Your-childhood is now actively selling
Hi all, I am new to eBay selling. I have been a buyer since eBay started way back when. So now I have my toes in the selling market. Concentrating on new, unopened vintage toys. If anyone has any advice to help me do better, I am all ears. Thank you for giving a new store some attention. I am learning how to navigate the forums and the store slowly.
-Thomas
11 comments
bossesale77
·1 year agoMake sure there's a market for the toys you're selling, just because something was popular when you were a kid doesn't mean folks are buying it today. A good example is Beenie Babies, even the so called "rare" Beenies had production runs in the tens of thousands meaning they're not rare at all. Simply put the market for those things died a couple decades ago and there's no chance of it coming back. I know you're not selling any Beenies, I just used them as an example.
P.S. The standard definition for vintage is something that is 30-100 years old (anything over 100 years is antique), toys from the 2000's aren't considered vintage (yet).
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoI started out selling my toys in boxes from Star Trek...I ended up selling stamps now.
Shipping is very scary.
When I got another sale to Germany I decided to end selling toys.
You should only do domestic.
You should at least do returns but have buyer pay for returns...it makes the buyer think twice...seller still might have to pay for shipping in strange cases.
Might try changing the background to black in a few photos of items for sale. The colors of the items might come out stronger. I only use natural sunlight from the sun...and I know the days are getting shorter...LOL.
That 'Barbie Shoe...' where you have 30 watchers....'damage box'...that is great in the title.
But 'brand new'?...damage is not brand new and I see the buyer complaining about that for a return or partial refund or something even worse...and it will sell with the holidays around the corner.
'brand new' to me is just issued 2024.
You are selling which is great. But that one return unhappy buyer can hurt the profits or even worse a nasty feedback.
I think you are really doing great. Just a few tips.
mr_lincoln
·1 year agoHi @your-childhood
Stop using the No returns accepted setting, it does not protect you from returns because eBay has claim reasons that bypass No returns accepted. It would force you to pay the return shipping and refund in full once you get the item back.
Become familiar with your Seller protections: Seller protections | eBay
I offer 30 day free returns and on the rare occasion of a bogus return I have been able to take full advantage of eBay's protections.
Also, offering returns shows Buyers that you have confidence in what you are selling.
While I don't buy a lot on eBay I know I pass up Sellers who do not offer returns ... I am sure others do as well.
mtgraves7984
·1 year agoIt looks to me like you're doing just fine. Keep it up and hang in there... good luck.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoFrom the look of your sales in the past 90 days, you are doing very well with sales. I looks like you have it figured out pretty well. Maybe you should be offering advice instead of asking for advice. Congratulations on you sales.
Have you had any issues with you sales?
your-childhood
OP1 year agoThe only real issues I have has been with shipping charges. It seems like some of my listings have high shipping charges when I only enter the weight and size of package/box. I use usps ground advantage for 95% of them. So I am still,learning shipping. I just noticed late that eBay offers some free quarterly shipping supplies.
nobody*s_perfect
·1 year agoThe "free" shipping supplies are available to sellers who have a Store subscription at the Basic level or above. They get a quarterly coupon ($25 for Basic sellers) that can be used with the specific seller of those supplies.
https://www.sd.ebay.com/subscriberdiscounts
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoShipping fees are constantly changing and there is not much you can do about that. I was doing mostly Priority Mail using the USPS supplied boxes. Occasionally I would use First Class Package and would have to have my own box. It was simple, if over a pound it had to go Priority so I would use their Boxes and Tape.
Now they have done away with First Class Package if favor of Ground Advantage, so most everything goes Ground Advantage. I like the Ground Advantage over First Class because it automatically has $100 worth of Insurance and is automatically Trackable. The only thing is I have had to purchase more and more shipping boxes. I rarely use a used box and almost always use new boxes.
I have many, many items that I can ship in a box with a weight of 8 ounces to a pound. But it has be just the right size box.
For small packets I find the most economical USPS shipping is a box no more than 1/2 of a cubic foot (outside measurements).
For a large packet, something over 1 cubic foot, I find UPS to be the cheapest, but I will not purchase UPS shipping from eBay.
lakefor94
·1 year ago@your-childhood
You are a Top Rated Seller. If you at least accept 30-day returns, you will have the option to do up to a 50% refund if a buyer returns something different than what you sent or has damaged the item. You can still do "buyer pays return shipping" for remorse returns.
This is one of the only protections eBay offers sellers and it does discourage the experienced theives.
Accepting returns also will increase sales in some increment.
Best of luck.
your-childhood
OP1 year agoSilly question: how do I add 30 day return without having to do it every time I list an item? I assume there is a way to set it up to automatically offer that
lakefor94
·1 year ago@your-childhood
In the Listings tab in Seller Hub, I find Buisness Policies on the left side of the page. It is there in Business Policies that you can create return policies and then do a bulk edit of your listings to select your return policy.
When you create listings, just select that return policy in the listing form. I have it set as the default policy so I do not have to select it when making new listings.
Others may be along to offer more advice on that.