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Oh wow, what an amazing read! I would LOVE to see this plan get implemented. It involves a huge amount of housekeeping from some board members all the way down to the overseas CS reps. I remember people here asking “why are they rolling out all of these new tech programs and changes when they can’t even run the existing functions of the site smoothly?” They should do it now while they still have good traffic. How much more would I love selling on Ebay if it became more reliably functional and streamlined?
Jay you asked how much time people spend on Mercari to make the $50 a week. Barely any time at all. It takes me more time to ship a clothing item than to list one. When you use the Mercari app, you realize how the Ebay app should be working – it’s so straightforward and logical. And then you kind of wonder how Ebay listing ever got so cumbersome. Plus the “upgrades” and suggestions in the updated app version are making it even less like I want it to be, so I will do the whole thing except pictures on the desktop.
Mercari has an efficiency to be enjoyed, but I hear it’s not a list and forget it platform. Items are meant to move. On the other hand, there is less competition, better Google reception, arguably a different clientele to be reached, and it really doesn’t take much time at all. If you decide to give it a go, I’d try your hipster appeal items and pop culture items if you have any. Maybe hats you said weren’t moving well? If you decide it’s not for you, that’s certainly ok too. If Mercari is smart they will hire Marie Kondo to advertise.
@Amantino, let me know here when you start the dp thread. I still need to consolidate a bit and then take photos.
I listed 37 items this week. It was a better week for listing while my contract work is slow. Hope to list today on the holiday, then going to my Dad’s next weekend so that will be less productive. Have a good listing week ladies!
Total Items in Store: 334 Ebay, About 55 Mercari
Items Sold: 6 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $259 Ebay, $43 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $38 + $3 shipping included + a couple items ours
Highest Price Sold: $120 best offer (Set of 4 designer hard place mats, paid $6 indy thrift)
Average Price Sold: $43 Ebay, $22 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $21
Number of items listed this week: 34Another quiet week but I was able to get some listing done thankfully. I’m full digging into the piles of coffee mugs and textiles. Checking comps on Ebay first, then putting some on Mercari instead if under $15-20. I also started cross posting my oldest Ebay vintage listings to Mercari as an experiment. Did sell similar to anything with the 18 month band on Ebay.
Ebay is helping us pay for our teenagers. Turns out that teens are more expensive than little kids. We’ve had a lot of extra expenses including college touring trips, theatre tickets and weekend trips, SAT prep course, lessons, two in braces. Ultimately, that’s where our “extra money” is going these days, though I don’t pay most of those things directly from my Ebay account. I’ve shifted from plowing $ into inventory with RA to draining my profits and using the $ to maintain. Not glamorous, but some fun with the occasional smaller scale trips in there. Ebay totally helps us offset the high cost of living here so I’m grateful for that. Unfortunately, I only seem to have enough listing time available to help grease the wheels a bit.
That’s cool Ryanne that you are inspired to clean out by the show. There was one girl on the show – the stewardess I think? – who really wrestled with letting go of potentially useful, practical items. It can be hard to weigh priorities when you are a scavenger. I’ve yet to get on this in earnest, but partially because I know that I’ll just be adding to my death piles by taking things out of the closets. I’m trying to get rid of the boxes, not add to my backlog of low dollar items!
Finishing the podcast while I clean stickers off coffee mugs. Have a great week!
I believe first class will hike like $1.50 in some cases. Definitely cause to pay attention if you’ve been offering free first class shipping.
Yeah, lots of changes with the latest app upgrades. I think they are trying to make it more streamlined and compete by adding suggested pre-filled choices (eg. auction it!) and text. Unfortunately, it doesn’t match my saved preferences and routine practices. Also if you click to agreed to promoted, they fill in a very high percentage even if you’ve already selected something else on the desktop. You can’t choose or retain your percentage in the app. Overall, not very seller friendly. Sure it’s faster, if you want to let Ebay choose everything for you.
I’m going to have to flip my process and start the draft with pictures in the app and continue to the desktop to launch. Not sure if I can still use sell similar if starting in the app. 🙁
@Mike I found another foreign website where some of the artist’s other works are for sale and they do free evaluations. Also, the estate of this artist has a website but it just leads back to a gallery. I contacted the gallery – it’s nearby in LA.
My earlier research indicated that this was an early work of his done while he was living in New York. It’s very different than his later works which are more high profile. I only found one similar not so recent sale of $1500 before.
I’m sending very broad requests fishing for any information since I am really quite clueless having no art background. They have been getting back to me right away, but so far using mainly generic responses.
