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My used items sales are not too exciting, but will share a few bread and butter.
I love these ’70s canisters. The lids are interchangeable. Paid 2 or 3$. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332089593293
This I got for $5 at a garage sale. But got dinged mysteriously on free shipping glitch to Hawaii. Company store is a nice quality brand. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232307090675
I went a little higher than the solds on these and was tempted to keep for my kids. Sorry kids. Paid $4 at downtown goodwill. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232317741711
Clothes. Meh. I just can’t get into it. I hope these don’t come back. From the indy thrift $5 sales rack. Too short for me. http://www.ebay.com/itm/331919644426
I started out for a few months being really good, then I nibbled a bit. I have definitely turned my buy-list ratio around except for like two weeks of binging. It is very hard to go totally cold turkey for long! I’ve also made my listing language very short so I am listing faster. Getting to it is a challenge and it will take a good while for me to get out from under. But, one advantage I find of having piles is that it’s really nice to have the like items grouped and be able to switch over to another type of item the next day. When I am feeling really motivated, I tackle some larger and more unique items. Keep the faith my challenge elves. It really is so much like dieting, which I am loosely doing for the first time in my 48 years. Buying = Carbs.
Hi Sonia, I think we have some similarities in our limitations and approach to Ebay if I recall correctly. My biggest limitation is listing time. Plus my wired preference for a chunk of it, rather than dribbling in listings, which I have learned is preferred by Cassini. I’m 2 years in, and I’m really trying to focus on used items selling for over $20-25. This is mainly because I don’t have time to process it all and there is an abundance available. That being said, I’m really attracted to Etsy style handmade quilts, afghans, some vintage paper items, etc. and it’s hard to pass that up. Also, I find that if an item costs more than $15-20 I really hesitate to pull the trigger on buying it. Also of importance is that Ebay has been comping all of the insertion fees on my items over 250 even though I only have a basic store, so there is really no down side to going over 250 currently without upgrading. Make sure you check and see if that is true for you too.
Thank you Mickdog! One other came up as free shipping without the box checked. I did have local pick up on for that so I removed it. Not sure what happened with this item I just sold, but I’m pretty confident I didn’t click that box. Oh well.
Ecom, I don’t use business policies because it was a pain when I went on vacation and I had a hard time trying to get used to it, so I haphazardly created too many policies.
Total Items in Store: 366
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $16 used + 125 RA new
Total Sales: $430
Highest Price Sold: $52 (Two coffee mugs)
Average Price Sold: $31
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: About $80
Number of items listed this week: 8Grateful for the week of sales. I fell hard off the wagon since a realtor held a neighborhood garage sale in my neck of the woods – SO Fun! Almost all of the items I bought from one lady who was downsizing. She knew her stuff but had trouble counting the total. I felt like staying and helping her run the rest of the sale. I think she wanted to adopt me. She had vintage le creuset, dansk, pyrex, etc. I also bought a pretty warn out rug for $10 channeling Ryanne. Have no idea what it is made of or how to clean it, but it spoke to me and it’s easy to fold and ship. Now I have new piles in my workspace again from the haul. Hoping to get back to listing and need to lay off again on the shopping. Have a great week.
I just got dinged with free shipping to Hawaii @$17. I decided to eat it since I still made a profit, but I called Ebay to see if they could check and see if I have others. I;ve had issues before with checked boxes I didn’t check. The agent said I did it and he could not check the others except going through one by one. I sorted actives and it says calculated for all of them, but this this item I just sold was calculated for two other shipping options, so I’m not sure that cuts it. I use a hybrid, but mostly list on the desktop. I am not anchor so the customer service agent was not knowledgeable.
Does anyone know if there is a way to search for free shipping items among your listings? Do you ask to level up to a supervisor when you get foreign agents who can’t help? Last time I did that I got excellent service afterward.
Hi Joe,
I have to agree with other sellers here who suggested filling all of the available space in your title with keywords. I don’t use sell similar, but often look at other’s solds if I am less familiar with an item and need more keywords. Don’t forget to say vintage or midcentury if it applies. I also keep my descriptions short but do try to imagine alternative uses and places for the item to be used in the home. Remember to use the singular and plural terms when applicable and start with the most relevant keywords first not condition, number or more descriptive terms first. I have some old listings that don’t conform to that as well.For example, on this item http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-3-Ceramic-Wall-Plaque-Children-Playing-Baseball-Nursery-Bedtime-/142255528315
I would put as the title “Vintage Baseball Art Nursery Wall Plaque Boys Childrens Room Décor Playroom Kids” as a title. Hope your sales pick up!Here’s my feedback on that tapestry: “Love it! Exactly what I was looking for and very reasonably priced!!!” Yep, left some money on the table. Do’h!
I love watching Steve repair cool vintage electronics and get them to someone who can use and appreciate them again.
