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My back started spasming in 2017. I’ve been through the ringer with doctors, tests and scans. They located a bone tumor inside my spinal column between my shoulder blades. Suspect its benign and been there since I was a kid, but caused early arthritis, and frequent rib dislocation and spasms. In the end, they only want to keep scanning me to watch the bone tumor (if it were to grow, it would be bad sign). They don’t want to operate unless it grows, and according to them it’s not causing the pain itself. I’m ok with that, as the surgery would involve removal of half of T6 and a cage built to hold my ribs. He told me the surgery was bad and the recovery was far worse.
The pain ranges from 2-10 every day. Not too bad in the morning for the first hour or two, I’m usually toast by 2PM. It’s moderate when I stand, much worse when I sit. Increases with any back movement or use of my arms. Migrates up and down my spine. So annoying. Hurts to sleep too, at least for me. I was always a stomach sleeper, but that now aggravates my arthritis, as does side sleeping. I try to sleep on my back, (which is comfortable) but roll over in my sleep by habit, and it starts a long nightly cycle. Some nights I can sleep the whole night. Most nights I’m up a few times. Many nights I have to do therapy in the middle of the night just to get some relief.
My latest doc put me on 6 months light duty April ’21 with physical therapy, I decided to really go for it, and only shipped packages during that time.
Then…. last fall, my wife and I became unexpected volunteer landlords for a family member who was incarcerated. The house needed to be emptied, all the belongings packed and stored. Full interior paint job (first one in 70 years) and several repairs. I did most of that alone, which used up all my energy each day for a few months.
Then…. my mother, who lives out town, needed help packing/moving, which involved several trips for me, and still more to go with the unpacking.
After all that, things got kinda slim around here, with not many new listings in so long. So now, I’m working to build inventory back up again a little. Relearning what I can actually do, and trying not to over do it. Photos are still the biggest hinderance for me, but in 2017 I really made my photo setup as hands off as possible, so it could really be much worse. I think there’s a photo of the setup somewhere on the forum.
Hello everyone, I’ve been trying to ramp things back up a little since my last drop in. In the past year or so, I let the store drop from around 5000 listings down to 3400, and had long periods with no new listings added. So, I really felt when things dropped off this season. After my long rest, I am still re-learning my physical limits, and learning to respect them so I don’t wind up in so much pain every day.
Total Items in Store: 3630 listings for 5647 items
Items Sold: 42 (16 Mine, 26 Consignors)
Gross Sales: $3131.51 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: 2660.72Cost of Items Sold: $713 ($72 mine / $641 consignors)
$Highest Price Sold: $200 Brioni Sport Coat, $200 Polo Lobster Clasp Coat
Average Price Sold: $63.35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 70Somehow, I’m still ranked #10 on ebay for tie sales….at least according to ebays report.
My neighbors had a 3 yard sale last year. I saw them setting up, so I decided to set one up too, and just attract drive by customers. I had piles of clothing that needed to be donated, but all the donation places were closed. I ended up running a $5 fill a bag, forced people to stuff the bags til they overflowed and made just over $1000. Now that the weather has warmed up I keep looking to see if there is any activity up the street.
Yes, We were considering buying a second house close to my wife’s school when the pandemic came (6 weeks into her first semester). My wife didn’t have to commute to school for more than a year, so we didn’t end up buying a house. She is about half way through her final year now, and commuting a few times a week for clinical hours. She makes a little money part time as a yoga studio manager/instructor.
Sourcing was not an issue at all. A consignor had a POD filled with a couple thousand items dropped off just before Christmas 2020. I don’t think I’ll do that again….lol, too much at once. I still have maybe 1000 items to list. When I agreed to it, pre-pandemic, I still had a helper, and my wife also had time to help. By the time it arrived, at Christmas, it was just me….absolutely exhausted from the holiday rush. I overworked myself to get it unloaded and into the garage, and had some idea I was going to get it all unpacked and the lift to the office in 10 days, to try to avoid wrinkles. Potentially having to steam a couple thousand wrinkled items would make the entire thing even worse. Well, I think I got about half of it unpacked and upstairs. I was able to cherry pick some seasonal items and home runs, and get those listed, but my back was just done.
