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Thanks for this post; this is great information. So, basically selecting lot or bundle, when appropriate, may help with promoting your listing in searches. I’ll start doing this with new listings.
I agree with lying flat and/or posing. Another issue with a mannequin is the size. I used to have a mid-sized women’s mannequin. Clothing in a smaller size looked stretched out, and something very large would hang with the extra fabric. Only items close to the size of the mannequin looked good. I now lie all clothes on the floor with white paper underneath.
What was the measurement map or whatever you called it? You bought it at Walmart?
In June, I bought a rain coat at an outlet store for Fall. In August, I went to a rummage sale where I bought an even nicer, hardly used rain coat in my size for about $8. The rain coat I bought in June is now listed on eBay for the price that I paid.
I’ve bought art for myself. At an auction, I bought a framed painting on silk of tribal masks for $11.50. I bought a framed Agam (a famous Israeli artist) print on fabric for $20 (at the same rummage sale as the rain coat) for $20.
I have my reseller’s certificate on file with all the auctions that I go to and don’t pay taxes when I purchase something. If I buy something for personal use at an auction, I will pay taxes on it when I enter quarterly state taxes for the business. If I buy something at a garage sale or similar, then I won’t bother.
The majority of stuff I buy is for the business, and I rarely buy for myself or family. But, every once in a while ….
Just my hypothesis, but I think that some people are looking for a discount, however small, when they ask a question. I started to respond with the answer and around a 10% discount, and I have been successful making a sale a majority of the time.
I had some pretty interesting sales this week.
I paid about $3 for this pennant from an online auction. I think that I under priced it for $48 considering how fast it sold, but I’m happy for the cash. I guess that Playboy would support sport teams at one time?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182756407092I find that I will buy an auction lot for items I’m interested in, but the first item to sell will be something unrelated. I bought a online auction lot of Fiesta Ware plus this large drink dispenser. I haven’t sold any Fiesta yet, but this almost paid for the whole lot at $69:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182754035138My husband is currently working out of a different building because his company is in process of redoing his regular office area. He had business in his original office and happened to notice a pile of old equipment that was being thrown out. Here are two electronic calipers that I obviously underpriced because they both sold very quickly. I thought I had done my homework and priced them at $30, only $10 below a new one on eBay. The difference might be because the other one was 6″ and these were 8″. I don’t really know.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182762701413
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182762723293Here is my favorite of the week. I bought this unopened Cinderella VHS deluxe tape set at auction for about $12. Someone in Australia, who opened an account that day, bought it for full price of $79. I expect that they found the item through a Google search, and opened up an account just to buy my item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182619803572I bought this old ship lantern at a rummage sale half price day for $4. The insides have been removed. Sold for $49.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182713687368This is something my mom gave to me. It is a refill for a discontinued dryer bar. Her holder broke, so she decided to use something else. The refills are no longer being produced, so I was able to get $33 for this one item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182765234451I don’t have any insight into media foreign or otherwise, but I thought that I would offer one suggestion. You can find inexpensive translation services through different websites. I used fiverr.com recently for something else, so I checked them out for translation. I found several offers for Vietnamese to English translation. The first one offered 800 words for $5, and they look like they had good credentials. Just like eBay, you should check their ratings and compare to other offers. There are other sites like upwork.com, and you could google for others.
If you had the translation, you could compare what you have to others that have sold.
Of course, you could ask your neighbors, but I assume you don’t want to clue them in to what you are planning to do. Maybe you could not say anything about rescuing stuff from their trash, but casually ask about what sort of CDs and DVDs they had thrown out.
Week of Sept 3 – 9
* Total Items in Store: 1038
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $42.26 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $460.50
* Highest Price Sold: $79 Cinderella Deluxe Video Edition
* Average Price Sold: $35.42
* Returns: 0 (1 cancel)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $13
* Number of items listed this week: 52When I first met my husband, he almost never wanted to go on trips because of the stress. He eventually got the hang of it. I’m glad that you guys were able to work through the problem.
I had a great week. I had 7 less sales than last week, but made about $40 more. The average price was up about $15!
I just want to mention something I’ve noticed about GoDaddy. On the summary page, left-hand side, sometimes I see a message about repeat customers. If I happen to see the message, I’ll click on the link and see the customer’s name and the items they’ve bought from me. This is not about customers who bought more than one item in a single day, rather, these are purchases with weeks or months in between. If I see that before I’ve left feedback (because I usually leave feedback when I see the item is delivered), I will make sure to thank them for the repeat business. This has happened only a few times, but, so far, the buyer always leaves feedback. In one case, the buyer left feedback for both the new and the old purchases after seeing my message.
This is not rambling. This is an amazing discussion of life and stress and how to deal with it. Very well said.
Yes, I remember the Trapper Keepers from school, but I don’t think I ever owned one. When I was taking my kids school shopping recently, I noticed that the brand is still around. It is now owned by Mead.
