Scavenger Life Episode 357: Don’t Live In Drafts

[Ryanne]

 We were caught off guard when our copious amounts of drafts that were over 30 days old started losing photos on the eBay server. Huge lesson learne
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 357: Don’t Live In Drafts]

[Mark S]

04/15/18 – 04/21/18

Total Items In Store: 2,365
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $65 (around)
Total Sales: $680
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Stetson Hat)
Average Price Sold: $42.50
Returns: 1 (Got 2 returns closed by calling after 5 days – saved a lot of money doing that)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 88
Number of Items listed this week: 40

Good week this week. Started out real slow but picked up toward the end of the week with the Stetson Hat to top it all off (pun intended).

I was starting to think I had a store like Simon. By Friday morning, I had sold 11 items and 5 of them were hats.

This week was my week to get more knowledgeable. I did a deep dive into Levi’s Jeans and Baseball hats. I bought a 1980’s Detroit Tigers baseball hat. That triggered a research project into some other Tiger’s hats I bought and couldn’t figure out what they were. I found some good sites and figured out what they all were. I found out that 2 of my Detroit Tigers hats are from the 1950’s. The one looks unworn so I am going to list it for $200. So when they ask me at a garage sale,”What are you looking for?” I am going to say old jeans and old baseball hats.

Mark

[MyCottage]

Haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but did read the transcript of the drop shipping podcast—fascinating! Thanks for sharing that!

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week April 15-21, 2018

Total Items in Store: 1576
Items Sold: 42
Cost of Items Sold: $57.84
Total Sales: $1143.74 ($1018.74 eBay / $125 private sale)
Highest Price Sold: $125 (pair of vintage vanity license plates)
Average Price Sold: $27.23
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $89.04
Number of items listed this week: 51

Yikes. I’d be so pissed if I lost all those draft photos. Since I’m a solo operation, drafts don’t last long. I’ve slightly tweaked my listing process: do the listing on the laptop, take the photos with my phone, then upload the photos to the eBay app and publish the listing. I usually do them in batches of 5-10, depending on the items. In the past I did the photos first, but I’ve found it’s easier to research items, them immediately do the listing. It also stops me from wasting time taking photos of stuff that doesn’t sell or sells for a very low price. That’s my process, anyway.

So thrilled with my week. I sold 8 records, the highest being $71.99. It was the soundtrack to “The Wraith”, which I’ve never seen, but know it’s got a cult following. Sold overnight. I paid .99 cents for it earlier that day. I’ve been saying lately that I love listing records because they’re so easy, unlike clothing. But half of my weekend sales were clothing, so I guess I’m still in the vintage clothing game. I’m cool with that.

Here’s to a great week for all of us.

Paul

[totommyto]

Have not listened completely, some passive listening late night while packing, only 20 minutes in…

4/15 – 4/21/18

eBay Store totommyto

Total store items: 542
Number items sold: 29
eBay sales (not count s/h): $1,462.64
Cost of items sold: $39
Consignment payouts: $346
Highest price sold: $160 1:18 scale diecast car
Average price sold: $50.43
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $9
Number of items listed this week: 4

Etsy store Oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 470
Number of items sold: 13
Etsy sales (not count s/h): $351.60
Cost of items sold: $31
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: 4 lots of Elf dolls to one buyer total $126
Average price sold: $27
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $1.00
Number of items listed this week: 5

I ran storewide sales all week, 10% off on all of Etsy items, eBay items carefully chosen for 5% – 30% off, many of the long time watched items fell to sales last week. I’m in the process of moving things around between home storage and storage unit, the total sale of 42 items helped and the prices were really at sweet spots for just about everything so a good week. Lousy week listing. Been busy with other stuff, but excuses don’t bait the $ hooks!

Heading over to listen to the rest of what sounds like classic J&R podcast material! Thank you again for the greatness!
Tom

[Marjean28]

I’m excited to be posting my numbers right away on a Monday morning! I listened to the podcast, but I kept falling asleep, darn it!
sales gross $771.74
COG $47.48
Promoted listings fees $23.48
net $700.78
sales count 38
average sales price $18.44
highest item sold $118.00 8 wedgewood teacups & saucers
total items in store 1200
STR 3.17%
returns: 1

Fantastic week for me. I’m happy with my upwardly trending numbers as they represent the fact that consistent listing efforts pay off.

A follow up on my INAD / return case. It turned out in the end that I did accept the return at my expense for shipping. However, the buyer never returned the sheets in the end. I bet she got nervous when i mentioned that color is a remorse reason. I did get a return from a buyer for a small camera, because he didn’t have his address correct. I gave him his money back, less shipping. English was a second language and I felt bad for the kid. I forgot to back those numbers out of my totals, but it wasn’t much. My big takeawy here is that if the buyer misuses the INAD reason, it really can only be fought with the appeals department, not with your buyer.

My philosophy on eBay’s business decisions on things like why they choose to favor sellers who are most lenient on buyers is this: It doesn’t matter why they make the decisions that they do, they do it because they can. All I can control is how I react to it. If I want to make the business decision, I’d have to have my own website.

I decided to hire a VA to do my drafts and upload photos. To that end, I signed up for wonderlister. And I posted an add for a VA on OnlineJobs.ph. I found out about this site by listening to a youtuber who does do drop shipping because they seemed very genuine and had worked out some best practices. It’s not that I want to do drop shipping, but anyone who has good content gets a listen from me. They are the Hustle Husbands (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmeU2DYiVy80wMBGZzEWnbw). I plan on making some basic clothing templates for current clothing items which don’t require special searches. The VA will create a listing title based on the photographs, which will include the tag for specific details. Then the VA can simply grab the photos from google photos, select the correct template, create the title by formula (brand, gender, type of clothing article, color, attributes), add the photos, leave it in wonder lister for me to review and make live. My plan is to pay per hour and add commission once they are past a probationary period. This way, I will be left to sort and take photos. Ultimately, I want a photographer too. Ideally, I could just drop off items to be photographed to the photographer’s house and pick up when done weekly. That would leave me to source and review the listings prior to publication. I can still do the end to end process for high end items. I’m just talking bread and butter for outsourcing: current clothing, certain books & magazines, modern electronics (curling irons, curlers, alarm clocks, etc.)

I connected with another ebayer via craigslist this week because he had an add stating he has extra bubble wrap from a source he wants to share. I hope to have coffee with him in the coming weeks. He seems to be about the same kind of scavenging approach and I’m anxious to have someone to talk business to in person. Though, thanks to Amantino, I have a connection to another trash elf through the Deathpile Listing Challenge which has been invaluable to my motivation! Thanks to the fellow deathpile listers all!

happy hunting fellow trash elves!

Marjean28

[Jay]

Totally agree that eBay does what eBay will do. It’s our choice to keep selling or move elsewhere. I still think its good to discuss how changes affect our style of business so we can better make these decisions.

I’ll be interested to hear how your Virtual Assistant works out. I assume they are in the Philippines. I can see how a VA would be great for drop shipping because its all new items so they can copy/paste from other new listings.

