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Wow, Rick, you really are something incredible!
While I’m all agog for your eBay business system information, and hope to emulate your listing speed some day, I’d actually like to ask you about your property sales. How do you vet your buyers? If you are financing, the banks aren’t going to be running credit checks etc., so how do you ensure you are getting a “good” buyer? Do you ask for a deposit, and if so, a percentage of the purchase amount or a fixed sum?
I have rental properties and have been looking into expansion. I was considering flipping, but this option of yours sounds much better!
Dang, I’ve heard of them (family in UK) but have never seen one. Good catch there, AATOUK. I should buy one for my family. They complain of slugs all the time!
You know, there must be a catch. Surely they don’t just send the shoes? They must include a bunch of photos or something. No way somebody is going to pay $100 for the couple foot photos on the eBay listing, right? Or am I missing something here? I’m probably missing something here…
Invite your mom to sit in on a listing, not necessarily one from the family estate. That way she’ll get a hands-on feel for how much work it is. I had a small “discussion” about my “hobby” with a family member and did one listing with them, start to finish, and then packed up one sale item. Then I filled in the blanks with information like it requires storage (cost of storage and storage materials) and time for questions and answering offers, packing material cost, etc. It won my argument, perhaps it will help yours.
At worst, it will give your mom a new appreciation of how much work you actually do, so she’ll stop thinking you should get a real job! LOL
Jay, here’s a pic of the Gallery Plus.
On the left you can see the little photos you find in search. Below it, marked with the big red arrow, is a small magnifying glass icon. Hit that icon and it gives you a large photo over the top of the search list, per the image on the right. It’s a way of seeing a larger image of the item without actually going into the item itself, so that you can stay on the search page.
Now, in this search page of men’s casual shirts, there are no magnifying glass icons. Nobody here has bought into the Gallery Plus.
It is my totally unsubstantiated opinion that buyers don’t know about the option. I didn’t!
Jay – I was thinking in terms of death or getting too old to want to continue = retire.
If I die, the business will die too because my husband has less than zero interest. He would then just be pissed at me leaving him to deal with “all my junk.” (You have may noticed a theme on the naming front here! LOL) If we both die, my family is going to be going through everything with a WTF? mindset.
If I ever get too old to want to continue with the business, at a doddering 96 years old for example, what do I do with my successful eBay business that has tens of thousands of items?
It’s a bit of a forward-thinking question, but my husband and I believe in the Death Drawer principle: having a drawer filled with all our information in case of our death, such as our Wills, funeral plans, insurance, etc. Disposal of all our assets are in the Wills. Do I consider my business an asset, or just part of my physical estate to be disposed of to some lucky future Trash Elves?
Shortandstout: great point. Having the closure of the business included in my Settlement of Affairs is an excellent idea. Somebody needs to know how to close the store and settle the accounts for eBay and PayPal.
The translation I got was wool 90%, polyurethane 10%.
That doesn’t make any sense! 🙂
USPS actually has “board game” boxes that are fairly good. I’ve sent mine in Priority Mail boxes where they fit. I usually top and bottom with sponge or peanuts so that they aren’t damaged in transit. Not a major pack, like breakables, just a bit more protection. I think about it this way: I have board games myself and I store them all in a cupboard. If I bought one and it arrived crushed, I’d be pretty bummed. It adds maybe 2-3oz, so it’s not much more cost.
I’m out, temporarily. Had knee surgery and it’s worse than they thought, so I’m not listing anything at the moment. 🙁
Will get to it as as soon as I can.
I have a “cleaning bin” which is a lidded plastic tote with all my cleaning supplies, including every color of shoe polish, each stored individually in its own bag with a polish brush, shine brush, and polishing rag. I have Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to clean the rubber on sneakers. I found that Folex removes that silver marking pen, but I’ve not found anything that works on Sharpie. And an old nut pick picked up at a garage sale does wonders at picking dirt out of the soles! 😉
All my shoes are cleaned before photographing and listing. I put out a pile of newspapers to work on, a tub of water and rags/brushes for cleaning soles, some poly bags, and a pile of shoes, and sit on a stool for an afternoon or so and knock them all out. Once they’re all clean and shiny, they go into the poly bags that I’ll use for storage later, then get put aside for me to list at leisure.
I have an account with shoedazzle.com and most of their listings show shoes on a foot model, so that you can get an idea of how they would look. When I started selling on eBay I considered posting photos with a foot model for the same reason. It never occurred to me there may be a fetish about it! Yikes!
Thrifty2: thanks. Great idea for the flagging. Maybe I can have some fun with washi tape or something. I bought 9×12 and 12×15 poly bags from Uline that I use. Each item goes into a bag before it’s stored. I clean my items before listing, so the bags help to keep them clean, dust free, and separate. I remembered hearing about folks who send two similar shoes that are not a pair (2 left shoes, perhaps?) and so I like the fact that my shoes stay in pairs. Also, they’re easily scuffed by other shoes, so it helps there too.
So Cal Joe: that’s a great idea! I love it! Then I would only have to worry about doing a new consolidation when my bin started to look like nuclear launch codes! 😉
It has been fun to read through all the different methods of doing inventory. So many great ideas! I love that we can take a little of this and a little of that and make it work individually.
My problem is that I have severe ADHD, and anything that is too complicated/repetitive tends to become ‘lost in translation’ and I’ll end up falling behind. I speak from rueful experience!
I was using a rack and bin identification system that worked fairly well… until I got two pairs of jeans with the same brand and color! Also, it was a pain because I actually had to store each item to see where it went before writing down the location ID for my notes. (My listing station is separate from my storage, so I would do all the listings and then go to the storage area to get the bin number and then pull up each listing individually again to add that number. Double work doesn’t sit well with an ADHD person.) Aaaaaaand then I realized I have been listing and storing with no inventory trail. Wait… wha…? Oh shucks! (No spreadsheets or anything. Such bliss. Now it’s tax time. Such hell!) LOL
So, as I have to do the entire thing from scratch, literally, I figured I’d redo my system as well to make it more ADHD friendly, easier and faster to list, while creating an inventory system. I guess I’m really really lucky that I’m still in the beginner phase!
I was thinking I would print a bunch of numbered labels that will stay at my listing station. After I’ve done my photos, measurements, etc. of an item and am ready to pop it in a bin, I’ll peel off a label and stick it on the plastic bag. (Every item is stored in a plastic bag to keep it free from dirt, dust, and other items. Also, pairs of shoes stay in pairs.) Then it will get dropped into a bin. As the labels are already printed, it’s just a consecutive numbering system, and I don’t have to worry to remember the last number because it’s right there on the sheet of labels.
I figured this was the fastest and easiest way for me to process my listings, as I can just do a whole batch of them, adding the number immediately as I process the listing, then chucking them into a bin without having to worry about making sure I have the correct bin code. I was planning to fill a bin and just label it with the numbers it has. So, start with A0001 and keep adding until the bin is full. The last number added into the bin (say A0021) is the bin label, so I would mark the Bin A0001-A0021. The next bin would be marked A0022-A… Masking tape and a sharpie are my favorite tools!
However, reading this series of posts has already revealed a flaw: half-empty bins as I remove sold items. I guess I could just do an annual consolidation exercise to solve that? It would be a day of labor with no corresponding paperwork to update. Score! Or is it more complicated than that?
Do any of you more experienced Elves see any other issues? Have any suggestions? I’m aware that any system tends to evolve, but I’d love to “start right” as far as possible. Remember, keep it simple! 🙂
P.S. Mike is my hero of the hour with his EAT suggestion. Great place to start the inventory sheet!
