It's October 2023 - What are your plans, goals, and changes for this month?

[rosachs]

October is Halloween, but it's also a good time to think about early Christmas ordering while supplies are still in reasonably good shape.

My personal goal is to increase sales, even if just by one more sale than last month.  To get there, I'm going thru my older inventory looking for elongates I haven't sold before, and will be considering selling partially functional laptops. Generally clients will remove the hdd for security and may remove the memory if it's current enough to be of use in the incoming machines.  Shipping on laptops is manageable, much more so than with desktop systems.  The desktops I've received will be parted out - mobo & cpu, memory, optical drives, data drives (hdd/ssd), and of course add-in cards (usually video or data capture).  The chassis will be donated for recycling, saving me a lot of space.

Not sure what the plan is for October at work - I know we're clearing out a lot of older stuff from the smaller warehouses so we can get rid of them or fill them with newer, more current purchases.  All the online venues are struggling, some less than others, both with product selection and with venue gating of various products (at the manufacturer's request).  One thing I do know for sure -- it's going to be an interesting month!

So, to mangle a CC ad:  "What's in your playbook?"  🙂

-Bob.

[retrogames10000]

We have just about wrapped up our purchasing for the year.  Just this week I have purchased 5 times as many items as I have ever sold, so I am definitely sitting on a few years worth of inventory, haha.. Still hoping for that great spike in sales - we have been purchasing mailers and boxes in bulk waiting for good news.

We will use the remainder of time to continue to list inventory and adjust our selling practices to maximize sales.  Still learning!!

[mike_jayroe]

I am hoping someone starts buying what I have listed. I would love to see everything gone. But I know that will never happen.

[gwens*4saleitems*]

A bit of constructive criticism here. You really need to work on your titles.

Most of what I looked at does not even say WHAT the product is.

I.E. " Super Girls. ". What is it ?

" STEAM LOCOMOTIVE/STEAM LOCOMOTIVE & RAILROAD TRADITION/RAILROADING " What is it ?

" Country Power-Pak " What is it ?

[chapeau-noir]

I've pretty much stopped acquiring inventory and am just listing what I have plus stuff around the house. My goal is to have everything I've got right now listed by November. Also purging old off-season inventory and getting rid of it. But hey, @rosachs Bob!  Here's a blast from the past for you! Palm Pilot VIIx with folding keyboard! I've had it since 1999 or 2000 (can't remember) - it has Ask Jeeves, etc. on it. 😄 It's not listed here but elsewhere (for now) - part of my house cleaning project.

 

 

[sakic92710]

My goal is to try & save the year.  9 months of dismal sales.  Probably going to post 100s of auctions with fire / rescue vehicle photos.  I should try UK presentation packs, as well.  See if listing a high amount of similar items will change my luck on here!  Good luck to all.    🙂

[mike_jayroe]

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I have added more info to the titles. Hopefully this might help. I just don't think my articles have that big a fan base anymore. 

[meme6253]

If the search engine & item specifics, etc. are never properly fixed,It will not matter what I do,or what my goals and plans are, or any changes I make, It just seems to add up to the same old same old lately

[natoman777]

Well...every year beginning in the spring, when my wife and I get winter only items we store them away and bring them out beginning in October.  It gives us a bit of a slower Fall as far as acquiring new items to list.  And usually we have a lot of treasures waiting to be listed.  Fall and Winter Sales are always much higher for us than Spring and Summer months.

We just had our 2nd and last yard sale to clear out some of our older inventory to make room for the new.  We have had a good year so far, and hope to end on a very high note!  Good luck to everyone else!

One bit of advise is to research vintage and collectibles items and how to describe in your listings.  People who are looking for specific items will look hard even when the eBay search engine is messed up like it is.  I know because that is what I do when I am looking for items for myself 🙂

[selsa84]

Goal is to be on the lake fly fishing by Oct 21st.

[gloryglorygifts]

I have that Gene Autry Christmas album in my garage; my player too! It's pretty awesome. Full of classics. 

Wishing you many sales in the coming quarter! 

[gloryglorygifts]

Goals: get my nativities listed and acquire the items I'm out of stock on and get a few off-brand holiday items. I'm very happy with my September sales, so I'm hoping that continues into this last quarter, which historically is my biggest of the year.  Tis the season for my biz anyway.

Happy and brisk sales to you in the coming quarter! 

[linda7913]

I was looking at my sales from last October, and I found that my sales really took off the last week and continued right through the winter season. So, I am not expecting to see many sales until the last week of this October.

In the meantime, I am reorganizing what I have in the way of inventory and possible inventory. I have sold all my collector dolls new in box that I was willing to part with; I still have some playline dolls new in the box, but most that are left are used not in boxes. Based on what I have listed, it's hard to know which ones are more apt to sell, so I am in a quandary of which ones not listed should be sold or kept. Do I list everything I have and leave it to chance or the cosmos to decide what I keep or donate after all is sold that is going to be sold? Or do I take a more direct approach and decide that definitely a doll is worth selling and another is worth keeping?

It doesn't help me want to add more listings when sales are so slow, and I have had a couple of buyers that wanted 50 percent off my list price, even though I have not added Best Offer. They ended up on my Blocked Buyers list, right from the message Action button, because they wouldn't take "No, sorry" for an answer.

I may wait until November to add more listings, depending on how this October stacks up to last October. If I see sales picking up again as the quarter moves closer to Christmas, I will definitely be encouraged to keep listing.

I hope all of you have great sales growth this quarter.

[rosachs]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I've pretty much stopped acquiring inventory ...  But hey, @rosachs Bob!  Here's a blast from the past for you! Palm Pilot VIIx with folding keyboard! I've had it since 1999 or 2000 (can't remember) - it has Ask Jeeves, etc. on it. 😄 It's not listed here but elsewhere (for now) - part of my house cleaning project.

 

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That would be cool!  I've got a Palm PDA that I bought back when computer stores were Geek Central.  🙂  It should still work... I just can't find the charger!  I've got dozens of adapters, just not the one I need!  🙂

-Bob.

[linda7913]

Following up on my last post. 

This October is starting to be the same as last October. Friday, I had 4 sales!! For the entire month of September, I had 2 sales, so things are looking better. 

I took the direct approach to listing my inventory. I decided which dolls would stay in my personal collection, which dolls were good enough to sell, and some were donated because they weren't good enough to sell or keep. I have added quite a few new listings and have several more to do. Then I can relax and work on other things until the sales come in.

How are all of you doing?