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Welcome! I also joined eBay in ’97. It was very different then, wasn’t it?
Interesting specialty – I happen to have some plastic animals I was wondering about. I just searched those brands you mention and looked at the listings. I’ll have to look at mine more closely! Thanks! I try to help out here with military, knives, and other guy-type stuff when I can, if there’s ever anything like that you’re wondering about.
Improving sales seems to be an inexact science. Other than the necessary basics, I think different things work for different people, depending on their temperament and inventory mix. Social media presence and tie-ins are all the rage at the moment but I have zero interest and about zero expertise for that. Sending out offers works for some but I get crickets when I do it, even at 50% off. I mostly just try to find good stuff to sell, and always work on improving my listings.
10/18/20 – 10/24/20
Total Items Listed (3 different IDs): 329
Items Sold: 26
Gross Sales (including @ $12 total free shipping): $762.97
Highest Price Sold: $200 plus shipping – 1935 Harvard 300<sup>th</sup> Anniversary Map Print (family estate item)
Returns: 0
New Items Listed: 38
$ Spent on New Inventory: $61I’ve had multiple careers and jobs – I think I liked them all, at times. But I also tired of every one of them after a while. Been a busy week for me – which is good because my sales typically plateau during the holiday season.
Hey Christine – my daughter is now in her senior year at UMASS Amherst. She really likes it, overall. She’s a campus tour guide (doing them virtually this year). When applying to colleges she wanted a winter, and she got it. My sense is that if she had actually lived through a northeastern US winter prior to applying for college she would have had second thoughts at the time, but I think now she’s gotten used to it and does not regret it. (I was stationed in north central Mass in the Army so it’s not like I didn’t warn her.) The school is virtual now (with a few exceptions) and she preferred to go back and live in an apartment there with some friends this year rather than stay here and stay warm. I’d be happy to provide more info on other questions or put you in contact with her. Feel free to gmail me at TheTemudgin.
That’s a nightmare. EBay does not answer the phone unless they’ve sent you a code to enter and you have to be in your account to get the code. I find it’s best to use a specific listing to start the process to get a code to call (or have them call you), even though your question may not be limited to the one listing. Perhaps if you try to log into your account from a third browser like Firefox or Safari you might be able to get to a listing to get customer service. Or you may need to get the other person to go into to their account to do the same thing.
10/22/2020 at 4:40 pm in reply to: Shipping page defaults to a more expensive method of shipping. #82725I have been getting the involuntary “upgrades” as well so I’ve been paying particular attention so as not to buy the wrong method and have to void it. But one of today’s labels was crazy. EBay charged my buyer about $17 for a 3 lb package going to Nevada by Priority Mail, though he could have chosen to pay about $15 for FedEx Home/Ground. When I went to print the label on eBay, the default selected was FedEx 2 Day Express. But it was only going to charge me $12 for it, and indicated that I would “save” about $55! So I took it, though with the horror stories of FedEx billing vagaries I will keep a close eye on my account.
Another crazy thing though is that the expected delivery date stated is four days away.
Steven I have a small coin horde that I’ve been putting up in dribs and drabs so I am having to use another ID for those. Be aware that they are aggressively policing up small sellers to involuntarily be moved to MP unless the listings consists of 90% or more of the prohibited categories under a single ID or store. (The latter being an unwritten policy told to me by a US Managed Payments “team member” when I called to complain.) I had to move my coins twice so now I am using that ID solely for coins so it won’t happen again.
Great! Seems a lot of people had little glitches in the switchover. Good thing that’s done. So you should be all good. January and February are always good months for my store so knock on wood same for you.
Hiya Tony! The only thing I can think of at the moment is the move to Managed Payments. At some point eBay will involuntarily move you off Paypal and over to Managed Payments if you didn’t do it last year. Did your store already get moved over?
10/17/2020 at 10:05 am in reply to: EBay’s >$100 Sneaker Authentication Service is Here – So What’s Next? #82532I don’t know about all in. I agree that it seems impractical for most things. I think watches and sneakers were low hanging fruit because many others are already doing it. I assume the authentication is contracted out to those already doing it. Ebay was doing fashion purses also but only for certain sellers. That may be next for an expansion. Or high end coins and baseball cards could be next due to the existing authentication/rating infrastructure out there.
As for the business model, I can’t say it better than MyCottage did a while back:
“High end sneakers can go for thousands, and this has been a very profitable niche for eBay, but the competition—niche sites, individuals on sites like Instagram, etc, has been heating up. I’m also guessing buyers who will pay thousands for a pair of sneakers also are willing to pay high amounts for other collectibles, fashion items etc.
