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I don’t normally check the Ebay Community Forums over on eBay but I will be interested to read the comments over there when this gets out. I’d like to say that this will cause me to move my clothing inventory over to Poshmark but after trying it a few months ago with a handful of listings, I hated it so much that I ended that experiment. So I guess I’m stuck with free return shipping on ebay. Barf.
Paypal Not Accepted 3 or 4 days ago I used my eBay supplies coupon. After the coupon I still owed $4 and guess what…. Ebay’s shipping supply store no longer takes Paypal because of course, it’s opted into the new payments platform. Very annoying since I have $$$ in my PayPal acct that I can’t use to pay for ebay brand supplies. Boooo! Eventually, PayPal is supposed to be an option within the new payments platform, so we’ve been told.
Free Shipping I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseam with strong opinions on both sides. I’ve always been team Free Shipping because both my husband and I always filter our searches for Free Shipping (habit due to Amazon Prime membership probably) but today I shipped 7 items, the 2 heaviest of course sold clear across the country to California (a majority of my sales are to CA). My total profit on 7 items was only $35 for items that had otherwise good sale prices! Even though I try to work an estimate of the postage cost into my price, CA postage always kills me because I guess I never figure enough in to cover West Coast shipping. I’m finally thinking of switching over to calculated, at least for items over 2 lbs. Ebay has had so many policy changes in the last few years that I don’t even remember what the “perk” was for offering free shipping. Maybe it was just the Fast and Free stamp that appears on the listing – if so, that is no longer worth it for me.
Retro – If you have Netflix and haven’t seen it yet, I just watched a episode 6 (I believe) of the first season of Adam Ruins Everything (docu-series). The episode is about the antiquated 40 hour work week as well as other baloney modern workers put up with in the US. The episode is an easy 21 minutes long with lots of interesting info.
I cover misc barcodes with free Priority Stickers from the Post Office (if I’m sending the item priority) or I use those round Ebay Stickers.
I sold a sunburst clock only to have it returned because it didn’t work. I had tested it beforehand but failed to notice that once the hands made it down to “6” there wasn’t enough power in the motor to lift the hands back up the left side of the clock. I tried to change out the motor but couldn’t find one that fit the hands for that clock & none of the replacement hands had the right look for the era. I relisted it as broken. The prop dept for The Deuce (HBO Drama series) purchased it and it appeared prominently in a few scenes in the first season.
I love finding sunburst clocks!
No, I didn’t ask for more money because I’m already paid quite well. However, I did say that I need to be able to take leave and not be docked pay for it. This job was supposed to last only a few months and is now on month 20. In the beginning I was working 80-100 hours and then later it was 50-70 and now with an employee, it’s a reasonable 40. But over the spring I took 10 days “off”. I actually did work about 25 hours during that vacation week and my employer docked my pay saying I wasn’t eligible for leave yet. I flipped out! I never agreed to the company’s employment terms for their hourly employees because I was expecting to be there for 4 months, and I’m salaried and like I’ve said I’ve worked well beyond a normal work week. So when the lawyer asked me to stay on for 6 more months, we agreed that I can take leave when I want and will not be docked pay for it. If they try to get me to stay again after these 6 months is over, my husband and I agreed that I will give them some ridiculous number that they will need to pay for me to stay on.
I tried to quit my job a few weeks ago but owner’s lawyer begged me to stay on for 6 more months and I’m a super wuss so agreed. Anyway, had I stuck to my guns today would have been my first Monday back to full time ebaying. On one hand, glad to still have the steady paycheck; on the other hand I’m still working for the man so I’m chained to my desk and phone. Sigh… But at least now I have a full time person working under me so I’m not working 6-7 days a week. I have some “free” time again! I spent the entire weekend listing on ebay and it was great! I have so much stuff that I was saving to list for when I finally left my outside job. I sorted & began listing 1 bin full this weekend and was surprised by how many NWT clothing items I have. The stuff was put into bins so it’s not a “hoard” right?
