Ebay Experts - Need some encouragement..

[eeyoresmountainpals]

I need a little encouragement here from all of you ebay experts...

I have sold on ebay for about a year and a half, off and on. (I did make a fairly good part-time income at it for a couple of months last year while I was on a leave of absence from my regular job.) I have also worked for a grocery store chain as a bookkeeper for 9 years. I work part-time and they've always worked very well with my availability as I work around my husband's work schedule and my kids' schedules.

I just found out today that the store I have worked at for 9 years will be closing!!!

I need some tips and encouragement to help me jump into ebay and try to make this my full-time job / career. I do enjoy doing ebay and have felt in the past that I was successful... but I guess I just need a nudge or some encouragement?

We're planning our next WDW trip for October so I not only need to make my usual "part-time" income that I'm used to from the grocery store but also extra $$$ for our trip!

Any help or advise would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks in advance!

 

[imsayin]

I need some tips and encouragement to help me jump into ebay

Now is the perfect time with all the garage sales going on. Start stocking up - people will be doing their Christmas shopping before you know it.

 

[disneymom3]

I would say in regard to garage sales--pick an area that you have some knowledge about or get knowledgeable about it. DH was unemployed for a time and we tried to go to garage sales and buy things to sell but a lot of the stuff turned out to not be a good thing to sell after all. Now we focus on areas that we know and it works much better.

I am always amazed at how well kids toys sell. Even used. And new ones in the few months before Christmas are HOT.

Good luck. I have always found summer to be a bit slower than other times of the year but maybe that is just me.

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

Thanks, guys! I'm hoping to dive into it and really want to make it work. I appreciate the suggestions so far!!!

 

[kilee]

I sell almost 98% clothing. With an average of 250-350 items per month. It is excellent extra income. I totally do the garage sale thing. I actually have a small storage unit that holds nothing but bins of clothing I bought at sales to sell. It's a great time to pick up clothing at $.25 a piece. Especially off season clothing. I do agree sales are slow for me now again until August (back to school clothing will start for me late July-late August). Then I'll be slow briefly and I'll take off with the sweaters and winter items from late Sept-late Dec.

I find summer clothing sells at the highest costs in March and April. Right now my sales are only a bit above asking price and only about 1/2 I list is selling. I will actually take the first few weeks in July off to wait for the next "season".

 

[AlexTina]

I have also been selling on ebay off and on for several years but recently after having my second child I quit my job (accounting) so that I can stay home with my kids. I sell lots of craft items which are very popular and clothing. You can get tons of "like new" clothing at garage sales and make a great profit, I also search the internet for liquidations from popular clothing companies and sell around $1000 per month right now, it's less than my job but it helps and I am working on making power seller status, I want to be where the previous poster is shipping 300 to 400 items per month. It is definately doable. Good luck.

Tina

 

[2cutekids]

If you don't mind me asking, how do you find the liquidation sales on the internet? Do you mean like the clearance sections on the store websites or is there something else? I would LOVE to make $1000 a month from Ebay! I don't have a large volume of items and haven't made alot so my husband thinks this "Ebay thing" is cute so I'd love to surprise him with making the house payment one month . (I stress ONE month.....only.....then he can be "cute" making it next time) I'll start putting my earnings to more important things.........like our next Disney vacation!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[daisy_77]

Hit the clearance racks, right now a lot of stores are doing there summer clearance. There are garage sales and flea markets....the options are endless! Good luck!

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

Thanks everyone! I'm starting to feel pumped up again about making this work for our family!

 

[ceecee]

Watch those internet outlet places. I bought a lot of clothes that advertised name brand (which some of it was...but very outdated). I could sell none of it on Ebay so I sold it at a Garage Sale and some went to Goodwill. Even though it was name brand and NWT I lost $25.00 (which was good because my initial cost was $75.00). I don't have any luck with used clothes on Ebay. I just sold 6 girl's tops (Lands End, Mudd, SO and other not well known brands) four were new with tags! I got $9.99 plus $5.00 shipping (it cost $4.95 to ship) so with listing fees and Paypal fees I made about $8.00. I sold other new tops for $1.50-$2.00 at my Garage Sale. The only clothes I have had luck with reselling were Gymboree (in lots better than seperately).

 

[pediatric-rnp]

Good luck. I have always found summer to be a bit slower than other times of the year but maybe that is just me.

I'm so relieved to hear this...I thought I was losing my mind! I just started to sell again after a long hiatus - I'm concentrating on kids clothing - brandname, NWT. I hit several excellent sales, which helped me make that decision! I noticed when looking at the completed auction section that things were going at much higher prices in early spring, when I first started to look, compared to what they are going for right now. I've decided to pack up the rest of the summer things I've found, and put them away until next year. I have a ton of "back to school" clothing I bought at end of season sales late winter, so I'll just wait to put those up. Hopefully they will go much better. I always had great success in years past with selling -I was so dissappointed in how it went starting up again a few weeks ago.

I'm thinking about doing an Ebay store - I'd appreciate any feedback from those who have done this. Will the items in the store also come up when someone does a general search for an item on ebay -or do they have to be led directly to the store from one of your auctions? I have so many NWT kids clothing items, I think the store would be much less $$ to list them on, and easier to manage overall, but I just want to make sure they are visible.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[ChristyJ]

I just listed on Ebay for the first time-girls' jeans all new brand-name clothing w/tags-I have 3 days to go and no bids yet. I'm trying to be patient, but it's hard not to be somewhat anxious about the whole thing (esp. as it's my first go at it). I guess if the items don't sell, I can still relist once again for free (is that right?)-maybe I should wait a month or so.(??)