Also, this is a category that largely appeals to the fashion conscious and the younger folk…two demographics eBay can’t afford to lose as buyers (and sellers) This will help eBay retain its prominence because it will attract sellers (no fees) and buyers (sellers listing more and better sneakers because of no fees)
The “sweet spot” on eBay for sneakers is about $50.00….which means, while eBay sells a lot of high end sneakers, this fee change really only impacts a fairly small percentage of transactions on eBay. A seller with a pair of sneakers that would usually sell for $50 would be a fool to bump them to $100 just to avoid fees, because they would never sell at all.
I think eBay has crunched numbers and decided that ultimately they’ll make more money with no fees here than they would make from continuing to charge fees. Also, high end sneakers on the site tend to get a lot of free press, which is good for eBay marketing.
I wouldn’t expect to see any across the board expansion with this, but I could see eBay eventually doing something similar in other “hot” categories.”
10/16/2020 at 11:51 am in reply to: Tension pole album rack, Record players, Pyrex percolator, X-Mod RC Car #82507Wow Steven, great album rack and great sale! Same with that Cobra-Matic turntable. Very cool – I’ve never seen one.
It has been about a month since I’ve posted for your video so for my occasional list of recent sales I’ve got the following:
Playing card decks can be hit or miss, for sure. The low dollar ones will sit and they seem very price sensitive. I was surprised when an Australian buyer paid $28 to have this $13.51 boxed double deck of Nor Plastic cards with an Asian bird design shipped to them. It sold on a 20% off sale. It was part of a large free lot of stuff a flea market dealer gave me.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153791956699
Every midshipman at the US Naval Academy gets one of these little pocket handbooks with facts about the Navy and the Academy that they need to learn from front to back, I’m told. This version of Reef Points from 2005 sold for $29 plus shipping. I think someone gave us this a while back.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274437723104
Some of you all probably know much more about the cookie mold collector thing than I do, but this Laxa Family handmade reproduction of a fish cookie mold simply caught my eye at a Goodwill, even at $10. A quick check on my phone showed relative rarity but solid sales for this type of thing so I picked it up. It sold for $56 plus shipping on a 20% off sale in about 6 months.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273998570424
This WWII German Mauser rifle bayonet was in pretty bad shape but is relatively rare, having been issued in the postal service, of all things. I paid $67 for it in an eBay lot snipe and it went for $171 plus shipping after about nine months listed, on a best offer during a 20% off sale. The buyer wanted another $8.51 off the sale price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273882476717
Here’s a bit of a sleeper I learned about, courtesy of my son’s skateboarding days. It is a wood skateboard deck only – no hardware – and the bottom is heavily worn and scratched from doing moves that involve resting or scraping on something in the middle of the board. The main part of the design is barely visible but it is Tapout brand, with a silver skull design. It sold for $24 plus shipping. People decorate with them, it seems. Early decks or ones with graphics by specific artists or certain brands can go for much more.
Here you go: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-peter-thomas-dds-dental-1895222922 sold for $22.00 on Nov 3, 2017, and https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/peter-thomas-dds-dental-dentist-teeth-1864412001 sold for $30.00 on Apr 21, 2017.
That’s a great tip – but philosophically I’m with Aperture since most of my items are long tail. I do try 50% off sales occasionally on old inventory just to see if any of those items are just price sensitive rather than being long tail, but when they don’t sell on sale I put them back at full price and let them sit (but I will end then trash or donate random clothing or something like that with comps in the basement). Then when they sell down the road it feels great!
If I did try a clearance category I’d definitely use “Cheap Tat”, though. Thanks, AF!
But they do sell… Looks like a 40%+ sell-through rate in the category you linked. That’s pretty good.
10/14/2020 at 9:30 am in reply to: Where Do Amazon Returns Go? Not all are resold on pallets…. #82435Sorry, that was only the video. Here’s the article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-amazon-returns-1.5753714
10/4/20 – 10/10/20
Total Items Listed (3 different IDs): 327
Items Sold: 5
Gross Sales (not incl shipping): $97.98
Highest Price Sold: $48 plus shipping – ‘80s military tiger stripe camouflage shirt (sold on a 20% off sale)
Returns: 0
New Items Listed: 33
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0The total items listed numbers does not quite match up with listed and sold since eBay ended one listing for a violation and I had to delete a few listings of coins from one store because it’s being moved to Managed Payments. I called to ask for a waiver from eBay for the switch-over due to the coins but they said they’ll only waive it if the store is 90% or above in coins (or adult items, etc., that Managed Payments won’t accept “yet”). I didn’t get all those relisted elsewhere.
So I’m back up to three IDs: a Basic Store, a Starter Store, and a non-store selling ID because both stores are Managed Payments. A very slow week for sales but I got more listing done than usual.
Some of the new listings last week were average condition, very common US silver coins at auction, starting at a little over the spot silver melt value for such coins. Auctions are a thing with coin collectors. There are many local auction houses that do coin auctions and many eBay coin categories have more auctions than BIN listings. They all ended last night and all sold, with a few pleasant surprises. Mostly low dollar, but easy to list and ship.
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