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Last week I told myself that I’m so happy to be a part of a community here at SL that can abstain from political squabbles. I know it sounds cliché, but this was my “safe place” to get away from all that amid this online post nuclear political wasteland. I’m pretty surprised that J&R were the ones to open the can of worms. Here’s to hoping this dries up quickly and we can get back to being one big happy and helpful family! Everyone please think twice before hitting the submit button if going political. We have a good thing here – let things bounce off you and move on.
And so I’ll leave you with my numbers and thoughts on the ebay week and check out of this podcast conversation for the remainder because I don’t want to see what it is already turning into.
As for me, I had a better week.
Items sold: 19
Total sales: $762
COGS: $200
Profit: $562Sales were up big early in the week, but they tapered off as the week went on. I’ve really pushed hard on my listing and hit 600 listings last night. Yay! I have almost completely listed my backlog of shoes – just two more tubs to go. Everything new I buy is also being listed immediately. This week I want to try and focus on toys.
I’m really loving using the SKU function in ebay. Everything new gets assigned a tub SKU and I’m also slowly bringing old inventory into the system.
Have a great week everyone. I hope everyone’s sales start to pick up!
I pulled the trigger on the Enerzen 3500 unit. It will be here Monday and I’ll give a full report. I can’t wait! My nose is burning from the latent cigarette smell in some of these shoes I’m creating drafts for this evening.
Ah I think I’d have to use one of my wardrobes so everything has air circulation. A tub would work with shoes, but not clothes.
Knowing the hazards is critical on the safety front. A person who typically does not read instruction booklets NEED NOT APPLY.
They aren’t knock offs. Odds are the shoes you sold are an older model and the sole material was of poor quality. With age it becomes brittle. I always bend test women’s mule or clog style shoes before I buy them, but even that isn’t fool proof.
I sold a brand new unused pair of clarks mules about a month ago and the person had them blow out on the first wear while at work. I felt so bad for her! I may not have checked those because they were new. I immediately gave a full refund along with an apology. Customer was very happy.
I haven’t seen ebay as the “auction place” for many years. The auction format is outdated in the smart phone era. People want their stuff and they want it now! Ebay is the place to get oddball or hard to find things. Even Weird Al wrote a song about it. If you can think of it, it is probably for sale on ebay.
The listing format is irrelevant I think for most people.
Ha! I saw the same listing when I came across a duck hunting vest. My first thought was NOT to buy the item because I saw Jay. That means it is a very old listing.
I started out selling vintage electronics and toys 1.5 years ago. I had a lot of spare time as I was unemployed. Once I went back to work and ebay went to part time, that spare time to do extensive cleaning and testing went out the window. I have several shelves full of AV equipment I could get really good money for, but I just don’t have the desire to commit to testing it all. I also don’t really want to pack it.
I NEED to commit to this so I can clear out that valuable shelf space. Shoes are just sooo much easier though. “I need to test this amp and these speakers toda…..or I could list these two tubs of shoes. Shoes it is!” I’ve had this internal conversation many times over the last year. Lol!
The only time I would have an issue with this is if someone – say an employee – was making a backroom deal to prevent the product from hitting the sales floor. That is no longer a fair playing field.
Once it hits the public, it is fair game. How bad do you want it?
I have no issues with this. Price gouging is only an issue in matters of life & death.
An NES Classic is not a necessity. Noone is entitled to have one. You did the work, so now you can do what you want with it – open it or sell it. There are plenty people in this world who are happy to pay a large surcharge to ensure they get what they want when they want it. Now they don’t have to stress about it or run from store to store for weeks on end.After the Sandy Hook tragedy, there was a huge run on firearm ammunition. Specifically for .223 caliber rifle ammo. I happened to be at Walmart one night when they got in a shipment of ammo tins in this caliber for standard price. I bought my limit of three as did my wife and then sold them. I made over $500 on that stuff. Not one customer complained I was gouging them. Matter of fact, they were super happy to have the product in their hands.
Bottom line, don’t capitalize on rational fears. Feel free to capitalize on irrational fears all day. Capitalizing on irrational fears drives our entire economy. Happy scavenging!
Charleston has 2 Goodwills and a salvation Army. If you are willing to drive a bit, hit up the Goodwill in Nitro/Cross Lanes and the church thrift on Main Street in St. Albans. There is a Salvation Army in Cross Lanes, but they were extremely overpriced last time I was there. I don’t recommend it unless you simply have extra time to kill. They’re the kind of place that prints out a random unrealistic ebay listing to place next to an overpriced item.
If you get anything awesome, I’d love to hear about it!
Cool! Are you into a specific era, or do you have a mix? I like a good mix. Currently I have an early 80’s Bally Mr & Mrs. Pacman, a late 80’s Williams F-14 Tomcat, an early 90’s Williams Slugfest, and a mid-2000’s Stern Roller Coaster Tycoon. In my wheeling dealing days I went through a lot of pins. The only era I haven’t messed with is EM’s.
I service an Elvis pin at a pizza place right down the road from my house. I have a key and can play whenever I want. It’s the greatest way to “own” a pin – If I notice something is wrong while I’m playing, I pull the glass and fix it and get paid VERY well to do it. Lol!I’ve sold more than a few multicades as well. They are a great gameroom addition.
I have a real nice hard wood booth that came out of a historical Restaurant in Huntington that used to be a train station. It was our favorite restaurant before it shut down.
My system is still a work in progress, but I drew a line in the sand and all new listings stick to it. My current SKU is a letter and two numbers.
A- clothes
B- Shoes
C- Electronics
D- Toys
E- Misc.
W – I have two Wardrobes for coats and bulky clothing items.I have plenty more letters to expand. I can also add to the SKU eventually to put in my COGS and purchase date if I want. You gotta start somewhere!
My only wish is that the SKU would be added to the app. I can’t find it anywhere! I should be able to go to my awaiting shipment items and see the SKU plain as day. I should also be able to add the SKU to the listing in the app.
My next step in my system is to pick a listed tub a day and add the SKUs to the listings. Without SKU functionality in the app though, that becomes a pain.
It’s been slow here as well – I’ve only been selling 5-7 items a week for a few weeks. I started a 3 day sale on Saturday. On Sunday I had 3 sales and I had 5 on Monday. I’m hoping it is the start of a trend due to the fact I have been listing more. I could definitely go for selling 5 items a day!
I talk frequently about money with my kids. They’ve been using realistic looking play money as currency inside the house for years. They have a store they can buy items from with the money they earn doing chores getting their school work done on time.
I don’t tell the kids how much money I make at my job – kids have BIG mouths. Personally I don’t care what other people make, but other people can get real hung up on these things and it can cause problems. I do share with my kids data about ebay because I am showing them something that they can do to make real money.
Through all my conversations with my kids about money I can tell you most of it goes in one ear and out the other and they are on to the next distraction. Some kids are predisposed to being money smart, and some are doomed to learn money lessons the hard way. I can tell which of my kids fall into each category already. Hopefully the seeds have been planted though.
I buy expensive dumb stuff…but I don’t pay expensive dumb prices. I got smart!
For instance I have a garage full of arcade and pinball machines. They are expensive…if you aren’t smart about it. I learned to fix them so I could buy them for super cheap. Then I started fixing them to sell. Then I started taking repair jobs from other people. I also started buying lots of parts and reselling them with proper descriptions.
I have every machine I ever wanted to have and I have zero money tied up in them. It also feels good to have those assets knowing I could sell them all in a pinch for quite a bit of money.
