an hour and a half to a tiny town in Iowa and got it for $200.

https://imgur.com/gallery/gkgzB

[Terri]

Steve, I had that exact orange fireplace in my family home when I was in high school in the 70’s. Trip down memory lane….

[Steven S]

It cleaned up real nice.
I plan on finding a realistic electric insert for it.

[Linda Shields]

Nice of you to get it for the dog. 😊

[Beverly – Far Out and Fabulous]

We had that same fireplace, same color, in our home on base at Paine Field in WA. The house is still standing … wonder if that fireplace is still in it!!!

[dearmila]

P.S. Also spent the good part of one night this week going through all of my listings to make sure the box under the pictures (“Display a large photo…fee MAY apply”??!!) was unchecked. I had run across an expired listing where the box was checked! So in a super paranoid manner I had to check all my listings. I did find a handful of others that were checked (all non-clothing items). Each time I found one, I was simultaneously relieved that I caught it and furious it had been checked in the first place, not by me.

& what I’m working for… to be home w/ my daughter, to work for myself on my own time, terms & schedule, hopefully soon have more time for some more artistic pursuits & travel! Have been so inspired by Ryanne & Jay’s story.

[Country Lane]

I feel like maybe you aren’t getting how the business policies work. I have about 6,000 items from tiny one ounce things to gigantic local pickups and I have about 8 shipping policies. Really all they do is say how fast you will ship (handling time), how you will ship (carrier, or type), and if yo will do global shipping. The rest of the data is in your listing like size and weight.

For example: I have 3 calculated shipping business policies. USPS, FedEx or UPS, and USPS or FedEx or UPS. Basically if it’s a small item I apply the USPS policy. Medium size item I apply the Fedex or UPS policy. If it is a giant item I apply Fedex or UPS. So when a buyer sees the medium size item it gives them the option to pick the carrier and shows the price for each.

I also have 2 free shipping policies. One for “expedited” which means I am shipping first class or priority and one for “media” which means I am shipping media mail.

I also have one for local pickup.

I would recommend you play with setting some up and picking items to apply to them and start cleaning that up because ebay is already doing it for you. It takes me less then 5 minutes to change handling on 6,000 items.

I would also recommend doing sixbit before you begin doing your inventory organization. You will thank me later.

[Mark S]

I just saw this announcement: “eBay Launches Authentication Service for Luxury Handbags”. It was under Selling Annocements.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/eBay-Launches-Authentication-Service-for-Luxury-Handbags/ba-p/27601197

I don’t usually find handbags that high end, but they are going to open up to other categories in the future.

Mark

[Sharyn]

This sounds a bit like their valet program, but with the authentication added in.

Someone once asked me about selling some vintage gold jewelry worth a significant amount of money, and I mentioned that eBay was going to have an authentication service some time soon. I’m not sure that this would be the program I’d recommend.

[CTVintage]

Jay and Ryanne, thanks for another informative podcast. I listen to it every Monday morning at the gym and it makes my workout fly by!
Regarding the discussion about eBay business policies, I agree with others here that they are useful and not hard to use once you get the hang of them. Like J&R, I sell a wide range of vintage items in different categories and weights. I just set the policy to calculated shipping and provide options based on size. For eg, I have calculated shipping policies for items over and under 1 pound, and separate ones for offering free shipping. The only big difference between the policies is type of carrier, handling time and whether or not I’m offering free shipping. It makes it a lot easier and faster to bulk edit if all you want to do is change handling times or switch some items to free shipping.

Also, just a thought about eBay’s technology in general. Although there are some glitches and frustrations, it is so much better than other platforms that I’ve tried – primarily Etsy. It’s cheaper to sell on Etsy but that doesn’t mean much when you don’t get many customers. I did ok for a while when I was paying a lot of attention to it but even then the sales pale in comparison to my eBay store. I’ve started to empty out my Etsy shop and transition everything over to eBay or my own web site. Not only is Etsy’s traffic a lot lower, it also takes longer to list things, and they don’t have a global shipping program or good automated promotional tools (ie, coupon codes are pretty much it and you can’t apply them to specific items or categories; just have to trust the customer to use them as intended). Just my 2 cents.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

FindzShop:

Etsy is making some changes and for the god but it is some of the reasons you state that makes it harder for 3rd party listing programs like Ink Frog, WonderLister and SixBit to interface with them. But SixBit already has a good handle on it and WonderLister will also sometime next year.

