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10/20/2017 at 1:49 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Old airline calendar, film, Beatle Boots, Levi trucker jacket, telephone, Wool Blazer, Ford parts, Turntable #24185
Mostly new stuff selling but a handful of vintage and used items. I always get excited when the thrifts put out the Halloween stuff they’ve been hoarding but this year was kind of a bust. I check for high quality costumes and home goods. Maybe someone picked it early.
Did find these Fall / Thanksgiving plates. Paid $1.99 x 4 and they sold 15% off. Have another set of 4. https://www.ebay.com/itm/232429857616
I’m super attracted to this kind of 1950s kitchenware. Thrilled that someone might use these again daily. Paid $1.99 x 6 at GW. Sold 15% off. https://www.ebay.com/itm/232484154898
I don’t do plush normally but I do pick up quality Folkmanis puppets when I see them. Paid $5 indy thrift. https://www.ebay.com/itm/232495647658
This vintage gift wrap took forever to sell. I think free shipping helped. Apparently it does better on Etsy. I have a lot more to list at home. Have some listed that’s been up quite a while. https://www.ebay.com/itm/231992087935 I used a recycled Amazon book box to ship safely.
Have a great weekend.
Hi Ryanne – my comment disappeared after editing. Thanks!
My store is a hybrid of narrowly focused RA and used items. At least 50% of sales have been new, but I’m adding a lot of used lately from my backlog. I am #1 type on Jay’s list, buying undervalued clearance items, mainly at one retailer. The new items move much faster. I’m happy to get 2-4x ROI on these items with better velocity. There have been less than a handful of losers that I lost money on or that haven’t sold in the two years I’ve been doing this. I love selling new, discontinued items because: (1) the buyers are very happy to find replacements or rare items in new condition; (2) I’ve never had a new item return; and (3) people who aren’t familiar with the brand or don’t have the specialty retailer discover the item (especially animal related art items), often via Pinterest. I do have some competition and I’m not at all happy about the new buy box Ebay has come out with, but I’m willing to hold the items longer to get a higher price and these are not commodity items by the time they hit clearance. The best part of being a new item reseller is that I can cherry pick and experiment with the best of this retailer’s stuff, and not be saddled with their overhead, obligations to keep refreshing with new product, or spinning off the losers or poorly manufactured items. I have occasionally picked items from Ross and TJ Maxx and if I had more time and no vintage backlog, I could see that being a good opportunity if you had a good eye and went often.
I also love the fabulous returns on unique vintage items, but with a couple exceptions like Pyrex they move much more slowly for me with my small store. If I didn’t have the new items keeping the store active, I suspect that I would have some pretty quiet weeks.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
ChristineR.
Does anyone have experience selling vintage holiday cards? In lots or individually? I bought a whole huge box of mostly used cards. The art is so retro and amazing. These are from the 1940s and 1950s (postmarked). I also found 2 of these giant 1950s Santa art posters and countered an offer of $50 for one, then thought again. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332405474219 Couldn’t find any comps. If you see new old stock boxed cards from the 40s-60s I would totally pick that up. Vintage wrap in the package too.
I also heard this week that replacement bulbs in unusual colors like pink, orange, and black are very hot, like over $100. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvUX6JRLGSg This is the podcast I was listening to. This Christmas lady on during the second half of the podcast is in one of my Facebook pinning groups.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
ChristineR.
I’m glad your son is safe Simon, but I’m sure it was still unsettling. My dad is up in Green Valley where I grew up along the Napa and Solono county border. They were lucky to have an advisory first before evacuating Tuesday. Today and tomorrow will be the test with the North wind change. I told him to take our family slides and he got most of the photos still at his place. We would lose some of my grandma’s paintings but he’s in a better position than most. I really feel for the early fire victims in Santa Rosa. Makes you realize you should have all of your photos, videos, and hard drives together in one place, which we don’t.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
ChristineR.
