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Jay, This is where Pirate Ship can help. A 1 lb. package to Canada is $10.95. Here are their international shipping rates.
Good show this week. I usually listen while I’m packing my weekend sales on Monday morning. Every time I do this I have to listen twice to catch all the good stuff.
Regarding Pirate Ship, I agree that the biggest drawback to getting started with it is not knowing when it will save you money. The other thing that I don’t like is that I have to look in two different places to calculate my costs when calculating my numbers.
Had a good week of sales. A lot of Christmas. My best sale was a new in box Snoopy Snow Globe yard ornament. We picked this up last Christmas at an auction and never got around to listing it. Didn’t really think it would be worth much because it was from CVS and originally sold for $68. Last week I took another look and sales were all over the place, but a few sold for $150+. I listed for $249.95 and it sold in 3 days for an offer of $225. Also had a nice sale of a vintage ceramic Christmas tree for $175. Sold within a few days of posting for full price after the buyer queried me on my packing technique. A rare item that I double-boxed.
Week Ending 12/5/20
Total Items in Store: 1221
Items Sold: 37
Gross Sales: $2,355.73
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $1,449.00
Cost of Items Sold: $163.00
COGS Percent 11.25%
Highest Price Sold: $225.00 Inflatable Snoopy Snow Globe Yard Decor
Average Price Sold: $39.16
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 22
Promoted Percentage: 59.46%
Average Days Listed: 229
Longest Listed: 897
New items listed: 15@CYC – Classic Russian lacquer boxes are traditionally painted to depict scenes from traditional Russian folk tales, but more contemporary artists are expanding upon that. A quick search on Russian Lacquer Box Nature Scene does pull up a few, though not many, with similar tranquil images. It is probably more significant that it is not signed or dated, which will reduce the value. They are normally signed with the artist name, place of origin and date. This may be one from India or China.
From a website: “Russian Lacquer Boxes, otherwise known as Russian lacquer miniatures, are a traditional Russian folk-art form dating from the late 1700’s. Hand-painted, signed works of original art, done by artists in Russia who have attended one of 4 exclusive village art schools in Fedoskino, Palekh, Mstera or Kholui. Each school of lacquer miniature art has its own style, but all paint in minute detail on articles made from a type of paper mâché. “
We have those up in trees all over my neighborhood. As I am thinking about climbing out on a limb to check them out, in my mind’s eye I see myself hanging upside down by my foot while getting swarmed and screaming cartoon Goofy’s holler.
Decent week of sales. Ran a black Friday sale Friday and Saturday. Don’t usually run sales but thought I’d give it a try. Didn’t seem to make much difference and I can’t get rid of the nagging voice in my head that thinks I could have sold them at full price.
Had two returns opened and two unpaid items. One return was extra annoying because the buyer didn’t read the description properly and messaged me that he was going to be sending it back not an hour after the mailman picked it up from me. Both unpaid items were from buyers that were new to eBay and only 1 or no feedback.
Week Ending 11/28/20
Total Items in Store: 1237
Items Sold: 32
Gross Sales: $1,702.76
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $1,188.88
Cost of Items Sold: $73.70
COGS Percent 6.20%
Highest Price Sold: $159.96 American Girl Doll
Average Price Sold: $37.15
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 17
Promoted Percentage: 53.13%
Average Days Listed: 328
Longest Listed: 1619
New items listed: 11I did notice a glitch with unpaid item assistant. It is processing my cases, opening and returning my money, but it isn’t automatically relisting like it is supposed to do. I called eBay about it and they didn’t seem to be aware. I had one item that had been sitting not listed for a few weeks that I wasn’t aware of, along with the one that I actually called about.
Mike
YES! Thrift Raider makes an essential point. For Pirate Ship to be cheaper for international shipping, you MUST request to have access to their simple export rate via their chat interface. I should have mentioned this.
