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01/15/2017 at 2:49 pm in reply to: Ability to print Shipping Label and Packing List on one page #10337
Howdy: And just exactly how would this work for those that use separate, dedicated printers loaded with sheets of pressure sensitive labels, 2 up on a sheet, that just peel off and are used for the shipping labels? I believe many members here and most sellers [a generalization of course] use adhesive backed labels or a thermal type label printer.
OK.. Got ‘cha one idea per post and then other reply to that one idea.
I see you say bug fixing. Are you saying just list things that are currently “wrong” with Ebay that needs fixing or are the above “suggestions for improvements” OK? If OK I will just cut and paste and create 5 sperate posts. If those suggestions are off the mark and you only want fixes for things that don’t work right, let me know.
mc at MDC in Atl
Good idea: Let me start by restating some I have already seen posted on the old blog / new forum just to have in one place. No idea of how hard, easy or costly to Ebay any of it would be. Also some of these may already be available but I am just not aware of it.
#1) Have more tiers or levels of stores for Sellers between the 1,000 Item Premium Store and the 10,000 Anchor store. Maybe a 2,500 – 5,000 – 7,500 then comes the 10,000 item anchor store.
#2) Offer a larger selection of shipping supplies in the new Ebay Supply store that we can use our discount coupon on. Like, thick and thin bubble wrap, Nylon reinforced tape, news print paper, 20 lb. & 40-50 lb., rolls of brown kraft paper, peanuts, air-pillows just to mention a few.
#3) Instead of the coupon system, just offer a $200 or $400 discount to those who pay for their stores on a whole year basis. They already do this in a lessers degree, just skip all the rig-a-ma-row and give us it in the form of a store fee discount.
#4) Code the Bulk editor to allow us to click and highlight all active listing and edit all at once, like I can do in my WonderLister program , instead of restricting the bulk edit to doing only a few hundred at a time.
#5) Work out an all inclusive bulk “Export” feature whereby a seller can export all of his listings, including “Item Specifics” to any other platform out there.
#6) Offer an Instant live chat feature that is available immediately [no wait time] on any page or area you are currently in.Is this what you are thinking about Jay? If so then these should start us off. I am sure I can think of more as the day progresses.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Under the IRS classification of business entities we use the following number for our Sub-S Corporation, which comes from the following breakdown.
453310 ….
IRS Business Classification from IRS Publication found here:
https://www.irs.gov/irm/part1/irm_01-013-007.html#d0e630Retail Trade
> Miscellaneous Store Retailers
> 453310 – Used Merchandise Storesmike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Here ‘ya go. See if this link helps you out. About 100 + of them sold since 2004. Most of them seem to be the book version. Think the dates may be correct. Click on any of the pictures within the links site and you can read what each seller had as their description.
You can’t see prices without a description, but they seem to run between $1,100 down to about $30 to $50.
Hope this helps you a little.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hey Retro: I don’t know about your state [WV], but in some states he has committed a crime. I did a little research on this and a few states will allow you to call the police and make a report of “hate” words being spoken or shouted at you. A few states will make a case if it is verbally said to you, others only if written to you and a couple cover both forms. It has been recorded on the books along with “verbal Assault, especially with the use of the use of racial slurs. It seems to also be easier if it is written because then you have proof of the crime being committed and also it is traceable. He can be arrested and charged in some jurisditions.
I would call your local police, tell them your story and you have it in writing. Mentioned you are afraid this guy may look you up [and who knows he could] and see what they say. If you can do nothing more than get a written complaint form from your local police, THEN call Ebay, tell them your story and ask them whom you are to send the police report to at Ebay. See what they say. Bet you may get a reply. Also don’t forget that you can also make a copy of the police report and mail it to Ebay’s Corporate Headquarters to one of their Vice Presidents. I would bet you can get this guy banned for life off Ebay. Especially in today’s politically charged environment.
If it were me I would have already called the police.
