inventory work shocker

[keziak]

Last year I quit Amazon and since then have been laborously inventorying my whole collection to find books to list on Ebay.

I put slips in books so I could tell what had never been on Ebay and what  had been here roughly a year ago and older. The shocking part is the high percentage of those books not actually listed. I have been thinking about how this happened but I really have no clue. 

So now I am thinking I'll need to do the whole thing again on a regular basis. One reason I find it hard work is because of having to haul books from shelves in the basement to the first floor where I use my laptop. Also the books I need to list pile up faster than I can list them causing clutter upstairs.

If you inventory your stock do you do it all at once or maybe target areas by age?

[sin-n-dex]

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@keziak wrote:

Last year I quit Amazon and since then have been laborously inventorying my whole collection to find books to list on Ebay.

I put slips in books so I could tell what had never been on Ebay and what  had been here roughly a year ago and older. The shocking part is the high percentage of those books not actually listed. I have been thinking about how this happened but I really have no clue. 

So now I am thinking I'll need to do the whole thing again on a regular basis. One reason I find it hard work is because of having to haul books from shelves in the basement to the first floor where I use my laptop. Also the books I need to list pile up faster than I can list them causing clutter upstairs.

If you inventory your stock do you do it all at once or maybe target areas by age?

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I've got shelves at the B&M store with inventory and periodically I purge stuff (give it back to the store and they can take it to shows or sell it in the store front). I don't usually go through actual inventory to purge stuff, I go on eBay and do searches for items that aren't moving well (like a bunch of "like" items), or sometimes I grab a box of stuff and decide everything must go, and then figure what to do with it.

If there's an item that misses getting listed, I generally don't find that out for a very long time. So I don't think I'd pull a box and find out nothing was listed unless the box was on the shelf of "new items" (that had not yet been put away), then some things are listed, some things are not. I use my auction software to go through the folder of all the new stuff I put up to organize it into it's appropriate inventoried box while it sits waiting to be sold.

Stuff that's not processed is at my house sitting on my livingroom floor. And I have a storage tote I put stuff in when I'm ready to take pictures of it (then grab the tote and sit on my bed with the light from the window taking photos). I decided not to use a very big tote for this purpose so I am not always listing the overflow stuff on top and not getting to what's at the bottom.

I'm not sure if this really answers your question, but since you're discussing inventory these are some of my methods to deal with having 11K in items listed.

C.

[wastingtime101]

Laptops are portable. Take it down to the basement and create a spreadsheet with columns for book title, author, date acquired, date listed & date sold.

Create 3 tabs: Unlisted, Listed, and Sold

Once a week move things from Listed to Sold to keep it updated. As you list move things from Unlisted to Listed.

I cannot imagine selling anything without an inventory spreadsheet, especially something like books.

Sounds like you are sourcing way more than you can handle. Either stop sourcing until you're caught up or purge/donate what you haven't listed yet.

Editing to add: go through that storage unit, too, if you still have it. You've been saying for years you're paying for a storage unit full of unlisted books. Why? List it or purge it. One less expense.

[funfactorychannel]

  I put them in bins and label them then when listing i used the SKU section to show where the item is. I also label shelfs If item of similar items that do not need a bin.. IE DVDs, Books, which all I can jam into one shelves neatly.

Below is example. I used Google Sheets to track. And in the Sku section I put where item is located. I color code for easy view.

Depend how much item you have its easier to just not try to group by age. Your goal is to find the item fast not figure out what age or genre this item is part of.

[12345jamesstamps]

I notice you are currently not selling due to a Canadian strike.

How long do you think it will last?

I am one of the lucky sellers who can index everything in shoe-boxes under countries.

I do sometimes find something mis-identified and have to put the correct number on it.

I have a habit of identifying items and listing items with some wine...LOL

[sin-n-dex]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

I notice you are currently not selling due to a Canadian strike.

How long do you think it will last?

I am one of the lucky sellers who can index everything in shoe-boxes under countries.

I do sometimes find something mis-identified and have to put the correct number on it.

I have a habit of identifying items and listing items with some wine...LOL

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The Canadian store is down because of the strike. This store has been retooled so all Canada Post stuff now has USPS tracked postage (so I can ship everything in this store with Stallion).

I don't know how long the strike will last, but that's not why I'm not selling, I could technically go back online tomorrow, but I'm currently on medical leave that's not yet approved and I need to co-ordinate with work whether or not letting items sell (without adding new stuff or working on new inventory) will affect my disability benefits.

