Saturday, August 30, 2008

Ebay changes - some ways to make some sales

Okay, lots of folks want to know..(inquiring minds...ya know?) HOW can I make money on eBay?

With all the hubbub about all eBay's changes, I think a lot of us forget the single most important point about eBay:

YOU CAN'T SELL IT IF IT AIN'T LISTED!

Now, I've personally found, that when I went over 100 store items (as far as quantity on my inventory I mean) I started seeing more sales. When I went over 200, sales again went up incrementally. That was true with every 100th block I passed. The best was when I managed to get over 1000 items in my Ebay store for more than 10 seconds. (cause you do know right, that if you're aiming for 200, as soon as you hit 195, things will start selling out of the store. As soon as it goes over 200 items, more things will sell...it's Murphy's Ebay Law). As soon as I passed 1000 items, I got about 8 sales in the next 2 days. ! HALLELUJAH!

So - my personal motto is: (come on Dar, you know the words...! ) LIST MORE, SELL MORE!

I try to list 100 items a week. Since February I've had a problem doing that - I must have developed eadd..otherwise known as "Ebay Attention Deficit Disorder". I just can't focus on eBay.

Still my current goal is 35 new listings on Sunday evening and 10 every other day of the week. Which in theory, would get me darned close to 100 new listings a week. I haven't managed it more than once or twice in the last 3 mos. But I haven't given up either.


The second thing to remember, with auctions especially, if the right eyeballs are not on eBay that week, your item will not sell. So what to do?

I personally wait 10 days, relist the item and try to publicize it, (making sure I use the eBay referral code for that item or for my store) and then if it doesn't sell then, I put it in the eBay store for a while. How long? depends? If it's Christmas maybe for a while. If it's June, probably definitely for a while. If it's tax refund spending time, for 3-4 weeks.

What about stuff you put into your store and forgot? (OH don't tell me you never forgot about them? Baloney. I do so I know everyone else does. LOL I mean we are all human. Life intervenes). So when I look at my eBay store and stuff is sorted by ending soonest for me, then I end the item and relist it...or I change the title, the picture, the wording or the price. (NO I almost NEVER EVER EVER lower the price. An old real estate adage is to raise the price...so I do that and guess what? An awful lot of stuff sells. I mean it's unreal. AT HIGHER than they could have bought it the week before. But again, it's that thing about the "right eyeballs" seeing your item.!

How else can you make money from your items? I think through an affiliate code but I'm no expert yet on that. I'm just designing my first campaign. Maybe (I think there's a rule on this) you can't get an affiliate referral payment on your items. But you can get them on mine. I can get them on those of bookcornercottage, or my52cents or bigdaddysmoney...or you blog, or you make a website, you put a feed on it. And we'll see how we both do.

Oh - and you make Squidoo lenses of your items, my items, every blue dress on eBay etc. and you update those lens regularly, (something else I"m not timely or reliable about yet) and WALA! soon you have a nice little account building up in Squiddoo money.

So. that's my idea for today...just basic commonsense. Want to see what I'm selling? That top feed in the box on the right side? That is me...come on in and visit!
Beth

Monday, August 18, 2008

Have you see these...?? They are soooo cute

Ok, I don't make a lot of money on these and I got started picking them up by accident at an auction.


Annalee White Dragon with Hearts 1990 doll figure toy
Annalee Mobilitee 1988 Green Elf doll toy figurine
Annalee Mobilitee Fluffy Sheep Lamp Flowers 1992
Annalee Mobilitee 91 Hunter Camoflauge figurine doll
Annalee Mobilitee Sitting Santa with Sack Doll 1971
Annalee Doll Santa Claus w/ Christmas gift packages '89
Annalee Doll Santa Claus Painting Toys '90 Christmas
Annalee Doll Mrs Santa Claus with packages 1989
Annalee Christmas Choirboy Doll '93 Holiday decoration

These are all in my store on ebay - they are the sweetest little dolls and figures and decorations.

And I mention them cause I think they are soo cute!!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Another eBay Faux Pas...do they ever end?

Have you all seen this at the bottom of the eBay search page? I have no clue how long it’s been since I looked al the way down the search page...maybe 4 months – like when I last went to an auction and was looking for comps...but tonight I’m looking for completed prices on some of the less common books we bought yesterday...and found this:

We found other stuff close to what you're looking for

Now, maybe it’s me but...I can call my “stuff” STUFF but I think ebay should be referring to it as “we found more items” or “we found more selections simliar to what you searched for”

And I know I’m being picky when there are soooo many things wrong on ebay right now...but this one, this just annoys me.

I’m not selling STUFF. Maybe John Donahoe sells "stuff" from his closet or his basement. But I go to estate auctions and buy consignments directly from people liquidating estates and my "stuff" is MERCHANDISE and most of it is too expensive to be STUFF. STUFF comes from the dollar store. I’d like to think my “stuff” could go – a lot of it – on Antique Row on Pine St in Philadelphia.

What about the rest of you? Am I just being petty about this? (Don’t answer that, I know the answer...)

Squidoo: My 2008 reading list