Close to 30 Feedback Stars and Still at 100% Positive

Hurray!  I recently got my 29th star and I always get such a rush when my customers are happy with their purchases.  I know, it sounds super corny, but it's part of what makes eBay such an addictive experience for me.  It's in my nature to try to please people, and eBay is such a great outlet for that.  I try to be as conservative and as transparent as possible in my item descriptions, even though I know that might lower the price.  I offer free ground shipping but most of the time I end up shipping things Priority Mail.  I always follow up with buyers to make sure their item has arrived - even though the tracking status says it has, I just want to make sure it arrived at the right place.  And I LOVE getting positive feedback.

Sometimes buyers say things like, "Thanks! As described."  That's always a relief, as I'm always paranoid that perhaps my assessment of an item's value will difer significantly from the buyer's assessment.  But when people write things like, "Super seller!  Will buy from again!" I always feel like it's all worth it, even if I sold the item for 99 cents.  My favorite piece of feedback so far was: "She was wonderful.  I saved her as a seller just to buy from her again."

On the flip side, though, I'm dreading the day when someone gives me negative feedback.  I know it's bound to happen, even though I do my best.  You can't please all of the people all of the time, and despite my positive experiences with buyers so far, I know there have to be some difficult people out there in cyberspace.  And let's face it, eventually one of them is going to buy my stuff.  I just hope I know how to treat them properly when they do.

Bidders to Watchers Experiment

I forgot to mention ... the black sequined dress eneded its run with 4 bidders and 6 bids.  Unfortunately it only sold for $6, but my theory continues to hold true - average ratio of bidders to watchers is 50%.

I Hit the Inventory Motherlode (and Other Details)

Just as I was moaning about running out of inventory I discovered an untapped source of promising eBay items: my baby brother.  Remember how Saturday I was blogging from my Blackberry because I was my way to Charlottesville?  Well, the trip turned out to be more profitable than I expected!

My brother is a Junior at University of Virginia.  Like most Juniors at University of Virginia and universities all over the world, he's put on a few pounds since he started school.  More than a few.  Furthermore, like most college Juniors it had been a looong time since he'd cleaned out his closet.  It took little convincing to relieve him of several nearly intact J. Crew button down shirts, one pair of dress slacks, three pairs of cargo pants and a suit jacket.  Little does he know the J. Crew shirts alone are worth about $50!

I know what you're thinking.  How could I take advantage of my little brother that way? :)  Don't worry, he'll definitely get a cut, I just don't want him to flip out when I list his shirts for 99 cents and free shipping!

But that's not all.  On the way home, my husband and I were talking about my new venture into men's clothing, and for the first time he let me clean out HIS closet.  I found a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo dress shoes in GREAT shape that never fit him properly, listed them as soon as we got home and SOLD THEM the same night.  Then, inspired by these new finds, I gave my own closet a once over, just one more time, to see whether I'd missed anything the last time I was hunting for inventory.  I found two tops, a pair of Manolo Blahnik slingbacks I haven't worn in over a year and a pair of Kate Spade suede pumps that have graced my feet a grand total of twice.  I plan on listing them tomorrow night.

All in all, I think there's a pretty good lesson here to add to the list.  It goes something like this:

eBay Lesson Number (what number were we on?): If you think you've completely cleaned out your closet, think again.  If you've really totally and completely cleaned out your closet, clean out your family's closet.  There's stuff to sell EVERYWHERE, and just because you can't use something doesn't mean there aren't thousands of buyers out there who can.

Check out my updated earnings - closing in on that $300 mark. :)

My Son is Having Oreo Cookies for Breakfast

I'm such a GREAT mom. :-S

How is this related to eBay?  It's not, I just felt like sharing.

Featured Item Over - Under: The Unders Have It!

The froggy outfit sold for $1.25, or under $3.

Loading the next over under poll as we speak.

My Thought on Peeping Toms (Otherwise Known as Watchers)

Blogging from the road today - we're on our way to Charlottesville, VA, to spend the day with my little brother.

I've been keeping track of the eBay watcher phenomenon. I've recorded in an Excel document what the maximum number of watchers is for each auction, the number bidders, the number of bids, and the final selling price of the item, and I've found a relationship between the number of watchers and the final selling price of the item. This is especially true for the items I've listed for 99 cents and free shipping with no Buy It Now option.

