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So I was correct. If at this exact moment I would like to receive all posts I have to subscribe to 320 posts and that will climb every day as any new topics are added. Could be 3, 4, 8 or 10 +/- New Topics added per day, each of which would have to be subscribed to. Which would be approx. 120 to 300 topics a month or over 3,000 topics per year that would have to be clicked and subscribed too.
Thanks, that clears it up. mike in atl.Hey Jay… Can I bother you for a little more clarification? If you recall I mentioned back when you first chnaged to the forum format that I didn’t think I was getting all of the posts. So I followed your directions at that time, but discovered a couple of things. One it seems at times there is a very long delay in getting the posts into my MS Office Outlook program, which may be an “Outlook” issue, but sometimes it can be a day or so before a posts comes in and at other times it is within a minute or two of the posting.
Next I still don’t get all the posts all the time, unless I go to that “exact” thread and “subscribe to it”. So maybe I am just missing the exact protocol here. If I understood that there are 16 “Forums” you call them. I go to each of those and “Subscribe”, which I have done. That then allowed me to receive notices of “New topics” posted there, but I discovered then I would have to click to that new “topic” and “Subscribe” to that thread. I discovered that some of the posts I missed was because I did not “subscribe” to that “exact thread”. When I did so, then I started receieving all of the posts from that thread. But if I missed a “new topic”, then I do not get any new posts under that topic “until I go there and subscribe to that new topic”. So if I am correct then these is the process to get each and every post.
Go to 16 “Forums” and “Subscribe”. Then go to each of those “Forums” and click on each “topic and Subscribe”. which there are 320 “topics” currently, and that will give me all of the posts. Now I have to watch each time I receive a”New topic Notification” and go to that new Topic and Subscribe. That is how I have been getting most of the posts. But if I miss a New Topic and don’t subscribe, I don’t receive posts from it until I do go and subscribe. Then when I do, it is not retro-active. I only get the new posts from the time I subscribe forward. Any posts prior to my subscribing are not forwarded or picked up in MS Outlook.
So for clarity.. Are you saying all we should have to do is “Subscribe” to the 16 Major “Forums” or am I correct that then we we see a “New Topic” we also then have to go to and subscribe to that specific “Topic” which is 320 at the current time?
Does being signed in or out of SL have anything to do with the forwarding of the most current posts? Maybe the best strategy would be to only follow SL online in real time on my browser but that would mean having to keep a tab open on SL all day long.
Don’t mean to be a brick head here, just want to stay current on all the SL goings on. I am retired and sit at my computer, literally 10-12 hours a day.
Thanks for any clarification or help you can shed… mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Hey Jay & Ryanne: I was just reading a few of the posts and something came to mind. Is there a way to have each post date and time stamped or just date stamped? I am thinking about phrases like “last Monday” I bought, or the “weather is perfect now for”, or “these are hot right now buy them if you can find them” and these as some point in the future could be two years old. Or something like the postal rates…, and things like that. I saw a comment a minute ago and then asked myself, well how long ago was that, when it popped into my mind what about when the “NEW” Forum gets some age on it, like months, or years and references to events, activities, call to actions and things like that have no point of reference with regards to dates. Or am I missing something and that is already in place?
Thought I would just flip that up on the table. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Good morning:
just checked.. all Zero’s all the way down and 100%. Been that way for as many years as I can remeber back to about 2002 I think. Never been late, only 2 returns in over 10 years, only 3 items ever broken since 2002 and 581 all positive feed backs over the 14 year period. So nothing to complain about here. mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaI have shipped smaller tables and chairs before. In some cases I unscrew the legs and back. Bubble wrap them and also stretch wrap them separately, then again stretch wrap them together as a “soild” one piece bundle. I then “build” my own box out of larger pieces of card board I have stashed. I tape that all together, and it will be pieced together and look like a patch job. But then to smooth it out and make it look professional and presentable, I then use my ” 8 mil. black construction plastic-12′ wide x 100 ‘ long”, cut a piece and wrap the “cocooned” & card boarded up piece like a Christmas present, label and ship. FedEx will take a chair and small tables. No need for a pallet or freight on those.
