She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

November Goals

by 4 Comments

October was a pretty steady month for me, sales wise.  I had sales every day except for one – a grand total of 106 for the month.  I also reached my listing goal of 125 new items listed.



This was good, but not as good as it should have been.  I gave myself several days off from listing . . . when we were supposed to be in Canada.  We ended up staying home instead, which means I should have had extra time to get even more listed.  Didn’t work out that way though.

My goal for November is 5 items per day.  
 

We are going to be gone for 5 days in November, but I am not going to let myself off the hook when it comes to listing.  We’re just heading to the coast a couple hours away.  I’ve been putting all of my smallest inventory items to the side, and will be taking a small box of items with me to list.

The other goal that I am changing up is that I am only counting items already in my stockpile towards my listing goal.  I am not going to try to go on a thrifting fast – I always fail miserably.  But any items I pick up at Value Village (pretty much the only thrifting I am doing at this point) will need to be listed above and beyond my 5 items per day.  And everything I buy to resell (always on Monday) has to be listed by my next shopping Monday.  At least that’s the goal!

September’s Goals

by 1 Comment

Because the ticker worked so well for me the last couple months, I have created a new one for September.  I am tweaking things just a bit.  I am upping my goal by one listing per day.  Last time I aimed for five new listings each day, this time I am attempting six.  I think I can do it.  My oldest has one more week off, and then will be heading back to preschool three mornings each week.  I am hopeful I can get my youngest on schedule to nap during that time, which will give me some quiet eBaying time.  A mama can dream, right?

The other ticker difference is that I am setting a one-month goal instead of a two-month goal.  Keeping the time period shorter gives me less time to procrastinate and fall behind, and then have to hurry to catch up again.

I sold 101 items in July and 104 in August.  I am hopeful that number will keep climbing as the holiday season approaches.

The one thing I didn’t accomplish was to get all of my Halloween items listed by the end of August.  My new goal is to have all Halloween costumes, outfits and sweaters listed by next Saturday.  And then to move right on and get all the Christmas clothes listed too.  Wish me luck!


I did it!!!

by 5 Comments

I just listed my 300th item since July 1st.  With 9 hours to spare!  🙂  YAY.
 

There is no way I would have accomplished this without the ticker above.  It definitely kept me motivated and focused.  I am going to create a new one for September.  Anybody want to join me?

Ticker Challenge Update – 10 Days To Go

by 2 Comments

Just a quick update.  Only ten days left in the month.  As I type I am up to 227 new listings since July 1.  On one hand, that’s great!  On the other, it is 23 listings behind where I should be right now to keep up with my goal.  I am still hoping to make it to 300 by the end of the month, but I have some catching up to do. 
While this has been an interesting challenge, I am trying to decide if/how I should tweak it for next month.  Focusing on quantity is good – I have definitely been more focused on my listing than I would have been otherwise.  But, I am sometimes focusing on the items that are easiest to list to boost my stats, and am ignoring or putting off listing my potentially more profitable items because they will take a little more legwork or research to get listed.  That’s not ideal.  Things to ponder.


July – Month In Review

by 3 Comments

Just a quick synopsis:
July 1 – July 31, 2012
New items listed: 137
Sales: 101
Wow!
I didn’t quite make my listing goal (to make it to 300 by the end of August, I was hoping to make it to 150 by the end of this month).  But, having the ticker and keeping track has made a HUGE difference.  It has definitely helped me maintain my focus and motivation.

Looking forward to another productive month!


USPS, New Finds, and Goals Update

by 4 Comments

USPS
Does anyone else ever marvel at the amazing-ness of the US Postal System?  I’m not being snarky – completely sincere.  I’m sure we’ve all had our issues or glitches at one time or another, but really . . . the speed with which the items that I sell are delivered is frankly staggering sometimes.  I mailed a plush out Saturday morning that was heading to Indiana.  My BIL got married that day, so it was hectic, and I didn’t send out my “your package is in the mail” e-mail as I usually would.  Mailed some more packages today, sent the e-mails, and then checked the tracking info on the item I mailed on Saturday, trying to decide if I should send a belated e-mail.  Surprise!  The package has already been delivered.  Left Oregon sometime Saturday (via first class mail), delivered in Indiana on Monday.  Seriously, how is that even possible?!  Impressed, yes I am.
New Finds
I did a little pre-wedding yard-saling on Saturday.  Just me and the 4 year-old.  He is the best little yard sale buddy.  He loves it as much as I do, and while, of course, he does ask for things, 99% of the time he is fine when I say no, because he knows there will be another yard sale just around the corner.  We had a great time.
I mostly picked up books for eBay lots and kids clothes (found some for the 4 year-old to grow into, hooray!)  Didn’t come across much of interest for eBay.
I also went to Value Village this morning.  I didn’t find a lot, but I did pick up a big bag of wooden Thomas tracks that included the following:

I paid $7.74 for the above pieces, plus a bunch of “regular” Thomas brand tracks, and a couple trains.  That was the highlight of the thrifting trip.
And, quickly, a goals recap.  
The good:
I ordered my boxes and envelopes from USPS, and ordered some self-adhesive mailing labels from eBay.  
I found my camera!!!  In my purse.  So it wasn’t really as missing as I thought it might be. 
The could-be-better:
I wanted to get at least 35 new listings up.  I ended up with 28 new eBay listings, so I didn’t quite make my goal.  I also had 4 new half.com listings, 8 items I had to manually relist, and 1 that needed some updating.
I clipped a few coupons, filed none of them.  Still have a ways to go on this project.  I hate being at the store and KNOWING I have a coupon for an item at home, somewhere.  Being disorganized is literally costing me money.  Sigh.
I’ve mostly gotten my items input on my inventory spreadsheet.  Mostly.  What does everyone do about keeping track of books or kids clothes for lots?  I bought a bunch of books this weekend, mostly for a quarter apiece.  I just don’t see myself inputting and keeping track of how much I paid for each individual title.
The hasn’t-happened-yet:
I didn’t get around to running my sale on kids clothing.  I had most of them set to a 30-day run without automatically relisting, so the ones that haven’t sold I have to go back in and relist.  Want to get that done before I start the sale.  

So many things to do, so little time.

This week’s goals:
 

Average at least five new listings per day.

Add calculated shipping to at least one listing this week.  STILL haven’t done this yet.  Need to do it once, just to show myself how easy it really is.

Run a sale on kids’ clothes.  And maybe plush again.  I sold at least 10 plush items this week, and most were when I was running the sale.  It really does seem to make a difference.
Continue to input inventory into my spreadsheet. 

Spend some more time organizing my coupons.  

Goals for the week

by 5 Comments

I am back from vacation.  Yard sales are really picking up around here.  eBay sales have been low the last couple weeks.  It is time for me to get my act together.  So, here are a few goals that I want to accomplish by the end of the week:
Average at least five new listings per day.  Right now I have 10 new listings for the week.  I’d like to get it up to 10 new listings each day, but I’m trying to be realistic enough that I will be able to keep up, not just give up.
Order more priority mail boxes and envelopes.  I mean, seriously.  They’re free.  Why haven’t I done this already?
Order self-adhesive mailing labels.  I’m still printing mailing labels on paper and taping them on the packages.  I know, it’s ridiculous.
Run a sale on kids’ clothes.  I just started another plush sale, so I will probably run this sale towards the end of the week.
Finish inputting my weekend’s purchases on my inventory spreadsheet.  I am bad about keeping up with this.  I know it is going to come back to haunt me.
Spend some time organizing my coupons.  I know this isn’t eBay related, but I used to be a couponer.  I have REALLY been neglecting it recently in favor of eBay.  I’ve got weeks worth of inserts that are unclipped, unorganized.  I’m going to try and catch up on that this week as well.  
Find my camera!!!!  Seriously, it’s been missing since we got back from vacation. I thought I had seen it after we got back, and yet I can’t seem to find it.  I am starting to get a little nervous.

Hopefully sharing my goals will motivate me to accomplish them.  I’ll report back at the end of the week and let you know how I do.

eBay Goals

by Leave a Comment

Good grief, can I blather on.  I just wrote a long post elaborating on all of the eBay related goals I have, and all about the vacations we will hopefully be spending my earnings on.  Here is the abbreviated version of that post.

Ongoing eBay goals:
  • sell 10% of my listed items in any given week (current goal that I’ve been able to meet pretty consistently) 
  • list 5 new items per day, 5 days per week (equaling 25 per week/100 per month – I really want to get all of my “inventory” aka clutter listed and organized!)
  • average at least $125 per week in sales ($500/month) above and beyond eBay + PayPal fees
Where will the money go?  Vacations!  Specifically to assist in funding:
  • Orlando family vacation: May, 2012
  • 10 year anniversary vacation in New York: October, 2012

So far eBay has been a bit of a lark, a fun hobby.  But, if we’re going to be able to pay for two “real” vacations this year it’s time for me to get busy and start selling.  And saving!

Short Term Goals

by 1 Comment

After three fun, party-filled days for the now 4-year-old, it’s time to get back to business.  I haven’t listed anything on eBay since last Tuesday.  I still have 31 free listings for the month (because last Tuesday’s free day didn’t require you to use your 50 freebies first – awesome!)  My husband is taking the 4-year-old to see Puss-in-Boots this afternoon.  I’m hoping the baby will sleep.  So here are my short-term goals:

-prep to mail (and take to PO) two paid items needing to be shipped
-e-mail eBayer in response to question about size of skirt
-e-mail eBayer to make sure they are clear on what size a shirt is (since I think my listing is confusing)
-list at least 10 new items

Off I go!

UPDATE:  11:17 p.m.

So . . . of course I didn’t have as much time to get stuff done as I was hoping for this afternoon.  The little one took a very short nap, and the movie my son and husband went to see was only 1.5 hours long so it seemed like they were back in a jiffy.  But, I did get the two items packaged up and off to the PO, as well as my e-mails sent.  Nothing new has been listed yet, but I’ve got several ready to go (but am now holding off on listing them until tomorrow – 5000!? free listings!)  Crazy.  I’ll try and get 20 new ones up throughout the day, and relist all of my non-sellers as well.  Happy eBay Tuesday!