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[Marjean28]

I forgot to mention, I upload the photos. Its super easy because I do it in inkfrog. I batch upload them and assign them by dropping big batches of them into each VA’s image folder.

[Marjean28]

I started them off with postcards. I made many listing templates (called profiles in inkfrog) for them to use. I indicated the profile they should use in the name of the image. I scanned in the postcards, like spinach eater / Popeye’s postcards does. I even bought the same scanner he uses to do it. For example, if I have a Linen era, Lithograph (printed) card for a monument in Arizona, then the detailed procedures I wrote directs the lister to use the listing profile entitled: VTG AZ Postcard Linen Litho. Then they are instructed to add one item specific that I couldn’t pre-fill (the city & region of the card). The title is pre-filled with certain key words/phrases and they only have to look at the front and the back of the postcard to complete the title. So, its pretty well established for straight forward cards. They won’t be doing research. So, for example, when I move on to cards that need specific research, like an old cryptic Real Photo Postcard from 1910 which requires research, they wouldn’t do all that. Then I would just have them load the photo to the listing and maybe pick the state and not do the title. Either way, it all goes to a folder that I have to review each listing before going live with it.

Clothing would be more involved I think, but still is doable. They told me that they typically get 50 to 60 cents for clothing from their other e-commerce employers. I’m sure they have more proficiency in the clothing arena having experience in that area.

First I will get my current VA’s more proficient with postcards as I move forward. I started them out on chrome era postcards. Next, I’ll move them to Linen era, then I’ll get them more and more refined as they go. After that, I plan on moving on to other ephemera that can be scanned next. I may move on to books and records for them too. I like being able to have something that I can give them in the hundreds and then write the procedure out for them to follow.

Likely I’ll get them doing clothing, though I wish that inkfrog had the capability to have listers for poshmark. unfortunately, none of these listing platforms interface with poshmark.

[Marjean28]

Hi all, I have updates. My photographer was pretty good, and her photos were generally very good for clothing. However she flaked out on coming to work 2 straight days in a row. Knowing her background, I recognized this to be a pattern she has had in her past jobs. I was not immune to the same treatment, like I hoped I would be. So, she didn’t work out.

So I switched gears and went the remote VA way instead. It has worked out really well so far. I used inkfrog. They have limited access to the site as I specify when setting up their profile. I don’t give them access to publishing listings, so I can just review them and list easil, and keep up quality control in that way.

I hired 4 of them to start. They are paid 25 cents per listing, but they have pre-populated listing templates I made in inkfrog. I don’t know for sure, but it seems as though they do around 12-15 listings per hour right now. I don’t track their hours, so I can’t say for certain.

All they have to do is figure out the appropriate template to use, put in a basic title, add the photos and drop in their folder for me to review.

Out of the 4, 3 were able to successfully follow my instructions with minimal assistance. The 4th must have been younger than I thought, because she couldn’t follow even a basic instruction. I soon had to let her go.

This first week in, they have created about 200 listings between them. So I’m satisfied for the moment.

Marjean

[Marjean28]

I’m almost certain, but could be wrong, that the letter track feature is available through fit shipper. I know they allow for letters and it is priced lower. I like that it’s all built into their label. It’s true that it only tracks for out for delivery status, and not all the way to the door. But I believe that unless there is a problem with the piece never showing up, then it won’t negatively impact your eBay metrics. It sounds like there’s a great shipping nerd podcast in all of this!

[Marjean28]

Not as yet, though that is a card I could play if this latest round doesn’t work. Thanks for the great suggestion!

[Marjean28]

Well, I had an interesting week. First the numbers:
total listings (approximate) 1200
total sales including shipping 810.92
cost of shipping 333.16
cost of goods 6.86
ebay & pp fees 105.42
ebay promoted listings fees 19.02
number sold 55
average sale price (less shipping) $8.69
sell through rate 4.58%
returns 0
expense for lost stock 22.74
net 323.72
avg. net per item $5.89

After sales dropped off the cliff last week, I took a deeper look into several things, the first of which was promoted listings. It galls me to have to pay advertising fees on top of insertion fees. So, I paused my promoted listing campaign. The $19.02 reflected in promoted listing fees represent the few sales which occurred prior to me pausing the campaign. I knew I had just received TRS status which would only help me with search rankings, and I suspected free shipping would push me up in the search rankings. I switched to free priority mail shipping on all items over 1 lb and free first class shipping on all items @ 1 lb or less. That is why my sales volume increased and my net decreased. No sales, no promoted listings, nothing except the suggested practices from eBay.

