Clocking in, clocking out

[bigdeals.etc]

How many hours would you say you actually work on ebay and ebay related stuff on average in a given week to help your sales (I'm not counting messing around in this board like I'm doing right now).

If I really had to guess under what I would think "normal productivity" would be, I'd say I work 25-30 hrs a week. But since I sometimes go at snails pace, it stretches to about 30-35 hrs.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@csbbct wrote:

In addition to all the photographing, listing, working with the buyer, packing, and shipping, for my inventory it requires searching for local auctions, driving sometimes 3 hours to get to the auction, 3-6 hours sitting at the auction waiting for my items to come up, all with the possibility of coming home empty-handed.  So, after all my expenses I'm lucky to make $3-4 per hour selling on eBay!  I do it because most of the time I love it and thankfully it's not my primary income source!  My heart goes to the sellers who are trying to make a living here.

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I know there's millions of ebay sellers who have never been honest enough with themselves to do this math...and figure out they could make more per hour working in a third world country. 

[turquoisetulips]

It differs . I probably spend a total of anywhere from  35 to 50 hours a week  including  searches , making my jewelry including custom orders , photo's , writing the listings   and shipping things out . Tulips 

[tsme35]

60-70 hrs a week, in the office cleaning, listing and packing, that doesn't include yard sales, flea markets and running down inventory off CL and FB. I try to make a living off here but because of a disability I can't do a 9-5 job so this is all I got to keep off SSI. People have ask what I make and when I sit down to figure what I make an hour I just wanna cry, some weeks its $2-$4 bucks an hour, some as much as $30 an hr. I sell fishing items, I was doing great until international shipping jumped 300%, which would get me through winter(summer down under) but now I have to make as much as I can during summer to get thru winters

[ersatz_sobriquet]

@tsme35 

I'm sorry about your disability situation. What's wrong with taking the SSI? You can still work part-time I believe, there's some monetary maximum, but you can still earn some money! 

[mr_lincoln]

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

Your answer mr_lincoln is the most honest for anything used. NIB items I've listed have been a breeze, especially in multiples. What a huge difference. A few easy photos and write that multiple listing and have those flat rate envelopes handy and forget about it and watch them sell.

Then there's that rare antique lace tablecloth, that from stains to repairs to washing to drying to extremely difficult ironing to photographing to researching, can take up 10 hours easily on that one item, if not more. And that's why that tablecloth costs $1,000.00...besides the rarity. 

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You hit the nail on the head as well.  Some items I get at auctions don't require a lot of prep but some do, like fixing an old train.  It is one of the reasons I have been slowly raising the lowest priced item I sell.  In year #1 there was no lower limit as I was liquidating a family estate ... then it was $ 9.95 and last year I worked it up to $ 14.95 with a goal to go up to $ 19.95.  That approach has also steadily increased the "average" sale as well as the quality of items sold. 

[double2trouble]

I keep track of my hours, miles, expenses, etc. I got a call yesterday to go to a pre sale. It was 7 miles away. I bought 8 items for $40 total. 40 minutes driving time, one hour at the sale, one hour ten minutes to snap pics and list, easy pack items, bubble in a flat rate padded envelope, five minutes pack and print. Throw in an extra hour for the unexpected. Four hours in, my total profit on those items will be $160 when all is said and done, $5 in tape and bubble, ,58 cents a mile, $36.72 an hour for my time.

When something is not making sense, I stop doing it. If I start approaching minimum wage, I will start applying for graveyard shift behind the bullet proof  booth at the late night gas station. At least then I'm under workers comp if I get hurt, and get unemployment if i get laid off.  If your making 2-4 bucks an hour to stay off SSI, you need to stop and apply for SSI. If your making under minimum wage, you need to stop and do something else, anything else.  

[tsme35]

Well it'd be disability, a whole $800 a month, doesn't cover my house payment but it takes a while to get and because you can't work, so I wouldn't be able to make too much more. During the summer I make really good money, not so much in winter. I just score a huge lot of reels back in Jan. and making twice what I did a year ago.

[chapeau-noir]

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@tsme35 wrote:
Well it'd be disability, a whole $800 a month, doesn't cover my house payment but it takes a while to get and because you can't work, so I wouldn't be able to make too much more. During the summer I make really good money, not so much in winter. I just score a huge lot of reels back in Jan. and making twice what I did a year ago.

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There's also the engagement factor, keeping the mind young with new things, the hustle, organization of the day, feeling of accomplishment, etc. It's why people retire and then go back to work or take up volunteering, etc.

[tsme35]

oh yea, honestly I could never go back to a 9-5, I get around all over the place, get to meet new and old friends. I go to 3 different flea markets and alot of people know me as "the fishing guy", use to have to look for stuff and now they bring stuff for me to buy, if I don't see them they'll holler me over. I pass out my business cards and get calls to buy stuff, sure beats looking when it comes to me.

[hotspotauctions]

It sound like your making more that 2-4 bucks an hour. It would take 70 hours a week at that average to make $800. 

[femmefan1946]

About ten hours a week.

That would include thrifting, but not bus rides to the thrift stores, or treating myself to lunch at Ruth and Dean's.

It does include counting stamps for postage packets and swearing when I can't remember where I put some oddly shaped item that just sold.

[hotspotauctions]

I would absolutely go back to a 9 to 5 if it were the right job. I lost my job with the city fixing parking meters the first year of the great recession. Last one hired in the department, let go 2 months shy of being a vested employee at 5 years. 30 bucks an hour, Cadillac benefits, retirement, 3 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick time, 9/80 schedule, so every other weekend was a 3 day, every holiday off, etc.  Zero stress that job. Would take that over slinging junk any day. Still went to sales just to buy for me. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@tsme35 wrote:
oh yea, honestly I could never go back to a 9-5, I get around all over the place, get to meet new and old friends. I go to 3 different flea markets and alot of people know me as "the fishing guy", use to have to look for stuff and now they bring stuff for me to buy, if I don't see them they'll holler me over. I pass out my business cards and get calls to buy stuff, sure beats looking when it comes to me.

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Money is a good thing, but it's not the only thing.  I had to make a similar choice of making less, but always learning new things and hustling, or making OK money at a job where I was badly burnt out as it was and which had a high lay-off rate due to the instability of the profession). Since I was 62 at my last layoff, retraining into something else (I would have chosen data mining and analysis) wasn't really feasible.  Figured I'd just flog along until retirement, which I did, but I'm still working.

[tsme35]

depends on what I find to sell, January I did about $28 an hour but back in Nov I was making about $4 hr but I just scored a huge lot of reels, Feb. on track to be close to $40 hr

[tsme35]

I would for that but those jobs around me are gone, what few factory jobs left have a waiting list if you know someone to get you in, my highest paying job was in a foundry grinding steel, paying $14 hr until I broke my neck there, work comp case and now I'm not hire able