Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Habnab & Ryanne, I appreciate your responses… I think I’m just going to let my UPI Assistant kick in on this one.. I always grapple with the pros and cons of this type of transaction. On one hand, the buyer did not pay yet, and I hate to force a transaction if they do not want the item. It is easy now to just cancel the sale and not have to worry about negative feedback, etc. and I can relist right away. I used to have the UPI set for 2 days, but I do have a significant number of best offers come in with payment on the 3rd day – so I don’t mind waiting for 4 days. I do auto-block those with 2 or more UPI strikes. They really shouldn’t go around doing this to other sellers.
Habnab, to answer your question, if you let the unpaid assistant handle this, the pros are that you are guaranteed to get your final value fees back (although you should be able to now get this returned automatically if you cancel due to the buyer requesting the cancellation – but in this case the buyer alluded to a cancel, but did not specifically use the term ‘cancel’… so I do not want to have to potentially waste time calling ebay to sort out a measley $1.35 final value fee. Also, if I cancel this sale, then the buyer will still be able to leave feedback. If the auto UPI kicks in, and they do NOT buy the item, then they cannot leave feedback. (Of course, if they end up paying for the item, they CAN then leave feedback.) I’m probably giving this one too much time and energy, but I am really curious as to what other sellers do in these situations, and why…
Thanks again for your thoughts!
-SharonNumbers for Week March 12-18, 2017
Total Items in Store: 835
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $35.31
Total Sales: $454.85
Highest Price Sold: $81.90 (Vintage Disco Pant Suit)
Average Price Sold: $28.43
Returns: 1 (Long Funny Story for another post)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $46.91Bonanza:
Sold 1 item for $23.77Nice week of steady sales… I am averaging 2 sales a day now, which is great. I find that as I am getting more listings, it is taking more time to just “keep my number up”.. I am spending most of my spare time just listing things to maintain my current number. I committed to myself to replace daily what I have listed at the very very least, but push myself to try for 5 more if possible… I’ve got 4 little kids at home, so I am usually working late into the night when they are fast asleep… I am also trying to be a lot choosier when thrifting and sometimes I will only walk out with 1 or 2 things but I will take the few items that I can list for $40 or $50, instead of only $10.00… it takes discipline for me, for sure… hopefully it will start to pay off soon. I want to maximize my $ per hour, but still have a lot of cheaper inventory to sell off.
So I just sold a pair of pants on Bonanza… (I seem to sell something once a quarter.) Since I only go into that account every few months (once I get a sale) I look things over and try to update my booth over there, etc. I ALWAYS find at least a handful of duplicated items and it is a real hassle, as the full eBay sync doesn’t always seem to catch everything and I have to sort and remove the duplicates manually. Does anyone else have this problem? (I double checked and my automatic synching options are correctly checked.)
But now for a quick tip, if you are using Bonanza, you can manually import your feedback from eBay (you have to initiate this import manually and there is a button to do so) It’s a good idea to do this every once in a while. Since it had been a year since I last did this – I had a lot of feedback to import.
Also, when printing labels through Bonanza, they don’t fit well on the two-per-page sticky labels that a lot of us use. And I usually ending up wasting labels and getting frustrated before I figure out how to get it right. I just realized if you select “Landscape” instead of “Portrait” on your printer option, it will print the label “sideways” and it will fit on the 1/2 sheet in a much better way. (It is turned sideways, but still works out much better than printing in the middle of the two sticky labels.) Anyway, just wanted to share, the Bonanza labels are a little wonky. I also noticed a bug in the padded flat rate mailing price, it was quoting me $5.10 + $.95 cent processing fee and I thought wow, I’m getting this for $6.05, cheaper than eBay! But it actually charged $6.95 I think it was to my credit card. So, they haven’t yet updated all their pricing tables for the USPS rate hike, just FYI!
Happy Selling..
This is very interesting.. thank you all for the heads up. I have some “Velcro” items I will be certain to NOT put this in my title (mainly hats) going forward!
If it were me I would just ship it out (not without complaining about it to my husband who would tell me I should cancel the sale 🙂 and move on to the next good find… Good luck!
Hi Jay and Ryanne – Congratulations on your 300th episode (last week) and your great week this week! I really love you guys and you have made a very positive impact in my life.
