Liquidating Inventory in Store

[houseofblair]

Due to health reasons, I am wanting to liquidate my entire ebay store.  The retail value is over $230,000.00.  I made a listing and started it at $19,000 and now I have lowered it to $10,000.  There are over 16,000 items and I will continue to add more each day until it sells.  Has anyone had any success at selling their entire inventory here on ebay?  Due to the size of my inventory, it will not be available to ship as the cost would be too cost prohibitive.  I have about 30 file cabinets organized that contain the bulk of my inventory.  Does anyone have any suggestions for trying to sell such a large volume?  I have contacted local auction services but the fees hover around 40%.  I have tried Craigslist in the past but get nothing but people trying to pull scams.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

[annadryl]

How are you determine the value of your inventory, by the total asking prices? What you are asking might not be the true value. You have a few "rare" covers that are the Dollar-box-at-the-stamp-show type. What you're asking is eight hundred times the real value just because it's listed as that? You could try a couple bucks with ESE. Not to be the negative one here, just sayin'.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I guess there really is a regional difference.

I pay a 15% commission to an auctioneer based on a long association. Strangers are more likely to pay 20-25%.

Buyers premiums in this area start at 15% and go to 20% and may have surcharges for credit cards.

Most auctioneers not only start higher than $2 but lot with a target sale price of at least $100 for paper, books etc.

[houseofblair]

Value is one of those subjective issues.  I did not take the total asking price of each and every item.  I used a method that takes into consideration the amount I paid for an item and added 20% value to the cost.  It's not alot on each item but it adds up when you have a ton of them.  As for labeling something "rare", I am just like any other seller, see the listings here on ebay and follow suit.  Once a year I reevaluate my inventory and adjust prices.  I just can't do it constantly or else it would drive me nuts.  In looking at other large sellers of the similar type items that I sell, I'm actually lower than their prices.  To those who want to low ball everything, I'm high.  I'm comfortable with my offering prices and at the end of the day that is what everyone should aim for (in my own opinion).  I just keep plodding along each day that God has given me and do the best that I can.  

[redlinear]

Value is subjective.  However, you are asking a bunch of sellers here.  We know what you know.
THAT being said, the value is in the labor. 
IF you have a method to transfer the listings, you should get considerable more interest. 
$10k for your listings, up and running?  Anybody that knows, would at least consider it.
$10k for just the inventory?  That won't be easy to do.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Value in the time spent to get that many listed. Time is money.

[jewelbiz]

Babe,

Most of us eBay sellers were not born yesterday.

 I too have roughly 10,000 books for sale with a current eBay listing for them.

[onefootflippers]

You can transfer listings from one account to another using 3D sellers. You don't even have to pay for it, the 7 day trial will do it. I used it when I split apart into a trading card store and a non trading card store.

Although the potential buyer would still need to reprice everything as (no offense intended) the original poster's prices are simply not in line with the actual prices these items sell for.  

To the original poster, why not try an aggressive mark down schedule right now?  Go to seller hub and look for all the listings set to end today. End them all yourself, then use sell similar to put them all back up at half price. Do that every day for a month. Then the next month do it at 20 percent cheaper, and then every month after that do it at 10 percent cheaper.

While I am religious about comping and price research I still use a mild monthly markdown schedule that eventually makes ever my worst mistakes either sell or get to the point where I just throw them out or lot them up.

Note, if you are doing a markdown schedule then you can't use free shipping (unless you want to ship things at a loss) and I see you have that on some of your items, so you would need to change those.

[redlinear]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

Value in the time spent to get that many listed. Time is money.

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As I said.  IF the OP is selling the listings, basically up and running?  The price begins to look better.
But if it's just a bunch of inventory?  Not so much

[redlinear]

Does John, Paul, George, and Ringo come with? 😂
Those are awesome!

[jewelbiz]

No Friend they are not books but decoration hangers from “Yellow Submarine”

 I love them too!

[johnrj1226]

You better  take amount  or two to read this long standing eBay policy before you chat any further -

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/payment-policies/offering-buy-sell-outside-ebay-policy?id=4272&st...

[houseofblair]

I appreciate everyone's comments and advice.  I'm just going to take down the listing after this weekend and try to go another method.  Not sure what they even looks like right now but I have more health related appointments that are popping up and taking more of my time.  Thanks everyone!

[chapeau-noir]

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@jewelbiz wrote:

Babe,

Most of us eBay sellers were not born yesterday.

 I too have roughly 10,000 books for sale with a current eBay listing for them.

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We probably have close to that many books, and I'm going through mine and price matching for selling. None are best sellers, most are 'hard to find', no romances or paperbacks, but guess what? So far, maybe one out of every 10 or so of my books will realise ANY money at all - the rest, even obscure volumes, might go for $6 free ship here.

Competition means that media here goes for very little unless one has that one right piece of media. It's really tedious chugging through all of this stuff. I have 8 Scientific American 1870s magazines for sale in a lot on another site - can't boost 'em.

That used not to be the case, but with an intensely crowded marketplace, one needs to completely overhaul what is worth selling and what isn't. A great deal that might have been worth selling 8 or 10 years ago no longer is.

If I didn't live in the woods I'd do what you did - haul out boxes of selected books and have a sidewalk (or, in my case a dirt patch by the side of the road lol) sale. A lot of people will purchase in person what they won't buy on line because it's right there.

[monster-deals]

16,000 low dollar items?

No one wants to work that hard for peanuts