eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎10-17-2023

So I haven't listed much in the past two weeks. Been working on a massive stamp collection that's both full of good stuff, and costing the B&M store a mint so that they want a bunch of money from the sales when I get around to listing stuff. (Basically no commission until we reach X dollars in sales, that's the way it works with all collections, but this collection is worth thousands...)

I managed to spend lots of time putting together lots and picking out stuff to get ready to list. So now I have some 2000 items to list, photos are done, all I have to do is get my keister into the SixBit app and start pulling templates and filling them out.

I am lacking motivation and don't feel like it. I did get two items up tonight, but that seemed like a whole lot of effort for today.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎10-18-2023

@femmefan1946 wrote:
I'm using stampworld as a guide

DH just uses Scott (plus Gibbons if necessary) and works on a percentage of catalog.
With Best Offer and parameters pre-set for accept/reject.
Most collectors know Scott and because everyone is back to discounting from there, the "I got a bargain!" mindset works for the seller.

Is Scott available electronically?

I use stampworld because it's a website I can look at on my computer, phone or tablet. It's just kind of a guide, just to tell me when something suddenly becomes much more valuable (like with the Jubilee stamps, you know you get to the $1 stamp to make some real money).

Problem with stampworld is their catalogue numbers are meaningless to just about everyone. I had a disclaimer in some stamp lots that the numbers are stampworld and there for us to identify the stamps when pulled, but I migrated to using "lot numbers" so there's no need to file things in an order (except by the assigned lot number), and it doesn't matter if I have multiples, because the lot number makes it unique for the listing.

I also check eBay for similarly sold items to see what they realistically sell for. Helps give me an idea on pricing single items (and sets), but doesn't help with the lots I make up that are full pages. For modern stuff (that is generally mint sets), I just do it similar to face value. I found out we not only pay a percentage of face value, but they don't actually count the stamps because it takes too long. They just take an estimate on how much the whole album has in face value. I got an Aussie album they estimated to be $200 AUD, when I counted it (every single stamp) it was a little over $1000 AUD FV. Now how's that for a bargain.

We had a complete bozo appraising the stamp collections (severe undervaluing of items), which worked great for us when it came time to sell. But he doesn't like his job looking at stamps and hired me to replace him. He's rather confused why I won't assign a value to stuff on paper, or modern used stuff... (We go through the totes and put stickies on everything and then add it up, I marked several boxes at zero on the last collection because it was a huge box of stuff on paper that came off of envelopes). I will put a reasonable value on anything good... if we get something good.

C.

hawkwind5454 · ‎10-18-2023

A year ago, I was were you are at now. I had to step away from selling on eBay for about a year as I felt that it had become a waste of time. I felt my listings were not being seen, that people had become cheap, and buyer metrics had become [more] unpredictable. I have been gradually getting back into it and it has not been terrible. Needless to say, at this stage, I do not regret getting back into eBay mode. One just has to persevere, and keep moving forward. As with anything, one gets exactly out of it what one puts into it. In order to win, one must play.

inhawaii · ‎10-18-2023

My problem is ... after a long hard, stressful day at my full time job, I have to come home and take care of ebay orders. There are days when I actually HOPE for no orders. How stupid is that? LOL

Buster Voodoo - Rodrigo Y Gabriela

toomuchstuffagain35 · ‎10-18-2023

Not stupid at all. I'm in the same boat and some days I'm actually relieved I have nothing (or little) to pull and pack.

"If a product doesn't sell, raise the price" - Reese Palley
"If it sold FAST, it was priced too low" - also Reese Palley

inhawaii · ‎10-18-2023

This is what motivates me...

Buster Voodoo - Rodrigo Y Gabriela

sin-n-dex · ‎10-18-2023

@hawkwind5454 wrote:
A year ago, I was were you are at now. I had to step away from selling on eBay for about a year as I felt that it had become a waste of time. I felt my listings were not being seen, that people had become cheap, and buyer metrics had become [more] unpredictable. I have been gradually getting back into it and it has not been terrible. Needless to say, at this stage, I do not regret getting back into eBay mode. One just has to persevere, and keep moving forward. As with anything, one gets exactly out of it what one puts into it. In order to win, one must play.

Sales are OK, but sometimes recovering the cost (the first priority) can be a real killer for a bit until you start to see some profits. I group everything by lot, each Lot has a cost that needs to be recovered, sometimes it's item by item (like the foreign exchange because I can put a value on those notes), but with stamps, I don't know the value of one stamp or the next, unless it's something valuable. So I just put everything into a group lot, say the lot cost $300, and keep track of sales until $300 is reached, then it's time to make profit.

I'm still not motivated to put up new listings right now... I had a very extremely busy day at work, and listings is hurting my head. I did sit with the album and make up 5 more lots tonight (some will list for $200-250, which is good, so it was good material I was working with today), and I did some more of my bookkeeping. I figure with the bookkeeping it will take me three evenings with about 1-2 hours each night to log one month of sales. Getting those sales logged is one thing that makes me feel a little better at the end of the night, like I've actually accomplished something today.

The full time job has been a killer for me two days in a row where I don't really feel like doing any thinking all evening.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎10-18-2023

@inhawaii wrote:
My problem is ... after a long hard, stressful day at my full time job, I have to come home and take care of ebay orders. There are days when I actually HOPE for no orders. How stupid is that? LOL

Believe it or not, I hear you on that.

But that's why I sometimes skip days. I didn't send out any orders on Tuesday this week (and spent my lunch hour taking a nap instead, it was necessary, work was crazy on Tuesday). Tomorrow I'll do Canada Post orders, and Friday do Chit Chats US orders. That way I can pack a few things before work tomorrow and not have to worry about packing everything.

Generally I try to print my packing slips at night during the news and get items packed in the morning before work. I generally know how long it will take to pack, so I wake up accordingly, or stop printing packing slips when I know I'll run out of time to pack them. It also depends if I work in the office that day or at home, at home I have much more time to pack because there's no 45 minute commute.

C.

sakic92710 · ‎10-18-2023

I think I am the opposite of you. I need the motivation to get the photos done. lol Once I do that, listing seems easy to me. I always feel motivated to list once I do the 'hard part.' 😛 Hope you get in the mood. 🙂

sakic92710 · ‎10-18-2023

I think this just makes people want to find old TV show ' The Time Tunnel' videos on Youtube. 😛

sin-n-dex · ‎10-19-2023

@sakic92710 wrote:
I think I am the opposite of you. I need the motivation to get the photos done. lol Once I do that, listing seems easy to me. I always feel motivated to list once I do the 'hard part.' 😛 Hope you get in the mood. 🙂

Photos are probably my least favourite part, but photographing coins and stamps is pretty easy. I just use the natural daylight in my house to take pictures (which limits my photo time in winter because it's dark when I come home).

Thing is, once I take the pictures, the stuff gets "put away" in various boxes and bins and organized, and I'm motivated by organizing. When there's photos and the stuff is put away, it's just a matter of me using auction software to list. I shouldn't complain, SixBit is awesome, I've got all sorts of templates for different types of items to make listing quick.

I think I just need to chill for the rest of the week. Work has been nuts three days in a row, tomorrow looks promising as long as no one calls in sick (which has been our problem all week, but it's a different person calling in each day). Having nuts crazy work day doesn't make me very motivated to do stuff when I come home, but I am slowly but surely getting my personal sales logged in the workbook and there will come a point in time soon that I'll be comfortable with what I've accomplished there. Perhaps I'm just too hard on myself at times.

C.