Tis the season ... but is it a season of low sales or high sales, low fraud or high fraud, too little new inventory or too much?
What plans have you put in place? What goals to these plans support? What are your actual expectations, given the changes over the past 3 years?
-Bob.
My Dec 2022 goal is to continue making sales. My plan is to continue listing new inventory to replace that which sells, and to get a handle on organizing my 'profit piles'. My expectation is that sales will likely remain fairly steady and I still have a disorganized chaos when it come to my inventory.
I generally end all my sales a week before Christmas - gives time for those last few sales to be shipped with a decent chance of arriving on time. I then schedule them to repost after Christmas or in January. I want to spend time, while the grands are out of school, with my family doing things we enjoy and not worrying about having to run to the post office or where did I stash that widget or anything not family.
-Bob.
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:I do wish ebay had told us up front that they would not be doing any real Holiday Marketing of the site this year...I might have made some other plans if I had known that.
I've seen some - mostly for eBay Motors. Not sure it's working - we have a variety of auto parts and accessories at work and fewer-than-overall-average sales from that category. Hard to tell - sales have been all over the place the past 6 months, altho generally trending down with brief periods of growth. We did start a Store-Wide sale last Monday, ending at midnight tonight (or noon Monday, not exactly sure anymore) and got good results on Tuesday, but by Friday we were back to typical. Boss is talking another sale this week and every week until the end of the year... maybe we'll finally find that discount-of-MSRP that buyers are looking for and we can adjust future listings to sell without any additional discounts! 🙂
-Bob.
@postcardcountry wrote:Dec 17 I go on 'time away' with no sales. All listings will come down, reviewed and then listing begins after Christmas into New Year.
Then again, we have someone interested in buying house and land. If that begins to play out in the middle of the month, eBay comes to a screeching halt until all the pieces fall into place. it's going to be a challenge and don't need any distractions.
We've taken our house off the market - the offers we were seeing were not the best (not bad, just could have been better), so we put the whole thing on hold. I'm continuing to unload 40yrs of 'stuff' - at times it feels like I've been doing that forever. 🙂 Too rainy in Memphis this weekend, even with the SUV, so we took a break and just spent time together. And it gave me time to write out a list of things I want to get done with that project and what supplies are needed or already purchased. There's just so much stuff left to move...
Good luck with the potential sale, and better luck with finding a new place you like as well or better!
-Bob.
Moving can indeed be 'the pits'. We moved a few times in MN - one apartment, one townhouse, and finally to our first house. Looking back, those were a walk in the park! Furniture, a few boxes/bags of clothes, and dishware. Super easy...compared to moving out of a 40yr occupancy. 🙂
Congrats on returning to home ownership. I like the fact that we have zero maintenance costs at the apartment -- dishwasher died and was replaced at zero cost to us -- but I'm not that keen on the fact that we can hear every move they make, every step they take in the apartment above us.
I'm still making slow progress on getting the house emptied. There are a few things left to bring down to the ground floor, but a lot of what's left is likely to end up in the trash. I did actually turn down another bulk PC lot - there were some interesting pieces, but I haven't fully recovered my funds from the last purchase and, truth be told, I simply don't have any space left until I get that storage unit better organized. Interestingly, I'm not all that upset about it. I'm taking that as a good sign. 🙂
Christmas plans are underway - we've got gifts for the youngest grands and either cash or loan balance statements for the older ones. 🙂 We're hoping to have a quiet holiday - the kids are mostly doing their own things with in-laws or nieces/nephews. I'm going to get a turkey next week, after Christmas, so I can have more turkey left-overs! Mashed taters too... the chunky kind made with just potatoes and butter. 🙂
Simple mind, simple pleasures.
Sales have been decent - selling a bit more PC components, still selling the elongates, and at work it appears that the slow descent has reversed and is now a slow climb. I'm sure the store-wide clearance sale doesn't hurt either. 🙂 We're closing one of the retail outlets and trying, again & still, to empty more of the warehouses and drop the lease overhead. I'm going to try and get my hours back up to 40/week - I've been taking an hour or so off at the end of the day to spend time working on the house and storage. It hasn't been working as well as I had hoped, and I want to get back to a better weekly check. 🙂
Been taking time off the boards as well lately - I've got to start getting to sleep earlier. Apparently 5hrs of sleep a night is not enough... 6 is better and 7 is heaven. But we all have our vices.... 🙂
Happy Holidays everyone, however you celebrate them. And may we all have a much better 2023, with less inflation, more employment, better wages, less crime, more community, and less division.
Merry Christmas To All, And To All A Good Night!
-Bob.
Merry Christmas!
Yeah, a bit late, but that's what happens when you spend time with family. 🙂 I hope everyone had a safe, warm, and electrified Christmas - that Arctic Blast did a real number on a major portion of the country, and it's not quite over yet. Our daughter shivered thru a 12hr power outage and we've had to deal with rolling blackouts due to damaged equipment and excessive demand. It has definitely been a Christmas to Remember, and hopefully one I'll get to recall to the first of my great-grands sometime in the coming 8-10yrs.
So Merry Christmas and may you all have a blessed and wonderful New Year. May you receive what you need, achieve what you desire, and accumulate enough friends and acquaintances to keep your days interesting.
See ya in 2023!
-Bob.
