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Jay/Ryanne,
Will you be doing a physical audit of your inventory, either while you are setting up the new system or after you complete that project? I think you will likely find you have items still listed that are not in inventory and/or inventory items that are not listed. I always do.
Also, on an ongoing basis if you have multi-quantity listings, verifying the remaining quantity on those at the time orders are picked can be worthwhile if only a few remain in stock.
Yes, the auction went very well even with overcast a drizzle off an on through the day. My girlfriend was very satisfied with the results, she has been fretting about it.
I hope you have equal or better results.
Depending on the circumstances, I sometimes tell the buyer I’m going to check into this and have the USPS send them updates on the shipment, then enter the buyer’s email and mine in the USPS function for sending tracking updates. It can usually keep the buyer from constantly bugging me for updates. It’s sort of surprising how often requesting these email updates seems to shake loose an in-transit but stalled-out package.
I will sometimes ask my post office to check on a package that is stalled out, they can see details in their system not available on the USPS website tracking. I live in a small town and my post office will do this type of favors for me, I’m a big fish in a small pond.
For packages a buyer says was not received even though scanned as delivered, I have a list of suggestions on things for them to do, those often result in the package being found. or maybe it just makes some give up on trying to get an easy quick refund.
Hmm. I guess when we specialize in one area, things remind us of something in that field. Without seeing the back or other views, the only thing that pops into mind is an automatic transmission filter. Yes, weird reponse, I know.
AtomicStar,
Old Dad, aka old geezer says, “Yeah kid, I had a lot of stamina at 49 too”. LOL
Seriously, good luck with your plan, it sounds solid.
I’m sure tired tonight after my GF’s estate sale yesterday. I watched/helped with the setup starting at 5:30 AM then shadowed the auctioneer from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM, then watched over the cleanup and dumpster filling. The sale went great, total proceeds mid 6 figures, she is very pleased. She had some very nice furniture, I’ve already seen 2 pieces on Facebook Marketplace and I wish those scavengers well.
Nice to hear the backstories of members.
I’m probably one of the oldest people here at 70. I live in rural Missouri. I retired from IBM 4 years ago, was selling part-time for 6 years before that. I sort of drifted into selling primarily NOS auto parts. I had a work-from-home job, which was great for running a part-time online business, but during the downturn in 2009-2010 my job went offshore and there were no other jobs available within the company and I was without a job for 17 months. That’s when I really ramped up the to keep the bills paid. I found another job with IBM in late 2010 but at a center 150 miles away with no work-from-home option so I had an apartment there during the week. That situation affected my ability to list much although I did have somebody dependable to ship orders. I had a life-changing event in 2013 when I lost my wife of 30 years. Enough said about that. I got another work-from-home slot for the last year I worked, then was able to take advantage of a transition-to-retirement program, working just 3 days a week but still getting 75% of my normal pay. I retired fully from IBM on Dec 31, 2015.
Further back, I did 6 years of Army service from 1968 to 1974. I have 2 grown sons and 5 grandchildren, 3 of which are still in school and live in the same small town (1100) where I live. I love to go to their local sporting events (they are all athletic) and attend their other school functions when I can. My oldest granddaughter is an assistant teacher in another city and lives there, she will have her credits for a teaching certificate soon. Can you tell I’m a proud grandpa, or PawPa as they call me?
I’m generally in good health and enjoying life. I do have another woman in my life now, more than a casual relationship but not intense either. I live by myself, except for my Cocker Spaniel, Allie.
So, here I am today, staying occupied with the business and with that income supplementing Social Security I have been able to let my retirement accounts ride and grow. If I live as long as my mon, who is 95, I still have another 25 years! Amazing to think of.
Maybe TMI, but an idea of who I am.
Bill
I saw that blog post yesterday too. I’m subscribed to that blog and sometimes follow the email link to read an article, but in my opinion, it isn’t always reliable even though it looks nice and professional. Big on interpreting various statistics and presenting a suggested reason.
For the eBay sales downturn, I just don’t see internet sales tax as a likely cause, people who buy on the Internet aren’t likely to suddenly decided to stop buying or buy locally because of a 6 to 8 cent increase per dollar.
The eBay sales volume drop might be behind the recent top management change, with Wenig stepping down as CEO.
My 30 day sales are up a few percent at both eBay and Amazon but those short term changes aren’t a significant factor to base an opinion on.
You might look at the sale bills for estate auctions in your area, especially farm/rural auctions, you can usually find those ads online at the auctioneer’s web sites. I usually see that kind of stuff there, not worth picking usually. Cruising garage sales might find some of those things too.
I would order it on Amazon now, then refuse delivery on the eBay order. This is not a good eBay seller and if it were me and he gave me any pushback on the full refund I would file a complaint with eBay. Might do that anyhow after all was finished.
If I bought this from my personal eBay acccount I would seriously consider leaving negative feedback, although I rarely do that. I never leave negative feedback from my seller account, however.
I go to a lot of rural auctions like this and I think you should get good results. There is plenty of the type of items that auction-goers are usually looking for. Hopefully, you are getting sale ads posted around the extended area at the usual places. Like always, the key to good results at auction is to have 2 or more bidders that are seriously interested, especially for auctioning real estate.
I suspect this may be at least a little emotional for you, with possible personal memories and attacments to specific items.
Good luck with the sale.
Coincidentally, my girlfriend is having an auction this weekend (10-26) of her real estate and much of her belongings at her farm near Wheatland MO, which isn’t all that far from your parents’ place. It’s amazing how similar these 2 auctions seem to be.
Sonia, in Missouri I can file sales taxes annually since in-state sales are minimal, usually around $100-200 for the year. You might check to see if your state has an annual filing option to cut down a little on paperwork.
For the low selling price items, I like to combine similar/compatible items as a batch or offer quantity discounts if I have multiples. A lot of times these batches of lightweight items don’t cost any, or little, more to ship than the cost of 1. The per-item cost can be less and still make money.
It’s not common but I do see this occasionally. It could be that they want to use a corporate UPS/FedEx account which is likely to be cheaper than the rates you can give them. They might also want it overnight or 2-day air, etc. If you do this just enter the tracking number of their label into the eBay order tracking number field.
If you don’t feel comfortable with this you can always say no and offer to cancel or ask the buyer for an explanation.
This is what I do. This method isn’t for everyone, but not really as complex as it may seem.
In PayPal, use Activity download, select All Transactions from the first dropdown, then the date range you want, then the format (csv), click generate report. You will have to wait for an email from eBay telling you the report is ready.
You will probably want to save the file then import into Excel and select text format for the Item ID column, otherwise Excel will show it in scientific notation (2.23532E+11). Save it as .xslx file so you don’t have to do that every time you open the file.
There is much more information in this report than what you probably want, but if you are good with Excel you can easily hide columns and filter others.
