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Oh and by the way, one of the irksome ones has already left me positive feedback 🙂
Thank you everyone for the feedback on my irksome customer issues.
As So Cal Joe said: “Let me guess.. they bought inexpensive items… At this point it becomes an exercise in appeasing an unreasonable buyer. Since the buyer seems to have all the power these days, I would give them a refund and say something nice to them. You can’t fix whatever is really going wrong in their lives. It makes sense to appease them and don’t engage unnecessarily. My favorite strategy for getting over it is remembering all the good buyers who pay full price and leave me great feedback.”
Yes, they were all inexpensive items, and your comments were just what I needed to hear. I had already given combined shipping postage refunds to each of the customers as soon as I got their messages. And I have always used “kill them with kindness” as a strategy when dealing with demanding customers. So you reinforced that I handled this in the correct way, thanks for that! The reminder that people have problems that cause them to act rudely sometimes and that I have mostly wonderful customers is a great strategy for getting over the handful of rude ones!
And Jay, thanks for the reminder that at least they bought multiple items. Better to rudely buy multiple items than no items at all – for sure!
Hello Trash Elf Twins!
I had a pretty good week for 6/10 -6/16/18, I listed 42 items. Vintage Lacy: 15 listings a day, wow! If you keep that up I’ll sure be hurting for points in this challenge! Luckily the motivation and camaraderie of this challenge is way more important to me than the points:) I really admire that you had the guts to ask the estate sale promoter for the left-overs at the end of the estate sale. I don’t think I would be able to talk myself into asking even though I know it would totally be a win for the promoter to have someone pack up and cart away all the unsolds. Imagine what she would have had to pay for an employee to do all that work!
ChristineR, I’m with you on the craft kits, those are my favorite things to sell also. So easy to photograph, list and ship! And I’m salivating over your boxes of fabric, although I’m not sure why since I have sooo many boxes of my own fabric waiting to be listed… I haven’t kept track of how fabric sells seasonally. I do know that most of my sewing buddies buy fabric all year long, and so did I when I was sewing a lot!
Amatino, goals? I’m supposed to have goals? Kidding! I guess mine are to list every day. I haven’t achieved that goal yet! And to buy better (higher listing price) inventory and be pickier about what I buy (rather than get caught up in the “it’s so cheap” buying frenzy). Working on it!
Wishing everyone a great week!
Welcome Prenny! I’m sure you find some awesome vintage treasures in that area, I know when I go back to New York state to visit family I’m always amazed by how many true antiques I see for sale there. I’m totally with you on enjoying the hunting more than the listing! What sorts of things to you like to buy and sell?
Hello Ashana, I’m sorry, I didn’t see your question about the patterns & kits until just now. Re: craft kits, I buy packaged name brand vintage ones, like Bucilla, usually needlepoint or cross stitch kits. Some of those can do quite well, but others you can’t give away, so it’s a learning curve.
With sewing patterns, I’ll buy out of print (older) unused Vogue patterns and some other brands of vintage women’s patterns IF they are completely unused and uncut. I stay away from cut/used patterns – if one pattern piece is missing the pattern is unsellable, plus it’s a real PIA to count the pieces to find out if it’s complete.
Be aware that pattern size measurements were a lot smaller back in the day so check the measurements listed on vintage patterns, not just the size number. Old pattern sizes don’t match up measurement wise with current day pattern sizes. Many sizes won’t work at all for the larger sized people we are today.
“We just upload photos straight to eBay from the phone app. Wish we had learned to do this years before.” Wow, Jay thanks for that, I don’t list from my phone so I didn’t know to do this – it’s a game changer!
T-Satt, I haven’t seen the movie The Road. After I read the book I knew there were a couple of scenes that I wouldn’t be okay with watching. And after reading Ryanne’s comment on the movie I’m glad I decided not to see it! For some reason I’m much better at reading scary sh*t than seeing it. I hate being scared at movies! Anyway, I thought the book The Road was rough emotionally but so beautifully written and The Dog Stars is one of my favorite books ever. T-Satt the author of The Dog Stars, Peter Heller, is your neighbor – he lives in Denver.
2 more books on the post-apocalyptic world that I really liked: The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Dog Stars by friend of a friend Peter Heller. Both beautifully written I thought.
