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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.
Limited scavenging this week but I was happy when my Youtube knowledge paid off. I found 5 Easton Press books at Goodwill and remembered hearing about them in a video some time ago. Paid $4.99 each and looks like they go for about $40.
I listed only 10. The kids are still home and my husband wanted to have a big pool party this weekend, so my listing time will be a bit limited but I hope to do better.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/336004765740 Even though this is a new item, I have to give it a shout out. I bought 5 on clearance last winter. It is a testament to selling multiple quantity. OTOH, I just had to do a multi-quantity item inventory as I found a few to be off.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335841074652 Also proud of not breaking this item. I’m almost back to TRS status after breaking some super fragile little figurines while packing.
Total Items in Store: 1165
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $144
Total Sales: $610, Net $398
Highest Price Sold: $69 New duvet cover
Average price: $50
Returns: 0 – thank goodness!
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $50
Number of items listed this week: 10Well it’s pretty slow sales all around. Had a pop up market and all of the vendors were talking about it as well. People seem to be pretty tight with money right now.
I haven’t committed to any more live markets until October when I have two. So will focus on Ebay for a while. Unfortunately I only got a couple of short listing sessions in last week. I have been enjoying some family time, also having some major sleep issues. It’s hard to tell where the time goes it just goes!
On my podcasts this week, someone mentioned they are using Chat GPT to create the most optimized SEO title for an Ebay item. I found that interesting. I tried it with Google lens AI mode but it didn’t work.
It’s been slower on the scavenging but I did take my daughter and her friends to the Goodwill bins. It was pretty lackluster for all of us, but I did get a storage container and a bunch of tissue and foam dish padding for my business. Also some vintage picture frames. It was nice that it wasn’t as crowded and you could manage to get into the fresh bins without people bumping.
I don’t think I really picked up anything spectacular last week. I bought my cousin in Bend a brand new pair of Sorel boots for $22 this morning at Goodwill. I go in briefly after the dog park if we drive there.
Last week was a good week for linens, which were my top sales. Ralph Lauren is really great and I find it from time to time in pieces.
That’s great Craig. I have definitely not been consistent at all. Gross sales $412, net 245. Sold 12 items with average $35 price.
I spend a lot of time dealing with Ebay on two buyers. One was the hothead. I had to keep the INAD but got her feedback removed as I mentioned previously. The second was straight up fraud. New account, INAD, returned a totally different item. That’s a first for me. The interesting part was they could have just put a rock in the box but instead they put a newish looking Disney coffee mug (of lower value but not worthless). I messaged them in case it was a good faith mistake, but they didn’t answer and this morning (three days later) Ebay stepped up and covered me. Today I got a person who expected a full set of something and did not read the description. I just refunded her and told her to keep the item because I’m done with all this buyer chaos. So that’s 3 in a row and I should be good if bad things come in 3s. Fingers crossed.
I’ve got a lot of family time and help going on and saw some friends last week. I look forward to ramping up listing on Ebay but realistically might be August before I really get cooking.
Two months without thrifting is great! I have been shopping a lot less, but not abstaining.
I had some nice time with friends and family last week and a fun but lackluster sales live market. Have a bigger market this Friday.
I listed only 11
After a lot of wasted attempts, today I was able to get feedback removed. The buyer had said she knew how to work the system and that was the reason the agent said she would do it. I was going in on the feedback content but whatever. Ebay sent an email saying there was no defect in the first place so it was removed for that reason. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful. I also got a response on the Ebay Facebook page.
Here’s what I learned:
Request a call back from Ebay; immediately ask for a supervisor. The agents get dinged for having to escalate it, so they will handle your request in all manner of ways – lying, saying they will have one call you back later, say you can’t talk to them, or in today’s case actually fix the problem. The regular agent was able to remove my feedback. The accent was different today so maybe that was the difference. So it’s as it always was, just keep asking for a call until you get someone good. I think these days that just takes a lot longer. Also the social media person was somewhat helpful.
I also learned that once a buyer does an INAD, there is no way you are not paying for both shipping labels. If you are top rated, they will pay you maybe $6. You only have the power to report the buyer. Also, the agent today told me don’t report the buyer until you get the item back – but also in the window before you refund and the case gets closed out. She also said make sure you do it from the orders page. True? idk, but I made reports earlier in the process that disappeared. She started a report for me on the bad feedback buyer internally today.
Also learned during this process that email – both from concierge and help addresses are worthless and probably AI driven.