I also had a nice week of steady sales. Here are my numbers:
My Store Week March 5-11, 2017
Total Items in Store: 825
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $37
Total Sales: $338
Highest Price Sold: $80 (vintage lite brite)
Average Price Sold: $28.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $83Yes, I believe so.. other sellers who buy a lot on ebay and savvy eBay buyers know that if you choose Item Not as Described, the shipping falls back onto the seller. I think it is easy to abuse this option, personally. You can try to call eBay maybe you will get an understanding rep, as you had measurements in the listing, etc. but that is going to be a hard battle… unless you have a picture of a measuring tape next to your item showing the measurements and that they match what is in your listing…
Hi Sonia,
This is great. Thanks a lot for taking the time to post this link… lo and behold… I have a pair of beautiful Hanover vintage wingtip “Combination Lasts” that I can now list with more finesse now thanks to you! 🙂My numbers for February 26-March 4, 2017:
Total Items in Store: 810
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $41.81
Total Sales: $349.90
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Coogi Button Down Men’s Shirt) & $55.97 (Vintage 80’s Esprit Book Bag)
Average Price Sold: $19.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $96.29This week was better than the last two – I made an effort to forgo the free shipping on new first class listings and instead charge a simple $3.75 for light weight items. This didn’t seem to stop any sales from coming in. I also complained earlier about the low ball best offers dragging me down. So this week, I took off all best offers across the board and set up daily 24 hour sales in different categories for different amounts. It worked great! It did spark some sales and it was refreshing to have some better items go for 25% – 30% off instead of a 50% off best offer!
Hope everyone had a good sales week!
My first impression was not blowing a bubble… but smoking under a full moon… That is an interesting picture because you really need to keep looking and cannot exactly figure out what she is doing or holding.
My numbers for February 19-25, 2017:
Total Items in Store: 794
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $21.49
Total Sales: $216.06
Total Profit: $115.58
Highest Price Sold: $26.36 (NWT Men’s Purple Sweater)
Average Price Sold: $13.50
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $130.27A lot of low dollar sales again this week – many clothing items. I was taking many low offers on first class items with free shipping because I was hungry for sales. (Really kills the profit margins – when you take a 50% offer on a t shirt with free shipping!!! I’m looking at my numbers and getting down on myself because $4.36 profit after fees on a shirt, well, that is terrible!) But I’m taking it as a learning experience. This coming week, I will be taking best offer off of most items under $36.95, moving completely away from free shipping, and focusing on listing higher dollar items. For some reason, my shoe sales are way down, not sure if anyone else has noticed this trend this month…
Hey Rick,
Wow, Your story is very inspiring!!! I am so glad you shared it with us. This really motivates me like crazy to set higher listing goals. It is all a numbers game…
Take care,
SharonYes, I know what you mean regarding the GWO… As I explained to a friend after the first time, “Half of me felt repulsion and the other half fascination…” But now I am hooked and make the hour trip once or twice a month. The sourcing is crazy cheap and I have found amazing vintage items that I pay less than $1.00 for and can sell for $30, $40, and even $50-$100+ when I am lucky. There are some strange characters there for sure and I try to go without my kids and I stay away from the masses of people attacking. (What exactly are they fighting for? I don’t think they could even tell you.) There is also a good thrift store across the street, (Valley Thrift) that is fun to walk through so I make an afternoon of it. Take care!
Hi Deb,
I’m Sharon, I am also from Ohio, about an hour South of you out in the country – so nice to “meet” you! My eBay user name/store is ‘4knowledgeandwisdom’. We have similar size stores… I am a stay at home mom of 4 and use eBay to maintain my sanity and make money from home without the necessity of having to pay daycare costs. It’s hard to truly do this “full time” without constant interruptions, so I work my kids into the flow of the day and do the best I can, whenever I can! Ebay has helped us tremendously with the added income, and it is the best job I have ever had! I love it. Have you been to our ‘local’ Goodwill Outlet in Kettering? It is worth the trip.. and quite an experience 🙂February 12-18, 2017
Total Items in Store: 750
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $7.04
Total Sales: $135.97
Total Profit: $108.63
Highest Price Sold: $48.47 (Vintage Portrait)
Average Price Sold: $12.36
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $26This has been an embarrassingly dismal week … definitely my lowest $ sales in a long long time. I removed best offer from most of my items – which I am sure did not help… I also ran a lot of auctions to get some older cheaper stuff moving – so I sold a few items for rock bottom prices. It just re-iterates what we all have said for so long.. auctions really don’t bring a lot of profit for the type of business model that most of us are using. And “Best Offer” does help stuff move – even on the low cost stuff. People just really want to feel like they are getting “a good deal”!
