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Yep, I do it almost once or twice a week. I put two USPS Priority Shoe Boxes together all the time. I will slide one inside of the other to make a telescoping type of box. I also will pull boxes apart and re-score them where I want them to fold and then tape them back together to the re-size I want. But as SKYDOG says, DON’T do it with Flat Rate Boxes.
I also do the same with my Ebay boxes. Combine two or even three boxes together. Once taped up then I use the USPS Priority 2″ x 10″ long decals and put those on all corners and size and print out my Priority Labels and apply.
For very long pieces, long tri-pods, I cut up and roll a whole bunch of boxes together and tape them all up until I am satisfied the item is protected. THEN, I use my large, heavy weight black Home Depot Construction plastic and wrap the whole thing up in that heavy plastic. Much thicker than poly envelope type material. The black plastic is 8 and 10 mils. Then after all wrapped up in that black plastic like a nice Christmas present, I use the 2″ x 10″ USPS Priority decals, place them in all the obvious places and then apply my USPS Priority Shipping labels.
All you have to be aware of is taking note of when your package size gravitates into the Oversize package and DIM Weight size categories. I have done this so much I know ahead of listing when to include extra costs for DIM Weight sizes.
Also I still suggest one of the SL members web site “FitShipper” for determining box sizes, calculating weights ahead of listing and which shipping service to use.
Hope this helps a little.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Hey guys… well if this is going to be a topic of interest maybe Jay should rename this topic thread experiments of SEO [Search Engine Optimization] because upper and lower case research is an element of SEO. See item #6 and #13 on this link.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/top-31-seo-experiment%E2%80%8Bs-you-want-to-know-about/63855/
Then maybe check out the other 29 hints.
Since Google rolled out it’s Panda and Penguin alterations to it’s algorithm they have killed off millions of sites that had what is called “Black Hat” tactics going on. Guess what??? Ebay was one of them and got slammed hard and still maybe hasn’t recovered after years of trying.This is an old story but you can still research what Ebay was doing, how it was not what Google wanted it done and how Google dropped Ebay out of it’s line up. It is because of that issue with how Ebay was allowing titles and descriptions to be written that got them into some trouble along with ad placement and back link farming, plagerising and etc, etc.
I think that is why Ebay had to gravitate to using “Item Specifics” and separate fields for things. Google just was ignoring how Ebay was allowing members to cram and keyword stuff and copy and paste other’s info. into the Ebay listings. Cassini is just a “baby” when it comes to Mother Google.
Also remember that online searches of any kind and on any platform is based on “Boolean Language”. Look up Boolean and you will see what every search engine will and will not look for and will and will not recognize. If you are all going to dig into the exploration of Upper, Lower, Case, Initial Caps, then why not just take the research on out in full blown SEO research. What to write, how long, how many times a key word can appear, in what position. etc., etc. AND Boolean Syntax will explain a lot of what search engines recognize and how. The words OR, IF, NOT are now included as given and hidden in the coding. Singular and Plurals will read the same, one word in front of another may or may not return equal results.
Think about it, how does Google, Cassini, Bing, decide on the difference between reeds [bushes] and reads a paper, or reeds a book or the missed spelled word REDS as REEDS or READS. then apply the WITH-WITHOUT-NOR-OR-PLUS-MINUS, It can just get so deep that you can waste a year re-doing a 2000 item store and not list anything and not have a truly tested way of deciding if anything worked out not.. So tread carefully on your time management.
Many people make a living “optimizing” web sites for owners and that includes their Ebay, Etsy, Shopify stores et. all. So if you are going to start playing around with this sort of stuff, in my opinion before spending a whole of time changing a few items I would research the whole gamut of SEO “White Hat Tactics” then decide what you need to change in your store, or if you should just hire someone who is an expert to do it for you, or just decide to list another 1,000 items in your store, sell another $20,000 worth of stuff and then who cares. That is going to be our approach.
But just my opinion. That and $.50 will get you half a cup of coffee. LOL
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Yep.. When I had a nice long talk with SixBit back in the first of the year, I suggested to them to create a scenario whereby users could create either a Google Drive or MS OneDrive Account, then create folders there and upload all of the photos they were going to use for Ebay, Etsy, etc. Then when one creates a listing in SixBit, they go to the outside drive to open and attach to SB. Then when you upload the photos, so SB has control and can use the photo thumbnails, that they create a SixBit folder themselves on the cloud drive and all of the photos that SB uploads to Ebay they keep a dup in their own cloud folder. Ryan said they had never thought of that. Of, course WonderLister already had this in place at the time.
But the great final results was that now all of the photos were “outside” of the SixBit database and it’s size was reduced tremendously.