A large table, disassemble the legs, bubble wrap cocoon the legs and stow away into the negative vcavity of the table. Tape them onto the bottom in other words. Then get several of the $6.00 furiture blankets from Home Depot or U-haul and wrap the tabel up in the pads and tape all the seams. Then stretch wrap the “bejesus” out of it. :-). Now go get a matress box from your local matress store [maybe two depending on the size of the table. Splice the boxes together and tape all the seams. Now, again wrap it in the heavy black construction plastic, seal all the seams. It be extra careful, use two layers of the plastic [only $34 for the huge roll of construction plastic]. Label and you are ready to ship. The freight carrier will pick it up just like that and still no pallet is needed.
I only use the pallets for items that clock in at the 75 to 100 pound mark. Like the art sculpture and arcade machines. One thing we will need to check out on this Ebay program and that is the fact that we are not “dock high”. Usually freight companies are “Teamsters Union” and in my experience they are only drivers, not loaders and unloaders. They pull up and lot’s of time sit and wait for you to load, either using a pallet jack or fork lift. Unsure how the Ebay / FedEx and the Pyle freight lines are going to handle that. But no way wife and I could lift a 100 lb. arcade machine. But if Ebay specifies a “lift gate” truck, that helps, but we will still have to probably get the heavy pallet from the garage door to the tail gate. Some drivers help because they want to get it done fast and get on the road. Tie is money and they get frustrated with a bunch of amateurs struggling with a load. But how many things are really going to be that heavy.
I could have stretched wrapped and plastic wrapped all of your plastic chairs you sold in groups of three or four and shipped them as multi pack units fairly easy. You don’t have to include multi pieces all in one bundle you know.
Had lots of experience with all this sort of stuff. We shipped country wide tons of stuff and millions of dollars to McDonalds, Sears, Michelin Tires, United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Delco Battery, and on and on.
Heaviest piece we ever brought in was a piece of equipment we had custom made in Spain. Had to arrange container shipment overseas, then onto a train at the port of call in Savannah, GA, then, flat bed tractor trailer from train yard to our plant, then special heavy duty “Big Tom” fork lift. It was 4 tons, 8,000 lbs. and each of the floor concrete squares of our plant creaked and rocked as the fork lift moved across them. Point of the story, there’s not much that can’t be packed, shipped and moved in some way. It is just a matter of what size and weight one wants to use as a cut-off in there store. Regular table, chairs, hutch, altar table, Ottoman no problem at all. Refrigerator, washer, dryer a little more but not to bad. TV and electronics, have to protect from “bounce” and “Vibration” as well as from dents, bangs and exterior scratches and handling. That reuires an “air cushions-Floating” approach.
Just tid-bits from my experience and is only a personal opinion guys. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
One thing my wife, Susan just threw into the mix. She quickly threw out on the table, with built in shipping cost based on our system of calculating, when we create a SALE of 20%-40% off that the quote “Free Shipping” gets discounted also since it is included. But I guess that applies to anyone using the “Free Shipping” method. I see Amazing Tastes has 1.543 items in her store and 1,261 are all on SALE and she has a Promo Running that is FREE SHIPPING for all “Orders” over $40. So I did a quick sort and saw that 82% of her store inventory is on Sale but she only has 46 individual items over $40 in her store which means that to get free shipping one would have to buy two or more items to get the FREE SHIPPING benefit. I guess all the items priced over the $40 mark get FREE SHIPPING on their own since then one item will fulfill the $40 criteria.
So, now let’s make an assumption here, If a $40 Sale warrants Free shipping, then if all of her items were all over $40 each, would she have them listed at FREE SHIPPING? Don’t know. Maybe she will chime in and clue us in. She uses a lot of good retail practices and maybe she would figure that at $40 I can afford to absorb the shipping costs on my items? Maybe that would be because many of her items are light, easy to pack and close to a known dollar amount of to ship? Hhmm… mike @ MDC Galleries
Well we both know that it is not free. No one believes that, I don’t even think the buyers do in most of the cases. Of course it is just a psychological game. Like the $9.95 pricing practice vs. the $10 number. But many studies have proven that the $9.99 or $9.95 increases sales. But again, another topic to discuss at another time. But Ebay has a bibliograohy at the bottom showing where it got these numbers from and the results of those survey’s indicate a 61% influence on the customers buying decision. Why reinvent the wheel, they already did the studies and I don’t think anyone here has the time or inclination to want do do a whole realm of studies, which would take a long time to gather all the data.
