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My goal is to increase the number of times per week that I sit down to list and focus on EBay. Eventually getting a few listings done most mornings before everyone wakes would be great to keep my small store active. Lousy time to take photos though.
Around here we pay a bit more for items. I currently mostly shop at thrifts and have no problem looking things up in the store. I’m definitely still learning and have a backlog. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised, but more often I’m grateful I looked because it’s salable but not worth my limited time these days or may take a while to move. At rummage sales I will look things up in a corner some place as well even though prices are better. I’m finally at the point where it’s easier to walk with few or no items and I’m quickly able to consider the packing, shipping cost / effort, and storage requirement. At first it was difficult for me to leave any interesting saleable items behind unless there were condition issues. Thus, the Piles I’m still working.
Really not on a good Ebay track, but did manage to list 9 items before we went on vacation. Only 2 from death piles, as I had a box of long backordered clearance RA items arrive so I listed those first. Sat down to list twice but it was short lived. Sigh. Good times though with the fam while on our trip.
Total Items in Store: 401
Items Sold: 2
Cost of Items Sold: $19
Total Sales: $69
Highest Price Sold: $39 (New art plate – paid $10 clearance)
Average Price Sold: $34
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 9Tiny numbers this week as I put my store on full vacation mode the latter part of the week. We went camping in Big Sur, amazing time with no internet access. I’m way off my Ebay game with a lot of unusual things going on and will travel again to Palm Springs this coming weekend for a friends’ 50th birthday.
Congrats R&J on your tenth year of selling and leveraging your Ebay profits. I was listening to an old podcast and you were describing how finding unique treasure for cheap and selling it was keeping you going. I think I am in that group as I love the vintage – art, graphics, textiles, home decor. It’s only fun when it’s not at an antique mall – when no one else has discovered it and it’s cheap. That’s the real high that keeps me going but I do like sharing it with people who appreciate it too. Though some profits would be nice right about now since we have lots of unusual expenses. Interesting how your small store sales are swinging without listing.
Hi Sigilini, I have a couple of tips. I have mostly shopped thrifts due to time constraints. I’m in a California city less competitive than LA, but pricey.
I hit the same thrifts often. Some turn over faster than others. If you visit them frequently, you’ll get a sense of that. The core old timers are in daily at opening and out in 5 minutes. Then, I suggest the religious and smaller and independent thrifts, as they are usually older volunteers without a “hot sheet” and are more likely to miss things than big chains. Try to learn outside your comfort zone with quality what sold videos.
Finally, I suggest trying rummage, estate, and church sales if your schedule permits. Church sales are the bomb, as the workers rarely know what they have. Some rummage sales will let you sort in exchange for shopping early if you have that kind of time. We don’t have bins here, but I would be intimidated and annoyed personally by the territorial regulars. Flea markets here are basically just mobile antique markets. It’s fun to look, but pricing is not for resale.
Sure, and maybe more of a seasonal idea due to weather out there. I’ve mentioned before that we met a retired couple who had stayed in some awesome places using this service. https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/how-it-works/
Hope everyone is healthy in the coming week. It’s such a big part of one’s life.
We have a ton of unusual life stuff getting the way of Ebay – planning to remodel our kitchen finally, my daughter’s orthodontics, birthday party, my son’s tennis, etc. etc. etc.. I just can’t seem to get a chunk of time to sit and list. We also are in the minority of people who are going to get hammered under the new tax act, so I’ll be sending any Ebay earnings to my quarterly payment. It would be a great time to have great sales on Ebay. I listed twice, only 9 items and 2 from death piles. Ugh.Total Items in Store: 444
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $44
Total Sales: $267
Highest Price Sold: $112.50 Needlepoint kit (Paid $10 estate sale)
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 9 (ugh)I love this forum and to philosophize and strategize. I have a lot of short blips of time to listen to audio and participate in this during my choppy days – while driving the kids around, work lunch break, having coffee in the morning, etc. I also truly love selling on Ebay because I’ve been at my day job a long time and need the mental stimulation. I am wired though to prefer listing in a good chunk of time, and this is where I fall down. Lately it’s been especially tough to get that freedom and we have some travel coming up to boot.
Sales only happened on two days. One of the days I was shopping on Ebay for my tween’s favorite brand of clothes. She’s finally done with the hand-me-downs and my selected thrifted items but used Ivivva ok. Also made some offers on Poshmark. As a buyer, I love best offer.
