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This is a great thread idea. For me, there are two categories of poor purchasing decisions. The first is personal use items, but I have always been frugal and never had a need to buy a lot of things, so this hasn’t affected me much.
But I have a lot of experience with poor purchase decisions for inventory. Cleaning up bad inventory purchases has increased my profits significantly in the last six months, to the point where eBay has become close to full time income. I buy almost all my inventory through auctions on eBay. This has its perks, especially now where everything is closed but it’s still (mostly) business as usual for me.
I use a bid sniper (Gixen) to eliminate last minute “one more bid” impulse decisions. While a bid sniper is great (and I recommend it to anyone who buys auctions on eBay), that kind of platform makes it so easy to bid on — and potentially win — hundreds of items. Learning to pass up low dollar items unless I can buy them cheaply in bulk has been so important for me. Especially with items I “like” to sell even if they’re long tail or not that profitable.
This has led to me slowly phasing out a lot of inventory listed for $10 or $15 in favor of $25-$50 items. I did this in a number of ways, but lotting up similar items was the most successful for me. I primarily sell sports collectibles and trading cards and grouping by team has been very profitable. I am sure that kind of connection (geography, place, type) would be useful for other niches as well. Of course, the most important thing is that your inventory has to have some kind of demand. You can’t just group up junk and expect it to sell!
It took me a few years of trial and error to develop this system and especially the discipline to stick with it. It feels like a big breakthrough, but I’m sure in a few years I’ll look back and wonder how I didn’t realize ______ for so long.
In addition to everything Jay wrote, if it was a sealed pack of cards and the buyer returns something unsealed (opened), you will be covered. It might take a few calls, eBay may refund the buyer anyway but generally you will get to keep your money. As you should, in my opinion, unless the pack or box was damaged or described incorrectly.
As for how likely you are to receive that response right now…I’m surprised that eBay doesn’t have a contingency plan in place to contact customer service. But it seems most retailers don’t yet. I’m sure if the quarantine continues for a few months, this will change.
Seeing all of the sports leagues shut down made COVID-19 real for a lot of people, I think, but I worry that too many people (young people in particular) are still thinking I feel fine and then going out like normal and spreading the virus without realizing it. Most inessential workplaces (restaurants, retail) are still open and of course from an economic perspective, it’s obvious why. But in terms of virus containment, these decisions seem foolish. We’ll learn a lot in the next 5-7 days, from Seattle and NYC in particular.
I suspect if this new, strange life carries on for weeks, it will become a good opportunity to buy on eBay as inexperienced sellers clean out their closets either out of boredom or a need for extra cash. Hard to think that way now. I’m glad I have enough death piles to tide me over for probably a month. The first three months of this year were my best by far but I expect sales to slow down significantly over the next few weeks. I hope I’m wrong about all of this.
The important point to note about this program is right here:
eBay international standard delivery is a Delivered Duties Unpaid (DDU) shipping solution—buyers won’t pay duties and tax at checkout on eBay, but may have to pay the carrier for duties and tax on delivery.At least with GSP the cost to the buyer is clear and obvious at checkout. With this, it doesn’t seem as clear. In addition, the cost savings on 0-4 pounds is minimal at best compared to first-class international or even priority flat rate.
This program isn’t for me, but I like that eBay is trying to offer different and more economical options for international shipping.
I generally use lots as a method for selling items which aren’t worth listing individually but that I don’t want to give away for nothing. For the first year or so I was selling on eBay, this was anything under $5. I looked at it like any cha-ching was worth hearing. But when you consider final value fees and shipping, you only make a few dollars profit on a $7 or $8 sale, even if you buy the item for $0.50.
So, over the years, my threshold for what gets listed individually and what gets listed in lots has increased. For a few years, it was anything $10 or less. Now, as I’ve moved closer to full-time over the last year, I really hesitate to list anything for less than $20. Though I still have an affinity for $10 items which are easy to photograph, fast to list and easy to store if I can get them for a buck or less. Old habits die hard.
