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You’re welcome! Ebay has some annoucements in your mailbox from days 1 and 2.
Thanks Zach. After going to eBay open I’m much more interested in a service that will refresh my items every 30 days. Wondering if you can exclude multi-quantity with a past sake in your program? There are several software companies so I will be looking to evaluate them.
https://imgur.com/user/retrodecor
here is what the back end store “business report” looks like for my store. I’ll leave it up for a week for so.
So so happy to hear that about your husband. Sending good wishes to kitty.
Listed 23 items. Starting to list a lot of Thanksgiving items and plate sets. Look forward to shopping the Halloween, which is held back all year by the thrift stores. Halloween does really well for me but I have none unlisted.
I have not been doing well with my goal of post-coffee listing, however, I have been listing more frequently and skipping fewer days. It is helping to mark Xs on the calendar to make a chain that I don’t want to break. I try to make sure I do at least 2 listings. Last week it was just 4/7 days again though.
Terrible week on Ebay this week despite listing. Ironic because I head to Ebay Open tomorrow. Will provide updates for anyone who is interested.
Only 12 listings for me.
@VT I listed 4/7 days. It was much harder than I thought to routinely list right after am coffee. I’m going to keep with the goal of trying to create that habit. I feel like the marks on the calendar are helping me want to keep up daily listing sessions.
@jaepete we have a close friend who used to own a comic book store in the 90s too. He misses it I’m sure but it became unprofitable. Nice to see a what sold video. The old stock certificate art is cool.
I notice Youtubers seem to realize they get a lot of views if they go to Goodwill shopping and most are just doing a lot of haul videos. Sometimes at least they add comps on the screen while editing.
@Craig so glad you are having good sales!Make ups can’t hurt but the idea was to make a habit to list at the same time everyday. Hopefully can start with that tomorrow. I didn’t go shopping. No marks on the calendar.
The good news is that I listed 22 items. Bad news is I was trying to start my new habit of listing on Monday after coffee time but I had to help my dad with some appointments and yesterday didn’t feel well. Today I will do 6 listings so I can get going tomorrow. Hang with me @VT
We throughly cleaned the house for the party and I bought on FB marketplace a wicker trunk for my computer desk area to hide the stuff I am processing from time to time. The garage is an absolute mess so I’m selling off my daughter’s apartment stuff on FB and will need to do a big sort. I have a few live markets coming up in October (fall stuff) and I’m going to try a new one in LA with my usual stuff at the end of August. My son leaves next week and we will store his car in the garage again after this big sort.
I bought a bunch of my cousin’s china, an older Spode pattern. She doesn’t need most of it but I was with her when she thrifted the rest so I knew it was a good buy.
Total items in store: 1201
New listings this week: 22
Items sold: 8
Gross sales: $466
Net sales: $300
Average sales price: $58
High sale of the week: $120 Framed art prints
Well it’s a good week to do numbers because despite listing off and on and running a sale during the later part of the week and weekend my store seems like it died. I had one item to ship out on Monday. This week is quiet too. Sold a couple of Christmas items last week.
A Youtuber I watch mentioned something I didn’t know before – that you can customize the % of the shipping “savings” Ebay negotiates with your buyers. I thought about this since shipping costs just went up again and are expected do so later this year. So I went and calculated how much of my annual shipping “profit” from last year went to final value fees on shipping receipts. I found after fees I was made about $1400, which is a little more than I paid in non-recycled total shipping supplies ($1000ish). So I’m pretty close to breaking even on shipping, which has been my goal. I don’t think I want to pass on any discount because I’m not sure giving them maybe 10% would move the needle for anyone or if they would notice I did that. I guess you would potentially come up higher if your item was priced competitively and the buyer uses sort by total cost. I’ve been making offers at a deeper discount and making 5%-10% off on sale items so I think I will stay with that offer and perma-sale centered approach.
I gave up on selling on the District platform. It was easy to cross post but sales were not there. I’ve heard the platform in general is suffering with only a couple of big Youtubers’ stores in that mall doing ok. It really seems like it morphed into a live selling thing. Kind of a shame that these other well designed sites (compared to clunky Ebay) don’t make it.
I am still selling lower dollar stuff on Mercari but sales have been pretty bad and my listings are stale on there. Mercari just leaves the freshest stuff up top. Mercari has a brand new function for new listings and updated listings they will pick the cheapest shipping I believe for you – not totally clear to me yet. They seem to have deals with UPS first, then Fed Ex just a little higher, then USPS maybe not the best deal. It’s annoying to me to go to UPS with a small Mercari package so I’m going to keep picking Fed Ex with USPS doing the last mile as long as that lasts. Very unfortunately most of my items are over a pound, and Mercari’s next level charges at their 3 pound USPS rate, currently $12.99. I still have some imported stale Ebay drafts I should get around to launching on Mercari.
I’ve noticed a trend of people just bailing on or getting sour on the non-Ebay platforms. The fee experiments have definitely not helped them. I’m hearing more and more that people are just going to focus on Ebay. Would very much like Ebay to hurry up and get their “magical listing tool” to the point that it will actually save time. A good holiday ad campaign would also be helpful.
My goal is pretty simple: to list at the same time every day a few listings. Make it a habit after I do another thing that I already reliably do each day. My problem with listing is not starting, and the advice is to start small, so I put 2 listings but really I will probably do more most days. You can set your own goal. 🙂
I’m hoping to add some other good habits and structure to my day after one of my kids moves out again. But the advice is to start with one small thing and build on it. It looks like we will still have kid 2 in the fall but I’m determined to get a better hold on my time management and make some other changes.
I’ve been listening to podcast recaps of the Atomic Habits book (started it and it’s good but not feeling like sitting and reading lately). Does anyone want to do a 30 day challenge with me starting next Monday 8/22?
I’m supposed to start small and have somewhere to be accountable. Here is the perfect place! We are having a big party on Sunday so I’ll be busy with unusual stuff this week again. I’m taking a break from pop up markets so it should be a pretty good time to do it after that.
Here are the 9 step guidelines to create the new habit:
Habit: List (at least) 2 items after my second cup of morning coffee;
Steps:
1. Commit for at least 30 days – August 22- Sept 22;
2. Use a paper calendar to make a chain of Xs on successful dates;
3. Identify 3 barriers and create a plan for overcoming them;
4. Find a partner and/or post progress on a forum (here) for accountability;
5. Earn a ticket for sourcing 1 venue as reward for 2 listing days in a row;
6. Each day say I’m the type of person who is committed to a successful, consistent business;
7. Make it attractive – light a candle, keep space organized, etc.
