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TopNotch, Yeah, you know you’re an ebay seller when…..new box sizes excite you. I literally raced to the other room to tell the better half when I first saw the new size.
I think very few sellers will be able to maximize use of this, but , as a practical matter, it means those sellers who are nearing their freebie limit can safely ignore that (until the end of April). ebay is really in uncharted waters here…but many ebay sellers have full time or part time jobs and are now at home, either out of work or trying to work from home. For many, this could allow them to really ramp up their listings / sales.
Now, let’s just hope buyers will still be buying.
Thanks Amatino,
I’ve never understood why they couldn’t provide a list like that….
It was announced today that the first case has been confirmed in my home county, and the first case in a neighboring county. Hoping that for those around me who still aren’t taking this seriously….well, hoping knowing its in their backyard will hopefully wake them up.
So far, it does seem most people ARE taking this pretty seriously around here.
Stay well, everyone!
All my routine sourcing venues are closed, and I’m not really into retail arbitrage even though a few regular stores are still open. We are basically going to the PO and that’s about it. If and when we need groceries, we’ll probably try to call in an order for pickup.
That said, we have tons of shelter-in-place piles to list (as Jay noted, “death piles” is probably not the best choice of words for the piles these days LOL)
So for us, ebay is basically about listing, continue to ship with one day shipping (for now, at least), make offers, run sales, and re-organize the listed inventory, shipping and photo spaces. I’m not ruling out buying some additional inventory online, but we certainly aren’t under any pressure to do so. We have a LOT of collecting reference books which are here and there, totally unorganized, and I hope to get to that as well.
We’ve decided if we can get one or two sales per day, we’re not doing so badly. Most offers that have come in have been low ball, and, despite our willingness to counter rather than decline, most haven’t resulted in sales. We’ve been expecting the low ballers….just as some people are looking to snap up stock at bargain prices, there are buyers looking for bargains on ebay too. I don’t blame ’em.
We’re focusing mostly on getting more listings up and re-organizing stuff, along with doing work around the house and yard. Once I get some of the death pile whittled down, I’m going to focus more on listing: games and other home based recreational stuff, any stuff that can be used for home schooling, cooking and kitchen type stuff, anything tied to hiking, biking or other outdoor activities that can be pursued in a solitary manner, Easter stuff (people will still want to celebrate holidays, maybe even more so than usual, Bibles and other religious stuff (for those who find comfort in their religion), books in general, DVDs and even some VHS, probably some vinyl….We are in no danger of running out of inventory to list. I’m even considering putting together some wholesale lots for other sellers who might not have piles of inventory right now.
We’re in PA, Governor has put some pretty strict rules in place. So far, no cases in our county or the two adjoining counties we do (or did) most of our sourcing at. But I’m sure it’s just a matter of time …I’m sure we probably have some cases here, there just hasn’t been enough testing done to know for sure.
we’re pretty much self isolating, other than shipping at PO (no pick up here) and gas station/grocery trips. So, I’m not really getting out to see how well people are complying, but I am seeing a drop off in people outside. (And of course, we can go outside and take walks etc…just not in groups. If I get stir crazy, I’ll probably just go hiking.)
03/16/2020 at 3:27 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 454: Being Frugal During A Global Pandemic #75177I didn’t do my usual Sunday sourcing this weekend, a tough decision to make, but looks like it just got easier, since the governor here in PA has ordered the shut down of all “non-essential” businesses. I’m guessing the governor defines antique malls and thrift stores as “non essential”, even if some of us would argue they are essential to our well being LOL
So, with pretty much no where to source (except online), it’ll be even easier to work on the “Social distancing” piles.
03/15/2020 at 9:53 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 454: Being Frugal During A Global Pandemic #75152Sunday is usually my “regular” sourcing day and grocery shopping day: WalMart, SubWay for lunch, and the little local antique mall and the nearest Goodwill. For the first time in ages, I didn’t go. Better Half did send me for some groceries, which I got at a local grocery store, instead of WalMart. So far, we’ve had no reported cases in my Pennsylvania county, but I assume it’s just a matter of time and testing, so we’re cutting back on going places. I don’t need to source, we have plenty of unlisted inventory. We can probably order groceries if it comes to that. We’re both old enough to be “at risk”, but both are relatively healthy, so that’s a plus.
Hope everyone stays well….
At least in the short term, I don’t think buyers will stop buying. I do expect to get more offers, including more lowball offers, as some buyers will conclude that sellers may be feeling desperate to make sales. We have a decent cushion here, both in terms of financial situation and unlisted inventory, so that I don’t think we’ll feel heavy pressure to sell cheap. But….I admit, I’ll probably take some offers now that I would have rejected a month ago…depending on the item.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but I think outdoor stuff might do well…hiking boots, backpacking stuff…people still will want to get out of the house (especially with Spring almost here) and a hike in the woods without other people around still qualifies as social distancing. Stuff for maintenance and repairs around the house…..a lot of spouses are going to have a hard time claiming they are too busy at work to take care of the “Honey-Do” list, not when they are home all day….
I wish I could say I was expecting a spike in my sales, but I’m not. I’m just hoping to maintain a decent rate of sales by adding a lot more listings (plenty of unlisted inventory here, so we can stay put and list if need be) and by running sales, sending out offers, etc. I’m also finally going to try to ramp up my social media efforts. I’m hoping that , if people are stuck at home, they’ll still want to DO something and so games, craft kits etc might do well, and also I’m hoping collectors might decide to do more online buying rather than shopping the B&Ms, flea markets etc. Of course, consumer confidence is likely to take a hit….the virus, an election year, scary stock market, etc…. This will also likely give me time to work on my inventory system, and also redo my shipping and photo areas. We’re just going to do our best to work through this, and hopefully when things rebound, we’ll actually be better prepared than we would have been otherwise.
Like everyone, I’m concerned about this, but trying to stay positive: As almasty notes, this is a good time to work on my death piles, and God knows we have plenty of unlisted inventory here to list. I’m hoping that the warmer weather will impact the virus the way it does the flu (Of course, we have no proof that will happen). In any event, IF this is pretty much over in a couple months, I’ll have a lot more inventory up and ready for what will hopefully be a great Q4.
Stay safe, people, and try to stay positive!
Most of my listings have no terms of service in the description. Some have a link to my store landing page and some older ones have a mention of my return policy, but ebay has been pretty clear that the description should be just description, NOT terms of service.
I do think the description is one area where a seller can sometimes let some personality shine through. I also think it helps differentiate small sellers from large “impersonal” sellers. But I’m not convinced it really makes much difference in terms of sales.
This is one of those cases where I wish ebay could share some data about buyer behavior. My descriptions are shorter than they used to be, but they are a book compared to many I see. I agree: there are buyers who simply don’t read them, and there is the mobile problem, with ebay’s often god-awful abbreviated descriptions. Good reasons to put very little in the description. The other side is : I do think (but have no data to back this up) that some buyers (especially for non-commodity items) prefer a description that adds a bit more than a repeat of the title.
At this point, I pretty much just accept that I’m sometimes going to write longer descriptions and it may be slowing me down for no good reason.
This is part of the newest Seller Update. The update only mentioned “sufficient time”, but an ebay rep confirmed the time frames. Not sure, but they might amend the Update to include them, or might just put them in the new rules when this is rolled out.
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