Ep 276 || Tackling Your Death Piles

[podcast_team]

eBay seller Paul Apollonia joins us this week to talk about dealing with unlisted inventory, aka “death piles” - how to turn them into cash. We answer your questions about shipping discounts for combined sales; listing title syntax and eBay Guaranteed Fit; and why some return labels might be a different class of service from what the seller used for the outgoing postage.

Episode Links:
Paul’s Discount Store on eBay
Paul’s YouTube channel
DISPLAY TEXT
Recurring Links:
eBay for Business Podcast
eBay Seller Spotlight Podcast
eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey
eBay Seller News Announcements
eBay for Business Facebook
Community Chat with eBay Staff
eBay Seller Center
eBay Help
eBay Local Seller Events
Seller Hub
eBay Events

Brian: I'm Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff. And this is the eBay For Business Podcast. Your source for the information and the inspiration to help you start, manage and grow your business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 276. And joining us in the studio at our home base in San Jose is Brian. Hi Brian.

Brian: Hello Griff. How are you?

Griff: I'm Good. I think we're back into the swing of things.

Brian: We are.

Griff: Feels like it.

Brian: I have a gift for you.

Griff: What's that?

Brian: I was talking to a seller today. Blake.

Griff: Blake?

Brian: He said he really enjoys listening to the podcast with Griff.

Griff: And with you.

Brian: He said Griff.

Griff: Oh, he didn't even mention you.

Brian: I think he didn't mention me 'cause I was having a conversation with him over Zoom.

Griff: There's two of us here. Blake I appreciated it. But please don't leave Ryan out. You'll give him a complex.

Brian: I do have a complex.

Griff: You do.

Brian: So 276, week two of 2024.

Griff: Yeah. We're on our way to 300 episodes. Let's hope we make it.

Brian: Oh we'll make it.

Griff: I think we will. We never run out of things to say and we never run out of sellers to bring on as guests.

Brian: Well it's the beauty of a marketplace, right? It's constantly changing. There's always new sellers, there's always new products. There's different kinds of issues that come up. Like think about, we wouldn't even be talking about EIS two years ago.

Griff: E-I-E-I-S. How do you ship to Europe to today? E-I-E-I-S. (Singing..)

Brian: . Maybe I'll sing that to Amy and Kelly Joe when I see 'em tomorrow.

Griff: On the Shipping Team, right?

Brian: Yes. They both on Stuart Reichenbachs team.

Griff: Yeah. Well and take credit for all I care.

Brian: No, I won't. Okay. No plagiarism from me.

Griff: Plagiarism. I think the song, the melody is in the public domain.

Brian: Yes. I meant plagiarism from taking it from you. 'cause you put in all the new words.

Griff: Yeah, it was. And it was a real toughie. I had to stay up all night writing lyrics.

Brian: So..

Griff: What?

Brian: Who's waiting in the green room?

Griff: So this week, Brian, it's very exciting because we have an old time seller with us who knows a lot of stuff. And we're gonna talk about that dreaded topic that every seller knows. Death piles and how to deal with them.

Brian: Opportunity piles.

Griff: Exactly. Anyway, the guest this week is our good friend Paul Apollonia and he's joining us to talk about his strategy and his tips for reducing your death piles and turning them into cash. So that should be a lot of fun.

Brian: That will be all the way from North Carolina.

Griff: All the way from North Carolina. But first, is there any news to report?

Brian: No breaking news or pressing news, which is a good thing.

Griff: Yeah. Yes it is.

Brian: But I do have a question for you.

Griff: Okay. What is it?

Brian: Do you shop at Ikea?

Griff: Well, I have and I do. Why do you ask?

Brian: Do you know that Ikea merch specifically accessories can be highly collectible?

Griff: I didn't know that, but thinking about it, I guess I'm not surprised.

Brian: Well there's a recent story on the eBay Inc blog about this very topic. It's titled How vintage Ikea Barware and other vintage Housewares went from disposable to indispensable on eBay. So before you donate or toss those old IKEA houseware items, be sure to check their current market value on eBay. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Griff: Yeah, I'm just looking at the article now. There's a picture of these three colorful hanging lamps that I remember when these were, were at Ikea. I'm gonna go check what they're selling for on eBay. Because I know I could have picked these up years ago.

Brian: I bet a decent amount.

Griff: Oh my. 900 Bucks.

Brian: Oh my goodness. I wonder what they sold for originally.

Griff: I don't think they were more than a hundred dollars. Yeah. And there's other, this seller has some other items and then if I just search on IKEA lamps, I'm seeing like a lot of them, hundreds and hundreds of them. And some of these, I remember when they were in the store, oh, I guess I should have bought them. Oh well the story of my life. Oh, well now I'm thinking I better pay more attention to Ikea because they sometimes get some cool stuff. The idea is if you're in a store shop sourcing somewhere and you see something that's Ikea, don't just automatically think no one wants that stuff. Use your phone, look it up. Be on the lookout.

