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Hi. Jay’s accidental purchase of an “incoming” offer was so funny. I recently did the exact same thing! I listed a video game ( new & sealed). I don’t sell them regularly. I guess I researched it for price and found one (sealed) and put a watch on it. About 2 weeks later I received an offer and the listing looked exactly like mine. It was a good offer about $5 less than mine so I clicked “ACCEPT”and there was no “cha-ching”! I then realized I bought the one I had a watch on. Just like you I had to do the “walk of shame” to cancel it but the worst part was my purchase was from a charity! So you think I rec’d bad karma? 🙂
Setting An Askew Record Straight
Hi. My name is Wayne. My new Ebay store is called intimewithmusic. Thank you Jay and Ryanne for letting me be part of this forum. I’m the caller on Episode 434 who offered ideas for an Ebayer’s inventory management system. Inventory is so boring. I know and promise never to bring this up again. You don’t need more input on DIY systems and I’d rather sell stuff but there’s a need for focus as to why a system is relevant to Ebayers. What’s in it for you? I’ll try to add value to the boredom.
Disclaimer: If you have a gazzillion skus of brand new items and restocking them 5 to 10 times a year like Wall-Mart’s “just in time” system you don’t need this. Look away. If you’re a re-seller selling one offs, used items, arts and crafts or, in my case, music industry memorabilia and used music paraphernalia this may motivate you. Be prepared to be amazed. But first I want to dis-spell some rumors I heard in the podcast episodes 434 and 435.
This was my fault. When I gave my experience in “Music Stores” I should have said “Musical Instrument Houses of Terror”. I was referring to large brick & mortar musical instrument retail, manufacturing and repair centers not record stores. These included the largest drum center on the planet and after that my own large retail multi instrumental outlet. Think of Garth playing Stairway to Heaven in the movie “Wayne’s World. I was that. As well as organizing all that stuff we had to do it in a way that guarded it from theft. Over the years I employed over 30 young people. We had thousands of skus including parts, picks, strings, clarinet reeds, pianos, Pa systems, marimbas, ukuleles and monster drum sets. No records. No CDs.
I bring to the table inventory management experience beginning in the 70’s making use of paper ledgers and order pads, then moving it onto DOS floppy disks in the 80’s and over to Windows software in the 90’s. It wasn’t easy. Each transition took preparation but nothing failed. I never had to spend millions of dollars for lack of foresight.
That said I’m a new Ebay store owner. Needs are much different here. I’m also running a construction business so I’m a part time Ebayer awaiting retirement. I expect to make mistakes. I appreciate the tremendous help from experienced Ebay store owners like you. Ebayers are open and generous with assistance. Not so much in than brick and mortar retail.
For my call I tried to answer some basic questions for listeners first. Who am I? What do I bring to the table? What Ebay store do I have that you can look at? With that you can make an informed judgement. Help isn’t an anonymous critic saying “It won’t work for you because this other mega wholesale company (not an Ebay Store) failed in history costing them millions. You’re going to run out of numbers”. That is not relevant to today’s Ebayer inventory needs. Please, let’s be relevant.
WHY DOES AN EBAY SELLER NEED AN INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AT ALL?
Truth be known you don’t. You can do fine without one. Jay and Ryanne have done it that way for years. But, suppose… (dream a little)
1. If you ever want to hire staff and you also want more freedom you will need to delegate more than menial chores. I was my own worst enemy as an employer until I found out “a good symphony plays better without the conductor”.
2. Suppose you want to sell your store? I read recently there’s a procedure. Ebay stores can be sold. How attractive is your store to a potential buyer if your “systems” are in your head and you have a mullet like I did?
3. What if something happens to you? If your store is organized your store partner, staff or your heirs can carry it on with revenue coming in yes, like a pipeline Jay. You put stuff in. Money comes out.
4. To get back your life. I’m already saving tons of time and it will compound over time. I only have 100 items so far!
INVENTORY SOUNDS LIKE WORK. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO EBAYERS?
You will decide that based on your system. If you use a sortable prefix (like me) in front of Category Titles IE: 0131 Mens Shoes (01=Clothing 3 = Mens 1 = Shoes) With no extra time spent designing it you get these free benefits.
1. FINDING STUFF! Jay and Ryanne Your staff will find stuff in your storage area instantly if each is clearly marked by category and every item has a sticker on it with it’s sku. But you also get….
2. LISTING STUFF! Time saved finding the proper template for every listing. Name your listing templates with the prefix. IE: 0131 Mens Shoes Template. All the clothing templates will be in one place on your list in order. I have 40 templates that looked like scrambled eggs before. I did this and the entire list opens presorted. When your employee opens it they no longer need to sift through it. Neither do you. All you need to know is the prefix and put a paper category list of prefixes on the desk. Mine’s laminated…Ooooh eh. (That’s Canadian for Ooooh. )
3. STORING STUFF! Time saved shelving listed items. After your helper is done listing every item he/she will know the prefix and YOU marked it on the bin. They can’t return after a 15 minute cell call to a friend and say,”But I couldn’t find a blue Rubbermaid bin with Mighty Mouse tape on it”.
