What are your Goals, Plans, and Hopes for October 2021?

[rosachs]

Each month, we all try to set goals, make plans, or just put together a quick list of the things we want to accomplish, resolve, achieve, or finish during that month. This thread has been a tradition of the Building/Starting An eBay Business boards for as long as I can recall. It's also a chance for those participating to socialize a bit without violating board rules.

So...

- Christmas shopping is beginning.  Do you have 4th quarter plans?

- Covid-related shopping seems to be slowing as more businesses continue to open/get closer to normal.  What impact do you expect from this?

- How do you plan to accomodate the annual shipping rate increases?  Do you think they will be just seasonal or will some part or all of the increases become permanent?

Welcome to all our newest posters!  If you have a specific question, try using Board Search to see if it's been discussed, or is still currently being discussed.  If not, why not start your own discussion and see what the group can come up with?  Remember, no personally identifiable info, for yourself or any other member involved, and not all problem will have reasonable solutions.

So let's take on October 2021 and make it our own!!

-Bob.

[summersails4u]

Sales? What are sales?

Things to do when you don't have sales:

Get oil changed on car

Vacuum car

Clean out house A/C drain

Get haircut

READ boards and hear from Legessi?

legessi,

It s good to hear from you! You did it, you moved!!!! Wow! How did the horses do with the move, and the dogs? Did your place come with more land? Decent stable? The house comes 3rd! LOL! You threw stuff out? I cringe! My new hobby is dumpster diving. No, I don't sell my finds on here. They are generally bigger and heavier items. I give them away, keep them or sell them locally. I only dive at one small shopping center, and I curbside at a nearby neighborhood once per week. I clicked on your post. It will help you find this thread next time. We have a lot of nice, new memebers on here.

[summersails4u]

Katz,

I will add chocolate to my list of 'things to do" when there are no sales! I love your humor!

silver,

I need to post photos of my latest free finds. Today, there was a brand new sofa, sliced to smithereens. No, I didn't take it. Too far gone, and two door Fiat is too small! LOL!

Clay,

You are doing better than I selling this month. I have only had five, and two locally.

bokhoma,

The cataract thing is easy, and what a difference it will make for you. My latest is my ankles swell now. I am not overweight, I exercise regulary. They have ruled out neurological, and injury. Next is cardiac or kidneys? Great, but like you said, "Beats the alternative!"

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@summersails4u Good to hear from you and I'm glad Katz found her way, she is the sweetest and extremely smart! Your going to luv her too,  and she knows her collectibles.

     Your ankle swelling, your retaining fluids ( edema) and since it's focused there, reduce your intake of process foods, salt, diet colas and such. Keep your feet elevated especially at night and wear some Ted hose if you have a pair or snug socks. Cardiac will usually show up in the entire leg and feet and skin will become shiny and taunt, like smoke stacks.

      Can't believe they cut up a good couch like that, what a wasteful society. I hate waste with a passion.

[flo_mingo]

I have been listing all of my serving dishes, vintage platters , bowls and tureens getting ready for thanksgiving and holiday buyers, by the end of the month I hope to have all of my Christmas items listed but that may be Novembers goal 🙂

[divwido]

Not the answer you wanted, but I'm in the middle chemo and i wish my hair would stop falling out in clumps.

As for the rest, I just keep on listing....

[1grandmashope_1]

My hope for October and throughout the rest of the year is for sales to skyrocket and good fortune to be at your doorsteps.

To each and everyone here, thank you for all you do for so many.  

With love,

Grandma 

[mrdutch1001]

to continue to have my daily laugh reading all the posts from Sri Lanka..

these folks just have no clue...so it really brings on the tears to think eBay onboarded these folks without first requiring them to know what eBay is really about...eBay seems to be their newly discovered new toy..

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@1grandmashope_1 

Hi grandma!! Hope that news you were getting came back all good? My legs and fingers were all crossed. Gosh it's good to hear from you. With lots of love and hugs Silver

[1grandmashope_1]

@silverstatetreasureboxes 

Not what I wanted, but I am trying to be positive. 

Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. 

You both are always in my heart.

Lovingly, 

Grandma 

[rosachs]

---

@silverstatetreasureboxes wrote:

@katzrul15 

Katz, these are some good peeps here, I enjoy them. This is where you go just to get away from all the yucky posts.

Today at the thrift I nabbed 3 1950s-60s board games in decent shape. Concentration, Jeopardy and Yahtzee with all the pieces. What another madhouse today, people are spending like no tomorrow.

