April 2024 Goals and Plans

[rosachs]

First Quarter of 2024 is complete - how did you do?  What worked and what would you do differently?

April has just begun - what are your goals for the month and/or Q2?

Let the conversation begin...

[reallynicestamps]

It's longer than a month or a week.

Seriously.

It gives a little perspective, since it is not at all unusual to have days or even a few days with no sales, followed by screaming panic , followed by very busy days.

So a month is useful, three months more so.

It also allows for seasonal changes. The  October to December Holiday period is very different from the June to August summer period.

[chapeau-noir]

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@gurlcat wrote:

According to my sales report I've made 38.7% more than the same dates in 2023.  

What I always wondered is, what is the point of looking at your performance in terms of "quarters"?  That sounded snotty, all I mean is, what is it about 3-month time periods that make them useful measurements for eBay sellers?  

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Business performance is traditionally measured in fiscal quarters, so it's consistent with that.

[gurlcat]

I get that, but eBay selling is so far from traditional business.  I guess "how far" depends on a seller's categories and scale.  A really big eBay store with all new items including seasonal, needed and un-needed items would have sales patterns similar to (say) Walmart.  But smaller stores selling only used, un-needed items seems more likely to have either no predictable patterns, or maybe even counter-patterns to new item sellers. 

Like if anything, my sales are more likely to suck in November and December because people are spending on travel, social events and gifts (probably a few of my used item sales are for gifts but not a lot), and then January and at least the first half of February also suck because people tighten their belts after Christmas and have to start paying down their credit card debt.  But come late February through early May or so, WOOOOO that's when I do well, because of all the people having little windfalls of cash from tax refunds, so they treat themselves to a springtime self-Christmas, lol.   

So I might have moderately consistent trends that come in 3-month intervals, but they're differently affected by holidays (maybe also school schedules), completely unaffected by weather and the start of a calendar year.  My lousiest period straddles Q4 and Q1, then my jubilee straddles Q1 and Q2.  So at best I might be able to see patterns according to months, but not quarters, or at least not the same quarters as traditional business, and I would think that's true for other used item sellers. 

[dhbookds]

I've never thought the wk/month/quarter/yr stats were any good.....IF you sell one of a kind (to you) items....  Except of course, we want the total $'s to go up, lol.  But if you sell one offs.......one of a kind (to you) items that may not be replaced, how can one compare?  In some years, I've sourced/sold higher priced Xmas stuff, other years not.  One year we made good money with that Hilary Won magazine.....  I've been here for 20 yrs and never once have I not sold more $ wise than the year before (however minor).........except last yr and that was a 1/3 drop......big hit to me.  But there are still millions of items sold on Ebay and I can blame all the usual reasons for lack of sales....but considering that some stuff sells within hrs, days of listing (I don't use PL).....I blame my sourcing, and perhaps my pricing.  Not "blaming myself"......one can only buy what one can find to buy......  And, not really discouraged.....what business doesn't have a downturn?  To me, it's more of a challenge...and because my cost of goods is so low.......profits are still there.......

@gurlcat   I can point to my experience in quarters also......Xmas larger, Jan thru May, large, Summer low, lst quarter moderate......  and trends......Xmas gifts, Jan-May house stuff, Summer ?, lst quarter Halloween and early gift buyers.  But if I don't have the right items at the right price for sale that hit those themes, I'm not going to sell well during those times. 

just my thoughts........

[reallynicestamps]

or maybe even counter-patterns to new item sellers. 

Exactly.

Perhaps it would be more useful to make the original question include "and are you selling newly manufactured goods?"

The pattern for sales also varies from store to store.

When I was selling retail, one business sold woodstoves and patio furniture.

If you think stoves sell in winter, you'd be wrong.

Patio season started in January and ran until May.

The associated BBQ season started at Easter and ran until Father's Day.

Woodstoves sold from June to October.
And November /December was the 'hungry gap'.

So there is a pattern.

The quarterly report isn't perfect but it's there and useful for forward planning.

[gurlcat]

Ha you were literally on my mind when I wrote that because hardcore nerd (I mean that in a good way) collectible stuff like stamps and coins are virtually timeless, other than according to when a collector might have less mad money to spend, thus making those sales run counter-to peak sales of new items.  

