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Thanks Mike! I’ll probably go higher with best offer but this is good to know for sure.
Wanted to comment re the Ikea RA conversation. Plastic bags are banned here so I bought all of my great reusable Ikea bags on Ebay. If I lived near an Ikea, I would totally source certain items there (probably lightweight textiles and kids’ items), though I would never list something I didn’t own and you are not supposed to use stock photos.
It’s fun to buy one of a kind vintage items and the return is amazing. But it’s also fun to speculate with RA and get great design and quality at a low price, then hold and flip for 2-10x the money and there is way less holding time if you are doing it right. Retailers are stuck having to produce and liquidate all of their duds and meh items. As resellers, we can go in and cherry pick their most special and undervalued items. If I think I can get more for something on Ebay than they have it priced at the retailer or predict they will sell out of it, I’ll even pay full price and sometimes it sells while it still available in the store and/or on the retailer site. I’ve been called out in messages for this once or twice, but I don’t see anything unethical about it. Some folks are too far away from the retailer or have never heard of it before, plus I ship globally with GSP and reach other audiences with Pinterest or Google. Anyway, it’s a whole other fun game about scavenging that I love.
Yeah. I use Google Shopping sometimes myself but I think you are right that not much traffic to my listings can be originating there (wish we could see details in traffic!). My pinned items and photos often show up on images very high and most people would be using Google organic search. Ebay adopting a clean background also goes against their new colorful marketing theme, so I hope this is one thing they won’t want to emulate about other sites going forward.
Total Items in Store: 364
Items Sold: 2
Cost of Items Sold: $18
Total Sales: $55 Ebay + 1 Facebook Sale: $30
Highest Price Sold: $35 New large measuring cup
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 32A dreadful week despite listing, which is very unusual for me. The second sale came after I revised the prices in the listing improvement section on that item. Ebay came up with way more listings for me to improve than ever before, about 15% of my inventory. Fortunately they also added a place for you to just tweak the price without opening and revising the listing. I tweaked almost all of them a little bit, upward in some cases. Hope for a better week this coming week and I’m focused on building up inventory. Can’t wait until school starts again and there is less running around.
Thank you to those who provided the Ebay Open updates and links. I’ve turned on 60 day returns and turned off the restocking fee that I wasn’t using anyway except to make people pause if they are likely to return. As soon as I can get on the Guaranteed Shipping program I will go for it since I’m always taking the kids here or there and work is right next to Fed Ex. I have had some missing PO scans but not enough to keep me from trying the program. I’m starting to add an overnight option to all of my listings as the final shipping method choice and have run a few new item promotions. Finally, I’m doing a bit of pruning to some old items or creating new listings. Despite the backlog, I find it very hard to give up on dud items I picked. Not sure why – it’s totally irrational.
I’m a bit bummed about the white background requirement for Google Shopping as I really enjoy designing my listings and using color and sometimes patterned paper or wood backgrounds. Hopefully Ebay will not adopt a requirement. Hope everyone’s week on Ebay was better than mine. 🙂
Doubly – I really enjoy your what solds and admire your ability to find interesting items with surprising value. Best of luck to you while you get back on your feet.
Total Items in Store: 350
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $12 used + $39 new RA
Total Sales: $234
Highest Price Sold: $103 antique cast iron Indian chief bookends
Average Price Sold: $33
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0Better than I thought once I added it up, so glad I kept the store open during vacation. We were gone and then had family in town so zero work on Ebay except to ship these items out. I had 5 days handling time (because of the limited options) on but immediately sold a couple of things when we left and then it presented as overdue, so hopefully I’ll still make my % for TRS.
I’m looking forward to seeing the photos of your new rental. You’re doing my favorite part – decorating with cool, quality budget finds and I enjoyed looking at the Farmhouse photos.
I’m taking a more seasonal approach these days to Ebay and I really want to get items listed for the Fall. I’m also giving a lot of thought to my pricing. I find that I tend to price high, but then when offers come in for used items, I tend to take it because I paid so little. On my Easter stuff, I priced it more to move, thinking I did not want to store it for a year with all of this backlog. I’m in a fantastic place to source and there is always plenty more stuff around the corner. Since I have so much stuff already and I’m running to the post office to drop an item or two everyday, it totally makes more sense to price lower if something is not that special and is not RA with a higher COGS.
