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Hey all: Just wanted to check in and say hi. I haven’t posted in a bit but I’m still listening to the podcast. I’m just having a busy summer outside of eBay and haven’t done much listing. My sales have been slower – I know, I’ll do my numbers sometime soon but I just haven’t. My kids start school in a couple weeks so I’m sure I’ll get back to my routines then. Meantime, it was fun to hear about ebay open on this podcast and on instagram. 🙂
The Goodwill near my office just closed, they built a brand new building about 15 blocks away.
It may be just me, but the new building seems to have crappier stuff and higher prices.
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P.A. I’m really not trying to be negative.
My son says I should never say the word hashtag because it will make me sound old and out of date, but this feels like a hashtag me too on the glitch.
6/4/18 – 6/10/18
(3 ebay stores + 1 poshmark store)
# of items in stores: 909 + 530 + 293 + 474 = 2,206
# of items sold: 25 + 12 + 9 + 0 = 46
$ sold: $176 + $77 + $33 + $0 = $286
Returns: 10 (didn’t like it and/or didn’t fit)
Average Price: $6.22
High Price: RMC Mens Jeans $40
Listed: 30Worst Week Ever On Ebay for me. I usually sell about $1,000 a week, so my sales were way, way down. And 10 returns!!! I had free shipping and free returns turned on and I feel like the free returns policy had everything to do with the 10 returns. I have shut free returns off as a result.
Last week I posted that I’m going to switch over to Poshmark for my clothing sales, I’m sort of chewing on that idea. I have posted more to Poshmark, but the posting/listing process is a bit different so I’m trying to get my process part of that speedier like I have it on ebay. My daughter didn’t help much with photos but my husband did. But I did have a slow week of posting – only 30 items.
I’m posting these numbers a bit late so I can already see that the week starting on June 11 is better for me now that the free returns are turned off and my sales have picked up some.
This past Wednesday night when I went thrift shopping as I do every Wednesday night, I got way more selective with what I picked up for clothing. I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do going forward but selling a high volume of clothing on eBay probably isn’t going to be what I do.
I’m at a bit of a crossroads. Or maybe I just had a bad week, we’ll see.
So this comment cheered me up “I get a chuckle out of their “inventory recommendations” message…yesterday they suggested that I start selling safety hoists, winches and fork lifts! Sure, I’ll get right on that.”
Thanks northernpinesgallery for the smile 🙂
5/28/18 – 6/3/18
ebay + ebay + ebay + Poshmark = total
# items in stores: 916 + 535 + 242 + 455 = 2,148
# items sold: 35 + 16 + 15 + 3 = 69
$ sold : $651 + 294 + 241 + 40 = $1,226
Average Price: $17.77
High Price Lilly Pulitzer dress $63, Joie Top $67
Returns: 4 (2 didn’t fit, 1 didn’t like, 1 “defective pants” seriously).Notes: So I’m doing my numbers almost a week late and I’ve been grumbling about sales being down and returns being up. I do feel like 4 returns is a lot for one week; but my sales numbers are still on track for this time period. I think my sales numbers for this past week starting on 6/4 are going to be down and my returns are going to be up. Keeping track of numbers is so helpful in gaining perspective on how I’m actually doing. But emotionally, as mentioned in my other thread about stopping free returns on ebay – I’m pretty discouraged right now. I do have a quote calendar on my day job office desk and the quote today is “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are tow of the surest stepping stones to success. – Dale Carnegie” So, I guess I’m just on a stepping stone right now.
1. Yay, I’m glad to see the feedback to this thread; I’m glad I’m not being a debbie downer here. I really like that this forum is positive and optimistic and scientific method-y, but the free returns thing on ebay has been a real downer for me and I wanted to share (but not get lost in a negative space).
2. I did leave one message on the ebay forums about my feelings. I think my one and only post ever over there.
3. I did call ebay today and told them about my feelings in a polite way. The sales rep kept telling me all the things I could do to change my listings,… but I told her I really just wanted to call and say that I since I turned on free returns, my returns have been up and the whole thing really feels unfair to sellers and I just wanted to give ebay my 2 cents on that feeling, that’s all.
