Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I also would prefer to just get things listed rather than pace them out through the week. I’d rather they be available to sell all week rather than waiting a week to trick some algorithm that may (or may not) care.
I’m fairly confident that the algorithm cares about listing every day (or most days), but I also agree with you that there’s no point in spacing out new listings so you have a few items every day. Get stuff listed. Don’t leave things sitting in drafts when they could have already been packaged up and on their way to a new buyer.
But as you and I have learned, once your inventory reaches a large enough point (1ooo listings, maybe?), go through a handful of your oldest listings (especially the ones with zero watchers), end them, reprice them and sell similar or relist. Buyers can be fickle and sometimes a $10 difference in price will get them to buy. Sometimes an item showing up as new in a saved search gets your listing visible to a buyer who wasn’t searching for it three months ago. Sometimes if your item is not that unique, it is overpriced now compared to six months ago.
It’s so fast to make changes in the bulk editor now that this should be a part of the weekly routine for any seller with a decent sized store. Even if you only end, reprice and sell similar on twenty items a week (four batches of five items), that’s over 700 “old” listings a year which you’re making “new.”
I have found that my daily sales will grow to be, on average, just a little less than what I list daily. When I was doing 5 a day, we quickly grew to selling 4-5 items a day but not much more. Now that I’m doing 10 items a day, we tend to average around 7-8 items a day in sales. What’s interesting is that the sales are very consistent. We do often get a bump on the weekends and when ebay as a whole is slow we sell less too, but it’s not uncommon for me to sell as many items on a Tuesday as on a Friday/Saturday.
This tracks with my own experiences this year as well, interestingly regardless of store size. I’ve consolidated my inventory over the last few months from around 2500 listings to under 2000 listings and now under 1500 with little to no effect on my numbers as a whole. Have there been slower weeks? Sure. Those weeks often coincided with when I stopped listing new items consistently. Coincidence? You decide.
This is always a great conversation topic, and with how dramatically new listings seems to affect the search algorithm, almost feels like one which should get discussed every single week. There is such a massive difference in my store’s performance when I list every day, or most days, versus sporadically. I might go as far as to say that while summer slowdown is very real, my own listing habits (or lack of) contributed to it. This year at least.
I was very good in the first half of this year in listing a few items every day. First it was three, then five. Sometimes more than that but always aiming for that minimum. It kept me motivated and focused for a good four or five month stretch. Like you, I focus on a specific niche (mine is trading cards) and one key for me was to build up a huge backlog of pictures (scanned front and back images) so that I can grab a handful of cards from a box and create those listings when I had the time. I sell similar from existing listings based on card type (graded, autograph, sport, etc) so getting my scanning process sorted out was the most important step to actually getting stuff listed. My scans are clearly labeled, so all I have to do when I want to make a few new listings (like I did this morning) is grab a few interesting cards from my semi-organized boxes of scanned but not listed items, sell similar from one of my existing listings and spend a few minutes fiddling with titles, descriptions, prices and item specifics.
It’s easy to get photos done for listings when it’s just five or ten items total, but much harder when it’s five or ten items every day. Doing the photo work in batches helped me build and maintain a backlog of photos, which made it easier to keep up with consistent listing even on days where I spend an hour or less on eBay, as I often did this spring and summer. Once the backlog of photos starts to trickle towards zero, I add to it. Doing multiple tasks to create a new listing in the same day, like taking the photos and creating the listing, has always been a trap for me to not list consistently. Once in a while, sure. But it’s too many things to do in the same day over and over again.
Of course, creating a good template for your items is important as well. I charge one flat rate for shipping and that’s it. Easy to do with the small trading cards but I also sell larger items like books and I just charge one flat rate for shipping which never changes. It’s one less thing to have to mess with when I create new listings. I also skip most item specifics besides the required ones. Every little step you can take to speed up the listing process will help you list more consistently.
Last week Zack suggested rearranging/renaming some of the forum threads which Ryanne will do. If anyone has any suggestions, happy to do it.
I would love to do a Scavenge of the Week thread every week. That’s the most fun part of scavenging and it’s always exciting to share your finds with others. If you guys made the forum, I’d be happy to create the new thread every Sunday. The least I could do for this community that’s given me so much.
My numbers are skewed this week because of three sales which totaled over $1000. I have had enough slow days with one or two sales and few offers over the last few weeks that I know a slow week is a possibility, maybe even a likelihood. I haven’t been listing much either. The weather has been too nice to spend much time listing. I go through my auctions listings to find new inventory to buy, I ship out new orders and I sort my week’s purchases — a small handful will (eventually) get listed in my store and the rest I send out to sell on consignment. It’s a nice life.
I’m sure I will have a slow eBay week soon if I don’t start listing more, and there is so much to list. But there will be plenty of time for that when the weather is cooler. It’s nice to have some extra money in the meantime.
