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@Retro are you only seeing your items in the banner? I’m seeing some other sellers’ listings as well. Possibly you are the only one promoting. My search is pretty broad so dunno.
I listed 21 items, 20 unique. I didn’t take a photo because it’s all Starbucks mugs, so not that interesting. I have three more to go from the death pile box and another box of that lined up. It feels really good to get traction on the piles.
Total Items in Store: 351 Ebay, About 70 Mercari
Items Sold: 12 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $700 Ebay, $32 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $346 Ebay, $5 Mercari
Highest Price Sold: $200 New bedding
Average Price Sold: $58
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $15
Number of items listed this week: 21Happy birthday to you guys! I hope you enjoy a chill birthday celebration. I was thinking it would be cool to blow up some old town postcards for your shop decor, though I’m confident that you already have already planned or found some amazing wall art.
An old friend once said to me that very few people get to do a job they really love and the rest of us just have to suck it up and that’s why they call it work.
This week my sales fell off a cliff mid-week and vintage did not moving well for me. However, I did get a whole box of death pile Starbucks mugs listed so I’m happy with that. I’m going to wait until I have fewer RA repeats to post another video with unique vintage. Thanks to people for the nice comments. It feels really good to get to some piles listed – still much more to go. The kids are demanding more of my time but I’m hoping to knock out another box this week and I think that would be all but the Christmas Starbucks.
Finally, a word about promoted listings. I have a story actually. I was a finance major and we had an mid 80s computer simulated group project to launch a business. We met regularly to discuss strategy, but as the weeks went on spent less and less time. At the end our team won first place! It turns out that the person in charge of turning in our weekly tweaks had steadily increased the advertising budget while everyone else was snoozing. This week I was looking for something to buy in the app and frequently scrolled through a banner of my own sponsored listings. I do 2%. Hopefully, it will pay off as some sellers forget about it or refuse to pay more fees.
Have a great week. Hope it is a healing week in many ways. Masks are required here in businesses and have apparently worked well. We are grateful to our neighbors for making the effort and to the business and local government for requiring this. The culture here is wearing is caring.
This reminds me of this character.
06/03/2020 at 11:49 pm in reply to: Harley Davidson shirt, Johnny Cash reel tape, Clock Radio, Stereos, Levis jacket #78091Amatino I hope you are feeling better by the time you read this.
I listed 39 items, 32 unique.
Total Items in Store: 375 – approaching 400, about 65 Mercari
Items Sold: 12 Ebay, 5 Mercari
Gross Sales: $440 Ebay, $77 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $126 Ebay, $10 plus some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $60 new pair of pillow shams bought on clearance last week for $18.
Average Price Sold: $37 Ebay, 14 Mercari
Returns: 0 – opened one unpaid item case
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $80
Number of items listed this week: 39It felt like a busy week of shipping. My day job really slowed down this week, so I’m able to keep hitting up the piles. Hope to do it again this week. We are also working on my son’s college apps. Strange times to be thinking about sending him away for college (Fall 2021). We have a counselor at the school but I’ve dug in and listened to loads of podcasts so I’m acting as his college counselor essentially.
Thank you for the podcast. Shipping feels like a moving target. The rate rules and rates keep changing and going up and up. Calculated seems easy. I kind of had a chuckle because I’m sure the coffee business got a bump but we are all pretty cheap in here and we are very familiar with what the cheapest shipping rates are for different weights, so you kind of have to assume someone might touch on this. I love getting free shipping as a buyer, but I usually get it from big business. I agree that it doesn’t make sense for smaller businesses who need to stay reasonably competitive on price. On Ebay and Mercari I charge shipping.
Stay safe everyone.
Take good care of yourself. That’s rotten luck!
05/27/2020 at 11:00 pm in reply to: Iroquois bowls Old west painting, Starburst tumblers, 1940’s Kit Cat Klock #77864Awesome clock sale Steve! I love that you are able to restore great items.
Sales are slowing a bit.