You’ll notice there were expenses for lost inventory. Again, that’s my fault for (still) not correcting my inventory problem. Also, putting priority on everything cost me more than if I had gone through and selectively put larger and heavier items at parcel post.

I encountered incorrect charges related to promoted listings. After I had paused my promoted listings campaign, it was still running and charging me. I had to call eBay. After 2 calls, I got a credit for those which should not have been charged. They have a technical glitch with promoted listings which negatively impacts sellers with incorrect charges. There are so many other defects with the promoted listings program, that I won’t be continuing it for now.

Also, I had a photographer I hired who did a good job, but she didn’t show for work for 2 days, so that is the end of that. At least for now.

[Marjean28]

The saga continues…..yet to be resolved! The rep on 5/7/18 put the service number on my small store account. It took about 4 calls and about 8 hours of phone time to figure that out. Whereupon I was given another service number and promise to resolve. When I called to check on that, lo and behold, the service number was logged with no notes. That means twice, the service number was never processed or reviewed. I now have a 3rd service number and more promises. The inaccurate defects remain. I say inaccurate because I was assured they would be removed. We will see. I’ll keep you posted.

[Marjean28]

With regard to negative feed back, I have changed my strategy entirely. On my first store, I tried to fight it. And I always lost. From day one, which was September 2016, I always got the response from eBay customer service that the buyer had the right to say what they want. No matter what, this was always the case.

When I opened the second store, I took the opposite approach entirely. If the customer wrote me in complaint, my first line was always along the lines of, “you are completely right to be upset. You shouldn’t have to pay for this at all! I am terribly sorry this happened! I have already refunded you. Check your PayPal account and let me know that you received it please. As for the item, please dispose of it as you see fit. Perhaps donating it will allow someone else to get use of it, but you don’t need to return it to me. Meanwhile, would any of the items in my inventory work for you as a replacement? If so, please let me know and I’ll ship it to you at my expense. Please consider accepting my apology for my mistake. Thank you for your patience with me for my error. Have a blessed day.”

This has worked 100% of the time. I have buyers sending me money back, or a partial refund of my refund without me asking. Another buyer followed up with me to make sure I put the claim for my own reimbursement in for damage for an item that was shipped priority
mail and broke. I’ve had buyers gush in glowing praises over this approach.

Sometimes it’s nauseating to do, but typically an angry buyer is quickly disarmed with this approach. People who are initially vitriolic can be flipped to be your biggest supporter.

Also, I believe my sales fell off because I dramatically slowed the use of promoted listings, sales, and best offer. It irks me to have to pay even more in fees to eBay. I can’t see the need for advertising on a space for which I am already paying rent (in the form of insertion and final value listing fees). Hence my need to solve that issue for myself.

[Marjean28]

I have listened to the podcast, but in typical fashion, just my numbers for now until I have time to respond to the podcast. Despite heavy listing, my numbers fell off the cliff.

Big Store (tj digs)
# items in store approximately 1350
# items sold 9
Total Sales (not including shipping) 119.09
COGs 6.73
Net 112.36
Average sale price 12.48
highest sold 26.99 Vintage Presto Model 406 Pressure Cooker 6 Qt Rack & Weight HIGHLY POLISHED MCM
number items listed 65

Little Store (dlggers)- nothing sold or listed

etsy (reclaimeddame) – nothing sold or listed

poshmark – nothing sold – 15 listed

[Marjean28]

Hi folks, just a quick update on the process. I have hired the photographer and not the VA yet. I’m on day 3 and she is getting along pretty well. I plan on just having her photograph 600 items at first and then I’ll assess whether or not I wish to continue in that vein. I’m still working on creating templates and they are going pretty quickly with minimal errors and only errors that are not repeat. The only piece I need to figure out is the best way to deal with the item specifics and the measurements. Do I want to be the one to capture that information, as I am now? Or, do I want the VA to do that data entry? If I go with a VA to do the data entry, then is that done from looking at the photos? Or would they be better off working from dictation? I’m still ironing that out.

