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Total Items in Store: 372 Ebay, 45 Mercari
Items Sold: 12 Ebay, 4 Mercari
Gross Sales: $263 Ebay, $58 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $52 + $35 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $68 (three new bowls, paid $15 RA)
Average Price Sold: $21 Ebay, $14 Mercari
Returns/Refund: 1 refund- for the first time ever I grabbed the wrong item :0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 2Happy holidays trash elves! R&J I’m happy to hear about your fun vacation and great week selling. Well deserved.
An ok week for me considering shipping cut off week with a low ASP. I was late getting up my Christmas items and I’m very pleased to see some of this stuff still moving out, even at fairly low prices. On Mercari, I sold some premium paper products I bought 90% off that sat on Ebay through last Christmas.
Speaking of Mercari, there are not great Youtube or FB resources about it but I did hear a guy say they rolled out a new feature where after 30 days your listing automatically converts to a best offer listing. I also need to pay attention once I drop the price enough and take off free shipping. All reasons to start out the price a bit higher than you actually want on Mercari or feature items that you don’t need to get top dollar on. BUT, you don’t have to use square photos or share on social media. Plus it’s very fast to list. I do well with children’s book lots on Mercari so far, selling very quickly. After doing Ebay for 3 years, it feels pretty darn good to get results more quickly after listing.
We adopted a rescue doggie for Christmas and have a lot going on so I have no listing mojo. As for 2019, I continue to work through the piles. I’ve got dwindling RA inventory left and Ebay said my sales are down 40% from a year ago. I feel a little funny going to straight vintage and used, but I can’t get the prices at the same retailer I used to get anyway. So in 2018 I really shifted from plowing profits into the business to draining it of the cash I can get out. We’ve had a lot of expenses lately, nothing fun to spend money on in particular. We are also in the minority paying significantly more taxes this year under the new law so we had higher quarterlies. All said, it’s probably going to be a low ASP for my year ahead, but then I’ll be able to hit estate sales. That’s the carrot.
Hard to find a quality video about Mercari but I think this one does an ok job comparing vs. other platforms.
Interestingly, Mercari sent me a survey yesterday and at the end wanted to know if you would be willing to be interviewed by local news or in promotions. Another big difference from established Ebay – they are polling and listening to successful sellers.
If you go in the app to your person head and shoulders icon at the bottom, then click selling, you should see the on sale listings page with photos of your various items. There are buttons to promote or edit under each listing. If you click promote and you are using the most current version you will get a choice of making an “exclusive” offer to likers or just dropping the price for everyone. I think likers requires a slightly deeper discount. Start with $1 off and it will tell you the minimum Mercari will make you do. Mercari will make buyers push up their low ball offers too. They also limit how many items you can promote in one day (10) and how many days before you can drop the price again (3).
If the price gets too low and I have free shipping, I switch to buyer paying shipping and keep promoting. Some people end and relist at some point.
You’re welcome. I can’t emphasize enough how much I prefer listing there vs Ebay, except the prices I’m getting are discounted a bit. It’s a really efficient system and there isn’t much to learn. Just remember to list any condition issues as you are not specifically prompted to do that.
Troy, don’t forget to use the promotion tools. Usually I price a little above what I want to get and then promote.
@ebaymom I’ve heard there seem to be a lot of young moms on Mercari and I have sold clothing. The better brand stuff is selling for me, like Patagonia and Ivivva. I put a few other items on like Gap, Nordstrom brand, Crewcuts, and they are sitting but have likers. I would encourage you to try it out. You can easily browse through solds and see what’s happening. One thing about Mercari though is you need to ask buyers to ask you for bundles beforehand, though maybe not if you are shipping first class Paypal on your own vs. using Mercari labels. You can’t link items without create a bundle for someone. There is not a shopping cart.
thanks, I don’t have much control. This is why I don’t like to set goals.
Sometimes I have less contract work and if the kids are in school, I can get to it. Should really be exercising too though…@Ebaymom thanks for sharing your process. I’m working through items I already own so I create the draft listing while researching on the desktop (and often doing sell similar). I much prefer to research on the desktop so that’s why I do it backwards.
I’m really thrilled with Mercari for items I am willing to accept less than top dollar on. At this point in my reselling and home life, there are a lot of those items. I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground on Youtube about what sells well on Mercari. There’s not a lot of information yet. I hope some of you find success with it as well. I’ve really changed my focus from getting high prices to moving more stuff out – which totally makes sense based on my backlog and plentiful sourcing opportunities locally.
