Scavenger Life Episode 441: How Do I Go From Rookie to Veteran Scavenger?

[Ryanne]

 Join the conversation in the forum>> Our Store Week October Dec 8-14, 2019 Total Items in Store: 8496 Items Sold: 37 Gross Sales: $1,255.88 Co
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 441: How Do I Go From Rookie to Veteran Scavenger?]

[Itemsfromthesouth]

Hi Jay and Ryanne:
I just finished listening…I like it when your podcasts come out Sunday afternoon. I am another one of those sellers who left the full time rat race to sell online full time. Although I have sold on eBay for 21 years, my dream was always to do this full time. I was able to do that in July. My numbers were good this week:
eBay store 1:
1,000 items. Sold 34 things for $922
eBay store 2:
260 items. Sold 7 things for $183
Poshmark
Sold 6 items for $189
I do charge shipping on most items.

I wanted to bring up a question for the group. I see some sellers put a lot of detail about wanting to make their customers happy. They say something like this… “If you are not satisfied with the product or service, please contact me and don’t give us negative or natural feedback. I will do everything I can to make you happy with your purchase”.
My question is, do you think this gives an open invitation to scammers requesting to get a partial or full unwarranted refund?
Would love to hear what people think.

[Jay]

I wouldnt be worried about scammers, but adding that info just seems redundant if you already use eBay Hassle Free Returns.

Scammers know how all these sites work. They’re already several steps ahead of everyone.

[The Thrift Raider]

Hey guys, just wanted to comment about the customs thing. I’ve commented before saying I do my own direct intl shipping as of about a year and a half ago. This December is when I ran into my first issue. A lady in the UK seemed pretty upset about some toys I sent her that she had to pay a customs fee of 15 pounds on. I nicely told her that this was not up to me and that it was her country charging the fee. She paid for the item eventually then apparently immediately tested the brand new, still in packaging toys and said that some didn’t work so she wanted a refund. Every day I was waking up to messages from her about when she was going to get a refund for these. I asked her to send them back, no dice because she’d have to spend her own money to do it. So I sent her half the money back just to get her off my back. I have a feeling she just wanted to get some money back from paying the customs. It didn’t feel good to get bullied into giving her a partial, but not waking up to more messages from her felt great. There’s probably a better way I could have handled the situation but I did my best.

I’ve sent packages all over the world and I finally got a customs issue so I guess it was due. I think in the future I will let anyone in the UK know that they will have to pay VAT and customs fees before shipping.

[Jay]

I wonder if the new eBay Send has any system to deal with customs and VAt taxes:
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-send.html

[The Thrift Raider]

From reading that page it looks like buyers are responsible for customs fees just like direct shipping as it is now:

What’s the difference between eBay Send International Standard and the Global Shipping Program?
eBay Send International Standard is a Delivered Duties Unpaid (DDU) shipping solution—buyers won’t pay duties and tax at checkout on eBay, but may have to pay the carrier for duties and tax on delivery. The Global Shipping Program (GSP) is a Delivery Duties Paid (DDP) shipping program—buyers pay duties and tax during checkout on eBay via GSP. eBay Send International Standard gives you full control of what you want to charge buyers for shipping (Free, Flat, Calculated) from end to end. With GSP, the buyer always sees the GSP shipping charges, and also any costs you set for the domestic shipping leg (Free, Flat, Calculated).

[Timo]

@Jay: I followed your link to read about eBay Send, and then clicked on eBay’s link to their terms and conditions. eBay’s terms and conditions for Send are 9 pages, with 3300+ words / 20,000+ characters.

[VintageTreasures]

Itemsfromthesouth: Regarding your question: My answer is yes, I would be afraid that a statement like that would be an open invitation for people to try to get something “extra” back from their purchase.
I wouldn’t put a statement like that in any of my listings. But by nature I am mistrustful of strangers. In actuality I’ve had very few eBay buyers try to scam me, most of my eBay customers have been great!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

I agree whole completely.

We have the following on our packing List, only and not in our listings.

Thank you for your order, prompt payment and the complete information made for an easy transaction.
We hope everything arrives safely and you are completely satisfied. If you have any concerns please contact us immediately so we can resolve any issues.
If you are content with your purchase and our services, we would appreciate you taking a few moments and leaving us feedback. We have done so for you.

Kindest Regards,
MDC Concepts, Inc./ MDC Galleries

and that is it. We offer Free shipping, free retruns up to 90 days, everything is insured, we use a “cocoon multi-layer wrapping process and always are running Sales. That is all we are going to do, if you are Happy, great, glad you are, if you are not, contact us, tell us and we will see what we can do.