Other sellers who blog like to say there is no correlation between watchers and bidders, but my records suggest otherwise. Is it POSSIBLE that an item with ten watchers won't sell? Sure! After all, almost nothing in life is 100 pct guaranteed, but what I've found is that the number of individual bidders you get is roughly equivalent to HALF of your watchers.

Do you want to test it out? I've got the perfect item to illustrate my point. Go to www.ebay.com and search for "Miss Milan black beaded evening gown" (I'd give you the direct link but I can't figure out how from my blackberry without losing this post). My eBay seller name is elisav. You'll see the auction ends tomorrow and the item has one bid for 99 cents. What you CAN'T see is that it's also got ten watchers, which tells me at least four people are waiting to the last minute to "snipe" the auction.

Watch this space! By tomorrow night, you'll know exactly how many bidders there were, either proving my theory or proving I'm a dumbass who just lost money on an auction!

The Ultimate eBay Listing

I listed a few more items tonight even though I know Fridays are not great for auctions. My son has outgrown his lime green Croc sandals, and I've got a couple of dressy shirts I'd like to find a good home for. However, as I listed these items I kinda came to the realization that... I'm going to run out of inventory soon.

Now, a few people have asked me to list their stuff for them, and that was in fact part of my plan for Phase II. However, when I start buying things to sell on eBay or when I become a trading assistant the margins shrink considerably and that's when I have to start stepping it up with the volumes. After all, if you remember my starts I'm only listing about 16 items a month and as a trading assistant I'd only make a small commission off of people's earning. Quite frankly, I don't think I'm good enough to cut it as a full time trading assistant - nor do I have the time to sell as many items as it would take for me to reach my revenue goals.

I've been saving the ultimate eBay item for last... it's my classic and once expensive wedding gown. The problem is, as ruthless as I am with other items (I just listed my son's christening outfit for $.99 and free shipping) I can't bear to sell this gown for what it's objectively worth.

Let's do the math, shall we? The gown cost $4000 new in 2003. Now, I'm assuming that garments lose a chunk of their value as soon as they're worn, and that they depreciate in a straight line thereafter. So supposing right after my wedding the gown's value dropped to $2500, using the straight line method with a 5 year time horizon, my gown is now worth ... $0.

So given that the gown is still in good shape and is fairly timeless, the material is very, very high quality and the designer is still somewhat en vogue, I could probably hope to sell it at MOST for $200.... a price I'm just not willing to let it go for.

Sooooo it will probably continue to take up room in my closet, unless you guys convince me otherwise!

Mailing Troubles

Argh. I checked the tracking status of the orange skirt, like I do obsessively for all my items, and in the status it appears to never have been processed through the post office where I dropped it off. And apparently the USPS doesn't share my "personal touch" philosophy, because all they've got is an IVR. Soooo what started out as a really profitable week could end up being a super horrible stressful week with tons of unhappy customers. And unhappy customers make me unhappy. :(

The Mystery of the Unnamed Item

Ok, so a bunch of you have asked me about the mystery item in the last couple of posts. You noticed I've been pretty descriptive of my other items but haven't given away what this one is.... and there is a reason for that.

You see, the mystery item was a gift. It was a lovely, expensive gift from someone I care about very much. I got some great use out of it, but due to a change in circumstances I no longer need it. I'm afraid that if I say what it is, the person who gave it to me (did I mention I love this person very much?) will be offended that I let go what was originally a $250+ item for $29.99 on eBay.

Let me be clear that I LOVED this gift while I was using it. I just don't need it anymore. And I don't like to hang on to things I don't need anymore.

I sell gifts regularly on eBay. And I'm regularly paranoid that the people who gave them to me will find out I've listed them on eBay for $.99 and free shipping (which, as you now know, is just the way I roll) and think I think they're only worth $.99.

What do you think? Am I being paranoid? If you were the person I love very dearly who gave me that gift, would you be offended if I sold it on ebay (for $29.99)?

Partial Refunds and Musings on Customer Service

A couple of interesting things happened today that I wanted to share.

First, as I was preparing to ship one of the items I sold recently (the $30 from yesterday), I noticed two spots on it that I just hadn't noticed before. I don't know if I got them there while packing the thing or if they were there before and I didn't see them. The problem is the buyer had asked me specifically on the listing whether the item had any blemishes, and I said NO but I guess I must not have looked very carefully. I've come to the conclusion (as I've mentioned before) that I just need to take a deep breath before pulling the trigger on some things. If I'd done a better job of inspecting the item I would not only not be in this situation, I would also have realized it was worth much more than the BIN I provided.