Brian: Good advice.

Griff: You can find this particular story and there's always lots more stories of interest. eBay sellers at the eBay blog. And you can get there at ebayinc.com.

Brian: Good resource.

Griff: Very good resource. I think we should go see if Paul's still in the Green Room and I'll talk to him.

Brian: He might need a water or something by now.

Griff: Yeah, I hope he's not listening.

Griff: Whenever a group of sellers get together, I like observing them. Sometimes I actually get into the conversation and they'll talk about all the things about eBay they love and maybe not love so much. There's always one subject that never fails to show up in a discussion with a bunch of sellers. And that's what you do with inventory that you haven't listed yet that may have been sitting around for a while. It's picked up the moniker death pile, which I think is one of the best things that sellers ever came up with when they're creating jargon for eBay stuff and death piles. They can really nag at you, especially if they build up over time. So getting those death piles down, getting rid of them is a goal of many sellers. And in order to do that this week we have, as a guest of seller, I've known for several years, a long time. Paul Apollonia, his user ID is P Apollonia. So Papillon. And he's been selling on eBay for how long Paul?

Paul: Gosh, forever. Over 20 years at at least. Yeah. Since 98, maybe 99. Yeah. Something like that. A long time.

Griff: Well, welcome to the podcast old timer.

Paul: Well, thank you. Well, yeah, we do go back a long ways. I remember first meeting you 2012 at the Philadelphia, what's it called? eBay location.

Griff: Yes, I remember that.

Brian: And then I met you in 2014 at eBay Radio event in Vegas.

Griff: Oh, that was so much fun.

Brian: And I think that's the last time I saw you. Have not aged a bit Sir. Look at you.

Griff: It's Vaseline on the, on the webcam. . Well Paul, you actually have a seller group too, right? A seller meetup group?

Paul: Yeah, it's Raleigh, eBay e-com seller group. Meetup group. We meet the second Thursday of the month at 3:00 PM. We had our first in-person meeting a month ago in December. And it went really well. I had about 10 people there. eBay, I think you or Brian sent me some swag and everybody loved that, which I really appreciate. And we're gonna probably do a live one every other month in January. I have the eBay Government Relations coming on as a guest. So looking forward to that. And I'm part of that group too.

Griff: If somebody lives in the North Carolina area and wants to attend your meetup, where do they go?

Paul: They can go to Meetup, and just type in Raleigh eBay Meetup and it'll pop up. Or they can go to my website, which is Online Selling Success and it'll direct them to the meetup that way too.

Griff: And we'll put those links in the transcript for this episode. Okay. Paul, time to get to the matter at hand. Death piles.

Paul: what are those? I don't have any of those.

Griff: Oh, you don't! Well thank you so much for being on the show. Next week we'll talk about it. , I assume you have some experience with death Piles.

Paul: Um, a little bit.

Griff: Okay. So , I wanted to ask, how much inventory do you usually have laying around Paul?

Paul: I have a lot. I do a lot of consignment for people. Consignment is not for everybody. I like it. A lot of people don't like it. And that's fine. For many reasons I like it. 'cause I'm getting inventory technically for free, but I split it 50 / 50 and they pay shipping. But it, it works out for me. I also do a lot of parting out of appliances. I get appliances on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace for free or very, very cheap. And I part 'em out and I sell miscellaneous side of things. I don't do that much thrifting. The whole key with this business, and I've been doing this forever, I do a lot of training is just tell everybody what you're doing and you'll be amazed at what people just give you. Some of it could be good. Sometimes you have to take the bad stuff with the good stuff and that's where the death piles come in at.

Griff: How good are you at vetting stuff and saying, well no I'm not gonna take this on consignment?

Paul: Well, when I first started out doing consignment, I took anything and everything and that was a huge mistake. But I thought, well, you know, I can make a dollar off of this $2 and I'm really trying to change my business model to have like a bare minimum, maybe like $20 profit. If I could take something and flip it real quick, I don't mind making a couple bucks, but still that's time listing, time shipping. And I could probably make a lot more money if I stuck to my $20 minimum or whatever.

Griff: That's what I hear from a lot of sellers who take consignment. It says it is around $20. Some people it's $50. They just don't want to be bothered.

Paul: It all depends. Like right now I got a, unfortunately a sad gig from a older couple that unfortunately they're not doing very well. And I work with a lot of organizers and an organizer called me up and she goes, I got a great deal for you all this old electronic old stereo receivers. And I've done very, very well selling this stuff. And I took some lower end stuff because it's kind of a goodwill thing, you know? And a lot of these people, after a while they say, okay, I've had enough. You can keep everything, which is good. But then it adds to the death pile.

Griff: Oh, . And that's what we are here for .

Paul: That's right.

Griff: So how much space do you have in your current location for death piling?

Paul: Well, my wife's out of the house right now. I have the garage, the attic, several closets. This room I'm in. Um, yeah, it's quite full.