Total Items in Store: 402
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $97 + Free shipping of $15
Total Sales: $387
Highest Price Sold: $64 (Artsy measuring cups and spoons)
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns: 1 item broke in transit – buyer was great
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 33 (love my new iPhone 8 – upload photos to app, seems faster)Hope you have a wonderful trip to SF and enjoy getting home afterward. That’s a lot of travel! I’ve not been shopping and continue to hack away at the piles, digging out Christmas items in particular that I don’t want hanging around next year. Feels good to be getting some Ebay traction now that we are in our regular school routine. I take one large box upstairs from the garage at a time and it makes me feel good when I have a box of items listed and it goes back down.
I’ve heard people speculate before that accepting a best offer seems to give you a sales spurt and I saw that this week. I should probably go through my old listings and put BO on more of them. It’s funny – I thought I would try to create a lovely Etsy store by now, but I’m kind of doing the opposite and just taking super quick photos with the Ebay app on my dining room table. Whatever it takes to just GET STUFF UP.
Have a great week.
10/05/2017 at 11:53 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Lamps, models, Army field jacket, Crock, boots, tapes, hats, Koi dishes #23630Nice Ebay arbitrage item. Had sold before for $90. Buyer paid full price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332372655008
Paid $3.99 at GW. Took best offer of $45 http://www.ebay.com/itm/232284073751
I’ve been very unenthused about listing Hallmark ornaments, but have had a couple of nice sales. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232497847217
Sold quickly, paid $5 at indy thrift. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332381732983
These are from an estate sale. Paid $3. Sold immediately. Vintage linens do well for me and I think the free shipping has been helping. Promotions not so much. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332388384046
Splurged a bit over the coupon on some colorful ebay stickers and Boxes with the circle logo. Kinda fun for nerds.
10/05/2017 at 11:06 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 329: 200+ Ebay Sales To Pack. We’re Not Complaining. #23628Thanks Beth for mentioning this no scan issue. I had it too and needed to call. A buyer just asked me to wait to ship something, and combined it would knock me out of TRS. Update: just checked and it’s no longer there. 🙂
10/02/2017 at 12:17 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 329: 200+ Ebay Sales To Pack. We’re Not Complaining. #23523Total Items in Store: 372
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $128 (new RA and used) + $42 free shipping
Total Sales: $648
Highest Price Sold: $199 Koi art plates
Average Price Sold: $38
Returns: 1 tiny Wonder Woman costume from the college end of year rummage sale with tags cut out – didn’t fit. Free shipping (ouch) but basically got it for free.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0A good sales week for me. The higher priced sale was a woman whose moving company broke one of hers so she’s ok paying up since they will reimburse her. A lot of low profit sales in there too – auction to get $ back on slightly damaged collectable ornaments. Unfortunately realized I had created some new listings and inadvertently left the free shipping box populated. I know I didn’t check it. So, lesson learned and just searched and double checked my actives this morning. I do think using free shipping has probably helped my sales, but is skewing my average price lower.
Last week my regular job picked up and we had some extra school events going on, so sad to not list. Hope to get back my Christmas stockpile soon and get back over 400 listings. There is great quantity of piles left in my garage and guest room closet, but I’m starting to feel a bit of breathing room and I don’t really feel the urge to shop much. I know there will always be plenty of stuff out there and I’d like to get inventory under control. At my rate, it will be a long haul.
Yes, monthly. I don’t check my invoice every month but I have more often in the past few as I’ve started using Smartpost more often. About a year ago I stopped getting any free listing promos. I used to get them all the time. The calculator wasn’t working in the field asking about the number of TRS items, but I think at about 425 I’d be better off upgrading without the credit. I’d do it before October 1 if I knew I would have good listing time available this quarter. Hopefully you will get the extra coupon amount if you do.
09/27/2017 at 1:04 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23348Thanks! Good to know. I don’t have guaranteed delivery yet either. Too much of a small fry. I just got dinged on a package Ebay says never got a scan but the tracking shows it did. Need to call.
