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I wonder what happened with the apartment above the cafe? I came to visit and found 3 rentals, a magic partnership but I got lost about the apartment.
Did you guys decide for a new Abnb space there, or it became something else?
Cheers
Hello friends!
Six years ago TODAY, I posted my first message in the old forum. I (actually) joined mid/end of January, but my first effective participation was February the 3rd.
So much about so many things I learned here and from Jay/Ryanne, not to mention the sense of community, never being alone.
For me, the pandemic was good (business-wise). We were lucky, the seven of us got vaccinated early, so we all could keep up.
My e-commerce LLC (eBay) has not done well for some time. My challenge is sourcing. While I was never too present in garage sales, I had online auctions and some decent thrift stores around. The prices are prohibitive, and the auctions have become exaggeratedly competitive.
On the other hand, my engineering LLC is booming – from home. The income for that business alone was $219k, however, that business generated others because of those projects, reports, or articles being published, generating leads and more contracts.
There are a couple of other things going on (I set a gold refining operation for instance), but cash is flowing mostly from the projects.
My goal for the short term is to boost eBay sales. My former hoarding is under control and yielded some good stuff to list (like rare trading cards and action figures). It is not enough though to go back to the comfortable ~$500 /week minimum.
Anyway, I just wanted to post a celebratory bit being always grateful for Ryanne and Jay.
Cheers!
Returning customers
As I mentioned on the other post, I am listing most of my toys and action figures. Since there are duplicated ones for one or other reason, I do not put all dupes at the same time for sale.
This has been working. There is a set of 1 inch action figures that I had possibly ten of those. ANd they have been selling immediately as soon as I list.
For the action figures, I found out that a guy from TX has been making one purchase per month of my action figures. If I had received any alert on time most certainly I would have sent him freebies with one of his purchase. Since I would’ve know what he likes, I could make a great advertisement if eBay had this feature.
Paulo H
Generation driven collections
A good percentage of my inventory is composed with Boomers collectibles. So much so that I stopped buying those, only when I come up with something that is a clear shot.
I had a huge lucky a couple of years back when I purchased a whole collection of Lenox Garden Birds collection, it was a small pallet worth.From an online auction, considering how much I paid plus shipping (shipping doubled me the cost), the average cost per item was between $6 and $7. An absurd since all of those were retired. I still have inventory and they sell at least one per month, normal sale price is about $80 plus shipping, there are some for $35 in the lower end.
My wife almost killed me when the pallet was delivered by UPS hehehe
On the other hand (I remember Jay and Sue rooted for me on this one), related to my OCD and hoarding, eBay was a major treatment. Recently I put most of my toys and action figure collections. They’ve been selling pretty well.
Paulo H
Customer messaging directly for returns
Friends,
My case this extra communication (please remember I have a 1000 item store only) has given me positive results.
First my statistics does not get negative points for customer asking for returns (for me small numbers weighs a lot). Second, the only case recently when the person formally asked for return I had a lot of problem.
All cases when customer contacted me (even a case in Mexico where I sold a heavy car radio) we were able to come to terms and minimize the impact. Last week even a positive feedback I had for that.Again, this is my experience for a small store
Paulo H
About Amazon Auctions of Returned Products
Folks,
Been catching up on the last five episodes, a lot been discussed about Amazon backstock.
Since I have not read the comments, sorry if duplicated.
Amazon has now an auction specific site for sellers to put their things on auction. Not seen details or how it operates.
but under amazon.bstock.com you can find Amazon lots of backstocks or returned items. They are boxes or pallets. It is all described in details, every single lot describes what’s inside and the average price per item.I am relatively interested. There is a trend now of many eBay sellers posting YouTube videos about their pallet purchases, they tell how much they paid, they open during the video, some of them show what they are putting for sale and where, some even have “what sold” type of videos.
Cheers
Paulo H
The good, the bad and the ugly of Poshmark selling
Friends – specially Ryanne – I was introduced by Lonnie from Garage Flips to Amber’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCExQA82vipSKRs1ayVb_eLg) called Amber Resells.
As usual I was a little skeptic but my perception changed from the get go. It is something like “everything you ever wanted to know about selling on Poshmark but was afraid to ask and did not have a clue of whom to ask”
Further, Jay (and possibly T-Satt), she supports her cases, her tips and hints with actual data. There is a video where she mentions 4 tips to avoid cases and low ratings where she starts off detailing the numbers and data she used to reach those conclusions.
I am sure many of you will love it.
PH
Jay and T-Satt, and remember the incentive to start.
