2

[Zach]

I tried using Chat GPT to write some listing descriptions based on the title. The results remind me of stuff I would write in a high school essay when the assignment required a word minimum. Basically, long winded promotional bull crap text that says nothing of value.

Also, it kept reusing certain phrases. Apparently, Chat GPT assumes anything vintage is “meticulously crafted” and helps conjure memories of “yesteryears.”

I did have better luck when I was more specific in the tone I wanted. For example, I had a vintage airline item and I told it I wanted the promotional text to be written in the style of a pilot making an announcement to the passengers. That text blurb was at least a little more fun.

[Zach]

So far so good. For Sept 1st to 5th, I’ve already hit 30% of my total from the prior month on 10 sales (vs only 46 transactions all of last month). It’s a bit early to draw any conclusions, but it feels closer to my normal sales levels.

[Zach]

I used the online Help & Contact system and got into the chat and then asked to have a representative call me. I think I was transferred to 5 different people before I made my way to the Item Restrictions department (I think that is the name of it). Unlike the other departments, they could see right away that my selling privileges were being restricted. After they looked up my pristine selling history, they removed the restrictions from my account without me even asking. Could be the same thing happening to you. It’s not like eBay gives you any way to find out otherwise.

[Zach]

Secretly restricting someone’s sales is a pretty nasty trick. At least they could inform you so you could call and try to work it out with them, if possible. At the very least, it would allow people to seek other methods of earning income rather than thinking they are doing something wrong.

But yeah, trying to put things in more vintage categories is a good idea. I think I may avoid marking any vintage items that have a name brand as New condition. That seems to trigger eBay’s automated systems.

[Zach]

While this was a low-priced item, I was happy I quickly sold this brand new vintage Sears AM radio to CB converter (which allows you to pick up CB radio frequencies from you car radio). Using Terrapeak for research, it looked like these just don’t sell well at all. Some had been up for sale for years, even in new condition, at about the $40 mark. I priced mine $20 with free shipping (it fits in a priority padded flat rate) and it sold within a few days. I only had $1 in it, so it was nice to just get a small return on my investment and not store it forever waiting for a $40 sale that likely would never materialize.

Sometimes, for items that just aren’t that special or rare, it’s better to sell things quickly for less money.

Vintage Sears CB Monitor Car AM Radio 40 Channel CB Converter Woodgrain | eBay

[Zach]

No, I didn’t try to promote my Shopify site much on social media. I don’t really specialize in any one item type, so I was mainly hoping for Google Shopping and Facebook Marketplace search hits to drive some sales. I think it would be difficult to attract people to consistently visit an online store that sells often-weird random stuff.

Since I shut down my Shopify store, I went ahead and signed up for the paid version of Truegether (which imports from eBay). They had given me a 3-month trial earlier and I made a handful of sales (more sales than I had using Shopify and Facebook Marketplace), so I decided to give it a go. Truegether is about $20 a month and promotes your items on Google Shopping. You also set your Google Shopping budget (which I put at 15%). I’ll trial it on a paid basis for at least a few months here and see what results I get.

I haven’t checked out Wix. I may have to take a look.

[Zach]

Yeah, that seems to be the bulk of the people in those groups. I wonder what percentage of people in most of those groups are actually just resellers and not collectors.

[Zach]

Everytime I refresh my listings, I get inundated with people who want something shipped, but because they were hacked one time they can’t pay via facebook marketplace checkout and instead want to pay with Zelle.

[Zach]

I thought I’d give a final follow up on this topic I started.

After my annual Shopify plan came up for renewal, I decided to shut it down. For one, Shopify upped their prices fairly significantly. Mainly, though, I just wasn’t getting nearly enough in sales to bother with the hassle (I was lucky if I got 1 sale a month total between the Shopify Store itself and the integrations with Google Shopping and Facebook Marketplace). With the higher price to renew, I likely would have lost money on it overall most months and I didn’t see it growing over time.

I never could get Facebook Marketplace to consistently show my listings in Marketplace search, despite going back and forth with Meta’s horrendous tech support for months (they did fix it briefly, but the problem came back). I’m much happier to be done trying to force that Shopify/Facebook Marketplace integration to work properly.

Moving on, I’ve put an emphasis on my personal Facebook Marketplace to try to get some additional sales. Without a way to directly integrate with eBay or Sixbit, I’m either adding each item manually or using the bulk upload spreadsheet (where you can do 50 items at a time). I have about 300 items listed on there now. Despite offering shipping on many of my items, I’ve only had 1 sale that I actually shipped to someone over the last couple months of this experiment. I just don’t think people really shop for used items with shipping on Facebook. However, I’ve had pretty good luck with local pickup. It’s a bit of a pain to meet up with people, but I am selling at least a couple items per week. I’ve moved some items that had been sitting in my eBay store unsold for years (mostly larger stuff) for around the same price (if not more) than I was asking on eBay.

I’m now experimenting with joining different Facebook buy sell trade groups for various kinds of collectors and posting my items to those groups. It’s kind of like free targeted advertising, although I haven’t sold anything so far (mostly, the collectors just crow on about how my prices are too high).

[Zach]

Just as a quick update, Seller Ledger now supports Etsy. The beta period is also now over and they are requiring users to pay to use the service. It’s $100/year for 250 transactions per month.

[Zach]

This week I had a couple high priced sales and then some interesting smaller items.

This Polaroid camera was the sale of the week. It took about a year to move, but finally sold for $725. I found it at an estate sale and got it for practically nothing. I guess they didn’t bother to look it up.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285045074086?hash=item425e02a8a6:g:A04AAOSwrZpjeU00

I also sold this brand new VCR for $250. This was found at the local outdoor flea market for a really good deal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285045057311?epid=1203389352&hash=item425e02671f:g:c10AAOSwkJ1jeVIf

On the smaller, but fun side of sales, I had a couple interesting items move that week.

This button for New England Telephone sold within a few days for $20 with free shipping

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275517656761?hash=item402621ceb9:g:XE4AAOSwE21jW0dP

I sold some vintage wrapping paper from the 70s for $20. It took maybe a month to sell.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275539961052?hash=item40277624dc:g:7CUAAOSwbkRjclr8

On the other end of the spectrum, I finally sold these vintage photo albums that had lots of pics of camping and girl scouts from the 60s. This took 3 or 4 years to sell. I had finally lowered the price and they sold for $30.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275549052589?hash=item402800dead:g:xyQAAOSwUixjekf8

[Zach]

I see you already marked down the Dept 56 snow village. Do you normally discount things you just listed?

[Zach]

That mug took about 3 months to sell, which is pretty fast for that type of item in my experience. Some can take years to sell (if ever). Pricing for old plastic mugs is a bit tricky. It’s partly based on age, partly based on perceived brand equity, but also based on the uniqueness of it. I love Casey’s (especially the pizza), so I bet other people do, too. And that mug was VERY 90s. Most of my plastic mugs are in the $15 to $45 range.

[Zach]

Yeah, that scan is definitely the same book edition. Although mine is in way better condition than the one they used for their source.

[Zach]

Thanks for finding a comp. My biggest fear is that I would sell it for $300 and then find out later it was actually worth $3000 or something. That would be really depressing.

[Author]

Posts