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I tried it but more error for me – when I manually measured to double check, I found the app was way off.
I’ve been unusually slow for this September, but I’m low volume anyway. When I get suspicious during a very slow period I open a different browser and do key word searches to see if my items come up but everything has always been normal. YouTube eBay guy Crazeenydriver once had a few zero-sale days in a row (unusual for him) a while back and called eBay about it to complain – IIRC he said they looked at his store and told him there was nothing wrong but all of the sudden his normal sales volume resumed.
One more thing to note – eBay prohibits the sale of “embargoed items” from Iran, including older things that might predate the embargo. (See “Embargoed goods and prohibited countries policy”.) Even though the actual import laws on Iranian carpets are a bit more complicated (embargoed for a while, then ok to import for a while, but as of August 6, 2018, not ok anymore) if eBay catches you, they follow their prohibition strictly. So you risk your listing being taken down without notice and with no refund of any listing fees; end of discussion.
Since it is believed that the ‘bots that search for prohibited listings only scan for words, some might say that you’re safe to list it so long as you don’t use the words “Iran” or “Iranian” anywhere in the listing.
SFF I’m sympathetic with your sourcing blues in VB having lived in Norfolk for many years. I found the same difficulties in finding good stuff for the demographic reasons you’ve previously mentioned but also I think the geography was a factor. There’s so much water and you’re right on the coast, plus on what land there is there are large areas like the Dismal Swamp and other parks where nobody lives. There’s just not as many people within a short distance, not as much stuff. What local auctions there were, were not worth the time (except for a great Suffolk weekly that I think is gone now) and estate sale prices were ridiculous. I ended up sourcing online quite a bit and taking long day trips for live auctions and good flea markets way down into NC, northwest into Gloucester and above on the Necks, or up on the Eastern Shore. Don’t let slow sales make you question yourself, sometimes it just happens. My sales are half what they were last year at this time (though I am a low volume, part-timer).
I’m hangin’ in there; been pretty busy with non-ebay life over the last several months. I had never watched Alf when it ran originally in the late ‘80’s. I don’t think I even had a TV in that time period. But my wife loved the show so when the DVDs of the original seasons came out she bought them. They became something we could put on to watch with our kids when they were getting into late elementary school age. Much of the humor went over their heads of course but they still liked the show and those same lines made it watchable for mom and dad. We love cats but don’t mind a good joke at their expense. And I can’t look at a piece of Melmac without thinking of Alf.
Oh, Christine, no question is too nitpicky when it comes to collectors. Very helpful information, Mike! I for one thank you for your wall of text. But you did not mention the important fact that Alf came from the planet Melmac, which puts everything into a different perspective.
All great advice, mickdog! As a long-time part-timer myself who also sources on eBay, buying from many part-timers, I would like to emphasize that it pays off to be as professional as possible. Put to work the good advice on pricing, listing, photographing, packing, shipping, etc. found here on the forum and stalk the full timers’ “what-sold” postings to learn from them.
I also heartily agree with the $20-net target for sourcing items (even if I don’t always follow it) but I only do the simple math as you describe for items I’m paying no more than a dollar or two for. If you’re tempted to pay more, I recommend to also take 20% off the top of the projected gross sales price to come to a more realistic net after fees and expenses in order to avoid paying too much. So if I pick up an item I know will sell for $50 for example, I call it $40 and decide what to pay for it based on that. (And if I’m not confident about that $50 I then cut that $40 in half and look at it as a $20 sale price to allow for mistakes.)
Part-timers might be tempted to pay up for items because of limited time for sourcing, depending on what kind of things they like to buy. But eBay and Paypal final value fees are based on a percentage of sale price and shipping cost so this is especially important for higher dollar or large items. Then you might have insertion fees over a period or a store subscription, some packing materials you can’t get for free, eBay related vehicle expenses, the occasional return for which you might have to eat the shipping, etc. It adds up and with the lower volume of a part-timer, there are fewer sales over which to spread these expenses.
“There are no extra charges or fees for this service.” So at least eBay isn’t taking a percentage fee of the tax paid like it does on shipping.
I’m first! Woo hoo! Great podcast as always. So true how items will sometimes surprise – the ones I think will sit go quickly and ones I think will sell right away don’t.
Actually the Duck Pack and Track allows multiple items to be listed for each box, either by typing or speaking, so this is functional for your typical bin inventory system. Or it’ll even work for a shelf system, by tagging each shelf cubby or location instead of each bin. The downsides appear to be that you have to buy the box tags (looks like $15 for a pack of 40 tags at Walmart – each pack contains unique QR codes so there is no limitation on number of bins or locations) and the item locations will be in the app and not in whatever other inventory system you’re using, though it looks like they have some kind of modifiable cloud-based data base available.
Of course your listing, storing, and retrieval processes will determine whether this is helpful or just creates an extra unnecessary step for you.
I’m getting a variation of that error – an item where all the shipping inputs show correct and on time but the item is still flagged as a failure of “Tracking uploaded on time and validated” in my performance metrics. Ebay rep couldn’t explain and said they’d look into it and call me back – that was 36 hours ago.
Regarding sales to California, ebay resellers do not have to identify or analyze used items to comply with Prop 65. We cannot, however: obscure, alter or remove any existing Prop 65 warnings on any item, fail to include in the sale any Prop 65 warning materials that we do have with an item, or knowingly introduce any listed chemical into an item without providing a Prop 65 warning to the buyer.