But just my opinion.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hey Jay: Don’t over look the obvious that is in all of our listings. Both of your stores, mine and most others that use the No Hassle Returns and that is the use of the word “MAY” apply. The standard line of the Ebay wording for those who have the restocking fee checked off on their return policy says a “20% Restocking Fee MAY Apply”. That then leaves you the executive choice to apply it or not after you have gotten the return back, inspected it, had time to inspect the item [not rec’d back damaged or substituted], then you get to decide what you are going to withhold [apply] as a restocking fee at your discretion.
One way to also lower that is to not apply the whole 20% if you think it is too much on a higher priced item. Or to apply the whole 20% but reimburse the return shipping which may equal out to a 13%, 15%, or so forth restocking fee. So, may apply leaves you the options to actually make the restocking fee anything you want.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Sure thing.. and as I said I am not an Accountant, just trying to explain how our CPA has approached it and explained it to us. He asks for our year end inventory every year. Of course he has the year start from last years end. And he asks for our Annual Sales Totals. He has told us that he doesn’t want a long ledger or Log of each item bought or sold but tells us to just make sure that we “do” have such a log of all of our itemized purchases and expenses in our accounting program. I keep a cumulative spread sheet of numbered line items and log each purchase into it’s own line with it’s pertirnent corresponding data. It shows up in our year end P&L statement and also in the General Ledger.
* And yes, we do log and track each and every item separately, the spread sheet Easy Auction Tracker does this for us as well as does Wonderlister. Dbl. back up systems here. We capture the exact date, location and item cost for each and every item we buy. We also take a $5.00 box lot of 5 items and just distribute and allocate $1.00 cost to each of those five.
So using the first and last inventory, total amount purchased, total sales and all of our Chart of Accounts [COA] categorized expenses he seems to tell us that is what he needs to do our Corporate Taxes.
So, unsure if we didn’t understand him, our he didn’t explain it correctly but he has done the final year end for us since 2002.
The real thing I am interested in and it is not really COGS is my P&L statement I pull monthly. That really tells me my true story. It shows all categories of income and expenses and the gross profit for the month. Then it shows me in a third column to the right of each what percentage of the income each of those expenses represent. I really like these feature and Then it shows me at the bottom what my total net profit is and it’s percentage as related to total income. Love that also [when it is in the black]Yep and you are correct so I don’t disagree that inventory is an Asset. I think I mentioned that a couple of times above.
And I know we both agree on this, a CPA or Accounting Professional such as yourself is a great investment in growing and understanding ones business and a valuable asset to a business regardless of size. Trying to zig-zag through all of the complexities of the Tax Codes, especially if you are a corporation [such as us] or are going to hire “employees” by yourself is a daunting task.
So good to know your background and look forward to more “Tax” related data from you in the future. I knew we had some smart members on here. 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
It is a very simple formula for re-sellers and retailers. It is the method that our accountant [and us] use.
But first let me say you need a log system to record your purchases either manual [spread sheet or a simple bookkeeping system like Quicken for Business or GoDaddy Bookkeeping.] Quicken is about $89 a year for Home and Business PC version and GDB is about $10 mo. = $120 a year. BTW- Quicken can be set up to also track your personal accounts also, with internal Bill Pay, Budgeting and even has a simplified Business Reports section which includes a Business Profit and Loss section [which I think Jay says GDB does not.
I have always used Quickbooks Pro [a more robust real accounting system as Jay calls it, but that is because I have run 3 and 4 business of different types all at the same time before and need that kind of more powerful software]
Second let me say as does Jay and many others here, that if you are going to treat Ebay as a business as many of us do, then get yourself an accountant. An accountant does more than just fill out tax forms for you at the end of the year, they “advise” you on how to run your business, how to organize your paperwork, how to account for your expenditures, costs and deductions. You can call them any time of the year. In a sense they are your financial advisor. They will steer you right, guide you to success, keep you within the letter of the law AND show you how to do things much more simply and not have to do as much detailing as some “A” types force on them selves.Mark Tew is an accountant whom Jay has interviewed here on SL and he also does taxes for some of the members here on SL, but it is a side line more for him. You could try searching for him here on the forums or maybe ask Jay for contact info. Our find a local CPA, maybe even one who works out of his home close to you. Mine is only 2 miles up the road. Sometimes I have even just dropped by and sat down and asked him some questions, especially about inventory control, and certainly the COGS questions.