In any case, I took pictures of the defects and emailed the buyer before shipping the item off. I figured better they demand a refund before they discover the spots on their own than AFTER. I offered a full refund and a discount on their next purchase. She responded - rightly so - that had bought the item yesterday because she needs it to arrive at a certain date and doesn't have time to go through the whole process again, but at the same time doesn't think the item is worth what she paid given the blemishes. She suggested I apply the discount I offered to the current item and send it to her anyway. I agree, apologized profusely and told her I'd also send her a small token of my appreciation. I'm sending her a small t-shirt.

I know what some of you are thinking. The woman probably realizes I've sold her a hard to find item for peanuts and took advantage of my blunder to get an expensive item for even CHEAPER. That may be the case, but the way I see it, I have three legs to stand on in the eBay marketplace (so to speak).

1) Customer service. I bend over backwards for my buyers. With only 27 stars under my belt I HAVE to if I want to continue building my eBay business. I also need some repeat business if I want to increase my conversion rate.

2) Price. I've done my research. Like I said in my last post, my motto is "don't get greedy." I'm much better positioned than other sellers out there and that helps me attract buyers.

3) Shipping Speed. I usually ship things the day after people pay me. I would do it every time except I don't have a scale, so I have to take items in to the mail room at work to make sure I'm not underpaying for postage.

Anyway, I'll let you know how the situation resolves itself. She seemed pretty happy with my offer, and I genuinely hope she's not disappointed with her item. As far as I'm concerned, my margin is still close to 100% so in that sense $25 is just as good as $30... right? :(

The other interesting thing that happened is before that item sold, another buyer had contacted me with questions about it. Soon after I answered her question, the item sold, and the second potential buyer emailed me saying she was really disappointed since she'd been looking for this specific item for a long time and wanted to kick herself for not using the BIN.

That got me thinking. This buyer is in the UK. What if I invested a little time on local classifieds (Craigslist and the like) and perhaps tracked down the item I just sold so I could resell it to this lady in the UK. Chances are, given what the item is, I can probably find it stateside more easily than she can in London. Soooo .... I am now a woman on the hunt, mostly out of the goodness of my heart, but also because this feels like a good opportunity to generate good will and therefore sales.

We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.

Loving the "Dollar Store" Strategy

Blogging from my Blackberry tonight because my toddler is hogging my computer. He likes to watch Special Agent Oso on there before falling asleep, and I like having fifteen minutes to myself after work, so I guess it works out!

I am one hundred percent convinced that the 99 cent strategy is driving my recent sales streak. I put Buy It Now on an item last night and it sold this morning, and the three other listings I've got going on all have watchers and bidders. I was telling a coworker you really have to hang on to you b*lls to list an item that way, but at the same time if you do things properly - end the listing at the right time, use a decent title and picture and in general avoid sounding shady in the item description - auction items always go for their market value. The important thing to do before listing an item though is to do your research. Make sure there is a market for your item that is big enough for you to recoup your shipping costs and fees.

Speaking of not doing your research, you know that item I sold today for the BIN price? After I sold it so quickly, I kind of started wondering whether I'd set the price properly. Looking into it, I discovered that the item was a limited edition garment that is no longer available, and I sold it for about a tenth of the original retail price. Granted, it's not in immaculate shape and I told buyers as much. I actually think I sold it for a fair price considering the shape it's in. However, the little moneygrubber inside me couldn't help but feel like I screwed up.

I finally reconciled my sensible self with my moneygrubbing self by reminding both of mes of the following: the secret to ebay success is not to get greedy. People go to eBay to find great deals, and my competitive advantage until now has been that my inventory has already outlived its useful life to me and my family, so no matter what I get for my items my margin is close to 100 percent. That means I can undercut the competiton on price, especially sellers who get GREEDY.

Anyhow, it looks like Oso is about to end so I'm going to have to talk to you later. There's one more topic I want to discuss tonight, if we get the chance. Speak soon!

Broke the $200 Revenue Barrier!

I usually don't blog from my other job (the full time one) but I was too excited to keep it too myself. I sold another two items between yesterday and today - one of them for the BIN price! That brings my sales total to $210.

That $.99 plus free shipping business works, I tell ya!

To "Buy It Now" or Not...

I'm preparing to list a few items tonight after 9 pm, if my toddler cuts me a break. "They" (not the voices, but Top Sellers and other eBay experts) say Sunday between 9 and 11 pm EST is the best time to end an auction, followed by the same time frame on Saturdays.

