eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎07-29-2021

After eight years of listing for the B&M store, and only a few months of trying to sell my own coins and stamps (which are starting to be successful), today was an important day for listing items.

This evening I managed to get up half a dozen items of fine jewellery I made (years ago actually, it's been sitting in boxes in my basement for the past two years since the consignment store in Hamilton closed). I hadn't actually tried to sell jewellery on eBay before.

I purchased all my gold and silver 15 years ago when silver was $8 an ounce and prices on materials were low. I haven't purchased any metals since the prices have skyrocketed in the past few years. This will allow me to keep prices down, and since I have literally 10K in gemstones and materials to work with (that I haven't used yet), just because I have hoarder tendencies and buy large quantities of things to get big discounts... I won't need to raise prices for quite some time.

Now it's listed and it looks good in my store, I only hope I can sell it. I have another 200 pieces to list, but photographing them is a bit of a pain TBH, and I don't like it when things are hard work.

I got my handbags listed in the past few days as well, but I don't have the same confidence with those. I find taking pictures of them so they look good is difficult and I'm not confident in my sewing abilities. I like sewing, but I don't feel as though I'm all that good at it compared to other more experienced seamstresses.

C.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-29-2021

Any particular reason you are only shipping to the USA? Are you sure you can ship the red velvet tote from Ontario to Canada for $7.50USD? I assume you are using chitchat express.
I know it would cost more to ship to BC by Canada Post.

pcgslincolns · ‎07-29-2021

I am getting up and running again as well with old inventory. The current market pricing has made alot of old inventory profitable to sell again. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-29-2021

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Any particular reason you are only shipping to the USA? Are you sure you can ship the red velvet tote from Ontario to Canada for $7.50USD? I assume you are using chitchat express.
I know it would cost more to ship to BC by Canada Post.

Thanks for catching that. I'll have to update my shipping on the earrings (which are USA only, it was a template I copied.) Those can go lettermail (and I'll upgrade it to tracking on the more expensive ones). My prices are similar to the consignment shop prices but eBay takes 12%, not 40%. So I see this as coming out ahead if I can sell any here.

The purses don't have Canadian postage added because it's variable ($8 to Ottawa, $14 to Northern Ontario, $20 to BC), so I usually add it when I get an inquiry. The $7.50 is with Chit Chats to USA. I think it will fit in a flat rate bubble mailer which is 7.76. I realize that's more than my quote, but I undercut postage intentionally to make it look good to the buyer, and I up the price by $5 of what I would have charged to make up for that discount.

As a buyer one thing I hate is seeing a really good price and then a whole lot of shipping added. But I can live with an honest price with good shipping, even if both ways work out to the same total.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-29-2021

@pcgslincolns wrote:
I am getting up and running again as well with old inventory. The current market pricing has made alot of old inventory profitable to sell again. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I see listing it here as a win when the alternative is having it sit in storage. I was super happy to have found the consignment shop in Hamilton back in 2017 and they accepted me as a unique designer. I had to work three shifts a month in exchange for space in the store because they operated like a co-op (and took 40% for expenses to pay run and such, but everyone worked for display space). My partner was living in Hamilton and had a need for a few hours of "space" during the weekend and getting the job to work there was a win for everyone involved.

Unfortunately they folded two years ago and my stuff has all been sitting in the basement since. I had a bunch of other consignment items in a nearby town, but it was low end items, children's jewellery, and my sewing which I had really inexpensively as I gave them everything that I didn't think was excellent... they sold most of it for me. But with COVID they folded too. Now I've got no where to sell my own creations, until today... but it was a lot of work to get those up.

The B&M store owner is on holidays and I don't need to deal with new inventory from him until August 9, so I'm taking advantage of the time I have to do my own thing.

C.

oldwestgold · ‎07-29-2021

Have you tried using jeweler trays? I have used them for the backgrounds in the past. They are fairly inexpensive. I have the velvet red and black trays and oval pads. I also have used modeling clay for jewelry items to hold them. I got that idea after seeing another jewelry seller using it. Wish you well and glad to see you are still at it.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-30-2021

@oldwestgold wrote:
Have you tried using jeweler trays? I have used them for the backgrounds in the past. They are fairly inexpensive. I have the velvet red and black trays and oval pads. I also have used modeling clay for jewelry items to hold them. I got that idea after seeing another jewelry seller using it. Wish you well and glad to see you are still at it.

I have black trays but I found it hard to see the earrings with a black background My white linen napkin seemed to do a better job (although it looks like I need to replace it with a new one). I have ear wires to hold very dangly stuff that you can't see well when I lay it flat. There are also a number of necklace busts and bracelet t-bars in my basement from when I needed to display things in a shop.

All I can say is photographing this so it looks great is really hard. I'd much rather do a stamp slide where I shoot twice in case one doesn't turn out and then move on to the next item.

I found another box of merchandise a week ago to look through and pick some things to list. So I will have another round of photographing soon. I think one of the challenges will be to do the necklaces. I don't have many neutral coloured walls and spots with great natural light in my house, which adds to the challenge for taking pictures.

C.