Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Paul, hope things turn around by March. February has been my worst month historically. Maybe try pinning some of your items on Pinterest. The time investment is very minimal. I also participate in three Facebook groups some mornings who have pinning parties exchanging pins. This takes only 5 minutes. The three groups are Vintage Ebay and Etsy Sellers, The Thrifting Board, and International League of Thrifters. I believe it has helped my sales and I have sold some items immediately after I posted them to the parties. Google likes Pinterest better than Ebay and some people don’t really think about going to Ebay to search for items.
I had been really good for a while, but I’ve been feeling the itch lately. Rummage and church sales are my favorites and I get an alert from Craigslist in my email when one happens. There are not too many rummage sales each year, so maybe I’ll catch a break. The worst was that estate sale up the street from my house. The 9 items were all craft kits that should bring over $100 each. If I let myself go to estate sales I know I would get hooked but maybe couldn’t process it all. I’m saving that as a reward for the death plies purge.
At least selling old hats on the internet is easing the pain of paying more for everything! #TeamCali 🙂
My husband works at the hospital so we get great benefits, including a self funded pre-tax plan of some sort. I believe the way it works is we have to decide in April each year at reenrollment how much to put in there for the following fiscal year, and if we don’t use it by the end of that fiscal year, then we lose it altogether. I’m not sure if this dental stuff would be allowable either. He’ll have to look into that. So, always a challenge since you never know when you are going to get a whammy like this. Anyway, I did ask about insurance at the dr. meetings to let them know we were concerned about cost. I think I get to talk to the office ladies about payment later and it can’t hurt to ask for a break. It was extremely bad luck, not a routine case. Anyway, time to list on Ebay and rebuild the emergency fund!
Thanks Jay. The good news is that we have really capable people on board to address this hard case and they can save the adult problem tooth. We haven’t gotten the $ news yet from the surgeon or the orthodontist, but only some of the orthodontics will be payable this year. We do keep an emergency fund for things like this thankfully and can pay cash though I”m not sure how negotiable this will be since these people are in high demand.
Regrettably easy numbers this week for me. I’m listing new purchases so as not to add them to the death piles. Listed only 9 items, none from death piles. I think I will have a better week this week, even with the kids out for the holiday weekend.
Total Items in Store: 410
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $56 + $13 free shipping
Total Sales: $238
Highest Price Sold: $36 new pie plate
Average Price Sold: $26
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $26 (one church sale)
Number of items listed this week: 9Wow. It really felt like I sold no items this week. Finally listed yesterday after a three week break. We recently found out that one of the children has a rare problem and will need surgery and major specialized orthodontics. Despite a high likelihood for disturbance to roots of adult teeth, not considered medically necessary for insurance purposes since she can still eat with missing teeth. So, time to tighten the belt a bit more between that and additional taxes we anticipate this year without the SALT deduction.
One of the ways I’m saving is to use Walmart.com for groceries shipped free in 2 days. Love it! I’ve completely abandoned Amazon at this point due to my non-prime orders not shipping out for a week, because Amazon is annoyingly not showing the lowest price by default, third parties getting $3.99 to ship, etc. Also need to make time to hit the grocery outlet we got last year. Finally, I’ve majorly cut back on RA purchases and will keep focused on the death piles. It will be interesting to see how this affects my numbers and velocity, though I have a couple of thousand in RA inventory I bought in the past with Ebay profits. It probably would be wise to price the vintage items more competitively than I tend to price them. (Gears turning in my head…)
Smartpost was like triple what the buyers were charged for me and these were not huge packages – one
was an afghan I crammed into long medium flat rate – it was going to be $38! It’s so weird that you guys are not having a big problem also. Jason T. Smith did a show on this last night, though I still don’t know that I have any items SP would make sense for at this point vs priority. Most of my items are smaller than a large breadbox. I find USPS parcel post is often more expensive than priority by a tad. I donnno. My takeaway as a hard goods seller is that I need to give future purchases more serious thought if the item is not particularly valuable and can’t go flat rate or first class.One last thought. I bought a like new top that is one of my favorite retail brands – Velvet by Graham and Spencer – for like $10 bucks on Ebay. This seller was priced well below others and new would be like $125. Made me wonder if they didn’t do their research, if the market is flooded with bin sourcers, or if they are just cranking out volume. In any case, I’m definitely looking for clothing deals on Ebay, especially for my kiddos who are growing in leaps and bounds. Have a great week. BTW, love Queer Eye, but Carson’s humor really made the old show for me.
Sharing some sales, no home runs – just bread and butter – but a butter dish that was a winner.