R & J Mad Maine has some old videos about sourcing in Norway. I love her personality and have found some pewter and glass here, though glass identification can be a challenge. Have a great week!
Buyer just admitted to being out of town. Funny she first described it as “post office issues”.
My favorite recent sale. Paid $3 apiece at indy thrift where the older ladies like fussy stuff. They have raised their prices since I found the place unfortunately but still an amazing place. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232286931796
These handmade items take a looong time to sell but I feel compelled to rescue them. Paid $3 at the same indy thrift. http://www.ebay.com/itm/331886005086
Struggling to sell vintage wrapping paper, but did manage to sell this one. Paid .99 at a thrift store. http://www.ebay.com/itm/331889763494
Thanks. It is insured for $360 in a plain box around 19″ on it’s longest side. I’m guessing they might have those apartment style wall of mailboxes, so you would expect the buyer to have had this problem before but maybe this particular mail carrier changed it up due to the downtown / business location. I’m glad the carrier didn’t leave it if they were worried about theft.
🙂 Ebay slacker over here. At least I didn’t buy anything for the piles.
Thanks. I google mapped it and it looks like it might be a mixed use building with apartments above a business. It is a pretty good sized box. I wrote back to her and I’m hoping she will pick it up, but it’s been there since July 6th. Tracking does not show it coming back to me yet. Fingers crossed. Maybe she just moved there but like, hello? pick up your stuff! 🙂
Total Items in Store: 335
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $10 (used) + $78 (new)
Total Sales: $365
Highest Price Sold: $70 Vintage Pyrex dish
Average Price Sold: $33
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0On vacation this week so late posting last week’s sales. Thank you for the podcast consistency and sorry you had to pass on NYC. Soon you should be sitting pretty and reno will be a memory.
Good sales up there. Here are a few recent used items sales:
Sold overnight; paid $3.99 at Goodwill. There was another listed complete with the lid, but they didn’t have the pattern keyword thankfully. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232403628201
This is something from our house. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332192013040 I should sell more stuff from around the house, but it’s not as fun somehow.
Found a cache of vintage ’80s heavy metal easy to ship stuff. I only bought a handful of it but maybe I should go back because it’s moving. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232356476790
I like to buy small amateur paintings like this and find them often for around three to five bucks at thrift stores. The 70s color scheme doesn’t move as well but this aqua one did better though it did take quite a few months to sell. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332165850863
Finally, sold this early tech mug to Australia. Purchased for .99 at a GW near my dad in No. Cal. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332188180290
Total Items in Store: 330
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $44 new + $3 used
Total Sales: $198
Highest Price Sold: $50 tie between 2 mugs and a sheet set, all new.
Average Price Sold: $29
Number of items listed this week: 18
Spent on new inventory: About $50I’m a total melmac nerd and I like the swirly kind. Trays sound super cool. Still functional today but color matters for the pricing I think. I find it very painful to spend money on maintenance items like new tires, vet bills, or repair home items that keep things status quo. I love getting quality food, furniture, textiles, and clothing at a bargain price – inventory mostly but also items for our family and that’s all on Ebay profits. We splurge a bit on vacation stays, kids’ extracurriculars, and my husband’s tv (for football) and electronics.
Finally catching a kid/work break and got back to listing a bit. Sold a promo Pyrex overnight for $70 so that’s motivating! I indulged in two garage sales in the immediate neighborhood and picked up a blue Kobenstyle Dansk piece and some Pottery Barn curtains dry cleaned already. I paid up a bit but will still make $. So I’m not cold turkey but being way more selective. Also trying to think more seasonally about selecting and running listings.
Finally, I wanted to share this article https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/07/05/why-women-quit-working-after-50/#70a6c5963fdc about the pressures on women making regular full time jobs unattractive at age 50+. I’m approaching 50 and can relate. We had kids late, are both only children, and I had some surprise health issues crop up this past year. By the time our kids are raised our dads will probably need care, maybe sooner. The great thing is that Ebay is a super gap filler for people in this situation. I’m so grateful for the free education I’ve been able to receive via the internet. Whenever I have more time, I’ll be ready to ramp up.
