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Boocha,
That is one of the points ebay has made when promoting Promotions Manager to sellers.Postal rates went up Sunday I think. Your buyers paid on Friday and Saturday (I gather), and I think you could have printed the labels out on Friday or Saturday at the old rate. I’m not sure ebay could know in advance that you wouldn’t print them before the rates went up?
Probably Better World Books. They have made inroads at libraries as well, so if you go to Library Book Sales and wonder where the good books have gone? That’s where.
I’m not sure what you are saying? I use calculated shipping. If I print the label tonight for a package that won’t actually go out till Monday, I’ll be charged Monday’s rate, not Saturday’s.
albee, You say: “…all left up to the seller to rack their brains and absorb the increase and find a way to overcome another cut in their income.”
That is what we do, That is business.
If marketplace fees go up, we figure out how to adapt.
If shipping rates go up, we figure out how to adapt.
If buyer expectations increase, we figure out how to adapt.
If competition increases, we figure out how to adapt.
If demand for our products change, we figure out how to adapt.
If our inventory sources close, or change their pricing structure, or move, or make other changes, we figure out how to adapt.
And on and on…OR….
we can complain about the terrible injustice of it all.
USMC: Improvise, adapt, overcome.
It works for the Marines, it works for business people too.
Yeah, I fully expect we’ll do something similar when we finally make things official LOL
Welcome, and…Wow! Sounds like you sure are busy! I’d love to hear a little more about the vintage shows. Some years ago, I argued that small shops and shows would make a comeback for vintage and crafts because a lot of people like to shop for that stuff in the Real World as a form of entertainment. It’s one reason I feel more and more people will buy stuff like toothpaste online….no one enjoys “shopping” for toothpaste, but people enjoy “going out and shopping for antiques and stuff (often shopping with a friend or two, making it into a social occasion). Also, commodity goods, like toothpaste, are easy for sites to catalogue and are thus ideal for online selling, whereas older stuff is harder to catalogue properly (as ebay is finding out, and as Amazon admitted when they pulled out of their one effort at running auctions of older stuff)
What I’m seeing around here is, older antiques can be a tough sell because the market for the real thing is so small, but “vintage” and repurposed (and new stuff with a vintage vibe)seems to do well in shops, in part because so many lifestyle shows, magazines and blogs etc encourage people to buy the stuff. I think it is also the “hunt” and, at the same time, the serendipitous discovery of some great treasure the buyer wasn’t actually hunting for.
So, I’m really wondering: what are you seeing in the real world selling? What stuff seems to be popular? Is it a social thing? Buyers demographics? Young , old, men, women? Just any observations you’d care to share would be appreciated.
Great interview! Cyndi has inspired me to make 2018 the year I expand from an almost exclusively ebay operation to more venues. And I am going to look into some of her other ideas as well: wholesale sourcing and sourcing from ebay itself (as well as other online venues). I’ve done a little of this in the past, with some success, but never a real experiment. But I do like her “hour a day” experimenting….will try that. So much good stuff in this interview! Thanks for posting it!
Oh, I also should note that the most recent update to that page says that YouTube videos won’t currently work within the ebay app. I tested the carousel listing on a smart phone, but was just using a browser, not the ebay app, so can’t say for sure whether it works with the app at this point or not.