That is it, end of story.

🙂 🙂 🙂 mike at MDCGFA

[Antique Frog]

The UK has this scam whereby if the customs fees are not paid upfront the recipient has to pay an extra £8 to the post office when they collect the parcel (I’m basing this on someone else’s experience as I don’t directly import anything). Obviously GSP obviates this, but then probably overcharges on certain categories.

[Jay]

–Is it a scam or just your custom rules?
–Also are custom fees and VAT taxes consistently applied to all packages? Why do British buyers act like they wont have to pay the fees, and the get surprised when they do?

[The_SEAM_Store]

Not a scam. Royal Mail charges a £8 service charge to pay the customs on the buyers behalf, transfer the item into their mail system and deliver the “fee to pay” notice.

But Whoa Whoa Whoa! If the buyer refuses to pay the customs charges, they are NOT due a refund of any kind from the seller. Refusal/failure to pay customs charges voids any ebay/paypal buyer protections. As a seller, you are not obligated to refund anything at all. If you choose to refund the item price only, that is already above and beyond the requirement.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by The_SEAM_Store.

[Jay]

Huh. Our refused return happened a long time ago which is why we only ship through GSP now for the last several years.

So if the buyer refuses the item in the UK, you dont refund any of their money? Just shipping or also the cost of item?

[The_SEAM_Store]

Correct, you are not obligated to refund anything at all for a refused package. If you choose to refund anything, that is just being nice. And if you are choosing to refund the item cost out of the goodness of your heart, you definitely shouldn’t be refunding shipping, putting yourself in the hole.

This goes for any refused package and incorrect addresses, domestic or international.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by The_SEAM_Store.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by The_SEAM_Store.

[Temudgin]

My listings very clearly warn that foreign buyers will owe customs fees so I have not felt guilty for not refunding anything for the few package refusals I’ve had. And I’ve always received the item back with no postage due.

[Antique Frog]

As far as I remember my friend ordered £20 of electronic components from the US. Duty was about £4, and the charge for collecting the duty £8. I know, that doesn’t actually make sense as the value was well under the £135 limit, but that’s what I remember from taking him to the sorting office ten years ago.

Didn’t know that the Royal Mail paid the customs and import VAT upfront to the Border Force. Presumably when the parcel’s refused, the Border Force refund the Royal Mail.

[The_SEAM_Store]

As far as I remember my friend ordered £20 of electronic components from the US. Duty was about £4, and the charge for collecting the duty £8. I know, that doesn’t actually make sense as the value was well under the £135 limit, but that’s what I remember from taking him to the sorting office ten years ago.

@antique frog,

I think this is where most UK buyers are getting confused.

The threshold for the 20% VAT is only £15. Anything over £15 is assessed the VAT tax + the £8 service charge.

The £135 threshold you mentioned is for the additional Customs Duty, packages valued over £135 are charges 20% VAT, 2.5% Customs Duty and the £8 Royal Mail Service charge.
Keep in mind theses charges are applied to the total value of the package, including the postage.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

[Antique Frog]

Yes you’re right. The US package was new components. He’s being regularly purchasing used parts from Russia and Ukraine recently without paying any charges, e.g a 1980s core memory (or something 🙂 ) for £60.

[The_SEAM_Store]

That brings up another common misconception. In the UK, New goods vs. Used goods doesn’t make a difference either. If it’s more than £15, the 20% VAT will apply.

However, if the seller undervalued the package on the customs documents, that’s another story. A risky action which could result in very heavy fines for the seller if they are caught.

[The_SEAM_Store]

All that said….UK customs charges are still not as high as some. Hungary is the highest at 27%.

Sales Tax & VAT Rates Mapped Around The World

[Antique Frog]

I’ve seen the packaging, but I can’t remember how it was labelled. Probably in Cyrillic, and valued in rubles. The only buyer I’ve ever had complain about customs duty was someone in Taiwan, and that was after I’d refunded them fully for a defective camera lens. Felt like sending them a copy of the Little Red Book in a clear plastic envelope!

[Antique Frog]

Thinking about it, the Russian sellers use a lot of low-value stamps. My feeling is that, as the duty is charged on the postage as well as the declared value of the contents, the customs office just doesn’t bother counting up the stamps, converting the cost to sterling and working out the duty.

When I export items, the form (CN22) is about two inches square- very little space to write the description, weight, value, total weight, total value, signature and date.

