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mark—Thanks! That’s great information. Might try something like this in 2022…
Can’t wait for your YouTube channel!
Jay,
Sourcing in 2022 is shaping up to be a challenge. All those people who haven’t gone back to work, or who quit their jobs? Around here, it sure seems like they’ve all gone into reselling LOL. MUCH more competition, some of it is from resellers, and some is from people who are buying for their own use, and have simply decided they don’t need brand new. And people who once would have donated to Goodwill are now selling on Facebook or whatever. I have plenty of unlisted inventory, so it isn’t a major concern, but I’m definitely finding trips to the thrift store or yard sales are often yielding less than I used to get….and I’ve broadened what I buy, or it would be even less. Fortunately, I like to learn new things, and there are always new things to learn, new categories to try, etc.But, despite the fact that this country is overflowing with, well, STUFF…..I think we are going to find it more and more challenging to find stuff at an affordable price to resell. We WILL find stuff, I’m confident of that, true scavengers find a way…but , as always, we’ll need to adapt to the changes…
Wow! Congratulations on the Grant….I think they gave out 50 grants this year….and had thousands of applications….very happy for you! I’ll have to think about how I’d apply that 10 grand….
Hope you can give us some insights into the Hello Alice resources as you learn from them
Mark, Just trying to understand your process when you bring home purchases. You inventory them in a speadsheet, photograph them and are the photos tied to a number in the spreadsheet?, and then box them in numbered boxes (or containers). Does everything go in a box, or do you have different boxes for certain items (shoes in this box, clothing in here) etc?
Shoot. I was thinking of picking up some WalMart boxes soon. Wonder if my store might have the old ones discounted now? I’ll check next time I get there.
Helpful tip for changing box dimensions:
Will also take a look at the Boxery…
@Mark S
I agree, scaling can be hard. And I’m trying to scale at an age when most people are looking to “retire”….my energy level isn’t what it once was, and I am slowly facing the fact that in order to scale I also have to improve my overall health…..which isn’t terrible, but needs a lot of improvement. And the fact is, we have enough existing (unlisted) inventory that we could stop buying today and almost certainly never run out of stuff. Which would be the smart thing to do. BUT….the real enjoyment in this is the actual scavenging, so we don’t want to give that up….I’m wrestling with how to scale mostly in order to free up more space, I can definitely improve my process…and have been, baby steps, but I have been….but at some point I suspect we may have to hire someone, or we may have to unload some stuff in bulk–auction house or whatever—for now, we just keep plugging, trying to make improvements….Hope you can find something that works for you!
@LizForADay Any update on this situation? One thing I wondered, you mentioned hearing from buyers recently about the problem, but could your offer to those buyers have gone out BEFORE the fix?
About your cancellations: I’m not 100% positive, but I’m pretty sure if , when you cancelled the sales, you chose “buyer requested cancel”, your account should be fine. But yes, keep an eye on it. Too many SELLER INITIATED cancels spell trouble, ebay basically views them 9rightly or wrongly) as Out of Stock cancels, and ebay does not tolerate those very well….
Well, I’ve never entered the Challenge before, but PAPER! OK, you’re on! I have a lot of paper stuff, although there’s a lot of seasonal non-paper stuff I also need to get up. But I’ve been looking for an excuse to get some of this paper stuff listed, and here it is…..now I can tell Better Half I have to list it, cause it’s a Scavenger Life thing….LOL Do paintings count?
@LizforADay This is the thread. It starts out on another matter, but read it to the end and you’ll see where I got the quote. I’m sorry you are still running into a problem with this. By all means post to the thread, and , if possible, include a screen shot (with buyer ID blacked out if you can)…ebay needs to know this is NOT fixed.
Hi, ebay posted this today to a discussion thread about this issue. Looks like it IS fixed now. IF you continue to see any indication of a problem, tag me here and I’ll see what I can figure out. :
“Ok @dhbookds, I have great news! That was an employee and we’re working with them to get them a posting ID that verifies they’re an employee. They were just excited to let everyone know a fix had been found.
The best part, is that they did in fact implement a fix!!! There’s still a chance a buyer will see a heads up, but it should only be for someone who really doesn’t meet the sellers requirements. There is talk of changing the message as well, so if something similar were to happen going forward, a potential buyer wouldn’t be “scared” off and not accept the offer when they could accept it.
I’m happy this has been resolved and I’m sorry again about any confusion in that other thread!”
Oh yes, this one is what ebay refers to as a “known issue”…Better Half and I have both been trying to get ebay to understand just how damaging this is, especially since many sellers are probably sending out offers and simply hearing nothing from their buyers. Not every buyer is going to ask “Why won’t you ship to me?” So, sellers are throwing away offers without knowing there’s a problem, buyers are probably angry because sellers won’t ship to them, and ebay really does not seem to be making this a priority…. I’ve been testing this back and forth with Better Half, and the last few offers we sent each other came through OK, so I was hoping maybe it was fixed…..but it seems like it might be what ebay calls an “intermittent” problem…..but that means that, until ebay announces there is a definite fix, I am gambling every time I send an offer. I’ve been begging ebay to post an Announcement so sellers are made aware of this, but that has fallen on deaf ears. This is one of the few useful tools ebay provided in the last year or so, and here we are, Q4 launches tomorrow, and we can’t be sure it is even working,
You can add a note when you send an offer, and I’m adding this: PLEASE NOTE: If you are in the US, and this message states “This item does not ship to you”—that statement is incorrect, it is an ebay glitch. I ship to anywhere in the US. You should be able to accept this offer without any problem. Please contact me if you do encounter a problem.”
You are right, this is a mess, and it is not your fault or my fault….this time, the fault is 100% ebay’s. I’m hoping we will hear back from them soon, but so far, the silence has been deafening.
If I hear any news, I’ll report back here.
Jay, Antique Frog: LOL. Sounds about right.
Which reminds me of a post I read from another ebay seller. Some of us sell out bigger pieces, furniture and the like, on FB for local pick-up. Not a bad way yo unload some of this stuff. But this guy’s idea….is genius! (Maybe he’s a member here, I don’t know—if so, take a bow!)
He looks for local estate sales with really good stuff, then he gets up early, loads his truck with furniture he hasn’t been able to sell, and drives to the sale, and parks across the street from it. People at the estate sale assume he bought it there, and—human nature— they want to see what they missed, so they naturally look in his truck….and he sells his stuff right off the truck….
No advertising, no photos, no need to wait for people to show up who might never show up….and a built in customer base. For free. What’s not to like? LOL
Clarity, I have to admit, there are days I HOPE we’re living in a simulation. LOL
@craig-rex Thanks! Good tips—toughest one for me to follow—-but I’ve been trying to do the same—-is “Don’t spend too much time on any one listing.” what’s that saying? “perfect is the enemy of good”?….I need to make that into a poster and hang it above my PC LOL