My only concern has been how they will do describing the weird, vintage Americana that make of us sell. Do they have the ability to research and describe properly?

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Marjean: I would like for you to do a double check on something. What I am outlining may have changed since I last checked out the multi-user platforms of both WonderLister and sixbit, but check out the following before you get in very deep on these platforms.

First, there is a learning curve and the more one knows about a “relational database” the easier it is, but still needs understanding. Next is that these programs allow for some flexibility, but that flexibility comes from knowing how to write rules and set up folders within it’s heirarhical structure. It can get tricky, sort of like writing code. It will not be just a “open up the form and start listing away” scenarion. But with that said, their is something I would like to stress as the real reason for a double check and that is the multi user facite.

Yes, we are a long time user of WonderLister and also used SixBit for a good while also. T-Satt and others also use SixBit and other 3rd party listing software. BUT and it is a big BUT when thinking about using it via having an assistant list. Unless you have sprung for the “Enterprise” version of both of these softwares, the use of an assistant on a second or “remote” computer can only be done within the limitations of a “wireless” network. Our assistant can use the office laptop any where in our office or home [say approx. 50 feet] from our main desktop. further than that and it doesn’t work UNLESS!! you have the “Enterprise” version which tie into the cloud.

The less expensive version [plans] rely on the fact that the main database resides on our main office rig and utilizes MS-SQL as the connector to the database. Then WonderLister is also loaded onto the laptop but only as a “slave unit”. It is in reality, tying into the main computers database which is residing on the main hard drive. We can both create separate listings, both work within WL at the same time BUT she can’t go home and do it from her house, which is only less than a mile away, at least on our monthly plan.

Now some SL members [I think T-Satt] use SixBit and they went ahead and sprung for the “Enterprise” version of Sixbit and for that extra cost that he pays, he can have assistants use the database remotely. I believe the cost of the Enterprise version can run $70 per month and up and roughly a $150 set-up charge at least for WL.

So please double check if you are planning on having an assistant from far away access your version of WL and make sure you can do this with the plan you have. Also SB can limit what an assistant has access too, like the financials but WL didn’t have those limitations in place when I last checked, so an assistant will have access to the full compliment of data. Your customers, what items sold for, your customers addresses and phone numbers, your profit picture, etc., etc.

So don’t want to be an alarmist or throw ice water but please make sure you just double check me on this.

Respectfully submitted…

Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Week April 15-21, 2018

Total Items in Store: 972
Items Sold: 30 (2 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $99 (13.2% of sales)
Total Sales: $749.22
Highest Price Sold: $69.99 (Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed https://www.ebay.com/itm/192452984985)
Average Price Sold: $24.97
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150
Number of items listed this week: 40
Promoted listings test: 18 sales, $453.41 (60.5% of total sales), $22.84 fees (5.0% of sales)

One of my best weeks ever in terms of volume, but very low average price. 24 of my 30 items sold were less than $30. Silver lining to that low average price was also low COGS for me.

Got out to a couple estate sales this weekend. Since my store is becoming over run with records, I tried to focus on other things (although I did hit up my local shop to support them during National Record Store Day). Scored a great box of ephemera that I’m sorting through – specifically these newspapers & magazines from the moon landing (https://ebay.to/2K7fNt9) and some neat pictorials of early 1950s/post WWII Japan being rebuilt & beautified (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202295519785). Paid $10 for the whole box, so it should pay for itself 20x over.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Brian Treasures from Grandmas.

[Jay]

I love that your store keeps cranking. Fun to see your process over the last couple years. Your inventory is almost at 1000! Do you have space for more growth?

Does your brother still sell exclusively on Amazon FBA? Wonder how he’s adapted to Amazon changes.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Space is a concern because I’m currently limited to the second bedroom. However, they are building storage cages in our condo basement and I have one on reserve. Rumor has it that they will be done this week and we can start taking them over by next weekend. I’ll assess how much more I can grow then.

And my brother still does Amazon full time and is still thriving (had over $150k in gross sales Thanksgiving-Christmas). He doesn’t do much FBA (maybe 10% of his inventory), but does seller fulfilled out of his basement/garage. Because that’s his model, rules changes with Amazon don’t hit him as hard. He still does mainly retail arbitrage and just cleaned up at his local Toys R Us that closed – paid less than $150 for $1000 worth of merch.

[Sharyn]

The rumor around my town was that our Toys R Us really wasn’t having much of a sale yet. Maybe I’ll go by and check it out, but RA really isn’t my thing.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Yeah, he went back each week and not until the last week were there good deals at like 90% off. The store by my parents’ house is still only at like 5%-10% off because they’re not closing until July.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I went in the local Toys R us last week. It was a joke. 90% of the store was 5% off, with just a few things 10% off. Their signs said “up to 30% off”. I didn’t see a single item in that store with a 30% sign.

[Sharyn]

I see many companies do this when they are going out of business. They use the publicity of the bankruptcy to have a dinky sale, and then there is hardly anything left at the end. The Sports Authority near me went out of business, and they never had anything worth an RA purchase.

I kind of think that they must sell off the remainder merchandise to another retailer.

[newvintageny]

I just got back from Nashville last night for a bachelor party. All I can say it was crazy and we had a good time. We stayed at an air bnb with a pool top roof/bar downtown with 7 guys and was a good experience.

I got there a day early and stayed at a hostel downtown which was also very cool. It was $35 a night and had a good atmosphere.

I had my bachelor party in Vegas and Nashville was crazier by far.

https://instagram.com/p/Bh2wYmZF9ts/

[Jay]

I believe it. Downtown Nashville has been totally developed downtown with fancy condos, restaurants and bars. Because of the seven local universities, it’s full of young people. Glad you had a good time! We missed each other by a week.

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 425
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $80 + $3 free shipping
Total Sales: $234
Highest Price Sold: $70 (Two new plates)
Average Price Sold: $39
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20 on 2 items
Number of items listed this week: 1 ugh!

Glad to hear you had a good trip. Not sure if I missed you talking about sourcing there or not.

This past week was filled with extra kid events in the evenings and I was heavy in my role of Mom the Planner and Fixer. I’m in a mode where I’m not crazy about being at my day job. It’s a great job with good pay and flexibility, but there are times when I don’t find it stimulating. I’d love to have a weekday off and list while the kids are at school! I really crave that when it hasn’t happened for a while.

This weekend had somewhat of a break when we went to the movies (Ready Player One) and played a game (Settlers of Catan) while the power was out. So nice reconnecting with my busy teen son. So, was a week when Ebay listing just didn’t fit in. I’m selling off my RA inventory on Ebay that I had bought with my early Ebay profits and not sourcing RA so that’s nice. Currently saving for our June quarterly taxes and being even more frugal than usual. Also thinking about a garage sale next month as my kids have old toys hanging around and have outgrown their furniture. Might be some death pile items that wind up in there which would lighten the load a bit more. Our last garage sale was very successful. My inventory shelves are emptier, so I can really start to see the progress I’m making. I feel like this is my most boring post ever – lol sorry! Keepin’ it real.