[totommyto]

Good Morning, really enjoying the podcast. This next year is a big year for us, lots of changes we are initiating to usher in a type of early retirement, or not, but changes coming nonetheless.

12/08 – 12/14/19 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 846
Number of items sold: 13
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $599.50
Cost of items sold: $31
Highest price sold: $129.50 – 6 Magic Lantern Glass slides (multiple items purchased) – Cost $6
Average price sold: $46.12
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $37
Number of new items listed this week: 5
Sell through rate for the week: 1.5
Number International sales: 0

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 642
Number of items sold: 9
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $233
Cost of items sold: $19
Highest price sold: $48 – Old Ironside Fuel Can – paid $5
Average price sold: $26
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $25
Number of new items listed this week: 1
Sell through rate for the week: 1.4
Number International sales: 1

[simplicio]

Decent week for me on eBay.

Sales c/w shipping income: CAD$1242, 8 sales, COGS: $171, Fees: ~$173, Shipping: $184 –> Gross profit: $899
Expenditures: $2457 –> Cashflow: -$1388
Hours: 9
Listed: 0
Notable sales: valve actuator $464, microscope $220.

I feel as though I have made a breakthrough in my business, however.

Since I’ve been striking out finding good stuff in person, I’ve really hammered ebay looking for stuff to sell. And I think… I’ve got the hang of it this week? Like, every couple hours searching I can find a nice item with hundreds of dollars of meat on the bone. I even found what I THINK are a couple of home runs – I am just waiting to have them shipped to me. In one case I paid $800 for a lot of 8 thingies that sell for $1000-2000 each, can’t wait to get those.

If I can do this consistently it’s a big deal, because I have had some trouble scaling up lately – hitting the usual meatspace haunts, I can’t always find stuff. It also introduces new challenges, as it moves me from more time-limited to capital-limited. ($2457 of expenditures in one week is obviously a little excessive.)

OH and we just found out kid number three is coming in August. If ever there were a motivation to scale up!

[Jay]

That does sound exciting.
–Do you think you can find those kind of deals each week/month?
–Are they fast sellers?
–We definitely find nice deals, but why do you think the seller would sell $8000+ items for only $800?

[simplicio]

In that particular case, the seller is clearly new and just looking to get rid of stuff. And no, NOT a fast seller by any means. I don’t know if I can find a deal THAT good every week, but for a whole week I’ve been finding 1-2 flips a day that are like $100–>$500 range.

As you know though in the short run that eats up a lot of money. It’s a little painful when you’re used to more like 20x or 10x COGS. But if they can be found on a consistent basis then it’s a gamechanger in the medium/long term.

[simplicio]

The thing about scavenging on ebay is, it’s an absolute firehose of stuff and it’s gushing all day every single day. Versus in person scavenging, where you kinda exhaust a particular source and have to let it lie fallow for a while. That’s what I find so attractive in principle. With that many gazillion items for sale, there’s bound to be tons of opportunities for arbitrage if you can find them.

The hard part about it is the overwhelming quantity of stuff, figuring out how to kinda filter it so you’re not looking up 3000 garbage items to find one gem. I think 2 years of selling bus/ind items has finally given me enough of an eye to spot expensive things/brands. The hard part was learning what to ignore.

[Jay]

Very true. But I do wonder how much time each week it’d take to scavenge online to keep a steady stream of good items coming. It sounds easy, but you and I know it takes time to filter through the junk each day.

[Sharyn]

Week of Dec 8 – 14
* Total Items in Store: 1527 eBay, 35 Etsy
* Items Sold: 19 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $36.65 + $31 Commission
* Total Sales: $457.59 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $73 Judaica wall tile plaque Sante Fe art
* Average Price Sold: $24.08
* Returns: 1 + 1 cancel
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 12

I have a weird return / customer issue in process. I sold a brass stool or plant stand made in Iran (probably 50 years ago). It was obviously dented and scratched, which was fully disclosed. The buyer felt she should be able to screw off the legs and repair the dents, but they are welded on. She opened a false INAD because the “legs are supposed to be screwed on”. Nothing of that sort was in my description. I lost TRS a few weeks ago because of two stupid inventory mistakes I made in October, and I’m concerned that those will affect my ability to not have to refund her shipping. I’m going to message the eBay for Business Facebook page ahead of time to see what my options will be.