About new items selling months before people actually use them -boy howdy you are not kidding, and it blows my mind sometimes.  One day in early October this past year, I went to Costco for some groceries, and while I was there I remembered the awful storm cleanup I needed to do in the back yard (big tree limbs and all), so I tried to find those big catch-all tarp jobbers with the raised sides.  Couldn't find them so I asked an employee and he said those were gone long ago, "It's Christmas now".  -It would be cliche of me to now go into a tirade about how early Christmas stuff goes out in stores nowadays, so I won't.  I just couldn't believe they didn't have ANY fall yard stuff anymore.  In Mobile the trees have only just begun dropping leaves in early October!  

[sin-n-dex]

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@rosachs wrote:

First Quarter of 2024 is complete - how did you do?  What worked and what would you do differently?

April has just begun - what are your goals for the month and/or Q2?

Let the conversation begin...

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January was my best month in eBay lifetime history... and then in February I went to Africa for a month and shut down the store. (The Africa trip was filled with drama... first got hit with a category III cyclone where I was, then my cruise ship made international news for a few days, then due to the Lufthansa airline strike my flight home was cancelled and I was stranded in South Africa for a bit before I could secure a flight home).

My eBay store came back online while in Africa and I was busy messaging people to tell them I was stranded and couldn't ship for a few days... but I did make it home safely, shipped all their stuff.

While in Africa, my shipper (Chit Chats Express) somehow lost their full time person at the branch near where I work, and started closing randomly during the week. I started having to make Monday trips to Burlington with my packages to get Friday-Sunday stuff mailed. It's 100 miles round trip. That still hasn't been resolved. The poor guy working reduced hours at my usual branch got so fed up with every customer complaining that he won't come back and they had to find another sub to open the branch on the days they were open. I skipped this Monday's trip to Burlington due to the eclipse and possible nightmare traffic.

Sales are going well and I'm running a junk and cheap coin auction every Sunday, around 75 items a week. The auctions are supposed to continue until around September (when I'll run out of suitable items).

Since I work full time, my free time is at a premium and lots of it is spent packing and shipping... trying to squeeze some hours in the evening for new listings (mainly getting my next week of auctions scheduled). The 27.99 subscription I pay for SixBit is well worth it (except when my listings get all corrupt), makes the listing part go faster. I know it costs money, but time is money... I have money, what I don't have is time to spend doing things any more than I have to (which is why the Monday trips to Burlington annoy me so much).

C.

[chapeau-noir]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Ha you were literally on my mind when I wrote that because hardcore nerd (I mean that in a good way) collectible stuff like stamps and coins are virtually timeless, other than according to when a collector might have less mad money to spend, thus making those sales run counter-to peak sales of new items.  

About new items selling months before people actually use them -boy howdy you are not kidding, and it blows my mind sometimes.  One day in early October this past year, I went to Costco for some groceries, and while I was there I remembered the awful storm cleanup I needed to do in the back yard (big tree limbs and all), so I tried to find those big catch-all tarp jobbers with the raised sides.  Couldn't find them so I asked an employee and he said those were gone long ago, "It's Christmas now".  -It would be cliche of me to now go into a tirade about how early Christmas stuff goes out in stores nowadays, so I won't.  I just couldn't believe they didn't have ANY fall yard stuff anymore.  In Mobile the trees have only just begun dropping leaves in early October!  

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[gurlcat]

The one-turkey-open-sleigh.  I'M DEAD OVER HERE.  🤣 😂😆😅🤣

[rosachs]

Interesting Tuesday.  Had typical 4 sales from overnight, pulled and packed, ready for USPS.  Get back to my desk and there are two more!  Cool... pull, pack, ready for pickup.  Back again, ready to do the reset of my job, and there's another order!  7 on a Tuesday before noon is unusual, but I'll take it.  Did the rest of the morning 'stuff' - answer questions, track down orders, refunds (if any), and then pulled and packed that last order on my way out to lunch.  Good morning - I'll take it!

Got back from lunch and remembered I hadn't done my Send Offers yet.  Pulled up the eligible listings... over 100 qualified!  I know there are about 35-40 that the boss is not ready to extend offers on, but that still leaves a LOT of Offers going out!  It was about 3pm when I marked all the listings to Send Offers to, set up the Offer, and sent them on their way.  Then started listing some of the bigger dollar items that were waiting.

5:00 and I need a break ... and there are 4 more orders waiting to ship!  That's unusual -- typical would be 1-2 showing up between 5-6pm, so they wait for the next morning to ship.  These four were all easily shipped items, so I pulled and shipped in about 20 minutes and left it like that until tomorrow.