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

I'm glad to hear everyone saying pretty much the same thing about the summer being slower. I have found this to be true and that's one of the reasons I felt that I needed a little encouragement before diving into this. (See my original post about that.)

I do appreciate the feedback and encouragement!!

 

[imsayin]

I can still relist once again for free (is that right?)-maybe I should wait a month or so

It isn't free to relist, but if you relist an item and it sells the 2nd time, you get your listing fee refunded. That refund doesn't include other fees like gallery, buy it now, etc. Also, I think you might have to do the relist at a lower cost to qualify for the refund (anyone?), and I'm not sure of the time frame to relist.

 

[jwfla422]

After my lousy slump last summer I have decided to take a few months off this summer until late July. Seems that sales really slowed in May of last year and this year pretty much followed the same pattern, so I figured I would just take a break until "back to school" starts (mid-late July). I sell a lot of childrens' clothing and toys.

Last August was a very good time for sales way into the winter months. So, if you're listing now and find sales to be slow don't get discouraged...summer is slow time because of vacations and product season transitions (clothes mainly). Some items do sell all year around however I also think the Ebay buyers are not at their computers as much in the summer. Sellers who are established will continue to have sales because they have established customers.

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

jwfla422 ~ Thanks for your words of encouragement. We are going on a week long vacation next week (Gatlinburg / Smoky Mountains) and I figured I would be digging my feet into Ebay around mid-July. So, from what you said that sounds like a pretty good time to get back into it! Thanks again!!

 

[cinamin27]

I'm thinking about doing an Ebay store - I'd appreciate any feedback from those who have done this. Will the items in the store also come up when someone does a general search for an item on ebay -or do they have to be led directly to the store from one of your auctions? I have so many NWT kids clothing items, I think the store would be much less $$ to list them on, and easier to manage overall, but I just want to make sure they are visible.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

from what I've read - a basic ebay store cost $15.95 monthly & 2 cents per listing + an additional 2 cents surcharge per 30 days if you list the item for more than a single 30 day period. Also Final value fees are higher on store items - store item final value fees 8% for $.01 - $25 & 8% +additional 5.00% of the remaining closing value balance (US$25.01 to US$1,000.00), as opposed to regular auction final value fees of 5.25% for up to $25 & then 5.25% of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000.00)

According to people on the community boards over on ebay, it only makes sense to have a store if you have at least 100 items stocked in your store at all times.

BUT - NO, store items will not always show up when a user does searches on items - you must run some auctions & hope the people that look at your auctions will click on the link to your store.

I also THINK that your store listings MIGHT show up if the person searches an item & there are only 'x' number of auctions running the same item you have lsited in your store, I think the number may be 10, 15, 20 or 25 (sorry so vague, I'm just not sure on that answer)

wait - did a search on ebay under the help section - here's the right answer:

Will items in Store Inventory format appear in eBay's main search results? How will they be displayed?
The answer depends on how many Online Auction and Fixed Price items appear in the main results:

When the results have more than 20 matching items: A box will appear below the results with a link ("See additional Buy It Now items from eBay Store sellers") enabling buyers to see matching items in Store Inventory format. No individual Store Inventory items will appear.

When the results have 1 to 20 matching items: A separate "search expansion" box will show up to 30 Store Inventory items in list view, plus the names of the individual Stores where the items come from. There will also be a link to see all Store Inventory items matching the search.

When the results have 0 matching items: Up to 30 matching Store Inventory items (if any are found) will be shown with Gallery images.
These same rules apply for Product Details (catalog) pages.

How many Store Inventory items are displayed when a search returns 20 or fewer Online Auction or Fixed Price items?
Up to 20 Store Inventory items will appear if other search expansion boxes (for example, international items) also appear. Up to 30 items will appear if no other search expansion boxes appear.



Which Store Inventory items are selected for display when a search returns 20 or fewer Auction or Fixed Price items?
The items that appear in the search expansion box are selected using the combination of these rules:

Items from Stores with higher subscription levels are selected first. Anchor Store items are selected before Featured Store items, which are selected before Basic Store items. Within a subscription level, preference is given to lower-priced items.

Additional items from the same Store are selected only if slots cannot be filled by items from other Stores (regardless of subscription level).
The resulting list of items is sorted and displayed by price. This sorting is intended to make the results faster to scan and more compelling to buyers.

The benefit of having a higher subscription level is that your items are more likely to appear in search expansions, even if they do not always appear at the top of a particular list.



Why are individual Store Inventory items only shown when there are 20 or fewer Auction or Fixed Price items matching the search? How was the number 20 chosen?
We recognize that the listing fees are lower for Store Inventory format compared to Auction and Fixed Price format. We have chosen a number that balances considerations about fee differences with the goal to ensure successful experiences for buyers and help Store sellers promote their items. After talking with both Store and non-Store sellers, this number seemed to strike the right balance for these members of our community.

 

[pediatric-rnp]

WOW - thanks for all the great info and research you helped me with, cinamin27 !! I really appreciate it- helps me realize having the
store may not be such a great idea for me right now, costwise. I'll have to crunch the nubers a bit before I decide for sure.Thanks again!

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

I had considered a store previously but I'm like you, pediatric-rnp, I don't think this is the right time for me to try one. I know lots of people have a lot of success with the stores but keeping the auctions straight is enough for me right now!