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If I have to put punctuation in my titles I try to place it as close to the end of the title as possible. So for example: NWT Ralph Lauren Green V Neck Sweater Medium Men’s. That way, if the punctuation theory is true, then google search won’t cut off the title until the very end.
My last two posts have taught me that at 41 years of age, I can’t correctly spell “punctuation” on my own. I miss the first “t” every time. Thanks Spell Check!
My numbers 12/10 – 12/16
This is my least profitable December in 3 years, even though I have 3 times as much inventory as Dec 2015 and twice as much inventory as Dec 2016. I think this is because I am not listing regularly due to outside work as well as lower profit margins from retail arbitrage inventory (the only type of inventory I have time to acquire right now). But nevertheless, I persist.
Total Items In Store: 955
Items Sold: 29
Cost of Items Sold: $195
Total Sales: $791 (but this includes free shipping)
Highest Price Sold: $104 (J Crew Leather Pants, which buyer is returning due to fit. I will relist for higher price)
Average Price Sold: $27.28I’ve had some of my oldest inventory sell over the last few weeks. Not sure if its because I updated all of my titles to delete punctuation or for unknown reasons. Jason T Smith of Thrifty Business said that if a title has punctuation google search engine will cut off searching the title at that point.
Example: NWT Chico’s Leather Jacket. According to Jason Google would cut off at the “‘” in Chico’s.
Another example: 23 Bon Appetit Magazine Back Issues June 2016, July 2016, April 2017. The title will get cut off at the first comma.
Last example: NWT Chicos Leather Jacket 3/4 Length Sleeves Size 2. Google will cut off searching title after the “/”.
I don’t know how to verify if this is true but I did update most of my titles over the 3 weeks, just in case.Linda,
Look into Bitcoin Cash, now also available on Coinbase. Bitcoin Cash was spawned when the Bitcoin blockchain software was updated over the summer (called a “fork”). Anyone with bitcoin at the time of the “fork” got an equal number of “coins” in Bitcoin Cash. For example, if you had 2 bitcoins at the time of the fork, then you received 2 bitcoin cash “coins” after the fork. Anyway, Bitcoin Cash is now available on coinbase. I think we’ll see a drop in bitcoin prices for a bit, while people buy into Bitcoin Cash instead. It’s a cheaper price point right now too.I get calls from eBay every time they push out a new service. Most recent call was Monday but I didn’t answer it this time. The calls always come from Midvale, Utah. It’s nice that they take the time to make a personal call to a little ebay seller like me. It does make me feel like a valued seller. But after the 3rd call telling me about the same service I start letting the calls go unanswered.
Bitcoin!!!
I moonlight as an anti-money laundering consultant. For awhile some of my clients were cryptocurrency exchanges that due to the services they were offering, required them to comply with certain anti-money laundering regulations. In order to try to grasp the concept of cryptocurrency and the blockchain (the “blockchain” is really where the usefulness of the currency lies for transacting on the internet) I purchased 1 bitcoin for $112 a few years ago. I never put in more than I was willing to lose. Over time I bought and sold up to 4 bitcoins. Never paid more than $112 for one. I expect it might be too late for any new investors to make money off of it at this point. At this very moment the current price of 1 coin is $17,099. Of course, I have no idea, no one really does. It’s fluctuated by as much as $5,000 over a 2 day period recently.
While mostly used as an investment in the U.S., cryptocurrencies are most useful in certain third world countries were local currency is quite volatile and barriers to international trade are great. Infrastructure in many of those countries is such that most people skipped landlines entirely and went straight to cellphones, where cryptocurrencies can be stored. Cryptocurrency use in those countries has made global transactions (and local) easier, quicker and less expensive. An interesting documentary that you can find online: Life on Bitcoin. It was filmed a few years ago. It’s about a couple who attempted to live an entire year using only Bitcoin as their currency. Ryanne & Jay – take your broken computer in and see if they can salvage anything off of your hard drive. I wouldn’t tell them that you saved your bitcoin info there though.Snow in NW Georgia this morning. It’s the heavy kind that is weighing down branches. Our electricity has been flickering like crazy. I got my ebay shipments out to the mailbox early, but don’t know if the post office will be picking them up. The roads are never pre-treated around here and most roads are curvy and hilly. Georgians don’t “do” snow, we hunker down inside and eat our bread and milk that we bought in panic the day before.
Lately I’ve become a fan of online retail arbitrage. I’ve been swamped with outside work this year and have not had time to list or thrift much. But I can usually find time to shop online. The profit margins per item are usually (but not always) lower but I can buy a lot of quantity of a single item quickly, and listing is simple. I can pretty much just copy and paste what the online store has in their description (although I’ve found them to not always be accurate). I take some photos when the item arrives and then store the stuff in the packing materials they arrived in.
