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DarlinDils, Thank you so much for your response! You are correct! The frame is not wood. It seems like the frame is a composite material. Oh boy, I really have to take a much better look at what I’m selling. I am so glad I have not listed this yet. I appreciate your input.
Loved the podcast. Always so informative. Regarding the “high prices” when you (Jay and Ryanne) list your items, I do the same thing. My philosophy is, if I’m going to “list it and forget it”, I want to be prepared when the long tail item does not sell immediately, and now I am “priced right” when it does sell. OR like Jay said, they can make an offer, and I can come down on the price. Once in a while I’ll get someone who will police my store and ask why I’m charging so much for something (usually cookie molds) and then I just figure they are the competition with the same item and they want to make the profit on said item. I just don’t over think it. I price high (most things-not all) and list it and forget it.
Yesterday and today I went through most of my totes (how I store my merchandise) and found that many items were not in the place I originally listed them in. So, if I listed a widget and put it in “Box 1”, it was not in “Box 1”. I have approximately 750 items. It has been a pain, but I’m sure I’ll be glad I did when the item does sell. For me sales are really slower than molasses. I guess I just don’t put the time in to it. I should have more time by the end of the summer. I have so many items not listed and some items in my totes were not even in my store. Certainly not going to many thrift stores or garage sales this summer.
Here’s my issue with this scenario: Ebay will charge you $2o. if they have to step in. I am a teeny, tiny seller. Ebay charged me $20. because while I “did” refund the buyer, the buyer never received the money. I have “no” idea how they did not, but she claimed she did not. I lost the money, the item, the extra $20. AND the buyer STILL left me a negative review “even though” I tried in good faith to help her. I was super kind to her, responded as soon as I received her messages, and when I did not hear back, I still contacted her to try to help her get her money. It was a lose, lose all around for me. Icing on the cake: the item I sold was $19.99 Good luck.
declutter978, I follow a local instagrammer who sells furniture which they refinish, among other household items. They have a brick and mortar and post every week, if not every day. They have had to close their store due to low stock because they cannot keep furniture in their store! I have been refinishing my own furniture for my own use, but I have had friends ask me to do theirs. I have never taken them up on it, but only because I don’t like to do things “your way”, I like to do things “my way”! By that I mean, in the past, I have gotten people who make too many demands on my time, or want the impossible (for my capabilities). Rather than waste my time like that (or theirs) I would like to refinish furniture I find-if you like it-you buy it. If you do not like it, someone else will buy it. Win, win!
catmom, I have not sold furniture since before the pandemic. I do not have a FaceBook page. In the past, I have used Craigslist with great success. My only caveat is, with Craigslist, I have found that buyers will wait to meet you and then throw in, “Would you take $____” rather than the initial agreed upon price. It has been years since I’ve posted any sales on Craigslist though, but only because when I peruse CL to see what is selling, I see a lot of junk, and I want to sell nice, refinished pieces, or nice unfinished pieces, depending on what skills are required to finish the piece(s) or how much time I want to spend on them. The last time I posted furniture was on OfferUp and that was good for me. People seem to be more serious about buying and I’ve learned to ask about 20-25% more in the original post, to get the price I want.
About 3 years ago, a cousin was visiting from Florida, and she called me from the alley near her moms house. Someone had thrown out a beautiful hand carved hope chest. I could not believe someone threw it out. She sat on it till I got there (about 20 minutes). It was hilarious! We laughed about it. I wound up selling on OfferUp for $150. Looking back, I could have gotten more, but I was really in need of money and just needed the space in my garage. I probably could have doubled the price. It was truly a nice piece. My plan is to post my items in OfferUp this summer and monitor my sales closely to see what kind of margins are there.
I have a lot of “furniture” stories. For some reason, I have a lot of tables and chairs and enjoy buying/selling them. I hope to get some things taken care of this year, and hope to next year have a more aggressive plan for time management to buy/refinish/sell furniture.
Does anyone have a “furniture” story they would like to share? I would love to hear it.
JulieB, the customer sent the first of the last emails to remind me of the importance of why we leave feedback and how it impacts sellers (in detail). The final (I hope) email was thanking me for the “wonderful” feedback. I’m sure that was her being facetious, since I just gave her all the stars, but did not leave any remarks.
Oh no! There were like 2-3 more and I passed them up, not being sure. Thanks so much. And yes, I will take @debitsandcredits advice.
Amatino, Thanks for sharing that video. I have a few furniture pieces in my garage that I either am working on updating, or need to. I am finding that I am enjoying the process. I also believe that there is money to be made there. All the furniture I have, I either found in the alley or at a thrift store. As I type this, there is a nice parsons chair in the alley that my neighbor threw out and I so want to take it and re-upholster it. I just have not taken it because I have enough projects-one being a queen sized platform bed that I am planning and will be starting tomorrow. This is what I would replace my ebay income with. I would sell up cycled furniture. I would not put them on ebay, I would sell locally. Keep the profits and keep it moving 😀
Zach, Julie and Jay, thanks for your responses. I don’t think I knew about the automatic responses option. Or did I? Not sure. I left her feedback since writing the original post. Since leaving feedback, she has contacted me 2 more times! I cannot. Believe. It. I just want her to go away. I finally emailed her to not contact me again and that I felt harassed by her. Hopefully she is gone.
@Craig-rex, You may want to turn away. When I lost the items I did to the water damage in my storage space, I lost about 200 baseball cards. I’m not really bummed about it. I have been lugging those around since the late 90’s (before selling on ebay) and didn’t have a clue about them. Eh! At least now I know what to do with them. Throw them out! lol
I agree about the scavenging here. I have 2 thrift stores within walking distance from me. I can (and have) found much of what I’ve sold on ebay at these 2 stores for decent profits. The only other place I’ve thrifted at was in England many years ago, and I wasn’t selling on ebay back then.
As for the weather, I always expect the worst, so that I’m never disappointed. Ha!
Vintage Treasures, sounds like a rude awakening, indeed! Chicago winters can be brutal. I try to plan to stay in during the snow storms and stock up on whatever I need. I would like to say that I am “used to” our winters, but I am not really. We have a saying here: “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait 15 minutes!”. We can have a heat wave, a rain storm and snow all in the same day!
