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I usually have things I am excited to list, and then I pile up things I am less excited to list. I have learned that I need to just turn on the listing “robot” in my head and list it all because I really do not know what someone else will be excited about – and that is what really matters at the end of the day. As J&R say – I am not my target audience.
I watched this news piece and it was interesting, but always the news tends to treat frugal people as some sort of exotic animal at the zoo. It may just be a manifestation of the media – news stories are always going to present things as “news”.
I really liked Pete’s talk a the World Domination Summit in 2017 which probably gives a fuller picture of his message:
11/02/2018 at 7:37 pm in reply to: Ed Welch Journal of Antiques Article – Selling Higher Priced Items #51132I enjoyed the article – it is well written from personal experience and that is something that I really like. I am pretty sure my eBay business would all fit into level 0 through 3 and I am 100% happy with that. I would lose my mind trying to sell anything Chippendale that didn’t have a bow tie and a g-string.
My sales last week were pretty robust despite taking a vacation for five days:
I picked up three copies of a game I had never heard of before at one of the local thrift stores. They were three copies of the same game, new in factory seal and dated 1968. After researching, I put them on eBay and sold one last week: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192654479891
Sometimes I beat myself up for “bad” purchases. In September I bought a bunch of halloween costumes because they were $3 to $5 and I thought they would turn over quick. I sold three and only this one really turned a profit, but now on review, I realize this one covered the cost of all the others and gave me an OK return for the whole bundle: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192671206011
I may have underpriced this book because it sold within an hour of posting it: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192701309568
I have done really well with a bunch of vintage beefcake photos and slides from the 50s and 60s. Many of the images are NSFW, so I will leave it you to search my “solds” if interested. I did auctions initially because I had a hard time believing anyone would actually pay some of the prices I saw on past solds. I subsequently have been putting things up as BIN, but probably went too low on prices and have been raising prices since. I have listed about 20% of the material I have to sell.
I had an aha! moment last week while listening to a podcast or youtube. A very experienced high volume seller of clothing was being interviewed and she indicated that clothing buyers tend to be sensitive to shipping costs. I have subsequently been going through my listings and adjusting them to specify a $1.95 shipping cost and have seen a couple sales: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192633785339 I have to be careful with this because on something that has to go priority, this can really bite me in the butt.
A frequent and recurrent thread has been people asking about small bread and butter sales. Patches have been pretty successful for me and I always snatch them up when they are cheap. At estate sales, I usually remember to search closets for jackets that have sewn on or iron on travel patches: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192577549829
Follow up: I got a message today from eBay indicating that they are refunding the buyer without any impact to me. I am very happy with this outcome.
I had unclaimed returned to me in October. Buyer messaged me several times in Spanish asking where his item was. I responded to every message in Spanish (or google’s version of Spanish) and asked him to open an item not received case with eBay. I am still waiting, but I suspect that my buyer may have a language barrier impending his ability to pursue a case.
The value of the item was <$20 including shipping, so I think the buyer is not going to pursue it further.
I loved watching Troy and Veronica on Lingo while I am listing. Thanks for sharing.
10/28/2018 at 8:07 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Hood scoop, Stratoscope photo, Mailbox, Carhartt vest, Amplifiers, Crescent moon shadow box #50815I didn’t mean to be vague, but my allusion to grand tour collectibles does not give much to search for.
Grand Tour article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour
Collectibles are the bronze miniatures bought as souvenirs by young people on their Grand Tour https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=grand+tour+bronze+miniature&_sacat=0
Here are several Grand Tour bronzes: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/five-grande-tour-bronze-articles-lot-1942706264
Miniature of Emperor Trajan: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/small-antique-18th-19thc-bronze-roman-1940115059
Miniature of a Michelangelo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/19thc-bronze-michelangelo-moses-1387400754
10/26/2018 at 9:49 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Hood scoop, Stratoscope photo, Mailbox, Carhartt vest, Amplifiers, Crescent moon shadow box #50793As always, thanks to Steve and all who post what sells. I learn a ton from looking and reading about your experiences. I was on vacation last week in Moab and the week before had some sort of glitch so could not post on SL. Here are highlights from my last week:
Different regions have different stuff available. Here in Colorado, there are probably a lot more ski/snowboard jackets than other parts of the country. I picked up three jackets for $20 at a garage sale and sold one for $29.95 last week: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192683522237
On researching this small bronze of a gladiator, I came across “Grand Tour” collectibles and put the price appropriately high. I took a best offer of $145 https://www.ebay.com/itm/192682112721
Never buy DVDs unless I want to watch them myself. That is the rule I live by, except when I came across 18 different complete seasons of various Korean language television shows for $14 at my local thrift store… I took a chance and these have been bringing in dividends like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192690076182 which sold for full price and ships by media mail.
A yard sale in my own neighborhood turned up half a dozen vintage carbon steel knives from a farm butchery. I got them all for $10 and this one just sold for a best offer of $52.11 https://www.ebay.com/itm/192644215784
Best estate sale I ever went to had two boxes of gay-interest books and ephemera of the 1950s and 1960s. These catalog photos sold overnight for full price the day I listed them: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192692315918
I borrowed the idea of game parts from Steve (Thanks Steve) and sold these tokens from a Rudolph monopoly game: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192685775626 I really liked this because I bought the game for $1 and did not want to store or ship the whole thing, so selling tokens made it a good flip. (I wouldn’t not do this if it was a rare or old game).
FlipperTools has some great postage calculators for finding the best rate for your items:
10/23/2018 at 6:49 pm in reply to: Bidder trying to get discount and free shipping after auction ended #50624I agree with antarestar. I just had a similar situation – buyer messaged me as soon as auction ended and said he didn’t realize he bid on a slide instead of a photographic print. He asked me to cancel the purchase. Rather then me cancel it at buyer’s request, I am using eBay automatic unpaid item. That way, I am sure to avoid a defect, get my fees back and have my item relisted. Also, the buyer gets a defect that may prevent him from pulling the same crap on others in the future.
I have a healthy fear of selling something and getting a return or worse – a defect. When I come across significant defects in clothes I am listing, I pause and most often put them in the donate pile.
I googled “100% Cashmere Made in England Scarf” and numerous instances of this tag came up. Now if google would just behave and identify it as Burberry…
“F. Martinez Lois” is what I got out of it too. (I tried to make it “F. Martinex + OIL”, but that didn’t make any sense.
W38, maybe you could start a thread under ‘Random Thoughts’ called “Winchester38’s Journal” – then throw in whatever you want whenever you want to. Works on another forum I follow. Best wishes, Daniel.
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