Griff: She must be very happy with your business model. Well,

Paul: We're actually trying to downsize. We might possibly move, but I don't know when that's gonna happen. And I also heard someone say about a year or two ago. I can't remember who it is. And I'm sure the person's gonna smack me 'cause I'm not giving 'em credit. They turned the death pile into a money pile.

Griff: We like that more

Paul: Motivation. Like it's a money pile. I've worked with a lot of people to sell on eBay and I've seen death piles that were like insanely crazy to be honest with you.

Griff: Like what? Gimme an example.

Paul: I've seen storage units full of stuff from people thrifting and not doing anything.

Griff: Oh geez. That's costing them money.

Paul: Yeah. Storage unit fees are just insane today. I don't know what they are out where you're at, but they're just, they're just crazy.

Griff: They hook you so they give you a deal for the first six months and then it goes way up.

Paul: And the secret there is most of those are corporate owned. If you go to a private owned storage unit, a lot of those don't do that. From what I heard. I don't know if that's true or not. That's a little secret.

Griff: Okay, well we won't say anything on the podcast about that.

Paul: What I've done in the past or what I've told people to do is just take it small bits at a time. Even take a box or like a laundry basket and take maybe five or six or 10 items away from your death pile away from everything. Don't sit in a room with this stuff all over, like, I'm in. The atmosphere stresses you out. I mean, the atmosphere stresses me out when I come in. I see this stuff, it just gets me stressed out. That's why lately I've been just unfortunately just getting rid of a lot of things. Just taking like, I think I heard you saying it, just taking a lot of your stuff, like some of your shirts and stuff you took to the thrift store. You were just like, I gotta get rid of this. I gotta clear my head. I gotta, you know, a cluttered house, a cluttered mine, whatever you want. Say it felt good getting rid of a lot of things, but I think you gotta do it. You know that old saying, you can't eat an elephant, it's one bite at a time. Just take a few items, go away or go to another room, take 'em somewhere, I don't care. And just get those few items listed and go on, grab a few more items. Okay.

Griff: Sticking with your metaphor about eating the elephant. Which part of the elephant do you eat first?

Brian: I like the hind legs actually. They're pretty meaty from what I hear.

Griff: They last you all year! What's your system for deciding what you're gonna list first?

Paul: A lot of it depends on the value of item. Like for appliance parts, I've just got a knack after a while. That's one of my niches. I think niches are very, very important when you're selling anything is find a niche, find several niches. And I just know like what parts will sell and I try and list those first. Even then sometimes they get lost in the death pile too. But I try and get the higher end stuff listed first and use the other stuff as fillers.

Griff: So the high profit stuff, that stuff that you can make some money on. How much of a death pile anxiety is driven not just by the amount of stuff but the organization or lack thereof of said inventory?

Paul: Well, I'm as real as real can be. I'm not gonna say I'm super organized 'cause I'm not. 'm working on that. It drives me crazy. I'll give you a perfect example. And again, a real story. Just this morning I sold these vintage Christmas lights you put into windows are actually, they're from when I was a kid, the bulbs, the little candles they look like candles. Three or four and I couldn't find them.

Griff: Oh dear.

Paul: I know. I'm like, I'm running around and you know, like the great David Brenner said, if I could just start at the last place, first , you know what I mean?

Griff: Oh No. Now I'm starting to feel anxious.

Paul: And here I am 15 minutes before the podcast I'm going, I gotta find these things before the podcast there. I'm be really, really stressed out. I can't find 'em. And I found them. I looked right over the last place I went there they are

Griff: Where were they under the bed or under the bed?

Paul: No, they were sitting right out. I didn't turn my head. It's just, it's just, oh dear.

Griff: I know this feeling so well.

Paul: Hey, I told you I'm real. I'm not gonna say I'm perfect. God, please.

Griff: It's frustrating 'cause you put a system together or you do your best to put a system and there's always that one thing that sells that somehow didn't get included in the inventory system. And you're running around looking for it and you think, how much time do I have to find this before I have to, you know, realistically cancel the sale and disappoint the buyer.

Paul: And what happens with me a lot of times is I'm looking for a $5 item. I'm not looking for a $200 item. I'm looking for a $5 item and I'm spending all this time. I'm going, I got to cancel a button right here. I'm taking, oh hang on lemme try over here. I'm just like, it doesn't happen too often anymore.

Griff: Oh good.

Paul: Honestly, there we go.

Griff: Yeah. And since I focus mostly on small things, I think it's no secret that I sell colognes and fragrances. Those are easy to put in a place and label. And I've been pretty good. I haven't really lost anything since I've moved. But I remember those horror stories and I'm sure anyone listening to this can say, oh yes, I remember it as well, getting a system in place. But you have to be thorough. You have to make sure that everything is in that system.