[Sharyn]

Answer to one of your podcast questions: one of the bands that was sued for having “satanic messages” played backwards in their songs was Metallica. If I remember the story correctly, the parents sued after their son committed suicide saying that Metallica’s music caused him to kill himself. The lawsuit was not successful.

Week of April 15-21
* Total Items in Store: 1131
* Items Sold: 14
* Cost of Items Sold: $34.80 + $3.79 Commission
* Total Sales: $296.65
* Highest Price Sold: $84 Hand carved wood table 3 Native American heads
* Average Price Sold: $21.19
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $57.95
* Number of items listed this week: 16

This was a week where I thought I was doing really lousy. It ends up that sales were just lousy, so I guess I’m happy about that. (maybe?)

I was excited to sell the carved wood table because I’ve had it for almost two years. I think I originally way overpriced it. So I lowered the price when it came up for being a stale listing, and it sold a month or so later.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Sharyn.

[Jay]

Not sure if Metallica was ever sued, but when I looked it up I fund a case against Judas Priest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_by_You,_Better_than_Me

That was in 1990. Can you imagine that happening now?

[Sharyn]

Yeh, I was speaking from memory rather than looking it up. I think (now that I have looked it up) I remember Lars Ulrich (Metallica’s drummer) talking about the incident in an interview. So, that mixed it up in my head.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Sharyn.

[Julie B]

Ahhh the 1980s…When I was a kid there was a rash of news stories about the occult. This was probably because so many poltergeist type movies came out around that same time. This resulted in some local parents (mostly moms) being very concerned that Dungeons and Dragons was satanic or a gateway to satan worship. My brother and his friends played D&D a lot. At one point one of the boy’s moms banned it from their house. They could still play it at our house but my mom forbade other things; tarot cards and Ouija boards. She thought that having them around made the house vulnerable to evil spirits.

[Jay]

It’s funny to think how far we’ve come in 30 years. Satanism is now just something to laugh at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hopeFgwApCM

[Julie B]

HAHAHA! Obviously the guy they interviewed made that segment epic!

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store 936
Items Sold 18
Total Sales $552.00
COGS $73.00
Total Profit $479.00
Average profit $26.61
Average sales price $30.67

No new listing this week, but I did create about 30 hat listings yesterday that I will photograph at work this week. Hats are quick/easy to list with templates and a head mannequin.

Yesterday morning was nice out so I dove into my enclosed storage trailer. In the fall I had devolved into just shoving/throwing stuff in there while prepping the garage conversion to all ebay. I was able to properly store and organize a little over half of the trailer, which is a huge improvement.

Baseball is taking up a lot of our time right now but that is fine because these are the FUN parts of having lots of kids. It gets us outside as a family for hours on end. For the rest of spring I will work to get my ebay garage cleaned up and organized. I have a better idea of what kind of stations I need to be productive. Once school is over my wife and 11 year old daughter will tackle clothing during the day. It’s a lofty goal, but if I can get the area set up correctly I think we can get 1000 items listed this summer if they truly buy in. Yes, I have at least 1000 unlisted items.

[Simon]

Welcome back and thanks for the podcast.

My numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 2264
Items Sold: 34
Total Sales: $663
YTD Sales: $14203
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +33%
Cost of Items Sold: $72
Average Price Sold: $19.51
Average Cost of Item: $2.13
Highest Price Item Sold: $42.95 Garmin Nuvi 1300LM
Number of items listed this week: 44
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 320
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 140
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 44
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.5%
# of Hats Sold: 23 (67% of sales)

Things were pretty quiet this week relative to recent weeks. I had a business trip and long handling times so that may have been a slight factor in the dip. Not to worry. I should see pretty good sales from now till at least mid-summer (based on previous year sales).

I hate that draft issue with a passion. I call it draft rot due to the weird way some photos & some thumbnails disappear and some remain. Surely it’s not too much for eBay to leave our drafts intact for a few months.

[Jay]

I agree. eBay should just say “Drafts will be saved for 30 days and then automatically deleted.”

Instead Drafts seems to live indefinitely but then just “rot away”. That’s a great way to say it!

[Rhianna]

Total Items in Store: 2048
Items Sold: 49 (1 Etsy)
Total Sales: $1108.87
Highest Price Sold: $68 (Vintage Barbie Outfit )
Average Price Sold: $22.63
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0

Great episode yet again. I can’t imagine shipping 75 items in one day! Ryanne is a rock star for sure. I think having a big store really helps when you are traveling, it turns into passive income.

Had another great week. I have been trying something a bit different, instead of putting items on sale I have been doing promoted listings. I am going to give it a shot for three months and see how it goes. I finally got myself a thermal printer for shipping labels, I cannot believe I waited so long. I love love love it.

Had the issue again where my shipping options where all messed up. I am not sure what is going on but it seems like a glitch on ebays side. So I was unable to list for a couple days. It just magically fixes itself. When I call ebay they seem to not have an answer as to why it happens.

We finally got our tickets for our 5 week pilgrimage to Spain! We are very excited and are really getting our butts into gear to list all we can. Hoping we can come back home and have our trip paid for by ebay. 🙂

[Jay]

–Are you guys going to walk that Hiking trail trough Spain? The Camino de Santiago?
–How is your etsy experiment going. I see just one thing sold this week, but have you been bulking up that inventory or slowing down?

[Rhianna]

Hey Jay, we are doing the Camino De Santiago. We were wanting to do it this May but put it off to save up a bit more money.
My etsy experiment has really been on hold. I haven’t been adding the store at all, but I want to get back on it. I made the mistake of putting my store on holiday and then forgetting it. So it was shut down for quite a while. I do find that I can sell items for more on etsy, I just need to work on getting a few more things in there. Not a huge money maker but at least something to try. I actually started a poshmark store recently as well, but have only put two items in it. My brain is a bit fried trying to keep it all in order. So I think I will stick to ebay and etsy. Glad you guys had fun in Nashville, it is a cool town for sure.

[MoCoyotes]

Total Items in Store: 2341
Items Sold: 31
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Total Sales: $893
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Vintage Cowboy Boots)
Average Price Sold: $28
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40.75
Number of items listed this week: 24

Sales down 40% from last week. Oh well.

[Doublythumbs]

April 15 – 21
Total Items in Store: 1552
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $795
* above yearly average of $715
* above 2017 total week sales of $443
Highest Price: $160 (Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire 1947 Limited Edition Poetry Book)
Average Price: $29
Returns: 1 (Antique Picture Frame (Didn’t like the color))
Cost of Goods Sold: $68
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $195
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 35

Great podcast! I always look forward to listening to you two every Monday! I love the Old Man Corner segment. You should do it every week. LOL!