[ChristineR]

* Total Items in Store: 284 eBay, 40 Mercari
* Items Sold: 13 Ebay, 5 Mercari
* Cost of Items Sold: $81 + $12 free shipping + some items ours
* Total Sales: $239 Ebay, $50 Mercari + $20 Facebook
* Highest Price Sold: $43 Best offer Fitz and Floyd Dogs, paid $20 rummage sale in November.
* Average Price Sold: $18 Ebay, $10 Mercari
* Returns: 1 broken item 🙁 – claim submitted. Plenty of bubble but in flat rate box.
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: <$10
* Number of items listed this week: 8 Ebay, 7 Mercari

Enjoyed the podcast. A good sales month, but this week’s theme was definitely low dollar. I’m really in the mood to move things, so that’s ok. A lot of recent listings are selling off.

Spent a small amount of time consolidating bins of listed items. Little by little my garage is looking better and the perimeter is starting to clear out. There are still plenty of piles and parent house boxes, but I definitely see good progress. I’m also doing a little bit better with popping up a few listings here and there during the week.

Not doing much sourcing these days, but I love love love the new manager at Goodwill. Just wants to get stuff moving and on the floor. He is pricing hard goods inexpensively. Unfortunately this weekend I just missed a huge lot of small, new looking Patagonia bags – some he stuffed inside the others. Some picker chick got them all literally right in front of me. Oye!

Have a great week!

[almasty]

I received my 11,000th feedback on my main Ebay store this weekend! 😀 Now onto 12,000!

I also did what I said I was never going to do – I turned my 2nd Ebay store into a Premium store. I was fine on the basic store level forever with it, but I’ve gotten a lot of new items in that will not work well with my main Ebay store. I’ve also been sitting on about 100+ items I haven’t wanted to list because I didn’t have the free listing space with the basic store. I also asked my husband what I should do and he said to upgrade the store, so I just listened to him and stopped overthinking it.

I was thinking about merging the 2 stores together, but my main niche store is hovering around 13,000 items as it is. Since I’m already way over the limit of “free” listings, it wasn’t worth it to add up to an additional 500 listings that don’t go along with the theme of my main store. As a bonus, I was able to use the $50 free coupon to get more free shipping supplies, yay.

I had 5 Etsy sales this past week. I had a really slow start to December with only 1 Etsy sale, so it was nice to have it working again. I have a small pile of items I’m going to list to it today since the store seems to be overall working out.

Here are my last 10 starting dates for Ebay sales. I still haven’t ended/relisted any items because I’m lazy and don’t care:

Start time: Aug 04, 2019 12:56:47 PDT
Start time: Nov 19, 2019 11:26:00 PST
Start time: Nov 19, 2019 11:26:30 PST
Start time: Jul 05, 2018 04:40:57 PDT
Start time: Nov 05, 2019 13:20:20 PST
Start time: Oct 20, 2019 11:23:45 PDT
Start time: May 31, 2019 13:07:43 PDT
Start time: May 29, 2019 11:11:58 PDT
Start time: Jun 01, 2019 10:47:07 PDT
Start time: Jun 01, 2019 12:22:35 PDT

[SilverFoxFinds]

Need to list a lot more this week, as my store count is low, and I think it would certainly help raise numbers across the board. Hoping other-work will slow down a bit, so that I can get out to source a bit more – not that there’s much space in my office, but I’m ready to get a bit more back into the swing of things.

12/8/19 – 12/14/19
Total Items In Store: 818
Items Sold: 17
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs): $446.22
Highest Sold Price: $60 Baumalu copper pot, on sale
Average Sold Price: $26.25
Cost of Items Sold: $19.71
Returns/Refunds: $0
Money Spent on New Inventory Last Week: $0
Number of Items listed last week: 15 max? Busy other-work week, then a long weekend away.

[Lukastreasure]

Finally starting to feel like winter here. Had our first school closing this morning due to ice on the roads. Haven’t had a chance to here the podcast yet, but plan to listen to it on the road this afternoon. Here are my numbers for the week:

Week Ending: 12/14/19
Total Items in Store: 1217
Items Sold: 33
Gross Sales: $2013.56
Cost of Items Sold: $175.89
Highest Price Sold: $350 (Russian Lacquer Box)
Average Price Sold: $49.15
Returns: 0
Spent on New Inventory: $425.02
Number of items listed: 14
Via promoted listings: 18
Promoted Percentage: 54.55%
Average Days Listed 276.82
Longest Listed 1264

Had some nice sales right at the end of the week to save the week. Thought we’d already hit the lull, but did $1180 in sales since Friday afternoon. It was nice to see a stack of 14 packages going out this morning.

