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Hi Christine, I think we are in the same boat with p/t ebay fitting into current lifestyle with kids – it really fills in the gaps, I can do it at night and in between taking care of everyone during the day and I certainly appreciate the income. You mention starting listings on the PC, I do the exact opposite of you – I will start all my listings as “drafts” on my iPhone in the ap. In fact, if I do a quick look up of similar solds inside the thrift store, I will always click “sell similar” while I am deciding to buy it or not.. boom… then my “draft” is already started if I decide to buy the item and I can just ignore it if I don’t. I try to click “sell similar” for everything I’ve looked up right in the store. It saves so much time. For the rest of the stuff.. I will look up comps and “sell similar” for the rest while I am picking up kids, or cooking, or whatever… Next I will snap up pics during the day whenever I can right into these drafts. Later, when I have a stretch of quiet time, usually at night or when someone is sleeping, I will sit down on my PC and can tweak pictures, alter titles and descriptions, and make sure shipping and other options are correct, etc. I could not imagine doing it the other way around – I have tried listing only on the ap, but it just takes so long, and does not have the features I require and it always messes up my shipping policies. Anyway, it is always interesting to read about how other people work their system. You are motivating me to try out Mercari – maybe someday next year – the thought of all the sharing on posh makes me cringe.
Yeah, T-Satt, I know you are right! 🙂 Sometimes it just feels good to commiserate!
My Store Week Dec 9-15, 2018
Total Items in Store: 1092
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $477.77 (1 International)
Cost of Items Sold: $58.18
Highest Price Sold: $62.36 (Pair of MBT Shoes on Bonanza)
ASP: $23.89
STR: 7.8%
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $44.75
Number of items listed this week: 7An OK week, nothing to brag about compared to last week… This week I had a low ASP with lots of very low offers and several unpaid items and some immediate cancellations after paying which is extremely annoying. How do you all handle people asking to cancel immediately after payment? With free returns, I think it makes sense to just accept their cancellation, be done with it, and move on.. BUT… every time I do this, I realize I am losing a “$.30” Paypal Transaction fee and letting them off of a UPI strike that they probably deserve. How do others handle your immediate cancellation requests? I am curious…
Hope everyone has a successful selling week!
I am way up over last year:
Oct 2017 -> $949.81 Oct 2018 -> $1362
Nov 2017 -> $865.62 Nov 2018 -> $1704.28
Dec 2017 -> $1066.36 Dec 2018 -> $952.49 (& 21 more days to go…)Selling mostly clothes and shoes and relying heavily on sales and promoted listings… (when I don’t use them, I don’t seem to sell anything.) The hard goods I have seem to sit all year long but start selling between November and New Years. Last year I had around 900 listings, this year 1100-ish. I have focused on amping up the quality of my goods, instead of buying “cheap stuff that is a really good bargain”… (or buying lots of stuff just because it is very inexpensive or free) I really am looking for New-With-Tag Items and better quality name brands. It has really made a difference especially this quarter. Everything “new” has been selling very quickly, I presume for gifts…
My Store Week Dec 2-8, 2018
Total Items in Store: 1098
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $863.23
Cost of Items Sold: $46.52
Highest Price Sold: $212.70 (Shooting Vest)
ASP: $46.52
STR: 8.2%
Returns: 0
International: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $10
Number of items listed this week: 6I reached a new high in sales this week and it felt great. 16 of my 21 sales were promoted listings… so the ~$54 I spent on the advertising paid off for me this week for sure… Also, the bummer of a $163 return from last week, sold within 24 hours of relisting for $212.70! “If it isn’t selling – then Raise The Price!” – 🙂
Can’t wait to listen… tomorrow…
One more story to share – the most interesting conversation “in the wild” was my UPS guy – he was delivering my “eBay Branded Shipping Supplies” and as he was handing me the boxes – said “Yeah – I use the same poly mailers – you must sell on eBay”… so we ended up talking and wow – he really blew me away.. as he told me all about his 5000 item store and how he sources at auctions for pallets of store returns (like Target). He has an amazing business – and has a storage warehouse full of inventory which is mostly NWT items from department stores. In addition to his full time delivery job (which is kept because of the benefits, mainly health insurance for his family) he does eBay and said he grosses $150k a year in sales, but it has taken 5 years of very hard work to get to this level. He comes home at night and immediately starts packing – his wife helps him photograph and list all day. So inspiring … I enjoy following his store – his business model is so different than mine – but it was really awesome to meet someone like this at random, literally in my own front yard and “talk shop” with!
I like to fly under the radar and usually have at least 2 small children with me trying to keep them under control and out of trouble. I don’t have time to talk – I want to get in and get out with the most profitable inventory I can find in the shortest amount of time and I am usually rushing to beat a school bus coming or going. Honestly, I don’t think I look like a scavenger because of my kids – I think I look more like I am doing “retail therapy” or buying stuff for my family. I do run into other scavengers that I will see who hit the same spots daily – and I feel almost an unspoken “competition” with them – as we are both picking the same over-shopped Goodwill and Salvation Army – the good stuff tends to go quick and there isn’t much of it.
