Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Hey theMezz: Yes there is a lot of articles to Google but most do repeat themselves. Here is a link to data that explains very simply. The comparison chart in the middle is short and simple. BUT it has the same flaw as all of the other information we have found through the years. There seems to be no difinitive test, and all the tests recommended, seems to have to be done before the pieces are glazed or fired. But I do have a test I run in the field and it has helped us the most.
First here is the link to an Ebay article that is pretty good. Also Wiki has very good information on the Caolin clay, where it comes from, it’sa properties and why it is a better material for fine pieces.
We carry a fanny pack with us when we go out to procure inventory, sales, auctions, thrifts, etc. In it besides our cash, sales cert., we also carry a magnet, tape measure and a small LED flashlight. When you find a piece of Ceramic [All Porcelain is ceramic by the way in it’s loose generic material category, but all ceramic pottery is not Porcelain] turn on the flash light and shine it up into the hole, usually found in the bottom of all figurine type of pieces. If it lights up like a light bulb, we usually say it classifies as porcelain and meets the criteria that “Porcelain is thin and transparent to some degree”. If when shining the light up and into, or on the side and through a piece and it doesn’t “glow” or you see light pass through it, we usually go with the thought that it is the rough, coarser, thicker type of white clay and is thus “Non-Porcelain”. Other than that it is tough to find a test that doesn’t require a waterproof test of the piece before it gets fired.
By the way when we list ceramic items that we think is Porcelain, in the item specific area for “Materials”: we usually use both terms and list it like this. Porcelain / Ceramic. That way no one can argue with us. We have been challenged twice by a someone via email that our item was not a Porcelain piece so we started using the term ceramic after it and have never had a challenge since. In other words only an expert could possibly tell the difference. Is there a chemical test for Kaiolin Clay?? don’t know, but who cares..not us.
Hope this helps somewhat..
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries & Fine Art in AtlantaI too do not get all responses to various Forum topics. I have to go to each topic and subscribe to each and everyone, only then will I get the replies to that specific topic thread.
So Linda and Amatino were right on it. Here are others from Worthpoint. Maybe the variance in price may have to do with the type of stones in it. Several are shown on this page. Like Linda said, different type of service pins for varying years of service and each was different. Maybe 3 diamonds would be like a 30 year service award pin and go for more money or also maybe the metal type and or gold content vs. bronze alloy or silver?? Just a guess.
https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=mcdonnell+douglas+logo+pin
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
I found 6 or 7 listed on Worthpoint. Highest one sold for $26.95 and the lesser for $10 and several in the middle for $14 to $19 +/-. So, unsure about that $125 number. But that does bring up a question I have been thinking about for several years when Jay mentioned way, way back about pricing high. The question is how high is high and if only using Ebay Solds then what if the solds were let go fro prices way below many that have sold much higher but there is just no quick accessible prices for them. Jay says he doesn’t care for prices a year old, but what if you find 30 items sold a year and a half ago for $45 and then nothing in the last 9 months have sold. Then I would use the $45 prices as what I will eventually get, then list them “higher” like 40-50% higher to allow for running Sales at 15% to 30-35% off and or taking offers at 30% off.
So “How high is Price High” if you know that one Sold for $29.95 in 2013 and then again one sold for $24.99 in June of 2017 [both listed in Ebay]?
Great topic Jay for a Pod Cast.. “How High is High” given known resources of varying price levels and ages?
In any case for what it’s worth…
Mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaAgree with above but also if you bought several items from a single seller, when you are maing selections in the future, put them into your “Shopping Cart”, then do a “Time to Check Out” and if they are like kind items, Ebay will do an automatic combo shipping anyway and present the seller with a total. They in turn combo pack and print out on label. But Ebay at times will get ‘wonkey” on this. Also another suggestion is to contact the seller, inform them that you would like several of there items, make a “bundled price offer” on them dircetly in the message and then remind them of combo shipping, and request an “Invoice” from them. That way it forces them if they accept, to combine shipping and look up the costs and also confirms everything in writing to you on the invoice.
Or follow the above suggestions.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries & Fine Art in AtlantaHi Sandra KC: I’ll try to answer a few of your questions.
After installing Wonder lister – How much if any of the process are you doing within eBay? MDC Galleries answer: ..I don’t do too much of anything within Ebay any longer. Way too much provided by WL. All orginization, inventory management, financials, photo management, everything from within WL. But I do look at my Ebay Dashboard each today but more to make sure it corresponds to WL rather than anything else. Also there is a lot of WL that I don’t use as of yet, more from just wanting to concentrate on getting over 1,000 listings in our store as opposed to working on expanding my knowledge of WL.
If I do not know how to do something in wl (learning curve stages) will I be able to go to the eBay hub and complete that particular task – and will the changes automatically sync in wl? MDC Galleries answer: No. When you start a listing, it all stays within the WL database until you click the tab “Submit to Ebay”. Until that time you are basically filling in a WL Database form or a template you have created for your specific type of category. You can open and close, leave and come back to your WL listing creation as many times as you want, [WL has a “work in process” folder, but until you “Upload your listing” to Ebay, Ebay does not know anything about what you are working on off line. But after you upload / submit your listing to Ebay, THEN it resides in both places. And if you make any changes, edits, alterations either within WL or Ebay they will constantly be in sync. [within a few minutes of course]. In order to increase performance WL does do stay in “constant” sync with Ebay. You have a “preference setting” and I have mine set to synch every few minutes, but you can choose whatever synch time you want.
