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.