Had some time off my job and listed 38 items, mostly Christmas that I really want to move out. Yeah!
Items In Store: Ebay 371, Mercari 50
Items Sold: 12 Ebay, 2 Mercari, 1 Facebook
Cost of Items Sold: $59 + $45 Shipping included (including $12 mistake) + a few items ours
Total Sales: $308 Ebay, $41 Mercari, $40 Facebook
HIghest Price Sold: $40 (tie – Folkmanis puppet and antique tile, both Ebay)
Average price $26 Ebay, $20 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $10 one jadite item
Items listed: 30 Ebay, 8 MercariNot a fantastic week, with some low dollar offers and sales. It felt even slower during the work week. This coming week before Christmas I remember being very slow as the mail cutoffs start to scare people away. I’m in guaranteed delivery so maybe that will help a smidge.
Enjoyed the podcast. I love spending time raising my kids and the income potential sacrificed by working part-time is well worth it to me. I also love having Ebay to fill in the holes in my schedule with some earning capacity. Certainly the hourly rate would be much lower than my contract work, but it works out great right now in my life and makes me feel more productive and mentally stimulated. However, for me it doesn’t make sense to just let things ride on Ebay. In the past 3 years since I’ve been selling, Ebay has rolled out a lot of changes, competition is emerging, and I can totally understand why people are trying to maximize profits and their time. You only have some much time available, unless you hire people and that’s a whole can of worms. Why not try to get the most out of your time? I also suspect that it’s somewhat hard to reliably project earnings in the current dynamic environment.
Having a bit of frustration on Ebay listing-wise. I do desktop first, then pictures on the phone and would launch from the app. Now I can’t keep my choice or add promoted listing on the phone unless I agree to do trending rates so I have to got back to the desktop. Also, Ebay desktop is defaulting to free shipping and I got a $12 ding on a flat rate box this week. I loathe those sticky box checking issues. Mercari on the other hand is already quick and now they are adding clickable suggested item specifics too, making it even faster so you don’t have to cruise through a menu in that field. Mercari is not sophisticated with shipping options and expected delivery dates, so I’m wondering if at holiday time that might cause an issue.
Have a great week. Fingers crossed to clear out more Christmas items!
Whoops where did the customers go? I was not expecting a drop off until this coming week as people start to worry about on time delivery.
Love to sell this type of vintage item Swedish tree skirt. Paid $4 at my favorite indy thrift xmas boutique. There are a lot of these on Ebay but this one was in perfect condition.
I find a lot of these 1980s and 1990s Brown Bag Cookie Molds. I have had good success with this pan style but not so much with individual molds. I was late listing these so I priced them to move and they did move very quickly. Usually I pay $2-4 per mold whether it’s pan or individual, so I may just stick to the pans going forward and maybe holiday ones.
Took a long time for this studio art pottery to sell. I only paid $4 and this studio art pottery is very common but not popular with pickers here. Seem to be slow sellers though. Took best offer of $50.
Most of the other items that sold I have posted about before. And a dud this mini floral painting. Paid 1.99 I love to pick up small original paintings, but orange ones just don’t seem to sell well. Florals are pretty common too. Yeah! someone finally bought it.
I sell some of my better brand, new items to buyers with zero feedback and I’m pretty confident that pinning does help. Impossible to know if they originate from Pinterest, Google or elsewhere. Ebay’s traffic page shows that the vast majority still come from inside Ebay search.
I think I just had a little ah ha moment after reading IndySales post. I posted about this in another thread. #53192 Promoted listings and catalog pages are conflicting programs in Ebay. What good does it do you to pay for promotion if you are going to end up in an Amazon style race to the bottom product page? I like how promoted listings at 1% seem to be working for me in best match, and for now I’m going to stay off the product page for Home and Garden. Outside hits will hopefully be enhanced by pinning my items on Pinterest. I am using best offer and pricing more aggressively lately but I’m not sure I want to race for box placement. Also how does best offer work with product pages? Hmmm. I think I like the old way of Ebay search better… I don’t want Ebay to make it easy for my buyers to comparison shop on price.
@twizzle do you mind sharing what collectibles you do and don’t well with on Mercari. I’m going to put more vintage on Mercari and I have some man cave stuff but mostly home decor appealing to ladies. I also like to put kids’ stuff on Mercari. Thanks for sharing!
