Thrift. Flip. Repeat.
Another week gone. This week of selling was cut short a little bit because all of my auctions ran for 5 days instead of 7. My original goal at the beginning of the week was to sell 5 of my 76 listings. Towards the end of the week I decided that my ongoing goal for sales will be 10% of my listings in any given week. I have no idea if this is high or low in comparison with what anyone else tries to sell, but for me I think it is a fairly obtainable goal. For this week 10% would have been 7 or 8 sales. I ended the week with 11, so I was happy with that. Of those 11, 7 were repeat listings, 4 were new listings. I also listed a BIN item on Sunday that sold on Monday that I shipped out with the rest of last week’s sales.
So are Sundays really the best day to list and have your auctions end? Well, I can’t say for sure, but at the start of Sunday I only had bids on 4 of my items, and by the evening it seemed like every time I checked another item had a bid on it. Several items had multiple bids. Maybe because it was a Sunday, maybe because of the upcoming holidays, maybe a combination. Regardless, I’m not complaining.
This week I sold a couple plush, a couple kids books, a Jansport bag, two pairs of infant shoes (to the same person), a girls holiday dress, a Thomas toy, and a couple other items. Around $130 in all. Again, my per-item sales price was not very high. But it’s better than nothing, for now.
Monday was kind of a hectic day for me since 8 of my sales had been paid for, and I was trying to get them all out that day. But it was also a one-cent listing day, so I was trying to get new listings up too. It was not fun to have them land on the same day. I’ve discovered that the shipping process is my absolute least favorite part of the whole eBay experience. I’m starting to dread it. It takes forever, and it has become kind of a grind for me. But, it’s all part of the eBay package (haha) so I’ll stop my complaining and move on.
I still have 2 sales from last week that have not yet been paid for, and one person who paid with an echeck, which is a new one on me. I e-mailed her to let her know that I had received her payment but that I was following the suggestion in the e-mail I received in waiting to ship her package until her check has cleared. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long.
As I mentioned before, I did spend a chunk of time listing on Monday. Between Sunday and Monday I got 18 new listings up, and relisted 65 items, for a total of 83 listings. I’ve sold one BIN item so far, so in keeping with my (around) 10% goal I will hope to sell 8 more items this week. We’ll see how it goes . . .
Don’t you just love last-minute sales? I’ve had a couple this evening – items that had not generated a lot of hits. I don’t think either even had watchers. I went to have dinner and came back to find they had sold at the last minute. Hooray!
I just shipped my first international sale. Is it really that easy? I printed the shipping label from home, as usual. I was surprised (and happy) when I was able to take care of the customs form at the same time. I read through all of the info and saw that I couldn’t drop it in the USPS box like I usually do (not a surprise). My usual PO is closed on Saturdays, and I could only imagine that the main PO would be a zoo, so I tried out a location that is part PO, part gift shop.
First off, there were two customers being helped when I walked in and no one waiting in line behind them, so that made me happy. And then a THIRD employee came out and helped me! Crazy. Obviously not a “normal” Post Office. Wonder how many people actually shop in their gift shop, and how they make enough $$ to stay open? Anyway, I handed the guy my package and the shipping label which I had not yet affixed to the package.
“Is there something more I need to do?” I asked, telling him I’d never done this before.
“We don’t do this either,” was his response.
Say what?! “Well, we take the packages after they are ready to go,” he clarified.
O-kay . . . I signed and dated the label. He read over the rest of the paperwork that had printed out as I taped the label on. He said it looked good to him. Here’s hoping it doesn’t get sent back to me!
On the info that printed out it also said you could schedule a pick-up and just hand it to your carrier. I think that is what I will do next time, when I’m hopefully a little more organized,.
So . . . is international shipping really that easy? If so, everyone should be doing it!
Well, if eBay continues its free listing days on (most) Tuesdays, it seems that Tuesdays will become my listing days, and Wednesday will be my shipping days. Yesterday eBay offered 5000 (!) free listings. I got 76 items listed. Only 8 or 9 of them were new (I had hoped to get up 20 new listings but missed that goal by over half), the rest are repeats. If I get 5 sales this week I think I’ll consider it a success. I don’t have many exciting or (potentially) profitable listings right now.
