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Yes.. Go to “Your Account” tab. Then scroll down to Site Preference, then on the left look for a line called “Communication Preferences”. Click there and you will be presented with all of the various ways and when Ebay notifies you of things, like your item just sold, you have an offer, when you get a payment, reminders, etc., etc. Read those carefully and only check or uncheck the ones you really want to be notified of.
Note! There are 3 Site Preference lines, you may want to review all of those communication preferences to uncheck those not wanted.
Then you may also not want PayPal to send you all that they send. , etc., etc. That you would have to go to PayPal, sign in to your account and do roughly then same routine.
Good luck,…
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
T-Satt… I agree but there is a BUT on a small part of that. Except don’t go so far to throw the baby out with the bath water. There is a fine line between agreeing to be agreeable and the customer is always right and not letting yourself be used, abused or taken advatage of.
You sell clothing so think about this.
You sell a shirt to a customer for $20. He takes it home, x number of days later he returns to the store and says he wants his money back because it doesn’t fit him right, or it is scratchy feeling, etc., etc. Now you can assume he may have wore it a time or two, maybe not, but you can not resell it as new now that it has been worn, or sweated in. BUT, the Customer is always right-right? So you hand him his $20 back but [WAIT FOR IT!!!], He looks up at you and says, but I want $6.00 more for the wear and tear on my car and the gas and oil it cost me TO RETURN THE SHIRT TO YOU!!!
Well that is what this pay for the buyers return shipping amounts to… BUT there is that fine line I mentioned. Cust always right, scratchy great, here is your $20 but I am not going to also pay you to drive back down here to return it on top of that.
Then the local Better Business Bureau says if you complain about the seller that he may has guaranteed a fit, or said bright nice colors and the BBB sides with the customer and forces you to pay that return cost, you are forced into doing it, but you just got abused by the customer, then in my case, they are not always right.
Just saying, like you said, choose your battles but like a union, Ebay does lean toward the employee – buyer in my opinion a little too much. But we are a captive audience, er, Seller. 🙂
Mike at MDCGFA
I was talking about the cost of the inventory, not the resell value. But at close to 8,000 items and for a guess and overall average cost of $2 ea. that is $16,000 of lost inventory, out of pocket if it was in a fire.
Our average cost is more like $7 to $8 per item if you figure in the expensive items that we paid $50 to $100 for and our $1.00 items. We have approx. 1,200 items and that equates to approx. $9,600 for our true cost of our inventory. I would think that is work a few hundred dollars per year to get a “rider” to cover it in case of damage loss. But guess that is like any insurance, a person is betting against things that are catastrophic and each has to decide if it is worth the cost of a rider. To know that one needs to call their agent and ask what is available and the cost.
Mike at MDCGFA in ATL
Been a long time since I reviewed COBCRA policies but if I remember COBRA won’t be less or inexpensive. It’s purpose is to just provide someone with a stop gap measure from losing or falling into the uninsured category. Usually if your employer was paying any portion of a persons healthcare costs then that amount is still needing to be paid, so it was usually the amount the employye paid added to the employer’s share for the total cost, or something like that.
COBRA is supposed to just be something you pay for to keep covereage until you can find something else just for yourself and usually less costly.
There are also groups like if you are over 50 years old AARP that offers group coverages as a member, so do most Chamber of Commerce’s and the such. I would guess that Jay and Ryanne are members of their local Chamber of Commerce and as such they may be able to get a group rate from the National group of CofC.
Mentioning that, Jay I would assume is a member just to keep abreast of zoning regulations and the downtown community activities now that they are members of the main street downtown group.
Mike at MDCGFA
We have a fur coat also but have not tried to sell it. Unfortunately I bought it as a gift for Susan back in the early 80′ Still have the original receipt. It was a $7,400 full length white Azurine Mink coat, long sleeve with flip up collar. Bout it at 50% off Sale for $3,700 and says so on the receipt. So now what we do with it. Was great in the day when we lived in Ct. But now down south and things being what they are?
I have seen a few sell on Ebay for $200-$400. There is a person who used to be at the antique mall we had booths at that sold nothing but furs, leather item. He had a couple similiar marked at $700. So now it just sits in the closet in the storage bag. It is in very good condition, no issues at all, except no one wants them any more.
I guess I could try listing it at $3,700 MO and see if anyone makes an offer. Maybe someone over seas in one of those cold countries like Iceland, Finland, Switzerland who wear heavy coats may make an offer.
Any thoughts on what to do with a fur that we have so much money in??
Michael at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Yes.. We have that option also. It is with the Hassel Free Returns program. We changed the program options from Auto Accept the Return to We Want To Approve the Return. Once we did that, now we get a notice of a “desire to return” by the customer. At that point we have several options such as Return it and have Ebay send them the label, or pexchange the item, and full or partial refund. We can do that at this point, or if we decide to have the buyer send the item back, we don’t refund at this point. Ebay even has a warning suggestion to not refund until we get the item back and inspect it.
Once the item is received back and we inspect, the page still allows those several options to fully, partially refund, which of course this would be the point to deduct the return shipping or only do a % percentage refund and a Notes section to make comments.