Bought 2 NWT 2 piece women’s plus size bathing suits, but on the one where I got the color of the top and bottom right the sizes were different. And on the one where I got the sizes the same the colors were different. Actually sold the pink suit with 2 different sizes to a person who must have been one size bigger on the top and one size smaller on the bottom though so that turned out okay 🙂
I’ve also bought the wool with tiny holes and stains I couldn’t see items and new box but used item inside items. But buying a bathing suit with sizes that don’t match and with colors that don’t match (black and navy) is my most boneheaded move.
Hey there Trash Elf Twins!
First of all, thanks Christine for answering my sewing question: I had a feeling you too had sewn at some point in your life. And Amatino I totally get going into a sewing room and being happily occupied for hours, that creative flow state is amazing to be in – hours pass like minutes!
Of course now that I dismantled my sewing room and made it my eBay room I’m itching to get back to sewing, but unfortunately I don’t have anywhere to set up my sewing room now. What I wouldn’t give for that super big house we had back in Chicagoland, but of course I’m much happier living here in the mountains being retired than I was when I was working the city.
Anyway, enough rambling, I got my listing mojo back on Thursday and I listed 35 things last week. Sales kind of stink though, which always hurts my motivation, so fingers crossed I can keep my mojo going.
Vintage Lacy, I’m so envious of your hoarder estate sale, that sounds like it was amazing!!!
Wishing everyone a great week ahead!
Happy belated birthday Jay!
My numbers for the week of 6/3 – 6/9/18
Total items in store: 211 eBay & 144 Etsy
Items sold: 19 (17 on eBay & 2 on Etsy)
Cost of items sold: Approximately $10.00
Total sales: $338.90
Highest Price Sold: $39.95 Dansko Nina Sandals
Average Price Sold: $17.84
Returns: 0, but one buyer had her address wrong so I got that item RTS and had to reship it. So that cost me $6.00 additional in postage (she was not a native English speaker and I felt it would be difficult to explain that she should pay me again to reship the item).
$ spent on new inventory: $17.50
Number of items listed: 35Funny that you spoke about your Dyson vacuum as an example of the difference between cheap and frugal. My husband’s business (before we retired in our late 40’s) was a retail and internet business selling mainly vacuum cleaners (and also air purifiers, humidifiers and the like).
We sold only the higher end brands; mainly Miele and Dyson, and it was a struggle to educate some customers on the cost per use idea. We’d say “If you buy X brand for $60 and use it for one year and then throw it away, it’s actually way more expensive than buying Y brand for $200 and having it for 10 years” but some people didn’t get it. It was interesting to see them come back within a year and buy what we’d suggested originally – after the cheap vacuum they bought elsewhere broke so quickly. It does pay off to pony up for quality, now if I could just apply that to my eBay inventory buys!Have a great week everyone!
Hello All – T-Satt, I think eBay targeted top rated sellers with very low return rates and fast handling times who were NOT currently offering free returns. Which makes sense – eBay’s risk of paying for any returns will be low but eBay can still entice some hold-out sellers into trying free returns. I think eBay is hoping to show hold-out sellers that free returns are not going to have a negative impact on their business. Only time will tell if that is actually the case of course. I don’t think the offer is as good as it seems at first glance. It looks like it only covers items I LIST between June 1-15.
I’m guessing about the target criteria based on a message I recently got from eBay that said something about good job on my low return rate and fast handling time. I don’t remember what it said exactly as I ignore most stuff from eBay and just keep plugging away at listing. But I know I’d never gotten a good job message before and I’ve been at the same level on eBay for many years.
Interesting that so many of us sew or used to sew! I’m not sewing much currently but it’s been a major hobby during my lifetime. I will say that I’ve sometimes not had the greatest results with fit in garment sewing. I’m picturing those belly dancing outfits having major costume malfunctions during the performance if I’d been the one sewing them – lol!
Vintage Lacy I’d love to see the folk art dolls you used to make! And ChristineR do you or have you ever sewn?
Yes, this has been my experience lately also. And sometimes the “similar item” is not even close to what you were actually looking for. I assume it’s eBay thinking you want to buy something that is no longer for sale and they are helping you by switching you to something that is currently for sale. Clicking the word listing (in blue) at the top will take you to the listing you actually wanted to see. It’s an extra step and a PITA when doing research.
