[T-Satt]

Christine, if you talk to them and say that you are paying cash and not through insurance, you have a good chance at getting a lower cost. If you talk with them person to person, and explain the situation, a lot of people get it and will reduce where they can.

At worst, it never hurts to ask. Making that human to human connection can do a lot…

[T-Satt]

Inglewood, I love that thought, but since I’m an OCD accountant, I can’t decide how to get a true profit from the calculation (without putting in more accounting work).

The downside to tracking current hours spent to current sales, is that the hours you worked this week aren’t related to the sales this week. The hours you work this week are related to future sales.

In the cost accounting world, this is where you capitalize your labor. You take the cost of labor (and for us, I would have to have a calculated hourly rate), and add that to the value of the inventory on the books. So if a shirt cost me $3 to purchase, and 15 minutes to list (from shopping to listing), and I value my work at $20/hr, then I have a $8 shirt in Inventory ($3 cost + $5 labor). Then when that item sells, I don’t have a COGS of $3, I have a COGS of $8, so I get a truer profit per item.

I just haven’t decided to spend the time doing that. Maybe I will at some point, but I’m not there yet.

[T-Satt]

99% of the International Forms are done for you on eBay. For First Class International, it is a single form and is similar to printing Domestic. For Priority International, there are 4 copies of the form. Attach one to the package, and put the other 3 in the Clear Plastic Envelopes from USPS. You can check YouTube for videos on how to do that.

[T-Satt]

Completely agree Jay. That is what bit us, lack of tracking on First Class International.

[T-Satt]

Our losses were in Russia, China, and Qatar recently.

[T-Satt]

Week of 2/04-2/10
Total Items in Store: 1,825 (Up 33% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 97
Number of Items Sold: 57 (Down 7% YOY)
(Includes 0 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 13% (Down 6% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $1,402 (Up 21% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $269
Highest Item Sold: $150 – Original Microsoft XBox Console Lot (* on this…sold on Saturday, still waiting for payment…)
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week ties up the year at 3-3.

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,083
# Sold: 41
STR: 16%
ASP: $23.46

eBay Shoes
# Listed: 112
# Sold: 4
STR: 15%
ASP: $20.62

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 630
# Sold: 12
STR: 8%
ASP: $29.77

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 153
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0.0

We are definitely seeing a slowdown in sales, especially on Hard Goods. I think the FedEx Smartpost issue is hurting us, as buyers are seeing that much higher price to ship. I wish that I had the breakout (Clothes, Shoes, Hard Goods) for this time last year so that I can see by category how we are looking. At the high level, we always see a slide down into February, and then we pick back up into March-April, until we slide to the summer pit, but I will be interested in starting to track the types of items each year.

Love your perspective on how hard you would work for yourself. That was the mindset that made me leave my high paying job. I was paid, but didn’t own my life. We make a LOT less right now, but we are much happier. I am always a hard worker, but I love doing it for us and when I want to. I’m taking a month off to hike the Colorado Trail, and didn’t have to ask a boss if I could (though…I did make sure Veronica was cool with it!)

[T-Satt]

Just be careful with International shipping via First Class International. I just had to do another refund for a lost package. Priority International will have much better tracking, so anything of high value, only offer Priority International. More expensive, but worth it for higher value.

The number of lost First Class International shipments in the last 2 months (3) where we have had to give refunds is why we flipped to GSP for this year. Giving it a year to see how it works.

[T-Satt]

As a follow-up, I’m listening to eBay Radio Podcast today, and Griff mentioned that they realize that there is a bug in the metrics, and they are fixing it. It is the bug we were just discussing.

[T-Satt]

You are only charged if they PURCHASE the item using the promoted listing. Just clicking does not incur the fee.

Basically, you get a duplicate listing. I have seen my PROMOTED listing as well as my regular listing in results before.

Yes, if they buy through the regular listing, no fee is charged.