[Marjean28]

I have not yet listened to the podcast, but in the interest of getting my numbers up right away….
week of May 13 – 19
#items in store @ beginning of week 1190
Total Sales $328.85
Total Ebay & PayPal Fees $57.56
COGs $10.15
Net $261.14
Total Listed 107
Highest item sold 41 Saldarini %100 Wool Scarf made in Italy, sold at auction
number of items sold 19
STR 1.60%
Average Sales Price $17.31

I put a handful of things on auction and benefitted from the results. My take away from the auction method is that is creates a sense of urgency in the buyer. If I start the listing at the lowest price I would have the item on sale for, then I’m ahead of the game. There needs to be a balance between commodity v. collectible/antique; fast nickel v. slow dime; bread & butter v. home run; sales/promoted listings/best offers v. pricing low, etc. What that alchemy is, I don’t know yet. The wild card in all of this is both the marketplace and the mysterious Cassini algorithm.

I had a good listing week and a relatively low sales week. My listing experiment is noted in the Random Thoughts section of the Forum under the title, File Exchange v. Wonder Lister/Six Bit/Other eCommerce Management Platform. Another take-away from listings and sales I had this week is like follows like. That is, if I sell something in a category with recent sales activity, for example an auction bid occurs or a new listing sells, it seems to follow that a full-price, older listing or two also sell in their wake.

One other thing I have been looking at is the sell-through rate (STR) on the commodity items categories I hope to populate, such as clothing, modern linens, books, etc. I picked out Chico’s womens brand of clothing. I was surprised to see how few listings fell into the category of fast and free (3 day guaranteed delivery) and free returns. It was just a scratch in the surface of the data, but interesting to note.

Again, I want to express my gratitude for those in the community who offer their experiences and provide feedback. This is such a reliable and vibrant community. I am so impressed by the high level of decorum and engagement. Even when there is a difference of opinion, which I love by the way because it helps us all see the bigger picture and keep from becoming myopic, there is so much respect displayed for one another. Thanks to Jay and Ryanne for setting the standard and thank you, Trashelf partners, for sharing your voices.

Happy Sales!

Marjean28

[Marjean28]

Vintage Thrifter, I don’t give my sisters anything. These were simply generous gifts from them.

[Marjean28]

Elbow grease not required with copper like it is with silver, just use a product called penny bright if you decide to polish. And if you decide you don’t like it, just go to riogrande.com and buy some copper aging patina. Good luck

[Marjean28]

Hi Trash Elves!

I have such a stock pile of goods now, I’m nearly entirely overwhelmed. On top of my death piles, which are really larger than I thought upon closer examination, 2 of my sisters are unloading their death piles on me, and there are more to come. I have a sister who just moved and is downsizing, and although she got rid of a ton of things before she left Washington DC to move to Chicago, there were more things she discovered she needed to get rid of upon her arrival to her new smaller home.

Then there is the case of my other sister, who is an excellent thrifter for herself! She has gone to the point now of picking up things from the store and not ever using them and now they are coming my way. Its not exactly hoarding, but it’s retail therapy gone awry!

My husband just calls them piles and when he thinks he is being funny, he’s one of those midwestern guys with sarcastic humor typical of Minnesota, he’ll just call me piles, or drop the word piles into the conversation and start to laugh. At least we aren’t fighting about it! 🙂

Despite picking up a full truckload of goods from my thrifting sister, I managed to have a pretty decent week listing. That’s because I completely switched my listing process away from using the phone app or even listing on the desktop version of eBay. I now add my listings to a spreadsheet and load them up through eBay file exchange. It’s working really well for me.

So, for the period of May 13-19, I listed 107 listings. The great things was that it took me half the time it normally would.

Happy Listing! Marjean28

[Marjean28]

When I used to sell mortgages on the secondary market, before ‘08, I have dozens of mortgagees to sell my loans to. I had to learn all their guidelines, because I couldn’t have my eggs on one basket. Same will be true for e-commerce…..

[Author]

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