Regarding Pirate Ship. Since it came up again in the podcast I thought it would be good to note the two areas that you will save money using Pirate Ship.
1) Domestically, when using their Priority Mail Cubic option for envelopes, or bag in a box. I shipped one a short distance this morning from DC for NC and only saved 33 cents, but sent something to CA last week and saved several dollars.
2) International First Class shipments up to 4 lbs and less than one cubic foot. This is where I see the BIG savings. Just this morning I shipped a package to Hong Kong. eBay shipping for international first class for a 2 pound package was $40, but via Pirate Ship it only cost me $24.
I started using Pirate Ship in hopes of increasing my international sales by offering a cheaper alternative to Global Shipping Program so that I can pass some of the savings on to my customers. The biggest increase has been in sales to Canada. I created 3 new shipping policies that I apply to items according to weight. 1) less than 8 ounce, 2) >8 oz and < 1 pound, and 3) > 1 lb. and < 4lbs. For options 1 & 2 I have flat rates applied depending on destination, but for option 3 I still use calculated. I will usually refund the difference to buyers when the discount is really large.
I’d like to break option 3 down into 3 more policies to take better advantage. At some point I’ll set up the flat rate like I have with the first two policies. Unfortunately, it is not that easy to determine which already listed items are within each weight class. Something I’ll transition to in time.
Thanks for the podcast. Lots of good information and food for thought.
Sales took a big boost this last week and it is clear the holiday buying season is upon us. Had several larger sales including an original Dirty Harry movie poster for $300 and a mid-century Jewish Menorah for $180 and a first edition of How the Grinch Stole Christmas for $100 (had some water damage or it would have gone for much more). Looking forward to being very busy for the next few weeks.
Week Ending 11/21/20
Total Items in Store: 1253
Items Sold: 31
Gross Sales: $2,053.19
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $1,459.87
Cost of Items Sold: $136.56
COGS Percent 9.35%
Highest Price Sold: $300.00
Average Price Sold: $47.09
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 15
Promoted Percentage: 48.39%
Average Days Listed: 345
Longest Listed: 1608
New items listed: 38@annaesthetic23 – I still have parcel select available as of yesterday, so it may be something with your account specifically.
Thanks for the show. It has felt slow here too, but I went into the sales reports on eBay and ran a report for the first 15 days from last November and I’m up about 35% from what I did then. I guess it just feels slow for me because we had some exceptional summer months.
Here are my sales from last week. My big sale was another pre-Columbian vase. The same buyer who bought two last week bought another just after the first packages arrived. He also made me an offer on a 4th, but it was much lower than I was ready for.
Week Ending 11/7/20
Total Items in Store: 1248
Items Sold: 24
Gross Sales: $1,133.68
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $803.30
Cost of Items Sold: $50.80
COGS Percent 6.32%
Highest Price Sold: $170.00 Pre-Columbian Pottery
Average Price Sold: $33.47
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 13
Promoted Percentage: 54.17%
Average Days Listed: 494
Longest Listed: 1600
New items listed: 25@Temudgin – I need to get me some of those 18×16 polys. I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten several items recently from retailers that have boxes in bags. I wondered why they were bothering with that, but now I know. Thanks for the tip.
@Sharon – Curious why you are concerned about a VERO with Cutco? Have you heard something? I’ve sold several of their knives without any issue.
@trashinista – It looks like it is enameled rather than glass. I’ve seen a lot of these little metal trinket dishes that have enameled. This one on ebay looks very similar to yours:
@RetroTreasuresWV – I would be surprised as well on the call back. I’m sure you’re on it, but check for the charge as well. I know I’m keeping an eye out for mine. An earlier one that I was promised a credit for never happened, and the agent didn’t make note of it. The rep I spoke to the second time had them pull the conversation and after that I got a separate note relaying that I had been credited for the charge (not Fedex).
Glad to see you’re a bulldog on staying on top of them, too. Good to know that they are acknowledging the problem now.
Mike
