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I have an opposite story to this one. I purchased three photo albums/scrapbooks from a Goodwill for $18 all in. After looking through them, there was enough information to track down the family. Their father was a high ranking military guy (even has a Wikipedia page). The albums were compiled by their mother and detailed her time in high school, college (opposite sides of the country) and meeting their father. So, after thinking about sentimental value I decided to locate the family. I googled like hell and finally was able to track down one of the sons at a place of business. He was very appreciative and passed me on to his sister. I talked to her on the phone and she said she would confer with the family, but that they had taken what they wanted from the estate and they themselves being older, didn’t want more stuff and/or to burden their children, etc. I found that sentiment odd as it was just three photo albums. Regardless, I never heard back from them. I would have given them back at shipping cost (and just ate the purchase price) because it was so personal. So it goes. I’ve sold one for $300, some other single items I pulled out and still have two for sale.
To those who have crossposted a substantial number of items, I have a few questions. Are you cross posting to more than one site? How much time per item does this take on average? How quickly do you handle removing sold items from other platforms? What about items that sell overnight? Have you been caught in the situation where a single item has sold on multiple platforms at/near the same time?
I have a few things on Poshmark and my biggest complaint is there photo setup. I take all my photos with a standalone camera and not my phone. I never post from my phone. Poshmark chops my photos to where the entire item cannot be seen. Once I realized this, I was done. Also, I refuse to do the whole sharing thing. I have so much other stuff to do than join party after party to promote my junk.
I think some of the other platforms have potential, but as of now, time = money and I can’t justify the extra time and headache involved with cross posting when eBay is still doing phenomenal for me (even clothing).
Bumping this. Jay and Rynne mentioned their frustration with this phenomenon on the podcast this week and my non-payment cases and “waiting for payment” stacks continue to increase. The vast majority of the buyers are wellllllll established members. I am confounded by this issue. Does anyone here buy on ebay using best offer? If so, are you getting correct notifications/emails when an offer is accepted? Android and iOS?
I am trying to avoid the extra work of declining, repricing, emailing etc. That was supposed to be the whole point of the best offer system, but I digress. I am more curious if it’s a systematic issue vs people just being flakey as this has only been a real problem recently.
I had one of the three open cases message me (finally) yesterday about not paying and said they would do so ASAP. Today is day eight and I can close the case in a couple of hours and will. They have over 200 feedback, the sell price is $20 and the username is relevant to what they are buying so ?????.
On the bright side, the past couple of days the offerers have paid quickly and many items have sold at full price.
My efficiency could improve with inventory management and packing station. That said, it still takes me less than 10 minutes most days to find items that are shipping out. I have tubs for clothing and each type gets a tub (long sleeve shirts, polos, tshirts,sweaters, etc. I hang coats/jackets). All my items are on-site. I never, ever, ever, ever modify photographs. I use a Canon T5i, use a white background and take as many photographs as needed for an item. Sometimes I need more than 12 pictures and I will upload those to an imgur album and place that link in the listing. If something needs a measurement, I have a ruler, soft tape and hard tape to measure items with and always show it in the picture (I do pit to pit and length of every piece of clothing). I take photos in batches. If I have a lot to do, I will break it down to clothes vs non-clothes. If I don’t have any clothing, I just break it down into a comfortable batch; photograph, transfer to my PC and then list that batch. I house all of my photographs on a separate drive and number each one with the SKU that will be used for the item. It may seem tedious, but doesn’t take me much time with a 10 key/tab and I can always reference the photo again if I need to or as in the case with missing photos, easily find and reupload. I find recent sold listings and use their listing as a template. This way I can price my item as I list it and often have most of the title written. Most of my listings descriptions are just the title. IF there is anything in the condition box (and since mobile shows this clearly, I cheat and put other info there sometimes) I just copy and paste that in the description field too. Photographs matter so much more than descriptions, especially when many people will never read them.
More struggles with this over the weekend. I now have 3 unpaid cases open, just closed a fourth. Still have another item going on two days with no payment. All of these are users with feedback, 3 of the 5 listed here are over 200 feedback.
How many labels come per roll and how much are they? I usually get a great deal on the two-per-sheet labels for my laser printer and ink is extremely cheap and lasts forever.
