What I think of eBay's Town Hall yesterday

From the Wizard of Id site - courtesy of John Hart

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

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...)

Well, where do we go from here?

Everyone seems to be trying to make sense of ebay's changes. Me too! So where do we go from here?



Well for one thing, each of us has to analyze what we sell, what venue on ebay, it sells best in (auction/fixed price/store inventory) and at what price level.



I am so NOT a professional retailer it's not funny. No business courses, no statistical analysis etc. So this is just my "method" that follows.



1. I always put everything into auction and then if it didn't sell, into the eb ay store.



2. Mostly 7 day auctions.



3. Gallery on everything



so...I'll save money on the gallery pix being free. I will still do mainly 7 day auctions.



When things go into the store inventory, they will get piced up higher because of ebay's new 2% minimum higher store FVF.



AND I'm using the google base store connector more regularly.



Oh and yes, I am using Best Offer on EVERYTHING.





AND??



And I have a list of other selling venues to explore

I have found a webhost with shopping cart I'll be exploring and I'll let you know if I'm gonna jump in there right now or wait a bit.

I also am going to reopen my ABEbooks bookstore - and put a lot more books and items on Amazon. Both things will cost me money initially but we'll see if it sells enough to support itself. All my friends are doing it, so why not.


Now, before you ask, NO I have not revised all 900 items. The new things all have the new template the eBay Seller Outreach program recommended but the 900 already in there? Nope, not yet.

I had knee replacement surgery last week and I'm spending hours a day doing rehab so I'm behind on my "updates" and moving a lot more surgery. But that's a whole 'nother blog. or Squidoo lens. See ya later