Have two full boxes of flatware I never get around to listing. I don’t know why not because it usually does well for me. This sold quickly (twice, first buyer didn’t pay), paid $8 at my favorite indy thrift. https://www.ebay.com/itm/332531129960
I adore Holt Howard midcentury items and I buy anything I find. The look always stands out to me on a shelf. Paid $4 at a rummage sale and most of the photos didn’t successfully load into my listing but they sold anyway. https://www.ebay.com/itm/332362302508
From the death piles emerged some Dansk dishes. This was the best piece, paid $3 https://www.ebay.com/itm/332522343863 My family has broken two butter dishes in the last several weeks, so I get it.
Sharing this item just because it makes me remember that I am doing well to anticipate the holidays by a couple of months. Next up is Easter, so I need to get that box out. Paid .99 https://www.ebay.com/itm/332514407485 As you can see, I’m not on team all white background for smaller items and this is part of my overall strategy of using Pinterest.
I need to get back to listing bigtime. It’s been a pretty major break in the action.
I think it makes sense too to think outside the big bins. After hunting and losing a couple of small things, I bought some (used, thrifted) smaller plastic bins to keep very small items in. I also have a filing system for loose paper items.
Yeah, I know Brian and I know you are SO smart to go right to the source. Many times I picking the leavings at GW Monday mornings, plus we have estate sales year round here. I will get these items to people who will use and appreciate them again, which makes me feel good. It’s just that I have a little sensitive side thinking about respect for the humans who lived their lives there and traveled places, didn’t finish projects, etc. Silly I guess. I once wrote into someone’s trust that under no circumstances would a bunch of scavengers go through his house like that! Funny.
I’m waiting on estate sales too because even though they are well attended I think I would have trouble processing as much as I could easily pick up. Since thrifts are thinner pickings, it keeps me in line a bit. I hope by the time I allow myself to attend them that I will be able to identify items people are missing – like these craft kits. Keep the what sold posts coming! I also always look in garden, under tables, up high, on the walls…
Total Items in Store: 409
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $74 + 15 free shipping
Total Sales: $317
Highest Price Sold: $76 Dansk Arabesque Butter Dish (death pile thrifted find – paid $3)
Average Price Sold: $40
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $106 (mostly a cache of high end stitchery kits from estate sale)
Number of items listed this week: 0Glad I ran the numbers because it felt very slow. Hectic week outside of ebay with hosting a big superbowl party, a number of medical maintenance appointments for the fam, and family visting. No progress on the death piles and I hit one of our big three annual rummage sales. On the way home, I found an estate sale. I’m kind of looking forward to allowing myself to shop those after I’m through the piles. However, I felt like a total schmuck when I lied to the late homeowners’ daughter after she asked me if I needlepoint. I’m a bit sketchy about digging through someone’s house and life. I suppose I’ll feel better after I start selling these off, here’s a bolo for you: Ehrman brand kits. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=tapestry+kit+needlepoint+ehrman&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=tapestry+kit+needlepoint+ehrman&_sacat=0
Have a great week.
After a good start I am super busy outside of Ebay last two weeks. No listing and all zeros for me. To boot, I went to one of our big three annual rummage sales this weekend and one estate sale down the street from my house. Good thing I don’t have time to go to many estate sales! I basically bought one large grocery bag worth of stuff – a few multiples – so about half of what I would have bought in the old days of creating piles. We have family in town this week and work is busy, so I hope to list a bit this coming weekend. I also have taxes and bookkeeping for last year to tackle. Oye!
I try to always make sure it is unchecked since the first time I had a problem with it. I know I don’t have over half of them that were checked before, so I’m confident that it auto populating when I start to revise the listing.
ChristineK, if you can get the page to load try searching for the topic on Smartpost not calculating correctly and there is a whole discussion. FedEx just added a quite stingy dimensional weight factor for Smartpost package charges. It’s hard to imagine having a package that will be cheaper now than USPS flat rate or even regular USPS. To add insult to injury, Ebay is undercharging buyers because they did not update their calculated shipping for Smartpost to reflect the new DIM factor. In my case, about $25 short per package and these were not huge items, so I sent them in very overstuffed flat rate boxes.
Thanks. I’m too small time for software and I don’t charge handling but didn’t like business policies because I didn’t want to go through all of my listings to narrow down the polices. Maybe it’s a good time to turn them on if I have to make changes anyway.
Have fast shipping record but waitlisted for GD. Recently I’ve put overnight as my final option just in case it helps later.
I hope Ebay does a good job negotiating commercial discounts going forward. I have to be even more selective I think on buying items that don’t fit in a flat rate envelope, especially being coastal.