Now with that said:
The formula is this:
*** A retailer’s cost of goods sold is equal to the cost of its beginning inventory plus the cost of its purchases (the combination of these is the cost of goods available) minus the cost of its ending inventory.It has to be said that you have to have a total count from last year end of what your final Dec. 31st 2016 inventory was. We do a count every year, but this can be derived from our accounting system. That number also becomes your Jan. 1st 2017 starting inventory [which are classified as assets BTW]. Then you track all of your inventory purchases for the whole year, but let me say, you don’t have to have it item by item. If you buy 67 things at an auction on Wed., 26 things at 9 different yard sales then just make yourself hand written receipts for those 9 different address and a total, [personally I keep a Petty Cash Account within Quickbooks for all cash purchases], 3 purchases at one thirft store and you have all the receipt, then that’s all you need for “accounting” purposes. Then at the years end [Dec. 31st 2017] you add up all that is left in your inventory [year end inventory assets] and that will be what you will need for your year end calculations for 2017 COGS Sold.
So in the simplest of terms here is how it works.
*** Start the year with $11,200 of inventory [the amount you spent on the items in your storage on Dec 31st and starting Jan. 1st]
*** You buy $3,000 worth of “stuff” all year long [which you have receipts for and hopefully sort of tracked in a software program of manually in the old green ledger books].
*** At year end you add the year’s total purchases [new assets] to the Years starting Inventory number and we now have $14,200 of hard goods represented on our books [our 2017 assets]
*** BUT WAIT, Now we have to do our 2017 year end inventory count. And we see that all of the stuff left in our storage system comes to $9,000 worth that we spent on what’s left. This means we have “SOLD” some stuff [Assets through out the year]. This ending inventory number is subtracted from the two numbers that we added together above.So, the numbers come out like this… $11,200 [start invent. cost we paid] + $3,000 [new stuff we bought during the year] = $14,200 minus $9,000 [cost of what is left in storage at year end] = $5,200 in COGS [Cost of Goods Sold]. It doesn’t matter which items sold or for how much. Accounting wise, the amount of Inventory Sold [sold assets] cost you $5,200.
And thus we are back to the simple formula … The Year’s starting inventory “COST” + [plus] the years “PURCHASES” costs – [minus] the cost of the year end inventory count. That is it, three numbers.. Year start + years purchases – year end cost.
This question has been asked many times on the old blog and maybe now it will be searchable in the new forums.
BTW.. I am not an accountant and if I have this wrong. PLEASE correct me so we don’t let exist on the Forum as an incorrect statement. Mark or any other CPA Accountant types please chime in.
And Lastly: There are other ways to arrive at COGS sold, most which require more detailing but also will provide more data and information in return. Some people like to track COGS by the item. Each item with it’s own set of numbers, but that type of tracking can get tedious. Also Ebay and PayPal do provide many reports that can provide you with the same data. We also use WonderLister a robust listing program that I have always said was TurboLister on steroids, that provides tons of details on an individual item by item basis. Just sort, filter and print out any reports, any way you wish. But the simple formula above gets to your numbers fairly quickly.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hey.. That last character of the middle numbers maybe 29855 “D” width. I wear a wide shoe and have to find shoes with the letter “E” or “EE” on them.
Another thing is do as J&R do and others, in your item specific / description mention the words “outside sole dimen. edge to edge” and just put in the measurement. Then most people know to subtract the sewn shoe edge on each side which is usually about a 1/4″ on each side or even mention that in your listing [just to be doubly safe] about subtracting the 1/2″ total from your full width number.
Hope this helps and if I am wrong those more experienced will correct me and provide better information.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Think this is something like it.
