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You bet Jay. Here is the long version.
With 5,000 items even at 15 min. per item “pre-boxing up” that is tons of work up-front and you have no idea how many of those 5,000 will sell. I know that some would say, will if you pre-box you don’t have to do it later, but if items don’t sell and you purge your system yearly and you donate hundreds of junk items, then that was wasted time and supplies for nothing.
As you know we have been transitioning from 6 antique booths to our online efforts over the past year. We thought we would have over 2,000 items by now. Well we just made our last donation back to Goodwill and to date have donated back approx. 600 ++ items. Just think if we had pre-boxed all of those. Then we would also have had to unbox them to save the interior packaging.
Now to “inventory space”. A cubic inch may not seem like much but think of this. So for every item we have, just for giggles, if we put 1″ of dead space all around for protection and let’s say we take an average box size of approx. of 8x8x8 “box size” for each of our items, we will have used up about 384 cubic inches per box. Take this negative dead space used to protect our glass, crystal, ceramic, pottery, china items which 80% of our inventory is, then multiply this times 825 items and we would have consumed approx. 316,800 cubic inches or 183 “cubic” feet of space. Enough to stack 183 one foot square boxes. That is sveral shelves worth of “precious space” not to mention all of the pre-used up supplies to pad-protect and tape up those 183 boxes.
In your case, that would be about 1,000 +/- extra cubic square feet. Think how much room in your new storage unit 1,000 extra boxes would take up?
Just sometimes things may seem simple but when you project it out, it may not be a “best practice”, so why start down that road in the first place.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Thanks for that post and Link “Attic Thread”. At one time I had a whole bunch of templates I had used by copying and pasting from another source. After Ebay made the annoucement we spent months, slowly changing out those templates to just plain text. Also minimizing the length of copy and content after reading about “short” descriptions here on SL.
For fun we ran your link and the app and it displayed 38 listings we had missed. It was a great help and within about an hour we got all of those remining listings cleaned up. A pretty nifty tool. We used the “filtered” tab to create the corrected HTML Code, and all we had to do was cut and paste that back into the listing and Viola’ we were done.
Just to be sure we ran the checker 2 more times and we seem to be all clean now for when Ebay discontinues listings with active content.
Interestingly, Ebay not only sees embedded video’s as active, but if you have anything you have ever copied from another web site or anywhere else and there is a back link in the code somewhere Ebay is going to call that active copy also. This tool picks all of that up. I think that is where these 38 came from. Just little small links embedded where we may have copied a line or two from Wikipedia, another web reference from an old Google search or an old canceled Ebay listing or something like that. But seems we are squeaky clean now and good to go. This tool did a good job of finding those and helped clean them up fast.
I suggest everyone follow his link, put in your store name/ID and then click to run a scan on your store. It took about a minute for our 811 listings. Of course longer with more. Then it highlights your listings in yellow that will need to be cleaned up in the next few weeks. Then if you have some [and I bet many of you do], then you can easily follow the direction and get the corrected code and just insert the correct code. Good luck.
Good job on that find by the way.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
Here’s a thought. I did something similiar only not as labor intensive. I saw a newbie question not long ago on How to ship a hat. Talk about a topic that has had hundreds of answer’s and many are pretty much the same answer. I suggested to use the “Search” box on the “Home Page”. This is a GREAT FEATURE and one of the reasons J&R went to the Forum Format. Just type in how to ship hats and Bingo! tons of answers. Sort of like our own ScavengerLife mini Google within the Forums.
By doing this we can cut down on the SL use of bandwidth, save J&R some costs 🙂 and also save the seasoned members some time retyping the same old answers to those very frequent questions.
Guess it relates to the old adage.. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time”!! So use the Search Function-Field first and see what you get. I use it a lot when I don’t remember what everyone here has said BUT I KNOW it has been discussed before.
Just a thought….
mike at mdc galleries in Atlanta
05/01/2017 at 3:36 pm in reply to: Unpaid Auction Item, Buyer offering to pay listing fees. Do I accept? #17312Ditto all the above. As a “newbie” you will eventually see “unpaid” items or requests for delayed payment and the such. Part of maturing in this business. As soon as you take something “from” a buyer you will become obligated in some form in their eyes. Keep quite, you have better things to do, they bought from you and they are renegging on the deal.
After 48 hours I always open an unpaid item case. They renegged and this way Ebay gets to know about it. They do that a bunch and Ebay will handle it.Welcome aboard this “ScavengerLife” train and hope you have a great and prosperous journey. We are a bunch who will, try to help you when we have the spare time to chime in.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
05/01/2017 at 3:30 pm in reply to: Ebay Shipping Information, Statistics and New Freight Program #17311This is true. I even include a quick blurb and link when I counter offer informing the potential buyer who is making the offer that it isn’t standard Ebay protocol. There are a few other posts if searched about this topic also.
