Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I think it’s more than just having eccentric taste. No one would admit that they have “bad” taste, but peeking in a few eBay stores proves that it’s entirely possible to list straight trash. You need assurance that what you’re buying isn’t going to be sitting for a year at $15.99, otherwise you’ll be discouraged.
What Sold videos are fine, but they’re a microcosm. People only show their best stuff usually. Haul videos are hit and miss.
Do you have any hobbies? That’s where I started. Audio gear, computer stuff – already knew the values going in, that way I could focus on learning eBay’s ins and outs.
I’ve noticed a lot of resellers are just really interesting people. Usually you can tell that they have super niche knowledge and genuine interest in what they’re talking about. It seems they are selling stuff out of pure passion. J&R are good examples of this IMO. You rarely meet ones that are boring or don’t have anything interesting to say, and if you do, they’re never around long.
I had someone send a series of $1 increments the other day, except I didn’t have it set to automatically decline. They probably would have used up all 5 of their offers had I not blocked them after they ignored each of my counter offers and continued working their way up from $10 instead (less than half of the asking price.)
A few days later they messaged me and complained that they could no longer send offers or purchase the item. I said I would take them off my block list if they paid full price. They agreed.
But this is an edge case, much like yours. You could have given your buyer 1000 offers and they probably would have started entering $10.01, $10.02, etc etc. They want a better deal than you’re willing to give. Regardless, I recommend not setting a minimum amount for offers because it’s possible to turn a low-ball offer into a decent offer with a bit of haggling. I know some people here get freaked out when they get a $50 offer on a $100 item, but that’s when I know someone wants to play ball, and maybe I can get them at $75.
One time I sent an offer for $20 on a $35 item. It was rejected instantly. To me, this says that the seller has no idea what they’re doing and shouldn’t have offers enabled for that item. When I get an automatic rejection I lose interest in sending further offers – I’m not on eBay to play a guessing game.
Depends on my mood and how the transaction occurred. Recent case: Went back and forth with a guy, finally nailed down a price, then got “cancel the order, thanks” like 5 minutes later.
Response: “Hi, no problem, eBay will automatically cancel the order in a number of days.”
Translation: “Enjoy your unpaid item strike!”
These strikes exist for a reason. Unless the item is super popular and will likely sell quickly, you should absolutely, 100%, without a doubt stick them with the ONLY thing eBay has put in place to stop bad behavior – an unpaid item strike.
Like I said, this is a case-by-case basis. If you send an offer and I don’t get around to accepting for a number of hours, then it’s understandable if something happened between then and now to change that, but otherwise I have zero sympathy. Pay up or enjoy the penalty.
Yeah, I’d just take it easy and see how you feel maybe by the start of Q2 or Q3. You really need to give yourself time to get out of the “honeymoon” period and experience a few pitfalls first to decide whether you want to pursue it further. I’d say it took me about a year to get to a point where I felt I had enough info to make more “business-like” decisions re: investing and growth.
It’s good to have goals, though. I’d personally keep your listing/$ targets in mind if it helps keep you motivated.
In my experience, listing on mobile seems to create a new policy every time. Even revising listings on mobile has created a problem for me.
The only solution is to finish the listing off on the desktop/non-app version of eBay.
“Just trying to be an interactive participant here (in forum- thought that was what it is for?) to discuss and get some opinions and/or advice.”
What did you mean by this? You asked for honest feedback, and it just so happens that I think doing anything more than making a phone call or two isn’t worth the effort. You can make 1,000,000 more posts about this topic for all I care.
Our GWs never put half-price stickers on anything other than clothes and some kinds of hard goods. Electronics are never on markdown.
Some GWs are just run by total weirdos with very little experience in reselling. One time a manager scolded me for testing electronics and said I was using the “wrong power outlet.” Another time they’d affixed $100 price tags on anything that played media. The last time I visited there were eBay search results taped to an item, except the printout said “No results found”, and the prices they’d highlighted were for completely different items. The item also looked like it had been taken out back and had 12 shotgun rounds unloaded into it. It’s just so funny how far off these people are.