8/14/2022 – 8/20/2022
Total items in store: 1358 (down from 1381 last week)
Items sold: 39 (30 via best offer, 1 via seller initiated offer, 18 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $3151.47 (down 11% from one year ago)
Net sales: $2193.33 (down 10% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $80.81 (up 81% from one year ago)
Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 14 hours (up from 13 hours last week)
Highest price sold (net): $357.21 — Derwin James Panini Select green prizm auto patch rookie #1/2
I stocked up on Derwin James cards a few years ago when he suffered a season-ending injury in his second season. I didn’t really plan it that way (I rarely do), but came across listings for a few of his rarer cards and then did some research. He had been a top draft pick and the consensus was that he would be one of the best defensive safeties in football if the injury didn’t linger. Last week, James signed a record contract for a safety after a very successful 2021 season. So my hunch paid off.
The buyer also bought the same autographed green prizm patch card, #2 of 2, from me in the same order. The total sale was over $900.
These are two of the best James rookie cards available from this particular popular set because of the rarity and features of the cards. So I understand why the buyer paid up for these cards. Plus now they have a unique matching set. It’s a smart investment if you understand the card collecting world. The buyer told me they plan to grade the cards and they think James is going to win DPOY (Defensive Player of the Year). So they are following their own hunches. Just from more of a gambler’s life than a scavenger’s.
I have a few more rare James cards which I’m sure will sell in the coming weeks as the new season starts. Then it’s on to the next buy low, sell high players.
I made more money selling these two cards than I made in a week at my last day job. I try to stop and appreciate that as much as I possibly can.
Lowest price sold (net): $12.12 — Jimmy Howard 2004-05 SP Authentic Rookie Redemption #307/399
This is a much more common type of sale for me, especially in the last few months. I bought a lot containing a large quantity of this serial numbered rookie card of Jimmy Howard, longtime hockey goalie for the Detroit Red Wings. I think I paid maybe $50 for a lot of 25 or so?
I looked up the listing that I purchased in the process of writing this post — I actually paid $27 for a lot of 16 of these Jimmy Howard rookie cards. What a bargain!
There are a few large sellers who sell these bulk lots of the same card or same set. I assume part of their trading card enterprise is submitting cards in bulk for grading, and these bulk lots are rejects from that process. Every card has little flaws to its corners, edges or surfaces except for the select few PSA 10’s and much more common 9’s. You don’t want to submit a modern card which will grade an 8 or lower (though it happens) since those really don’t add any value to the card, and grading is not cheap.
But not every collector wants or needs a perfect card or a graded card. Sometimes they just want one nice rookie of the goaltender for their hometown hockey team. So I list these cards individually in my eBay store and I send them to consignment. I get my $10 to $15, they get their card, and I list the same Howard card with a different serial number as part of my listing process this week. Everyone wins.
I dread posting my numbers tomorrow. My store is as dead as this forum.
Hey, compared to last week’s thread, the forum numbers were way up this week!
I’ve noticed there are always more people logged in here than actively posting. Which probably makes sense considering this thread and listing challenge are basically the only two regular threads. I wonder if weekly threads with themes besides numbers or listings goals would encourage more posts. Not everyone tracks their numbers each week but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a lot to talk about. The flipping subreddit has threads on different days for Flip of the Week, Weekly Haul and a few other different themes. I’ve thought about posting threads like that here, but not sure where to post them or if others would be interested.
It is nice to see so many people posting in this thread again. It was too quiet last week.
I had a nice experience with eBay support this week as a buyer. I splurged on a nice new pillow for myself, but the seller used FedEx and there was a classic FedEx problem — package marked as delivered at 3:00 AM, but didn’t show up that day, or the next day, or the next. I opened a case and the seller uploaded the tracking and didn’t respond. I lost the case. But I filed an appeal and eBay refunded my money. Good to know that persistence and calm messages still get things done with eBay.
8/7/2022 – 8/13/2022
Total items in store: 1381 (up from 1373 last week)
Items sold: 43 (33 via best offer, 1 via seller initiated offer, 21 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $3631.34 (up 22% from one year ago)
Net sales: $2677.31 (up 28% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $84.45 (up 100% from one year ago)
Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 13 hours (up from 10 hours last week)
Highest price sold (net): $368.43 — Brett Favre 2022 National Black box 1/1 autograph
This was my big prize from the National card show. The manufacturer Panini offered a trade-in program at the show where you could swap specific outstanding redemption cards in your account for one (or more) Black Boxes which contain a 1/1 stamped autograph inside. I had five or six eligible redemptions to trade, but I had never used this program before, so I only traded in two of them. The two cards I traded in cost me something like $50 total and I received one black box in return. Because the buy-in was so low, I decided to open my black box, and was lucky enough to find a popular player like Favre inside. I priced it high ($500) but in line with other expensive Favre autographs and the card sold within 24 hours of listing. The buyer sent me a few messages the day the package was marked delivered telling me how happy he was to add this to his and his daughter’s collection and how much he liked the card. It was another reminder that there’s no real reason to get nervous about selling something that’s a little more expensive. Most buyers, regardless of how much disposable income they have, just want to receive their item.
