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Reminds me of the credit card fraud scheme where they only take small amounts, but over time, hoping you won’t pay attention to such tiny skims. Do that over thousands or millions of accounts and it adds up.
@Old Dad, I hadn’t thought about the maintenance involved in staying with the trending rate. I just scanned through my listings and I see that there are some wildly different trending rates now than when I started, both up and down. The most extreme was for an item that originally had 1.1% as its trending rate and now the trend is at 7.3%.
@Jay, in my scan through the listings, I see using trending rate had 2 listings at 12%, for some M&M candy collectibles. A handful of items were in the 10 – 12% range, but not too many. Trying to look at it critically, probably don’t need to match rates in areas where a lot of commodity items are sold, if our item is rare and vintage. I’ll have to weigh the extra time it will take to micromanage eBay’s auto-apply. It will be easier for new postings since they only come a handful at a time, but the bulk application may need more hands on.@Jay, on $1584 in sales, I paid $82.21 in fees, so that averaged 5.2%. Highest % I’ve seen on any of mine so far is 9%. I think that was for art.
I recall that when I put mine into place I started with two basic policies, one for more than 1 lb and another for less than 1 lb. and put all my listings into those. I then added a media mail policy. As time went on I ran into special situation where I needed to add a few more and now have about 12 total. 98% of my listings fit into the first three policies, the remaining 2% are spread across the other 9.
Descriptions should be self explanatory.
Hope this helps.
Mike
Steven,
In a strange bit of life’s synchronicity, just after watching your video I got on an auction site that was selling one of the Panasonic systems. Thanks to you, I am now the proud owner of one for the bid of $6. Just hoping it works. Life is full of surprises.
https://auction.ebidlocal.com/cgi-bin/mmlist.cgi?staples141/6263
Always appreciate your videos. Learn something new every week.
Mike
Thanks for the video motivation, Steve. Have had some good sales this week, especially when compared to the same period last year. Noticed in eBay sales review that my 30-day total is 655% higher than the same period last year. Happy about that. Here are a few of my best sales this week:
An old family bible, dated 1839, that I got from the same estate sale from which I got the historical documents I wrote about. Paid $10 for the bible and it sold within 24 hours of listing for $299.95. Always hate to see people giving their family history away. Happy to know that I was a conduit to getting it into the hands of a descendent that will appreciate it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/133133833796
Inside the bible was a little yellow card in an envelope. Looked like a coupon but was a card soliciting New York Civil War veterans and their families to submit the records of their service. Probably dated to the late 1860’s. Posted for $49.95 and woke up the next morning with an offer of $40 from a historian who wanted it for a NY museum.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/133134513293
Bought this decanter for $10 at a yard sale and put it up in May. Tough to price because they are all over the place due to age, etc… I started at $299.95 Got some lowball offers and went down as low as $149.95 but no takers. Saw that I had 5 watchers so sent them a $149.95 offer and one immediately took it. My first successful offer.
Junk Redux, You’re brilliant! That is it exactly. Now to see if I can find better solds.
THANK YOU!
Hi Jay,
I have a high confidence in the authenticity of the John Black documents as they came with letters to and from John Black and the ancestor of the most previous owner. I included these with the items to support the provenance. Skinner is a very reputable auction house and they will do a bit of due diligence as well before risking their reputation.
They wouldn’t even take the Washington check because they didn’t want their house associated with a forgery.
Just thought I’d post an update on the historical documents I found. I sent them off this past Friday to Skinner Auctions to be included in an Early American auction they have scheduled for the fall. Their estimates were lower than I expected, $3000 – $5000 for all, but you can never be sure with auctions. I felt that I might get a bit more for it using Skinner’s connections to the collecting community. They take a 30% cut for their service.
I found a few other interesting objects in the trunk after my initial posting here. I found a check in the truck dated 1794 signed by George Washington. I got REAL excited by that one and got an initial estimate of $5000 – $6000. Unfortunately, that one turned out to be a forgery. 🙁 Still interesting, though, as it was done by a notorious forger named Robert Spring in the 1860’s. Should still be worth a few hundred due to his status as one of America’s first great forgers.
Another cool check in the box was a check for $60,000 dated 1807, written to a John and Robert Oliver. They were wealthy merchants in Baltimore. There is even a book written about Robert named “Merchant of Baltimore”. That $60K check would be $1,380,000 in today’s dollars.
Here is the Washington check. I currently have it listed on eBay for $997.95 or best offer.
Wow! Just read through your saga. What an inspiration. Congratulations on completing the transition and good luck finding your dream home. Looking forward to following in your footsteps one day and getting away from the big city.
@Hausfrau, Yes, I did come across it. Made my heart skip a beat. Actually called Raab, but they were less than forthcoming and wouldn’t give much information over the phone. They told us they usually buy object outright, then resell them, rather than putting them up for auction and splitting the proceeds.
Thanks for the link.
@Jay, Yes, we found them at an estate sale and yes, they are originals. Thanks for the tip about provenance. Easily overlooked. I’m going back by the estate sale today to make sure there is nothing else I should have grabbed. Lots of old books that I now want to take a second look at. I’ll see what additional information I can gather.
I like how they represent the parent shopper icon with bags under the eyes and frazzled hair.
It is interesting that shoppers hate paying for shipping more than anything else. I guess AMzon has us spoiled. I haven’t pulled the trigger on free shipping yet, either. I sell so many larger items and items overseas that it makes me too nervous. Looks like we’ll have to at some point though, but thankfully sales are still good and getting better as is.
Great sale on the vintage stereo.
Had to post on my sale from last night. Got this clock in a lot of electronics I got at auction. WAs almost going to put it in the give-away pile and thought at the last minute to check out sales. Glad I did. Fully working these can go for hundreds. This one’s clock was working, but the alarm didn’t. Still, posted for $69.95 and it sold within hours. Going to Germany via Global Shipping.
Another good sale. 1972 Olympics ashtray. Picked this up at a thrift for $1. Sold for $29.95
Got a huge lot of cassettes and DVDs at an auction for $5. Made a few small lots but decided to post the rest as a 1980’s mix. Total of 72 cassettes sold within a week for 99.95.
Favorite sale of the week. Bought a bunch of cameras and this Motorola flip phone was in the bottom of a bag. Still powers up and turns on. Came with accessories.
Good luck with sales!
Mike
