Home › Forums › Hello, Who Are You? › Paul from South Carolina
- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago by Jay.
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
11/29/2016 at 9:44 am #6816
Hey fellow trash elfs!
So I’d like to introduce myself. I have once or twice on the comment section on the old webpage before but now that we have a forum I think this is a better place to let people know about me.
I start listening to the pod cast in March 2016. I saw it on YouTube while looking at another video about eBay and your 8-bit characters stuck out to me (I loved Code Monkeys and I assume that is who your characters are modeled after, or just 8-bit versions of yourselves either way its cool). I had tried to make a living on eBay a few years ago but failed, I had been doing eBay part time for over a year and then got fired from my job and when I went to do it full time I couldn’t focus enough to make it a priority. Once I listened to that first episode about how eBay could be a full time job I was determined to make it work.
I already have a full time job but I have fallen out of love with it. Construction is in my blood but dealing with all the details and differences of opinion can be draining. I know with eBay you need to have attention to detail but it can be more forgiving, you will have problem customers but getting yelled at though a email is easier then standing in someones home as they threaten to sue you because their gutter looks like it is not perfectly sloped. I decided back in March I wanted to start building my eBay store back and get myself up to 500 items like you guys recommend to have a good base line (The most I ever had before was about 230 items).
I gathered up items around the house and got started. By the end of March I was around 50 items and spend the next few months going to yard sales to build up more. It took me from April to August to get to 250 items. I had tried to find easy ways to get lots of items because I felt yard sales just did not cut it, this was a waste of time and money. I got a lot of belts and ties off a auction liquidation site, the belts have finally paid for themselves but I feel like I wont finish selling them for 2-3 years. The ties sell around one a week but I had no fun listing them.
September was when I decided I need to put more focus on my goal. I had a basic store and that kept me at 250 items because I had 250 free listings. I forced myself to get a premium store knowing that if I did not list at least 500 items then I was wasting money. This worked and over September I got my store to 650 items.
October has been the worst month this year. Having went from $10-$50 a week in sales with 250 items I was doing at least $200 with 500-650 items. But I live on the coast and hurricane Matthew came on the 8th of October. Me and my family had evacuated on the 4th and I put my store on vacation mode so no items would sell. We got back home on the 10th to find the house safe and my storage was dry and undamaged so I had lost non of my inventory. I am in the construction field so suddenly I found myself working 15 hour days to get tree’s off roofs and repair damaged to peoples homes. This lasted for a couple of weeks but I still maintained 12 hour days till November. I left my store on vacation and knew I had no time for it.
November has rolled around and having seen the worst side of construction that follows a natural disaster I was committed to eBay becoming my full time job as soon as possible. I took the bonus money I had made and put it into more inventory. I’m now at 730 items with at least 150 more to process and list and another auction coming up Saturday. My sales are climbing every week and I know in a few months I can quit my job and focus on doing this 40 hours a week instead of 10-15.
I just want to thank Jay and Ryanne for this pod cast, I have finally finished listening to all of them a few weeks ago and always eagerly wait for the next podcast each Sunday. I also want to thank all the other trash elfs who add to the podcast. This community has though me so much about eBay and how to find items and just good information about life and more. I hope to be able to participate and add to the community in the coming year.
I do want to point out some of the major ideas I have pulled from the podcast and added to my business.
1. No template – I used to have one as well and it was so time consuming, I sell just as much without one because I feel like most people are just reading a title and looking at the pictures.
2. Auctions – Yard sales are great but some of the good stuff is at auctions. I love to buy box lots cause you always find cool stuff mixed in with the stuff you wanted. My favorite buy was a paper mache basset hound I got with a lot for $10, I knew it looked funky so I though I would list it for $35. I saw it had a artist sticker on the bottom and it turns out her stuff sells for over $100, and I was the only one who had the basset hound so its up there for $129 right now.
3. Don’t Measure Clothes – I sell clothes cause they are cheap and easy to get and have a high profit margin. Not having to measure everything had sped this process up.
4. Sell stuff you like – I was so focused on clothes and cheap stuff I did not buy things I though where cool. And its easy to loose interest in this job if your just selling stuff to sell it and not because you like the stuff your selling.Also are any other scavengers in the Low Country? I’d love to do a meet up!
-
11/30/2016 at 5:48 am #6869
Glad you introduced yourself Paul. It’s also good you have a backup skill that you can always turn on if you need to make some extra money. Construction is tough work but there also someone always needing a job done.
But it sounds like you’ve put your head down and have listed enough items to make steady profit. Best of both worlds!
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.