September, I'm told, is the start of Christmas Prep for sellers, and the start of Bargain Planning for buyers. I've never really had Christmas gift type items - maybe a few a couple years back - but I still like to hear what plans others have to get ready to go, Go, GO!
My plans? To not spend more than I have, to not overeat, to plan with the grands every chance I get, and to continue prepping for retirement in 2024 or 2025. Oh, and to keep adding new inventory to replace the sold, and working to get to 750 units each in two of my accounts so I can rotate the stock monthly.
-Bob.
My fall plans are currently on medical hold -- I tested positive for Covid last Friday (9/1) and have been (mostly) flat on my back since. I knew I wasn't feeling right Friday afternoon, but never thought to test for Covid until I read a news article about the increase in cases and the common/different symptoms. So I got the home test and sure enough - Covid. By Sunday I was in "full bloom" - headache, body aches, runny nose, coughing, and exhaustion. Started Mucinex and Advil Dual Action every 8 hrs (as indicated on the packages) to keep things in check.
Feeling better today, but still tired and occasionally a bit dizzy if I get up or turn around too fast. Not bad, but just enough to go "whoa!" and try not to do that again. 🙂 And at least I'm eating again! I bet I've lost at least 5lbs, probably more. Just keep hydrated and plenty of tissues at my side. 🙂
Unfortunately, my wife also tested positive Tuesday and has been trying to work from home since. For her, it's more about keeping it out of her chest and escalating to walking pneumonia, which is what happened last time. So far, so good....but we're going to have to place a grocery order soon! We're even running low on canned soup!!
-Bob.
@mcdougle4248, @toomuchstuffagain35 -- thank you both - we came thru OK... or at least it feels like we did. Still a bit on the 'worn out' side, but it's getting better. Now I just have to find out from my doctor if we still need to get the seasonal Covid booster, along with the flu shot, along with the pneumonia thingie. Feels like the older I get, the more shots I need! 🙂
Personal sales have pretty much stagnated at 1 a week, which in WAY off from recent average. I've started adding new elongates to the mix - I've got several thousands to choose from, so it's time to start digging in and getting it done. AND it's something I can do for a hour a night and make acceptable progress each week.
Work has sort of leveled off - we're still making sales, but last Thursday was the first day in a very very long time when we had ZERO sales. We did pick up 2 around 5pm, so I let those carry over to Friday, which then was back to a more normal 'around 10' figure. Got a LOT of posting done Thursday, but the boss is in town this coming week, which means I'll be getting more bins to process. I always check each one, cherry-pick what I think will sell well or that we have sold before (or very close to it), and then try to consolidate down the rest to reduce the number of bins I'm facing each morning. Our 30-day rolling sales total is coming up - not quite where it was, but getting closer and still slowly climbing each week.
My storage room has reach capacity - I can no longer get more than 3ft into the 30ft depth. I'm putting up a 77" x 72" x 24" steel rack with wire shelves, something like 500lb capacity per shelf, 4 shelves. I should be able to compress two rolling racks into that single rack and get access to the back of the unit again. Where I'm going to start going thru boxes and bins and discarding what is no longer relevant. Some things will be listed on local Facebook groups - things like laser & inkjet printers, smaller flat-panel, non-smart TVs, and boxes and boxes of magazines, some as far back as the 70's (high school - mostly car-oriented) thru the late 90's. When I took a good look at the numbers, if I can get $2 each for every magazine in a box, about $25 a box, that's going to be more profit that trying to sell them myself... because I won't have to image, list, pack, ship them - just take the cash from the buyer's hand and give them the box(es) they bought. If they can make more - good for them! I'm slowly shifting my priorities, and long term storage is not part of the plan for much longer.
I guess that old saying is true ... I am living in interesting times!
-Bob.
We're feeling better week by week, but Friday's are still rough -- we're both ready for the 3hr work day everyone's talking about. Sounds like a winner to me!
Our eBay sales are sliding a bit from a few weeks back, but we've been concentrating on a LARGE collection of Snap-on and the like tools. It's been quite the education for me... and explains why my boys both owe their local parts trucks so much money. Then again, these tools appear to last forever!
On Amazon, we're moving costumes daily. Still doing other products as well, but costumes are the ones that are being worked on the most. And it doesn't help that we're several people short. One person quit, one lost a brother and should be back next week sometime, and we hired a young man who is going to need to learn to check with someone before deciding something is trash. We had about $50 worth of large, heavy-duty, brand new and unused boxes that have disappered, and there's a lot of stuff going out to the retail floor that doesn't belong there - it's just waiting it's turn to show up on eBay. <sigh> He seems to do better at the other store, so we're trying to work out a prisone...er...employee swap - we just can't keep redoing and undoing and still get all the regular work done.
-Bob.
@mcdougle4248 wrote:My buyers seem to be looking for discounts, so I am going to try to entice them with more markdowns.
I've been doing better with Send Offers - I check first thing each morning and send out a dozen or so, which will usually generate 2-4 sales withing 3 days. I've also been given permission/directive to run Promotions on most all of the older inventory. Sometimes they work, sometimes not.
My day is starting to become routine -- clock in, handle Messages & answer questions, pull so very dead/expired stock and toss it - we just want the space back, lunch, and then new stock all afternoon. Which is not all bad... it's easier to make progress on some of these tasks by doing just a bit each day, knowing that it could take months to get it completed.
-Bob.