Ask for an invite from someone with account (I volunteer, and I am sure T-Satt does too 🙂 ) will give you one stock for free.
Worth a try to play. Grab the free stock, invite some friends, get some more free stocks, add $10, get some penny stocks (I JUST LOVE THEM, I ALWAYS GRAB PENNY STOCKS with dividends I cannot reinvest) and have fun while you get acquaintedAbout Saving Money / Safe Haven
Friends, first a quick update on how my engine is moving today.
The bulk of my income is from my Consulting business. I have been trying to build a pipeline of opportunities where I can jump immediately from one to the other.
For example, current one I signed a 6 months contract in Feb.2017, the thing went so well that i had other 5 6-month renewals, last one expires in Sept. And in September the next one starts in Ho-Chi-Min, I think it will be a 9 months or 1 year contract with a few s or 3 week trips to Vietnam. Some of you might remember when I spent 2016 doing similar in Istanbul.
Then I have my eCommerce in which the mother ship is eBay. With the profits from this side goes to precious metals and pays for my Property Tax (they are heavy here in South Florida).
Another large bulk comes from my investments, this is where I wanted to get to. Even though I rarely execute those profits, they are automatically reinvested, there are times for surprises or when the other side does not cover something for whatever reason.
I have 5 investment bulks today. They are independent portfolios where I invest on stocks and funds. One of them is the largest one where I have a managed portfolio. One way or the other it only grow. Since it is managed, the reaction to whatever is immediate. Even though I had to use, it never gets lower than a certain level because it is a fast aggressive growth. The other is self managed. I had 3 stocks that went way under water. Then I grabbed whatever was left from those 3 and invested on Starbucks and GM. In 3 months Starbucks gave me something 14% (guessing, dont have the actual in front of me). There are 3 of them that are IRA/401K, I will merge 2 of them in October, so it will be one IRA for me, other for my wife. There are funds and stocks that gave me 28% year to date.Moral of the story: I never ever ever put anything on savings. Neither do my sons. For example, I have a huge problem with change. I don’t leave a penny on the ground when I see one even if it is stuck in a pile of crap.
The same thing for banks and credit cards, I think my OCD makes it hurt to see cents and cents. So I opened an Acorn account and chose a moderate-aggressive (one of the five) profile. When it gets to a certain threshold, I grab the money and buy Silver (now I will wait longer and grab gold). Acorn is way better than any savings, but for my perspective it is “just an app”, so for me it is not an end in itself, it is only a means to an end.
Often I try other apps since they give you money to join: for example Stash, Robinhood (you win one stock if you join through an invitation, so both persons who sent and received the invitation end up with one stock each, can be Groupon, can be Walmart but also can be Apple, for free. So usually I open these accounts, get whatever I can get, stay for the minimum required, and transfer the stocks to my bank (I try to NEVER withdrawal these moneys).
Also, I found out Cryptocurrency faucets. In summary, you join some pools of miners and share whatever you are mining. I have “free” processing at home, i am making ~$350 per months just for having one litlle tablet and one old desktop running the software. I built my personal wallet and for now I am keeping these “earnings” like another investment portfolio.
Lastly, I make about $300/months on rewards like Bing, eBay bucks, Swagbucks. All these rewards I exchange for Amazon gift cards and get gold for free, most cases all you have to do is respond quizzes.Long novel just to share my thoughts against any type of savings account. Even more for anything you are considering terms like one year or over
Diversifying Payment Types
Friends, always keeping in mind I have a small thousand-item store, almost every add on or alternative option I can offer to potential buyers help me on incremental sales.
For example, I have incremental sales from Bonanza, eCrater and TrueGether, for most of you would represent nothing, for me one sales each per month is great.
Second I added the WebInterpret on eBay, I was already offering regular shipping worlwide as alternative to Global Shipping.
Now I have added Stripe and Amazon pay to those platforms (on eBay I can only do PayPal and Money Order). Amazon Pay has been a super nice surprise.
What makes this scenario interesting is that what sells on those alternate platforms are those items that never sell on eBay, things I have in store for 3-4 years.
PH
@Simplicio you hit it on the head!!!!! I think you summarized it all in terms of how to interpret Pete’s report on the issue.
For me there is not enough data available, I have a 1000 items store so no matter what I do sales are about same.Speaking of fallacies …
@Jay was watching the Youtube channel managed by your friend Pete (TheCraigsListHunter) and he recently made a video about the mandatory good ’till cancelled change.In that video, he explains why he himself is being impacted by this issue, in a nutshell, because he has a 7/10/30 day process to review and update items.