09/26/2017 at 9:51 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23329* Total Items in Store: 420
* Items Sold: 10
* Cost of Items Sold: $25 used + $42 new RA + 24.24 free shipping offered
* Total Sales: $262
* Highest Price Sold: $46 1950s Waverly kitchen fabric
* Average Price Sold: $26
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 22Felt like a slow week but just low dollar items going out. I might try free returns at some point on smaller items only because I don’t sell clothing and have only ever had two returns. I will probably see how prominently the filter is presented first. My instinct is that free shipping might have helped my sales a bit, even though they are not stellar. I’m hoping for algorithm favoritism rather than buyer behavior. I had a couple of old items sell after making the switch, but really it’s just a hunch. So far promotions I think helped less for me personally.
I need to read the forum thread re the 10konthebay video. He seems to think you have to pay now to run sales and that sales items are not presented well with the buyer only seeing a discounted price in the cart stage with a generalized sale banner in the corner. I have my weekly 15% sale priced into everything so it matters to me.
When I was young and crying about something apparently not significant. My dad (who is actually really awesome) used to say “stop crying or I will give you something to cry about”. I feel like the last few years life has been throwing up curveballs worth crying about at times. I’m a worrier by nature, but now I find it hard now to sweat the smaller stuff. I want to do a good job on Ebay, but be practical, efficient and certainly not get worked up about hiccups. I’ve eaten a couple of broken claims, provided a partial refund once. Well worth keeping the good feedback score and the peace of mind. That being said, I do get a bit frustrated that things don’t seem to be well thought out or operational before they are launched. I expect that occasionally customers will be unreasonable but I don’t expect that from a giant high tech company.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
ChristineR.
Wondering if anyone else experienced this benefit and for how long. Ebay is giving me a credit for my insertion fees over the store subscription limit (basic, 250). So last month there was a $50 credit against insertion fees on the extra 150 items in my 400 item store. They just sent me a promotion to upgrade my store to premium, but the discount to $30 was only for one month, not for the year like last time. I think the offer was artfully crafted to make it seem like the ongoing monthly fee would be $30, but scavengers the promo period was only 1 month if you read the fine print. I’m wondering if Ebay will continue to waive my insertion fees or if this is just temporary. Guess I will keep an eye on my invoices and upgrade once I see it go up or on the next promotion.
09/21/2017 at 4:56 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Roller derby skates, Halloween costume, American Beauties, Carver amp, Boots & shoes, Angel chimes. #23074Thank you SL for mentioning vintage office supplies. These go in an old machine. Paid $2 http://www.ebay.com/itm/232487550738
This is a fun item and sold quickly. Paid $2. I feel like good keywords helped because someone was selling four of these for less than I sold this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232480881537
I’ve got a bunch of these in the garage. Sold quickly and I find them pretty often. Paid $3, went to NYC. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332362257137
Keep an eye out for vintage Gurley holiday candles because you often see a bunch together. This one took a while to sell at this price. The Christmas gnomes do well. Paid practically nothing for this at an estate sale with others. http://www.ebay.com/itm/231963434690
Paid up $8 at an estate sale. Sold overnight $40 best offer. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332380831693
I don’t know but they have created a count for Invalid / missing product identifiers in the listing improvements page, which I notice says beta now. Right now my count is zero. Last time this happened and their UPC catalog was wholly insufficient, they backed off. We’ll see. The rest of the email suggested four different places you could go out hunting for a GTIN or I can just “contact my supplier / wholesaler.” LOL. This is unrealistic for your average small seller so I’m hoping they end up folding again on this issue for certain categories and let you continue to put N/A and rollover the listings. The reason I’m selling on Ebay is because I can sell everything – new and used – conveniently in one place and because I can charge a premium for relatively hard to find items. Hopefully, this will continue to be the case.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
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