11 orders shipped on a Tuesday is high.  Those last 4 were ALL from Send Offers I sent at 3pm... which is not a bad sent-to-purchased ratio.  And I suspect there may be more overnight - not everyone checked eBay from the office during the day, or from their phone at lunch or on breaks.  Those folks will see the Offer later and may purchase overnight.

It was also odd to have that many Listings eligible for Send Offer - typical would be about 20-25 over the one being purposely skipped.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

-Bob.

[strugglinlikeyou]

I'm not a goal type of guy. I just plug along. Setting goals is not my thing. I sell my best stuff on eBay and the rest goes to local consignment shops. 

Having said that I have a sauce pan that I bought for $4 that I listed today that has already met minimum bid of $195. 

So there it is. I work hard at reselling, visiting every sale I can find.  

I think the ups and downs of eBay sales is a myth. If you check sell through rates you will find this to be true.

[chapeau-noir]

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@strugglinlikeyou wrote:

I'm not a goal type of guy. I just plug along. Setting goals is not my thing. I sell my best stuff on eBay and the rest goes to local consignment shops. 

Having said that I have a sauce pan that I bought for $4 that I listed today that has already met minimum bid of $195. 

So there it is. I work hard at reselling, visiting every sale I can find.  

I think the ups and downs of eBay sales is a myth. If you check sell through rates you will find this to be true.

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I experience wild ups and downs - but when I do a three-month look-back (for example), they all even out. It's good to take the longer view.

[dhbookds]

Having said that I have a sauce pan that I bought for $4 that I listed today that has already met minimum bid of $195.

Love to hear those kinds of stories........  thanks for posting @strugglinlikeyou 

We recently ran into a banana box full of Heroscape stuff, all jumbled up, in one of the death piles.  Took a couple of hrs to sort, but sold quickly.  Box was marked $10...sold over $350 so far......

[debbiet22]

Sales so far started slow in January, but then February my sales tripled compared to January.  March was steady.  April is looking like January.  I just sent some offers last week to get a few sales, that helped.  What I sell is for a specific buyer and you never know what other pieces the buyer is looking for.  I am hoping sales pick up with Mother's Day coming up. 

I have tons to list and just can't seem to find the time or the motivation.   I need to get to listing so I can have money for new paint, carpet and trim for the house without dipping into savings.  Picked up some glassware at a couple of local online auctions.  Some hard to find stuff.  It is frustrating though when you go pick everything up and its all stacked, then you end up finding a nip here and there.  Hard to sell that way.  

Summer is a slow time for me so may focus on the exterior of the house.  We also have a couple of small trips planned.  

Let's hope things pick up for all of us.

[rosachs]

Today was a heck of a cap on the week!  All this week, I've been getting inquiries and INR cases from sales shipped mostly the first 10 days of the month.  Checking the tracking, they are 'stalled' - they track up to a point, then stop.  2-3 days after that last legit scan, USPS adds a bogus "in transit scan" -- bogus because most of those I see are well over a week old, while others shipped the same day have already been delivered.

USPS is killing our profits, and soon our business.  The company has multiple revenue streams, so we're not going out of business, but we may have to shut down eBay for a while, at least until USPS gets straightened out.  No such problems with Amazon - but they give us a great UPS Ground rate, so there is very little going USPS.

I had three INR's filed today alone.  They were all scanned as picked up.  They were all scanned into our local post office.  Two were scanned as leaving the post office... then three days later they were "in transit".  Other orders for that day were picked up, in then out of the local post office, in then out of the Memphis Sort facility, and in then out of the Memphis Regional facility.  Delivery generally early.  That third INR order was picked up, received by our post office, then went "in transit" 3 days later.  All os this happened 2 weeks ago....

Mostly the buyers are pretty cool about it.  Several have reported having the same issue with other sellers, so I know it's not just "a Memphis thang".

The corollary issue is the 20+ "late delivery" defects that eBay won't remove, even tho they posted on their Community Board that they were aware of USPS & weather related issues and would be protecting seller ranking.  Ha!  Monday we'll have lost Top Rated and with the lower exposure, it will take the full three months to rotate these issues out of our ranking... provided they stop happening.  If they continue, I might just recommend we go "on vacation" for a month.  There is plenty I can do besides eBay -- we're moving all the online venue folks, and inventory, into a single space.  Still basically a warehouse with a few offices, but we'll be able to work some synergy between the venues... I hope.

I -was- having a decent-to-good month... <sigh>

-Bob.