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[Simon]

You’re not alone thinking that coupon is hard to find.  There’s even a website to point you to the right place: http://www.wheresmycoupon.com/

[Simon]

I’ve never sold gift cards on ebay but I’ve bought and sold on sites like giftcardgranny before and it’s always worked out fine.

[Simon]

I’ve always done the same as mickdog. I think it’s good to give customers this reminder because there’s a good chance that many buyers don’t pay attention to vacation messages or long handling times.  My typical message is very similar to mickdogs except I leave out the bit about canceling the order.  I almost never get a request to cancel.

[Simon]

@temudgin – You don’t need to respond to the seller,  open an INAD, send them back and get your money back.  INAD purchases don’t need to be stressful.

[Simon]

Hi R&J – Thanks for the pod (cast).

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 4265
Items Sold: 47
Total Sales: $1284.87
Cost of Items Sold: $282
Average Price Sold: $27.34
Average Cost of Item: $6.01
Highest Price Item Sold: $160.5 Lot of 28 Vintage Hats w/ Patches
Number of items listed this week: 97
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 480
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 278
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 43

My ebay sales week was pretty slow for much of the week but it turned out pretty well overall.  I’m still waiting to see the much-discussed early holiday sales. I’m not seeing it yet.

On the weekend I had a nice score in the form of a pile of old (pre-NFL) football programs from the 1940s that I picked up at a garage sale.  Based on sales comps I should do very well with them.

Regarding the discussion about shipping rate tables,  you can set them up here: https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf     This YouTube video explains how to use them:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWOjMAmi_10     Most people dont need them.

Hope everyone has a good week.

[Simon]

Returns have never closed automatically on the day after an item was supposed to be returned.  They stay open for at least a couple of weeks after that but do eventually close automatically.  Contacting customer service is the only way to close them earlier.

[Simon]

I’ve had the can’t-copy-a-draft issue.  I’ve had similar problems where I can’t edit drafts and had to copy them before I can edit them.   I haven’t noticed any photos reverting to originals but I don’t spend much time looking at previously-listed items.

[Simon]

I thought the caller was asking about a desk tape dispenser.  I have one like this which holds 2″ tape and regular small tape and a place for scissors.  I use it every day (in addition to a tape gun for sealing boxes): https://www.amazon.com/Officemate-Weighted-Dispenser-Recycled-96660/dp/B07CT3WGX6

[Simon]

@mycottage – I have only used Slabwatch via the website.  I don’t need that information often enough to bother installing a browser extension. (I hadn’t actually noticed that one existed before you mentioned it.)  Typical I sort sold listings using price-sold and that gives me a fair idea of the approximate best-offer sales price. I can’t answer your other question about buyer purchase history.

[Simon]

Thanks for the show R&J.

Here are my numbers for last week:
Total Items in Store: 4215
Items Sold: 47
Total Sales: $878.69
Cost of Items Sold: $138
Average Price Sold: $18.7
Average Cost of Item: $2.96
Highest Price Item Sold: $44.95 Dragonball Z Infinite World Playstation 2 PS2
Number of items listed this week: 75
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 302
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 90

I’m glad you guys had a better week.  I had a pretty quiet week though I noticed that the same thing happened this time last year.

Comments on podcast things:
– I’m still seeing the “This listing hasn’t had any sales in at least 16 months.” note on my active items.
– To find the sold price on a best offer you can use Terrapeak or you can try this site: http://www.slabwatch.com/     If you want to get really geeky, you can open a sold listing that sold for a best offer, view the page source and find the “taxExclusivePrice” which is the price the item sold for. It’s in the HTML but not visible on the page.
– Regarding the Apple Watch that was returned but not really,  I’m hearing that kind of scam a bit recently.  I wonder if this is related to those mystery packages showing up around the country.  My theory is that the scammy buyer opens a return where they have to pay for shipping,  and sends a package containing a random item back to the sellers neighborhood but not to the seller.  Ebay can see that a package was delivered to the sellers zip code and assumes the buyer shipped back to the seller.  The post office can hopefully see where the package was delivered.  I’m not sure how you could prove what the post office tells you though.

Another random topic: With those automatic offers, if you started using them on dozens or hundreds of items, I could see an issue when you wanted to put your store on vacation because there could be open offers out there in the wild that you wont know about so things could sell while you’re starting a vacation.

I hope everyone has a good week!

[Simon]

Thanks for the podcast.

Here are my numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 4187
Items Sold: 56
Total Sales: $1109.97
Cost of Items Sold: $173
Average Price Sold: $19.82
Average Cost of Item: $3.09
Highest Price Item Sold: $49.95 Apple Airport Express A1392 2nd Gen
Number of items listed this week: 66
YTD Sales: $50561
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +19%
Hats sold this week: 40 (71% of sales) worth $678 (61% of sales $)

Another consistent week though I had no big sales this week.

One of my goals for this week from my bucket list (with my new-found free time), was to watch the original 3 Star Wars movies that I’ve never watched before even though I was in elementary school when they originally came out in the 1970s.  Sci Fi was never an interest for me so I never got around to seeing them. I was surprised that they hold up quite well.

Regarding solar power, I did some Google searching and it looks like lots of states allow you to sell solar power back to the grid (“Net Metering”) : https://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/net-metering-policy-overview-and-state-legislative-updates.aspx    In Virginia, this doesn’t apply to small solar generators. Maybe that’s the issue for you.

I’m cautiously optimistic about what’s going to happen tomorrow (election day). Thanks for keeping this a non-political place.  It’s sooooooo divisive right now.

 

[Simon]

@christiner – I hope your son gets accepted to a school that he’s excited about (and that is reasonably price).  When my daughter was applying (about 6 years ago) she really wanted USC but I didn’t want that for her because it was out of my financial range.  Fortunately she didn’t get accepted to the program she wanted at USC (though she got accepted to to a different program she didn’t want).  In the end she went to UC San Diego and loved it.  (All the U.C’s are great schools IMO).

[Simon]

@annaesthetic23 – I just rented storage space for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  It was actually pretty fun to have some space to play with after playing tetris with the storage around my house for the last 5 years.  I got a 10×10 storage space but I think I’m going to downgrade to a 5×10 because I don’t need as much space as I thought and it’s quite expensive here.

[Simon]

Hi Mo – Welcome to the forums. It’s good to have another Northern Calfornian here. I wonder if our paths ever crossed when you were in the Bay Area.

Thanks for popping in to say hi.

 

[Simon]

Yes @jay.  Hat sales are remarkably stable throughout the year. There’s plenty of work required to source, clean and list a high volume of hats but they are cheap to buy,  easy to store and quick to ship.  Of course, they are also extremely slow sellers so it wouldn’t be the kind of business that would suit most people.

[Author]

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