Woot! Here we are with a chance to make a fresh start....brush the cobwebs off your old listings and your old mindsets and let's go! We're a group of eBay sellers who enjoy talking about our great finds, good sales, and life in general. We welcome newbies and lurkers, and promise we don't bite!
THIS IS THE SECOND QUARTER THREAD AS WE'VE ALREADY GOTTEN TO 700 ON THE ORIGINAL THREAD! GLAD TO SEE YOU HERE!
Here are our best ideas, culled from years of selling experience:
1) LIST IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS - Try some regular auctions, auctions with Buy it Now, Fixed Price, and Fixed Price with Best Offer---try some with free shipping too. Not only will you get a better idea what works for YOU, but you'll offer buyers a variety of buying options.
2) OPTIMIZE YOUR LISTINGS – By using the free Terapeak Keyword app (find it in the Applications tab), practice how to take better photos, change the keywords on your listing titles regularly, change the opening blurb in your store header every now and then, and experiment with price changes UP as well as DOWN! Run Sales on a regular basis with the Markdown Manager and also learn how to set up Promotions on your Store listings for better visibility.
3) DON'T LET YOUR UNSOLD LISTINGS LAY AROUND - Check your My eBay page and click on Unsold...get those relisted ASAP! You've already done all the work, so be sure they're available to buyers. More listings = more bait in the water = more bites. 😄
4) OPEN A STORE - If you are wondering whether you are better off with a BASIC store or a PREMIUM store, figure that if you have over 250 store items, Premium is a better buy....under 250, Basic is....this is at least a rule of thumb to get you started. Stores used to be great places to put items and keep them available year round, but with the fee changes, maybe not so much - sit down and figure it all out.
However, there are at least four really good reasons to have a store.... 1) listing fees are less if you have a store, 2) your items can be separated into categories making it much easier for buyers to shop, 3) you can run Promotions and Markdown Manager sales. They are two different ways to generate sales!, and 4) you can put your store in vacation mode when you need to get away for a bit.
5) DEAL WITH BIDDERS, BUYERS, AND ANNOYING INQUISITIVE POTENTIAL BIDDERS IN A PATIENT AND FRIENDLY WAY - Remember that it's worth money in your pocket and it's good business sense to show respect to all. If you must, write up that snarky reply, laugh at it, then hit delete.
6) KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE! This thread is all about MAKING MONEY, that's for sure, but we feel that being supportive of our Lister Sisters and Brothers helps ALL of us. Drop in and hang out! Venting is allowed, but take it easy on the drama, negative vibes and controversial, off-topic issues such as politics and religion.
Hi everybody! don't believe anything you hear on the weather channel...they're freakin drama queens. We're amazingly amazingly in great shape, considering. Took a head-on slam and our house is good, just tons of branches down. Even our screened lanai is fine, just one torn screen. Rest of our neighborhood lost lanais for the most part but no structural damage other than a few missing roof tiles. 98% of what happened on marco is trees. VERY VERY little other damage, and parts of the island already have electricity on.
We went down to check the house yesterday, slept in F. myers last night. We're heading home today to pioneer on. Hope we get power soon, but it's probably going to be awhile til I can report here. Hugs to all--sweaty days ahead 😄
Hi, I’m actually on my computer using my iPhone for a hot spot. No electricity here, but every day we’re getting closer. The city did a great job—brought in tankers of gasoline so they’re powering one station here around the clock. Long line, but at least you can fill your tank or (in our case) gas cans for generators.
We have a generator that’s running our fridge 3 on/3 off during the day and our little BR air conditioner all night. We have water so showers are dreamy. Again, every day gets better. We didn’t want to be ground zero, but because it hit us, everyone else was spared the surge that would’ve occurred if it had gone only 25 miles west of us.
Tree damage is tremendous, but they’ll grow back!
Glad to hear you did well, Olive!!!!
Thanks, Julie! Hi MissCan!
Hi Penny! Patty had small amt of damage, I heard, and I doubt if beachy got any as they’re way up the coast from Patty. Glad to hear you made it through. Please send us some electricity, OK? We’re probably only a few days from getting it, actually, and have a good setup here as it is. We have plenty of gas for the generator. No storm surge here. Just trees down everywhere.
Our schools are closed all week, don’t know when we’ll open the clinic. Maybe tomorrow or Sat at least some hours.
Funny, but the cats hated being up at our friends’ place, but are just fine here despite the yard being totally rearranged and a noisy generator running. Barry thought they’d freak but they didn’t. Maybe they like the new jungle?
That’s it from here, will check in as I can! Sold 2 things while I was gone, but have already told them I'll send them when I can and of course theyre cool with that. Our PO is closed, even!
