04-16-2017 11:05 AM
Woot! Here we are with a chance to make a fresh start....brush the cobwebs off your old listings and your old mindsets and let's go! We're a group of eBay sellers who enjoy talking about our great finds, good sales, and life in general. We welcome newbies and lurkers, and promise we don't bite!
THIS IS THE SECOND QUARTER THREAD AS WE'VE ALREADY GOTTEN TO 700 ON THE ORIGINAL THREAD! GLAD TO SEE YOU HERE!
Here are our best ideas, culled from years of selling experience:
1) LIST IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS - Try some regular auctions, auctions with Buy it Now, Fixed Price, and Fixed Price with Best Offer---try some with free shipping too. Not only will you get a better idea what works for YOU, but you'll offer buyers a variety of buying options.
2) OPTIMIZE YOUR LISTINGS – By using the free Terapeak Keyword app (find it in the Applications tab), practice how to take better photos, change the keywords on your listing titles regularly, change the opening blurb in your store header every now and then, and experiment with price changes UP as well as DOWN! Run Sales on a regular basis with the Markdown Manager and also learn how to set up Promotions on your Store listings for better visibility.
3) DON'T LET YOUR UNSOLD LISTINGS LAY AROUND - Check your My eBay page and click on Unsold...get those relisted ASAP! You've already done all the work, so be sure they're available to buyers. More listings = more bait in the water = more bites. 😄
4) OPEN A STORE - If you are wondering whether you are better off with a BASIC store or a PREMIUM store, figure that if you have over 250 store items, Premium is a better buy....under 250, Basic is....this is at least a rule of thumb to get you started. Stores used to be great places to put items and keep them available year round, but with the fee changes, maybe not so much - sit down and figure it all out.
However, there are at least four really good reasons to have a store.... 1) listing fees are less if you have a store, 2) your items can be separated into categories making it much easier for buyers to shop, 3) you can run Promotions and Markdown Manager sales. They are two different ways to generate sales!, and 4) you can put your store in vacation mode when you need to get away for a bit.
5) DEAL WITH BIDDERS, BUYERS, AND ANNOYING INQUISITIVE POTENTIAL BIDDERS IN A PATIENT AND FRIENDLY WAY - Remember that it's worth money in your pocket and it's good business sense to show respect to all. If you must, write up that snarky reply, laugh at it, then hit delete.
6) KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE! This thread is all about MAKING MONEY, that's for sure, but we feel that being supportive of our Lister Sisters and Brothers helps ALL of us. Drop in and hang out! Venting is allowed, but take it easy on the drama, negative vibes and controversial, off-topic issues such as politics and religion.
04-16-2017 11:11 AM
Hi Chicks and Roosters!
Welcome to the Q2 thread where we'll continue hanging out with old friends and making new friends too......
I've got a pretty good workday going, both with eBay and home organizing. I have 6 greenies showing on my auctions, and I'm happy to see those! Always grateful for empty hangers and a full wallet 😄
04-17-2017 06:28 AM
Found it! That was easy!
04-17-2017 06:52 AM
5 packages going out and 2 greenies here. Yea!
I've been working at getting unlisted inventory LISTED. And adding the SKU which shows me a lot of info at a glance on the See All Orders page.
04-17-2017 07:02 AM
Good morning, Olive!
Beautiful here today and I had good sales overnight! TEN, which I love! I've already got labels made and my Shipping Department (Barry) will package them up and get them to the PO soon. I think I'm going to town to look for more plus size things, then will come home and take pictures of the stuff I already have here. I have company coming the 26th and want to have pretty much shut down for that week, including putting away all the stuff that's draped all over their room 😄
04-17-2017 07:40 AM
Hi Everybody!
OLIVE I started adding the SKU numbers to my items and it is working out great.
ACCURATE I am adding those songs to my play list.
Somebody used my paypal account.I do not know how they got my information.
I already call paypal and they are sending me a new card.
They are conduction an investigation.But I am getting my money back in about 48 hours.First time that this happens to me.
Anyway,
Today is picture day for me.
I got about 20 + items
Hope everybody got a great week.
GREEN FOR EVERYBODY!
HAPPY SALES!
