04-16-2017 11:05 AM
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.
09-11-2017 04:45 PM
Beth! Sending love, prayers and big hugs to you and yours!
Victoria
09-12-2017 05:48 AM
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 😄
09-12-2017 06:48 AM
Beth, this is so great to hear!!! 😄
Yes, the weather peeps love to "shine" in their moment, righto. It was so STUPID of them to stand there in 100 MPH gusts, getting pelted with rain and sand like idiots. Sure sets a bad example! YES, it's very, very windy and raining like a sunofawitch!!! We know that. It's a HURRICANE!!!
We had it blast thru N GA as a tropical storm last night. Thankfully the cool front lowered the temp and made tornadoes very unlikely to occur. Tornadoes and trees falling are the big concerns up here. And in lowlaying areas flash floods. We don't worry about that up here on the mountain.
The tennis center at Bent Tree got hit pretty bad. There are lots of downed trees there. No power or telephone. So I didn't go in to work this morning.
We are fine... some minor debris. The tree I was most worried about is still standing! Yea!
09-12-2017 09:23 AM
Beth, so glad to hear everything is okay!
09-12-2017 12:28 PM
Beth, so GLAD to hear that everything is OK. I heard that the anticipated huge storm surge in MI and Tampa was a non-event and spared the areas the flooding that could have been devastating.
We had some crazy wind for awhile, lots of rain (with a little interior water seepage in our basement) and tons of branches/debris in our yard. Power went out for about 6 hours so we cooked via campstove and were just getting ready to play a board game by candlelight when it came back on. School is cancelled for today and may be again for tomorrow as some of the schools don't have power back. Like Olive said, we did not have tornadic activity. That made the whole situation much less stressful. Hopefully all is well w Patty and Beachy and anyone else who was in Irma's path.
09-12-2017 04:17 PM
Hellooooooo Beth and listers!
Yep; it's none other than me flying in to say hello.
Beth; I've been wondering how you and your fellow listers have been battling the recent hurricanes and which of you, if any, have been affected.
Olive, Penny, and the rest of you.
I hope you are well and safe.
Hugs,
MissCan
09-13-2017 09:20 AM
I am so glad that so far, non of the people I know in Florida, have been too badly effected by Irma. Beth, how did your cats do with leaving home for a few days?
09-14-2017 08:01 AM
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!
09-14-2017 09:11 PM
So glad to hear you guys made it thru Irma! Sending more prayers that electricity is restored quickly! Xoxo
09-15-2017 09:11 AM
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
09-16-2017 05:59 AM
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!
09-16-2017 06:32 AM
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
09-16-2017 06:56 AM - edited 09-16-2017 06:56 AM
Yea for generators! Yea for the small creature comforts! They mean a lot in such a stressful situation.
09-16-2017 08:27 AM
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.
We’ve set up a special email address, hurricanerelief@ebay.com, and can help you with the offers above and the following:
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.
09-16-2017 08:28 AM
and this:
Seller Protection Will be Extended to Sellers Affected by Hurricane Irma
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:
If you are able to, there are a few things you can do now to help protect your 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.