Paul: Right. And different systems work for different people too. Like I know a lot of sellers that have a shelf and the shelf is numbered and then each, I guess the shelving unit's numbered like a and then each shelf is numbered and then each box is numbered for parts. What works best for me is just putting similar parts in boxes and having the item number taped onto the box. Because I'm not gonna put a thousand relays in a box. There may be gonna be five or six of 'em in a box. So I'm gonna go, okay, that's the relay box. Okay, here it is. That works better for me as far as the parts inventory. The other stuff like the consignment. I try and group everything by name, by their last name and go from there. But like I said, I'm not gonna lie, it's still, it could be a lot more organized than it is, but I'm working on that by just getting rid of a lot of things.

Griff: Isn't it an ongoing process? Because business changes, your inventory changes it, it's the kind of thing where you're building out and refining your system of inventory management as you go along.

Paul: Right. It's day in, day out. And remember like your niches changed too. Like several years ago I was just selling small engine parts, you know, lawnmower, outdoor equipment parts. I was doing very well with that. Well now, you know, with the import stuff coming in, you can buy a new part for what you could buy a used part for. So I had to drop that, take everything to the dump and find another niche. Now what I should have done was thinking ahead, I mean obviously it's not like I wasn't making any money, but I should have been thinking ahead of what's my next niche gonna be? What am I gonna get into next? And the appliance parts just fell into place.

Griff: I wanted to go into your history a little bit about how your systems of sourcing and listing have changed during the 20 years that you've been involved in your entrepreneurial eBay journey.

Paul: Entrepreneurial

Griff: Big word.

Paul: Yeah. Really big word. Hang on. I think at first I was just selling anything and everything. I'd go thrifting and I would just grab anything and do it that way. Then I got more refined with really finding stuff that will sell. And back in the day, a lot of the Facebooks were really, really helpful. I'm not saying Facebook's aren't, groups aren't helpful anymore, but there's a lot of stuff you gotta go through now to find really good information. And I was able to find better stuff and then more stuff, better stuff. And I got the appliance parts just fell into my lap one day. Somebody gave me a few dishwashers and stuff and I was like, oh wow, look at how much he's gonna sell for. And I'm just trying to refine it more and more every day, to be honest with you, especially since if we wanna move, I really want to down, not downsize, but I wanna get this business to where it's smalls, you know, like you're selling like, like the small stuff.

Griff: The small stuff. Yeah.

Paul: Because I mean I could probably take a room up with that stuff if that, you know, maybe a wall in a garage.

Griff: Say for example, you take in a dishwasher that you're gonna part out, a dishwasher is not a small thing and parting out is not a small task. How do you do that?

Brian: Great question. I was gonna get into that. There's two ways I do it actually. I take the dishwasher home, throw it in the garage, and these are pretty light to dishwashers. That's why I like doing them. I parted out but, and I also have a course on parting out dishwasher too. And I'll give you the link for that too. The whole key is knowing how much time you're spending on, you don't wanna spend five hours. Now, to me it's not a lot of money. Some people $200 or a hundred dollars for five hours is a lot of money. That's fine to me. It's not worth it. But you want to really watch your time parting out something. You don't want to see a part in the middle, you know, where we have to take off like 15 parts to get to it and make $3. So I take it apart, I take all the good parts and I take the dishwasher, the shell of the dishwasher to the dump. But what I also do sometimes is I'll bring tools with me and the dump has this park next to it that used to be the dump, but now it's a park where people play and everything else. We won't get into that.

Griff: sounds interesting.

Paul: And I'll park in the parking lot and I'll just par out the dishwasher there and I'll just drive it over to the dump and just take the parts itself home, which works out a lot better. It's one less thing in my garage, one less big thing in my garage. And I'll do the same with any appliance. I do like a refrigerators, washers and dryers sometimes. All depends what I can get. Whatever's out there.

Griff: My own experience with appliance parts is if I have to replace one on an appliance I own like a refrigerator for example, that was was about 15 years old, but I didn't want to get a new one because gosh darn it, I think it works fine and I want to keep that old refrigerator right. And so I go to their site and they still have the parts, but the parts get more expensive as time goes on. I thought I could buy a refrigerator for this price.

Paul: Exactly.

Griff: Then I went on eBay, I only found the part and it was reasonable.

Paul: That's right. Nothing more with used parts. We are a throwaway society today and it's amazing. I'll get a call. Yeah, my ice maker book. I'm getting rid of this refrigerator and freezer because the ice breaker's not working Well, I replaced my ice maker for $70 and I did it myself. It took me all of probably 10 minutes to do, but whatever. That's fine. So they say you want this? Sure. I can make a bundle off of just selling the shelves. Just pulling the shelves outta of a refrigerator. You can make probably a couple hundred bucks just doing that. In fact, I paid for a refrigerator in my garage. I need a new refrigerator. And I was foolishly floating the old refrigerator into my van. I'm going, wait a minute. So what am I doing? This is full of parts. So I pulled it back out, took all the shelves, and I paid for my refrigerator just from selling the shelves.