4. REVISING LISTINGS AND PROMOTING OLD STOCK! Time saved finding something in Ebay’s Seller Hub/ Listings. Ebay’s list of all of your inventory will open up every time presorted by category and by sub categories and in the exact order the item was listed. The item at the top of the list is the oldest item. I look through that list a lot. I’m new and consequently revise a lot of listings. Once a month I’m going to use it to send dead stock to a promotion, or once a year or maybe never. But I can. Employees can easily do that without you telling them what’s old and what’s new. Let Ebay tell them. We can get emotionally attached to old inventory. It’s better to let someone else flog it. Let your staff put together your promotions to clear your old stock.
5. YEAR END, MONTH END & WITT’S END REVIEWS! If you have an accounting system that generates Profit & Loss reports you already name your Expense and Income Categories. Adding the prefixes ahead of your current names will auto sort them on your reports. For example “0131 Mens Shoes” will show up on your P & L reports under Clothing and tell you the exact cost of sales and the revenue generated. This is useful for future purchases and direction planning. (Zig Zagging) Your accounting lists now appear in the exact same order as all of your other lists. This is convenient for you, your staff if you grant them access to your numbers, potential buyers of your business and to anyone who may need to step in for you.WHY YOU WON’T RUN OUT OF NUMBERS
The anonymous caller mentioned “supplier info”. This is irrelevant to most Ebayers except the ones I told at the beginning to look away. If you sell used, small quantities of new, or one offs you aren’t ordering from suppliers. You’re not restocking the same items over and over. You’re not weeding out discontinued new stock and replacing it with the latest hot new stock. In my relatively small brick & mortar operation I was required to update and turn my entire inventory of thousands of skus at least 4 to 6 times a year. That’s lots of banjo bridges. On Ebay I don’t reorder sold items. I only need 6 digits. I chose an extra in case I become Jack Walton. I want to drive an old pickup truck just like him.
WHY THEN WERE THERE DISASTERS IN THE PAST?
Remember the Y2K Global computer scare? The science and media predicted everyone’s computers would fail because someone forgot to build a year past 1999 into their digital clocks? Did it happen? No.. I never ran out of numbers in the 20 years I had the store.
It was hard to have foresight In the 70’s 80’s and early 90’s. Manufacturers, wholesalers and very large retailers had huge investments in computers the size of school buses housed in air conditioned rooms. That was the highest state of technology. I was given tours by wholesalers who were so proud of them. Within a decade, due to tech advancements they had to reconfigure their systems, junk the whirring tape monsters and string desktops, DOS software and complex networks from one end of the country to the other. They were busy. This was a time when competition was fierce. Retailers were struggling to quickly order and restock products. Wholesalers were struggling to get items fast enough from manufacturers. I had to order my Christmas instruments from Yamaha in July or I wouldn’t get anything. Try predicting all of your fourth quarter sales in July. Us small guys also had to reconfigure our inventories from DOS to Windows based software. Some used Linux. Compared to the wholesalers and distributors it was a piece of cake. My system only cost $1500 with only my labor to reconfigure it. Compared to 2019 in 1995 even the then new and amazing Windows 95 and other commercial software were barely capable of managing inventory. Programs weren’t designed with an infinite amount of numbers. The real “Inventory Woes” were born by the big guys like the anonymous caller is referring to. They were too busy competing to have foresight resulting in too much money invested in obsolescence. They couldn’t zig and zag like we could. I was using “Framework” a $400 program. I designed it to manage the entire store inventory because I could configure it completely. That was the problem. It was so complicated I was the only one who could use it so it didn’t work at the point of sale. (“Framework” was the predecessor to “Excel”). Finally I was able to get our stuff off of that and put it on “Simply Accounting” at a cost of $150. All my staff could use it at the counter. We threw away our cash register and I was rewarded with time. That program is called “Sage” today. Meanwhile the big guy’s multi million dollar systems were continuing to fail. The media was full of finger pointing and lawsuits. As a small seller you have the flexibility to zig and zag. The big guns don’t. They continue to make big system boo boos. In 2012 Hershey’s mismanagement caused $100 million in candy to not arrive on time for Halloween. In 2015 Target’s Barbie bar codes didn’t match their internal skus costing them a fortune. They went out of business in Canada. Nike, Best Buy and Ralph Lauren all have had mega million dollar inventory mishaps.
With all due respect to the “Anonymous Caller” of Episode 435 let’s say, for the sake of argument, his prophesy comes true and I DO run out of numbers. I hope so. That could only happen if I’m stocking 10,000 skus and turning them so frequently similar to a 7/11. Heck, I’ll be able to get that truck!
As Ebay sellers who “run out of number” you and I can do something Wal-Mart, Target, K Mart and the gentleman’s wholesale company couldn’t do. We can simply open up another Ebay store for $20 a month and list another 10,000 items. It seems like pretty low overhead to me. Wayne at ITWM