In any case, I've decided to stick with my $.99 and free shipping strategy, but I'm of two minds about whether I should set a "Buy It Now" price or not. You see, I'm listing an evening gown tonight and I'm reminded of what happened with the orange skirt (I know, I'm obsessed with that thing). If I had set a Buy It Now price on that skirt, it would have been MUCH lower than the price it eventually sold for. I'm also afraid buyers will be put off if I set a Buy It Now price that is too high. Also, setting a BIN ("Buy It Now") is akin to setting a "cap" on the bidding. After all, why would anyone continue the bidding if they can guarantee they will get the item for a small difference by using the BIN?

Any suggestions? For those of you who are eBay buyers, what do you think when you see an auction with a low starting bid but high BIN?

What's With All the eBaying, Man?

Since I started writing this blog, a few of my friends have asked me "what's with all the eBaying, man?" There are a few reasons for the eBaymania, most of them personal, but you asked so here it is.

My husband and I have a TON of debt. It stems from the fact that I'm impulsive almost to the point of being wreckless. It mostly stems from the fact that for the longest time I couldn't live in a place for more than two years without feeling the desperate urge to move. Right after we got married, my husband and I were living in our hometown and I again had the "let's go" itch, not to mention my desire to complete my education by going to business school.

So we cashed in our savings, took out a high interest student loan and with just enough money for 1 year of business school for two of us (or two years for one of us!) we moved to Barcelona and started our MBAs at ESADE.

The experience was phenomenal, but times were ROUGH. Let's just say budgeting is not my strong suit, so there were times I literally had to walk to school because we didn't have enough money for the bus. Luckily I got a very well paid summer internship, and that fueled part of our second year, along with my trusty Amex.

Needless to say, we came out of the experience much richer in spirit but much, much poorer in essence. We had over $100k in debt by the time I started my new job in London, and in retrospect, London is probably not the best city to move to when you're in debt and have to live on a tight budget.

Fast forward three years and our debt has been cut by nearly half. We have a little under a year left to go on our high interest loan and we've managed to pay off that Amex a couple of times in the meantime (even though it's nearly maxed out again now).

So what does this have to do with eBaying? I'm getting to the point soon, I promise.

Moving to the US, where we live now, really helped alleviate the situation. But we're still coming up short every month and have very little disposible income. The apartment needs decorating and we can't spare the cash to do it. I don't want to charge ANYTHING to my credit card unless absolutely necessary. In short, I'm sick and tired of being BROKE.

I don't usually give out unsolicited advice, but this is relevant to my story (I promise). There are TWO golden rules I swear by, and I'm going to tell you what they are right now. You ready? Here we go:

1) The only thing in life you can control is what you do. My pet peeves are people who complain and do nothing about their problems and control freaks. A) You have no right to complain unless you're willing to get your ass in gear to fix the problem, and B) You gain nothing by stressing over things you have no control over (other than causing me annoyance).

2) Life is not an all or nothing proposition. My husband and I have been meaning to lose some weight for a WHILE. As part of our weight loss plan, I proposed we replace the white bread with whole wheat and the whole milk with skim. His response was, "that's not even going to make a dent!" My thought is that EVERYTHING makes a dent. If you can't go for an hour, going to the gym for 15 minutes is always better than NOT going to the gym. Eating a tub of fronzen yogurt is marginally better than eating a tub of ice cream. EVERYTHING COUNTS. Every ounce, and every penny.

So, now that you know how I think, you can understand why I started trading on eBay. Sure, I'm not making millions by selling my trinkets for $.99 (or $20.71, woohoo, go piñata skirt!), but hey, the 170-odd bucks I've made in the last couple of months are $170 I didn't used to have. If selling a couple of items here and there means I can allocate an extra $5 to paying off my credit card, then it's all well worth it. And if you can think of a better way for me to get a little bit richer, I'm willing to tke suggestions, too!

Basic HTML Primer (and Other Boring Tips That Will Save You Money)

Most of my posts are about increasing your revenue, but we all know profit is made up of revenue minus costs (eBay fees, Paypal fees, etc...) so this post is about keeping your costs down.

I discovered not that long ago that using self-hosted pictures in your eBay listings is FREE and allowed by eBay policy. Buyers are also much more likely to buy your stuff if they can have a close look at what they're actually buying. So, I've started using Photobucket and basic HTML to include additional pics in my listings.