05/01/2017 at 1:12 pm in reply to: Ebay Shipping Information, Statistics and New Freight Program #17293To overcome the Sales events from dimishing the shipping costs, I would think just take the 16 oz. 1st class “OVER THE COUNTER” rate [do not use your TRS discount rate] and bump that up by say 15%, to accommodate for a 5% to 15% SALE EVENT and add that amount to your “Selling Price”. Our Sales are running almost all the time so that would bring the amount the customer pays back down to about the regular 16 oz. OTC Rate and that should take care of it.
So, First Class Commercial Package Weight is 15.999 ozs. at $4.30 walk in ove the counter rate x 1.15% = $4.95. So just add $5.00 to every item under 16 ozs. and you are good to go.
Then if you are feeling real generous, then just use your discounted TRS rate and bump 15% and add to your selling prices on all 16 oz. and under items.
Our situation is opposite of yours. Out of approx. 800 listings only 90 or so are under 16 ozs.
Seems fairly simple if Offering Free Shipping is the way one wants to go.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
04/29/2017 at 11:24 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 307: Getting Ready to Sell While Traveling #17241First I typed into my Google search box .. “What is Ebay’s Customer Service Number” and it brought back a doazen replies of which all of the top one’s show a number. Unsure if it is still an active one or not.
Secondly, make sure you are signed in and click on the “My Ebay” tab. This takes you to your Account DashBoard”. Then click on Seller Center from the left side bar selection short cuts, scroll to the bottom and on the very last line, in small text [of course] on the far right says Help & Contact Us.
Thirdly, if this link works, this link will take you directly to the Seller Center and again scroll down to the last line, far right.
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/index.html
When you click at the bottom on Help & Contact, it takes you to the Ask Us Contact page and scroll down and there is the Contact us “tab”. Click on this and at this point Ebay makes you give a reason for your call, select best you can and ususally they will give you a one time code to use to call them.
Others here may have a direct number or maybe those Google result numbers are still active. And surely Ryanne can give you a number but R&J are Anchor Store owners and have a special number just for them and that may not be available to you.
So, this should give you several choices and good luck.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
04/27/2017 at 10:54 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Tapes, patches, Ferragamos, six packs, desk blotter, sewing box #17217Thanks for the Reply Steven. Started to do some research earlier today. You are right, not a much out there on these old JVC units. It may be just easier to try to sell a few of the components and move along. We still have hundreds of items remaining from the antique mall booths we closed down and should concentrate on those. So, appreciate the feedback and will think about it. That whole unit has been sitting in our spare bedroom for 10 years, maybe break it up into small units so I can just ship the pcs. But, I will still think some and talk with wife about the whole unit, but she said earlier about having someone come over to and into our home to demo it.
Hhhmmm.. will look up as many component prices and see what the total is.
Thanks again… mike
04/27/2017 at 4:31 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 307: Getting Ready to Sell While Traveling #17210Man this is errie: This is the exact process we use, even the small paper tag that we hand write and attache to each item. We log in each new purchase and create the SKU nmber and fill in on a basic grid view the title, price paid, date paid, scale weight and my est. box size and save as a draft. Then after photo., we open the draft by matching the sku number to the item and complete the listing and save to bulk upload. Then when finished with about a doz. or so we bulk-batch upload.
One thing we discovered that we think will save us some time as you mentioned you are looking for. One is we use a 35mm DSLR camera and know how to use it due to all the photography courses I had in Art School. So I use the manual setting and can use one finger and change the apperature, shutter speed and sensitivity of the shot in a split second. We don’t shoot on a pre-programmed setting or an automatic setting like most cell phone cameras are. We shoot each product just as a wedding photographer shoots, adjusting each shot as we see it through the lens. So photos are shot at the photo table in such a way we don’t have to edit anything. The next step in speeding us up is going to be a Wireless ScanDisk card so as we shoot what we think is an acceptable photo right on the product table those photos are sent wirelessly to the folder we create to hold each months shot. That is going to be a real time saver right there because there is no downloading of photos and they are ready to attach to the draft we created weeks earlier when we first bought the item and brought it home. But our process is almost word for word as yours.
Then the sku number we used on the tags [BTW our tags are pre-printed as is the unique SKU number. We have a secret code utilized in our skus that contains the item number, date purchased, price we paid and where it is located in the storage bins we finally will store it in] is the number that is used to track our item all the way through our process right on out into the garage storage bins.
But reading your post really caught my eye.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
04/27/2017 at 3:28 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Tapes, patches, Ferragamos, six packs, desk blotter, sewing box #17201Thanks for the reply. I still have the original manuals here on my desk from a year ago when I posted to you last year. It is not in the quality range of a MacIntosh or Marantz so depending on your advice it may not even be worth the time but here is the manual specs.
Everything is Compu Linked and all components work via a remote control which I still have. I also have the original tower glass front stand with adjustable shelving and magnetic door latch. Everything is all JVC in black, which being JVC brand may kill it right there. But for giggles,
the Amp is AX-R441BK, auto-return turntable AL-A110BK with clear dust cover, 6 disc cartridge compact disc automatic chnager [have 2 cartdriges for quick change out] XL-M400BK, Double Stereo Cassette Deck TD-W111, Computer Controlled Digital Synthesir Tuner FX-333BK,Component rack RK-333WD [glass front], Speaker System SP=333, [whew!!].