Enjoyed the discussion about all of the Ebay’s changes. I don’t love the fee increases but I’m hoping staying ahead of the curve and playing along with Ebay’s preferences will give me an edge over other sellers. Just a bummer to have a big backlog during this time of change because I think it required sourcing pivots.
Ok, now you know J&R that I love to do a little armchair quarterbacking since you share so much. I would love to see you find a way to do a (bimonthly?) trip to the City, you could get a camper shell for your truck, do your city Craigslist/Facebook/Offerup/Ebay furniture deliveries on the way in, hit estate sales and garage sales during your stay. As I’ve said before, you can pick up stuff for more than a buck but less than auctions because you have a great eye, lots of experience, and aren’t afraid to price high. You’ve got the storage to make it work. As always, feel free to ignore me. 🙂
Have been waitlisted. Got an email today that my listings will go in sometime in May. Says will lift visibility. It also includes a link to a guaranteed delivery page under the listings tab that says what you need to change/update to make listings eligible. None are listed at this time, but I guess I will need to switch to immediate pay. A bit unfortunate because I encourage my shoppers to visit my store and then use the shopping cart to buy multiple items. Now I would have to delete all of that language in my listings.
PS. My Cottage, I agree most times buyers don’t probably care about guaranteed delivery, but since the mobile filter is so prominently displayed on top of the search results I will participate.
I’m listing-challenged and somewhat sales challenged lately, but thought I’d chime in with some what solds. No home runs except the Ehrman needlepoint kit cache, which I already issued a bolo about.
Fun retro MCM find. The older ladies at the independent thrift care nothing for stuff like this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/332192711137 Paid .50 cents per cup and they went to San Fran. They showcase the fussy stuff. I found some butterscotch bakelite handles that go for over $150 in the bin they use for household junk drawer stuff. Love it.
Here’s a story. Went to GW and found a cool MCM “painting” on canvas – it’s actually a print upon closer inspection. The friendliest worker offered they had two more “paintings” in the back and they priced them low because he thought they were fakes, which I bought without really looking on my way to work. Turns out it’s by the “world’s most reproduced artist” (ugh!) and the two from the back were just prints on a board not a canvas. But, this small one sold for $55. Not bad and the buyer was super happy to get it! I paid $7.99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/332525884393
This is the kind of retro stuff I can’t resist buying. It took a while but finally sold. Paid $5 at the Palm Springs vintage market. https://www.ebay.com/itm/332174117585
Death pile sale. I think I had these sheets as a girl in the 1970s. Paid $2. Something weird happened to the opening photo. https://www.ebay.com/itm/232637530196
And now for a dud. I was so excited to find this brand I heard about the Youtube but it sat and sat despite price reductions. I finally ran a .99 cent auction to be rid of it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/332573005176
For a long time I resisted free shipping on principle, but about 9 months ago I started adding free shipping to certain items that are under a pound and can go first class or media mail. I also have it on some very high end new items to better compete and presumably show in search. It’s difficult to tell for sure, but I think it helped a bit. One caution is that sometimes the free shipping box seems to get “sticky”, or if I create a brand new listing I need to be careful that the box is checked by default. I’ve been stung a couple of times with $10-15 free shipping surprises on purchased items.
I don’t get many returns so I will be trying out free returns on some items under a pound, maybe more. With all of this, you owe it to yourself to watch your own bottom line when listing and sourcing and anticipate future cost and fee increases. Ebay has steadily increased fees, given us a puny shipping discount, shipping keeps getting pricier, and more online buyers may be getting will comfortable with shipping back returns.
I used to be very list it and forget it, but my current philosophy is that I will try to keep my store more active and go with what Ebay is prioritizing (what they think buyers want) presuming that their search algorithm and filter placement will reward it.
I’m issuing a BOLO to you for a free returns filter in this thread. I just noticed on desktop that it is at the top of the filter list now. Nothing on mobile yet, but I’m wondering if mobile will place it on top of your result as a prominent separate toggle filter, as they are currently doing with guaranteed delivery. I also found one of my promoted listings appears along with the only result showing after I filtered for free returns. My listing does NOT have free returns, so that’s pretty interesting.
Has anyone gotten off the wait list in March? I thought they said it would roll out March 1 for many more sellers. On mobile, it’s a separate toggle at the top. It’s a bit frustrating that they display it so prominently without allowing many to participate. Also noticed good visibility for promoted listings on mobile.
Tough to get to listing last week, but did sit down twice and got 10 itmes listed. 8 were from death piles. I did manage to stop at a couple of thrift stores during the week’s running around (which felt really nice) so I will continue to list those items first and then get back to the piles. Have a great week challenge friends.