Once, when I went to an eclectic downtown thrift and then drove across town to the Goodwill outlet – I was approached by a gentleman who came up to me at the bins and said, “Excuse Me… but weren’t you just at XYZ Thrift-Store?” When I said, “Yes… I was…” he smiled big and said, “Well… you’ve got a problem too I see…” (which felt sort of like he was flirting with me) but we proceeded to have a enjoyable 15 minute conversation about reselling on eBay. That was fun… but darn.. the school bus… I was across town and only had 30 minutes to do my thing, so I had to cut him off so I could get to work.
Liz – I have had to have “the talk” with my older children about this – no ratting mom out – especially at garage sales. They are not allowed to mention the “e” word. Period.
Hi Sonia,
I just love you guys – you know that? You all “get” it… I think that was me who posted about this annoying rounded label problem. Yeah.. I bought a crap load of these a while back on a promotion and I am now waiting to use them all up and perhaps look at a dymo sometime next year.. but in the meantime, I have been trying to use these up. The first few reams had paper in between the margins so all this was no problem – they printed out and fed in just fine and looked nice and were easy to peel.. but the rest of the reams have no extra strip of paper between the labels.. (if this makes sense?) so when you print out the 1/2 label.. the dotted line prints on the waxy portion… this smears a big ugly old line down the other side of the label (running it), messes up the print, and toner ink gets on the drum sometimes messing up the next print job as well.. terrible. I feed each label sheet individually – so I don’t have the feed issue that Mike is having.. but this other issue is annoying as can be.Here is my work around, which only works on the classic label shipping page and using Microsoft edge browser:
1. Switch to classic label shipping page
2. Click Print Label
3. When the print postage pop up opens, under “Margins” select “Narrow” (this will move the “dotted line” up just enough to avoid the waxy portion and eliminates this problem… for me at least..! Let me know if that helps on your end…ALSO, FYI, if you want to print out a Bonanza label on these… (since Mike mentions it)… I change the layout to LANDSCAPE, then select “Narrow” and then manually feed.. (label will print out on the LOWER label.. but it is clean, fits, and works, just a tip in case Mike is reading this!)
Can’t wait to listen to the podcast – I am sorry you guys had a lot of unpaid items – I hope some of those sales come through for you in the next week (or you sell the items for more if they have already closed.) One of my “big” sales from last week was a return – $163.. that sure was painful, for the smaller amount that I am making.
Here are my numbers:
My Store Week Nov 25-Dec 1, 2018
Total Items in Store: 1111
Items Sold: 18 (0 International)
Gross Sales: $530.43
Cost of Items Sold: $53.39
Highest Price Sold: $115.99 (Medela Breastpump)
ASP: $29.47
STR: 6.9%
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $19.08
Number of items listed this week: 4This is a great thread – I appreciate everyone’s ideas and input.
I HATE using a tape gun.. I actually like to use the disposable plastic red shipping tape dispensers – I load them up with eBay tape and am able to hold the box shut with one hand and use the other hand to tear off the exact amount of tape needed right on the box. It is simply the fastest and most precise way for me to pack. I will check out the metal 3″ tape dispensers though – I had no idea they existed.
For 2019 I really need to streamline my photography – possibly upgrading my camera/iPhone and getting some lighting and stations going in my basement. Right now trying to do it on my kitchen floor, but if it isn’t the right time during the early morning, the lighting is either too bright (washes out) or too dark (too shadowy) so need to set up something consistent and more professional.
One other thing I need for 2019 is a good mileage ap for my phone. I think I’m missing out on some mileage deductions. I try to keep a general estimate / written/log.. but I am not very consistent with it and forget some trips. All my scavenging and post office trips are tied into my daily errands. If anyone has a good recommendation for an ap they use – please advise.
And yes, scavenger life posting and reading takes a lot time, but I learn so much from this forum and being home all day with my kids – (not that much different than being a captive audience in front of your computer/desk 9-5) hopping on this board for eBay talk is a joyous diversion to my day. Yeah, like a virtual water-cooler – I consider it training for someday in the future when my kids are all in school – I can take the full time leap.
Hey Christine, check out what I got this summer at a garage sale for 50 cents.. it’s the golfing shell people, lol!! I thought this was so wacky I am just waiting for somebody to buy it…
Thanksgiving Thursday – 0
Black Friday – 2
Saturday – 4
Sunday – 3
Cyber Monday – 7
Giving Tuesday – 3A few of my sales:
I sold this cute little gargoyle figure for a best offer of $25, even though there were a few other identical listings for a lower dollar amount – this was a GSP sale:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153223627551Another great shoe sale, bought for $5 sold for $152:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153252711191I have had this $10 Jordache vintage coat for a while and have had many offers over the past years but wanted to hold out for a better profit, glad that it finally sold to a Canadian buyer:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153258555304And… speaking of fur coats, here is an update because I’ve talked about it before – I finally sold the old mink fur coat (last month). Upon taking it home and researching the matter and talking to some of you guys on SL, I realized it was far more damaged and dried out than anticipated and I just wanted it OUT of my space – so I sold it cheap… Oh well, at least I recouped the original $10 I spent on it, right? Another one for the “Never Do That Again” category…
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153218793176#viTabs_0