In my experience, mixed lots usually sell to another flipper, which is part of what sustains our buying and selling ecosystem. For the most part, I accept almost any reasonable offer on mixed lots, sometimes 50% or even less, especially if the item takes up a lot of space.
With something that is seasonal and collectible, like your Hallmark ornaments, I would get them listed as soon as possible. But don’t be shocked if some of your seasonal items don’t sell now, and don’t panic and start cutting prices or (worse) running auctions. Just keep listings up and be patient. As long as your items are priced based around sold listings, you will get some sales at full price or close to it in March or August. That’s one of the many great things about eBay.
Another Brother backer here. We have the Brother HLL2395DW. Rarely have to change the toner, handles duplex printing with no issues, fast and quiet. Staples runs great sales & coupons, so our cost was about $50 after ink recycling (a must for any scavenger!) and coupons.
The Regional boxes would be the biggest loss for me. The long, thin A box is almost perfect size for oversized books. I do really hate the abuse of free supplies and hope they shift to a FedEx or low pay ($0.25 each) model, but I wonder if a more likely solution is that USPS phases out free boxes entirely.
Trading cards and memorabilia are one of my main niches, so I am really happy to see this thread. I want to offer some general knowledge that probably won’t be practically useful to most of you. It’s true that most 80s/90s cards (the stuff you see on FB and Craigslist) are usually worthless because card manufacturers cranked up the printing presses. This was the era of local card shops in every town and shop at home salesmen like Don West. The focus was on full sets and “investing” in the new, hot rookie card. While there are occasional rookies that have held their value (Michael Jordan’s iconic Fleer rookie card the most notable), you can buy most of the best rookies from the 80s and 90s — even well-known, Hall of Fame types — for the cost of a burger, maybe a burger and fries.
But there are still valuable cards from this period. Valuable 80s and 90s cards typically fit one of two categories: obscure sets (like those given out at minor league stadiums or redemeed through the mail) or rare error cards. For example, earlier this year, there was a brief surge in interest in a basketball card of Mark Jackson because the Menendez Brothers were in the background of the photo.
Starting in the mid-90s (roughly around 1995), card collecting became less focused around finding the hot rookie or collating the entire set and more like gambling. This was because of the introduction of unusual inserts, cards inserted 1 in every x packs. The longer your odds, the more interesting the card would be. The first embellishments in the late 90s included autographs, pieces of player’s jersey in the card, and foil designs, often with serial numbers.
Today, the “hot” insert cards contain a giant piece of uniform (the most desired? a piece of a shirt tag or the team’s logo) or a piece of lab-made diamond or hunk of silver. The more expensive boxes cost in the thousands and only contain a few cards — all the “junk” cards are gone, and it’s nothing but autographs and other special cards. It’s a strange, weird world where prices fluctuate, sometimes wildly, based on hype or an outstanding individual performance. Though there are a lot of speculators buying and selling cards today, most collectors are in the hobby because it reminds them of good childhood memories or helps them feel a kinship with the team they root for. I would say collectors have more money than sense (these are just pieces of cardboard after all), but you could say the same about almost anything we buy and sell.
All that aside, it’s an understatement to say that the best 90s insert cards are still in demand to certain collectors 20 years later. Look up ‘1997 precious metal gems’ sold listings on eBay and you’ll see what I mean. If you run that search, you might notice that many of the sold listings are not professionally graded, contrary to what conventional wisdom about cards might tell you. Grading has its own controversies. I could go on for another five paragraphs, but this NY Times article is a good summary.
For whatever it’s worth, I don’t even bother looking for cards on Craigslist, flea markets, etc. There’s more than enough cards to buy and sell on eBay and there are always new sets being released and sold and re-sold. Card shops may be all but dead, but the card industry is still very much thriving.
I’ve done 2 stores in the past, separating different categories of items between stores. I don’t do it any longer because it’s much simpler to just have one.
But with your situation, I completely agree with Winchester38 that it would be worth separating your charity sales from your personal sales. I would even suggest creating separate Paypal accounts to make end-of-year bookkeeping even simpler.