Lowest price sold (net): $11.82 — Cayden Wallace 2021 Onyx autograph
Onyx is one of a handful of companies who don’t have any licenses with the pro leagues, which you can always tell because the player on the card will be wearing a generic uniform. No logos or team names. I don’t sell a ton of cards like this since they don’t hold much value long-term. But certain players autographs are worth buying and selling for a brief period, like after the player gets drafted but before his new pro uniform cards have been made.
With the new listing tool, I have found that moving between desktop and mobile is alot smoother.
Yeah, I have always been able to upload photos from phone (Android) as well but the new listing tool is a huge improvement in that process. The draft syncs with mobile as you’re creating it and vice versa. So you can add photos to your draft in mobile without having to close the draft on the computer. No QR code involved like I initially thought but my impression so far is that the new flow is much smoother. There is a lag with item specifics populating but if that gets fixed, this new listing tool will be really fast.
I got thrown into the new listing tool a few days ago. I hate change, always.
But my first instinct was that the new tool isn’t so bad. Like @debitendcredits mentioned, the pull down menus are really fast.
I am going to play around this weekend what I think is the most interesting new feature, uploading photos from mobile using (I think) a QR code within the eBay app. I have a feeling this could streamline the listing process for those of us who start a draft on the computer, add photos in the app and then finish the draft on the computer.
Can’t wait to hear/read about what you two have in the works for 2023. It’s a real inspiration.
I expected slower sales this week since I removed about 500 items from my store a few weeks ago to drop off at the National trading card show for future consignment sales. But I listed steadily all week and had a strong week of sales, especially on Saturday and Sunday. I sent out 15% offers to about 200 watchers which might have helped as well.
Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come as we head into the hopefully busy holiday season.
7/31/2022 – 8/6/2022
Total items in store: 1373 (down from 1356 last week)
Items sold: 40 (27 via best offer, 7 via seller initiated offer, 17 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2558.62 (down 35% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1767.95 (down 37% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $63.97 (up 20% from one year ago)
Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 10 hours (down from 12 hours last week)
Highest price sold (net): $182.79 — 2005 Rittenhouse Lost in Space case breaker triple autograph
I can thank Terapeak for this sale, since I don’t know all that much about non-sports trading cards beyond my general knowledge of modern cards. Some of the most desirable Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and sketch cards get into some crazy prices, and the same goes for rare autographs like this one from the most collected Lost in Space trading card set. This card sold within a few days of ending the listing, repricing $50 lower and selling similar.
Lowest price sold (net): $16.03 — Gino Odjick Pinnacle Tough Times autograph
I think this is my highest low price since I started tracking my numbers every week. I have about 20 more of this same autographed card because Odjick is a popular hockey player from my childhood (the 90’s) who has sadly had some health problems in recent years. This set is also liked by collectors since many of the players were fan favorites who didn’t have many cards or autographs compared to the star players, and the autographs are all directly on the card instead of on a sticker which is much more common since it’s more cost effective for card manufacturers.
It’s a coincidence but this listing also sold after a relist. It sat for a few months at $29.99 with no offers, then I repriced it to $19.99 and it sold within a few days for $16 plus shipping all the way to Switzerland.
The show was a lot more diverse than I expected in every single way. I got a kick out of seeing young kids with fancy Pelican card briefcases with autographed and graded cards which are worth hundreds and thousands. So different than my experience with cards as a 90s kid when I went to the local flea market or the local show at the mall and spent my allowance and money I saved up.
Could you imagine a world where you just spend time sourcing and ten send the cards in for consignment. No more listing and shipping?
This is basically what I’ve been doing the last few months while making exceptions for cards where I can make a better listing than the consignment company or items they won’t list (for example, sealed sets or lots of 2+ cards). So I have a nice backlog of stuff to build my eBay inventory up when it’s not as nice outside. I know there will eventually be a day where cards won’t hold the same values because of less collectors, less flippers, the economy, overproduction or a million other things. But last week’s show set attendance records, so the market is still very strong for now. The great thing about consignment is that it allows me to buy and sell so much more than I could just listing on eBay.
There is a lag time with everything about selling on consignment, including getting paid, so that would be a challenge if I needed money for a big unexpected expense. I can see a year or two down the line once I have built up some real savings how I might be able to shut down my eBay store completely for a few weeks or even a month, do some traveling and use the consignment sales to cover all my expenses and even make a profit on the trip. Scavenger’s dream, basically.