It’s not like they’re under the watch of some higher-up telling them to push more profits – every single store I visit is under the same regional umbrella, and they’re all wildly different in their approach. Some are just greedier than others.
Did you try calling yet?
That feedback reply makes you look worse IMO. Old Dad’s response is much better.
If you want honest feedback, then I’ll say that if you’re still thinking about this weeks after it happened then you need to reconsider how you’re spending your time. This one bit of feedback isn’t going to sink your business and I’d wager a lot of people don’t even know how to read feedback anyway (especially on mobile where only the percent is shown.)
It was the owner’s IRS problem thankfully, not mine. By the time I got brought on he was just getting a bunch of the studio’s financials in order after their game had become hugely popular. I guess he started thinking that someone should look over his books and ended up finding he owed a lot of money after the fact.
Early this week was crazy – lots of stuff flying off the shelf, and thankfully bigger ticket items, too. I was expecting things to crash and stay dead for a while TBH. On Tuesday I cranked up the handling time and had a few more sales that day and Wednesday. Felt good to let the store go on autopilot for a while, but sales are definitely dead now. Did have 3 returns opened this week – 1 already closed (buyer solved the problem), another for “changed mind”, and another for a car part that didn’t fit. Better than a return for straight-up defective, though.
I graduated and briefly had work in the video game industry before a larger game studio picked me up. They immediately fell into bad standing with the IRS and I was tossed into the meat grinder of the “gig economy” while I tried to lock down my next job. During this I started flipping items on eBay, and after about two years, finally had the potential to go full-time in 2018, although I did have some clients I was doing work for that softened the financial blow for another year.
I sell in consumer electronics, but would like to move most of my inventory to biz/industrial, a much hotter category IMO.
Selling on eBay gives me my independence, and also allows me to explore “career” work/projects on the side that could potentially be spun up into forms of income down the road.
It’s worth noting that reselling isn’t inherently an isolating occupation, it just depends on how you decide to run things. Some resellers have close relationships with other small business owners in their area that are mutually beneficial and rewarding on a personal level, too. But that’s not for everyone, and not for me either (lol).
As for being social outside of work, meetup.com is a good place to look. Lots of niche interest groups there and seems to cover a wide age range in my area. Volunteering can be a good outlet also.
As for fitting in, I can relate. I’m in my 20s and find a lot of people my age aren’t necessarily interested in the same things I am, which makes building meaningful relationships difficult in my experience. I guess I’m lucky that I don’t have much drive to be social ATM and am more focused on locking down larger life goals.
I don’t think a reflector will be good enough with just natural light. If you angle it correctly, you may be able to soften the shadows a bit, but I doubt you could completely “flatten” the lighting.
You need a controlled lighting environment. If you’re selling smaller items like this, then a “light box” would be the way to go.
Thanks Jay and Timo. I will definitely report them to eBay. This stuff drives me nuts.
Good call on the $5 voucher. I found it shortly after making this post. Interesting how buried it is in the options. IMO, it should be automated.
This is how I understand it:
SiriusXM has no way of telling whether a radio is activated or deactivated, so they send activation/deactivation signals out in waves. The idea is to just keep sending the signal over and over until it’s assumed the radio has received it, which for deactivation is something like 6 months to a year.
So sometimes you’ll find these older Sirius or XM radios and they’ll turn on and get all the channels. In some cases someone is still paying for the service, bought a lifetime subscription, or the unit was never turned on after the service was dropped and thus becomes an honorary lifetime subscription because it dodged the deactivation signal.
The smaller units that plug into docks or boomboxes go for $120 – $150 if the service is still active. Maybe some go for higher, I just haven’t seen them personally.
They are good sellers and worth the gamble IMO if they’re under $10. Worst case scenario you just flip it for $15-$20 and move on.