And you also mention “if my item and your item when searched”. I have some items that there are not others like it ever sold and or listed. That is why we have to use several other databases to even find past sales on some of our items. A good example will be when I start listing all of my own art work. No others like them. One of a kind. Yes other abstract artwork is available but they all look different.
Now reflecting on your words above.. “Offering free shipping is more of a psychological advantage with those buyers who just like the simplicity of it.” Seems you admit it is an “advantage” and in this market and “advantage is an advantage” and any “advantage seems to me to probably be worth giving it a shot, at least on certain items. Then you state “buyers who like the simplicity of it”. Well making things simple for 61% of the buyers who see this as a driving force in there decision making is “good thing to offer the customer”.
So, just talking out loud as I said. I do have and have had for years calculated shipping on almost everything. So I am only “pondering” here.
mike at MDC Galleries.
To your question if it is new or just now being promoted. Unsure, but if it is an option, I have no problem having a few small pallets leaning up in the storage area and if a large item sells,, then stretch wrap it in a plastic “cocoon” [method we even use for our small items], then create a make shift cardboard box around it or throw a small furniture pad over it [those only cost about $6 at a local supply house}, then strap it down. No big deal. Used to ship millions of dollars in freight from my old printing company. Now just run it through Ebay, call and ship, I guess. Haven’t checked the whole program out yet.
But if it is offered, why not. There are a lot of people who have more money than us or good sense out there buying stuff. I have a large drawing table with an attached parallel rule and also a tall, upholstered drafting chair. I would shrink wrap those, create a make shift box or strap to a pallet and ship in a heartbeat as well as offer local pick up.
I have even shipped large size sculptures, crated paintings and a good amount of arcade games [pinball machines] and even sit in shooting games. But I had to ship those freight lines with a local company. So, if Ebay is going to allow us to offer that as a service, get a good discount on it and all I have to do is stretch wrap, throw on a furniture pad and strap to a pallet and build that cost in to the Ebay process and the customer orders it, knowing full well what they are paying up front, then why not I guess.
I am getting old, and maybe not wanting to deal with large stuff anymore. That is one of the many reasons we closed the booths down was to get away from furniture, but I still have some and would love for Ebay to handle all the freight bill of ladings and transportation data with the customer and just leave it to me to prepare it for shipping.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Well just thinking out loud here while on 2nd cup of coffee.. but I starting thinking about those statistics Ebay just presented. 61% say that Free Shipping is a big driving force in deciding to buy. So that brings me to think about our shipping.
I have only missed my shipping weight twice in over a year and both of those times by less than a pound. In almost all cases I am just a slight amount over by using my system [which is a discussion for another time]. That means that the size and weight are not a hard core variable. So, now that leaves the distance variable. Next door to Alabama, Carolina, etc. vs. California, Oregon, Wyoming, etc. [500 miles vs. 3,000 miles].
Now think about the cost vs. sales amount. A large amount of our items are under 8 lbs. but over $30 dollars. Most of our items are bought for 10 to 20 times less than selling cost. Buy for $1 sell for $30, $40 etc. Most unique and most not found on Ebay solds, and many times not others even being offered. Open market. So with that kind of Mark-up for lack of a better phrase, Why not just include my cost for shipping to the furthest point, which with our 20% to 40% TRSplus discount status why not just include the freight amount in the price.
Example… A Vintage unique lamp I just packaged sold for $39.95 plus they paid $9.00 shipping. The actual priority shipping to me was $7.00. I was right on the money for the box size and weight. I estimated 8 ozs. higher than what it actually shipped at. [and I do this on almost 99% of what we ship]. So would that oil lamp have sold at $47.00 WITH FREE SHIPPING just as fast and easily as it did for $39.95.
Now who cares about feeling sorry for customers who pay more if they are closer to us than across the USA. It is only a few dollars anyway. If 61% decide to buy based on free shipping and we get up to almost a 40% discount on shipping, it is still a profit center for us, then why not just build in the shipping. AND even if I miss it a few bucks, so what, I got it for a dollar and am selling for $47. Still a fantastic margin. And on an annual basis we are still making a killing.