The reason he states is that, according to him, eBay algorithm de-prioritize listings according to how much a store has been updated, or the less you list, less priorities for your listings.
We talked about this dozens of times across the years, however he uses his store data (it is humongous) to demonstrate his point, comparing months he did not list versus those with constant updates or new listings.
sighs …
About Webinterpret using an email I received from their sales rep
Lot’s of birthdays this week, mine was on the 13th 🙂
Below a message I received from Webinterpret a coupe of weeks ago, it answers some of the questions raised on this episode.
Does not precise whether it is a quantity amount or a percentage amount, but it is good for clarification.From: Alleya Khan <alleya.khan@webinterpret.com>
Date: May 29, 2019 at 2:57:44 PM EDT
To: Paulo H
Subject: You’ve made $398 this month, make even more by listing ALL of your itemsAlleya here with Webinterpret!
I was just taking a look into you Ebay account and It looks like this month you have made a total of $398 with us… I’m excited to give you this opportunity to grow your business and increase your sales by upgrading your account to a plan.
Take into consideration we only listed a fraction of your eligible items, right now you can unlock all of your eligible items by selecting one of our plans!
Because you have sold 2items, I would recommend the Pay as you Go plan listed here https://www.webinterpret.com/us/pricing/, scroll down until you see Ebay & Amazon and check out the Pay as you Go option.
Let me know your thoughts!
REMEMBER WE SYNC EVERYTHING!
The stock levels, postage rates, prices, item specifics, and content of your domestic listings are fully synchronized with your free international listings.So any changes to your US listings will automatically reflect on your international listings every 24 hours. And any changes to the item’s inventory count are updated in real time, eliminating any risk of selling products that you no longer have in stock.
SET-UP AND CHECKLIST
To help you set up your account for the best chances on being listed internationally with us check out this doc here:
Account Set UpTo manage your international listings, please visit
app.webinterpret.com > then ‘login with eBay’. There is also our helpdocs that can be found here to help you with your ebay integration and tips and tricks to help you along the way with usFor any other requests, please don’t hesitate to contact us !
Happy Selling!Alleya Khan
Sales ExecutiveEasier way to quick review the monthly invoice
Friends – during this week’s episode Rayanne mentions how challenging/boring it is to review the monthly invoice and she further details the reasons.
I am not sure how much relevant on average this might be, for me for example with a 1000 item store, depending on the issue (some might remember the checkbox option for higher def pictures on item listing – Gallery Plus – was made checked by default), charging extra or unexpected can be a big deal.
Anyway, if anybody wants an easier and quicker way to have a five minutes review of what might be impacting or surprising in a giving months here is how:
(1) Download the invoice in .CSV format
(2) Open on any spreadsheet
(3) Select the line with column titles in it – it is usually line 8
(4) Go to the sorting and filtering menu in your Spreadsheet of choice
(5) Click on create filterYou will see in each column title you will have a drop down box. Column “D” is named “Fee Type”
The drop down list will show all fee types eBay charges us monthly, you can select one or many.
For example, Insertion Fee, Gallery Plus fee, Promotion fee, Payment fee, Subscription, Final Value fee, Final Value on Shipping fee, among others.This way you can quickly look on any fee by type, run your eyes on anything suspicious, among many many things in a five minute review with the other columns to support. Column “B” for example describes the fee and the item it is related to so you can select further the drop down box in that column and select one or more items you want to specifically look at.
Hope this helps
Paulo H
Hello Troy, nice exchanging with you again:
“Paulo: You have me intrigued…
So this service puts your listings on the international sites (so eBay UK) but showing that you are a International seller (to eBay UK), therefore shipping is correct to the buyer, correct?
Then are you shipping through this service on those sales?”In a nutshell, the service replicates your US based eBay account to the ebay sites you choose (totally open choice). You can even log on to those sites directly with the same US credential and see everything under the perspective of a Ducth ebayer for example.
When the potential buyer gets interested or executes a purchase, the shipping option they have is the converted amount you have in your listing for international shipping, they cannot opt for their local services, they must either pay whatever eBay calculates to them, or message you to understand why that is the cost. For example. I must have had 10 sales during the period, with the exception of one, all other nine contacted me because the shipping cost seemed to high.There was a hand painted silk fabric from Japan for example I was able to use the large envelope option and reduced the shipping I think 3 times (you must resend the invoice, but through their origin site, not from the regular ebay “all orders” link, since the invoice must be in their local process.
Did I clarify a bit to you???
