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07/21/2017 at 8:39 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 319: Being Adults, Making Decisions #20593
That is the plan. Already have my list of questions!
Agree. Their support is awesome. I have sent about 10 messages and they get back quickly.
Do you use their templates and description wrappers?
07/21/2017 at 8:07 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 319: Being Adults, Making Decisions #20589Hey Amazing! That was us that put in SixBit. Completely agree, love this program!
I’m only using the backend now to manage the listings, since we have a total of three computers that we need on the database, and I have to get those connections set up to work, but we still love it.
We are on the road now looking at new areas to move too (planning to move to a cheaper area once our youngest son graduates in 6 months, less house, more storage, 5+ acres, $0 mortgage), and then to Vegas next week for eBay open. When we get back, I will get the network done and we will start to crack it up!
07/18/2017 at 7:00 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 319: Being Adults, Making Decisions #20472Funny about the quick resale. We had a similar one this week.
Two returns showed up yesterday for items that didn’t fit. Processed the refund and relisted them. they both sold today and were shipped back out. They weren’t in the house even 24 hours…
Love it when that happens!
07/17/2017 at 7:51 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 319: Being Adults, Making Decisions #20444Lots of info this week, as I wanted to stay true to posting our numbers for each week, so there is some catch-up below…
Week of 6/25-7/1
Total Items in Store: 1,565-ish (didn’t grab the numbers)
Items Sold: 65
Number of Items Listed This Week: 59
Total Sales: $1,712.61
Cost of Items Sold: $310.11
Highest Item Sold: $110 – Miche Classic Purse Lot – 2 Base Bags & 9 Shells
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week, Veronica leads for the year 15-10.June 2017
Items Listed: 365
Items Sold: 266
Total Sales: $6,777.02
Sell Thru Rate: 17%Week of 7/2-7/8
Total Items in Store: 1,532
Items Sold: 39
Number of Items Listed This Week: 0
Total Sales: $1,335.35
Cost of Items Sold: $265.19
Highest Item Sold: $125.85 – Victorian French Style Large Floor Table Lamp Shade
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week, Veronica leads for the year 16-10.Week of 7/9-7/15
Total Items in Store: 1,520
Items Sold: 43
Number of Items Listed This Week: 27
Total Sales: $1,387.11
Cost of Items Sold: $223.49
Highest Item Sold: $150 – Mitchell & Ness Atlanta Falcons Deion Sanders #21 1989 Throwbacks Jersey
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week, Veronica leads for the year 16-11.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $21.8k to $16.6kJuly has hit, and definitely a slow down. It worked out OK though as we used the time to implement SixBit as our main database. LOVE this software. The ability to mass relist (and force the listings to be NEW to eBay), automatic relisting, and all the great things about having a database (this is the world I lived in for 20+ years, so I’m loving it). Took more days than I really wanted to reconcile and learn the software, but it is time well worth it. It is always good to make sure you are working ON the business and not just IN the business.
After eBay Open is done and we are back in the swing of things, I will have the network configured so that we can use SixBit for more front end work…like automatically filling in my Item Descriptions from what I put in Item Specifics. That will be WONDERFUL and will take more time off the listing side.
On the downside this week, I had to waste a lot of time updating listings. I had a picture linked into the Item Description from Photobucket that showed a graphic on how I do measurements on shirts and sport coats. Then Photobucket killed the link and wants me to pay $40/mo to keep the link active. NOPE. But I will be looking into how to use Description Wrappers in SixBit so that I can put the photo back in the listing. Just a pain to waste the day pulling the link…
07/11/2017 at 2:44 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 318: Spending Money Should Be Painful #20260I like The Millionaire Next Door. Great book!
Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad was Richard Kimi. I listened to the interview with Alan Kimi, Robert Kiyosaki’s friend and they both confirmed that this was who Rich Dad was. So yes, he really had a Rich Dad.
But beyond that…I have still learned a lot from his books and his framework of thinking about money and finances. George Bailey from “It’s a Wonderful Life” isn’t real either…but he taught me a lot, and I’m thankful for it.
We can all take or leave the teachings we are presented in this world. That is the joy of free will. We take or leave…and our lives are shaped accordingly. There is never a single path to success, and we can all get there in our own ways…
07/11/2017 at 2:01 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 318: Spending Money Should Be Painful #20256Interesting theory. Something for me to look at.
I know that lots of views without a sale is a bad thing in best match, so I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
Thanks!
07/11/2017 at 11:57 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 318: Spending Money Should Be Painful #20247Question for others to see if they know the answer. Any idea what happens that creates HUNDREDS to THOUSANDS of views on a listing in the first few days? While looking at the impacts of SixBit, I have some items that have a CRAZY amount of views. Must be some bots of some sort, but does anyone know what they are?
This happened last year, when I had a listing that I would constantly click refresh and I could just watch the views increase every time.