Thanks.. Build the line,measure the line, monitor the line, measure the line, tweak the line, mobilize the line = LEAN = LOWER UNIT COSTS = INCREASED NET PROFIT.
You and I would make a great team together in another manufacturing facility. Crunch the speed, reduce the distance, monitor the capability, max out the capacity, cull out the rejects, minimize the rejects, lower the unit cost, crunch the numbers, increase the sale volume, increase the total volume at a lower per unit cost, and go collect or bonuses!!! and SMILE ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK 🙂
KAIZEN all the way my Brother from another Mother! 🙂 🙂 🙂
mike at MDCGFA
Security cameras will do nothing more than show you a movie of your merchandise getting taken away and provide evidence of the thief for maybe prosecution.
The caller’s story lays the ground work for having business insurance or adding a rider to your homeonwers umbrella policy. Business insurance will covers you in a lot of cases like theft, fire, water damage, hurricanes, tornado’s, roof collapse and things like that depending on the type of policy or rider you have. If you are in an apartment or condo, what about damage from above affecting you down below.
Just a thought and something to check into.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Jay you are correct, WonderLister and SixBit both keep all information on a buyer forever. Even if you cancel your 3rd party subscription, every little bit of history on every sale you have ever made is still available to you as long as you own your computer and still use it. The database that these programs create and save all your data including the photos is yours. You own the database and can even transfer that database to a new computer.
The complete listing sold and unsold, pricing history, edits, buyers name, address, phone number, city, state, scale weight, shipping weight, final value fees, shipping costs, offers, numbers of offers, amounts of offers, every single thing about your life and existence on Ebay and even other selling platforms is saved in your SQL database that the app creates and saves too. And if you sell on Etsy, Shopify, etc. it also cross synchs those sites, if a sale is made on one platform, they delete from the other platforms, everything.
Our subscription is $25 a month for up to 5,000 listings. But the Etsy and Shopify platforms do cost a little more as add-ons. WonderLister has a $5 per month plan for up to 1,000 listings. This is a great plan to get started and for small stores.
Michael at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
We have two for a short period until we can build up the store faster to the level we are targeting. It was just too slow for Susan and i doing it ourselves.
The two assistants do the same thing only on different days. Christie does Mon.-Wed. 9 to 1 pm. and Lisa does Fri. and Sat 8 to 12.
They work in the middle of the process flow. We have two computer set-ups in the office area.
When we come in from estate sales or auctions we place the newly acquired items at the beginning of the “line”. We have a long 3′ wide x 56′ long table type set-up in a “U” configuration. We have it set-up like an assembly line. I do the unloading the car and bringing up to the office, unpack the items and stage them on the first tables and section them off with dividers from other sales usinh a short 2 x 4 piece of wood. I create the paper ID Tag and create the SKU number on that tag then do a “Qucik Entry” into WL. That is a short title, sku number just to have a template of that item.
Susan does the inspection, cleaning if needed and then does the photography. The photography station is in line with the tables, so in other words, the item begins it’s journey down the assembly line. On that small paper tag she will note any flaws see finds during the inspection process. The photos are uploaded in monthly folders and named with the SKU number for easy reference later.The object then moves on down the line to the listing station which has a laptop computer at it. This is where the assistants come into place. They are in the WonderLister program so they type in the first 4 digits of the SKU and up pops the Quick Entry template I created the day the item came into our office. Here they fill in all the blank fields that the template has [colors, sizes, descriptions and a few custom fields such as date bought, where bought, and scale weight. A scale is right beside the listing area. [we also have a second scale down at the end of the line at the shipping section]. They also attached the photos by just typing in the first 4 digits of the SKU and they pop in.
The assistants and that computer station also has two monitors attached to it, so on the right one they have 3 or 4 of tabs open to the places we most frequently research for prices and keywords on. They do some research on the items and place a few notes for me in the NOTES section of highest prices seen and where.
Then the item goes on down the line to my station. Here I will take items one by one and open the listing up and review what the assistants have filled in and drop the price in and decide if I will take offers or not then upload it. I also at this point place it in the plastic storage bin and enter that bins number in the Bin Location field. We keep empty storage bins that are pre-numbered right here at the end of the assembly line. I slip sheet everything with bubble wrap and then when full take the bin to it’s prenumbered shelf location.
Of course when something sells all I need to do is look at the SKU number on the sold area of WL or Ebay and the last 4 digits of that number is thew bin location. So I go to that bin, pull the items and bring into the office and go to the end of the table assembly line. The last 10 ft. is the shipping section and end of the line. Here we have all the various boxes on shelves and labeled according to size, misc. bubble wrap hanging over head to pull down as we need it. a large roll dispenser of 50 lb. brown kraft paper, and of course 4 different sizes of newsprint and mailers. There is a laser printer here also and packing lists and labels are printed out here and matched with the boxes as packed. Then all is placed out for pick up.
The assistants are utilized in the mid section of the whole assembly line process and all are 10 finger speed typist. They can out type us 3 times over and all the while have a second monitor screen with multi tabs open for research to copy and paste into the listings or paraphrase from.
