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Unless the artist is at least somewhat well-known, it is really tough to sell. I usually don’t even pick up unsigned work (usually, the artist didn’t sign it for a reason). You have to be willing to wait a long time (often years) to find the one buyer who 1) likes the painting 2) finds the painting online among thousands of others 3) has the funds to purchase it 4) has a place to put it.
Can you believe no one has picked up this unsigned gem I found, even after 5 years?
Scary Outsider Art Painting of Demonic Girl -31.5 x 25.5″ | eBay
It’s official:
eBay Sellers Desperate after GoDaddy Bookkeeping Ends Support (ecommercebytes.com)
And now users only have 30 days to find an alternative, as it is shutting down completely on June 18.
I recently switched to the free Wave Accounting. I used Excel to organize all my exported GDBK data and imported it into Wave. It doesn’t natively sync with eBay, but I have Wave connected to my bank account. I’m now recording my payouts from eBay as my sales. Obviously, I won’t have all the detailed data on each individual sale and fees, but it is a heck of a lot easier to manage and the end result is the same. I also connected Wave to my other bank and credit card accounts to record expenses that occur outside the eBay system. Wave is a true double-entry accounting system, so it has a bit more of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it is not that hard to use. It automates a lot of the work.
Really, I’m surprised GDBK stayed around as long as it did. The service never seemed like a good fit for GoDaddy and I’m not sure why they even purchased it in the first place. It was barely promoted and a lot of its website still referred to it as Outright (the original name). I had been using the service since 2014 and the interface was never updated. Most of the user base must have abandoned it after years of neglect. Otherwise, I assume GoDaddy could have sold GDBK to some other company.
I don’t think anyone has actually come up with a use case for NFTs that can’t be done just as well or better using other methods (like a SQL database). And that’s not even taking into account the negative impact blockchain technology has on the environment. Its only viable use is as a Ponzi scheme.
“Owning” a copy of a jpeg is a ridiculous idea. It’s not like you even own the copyright to the image. The NFT just is basically a ledger entry saying you own this particular “signed” copy of the image, which can later be sold to someone else. The image itself isn’t even stored on the blockchain, so it could disappear if the server hosting it is shut down.
The idea is to try and create scarcity among something that can be infinitely copied and shared (a jpeg image). It’s pretty asinine.
An NFT has zero intrinsic value, so the only reason to buy one is because you think some other sucker will later buy it from you for more money than you paid. And so on. Eventually, you run out of new speculators to drive up the price, people start selling, and the market collapses.
I was going through my old posts on here and decided I would provide an update on this one.
Further research indicated these were Valentino glasses (as suggested here).
After about 4 months, they sold for $500 to a well-known actor (the most famous person to whom I’ve ever sold anything).
Move out to the Kansas City area. We have tons of suburbs and rural areas within driving distance of the city. Home prices have skyrocketed, just like everywhere else, but most are in that $200K – $350K range.
The suburbs have loads of garage sales in the summer, estate sales in the winter, online auction companies with local pickup, live auctions, etc. Plenty of stuff to scavenge.
The free shipping supplies are a good form of advertising for eBay that probably doesn’t cost them much since it’s factored into our subscription costs. I doubt they discontinue it.
That’s a really cool jacket. I would get a picture of the tag that says “Made in USA.” You might put USA in the title as well. I think that’s a major selling point. Personally, I avoid using language like “very good condition,” since that is pretty subjective. Seems like whenever I did something like that, someone would open a return on me for it. I always say every used clothing item has “normal wear from use and comes as pictured.”
If this jacket is really from the 80s, the sizing might be different from today (XXL might be more like Large today). I would at least grab a yardstick and snap a couple photos showing armpit to armpit and sleeve length.
Well, I thought I had replied here, but looks like it disappeared, so I will briefly recap.
SixBit uses the relist option that keeps the same item. Each item is on its own separate 30 day relist timer.
I downloaded data into Excel and analyzed every sale since I started doing the 30 day relist thing (almost 600 sales).
38% of items sold in the first 30 days of listing (so they were never relisted). These sales took on average 3 days with a median if 0 days.
I looked at the other 62% of sales and found that it took on average (and median) 14 days to sell from the last day they were ended and relisted. Basically, items were selling equally at all times in that 30 day cycle.
I have SixBit and it allows you to auto end and relist each item. I have it set for 30 days. I’ve been using this feature for all of 2021, but did not have SixBit in prior years and thus rarely used end and relist (maybe once a year on some items).
I was checking my numbers year to date to see if it made a difference. I compared my year to date eBay numbers from 2018 and 2019 to this year (2020 was an anomaly for sales so I’m not using it for comparisons).
My eBay sales are down 18% from 2019 and down about 5% from 2018. My store is as big or bigger than it was in those years. Obviously, many factors could be at play here, but at minimum I would say that “end and relist” did not magically double my sales numbers. Those expecting a panacea should temper their expectations.
I use a free app called “What’s It Worth” that has a barcode scanner add in you can install. It will show you sold eBay prices and sell through rates.
I use SixBit with the Enterprise Duo plan ($120/month). This plan allows me to cross-post to both eBay and Etsy, and then it manages that inventory on both platforms (if an item sells on one platform, it automatically ends it on the other). It doesn’t take a ton of extra work to cross-post items and by adding Etsy to the mix, I don’t have all my eggs in the eBay basket. My sales on Etsy have more than paid for my SixBit subscription.
Beyond just having a backup of my listings and photos, Sixbit also has inventory tracking features that have really helped my efficiency. I input the storage location of each item in Sixbit when I create the listing. When I’m ready to ship out sold items, I can print a “Pick List” that shows me exactly where to find each item that sold. I used to try to do the same thing with an Excel spreadsheet, and this is way easier.
The main downsides of SixBit: 1) It’s Windows only. 2) It’s not a cloud-based system. It is all run from your PC 3) It takes a bit to get used to the program and make any customizations you need (for example, for the way I track inventory, I had to create some custom fields).
If all you are looking for is having your listings and photos backed up on another service, you might just put them on Bonanza or Truegether for free rather than paying for something. I would only pay for a service if it provides other useful features beyond backup.
SixBit does have a 30 day trial. If you decide to try it out, here’s my referral link: https://www.sixbitsoftware.com/clients/aff.php?aff=369
I would guess with this patch guy, he’s very knowledgeable in his area and has established a small clientele in that particular niche. He probably knows the provenance of all his patches since they are in his personal collection, whereas a normal reseller might not. He obviously doesn’t sell a ton of volume, but it doesn’t look like he really wants to, either. He’s playing the long-tail game to the extreme. In a specialized area like war patches, for some buyers, price may be secondary to provenance and condition.
I’ve been listening to Scavenger Life (aka eBay Scavengers) since 2014 when I was first dabbling selling on eBay with a handful of items. I had no idea people could make a living reselling online. Now, I have 1700+ items listed and make most of my money from eBay. I appreciate the inspiration you provided over the years and the many hours you dedicated to producing the podcast each week. I’m sad to see you call it quits, but all good things must come to an end.
PS: If you can find a way, please try to keep the forum active. This is such a great community and is free of much of the negativity (or self-promotion) that’s often found on other eBay forums or (ugh) Facebook groups.