Here's how it works. In the listing description window, write your description as normal. When you're done, pick a spot within the text where you think a picture might fit well. The easiest thing to do is to put your picture at the end of the listing.

If you've been following my advice, you will have created a Photobucket account. Go to that account and click on the picture you want to include in your listing. There should be a small panel on the left that says "Share this image." Under there you'll find three or four URL codes. Select the one that says "Direct Link" and copy it.

Now go back to you eBay listing description and go to the HTML tab in the item description window. Put the cursor where you would like the picture to appear and type this but replace the ( and ) with <> (didn't know how to include the exact tags without having it show up as a broken picture!):

(center)(img src="the URL you copied from Photobucket")(/center)

Alternatively, if you don't want to center the picture, get rid of the center tags and use only the img src tag.

Now go back to the "Standard" tab of the item description to check whether your picture is showing up. It should now look something this:

This beautiful christening gown has been worn once. It comes from a smoke and pet free home. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Now, depending on how you saved the picture in Photobucket, you might get something like the picture above, or something ginormous. Photobucket's editor allows you to resize your picture and replace the original, meaning that because your description is now linked directly to the Photobucket link, once you resize it in Photobucket is automatically changes size in eBay too.

Give it a shot! And feel free to send me questions, I'm happy to respond to them in the blog or in private.

$20 Richer

The bidding on the orange skirt just ended. After 14 bids, it sold for $20.71.

Bidding Wars

I think I've picked up a new eBay lesson this weekend, and I wanted to share it with you right away.

Lesson #3: Start a Bidding War!! List Unique Items for $.99 and Free Shipping.

From now on, I'm going to have a slightly less risk averse attitude and I'm going to list everything with a very low starting price and free shipping. You know the turquoise strapless I just sold this morning? The one in the "featured item" panel on the right? Well, I had listed it for something like $4.99 and free shipping originally, thinking the free shipping would attract buyers. It's a BEAUTIFUL, incredibly flattering top, but it's from Principles, a British store that no one has ever heard of here so I wasn't sure anyone would be able to find it.

Yesterday inspired by the success of my orange piñata skirt (I say that affectionately - it's a really nice peasant skirt), I lowered the price on the top to $.99 with free shipping. Doing that exposes you to a potential loss. Shipping a 13 ounce item via USPS Frist Class Mail can cost you nearly $4, so if you don't get any bids you're safe, but if you get only a couple of bids you stand to make a $3 LOSS from the transaction. Well, this morning when I woke up I looked at my blackberry and lo and behold, the top had sold for $12.99!

But that's not all. The orange peasant skirt is now at $15 with TWELVE bids with four individual bidders battling it out.

Check out my new total earnings up top! I'm well on my way to meeting my short term goal.

The Over Under on my Strapless Top Listing - Poll Bottom Right

The "Ayes" have it. It went for "over" $5.

The top sold last night for the Buy It Now price of $12.99. I'm building a new poll as we speak.

Things You Need to Do to Start Selling on eBay

I've been thinking this week that for all my rambling, I've actually failed to give you one of the most important lessons I can impart to a new seller: how to get started. A few of my friends have emailed me after reading my blog to tell me that it's made them think twice about selling all the good but unused stuff that's been cluttering up their closets.

Here are some of the obvious and not-so-obvious things you need to do to start your eBay career:


Obvious Steps

1) Create a seller account. This is a pretty obvious first step, and also a pretty easy one. You can create your account by following this link: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/seller_account.html. You'll have to go through a short process to verify your identity, link your seller account to a payment method and select the payment methods you'd like to accept from buyers.... which makes a great segue to...

2) Create a Paypal account. Now technically this isn't strictly necessary, but I've found it extremely helpful for a variety of reasons. 97% of eBay sellers list Paypal as a payment option and yadda yadda yadda.... you guys probably already know this. The real reason I've found it incredibly helpful is that when you use it to receive payments, Paypal imports all the information you need about the buyer. With this information, you can then print shipping labels, notify buyers their item has shipped and track each item as it makes its way to your buyer. Pretty nifty.

3) Clean Out Your Family's Closets. I try to be pretty selective about the quality of the items I list, but that doesn't mean you don't have a ton of items lying around that you don't use (and never will) that someone else would be willing to pay for. Gifts you didn't quite like (more about that later) are a great example of this. Moms, pre-pregnancy clothes and your children's gently used clothing and shoes are another goldmine. I mean, let's face it, if you're anything like me you're never going to be as skinny as you were before you got pregnant anyway, and if you do by the time you do your clothes will be outdated. This will be your inventory for the first phase of your business launch.

