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I like that advice Sharon. Here’s what I did. Buyer C hadn’t paid yet. I took the out of stock hit which I could afford and apologized and sent a brief explanation. They accepted the cancellation right away, no comment. I apologized and offered Buyer B 50% a similar item in my store. If they ever respond, I’ll also offer to buy the same item from another seller or refund them the difference if they do.
Buyer A I figured is most likely to follow through and leave bad feedback. So, I fulfilled the order for them. If they still leave bad feedback, I will for sure fight it. If they complain about the item (expecting that), I’m just going to refund and let them have it – totally not worth it. What a cluster!
Ebay let buyer A pay again with the original item number even though it was relisted (Ebay’s fault). She had it in her cart before I blocked her. Buyer A threatening to complain to Ebay. Ebay rep said refund in Paypal and she can’t leave negative. Not sure I believe her.
I would and have donated unsold Heartstone pottery before. There are currently a few for 10 or 15 dollars with free shipping. I don’t have a problem with breakables though and that wouldn’t factor in much if I already owned it. Fun to see what people say on this issue of pricing I’ve been thinking about. Incidentally, I’ve not done very well with single sugar, creamer, or honey servers generally speaking even if it’s a recognizable name.
Workspaces / internet area are cropping up downtown here with wine and coffee bars inside but not sure if you have the right age group to support that.
Have fun with it! I’m confident you’ll make a good choice.True. I feel like during later decades we will all go back and think about what stuff of little value we – adults and kids – were scrolling vs. spending time with family or friends and cringe. In my house at least we don’t have phones at the table.
It was fun and humorous and generated good talking points, especially if you have a teen girl. Super sad the part where the dad is trying to talk to her and she’d rather be scrolling her feed…
Listed 20 items, 8 items from DP. Few items pick up this week and listed first. I sat down to list 4 times, so happy with that. I also cross posted a few items on Mercari (so quick!) and did sell similar to anything with a 16 month banner. I had about 12 of those. Good luck to all with non-Ebay chaos this week!
Total Items in Store: 440
Items Sold: 4
Cost of Items Sold: $73 + $18
Total Sales: $313
Highest Price Sold: $119 (tie – new clearance pillow shams bought same week $35, vintage needlepoint kit paid $10 at estate sale few months ago)
Average Price Sold: $73
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $18
Number of items listed this week: 20Mercari: 4 cross-posted (mugs, clothes) in 5 minutes, 0 sold last week, collected balance from prior sales directly to checking account fee free so paid 10% total fees)
A slower week than the last two for me. Happy the Fall update was mellow.
Did an estate sale around the corner all rookie wrong this week. Arrived 10 minutes early Sat. No dealers in line. House fairly full but all 70s brown not 50s and 60s. All the value totally picked already – no perfumes, huge full sewing room with no machines or kits, no desirable kitchen stuff. Come to find out it started on Friday AND the company sells consignment on Ebay. But, good since I have the death piles.
Enjoyed the talk and forum postings about pricing. I think there is an art to pricing items that fall along the availability spectrum between the totally unique hand carved nut bowl and the iphone case. This is where I’m rethinking my tendency to price high. For example, I was pricing vintage Pyrex bowls lately. There are say, 10 of the exact same bowl sold separately in basically the same condition. Interestingly, the lowest priced ones were not sold first. I priced mine on the high side but not at the top, pinned it, and it sold right away even though there were lower priced ones available. That’s why I was surveying the elves to see where people price in comparison to the highest solds. In the past, I’ve been going over the high solds and running 10-20% off sales. But, I’m thinking about going more like 85% of solds for items like this so I can get more velocity and clear my piles.
Have a great week. Enjoy your City time R&J. I saw the Eighth Grade movie you mentioned last week with my teen. It was well done.
Congrats and enjoy your time with that little one. The old cliche about it going by fast is true. It’s hard work physically but the wonder and imagination of little ones is amazing. I wish I had discovered Ebay when my kids were little. Helps stimulate the adult brain but is a solitary and flexible activity.
One more thought. I still allow myself a little bit of picking during this process after having taken a big break in 2017 with the other challenge. Now when I’m evaluating an item, I take a minute ask myself “do I really want to get involved with this thing?” I think about how it will be in my space, packing and shipping it, and all of my backlog waiting for me. Not too many vintage items are making the cut, which is good.
Simon, cool sale on that Eichler brochure! I’ve seen those bay area houses on HGTV. I just found some super cool early 60s art instruction magazines, including a commercial art one. Gotta love ephemera!
Listed only 5 items, new purchases. Hoping for better this week.
Also, someone asked about Facebook selling. I think buyers have become more flaky on FB lately. I did sell several items from our kitchen – heavy Williams Sonoma mixing bowls, Nordicware pans I picked at garage sales, dishwasher faded vintage Pyrex lot, etc. Things I didn’t want to list or ship but made less $ than Ebay of course. I just have people pick up on the porch but it was still a little annoying with the flaking. We have some furniture and lighting going due to the remodel. Lots of lowballs on that – like $250 offered for a Pottery Barn 7 piece dining set.
As a small seller, I love easy auction tracker! Just be careful to stay on top of it each month and our IT clean up guy says it lives in temporary files, so don’t accidentally delete. I have yet to successfully collect all of my sales for the year on it due to user neglect or error, but most of them come through and it’s great.
Total Items in Store: 418
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $109 plus $24 free shipping + minor promoted listings fees
Total Ebay Sales: $584
Highest Price Sold: $119 (Vintage OOP early readers books set, paid $1.50 at charity church sale)
Average Price Sold: $49
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: About $30 (a couple of thrift store stops this week) plus RA clearance $250 for a few items.
Number of items listed this week: Only listed once, 5 items, ugh.Mercari update: Sold three clothing items (two free hand me downs (Ivivva) and one ours used @ at loss North Face), cleared $75 after shipping and 10% fees. Sold shipping included. Good brands, probably would have sold for about 20-35% more on Ebay or Poshmark, but took like a minute each to list and sold in about three weeks so I’m quite happy. Money is still waiting on buyer approval. I think I later send it right to my bank account without paying Paypal a fee.
A solid week on Ebay for me, timely because it helped pay for some textbooks and back to school (used and new clearance) clothes for the kids, plus a bit of RA sourcing at end of summer clearance sales. Struggled to list this week with the kitchen remodel on top of the usual. Really painful to spend this much $ on anything! Our labor costs are very high here. R&J I’m glad you are enjoying the process! Picking the tile will be fun but it’s hard to make a decision. I’m like a kid in a candy store at tile showrooms.
Yes, I hope Ebay is more stable going into the balance of the year. If they are smart, it will be a low key Fall Seller Update. Online elsewhere I heard someone bring up that Ebay is really a hybrid platform of new and used goods. The person was advocating for different treatment of each so used sellers don’t get drug under with the “advances” for bulk new sellers. Someone also pointed out that young people are not shopping on Ebay or finding it cool. Their costly marketing spending is apparently not paying off with enough growth.
At this point in my Ebay career, I have to continue to list the vintage piles and items from my parents’ house – it will probably be at least another year at this rate realistically. Buying was unusually high this week but I’ve flipped the equation on it’s head and have become very particular about my buys. I also stop at thrifts way less than I used to. My goal is sitting down to list at least 3-4 times a week, even if it’s only a couple of items. Another focus will be upping my sell through rate. I plan to try pricing just a bit lower or running steeper % sales because I’d really like to move more stuff out. Have a great week!