04-17-2017 12:07 PM
Hi, Pinkee! I had to get a new PayPal card last year and it took awhile, but they were good to work with.
I just shopped, so have some big bags to go through.....I want to sort things by season as I got some really good deals on fall/winter stuff, but won't bother listing it right away.
Hugs to all!
04-17-2017 09:04 PM
Ugh! Going over taxes before filing tomorrow. Had given all my ebay #'s to DH last week and he plugged them all into turbo tax. Something seems really off because it made our refund go WAY down and almost wiped out my earnings for the year. So, it's like I worked all year for nothing. Part of that is the self employment tax (which oddly, I don't recall from previous years but it was probably there). I just can't figure what is causing the rest of it. Has anyone else seen that happen when adding your ebay profits to spouse's earnings? Wonder if I can find a tax person to take a look at our return?
04-18-2017 04:18 AM
Hi Penny---sorry I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm curious too what made the difference this year if it didn't do that last year. Maybe you should file separately or maybe you bumped him into a higher tax bracket than last year or maybe you didn't deduct out shipping? supplies like ink or a new printer?
Too late for now, I guess, unless you file an extension, but yes, a tax person could figure out what was different from previous years, I think.
Back to work for me today...hugs to all!
04-18-2017 12:17 PM
Since we don't owe additional tax, we will probably just file an extention and get someone to look at this. I've already taken all the deductions (shipping, office supplies, etc.) out on the schedule C and I've checked that this didn't bump us to a higher tax bracket -- it didn't.
04-18-2017 04:37 PM
04-18-2017 04:38 PM
Pinky - Bummer about your Paypal account. I've had it happed a few times. Usually it's not too bad, like Beth said, I also got my replacement card pretty quickly, but once it was in December and that was HORRIBLE... not being able to access the money in there during the Christmas/Q4 season. 😞
Isn't it great to use that SKU field? 🙂
Penny - We are in the same situation regarding adding my online income to his W2 income... this year Turbo Tax is giving him fits. He accidentally put things in the wrong place, added extra digits, etc... and we went from getting money back to owing a bunch, back to getting some money back. We are also filing an extension, but plan to finish it up this weekend! -- We are NOT putting it off till August this year!
** Have you both taken a peek, looking for silly errors like that? **
I just made a listing with the most variations/items I've ever done. It's not a lot... only 3 variations, with 2 items of each, 6 items total. Auctiva makes it easy to do.
Big News! I finally figured out a way to compare Active listings on Ebay with Saved listings in Auctiva so I can rid it of superfluous listings, and more importantly... free up photo storage space. I've already gained a bit over 5 GB of needed space. Woo hoo!
04-19-2017 04:20 AM
04-19-2017 03:12 PM
I saw this today... we might as well give it our best shot! LOL
http://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-for-Business/Pack-a-thon-Your-chance-to-score-as-you-pack/ba-p/268...
04-19-2017 03:28 PM
"Olive, how are you able to compare listings? I'd love to know that, even though I use seller sourcebook."
It should work in SSB or any other listing helper that lets you sort by TITLE. I rarely change the first word or two of the title, so this works for me.
I opened up 2 tabs in Auctiva. One sorted my Active listings, the other sorted my Saved listings. Because I sorted by Title, they are *mostly* in the same order.
Since I had waaay more Saved ones, I used that as my baseline and compared the Active against the Saved.
When I came across a Saved listing that is not Active, the first thing I do is open a third tab and set it to Active, then search using the main KW. Sometimes it is active, but with a different first word. If that doesn't find it, I open a 4th Auctiva tab to the Sales page, which lists my Ebay sales back to 2013. Bear in mind that back then, we wrote titles differently and do a couple searches to see if I find it Sold, if needed. Usually that confirms the sale and I know it's safe to Delete the listing AND the photos!
If I don't find it Sold, I look at the date of listing, if it's 2013 or earlier, I assume it's Sold, or broken, redonated, etc and Delete. If by some odd chance I later find an old item, the listing would need sprucing up anyway, if I decided to give it another chance and list it again. So far, that has not happened!
I've freed up over 5GB of photo space and am making great progress toward having the Active and Saved listing numbers match. I'm up to the R's. Yea!
Greeeeeennn Dust!!!