The doc put me on light duty last April, with physical therapy. Listing was very limited, I think I managed to list only about 1000 items or so in the past year, mostly small accessory stuff. Keep in mind my business is almost entirely Mens Business attire, so with the shutdowns and all the zoom meetings…..most people weren’t even wearing pants for the past two years, let alone suits and ties. So, taking a break at that time made sense.
In the past year the store went from around 5000 listings to 3400. Sales were slower as was anticipated, without breaking out everything, the average was about $17K/month including shipping. Also something to consider, the scales started to tip toward more consignment item sales, so the COGS for the year are a bit higher.
Now that things are starting to pick up, with Easter, Mothers Day, and Wedding Season back on track this year, I’m happy to be selling those types of items again.
This past November, though extenuating family circumstances, my wife and I became reluctant “volunteer” unpaid landlords for a never updated 1950s home that needed a full cleanout, cleanup, full paint job, some updating, with very little funding. Which meant I had to do most of it myself. Luckily, after the clean out, the bulk of the work was painting, and I enjoy painting….but I’m much slower than I used to be. It took 6 months for everything, a few hours a day, but the house looks great. We have had a tenant in the house 1 week today.
Hey everyone, Long time. Glad to see the forum still active.
I had to put myself on part time for the past year to rest my tired, arthritic back, and take care of some extended family stuff. I let my store run down to around 3400 listings, but I am starting to build it back up again. Sales have still been ok, considering ebay has been on the back burner for so long, but I am definitely starting to feel the pinch a bit.
This doesn’t help much with your recent chargeback, but for the future.
I’ve had that happen to me a couple times with CC NAD Chargebacks, especially since the latest paypal case webpage changes. But finally I had one last year, that with a phone call, turned out a little better for me.
The buyer had opened a return on ebay for “doesn’t fit” on a NWT item, but failed to return the item in the allotted time. A couple months later he opened a chargeback with his CC claiming “not as described”. I went on paypal and uploaded the info, but decided to call in, just to make sure they received it and find out if there was anything else I could do to at least get the item back. The Paypal rep said she was manually adding a message to the CC that a refund would be issued upon return of the item.
The buyer never sent the item back and the chargeback ended up being closed in my favor.
That extra call, early on, may have made the difference, so I’ll be sure to try it again the next time.
Yes. We did 6-7 weeks of commuting before the shutdown, classes have been all online since. She starts her second year Monday, partially online, partially in person.
Popping in to say Happy New Year. I didn’t post much in 2020, but I always listen.
16 year seller…what I do other than eBay? I play guitar, garden, kayak, hike, cook, play frisbee with my wife and our dog, anything I want whenever I want…..(as long as the packages go out)
@daysi, have you been using the “send offer to watchers” tool? If so, it sounds to me like you may be seeing the record of all the watchers to whom you have sent offers. These get filed under a section called “declined/expired offers” on each listings offers page.
+1 on File Exchange,
I’ve been using it for years for weekly/monthly sales reports, active listing/inventory reconciliation, item specific changes. It’s definitely the optimal way to go, especially if you have a larger inventory, and some basic level excel/numbers experience.
Yes, I realize I can give them to the thrift store, which I will happily do if no one here is interested. The 100 clear Uline hangers cost me about $70 for the case + shipping. I just figured I would offer them here first for cost of shipping, so hopefully I can save some of that cost for a fellow scavenger.
I ran some shipping estimates based on the interactive USPS zone map for our zip (17350). Here’s the link.
https://apps.endicia.com/apps/zonemap
Zones 1-2 $26
Zone 3 $32
Zone 4 $42
Basically, any further West than the Mississippi River and it doesn’t really make sense.
Zone 5 is $53 and then it really starts to get crazy from there on, up to $90+ at zone 8.
Another idea….
You might also still be able to get to the old invoice page by hovering over your name at the top left corner of the screen, click “Account Settings”. On the next page click “Seller Account”
No, I got an email saying my account wouldn’t roll over until some time early next year.
But, normally you could go to the Account Summary tile of the Seller Hub and click the header. You should be taken to the invoice page on “old ebay”. Scroll about half way down to just below the Current Balance. Here you will find quick links to each type of transaction on the current invoice. I would think it will be under “fees”.
Just an idea of a work-around. Not sure if it will work or not since I can’t test it myself.
