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Listings: 157
Items Sold: 15
Estimated Net: $144
My week has exploded compared to the previous. Went 5 days without a sale, then back to back sales for 8 days in a row, bringing the monthly average into the black. Almost everything selling has been low-ish (under $30) childrenswear while womenswear has been stagnant. I wonder if this is reflecting a general economic uncertainty (people still willing to spend on kids but holding back on themselves) or if it’s just a weird seasonal quirk.
I have never heard of this but I am always interested in these kinds of things that shorten the process. I’m not sure if I’m at a high enough volume for it to make sense, but I’m intrigued.
Hi Christine, a chunk of my family lives in the North Shore. My understanding is that the state is being conservative about Covid-19. For instance, my father has been required to quarantine for 14 days following leaving and returning to the state and/or have negative test results on hand (I believe the test results are not mandatory but the self-isolation is).
I went to school in VT, and I think MA could be a good choice because so much of that mountain hiking is just a weekend trip away. Something to think about is although the summers and autumns are great, he may not be around for the summers if he’s coming home then. So most of his time may be spent in mud/snow, cold (although I don’t feel MA winters are quite as severe as VT normally). It’s something to think about.
@Jay you can also find it (canned) locally at Filipino or South East Asian grocery stores.
@steven-s Wow, I admire your self discipline!! We are partially vegan throughout the year and even then it’s difficult for my willpower, I have to admit.
@inglewood Exactly. When I make BBQ jackfruit I usually mix in some mashed lentils with the shreds to try to add a protein/satiation element.I started cross-posting some clothing to Etsy but never had any sales (I had very few items in my store so I’m sure that’s part of it). Etsy seller newsletter stated a few weeks ago that best selling categories this year have become home decor and kitchen related things. It seems to me due to the pandemic anything hobby/decor/kitchen related may be worth it over clothing at this time.
@robb_ That’s an interesting reason I hadn’t considered. I had 5 days in a row last week with no sales. It was worse than my slowest summer weeks!
If you’re weighing the cost of inventory sitting around for a year, I’d say this person is making up a high number and sitting on it. Terrapeak doesn’t have ANY Prestige Christmas bears that have sold in the last year but has 10 different varieties available at less than $40 including shipping.
Awesome! I love to live vicariously through others living the dream, haha! What percentage of your listings do you cross post?
That’s so neat that your store is largely Christmas themed! How did you get into that as inventory?
The rolling suitcase idea is a good one. Another one to think about is a rolling grocery cart. You can find models on Amazon that fold up, can hold up to 200 lbs, and much easier to stack things in then having to lay the suitcase flat, unzip, etc. Something else to possibly consider are ways to source online, buying lots and piecing them out. Bulq.com has small lots. Sometimes I find ways to flip lots from other eBay sellers, particularly if I’m able to buy them with eBay bucks (although that is only once a quarter).
Okay so I did some more digging.
Currently eBay allows non-store owners 200 free listings per month. Additionally, I only pay $12 per month for Terrapeak, which appears to be a non-store rate. It’s interesting that once you move to a Starter store subscription they increase Terrapeak to $19.99 per month if you want to keep it, in addition to the monthly $4.95. It’s a savings of roughly $5 per month by moving to a Starter if I hit 250 listings.
Additional fees beyond the 200 are $0.35 per listing. Store = $24.94 for 250 listings. Non-Store = $29.50 for 250 listings. For that price though, I may as well upgrade to a Basic store.
Thanks everyone for the input! This helps me see it may make most sense to switch around January.
I wonder if that’s why recently I had two shipments where FedEx was surprisingly the cheapest option. I’ve never used them before because they were never the cheapest.
@lauren Thank you for your response. I’m not maxing monthly listings yet so I think I will wait a while longer. I guess I’m confused about the listings; when it says “50 free” doesn’t that mean I can list 50 new things or is that including maintaining active ones? I currently have about 150 active.
I’m getting nervous about sales. I’m down 20% from a month ago. Ebay is saying the general market is down 3% from last year. I remember this time last year stuff was selling very well from mid-Oct to end of Nov (I sell mostly women and children’s pre-owned). Last week had a cancellation of a high value item and I also canceled from a buyer I ended up blocking.
This Canadian buyer had bought from me once before (what are the odds since I sell one-offs?) and both times has messaged me multiple times during the day asking tons of subjective questions and requesting additional pictures about pants that are less than $30. Eventually around day 3 he asked to cancel because I didn’t respond quickly enough (I only answered his questions once a day) and he “found the process tiring”, lol! I was happy to cancel by the end of it.
@Jay & @PBJelly I am another small potatoes seller who pulled out of Amazon over the last couple years. I was mostly dealing in retail arbitrage and books. Books were fun because it was a hybrid between eBay treasure hunting and big Amazon sales, but grew into an extreme amount of competition. Lots of scanning software and territorial sellers. More Amazon fees and regulations, which made it difficult to keep on top of and analyze as a hobby seller. Retail arbitrage was similar, but became harder to do as more brands began to assert their official Amazon presence and lock 3rd party sellers out of their items.
@Sharyn Thanks for the background on swap.com; I didn’t realize that’s how they started out. I currently have a box with them now but yeah they are a PITA to consign with. For the last year or so they have been closed to new consignments. I also squeaked in at the beginning of the year when they re-opened, and 40% of my box was rejected. They charge a rejection fee for that on top of the shipping label. That being said they are the only place that takes low-end men’s clothing, which not even brick and mortar consignment stores are likely to accept.
