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Use the A2 boxes.
With the dark suits, they basically soak up the lighting, so you need a lot more. You have to be careful not to wash out the photos. I have the photo boxes, with 4 5500k bulbs each. One on each side, and one boom light.
PhotoScape will help get the photos correct. Free and quick to learn.
PS – I always like to get a close up shot of the pattern on the shoulder (unless it is solid). Helps to make sure the customer gets a solid shot of what the material will look like.
Retro, I checked your listings. My thoughts (only to help!):
If you want to stay in the game longer term, get a mannequin. It will raise your ASP.
Your pictures are a bit too dark. Suits are tough with the darker colors, but you need good lighting to show the shade. You may also want to get the free photo editing software PhotoScape. It will help with color balance, white balance, and lightening your photos.
I’m with you on being bit. When I source Suits, Sport Coats, Dress Shirts, and Dress Pants, I am METICULOUS looking for any flaw possible. I will pass on a LOT of items with any kind of flaw. I have found that any flaw will have these items just sitting in your store.
Your pricing looks good though!
PS – You should lower your shipping. Suits and Sport Coats, folded correctly, can fit into a Regional A Priority Box. You have to order them from the USPS, but they will keep your shipping cost to below $10 (at least before the increase, I haven’t seen the updated pricing for those). This will keep your customers to paying no more that $10 for shipping. I flat rate price mine at $9.99 shipping.
If I can help in any way, or if you have questions, please let me know.
Week of 1/14-1/20
Total Items in Store: 1,700
Number of Items Listed: 91
Number of Items Sold: 80
(Includes 1 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 20%Total Product Sales: $2,256
Cost of Items Sold: $395
Highest Item Sold: $275 – Vtg Tiffany Style Stained Glass Hanging Lamp
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Troy leads the year 2-1.eBay Clothing
# Listed: 995
# Sold: 46
STR: 20%
ASP: $25.07eBay Shoes
# Listed: 94
# Sold: 8
STR: 36%
ASP: $26.82eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 705
# Sold: 25
STR: 15%
ASP: $34.15Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 115
# Sold: 1
STR: 4%
ASP: $19.84We completely agree with decluttering the house from eBay. Now that we have the outside storage unit, we have made the living area of the house 100% LIVING AREA. All eBay items are either in the basement or in our offices (we have 2 offices and a studio). Make the house feel like a HOUSE.
We don’t do calculated shipping on clothing, as we have seen the First Class prices vary too much. Clothing is more price competitive, so we watch the prices closer. When we did calculated shipping, we have seen calculated FC shipping for a 12oz item be from $4-$6 when the buyer pays, when it would always be less than $4 for our cost. So we flat rate to keep the price down to the customer. We currently do $4 for all FC items, $6.99 for all Padded Flat Rate, and $9.99 for all Regional A. And thanks to SixBit, I changed our pricing for all our inventory in 2 minutes.
Regarding the call regarding the effect of YouTube on the environment, I feel that you can’t stop the change and the information. Is more information out there? Yep. Has it brought more competition, reduced the availability of products, and lowered selling prices? Yep. Can I change it? Nope. So we change. We expand into other areas, drop certain brands or types of items. The best attitude to develop is that of an arbitrageur: Look for value, buy low, sell high. You know…basic scavenging…
We agree. We signed up for GSP today.
In process on changing our flat rate shipping costs for the US as well to be ready for the rate change this weekend.
Funny that you mention “Maisel”. Veronica and I love that show. Just started watching it this week, we are 4 episodes in…
Hang on, I just reread that. Lesser of all TAXABLE or BUSINESS. It should still reduce the business side. We should be good then.
Jay, I would say yes on the 15.3% SE tax. Totally different type of tax.
What worries me is the “lesser of” provision. I have a contract accounting job, for about $20k a year. But to get the job, they put me as a W2 employee of an outside agency.
So, we have a HIGHER net income on the eBay business than what I get on the W2 side. I’m hoping the 20% break is still on the business income, NOT on the W2…
Completely agree on RA. We tried that and it didn’t work.
You must be finding some good new items then! We don’t seem to find much that would go on Amazon. We may have to look harder…
Very nice on the Amazon sales! Is that RA items that you are picking up? Or items at Thrift Stores?
Agree. We even had the tracking in Moscow…but stopped at out for delivery, no delivery confirmation. 90% chance that he has the item, but I have no proof.
Week of 1/7-1/13
Total Items in Store: 1,684
Number of Items Listed: 65
Number of Items Sold: 67
(Includes 2 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 1 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 17%Total Product Sales: $2,035
Cost of Items Sold: $374
Highest Item Sold: $125 – Bespoke Tom James Hand Tailored Suit
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and starts the year in the lead 2-0.eBay Clothing
# Listed: 983
# Sold: 36
STR: 16%
ASP: $27.51eBay Shoes
# Listed: 91
# Sold: 5
STR: 24%
ASP: $37.98eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 701
# Sold: 29
STR: 18%
ASP: $31.98Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 119
# Sold: 2
STR: 7%
ASP: $27.39Second slow listing week in a row, this time because we were getting our youngest son moved out to his new place in downtown Denver and getting started at college. Feels a lot different around the house now…Veronica and I are officially Empty Nesters…
We had our second refund we had to process due to International Shipping losing a package, this time in Russia. We are now going to shift over to the Global Shipping Program this week. We also will be changing our shipping costs (we do flat rate shipping) this week to get ready for the change in costs from the USPS.
