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Hmmmm, there are just so many weird finds to choose from. If i had to choose the weirdest, I guess it would be a tote with about 200 or so wheelchair & disabled veterans event competition medals from all over the United States from a veteran who was named Kenny Rogers. I listed them all to see what would happen and they have been slowly selling. Probably made over $250 so far and still have hundreds of them left. If your curious you can check them out in my store, they are very well made.
I agree the consignment thing doesn’t really seem to work out very well. I tried it once with a neighbor, but it was a headache tracking her down when something sold and trying to figure out what I owed her once something sold. Not to mention it took forever for things to sell which is not very exciting for her or lucrative for me. I still get asked by friends all the time, but now I usually just tell them I don’t do consignment because I’m spending time listing their items for only 30-50% profit when I need to be listing my own items for 100%. I just explain its a time issue, and say that I prefer to just buy the lots outright and resell on my own. So if its an option or worth it momentarily its best to just buy the product. If not I just say I’m not buying right now all my buy money is tied up. That usually get you off the hook and I’ve had several people just give me stuff anyway for free. Anyhow the point is get your own stuff however that may be and make that 100% and don’t bother with consignment, just my humble opinion though.
I’m not a double boxer either. Takes too much extra time and space in my opinion. My method is to use shredded paper. I pack it in there real tight and well packed on all sides and so far I have never had anything break yet, with this method. It does add some weight and it’s messy, but it works great and I can recycle all the junk mail into free packing material. I only use this for fragile glassware and such and the kids love to shred for a few bucks here and there. Works great in my opinion.
If it were me, I would offer him $600. The way he said his offer would stand whenever your ready, to me implies he is very interested. Is this item on Best Offer? I would just tell him$600 is the lowest you want to go and see what he does. I’m not sure if this logic works with a collectible book or not. My way of handling high dollar offers like these is like this: Listed $700 they offer way too little say $500 or even less, I 1st counter with a high reasonable offer I would actually take like $650. Usually at this point you either A. They decline, or you just never hear from them again, but you now at least gain the knowledge that someone else will probably offer $500 again someday. Or B. They usually will counter with something like $550 If this is still too low for me which it often times may be depending on the item and example used, my tactic is to immediately decline this second too low offer they make. I feel this action tells the person, I’m in no hurry to sell this item too low and I’m not afraid of declining an unreasonable offer nor do I have the time. I have found time after time if the person really wants it they almost immediately come back with something much more in line like$ 625 in this example maybe. Lastly if they come back again with anything short of a good offer I just end it by adding a note on the offer that clearly says the is the Lowest I will take on this item $625 send. This almost ends it with either a sale for $625 or the knowledge that this items is roughly worth $550-$600. And one more side note on several occasions now, my items that have played out similar to this example will sometimes sells a week or so later at full price to someone else. I have Best Offer on every item and it honestly makes it more interesting for me and I think it empowers the customer into feeling they got a deal. Meanwhile I mark up my items prices and allow room for this bartering to happen, and frankly would have been just fine with the original $500 in this example, but what fun is that.
Ever since around the time Covid started, I’ve been listening to 3 kids and a wife, “them” in the background while working and listing. I’ve found if I keep the volume down low (Door Shut) I can still manage to work while enjoying “them” playing in the background. The door shutting thing really doesn’t work for very long, so it forces me to stand up and re-close it several times per listing. This provides continuous exercise throughout the day, however it seems to effect productivity and the stress level a bit. I’ve grown rather used to listening to “them” playing in the background while I’ve been listing this summer. In fact, I’ve been told here in Las Vegas I get to keep enjoying “them” playing in the background while I list well into the next school year, as they will begin distance learning 5 days a week starting Aug. 24th. Thank you Covid for giving me “them” to listen to in the background while I list away, in the future…..