So, just doing some pondering on the cal shipping vs. free shipping thing, that’s all. mike at MDC Galleries
Ryanne .. give this a shot. Our databases say that the “R” with the vertical leaf stem is maybe A. Raynaud & Co., Limoges France.
http://www.worthpoint.com/marks/searchDetails?q=R+Limoges&categories=ceramics&page=
Of course Limoges, France is a city located in France and several fine porcelain makers were or are still located there. One being the A. Raynaud & Co. Also there is the “Royal Limoges” line and they make bone white dinnerware.
See if a little further research may zero you in a little more.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Little late catching up this week. Yes $1,500 is WAY OUT of line. I had a General Contracting business that I had to close down when 2008 hit. But at that time we remodeled whole houses, added second stories, extra rooms, etc., etc. My subs charged $15 per “board” and those were 4′ x 12′ not 4′ x 8′. Now that was “wholesale pricing for us because I did so much work with them. But the retail for a home owner direct was approx. $25 per board. Yes there is a minimum of 5 to 10 boards for small jobs but not $1,500. Now of course prices has gone up but even at $35 to $40 per board 10 boards should be about $350 to $400.. even at $50 per board [way too high], that is still only $500 not $1,500.
Good for you, just do it your self if you are physically able. But it usually takes at least 3 three man crew to hang boards fast. Two on stilts to move boards up into place and screw down and one on the ground to trim each board to size as needed as called out by the stilt man as he calls out the measurement needed for cut boards.
My guys could board a whole ranch house in one day and first coat of mud, then 24 hour dry, then second coat of mud then 24 hr dry then last coat with sanding in between. 3 days total start to end. So J&R,, maybe this helps you ride shotgun over you crews.
mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaI think you have found the general area. Here is a link that took me to something similiar that shows a fairly long list of items. Each is a blue link and if clicked will open into an expanded list showing items that shouldn’t be listed. Your list states offensive and I think this list is for everything they discourage. It is long, especially if you include opening all the links.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html
After reviewing some of these I certainly have sold some things they didn’t want me too and would guess so have many of the SL Members.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Sure does Jay. Remember that article I posted with the Ebay Engineer Employee at the Ebay Conference whereby he was stating that they designed the Cassini search engine to downplay what he called “stale listings”. Those that began to get over 90 days old and were not getting many views or sales. That they were looking for “newer” listings to focus on with a lot of activity. That meant ending listings after 3 or 4 months and then immediately re-listing them so they got a new ID no. and re-indexed.
Well now seems like you are correct. Messing with the listings can be detrimental. So, really drives home the “List It and Forget” phrase doesn’t it.
mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaGood Morning Eve:
And to add a few more tid-bits to your info. and your thinking about a final pricing number. My data bases show only 18 items by Michele Duchene sold on Ebay since 2009 and all those being scarves at 24″x24″ up to 36″ x 36″. Out of those 18 items, 8 of them were sold at over $400 each. The top four were between $500 to $687. The highest one being sold at $687 on May 6th, 2015.
Now knowing that this is a banner and also a recent one [would be nice to find one from the 100th Anniversary :-)], I would think you may be able to do very well on the banner. Good find.
Mike Collins @ MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Nice sales as always Steve and nice boat also. BTW if you owned one of those nice Chris Craft boats you had a very nice boat. The wooden ones are beautiful when the wood is kept up and all polished. I have water skied behind one before. Had two Mercury MercHouser 100’s outbaords. It planed out fast, rode smooth and was fast.
In any case you mentioned it was long tale and you had it since 2013. Think you may know we had 6 antiques booths that we closed down a year ago and have been slowly entering all that inventory [over 2500 to 3000 items total] into our Ebay store. Well you got me curious so I did a quick filter on my Excel Inventory spread sheet to sort it my date bought, then by what was not even listed. We have 407 items listed that was bought prior to Dec. 30, 2013 and 215 not even listed yet and still hiding in our yet to be opened and listed bins. You had to bring up how long, long tale is. LOL. 🙂
The reason though is that we bought so much years ago filling up those booths and items just do not move fast in any volume at antiques booths. We sell 4 times as much on Ebay as we ever did at the booths and we get to keep a whole lot more of the money.
Boy, talk about needing some help weighing, measureing, tagging, photoing and listing. LOL mike in atl.
