Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Yep you’re exactly right. We’ve realised that one of our bottlenecks is our work space. We don’t yet have a dedicated office/shipping/photo area and are running everything out of our living room right now, except our inventory. So currently we set our listing goals to match our current situation.
Coming soon though will be our desks and furniture to get our office space up and running, which should make the entire process soooooo much more efficient. Currently just a pair of jeans has so many roadblocks in the way because of our space. For example, to get a measurement I have to lay the jeans on the floor and take the measurements from ground level. Just having to get down and back up again not only wastes time, but results in a lot of wasted energy so I run out of steam quicker.
I think it’s important to set realistic goals based on your current situation and work on executing those goals. Then start looking at how you could realistically push those goals further and further and what you’d need to do to make that happen.
I think 20 a day is a large ask when you’re working by yourself, although not impossible I know I’d feel the burn out pretty quickly at that pace. That said it does depend on the items.
I work at this currently full time with my partner helping me and we aren’t even matching 20 a day at the moment, we have some days where we smash it and go way higher and others where we can only get 5-10 done for whatever reason, life can get in the way. We make sure we don’t beat ourselves up on the days where we don’t get much listing done, we just make sure that any time we do get the opportunity to list, we make the most of it.
As long as you stay consistent with your listing goals on the days that you can list, I’m sure you’ll be setting yourself up for success 🙂
I have an old p-touch but I think most people love label printers that are thermal rather than laser.
With thermal label printers you never need to worry about replacing ink/toner. The downside is they only do black/white. They also print super fast and a nice sharp image.
I do think a large part in making this work is integrating things with your life, so that scavenging isn’t an ‘extra’ expense so to speak…. like hitting a thrift store when you go to a doctor’s appointment.
I do also think that working at home is less expensive (no travel to and from work, no workday lunches or coffees) and that through your scavenging your cost of living will go down a lot also, we find heaps of things we would normally have paid full price for that we need while we’re scavenging, so I don’t think it’s all that fair to compare the numbers like for like.
But if you want to earn that exact money.. yes it’d be a larger task, but still very doable over time with enough work and consistency I feel. Especially with multiple stores over different platforms.
Thanks! I would say my next goal is to just have a period where we can maintain that so that we can be sure we’re stable. So maybe once we’ve covered the mortgage 6 weeks in a row or something 🙂
Otherwise I’d say the next step is water bill, a week above $500 would be a major milestone for us, we already installed solar panels so our electricity is super low already. We also run LPG bottles for our gas and we seem to use barely any so that’s nice. We’ll be saving up for some rainwater tanks though that’s for sure 😉
Nice 🙂 Just getting ready to start my night of listing will be good to listen to motive mate as I go along.
Anyway time for my week.
Week 4 17-23
Number of Active Listings: 264
Items In Store: 476
Items Sold: 8
Avg Selling Price: $43.39
Cost of Goods Sold: $0.00
Total Sales: $347.14
Returns/Refunds: -$5.98
Unpaid Items: $0.00Highest item: Had 2 collector’s bullion coins sell for $95 each. Return was just a case of damage in the mail, easy refund, customer was so happy they left glowing feedback so that was nice.
Overall had a really good week, our best so far and the first time we’ve officially made enough in 1 week to cover the mortgage for the week, so that’s worth celebrating. Now time to keep it consistent and continue the growth.
That’s very good advice…. it’s like the old saying goes, you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It’s all about being able to read the situation, some people respond to kindness, other’s respond to fear.
Wow thats quite impressive! Sounds like you know what you’re doing for sure. Out of curiosity, how much is an Anchor store over in the states? It’s quite ridiculously expensive here.
We get that with our bigger thrift stores too, we don’t have Goodwill but for us it’s Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul, Save the Children etc. They all individually price and barcode everything for sure.
But the local church op shop that opens once a week every Wednesday when the volunteers are available, they’re the ones that seem to stop caring about being so meticulous. You gotta try and get away from the big chain stores and find the little indie ones.
All the same tips work for yard sales too 🙂 (or garage sales where I’m from)
Welcome! Good to see another couple team 🙂 How long have you been selling on eBay for and what size are you at right now? What are your goals? If you don’t mind me asking of course 🙂
I leave it on auto feedback… for the few times someone may scam me, it saves me a lot of time and brain energy from going through each one separately. I choose to take those odd losses to make myself happier.
Very good tip and one that I underutilise myself, I’m one of those people that starts to yammer on when they get nervous, although I’m getting better at controlling it when I need to. Most people are so uncomfortable with silence to the point they’ll lose money to end the awkwardness, it’s true.
For those of you that struggle with this like me, one tip is to go hunting when you’re tired. I’ve had people give me good deals just because I’m sleepy and my brain can’t keep up. My lack of brain power gets read as hesitation and same effect happens. Just take someone with you so they can stop you from making bad decisions. If the dealer starts engaging with them just tell them to say “sorry it hasn’t really got anything to do with me isn’t my decision”
Buy items without price tags, and a lot in one hit
I’m not sure how it is over in the states but over here most of the op shops (thrift stores) I go to can be pretty slack with their pricing. A lot of the time they’ll price 1/2 the items and leave the others unpriced, instead waiting for someone to ask for the price.
All of these unpriced items, are items that they’re trying to keep track of in their heads. If you rock up to the counter with 20-30 different items, all of them unpriced, and ask how much, most of the time they won’t take the time to individually research and inspect each item. They feel rushed coz you’re waiting to make a purchase and they won’t want to keep their customers waiting, so they’ll risk taking the hit on the price for the bulk amount. It isn’t about trying to get them to make a mistake, I’m never trying to trick anyone. They make a conscious decision at the time to accept a lower offer to increase speed. They’re sometimes willing to take less to increase the flow of traffic through the register and stop other customers waiting while they try to research and price 20+ items.
The amount of times I’ve asked them to wrap items for me after paying and then I get the “Oh I never realised this was this… aren’t you lucky!”
If you actually stop and ask per item though as you’re browsing…. expect the price to be higher as they actually take the time to think about it.