Not So Obvious Steps

1) Open up a Photobucket, flicker, or other photo hosting account. Having an account on Photobucket has saved me a TON of fees. eBay charges you for hosting more than one picture on their server. In other words, if you use the upload option to include more than one picture is your listing, eBay charges you for each additional picture. BUT if you use very basic HTML tags to display pictures that you are hosting on another server (i.e., Photobucket), it's 100%! Check out how I did it in this listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Polo-Carters-Baby-Gap-Spring-Shirts-Corduroy-Pants_W0QQitemZ200450405616QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Baby_Toddler_Mixed_Lots?hash=item2eabc674f0 . My dirty little secret is that I used to work as a Web Manager for Stanford Law School back in the day, and by doing that I picked up some basic HTML skills. In my next entry, I'll teach you how to use HTML to get free pictures into your eBay listing.... this entry is long enough as it is.

2) Get Some Shipping and Packing Materials. The Post Office offers free Priority Shipping materials. Because I ship mostly small articles of clothing, I use their free Priority Mail envelopes, which are rather large but sturdy and nearly weightless, to ship most of my stuff. Don't wait until the last minute. Quick shipping is a great way to differentiate yourself from other sellers, and having the materials on hand enables you to prepare your stuff for shipping at home in the evening and pop it in the mail the following business morning.

And finally....

Optional

1) Get a small scale. I've lost money a few times because I failed to weigh my items. The postal services charges you in 1 lb increments. Most of the time estimating is fine, but the difference between a 15 ounce item and a 17 ounce item can cost you over a buck.

2) Get a printer. I have to use my building's business center or my office printer to print shipping labels.... maybe I should take my own advice and buy a printer on eBay!

I think that's all for now, folks. I'll come back and edit this listing if I think of anything else. Also, if there's a particular topic you'd like me to write about I'm happy to take requests!

Moving Up in the World

I got one more gold star (feedback) yesterday on eBay. Hooray!

I also got driven halfway to lunacy by my toddler who at 10:30 pm was still refusing to go to bed, so I didn't have time to post. I'm hoping to outlast him tonight so I can put up a proper new entry. Speak to you soon!

Pleasant Surprises

Just like sometimes I'm surprised at the lack of attention an item gets (see my previous post), from time to time I'll list an item not expecting to sell it and get surprisingly good results.

The item below is a pefect example. I listed it a few days ago for $.99 and free UPS ground shipping, thinking that because it's unbranded and not all that special I would need to give it an extra umph to find it a good home. Don't get me wrong, it a VERY cute skirt, and it's never been worn. However, it's not from a highly desirable name brand or anything out of the ordinary, other than being just that: a cute skirt.

Two hours later, it had a bid. And then another, and another ... and 10 bids later, my no-brand piñata skirt is worth $10, $1 higher than my average item selling price with 3 more days to go in the auction.

Maybe I'm just a poor judge of what my target demographic wants. Or maybe my extra umph did the trick?? Check out the actual listing yourselves - the easiest way to find it is by going to my eBay community page: Http://myworld.ebay.com/elisav .

Lesson Learned: Ummmm.... I'm kind of at a loss on this one. I guess it's "never underestimate the power of a $.99 opening bid and free shipping." You risk a lot, but you also stand to gain a ton of attention.

More tomorrow!

Unsold Items and Similar Calamities

So I've had a recent string of unsold items lately, and I thought it might be worthwhile to work through the process of analyzing the root causes of listing failure with all of you.


I want to use one of my most recent unsold items as an example because, frankly, it was a surprise to me that it didn't sell, and I could use some feedback from you guys are I walk through the analysis.
Here's what the listing looked like:

Title: Old Navy Baby Reversible Blue Jacket Vest Size 6/12m
Item Condition: Pre-Owned
Starting Bid: $1.99
Buy It Now Price: $6.99
Shipping: $2.50
Listing Ending: Sunday, 5/14 5:15 PDT



Decription: Old Navy reversible puffy vest - dark blue exterior and light blue interior. Size 6 - 12 Months. Runs big - my son wore it until he was 18 months. This vest will keep your child warm - it's very thick. No defects or blemishes. 100% Polyester outer and inner shell. Machine washable. From a pet and smoke free home.

Visitors: 13
Watchers: 0


Now, there are basically five reasons why an item doesn't sell on eBay.