The plan right now is for me to return to work next Tuesday (recovering from gallbladder surgery this week), but I had a complication from the surgery and might need to be off for another month or two... I can't fathom a whole month without the extra income, I'm spending my savings too quickly while being offline. It's going to depend what my doctor decides, and if I can convince him that sitting in my office at home quietly processing documents is OK with my current health problems. (And if it is OK, then selling on ebay will be fine).

I haven't posted lots about being offline to not seem to be seeking sympathy... but sometimes I mention I have 11K in listings when replying to a new poster so I mention I'm offline in case someone checks my store and sees no items listed.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Laptops are portable. Take it down to the basement and create a spreadsheet with columns for book title, author, date acquired, date listed & date sold.

Create 3 tabs: Unlisted, Listed, and Sold

Once a week move things from Listed to Sold to keep it updated. As you list move things from Unlisted to Listed.

I cannot imagine selling anything without an inventory spreadsheet, especially something like books.

Sounds like you are sourcing way more than you can handle. Either stop sourcing until you're caught up or purge/donate what you haven't listed yet.

Editing to add: go through that storage unit, too, if you still have it. You've been saying for years you're paying for a storage unit full of unlisted books. Why? List it or purge it. One less expense.

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It's true that laptops are portable but I don't find that a laptop works well everywhere while processing inventory. We don't know the OP's setup with the books, if they have a surface to set up work, or if the inventory is cluttered and needs to be moved to be sorted out.

When purging stuff (personal stuff and eBay inventory) I try to make a goal to get rid of a certain number of things each week so when new stuff comes in there's somewhere to put it.

In my house I have a few spots upstairs I can set up at a table and use a laptop, but in the basement I kind of need to haul out whatever is down there and bring it upstairs to work on. I've got a closet of storage I need to go through, and no space to spread out downstairs to do that.

C.

[12345jamesstamps]

Hope to see you back...I am one who likes to keep tabs on you.

[sin-n-dex]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

Hope to see you back...I am one who likes to keep tabs on you.

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Aw thanks 🙂 That's very kind to say.

Hopefully sometime Tuesday the time away will end... kind of depends how my phone call with work goes tomorrow, and if that doesn't go well, then my medical appointment on Monday will determine if I can go back to work soon.

I have lots of new stuff to do listings for, but I'm assuring work I will not spend my time on disability making new listings and running an eBay store full time while off work (and I will provide the store URL and screen shots of personal stuff in the account for them to see what I'm doing if they ask, it's not hard to check to see when my last sales were).

On the other hand, I have been spending lots of time in the forums this week (this one and the Canada forum), but did not make any new listings or drafts this week.

C.

[sreu3058]

I consider myself very organized, but as a seller of some handcrafted items, I have learned it is wise for me to physically go through my inventory once a year.  In the beginning, I would find things that hadn’t aged well/ not as ‘good’ as I thought/ was very glad I ‘caught’ it and didn’t sell it.

I usually have an average of 300 items listed, all ready to go, and I have never (*knock knock)

lost anything or unable to find anything.

So yes, for less stress, I suggest physically going through inventory to check each items condition and tagging.

[grand-and-glorious-purpose]

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@keziak wrote:

I have been thinking about how this happened but I really have no clue. 

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ebay mass purged pictures and what they deemed to be underperforming listings a few years back.

Not only did they mass end people's inventory it did not show up in your unsold file so you could double check it and re-list.

I have about 3-4k items just floating around my inventory

[sin-n-dex]

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@grand-and-glorious-purpose wrote:

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@keziak wrote:

I have been thinking about how this happened but I really have no clue. 

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ebay mass purged pictures and what they deemed to be underperforming listings a few years back.

Not only did they mass end people's inventory it did not show up in your unsold file so you could double check it and re-list.

I have about 3-4k items just floating around my inventory

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I didn't hear about that. I have all OOAK items, and I don't think anything has been purged from my store. I had been adding new items every week or so.

C.

[redlinear]

My eBay listings are my inventory

[keziak]

I presently have a lot because I just came off the season of booksales, even though I skipped the majority of them ( too much stress). Then inventory work kicks out books. I need to do it because I can't keep having shelves crammed with books that aren't listed. I"ll list what I can and take the rest to the used bookstore or local library. 

As for the laptop I  have tried to figure out a place to set one up and have come up short. 

[keziak]

Since it's books I shelve alphabetically by title but I know some people shelve by listing date. That's got it's appeal but I don't know how I'd switch and I don't plan to keep the business forever ie justify the work.