The binder was part of an online auction. Basically, it was a bin full of mostly junk. I figured I could use the bin itself (even without the lid), and it included a chalk board that would be worth the $1. Once I got it home, I decided to look up the Trapper Keeper before throwing it away, and boy I was surprised at the prices! I figure the buyer either wants it for nostalgia or else his or her kid is going to have the coolest notebook in Guam!
Here is the auction lot, paid $1.10 total:
http://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/5370/item/mugs-and-more-a-535460I had a number of interesting sales this past week:
I was given some vintage electronics & equipment last year, which quickly became a death pile. A friend was able to test a few items for me, but the rest was listed as non-working. This SyQuest hard drive didn’t do anything when I plugged in, but I don’t know if it needed something else to work. It sold for $22 through the GSP to the UK.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182592493025Vintage cooking books sell well for me. Bought this 1965 one written by Vincent Price and his wife for $1, sold for $20.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182717291895For some reason, tablecloths have suddenly been selling for me. These two listings were sold to the same person for a total of $76. I paid pennies.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182509114943
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182509153851A Harley Davidson lamp sold via GSP to Canado for $59, paid $15.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182713667231I paid about $0.55 for this vintage Trapper Keeper binder as part of a $1 minimum bid lot at an online auction. Sold for best offer of $35 to someone in Guam.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182688664843Another vintage Pantone book sold for $50, paid $5.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182666766917Week of Sept 3 – 9
* Total Items in Store: 999
* Items Sold: 20
* Cost of Items Sold: $24.75 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $415
* Highest Price Sold: $50 – 1984 Pantone Fan Deck & Book
* Average Price Sold: $20.65
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $46.50
* Number of items listed this week: over 40This week, I had one buyer who bought two items from me at the same time for $76, which would make it my highest sale. I wasn’t sure which to put down, so I chose the highest single sale.
Kids are finally back to school and I have been able to start listing again!!! The light kit I bought is definitely helping to speed up my listing, but I still have to do minor adjustments in eBay.
I had a few really good sales on Sunday from those newer listings, but those will show up in next week’s numbers.
T-Satt –
If you do a cash sale on a local pickup, are you cutting eBay out of the deal? Or do they still get their fees somehow? There could be an issue if they don’t get their fees.
Jay & Ryanne have mentioned that they ask a buyer to pay upfront on a local pickup, but you are saying the opposite. I know that when I sell something through a Facebook post, the buyer might try to negotiate the price down when I meet up with them. Usually anything I list on Facebook is something I’m just trying to get rid of, so I can lower the price. On the other hand, I’ve just wasted my time for very little money.
So, for eBay, I want to have the person pay for it first, and then I’ll refund their money if they don’t want it. There’s a less chance that they’ll ask for a lower price.
Just two sides to the argument. I can see the issue with PayPal. The podcast today mentioned getting a signature or photograph to show that the item was picked up. I’ve only had maybe four or so local pickups so far, and they have all worked out. I’ve never gotten a signature, but maybe I should start doing that.
To me, it similar to cubism modern art. Is the artist’s first name Bobby? I can’t make out the last name, but it looks short. The term Black Art is used throughout eBay and the internet, but I would not use African since you don’t know where the painting was made.
I can’t tell if people are hatching out of the eggs or if the people are hanging around a bunch of large eggs. And then there are pineapples! Maybe a few eggplants? Really cool & weird.
Can you tell if it is paper? From the one picture, it looks like something painted or printed on wood.
So, descriptor words, for what they are worth: Black art cubism modern hatching eggs pineapples. Maybe put the size in the title like ##”x##”.
You can put descriptor words together and price it high with make offer. I never seem to price as high as Ryanne & Jay, but maybe a few hundred dollars?
Steve – I remember those HP calculators from back in the day. I never bought one for myself, and I hated the weird way that you had to punch in the numbers. If I see one now, I guess it is the time for me to purchase it!
Some fun sales from the week:
Here is a recent auction buy where people just didn’t seem interested in the box lots. The auctioneer combined enough boxes where this wood sculpture cost me only $1. Sold for best offer of $23.35 (the total with the shipping came to an even number).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182733207411I purchased this set of antique Bavarian plates at one of the first auctions I went to over a year ago. Maybe they took so long to sell because I had them priced too high, but they sold at the asking price. Paid about 60c, sold for $49. They are going to an office above a specialty home store in NYC. I wonder if the plates will be resold or if the buyer is just having their purchase sent to their office.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182275162592I continue to sell the overstock books I purchased two months ago. One lady purchased 4 copies of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook” for an art class she runs. I have a promotion for the purchase of more than one book, so I refunded some of her money plus shipping was included. After those expenses, the sale came to about $46; I paid about 20c a book.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182612604278Mostly, I go to auctions during the winter months. There are two live auctions that happen on a regular basis that I like to attend, and there is a online auction company in my area that posts auctions on an ongoing basis. You can find auctions near you at AuctionZip.com and keep an eye out on gsalr.com and estatesales.net for auctions, estate sales, and the occasional garage sale.
The prices at the Goodwill near me have gone up, but I might duck in there a few times. There a few other thrift stores in my area that I can check. I’ve never been to the Goodwill outlet closest to me, but I might do the hour drive some winter day.
