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That’s a great idea tamtam, I’ll have to try this next time. What I run into frequently is somebody will send me a message with an offer on an item that I don’t have Make An Offer enabled for, I’ll often reply to their message with my own offer but they typically don’t accept it.
Retro, I think your comment about people declining your counter offers is evidence of a theory I have that Americans in general don’t know how to negotiate. They are so programmed by the fixed-price retail environment that people get offended when you offer them a price other than what they think something is worth. I run into it a lot at garage sales where they arbitrarily pick a price on something but get very upset if I offer them something different, even if it’s only a little less than what they are asking.
I’ve had a few minor instances of this, never something completely broken but items get returned in an inferior condition to what they were when the buyer first got them. I agree a shipping case may be your best hope if eBay is not willing to work with you. I’ve never tried to file a claim against the buyer since the item was always able to be resold, although at a reduced price due to the extra wear or damage.
I wouldn’t worry too much, you may just be having a dry spell. Are your items still selling here in the US? I’m similar to you, I have about 300 items in my store and have been selling for just shy of 3 years. My total monthly sales volume is typically between 60 and 100 items and I’d say I sell about 1 item through GSP every week or two.
I really appreciate the insight about Australia sales, I didn’t realize their local shipping rates were so high but I too noticed that I sell more bread and butter type stuff to that country. In fact I think my last two GSP sales were to Australia. A 5×9 100% cotton american flag to an Australian mining company and a late 90’s IBM thinkpad laptop to some guy in Melborne
CTLady,
That’s what other people have told me. I was honestly very tempted to take him out of day care and just watch him at home since day care is so crazy expensive, we are paying $700 a month for one kid! Then when he got sick 2 weeks ago I watched him at home for 3 days and its just impossible to get more than an hour or two worth of work done because the only time I could work was when he was sleeping.Total items in store: ~300
Items sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $22
Total Sales: $671.79
Avg. price: $30.54
Highest price item: $114.84 Sega Master System II Video Game System
Money spent on new inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 0I was sick as a dog all week so the only eBay I did was to pack up stuff and get it out the door. Having a 4-month old baby in daycare is like the virus gift that just keeps on giving. I think either the baby my wife or I have been sick for the last 2 months straight!
I did sell some neat stuff this week though. The Sega Master System came out of an awesome video game lot my brother picked up a while back. It’s a prime example of how knowing your stuff helps make the $$. He called me because a lady had a huge lot of games at a yard sale but wouldn’t sell him just the Nintendo stuff and she wanted $80 for the lot which was more than he was willing to pay. When he told me everything that was in the lot I nearly drove the 30 miles to the sale myself. Instead I immediately sent him $40 through PayPal and told him to buy the lot and give me all the non-nintendo stuff. I’ve easily made $500 off just the stuff he gave me and I know he made at least that much off the Nintendo stuff including some rare circuit boards for a demo-unit that he sold for $285.
Like Zach I follow Craigslist Hunter and several other eBay sellers on YouTube. Overall I’d say Scavenger life is the only true “Podcast” that I’ve found and like. Here are some of the YouTube people I follow:
Terminal99 – Scavenger Life has interviewed him in the past, he does “pickup” videos but he finds some really cool stuff. He also has a huge inventory and pays people to help list for him: https://www.youtube.com/user/terminal99
Golden Finger Picker – This guy does a weekly live show with other guest resellers called “The Resellers Pulse” which he then posts on YouTube. He tends to ramble and the videos can be kind of long but its interesting to hear the perspectives from his eclectic group of co-hosts: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoldenFingerPIcker
Mike,
I can’t help but think those rules are just not enforced very well. I know I had two vintage corning ware electric coffee pots that I listed a while ago. One of them sold and the other one got removed and I got a nasty email saying it was a banned item due to some consumer safety recall from the 70’s.It shows my defect percentage is 0.14%. I ran the report and it looks like it’s still counting a sale I had to cancel back in January because the item was damaged when I pulled it out of storage.
I do things similar to trextradingco, I pay myself a fixed amount every week which I transfer from my PayPal account to my personal checking account. I make sure the money that is left in PayPal is enough to be used for eBay fees, new inventory and other business related expenses.
As far as how much to hold back for new inventory, that’s going to be very different from one person to the next. If you are trying to grow your inventory you might need to set aside more money but if you have lots of stuff to list you might not be buying a lot and don’t need to set aside as much money. For me, I usually take $100 cash with me each weekend when I go to garage sales, I might not spend it all but I make sure I have enough in PayPal to cover me taking cash out each Friday for garage sales.
One thing that is not an issue for me yet but I’d imagine in the future I’ll start to build up a large balance in my PayPal account. I’m not sure I feel comfortable having more than a couple thousand in my PayPal account at any one time. I’ve heard stories of PayPal freezing an account if there is some sort of issue and I’d hate to have all my operating cash locked up while I wait for PayPal to sort through some sort of issue.
Rescuedrelics, thanks for sharing the info from Farmers. I’ve been sick all week so have not been following this thread but at least now I don’t feel like I’m hiding from my insurance company by using a personal policy while scavenging. Uber is another whole story. I recently found out that some companies sell a “ride-share” friendly personal auto policy but nobody wants to sell it here in Florida.
I admit Uber is a lot different than thrifting but Uber actually has a commercial policy that covers the driver and passenger when I am on a trip. What the insurance companies have an issue with is actually just the time I spend when i’m NOT on a trip but still out waiting for fares with the Uber app on because Uber’s policy does not cover me during that time. I’d say I actually drive more miles going to yard sales and thrift stores than I do when I’m waiting for an Uber fare so since the insurance company has an issue with the Uber part I’ve been very curious what they think about my scavenging. Another example, my father is a financial planner and has to drive to many different clients for meetings. He actually has to have a special rider on his auto insurance because he is driving his car for business purposes not just a normal daily commute. I admit scavenging is kind of an odd-ball thing that most insurance companies really don’t consider so it’s easier to fly “under the radar” as opposed to something like Uber but I have a feeling we technically are not 100% in compliance just using a normal personal policy.
Cebanak, your comment about people at yard sales is so true. It seems people these days are so scared of being taken advantage of that they make completely illogical decisions when they find out you are in some way benefiting from their sale. I’ve actually had people on multiple occasions tell me they would give their stuff to Goodwill before they would sell it to me at a discounted price. That’s just pure emotional spite there. They are basically saying they would rather make no money than allow me to get something at a good price.
Jay, believe it or not the insurance agent rescuedrelics talked to was probably correct. Since I started driving for Uber I’ve had to give this issue a lot more consideration. Apparently if you use your personal vehicle for business purposes on a regular basis you are supposed to get some form of commercial use rider/policy. In my case, if my personal insurance company found out I do Uber they would immediately cancel me and flag me as a high-risk customer which could make it difficult to get another policy at an affordable rate. I’ve looked into getting the proper coverage but the rates are sky high, easily double or triple what I pay now.
Hmm, I may have answered my own question regarding Mein Kampf.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/offensive.htmlInteresting, that site still does not make mention of ALL things I’ve had issues selling. For instance there is nothing in the clothing section about postal worker or UPS uniforms.
Yeah, I’d say the shipping options drop-down is the one that gives me the most grief. The biggest issue is that in the 3lb-5lb weight range there is no one delivery service that is ALWAYS the cheapest to all parts of the country from Florida. So, if I set parcel select or priority mail as the default then folks on the east coast see the cheapest rate but FedEx Home is often cheaper to the west coast and I doubt the buyers know to check the other options. I’ve had several sales where the buyer paid for more expensive shipping for no other reason than it was the default option.