1) The item is undesirable. You will have a hard time selling things you no longer want because they are in poor shape. That's why I stick to listing items that either no longer fit, aren't my style or I no longer need.


2) The item SEEMS undesirable. Part of the fun of eBay is making sure you use a picture and description that both accurately describe your item but at the same time bring out all of its benefits. Even the hottest item can go unsold because the seller didn't do a good job of providing attractive pictures and descriptions.


3) People couldn't find your item (and its corollary, your listing ended at the wrong time). As I mentioned in a previous post, most buyers navigate to items through the search function or the browse function. That's why understanding the way buyers would search for your item and incorporating the best keywords into your title and description is KEY to driving traffic to your listing. Furthermore, there is a lot of CRAP on eBay, so you have to find a way to cut through the noise and make sure your item gets noticed. In addition to that, your listing is always most prominent when the auction period is coming to an end, meaning that if your listing ends when not a lot of people are online (say, 3 AM Eastern when people in the US are asleep and people in Europe are at work) not only will fewer people see it, fewer people will be available to bid on it.


4) The overall price of your item is too high. If you want to be succesful on eBay you have to be realistic. There is a certain amount of risk that goes with listing an item on eBay. The laws of microeconomics dictate that in a world of perfect information and rational decision-making every item will ultimately sell for its market value, regardless of where you set the starting bid. That is why I opt to set my starting bid low to attract more bidders. The problem with that is that only works if people can FIND your item (refer back to no. 3 and its corollary).

5) Buyers don't trust you. Trust is a key component to buying and selling online. If people think there's a possibility you will rip them off, they won't give you the opportunity. It's as simple as that. That's why on eBay you HAVE TO bend over backward to provide fantastic customer service, even if the buyer is in the wrong. Let me put it to you this way, there is no place like eBay for the old adage "the customer is always right."

Given what I've just told you, why do you think this item didn't sell? My hunch, based on the number of visits the item got compared to other items, is that not a lot of people found it. I'm planning on relisting the item this weekend, but before I do I would love to hear what YOU think, especially moms out there. Would you want to buy this for your child? Would you be willing to spend a total of $4.50 on it?


Discuss amongst yourselves.

My eBay Business Plan Phase I: Selling Personal Items

I realized this morning that last night I dove into the details of my eBay exploits (or lack thereof) so quickly that I neglected to tell you about my master plan. So, I thought I would dedicate this post to describing how I plan to grow my eBay empire from a source of occasional pocket change into a good complement to my existing income.

First things first, though. Here are my stats.

Success in business is often grounded in your ability to set short and long term goals for yourself, and the same goes for eBay. However, I need to figure out how I'm currently doing so I can set a realistic short term goal for myself. Let's get started.

Income Statement

As of now, my eBay sales grand total is close to $143. I have sold 16 items since January 31st, which means my average selling price per item is just under $9.

Gross Revenue: $142.90

Average Sale Price: $8.90

From that $143, I have also paid $16 in sales fees to eBay and $10.70 to Paypal. Now, assuming I've broken even on shipping (which I haven't, but let's assume for simplicity's sake), that would make my total profit $116.20.

Operating Cost: $26.70

Operating Profit: $116.20

Operating Margin: 81%

Profit per Item: $7.26

So, in the last 45 days I have sold 16 items for an average of $9 per item and made a profit of 81% on each one of those. The other thing I need to tell you is that not every item I list sells. In addition to the 16 items I sold, I have listed 6 other items that did NOT sell, meaning that my conversion rate on listings right now is 72%.

That means that ceteris paribus (hee hee - paribus), if I list roughly sixteen items in a month, I will make $77 that month.

Goals

Given what I've learned and the stats we've just gone through, my goal before I move on to Phase II of my eBay Business Plan (eBay arbitrage) is to increase my eBay profit from $77 per month to $250 per month within the next 4 months.

How am I going to do that you ask? Stay tuned! Now that we have this hygiene out of the way, I promise my entries will get more interesting. Our next installment: Unsold items - the root causes of listing failure.

My First Lot and Other Mistakes

So, where were we before the poopy incident?

Ah yes. I was telling you about my first few learnings on eBay.

My next attempt at selling something on eBay was a LOT more succesful (no pun intended), but probably one of the biggest mistakes I've made in my short eBaying career.