Griff: You're an entrepreneur, Paul!

Paul: I'm trying .

Griff: You gotta save your money for that move.

Paul: I know, I don't, we're removing, I have no idea, but okay.

Griff: . Well, yeah. And speaking of move you, I think it's no secret on the podcast I talked about the, I've had a death pile or I had a death pile in my quadruple garage in San Jose for years and years and years. And the reason why I was able to empty it out is I had to, because I decided a year earlier I'm gonna move and that means emptying out that garage and I got rid of those death piles. But like you said, most of the death piles, I ended up donating back to thrift stores. I didn't have the time or the effort available to actually list and sell them. So I waited too long. I should have been doing it years before. We don't want that to happen to our listeners at all. So I wanted to ask you what your advice would be for sellers looking to tackle their death pile step-by-step in a way that they can organize and get rid of it or turn it into something that's usable.

Paul: You know, obviously you don't want a death pile in the first place, but what I've seen a lot of people do is when they've come back from a thrift store or something, like in my situation, you got a dishwasher is get it listed almost immediately. Come home and make time. Don't say like, okay, well Saturday I'm gonna go, like for example, I'm gonna go thrifting from nine to 12. No say I'm gonna dedicate nine to two or whatever. Right? Use those last two hours to get this stuff listed. At least get pictures and get 'em in the draft mode. Then you can list them from anywhere you want it from your computer while you're waiting in line. If people still go to stores anymore, I don't know. So you can make it easier to get that stuff loose. The easier you make it, the better you don't want to be dealing. Like what Griff had to deal with and what I'm dealing with now. I mean, it's overwhelming. And I swear I watch those hoarding shows and I laugh sometimes. And then my wife's helping me go through stuff and I'm going, but wait a minute. I used this Kleenex 25 years ago.

Griff: Wait, that's a little extreme.

Paul: No, I know, but like these books. I was gonna read that book. She says it has been in the attic for 35 years. I'm like, oh, don't be like that. It's an awful place to be. Avoid the death piles if you can, or money piles, whatever you want to call 'em. Just a avoid the piles.

Griff: So get the stuff listed. What about stuff that you haven't listed? Let's just get right to it. A lot of this stuff in a death pile may not be profitable, may not be worth your time. And it's hard to say that to yourself. And it's hard to then put it in the bag or the box and liquidate it, for just getting rid of it, like donating it.

Paul: Yeah, what I've done before, like I said, I've used the basket technique where you take five or six or 10 items and I've also had another box there that if the item, now even you put broken, useless items in this death pile too sometimes.

Griff: I do. I did. Yes, I know, I know I did.

Paul: So then you have another box that's just for trash and you throw things away and that stuff goes away. And then you have another box for the thrift store. Now some people give stuff to different thrift stores, whatever. That's what I used to do, is I used to have the basket, the box for trash and then the box for the thrift store. And that right there you're getting stuff for your basket. And then you're also, as you're getting stuff, you're saying, Hey, is this good? Is this bad? Am I really gonna sell this? Do I really wanna list this? This is so far outta my niche that I'm gonna spend, which I've done before hours researching. Remember researching is time, time is money. And I know I get stuck on it too sometimes too. Like I see people all time researching stuff for three hours. There's tons of stuff. There's Terapeak there's all sorts of things on eBay. There's Google Lens, but still, people still, and I do it too, sometimes I get caught up in it. Just watch your research time.

Griff: And remember we've talked about this on the previous episodes, that inventory, even if it's valuable, if it's not listed, it's your capital sitting there generating nothing. It's not generating you interest. It's not like it's money in the bank or money in equities. It's just sitting there and it doesn't do any work for you until you've got it listed. Or get it outta your mind. And remember that if you've got the cost of all the goods sold that you're gonna red donate, you can always deduct that as a loss expense on your Schedule C for your business. So that at least you're accounting for it and you are accounting for that loss against your business. It can help with how much you're paying in taxes for your business.

Paul: Yep, that's exactly right. And don't forget that storage unit too. If you're paying for that storage unit, oh that's a huge expense outta your life.

Griff: And I, I guess one of the things you could do to get rid of your inventory and storage units to stop paying the bill and let in storage auction.

Paul: Hey, there we go. And you could buy it all!

Griff: And everyone talks about, you know, I donated this stuff like Back to Goodwill and then a month later I went in and I didn't realize that I used to own it and I bought it and put it right back and a death pile.

Paul: What? I've never heard that. Oh God. Never mind.

Griff: I've done it. I've done it, Paul.

Paul: Really?

Griff: Yes. This is confessional now. I've done this. Well I want to thank you so much. This was great fun and I hope you'll come back on the podcast again.

Paul: I'm available whenever. Thank you so much for allowing me to come on. I really appreciate you've been listening to this podcast. And day one, always informative. Thank you so much and thanks for letting me be part of eBay family. I appreciate it.