Sales were a bit soft this week compared to the previous couple of weeks, but I’m still above my average so I can’t complain. I had an item returned that cost me a bit. I had my store set to free return shipping (except on really big items) about a couple months ago when they begin this push for it hoping it would drive up my sales. So I had to eat the return shipping cost of that antique picture frame that I was bragging about selling last week. It shipped from California so I cost me $24 to ship back. All because the person said it wasn’t the same color as what it showed in the pictures. Well I compared them when I received it and they look identical! So I’ve decided to go through and turn free return shipping off of everything except first class items. Even though sales have been phenomenal lately, I don’t have the data to prove that it’s due to FRS.

I went to another auction on Saturday and literally filled my car up with photo slides! I spend about $100 on slides alone, but I got thousands of them! A quick peek through some of the binders shows a lot of old trains and airplanes and Civil War Reenactments, so I think I’ll make my money back very quickly. I also scored a box lot that had A FREAKIN GUN buried at the bottom! It’s just a little .31 cal. Derringer black powder pocket pistol, but holy molly I couldn’t believe it. I can’t sell it on eBay, so I might throw it up on Craigslist and see if anyone is interested in it.

[Marjean28]

Mike @ MDC. these are excellent points. I don’t want to pay the enterprise level because its very pricey for sure. I’ll dig a little and post back. Perhaps I’ll move this topic to another area of the forum however so it doesn’t get tied to this particular week’s podcast. More to come from me.

[KatieScott]

4/15/18 – 4/22/18

Total Items: 2,821 (542 + 942 + 1059 )
Total # Sold: 90 (21 + 46 + 20 + 3)
Total $ Sold $1,532 ($340 + $837 + $324 + $31)
Average Price: $17
Money Spent: $300
Listed: 81
Higher $ Sales: (between $38-50): Soft Surroundings, Vineyard Vines, Vtg Princeton Sweater, Eileen Fisher, Sundance, Anthropologie, Lafayette 148, Ann Taylor, St. John, Aftco

I sold a bunch of men’s shorts because I got to a 1/2 off sale at the thrift shop late and the women’s section was picked over so I tried the men’s section and found a bunch of shorts from Vineyard Vines, Lululemon, Aftco, and other fishing and golfing shorts.

My daughter is pretty much taking all the photos for me now which is great. I pay her a $1 an item and we’re both pretty happy with this arrangement.

I have a bunch of things I need to get listed (death piles) and I have a bunch of stuff that I just need to purge from our personal storage so I need to work on this backlog type of stuff to get it moving and clear some space for ebay storage.

I’ve been doing my new listings as free shipping and free returns, I’m not thrilled about this, but I figure with the clothing sales, it probably helps. I’m not doing this for my unique vintage hard goods type of stuff.

While I like the interviews, I was happy to hear a regular Jay & Ryan show again. 🙂

[Jay]

So how do you price in Free Shipping and Free Returns (since we all know its not really free)?

Let’s say you want $10 for an item, how much do you add to the price to cover shipping back and forth?

[KatieScott]

P.S. I’ve been a meal prepping machine. Yesterday, I took a break from listing and spent the day cooking. I made turkey with some curry spices, stuffing, vegetables, etc. so we have little packs of curry thanksgiving dinners with cranberry sauce in the packs for this week. Yum. I like to hear the meal prepping part of the podcast when you do it.

My daughter had a bunch of friends over on Sunday I fed them all with stuff I made – I felt so thrifty because normally we would just order pizza for that type of thing. So I probably saved $50. Score.

[Jay]

Now that we’re back, we’ll be meal prepping again.

[LaLeslie]

Do you use GoDaddy for your vacation rentals? If not, what software do you use for them? TIA

[Jay]

Yes, GoDaddy pulls in all our bank accounts and credit cards, so he profit and expenses come through and are automatically categorized.

[SilverFoxFinds]

Ha, I love box lots for all the unknown finds at the bottom of the boxes! Let us know how the slide and gun sales turn out, DoublyThumbs.

I’m edging closer to my 1000 item store limit, and am considering my options for what’s next. For me, they are stay at the same size, just source tighter for more high dollar items (which would take willpower as well as right time/right place/right price); do more auctions; start another store; or start an Etsy store for the vintage items, considering what folks say about lower fees and earning higher prices there. Not sure my photo quality can do Etsy justice, but we’ll see if I can raise my standards. A fan of simplicity, I also don’t like having too many irons in the fire, so we’ll see how eagerly I take on new stores…

We have a cottage on our property that we’ve been planning to rent out via Airbnb, so I’ve been mentally preparing for future time and extra income from that…though certainly expected it to be up and running at this point! I used to work for the company, and was a host when I lived in DC. I loved it, and it was the easiest Airbnb property for booking, being in DC and 3 blocks from the metro. I often think I should have kept renting that house, just to keep airbnb-ing it out for income! Anyhoo, the quick flip we were hoping to do to prepare the cottage to rent last Fall (we moved in in July) dissolved into mold and termite damage we found, and we’re pretty much rebuilding it right now. Re-sheathing/siding the first side right now, after tearing out the interior, redoing the plumbing, getting new windows, and determining its new (first ever apparently) ventilation/hvac plan (mini spits). We’ll tackle some other of the big stuff ourselves, but already know a few components we’re going to hire out. It’s going to be the nice$t cottage ever. I’m trying to not think about the break even point for this little escape…

The numbers:

04/15/18 – 04/21/18
Total Items In Store: 941
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales: $911.81
Cost of Items Sold: $65.40
Highest Price Sold: $115 – Lot of 11 Pcs Amber Visions CorningWare Cookware
Average Price Sold: $30.39
Returns/Refunds: 1 return (slippers for fit)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $141.52
Number of Items listed this week: 77

Scavenge of the week: bought a NWT Jack Georges Sienna Slim Leather Briefcase for $50 at a thrift store – hoping to get many multiples of that back on a sale.

Happy week, All.

[BoozyMcLiver]

A quick question about drafts… Exactly how many drafts can you have at one time ON eBay? We have had 20 at one time, any more than that, and they either disappear, or they are corrupted when we try to add another. We could be sooo much more efficient if we could have more drafts than 20 at a time.

Cheers,

Fred & Winter

[Ryanne]

you might be looking at the old version of seller hub which only shows you 20 drafts. on the new seller hub you can see 500 (though you should list those asap, as i found out)

[BoozyMcLiver]

Thanks for that! Apparently we had the new Seller Hub, but never tried it during that time. I had called eBay and a rep told me 20 tops… I just made 23 random drafts and they are all there!!

Cheers,

Fred & Winter

[simplicio]

Great pod! On the amazon/returns question… one data point but I do find when we are buying that amazon’s basically blank cheque on returns factors into whether to buy there or slightly more cheaply on ebay… ymmv.

I had a great week for sales but boy am I sucking at scavenging lately.

Sales: CAD$2605, 5 items, COGS: $267 –> item profit: $1947
Expenses: $24 –> after tax cashflow: $1761
Listed: 3 items, $110
Hours: 5, $352/hr
Notable sales: metallurgical saw $237 –> $2200
From an out of town auction… rolled the dice on this one and it paid off nicely. This was a beast to ship… 64 lbs, 25x25x25″ packed, cost $200 to get it to California. I had to use UPS as it’s beyond Canada Post weight limits.
There are some auctions coming up… hopefully I’ll finally get some inventory. I’ve started keeping track of my “shortfall” – sales minus newly listed $ – and this week it’s $1651 that I took out of the pipeline without replacing. So I’m coasting atm…

[Jay]

Do you pay the $99/yr for Amazon Prime to get free shipping?

