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@antique-frog – Have never heard of Allegro, not that I would have if it is solely for Poland.
Your clean out task does not sound like fun. Hope it is at least profitable.
@Simon – I think you hit the nail on the head. The loss of control made me very uncomfortable. Not really owning the creation of the listings and not being sure the translations were accurate left me feeling I was at the mercy of the system.
Thought I should post an update. I have pulled out of the Webinterpret Cross-Boarder Listing Program. Sales were few and far between, the process was unclear and confusing, and it was difficult to get answers quickly to questions. Several of the buyers I had via the program had questions or issues and my only way to communicate with them was via Google Translate. This slowed down the back and forth and added an extra layer of complexity that I didn’t enjoy.
Final straw came for me when I took vacation. I change my handling time via policies to accommodate the amount of time I’m gone. New required fields started when I was gone and the duplicate listings multiplied the listings needing updates by the number of countries they were in. Webinterpret cautions against editing the listings directly, so that left me with several hundred listings that I couldn’t update back to shorter shipping times.
I had seven sales for a total of $350 over a 3 month period. For me it just doesn’t feel like the added confusion is worth it.
I’ve been having a similar issue for a few months. Just happened again this morning after leaving a listing open overnight. Started after the Spring or Summer update. Whenever I leave a listing open for a while (more than an hour it seems) when I finally click save I just get a spinning “Saving draft” message that will stay there until I close the window. When reopened many of my most recent updates are gone, including any pictures uploaded. I opened a ticket with eBay and posted on their community board, but no resolution. Only confirmation that many are having the same issue. Clearing cache doesn’t seem to make any difference for my issue.
I’m using Microsoft Edge on a PC.
I see another problem with the implementation of time way. In the past, when I changed my handling time, I was able to set an away message that displayed at the top of my listings to alert users of extended handling times. That no longer seems to be an option. Now you are referred to “Time Away”, which doesn’t work with extended handling times. I normally email all my buyers soon after their purchase to alert them, but I can see this leading to more misunderstandings.
One step forward, two steps back…
@antique-frog – Ha. That’s got to be the bleakest travel video ever. I’ll be sharing that with the in-laws for sure.
@bethgreen – Thanks for the timely post. I was just getting ready to look into this. Hard to believe that the Time Away doesn’t affect items with GSP. Makes is useless for most international sellers. Won’t work for me anyway, as I’m taking more than 15 days and still want sales.
Congratulations on the new AC. Surprised that you have gone so long without it. Right after I graduated from college I lived in a house without air conditioning in Florida. I recall trying to sleep in the summer heat with the fan on hi pointed right at me. That’s no fun. A great splurge!
Slow week in sales again, but had one welcome large sale that helped a lot. I sold an antique Chinese guardian lion for $395.95. I purchased this one a few years ago at an auction for $35. This one was a bit unique because it was actually a ceramic roof tile finial that had a cool patina from sitting out in the weather for decades. I had originally posted it for $995 but recently retook pictures for it and lowered the price. Shipping to Chile.
Speaking of what do scavengers splurge on, we leave on Saturday for a month’s vacation in Europe. Lots of nail biting leading up to this week with all the travel restrictions and changes. Until last Friday I was still forbidden as an American from traveling to Belgium. Biden’s trip to the EU turned the tide. Looking forward to getting away. Will of course leave the store open and increase the handling times as per usual.
Sales Report for: 6/19/21
Total Items in Store: 1133
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $657.85
Net Sales (After fees): $561.93
Cost of Items Sold: $45.05
COGS Percent 8.02%
Net Profit Margin: 78.57%
Highest Price Sold: $395.95 Antique Guardian Lion
Average Price Sold: $82.23
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 4
Promoted Percentage: 50.00%
Average Days Listed: 438
Longest Listed: 1208
New items listed: 8@antique-frog – Thanks for the tip!
Good show. Definitely know those “bad mood” moments. Sounds like discussions Cecile and I have.
I’ve been busy last week with what I’d term scavenger-adjacent activity. Got an astronomical bid for replacing my deteriorating privacy fence and decided I’d do it myself. My fence it built on top of a short concrete wall, so bids came in between $5000 and $6000 due to the complicated nature expected. A few even begged off on the job due to the complexity. So, I spent $2100 and about 40 hours last week doing it myself. Wow, that was a lot of work. Fortunately, a good friend volunteered to help out or I’d still be at it. I wasn’t able to do much with eBay, but I figure I “made” at least $3000 doing it myself which is way more than my average eBay week.
Had a rare INAD return request recently that was finally closed by eBay last week. Buyer decided to mail it themselves rather than use the label eBay provided. Package seems to have gotten lost and since they didn’t use the eBay label eBay closed the case in my favor.
About average sales for this time of year for me. My largest sale of $174.95 was for an antique straight razor that appeared to have never been used and was in its original box. This came in a box of ephemera that I picked up for about $10 a few years ago.
Another nice sale was a vintage skateboard deck for $149.95. I bought the skateboard several weeks ago at a yard sale for $15. I took the trucks off since they were worn and sold just the deck. Already sold a spare set of springs for the trucks for $20, so free to me.
Sales Report for: 6/12/21
Total Items in Store: 1135
Items Sold: 11
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $524.41
Net Sales (After fees): $424.22
Cost of Items Sold: $37.15
COGS Percent 8.76%
Net Profit Margin: 73.81%
Highest Price Sold: $174.95 Antique Straight Razor
Average Price Sold: $47.67
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 4
Promoted Percentage: 36.36%
Average Days Listed: 418
Longest Listed: 1492
New items listed: 9@millionairedojo – Congratulations on the move. Having jumped ship from the IT world as well, I think you’ll relish in the change. IT support can be a thankless job and often feels like spinning your wheels. As I’m sure you’ve seen, in scavenging, putting effort in produces tangible results that are greater than the input. And, you don’t spend all your time solving other people’s problems.
@antique-frog – Which youtube videos have you been watching? I’ve been looking to educate myself on Chinese antiques also. Here in the DC area there is soooo much of that and I rarely pick it up as it is so hard to tell dollar store junk from high value antiques.
@simon – Love it! Selling your trash is awesome!
@Zach – Thanks for sharing your numbers. I’ve been on the fence about getting sixbit for cross posting to Etsy and this is very helpful. Sounds like your store is similar to mine in content.
Which Sixbit level are you using?
Mike
@samnlee – what type of product were you notified about?