The twist for this week is that the free listings were only for 1, 3, or 5 day auctions. I’ve only done 7 day auctions before. But, I actually like the idea of the 5 day auction because when you list on Tuesday the auction will end on Sunday. I’ve heard (although I can’t say for sure) that Sunday is the best day to have your auctions end because that’s the day that the most people are shopping.
I had 13 sales for a total of around $190 over the last week. As you can tell, my per-item-sales-price isn’t that high. I need to figure out how to raise it. (Work smarter, not harder, right?) Ten of the 13 were new listings, only 3 were repeats. Once again my highest ticket item (around $30 + shipping) was purchased by someone international (this time Japan) and once again they did NOT contact me beforehand. I would be happy to sell and send my items to them, but it annoys me that they don’t contact me first when I very clearly state that they need to. After I finish up this post I am going to do some research on USPS and figure out how much it will cost to get the item to them (a vintage flat sheet – my first time dabbling in this area).
Eleven of the 13 sales have been paid for thus far, and I got them all in the mail today. Yay me.
I’ve done no thrifting this week (I usually hit at least Value Village every Monday morning, but this week I was partying it up at Chuck E. Cheese for my son’s 4th birthday instead). And I haven’t had the itch or motivation to go elsewhere. And, I will do no eBay listing tomorrow because I don’t want my listings to end on Thanksgiving. It will be nice to take a mental eBay break, even if it only lasts for a day.
So, until Friday, then.
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!
You are correct! I am so embarrassed…or just pregnant. I wore it and tookit to the dry cleaners and forgot about it. I am so sorry!!!!!
-Jenn
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Thanks for working to resolve this issue. The buyer has closed this case. You don’t need to do anything else. The hold on this PayPal transaction has been removed.
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I have not received this item and it is over a week. I just wanted to verify that you sent it and it is on its way.
-Jenn
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| Not a great photo, I know. But hey – it sold anyway! |
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Another Tuesday come and gone, another day spent listing items on eBay. Today eBayers could list 1000 items for free. 1000! I got 10 or 15 new listings up and around 50 repeats. That brings me up to 80 altogether – an all-time high! Wahoo.
Are free listing days only on Tuesdays? The last couple I participated in took place on Tuesdays as well. It would be nice if I was better able to anticipate when they will occur.
I actually still have half an hour left during which free listings are available, but for now I’m heading to bed. Soo sleepy. Can’t keep my eyes open. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I took advantage of last Tuesday’s (10/25) one-cent listing day and got 55 listings up and running. Around fifteen were new listings, the rest were re-listings. I was hoping for ten sales, expecting around five. At the end of the week I had eight sales that totaled around $150. Not too bad. Three of the sales were first-time listings and five were re-listings. One was a lot of kids books that I’ve listed quite a few times, and it sold at the last minute. I was happy to see that one go. Other repeats included a lot of Duplos, an Exersaucer accessory, a stuffed animal, and more kids books. The items that sold right away included a Disney plush, a 4T outfit, and some vintage dolls. The dolls were actually bought by someone in the Philippines. Which, in theory, is fine. I state in my listings that I will ship internationally but to contact me prior to bidding for a shipping estimate. Which they did not do. And when I was looking online to determine how much it would cost to ship the dolls I discovered it was almost the exact same amount she paid for them . . . $45! I was skeptical to believe that she would be willing to fork out $90 for them. But, after a day or so she e-mailed me to let me know that this was her first purchase on eBay, she was still trying to figure out how the payment system works, and that she wanted the dolls sent to her mom who lives in California. And, this evening I received payment for the dolls, and the shipping address linked to the payment is indeed in CA. So, yay.
And, for the last two days, I have had ZERO eBay listings. My 50 free ones have kicked in but I have yet to use them. I am a master procrastinator. I’ve been playing around with the idea of opening an eBay store, but if I can’t get around to using my 50 free listings in a timely manner just imagine how much I’ll procrastinate when (if!) I open a store. So off I go. To list. Maybe.