[DantheDiner]

My numbers for holiday season are ok, but remain smaller than I want to see on a normal non-Q4 week. This time last year, I was seeing $300+ sales days on most of the days leading to Christmas. Time investment and growth all year, and my numbers are still lukewarm.

Week Ending: 12/14/19
Total Items in Store: 7180
Items Sold: 107
Gross Sales: $1,295
Cost of Items Sold: $84
Highest Price Sold: $80 (EVGA Gaming computer power supply)
Average Price Sold: $12.10

[Doublythumbs]

Dec 8 -14
Total Items in Store: 2694
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales : $1054
* ABOVE yearly average of $904
Highest Price: $150 (Sears Roebuck & Co Baby Blue Portable Typewriter)
Average Price: $27
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $119
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 32

I had another great week! Mostly lower dollar sales but a lot of ‘em. I didn’t get a bunch of listings done due to holiday events and working outside, but that’s okay. Once the Christmas season wraps up, I’ll have all the time in the world to list list list.

Regarding the person who is asking how to become a better scavenger, I would agree that cheap box lots are the way to go. Forcing myself to investigate every little thing in a box of stuff that I got for a few bucks has given me so much insight as to what people will spend their money on. Take for example old plastic toys. I would have never realized that there were a large collector base for that kind of stuff if it wasn’t for doing the research. And as long as you don’t spend an uncomfortable amount of money at first, it’s really a cheap learning experience.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store 1356
Items Sold 28
Total Sales $1,261.00
COGS $78.00
Total Profit $1,183.00
Average profit $42.25
Average sales price $45.04
New Listings 54

Another great December week! I could definitely get used to these sales numbers.
In other cool news, I am now less than 250lbs at 247 yesterday. Woo hoo!

This weekend I bought out a former ebay sellers remaining Video game inventory. A bunch of games, systems, and accessories as well as some new in box toys. I tackled it hard this weekend to get it organized, tested, and starting to list it all. Most of the games are crap, but there are a TON of them. They are easy to list and will bring a couple bucks each after shipping and fees.

It’s interesting how perspectives can be so different. These people saw this large lot as a burden and as junk they no longer wanted to deal with. I saw it as treasure and spent several hours this weekend going through it all and I’ll make around $1k off that work.

[maybel9]

Regarding becoming a better scavenger:

I have been a full-time reseller for 15 years. I used to just “buy what I liked” and I did make money. A few years ago I decided to train myself on higher end items, because the things I like.. photographs, books, etc… weren’t making very much money.

I have gained a LOT of knowledge on higher end items over the past few years and it has been paying off.
I have spent thousands of hours training– doing searches on ebay and sorting by Highest Price to train my eye. Listening to podcasts and youtube videos while I pack and list.

It is still fun and I love learning. There is no fast way to acquire this knowledge, just takes lots of time and effort.

The only caution I would mention is don’t spend a lot of money buying random things to look up. If you are going to do that, maybe go to a moving sale or big estate sale at the end and buy up the leftovers cheaply. Or ask friends and relatives for the stuff they are discarding.

[Retro Treasures WV]

It is still fun and I love learning. There is no fast way to acquire this knowledge, just takes lots of time and effort.

This times 1000!

I’ve poured many, many, MANY hours into research and learning even into items I never even bought. It all has culminated into a very well rounded scavenger education that allows me to go into “terminator scan mode” when scavenging. I don’t look at anything in particular – just let my eyes wander until all that dormant knowledge in my mind keys on something.

I can still remember going into thrift stores before I had all this knowledge – it was like 90% of the store was invisible to me.

[Lukastreasure]

Just finished the podcast. Really interesting show this week. Couldn’t agree more with your advice to the new scavengers. For most of us, I think it just takes time to understand what you can sell to make the best profit, and more importantly, what you enjoy selling. My wife and I have been at this now for 4 years and we have gone through many phases, from where we source to what we focus on for buying, and it evolves continuously as we learn more. I’m reminded of the “10,000 hours” maxim, where it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. It’s just a matter of putting in the time, as long as you enjoy what you are doing.

I’d also ditto the comments of others who mentioned buying lots is a great way to learn. So many times, some obscure object in the lot turns out to be more valuable than the item I bought the lot for, or at least more valuable than I could have imagined, and it opens my eyes to a whole new genre that I need to keep an eye out for.

Thanks for the podcast.