I agree 100% about Business policies. Super Easy to use. We only have about 6 of them and that covers everything from the smallest item like earrings up to a large piece of furniture that is overweight and oversize and into DIM WEIGHT. Also super easy to use in a 3rd party app like WonderLister and Sixbit. When an item is listed, click on one of the 6 small nicknames I gave them. I think some people think you have to create a business policy for each item situation that one sells, that would lead to a lot on types of various shipping scenarios. Nope. It is simply by the type of shipping an item falls into. I won’t go into listing them. I set-up my Business policies for our whole store in less than 30 minutes a long time ago and have not had to alter them except maybe once or twice in 2 years? +/-

Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[lizlangsteiner]

Can someone tell me where I can find the option to bulk edit 500 listings at a time?
Thank you.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Hi Liz: I will give this a shot. It is simple, but with Ebay showing some things to some people and other things to otehrs who knows. But try this.
Make sure you start by going to “My Ebay”, then make sure you are on the “Seller Hub Overview tab””, then depending on how you may have customized your “view” you want to focus on the “Listings” area. Then glance down and click on the line in blue “Active Listings”. This will also show the number of current listings you have.
This now takes you to the editing section that has all of your “active Listings” listed all down in a few pages.
Now you will see close to the top of your first listing a tab-box that says “EDIT” with a drop down arrow. When I click on mine the drop down shows me 3 options. #1=edit selected [if you check this you should then check which single listings you want to edit]… BUT if you want to bulk edit, my #2 Option says “Edit Listings #1-500”, then the next line says “Edit Listings #501-882” [all that I have in our store. That should do it. You will go to the editor for each group of 500 until you work your way through all of the pages, grouped 500 at a time, depending on how many total items you have. In our case 882 items can be edited in 2 pages and two work throughs.

NOW.. with that said T-Satt, Marks S and I use WonderLister and Sixbit. We can edit all of our listings at one time with no limit on the amount we want to edit. If I have 8,000 listings like J&R I could edit them all at one time, any where, any how, any field and then schedule them to all submit either all at the same time or space them out seconds, minutes or hours apart. But hours apart would take 882 hours to change. Usually if I change my description area of a small field field, I do all 882 at one shot and submit right away and it only takes a couple of minutes.

Hope this works for you and good luck.

Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[Linda Shields]

Mike, can you do that with a Premium (middle sized) store?

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

If you are inquiring about the “edit 500 listings at a time comment”, I would certainly think so since all we have is the mid-size Premium store, and if I so choose to edit my listings from within the Ebay form [now mind you this is on a computer NOT a CELL PHONE], I am allowed to do them 500 at a time. I just did a double check again and yep, my Premium store editor is showing 500 at a clip.

mike in Atlanta

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.

[T-Satt]

Amen Mike! I love the ability to bulk change items very quickly.

Similar to Business Policies, we have 13 Presets that handle all of our shipping possibilities. Most of that is Large vs Small for the same type (since International First Class cuts off at 4 lbs). So it is nice that when we go on vacation and our boys will do all of the shipping, we can change the preset for the Large items to 10 day handling, and it is done. Takes 1 minute to change all of them. And when we return, 1 minute to change them back.

[Manateejaq]

October 8th – 14th 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 468 // Ebay 560 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 16 // Ebay 17
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $26.24 // Ebay $33.36
Total Sales: Etsy $249.60 // Ebay $296.83
Highest Price Sold: Fisher Price Puffalump plush $85
Average Price Sold: $16.56
Returns: 0 ( I did get an item not received case though – the item tracking marked the item as delivered, and my postmaster confirmed the correct location dropoff with GPS… haven’t heard back from the buyer)
Number of items listed this week: 26 (listed at $405)

Looks like my big sale from last week was delivered safely, so that is a relief.

What am I working for? To pay some bills, and fund some vacations with family and friends. Also, to have a lower stress lifestyle with flexibility.

[Rhianna]

Thanks for the great conversation about traveling light. Edgar and I have been doing that for a while but we both know we can do better. We are planning to do the Camino De Santiago next fall and I am hoping to keep my backpack under 15 pounds. The walk is about 26-30 days of walking 20ish miles a day, so packing light is critical. Ryanne I hope you do a video, I think it would be a great “how to”.

[Author]

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