Griff: It's our honor.

Paul: Oh, thank you.

Griff: Paul Apollonia sells on eBay under the user ID PApollonia all one text string. We'll put the link to his eBay store and to his meetup in the transcript for episode 276. And remember, it's never too late to tackle that death pile. You'll feel so much better once it's gone.

Brian: You got questions?

Griff: We've got answers Brian, this week we have, well we have three big questions to answer on three different topics and each one's pretty interesting so, and I hope we've got the right answers. I believe we do.

Brian: Oh no, what was that episode? We were going to try and avoid this year from last year when we made mistakes and we had to come back and give the correct answer a week later?

Griff: Oh yes, that was the we're only human episode.

Brian: Yes. Yeah, I remember that one.

Griff: I'm sure we'll have a couple of 'em, but..

Griff: If we give the wrong answers, some smarty pants out there will let us know post haste.

Brian: They will.

Griff: They will. So will you read the first one, Brian?

Brian: I'd love to. This is from seller Doug who sent the following to podcast@ebay.com. Happy New Year Griff and Brian. eBay International. Now combined shipping, I recently sold 21 comic books to a buyer in Singapore. eBay combined the items and the shipping charge for the international portion came to $150. Individually, they were listed at 10 to 12 ounces to accommodate the individual packaging. When I ship 21. I only need one box. The 21 comics combined with packaging weighed about six pounds. But because eBay multiplied the cost of a comic with packaging from the individual listings, it was listed as 13 pounds. Is there a way for me to, after a sale, remedy the weight issue on the international side of the equation? I ended up canceling the sale and made a new listing for all 21 at six pounds for the buyer to repurchase, but wondered if there's a better workaround. Thanks for all the great information you both give out. Salty is the username and that's from Doug.

Griff: I can say one thing for sure. There are a lot of other options beside canceling the sale, which we consider to be the least favorable option. The first option in this situation, I'm assuming that the buyer may have let you know the shipping cost even though it's international and post the hub in Chicago, eBay handles everything. But if the buyer did contact you or if you saw the shipping that was paid somewhere, I can, on the invoice or the order details, you can always go to the listing in your orders page, look on the actions column and then select it and scroll down to find the option for issue. A partial refund. A lot of sellers do this by the way. You could send a partial refund back to the buyer for the difference in shipping. I think it's a little awkward, but it's a lot less awkward than canceling and re-listing everything.

Brian: Agreed. Or he could have charged a flat rate amount per comic instead of using calculated shipping.

Griff: Yeah, he could have done that. And that might be a good way to go because you know that each comic is going to weigh, like you said, 10 to 12 ounces. So if you figure out a rate that's gonna work across anywhere in the country, so for example, I would say, and I don't know, I could be wrong, but you should be able to ship a comic book for and ground advantage for maybe a couple bucks, right? So then you just put a flat rate of a couple bucks on. You can also then start thinking about providing shipping discounts for your comic books. So if you go into Seller Hub under promotions, one of the promotions you can set up is a shipping discount. And you can indicate by category or by individual listings which ones to include. And in this case, I would've included all my comic books. They're basically the same size and weight and you can set up, if you buy so many, you get a discount and then you can keep that going and then that's automatically figured for the buyer.

Brian: And it also encourages the buyer to buy more items.

Griff: Yes it does. And I think that's actually the best option short of the option that's controversial. And that's the one where just fold the cost, average cost of shipping into the item price and this free shipping. And then you've taken it right off the table.

Brian: And the downside with that one is theoretically you've, you've made it more difficult for the buyer to purchase multiple items and get that discount because the cost if you put it in the shipping and you give a shipping discount and a buyer buys multiple, the total cost is gonna be less than if you incorporate it into the item.

Griff: But then you can, you can use purchase discounts instead.

Brian: That's true.

Griff: So there's always a way of giving discounts for multiple purchases. And there's always a way of giving shipping discounts by using the promotion tools and seller hub. Go to Seller Hub, click on the marketing tab, then Promotions up in the right hand corner, you'll see create promotion. And if you hover over that, you'll see the different promotions you can create. And I suggest exploring them all. But whatever option you choose to employ, Doug, the important thing is to the extent possible, take shipping off the table as a buyer consideration. Yes. That way they're not sitting there saying, I'm gonna buy this many, I'm gonna pay this much shipping, blah blah. If you can arrange it somehow that they don't even have to think of it, they're gonna buy faster. And that's why buyers love free shipping. It's not, they know they're paying shipping somehow it's in the item price that because they don't have to do any math or factor in the shipping costs into their purchase decisions, it's easier for them to make that decision.

Brian: Agreed.

Griff: Now our second question, Brian is from Alan and he's questioning our advice regarding the best format for titles. Ah, it's a long one. I'll read this as quickly as I can. Okay. Hello Griff and Brian or Brian and Griff, if you guys are keeping score today, we're not.