Speaking of Hoarders, whenever I watch an episode I instinctively start cleaning my house without really realizing I’m doing it. The show makes me feel dirty.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by
Julie B.
10/25/2018 at 9:29 am in reply to: Thrift stores refusing to sell you items because they know they're good finds #50699Years ago there was a larger Salvation Army store in my town that went out of business. Local folklore is the workers were cherry picking all of the good donations for themselves to flip so good stuff never made it to the shelves. I don’t know if they had to purchase the items first (I hope so). No one shopped there because there was never anything good to buy. Years later the Salvation Army opened a new store and employees were forbidden from shopping there but management changed about 2 years ago and they relaxed this rule. I donated some items and right in front of me as I was filling out the donation receipt a sorter that worked there said, “wow, this is a nice bag”, tried it on (it was a computer backpack) and then put it aside in the employee break room. What the hell? I specifically donated it to the Salvation Army because I knew they used the store’s proceeds locally. I didn’t donate it so the guy who was earning community service hours for parole could have something free for himself. It really irritated me. I’ve noticed too that the store never has anything good anymore, ever. I used to shop there 2 – 3 times a week and I now I go maybe once every 6 months. I’ve heard other thrifters complaining about it too so we’ll see if they stay open or close down again.
10/23/2018 at 9:22 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 382: Treasure Hunting with a Fishnet #50591It’s an Ebay Christmas! About 65% of my death piles contain great stuff. It’s mostly higher end clothing that I sourced over the last 20 months in Atlanta while I staying overnight frequently in the city for outside work. During that time I barely had time to do anything eBay related but I’d unwind 1 or 2 evenings a week at the Goodwill near my hotel. I knew I wouldn’t be able to list most of the items I was buying for quite some time so I was picky about what I bought and I put everything into totes for when the time finally came that I could list more. As of last night work has settled down and I’m caught up to the point I can begin listing from the death pile. Since it’s all stuff I picked myself every brand is a winner and nearly every item feels like a new discovery since I don’t remember most of the stuff that I bought. Last night’s maiden dip into the death pile felt like Christmas!! I’m only bringing about 20 pieces into my ebay space to work on at a time before I’m allowing myself another dip into the death pile honey hole. There are some crappy deathpile bins as well, stuff I bought early in my ebay career – not fun to list. For every time I dive into the honey hole totes I’m going to try to also list a few things from the not so fun death pile totes. It’s refreshing to be motivated and excited about eBay again.
10/20/2018 at 10:21 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Hats, Light fixtures, Shoeshine box, Inarco Collie figure, Barbie costume, WWII Army trunk, Siamese cats TV lamp #50429I had a couple of better than average clothing sales this week.
First is a NWT Anne Klein 2 piece skirt suit. Original retail was $340. Recently reduced the price to $80 which sold it. Paid $10.99 at Goodwill. Suits are little pricey at my Goodwill but worth going through in the off chance I find a St. John suit or blazer – which is rare.A fun clothing sale was this 1980s style prom dress. Superb condition. Paid $6.99 sold for $60. I did have one annoying inquiry on it about a month ago. The potential buyer asked if I’d take $25 since they only intended to wear it once. With that logic the entire wedding gown industry would come crashing down.
Not a high dollar sale but a quick flip and I probably underpriced it – Box of 20 Edward Gorey Holiday cards. I paid 99 cents for the box and it sold within a day for $22. Not your traditional holiday card illustrations. I’m pretty sure these were originally sold at Barnes and Noble.
Looking forward to having a listing marathon this weekend. My husband is out of town working overtime so I have the entire house to myself which means spreading out and setting up my ebay photography equipment in a usually inconvenient area in the kitchen and leaving it all set up for 2 days rather than having to pack it all up after a few hours so we can use the kitchen like normal people. Here’s hoping for a very productive 48 hours!