How often do you create a backup of your data? MDC Galleries answer: WL has a “preference” tab and you set it to whatever you want. I do mine on a daily basis. It saves it to a local folder on my hard drive C:. Then also every day I have a Carbonite backup run. Those are my two places. You can also have an external hard drive as a third BU source. The footprint of a WL database is very small. especially as compared to SixBit which is 10 to 15 times as large. SixBit will kill you on space requirements. We have 874 items in our store and about 50 + specially created templates in WL, plus we also do an Archive of ended / sold listings in WL [every item we have sold in the last 3 years with complete total information about each sale] and the database is approx. 54 MB [zipped] which WL does automatically. They do a very good job of compiling, compacting and crunching the data]. We keep about 8 to 12 weeks of data backed up, but really no real need for that many and we will not do so as the Db grows. But 10 backups only uses approx. 540 MB. WL also has a manual Backup option and you can crunch the database and save it at your desire.
How big is the backup? (I currently have 1500 listings) MDC Galleries answer: So your database may be approx. twice what ours is, so about 1,000 MB +/-. We also use all 12 photos in all our listings. But WL has a great new process that they handle automatically. When you do your photos instead of keeping them on your own computer, you just create a Google Drive account, create a photo folder or folders and place all your photos there. Then when you go to attach photos within WL, just like you do within the Ebay app, WL accesses your Google drive account, populates the photos within WL for all the small thumbnails that WL keeps for you as well as automatically submits all the photos to Ebay when you click the submit button.
What type storage would It require to back up the data off the server? MDC Galleries answer. You don’t need a separate server unless you get ten’s of thousands of listings. Your own computer is your server. WL is a down loaded app onto your own rig. They do have a cloud based service but it is really for the Enterprise type of business and WL would have to provide you with a personal quote. But with up to 4 to 8 thousand listings you will never need it. This solution is for very big companies with large quantities of the same [new items] and many variations of colors, sizes. A big brick and mortar type of stores or chains. For us single item, vintage sellers, right on your own computer. Very easy.
in case my computer takes a dump? Would a usb terabyte hard drive be sufficient? MDC Galleries answer: Yes, at 54 MB I could keep many copies of my database on a USB thumb drive. Or as I sad, we also use Carbonite to back-up our whole computer everynight, so all of my files, including WL are there for immediate access and re-download if needed.
Is the Markdown manager and the promoted listings incorporated in WL? Or do you perform them outside of WL? MDC Galleries answer: We don’t use Promoted Listings as of yet, but will soon since Ebay is now allowing “silngle vintage type items” to be used within the “Promoted Items” arena. So can’t answer how WL will handle that.As far as creating Sales within our Ebay store, we have just recently started to offer “Store wide” percentage off Sales and we did those within Ebay because we already knew how to do it and wanted to get some up as an experiment, so unsure as of yet about WL. BUT I can certainly ask the tech team and find out. WL makes chnages as it is growing, and it is growing “fast” especially since “Turbo Lister” was dropped by Ebay. Many users seeking alternative “offline” listing and inventory management solutions. Also WL will be rolling out the Etsy interface this fall [if no delays pop up] and also they are currently working on the coding for interfacing with “Shopify”. So the WL is great about responding to their customers / users needs, wants and desires but the changes just take time.
Thanks for all the great info. After the Vegas conference I hope to have info I can contribute as well! MDC Galleries answers: I think that the CEO of WL, Chavi Rastogi, told me in one of his emails, that they were going to be at the Vegas show. Please, by all means if they are,try to attend and ask them all of these great questions plus more. Then post their answers after you get back.
Thanks for the interest and hope our replies helped..
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc. in Atlanta
MDC Galleries & Fine Art and SmartParts Equipment divs.Thanks everyone for the input. Everything is broken out into 8 pc lots. Now we have to do some quick polishing before photog. They are really tarnished, but a test showed that the salt, baking soda, hot water and vinegar liquid did a quick, great clean up of the two test pieces, so tomorrow comes a couple of gallons of “silver dip” and we should be good to go to photog. and then listing.
Appreciate all the suggestions.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Thanks Inglewood and So Cal Joe. SCJ funny you mention flatware. At this Estate Sale we also got a whole cabinet-box with 3 lift out trays of bronzeware flatware at approx 160 pcs. So we will follow your suggestion and break up into the various categories such as teaspoons forks, fruit spoons, knives, etc., etc. It comes in a nice wooden box and will also do as you did and list it separaetly.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Howdy:
I have a great answer for you. Go to this link… http://www.flippertools.com/
One of the SL members created a web site a good while back. He has several small apps built into this site. The Fit Shipper Calculator and the Fit Shipper for listing. Click on both of these and put in your dimensions and weight. His site will tell you which is the best way to ship your item, what is the best size box, which is the best carrier to use and what the cost is. You can either use the commercial rate which will be your Ebay discounted cost or not.