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Jay.

[simplicio]

Yep, we have prime membership. It’s actually cheaper in Canada for some reason at CAD$79/year… possibly it’s the only thing in the entire economy that’s cheaper here.

We buy a lot of stuff on amazon (household goods like diapers etc.).

[Jay]

The Amazon Prime membership for “free shipping” is so smart because Amazon is basically getting people to pre-pay a certain amount of shipping to lock them in.

So if you assume $7 shipping for each item, you have to buy more than 11 items in that year before you actually get “free shipping”. The way some people buy on Amazon, they buy that much in a month, but then that’s great for Amazon.

Plus, Amazon doesn’t offer “free returns”.

With eBay, they just want sellers to eat all the cost of free shipping and free returns. There’s no upside other than supposedly being more competitive.

[T-Satt]

I have only returned a few things on Amazon, and they were free returns. In fact, we had one pair of Darn Tough socks (love them!) that arrived with a hole, and they just sent a free replacement pair (so now we have one rogue sock…).

Looks like some things are Free Returns, and some things aren’t. My guess would be that most things FBA would be free, and since buyers get free shipping on FBA items if they are Prime, it is free shipping* and free returns…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201532130

*kind of, after the Prime Membership

[simplicio]

The panic over satanic music wasn’t the worst of it… people seriously suffered over the Satanic daycare panic. It’s certainly unthinkable now to get that worked up over Satanism, but it doesn’t seem like we’re free of moral panics generally. They just follow the zeitgeist.

[Jay]

I had no idea about the satanic daycare cases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria

[Sharyn]

I lived in LA between 1987 and 1993 in Redondo Beach, so I heard all about the McMartin case in nearby Manhattan Beach. The accusations were crazy.

The defendants had to borrow money from their relatives to pay their lawyers, and then had to ask the court to pay because they had run out of money. When they were found not guilty, they sued the town (or state?) to recover all the money that they had lost. I think that they were successful.

I recall that the building itself was vacant for a decade or so while all this was going on. I think that the owners had a hard time selling the building afterwards.

When I had my kids, all the daycare facilities said that you could come at any time to check up on your children. I’m sure it had something to do with these witch hunts.

[T-Satt]

Week of 4/15-4/21
Total Items in Store: 2,022 (Up 40% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 132 – New Record!
Number of Items Sold: 71 (Down 15% YOY)
(Includes 3 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 15% (Down 10% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $1,719 (Up 2% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $353
Highest Item Sold: $125 – Vtg 60s Lot of National Park Brochures
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Troy leads the year at 10-6.

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,251
# Sold: 48
STR: 16%
ASP: $20.30

eBay Shoes
# Listed: 152
# Sold: 5
STR: 14%
ASP: $27.45

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 619
# Sold: 15
STR: 10%
ASP: $33.73

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 148
# Sold: 3
STR: 9%
ASP: $64.86

Finally crossed the 2,000 listing level, and had our best week of listing ever…with 2 days off for travel to visit our son. The photographer is hitting on all cylinders now (he even has another eBay client) and getting us closer to the 160-200 listings per week level we want.

Our sales were feeling soft through the middle of the week, so we ran a sale on the store…and sales took off. I’m thinking of doing this more often (and pricing to match), as I want to see if running a sale either helps in Best Match or is psychologically boosting sales. I know Cyndi at Amazingtaste talks about this, and we have seen that when we run sales on Etsy, sales pick up.

[Jay]

So the idea is to raise the price by 10% and then do a 10% sale?

[T-Satt]

Not exactly. I usually try to price at around the 75% level as the starting price, but if I run more sales, I would start closer to 90%.

[Jay]

So the experiment is to see if you get pushed up in search results just because of a ale?

I would think the lower price of a sale would push you up in search results, but obviously making the price more expensive would negate that benefit.

Amazing Taste is simple a machine. I see that she’ll do a sale with free shipping.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/amazing*taste/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_ipg&_from&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2046732.m1684

She seems to be cool with very small profit margins in return for volume. She told us she likes to sell one item an hour. But the she may be be making only $5 on some of her clothes thats she puts on sale after all her costs. Is this the kind of model you’re aiming at with clothes?

[T-Satt]

What started this was that our STR on clothing has been tanking for some reason for the past few weeks. I decided to run a sale to see if that would give us a boost, and we had three strong ($400+) days in a row, two with the sale, one after.

I won’t be able to tell if a sale is boosting search, or just better pricing, but either way, I can tell if the STR is better. It may tell me a truth that my pricing is too strong, and that the market is lower for certain items. If so, I can decide where to go from there (accept that market, or look for better waters to fish in).

Clothes are a bit of a mixed bag. No, I don’t want $5 per item (unless all I’m doing is shopping). When I shop, I find an item every 5 minutes. At $5 per item, that is $60/hr to shop. Not bad.

My focus is to look for higher end items, but I’m using the lower end items to keep the wheels greased. So I can accept lower margins but higher velocity on certain brands and types of items, as they are providing the capital to purchase and wait on the larger pops when I find them. For a full time business, I can’t find enough of just the high end items to live on, but I may move to a faster velocity model on the low end while we look at other sources. We are looking at some new areas for high end items, but the capital requirement is higher as well. I want to cash flow this move, and not try to go all in and take on too much too soon.

[sonia]

My working hypothesis on running sales on ebay (which I do regularly now, even if it’s just 10%), is that people who have viewed and/or are watching the items will get a notification from ebay about the price change, and that reminder about the item drives them to buy it. Of course, the larger the price reduction, the more likely they will be to buy it. That’s how I explain to myself the uptick in sales that I get in the first few days of a sale. No, I have no scientific proof of this.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

That is what we do, only higher. This gets back to my old question of How High is High?

On items more than $39.99, We find the highest price an item has sold for both on Ebay Solds and on WorthPoint. Then we multiply that times 1.40. Then we run Sales every week starting on either Wed. or Thursday morning and ending on Sunday midnight EST. Our Sales are either 15%-20% Off and we also take Offers. By using the 1.4 markup over the highest prices we could find allows for us to do as low as 40% Off between both the Sale and the Offer and still end up at the highest point we found of all the “solds”.

This way it gives the customer the perception of the Dbl Deal. It is on Sale and they get to “haggle that down” on top of it. When we offer Free Shipping on some of these we also take the weight and throw the zone eight shipping on top of that.

Some times we get buyers purchase when we are between sales for those couple of days and we smaile all the way to the bank. Other times, we sell at the sale price and we still smile all the way to the bank. When we sell at a Sales Price and take an offer on top of that we still end up at the point of being at what our research showed as the highest prices being sold at.