To piggyback on this post:
For the extremely technology-challenged person, such as myself – would anyone recommend one 3rd party app over another? I too have been wanting to backup my listings. I don’t plan on using the app for anything else, just as back up; I don’t care about using it to create listings, track sales, etc.10/14/2018 at 4:06 pm in reply to: GeorgiaHillbilly from Peachtree City, Georgia..trying to up my game. #50126Hi Fellow Georgian,
I’m in the NW corner of Georgia, in Rome. I used to sell on Ebay full time but for the last 18 months it’s been just a hobby. Even as hobby you should be able to get to $800-$1,000 a month. Following Ryanne and Jay’s advice, I worked my tail off to get to 500 items in my store. That amount of inventory led to consistent sales for me. I now try to keep 900 items in my store but it’s been slipping to 850ish items. To store all of this, I’ve had to be militant about organization. I make good use out of shelving and rubbermaid bins. It’s amazing how much I can store when it’s organized.
Over the last 18 months I’ve had very little time for ebay, some weeks I might spend 16 hours on ebay (sourcing, listing, shipping) while other weeks I spend only enough time to get my shipments out. My profit (after all expenses) over those 18 months has ranged from $550 to $1200/month. I’m pretty happy with that considering how little time I devote to it these days. If I spent 2 days on it every week, I’m sure I’d be over $1,500 every month.
In Peachtree City, I would think you may have access to some good Estate Sales. Most Estate Sale companies will reduce the prices about halfway through the sale in order to move everything out. I always wait for the half price time to source at those sales. The prices are generally better than what you’ll find at many thrift stores (depending on the Estate Sale company – some are much better than others).
You might think about expanding the types of items you sell. I’ve had to do this a number of times as tastes have changed and to accomodate for the types of items I can find in my area. I learned “what sold” by watching every “what sold” video available on this site as well as some other similar videos on YouTube. I also used to do searches by category on Ebay to see the types of items that were bringing in good money. For example, search “board games” and filter to see only the “sold” board games, and then sorted by price, highest to lowest. I did this a lot in my free time using my phone and ebay app.
Best wishes in your reseller journey!
Julie
My dog’s most epic scavenge (I’m sure in his dog-mind) was a deer skull with one antler. It still had all of its teeth and just a little bit of fur at the very top (cringe!). When my dog found it he was so excited that he ran up to me at full speed. I couldn’t tell what he had in his mouth but knew that whatever it was, I didn’t want it pressed up against me which is where it was headed. I ran to the house screaming and watched him from the window. He was very pleased with his find! He pranced around with it whenever he went outside for a few days and then lost interest. I should have sold it!
Thanks for the video, Steve!
I don’t know what’s going on but old magazine back issues have been flying off the shelf for me during the last week. I sell them in lots and am picky about what magazines I’ll sell because they are not fast movers nor large money makers. I’ve had some cooking magazines for around 2 years. Last week I sold 1 lot to a prop house and then last night I sold 5 different lots to 1 person. Yesterday I sold 17 vintage photography magazines from the 1960s. I get each magazine for 10 cents. After COGS, fees and shipping I’ve cleared $97 on magazines in the last week. But mostly I’m just glad to have them move out of my inventory.
All other sales have been small dollar bread and butter items. I haven’t had any big ticket items sell in quite some time. But I also haven’t sourced any big ticket items lately either. I guess I consider anything $100 and up to be a big ticket item. I rarely get to source these days due to outside work. Less time in thrift stores means less chance of finding the big dollar stuff.
09/20/2018 at 10:54 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Spacemaker coffee, Settlers of Catan, Military jump boots, Sony 8mm Handycam, Yankee spiral screwdriver #48962I have a filthy spacemaker coffee maker in my basement that I’ve been putting off cleaning and listing for 2 years. I should probably get it listed before everyone finds out that they are being made again and can buy brand new for cheaper.
I’ve had consistent sales this week but nothing impressive profit-wise. Suddenly a lot of my older items are moving, things that have been in my inventory for years! I did update my listings about a month ago, perhaps that explains it.
Thanks for the video Steve. It looks like the doggos got some peanut butter ice cream? My dog ignores everyone and everything when he’s eating ice cream. He even ignored my husband when he returned from a week away – which is usually met with great fanfare by the dog. Peanut butter ice cream is serious business.
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