I figured since creating a listing was so much work and I hadn't had much luck anyway that I would do a little research before trying again. I found out, through one of eBay's seller tools (chech it out here: http://cgi5.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SellHub3Visitor) that J. Crew was one of the most popular search terms in the women's clothing category. I just so happened to have many pieces by J. Crew, and in an attempt to maximize my profits and minimize my efforts, I decided to list them along with nearly all of my most prized garments, creating an enormous lot with about 40 fantastic items.

I must make a parenthesis here to tell you that I found myself in a really fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) situation. My son had been born nearly a year earlier and I didn't think I would ever get back to my pre-baby size (I was right). As a result I had a closet full of useless clothing and an empty bank account - the ideal situation for starting an eBay auction.

I ended up selling the lot for something like $45. At the time, it seemed like a great sale, but in retrospect I let go 3 pairs of designer jeans, 5 designer tops, 2 top notch jackets and a TON of other valuable stuff for waaay below what I could have gotten for it if I had listed everything individually. However, given that I work all week and like to spend time with my son over the weekend, I also know it would have taken me 20 years to list every one of those items.

What was my mistake? Here it comes...

eBay Lesson Number 2: No One Wants to Pay the Shipping on a 20 lb Purchase. While I listed the lot at $.99 (another mistake - but we'll get into it later), the shipping on the thing alone was over $25. Very off-putting if you're looking for a great bargain on Saturday night's club clothes.

As a result, I learned a very important lesson. And that is...

eBay Solution Number 2: Small Lots Minimize Efforts and Maximize Profits. Selling individual items can rack up the dollars and feedback, BUT I've found creating small lots of matching clothing and accessories and pairing name brand items with (no less desirable) no brand items gives you the best bang for your buck. Getting an entire oufit or a few outfits makes people feel like they're getting more bang for their buck. You can list your items for a higher price and not considerably increase your shipping costs, since USPS charges in 1 lb increments. Those 1 lb jeans won't cost you any more to send if you add a 3 ounce top and 1 ounce bracelet to the listing.

I still pine after that first lot. It's the one that got away. If you're the eBay who bought it from me, and you're reading this, can I have a do-over? :)

More on shipping and other headaches tomorrow.

eBay Startup - The Road to 50

I'm on a journey to test the Horatio Alger stories of eBay sellers that began by selling paper clips and pencils and turned their humble storefronts into electronic empires of epic proportions. I want to invite you to join me as I bumble through cyberspace - mostly on weekends - and try to build my own eBay empire, starting with the road to 50 stars. In return, I will share with you every lesson I pick up along the way, just for keeping me company.

So, where to start?

My first attempt at selling anything on eBay was a total failure. I'd just read "Confessions of a Shopaholic," and it occurred to me that my "brand addiction" phase of the early 2000's had left me sitting on a pile of cash in the form of designer clothing, shoes and handbags. It has also left me sitting on a mountain of debt that later spiraled out of control when I financed my MBA with my American Express.

I wanted to start with something nice, but meaningless. Something that would attract buyers but I wouldn't mind parting with for a low price. So, with zero feedback and only a tenured albeit lightly used username, I used my trusty digital camera to take a picture of an unbranded but beautiful red alligator skin clutch I'd had sitting in my closet for nearly a decade and uploaded my first listing: a 3-day auction with a starting bid of ... $20.

That's when I learned....

Ebay Problem Number 1: It's very difficult to attract buyers to unbranded items. The main two ways people land on your listings are: 1) using the search function; 2) browsing through a category. Furthermore, it's difficult to know exactly HOW searchers in need of your item will search for it, AND it's against eBay's policy to use misleading phrases (like "Looks Like Gucci!") to attract hits. Finally, as an amateur seller, you don't have access to that type of information from eBay, so it's a guessing game as far your item title and description are concerned. Plus, have you ever tried browsing through a popular eBay category? Do you ever make it past the first three or so pages? Needless to say, my poorly-priced, unbranded (albeit beautiful) item had about 2 page hits, zero watchers and zero bidders.

Which brings me to...

Ebay Solution Number 1: Free shipping. Now granted, this only works for small, light items, but an easy way to boost your chances of getting hits on your item is to offer free shipping. Ebay offers the option to view only items with free shipping, and many eBayers take advantage of that option. Offering UPS Ground or USPS Parcel post - the cheapest options - and slightly rising your opening bid seems to increase traffic to my items. The caveat is that it's a little risky. You HAVE to be confident buyers would be very interested in your item, if only they could find it!

I eventually sold that item... but my toddler needs a diaper change, so you'll have to wait until he's cleaned up to hear how!