4. Jay – Poshmark – yes, return rate is something like: none. I had one person return a Cole Haan coat once, they said it was covered it cat hair. It was not covered in cat hair when I shipped it. I lint roll everything and I don’t have a cat. It was when I got it back. I resold the coat on ebay no problems. But I think that is my only return ever on Poshmark and I think I’ve been on it for over a year, with not the number of sales I have on ebay – but still a decent amount. Returns are not an issue on Poshmark.
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And, Just because I’m a little frustrated with ebay right now – I switched my SAME DAY shipping to ONE DAY shipping. I feel like I’ve been jumping through every hoop ebay puts in front of me and I’m just kind of emotionally tired of it right now. I don’t want to get all jaded and stop all together. I’m just a little frustrated now.
Thanks everyone for all the positive vibes and constructive sharing.
Kate Spade is the one designer whose name I knew before selling on eBay. And during my time with eBay I’ve purchased Kate Spade jewelry because it is fun and whimsical with fun colors and cute animals. I’ll be wearing my Kate Spade fox necklace today. So sad, but I hope her death can bring more attention to depression and suicide.
I did not get this message – and I have 3 different ebay accounts, so kind of bummed about that.
On top of that – I got a return request for an $80 designer piece and I’m starting to feel like buyers are treating ebay with free shipping and free returns like a free rent the runway. The buyer said it didn’t fit – but this was a stretchy thing and I included measurements – seemed like it would fit pretty much any woman – so I’m thinking they wore it once and now want to return it for free. Trying not to get crazy forum upset about this, but this is a bummer on my birthday. Grrr.
5/21/18 – 5/27/18
Total Items in 4 stores: 2214
Total Items Sold: 79
Total Amount Sold: $841 (down from the past month or so)# of Returns: 4 (2 doesn’t fit / 2 didn’t like it)
Higher Priced Items: Free People Top $56, StitchFix pants $40, Everlane Jacket $32, Lot of Pants $30, Misook Jacket $30, Eileen Fisher clothing $30
Average Price Per Item: $10.65 (ouch – still trying to blow out some older stuff)
Notes: My daughter hasn’t been photographing for me because she’s been super social with her friends because of the end of school; I’m hoping that this will die down by next week so she’s back to photographing for me. Our internet was out at the house for 4 days so I only listed 36 items this week. I do shipping from my office so that still got done, but having an internet problem is a big problem for this ebay thing – and pretty much every other thing. My husband said he’d come to an auction with me this Friday night so I’m hoping to pick up a table lot or two – this would be my first time doing that.
Have a great week everyone.
Jay – my selling numbers have been pretty consistent over the past 4-5 months – so they haven’t changed – I’m not sure that free shipping & free returns made any difference in the amount of sales.
Total Items In Stores: 2,273
Items Sold: 105
Cost of Items Sold: (guesstimate) $250
Total Sales: $ 1,352
Highest Price Sold: $50 Fendi skirt; $45 Burberry top;
$41 Flax Top, $40 St. John pants
Average Price Sold: $ 12.88
Returns: 5
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $400
Number of Items listed this week: 92Notes: My Average Sale price was low this week because I marked a bunch of old inventory way down low. My Money spent this week was higher than normal because I am doing an experiment at the bins of buying every morning – it sort of wore me out but I did find great items like Vineyard Vines, St. John, and Lilly Pulitzer. My experiment is to buy more mall type brands at the bins and then lot them up, I have a bunch of lots up for sale now, so we’ll see how they do. My daughter was busy with her friends all week so I didn’t have my photographer, but my husband did take some photos for me on Sunday so that helped. I am still getting over the world’s longest cold, I just have a persistent cough. I realized that two weeks ago I did my best week so far this year $1,616 – and I thought that week was low (I don’t think I did my numbers on this forum that week so I did them late), but goes to show you – doing the numbers is actually a good idea because what your perception of what happened might not be what really happened. I did feel like, and actually did, get a bunch of returns for “I just didn’t like it” type reasons and I’m doing free shipping and free returns – so that is a bummer. The other thing, I was posting my Poshmark items in store incorrectly before this week, I don’t think you can see active listings on posh from a computer, only from an iphone, so I got that figured out. My storage room is getting a bit disorderly so I need to work on that.