As far as feedback goes, if your listings are professional — clear pictures, title and useful description (if description is typical in your category) — this immediately distinguishes you from new sellers who are cleaning out their closet and take poor pictures and have a template description (‘Condition is Very Good. Ships with USPS first class mail.)
I’ve sent out 50+ offers each of the last two weekends and have only gotten 3 responses and 0 sales. Slightly more success the weekend before with 2 sales out of 50 offers. I’ve tried it during the week in the past. It seems to be hit and miss no matter when you send offers. I think this feature has a lot of potential, but it is very easy for messages to get buried. I also don’t think 10 to 15 percent off makes much of an impact on what I sell. Maybe increasing the discount rate allows for more of an impact.
It’s also summer, which is probably the single biggest factor. This feature might prove to be really useful during the holidays.
Buying on eBay and selling on eBay (at higher prices) is how I get 75% of my inventory, maybe more. I sell collectibles, primarily modern trading cards and obscure media (CD’s, DVD’s, books). I sell about 100 items a month and my gross sales are up to about $3,000 a month, $4,000 in a good month.
Here are a few things I’ve learned in the last few years as I’ve increased my profits and sales significantly:
1. The vast majority of my purchases are auction wins. There are so many trading card auctions because there are always new sets being produced, and collectors want to recoup money with the cards they don’t want so they can buy new ones they want. But all these auctions allow for a huge margin for error on the seller’s part. The areas where sellers most frequently make mistakes are: title or description errors, wrong categories and (especially) starting an auction too low. I’ve gotten some great deals even when an item is listed correctly. People like to complain about conspiracy theories but I think the answer’s simple – auctions are fickle.
2. I used to waste a lot of time, hours and hours a week, searching for auctions and I also used a lot of my profits to reinvest into new inventory. My margins are not as good as Jay and Ryanne’s are. But the last year has been a breakthrough for me in terms of growing inventory and profits and refining my approach. Now I stick to a number of saved searches and sellers that work for me, and only spend a few hours a week running searches. Maybe 3-4, but it hardly feels like work. A bid sniper (Gixen is my favorite, the developer is very responsive) has helped a lot with this, too. Set it and forget it.
3. Always be listing. Don’t mess with auctions when you’re selling – just put best offer on everything and wait for the right buyer to find your item. If I am hungry for sales, sometimes I will take a lower offer just to move on to the next item, but I don’t do auctions even if eBay offers a promo. I don’t really do sales anymore either. Occasionally I will cull some dead inventory by lotting it up, but I’ve only done that once this year. Learning to buy smarter has really reduced my need to do that so often.I don’t know if any of this is groundbreaking. A lot of the things I’ve learned are straight from the podcasts and the trash elf manifesto, but it took a few years of selling $10 items inconsistently for me to figure it out. There are a lot of sellers — especially in the trading card world — who don’t follow any of this advice. I find that really strange, but not everyone looks at their hobbies or purchases like a scavenger does.
As I have said before, getting an MFA in Fine Art along with $.50 will get you about a third of a cup of coffee.
Hi Mike. Nice to meet you. I got my MFA in creative writing. So I will definitely have to defer to you on the art questions!
What kind of items do you enjoy finding and selling?
Hi Jay. I have a kind of unusual niche. 75% of my store is modern trading cards (sports and non-sports) and authenticated autographs. A few years ago, when I needed money, I thought I’d sell off my childhood card collection. Of course, like most stuff from the late 80s/early 90s, it wasn’t worth much. But doing the research brought back good memories. I’ve never collected anything as an adult but I thought I could make some more money if I did more buying and selling. It took me a few years of learning but I was right. It’s really enjoyable to help collectors get the item they want for a good deal and still plenty of profit in it.
The other 25% of my store is weird and unusual CD’s, DVD’s and books. I’m a huge music and movie nerd and obviously a big reader. I love going to library sales and digging through the piles. That stuff usually moves much more slowly but my $$ help support the library and keeps good art circulating instead of neglected or trashed.
I aspire to expand into old shoes and gewgaws someday!
