My word for 2018 is: CONSISTENCY (aka Slow & Steady)
This plays into many areas of my life, including eBay. I am starting with small, manageable goals, but I am hoping to grow them as the year marches on.
Listing
My small manageable goal is to list 10 new items each weekday and 5 each on Saturday and Sunday. Ideally I will list 10 each weekday and schedule 2 each day for the weekend (totaling 10), leaving my weekends free from listing. Somehow this rarely seems to be the reality however.
2600 weekdays + 520 weekends = 3120 new listings in 2018. Totally doable, one little chunk at a time.
Selling
I would like to gross $60,000 this year. $60,000 divided by 365 days = $164.38/day. When I am listing consistently my sales are often in that range. Again, doable.
Shipping
I ship within one business day. I will continue to do so.
Sourcing
Part of the reason my listing goals are so low is that I am currently doing almost no sourcing. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have items to list. I definitely do. Items that have been hanging around unlisted, for I don’t even want to say how long, that I need to get through. The thing is, there is often a reason I haven’t listed those items yet, that they have been set to the side. There is a flaw, or it needs new batteries, or needs to be cleaned up a bit, etc. So it takes me longer to get the items ready, and photographed. I am finding some really great items in among some low-value items. But, it’s a process.
Inventorying
At the beginning of every year I go through all of my inventory. After the first month of being listed most of my listings are set to GTC, so sometimes things hang around quite awhile. I’m okay with that. I really believe pretty much everything will sell eventually, and some items take longer (especially plush, which I love to sell). But I do need to go through it occasionally, ending listings, selling as similar, freshening things up here and there.
Keeping Records Updated
There are a lot of spreadsheets and options out there to keep track of eBay sales. I have tried a few, and Easy Auctions Tracker is my favorite. It downloads all of the information for the last three months, I just need to input how much I paid for the items I sold. The trick is to keep it updated. And, updated is a loose term, but I’d like to keep my sales spreadsheet current within the last 30 days, so I don’t have a lot of work hanging over my head at the beginning of 2019.
Just for fun
I printed off a list of the 50 states. I am going to see how far into the year I get before I have shipped a package to all 50 states. It’s totally just a curiously project. I’ve been thinking about doing this for several years.
Blogging
I’d like to blog more. It is something I enjoy doing, but among all of my other goals it often gets shuffled down my list of priorities.
What are your goals for 2018? I would love to hear about them! Maybe we can try to hold each other accountable.
Fonda says
January 8, 2018 at 10:52 pmI wish you the best of luck. I hope to sell those few things that are too important for garage sale fodder on eBay. I’ll find them, take the photos and list them soon. Now that we’re out of the single digits here in NC, I can get to the garage and find the goods.
Kari @ She Thrifts says
January 16, 2018 at 1:02 amBrrr! Having to go out in the hold saps the motivation, doesn’t it? Good luck with your listing!
Shannon says
January 9, 2018 at 4:59 amMy goals are actually very similar to yours, LOL!
Listing consistently. (We had several family issues and hurricane scares last year that bumped eBay to the bottom of the barrel)
More organization. I have half of my clothing items in a tote system that’s numbered and cataloged. Works great. Guess what I dread? When something in that other half sells. 😀.
I also need to decide whether I’m going to go for volume or higher dollar items. Sure, it’s easy to say the higher dollar items bring more money with less work. But the reality of availability is the lower dollar bread and butter items so I’m leaning to volume. But with the organization goal, I think that means a storage unit addition. They’re building one near our house that’s close to the Base so I’m hoping the long term rates are good.
Never enough time but I really want this year to be different.
Kari @ She Thrifts says
January 16, 2018 at 1:05 amYes! I struggle with volume vs. high dollar items too. Of course high dollar items are desirable, but consistency in listing is so important that sometimes I buy items that aren’t huge money makers just because I know they are easy to list and/or a quick flip.
Margaret @ Live Like No On Else says
January 12, 2018 at 6:50 amHey Kari, Happy New Year!
One of my biggest goals is also to be more consistent in listing. I kept track of my hours for 2017 and only spent 90 hours and 20 minutes on ebay (including the time I spent shipping items). Ha!!! That’s less than I did even when I was at my studio full time.
Hope all is well with you and yours! 🙂
Margaret @ Live Like No On Else recently posted…Goals For 2018 – Week 1
Kari @ She Thrifts says
January 16, 2018 at 1:06 amI have never tracked my eBay hours. That is such a good idea.
Guest says
January 13, 2018 at 7:07 amThanks for posting these, it’s great to read about other people’s Ebay goals! Here’s my goals:
-Make Ebay more of a priority: I love doing Ebay but somehow it gets pushed down on my daily priority list.
-List things for my elderly Mom: This is putting her peace of mind ahead of running Ebay like a business. She’s ready to part with many of her possessions but would like to try to sell them. And the additional change wouldn’t bother her 😉 They aren’t very valuable or in demand but will likely sell at the right price.
-Maintain at least 200 items in my store, but would prefer 250 items in my store.
-Not purchase anything else until I have listed all that I already got.
-List the random things from our own household that we want to get rid of, rather than purchasing fun things to sell. Boring, but necessary! We will be moving this year and I don’t want to move things that I’m planning on selling anyway!
Thats it! Now to stick to these…
Kari @ She Thrifts says
January 16, 2018 at 1:08 amOoh, moving would be a good motivation to keep listing and not to buy more. Thanks for sharing your goals!
Julie says
January 13, 2018 at 12:29 pmQuestion: How many items do you have in your store now?
Kari @ She Thrifts says
January 16, 2018 at 1:10 amRight now around 1700. Before the holidays I think it was over 2200, but I’ve been selling more than I’ve been listing recently (good . . . but bad).
Anna Robey says
January 20, 2018 at 7:31 pmLove your goals! I need to get on your level. Grossed about half that last year. Of course I have Social Security hounding me about being disabled and only making so much a year.
Where do you source all your items from? I can never find enough good items to list that much!
I did the 50 state challenge last year. In July I had 49 states done. Took until September to get North Dakota! The Dakotas and Nebraska are tough. Good luck with it!
Kari @ She Thrifts says
January 20, 2018 at 10:07 pmHow fun and funny that you tracked your states last year! I have always been curious how long it will take. 🙂
My favorite places to source are yard sales and rummage sales (that is where I find most of my toys and loveys that I enjoy listing), but I live in Oregon so they are very seasonal – May-Sept for the most part. I have a local thrift that I go to most weeks on their clearance day, and on a good day come home with 40 or so items (mostly clothing).