Part time EB?

[rascaljo]

My husband has just retired, and we plan on spending half our time at home, and half at our cottage, 2 hours away.  Advice on how to handle working from both locations?  I am not a big time seller.  I try to keep about 75 ongoing sales.  Should I do auction only?  Buy it now?  I do plan on having a printer at both locations, but this is going to take some thoughtful pondering on keeping this afloat during the summer.  Last summer I put my store on vacation for 3 months and lost all my listings!!!  Hours and hours of work!  This is another matter I would like addressed from an experienced seller on how to keep your store listings past 60 days.....  Tx for anticipated input.  

[katzrul15]

Congrats on retirement!

Your biggest issue is going to be having access to the inventory, wherever you are.  Will you have room at the cottage for what you are selling? 

Spending the summer at a cottage, sounds wonderful.  If you truly want to do it "part-time" and still enjoy your summer, auctions work better as you could have them all end when you want - FP can be purchased at any time, as I am sure you know.  Really depends on what you sell, though.  Some items do better at one or other.

Good luck to you, whatever you decide!

[Anonymous]

If you are able to schlep your stuff back and forth it's a no brainer.

[luckythewinner]

The obvious solution would be to put those 75 item in a couple plastic storage bins and keep them with you at all times. 

But the critical piece of information missing from your original psot is how often you will travel between the two locations. 

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@rascaljo 

Are you sure you want to work at the cottage??? I would just take smalls with me and you have some listed. Leave the clothing for your home base.

Take one bin with you, tape, 1st class envelopes/small flat rate, bubblewrap, and all your smalls, no breakables.

   Your going to find once you get up to Northern Michigan ( and no better place in the summer than that!) You are just going to chill out and say " I wonder what the poor people are doing"?

     I gotta a log cabin by the bridge but I'm certainty not 2 hrs away, more like 4-5 days! I plan on going junking!!!!

    Have fun you two and just enjoy!

[releasethekraken_1]

List the portable stuff. Hold off on the big stuff until you stop traveling.

[rascaljo]

What is FP?

[chapeau-noir]

---

@rascaljo wrote:

What is FP?

---

Fixed price.  

I used to sell seasonally - all I would do is keep a word file and a photo directory file and just relist from that when I started up selling again.

[corvettestainless]

Do 'buy it now' if you are available 7 days a week to check sales and be prepared to "pack & ship". Do auctions if you want them to 'end' on a particular day that allows you to "pack & ship" on certain days. 

Like others stated, keep the small items with you- in a few totes and take them to the cottage. Large items-keep them off. 

To NOT lose listings every 29 days 'relist' the 'ended item' for 1 day, as a Buy It Now with price at a point no one would buy...just to 'keep the listing fresh', then end the next day and they should hold for another 30 days (back on vacation) 

[rascaljo]

Thanks for your nice response - made me LOL!  I think you are right, I probably won't want to spend the time working on EB.  

So if I keep just small stuff and bring w/ me, do I "end" my other listings?  I don't want to lose them like before!  That was a pisser!  

Or-- if I want to put my store on vacation for 3 months, how do I save my listings, as they only stay alive for 60 days?  Seems like there should be a place I can "store" my listings for when I want to relist.  

Where do you live now that you are so far away from the U.P. in MI?  Where is your cabin?  Our cottage is 2 hours north from our Grand Rapids home, and 2 hours south of the bridge.  We plan on hitting the U.P. this summer for golf/gambling packages.  Here I've lived in MI my whole life and have never been above the bridge!  That's just plain stupid LOL.  

[buyselljack2016]

Auctions are an idea to have a set all with the same day ending, but an ending time can be different than a "paying" time, so doing auctions is not an cover all situation.

If I have a fixed price item listed that I do not currently want to sell/ship I set the quantity to "0" thus keeping the listing, but it is not searchable/purchasable by a buyer. Sometimes I guess they may somehow stumble across it , or have it in their watch list, but they can not purchase. 

That can be done with the Out of Stock (OOS) setting in site preferences.   OOS  fixed price items will renew monthly using a listing.  OOS with "0" quantity will go to ended after 3 months, so they can also be lost.

I have had potential buyers contact me when the ID is on "time away".  I can use the "reply with offer", and they can purchase.

As eBay gives me 200 250 free listings a month I do not have the need for a "store".

[buyselljack2016]

I can set my ID to time away, and then end the time away, and put it back on time away starting the cycle over again to preserve the listings in less than 15 seconds. Not likely that anyone would purchase in those 15 seconds.

[silverstatetreasureboxes · Accepted solution]

@rascaljo. It looks like @chapeau-noir @buyselljack2016 @corvettestainless All have given very ingenious ideas for you to save listings. I have personally never placed my listings on vacation mode as I would be gone to long.

My cabin is right by Mackinac City below the bridge and a few yards from Lake Huron. I treasure hunt the whole summer going to auctions, fireman sales and estate sales and of course Antique stores! Then I go to Lake Huron and look for pudding stones and sometimes I get lucky and find Petoskey stones but that's more your side of the Mitten.

     I live in Nevada for years and when it climbs to 118* I am so outta here.

     Like I said before, just have fun golfing, go take the time to source for treasures, couple of places I like to dig is in Cheboygan, Pellston and Indian River all top of the Mitt.

     Best, and congrats to retirement! Silver

[slippinjimmy]

^^^^^ This (Out Of Stock option)

Now that eBay gives non-store sellers 200/250 free listings there is no reason for a low volume seller not to use the Out Of Stock option and keep listings running with zero inventory. I do this when I'm going away for a month or so.

Now that Time Away is available for all sellers that is the better option for shorter absences.

Be warned, if you leave listings in Out Of Stock for too long (4 months?) eBay will end them but they will still be available for 60 days in your Ended section.

[rascaljo]

Enjoy your Michigan summer!  Hoping it's a nice one!!!