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tuareg-african-saharan-leather-purse-536653891
[hope the photo link works]The very old ones [show lots of aged wear] that were sold from 2011 until now seem to run in the $200 to $300 range
the newer ones [less grungy wear with nicer, newer leather] seem to be falling $60-$90 range with lots of others conditions and prices in between.Database shows in the area of 200 +/- [with odd no matching items thrown in] from approx. 2006 until now.
Hope this helps, mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta sold from
Thanks but too late. Order was delivered yesterday. I will just end up having a good supply of supplies 🙂 LOL. mike
Wanted to do a follow up about the coupon that will disappear if you leave your shopping cart then come back to it. The Ebay rep said that is how it is working, but they have had some complaints just like mine. She said that the problem has been moved upwards in their que for the technical team to address and see if they can get it fixed.
They are aware of the problem which is this: If you put items in your shopping cart, then think you are ready to check out. you go to your cart and paste in your coupon code and review your order.. BUT [this is the flaw], you decide to click out of your cart for a minute to go check another item or to continue shopping becauswe you may want to add one more item to your order, when you pull out and come back to your cart, your coupon has disappered from the “Apply Coupon-Enter Coupon Code Here” box. If you don’t notice it and proceed to checkout, then your coupon is not applied to that order. She did say that your coupon is still good for another order but couldn’t be retro applied to the order that was just placed.
So I said back to her, then what you are saying is to do all of your shopping before hand, put things in your cart you want to buy, then go to your cart and put your coupon code in, BUT ONCE YOU DO THAT then you need to proceed to checkout, without any continue shopping or backing out to add anything else, and that is the only way your coupon will be applied. She said YES. So be aware, shop, go to cart, apply coupon and then straight to checkout and make sure your coupon is still in place. If not she said to past it again by using “Control-V” [on a PC] while you are right there in the cart area.
I asked if they knew how long before Tech fixed it and she didn’t know. So just be aware guys.
My coupon is still good, but to redeem it I have to make a second order but still have to pay the $55 for the first order.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Question AK:.
We use the Evaluator mentioned above. It shows us everything that you spell out. Except we also have to use other methods when we buy things that may not have been listed and or sold on Ebay for a very long time.But our question is, with a Premium level store whereby we get 1,000 listings, and we have about 680 items currently listed. Any reason to dump so many lower priced items all at once?
Out of the 688 items we have listed 350 are all priced over $25 each. Then we have 283 items between $12.50 and $24.99. Then the balance of approx. 117 items are all under $12.00.
So until we need the space and get about another 250 items listed, pushing us close to the 1,000 mark, isn’t it quicker for now just to leave those several hundred items in the store because we don’t need the room and maybe some will sell and help us out somewhat until we are ready maybe mid summer to do a purge?
Our current unit price avg. at this point of our inventory is $8 to $9 per item and we try to list for approx. 6.7 to 7 times and even more often 10 times or higher when we feel they will sell and even higher still when we find out the actual sold prices from some of our databases.
So we have been on the path you suggest for the last year or so, but don’t totally understand why the urgency to dump everything under the minimum threshold all at once?
But thanks for validating the direction and process we have been moving. We too came to this conclusion by piecing together some of Jay’s comments over the past months.
Thanks for any reply
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hey EC411: Your first paragraph is interesting. I do keep all my photos on my office hard drive [with a cloud based and also a separate external HD as back ups of course]. When we photograph our items and transfer them to our HD I always highlight each item and assign the inventory number to them and a keyword ricj title of 4 or 5 words. This was more for our internal use just to make scanning, looking and or finding images of items easier internally.
BUT if I read you correctly, then it would be a good SEO tactic to also include one shot in our description area which already contains keywords and it would be easily accessible for the Google spiders and bots to crawl, thus in about 60-90 days those items would start showing up on Google searches by themselves? If so that sure would be a help and no trouble at all to grab one photograph which is already titled and drop into that area, especially since we use an offline bulk listing tool. Also following the same “school” of thought, how about also including our company logo and business name as a extra photograph at the bottom of our listing?
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by
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