We decided to invest into the labor to help us get to the 2,500 +++ size of store we are targeting as quickly as possible and to also allow me time to get down into the art studio and create new paintings, prints, sculpture and lamps. AND the big push is for one of them to start the Cross List onto Etsy and Shopify. Even though I have already started that to some degree during my tests, all indications are that Etsy may perform as well as Ebay or maybe even more as others here on SL have also reported.
So we are currently getting about 4 hrs per day of listing help x 4 to 5 days a week so about 20 to 25 hours per week at this point. This will only be temporary. The second assistant knows that come the first of next year we are going to maybe drop back to only Lisa our first assistant unless things really start to pick up and sell.
The one assistant Lisa is a trusted friend who has access to our house and the system. If we are out of town, I can text Lisa the SKU numbers and she can pull, pack and ship for us if needed.
Take Care guys.. Hope everyone is feeling much better.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Here’s a new one on me.
I have noticed that WL is including in a list of standardized Item specific a field for the Cal. Proposition 65 Act. I assume this may now be showing up on regular Ebay listing forms as well.
Here is alink to what is suppose to take place as of August 30th. Question is, now are we suppose to identify the materials older, vintage items are made of and state if the content in the material, resign, plastic contains any harmful or possibly toxic ingrediants?
Here is a link to an article about it. https://www.law.com/therecorder/2018/07/05/new-prop-65-warning-requirements-are-coming-on-aug-30-are-you-ready/?slreturn=20180730195500
Just curious and wonder what others know of this.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
AF: Thanks very much for the information. Now that we have 2 assistants working on liostings for us, things don’t get as much attention to detail and research as they used to. We appreciate it very much.
Going to share your comments with the both of them starting tomorrow and use it to indicate that some buyers will and do know about the items we sell than we do and that good solid research will help us keep the bases covered.
Another example we had a very knowledgable person that knows about Fiesta colors and their release dates nailed down a production date of a Fiestaware water pitche to 1983 beuase that was the year they introduced the “Sunflower Yellow” color.
So thanks again and we will do some rework on that listing tomorrow. Appreciate it very much indeed.
BTW, I jump off topic with Jay and Ryanne a lot. Jay sometimes calls my posts “walls of text”. Sorry, as a Sotherener I write as I speak and that is with a lot of details, try to paint a picture with words and usually an OK, that’s fine will do. 🙂
Mark, we too appreciate where your head is at. And having an organized system will do what you state. But also almost any good, thorough, well thought out SKU, storage and organized system will accomplish all 7 of your goals.
We have all of our inventory from 6 closed down antique booths all in numbered bins, numbered rows, numbered shelves and each item has a tag with our SKU number. That single 23 charcater SKU number also tells us what item it is, what we paid for the item, where we bought it, how long we have had it, what storage facility it is at [garage, attic, basement, booth, or paid storage unit].
We can be a thousand miles away and tell in an instant if we should accept an offer and what the Gross Profit Margin is and if it is time to accept an offer. If an item sells we can text one of our assistants and with that SKU number they can go and pull, pack and ship any of our 1,100 items in a few minutes.
But that organization came from years of working in the manufacturing industry and having to track thousands upon thousands of fullfillment parts for Stanley Hardware, Home depot, General Electric, Westclox, Walmart and dozens of other clients. All we did was crush down the “system” and incorporate that into our small business.
We could even use a scanner and generate barcode tags if we wanted but no need for that heavy expense. we just do a hand written SKU tag during our quick entry process as we unload and bring items into our office to begin the process.
The main point is good for you, you got a system and it seems to be the thing for you. Just remember to take your time and log and place everything correctly. Inverted numbers are demons, clean your glasses 🙂 and be careful where you replace anything if you pull it for some reason. Organization is key to a good clean process, and always remember what some of us talked about a few weeks back… KAIZEN !!!! If that eluded you do a SL search and check out the discussion. Fellow Six Sigma Lean Mfg. guys on here know exactly what it is and most likely apply KAIZEN Daily to their processes.
Good Luck Buddy,
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDCGFASo di I. We are in the process now of creating listing templates for the whole US Mint single stamps from about 1925 forward, complete. Also have plate blocks from about 1930 Mint forwad along with some full pages.
I listed and sold the Citation world stamp album a few months back. Listed for $400 took $200 for that but not many stamps in it and most were used, canceled.We think we are going to list by year so about 60 years [60 listings] on the US Mint Singles and then about 50 listings on the US Mint plate block. The intersting thing about US Mint stamps is they still retain and have their face value. An 70 year old $0.02 [2 cent] stamp is still worth 2 cents today and the same goes for all the newer stamps as the prices go up per stamp. A mint page of $.25 stamps is still a $25 dollar value. Now add to that the collector or delaer value.
I have a subscription to the Scott Catalog and will list everything by the Scott’s number and list them at 60% less than the catalogue prices. So, don’t know how much everything is going to come out to but we will see.
Already have some US Commemorative Albums listed by year in our store. Maybe about 10 or 12 or so.Will be a wait and see.