So the good news is, you only pay if they buy. Best kind of fee…

[T-Satt]

Interesting. We haven’t looked into that in a long time. I think when you open the box, the box for restrictions on number of feedback used to go positive as well. Looks like now it is only -1, -2, or -3.

There is an expanded section below that says:

Buyers who may bid on several of my items and not pay for them
Block buyers who are currently winning or have bought of my items in the last 10 days.
Only apply this block to buyers who have a feedback score of or lower.
Consider selecting this requirement if you are selling expensive items and don’t want to sell over a certain number to any single buyer. Learn more about how this requirement works.

Detail:

Buyers Who May Bid on Several of My Items and Not Pay
How this buyer requirement works
Below are 2 examples of how this buyer requirement will affect buyers who bid on or buy your items.

Example 1
You select “Block buyers who are currently winning or have bought ‘10′ of my items in the last 10 days.” You also select “Only apply this block to buyers who have a feedback score of ‘5′ or lower.” Two eBay members, eBaydaisy (feedback score of 7), and johneBay (feedback score of 3), are currently winning or have bought some of your items and are interested in bidding on or buying more.

eBaydaisy (feedback score of 7) is currently winning or has bought 10 of your items in the last 10 days. When eBaydaisy tries to bid on or buy another of your items, she will not be blocked. Although you are blocking buyers who are currently winning or have bought more than 10 of your items in the last 10 days, eBaydaisy has a feedback score of 7, which is higher than the 5 you set as part of the requirement. johneBay (feedback score of 3) is currently winning or has bought 10 of your items in the last 10 days. When johneBay tries to bid on or buy another of your items, he will be blocked. johneBay’s feedback score is 3, which is lower than the 5 you set as part of the block.

Example 2
You select “Block buyers who are currently winning or have bought ‘10’ of my items in the last 10 days.” You do not select “Only apply this block to buyers who have a feedback score of ‘0-5’ or lower.”

eBaydaisy (feedback score of 7) will be blocked when she tries to bid on or buy another of your items. This is because you are blocking buyers who are currently winning or have bought 10 items from you in the last 10 days, and you have chosen not to apply the block only to buyers who have a feedback score of ‘0-5’ or lower. In this situation, eBaydaisy will be blocked regardless of her feedback score.

johneBay (feedback score of 3) will still be blocked, since you have chosen not to apply the block only to buyers who have a feedback score of ‘0-5’ or lower. In this situation, johneBay will be blocked regardless of his feedback score. In fact, any buyer who is currently winning or has bought the maximum-allowed number of your items in the last 10 days will be blocked, regardless of their feedback score.

[T-Satt]

Yes Jay, you can restrict buyers based on Feedback Score. This is in Seller Account\Site Preferences\Buyer Requirements.

[T-Satt]

Thanks for this. The goods news is that we show that all our items are qualifying for EGD.

[T-Satt]

We are similar. Of the three dings, one was legit (we held the item for a day to answer a question from the buyer), and they removed the other two. Must have been a bug that they fixed.

[T-Satt]

We use them on just about our entire store. We use a 5% ad rate.

Definitely increases exposure and improves STR. Our current metric is 93 items sold in the last 31 days using Promoted Listings. $2,627.46 for $131.35 in ad fees.

[T-Satt]

If you are first starting out, I would just turn on GSP. It is really easy, and all you have to do is ship the item to the Kentucky center and eBay takes care of the rest.

Outside of that, International is not too daunting. Use First Class International for items under 4 lbs for the cheapest rate, but you don’t have tracking or insurance, so if the item does not get a delivery scan, you will have to refund the buyer. This is the biggest risk, though it only has happened to us about 4-5 times since 2013. If the item is higher priced, I would only offer Priority International to get the tracking and insurance.

There are different forms that print, but eBay labels handles that. Get some plastic pouches for Priority International from your local post office. Do some YouTube research on International Shipping and they will take you through it.

Not sure what would have happened on your Spain issue. If you see that again, before you pay for the label, call eBay and ask what happened.

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