Thanks, girlfriend! We're just in a happy daze. Have finished all the chainsawing we can do (our tree guys will do the rest). Marco Island is about 75% back up with electricity......all the grocery stores, hardware stores, drug stores, and many restaurants are open. Once they clear our tangled mess down the street, we should power up as well. Heck, my brother's place in Ft. Lauderdale still doesn't have pow3r, and that's 100 miles away. Even up in Naples, things are worse despite us taking the hardest hit. I can now say I've been in the eye of a hurricane. Cross that off the list and hope I never do it again!
Hope to have power in the next couple of days. xoxo
Thanks for the updates on hurricane survival! As bad as it is, it could have been worse.
Beth - My sister in Ozello, her PO is still closed too as of yesterday. It's good that Ebay is removing any slow shipping defects from afected sellers. I also heard from a credible source that your store fee for this month will be waived. Hopefully that is true as well.
Has anyone here been affected by the "Remove contact info from listings" glitch? Currently some robot on ebay believes I have phone numbers, addresses, other sales web sites and/or email addresses in 73 of my listings. Of course it's all false!
I see it on Seller Hub, in the Tasks pane.
Here's the official word from Ebay for Business:
"Thank you for sharing your additional concern Olive. I've confirmed that many are reporting this and our technicians are reviewing it at this time. I've verified that the only reason some of your listings show is due to the link you have that is supposed to take people back to your store. It appears that even if it's solely a link to your eBay store, and even if it has nothing to do with Auctiva it will still look like it's violating the contact info policy according to the system. Please take comfort in knowing your listings in actuality are within our policy. We hope to get this resolved soon. We appreciate your patience. ~Kelly"
These cuties were very happy at the salt lick this morning. Look closely and you will see one of them licking its lips!
Good morning! Power isn’t up but the snapped pole was replaced late yesterday and they said we’d get power today sometime. That would be awesome, though I’m amazed how well we’ve done with just one small generator and one small bedroom portable AC. If you have those, you can survive pretty comfortably without electricity. 🙂
If the power comes up, I can even print actual labels for the 2 packages I have to send out and I can reopen my store.
Seeing as I went to bed the night before we evacuated thinking “this may actually be the last night I ever spend in this house”, we’re ecstatic.
B
To Keep Informed about all eBay chages and news please check the Ebay Announcements boards!
Very reliable source of information!
The recent storms, Harvey and Irma, have brought unprecedented devastation to the southeast U.S. eBay knows that many sellers have been impacted, and our hearts go out to you during this difficult time. Please take care of what’s most important right now, the safety of you and yours.
In addition to the automatic seller protection efforts already announced, eBay is implementing some measures to help sellers impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. All of these protections will be applied automatically. You won’t need to call or email in to receive these benefits.
- Waive store subscription and insertion fees. eBay will waive insertion fees and Store subscription fees for all store levels for three months for all impacted sellers.
- Free Promoted Listings. Once your business is up and running again, we’d like to help you jumpstart your cash flow with a $30 Promoted Listings credit for business sellers.*
- Free Shipping supplies. To help get your shipping station restocked, we will send you a $30 coupon for eBay branded shipping supplies for business sellers.
We’ve set up a special email address, hurricanerelief@ebay.com, and can help you with the offers above and the following:
- Vacation mode. If you have an eBay store, but no direct internet access, we can place your store on temporary vacation mode, along with a message to your buyers that you are away.
- Take down your listings. We can also take down any active listings on your behalf and place them in My eBay for relisting at a later time.
- Important: Please email us from the email address associated with your eBay account so we can quickly confirm your identity. You need not use this email to receive these benefits; we are simply creating another channel for reaching our customer service team.
Additionally, we will email your buyers asking for their patience and letting them know that you may not be able to fulfill orders at this time. As soon as you are able, please communicate with your buyers on the status of their orders.
eBay takes seriously our commitment to our partners and wants to help impacted sellers get back on their feet as soon as possible. Please reach out to us at 1 (866) 540-3229 if you need customer service.
Wishing all those impacted a safe and speedy recovery.
and this:
eBay is closely monitoring the path of Hurricane Irma. To those sellers who may be affected, please stay safe and do what’s critical right now: taking care of yourself, family and community.
Due to the scope and severity of the storm, eBay has automatically applied seller protection to any seller whose business is impacted. What this means:
- You will not receive defects for stockouts or unresolved cases with buyers.
- Your late shipment rate will not be impacted.
If you are able to, there are a few things you can do now to help protect your business:
- Communicate with buyers whose items have not yet been shipped and let them know your situation.
- End any auctions, take down any Buy It Now listings before they result in a sale. We will not charge a fee for ending a listing early.
- If you are an eBay Stores subscriber, place your store in vacation mode and extend your handling time on all items to when you think you can get back to business.
If you don't have direct internet access, eBay can help you make the necessary changes. Please contact customer service at 1 (866) 540-3229 and update them on your situation.
Everyone here at eBay is wishing all those in the path of Irma a safe weekend and ultimately a speedy recovery.