I had a nice experience last week at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City. I attended two days of the five day show and my main goal was to submit as many cards as I could to the consignment company I use since they were offering a 30% discount on their fees. I submitted more than 1000 cards which was more than I thought I would do.
It will take a while for these cards to get processed for sale, and now my eBay store is at its lowest level of listings in a few years, so my sales will definitely dip in the short term and I will need to remain conscious of how much I spend on new inventory. Bigger picture, I will be fine between the consignment income and all the stuff I have to list. I can see very clearly how my business to grow over the next 6 to 12 months which is very exciting.
I didn’t buy much at the show (maybe $50 total, the deals were just not there compared to buying through online auctions), but it was fascinating to walk the aisles and take everything in. Everything from museum quality memorabilia to dealers with massive boxes of individual cards as low as $0.10 each. There is a big element of trading cards which happens on YouTube and through streaming platforms, so there were a lot of people walking around filming. It was especially amazing to see how frantic buyers and sellers were on Sunday, the last day. The table where I spent my $50 had thousands and thousands of cards in boxes, all with the same price (lowered from $3 to $2), and when I visited the table, it was complete chaos. Cards spilling everywhere (even onto the floor) and no organization whatsoever and crowds of people. I wiggled my way in and found a few cards which will sell for more than $2, but overall it was a wild contrast to my online sales and it made me very grateful to buy and sell on eBay.
There is a smaller regional card show in Philadelphia in late September, and I plan to repeat the same process of trimming my inventory by submitting cards for consignment. Plus I love being somewhere new and getting to explore, and maybe I can use the card shows as a way to do that. There was no Too Good To Go available in Atlantic City, but I had great Mexican food and some of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had.
7/24/2022 – 7/30/2022
Total items in store: 1356 (down from 1799 last week)
Items sold: 39 (35 via best offer, 2 via seller initiated offer, 20 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2065.05 (down 53% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1423.05 (down 55% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $52.95 (up 21% from one year ago)
Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 12 hours (down from 15 hours last week)
Highest price sold (net): $93.76 — PJ Washington Panini Prizm Draft Picks mojo autograph RC #05/10 PSA 9
Lowest price sold (net): $9.63 — Connor Scott Leaf autographed 1/1 printing plate
Keep in mind that once you relist, or sell similar, it resets the clock on your listings. So they are “new” again in terms of number of days listed even if you’ve had the item for much longer.
I have found the most success with relist/sell similar on items which are less expensive (say $40 and under) and less unique. I assume this is because it gives buyers who have created a new saved search since your listing, or who sort by new, the chance to see the listing. With more unique and expensive items, I think interested buyers are more likely to save the item to their watchlist or dig through every single listing (not just the newest ones) to find their item.
I’ve done this a few times and I’m confident that it’s a good practice for most sellers to experiment with ending their oldest items, repricing when necessary and relisting or selling similar 2-3 times a year. This also gives you the opportunity to take a short break from creating new listings while still creating “new” listings. On the weeks that I’ve done an end, reprice and relist, I’ve used the extra time to organize inventory and work through piles of items to be listed. So it’s been productive in a couple of different ways beyond creating some sales.
underpromise, over deliver.
This should be part of the New Scavenger Manifesto, along with list every day, promote your listings and send offers/run sales/end and reprice to move your listings up in the search rankings. I’m sure there is other stuff I’m not thinking of right now.
I have the same attitude with my trading cards listings. Max grade NM (equivalent to PSA 8) in the title of almost all ungraded cards even when they look nicer and I am meticulous about detailing any flaws in the seller notes and item description.
Maybe once or twice a year (out of a few thousand transactions) I get a buyer is really picky about condition, or maybe I miss a little flaw. I just refund them and move on with my life. So many other forums are filled with complainers grumbling about how much it sucks selling on eBay, buyers all scammers, fees are too high and all of that. But my experience over and over again has been that 99% of eBay buyers are happy as long as they get what they purchased in a reasonable amount of time. I am sure there are some niches (like expensive electronics) that are more challenging though.
Thanks, this is really helpful.
I keep a stack of cArdboard trimmings and will fold that in half and tape seams as a sleeve for other thin books/magazines/comics.
I do cardboard sandwiches with the individual trading cards so I have lots of bundles of boxes. Staples discontinued a particular brand a few months ago and I stocked up on 12 x 6 x 6 and 12 x 8 x 6 boxes for 25 cents per box (probably $0.10 or less after coupons and rewards). At some point in a year or two, I will finally run out of boxes and that will be a sad day.
For larger format thin books I’ll use my 12×12 adjustable record mailer boxes.
I have avoided buying record mailer boxes so I have a built-in excuse to avoid learning about another niche with collectors who are very picky about condition, lol. But now that I am starting with plans to expand my store beyond trading cards, it is probably almost time to order some LP boxes. I like to sell CDs and DVDs so records are a logical next step.
