Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I have 2900 listings and was about to upgrade to anchor. I have gotten 4 months basically at anchor for the lesser price. Saving basically $750 over 4 months.
I just had his happen on an item variation that was quantity 0. Buyer messaged and asked if I had another–I did–so I changed the quantity to 1. I know I changed it to 1. The day after he bought it, another sold and the listing said quantity 2 remaining. I had to cancel and edit the listing again. This has happened a couple times, and I thought I made an error. But this time I KNOW I did not. It literally sold the next day.
Total Items in Store: 2780
Items Sold: 62
Total Sales: $1680.22
Shipping/FVF/Listing fees: $512.28
Spent on new inventory: $290 clothing lots sourced on facebook
FB marketplace sales: $1277 on toys purchased for $1950 last week(about 35% sold)
Average Price+shipping on Ebay: $27.10
Highest Price Item Sold ebay: $73.62 1980s statue of liberty replica
Biggest FB sales: $290, 170, 115 respectively
Number of items listed this week: about 50. Been working facebook heavily to recoup investment quickly, so eBay has suffered.Surprisingly $400 lower after the stimulus than it was the week prior. Thank you for bringing extra voices to my forum post about the sunglasses. Offer is “being considered”
I cant source how I normally do, so I am being creative. Bought 3 pallets of box damaged toys and looks like $1950 will turn into $3000+. Not the usual margins, but it is income and I have a lot of time atm. Recouped $1277 of it in 9 days, so I am feeling more confident in the purchase.
My other business is completely toast right now, so focusing on expanding eBay as much as I can. Harder to do with our usual auctions also closed down, so we are sourcing in new ways like facebook and liquidation. Our 1400 sq ft shop is stuffed. I even removed everything related to the other business, but we are at capacity. Looking into a 3500 sq ft building with a loading dock, but that will add $600 in monthly expenses. The space is cheap, but it is still more outlay I will need to make up…and that is not appealing in these uncertain times. I do not believe I can grow any further without the space.
I offered $1/listing and they are going to talk it over.
Ebay for business said they will not allow the transfer with the exception of a business (such as a car dealership – not an eBay-only business) that the account owner has left the company.I will need to get setup with 3rd party to transfer the listings if they accept the offer. Inkfrog is definitely the cheapest, but is it convenient?
Thank you, and yes the suppliers were part of the deal along with a thermal printer, packing supplies, etc. Honestly doubt I’d use their suppliers at the prices she claims
Thanks Almasty. I too am familiar with selling items like this. I bought out an NFL merch dealer and many of the items sell for less than $10. Nothing about it is exciting, but until the SuperBowl I was selling several every day and very quickly made my money back. I likely have enough inventory sitting on shelves to last for another several years.
These sunglasses are priced at $1.50 each. It’s really not the product I am interested in, but the labor from all the listings. Dropping a 1st class package twice per day may not sound appealing to everyone, but to me it actually does. We already send out 5-10 every day of the week and this takes up only an extra minute or 2.
My initial reaction was actually that its a pretty good deal that could be a great deal if the price drops. The hesitation is more from the dollar amount and length of time it would take to recoup. My previous largest purchase was only $2000. Sourcing right now is difficult, so I bought pallets of toys last week and have recouped half the investment in just 7 days. Previously we had been doing ALL sourcing from local auctions, so I’m just trying to expand my skillset out of necessity. All other work for me has stopped, so this is our only source of income.
My gut is telling me to leave the seller sit for a week and approach them with a lowball when they think they are stuck with nothing.
All valid points and appreciated. I’d wonder how they sell so many no name brands without steering traffic directly to the store. I’ve purchased for just over $1 each for bulk shelf pulls from Kohls right off Ebay.
I dont think the items themselves hold the value, but the listings they have setup are working. I wouldnt have been able to sell those items based on prior experience.
I’d likely increase the lowest dollar items by $1.50 per item and see if they still sell. I know its race to the bottom, but a couple items I looked at were sold for 2 bucks less than the competition.
Agree–I was thinking a 50% offer and see if I could negotiate them down to 3k or less. I know they don’t want to move it and I think it’s unlikely they find many real buyers posting on CL.
Thanks for the tip on Dorky Thrifter. I will look into that for sure.
I never heard of watchcount before. Interesting. I see some glasses have 4500 watchers on them.
Next question to ponder: Would you try to keep the store separate if Ebay allows? They have a website forwarding to their Ebay store and it could be useful to drive more sales by posting the site on fb marketplaces in larger metro areas of the country. I believe that is likely why the seller mentioned they could triple it, but are not actively working the business currently. They definitely did some work building a brand.
I don’t need competition if I decide to go ahead, but feel that I am among friends here http://www.theloftsunglassshop.comIt is definitely not my normal jam, but sales are sales. I would NOT spend the time creating listings for such a low margin, but they already did it.
Thanks for the responses. I appreciate input good or bad on this.
The actual products are glasses. Sunglasses, reading glasses, ski goggles, etc.
As far as the Ebay ID is concerned, couldn’t I simply get a 3rd party like inkfrog or sixbit and download the listings then put them on my existing store if Ebay will not approve? Seems easy enough and our max threshold will easily swallow up their inventory.
There are many skews. They have a couple hundred shoe boxes with inventory tags on them. I believe they will actually sell better as it warms up, but I would not count on that. The last 3 months are probably not the greatest of times for sunglasses. Each of the 1500 listings appear to be independent models or at least colors.
They are retiring, moving south, and don’t want to take it with them. Also selling a $90k boat and a bunch of other things locally to prep for the move.
I can get other inventory, I view this more as value add for labor of 1500 listings. The seller views it more as $12k in inventory at a slashed price. Currently we have about 3k listings, so this would increase our store by 50%. Of course they are all low dollar, so the actual gross would likely improve around 15%.
USPS has been getting hammered for a long time. They should reduce the pension requirements and try to compete on larger packages. The govt could help them without necessarily bailing them out by lifting requirements, couldnt they?
Thanks for the Aragold review. I wonder if they will still be selling to us peasants if the panic continues for long
For those of you who have applied, did you receive any type of application confirmation? I didnt even get a generic spam email from SBA after submission.
I did the same, but am going to work on the PPP. That seems to need to go through our bank and not online. The PPP can work for sole props or single member LLC. The net profit is basically your own payroll. The 2 cannot overlap so there may be no point if you qualify for the disaster relief. The PPP is supposed to be a 1 page, fast application with no personal guarantee. Even easier to apply for, but does not seem financially responsible for them to have passed it. Reminds me of the housing crisis no doc loans.
Since attending more and more auctions and seeing how low these items can sell for, we basically no longer purchase retail for anything but food or home repairs. I picked up a 5hp air compressor for $80 that appears to be worth $400-600. Buying when items become available rather then when they are needed. Everything is for sale, but I can enjoy them while they are here and not feel the least bit guilty about the purchase.
I also like to lot books/magazines and baby clothes. I got a bunch of home repair manuals and lotted the plumbing books together. They can ship cheaply through media mail and I sold the lot within a couple hours of listing. Only made about $15, but that sure beats selling individually for $5.