Keep this tool book marked and you will never have to ask your question again. If you don’t know where your item is going I usually use us zip code 67547 Kinsley, Kansas. That is the center of the United States and is equi-distant from all points north, south, east west.
My quick use of it says your wheel would go via FedEx at approx. $25 if you can get it into a customized [cut down or make your own box] of approx. 24″ x 24″ x 10″ ,+/-. But you experiment with it.
Good luck…
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Ok let’s try a different approach.
How about wine list and or menu covers. Hard covers with the center tie string is used to slip folded pages of a wine list or menu under so the customer can flip through the pages. But also allows the restaurant to be able to slide out single pages when they need to make changes. It saves on costs of making changes instead of having menues that are stapled at the spine, they need to make just a few changes, but have to throw out the whole menu because the pages don’t come out.Formerly being in the printing business pages are usually printed on both sides of a sheet, then trimmed, folded and collated together in sets. Then delivered to the customer. they in turn just grab a “set” of pre-collated pages and slide the stack under the center cord tie down. Printed pages are usually 11×17 then folded to 8 1/2″ x 11, or 17″x22″ and folded to 11×17 or printed 2 up on a sheet 24″x30″ then cut and folded at 12″x15″.
So that being said the hard menu covers would be about a half inch to an inch larger all around.
So, just a stab at it.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
06/28/2017 at 9:41 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19866I have a slide “viewer” also. Will be using it on 4 boxes of slides that I will be getting to after vacation. It holds a stack of 50 slides in a small stack on the right side. Press a button and it slides the bottom slide over under a magnified viewing area which is back lighted and you view it in the middle section screen. I plan to then photograph that image and hopefully use it. Press the button again and it pushes that slide over to the left and that viewed slide goes into the finished [viewed stack] and a new slide is pulled from the right side stack, then rinse and repeat for all 50 slides.
Tip. Make sure you use some dust off and blow all dust and lint out of the viewer and also use a wet wpe to clean all plastic or glass areas very well. Then it is best to also use a liquid slide cleaner [just wet a lint free wipe and rub between your thumb and finger to get both sides of the slide at the same time=I use my camera lens cleaner] and wipe each side of the slides for the best quality image.
I will see how this goes for us mid July.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Found a trunk emblem and they are flat on the back. But the later model trunk emblems sold in the $65 range also
mike at mdc in atl.
The square patch has a history in our databases of being sold at-around approx. $20 x 4 sales to a high of $34.99. So I would list it at around $48.95. That would leave room for a Sale of around 15% off plus another 15% for an even lower offer and you still wind up with the approx. $35 sold ones.
The round one, approx. $15.99 and would do the same as mentioned above. List at $22.50 to leave room for a sale and offer or a deep discount sale and / or offer.
As far as the 3-D emblem from what I can see in a few databases, I would venture to guess either a steering wheel logo emblem or some wheel center decoration emblems. A set of 4 emblems went for $60 but unsure if we are comparing apples for apples. But in any case, without knowing for sure, I would also bump that item up and allow for the above.
All of this though is just an “opinion”. And that my frined along with $.50 will get you half a cup of coffee. LOL 🙂
Hope this helps…
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries & Fine Art in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hey… I made an error on my comments. I didn’t get your later replies above “through my email”. I just came here to the forum and looked up your last comment. Sorry if you read my previous comment because it was incorrect.
My last email into outlook was yours sent this morning at 6:48 AM EST and one from “Beverly at Far Out and Fabulous at 10:57 AM EST. That’s been it all day.
Nothing else has been coming through into my email dashboard in Outlook but maybe due to the upcoming holiday no one is online or has anything to ask or say. But that would seem unusual for this bunch 🙂Sorry for the confusion…..
Later….mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
I got it!!
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
06/23/2017 at 8:00 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Cosco serving cart, Speakers, Wear Ever pans, Trav L Bar, Vintage fan, and Norman won't drop it. #19733Hey T-Satt:
I wanted to make sure I got you the correct answer and it has been so long since I made the transition from TurboLIster to WonderLister. I went straight to the tech team to get it straight from the engineer’s mouth.
Here is the answer:
#1 Does WL retrieve any and all scheduled listings that are previously set up in Ebay scheduler and have not gone active yet at the time of setting-up and start-up of WonderLister?
ANSWER:>> A Definitive Yes!
#2 Will WL also retrieve [pull in] all of the drafts that have already been created within Ebay or will all of those have to be re-created from scratch in WL once a new subscriber gets signed up?
ANSWER: >> Not sure as there is no API to retrieve just the draft listings, so, guessing that drafts will get retrieved as part of normal import of other listings.So on the second question you will have to see. Personally I had templates set-up in Turbo-Lister and WL did pull those in as “inactive” listings but that was years ago.
Since transferring over to WL it has streamlined and changed my work flow so much that you will find a new way of doing things rather than how you may have been doing them inside of Ebay anyway.Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc
MDC Galleries & Fine Art -
This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by
-
AuthorPosts