---

Question, since I'm not big into thrifting (one of my daughters is, the other is more into high-end business attire)....

I've been looking for one of those wooden piece holders from Scrabble, but not for the game, so it doesn't need to be in super shape.  I want to use it to support my elongates when I do images - I could stand them up just like the game pieces in my 12x12x12 photo booth.  I've got some nice white cloth to cover it with once I get the details worked out - but now that I think about it, I may need multiple pieces... one for singles, one for small sets (3-4 elongates), and several for larger, themed collections.

I've been slowly evolving my imaging setup for my elongates for the past several years now.  The 12x12x12 booth, dual LED lighting strips, was the most recent addition/upgrade, but it's presented me with new 'problems' to resolve.  I finally replaced my 640x480 Kodak camera with a 20MP changeable lens DLSR (used but in good shape) - that's been quite the learning experience!  Especially since the Kodak has a rechargeable battery pack and dock/charging station and the DLSR doesn't.

Some days I wonder if I'm doing all this to improve my skills or just because I love to solve puzzles.  🙂

-Bob.

[richard1rst]

***

Covid-related shopping seems to be slowing as more businesses continue to open/get closer to normal. What impact do you expect from this?

***

Actually because of the supply chain issues we have been seeing on the news, along with pictures of empty store shelves, I suspect e-tailers with inventory will do fairly well. Not really super well, since so many people are out of work either because of closed B&M stores or the new "get a shot or lose your job"mandates.

Of course the empty shelf pictures are selective. For all we know 95% of the shelves are full and the news media with an axe to grind only shows the one empty shelf. Although I do notice many empty spaces when I go food shopping.

HOWEVER I have spent the last several weeks making sure that all of the required specifics have been filled in AND all of the recommended specs have also been filled in (about 2/3 of my inventory had "recommended" specs pending). Now I am down to none and none.

Then I finished converting ALL of my listings over to free shipping.

I took the time to do that because I believe (with, admittedly, no proof to back it up) that the search logarithm gives preference to those listings with all the specs filled in vs those incomplete, and additional perks to free shipping.

I am also in the process of refreshing older listings. Imagine my surprise to find I had some listings that were originally posted in 2008 ! I'm now up to spring 2018.

***

How do you plan to accomodate the annual shipping rate increases? Do you think they will be just seasonal or will some part or all of the increases become permanent?

***

On the relatively inexpensive items (with a smaller dollar margin) I have upped the prices by loose change since the increases really are not that onerous. BUT even though the shipping rates end Dec 25 there will be the usual January increase and I suspect that the new prices will be similar to the holiday upcharges. On the more expensive items I will wait until January and decide then.

Just one opinion.

[route66gif76]

I HAVE 12/10 LISTED THE 12.  I USED TO LIST 25 FOR TWO MONTH. THEN LITTLE BY LITTLE MY NUMBERS WENT A LITTEL.....SO NOW I SELL ABOUT 12 SO PER DAY.

OH WELL I JUST SELL A FEW.

CLAY

[rosachs]

Is anyone else having an issue with this conversation when they pin/float it?  I keep getting this weird display:

...and if I click on the title to open the conversation, it simply reload whatever page I'm on.  Extremely frustrating.  And a great waste of time...which is why it is now Thursday.

Sales at work are slow, but improving very slightly.  I've noticed that some of the books I've updated (adding the EPID based on the ISBN and correcting the description format) have been selling, and that's a good sign.  About 10-15% of the other sales are also coming from updated listings, which is even better as they are usually better prices than the books.  🙂

I keep getting inquiries about the computers I listed on FBMP, but that's it - just inquiries.  Had two just yesterday, both sounded quite interested, then just stopped communicating.  Never thought I'd find customers more frustrating than those on eBay.  🙂

Watched the new Dune moving tonight - preview on HBO Max.  It was pretty good - much more in sync with the book and much less rushed.  Not going to give anything away, but if you liked the books, I think you'll find this movie much better than it's predecessor.

One more day and then I can sleep in!!  Yay!!  Youngest is picking up my truck tomorrow evening so he can work on it Saturday when it's slow.  Oil change, replacing the support/lift cylinders that hold the hood up, checking why one of my headlights won't light, and if there's time, replace my front door speakers so the radio works properly.  Just a few little things... 🙂

-Bob.

[summersails4u]

I got a sale on here yesterday. I started filling in the new item specifics the last couple of days, since ebay finally transferred over ones that I had previously completed. I only have ten more to do. That is nothing compared to the hundreds some sellers have to redo.

[wrong66]

I hope that eBay doesn't destroy my categories too.