[SilverFoxFinds]

Ditto on the time, time, time comments. Can’t rush it, can only continually explore and look for new routes to explore if just for learning. I too have learned from box lots, from freebies, and from consignments – all things I wouldn’t necessarily seek out on my own, but that have value, and have help me get a better eye and better mind for buying. I also enjoy looking at Solds, and high prices – it’s always amazing to see some of what sells and for what wild price.

[Simon]

Thanks for the podcast. I’m late to the party but here are my numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 3448
Items Sold: 53
Total Sales: $1272.69
Cost of Items Sold: $138
Average Price Sold: $24.01
Average Cost of Item: $2.62
Highest Price Item Sold: $134.95 Alesis AirFX Sound and Effects Controller.
Number of items listed this week: 44 worth approx. $861
YTD Sales: $48384
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +6%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 435
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 207
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 79
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.54%
Hats sold this week: 41 (77% of sales) worth $863.24 (67% of sales $)

A pretty decent week. On par with this time last year. Anyone know how many days are remaining before the shipping cutoff for a first class package going across the country (to arrive by Christmas)?

Hope everyone is having a profitable week.

[Temudgin]

December 20th, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, so says the USPS website.

[The_SEAM_Store]

Week Dec 8 – Dec 14, 2019

Items in store: 4641 Listings for 7586 Items
Items Sold: 101 transactions for 111 Items
Gross Sales: $7153.40
Highest Price Sold: $235 Aquascutum Trench Coat
Lowest Price Sold: $2.49….shoelaces
Average Sale Price: $64.45
Cost of Goods Sold $371, Plus consignment payout, roughly $1200
Number of new items listed this week: 126 listings for 131 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $0
International Sales, 34%
Repeat Customers 7

[Jay]

YOu sell a lot of stuff overseas. I forgot: do you sell GSP or just ship on your won?

[The_SEAM_Store]

I ship direct. When the GSP rolled out, I heard many buyers say they would not buy from sellers who used the GSP, because ebay was overcharging customs fees. That’s all I needed to hear.

On the flip side, I feel the GSP is the perfect option for small volume or beginner sellers, and is a great way for them to expand their market

[Julie B]

My sales have really taken a nosedive this year. I know others have noticed their sales are down too. But I wonder – could my having lost Top Rated Seller status caused some of the decline? I stopped jumping through all of ebay’s ever increasing list of hoops to be top rated this year. I still have 100% positive feedback (hopefully I didn’t just jinx that) but I don’t offer 1 day shipping or free returns on most items.

[Jay]

We also have slower sales. We also moved to three handing time. Tough to make exact reasoning.

[The_SEAM_Store]

As ebay sellers it always hard to pinpoint what changes have the biggest affect on sales. Markets/trends constantly change, sourcing success goes up and down, devoted listing time may vary month to month, inventory costs/thrift prices may fluctuate, seller status, promotions, seasonality…..so many variables it’s nearly impossible to track.

We hired an accountant a few months ago, and he asked what I was projecting for my end of the year numbers. Uh…is “I don’t know” ok?

[Mark S]

Julie,

My sales are about the same year over year.

However, I have 800 more listings. My processes and my items have been much better this year. I use promoted listings on about 90% of my items. So, my STR is way down, but sales are just a little better than last year.

It is hard to pin it on any one thing. This is what I think the main factors are (in no partciular order):

1. Competition from other sites like Poshmark, Etsy, Mercari, Amazon, etc

2. Ebay’s focus on new items (now 81% of all items). I think this may hit hardest this time of year.

3. Ebay’s technical issues that have caused a number of issues this year.

4. The popularity of thrift stores. More people are buying there instead of online.

5. Other unknown factors.

Most of these things I can’t control. The best I can do is buy great items and sell for a competitive price and hope it all works out in the end.

Mark

[VintageTreasures]

Thank you to The_SEAM_Store for: “You are not obligated to refund anything at all for a refused package. If you choose to refund anything, that is just being nice. This goes for any refused package and incorrect addresses, domestic or international.”

I’ve been searching the forum for what to do when a forwarding order expired package is returned. I have messaged the buyer but no response. I wasn’t sure if I should still refund the buyer (minus the postage) if I never hear back from them. It’s a very low dollar item so the buyer isn’t out much money but I wasn’t sure if not refunding the purchase price is ethical. Thank you for answering my question!

[kaninekleenup]

Funny, I have 3 packages that have been sitting on a shelf for months that I did not know what to do with..returns for bad address..I emailed each customer and nothing but crickets..now I guess I can relist them. Thanks

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