And I have all 7 original manuals for all of the components. I even think I may have the original invoice somewhere back in my files or I can ask my wife maybe she will remember. She gave it to me as my 40th birthday present in 1988. Yep I am that old :-).The speakers are monsters at about 13″ x 15″ x 36″ high and when placed on each side of the components rack the total overall is 50″ wide x 13″ deep x 36″ high.!! I am just guessing the weight at this stage at 50 to 60 lbs. +/-
So, interested in what you think. I am guessing due to size and weight, skip the cabinet and try to sell each piece separately then try to sell the speakers as a pair. Boxing and shipping is no problem for me. Ran an 18 million dollar company with 287 employees and we had 6 loading docks and can skid, pallitize, stretch wrap and handle a fork lift as good as any of my employees could 🙂 Of course no such facilities or equipment now, but not afraid to strap down to a pallet and ship common carrier with a bill of lading. I just don’t think this brand / model untit would command enough to make all of that worthwhile. So break down into smaller units is my guess unless you think there is some value in having it all as a matched set especially since they all can be hard wired together and linked and operated with a remote control.
Await your thoughts buddy … as the famous line goes in the movie, “let’s see what the Great and Powerful Steven, huh Oz” has to say. LOL. 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
04/27/2017 at 10:15 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Tapes, patches, Ferragamos, six packs, desk blotter, sewing box #17179Steven.. Got couple of questions for you. We are finally getting around to taking a closer look at a large stereo system I got for my birthday back in the late seventies. It was the one I asked you about sometime last year, but we just left it for the time being. But we are thinking about listing it as local pick-up as a complete unit. Amp, receiver, equalizer, radio, dual cassette deck [record and play] turntable and both large speakers. Only thing we can find wrong at first glance is that maybe the needle is shot. Haven’t checked the drive belt yet, but will. But we did notice when we pulled the soft covers off the front of the large speakers that one of the large speakers [each cabinet has 4 speakers each] had a dimple / dent in the silver center dome of the large bass-woofer. Is there any way to get that dent out of that center area? We discovered that our daughter poked her finger in through the front when she was under 10 years old she said. She is 38 yrs old now. I asked her the other day and she admitted to doing it way back then.
If we can’t get it pulled out then does it kill the value of the speaker and guess we list it as damage and show a close up?
Second question: I have noticed over the last sevral videos of yours at your new house that when I see your back yard, I see a steep downward slope of the concrete area from the garage to the back patio. Also I see a curtain drain running along the edge of the patio. Aren’t you afraid that if you get a real “Gully Womper” [southern slang LOL] down pour that the run off will be too much for that [probably4″ drain] underground, rush up and over it and flood into your house through those sliding doors?
We have had some real downpours here in North Atlanta and the runoff through our back yard can create a small mini lake 4 to 6 inches deep until he rain slows and allows the run off to catch up.It is funny that my cats sit on my desk when I am listing and they watch my cursor move around a lot. When they see you dogs, they will raise up on their hind feet and put there paws on the screen and try to “pet” the dogs. Funny.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Just got a message from her saying she wanted to use it for baking but afraid the crack will make that impossible. so, based on what you guys have said, I guess the best thing is to just let her keep it and issue her a full refund for the plate and original shipping through PayPal. No use having her go to the Resolution Center, open a claim, enter a reason, and then have both a ding on us and also have to pay for return shipping. Correct??
Thanks,
MikeThanks for the reply guys .. appreciate it. we’ll see what she says.
mike at mdc galleries in atlantaThat’s what we thought. What percentage do you and Ryanne use. 25%, 50% ??? on the refund? We have only had 3 returns, 4 broken-damaged items and zero negative feed backs in our 15 years of selling online.
Yes to eCommerce statement. When we go on vacation and change our handling time to extra days we always send an email to remind the buyers that it will be two weeks [or whatever] before we are back and will ship. It is shortly after this that we get several requests to cancel due to assorted reasons and we do just as eCommerce says. Go to the Resolution Center and choose to Cancel an order and put the reason as Customer Requests. BUT MAKE SURE you create a reminder that at the 5 day mark you go back to the Resolution Center and close it out. That way you avoid any defect / ding on your account. Ryanne uses this method also. Jay has said that they get several requests to cancel orders sometimes when they are away on their long travel trips.
And for “Unpaid Item Cases” we have signed up for the “Unpaid Item Assistant” and have it set for 4 days. The UIA opens a case for us after 4 days, sends the buyer an email to pay up or else and then closes the case automatically. We personally send the buyer a pay up polite email after 2nd day and again on the 3rd day. After that the Automatic Unpaid Item Assistant takes over.
But with the personal buyer requests you have to do this manually. Really very easy.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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