I’ve done my own business/personal taxes since, well forever. Its always seemed rather easy to some degree. I just use turbo tax software every year, it seems to ask all the relevant questions and more. It makes it easy and basically just directs you as to what info it needs you to gather or tally up and it fills in all the blanks. And if you pay a few extra bucks its will even take responsibility and go to bat for you in the event of any future audits. As far as the shed he is right you should be able to still claim it and amortize it or something like that. It has to do with depreciation and claiming parts of the amount over several years. At the very least the square footage of all your storage space should be part of your home office deduction as well. Which I believe max’s out at 300 square feet anyway. (We all should be claiming that) and yes death piles can count as well in that figure. Turbo Tax asks all those questions and makes you enter info prior to moving to next sections and allows you to bounce around when you need to to add things or take away, as you figure things out. Its always seemed pretty cut and dry and hey if I ever get audited, I’ll just say They did it not me! LOL
Is there an easy way to compare what FedEx charges for the label on the back end thru your ebay fees verses what was quoted on the front end. I assume not since that would be too easy. I have had FedEx charge way more on the back end on a very large item than what was charged to the customer on calculated shipping and what was quoted to me through eBay labels. I ended up having to eat like $20 or something. But I don’t recall it being very easy to find this info either. Anyone have any experience with having a FedEx account? Is there any upside to shipping directly through FedEx account prices or other alternatives to eBay labels? Also does anyone ever use UPS? I have never seen a benefit or reason to use them. When I have compared prices on PayPal for a UPS Label like on an oversized item, and its always way more expensive. Am I missing something or is it just a UPS for Amazon & FedEx for eBay kinda thing?
I’m with ya, I slowly built up a small hoard, like 2 Car Garage & 5×10 storage shed size death piles I mean. Meanwhile slowly listing a few things as a hobby back when I worked full time. My death piles are mostly free items I got off free Craiglist ads here in Vegas (to include free shipping materials), while working my full time job which involved traveling all over the city. So needless to say it added up rather easy, there is a ton of waste here in Las Vegas. But now that we are doing this full time so it’s kinda nice to just walk out to the garage and grab something off the one shelf and list it & then put it on another shelf for storage. If your organized you can make anything work. I have a constant supply of free goods and shipping materials, which helps a lot right now during these strange times.
I agree, all I see in your store is mostly shoes and clothes, Those can both be great but if that is all you have (or want to have) you’ll need much higher numbers than 70 items. Clothes can be slow movers and typically not very high priced. If you are open to other items, I would recommend diversifying your inventory into many other areas. The more rounded out your store and prices are, the more rounded out your sales will get. Try Craiglist Free ads for free inventory, if you troll them constantly in the bigger cities, they are loaded with free goods to be sold. You must check constantly though because the good stuff goes quick. I mostly source this way and pay little to nothing for the inventory we list.
Just to chime in, as well as listing more numbers, I am a firm believer in listing daily. Meaning if you feel its necessary to set aside a certain day for pics and bookkeeping, etc., etc. then that probably means you are only closing listings on a certain day as well. We used to do things that way and seemed to be working fine as far as productivity goes, until we tried it the other way (our current method) which is to divide up each day into segments in this order – shipping, drafts, pics, closing, & bookkeeping. Not sure if there is truth to it, but I swear our sales improved and stayed that way. It could just be that we have never stopped listing since, but I think the “Algorithm” likes it when we close and are active. Hope it helps!
Hello everyone, we are long time listeners but new to the forum. Just wanted to post our numbers for the week and say hello. Our brief business run down and introduction can be read in the “Hello, Who Are You? forum section if you have any interest. Any how here is our numbers.
Our Store Week July 12-18, 2020
Total Items in Store: 1,097
Items Sold: 32
Gross Sales: $974.17
Cost of Items Sold: $13.70
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $185.71 (Dental Lab Dust Collector)
Average Price Sold: $30.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 36
Yes I will, thanks to all the encouragement and good advice I absorbed from you two along the way. Although, I would not recommend diving in with only 67 listings and 2 months bill money with a family of 5 and a mortgage unless you have one heck of a plan and a whole lot of faith. But we are proof that with those systems, inventory streams (or hoard) & processes, that this eBay business model you guys talk about week after week, can & does work in even the most “Pell Mell” of situations. Thanks again Jay & Ryanne
