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Total Items In Store: 2,261
Items Sold: 73
Cost of Items Sold: $94
Total Sales: $1489
Highest Price Sold: $200 (8 35mm slides)
Average Price Sold: $17.40
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 165
Number of Items listed this week: 92I was hitting $250/day average sales until Easter Sunday ($25). Oh well. Good week overall. I got the flu Wednesday so that kept me inside and listing between naps.
Congrats on the 10 years. I think a lot of individuals flame-out because it is hard to make a living wage doing eBay full time alone until a large enough inventory is established, which can take years. Couples doing eBay together can share the work and living expenses, plus can build up the inventory much more quickly.
But once you have the inventory, and you see the cash coming in weekly, it is hard to give-up on it as it provides more fun and freedom than most any other form of income.
MDC, funny you mention old movie screens. That is what I have been using recently, the smooth backside actually. The advantage is that it is hardy, as I need to clean it daily due to the grim some of stuff like car parts and industrial items, that I sometimes sell, leave behind as I move them about.
The problem I’m having now is the set-up isn’t tall enough for certain things, like lamps and golf clubs and such. Ironically, I just tried one of those taller vinyl backdrops (see pics), but I’m not pleased with it. I may need to just try a different design. The one I bought has a 1″ blank area between the 2 designs forcing me to put something (a metal bar) to cover this blank space. As you can see in the sample pics, the background to me seems a bit distracting. I do have an all white one coming; we’ll try that for the taller items.
I just verified that if an unpaid item case is opened, that it would end up on the buyers record as a STRIKE whether they canceled or ignored it (didn’t pay).
I also just checked and the BLOCK rule is “Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 12 Month(s)”.
The only way for the buyer to avoid a strike once a case is open is if they ask the seller to cancel the sale and the seller does the canceling. I’m not sure I would do that since they already waited several days and likely are doing it to avoid a STRIKE on their account. This could be used as leverage to get them to pay, but then they may hold it against you.
No, see my earlier response (36700) on my contact plan for today, and Saturday if necessary.
There still is an open question from 36707 that would be good to get answered.
Yes, those Belgium cast iron items sell well. Double box when shipping as cast iron is actually a bit fragile.
At live auctions I look at everything, but only “cursory,” as if you study something hands-on too much, others notice and will conclude it might be valuable. Nothing is more fun than getting something dirt cheap that you know is valuable, since no one else fawned over it.
Likewise I have fawned over things at auctions hoping to drive up interest by my competitors, knowing all along it wasn’t worth much (by using my phone to check eBay solds). All part of the game.
You pretty much take all that’s up for grabs. Don’t fret over brands or specific tube numbers. Just base the listing price on recent solds for the same tube. I stay away from tubes without their cardboard sleeves as they may be used/no good, and they don’t sell very well. I do have a tester (and am a retired Electrical Engineer), but most of these are as good as new. I’ve sold about 200 over the last 2 years and only in a handful of cases did I have to give the guy his money back when the tube didn’t work as expected. Some things that sell in the $10-$15 range (hats, buttons, slides, tubes) are so easy to photograph, list, and store that I find it worthwhile, so I don’t shy away from them. Just listed 50 trucker hats in about 3 hours yesterday; simple repetition. One by one they all seem to go in time.
I assume once an unpaid item case is open a buyer can still cancel the order. It seems this still would put a black-mark on their record, yes?
That’s very good progress. We’ve all been there. One trick is to try to list each day at least twice the number of items you sold in the prior day. That way inventory will continue to grow and so will sales.
Yeah, I have the unpaid item assistance on MANUAL just for cases like this, or when a buyer tells me they need more time to pay. I only have maybe 1 unpaid situation per month, and so having some control over the dialog can be useful. I wish eBay was more clear about the actual restrictions buyer’s face when they do not pay.
It’s a Canadian GSP buyer, and since it is my first contact with them I simply sent a note: “Hello. Thank you for placing an order for 8 of our 35mm slides. They are packaged-up and ready to ship. Please pay promptly. Thank you.”
If I get no action, on Saturday I will send: ”
Hello again. EBay informs me that I can open 8 unpaid item cases for the 35mm slides you purchased on 3/27. I’d rather not do that as it may trigger eBay to severely restrict or terminate your buying activity. I know many of us eBay sellers automatically block shoppers who have 2 or more unpaid item cases on their record over the last 6 months. I’d rather not see this happen to your account as you seem to have a good record at the moment. Please pay promptly. Thank you.”If that doesn’t work …. it’s Stewie time.