Example: An item shows the highes amounts +/- of Solds was $40 for an item. We multiply that $40 x 1.40 and arrive at $56 that we list at. Then we have a 15%% Off Sale and it Shows at $47.60. Then we get an Offer of 15% less than that at $40. well that brings us back to what we wanted to sell it for anyway that matches our highest price sold research.

We sell about $1,700 to $2,000 a month this way with about 900 + items in the store. This method was derived from a slew of statements by J&R and other SL members over the past few years in various episodes and posts.

As Jay says, it’s all in the “perception” of the bargain first, then getting a deal on top of that. And insome cases, of “winning” the item at your lower offering price. two perceptions rolles into one.

If we have Free Shipping on a say, 3 lb. item we then throw $15 to zone 8 on top of the $56 for a total of $71 and if it ships closer, we again, smile all the way to the bank.

Just our method, not for everybody or everything of course. We ship and sell less but make more per item. Grossed $17,000 last year on 470 items sold = $36 per item sold and shipping of approx. 9 items per week.

So the target is to continue this method and double the store items to approx. 2,000 items and see what happens in another year.

We don’t look at numbers weekly as you have guessed. I prefer pulling a P&L statment once a month and looking at the percenatge of expenses and doing our analysis that way.

Focusing on the numbers weekly, in my opinion, is like buying into the stock market and then sitting there and watching the DJIA and the market tape every day. That would drive me bonkers.

But just an opinion on a methodology.

Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[T-Satt]

Great info Mike. I like your process overall. I’m not sure I can do that in the more competitive clothing market. That is what I need to discern: Is a sale working due to the perceived value, or is it making my items priced more to market. Something to analyze.

Love your numbers man!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Yeah.. one thing we figured out in the home decor / hard goods sector when pricing. If one uses the highest price solds to go by and everyone is always lowering their price be even a small amount, then on Ebay the highest price sold is always going down.

example: Take that $40 item above, if it now sells for $39, then $38, then $37, eventually after 36 more sales, hypothetically that item will be selling at a dollar. Since Ebay only shows 90 days of sold prices, then Ebay is only showing the declining prices. When you then cross reference with a site like Worth point you will see the $40 higher price still showing.

So our thought is why not take the highest price of Ebay and price even higher still and then try not to sell below the highest price. If everybody would do this then the Sold prices would start to climb not decline. And as Jay & Ryanne have said many times, sooner or later your item will be the only one showing on any particular day. In other words we try to create a situation whereby the highest price sold is ours and we try to target bringing the rpices up on the unique, eclectic items, not drag the prices lower and lower.

But this is not the way to go on mass prodcued, commodity items. Millions of cell phone cases brought in from China at pennies each will only probably sell on the lowest price, but a 65 year old, Plueguer Fishing lure, made in the USA and in good condition, will sell pricing it our way.

But again, just an opinion on our methodology.

Mike at MDCG in Atl.

[T-Satt]

Completely agree with you on that. The commodity items (like a lot of my clothes) need to be a churn and burn. But some, like Vintage Harris Tweed, Vintage Pendleton, canvassed High End suits…those you have to hold for the pop…

[karlacreekbank]

>> “So our thought is why not take the highest price of Ebay and price even higher still and then try not to sell below the highest price. If everybody would do this then the Sold prices would start to climb not decline. And as Jay & Ryanne have said many times, sooner or later your item will be the only one showing on any particular day. In other words we try to create a situation whereby the highest price sold is ours and we try to target bringing the rpices up on the unique, eclectic items, not drag the prices lower and lower.”

@MDC Galleries — that is our thinking as well. For example, we purchased a leather covered elephant at an estate sale in January, and when I looked on eBay was shocked to see there were five others listed with prices ranging from $5.00 to $75. I was so happy to see that someone was willing to go ahead and list it higher rather than cheapening it, especially after seeing what it historically has sold for. I refuse to cheapen items, because I think it really affects and impacts all of us in the eclectic/funky/unique items for the reasons you mentioned.

[ThriftShift]

Items in store: 812
Items sold: 32
Sales: $1,002.78
Average price: $31
COGs: $227.55

Highest sold: Preowned and lightly used set of three Deep Sea Cosmetics creams for $161.50

Second highest: sold two green canvas and leather LL Bean duffels tonsame buyer for $59 each

Question: my husband has a consulting business (metallurgical and corrosion control engineering); and I have Ebay. He needs a new accounting software platform because his old Mac laptop cannot support his version of 2014 Quickbooks. I use a spreadsheet for Ebay now. We are considering moving it all to a cloud system. I cannot send invoices for his business unless I have his computer, which is crapping out more and more. I’m beginning to research subscriptions that might allow multiple businesses by one owner. Godaddy, quickbooks, any other suggestions?

I become CEO/CFO of his LLC in July when I retire from federal service, and I’d prefer to have a cloud system that I can access anywhere.

[Gompers]

I have used the “Kohls” pricing method which is basically raising the price by X % then reducing the price via a “sale” by the same X %. My anecdotal experience is this type of pricing strategy mainly results in sales only when the “sale discount” is running. Very sporadic sales without the “sale discount” since my items are basically X % above the market.

Now I price items at the market and run 5% or 10% off sales for only 24 or 48 hours at a time. This results in more sales and nearly always produces sales within the last few hours a sale is running. This pricing method also produces sales while I’m not running any “sales discounts.” Which is good since I don’t always remember to create the sales in my store.

I am buying items as such low prices that a 5% or 10% discount isn’t really going to impact me at all. I’m always telling my wife or any one else who will listen – “I’m in the business of selling, not storing.” I’m not willing to wait x number of days or x number of weeks to get a few dollars more on a sale.

However, I’m not dumb and if I find something very rare, unique, valuable, etc I will wait.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Gompers.

[T-Satt]

“I’m in the business of selling, not storing.” — Love that! I use “we are running a store…not a museum.”

The short duration sales are what I’m going to experiment with (3 days). We will see…

[karlacreekbank]

Re: drafts – we had this happen to us… sooooo many drafts lost in this same manner.

I also didn’t realize that you can only go back so far looking at items sold – there were several items we’ve sold that we have gotten similar items later that I thought would be so easy to list due to just having to switch out some specific info on the original item. But they were gone and I had to start all over. *headdesk*

Newbie mistake (we’ve only been doing this since last October)

It’s interesting seeing everyone’s sales. This week and last were really slow – came no where near our goal last week, and this week is not off to a good start.

We finally hit 500 items in our store last week and I really had hoped it would get a bit more consistent. I put almost everything on sale (10-12%), to test if it’s our pricing.

[Jay]

For us, sales aren’t consistent day to day, or week to week. But if we look at our numbers over the year, we make about the same in a 12-month period. This is why its so important to keep our living costs low and save up during slower months.

[karlacreekbank]

always a good reminder, Jay. It will be interesting to see how things sort out after we have a year under our belt, and especially interesting to see the comparison over the years.

[T-Satt]

karlacreekbank: ” and especially interesting to see the comparison over the years.”