It’s illegal or at least against policy for them to accept money so I’ve never tried giving them any. When I was a gov’t employee we could only accept coffee and maybe a donut (how the heck elected officials get away with accepting entire international trips on private jets is mind blowing to me). Anyway, I stick to smaller stuff throughout the year. I receive a gift card for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A every time I donate blood. It goes straight into the mailbox for the mail person (the card, not the blood – hehe). During Girl Scout Cookie season I buy a few extra boxes and put them in the mailbox. I’m bad at remembering to use gift cards so any of those I receive are usually regifted to the mail person as well.
When I was a little kid the elderly neighbor lady was always leaving Little Debbie snacks in her mailbox for the carrier. Half the time the frosting probably melted off but I always remember how cute I thought that was.
Item was sent USPS via Priority Mail, shipped from GA to CT on Nov 27. Somewhere between GA and CT item got delayed for awhile.
Update: My buyer was freaking out about needing the dress for a holiday party this weekend. I refunded her yesterday so she could buy something elsetold her that if dress appears she’ll need to return it or pay for it. I also nicely suggested that when time is an issue she might want to consider narrowing her searches to items participating in Ebay’s Guaranteed Delivery program. This morning I got a tracking update from USPS informing me the dress will be delivered to my buyer by 8 p.m. tonight. Sighhhhh. I promptly emailed the buyer to let her know. I’m definitely going to be on her like white on rice about returning or paying for the dress. It was NWT Kate Spade dress. Orig retail $598, I paid $59 for it at TJ Maxx and sold for $149.99.
Total Items in Store: 937
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $125.02
Total Sales: $752.38 *
Highest Price Sold: $118 (Kate Spade Flamingo Bag)
Average Price Sold: $30.10 *
Number of items listed this week: Not enough
Had a number of older inventory move out this week – always a great feeling!
*caveat – I do free shipping so prices are bumped up to cover postage)I did a lot of online retail arbitrage during Thanksgiving week and now all of those items are arriving daily in the mail. One expensive retailer is killing itself with how inefficiently it is shipping its items to me. I bought literally 100s of items and I’ve gotten maybe a few boxes that contained 10 to 12 items each, and then everything else has been arriving as items shipped individually or in small groups of two or three. Most of the items seem to have been mailed from the same place on same day so who knows what’s going on in that warehouse. I paid so little for the stuff that sometimes the retailer lost money from postage alone. But it works for me because FREE PACKING MATERIALS! Also, it’s kind of like my own Christmas; lots of randomly sized packages to open and only a vague idea of what might be inside.
For anyone who may find this thread because they have the same question: Today Buyer opened a case for item not received so I called eBay. The ebay response: Ebay considers an item lost in the mail once tracking hasn’t shown any change in status for at least 7 days. Note: that does NOT mean delivery in 7 days, but “any change in status.” My follow up question then was “What if I refund the buyer and then later tracking shows movement and ultimate delivery to the customer; what is my recourse then?” At that time Ebay doesn’t really want to be any part of it. Ebay rep told me that if that happens to send the buyer an invoice through Paypal. If buyer doesn’t return the item or pay for it, I would then need to open a case against buyer through Paypal.
By the way – I guess this example makes a good case for Ebay’s “Guaranteed Delivery Program.” I am not yet a part of that program, but I had I been, it is my understanding that Ebay would have been on the hook for the customer refund, rather than me since it’s a USPS delay causing the issue.
My 9-year old self really, really hopes you went roller skating in that storage building before you started filling it.
Ah – Thanks Jay. I didn’t think the Post Office would ever actually admit that a package had been lost. Here’s hoping I won’t ever have to find out.
I am so glad I clicked on this thread. I’ve done a lot of retail arbitrage over the last week (online retailers are offering great discounts that apply even to their clearance items. It’s been my own personal Christmas. All I really want for Christmas is stuff to resell). Anyway, all of the incoming stuff is going to need to be stored. A portion of my basement is an area of just dirt flooring. Nothing is level. I store a lot of totes in there but will be needing to store more and stacking totes is becoming precarious. I’ve been eyeballing storage shelves at Home Depot and Lowes but they are expensive and I’m not sure how they’d do on uneven floors. Plus they are too heavy for me to load and unload and put together. I think cinder block shelves may be my answer! Thanks for sharing your photos!
I see nothing wrong about canceling the sale. You made an error in the listing, it happens. Ebay has a system in place to weed out the sellers that abuse the cancellation system (i.e. canceling sales every time an auctioned item didn’t sell high enough). These sellers eventually rack up enough defects to be suspended. A one time cancellation shouldn’t rise to the level of an international incident. I haven’t read the string of comments above but this is the internet and commenters love to be sanctimonious on the internet.