Sold some interesting used items last week, all at 20% on sale. This was my favorite. Paid up at $25 but sold very quickly and I should have charged more maybe. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332202668794
Paid $12 and didn’t know children’s tea sets could be so pricy – these are $150-200 new. Lots of attention, but took quite a few months, maybe a year to sell. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232117341735
This is a new item, went with two others to Thailand GSP. Bread and butter retail arbitrage item for me and I get them at close out for about $10 after taxes. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232237718047
Dog items sell well but I’d say awful and dated, but not dated enough. Sorry.
Sorry – P.S. Did anyone else notice the changes to the appearance of mobile listings in the apple app? I mostly like it, but I think the item description should be more prominent and the font is tiny.
Total Items in Store: 348
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $59 used + $83 new RA
Total Sales: $543
Highest Price Sold: $98 (Used German Beatrix Potter child’s tea set with gold plated accents)
Average Price Sold: $46
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 4A solid part-time business kind of week for me. I’d like to encourage anyone with a small store who has limited time to pin your items to Pinterest and also join some morning pinning groups. It’s very quick to do and I really believe it has helped my sales since I’ve been doing it. The evidence is in the timing and number of 0 feedback buyers.
I’m trying to get to reviewing and revising my older listings. I have piles to add, so it’s hard to make myself go back and review but I do believe there is value in doing it. Had a wonderful mother’s day weekend in Los Angeles seeing musical theatre show with my daughter and using our last locals pass for Disneyland, so not much listing or shopping last week.
Regarding the forum post missing, I just performed a routine edit and went to republish. I don’t think it was unlike anything I’ve done in the past.
The summer update was interesting and my Facebook groups also try to keep the discussion positive. I remember that Ebay said they were going to delete all GTC new item listings without a UPC, then must have later realized that they could not make a functional UPC database for most items. So, they scrapped the policy change thank goodness. So, I’m adopting a wait and see attitude but sometimes I believe Ebay sometimes ends up looking a bit scattered or behind their own eight ball. I have like a .4% return rate and don’t sell clothes, so I’ll be fine with 60 days. I saw today on my front page (re the deals filter) that the filter includes only free shipping, so I hope buyers don’t like to use it as I do not want to provide that.
Have a great week.
Hi Maggie,
I saw that and I think Ebay should update their policies since saying what retailer you bought it from or previously sold it is not one of their examples and is factual information. Thing is, probably Anthro is a more common search term. I’d guess a lot of casual Anthro fans would not necessary search by the specific brand name. It’s interesting that you were told it was another ebay user and not Anthro complaining. Makes me wonder what shopper would take the time to bother? I’ve heard some Youtubers mention a 10 or 30 day suspension from listing new items. I believe their pulls (3) were pretty close together in time, but I don’t remember the specifics.BTW, I noticed a few months ago that Anthro is removing all of their old pages with the stock photo (since you could previously call up old stock photos using Google images or Pinterest). I’ve also heard that a bunch of Youtubers are frequently talking about reselling Anthro brands. Target has a new knock off line. Sales are soft too, so it might make sense that they get more assertive in protecting their brand and IP. So, maybe you are right to be cautious and fix your other listings. Since I sell home items, I’m leaving Anthro on even if there is another base brand (in a few cases). I’ll let you know if I get something pulled.
The general discussion was interesting. I have to admit that I followed the herd as a new seller and didn’t really bother reading all of the specifics. Startling the lack of enforcement on these rules. Not many cops handing out speeding tickets but as online selling takes hold, maybe more to come?
I’m not expert, but these are my thoughts. For $5 I think you are smart to take it down. It makes you look like a very cooperative and reasonable seller.
Anthropologie is my bread and butter, but I have receipts for almost all of my new inventory and try to use my own photos (using stock photos is a no no, though pervasive). What’s even more interesting is that Anthropologie is often an authorized reseller for other manufacturers bearing their own brand names and not Anthro’s, like your dress. It shouldn’t be illegal to say it was available for sale at some point at Anthro if that is, in fact, a true statement, but if the product label doesn’t have the name it can arguably be considered by Ebay as spamming. Interestingly, this is not one of the examples included on their guidelines.
It seems to be eBay’s policy not to get involved with who is authorized to sell products: “VeRO may only be used by rights owners to submit claims of alleged intellectual property infringement. eBay doesn’t accept reports from rights owners alleging violations of selective distribution agreements, MAP policies, or other contractual agreements.” Thank goodness.
Manufacturers like Velcro have experienced trademark erosion due to their brand name becoming primary meaning of the actual type of product. The onus is on them to actively protect against people selling generics or knock offs with the Velcro brand name, or else lose it like kleenex, thermos and others have in the past. So, companies on the master Ebay list are probably ones you may want to avoid because they are in some degree of protection mode with their brands. Ebay won’t get in the middle of it, so I’d just be cooperative if flagged unless you really want to spend the time to take it up with the retailer and can prove its authenticity because it’s marked with the name brand, etc.
The other issue raised above is that Ebay does indeed prohibit photos of the logo. Hmm. Also, I never realized before that you can’t do a ? if you aren’t sure, but that makes sense and I rarely do it. Probably safe on vintage items if the company isn’t around.
