Should You Have an eBay Store or Not?

I get asked this question alot?  Should I have an eBay Store?  

Do you list items as auctions or buy it now fixed price?

If you list a lot of your items as Buy it nows you need to study the chart below~

 

Do Feedbacks on eBay scare You? They do me!!!!

So in the past ten days I have received three Neutral feedbacks.   Is it because I am a bad seller?  It makes your wonder!

I sat back and analyzed each one and this is my conclusion:

1. New buyer on eBay was upset she paid 8.00 for a chart when the price when she got it said $5.50.  She obviously did not read the ad that is was an out of print booklet.  Do you expect to pay 10 cents for a 1975 Superman Comic Book?   I emailed her and asked her to do her research first before ruining my business.  Okay it might have been a little harsh but I was upset... SO LESSON, cool off before responding to a neutral or a negative.   It reflects on your what you write when customers see your response if you respond.


Do we have to start telling customers in every package we mail to please contact us before they leave a neutral or a negative because it could ruin our business?

I am not at that point yet but almost.

So how do you avoid them?  

YOU CAN'T.

Just do your best and it is not good enough for everyone.

Thrift Store Shopping Regionally - Deseret Industries and Savers

I live in Utah and we have two major thrift stores that are basically chain stores.

One is Deseret Industries that is owned by the Mormon or LDS Church

and The other is Savers which is a charity thrift store and by far my favorite.

I will go into the pros and cons of each store in my opinion

Deseret Industries is a great store and yes I have found great finds but I find their prices to be very high and each store is not consistent in price. I frequent three of these stores. One is 30 miles north, one is five miles west and one is 17 miles south of me.

I go to each one for different reasons.

My first stop is crafts. I look for kits, yarns, patterns etc.  I then head to collectibles to see if they might have something that the other hundreds of eBay sellers might have missed in their daily stops at these stores. I then go to books and look for patterns and other unusual books.  Then I scan china, holiday and then head to the outdoor area for larger items.

It is not unusual to find books in DI (as we call it here) to be 10 to 20 dollars and then end up in the landfill because they can't be recycled.  The management will tell you they send to other DI stores before they go to the landfill but workers have told me that they dump countless red bins (their large trashcans) into the dumpster daily.   I have a hard time giving a store a lot of money for an item when I think they could lower their price before dumping in the landfill but they are greedy and won't do it. It is not part of their philosophy.  They need to follow Saver's philosophy.   The bright person behind this concept at Saver's deserves a medal.

Saver's pricing.   I might see something at Savers I want but think it is too much... I have a few options?
1. I can buy it then because I want it so badly.
2. I can wait for it to go 50% off in about five weeks and hope no one found it!
3. I can wait for it to go to 99 cents in six weeks and pray no one found it during the half off sale.

Here is how it works.   Savers uses a different color sticker each week.  So everything that comes in that week might be green.  The next week will be Purple.    There are five colors.  The items are put out at the full asking price.  Each week a new color is 50% off for the week. They rotate the colors of the stickers so that about every five weeks the next color is on sale.  After the 50% off sale the following Monday that color sticker goes to 99 cents.  No matter the cost of the item.     So can you imagine the landfill dumping from this company?  Almost nil!  Except of course for the junk that people drop off thinking is a treasure and Saver's can't sell it because it is just that ... Junk..

So my favorite is Savers for helping with keeping stuff out of landfills and for their great sales.

Bling My Bra for Cancer

If you want to help a great cause. Check out Bling My Bra for Cancer.  A number of people have decorated bras for Charity. What a fun idea and what a great way to raise money for Cancer

Bling My Bra

The River Ranch and the Bay Radio Show

I had a great time tonight on the River Ranch and the Bay Radio Show talking about selling on eBay. This is a great show every Wednesday night.

Check it out.

River Ranch and the Bay

Thanks Melinda and Bryan for the invite.

Do you Set Goals on How Many Listings To Do In A Day?

Well I was challenged and I did it!  I was asked to set a realistic goal by Danna Crawford of Virtual Online Learning of how many listings I could do on September 22.  I did it.. I said 30 and I had it done by 8:21 PM.
Five were accomplished on my iPhone while hubby was driving to the nursing home to see his mom and five were done on the way home.  I completed the rest tonight but I felt like my little Thomas did a few years ago.  Like a dog... but I made my goal.. Next month on the challenge.. 40 in one day..

I will suggest ways on how I got so many done in such a short time. 

1. I listed the first ten on my iphone and they were all sewing patterns of girls dresses so I have the patterns with me, Did the title, set the category once because I listed a similar item over and over and the other preferences stayed the same.  I then changed the title and the description slightly to adjust for each one. 

2. When I got home, I listed a number of Cross Stitch books on a great program called

Seller Sourcebook . The concept for the listings were the same.  I made a pile of ten books, all in samplers and starting scanning the books on my scanner, and started making the listings while the next book scanned next to me, (multi tasking is my middle name).  I like Seller Sourcebook because they have cutsey templates and I can list a similar item very quickly buy just changing the photo, title and some of the description. I then launch and fix any prices, fixed or auction or category and up we load.  Another MAIN REASON I like Seller sourcebook is because it places my photos in my ads, not up at the top and you have to click each one like eBay selling does.  Take a look at this ad and you can see. An Ad With Photos in Ad not At Top

3. Scan while listing.  Get a pile of item you need to scan and put them by the computer and scan while you are doing  a writeup and then when it finishes do another scan. 

4. I NEVER write up an item on sheets before hand unless it is one of the rare Madame Alexander or Ginny Vogue Dolls I have about 70 of I need to get listing.  I feel writing up sheets is a waste of my time since I know my product. If you don't know your product and have to do research then use the sheets with what you are going to write up your add with. 

I have five more listings in front of me before bed time so I better run... more later. 

Why I am Sad Today! I feel the Heart of eBay is Leaving the Company!

With a very sad heart today, I find out the marvelous woman responsible for all auctions and listings on eBay is leaving due to family matters.  Knowing Lorrie, she did not make this decision easily and needs to be where she is needed but I will be selfish here and say "We need her at eBay"  and as I am broken hearted, I am sure she is relieved to move on with pressing matters.  I have to say there have been a lot of people I have seen leave eBay due to better jobs, layoffs, etc but this one is the one that I feel impacts me the most.  Lorrie LISTENED and Lorrie Listened well.   As I wipe away the tears while I write this, I feel I have lost a great friend.  Lorrie will do well in her next venture, I just wished it was at eBay.  Why not a sabbatical?   I am sure this was all thought through for a long time but I feel like I lost my "counselor" of sorts at school.  Lorrie always knew my name, always greeted me and asked how my boys were.  She had to deal with thousands of faces and people all the time and traveled the world but never forgot who I was. She never forgot ME.  I felt Lorrie cared.  It didn't matter that I might be small seller on eBay or even a small buyer.  She cared about ME and if I had any issues with eBay. How my business was doing?  What could be done about it on eBay's part. etc.  That is what Lorrie was about.. She is and remains an advocate to US, the eBay seller and buyer.  I hope others at eBay will take note of Lorrie's way with people.  She is an amazing person and I will miss her dearly. 


You will do well Lorrie and I am your biggest fan. 


Cindy Sorley
BubbaCanDance
Layton, Utah