“Trapped at home, consumers have gone all in for fitness and exercise equipment, up 607% compared to pre-pandemic levels; toys and collectibles, up 574%; and video games and consoles, up 437%. About 45 million people have downloaded the Mercari app since its launch, which has about 4.1 million active users., with roughly 150,000 new listings a day. Users are more likely to be female, Hangad says, and more suburban than urban, with young kids.”
From another article: “The average Mercari seller in the US made $183 in April – a 50% increase over April 2019… Prior to the pandemic, Mercari had approximately 3.4 million monthly active Mercari users in the US representing all states, and that number has risen. Mercari also reached a milestone amid the pandemic, surpassing $1 billion paid to sellers since its US launch in 2014. “That’s a billion dollars changing hands between individual Americans, since we are a domestic marketplace that prohibits corporate sellers,” said John Lagerling, Mercari US CEO.”
I hope Mercari does survive. I have noticed that Ebay improved the photo loading speed, the promoted listings glitch vs. desktop, etc. I’m happy they made some changes but I still have to start on my desktop with Ebay. I hope they continue to improve and simplify the app listing but it kind of goes against their goal to add all of those item specifics.
I listed 33 items, 26 unique. I realized after posting that photo that I didn’t list the thimbles – something I haven’t sold before. I have a whole collection. Does anyone know off the top of your head if they might be worth listing individually? Will need to address so I can claim box done.
05/25/2020 at 11:29 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 464: In the wake of the pandemic- Facebook Shops #77782Total Items in Store: 334
Items Sold: 8 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Gross Sales: $348
Cost of Items Sold: $130
Highest Price Sold: $89 new tiki mug (7 day auction, paid $45)
Average Price Sold: $44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $250 (new RA)
Number of items listed this week: 33Pretty good week still but had a few quiet days in a row. I remember that people can become focused on regular retail sales during holiday weekends. I finally got an offer on my small midcentury fine art painting and I’ve countered. In different times I might try selling on Chairish with higher end items like that painting. I follow this local store on insta. It’s amazing the prices they are able to get for vintage items and decor. I shutter to think these are the folks I need to compete with when I start letting myself go to estate sales. They are talented at making vignettes and I imagine that they sell similar items that go to interior designers on Chairish. Any trash elves with experience selling to Chairish?
Mostly new items I’ve already shown in my sold videos are selling so I will wait until I have some more vintage variety to show to finish the next one. Editing on the ipad is much easier than using my phone. I started out 4 years ago with a mix of RA and vintage and had no plans to return to RA but if the deals are available, I’m taking the opportunity and using my Ebay profits to ramp up my new inventory. I’m psyched to list some vintage this morning.
I’m curious about the Facebook store idea. Privacy is a concern but I’m game to try it later if it doesn’t take too much time. I’ll go into one of my FB groups and ask about it. Buyers might be a bit more reluctant to flake or cause issues if they are using their personal account to buy and make offers. Usually selling locally on FB, they at least tell you if they lose interest vs. standard craigslist flakiness.
Have a great week. Hope people stay safe and keep shopping online.
Yes, it’s a shame too because their old rates were really good on heavier items. Mercari is strong in Japan but struggling to become profitable in the US. Also with the new requirement for weighing, amateurs are making more shipping mistakes I think.
However, your items get seen ASAP on Mercari where they can really languish on EBay. Mercari is very active for well priced items and it’s easy enough to ship PayPal. EBay’s improved their app recently but it still isn’t as fast to list. Arguably different buyer set too, lower fees, and less likely to compare prices or return on Mercari.
Hi Meg, I ship on Mercari but not often items this heavy. The shipping prices used to be better but they went up. For flat rate items and media mail items I ship through Paypal and offer free shipping on Mercari. Others I just usually pick the Mercari best price for FedEx or USPS. Mercari charges you their fee (only 10%) on the total including shipping so you are actually better off with no fees shipping independently as long as you charge enough to the customer. Some Mercari sellers talk about using Pirate Ship.
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