I also had a chance to try to pick their brain on that Ebay bug of re-listing items at the reduced Sale price and they had no solutions either. It is an Ebay problem with no fix in sight I am told. They both said they were just hoping that the new Fall Ebay updates would address the problem when Ebay did a rework on the Markdown Manager and Promotions Manager. That has now been done and we all just have to wait and see how Ebay is ging to handle reduced items that are on Sale and how they get ended and relisted.
But be on your guard every time you end and relist anything that is on Sale.mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
T-Satt I may take you up on your offer. Thanks for posting you pm email addy. I have been vacillating for months now on should I abandon WonderLister and gravitate back to SixBit. I used to pay for and use both at the same time. The issue is that WL keeps saying that the interface with Etsy has dropped down on their priority list until some time next year. Also no progress on the Shopify interface, even though I could forego that option. In the mean time I have just been doing Etsy by hand and copying and pasting the listings into Etsy and have created a custom folder in WL to hold items sold off of Ebay. WL does capture Bonanza stuff though.
I know that SixBit has had issues on and off with Ebay but so does WL. The Ebay issue of not re-setting original prices back after a sale ends has struck us 3 times in the last 2 years or so. That is Ebay fault. It is an Ebay problem most of the time.
Don’t forget that SB loads it’s database with the photos on the front end and it gets bloated very quickly and will max out MS-SQL ability to handle the SB database. At approx. 750 listings at 12 photos I had about maxed out SB MS-SQL capability. There is a trick I learned from WonderLister that they do, on how to keep the SixBit database much smaller. When I discussed this with SixBit they were not aware of this technique and was going to explore it. That was a few months ago and would like to get your thoughts on it and if SB has implemented that technique [ability]. Ryan checked me out while I had him on the phone and said, yep, I was correct and that he would bring it to John Slocum’s attention.
I would love to compare some notes on a few things and see what your response is to the things I have had to deal with or are still dealing with in WonderLister to see if going back to SixBit would be worth it or if those issues are common to both platforms. To afford the switch and also to cover the higher cost of SixBit over WonderLister I could also drop my Shopify Store Subscription and allocate that monthly amount back to covering the SixBit monthly cost.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
Very professionaly done. Great video and voice over job. But think something is squirrely with that bidding. From $500 to start up to $20k within 24 hours and by 48 hours over $50k. You can walk into tons of dealerships and walk out with a brand new car for that and have money left over. Just wonder why anyone would go that high, unless it is a “collectors dream of find” and I don’t think so.
You can buy a brand new entry level Mercedes Benz for that amount, give or take.mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
Just be careful about which programs you spend time reviewing. T-Satt and I use software that has a lot of bells and whistles but remain price friendly. There are programs that will pop up in Google searches if you search Ebay Inventory Management or Listing software that will cost you a ton of money. ESA is one of them. It can run into a whole lot and is way over kill for just an Ebay store.
In nay case, SixBit has many great video tutorials. I think John is the person responsible for most of the videos. Last time I talked with him personally he said he was going to be re-doing many of the SixBit videos and updating them. Especially with all of the recent Ebay changes.
SixBit is about $10 more per month, but for a real newbie to the whole inventory management process I probably would suggest SixBit. [T-Satt is probably laughing right now]. It is more colorful, somewhat more customizable, a little more newbie friendly but will cost $120 more per year at $39.95 month instead of $25 per mo. like WonderLister.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
That is one of the main reasons you should. You can quickly drop in a 3 or 4 word short title, enter a sku number of your choice and the price you paid for it. Then stop right there. Once you save in in a folder name of your choice such as “In process Items”, “Started but Unlisted” or just “Warehouse” that we use, you can save it and close it. Then it is there for as long as you want to leave it. Then you can come back and work on it a little at a time and close and save again. I think the benefit to this as compaired to Ebay’s method, is one that Ebay will only allow so many drafts and two only let you keep them for just so long. [Maybe they have changed that]. But SB or WL will let you keep thousands of “drafts” [partially started listings] and keep them for years or decades if you want. I wouldn’t suggest you buy something thn not get it listed for 10 years but SB and WL will let you if you want to.
I want you to read this, then count how many seconds it takes you to repeat the following:
Click open template] 11/02/17 $2.50 Estate Sale Vintage Portable record player SKU: 11170250g1542a [click save] Now all you have to do is hang or tape a tag on your item that has #11170250g1542a on it and that is all you ever need to do until you are ready to get back to it and finish it.
This just took me 15 seconds to say this. That is how fast I can also start an item listing and save it. It then tells me what I have, when I bought it, where I got it and how much I paid for it. Then I can come back to it 5 months from now, open it and pick up where I left off. But come year end, if I have created 1,323 of these, at one click I can hand my accountant a report that says 1,323 items in unlisted inventory for a total of $3,307.50
On all of the items you have listed, you get a report that tells you how many items sold in total, how much total dollars in sales, how much for fees, how many sold in each state, how much sales tax is owed in any state you want, etc., etc. But we have gone over all of that before.
