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I’ve started an experiment where I buy bigger items than I normally would, and then take them to a Fed Ex to have them professionally packed.
I took a vintage G4 Mac desktop computer last week to them and the packing job was only $20 for something that was huge both in dimensions and weight (50 lbs). Sure, I made less profit then if I packed it myself, but I think the time and hassle (and box and packing supplies) I saved was worth the $20.
The trick will be finding big items profitable enough to be worth professional packing.
It will fit a VCR or an old stereo receiver, or even a tall pair of boots. It’s pretty big, but any bigger and I would need to find more powerful lighting. I know some light boxes are fully enclosed, but mine has an open front and top.
I have a large light box I purchased on Amazon and I use it for any item that will fit in it. I have a standing desk/platform that I work on and I just leave the light box in place at all times. I have a couple of clamp lights with 100 watt equivalent LED daylight bulbs, one on each side. I also invested in a Canon 70D DSLR camera and pay $10/month for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to quickly process and improve my photos. I’m not a photography expert and just use the auto settings, but my photos generally turn out pretty good. Certain items are more difficult to photograph than others, but I think the light box always helps. Occasionally, if I have a really expensive item, I will import the main photo into Photoshop and remove the background completely so it looks really professional.
I feel that good photos can really drive sales and differentiate you from the competition. I think people will also pay more if the item is presented professionally. You have to catch a person’s eye as they are scrolling through hundreds of items on their mobile device. On vintage/unique items, people want to see every angle clearly. If I’m looking at two similar items and one has really good photos on a clean white or black background and the other item is just sitting on a table, I’m probably more likely to pick the item that was on a clean background, all other things equal.
Frankly, I usually only write one or two words for my description. For my condition description, unless my item has some important flaws worth noting, I usually just say “Some wear. See photos.” I rarely have returns, and I attribute most of that to the thoroughness and clarity of my photos (and the fact I don’t sell a lot of clothing).
http://i.imgur.com/DNAaAES.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UBs8h5n.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ry3BsYp.jpg
I’ve heard good things about the Epson Ecotank inkjet printers. Instead of cartridges, it is designed so you buy refill ink, which they sell very affordably. The machine itself is fairly expensive, though. If you print a lot of color photos or documents in addition to your eBay needs, the cost per print is probably comparable to a laser.
I use a wireless color laser printer by Brother. Found it at a church sale a few years ago for $15. Don’t really use it much anymore, though, because I switched to a Zebra thermal printer for labels and I don’t include invoices in my shipments unless the customer requests it.
I didn’t actually buy this, but when I was at an estate sale the other day, I saw a pair of old Nike golf shoes. A dead mouse was nestled and half-mummified inside the shoe towards the heel portion and in plain sight. Still, the estate sale company had the gall to leave the dead mouse in the shoe and mark the item $3.00. Disgusting.
Yesterday I had a customer purchase an educational book from me. He then sent a message telling me he will give me positive feedback when the item arrives, but he does NOT want me to give him any feedback whatsoever. That is a first for me. Of course, it was too late, as I have autofeedback turned on.
After I checked his user name, I realized he’s a reseller of books. I assume he’s going to try to resell the book, but still not sure why he’s afraid of feedback.
I loved the artificial leg sighting. I’m hoping more people post in here. I bet full time eBay people see crazy stuff all the time.
Anyway, here are a few more photos. Note: I didn’t buy any of this.
Today’s Theme:
Oddly Inappropriate Paintings
http://i.imgur.com/zEo7OAl.jpg
Does that couch secretly double as a toilet? The lady’s face looks like she’s taking a dump.http://i.imgur.com/3Z4jYpD.jpg
This painting was hung prominently in a bedroom full of mirrors.http://i.imgur.com/Ulxikbu.jpg
Shitty angle for a portrait.Has anyone tried the “Scotty Stuffer?” They are a box that is supposed to fit perfectly to the max size of a padded flat rate envelope. They are about $40 for 50 of them, so I’ve always hesitated to order them due to the cost.
I’d be curious if anyone has had good luck with them or not.
Don’t feel bad. It’s Nintendo’s fault for not producing enough units to meet demand. The people buying these for huge markups could have gone out and waited in line 45 minutes at Target, but they were willing to pay you an extra $140 so they didn’t have to go to the trouble.
I would suggest taking your old computer and installing a solid state drive. You’ll be shocked at the performance improvement an SSD will give you versus an old mechanical hard drive, even for a six year old machine. The price on SSDs has also come down tremendously.
If you are itching for a new computer: get a PC, unless you really love Mac OS or need a program not available on Windows. Either system will do fine for eBay listing, but Windows machines cost way less for equal or usually superior hardware.
Depending on your needs, if you are only doing eBay listing, you could just buy a Chromebook and save even more money.
I had a similar situation. A buyer bought a video game and then just over 30 days later opened a return for item not as described. I declined the return, since they had plenty of time to test it and return it previously. The buyer immediately left negative feedback, saying “Item was defective.” I called eBay several times, but so far they refuse to remove the negative feedback. Beware, as you might run into the and thing.
A lot of people are overreacting to the new long term storage fees. Yeah, it sucks, but it isn’t the end for “scavenger” sellers, especially for books.
I did remove about a third of my Amazon inventory after the new fee was announced, but most of those were books where merchant fulfilled people were selling it for a dollar or less.
I think a lot of Amazon’s stale inventory problem stems from FBA sellers sending in virtually any and every book, without regard to rank or MF price, and just letting it sit there for years at a non-competitive price. I certainly am guilty of that.
While I eliminated many books from my inventory, I also lowered the price on a lot of others to bring it closer to the MF price. Unsurprisingly, a lot of my stale inventory has finally started moving. Yeah, the profit isn’t as high as I had hoped when sending it in, but it wasn’t making any money just sitting there in the warehouse.
I am going to be more picky when sourcing books in the future. I’m not giving up on long tail books, but I’m not going to send in long tail books where the price is less than $20.
I guess for me, it really comes down to a three things.
1. I can find books locally for less than $1. If a book sells for $20 and after normal fees totals out about $10 profit, even if I had $2.50 in overall storage fees, I still made $6.50 profit. Some books sell for many times that amount, making the equation more appealing.
2. eBay sucks for books, generally speaking. Amazon built its business on books, and it is the place people go to buy them.
3. FBA gives me a sales channel where I don’t have to worry about photographing the item, shipping it to the customer, or customer service. I can just slowly build up a pile of books and send them to the warehouse when I have time. I’m out at sales looking for eBay stuff anyway, so why not look for books for Amazon?
Okay, the last attempt was by using the “img” button above and linking to pictures hosted at IMGUR. Obviously didn’t work. Here’s an attempt with just the hyperlinks.
Attempt 3:
