To be as transparent as possible... My wife basically does retail-ish arbitrage full time. we are opening our 4th e-bay store. I build websites and do SEO and CRO and the like for a living.. but really enjoy selling stuff. I read time and again on the forum people needing to make money fast. and THIS is really how to do it.

As I am going through this online, I am also involving my 10 year old son in the process. Everything from getting product to taking pictures making listings and shipping. As of right now ( 1st day ) he is having a lot of fun with it - we will see how long that lasts LOL

YES.. I am going to be as thorough as possible with this. Fees. SHIPPING ( this alone can kill you ) and all of the other minor expenses.

I am a FIRM believer that telling someone how to do something vs SHOWING them how are kinda 2 different things.. so I am taking this opportunity to demonstrate the ability to simply buy cheap stuff and turn a profit.

First of all thanks! WOW I never knew LOL

What my wife does primarily is wholesale and bulk buying. That aspect of what we do is usually 10X profit. An example is recently Walmart was doing seasonal closeouts and she went to 3 or 4 different Walmarts in the area and bought 400+ Ugly Christmas sweaters. We wont even list them until September probably.. but it will without question be worth the investment.

I had to laugh at the sheds and attic and your house.. we started with a shed and now have a 5000 Sq foot " Out Building ' LOL - you might be a redneck if your Garage is bigger than your house... Or in my case I might be a redneck if the number of " Out buildings " exceeds the number of rooms in my house - let alone being BIGGER than my house.

The 3x rule I think applies mostly to flip style retail arbitrage. More often than not, the profit margin is just not there.. but the reality is this style of sourcing is more available to most people. Many people simply do not have time to go around to garage sales.. they have a day job, or maybe don't even have a mode of transportation and rely on rides... whatever the reason Retail Arbitrage ( going and finding discount priced items in " normal " stores like Walmart, or Home Depot or Home Goods.. even Dollar General ) is a pretty much universal choice for sourcing products to flip.

Yes of course there are better methods.. but Retail Arbitrage is the easiest point of entry I feel.

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We do our best to use the ordered boxes for " Priority mail" but have been known to wrap them from time to time, but not to often. That's why we recently added the 14 x 8 x 8 box to stop most of that. That, and we got into books a bit more and that box is easy to cut to size and holds multiple books pretty nicely.

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Just for some fun and giggles, apply the age rule to the items and I would guess the bible was well into the adult range = 21+ and the games would be teeneagers ? 13 <> 19 range probably around the 15 range, with the exception of the cracker that sold.

might be wrong because not really up with games but my guestimate would be medium supply ? 5 medium demand ? 5 and maybe medium to a little better quality if no boxes or instructions ? 6 giving a 16 total

the bible was probably harder to find ? 7 very much in demand ? 8 and of top quality = 9 total 24

both guesses in my minds eye, but keep a side eye on those numbers and see if you find a pattern just as some side fun and see how close it comes.

Dude.. your son is as good as hooked mate! hahaha And the wife.. once she understands she can shop and not get yelled at?!?!?! it will be game on. That literally was the turning point for my wife.. she straight up LOVES to shop.. and now instead of it collecting in the closets or cupboards.. its filling a 5000 sq ft 465 sqM building, but she averaged a 7X return on investment last year.. ( just got the final numbers back from the Accountant )
For MOST households... THAT is NOT secondary income!

Not that your son is going to be interested in either.. but your specific geographic has 1 NEED and one surprisingly LARGE export. The need you may have seen me post a time or 2 about.. It was a discussion one night with the boys from the WF office ( In AU ) on the facebook group page about the cost of baby formula in AU. I did some amount of research.. quickly found a supplier and ON EBAY targeted the Far East, AU and NZ ( I did this by excluding countries in the shipping section ) This is a just short of 6 digit NET NET portion of our business.

On a whim this evening after reading your post... I did a bit of research.. knowing YOU and your record. Record equates to brand-ability. The Boomerang is a pretty freakin hot niche item. Like I saw more than one item page that was like " 5 sold in the last hour " You see stuff like that in December with toys.. But in February? Just throwing ( pun really not intended ) that out there!

Now speaking Father to Father... Dont let " Profit " be a variable in the decision making to begin with... Oh Gawd, I am about to sound like Ryan Biddulph... Yeeet! LETS GO!!! Allow him to sell what he has interest in... The GAMES are my sons touch.. the Bible was him having heard me and mom talk about how ridiculous it is they sell for so much. The mens Harley Shirt.. it has a pretty sweet graphic on it. The Womans clothing was " I think Mom would like these, so they might sell pretty well " I was pretty much just along for the ride.

The other day when he picked up the Rugby Jersey and the Coat... His favorite Color is blue, and the Jersey is Blue and white striped across the front and solid blue on the back - If it was actually his size I am pretty sure we would not be selling it. He had no clue the coat was from 1997.. no clue who Terry Labonte is.. but " Who doesnt love frosted flakes? " and apparently some people REALLY like Frosted Flakes

and then there was the DAMN cup... <raises hand> that was ALL me! hahaha

Yeah Im trying to be a responsible parent and show my kid the ways of the world.. teach him about money and all of that... but for me - RIGHT NOW - getting to see the thought process. Him trying to be down about the baseball game and super pumped about the coat... the adventure is priceless, and I think that will be the case for both of us.. he wont forget that Frosted Flakes coat anytime soon thats for sure!

Co-op might be something to think about? There are people that are great buyers and want to do what you are doing and cannot do it because they lack your "seller" knowledge and skills. If those same people were part of your Co-Op they would become the source of the products for the store(s) and you would be the "seller."


Example: I do Co-Op auctions and flea markets in the spring and summer. My Co-Op partners are mainly experienced people with vans and pickups that do the buying at garage sales and thrift shops and I do the selling. Without going into details we all make money.


Love your thread and it is commendable of you to share with the forum.


Jeffery 100%

Always! And free postage - some sellers don't seem to get this. Some who do get it may put separate postage on an item, but maybe that's because it will show up as lowest price if that's the search made.

With eBay you may as well offer free returns because you are obliged to accept returns up to X days anyway (14 is it?). If a customer knows they will have to pay the return cost for a non-faulty item they may shop elsewhere. I know I might. 'No Returns' screams bad seller to me. If they have bought an unsuitable item already they may make something up or be nasty in the feedback if unhappy for their own personal reasons. 30 days refund of total cost of item plus return postage is my standard. I went a whole different ball-game further with one product, offering a lifetime replacement of a part of the product if it were to ever fail. Just a bit of apparent added value which, like a free returns policy, instills confidence and trust.

Kinda. My wife holds onto the discount cards like she holds onto our credit cards and cash when we go shopping. She points me to the truck with the goodies, so I never get to use the discount card. However, what she doesn't know is I usually sneak away for a cigarette at times like that

We don't have a card.. but we have scheduled discount days, and our store is tagged by color and every week is a different colors week and on Sunday that color is 50% off

First let me say that the WF has lost my attention lately but I was home sick and kind of bored today as it was storming all day and I have a cold. Anyway, so I came here because I like these threads and when I saw that Savidge started one I was in regardless. So I've sat here and read the whole thing. I've got some experience on eBay myself, and this thread is gold. Many things I knew, some that I didn't, especially as it's been some time since I've sold on there.

I think the one thing I want to say regarding most of what you've posted is that for anyone watching this you need to pay attention to the fact that the most important thing here is just getting in the game. You can't win if you don't play. That goes for anything. Look at how this little $40 beginning has resulted in so much more. You don't have to print your own mugs to start, you don't have to know what your products of choice will be, just get in the game and learn. Learn from your mistakes. Track things. You can't manage what you don't track.

This is inspiring stuff. I'm currently starting my own life coaching practice, literally tomorrow evening I start my first group with six eager participants. If I wasn't going down a path right now I'd jump on this. Losing focus would be a foolish plan as I have big things planned for my coaching practice, but this is a great plan too.

This is the one thing in this thread that has stuck with me in a negative way. I'm not sure I get this. You were buying and selling what you believe in............PROFIT. You don't believe in Nike or Puma or many clothes, you believe in profit and business and enjoy making it so that you can buy things you like, but that doesn't mean that they are all that you like. In fact, many people like things and get emotionally attached and overpay at the buy when flipping items because they like a thing and are too emotionally invested.

So this advice just bothered me on some level. I think we all have to find what drives us and it can be different things. My wife and I have cleaned houses for years. Do I enjoy scrubbing a toilet or a shower for the millionth time? No. I do enjoy helping families find sanity in life. I enjoy making things shine. I enjoy the fact that I get to work with my wife. I enjoy the challenge of cleaning something new but I don't truly enjoy cleaning all that much. I enjoy listening to podcast while I work, or audio books that help me grow as a person. Should I stop cleaning because I don't enjoy the work? No. I enjoy the money, I enjoy the process, I enjoy the business or the people or whatever.

The same can be said for what you and your son did in buying those items. Maybe they weren't your passion, but your son lit up making that profit, seeing that something he picked was desired by others and appreciated, working with you, learning about something new, working the process, etc.

So is the advice to limit yourself to what you personally use and enjoy yourself as far as the product goes? Should all of the focus be put on the product alone? Or is the focus the process, the profit, what you can do with it, the work and potential relationships, the growth in knowledge, the curiosity, etc.? Maybe there was more to that conversation than I saw from the post, but it seemed like there was too much focus on the product and that being true to oneself was equated to the product only and missed out on the bigger picture.

By the way, this is my favorite thread in a loooooong time. Thanks to those like DWolfe and tryinghere and Jeffery and others that are participating as well and dropping knowledge or questions. It's making this fun.

Nice a $181.93 profit so far. What is Media Mail is it thru the US Postal service or some other company, like Fed Ex or UPS?

Second you said you could see 6 figures within in a year, in another post. How would you go about that reinvesting more than half your profits or some similar method ? Would you need a second person to help you if someone started out by them self ? Even 1/2 that would make a lot of newbies on this forum very Happy !

What to look for? brands brands brands.. you just have to look them up. Pay attention to trends.. right now western wear is hot.. I cant find any of that tho... In WV we are redneck, NOT country! lol

Good job!

I need to search for an iPhone XS Max. I haven't even heard of that model.

EDIT: Having done that, those are recent phones. I've seen them before.

How did you get one for $100 and why did you need to unlock it before you knew what model it was?

An iPhone 8 screen isn't edge to edge. They are two entirely different breeds:

So as I explained in a post previously, in terms of Optimizing your listings to get good rank you really need to focus on the Title of the listing. You then want to ensure you have a good amount of information in the "Item Specifics" section of the listing as well.

The third "Hard" area you want to make sure is right is the category you are listing in. If you have mens shoes listed under shoes it will not appear as well as it could.

And THEN... rules go out the door from here on. Cassini is probably my favorite Search Engine to work with because of all the dynamic elements. eBay search rewards those that are selling. So your feedback score can give you a boost as compared to others listed. If you are a "Top Seller" you get a boost. If you accept an offer on any product, you get a boost. If you sell an item, you get a boost.

If you consistently list items, you get a boost. newly listed items like I mentioned before, that item gets a boost, and it helps your other listings as well. How much it helps your other items is probably determined by how many items you list.

With listing items specifically... if you consistently list items daily and you take 4 days? seems to be the magic -/ unlucky number.. you will without question see a drop in sales. Start listing again, the sales come back.

You can do a product reset... Go in and do a bulk edit.. select a bunch of items and click "edit" Select all the items in the bulk editor, and simply click save. we tend to only do this when we see a category slowing down to a crawl... time and again we will do this and within an hour or so there will be a sale.

You can Stop a listing ( I suggest stopping one that is close to ending ) and then go back and relist by using "Sell Similar" and you will see an uptick there.

Again.. eBay is very dynamic in the sense that it values action vs some static set of rules. This is specifically moving forward with a goal of reaching $100,000 In a year I want to spend a minimum of 2 hours a day - EVERY day listing something.

when we first started we used to binge list items as we got them... like 3 people going to town all day listing 100+ items.. but then we would not list items for a few days... Our sales would fluctuate based on when we were listing, and drop off when we were not... The pattern was very clear.

As an experiment we started dragging the listing process out over a few days.. and our sales became far more consistent. If you goto Goodwill and buy 10 items.. list 3 or 4 a day. UNLESS you are going elsewhere and buying stuff day in and day out.

It amazes me to watch youtube videos of eBay sellers that literally have sheds and storage lockers FULL of stuff that they have not listed... If its not listed, you cant sell it! LOL I think those people are the opposite of me and enjoy the Sourcing more than the listing. - God Bless them! hahaha

Well that's it for tonight.. any questions or comments by all means.. Ill do my best to answer what ever you may have!

Sold a couple of items from Lot B today. Overall slow in general. I heard eBay was having server issues .

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items ) LOT A
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.70 = $6.04
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $3.09 = $5.65
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $13.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95 - $59.95 - $9.59 - 0.00 - $9.20 = $41.16
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95 - $34.95 - $5.59 - .00 - $6.95 = $22.41


Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 15 items ) LOT B
1 Hot Dots Pen $2.00 - $10.95 - $0.00 Threw this in as a bonus for the large order
2 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
3 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
4 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
5 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
6 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
7 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
8 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
9 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.65 - $5.62 - $3.77
10 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $1.70 - $7.99
11 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $1.70 - $7.99
12 Cantebury USA Rugby Jersey $7.00 - $34.95
12 Star Wars Han Solo Hat $3.00 - $49.99
13 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $24.95
14 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $27.95
15 Philips DVD player $5.00 - $29.95

Bought another phone today for $50, took a best offer and sold it for $180. Bought 500 iPhone XS Max phone cases for $100. I am a bit hesitant about these.. phone cases is a hard category to crack.. its like getting a #1 listing for the term "XBOX" I will PROBABLY try and bulk sell these something like $50.00 for 25 of them vs going after 5 to $10 each and holding them forever. And really $1000 gross is not all that bad if I can fast flip them

Thats it for now.. see you for day 14

When we.. ok I talk about "hustle" I actually live it.. here is a great article about the mindset...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smal...cid=spartanntp

Couple of questions say you find an item that you can not find the exact match selling on ebay. You look up the sold items and there are several similar but just the color is different than the popular ones that sold. Would you try to flip the product or leave on the shelf of Goodwill ?

I read you and another poster have sheds full of unsold inventory. Do you relist these items at a later date ? Or do you just donate them after a certain amount of time ? The reason I'm asking say someone only has a very small place to store stuff. They have no extra room and don't want to build a shed or put it in storage.

Which leads me to a final question, if your A&W Mug does not sell after so many listings what would you do with the item ?

Since last night this wind / Rain storm is kicking my tail end. The power and internet keeps popping on and off so hopefully it stabilizes tomorrow and I will update then. Sorry!

I am just now getting caught up with my "Day Job" I will be back in the morning with full reports and some new topics for discussion. I really appreciate your patience as I work through this.

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items ) LOT A
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.70 = $6.04
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $3.09 = $5.65
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $13.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95 - $59.95 - $9.59 - 0.00 - $9.20 = $41.16
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95 - $34.95 - $5.59 - .00 - $6.95 = $22.41


Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 15 items ) LOT B
1 Hot Dots Pen $2.00 - $10.95 - $0.00 Threw this in as a bonus for the large order
2 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
3 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
4 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
5 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
6 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
7 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
8 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
9 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.65 - $5.62 - $3.77
10 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $1.70 - $7.99
11 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $1.70 - $7.99
12 Cantebury USA Rugby Jersey $7.00 - $34.95
12 Star Wars Han Solo Hat $3.00 - $49.99 - $43.95 - .$7.03 - .35 - $3.20 = $33.37
13 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $24.95 - 24.95 - $3.19 - $0.00 - $5.60 - $16.16
14 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $27.95 - 27.95 - $3.99 - $0.00 - 5.60 - $18.36
15 Philips DVD player $5.00 - $29.95 - $29.95 - $4.19 - $0.00 - $5.60 - $20.16

In addition to these new sales my son and I went out and doubled down on 500 phone cases for iPhone Xs Max for $100 Trying to sell them singly but the competition is to tough. We are now selling them in lots of 25 for $60.00 each. Out of the 20 lots we have we have sold 8 already. we are getting +/- $40 each.. so that will be $800 for a $100.00 investment.

I would consider the journey to be completed. I will let you guys know if and when I sell the remaining few items. The video games are a bit of a shocker. The more expensive one is approaching 200 views. I have raised the price, and lowered the price and NOTHING.. AND there are other listings selling that are more and less than mine.. I really am at a loss.. this is the bit about eBay that confuses me LOL

this was one of those things you see it, and your like "WOW". So we were doing research on designer mens dress shirts. Brooks Brothers to be exact. and there was a listing that caught my eye. Down at the bottom of his listing text they had a line to the effect of "Free shipping will be sent in a poly bag. If you would like to upgrade to having this shipped in a box, you can select the Priority Mail option for an additional fee."

was pretty straight forward. I looked at some of their other listings and this seemed to only appear on the finer clothing they were selling. The Brooks Brothers shirts they sell and now we sell retail for $140 and up.. we got a slew that retail at $260. so these are the type of clients that may appreciate such added service.

So I got into the details of adding the additional shipping and it is very straight forward. In the create listing screen under shipping there is an option to "Offer additional service" and then you select "Priority Mail" or what have you, and then it allows you to add a surcharge for that service.

In original listings case they were charging $5.00. However for us.. I saw this as a profit point. The box would be FREE - because I would order the right size boxes from USPS for free. I worked out the additional shipping charges to be around $2.00. So for each of these we "Sell" we are making an additional $5.00.

We have sold about 60 of these high end shirts at this point... 20 of the orders have included the box upgrade. it is literally a free $100.00.

we are going to roll this out across all of our clothing listings starting next week and see what happens.

I will be back tomorrow with a post on box presentation... stay tuned!

Hope that Helps!

Guys,


Insiders Tip. Antique Plows! eBay (link) and spring markets in Nashville TN. Another tip: Real estate realtors > Rural homes.


Last year I sold a dozen or so to realtors from my flea markets and yesterday I received calls from three of them placing orders for as many as they could get their hands on. They stage the plows prominently in yards of rural homes for sale.


Hope it helps.

No sales on the last remaining items. The expensive video game just hit 200 views today with 2 watchers.. the baseball game.. Ill just strike that off as a loser, but keep it listed out of spite - hahaha the Coffee Mug.. there is hope here it has gotten a number of views in the past week. I think its up to 30 total. IT WILL SELL hahaha.

Lot B's Rugby Jersey.. again a bit of a shocker. not many listed I thought it might go fast. It only has 9 views and I have double checked all the SEO factors to make sure the keywords and category stuff is correct. Just not a bunch of demand.

With the seed money from this project ( the $40.03 ) aside from the listed items here in this thread.. those funds have bought 4 phones. 500 phone cases, a collection of coffee mugs, 2 iPads, I Amazon fire, and an amazon reader.

With that seed money as of TODAY, day 21 we have NET NETTED $1306.00

My son has taken an interest in coffee mugs. I will admit they are easy to photograph and easy to list. we are currently building up a collection to create "His Store" that will sell coffee mugs and coffee. In this process he figured out that coffee cups come in all shapes and sizes and a mega ton of graphics.

We have a toilet shaped mug.. a few more than many different Star Wars mugs, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, stainless, porcelain, ceramic, and glass. Once garage sale season kicks in we should be able to source the snot out of these.

we currently have 40 of them. I want to get to 100 before we open a store and we should be able to source online inventory to about 1000 by the end of summer ( I guess / hope ) and hopefully have a stash to get us through the winter.

Mugs we get from Goodwill are generally .49 each. We have found a few at Target for $1.00 and some others at Walmart for $1.00 as well. I suspect with garage sales we should be in the .25 to .50 cent range. and they sell anywhere from $9.00 to $24.00 and sometimes a bit more.

My input in this project has been to add coffee. I have always wanted to make a "Savidge Coffee" brand and this might be the way to check that one off the bucket list LOL

The "Problem" with coffee mugs.. there is a very fine line between 16 oz ( 1 pound ) with box and packing material and 1 lb 2 oz's Meaning the 16 oz cups will ship 1st class for $5.00 basically everywhere vs 1 lb 2oz's that cost $10.86 to ship to the west coast. and $7.00 most every where else.

We use a shipping included or "free Shipping" model in our pricing. Its just easier to list, and when you get multiple item purchases there is no back and forth with sending an invoice for combined shipping. time is money and that really can be a time suck. So this is a variable that mom and I need to figure out.

But none the less he is totally stoked with the idea of having product we don't sell very often.. my little boy wants to be his own man LOL . He already has a store name. has an idea what he wants his pictures to look like. he is working on laying out a website and grabbing ideas for logos and overall appearance.

And all this is to the point I had a conversation with one of our graphic artist today as they asked "Since When did 5 have clients?" and I responded "HE is the client, so put me as billable time" and they just laughed.

I will for sure keep you all up to date on the progress of his project.

As for the talk of seeing exactly how much I can make in a year with eBay. I am going to continue with this and really push it to some limits. I am seeing already that 2 hours may not be enough time, but if all else fails I will bring someone in to operate this and their salary will simply be an added expense that has to be covered to reach $100,000 Profit in one year.

I am a big fan of presentation. Down to how I dress every day. what my company vehicles look like. the Overall architecture of the outside of my office buildings and "Storage sheds". What my employees wear. Any paper work... Really anything and everything. I simply pay a lot of attention to the small details.

ALL of our boxes are white. For each of our stores I have printed labels with the store logo that is affixed to the side of each box. Inside each box is another round logo sticker for the customer. The packing material we use is also ALL white. Along with the sticker in each box is a hand written note saying thank you for the order.

one of the things we have started in the last year is to shrink seal all electronic items before they are packed. We had 3 instances were the package got wet and the product was sent back as defective. It was very clear from the photos that were sent to us as part of the claim, the box got wet. Those 3 items in particular were sold at a total cost of $600. So basically any investment we can take to ensure that doesn't happen again is in my eyes a good one.

You don't have to goto the extreme of heat shrinking the items, just placing those items in poly bags is more than enough. At scale, the shrink wrapping is cheaper in the long run.

Any time we get a multiple item order we do our best to throw in something a little extra to show our appreciation for the order. ( going back to the day 11 update you will see there was an order for 20 packages of Hot Dots, and we threw in a hot dots pen. We also threw in a number of coloring books ) We wrap what ever that may be in white wrapping paper of course hahaha and we use either red or blue ribbon, depending on the store colors.

We have gotten feedback comments that range from "The packaging alone was worth the order" "The item was great, the packaging was insane" "A hand written note, who does this?" "It was like Christmas opening the box" and so on and so on. The EFFORT is worth its weight in gold. Its the little things like this that create return repeat customers.

eBay or not, Repeat customers is the name of the game. This is why I keep mentioning identifying yourself as a BRAND, having some amount of consistency in what you sell, and then going over the top to obtain customer satisfaction. If you have spent any amount of time reading this forum as a whole, you will have seen the message If they buy once, they will likely buy again.

When it comes to collectibles and the like.. THAT can not be anything closer to the truth. Women will buy more shoes. Guys will buy more dress shirts. Mother will buy more educational items and toys. dads will buy video games and car stuff.

SO I think its rather important to take something as blah as ordering something on eBay, and giving them an experience when they get the order - unlike anything they will ever get from 99.9% of other eBay sellers or at all from Amazon. I call it after the sale USP ( Unique Selling Perspective ) building. why would you buy from us? to get another killer box! hahaha

Hope that Helps!

Next post will be about how to ensure you are running a Business and NOT a tax nightmare!

big storm blew in today got about 7 inches of snow... did "boys Breakfast" and my son being 10 does not technically have a phone yet. He has a tablet... and we are eating and he is over there flipping page after page and I say "Hey what are you looking at?" and he gives me THAT look... and I am like oh why did I ask...

He then says "what do you know about sublimation printers?" and I am in my head thinking dear god I have created a monster. He then says "That place you buy stuff from for the t-shirts and stickers has one on sale" So I then ask "what do you want to do with it?" and he again gives me that dad are you that dumb look and says "make my own coffee mugs"

So its bad enough already... he then says "You can call china and get them to put "Savidge" on the bottom of mugs right?" and at this point he about got a chunk of sausage across the forehead because I almost spit it up from laughing. And just in case anyone is wondering.. NO, I do not just call china LOL

So after that fine breakfast.. we stop in at Goodwill and bought 6 more cups Oreo another blasted edible arrangements mug, an Amsterdam mug with a bicycle on it, he liked the "Subject matter", Godivia Chocolate mug, a mug with a cool 50's graphic that says "I don't have hot flashes, I have short private vacations in the tropics" again it had nice graphics. and a couple others.

Mom lost it on the Hot Flashes mug - thank god she wasn't eating sausage... especially after he pulls it out unwraps it and say it has a nice graphic.

We found a "rocketfish" speaker wireless thing for $3.00 that sells for $100. A few more DVD players, 2 new in box ( 10.00 each ). A sony dream machine for $5.00 and a pair of Puma Ferrari car driving shoes for $5.00 that should sell for $75.00. - Give or take another $200+ haul for less than $40.

Because we were kinda sorta snowed in I was watching over some facebook groups and lined up a bundle of "Miller Specialty Tools" they are car repair tools that are super expensive 11 pieces in total for $150. Should get about $800 for them. They are worth far more, so we shall see how I work this one. Also set up buying some sound equipment. "Digital recording interfaces" a lot of 4 for $200 and the each sell for $200. I will probably loose one to little pauls computer set up so should get $600 on $200 staying close to the 3x rule!

This ALL comes down to paper work. You can get as fancy with this as you want, but I will lay out a bones basic setup that will get your through.

So lets start with what you will need. 36 envelopes A Receipt Book, and a pen. pretty easy so far. If you want to get all cutesy here you can get 3 sets of 12 envelopes in different colors. The idea is you need 3 sets of 12 envelopes 1 for each month that will hold receipts for product purchases. A set for Monthly ebay / paypal transactions ( this will include sold price, paypal and ebay fees and shipping fees.) The third set needed is for any additional expenses such as packing materials

so ill break each of these down for you.

Set One

ALL of your COG ( Cost of Goods ) for the month. Store receipts, printed out receipts from online purchases. and hand written receipts from garage sale purchases, for craigslist or facebook groups type purchases - what ever. EVERY SINGLE ITEM needs to be accounted for.

On the outside of the envelope you want to place the TOTAL cost in say the lower right corner. I would also add up by source a monthly total and list those out on the front of the envelope as well.

Set Two

How much you sold things for and how much it cost to sell them ( IE paypal fees eBay Fees and postage fees. you can get this information from paypal: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Member...qaq-p/26518032 This specifically shows you how to do this at the end of the year, I suggest doing this MONTHLY.

On the front of this envelope you want to provide a total for each PayPal, eBay, and Total Sales. You will also want to include the number for any purchases you made on your ebay account. so those can be removed.

Set Three

This is all of your expenses. IF you bought things on eBay for your business IE Boxes labels etc, print out the same report as above and highlight each of those transactions. You then want to include any receipts you may have from Dollar General or Walmart or where ever else for that month. IF you buy stickers and the like keep this total separate as an "advertising expense" IF you "Promote" listings, this is a ADVERTISING expense as well, and you will have to goto the ebay report for this ( https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archiv...s/td-p/2699287 ) its not as nice as the paypal one.

Probably being a small business.. I would suggest writing down how much your cel phone cost. ( this becomes a business expense ) Your internet bill ( a business expense ) write down your gas, electric, and water bill. You should be able to write off 10% of each of those if not more ( CONSULT an accountant to understand that one a bit better )

From here at the end of the year once eBay sends you a 1099 you will have all the paper work needed to do your taxes. I can not suggest this enough.. get an accountant to do this for you. The expense is a 100% write off the following year. In the realm of "self employed" 100% write off equates to FREE

So that's the EASY method. you can quickly get into receipt scanners and quickbooks and after the 6000 year learning curve get a pretty decent workflow going LOL - but seriously for a part time deal, the envelopes take maybe an hour a month and its done!

Hope that Helps!

As always questions and comments are absolutely welcome!

So today being Monday was an expected goose egg. I have a feeling the next couple of days might be pretty stellar. we have some pretty decent higher end items with a lot of interest and watchers that I just did a slight ( 5% ) price drop to get them to move.

Other than that, today I will split into 2 separate updates. My sons path, and my own.

Starting with the sons path... Daddy bought a Sublimation printer today with a Mug heat press. you can see the model I bought here: https://www.uscutter.com/Sawgrass-Vi...nter-Mug-Press I am a B I G fan of UScutter I have bought almost all of my vinyl cutters from them, and I buy every last bit of my vinyl supplies from them. I bought 144 mugs and white boxes in addition to the printer and heat press.

So my son was off school today for a snow day.. sad really there was only 7 inches.. but that's for another post in another section of the forum LOL So we went and had lunch and then went in the office and I explained my philosophies of buying new equipment. the philosophy is basically this.. how fast can you pay the thing off.

So we spent roughly $900.00 and we have 144 mugs. each mug cost $1.52 the sub fil and the nice white gift box takes us up to $2.00 how many do we need to sell and for how much to make $900.00. And he was like lightening fast with "Dad, all the cost is included in the $900, and we need to sell 100 mugs for $9.00 each.. what, do you think I am in 4th grade or something?" I mean really what can you say? little snot.

so we agreed that $12.00 each was a fair enough price. and then he was like "Now what?" and I said "your tail needs to get on the phone son, and sell 100 mugs." he just looked at me. So with a little coaxing and a couple of advance pre calls I got him to make some calls to sell his Mugs. we, I mean he.. sold 100 mugs in 5 calls ( it took me 7 calls to line all this up )

The young man wrote orders for $1200.00 in a little less than an hour, and told each of them that he would bring a run sample before we ran the order. And they say cold calling is dead HAHAHA. Its so easy a 10 yr old can do it <snicker>

So with the initial set of orders there is a $300 profit, which will be his seed fund for his business. His equipment will be paid off. For every mug from that point forward they will basically cost $2.00 each to make. I think I am going to have to "call China" and order more mugs lol.

So my side of this. did some research on the auto tools I am buying for $150 tomorrow... and I think I might get close to $2000 out of them, will know for sure tomorrow. I have also lined up a pretty big deal for 2000+ automotive bearings for $1000. Need to sell a few things to get there.. but it will happen. All the bearings that I looked up that were visible in a photo the guy sent me.. they are like $15.00 + each. this could be a HUGE deal once it is all said and done.

That will probably be the point I bring someone in. Will probably talk the wife in taking on a third person to help her, that will also work on my stuff for me. to make sure there is enough work to keep them at least part time.

Depending on how the tools move over the next few days I will be at over $2000 in 30 days for sure and could be pushing $4000

The items that I have to list are starting to stack up a bit, 2 hours is probably not enough time in a day to scale this up. I kinda under estimated that a bit. but I could see 2 hours a day pushing that $1000 a month number pretty easily

That's all for now.. and if there is anything anyone would like me to talk about let me know.

Got the car tools yesterday. there wasn't 11 of them there was 25 ( for the same price ) Took them over to a buddy of mine to have him look at them. Aside from 2 of the sets, they are all in brand new never used shape. He decided he needed 10 of the kits and handed me $1000 and was hugging me for such a great deal. ( he said the price not me LOL - I would have probably been less ( based on comps on eBay )

Still have not sold those last few items.. actually it was rather slow today now that I think about it. I did my 2 hours and listed a few things - A couple 4 pairs of shoes, a Homer simpson clock, some electronic items. I think 8 items in all - which for 2 hours is a pretty good amount of stuff.

Have a couple of buys set up for tomorrow 2 more ipads, a 4 and 2 should be about $175 in and $500 out for those 2 items alone.

I did run and get boxes today for the tool kits so I can list and pack them up, so will start listing those tomorrow I hope. They should list fast only like 3 photos or so each and they each have the original documentation in the boxes so I don't have to search around looking for text.

Other than that not to much going on. OH The mug printer and heat press will be in tomorrow. The logos are with our graphic designer to be cleaned up a bit, and hopefully 5 doesn't get burned learning how to use the thing tomorrow! LOL

I think I have mentioned already I am not keen on this part of the process. I am the have a list, stick to the list, get in and get out type of guy. wandering around and looking is not in my nature at all. My wife... yeah she is all about it.

so in this thread we have focused completely on goodwill. It just seemed to be a universal location that many could goto ad the variety of product there is more than enough to meet many peoples interests.

But clothing etc I think can be a bit fickle you either have the right pieces, or you don't. If you don't.. then you are sitting on them. Luckily 9x12 bags with shirts in them do not take much space. BUT its hard to turn profit on items that are not selling.

Phones and iPads and the like sell FAST, but you cant get your hands on them with any amount of consistency. I am actually on a pretty good roll right now, but the entire month before, I didn't buy a one.

So I have my wife here tonight ( everyone say Hi to Erin! - She says hi everyone ) So she has some "Picks" that you can walk into most any of these store listed, pay FULL RETAIL for the item and at least double your money.

Walmart in the mens / boys section has a display of graphic Tees usually like 6.88 or 7.88 or something. this shirt I am about to drop a link is one of those: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...LH_TitleDesc=0 it is the red and black one. ( We think in our store it is $6.88 ) She says they have this out almost year round with new designs 4 to 6 times a year. PAY we will say $7.00 - 3.00 in fees .35 for a poly bag and like $3.50 in shipping. and you sold it for $19.00 - so you make like $6.00

She is not saying buy the store out.. there are not enough solds on this one to do that, but check the other designs. But buy 3 to 5 of them. List it once.. sell it, relist the next one, and a relist takes moments of your time

BUT over Christmas they had Fortnite shirts, and the same price gap was present, and the solds indicated buy all you could. - as in 40 a week every week for 6 weeks. ( my jaw just dropped ) she is saying she sold 240 shirts for $6.00 profit each across 6 weeks. Then she ads, they had 2 designs, and she did the same for both.

Know whats hot right then and there and act on it.

So here is another one from home depot

here is what you pay for it: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Sc...0150/204663546

here is what it sells for: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fsr...ete=1&_fosrp=1

I can attest for the fact that these go on sale. the gap is not all that much now, but at times there is a gap. But its the idea.. finding things easily and always available.

She says Marshals Nike football shoes ( spring training is right around the corner ) is pretty good right now. $6.00 a pair for Nike Vapor Speed Our Marshals have UGG's shoes that she has been buying. ( $15.00 a pair selling for $69.00 ) Nintendo 64 button down shirts for $12.00 sell for $49.00. They also have a Naruto shirt that she bought 50 of for $2.00 each, they will sell for $19.95 each.

The bottom line is to buy low, and sell high.

Erin suggests trying to find a balance of items that sell quickly - "In" t-shirts with items that sell consistently but maybe not as often such as NFL watches, and then items that have greater profit margin that may have to sit a bit to sell. like China or the like you buy for next to nothing and ha a greater value on eBay. we recently sold 6 salad plates for $75.00 that cost us $3.00 with $18.00 shipping.

Another place to source.... tophatter.com. we use this kinda often. it has its moments. it is a quick auction site 2 minutes for each item kind of thing. we bought over a course of a month like 100 NFL watches. I don't think we ever paid more than $3.00 for a watch. the minute the bid got over that we stopped bidding. the only PROBLEM with this.. they ship from China, and it takes 30 days.

When we first got the watches we were getting $24.95 each for them, and then the market saturated and NOW the few we have left we are selling for $14.95 and we are selling 2 to 3 a week. But we sold say 80 of them in about a month month and a halfs time. and even at the lower sales price we are within the 3X profit model.

So anyways.. The potential to buy and make profit is kinda everywhere if you look I guess. I think more than anything its just being comfortable pulling out your phone and scanning stuff in front of other people.

well that will do it for tonight... any questions I will answer and If I cant I will bring the wife in!

Thanks for reading - and I hope it helps!

Hi Erin. Nice to meet you and thank you for your help.

Another Pancake Sunday is right around the corner. Which means yet another visit to Goodwill is scheduled for tomorrow. The wife and I broke away Thursday and met the mother in law for lunch and a "quick" stop at Goodwill to use here discount! LOL what a buy that was.

1 Red Corduroy Ralph Lauren Pants $4.00 - $69.00
2 Red Corduroy Ralph Lauren Pants $4.00 - $69.00
3 Red Corduroy Ralph Lauren Pants $4.00 - $69.00
4 Orange Corduroy Ralph Lauren Pants $4.00 - $69.00
5 Orange Corduroy Ralph Lauren Pants $4.00 - $69.00
6 Ralph Lauren Dress Shirt $3.00 - $34.95
7 Ralph Lauren Pull Over Jacket thing $4.00 - $79.95
8 Sony DVD player $4.00 - $29.95 - $29.95
9 Cole Haan Dress Shoes $6.00 $59.95 - $57.95

So like $37.00 to buy have yet to only list the 2 items that have sold already Which puts us at like $59.00 before cost of goods - so we are $22.00 UP already with that lot with another $450+ in sales to go

I have found in my 2 hour work window on average I can list about 10 items per day. I have actually been pretty consistent with this for the past 27 days. Our store currently has 144 items listed. ( 50 of those were dropped in before we started this thread to give a base of product to start with.. they happen to all be non selling kids shoes in case anyone is wondering )

As it stands the total value if everything were to sell tonight would be $4458 (about $800 of that is the shoes )

The reason I bring this up.. in the next few days I am going to be sharing my 30 day totals.. and as of right now.. they are scary. - I didn't meet the goal of this thread, I CRUSHED IT

What I just shared above is I will have listed on average 10 items a day for 30 days ( 300 ). I started with 50 there are currently 144 items listed. So we have sold 156 items The average sale price with the existing stock minus the shoes is about $41.00. Is this painting a picture yet?

so The boys new Journey. He is about done with his 100 Mugs. its a good thing I got extras! LOL I figured they may be a bit of a learning curve in this. i think he has messed up 10 so far. out of 75 that's not so bad.

We sat down and had a whole lesson on copyright today in terms of what he can print and what he cant.. he wasn't to happy with that LOL. But I think he got the idea. He has "a design or 2 he wants to work on and he will discuss those with the graphic artist on Monday". He is so funny

So how will his path be different than mine. Very much the same in a lot of ways. His profit margins will not be as high, and the level of product listed to sustain consistency I think will be higher. UNLESS we can find those pockets of HOT where there may be greater interest.

But the greatest factor I look at.. Forget the money... right now, he is greatly enjoying what it is he is doing. He was up until 11 last night ( Friday ) pumping out Mugs. he is allowed on weekends to "work" for 4 hours a day ( 2 hours on week days ) he did is 4 for Saturday, and should be done with his production tomorrow ( after pancakes )

So that will lead me to my next post ( below ) Discussing how to create consitency!

I will admit to some degree I kind of "cheated" when I started this thread. A) I knew I was going to, B) its not like im really new at this, and C) I knew enough to at least stack some of the odds in my favor.

Starting out you obviously don't have these luxuries. but what was it I did that stacked the odds? I dropped 50 listings onto my selling space before I started. As simple as that.

I know I have said this already.. but eBay's overall sales conversion rate is .5% It then stands to reason if you have 100 items listed you will sell ONE item every other day or 15 items a month. Jump to 200 items listed, you then will sell ONE item per day or 30 per month.

jump this to 1000 listings, and you are now selling 5 items per day or 150 items per month. Using the average listing price from the post above of $40.00 IF had 1000 items listed I could expect to Gross $6000 a month.

As much as it is "What" you are selling, its really more about "How Much" you have to sell. Sure fill your store with DVD players and iPhones and iPads and video games and you could list less and make more.. but starting out, that simply is probably not possible. BUT as you progress and your buying power ( IE cash in hand to make purchases ) becomes greater these things do open up.

As an example.. Not to long ago I shared that Erin was taking my beloved truck and monster trailer to pick up product. 25% of that trailer was New old stock DVD and DVD VHS combos. I would have to double check, but I believe there is not much left of the 500 or so she bought. THIS is buying at scale.

But for now.. starting off, scale is finding and buying 5 pairs of new with tags Ralph Lauren Corduroy pants. Or the 1 or 2 DVD players with remotes you can find.

Erin has been talking with our friends that resell stuff from across the country. she has been compiling a MUST buy list - that I will share here in a day or 2. Things ( clothing is most of it ) that SELLS FAST. A sneak pick at an item on the list.. Mens jeans overalls - a COMPLETE shocker to me. Looking at Womens overalls.. its about the shorts version and just a few brands Gap, Revolt, and Urban Outfitters.. AND there is a little more room for profit with most other brands for PLUS sizes.

You also have to keep in mind there is a need to balance your items with those that sell fast with those that may take a bit longer to sell but have greater profits. This ultimately is what creates the CONSISTENCY in sales. Getting to 100 listings and selling 15 items a month.. getting to 200 items listed and selling an item every day VS frantically tracking down your next item to sell because you have nothing listed.

AND if you follow the model of this thread.. aside from the $40 in.. buying that product to get to 200 items isn't costing you any more than that $40 you started with. And you create a machine that spits out dollars EVERY DAY.

Like always.. ask questions leave comments

Curious:did you ever try to data mine those listings?

I'm thinking about doing it as a stepping stone to further my knowledge on data mining.

It looks like the perfect pet project as the ebay sold listings are probably available somewhere in nice clean .csv format.The knowledge gained would probably translate to other retail industries as well.


A quick google search did turn up some interesting stuff but on the other hand, the improvement might really be too marginal to warrant the effort. Or it might be only worth it at a very large scale. Or it might be reinventing the wheel.


Your thoughts?



The comparaison is not entirely moot.


A lot of video games (espescially RPGs) are about optimizing something (loot, rare items, gold,DPS, HP, etc).



This thread kinda reminds me a lot of Diablo actually


if you tried selling something without having it appraised first you could sell a 10 000 dollar sword for pennies lol.

[DELETED]

In realty, I think the post emphasizes for beginners is work and a small reasonable investment is involved that has the potential to start, sustain and build a profitable online business.

So lets step back to the basic premiss of the thread... the portion I am actually tracking. HOW to make $250 in one month. The truth here is I am making $100 a WEEK right now - with the items I am tracking. We are talking 2 visits to goodwill, listiing the items, and packing and sending them out. THAT is about a 4 hour work week. THAT is $5200 a year.

What appears to be work is the added hussle I am throwing in here. I really want to see if my son and I can grow this concept to $100,000 in one year.. and do it with a reasonably minimal amount of time spent.

For ME..the reality is I am doing this with my son...I want him to take over this, AT THE AGE OF 10 or 11. Can you seriously imagine a 6 digit income as a TEN YEAR OLD? Working MAYBE 20 hours a week?

SERIOUSLY a freaking 10 year old can do it.. so can anyone else.

Getting out of bed in the morning requires work..and I think this thread is showing with the LEAST amount of work possible..YOU CAN MAKE money... AND if you have any amount of desire to make MORE? this is SCALABLE.

And for the sake of this thread... I am not even including the use of any other platform to sell your goods.. cuz there are a ton out there.

And here is a TRUTH that MOST do not understand... if YOU WANT recurring no hassle income.. there are 2 ways to get it. Buy rental property, or invest in the stock market.. and guess what.. to get either of those, it takes work

I am placing my son on a path to be a MILLIONAIRE by the age of 20.. invested correctly the young man would never have to work another day of his life. RETIRED at 20 LOL... or better yet FREE to do what MAKES HIM happy - JUST LIKE HIS FATHER.

I basically "work" 18 hours a day EVERY DAY.. and ENJOY every minute of it... I seriously can not remember the last time I was like "Ah I don't want to go in today" - and if I could think of the last time, it would have been 30+ years ago when I had an actual "Job" and was working for someone else.

I wanted to comment on this but was waiting for the right time.... It will tie in very nicely with the post above.

I don't know if you all know.. but you can go over to paypal and get each of your clients e-mail, address, name, and phone number. Building out a spreadsheet ( or database for those that can ) and inputting that information in with what a person bought size color etc can come in handy.

One of the advantages to having an eBay store is the ability to create discounts be it multi item discounts or single item limited time offers. One of the other cool features is "Codeless Coupons" so take a look here: http://cgi1.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...rgetedCampaign So what this does is allow you to offer discounts from your Facebook page, or your Instagram page, or even an email list. Creating a separate code for each one also gives you the ability to TRACK which is working the best / worst.

So now you have this spreadsheet full of buyer information and you just got a slew of X in. You can go in and create a coupon code for X items. Then, you can search your spread sheet for people that have bought X and send them a personalized email with the coupon code as a thank you for being a previous customer.

Depending on the quantity we buy, I have gone so far as to send post cards with the promo code for what ever item it may be. Again your best audience is #1 people that have bought from you before, and #2 people that have bought similar to same items. AND its all right there at your little finger tips!

tryinhere I really do appreciate the input you have put in on this thread.

Hope that Helps!

She says we try to break even. and we let them sit for 30 days and from there we pull the listing.. and hope we only have one of them, and then at some point try and relist for another month to see if there is a difference. If THEN still no sale.. it goes to the donate pile.

The game.. we are $2.00 in, we can just take the loss.. OR wait for more sports games and put a bunch together as a bundle

LOL thanks.. helps to be long winded... and let this be a demonstration in the ability to write 2000+ word posts hahahaha

I am going to be a day late getting this out. Today has been one of those days. Its currently 1:15 am and I have another 4 hours to go probably. 2 of those is listing my 10 items for the day on the eBay store.

I will update Little Paul is ok'ing graphics and the like for his Mug Store. We have amassed about 30 or so to get started with and will start that up probably Thursday or so - he has a big Social Studies test to study for.. so not much work for him the next few days.

We did our rounds today and delivered the custom mugs. everyone was really happy with them, and 2 of the clients dropped the idea they would call little Paul with more orders.

So I will do the "final" 30 day post tomorrow.. but I will keep the thread going with the larger goal of amassing as much as possible in 365 days.

See you tomorrow!

Oh my goodness. well to start...I "thought" I could manage 2 hours of my day towards this project, and THAT I have been able to do with the exception of 1 day out of the 30. the added posting here has been my achilles heel. Super easy for me to pop in when time permits and reply to something.. not so easy to come in on a schedule and create a post.

I am in NO WAY complaining or making excuses.. but to some degree this project has given me a better understanding of the struggles new folks to internet marketing and trying to up hold to content schedules must face. Granted.. that is literally 25% of my day - content creation, but adding an aside has been difficult at times.

So lets get past the griping LOL... WHAT A MONTH... it really has been a lot of fun... more so than I thought it would be ( I really dread shopping ) Actually sitting down and using our implemented systems for inbound goods, creating a listing and shipping the item out has given me a very hands on experience. there have been a few changes in what we do, and how we do them.


The whole thing started out with making $250 in a month. and I found that to be a very easy number to obtain. It transitioned at some point to exactly how much can you make? and that turned into 2 hours 10 listings a day. This is where things got interesting. its simply not so easy to list 10 items in 2 hours. that's 12 minutes per item.

I would literally set an alarm with my google assistant for 5 minutes for product research. There are still items I have not listed due to the fact I cant find anything of like nature to create a decent listing with. a man / woman can only know so much, and you get me into womens Lauren Ralph Lauren pocket book wallets, and I simply have no clue other than the obvious. and the OBVIOUS could be the difference between selling for $30 vs KNOWING something is worth $100.00.

Its sounds trivial, hey just make the quick $20 and move on.. but something that I share and is read often here on the forum is knowing ones value.. and I think that same philosophy comes into play with Things The FUN part of this whole process is LEARNING all the little things about something as common as a womens wallet, or a pair of shoes. And then joining some of the many Facebook groups for resellers and A learning new stuff and B sharing what you have learned.

A fun little example.. on one of the groups someone posted a fork rake looking thing. From my experience with my grandmother as a child and having to learn the appropriate silverware and place settings thought the item was either a bacon fork or Sardine fork that sells for like $150 ). It was later posted with picture examples the item was actually a Corn on the cob rake that sells for like $350. Obvious Vs Knowing.

So 5 minutes of research ( in 90% of the items ) and then 7 minutes for pictures and filling out the listing page. It moves pretty quick when you have everything kinda right in front of you. A stack of 10 items, the packing material, quick access to your photo area, a computer, coffee ready and waiting and bang bang bang. In the next day or 2 I will lay out kinda step by step my process for this.

So over the past 30 days, 10 days as just listing the items we bout and at the 11 day mark is when I went into the 10 items per day thing, and I missed one of those days. In total I posted 212 items. the original 13 and then the second set of 15 and a "few extras". I have 140 items in the store 50 were seeds - so we sold 102 items in the last 30 days. My current "if we sold everything tonight" value for the store is $5388 - the $800 for shoes so right around $4500.00 so that averages about $40.00 per item.

My total for the 102 items was 7962.00. There was a total of 1114.68 in fees. Shipping averaged about $6.25 per item so $637.50 packaging came in about $50.00 So my total expense of selling was $1802.18 So before cost of goods we are at $6160.00 ( rounding )

Of the 102 items 18 of those items were higher ticket and NOT bought at goodwill. the remaining 84 items were indeed bought at goodwill with an average price of $6.80 ( $571.20 ) The other 18 items ( ipads, Iphones, tools etc ) came to $1591 my total cost of goods was $2162.00

So we are left with:

Total Gross: 7962.00
Total OP Expenses: -$1802.00
Cost of Goods: -$2162.00
Leaving a NET NET of $3998.00

A little short of the 3x I was shooting for, but not to bad. So the number is only half the story.. how much TIME was involved?

The first 10 days was about 8 hours total ( first 28 items ). the remaining 20 days was 2 hours a day x 20 and about 8 hours of sourcing time. So 56 hours for the month or if you are inclined to know the hourly rate - $71.39 an hour

I think it is VERY important to note at this point. ALL OF THIS came into being with ONLY the initial $40.00 investment. I think to be a bit fair I would say that it really took $60 to start this. that would include a roll of white butcher paper. a roll or 2 of tape and some cushioned bags and boxes from Walmart. I already had those things.

There have been some cool changes with eBay in the past day or 2 that I want to share once I run through them a bit, and there are some other topics I want to go over.. and like I said the first will be my "speed process" for posting 10 items in 2 hours.

Really appreciate everyone reading this, and asking questions and leaving comments. means a lot to me! thanks!

So a quick reminder for those of you that may not have read through the whole thread. I have a "Day" job, and spend only 2 hours a day with this eBay business. Time is obviously of the essence for me. and this method is an example of that.

so going into this we should have an understanding that at the time of purchase you should know there is a active listing for the items you are going to list, and there "Should" be a sold listing. When you are beginning.. you want to ENSURE there are B O T H ( Selling AND sold )

So my work flow is like this. I take the pictures on my phone. Would MUCH prefer to be doing this with a DSLR but the truth is, it takes about 3 times longer.. and as I walk through this for anyone familiar with a DSLR workflow will see where this method is much faster.

So i take pictures. I then sit on my desktop, I will open up word pad and then pull up a search that will include the item I want to sell. I quickly look at a few listings and copy description text into Wordpad. I pay attention to the other listings photos, to ensure I got all the shots I need. I grab at least 2 listing descriptions and depending on the quality, maybe a few more. If the quality is not there, or you feel they are lacking information, I would then go out to google and try and find the item listed on the Manufactures website for further details.

Ok so Now I go back to active listings and find a title of the same product I am going to list that appears close to what I want to list. I then click on that listing and right below the images you will see "Sell Now" Press that, and a new page pops up. ENSURE the listing has the correct category. I then insert a dummy image, and go over the Item Details section tand make any additions or subtractions as needed.

So from this.. I create a Title, I then COPY the title I use for the listing in the top line of the description. I then create a brief description, and then I am looking for "Features" and "Details" I dont regularly list both, but will do one or the other. If you look at ALL of my listings you will see they are VERY consistant in both Color, text size and general amount of information An example listing looks like:



A PAPAYA! fan favorite, Small Tassel Pouches are a vibrant carry-all. Pretty enough to use as an everyday clutch and durable enough for organizing makeup, jewelry, art supplies and more. Small Tassel Pouches come with a coordinating luxury tassel and lotus charm which can be removed and used as a key chain. Pouches are made using a durable oil cloth-like material and have shimmering, illustrated satin linings. Wipeable linings and exterior.

• Length: 10 inches
• Height: 5 Inches
• Depth: 2 Inches

Thanks for Looking!


FEATURES and DETAILS Anything that a person may need to know to make a informed buying decision.

You will notice in this I also offer FREE returns.. so my descriptions are that much more important. I dont want to pay to ship the item back to me. I want the person buying to get exactly what it is I have described, and that match what they are looking for.

I would say the 2 most important variables beyond the Title would be the images should show the item in its best light, BUT also show any flaws. and 2nd would be the description. making very clear what they are getting, any measurements what have you.

Ok once this is done.. I PACK the item in the box or envelope it will ship in. I measure it, nd weight it. I add that information in the appropriate location. There are a few reasons for doing this.. when it comes time to ship the item.. all you have to do is print the label smack it on the box and you are done. Another thing it does if you happen to allow for the international shipping program.. you get preferred international listing rank if your item has all of this information included.

So now the pricing. I obviously look at active listings, but I will ALWAYS let SOLD listings guide me.. what people WANT and what items are ACTUALLY selling for in many cases are 2 differnt things. Keep in mind you COG ( Cost of Goods ) fees and shipping here to ensure you are in that 3X range or better.

I then list the item when I am done. Now from here, I fire up the phone and the eBay App. I click "Home" ( top left drop down ) then "Selling" I then click "Active" and then click "sort" ( upper right ) and select "Ending Latest" and the item you just listed should be right there on top.

Click the 3 dots on the right and "Revise" and go right to photos. You want to remove the dummy image, and then from the images you took in your phone upload those. Make sure they are oriented right, and in the order you want them to appear. get back to "Listing Summary" and scroll down to the blue bar "Revise It" select that and the follow up buttons and your listing is done.

IF everything is easy easy I can list an item in 10 minutes or less doing this. IF there are complications.. cant find the item... cant find a decent description.. what have you, I actually set the item to the side, make a quick post it note what info I need, and move onto the next one. I do my very best to post 10 items a day.. I have missed 4 days well only 1 whole day, and the other 3 I ran short of the 10 but still listed some. I have YET to hit 200 active listings There are days I am selling more than I am listing.

any questions? comments? Greatly appreciated! sorry this took so long!

DAY 45 Update

So I have hit kinda a rhythm in thelast 2 weeks or so.. less of a hussle and more consistency in sales. I am averaging about $200 a day over the last week. Today as an example I sold 2 pairs of shoes ( $13.00 each ) a DVD player ( $5.00 ) and a mug ( $.49 ) for $199.90 in total sales. Fees were $24.00 shipping and supplies were right under $20.00. So COG ( $31.49 ) + Shipping ( $20 ) + Shipping ( $24.00 ) $75.49 So a profit of $124.41 puts me just short of 4x. the last week has been right in par with this. And I don't see it changing.

To start I was very slow and steady and then kicked in to greater profits greater profits.. and the thing with that thinking is, that can kinda dry up. And I knew that to be the case. iPhones as an example.. I go through spells I can get 3 or 4 of them like in a weeks time and then there are periods like now.. not a one to be had anywhere

If you are in for the long haul.. you want this to REPLACE say a regular job, you have to find consistency over quick cash. Anyone that has looked at my store can see that the overall price I am selling goods for has gone up. A lot of shoes... and most of them I paid $5.00 for the pair with an average asking price of $50.00

If my average day right now is $125.00 in profit x365 that would put me at $45,625.00 per year. If I get to an average of $200 a day that number jumps to $73,000 and if I can get to $275 consistently I will hit my $100,000. and honestly I see that coming.

SO you are probably asking, so how exactly do you get from $40 to start to $125 a day let alone $275. And the answer is REINVEST and list new items DAILY. If you have the time to list more than 10 a day, you will get there faster.. if you only list every other day.. you will get there slower. Bottom line... If you don't have it up for sale, you wont MAKE a sale.

So here I am at day 45.. my first month I pulled $4000.00 in PROFIT. I did have some iPads and a few phone sales this month. Some of the more expensive tools sold.. still haven't sold the original baseball game or the mug or the wrestling game... but 15 days into month 2 and I am sitting at $4200.00 profit and looking to finish the month at $8000.

That's $12,000 in 60 days from Goodwill and FB and Craigslist.. with I hope this weekend being the first week of garage sales... things could get interesting. I am right now stocked up on "Steady" to list, and looking to add to steady and shoot for higher profit potential items from the garage sales. Maybe $8000 will be a low number by the end of the month.. time will tell.

Thanks for reading.. and as always questions and comments are appreciated!

I saw the thread that prompted Gordon coming here to ask the question... "Is there any doubt in your mind, you could easily make 5k a month, full time with all this buying and selling?" and I am going to answer again in a more IM related tone.

IF I had any amount of sense about me.. I COULD have done a few things differently here. I mean this is an internet marketing forum right. I like to think that reading the content that has been shared here indicates in the slightest I might actually know what I am discussing LOL and that this was not so fly by the seat of my pants, but somewhat methodical.

So, Yes I had a plan.. I had an idea of what topics I was going to cover, I kinda knew what order to share those topics... Almost as if there was a rough draft for this thread. That same rough draft very easily could have been made into a WSO... It could have a blog behind it, I could actually have an IM product, that I created and was selling WHILE I was sharing on this very thread.

I probably very easily could have charged $39 for the eBay course. I could have set up a facebook group.. built a list and turned around and sold a product on how to set up a Mercari store.. A posh store, A guide for selling on Craigslist. a guide to selling on FB marketplace. how to start with amazon... and the list here could go on and on.

And then here is the issue... In the world of the main board and IM in general. people are thinking about the first and fast dollar. They decide they are qoing to get rich online and choose a SINGLE product in a niche they really know nothing about. They build out some landing page, and then the struggle begins... getting traffic there.

But look at the last paragraph, and then compare that to those above it... NO plan.. vs PLAN. NOW vs Long Term with the for sight of added product, and building of community... and the KICKER, no idea how to get traffic vs Using this very forum, following the rules, and having a very targeted audience to buy my product, join my list, and get sold to over and over.

So not only could I make $5000 a month selling on eBay.. but I could very easily make another what $2000 a month? sharing the process and knowledge as I am doing it.

I did a bit of scanning for fun just to see how the logistics of it all would work and I came up with a few more qs:

What is your rule of thumb for used items?

What do you do if there are no barcodes? I noticed the clothes didn't have barcodes. Do you cherry pick and search them manually?

E.g. I manually searched for "jack and jones jeans shorts", but the search term was too generic and so I didn't find that particular model for those shorts. I am not even sure how I would proceed.As of now,

the plan is to bribe a friend and offer my help as taxi as she shops around.

Are some thrift shops better then other? I did see some people online state that wealthier areas had better stuff. Makes intuitive sense.

Brainstorming a bit here:

I wonder if data would be useful to know what currently is in vogue instead of relying on guts feelings or domain knowledge. Maybe it would be worth it for example to take a whole bunch of twitter posts in my area, and see what brands appears most.


Splitting hairs?


Dunno. I have to admit as with most other math people, I make for a lousy engineer and I sometime am guilty of going for fancy solutions rather then practical ones. My current plan is build a locomotive and then keep going until they stop blowing up. lol

I have been super slammed with work the past few weeks.. the 2 hours with eBay has turned into 3 and 4, im sleeping like 3 hours a night right now. I REALLY REALLY want to do an update at the end of the month.. The numbers and Growth have been ridiculous!

Still have not sold those 2 video games or the rugby shirt or the blasted mug. STILL have not hit 200 listings in the store although I have listed over 200 this month alone

And a bit of a teaser.. we cracked 5 digits in profit this month!

Thank you all for reading! and thank you guys for participating! LOVE IT!

Hey man, just saw your post in the Offline section about this.

I have a question. Where else do you find it helpful to source things to sell? I've gone to my local Goodwill excited and that place is a dump. Maybe I just don't know what to sell or something but 90% of the people in there were clearly looking for things to resell. People had binders and such. Most had nothing with them because either there wasn't anything or it was so picked through. Maybe I'm just in an area where a lot of people do this and the competition is high. I thought video games might be a cool idea and there was not one in the entire store. It was a lot of junk furniture, books, junk glassware/dishware (maybe some of that is worth something IF you know enough but this isn't a high income area), and just lots of clothes, many being very cheap things that you might find new at Walmart.

We're getting a Goodwill Outlet soon where you can buy things by the pound BUT these are things that didn't sell at other stores. I hear the competition is fierce at these places as well.

I can sell things on ebay. Been there, done that. Finding any sort of reliable sourcing can be the difficult part. I have capital. I had a friend that bought pallets of liquidated goods that sold on ebay but he had a lot of issues with returns and such and eventually got shut down.

We have flea markets that are open on weekends, peddlers malls that are open every day. You can't put up yard sale signs in our town anymore (yes, really) so they aren't always easy to find. I'm not much of a shopper, kind of hate it, but I'm sure once I got a feel for what I was looking for it would help. Going into a place with a lot of stuff, most of it junk, on that treasure hunt where you don't really even know what the treasure is you're looking for, is kind of overwhelming.

I really like the idea of specializing, kind of like your son. Being the "mug guy" or whatever. That makes it even more difficult though because you're more limited in what you can find and sell.

You seem to be the sourcing king around here. Then again, you also know a lot about a lot. I've thought about putting an ad up on Craigslist or something saying that I buy certain things and seeing what it brings me to help with sourcing. I'd love to buy things online somewhere and then sell them back online on ebay but I don't really know where to source things efficiently. I can travel to other Goodwill's but they will have to pay off in order to make the time spent worthwhile.

What say you, oh guru of this space, (and by this space I mean the WF because you can pretty much drop knowledge in any forum here, lol).

First of all, my post asking about sourcing things was legit. So I appreciate the gold dropped here. I'm looking at getting involved in this. Unfortunately some of the niches I know about are difficult to really source in. For instance I have always liked watches but they aren't easy to find and flip. I had a friend that did actually found a good watch at a Goodwill (can't remember the brand, not obviously good like Rolex that is well known but it was good anyway) and flipped it. That's a very rare find though. He's tried since.

Second, I also just loved this thread and wanted to see it continue. I check here, this thread in particular, as I miss these kinds of threads in the offline forum. We used to have such great discussions of these types of businesses and services offered to offline businesses. There are so many ways to make money.

Thanks for the great responses. Bring more if you have them. I'm sure there are niches like those window treatments that few people know to even look at. I find it all fascinating.

I've actually been looking at their watches. I was able to locate them on my own but thanks for the additional link.
Yes they have some cheap ones, often that don't work, and that have little to no actual resale value. I've seen a few that might be worth a shot but simply because something is available and is cheap doesn't mean it's a good buy if you can't sell them. Certain brands will sell more than others. Keep in mind that used watches with bands that have been sized will limit the audience unless they come with the additional links, which isn't likely. Men's watches seem to move better than women's (in my experience selling them). Add in shipping and they also have some handling costs listed separately.

It's not just a matter of dropping $100 on watches because they're there, it's a matter of buying the right ones that will have sell through at a reasonable profit for your time.

I saw a couple watches that might be decent deals, nothing great, from my experience, but I admittedly didn't go look each one up. Most are fashion watches and that's a market of it's own.

This is like the perfect part time thing... I am literally just over 2 hours a day every day.. this last weekend I worked a bit more. I tried to use Goodwill exclusively - if you follow the 3x ( plus ) rule... it really doesn't matter where you get stuff from. for ME Goodwill is easy... its open til 9pm its open every day.. I There is no condition of weather, and every time I go in there, there is new stuff. But by all means garage sales and facebook marketplace and what ever else.

BUT.. learning the ropes, I would stick with Goodwill to start. you can use your phone with the item in your hand ( its a bit rude to do this at a garage sale ) The overall key s learning what BRANDS to look for "59FIFTY" and "TOP of the WORLD" sports hats or "Fox Racing" hats are an instant goto. they generally get premium dollar, and sell fast.

Electronics sell R E A L L Y well. I have recently gotten into printers. have always stayed away because of the size and shipping.. there is silly money to be made. I find printers that I buy for $10.00 ( AT GOODWILL ) that sell for $150.00 almost every time I go in. That's basically turning a $10.00 bill into a $100.00 in a matter of days. I started this 2 weeks ago.. and in 14 days have sold 10 printers.

But ask away any questions you may have!

This past month and something has brought my family together in a whole lot of ways. My son has a far greater understanding of what it is his mom and dad do.. and how differently we do it, BUT how well we work together to accomplish a goal - despite our differences, he is understanding how strengths and weakness' come into play. I hate shopping.. my wife hates all the technical stuff.

The competition would be fun... I actually found an item today that sold for the largest percentage we have ever sold. Im in goodwill with the boy scoping mugs, and I go by mens belts every time I am in there. It always amazes me how many belts they have and not a 1 has a label or a brand on them. I have until today ever only seen 1, and it was a tommy Hilfiger belt.

we are talking I have never seen as much as a Dickies belt, or a George belt E V E R. So I was walking by and there was a belt with a big old gold "M" as the buckle... so I pick it up and there in tiny tiny letters is "MCM" so I look up "MCM Belt" on the APP and about fell over ( you can type it in Google, it will give you the same effect as you look over to the right where the shopping panel is )

So I brought the thing home... did some mad research on it.. made sure it wasn't a fake and listed it... for RETAIL - $295.00 - SOLD IT in 30 minutes.. and the best part? I paid .99 minus 25% ( grandma 25% off Thursday LOL ) Erin is fit to be tied! LOL

Your welcome... I think the whole its harder today comes from those that have been on the platform and don't understand things like the APP that puts actual numbers right at your fingertips. I belong to a few FB groups on the topic, and the level of cluelessness is kinda amazing actually. And this is from what I would consider seasoned veterans.

The amount of questions asked about what is this? and what is this worth? are amazing to me. There are times I buy stuff I am not sure about value on... but the pieces have an obvious value. A very recent example I bought 4 gold drivers from the 60's that are in un-used condition.. which is great in un itself, but what throws it over the top is the Playboy logo on the top of each one. There is basically NOTHING on the net to compare them to. There are some putters out there that start in the $200's but no drivers and no irons.. AND my set of Woods have matching serial numbers. I am going to venture on a $1000+ action in my near future.

So how much time do I spend... for the first 30 days.. in terms of what I shared on this thread... Less than 12 hours I believe was the final number. Keep in mind like Goodwill is open til 9pm so you can swing by after work or after dinner or at lunch. I am finding with mine, later in the evening seems to be a bit better. Far less people in there, and they are stocking the shelves.

I maybe spend a 1/2 hour a day looking at FB marketplace and a real quick glance at Craigslist every day. More towards Thurday Friday than say Monday Tuesday ( I dont look at the first part of the week. )

So looking at my wife and her team... they work 40 hours a week listing, packing, shipping and might spend another 20 hours shopping all together. But the big lot stuff she gets, generally someone calls her and says "Do you want to come look at this?" Word kinda got around quick #1 she bought, and #2 she paid cash. she literally walks out of the shop with 10K, when she goes shopping / picking. When it comes to shopping tho, they are not the norm LOL

My sons mug store.. less than an 2 hours a week would be all that would be needed. when you think about being so focused on what it is you are buying / selling.. you can walk into a number of stores real fast, look at the mugs and walk out. There may be something to say for that?!

Hope that answered your question, and again thanks for liking the threaad!

[DELETED]

We do have similar things here where I live (or at least did have, not sure if it is still going but it was more for antiques and or collectibles) but not for your general stuff.

With the slow down in the antiques and collectibles in particular and with the introduction of things like fb marketplace I think it has made it harder for things to survive like that here but I may be wrong.

Just to go off track to the off track to speak, I did do regular markets etc for a long while and would be similar in a way of sorts, and the very same rules apply if you wanted to make money as mentioned right at the very start of this thread.

1. Supply 2. Demand 3. Quality 4. Quantity 5. Do steps 1 -3 give me a good score and Can I buy it at a price that allows me to make money.

Very often at the markets I would take home a good payday and most other stall holders would be complaining they were not covering costs, so in that I think the same principles would apply to a peddlers market per se and allow you to walk away happy.

Edit

Would I do it now ? NO based the reasons as GordonJ has eluded to being traffic / people eyes on product, probably a better chance online but again that's tough if your peddlin rubbish these days.

We have indoor flea markets, and big places, one is at hartvillemarketplace and if you visit, you will see how HUGE it is. Others have been in old abandon grocery stores and places that used to be stores, like JC Penney's. My most recent experience was with jewelry in a secondhand store that sold a lot of antiques.

But, what you describe, is just about like RACK JOBBING used to be back in the day. Only instead of a booth, we just had space. I sold KRISTEE PRODUCTS stuff, like Defender of Women, and Dyna-Glaze, Mircacle Polishing Cloths...so, back in pre-historic days.

Yesterday, my daughter and I went to a Books A Million store, at about 11:30 AM, and there were four cars in the parking lot, we thought it was closed and maybe opened at noon...but it was open, and when we walked in we doubled the number of shoppers...and were outnumbered by employees. I mention this because BAM is now a combination of book, magazine, TOYS, trinkets, and SPENCER'S GIFTS type stuff.

And a section of USED books. I could tell some of the sections were "racked jobbed". Not a bad decision these days.

More to your point, yes, I've got quite a bit of experience with this, and today, I wouldn't do it (unless*) too much running around and a high level of trust. You are asking someone to take money, and they have to be paid for doing that, THEIR overhead, and such small foot traffic these days would make me gun shy, not enough profits BECAUSE of the Internet and access to the myriad of wholesalers/importers who can be easily found.

Savidge4 has given us CURRENT, up to the minute data on what is working now. Sure his wife goes out and he does too, now and then, to SHOP. That might be the only reason to leave the house. I was talking to a neighbor who had a case of Ramen noodles and a case of Lance's crackers delivered to his door by AMAZON. Said he paid less than Sam's club or BJ's and got them delivered FREE.

Our local mall (ghost town) the Chapel Hill Mall is in the news again, mainly because they didn't pay their electric bills for awhile. What was once one of the busiest shopping areas in the country, is today a skeleton shadow of what it was (the BAM store is in this area too).

Please let us know if you TRY this again, and if you keep as good records and track as the Savidge folks did, you could even have a little product to sell, or at least to post here.

Good luck if you do try it. I would hope you would prove me wrong, but I think it is going to be much more difficult than it was when you were doing it before.

GordonJ

* The exception might be a consumable, think LITTLE DEBBIE'S SNACKS, or something like that the shopper could buy while shopping and consume once they leave the store. Or a specialty product which has big profits.

I have a neighbor I recently found out has a spot in one of these.. and he thought he was doing pretty good. I showed him what we do, and you could just see the look of distain in his eyes. So I said "Hey lets go look at your booth and see what you have and maybe how we can make this better for you." reluctantly he said yes.

He was just short of giving stuff away. I actually took a photo of one of his items a pretty cool coffee table that he redid and put it on facebook, it sold for 4x what he was asking for in the mall - within 20 minutes of it being up there. After that he was a bit more open to suggestions LOL

We actually went in 2 weeks ago and pre built a new booth for him, and took it in and installed it, The display is pretty nice.. changed up the items he sells.. coffee cups hands down were the best addition. buy them at goodwill for .49 and even at the mall booth is getting 7 to $10 EACH. Its just one of those items where you can look and say "Dad would like that" or "Oh, that reminds me of johnny"

Kinda the kicker of the whole story is he was on board with transitioning to new items but knew nothing about the remodel. I worked out a deal with the owners of the mall not to tell him bout all of his high ticket items that I bought, which I then sold on facebook, and used the difference to pay for the new booth display. Once we were done, I called and asked if he could meet me there and the look on his face after he walked past his booth about 8 times wondering where the hell his booth was priceless.

In the weeks since his ROI has gone through the roof.. his wife brings over cookies like every other day LOL and he is so beyond happy its not even funny.

So if you are thinking of this... the appearance of the booth is a big deal. White slat board walls, click wood floors in a really light color black rod iron with light wood tops tables and displays - look up Gap store images to get an idea.. and COLOR walk around the one you are thinking of getting into and walk from booth to booth.. they all are just grey and muted and one runs into the other runs into the next. Separate your booth from the others.. crisp clean white with colorful items!

Hope that Helps!

The app I use is the one by eBay

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...obile&hl=en_US

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buy-...282614216?mt=8

Getting started with Items you already have is a GREAT place to start. Any questions at all just ask.. ill get back to answer them for you!

So you write in your Journal in like regular English, but come here and write all balestra? ROFL

I have more than one store... we have a phone /tablet loaded with the eBay app for each and every account we have ( 6 in total ) and when you get a sale you hear a "Cha Ching" sound.

You also get an e-mail that's states you have made a sale as well.

You can also see by logging into eBay in the upper left there is a bell icon, and it will indicate a sale has been made there as well.

So depending on how connected you are... the more opportunities you will have to KNOW you have a sale LOL.

Hope that Helps!

PS - the "Cha Ching" never gets old.. well except at maybe 4am when it wakes you up, but not really even then LOL

I use the handles, names, avatars one gives us to use here, and some of us use our real names, others some form of it, but it doesn't matter. It is pretty easy to tell the real deals from the regurgitators here.

savidge4 is a successful serial Entrepreneur who operates several businesses, and somehow, has mastered the employee/ out sourcing time management that tends to eat many lunches if allowed. His math skills, as applied to IM are fantastic, and since most of the time, we tend to operate on small % of the potential pool of buyers (direct marketers that is)...

any edge, any advantage we can leverage to beat the competition or increase our bottom line is appreciated. But it takes a price of time to get EDUCATED and the patience to apply that education in the most profitable of ways.

We Warriors are lucky to have some guys who have stuck around, and give us their perspectives on what is WORKING NOW.

This thread is as good as and better than most PAID information on how to use eBay to profit and his son, savidge 5, 6 or 11 (who knows how many there are? HA) is getting an education which will bode him well throughout his life.

I haven't done anything with eBay for a decade, but I'm excited to get back to it as my paltry amount of time allows me to.

And you too Jeffery, are one of the Warriors who delivers good food for thought too.

GordonJ

PS, Got all my azz kissing in for the week, no more to follow.

Never have done the drop ship thing... wondering what amount of time is involved in listing an item and then the after sale process?

For me selling 4k and making $300 is well kinda lack luster if for example you could buy a set of car rims ( wheels ) for $200 and then sell them for $1200 and NET $750 after shipping and fees.

Me personally I would spend the $300 on product to sell. I will assume the time spent listing and post sale processing is the same. the only difference in TIME is the actually buying of the product, and the visit to the post office. - All of this hinging of course on location I guess? I know people in about 8 countries that do basically what I have done on this thread minus Goodwill.

The Profit margins are simply far greater if you can put your hands on the product.

And please don't get me wrong - Its cool that you are out there hustling... just wondering if you could make the hustle more profitable?

For those wondering "CL" is Craigs List. I get what you are saying.. but sourcing with CL and FB Marketplace is time consuming.. vs 1/2 hour 45 minutes at my local Goodwill. Granted not all Goodwill's are created equal. In the first month as stated in some early posts I was actually doing this and again looking at it then and looking at it now it was time consuming... I was checking for new listings Often.

Ultimately My wifes model is by far the smartest. Don't buy 1 of anything buy 400 or more. Basically when opportunity presents itself just go all in. Last year.. a few days after Christmas my wife bought 400 Ugly sweaters from Walmart for $1.00 each. after COG ( Cost of Goods ) fees and shipping etc we averaged $23 in profit per sweater ( They are all sold out by the way )

I personally do this same thing on an e-commerce scale and will buy containers of a single product. Last year happened to be Drones, this year is the first in 5 years running I never could put a finger on a trend to invest in - there just isn't a clear winner product this year... or maybe one that I believed in possibly - which to some degree is important in un itself.

The new rates I believe is 2.9% +$.30 With eBay separating from Paypal with the use of "Managed Payments" I do believe they dropped the rates - al of my accounts are "Managed Payments" so that's why I said "I believe"

We opened up a new store a few weeks ago and had no restrictions, and that was before we attached the new store to our existing accounts. So pretty positive here no restrictions.

For ME... in todays shipping environment USPS is the premium service. I think maybe ONCE has a package regardless of point of delivery not made it in 3 days. I do not or should I say have not used UPS ever once. I do use Fed-ex on oversized and heavy items ( car rims, speakers, and laser printers ) BUT with this I do leave the USPS option ( which is usually W A Y more expensive due to "Dimentional Shipping Weight" and has yet to be used )

Thanks for the questions! and good luck with your selling!

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So awesome to read!!! Means a lot, thank you. and then add on top you are "local" even better!

I hit the Spring St, Buckhannon store probably 3 times a month... one of my favorite stores actually - always interesting stuff. Have you tried the store in Elkins, on Stone Mountain Ln - by the Walmart? A totally different vibe TOTALLY DIFFERENT lol.

As I have kind of laid it out.. looking at comps before you buy is key. I have bought 3 duds in the last year and then some. one was the way to heavy A&W Mug, another was a purse that one of the metal clips that holds the strap broke, and the last was a "Charango" ( Mexican 12 string ukulele kinda thing ) that once I got it home it warped, as in like almost became a pretzel warped.

But knowing - or at least having a really good idea of what you are buying before you buy is just critical. I obviously watch a bunch of video's on the subject - and the topics of listing specifics and buying are rarely covered. I have concluded that most people that produce content for YouTube.. are buyers 1st and then they just sell to keep up their buying habit. You very rarely see people looking things up til after the fact - they are buying on gut. And that is not a business - that's the obsession of buying.

I will write a quick article right after this that may help a bit more with sourcing.

As a side note - because I know your market... pay attention to estate sales - the better ones in our greater area are actually in your back yard. And go haggle with the merchants downtown and the couple of thrift type stores over by the Taco Bell.

To give others an idea - Buckhannon is this small little town on the fringe of entering BFE. There should be a sign that reads "Last Gas Station for 50 Miles" as you head south on 20 LOL - but anyways Downtown is this kinda cross between millennial hip and the hood mixed in with a bunch of flea market booths with a 1940's backdrop - Brick covered side streets included BTW... just cool no matter how you look at it LOL

Not sure what the Original Poster is up to, but most likely when he gets a break he will chime in and answer your question. He was busy making the most out of the Covid-19 situation the last time he posted on the board.

However you may want to go back and read the whole thread. You may find the answer to your question. Plus you can learn how to make a full time living off this method.

By enlarge the "articles" within this thread remain valid and true with the exception of the time of listing that is now just 30 days.

eBay is booming... and has been since Covid started.

The only main alteration I could make at this point is to the idea of creating separation between you ( a seller ) and others selling the same product. USP ( Unique Selling Perspective ) in my opinion is absolutely critical.

Free shipping is still king... Pointing out you are a US seller with US inventory is probably the #1 point to be made. I point out on each and every listing on most of our stores that the item is in stock and located in WV. We then point out that we ship the same day ( before 3pm ) and the next day at the latest. 90% of our feedback refers to our fast shipping.

To make this even more clear... I recently was involved with a group that had some members that have been financially devastated with the whole covid thing. I took each of them ( there were 9 families that were effected ), handed them $50 and we went shopping... In all 9 cases following the overall guidance of this thread and obviously some amount of personal time with me, my wife, and our team.. they are ALL financially in a place they have never been in their lives.

eBay is by far hands down no questions asked the easiest place to learn and better understand e-commerce in part or whole. Everything you need to succeed is built into the platform. I STRONGLY believe that anyone with dreams or desire to get into e-commerce should ( if they are able ) open an eBay store, and sell items as described in this thread. There is profit to be made and the education from the experience is priceless.

Hope that Helps!

Posted a question in this thread here - https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...nothing-2.html About Ebay payments.

The question was about getting paid by Ebay. Just a update, getting paid all the time now. The last buyer paid on a Thursday night. Friday I shipped the package, this morning Ebay ( Monday) Ebay initiated the payment.

The biggest change from the past as seller. The buyer would pay via Paypal the money went right to the paypal account. You could use the funds to buy shipping. Then Ebay would withdraw fees at a later date.

Now Ebay handles every thing. Once a auction ends and the buyer pays. Ebay sends a shipping notice, print out the shipping label. Ebay withdraws the funds from the bank account. Then once it is mailed they send payment a few days later, with all fees deducted.

Note - Still do not have a Ebay store at this time and selling via auctions. Liquidating personal belongings that have been sitting for years.

.

There are some changes that will occur starting the first of the year in terms of selling on eBay. Fr me personally it will simply be business as usual, but for many others there will without question be an adjustment.

To get a better idea of what the changes are visit my thread here: ( https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...le-2022-a.html ) and that will give you an idea of what is going on.

So here specifically I want to focus on how these changes will effect YOU selling on eBay if you live in the United States. The short of it is, if you sell over $600.00 worth of stuff on eBay, at the end of the year they will be sending you a 1099-K ( tax form ). And that means you will be liable for the tax associated that income. This is a change from the making $20,000 AND having sold more than 200 items.



It sounds a bit stressful, and I get it, but in the end you probably will be in better shape TAX wise at the end of the year than you think.

There are 2 ways to structure yourself. You can be YOU the individual and report your earnings ( and expenses ) on Schedule C of your tax form OR you can do some very basic stuff like getting a DBA business license and a business bank account, and to maybe get added benefit of this get a State Tax ID. I personally suggest the 2nd method, hopefully for some reasons I will be able to explain below.

Why a business vs just doing it as personal. In terms of TAXES, the difference between personal and business for the IRS is a "Hobby" vs a "Business". As a business there are broader tax deductions, and it is REALLY REALLY worth the minimal effort to put yourself in that situation. The BIGGEST advantage is in many cases going from being able to take proportional deductions ( as a Hobby ) VS full deductions as a business. The vehicle credit is a great example of this.

Now you have yourself in 1 of the 2 "Structures" you have to start keeping records. This still applies: ( https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...l#post11490099 )

The envelope method to start is awesome, My son uses this method for his store and it makes my work at the end of the year very easy.

A brief run down of the things you want to track:

• Gross Sales
• COG ( Cost of Goods )
• eBay Fees ( Insertion, Final Value, Promoted Listing )
• Shipping
• Shipping Materials
• Advertising ( insert cards - and some added I will make a post about later )
• Keep track of the time and expense in cleaning items to sell ( Its a business deduction )

Again use the envelope method and at the end of the year you just add up all the numbers and place them where they need to go on the tax forms - supper easy.



deductions deductions deductions. As a business... your car/truck at $.56 a mile ( in 2021 ), Advertising expenses, your Phone, Internet, a portion of you home or apartment expenses IE Electric, Gas, Your Rent or Mortgage ( home office deduction ) Here is a link to turbo tax to maybe study up on some of this stuff: ( https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips...ions/L5RueYPVS )

Like i said at the top, you in better than theory in the end should be better off doing this legit, than what you were doing before. Depending on your tax situation, Single, Married, Head of household, there is a "Standard Deduction". and you can take that for sure, but as you fill out your taxes you might find that your business expenses are of greater value.

So... just some basic information.. what to expect moving forward, if you are not prepared for Jan 2023 I think its going to be ugly myself for many - Just educate yourself and when in doubt keep any and every expense so your not caught off guard.

I hope everyone had a great year, and that 2022 is even better. I know for myself 2021 in terms of reselling is going to be REAL hard to beat.

For a guy like me, its easy to say the world is about to go to crap in a hand basket. I am sure most would think, what the heck is savidge4 smoking... OR if I am lucky, people might wonder... if that is the case, what is savidge4 going to do to pivot to take advantage of the end of the world.

Lets start with watching this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLKg24IVuhc
I am a Graham fan, I like how he can lay things out.... In this video I pretty much agree with what he has said, but there is I believe a bit of a gap. "The Fed" is looking at "inflation" and it was thought that the supply chain bottle necks were the root cause...as time has passed - the bottle neck is still there, BUT There has been no correction in the downward spiral of the market, So... "The Fed" is going to increase interest rates in an attempt to hold back inflation.

I believe this is a mistake... I believe current inflation is as Graham points out is "Supply and Demand" I am sure most dont know but Feb 1st is the beginning of China's 12 day "holiday" aka Chinese New Years. Basically, everyone in China migrates to their family home ( the largest human migration pattern in the world btw ) and the entire country takes a 12 day vacation. A 12 day vacation in China means no boats leaving ports, meaning the ports in the States all of the sudden have a 12 day period to play catch up.

Regardless of the immediate effect of this occurring "The Fed" is going to increase rates, and actually do the opposite of the desired effect and inflation will continue. The effect of Supply and Demand will be replaced with the effects of higher interest rates - Prices will continue to go up.

So where does that leave us - as resellers? I suggest in the drivers seat. The population at large will be strapped for cash, BUT still buying, just buying "Smarter" or should I say, "less expensively".

My wife buys season end closeouts... Right now we are selling way to many winter boots and coats, that were bought in years past. We are looking for the end of "season" to go in and buy bulk of the same items. Last year was amazingly good, like kids $60 coats for $5.00 that we are right now getting about $40.00 for. Which is great... but to follow our 3x plan we could come down to $27.50 free shipping. Do you see where this is going?

There is this line... inflation creates higher prices... and the line is the point that things get to expensive that people stop buying, and at that point supply and demand kicks in because no sales equals increased supply with less demand, and the prices will drop drastically. BUT until that happens, if YOU can buy and sell at 3X and remain below 1/2 cost of new, people will be out there looking for deals.. we are without question seeing this already. As things are getting worse, our sales are increasing.

Historically when the stock market drops as it has, there is a 3 to 4 month gap of inflation or increased prices. I am speculating that this run may be a bit longer in nature June to July I believe will be the bursting point towards deflation .

Reselling right now for basics... boots, shoes, I would start thinking youth soccer, winter clothes, spring jackets - BASICS and maintain the 3X, and you will do very well.

I haven't fully binge watched this guy yet... its kinda on my list of binges to do, but haven't gotten there yet. I did however watch this video #1 for the title, and #2 the videos I have seen have been pretty good.

3 Ways to Make $200 Dollars Daily on eBay - YouTube
He is very much into Niche selling... and to a degree I get it, there are some absolute advantages to doing this. However in the video he talks about his Sourcing time... and I think because you are specifically looking or 1 type of thing and 1 type of thing only... you are greatly increasing the time needed to find those items.

We specifically look at the math and nothing else... do we have the ability to pull 3x out of the item. He suggests a profit number.. $10, $20 etc. And again i think this can be limiting in a sort of way.

Knowing that for every $1.00 I throw into product is going to bring back $3.00 at a minimum is in my mind just a simple easy way of knowing if a product is right for you.

He does volume... and I have no problem buying one of something.. and we also buy bulk of things. He talks about in this video about having the product come to him... and yes there is a point that as a reseller you have grown to the point, where you can start calling wholesale houses and just get a feel for what they have.. they WILL start calling you, if they know what you are looking for... we now source a vast majority of our inventory this way. A phone call, a price, and we drive off and pick up a truck or trailer load of inventory - its nice and easy.

Hope the video helps!

So I have been watching more and more "Daily Refinement" and I ran across a video from a few days ago.. his eBay account was suspended - as in shut down forever suspended. Once I watch the video.. it made more sense - and he knew better.

eBay Permanently Suspended My Account - YouTube
He says it in video after video... $10 to $50 common items... And never brings up $1.8 Million in 6 months with $20,000+ sneakers - Just straight up insane actually-- and then he mentions in the video the profit margin wasnt that great - OUCH.

To cut some of you off.. this is in NO MEANS another example of why you should not use platforms... Understand what can make this happen - and it more than appears he understood exactly - but did it anyways.

The last 5 yrs of videos that he produced... it really is gold... he had /has a system and strategy for everything he does. Should be REAL interesting to see how he adapts to his current situation.

Would that be friday through monday of a holiday weekend? Would that weekend/holiday affect traffic on ebay? or not?

In regards to eBay there is a bit of a trick of sorts. If you are a "Top Rated Seller" and offer Free returns - meaning the seller pays the return shipping - the trade off for doing this is you can dispute any negative feedback and have it removed.

I can say that last year we had a total of 1 negative feedback placed on us, and it was a "for parts only" type of thing, so we were not offering returns on the item - so we did not qualify for the above stated trick. We were well within our right to not refund the customer, nor did we have to accept a return due to the reason for return the customer used to process the claim... but after his complaint was posted we replied with the fact we would accept a return on the item - but they could not return it. - made us look good.

I have always suggested to get the bad experience delt with first, and finalize between you, the platform, and the customer the issue and the resolution. THEN you can go in and leave a response to any feed back. And NO, you do not want to bad mouth the buyer, and depending on the resolution you may simply respond with "Customer was refunded" or like in my case where the customer couldn't anyways.. I responded "We will gladly accept your return"

To dive off the deep end in the middle of things and get mad is just not a good idea.

Since we are on the topic of Feedback... ever thought of adding feedback to positive feedback? We don't do it in every instance but we do maybe 10% of them. "Oh Im glad you liked it" or "I was shocked how fast that got to you"

I very much stay away from "Hope to see you again" or anything like that... it goes from a genuine response to one that more than appears to be sales related.

A pet peave of mine is Holiday e-mails... On Holidays on all of the assorted mailing lists I have both online and off we do indeed send Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years messages... like any other business right? The part we do not include is a sales pitch of any kind - as in no check out our site... or 10% off NO, NO, and NO... From our families to your we wish you.... is in a nutshell, the message. The response to this is the greatest we get all year.

I work with some pretty big business' and one of my clients is a large retailor, we ran a "Merry Christmas" e-mail last year to 10% of their mailing list... no products, no sales pitch, no our store will open at X tomorrow.. no Shop online... a very direct message from the Pres of the Company wishing you and your family a Happy Holidays from everyone at X.

Just got a report yesterday that the 10% that got this message last year spent more money this last year ( that was trackable ) as in 4X greater than the other 90% combined. Not selling in some cases is more powerful than selling. So Positive comments on top of positive comments go a long way... not to just those that receive them, but those that actually look at your feedback and read them.

To best answer this we will use some math. eBay of all the platforms has the most transparent data available to figure things like this out. Regardless of platform you choose to sell on, I would suggest using eBay and the below tactic to give you a better idea of "market" for any given product.

So what we will need to do is goto eBay and search for "Brass Guitar Slide". The number we are interested in looking for is in the upper left of the screen ( when looking from a PC or Laptop ) # of results for X.. in this case 229 results for brass guitar slide. We then are going to look to the right upper corner for the word "Advanced" justto the right of the blue "Search" button.

From here we are going to ensure the search string in this case "Brass Guitar Slide" is inserted and then just below the blue "Search" button we want to check "Sold Listings" then click the search button. We are now looking in the upper left for 91 results for Brass Guitar Slide.

So we have the number of total active results ( 229 ) and the number of items sold in the last 90 days ( 91 ) and we want to add these 2 numbers together ( 320 ) and then we want to divide number of items sold ( 91 ) by the total number of items listed and items sold ( 320 ) and we get .28.

.28 is the percent or probability of selling this item in 90 days. .00 being the worst, and .99 ( or greater ) being the best.. this item does not fair well. If we look at the 91 items sold in the last 90 days we can also determine that only 1 slide per day was sold... hard to "Dominate" such a week market.

So lets get a broader picture of the market and do the same for "Guitar Slide" 1595 listed, and 596 sold Current plus previously sold is 2191 and then we divide the 596 by 2191 and get a sales probability of 27%... but things look promising with 6.62 being sold daily.

The one observation that I see is that "Aged" brass seems to sell consistently. IE soak the item in Salt and Vinegar for like an hour and then bake in the oven ( 450 degrees ) / or super heat with a propane torch and then cold dip real quick... takes a $10.00 sale to a $20.00 sale.

The market is clearly stronger in Metal ( stainless ) and Glass and Ceramic and painfully less strong for the likes of Copper and Plexiglass.

Taking an instant look at these kind of things this time of year in some cases can be misleading... It being Christmas and all, and it seems to me this would be a gift type item.. so I wonder if it performs less as we get on with the new year...

Based on what I am seeing here... if you and your ad efforts are selling 1 a day.. you might be at the top of your game... Demand is just not there... your odds of "Selling More" ( maybe 3 every 2 days) would be to get your hands on Stainless steel ones.

BUT if you are currently selling basic brass, looking into the aged look and getting more per sale might be worth the effort.

Hope that Helps!

1st your welcome. Ralli Roots - yes i have watched them more than a bit... when you compare a number of these people say Cincinatti Picker or Froggy Flips or the Ralli's or Daily Refinement - Daily Refinement hands down is the one to some degree or all in emulate.

Im a business guy, Im an engineer head... so my brain is programmed by percentages... Chris is NOT that - and its interesting.. every sale in a $10.00 bill, a $20.00 bill vs I just doubled or tripled my investment - Chris' is easier on the accounting end.

Shipping is a thing... With many of the postal changes you really want to stay with things that fit in a 12x12x12 box or smaller to start - I keep meaning to binge watch some of the guys that sell golf clubs and bats etc to see what has happened since the most recent increases - anything over 36" gets hit with a $15.00 added charge YIKES.

I say this over and over right? DOCUMENT.. what exactly is this thread? I practice what I preach. So you need to get in the practice of doing the same... and ding it publicly and not in some little notepad where the only amount of accountability is with yourself. From Self Employed / a JOB... to THIS... REALLY self employed.. is an "Exit Strategy" 1 post a day 365 days from now is AUTHORITY all day long - thinking this through in reverse where would you be if you started this a year ago? You cant get yesterday back... but you can make 364 yesterdays into day 365 that has you set for success - starting TODAY - Do something today, that will make tomorrow better.

so back to shipping... Poly Bags are so the way to go... 15 oz or less keeps you in first class postage ( $6.00 max shipping cost ) after that Fix rate Padded bags... Region A boxes ( anything over 2lb and under 15lb - ships at a 2lb rate ) IF you are going to use "Free Shipping" calculate your shipping based on its possible furthest destination ( look ata postal map I am sure i linked to more than once ) I literally use "90210" ( i am sure you get the reference ) and thats how I determine my "Shipping Cost" , now if it ships closer, Zone 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, or 2 I have an added profit center.

Taxes... watch this:

How to Do Your eBay Taxes in 5 Minutes (No More Line by Line) - YouTube
I share the envelope method.. since then eBay has made this process easier.. i would still employ the envelope method to track any "outside of eBay" expenses - super easy and once a month for less than 20 mins and done.

And seriously... any questions big or small - im right here!

I mean 3x PROFIT...buy for $10 sell for $46.00 ish $10 for shipping and 16% or roughly $6.00 for fees - $30.00 into your account after everything is removed

We do very few auctions - as in maybe less than a handful a year. Offers sounds like a good idea - "sounds like" but at scale it is a bit of a pain... someone is looking to buy and instead of "Buying" they make an offer. There is without question a gap between the time they click it, and the time you get it, and even as soon as getting it you respond - you have now locked in the item ( somewhat ) and the response back takes time.

eBay does allow you to set automatic accept and decline values for offers. For a period of time we did do this. What we have found over time is people are using software or something and coming in at almost exactly your defined bottom line - so just list it at that and call it a day.

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/increa...ease%20profits.

Keep in mind the above is from the perspective of eBay... Reading 1 and 2 "Make Sense" but again at scale 100 items with offers and your are answering offers. Another way of looking at this - does Amazon have this feature?

If you are going to do this... i would use the auto decline / accept and you will find there are no non payment issues - and holding of inventory for the 3 days and the need to answer back and yada yada Buy it, List it, Sell it, Ship it - anything less and we are consuming time, that adds up over time and ultmately costs money - this is how I see it anyways.

Start with this... If we are talking a "Business account" you need a minimumm $100 in there anyways - I know you are having issues with banks... As the system works.. someone buys something... the funds go into eBay holding and fees are removed and if you create the shipping label ( in 24 hours I believe ) that amount is removed and the remainder is then sent to your bank account on a daily or weekly basis. MY bank drops the funds the next business day - When I get a payout on Monday it is in the account Tuesday.. When I get a payout on a Friday it is in my acct on Saturday ( Most of the time ) banks and Fridays are weird.

So someone files a dispute... you have a time frame to accept the dispute ( 72 hours ).

THIS IS CRITICAL - Even at a LOSS - request the return. Keep in mind we use "Free Returns" BUT not all returns are "Free" - it depends on the "reason" for return... so sometimes it may cost you return postage and other times NOT. We dont deal with a lot of returns, actually considering the volume very few. BUT only 10% of the returns that are initiated actually make it back to us - resulting in a "Refund". I can only assume the customer is trying to basically get the item for free. So your willingness to just refund is a double loss.. the item itself and the shipping.

You accept the return... they ( the buyer ) then have to ship the item back to you and then you issue the refund once the item is back in your possession. By default you have given yourself a 5+ day window to ensure the amount needed is in your account. So the bank account operating expense should not be such a big deal - but again there is a built in buffer as needed.

Go watch a few videos of Garage flips, or Cincinatti Picker - even Rally Roots, and compare what they do to Chris. We parallel Chris'. Item comes in... research... photos... Pack it... Listing... and store ready to ship.

Obviously takes more time on the front end to "List" items... but shipping is pulling the item printing a label and closing up the bag or box and sticking the label.

The primary reason for this is we exclusively use "Free Shipping" and the expense of shipping has to be determined in order to set the price. I dont like to guess - you have read it on this thread and probably on other posts i have made - I like to take ME and my feeble little brain out of the equation - and insert DATA.

We take the photos and then where the label is going to be placed we write whats ON the package ( Size L Rossini dress shirt pink ), the weight and the dimensions. we then go over and List the item... and all of the shipping information is right therre, and then we place the item IN THE BOX OR BAG on the shelf.

One thing you can do is on the product title, you can put in a inventory number F-5 or something like that, so when the order sells you can see the product title you are pulling and the location is right there in front of you. - makes things easy.

Having watched all of the same people you have... and probably then some, Chris hands down has "refined" the system - follow Chris. It may seem cumbersome at first but in terms of work flow makes absolutely the most sense.

I smoke as well... So I am going to throw a scenario at you... you get some things to the dry cleaners and clean them up and do what with them? Your going to bring them right back in the house correct? and the house is full of? Smoke Smell -1 step forward and 2 back.

I dont smoke in my house... I dont smoke in any of my business facilities, and I dont smoke in my vehicles...

This plays out 1 of 2 ways... you disclose on each and every listing it comes from a smokers house - and lose sales OR you stop smoking in the house. It is literally that cut and dry. You live in Florida so I dont want to hear anything about the weather...

And please dont think for 2 seconds that I keep all this stuff in this room over here and we keep the door closed... you know better.

In terms of cleaning them up.. there are "Dry Cleaner" kits that you run in your clothes dryer - kinda like bounce sheets on steroids. you can also try the scent beads if you are washing the clothes.





Also, as much as "I am a total camera-phobic mess" when it comes to trying to be on video, I intend to start a website with the brand and post a transcript, reviews, article, or summary and try my best to document everything, and post a video daily on YouTube channel with matching Store, Brand, Channel, etc... *even if it is just how we hunt merch and source some of our stuff locally. Until I understand the platform enough to "give authority advice". (*I think that part scares me more than running the damn store TBH!)

Stickers are great if you are doing the "Document" thing - if not, they are an expense - follow?

Shipping boxes etc - again an EXPENSE - OR you can use USPS boxes FREE - and the ship to your door. With the exception of of oversized boxes for larger items we buy as needed the only 2 boxes we keep in inventory are 6x6x6 and 4x6x8 brown boxes we get from Walmart

We used to buy printed thank you cards ( gotprint.com ) Then I printed simple cards, and now? 8.5x11 card stock cut into 8 cards and hand write each one - "Thank you for your order!" "Have a great Day!"

The please contact part.. sounds somewhat counter intuitive... but you dont want to be side stepping the eBay process - THAT actually works against you... work within the system and everything is just fine. Now that PayPal is not a thing, you cant issue a refund unless its within the eBay system...

Like I stated before "Free Returns" does not mean EVERY return will cost you, and side stepping the eBay system means you will be buying a shipping label without the eBay discount - for a return you might not have had to pay for.

There is absolutely NO REASON to do anything that pertains to eBay - outside of eBay.

In terms of Negative Feedback... a side benefit of "Free Returns" is you cant get Negative or Neutral feedback - when you offer free returns

You can now directly do this from within eBay itself from the "Orders" then "Paid and Shipped" page. Works very well for my sons page, not so much for business stores... The sons is niched vs the business stores are just whatever we get out hands on.



In summary:

The dryer dry cleaning kits or wash them - but like about... all the effort to place them in the same environment - still an issue.

A side note here on the idea of storage building etc. you life in Florida... its humid, and cardboard and things in poly bags and clothes and purses etc not such a good idea... you want to store this stuff in conditioned space Loni from Shed flips used to storge and ended up with a pre built storge shed he put in his yard, and the space is conditioned and he has a video somewhere a few years back about the reasoning for the switch #1 was the monthly expense #2 was the loss of inventory due to mold and moisture etc.



"Managed Payments" are literally just that. You sell the item and the seller fees and shipping come out of those funds. They have removed all of the charges etc back and forth ( that was an accounting nightmare for a while ) so in the end you get a deposit of the remainder. Its way super easy once you see it.

A side note about shipping. My local post office closes at 4pm M - F and at noon on Sat. Any order before 3pm M - F and 11am sat, ship out the same day - Print the label close the box ship the box right? I also have a regional post office not to far away that closes 2 hours later on each of those days if its a big ticket item order I will try and get it out.

We ship EVERYTHNG if not same day - next day. Part of this is "Do unto Others" If I order something I want it fast... So If Im selling something, i want to ensure it gets shipped ASAP - the other part of this is again with Managed Payments getting the funds moved from that specific item before the payout happens and then there is a bunch of separate charges.

So If you sell something on Monday the payout would occur for that on Wednesday.. so if you have the label bought and printed before Wednesday that cost will come from your pending balance within the Managed Payment setup.

You can ship books using "Media Mail", so a poly bag and the postage. Looking specifically at these books listings I am seeing shipping from $4.00 to almost $6.00 per book so to sell one at $10 to $12 free shipping seems to be the place to be $11.49 maybe.

Nope... Managed Payments - buy and print the label the same day or at the latest the day after, and the cost of postage will be removed from the money that is being held prior to payment to your account

It doesnt hurt you in any way - in the case of a refund specifically if the buyer paid shipping vs YOU paid shipping, YOU are not out the cost of initial shipping. So in reverse of your logic - the cost you take on with free shipping in the case of a return is the expense of that shipping.

So when you are looking at listings on eBay.. the shipping price is DYNAMIC. so where the item is being shipped FROM and to is factored, and then a shipping price is displayed. Going back to the books listings you will see there are some with super cheap shipping cost, and some with like $9.00 shipping cost. If you go in and open those listings and look specifically at the sellers location, it starts to make sense... less shipping is closer in proximity, than he expensive ones.

A BOOK... using Media Mail is CHEAP AF - probably $4.00 to 90210 MAYBE $4.00 actually I think its less than that.

So your price is a SET PRICE.. maybe more to someone local to you, but will be less to someone in 90210 or Texas.. we actually send a lot of orders day in and day out to Texas - God Bless Texas! ( I think the girls say that like with every order - its funny )

Again, its a break even on some and win some on others more often than not The postage paid is less than the postage budgeted for. AND if the same customer orders multiple items you are not dealing with combined shipping ( a pain in the tail to deal with ) and you make out like a bandit throwing all the orders into one box.

Start with the process.. work with what you have NOW... get a foundation under your feet. I would start with 1 store in the beginning. you have to get the schedule down... Post office closes when? I have to be done with this by 3pm to get to that... I have to start my day doing this.. I have this time to list... and then maybe back form the post office I list more.

These are the types of things you have to figure out - as close to clockwork you can make each aspect of this - the better it is. Its 1pm I need to be doing this.. its 5pm I need a beer its 9 am and I need to get to this store and be back by 11 and list this and print labels - work out the flow.

This is going to sound silly to you now... getting to 100 items listed in your store - is is is like the twilight zone - youll see LOL Dial in ( refine ) the process - start with just one store for now - make it a TEAM effort - in it to win it - start smoking outside - change your habits change your life


Mugs and Snow globes is the absolute best place to start Mugs will fit in the USPS 7x7x7 Priority box and the Snow Globes generally fit in the 12x12x10 UPSP box.

When you get into oversized boxes more often than not you will probably be using FedEx ( and eBay has that built in ) and we use Home Depot boxes.

I double checked what exactly we have in stock in terms of Boxes and Envelopes. 6x6x6 and 4x6x8 boxes ( walmart ) and then 6x9 and 9x12 Poly bags and 6x9 and 9x12 padded bags and we get those from eBay - meaning we go on eBay and order them from whoever is the cheapest. They are cheaper there, than anywhere else i can find be it wholesale direct or amazon.

I think this is a good move... getting 100 items listed in your store - not listing 100 items but actually getting 100 items in your store while people are buying things is a MF - its crazy... and then getting to 200 such a struggle. after that it gets easier.

And I am not talking this being difficult for your first store and every store after is easy... it has been that way every time we open a new "Store" its crazy. Its a good struggle to have but when you are pushing goals and getting to 100 items in your store and it just drags on - it willmess with your brain - youll see! LOL

Being a smoker I can say this - read what you are saying... because the idea of going outside is just not an option for you... you are at 2 packs a day $12 to $14 a day $360 a month and you think its a good idea to add another $200 for conditioned storage? Thats a $500 - $600 a month habit. Let that sink in... Just go outside bro - everyone in your family will be all the happier AND you will save an added $200 a month - Moneys tight and i need to earn a living, and all that - Think TEAM EFFORT here - You the Wife and the Daughter right? maybe a bit self centered? Keep in mind here Im not asking you to QUIT - im just saying smoke in the smoker section outside.

A little trick...1 box 1 label - if you get ahead of yourself you will end up putting the wrong label on the wrong box - been there done that.

We send out 1000+ packages a week on a bad week, we might get 20 returns a year MIGHT?!?! and have NEVER had a switch-a-roo. How many millions of items are sold on eBay in a year and how many videos of sellers having a bad experience are there? Proportionately the number is 0 ( ZERO ) It hasn't happened yet and you are worried about it - that sounds like stressful or something. Deal with it when it happens and not a moment sooner.

As you list if you pack everything, shipping is literally closing the box and sticking the label - it takes minutes? a minute? Adding the trip to storage? and it then becomes a hassle.

Look at someone like Chris I bet he is at his facility 9 to 4 every day - at his level ok thats cool.... but just starting... doesnt that sound like a job? Going to work honey!

You may want to consult with someone on this... you can operate under a DBA. I would suggest there is an amount of advantage doing this... You dont have to technically "Pay" yourself... meaning anything left over is income for the year. ALL of the tax benefit is within the business itself ( Schedule C on your tax forms ) and YOU personally will have none - so to "Pay" yourself becomes added tax liability.

My business' are "Structured" S Corp or C Corp with LLC's underneath, and then DBA's within the LLC's and its a whole thing - BUT I build business' with the intent of building and selling, and this allows us to just peel away a entity that has sold. So YOU just dont have to go that far - the DBA up into the 6 digits area is fine - or so says I - again seek some advice on this.

Just an FYI besides listing the boat motor on eBay. You can also try Facebook marketplace. You may get a lot of useless messages from tire kickers, but there are some decent buyers there. You won't have to worry about shipping either.

Seriously seriously seriously... your mission by the end of day Saturday is finding a laser printer... Be it a garage sale or facebook, or craigslist, or a thrift store ( my goodwills have them all the time ) $25 - $30 and its worth every penny. Until you order the half sheet labels ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/36304809104...3ABFBM8umOuqBg ) you can print the labels on paper and cut the sheet in half and tape them on the package.

If you start looking at the pricing between Pirateship and eBay they are damn near the same - and with eBay shipping you are not having to transfer over the tracking info - I would say its an absolute no brainer. eBay shipping is like 20% off of regular office USPS rates... so again get the printer, an absolute priority.

as a seller you have a rating... right now you are middle of the road and get a discount on shipping, but you are paying full price for eBay fees. Once you sell 100 items AND have reached $1000 in sales you will become a "Top Rated Seler" your eBay fees go down, AND your shipping goes down.

SHIPPING: the question is HOW? LOL YOU will get this... 4"and 6" thin wall pvc pipe and a heat gun and shape them oblong so the mug fits inside and then use a flatrate padded envelope ( YOUR cost with eBay right now would be $8.40? right now. Top Rated its $7.25? i think, and USPS rate is $9.65 ) Standardizes your shipping rate - its a flat rate AND the packaging is about indestructible.

The next option is the walmart 6x6x6 box or the USPS Priority 7x7x7 box, we use hard foam insulation ( 1/2 inch ) to line the 4 sides top and bottom ( you can cut this to size with a table saw ) and then pad with paper. SHOULD be under 2lbs more like 1lb 2oz usually and be in the $9.00 range shipping using eBay shipping. AND over 2lbs you would use the regional A box - ships at 2lbs - in the $10 range with eBay, and $13.54 using USPS office rate )

And again HEAVY... the reginal A box is a must must must - UNLESS you can get it protected and in a padded flat rate envelope

PHOTOS... I have been a digital photographer for YEARS... and its ALL in the lighting. You want to progress to a light box ( https://www.amazon.com/LTRINGYS-Fold...s%2C261&sr=8-9 ) BUT to get started some 1 inch pvc pipe ( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/263531015669514515/ ) using cheap clamp lights with 5000K bulbs - we have a bigger one of these and we use LED flood bulbs for the siddes and 100 watt equivalent on the top.

If you buy a roll of white craft paper I believe they are 36 inch across the back top bar you can slide the roll onto the 1 inch pipe and then roll that down over the back and across the bottom. and then tape a piece from left to right across the side, the back and the right side to cast the lights onto. You WANT to diffuse the light from the fixture.. so the paper route or a white sheet works.

You can then also use the same clamp lights in a setup like chris has with the hard foam insulation sheet and get one left and one right and one over the top

COLOR... IF the camera you are using allows for "Custom white balance" you can grab 2 natural white coffee filters so they are stacked together and place those in your light box and then focus n those, and set the custom white balance to those ( they are about equal to a 15% grey card )

The lighting makes a huge difference - you want 5000K bulbs... if you are in a room and there is an overhead light, you want to switch that out as well - even an over head light will cast a bit of yellow and wonk out your color.

You can also set the item you are selling in the box and hold the filters to get your camera to lock on and then remove them and take the shot. A friend of mine has his tied to a piece of string so he can pull them out of the way.

I touched on this with you recently... with "Offers" its a dance... its a back and forth, and You click accept offer and it can take a day or 2 for the payment to process. Within the actual listing of an item you CAN set an amount that is automatically accepted - Like I stated I have found that almost 99% of the time the buyer is paying the lowest amount vs somewhere above that. Seems odd to me.

As you scale this... you have to think about this 1 off incident as it turns into 3 and 4 and 5 a week, and do you want to deal with it... I personally just want to sell stuff and ship stuff right? so as automated as I can get it with the least amount of manual back and forth... thats what works for us.

If you get into facebook reseller groups ( a huge time suck btw - but to some extent worth the time - more so to learn what not to do vs what to do ) People over and over talk about getting questions on items and doing the whole back and forth with offers and oh my.... Getting questions on an item means you are not placing enough information in your listings. I just looked at all 6 of our accounts and cant see a "Question" about an item in the last 6 months - and that is as far back as I looked. Again "Daily Refinement" ( Probably the best channel name ever ) lead us to this - questions are a failure in communication, how can we communicate better?

If you go into the main "Seller Hub" page ( the one with all of your items for sale listed on a page ) and click on "Payments" and then scroll down to "Payout preferences" you can select how often eBay sends money to your account. You keep mentioning having to have funds for... and those are your funds that would could and should pay those. I would set it to Weekly... Our stores are set to monthly - BUT we are in a position that we dont "Need" the cash right? - YOU will get there. So your store fees, your shipping, and all of that will come out of that fund - You are then only protecting say your subscription fee coming out the same day you have a payment scheduled - everything else will be covered with the purchase


Again the Pirateship USPS zone map ( https://www.pirateship.com/usps/zone...BoC0-8QAvD_BwE ) and you quickly see Hawaii is no different than sending the package to California. again "Daily Refinement" you can have watched every video in the world on the topic, but until you place these things in practice for yourself - you wont know what works and what doesnt...

3X in most cases - unless you are selling car wheels / rims or something big and heavy will protect you from a mistake - its just money - you can make more.. take the lesson on the cheek and move on... but again this thread is by design stupid proof - I build stupid proof and am damn good at it.. If you are selling a $100 item you paid $10 for? does it matter if the shipping is $12 or $20? you will be fine

I LOVE hearing this stuff... That kid will ALWAYS have a skill set to fall back on, and draw experience from - and YOU will as well.

This thread... if you know it or not is the daily refinement of the process ( as we practice it ) If you re-read through this and understand all aspects of this process are very set in stone - the entire process is "Static" Shipping in this process is no different. aside from some rate changes here and there - shipping is a very static aspect of the business. You will get to the poiint with practice when you are in the buying phase, you wil roughly know in your head what the shipping expense will be.... That will fit in a bubble flat rate, that will fit in a Region A... that will go in this at first class... I can send this media

But keep in the back of your mind... take YOU out of the buying process, and THIS system has your back - there will be no absolute failures... there will be learning experiences. The absolute one thing I do very well is build business', Business' that win lose or draw come out in the black in the end - and THAT is what this thread is - the biue print to success.

If you have a question - I will answer - I got your back. But again follow this as close to a T as possible, and you simply cant fail.

Your pricing should be about the same as those with free shipping AND look at the listings with plus shipping and average those numbers out and be in the item plus shipping range there. You have to remember, take the YOU out of priciing. The Market has spoken, and the data is right there in front of you.

1.3% is not great... more often than not, it will be the phots or the title - usually the tityle. Post a few example titles for me and I can give you tips. plus maybe re read this https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...l#post11482789 )

Does success come from working when you feel like it, or absolutely need it? I will answer that for you, NO. Every day at roughly the same time every day - start developing GOOD HABITS - it will pay off I promise.

So I am a programmer... Its my thing... I have developed themes / templates etc. Aesthetically ideal stuff... actual conversion... not so good.. BUT, there I might say there is a time and a place for it.

AUCTIVA - this would be a great solution IF your store is niched down. It shows other items in your store, but this only works when the person looking at a specific listing would be interested the other items in your store. Anything other than this... and it is a waste of time and money.

The alternative to this as I mention in the thread is "Promoted Listings" and setting each item to 1%. Yes, it gives you an added listing in the main listings - but I could care less about that part...it ALSO gives you a listing on your exact competitors product page, selling the exact same thing - better photo and better title, and you might "borrow" the conversion. I attribute a whole lot of our success to this little trick. 20% of our sales come from "Promoted Listings" and I can without a blink of the eye say we are literally stealing other peoples sales with this.

And again I am a programmer... we employ image tracking on our listings - really to complicated to talk about here, but we have a pixel on each of our listings that allows us to track the incoming traffic source ( the page they are coming from ) and then the outgoing source ( the page they are going to from ours. So as above when i say 20% and we are stealing ( above ) that is specifically tracked data - I KNOW.

Anything and everything we do on the internet revolves around basic SEO principles and then adding CRO ( Conversion Rate Optimization ) practices on top of that is just a win win win on our end ( as sellers ) Now that I have told you look at this and do that, and here are some examples... Go look at any piece of clothing, or shoes and see how many titles have the size listed... Its just silly actually... If I am searching for a pair of shoes I want size 9 mens X shoes - DUH I cant even call it laziness - its just most people dont know any better - makes our jobs that much easier

A prolific seller... but his descriptions sucked - his sales were leveraged with the youtube channel. Like many many many of the channels that we have listed here - Shed Picks and Cincinatti Picker at one time had a facebook group, and they were absolutely clueless about the SEO stuff - like probably 99% of eBay sellers - just dont understand that part at all.

We dont use themes... a list of reasons... but the primary reason is how they appear on Mobile - and our conversions tanked when using them.. and we tried dozens of concepts and they just didnt work. Pick a brand any brand and THEY all use them - Following the eBay rules on such things... I cant replicate the Nike Store theme as an example - they are doing things with code that Me joe small guy reseller cant do - making html calls outside of eBay for page elements - Simply not allowed for the littleguy

A pet peeve of mine... of the million possibilities you are choosing this one ( fake buyers ). And you are saying this based on the disgruntled groups you are interacting with... Those groups are GREAT at learning what NOT to do... Buyers are NOT out to cheat you - just get that out of your head... Its not their fault your itemis sitting for 4 days.

#1 Set your "best offer" prices with a decline and accept amount ( or completely remove them ) and the whole offer hold thing disappears - offer accepted and they bought the item.

#2 If you go in and revise a listing and scroll down to "Shipping details" and then "Payment policy " and click on "Edit" you can select that "Buy Now" requires immediate payment.

I am going to guess that one or both of these are your hang up - the whole fake buyer thing is YOUR fault - whoa is me, accountability - and I will more than bet that not a single user in those groups you are reading mentioned either of those - they are to busy thinking the world is out to get them, and it is anything BUT their own fault

Before you act... when in doubt call eBay. You can only cancel an order if eBay does it for you, OR if the buyer has sent a message requesting as such - you CANT just do anything within the eBay system - there has to be a request made OR eBay can do it for you.

Having said that... anything and everything should be done within the eBay system - you can only be penalized by NOT ACTING - returns refunds unpaid buyers... they DO NOT reflect on you negatively unless YOU dont do something - pay the refund or try and cancel or what have you.

And again... when in doubt - or just second guessing CALL eBay!!

I have been testing this for years now...in regards to the main product listing page, AND the Similar Items bar in product pages I can say without question that regardless of what percentage you have set, there is no advantage / disadvantage. Meaning the MORE you pay DOES NOT directly correlate to you will get better placement. - Makes absolutely no sense - but that is how it works..

It appears to be on like a rotator of some kind... some sometimes you are on the top, other times in the middle. If you are looking through the search results page you will often see a listing and the Promotion listing stacked one after the other

I believe my Goodwill have a gold tester that measure 14k and up... so 10k would meter as not gold.

real jewelry I will often times take to the gold store or pawn ship ( depending on what it is ) and get the instant cash vs trying to sell online.

I do the same with sporting goods - we have a play it again sports store that buys bats and gloves and catchers masks etc and its just easier to walk in there with a box of items and be done with it - especially if it was in a group of items you bought and the cost is next to nothing. I would consider this smart business.

We are on a marketing forum... and in this case YouTube is just that "Marketing" How many times in this video alone does he say a viewers name that left a message as they have bought something.... When we watch eBayers on YouTube, they all kinda do the same thing...a percentage of sales ( in some cases a good majority ) is derived from YouTube viewers... take that away, and some of these people would be starving.

Here is my hot take on this... eBay sellers that are selling items for less than retail.. say a "used" pair of shoes will become the goto point of sale during a recession, its simple economics... people will still want to Floss in front of their friends, and not have the abiity to pay full price.

Those "hurdles" are self imposed - your reality is what you will it to be... Positive thought creates positive action. Huge recession and the pool business is still booming now isnt it? Pools will slow down L O N G before eBay sales will be effected

Grass is always greener right? and it might be,,, going towards bulk removes the grind or the Safari as we call it for product... But we have to consider order of scale here... out of the box you would not have the ability to procure and sell millions right? You have to start at the bottom and introduce scale as your experience warrants it Tortoise and the Hare right? be the Tortoise.

I say this to pretty much all of my teams on at least a weekly basis "Out of the millions of possibilities, why have you chosen that one?" ( when they are pumping an amount of negativity ) Sales are down because of... I cant do this because of... etc etc. in each and every case it is an outward projection... to deflect responsibility. Take the responsibility on the chin right? Raise your hand.. ITS MY FAULT... now what do I need to do to correct this? Problems are solutions waiting to happen - of the millions of possibilities... and with out some amount of correction you are where? in the same place with the same problem. Problem - Solution

Very valid...if you read the last page or so of this thread you can see the back and forth with Art as he is working through this and making it work.