But for just starting up, either program is great for just capturing the pure, raw basics of what you need to know about your item as soon as you buy it. If you go to the weigh and pay and buy a ton of clothes, then every 15 seconds you can create a quick entry tag and listing with this brief info. on it. You can even create a capture listing. Title just says 5 ladies blouses, assorted colors 11/02/17, GW weigh and pay, $3 total = $.60 total and save. Then come back to that pile later and break the WL quick entry down into 5 single listings. Just tons of ways to handle your data and financial info. I am sure T-Satt agrees on all fronts.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Following up on what T-Satt said. Plan now for later. If you do plan on using a total inventory, multi-platform inventory control listing software like WonderLister or SixBit, I would suggest you get a trial subscription to either of them or both and start going through the tutorials well before you plan to jump into this. These software apps while not too complicated still have a learning curve, if nothing else than just learning how to navigate and find everything they can do. These programs offer a ton of reports, screen views, ways to sort and filter your store inventory, present financials, create and store templates and you will need to learn the in’s and out’s.
With regards to your death piles, if you go ahead and start with one of these programs, you should at least create a quick, short title, add the SKU number, where you bought the item and what you paid for it. That way you at least have a means of tracking what is included in your “death piles” and have a “COST” available for your accountant or tax picture. If you have hundreds or thousands of dollars in those piles your accountant needs to know that. Also at year end we just pull a report of what is in our “WAREHOUSE” folder and there is the “total cost” of everything we have in our unlisted death piles that will eventually be available for sale once we upload it. These programs allow you to create custom folders whereby you name them whatever you want for any reason you want. Our “WAREHOUSE” folder contains everything we have bought but not listed yet. Sort of a “draft” type folder. They will hold as many drafts as you want for as long as you want. You can also apply a description template at the click of a button and then just have it sit. As soon as we get anything home, by the next day we have all items “quick listed” in this folder. So from a database perspective, there are no death piles, just inventory that we haven’t completed the listing process on.
Even if you subscribe to the program it is a price that comes with the education you will receive by using and practicing with the program of your choice. Using either of these for a year will give you tremendous insight into your “business”, what you own, where it is and also all of the Ebay monthly statement and financial data is downloaded and presented in one control location. But just my opinion and don’t know if T-Satt agrees.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Here is a link that will show you about half a dozen of them. Not a high dollar item. sets of 4, 5, 6 go for approx. $12.00 to $30 unless you may have some rare type.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
We have never seen or heard of this before, but agree with you 100%. Just give it some time, take a breath, contact the seller and let the seller work it out for you.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
T-Satt: I posted a reply on 10/18/2017 @ 8:05 AM that contains a response to where WonderLister is with regards to the Etsy Interface. That info. is about mid-way down.
I have not heard anything new about the Etsy interface since that last post. But it is about time to check back in with the team and see where that project is on the “To-Do” list for the engineers.
Will post if I find out anything new or different from the Oct. 18th post.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Yep.. that unclaimed baggage place in AL has been known about for years. It has always been known as a high priced tourist type place [i.e. rip off trap] for pickers. You can get better prices by walking into any Pawn Shop.
But as you say, it is a nice day trip drive, especially now at fall time.Now a better deal is the “World’s Longest Yard Sale” that starts in Gadsden, AL each year and runs hundreds of miles up north. And, from Atlanta to Savannah is the “Peaches to the Beaches” long yard sale that is similar. We have never done any of those and thought we would take a day or two and travel one day’s time up or out then the second day back.
mike in Atlanta
I would say just make sure that the notice you get from PayPal states that the shipping address is “Confirmed”.
I am not a hunter but had a good friend who did hunt all the time. I brought up road kill one time as free meat and he said “Oh no”. That when an animal has been hit by blunt force that all the capillaries burst in the area and it “bleeds” into the surrounding area. Those small blood vessels filled with blood spoil and turn bad quickly. He also said that rigor mortis begins to set in at about 2 hours plus and that many areas through out the body start changing and stiffening. That all meat from those areas and the muscle tissue should not be eaten. He said that fresh butchered meat is just that, “fresh”. So, he seemed to be convincing so I wasn’t going to challenge on those points.
I don’t know if that is true and guess the hunters here may be able to shed light on the truth to eating meat that has been hit by a car or truck and dead for a few hours. His story made it just sound to “funeral like” for me to want to throw a dead animal up on my car, tote it home, string it up in the driveway and start gutting it so I could keep and freeze the carcass meat. Uggh! Give me the “Old Antique Mall” smell of grungy old vintage items any day.
mike in Atlanta