Brian: We could be and then I'd be mad 'cause we started off with Griff and Bryan instead of Brian and Griff. It is one for zero for Griff in 2024.

Griff: Yay. This is a question about, uh, listing title protocol. One day a couple years ago while on vacation, I watched a YouTube video about parting out things, cars, tractors, lawnmowers, appliances, and selling the parts individually on eBay. And I thought to myself, Hey, that looks like something I would enjoy doing something new and different. Low stress, low key, no employee drama. I started out selling tools and equipment from my business and stuff around the house and soon found, I love the eBay experience, albeit a daunting learning curve for this old guy. Fast forward to a mixed inventory of 1700 items Brian. This guy has listed a lot.

Brian: He has.

Griff: I've decided to narrow my focus to Corvette parts generations first through fifth and have in fact bought out a stash of parts of roughly 5,000 items that I'll be listing over time. Good for you Alan. I discovered you guys three weeks ago and have been binge listing while working in my shop. We like that. We do. I'm on a mission to revise and upgrade my product listing. So I listened with humor and interest to a segment where the two of you teamed up with the rant keyword space, keyword space, keyword space. No punctuation. I've been doing that since 1996. He says, with that I've stopped using commas and at signs, hash numerical signs for part numbers. My question, here's the question we finally got to it. Is, what about using a dash to separate years, for example, 1963 through 1967, is this a no-No? For me it's an important part of the listing sentence structure. Uh oh. It's not a sentence, it's a title I've seen sellers show each year, for instance, 1963 space 1964, space 1965 space and so on. To me, this seems to be a poor structure and a waste limited listing space. I also see listings that focus on keywords, but to read as a sentence makes little or no sense. There must be a balance between easily understood sentence structure and keywords for the almighty eBay algorithm. No, there isn't. Uh, I'm, that's my aside. Many thanks. Feel free to visit my store, Alan's junkyard and make any seller related suggestions in yes, any eBay paraphernalia you can send my way and Griff, please note I refrain from using the word vintage just for you, although I use it often when describing to people what I do. It seems everyone likes and understands the darn word, Alan. I am without comment. Brian?

Brian: You're without comment. That's a first. Well, Alan, if you think about how a listing title works, it will make sense when we say to use only keywords with spaces in between with no punctuation, no one searches on hyphens. Pretty straightforward. That's why we discourage their use. And in fact, most buyers don't search on ranges or use hyphens, although they don't necessarily hurt a listing. Punctuation of any type is simply unnecessary. That's the reason for the keyword space. Keyword space mantra. We've been repeating year after year since 1996, 1999 for me.

Griff: That's right. I forgot you came after, literally years afterwards. But ever since I've been helping sellers, I've been preaching that mantra. And Alan, you're selling auto parts and there is a new feature on eBay that you may not be aware of. And it's tailor made just for you. It's called Guaranteed Fit or Fitment. This program makes putting years or ranges of years in listing titles on unnecessary. Although as a seller, you can still include them either as a range or as a list minus hyphens if there is space in the title to do so. When compatibility is indicated through the Guaranteed Fit Program by model year in the right place. And it's in the Item Specifics in eBay Motors, it doesn't matter if the corresponding year or years is not included in the listing title. If a buyer searches using a specific year for their Corvette, when they're looking for parts and you have a listing that matches that search, because you've put the year range in the item specifics for guaranteed fit, it will be returned for that buyer. Now this is gonna make your life so much easier. You don't have to worry about all this stuff. Now to learn how to list an auto part or accessory with Guaranteed Fit, visit the associated help page by clicking on the help and contact link on the top, any eBay page. And then type in the words selling parts and accessories. The relevant matching link will show up on the top of all the return results.

Brian: Yeah, and if you think about like if I owned, let's say a 1960, we'll use this Corvettes. If I owned a 1965 Corvette, if I'm looking for, let's say a break for that 65 Corvette, what am I gonna do as a buyer? I'm gonna type 1965 Corvette break and that's gonna come back, break parts, and then you'll see the ones, if he uses the feature that you mentioned, the guaranteed fit, it'll say it fits that 1965 Corvette.

Griff: It's a really great program and we hope you'll take advantage of it.

Brian: Agreed.

Griff: Well thanks for sending that question in Alan.

Brian: Well, our third and final question for this week was sent to podcast@ebay.com. By Seller Edmond who writes, I got another return where a Ground Advantage shipment is being returned with a Priority label. Problem, might be connected to selecting Economy shipping one to 10 business days as the shipping option. Since changing over to Ground Advantage, however long ago that was, the Bulk Label Tool now defaults all my shipping service fields to priority when it used to default to first class packet.

Griff: That seems like a a shipping policy issue, but go on.

Brian: Yeah, it seems that in the system's logic Economy Shipping one to 10 is somehow being equated with Priority Shipping.

Griff: No, no, no, no, no. Go on.

Brian: This might be a coding issue where previously the default was First Class Package and now with that option gone, Priority has become the default.