@Sally. They got right back to me. Neither auction house wants to sell but Southeby’s did provide a valuation of $3,000. That would certainly be tile worthy. I asked for more information and I’m playing phone tag with Bonham. Nice of her to return my call since it’s peanuts to them. I’m trying some other sites today with connections or works by this artist for sale. Pretty cool. My spouse and I are at odds over the tile so unfinished it sits. The tile guy says tile budget gets cut because at the end of the project expenses…
Reminds me that we once sold a ’56 Tbird we bought pre-kids from my father-in-law and used the money to remodel our master bathroom after buying our current house in crappy condition. Ah, the joys of being house poor in So Cal… Nothing of beauty will stick around long, but it’s an investment hopefully that will pay off when the kids are grown and we move or downsize.
@Mike and Jay Thank you again. I finally submitted this to Sotheby’s and Bonhams online today! I’m hoping it will pay for my kitchen tile that is a bit pricey.
I watched a couple more episodes. The people are committed and spending a lot of time doing it, with off camera babysitters or empty nesters. Maybe it will take people a while to get it done, but I think it will be a good thing. I only made a couple of thrift stops this week and it’s lean so far.
@Simon TFS!
I would never do this on Ebay. I’m pretty sure mentioning a different brand (eg. Rae Dunn) is a no no. However, Mercari is in wild West mode and very brand driven. Mercari just puts these as one of many prohibited conduct items: “Listing an excessive amount of search keywords” and “Setting a false brand”. Seems like that leaves room for tags at the bottom of the description if you click the correct brand in item specifics. The more eyes on your item, the better. I was wondering if it’s the same on Poshmark and Etsy. Craigslist is wild West.
Hi! I got down to business this past weekend and listed 39 items. Many on Mercari, which is super fast listing though I wish they had sell similar. I made myself look through 5 boxes of coffee mugs from the death piles because I knew I had some Valentine’s and Easter mugs. I’m taking a few items from my own closet now and then to put on Mercari though I probably should give it the full Marie Kondo treatment.
I have some more consolidating to do, then I will photograph the piles. I’m happy with my progress this year, but I looked at last year’s photos and realized some of the boxes are still right there. Much work to be done in 2019. I would encourage anyone with piles to take photos. It’s pretty motivating.
Total Items in Store: 323 Ebay, About 55 Mercari
Items Sold: 8 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $178 Ebay, $30 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $53 + $11 shipping included + 1 item ours
Highest Price Sold: $42 b.o. new pillow sham paid $27 clearance two months ago. I was hungry for sale)
Average Price Sold: $23 Ebay, $15 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4
Number of items listed this week: 13 Ebay, 26 MercariVery slow work week with barely any sales until Sunday. Interesting podcast. I like how you touched on comparing Simon’s method to your own. We have plentiful sourcing here and I started out sort of curating with a goal to be like a fancy Etsy settlor with a shop full of awesome vintage items. However, I’ve really shifted to a “great items at great prices” method with best offer in full swing. I’m working on liquidating piles at this point, so that totally makes sense for me.
Right now, it’s all about digging into the piles. Three years ago I started buying coffee mugs – Starbucks and character mainly – because I was shipping phobic. Some of them I discover make me groan but there are some cool ones. I’m also listing some of my childrens’ book sets on Mercari.
Watched the first episode of the Marie Kondo show. The FB groups are making jokes about licking their chops over the stuff people will donate after watching that show. I felt pretty good about myself after watching on one hand. On the other hand I definitely have quite a few cleaning out projects in closets and garage – mostly kids toys, paper filing, photos, and stuff from my parents’ house – that I haven’t gotten to yet. My inventory is not in our living space and I love to organize but there are many demands on my time. One of of goals for this year is to break down the clean out into bite size areas. Her method of taking everything out I can attest to after remodeling our kitchen. Importantly, I don’t know if it’s more reselling or aging, but I’m less inclined to be a consumer these days and have become way more utilitarian. I’ll occasionally walk through Target or Pottery Barn and be like I really don’t need any of this cute stuff. So I guess the scavenger side has really taken hold at this point in my life. It’s really a thrill though to get a great deal on something quality that we do need.
Have a great week!
Bubblefast guy interview on USPS shipping changes
I thought this was fairly good coverage for resellers. Skip to 35:35 to go straight to the interview. I also like the link bcfol440 provided.
The DIM weight divisor is expanding in June and not going away (making it apply to smaller packages) plus they are adding it to close range packages in zone 1-4 priority. The average change in price on first class is a bit deceiving, because it is skewed on the high end – when you get closer to a pound (13-16 ounces) the price hike is like $1.50!.
Also of note, top rated sellers are not going to get an extra shipping discount because USPS doesn’t have two tiers of commercial discounts any longer. So if you are not jumping through hoops to get TRS status, you aren’t missing a discount on shipping any longer.
I’ve already gone through and taken off free shipping on a number of 10+ ounce items.