07/11/2017 at 11:55 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 318: Spending Money Should Be Painful #20246I will disagree with you there. Kiyosaki is an excellent person to learn the framework of how to think about money and finances. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a great beginning book on HOW to think about finances. I have read many of his other books and enjoy them as well as a framework on HOW to think.
No, he isn’t Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, who have detailed plans on how to stay out of debt. For many beginners, they are good places to start (I like Dave Ramsey myself between those two).
But after you master how to stay not poor, or ultimately how to stay middle class and work for other people (which is where they get you to), Kiyosaki helps you think differently, view the world differently, and move from middle class worker to business owner.
07/11/2017 at 11:08 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 318: Spending Money Should Be Painful #20243We are still behind in our normal eBay process, but wanted to check in. I haven’t even done our numbers for the past two weeks…so you KNOW it is SERIOUS!!!:-)
We did very little listing last week, with our family getting together for July 4th (which is also Veronica’s Birthday!!!), and we turned it into a Summer Thanksgiving, since my parents will still be in Montana for Thanksgiving, my Sister will be in New Mexico, and we will be in Colorado with our work schedules. So we roasted a turkey, made a Thanksgiving Dinner out of it, and didn’t do much listing.
More exciting though, is that we took the plunge and started using SixBit. We tried WonderLister for a day, but we really didn’t like the interface, which is very important to us. So starting on Friday, I did the conversion, and it is a typical Database Conversion (which I have done a LOT if in my career). I have my head back up above water after reconciling the database, getting the relists done, and getting the back end working the way I want.
The BEST part that I love about SixBit is that it has a WONDERFUL relisting process. We went to the Enterprise Edition so that we can have 30 Day listings, but they can be Auto Relisted by SixBit. And the relists will be sent as NEW listings to eBay if there is no sales benefit on the history. In fact, even without the Auto Relist, when we send previously listed items to eBay from SixBit, you can tell it to force the listing to be NEW to eBay. With the boost that you get on new listings, I’m planning on this increasing our velocity and STR. I can say that two items that this weekend we had two items that were ANCIENT that after we relisted them via SixBit, they sold within 24 hours. And looking at some of our relisted items, it seems we are getting more views than normal. Here is to hoping…
I have to get back to it. I will post numbers as soon as possible, but I want to make sure the backend of SixBit is set before we go to eBay Open next week, and I have some other admin items to complete (filing 941 Tax forms, ensure bills are set to pay, etc.).
Will talk more soon!
My understanding is that if you use the out of stock option, the listing stays active, and you continue to pay read listing fees, even though the inventory quantity is zero. Buyers can’t buy the item if it is at zero, but you still pay the relisting fees.
Ahh…the joys of running your own business! Always a challenge to overcome!
We have lots of family over from out of state to celebrate the 4th, and since we will all be unable to visit each other for Thanksgiving, we are having Thanksgiving dinner with each other today. I’ll be putting the turkey in soon!
With that, and I’ve been working on getting the home network established (done!) and downloading WonderLister (finally!), and I have two days of contract accounting work on Wednesday and Thursday, we will be late with any other number reporting this week. But we will be back to give an update on both numbers and WonderLister ASAP!
Hope everyone has a great sales week!
06/27/2017 at 6:58 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19853Agree. One of the best pieces of data is Average Profit by category as well as Total Profit by category. Shows where our money is made and where we spin our wheels. I added an estimated time to list for each category to get a Profit per Hour by Category. Shows a lot of good info!
06/26/2017 at 7:08 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19820We definitely have those competitions as well. Since I have all of the data in Excel, I can get profit in whole dollars as well as average profit per item. I’m ahead in whole dollars, and at least for now, we are neck and neck for average. That will change I’m sure during Holiday season…but I’m trying to keep the lead!
06/26/2017 at 5:09 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19813Week of 6/18-6/24
Total Items in Store: 1,565
Items Sold: 55
Number of Items Listed This Week: 77
Total Sales: $1,500.57
Cost of Items Sold: $328.15
Highest Item Sold: $50 – Robert Graham Flip Cuff Casual Shirt
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week, Veronica leads for the year 14-10.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $20.2k to $15.0kA little bit of a bounce in sales this week, and Sunday and Monday have looked good so far as well. Just gotta keep surfing the waves and focus on listing!
Missed our goal of 100 listings per week this week, but it was intentional. We took all of Wednesday off to celebrate our youngest son’s birthday. Gotta enjoy the perks of this business!!! Still have the consulting gig cutting into the listing time for me, 2 days last week, 2 days this week, 2 days next week. Helps offset the slow sales though!
Did really well sourcing this week. We ended up sourcing separately (which was weird!), as I had to do the consulting on Friday, so Veronica hit the yard sales and thrift stores on Friday. She found some shoes she liked that were going to be 50% off on Saturday, so she hit that part of town and I hit another part of town. Got lots of goodies, but I missed my partner!
PS – Jay, to answer your question from last week…we spent $767 in new merchandise this week. So yeah, we have some high weeks sometimes!
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