Amen to that. It helps a lot to look back at where you have been.

Our average sales week:

2013 $579.02
2014 $719.25
2015 $1,161.84
2016 $1,485.94
2017 $1,980.77
2018 $2,141.10

So when things seem slow these days…I look back…

[Simon]

> I also didn’t realize that you can only go back so far looking at items sold

Yes, this is another pet peeve of mine. As a buyer I can see some details on years of my purchases yet as a seller, my sales disappear after 60 or 90 days. I wonder if this is just a historical throwback to a time when storage (particularly of photos) was much more expensive or whether this has something to do with the the 3rd party services which have access to much more historical sales data (eg: Worthpoint)

[Jay]

eBay would gain a lot of bonus points with sellers if they gave us historical data going back at least 12 months. They have the info, just need to give us access.

[Mark S]

Simon,

They probably do this because of the vast amount of data they have. My work around for this is using WonderLister. I get to keep it all forever if I want to.

WonderLister is only $5\month if you have less than 1000 items in your store. $10\month if you have less than 2500 items in your store (full pricing at http://www.wonderlister.com/pricing).

I could not live without WonderLister now.

Mark

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

As you know we are a long time user of WonderLister and also used SixBit for about a year.

Yep, we can create as many drafts, with and without photos and store them in any type of folders we wish to create and organize them anyway we want. I have had one or two partial drafts in our “Needs More Research” folder for maybe a year. Just never got around to it. It is still there just as we left it.

Also since this is a stand alone database that has captured every bit of data about your listings and sales on any platform you use, you own that data. jay has said it before. Why doesn’t Ebay provide access to our data since we own it. Well they do. They give it to you for a period of 90 days. Using WonderLister then captures that data every ten minutes and in turn we now have it forever. Even if you stop using WL, the database still works and the data is yours.

Every person that has bought from us since 2002 is in our database along with there home address, even their phone numbers along with their email address. That will now become our email mailing list for our new Shopify Store, which we are just a few weeks awy from going live.

W have the Silver Plan at $25 per month, not just because it allows 5,000 active listings, but because of the extra functions that you get as you move up in the plan levels. Our plan provides us with 6 extra functions that we use frequently and find of value, especially the ability to create “custom fields”.

There is just so much more that WL and SB offers it just can’t be covered in a forum type post.

Mike at MDC Galleries

[Mark S]

I was just looking at my Bonanza mail. I got this nasty note saying that I was infringing on Columbia’s trademark right because I was selling a Columbia Jacket, what?

They listed 1 jacket that they took down. I have a lot of Columbia jackets listed and have had them for quite some time without any issues.

Why is this an issue all of a sudden? Does anyone know anything about this?

Mark S

[AdventureE]

While I do not sell on Bonanza, a trademark infringement claim usually occurs for a couple of reasons.

1. Someone saw the item being sold and decided to report it for what ever reason.
2. A rep for the company or a contracted third party was designated as the entity whose specific task it is to search for and take down any items with the company’s name which are not being sold by the company or one of its affiliates.
3. The company is using google features which allow the company to pay for Google to “search for” all instances of the company’s name and then bring it to the attention of the company. This is a marketing tool focused on keeping track of anything having to do with the company. One specific reason it is used is to track activity related to the company especially the sale of their items or items with the company’s name on them.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by AdventureE.

[Mark S]

That may be true, but I think it is ridiculous.

Now I have to take down all of my Columbia listings? Why didn’t they tell me this when I put these listings up? And, how many other companies are there like this (I have heard John Deere mentioned here) that don’t want you to sell their product? If this keeps up, we may have very little to sell on ebay.

Mark

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

AdventureE hit right on it Mark. We did a short thread on this topic about a year ago. I have gotten several such letters and we discussed it here on SL. Search John Deere and Velcro and it may pop up. But if you are not an “authorized” reseller they don’t want you selling their products, period. And an authorized reseller means you have applied to the company, been vetted for several criteria, agree to their terms, etc., etc.

Ebay, Bonanza doesn’t care until they get notified by the company, then they have to stand behind it. Ebay has a VERO program which is an agreement with companies to work as partners with them and don’t know about Bonanza. Several of our letters came from Bonanza and one letter from a legal firm representing the company and it was basically a “cease and desist” letter saying stop selling products from this company because we are not officially authorized to do so.

We took ours down immediately and threw them into our summer yard sale. We never buy any John Deere items at all and we see them all the time at not only yard sales, but auction houses. I would guess that auction houses are not authorized either but maybe some law about liquidation of estate items may cover them.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Mark there is a list of companies that participate in Ebay’s VERO program. Search on the term Participating VERO Companies. You will be amazed at the number of companies on the list. If I remember several pages [hundreds] all alphabetical. Now how many of them “actively” scour the platforms for unauthorized selling is the question of the day. John Deer, Velcro etc., are just the more popular and active ones.

If you want to know which companies brands you are really supposed to be wary of, then take a look at this list. It will bring new meaning to your phrase “we will have little left to sell”.

[Mark S]

Mike,

I understand what you are saying. I just think the whole thing is very unclear. This is what ebay has:

https://www.auctionnudge.com/guides/understanding-ebays-vero-program/

These are the types of things that I would consider a Vero. But I can’t find anything in there that speaks to my issue: a company just doesn’t want you to sell their authenticate items.

How am I suppose to know that? Is there a list of companies that ebay has compiled that states do not sell these brands? I feel that if I own the item, and I follow those basic rules from the link above, I should be able to sell whatever brand I want. They lost their rights to that particular item when they sold it – my opinion. Just like art work that we have discussed here on the blog.

Mike, I am not disagreeing with you at all, I just think that what these companies are doing by trying to prevent me from selling a legitimate item is violating my rights.

Mark

[Sharyn]

Yes, you absolutely have the right to resell an item. It is called the “first sale doctrine”. You can Google and find out more information. However, companies also have copyrights on their trademarks, which is what the VERO program is based on. So, there is a conflict between the first sale doctrine and trademark rights.

One idea mentioned here on the forum is that you can sell an item without disclosing the brand name. So, instead of using “Columbia Jacket”, you would say “Name Brand Jacket” or something like that. I’ve heard that a photo of the brand name is also a trademark violation; although, a company is less likely to do a search and find the violation if it is only shown in the photos.

You can try searching in the forums here to see other brands that sellers have had issues with. I personally try to avoid the companies that tend to use the VERO program.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

You beat me to it. Was typing the same thing but u got it first. The design, colors, logo, and name are trademarked, registered [by big companies] and you can’t say it, or show it. But most companies don’t care. The VERO group seem to have an issue. It is Tissue not Kleenex. A facsimile not a Xerox.

As an artist and former printer publisher, we could not include any names or logos in any of our companies promotional material without permission from the original company.

Also as an artist, you may buy one of my artworks, you may also resell my artwork, you bought the object and can resell the object. But I still own the copyright to my name and signature from creation to grave, unless you buy those from me also.