My breakdown of active listings:
$1 -$20 – 550/44%
$21 – $50 – 535/43%
$51 – $100 – 111/9%
>$100 – 51/4%My philosophy is this: I work basically on a 10x model, meaning on average I will gross 10 times what I pay for something. My average sale price for the year is $37.95 and my avg cost of goods is $4.08. Net before taxes, my average ROI is 494%, meaning for every dollar I spend I get back $4.94. I look at it as if I saw free money laying on the ground and would I pick it up. In this case, I would pick up a $10 bill if it only cost me a $1 to do so. These are the types of sales that fill in the gaps between the big sales. Bread and butter if you will. Obviously, time and effort come into play on whether I buy an item. Clothing I am much more cautious of because I am not a fan of photographing them and they tend to be longer tail items. I don’t intend to purchase items that sell for less than $10, but sometimes it happens. I list and move on. The home runs tend to make the numbers pop while the bread and butter keep the lights on and inventory moving.
Friday and Saturday were very slow. 3 sales total for about $60 and that was taking an offer on something. Sunday made up for it with a $300 dollar day. I know around here kids are out for fall break and in most of the country it was a very nice weekend.
I haven’t ran the numbers yet, but September will be either my best month ever or 2nd place behind August. I have quit running sales since July, no promoted listings, no free returns, no free shipping, increased my active listings, added best offer to almost everything (over ~$15) and started accepting a lot more offers instead of countering or trying to get another $5 out of people.
Speaking of counter offers; I don’t know if it’s an ebay app issue or something else, but when I do counter, I rarely get a response anymore. I’ve gone to decline only with a message or just leaving the offer open if it’s a multiple low-ball from the same buyer.
Joshua
Found a few things on my TN trip, but space was limited since I was the people transporter. Will need to source hard this week!
9/16 – 9/22
Total Items in Store: 1087
Items Sold: 32
Gross Sales: $1371.22
Cost of Items Sold: $128
Net eBay Sales (After Shipping, Fees): $1056.14
Highest Price Sold: $125 (Carl Schlieper Knife)
Average Price Sold (Gross): $42.85
Average Price Sold (eBay Net): $33.00
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $100Thanks, T. I feel my eye is getting more discerning and I make it a point to list everything I buy. I don’t want any deathpiles. I do not want to be a hoarder 😉
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet and likely won’t get to until next week, but “numbers” are on my short list to tackle. I’ve been ramping up buying and listing to support my dive into full time. Now that I’ve topped the 1000 mark I am focusing on other areas of improvement. I will be going with one of the third party apps after doing some research. I’ve talked a bit to Mike about Wonderlister as I have SQL XP and would love to get my hands dirty in custom reporting.
Joshua
September is looking as strong as August. Heading to Chattanooga, TN this weekend for a trip with friends. Plan to spend a day sourcing too. Will be nice to buy in a new area for a change.
9/9 – 9/15
Total Items in Store: 1073
Items Sold: 43
Gross Sales: $1699
Cost of Items Sold: $172
Net eBay Sales (After Shipping, Fees): $1330.68
Highest Price Sold: $199 (Orvis Wool Jacket)
Average Price Sold (Gross): $39.51
Average Price Sold (eBay Net): $30.95
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $221.91I recently picked up 3 of these. They are heavy duty, come with wheels (which is nice for moving with inventory already stored) and are height adjustable. I was able to get nearly all of my 1000+ items on two of these. I highly recommend them for agile storage.
You can purchase these from Costco even without a membership. I believe they add 5% to the price or you can sign up for a membership if you would be a more frequent customer and can justify the membership cost. All told, 3 of these shipped to my door was less than $600. They took about 20 minutes each to set up.
For catchers mitts, you measure the circumference of the glove. Flatten the glove as much as possible on a hard surface and use a soft measuring tape. It will be hard to photograph, so make sure to write it down.
Not a bad week considering I had a ZeroDay
9/2 – 9/8
Total Items in Store: 1085
Items Sold: 30
Gross Sales: $987.37
Cost of Items Sold: $122.40
Net eBay Sales (After Shipping, Fees): $733.65
Highest Price Sold: $80 (Ralph Lauren Blazer)
Average Price Sold (Gross): $32.91
Average Price Sold (eBay Net): $24.46
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $53.32