Griff: No, no, no, no. Go on.

Brian: This could explain why even when Economy Shipping one to 10 is selected by the buyer, the system defaults to Priority. It's possible that the return shipping label follows the same logic since it's basing its service on the shipping information from the listing rather than the actual service used for the label purchase. Now I'm remembering the reason I changed my return settings. I read somewhere that if you select to require a RMA number, it allows you to upload your own label.

Griff: No, but go on.

Brian: I was getting media mail shipments returned as First Class. I bet since it was defaulting to First Class service, pre-ground advantage in the Bulk Listing Tool that it was doing it for the return label too. If this is true, then I need to change all my shipping policies and parse out what items need to be sent. FedEx UPS Ground advantage or Media Mail or upload a label for every return. Thanks, Edmond. Griff, I'm gonna let you take this one.

Griff: Edmond, this is crazy. I mean, I think he's really overthought this. None of this is the case. What you're thinking about algorithms and Economy shipping one to 10 days now defaulting, blah, blah, blah. It's a real simple explanation. But first, let me guarantee you one thing. If a seller used an eBay label for the outbound shipment and we know the original shipping charge, the seller in the case of a return where they purchased the return label on eBay, will not be charged more for an eBay return label regardless of what the label says. Because eBay in that case, may provide a priority mail label when the seller used a less expensive label originally like Ground Advantage. But in those cases, eBay covers any cost difference in the situation. And the only thing that's coming into play here that's related to an algorithm is that eBay looks says, okay, we're gonna get a return label. Oh look, Ground Advantage is $7.40 and Priority is $8. We're just going to use the Priority one. We'll make up the difference of 60 cents out of our pocket, but we won't charge the seller any more than what the seller originally paid for the outgoing label. So you don't have to worry about that. What we're doing is just we're you're saying, Hey, you know, we can make the package get back to the seller faster. And if it means there's not that big a difference in the price between one level of service and the next level up, we'll buy that label. We'll pay for the difference. And that way the seller can get their package back even faster. And I should tell you that where you read somewhere about requiring an RMA number means you can upload your own label. No, you can upload your own label as an option regardless of whether or not you're requiring a return merchandise authorization number. When sending a buyer a return label through the returns flow on eBay, the seller will never pay more than the amount they were charged for the initial shipping label for that return label. That's the bottom line.

Brian: That's a good bottom line for our sellers.

Griff: I have to admit all of these questions were a lot of fun looking up and verifying the answers. 'cause I didn't want to just guess, right? So all of these involved me contacting different team members to say, am I thinking here right before I write the answer? And whenever I have to do that, it's a lot of fun answering these questions.

Brian: I learn something new every time on this show.

Griff: That's why we do the show.

Brian: It is. If you want to join the fun here on eBay for business, call us on (888) 723-4630. Speaker 2: That's (888) 723-4630. You can call that hotline at your convenience. You leave a question or comment and who knows? We would love to put it on the air.

Brian: And if you're not a call on the phone person, you can email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: And now it's time for your Three Point Podcast Checklist.

Brian: Check the Announcement Board at ebay.com/announcements for UpToDate Seller News every day.

Griff: Get out there in your garage or in your basement or wherever it is you're storing your inventory. Locate that death pile and start reducing it today. Don't put it off.

Brian: Clean out that closet.

Griff: You don't want death hanging around in a pile.

Brian: No. Switch it to opportunity.

Griff: I had death piles, but there are different kind of death piles. I need a special cream from the doctors to take care of them.

Brian: What are you talking about?

Griff: You don't know?

Brian: No

Griff: Piles that make it difficult for you to sit down.

Brian: Yes.

Griff: You got it.

Brian: Okay. Got it. .

Griff: So those are my death piles. Oh I can't sit in this chair!

Brian: Oh no. Need to review anything or eliminate anything from this podcast, . It's easy. You can strike it out of the transcript when you read it. No check the transcript for this in all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and to find the links we referenced during the episode. And no death piles.

Griff: No death piles. On our next episode, we're gonna revisit an interview I did back last summer with a UK seller who was in San Jose at the time. Her name is Sandra Goustard. You may remember we, I remember her. We had an interview with her several years ago and she's gonna be relating her experiences good and bad that she had when she hired a virtual assistant. And we're also gonna get an update on her pimento oil business, which is growing on eBay, as well as a little background into one of her interesting passions, which is being a part of the International reggae music community.

Brian: She's a very interesting woman. That'll be really exciting to hear that one. And hearing about virtual assistant, I'm sure a lot of our sellers are out there who have got New Year's plans and goals and all of that. A virtual assistant might be a good thing for them to learn about.

Griff: Yeah. But she has a cautionary tale to tell. So you're gonna want to tune in.

Brian: We'd like to again, thank our guest this week, eBay seller, Paul Apollonia.

Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podcast411. See you next week, Brian.

Brian: See you Griff.