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This is not a personal story of extreme scavenging but something that’s happening in our town in CT. Apparently a company or person convinced the town administrators that they really needed someone to pick up “textiles” as part of the recycling program. Now, at the town’s expense, all residents receive a pink recycling bag for “clothes, shoes, etc” that they can put out with their trash each week. This new company then picks it up and disposes of it as they please. Ostensibly, this is another way to keep reusable stuff out of landfills, but am I the only one who sees it as a major scam (or coup) for this company? They can now drive around town and pick up their pink bags full of clothes and shoes for free, re-sell the good stuff, and dispose of the junk. Sure beats paying for it at Goodwill!
Thanks, Ryanne. That’s good to know. Like you guys, I put all of my items on best offer or buy now. But I didn’t think to require immediate payment on the listings without the best offer option.
Jay and Ryanne, thanks for another informative podcast. I listen to it every Monday morning at the gym and it makes my workout fly by!
Regarding the discussion about eBay business policies, I agree with others here that they are useful and not hard to use once you get the hang of them. Like J&R, I sell a wide range of vintage items in different categories and weights. I just set the policy to calculated shipping and provide options based on size. For eg, I have calculated shipping policies for items over and under 1 pound, and separate ones for offering free shipping. The only big difference between the policies is type of carrier, handling time and whether or not I’m offering free shipping. It makes it a lot easier and faster to bulk edit if all you want to do is change handling times or switch some items to free shipping.Also, just a thought about eBay’s technology in general. Although there are some glitches and frustrations, it is so much better than other platforms that I’ve tried – primarily Etsy. It’s cheaper to sell on Etsy but that doesn’t mean much when you don’t get many customers. I did ok for a while when I was paying a lot of attention to it but even then the sales pale in comparison to my eBay store. I’ve started to empty out my Etsy shop and transition everything over to eBay or my own web site. Not only is Etsy’s traffic a lot lower, it also takes longer to list things, and they don’t have a global shipping program or good automated promotional tools (ie, coupon codes are pretty much it and you can’t apply them to specific items or categories; just have to trust the customer to use them as intended). Just my 2 cents.
Hi Jay and Ryanne, enjoyed your comments about stress on the podcast today. One reason I really like your advice is that you’re practical and action-oriented about problem solving. The tone of eBay and other forums can be quite negative with everyone agreeing with each other about how unfairly they’re being treated or how miserable their lives as sellers are. (as you mentioned, they probably have other underlying issues they’re not dealing with). I just want to figure out the best way to do things and move on.
On another topic, a caller to your show recently mentioned that eBay has a FaceBook page where you can ask questions. I tried it and was able to message back and forth with an eBay rep via the messaging function on FB. They didn’t end up resolving my problem but they were responsive and gave some advice. So, it could be a way to talk to eBay without waiting on hold — probably wouldn’t work for very complicated issues but seems ok if you had a policy or procedure related question. Just passing it along.
Have a great rest of your vacation!Thanks for everyone’s responses to this. To follow up, I finally got to the bottom of what was wrong with my listings. As mentioned, I use WP Lister Pro to list things on eBay from my web site. The template automatically repeats the photos and description in the space below the regular eBay listing. There is no link to my or WP Lister’s web site, but an eBay rep told me to look in the HTML version of the listing description. Hidden in there was some HTTP code (only https is allowed). Fortunately, I did not have to remove it manually from every listing. Instead, I revised my eBay template on WP Lister to erase all mention of photos, then bulk updated all the listings. I was afraid that would get rid of all my photos, but it just eliminates the duplicate ones on the lower part of the page, while the regular listings remain unchanged. Hope this helps anyone who uses this or similar plug in to list.
Also FYI, the eBay rep said I had until Nov. 1 to make the change before the listings were removed.Hi Jay and Ryanne, Just listened to your podcast and really appreciate your candidness about stress/anxiety issues. It was just what I needed today as I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to build up my eBay store. I’m at about 500 items and trying to gear up for the big selling season while still doing my other paying “job” (I have an established freelance writing business working from home), which is also in a busy period. My husband is helping me now but he has a full time job as well.
Anyway, it can feel very stressful and an outsider would probably wonder why I’m doing this when I could just go on doing what I’ve been doing for years and make a reasonable income. But I’m obsessed with making this work, and I actually really enjoy buying and reselling vintage stuff. My goal is similar to yours – to have a sustainable business that might fund other ventures (such as real estate), so we can live comfortably on our own terms. Thanks for all your extremely helpful advice and for inspiring me to keep going! — JanetI don’t think you can link to any outside sites, including YouTube. I had to remove the YouTube video link from one of mine because it was considered active content.
Thanks, Annabel, I never thought of trying the mobile friendly checker. However, I just tested a few listings with warnings, and it says there are no non-compliant links. It was worth a try! I really hope that eBay isn’t expecting everyone to go through thousands of listings one by one. It’s all very frustrating and taking up way too much time.
Mike – Thank you so much for all of this helpful information! I use WP-Lister Pro to list eBay items from my web site. I’ve stripped out my logo and URL so it just looks like a plain photo, title, and description now. However, I’m still getting the warning that I have “contact info” in 305 listings. (WP Lister is compliant with the http protocol so I’m not as worried about that). I’m not sure what else I could possibly check. I hope eBay is addressing this.
Thanks again for your help!
Janet/ FindzShopThanks, Tara! I love your shop as well. I like Etsy but am seeing some advantages to eBay as I get started, like an easier listing process and better seller interface. My Etsy shop had been doing well with increasing sales but lately it’s very slow and I’m not sure why. Thus my foray into eBay. Will see how it goes!
Hello All – I have been selling vintage on Etsy for about a year and a half, and I just opened an eBay shop (inspired by listening to Scavenger Life podcasts!). Love all the great vintage items I’m seeing as I browse through others’ shops! (In the process of changing my web site and Etsy shop name to FindzShop to match eBay store).
Etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PremiumTransitionsHi Jay and Ryanne, Just started listening to your SL podcast and am really enjoying it. My main shop is on Etsy but I’m still getting a lot out of your discussions and can relate to many of the topics you cover. Keep up the great work — it’s fun to join a community of like-minded people! –Janet
