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One last example NORITAKE IVORY CHINA GRAVY BOWL
I have a piece of glassware (ugh) I’ve had 88 views, the item is listed as MINT condition, I have 💯 feedback, the photos are ugh, OK, but good enough to see it’s a clean, mint item. The listing keywords are correct.
It’s been 60 days and it’s priced in the bottom 10% of the market.
It’s either undesirable, although 88 people have taken the time to look closely at it, or it’s just not desirable enough that of those 88 people no-one has said “it’s ok, I’ll pay more to this guy”. It’s a turd, get rid of it. If it’s the cheapest it’ll sell and I can move on, if not I can’t reinvest that whatever small amount in something BETTER.
There’s an old saying in my business “there’s an ass for every seat”, but it’s said tongue in cheek for “I screwed up, that car’s a turd, and it’s gonna take a miracle to find the right guy/gal”.
Lemme day this as well.
You’re clearly talented with what you guys are doing with the real estate.
If I was in the exact same situation as you two with the time you have to commit to your other projects, I’d most likely run things exactly like you do.
Would I “set it and forget it”, not exactly, but it’s not in my nature 😊
1) I will buy and sell anything I can turn a profit on.
2) FOR ME: Anything that takes longer than 60 days is either mis-priced, mis-marketed, or is undesirable. If something is undesirable to an above average number of people than it’s not worth my money.
3) After 60 days it’s a bad buy (excluding something so obscure it’s worth sitting on).
4) Assuming my photos and listing descriptions are quality, price and promotion (promoted listings) are the only levers we have on eBay.
5) I have no “affording inventory” problems.
Not only are the points I’m making the same any retailer would promote, eBay pays attention as well; if you turn quick I’m convinced (don’t ask me to prove it) you show up in searches more often and higher on the page. It only makes sense; eBay makes money when we sell, not list. EBay is a selling site, not a shopping site. As their business partner why wouldn’t eBay promote someone who has a high turn rate vs someone who doesn’t? I would, and they’re a lot smarter than I.
99% of the Vintage items we all sell on eBay aren’t obscure or rare. We are living in a historic period of the largest generation retiring, downsizing, and passing away and all of their “stuff” coming to market. There’s always more to buy tomorrow, so why not sell it, take your bite and do it again?
This is why every corner in America was converted to a Pharmacy in the late 90’s/00’s as Wall Streets anticipation of this demo passing into their golden years.
Hypothetical non accurate numeric example: Vintage silk jackets from the 80’s aren’t rare. I just don’t understand someone sitting on a hypothetical $100 sale while I sell 10 for $80 each, especially if I have someone doing the “in between work”.
After it is assumed that the first two P’s are satisfied, in this case photos, and placementa (which is driven by price) eCommerce is a price driven model (even unique items) wether someone wants to admit it or not.
If the item is worth $100 (retail) why would you sell it for $25?
However if it takes a year to sell for $100 it’s not “worth” $100 (unless extremely unique), getting $100 is getting lucky.
I never said $25, however I would never list an item for a “hope and a prayer” price. IMO you’re better off to put it on the money and sell it, turn the cash, and move on.
You speak all the time about abundance and waste in this country, so aside from your extremely hard to find items, there is always more to buy. Why sit on items and pay to have them sit around. Storage isn’t free regardless the situation. Everyone pays property tax somehow.
Kuddos. Thats a very smart way to manage and accept offers on over 2500 items when you’re in the field.
“Long tail” is nothing but a “feel good” way of describing bad buys.
I get bad buys are unavoidable and it’s usually the root cause of “slow sales” regardless of the economy, seasonality, etc in an established store.
I’ve always been keenly aware of my failure rate. Out of 10 used items I purchase how many are low profit sales, losers, etc., it doesn’t matter if it’s cars, electronics, collectibles, clothes, doesn’t matter.
I merely used the car analogy not based on depreciation, rather if I use the wool jacket analogy, if it’s selling for $100 and you pay $90 it’s a bad buy (obviously no profit, no pricing flexibility should they become “stale”, seasonal changes, etc) vs paying $5 as a “good buy” you’re always “in it” right.
The profit is in the buy, not the sale. A bad buy is a bad buy regardless the commodity.
No matter what it is if you pay too much for something it’s a “bad buy” and you’re better off cutting bait early and putting those resources into a “good” buy.
Sitting on a bad buy doesn’t fix it, only getting lucky does. If inflation is 2% annually (compounded), every item we have that sits around that long loses that value regardless of how Vintage it is.
Nothing more true in clothing sales:
“This, then, is the “3 P’s.” And there is only one logical order for the 3 P’s and that is price, then place, then promotion. … Promotion is communicating the product, price and place strategies to the target market.”
And price really takes up two of the three P’s because a low price will “place” you higher in the search results. Most people sort their searches low to high. Promotion is the quality of your photos, high positive feedback rating, and a spot on description (which you can copy and paste from recently sold). T-Satt’s promotion (pro photos, description) aids his price even when his placement isn’t the highest.
I despise selling clothes, however maybe I despise it because my “promotion” isn’t good enough. The average clothing seller nets around $10-$13 an item so you better be dialed in if you’re going to compete at any sort of volume.
I spent 20 years buying used Automobiles professionally and ANY AND ALL profit is in the “buy”.
No different here. A bad buy, is a bad buy, is a bad buy.
Every once in a while we get lucky but more times than not we don’t. A bad buy wastes time, space, and capital that could be invested elsewhere.
Don’t like to speculate, however I doubt most people with 8,000 items have the ability to store them in their home unless they have a unique situation, or are about to be featured on “Hoarders”.
Troy,
I noticed many of your items end with a random (or so it looks) amount.
Do you use an AI program that is scanning and making pricing adjustments va the competition, or is that just an internal cypher system maybe letting you know your investment in that item?
Thanks,
Dave