Yeah, funny how all that works. Some artists both musical and visual have even gotten copyrights on their “style” or lyrics. recent court cases of law suits against contemporary singers using just a few short notes from an older song. Wonder how Andy Warhol got away with the, should I dare say it outloud!!! “the Cambell’s Soup” can ??? LOL.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.

[Mark S]

Sharyn,

So am I allowed to put the actual Brand in ebay’s item specifics “Brand Name”?

Mark

[Sharyn]

Well, I can’t really say what is allowed or not. Mostly, you don’t want to be found when a company is searching for their brand name. If you put the name in the item specifics, then they have a chance of finding you. If you show the brand name in one of the photos, then they aren’t going to find you in a search.

Just my opinion. I know it sucks because a buyer looking for that brand might your listing, but I’ve heard of people getting suspended due to this issue.

[Mark S]

Sharyn,

That makes sense. I guess I will have to play their little silly game.

Mark

[AdventureE]

I am just wondering how others here deal with brand name in their listing title.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Hey Mark.. no problem man. You can sell an item if you are sure it is not a fake, but you can’t show there logo, name or such. You also can’t say, like your Ebay article says, “like Lululemon”. Nope can’t mention there name. And again many don’t care, they like the “free advertising” but others, nope.

So in our case we know which ones are touchy and just avoid them. This is an issue almost as old as Ebay itself. The VERO program as far as Ebay is concerned is to keep them out of hot water and lawsuits. They get sued for “allowing it”. So as your article says, throws it back on the original company and says, if it bothers you, find those listings yourself and report it to us. Then we will do our part and inform the Seller to take it down or usually they take it down. In order to comply with the law that is doing their part and keeps them free and harmless. But personally, I don’t think Ebay really cares. If they did there would be a whole lot more listings killed. Ebay just targets the ones that the company targets themselves, I think is how it works.

There have been other threads on VERO here at SL and maybe a search will bring those up for your review also, or maybe some legal eagles can chime in.

Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[Marie in Florida]

Total Items In Store: 368
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $160 (around)
Total Sales: $682
Highest Price Sold: $622 McIntosh Tuner $117 Vintage Sabena Airlines scarf
Lowest Price Sold: Dr Seuss Mug $13
Average Price Sold: $113
Returns:0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 0

So I have been having weeks of selling less than $100 I knew that the vintage McIntosh would bring in $, so I jumpstarted my store. When listing I followed my instinct and put it up for auction. Comps showed around $500, but I knew that this would command interest. So I set the auction at $500 and sat back. Multiple bids later it was well over the comp price. I wanted the sale quickly, cuz things have been dragging.

The scarf was a great candidate for BIN cuz of its size It was up for many months. I think it was the scarf that the stewardesses wore in first class. The entire menu was printed on it. You used to be able to order Roquefort and 6 other cheese while flying the Belgian air line. It’s now flying back to Belgium

[Sue]

Date: April 15-21
Numbers:
Total Items in Store: 937
Cost of Items Sold: $95
Amount of Items Sold: 22
Total Sales:
Highest Price Sold: $140 Automatic ball thrower for dogs
Average Price Sold: $42
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $17
Number of items listed this week: 27

I enjoyed the podcast(s) this week. I’ve lost photos on drafts before. It’s always frustrating. I wonder if you open them and close them again without changing them if it will reindex them and give you another thirty days.
Marjean posted about hiring a VA. I’m interested in hiring my daughter who lives in another state. I’m still not sure how to go about it. I’d like to have her make up the listings from my photos. But I don’t know how to get the photos to her. I use apple products and she uses a pc. I’d also like to get someone else to do my photography. But for now, it’s me.
I’ve been getting caught up on my backlog of inventory and not doing any sourcing. I want to be all caught up before rummage sales start.

[T-Satt]

You could send them using Dropbox…

[Sue]

Thank you T-Satt, but Dropbox is not supported on Apple devices.

[Ryanne]

dropbox is supported in every OS available. i use it on 3 mac and our iphones.

[Jay]

There’s also Google Drive which we also use on our macs.

[Sue]

Oh! that’s good. I was just going by what they said at the dropbox site.
The pink warning line said I needed Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

https://imgur.com/a/yH6bk0M

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Sue.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

We use google Drive also and also have a OneDrive account [that is the MicroSoft product] but Google gives a user one terra byte of FREE DATA storage and that is a lot.

If you start using up a terra byte of storage, it may be time to clean house a little bit and delete the oldest of your photos that were associated with your Sold list. Once a year we look at our solds and open up Google drive, search by our 4 number code, those photos pop up and we bulk delete. Cleans up the drive and frees up a lot of space.

Another tip is to also just have an external drive plugged into a USB port. You will see the named drive in your directory tree. Just plug in a phone, high light all photos, cut then either paste or move those photos to your external hard drive. You access them the same way, by just attaching them to any listing app you are using.

Unsure if this makes sense, but an alternative.

[T-Satt]

Mike, we use the external drive as well for storage. Works great and not expensive.

[Ryanne]

looks like you’re using an iPad, you can download the dropbox app for the ipad instead of using the safari browser.

[VintageTreasures]

Super late to the party but here are my numbers (finally) for 4/15/18 – 4/21/18
Total items in store: 4/15/18: 179 to start and 4/21/18: 201 at end of week
Items sold: 29 eBay and 2 Etsy
Cost of items sold: $44.75 (approximately)
Total Sales: $480.03 eBay and $13.00 Etsy (shipping not included on Etsy)
Highest Price Sold: $77.00 plus shipping for Large Vtg Lot 46 Cracker Jack Bubble Gum Gumball Charms Prizes Mini Toys Plastic
Average Price Sold: $15.90
Returns: None, and I got the negative feedback from my last return removed by eBay:)
Items listed: 66 – I was on fire, which resulted in burn out this week – how do some of you continue to list so many things week after week?

So last week was a good week for me. My first sale on Sunday 4/15 was my highest dollar sale. $77.00 for part of a lot of Cracker Jack or Gumball Machine Charms that I got at an estate sale. This was an interesting sale because it proved to me that auctions are sometimes the way to go. I bought the whole box of charms for $8.00 (which I thought was outrageous but I couldn’t say no to the sweet Granny selling her Grandmothers things). First I put up a lot of 20 metallic colored cars for $9.95 minimum bid at auction. Those closed at $10.50 with 2 bids. Then I did a lot of 58 metallic colored charms for a minimum bid of $12.00, those got 1 bid – $12.00. So I figured it was a bad buy and thought about doing the last lot (not metallic colored, 46 pieces) as a BIN for a little higher and holding out just to make a little profit on the buy. But I ended up putting those up for auction also starting at $10.00. They went to $77.00! So apparently the metallic colored ones aren’t sought after but the dyed plastic ones are? Who knows, but I do know that after the first 2 auction results I wouldn’t have put a $77.00 BIN on the last lot. Probably judging from the other 2 I would have put $20.00 at the most. So I’d have left $57.00 on the table. Auctions are good if you don’t know what you have I reckon.

Hope everyone is having a profitable week!

[Author]

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