A Reselling Blog by Fazoom
On Friday, March 29, 2019, I sold one item eBay.
1. I sold Margaritaville Men’s Brown Leather Bonaire Loafers via Best Offer.
These were picked up at a thrift store last summer and listed a month ago. I’m happy with the quick sale, but I should have listed them as soon as I bought them because the comps were higher when I picked these up.
What did you sell yesterday and on what platforms? How are your sales going?
On Thursday, March 28, 2019, I sold two items on eBay.
1. I sold an Italian Round Colonial Print with Gold Gilt Frame at the full asking price.
This was picked up at a thrift store last summer and has been listed since August 2018. I had a similar one that was rectangular that I picked up at the same time and sold months ago. It’s another case of waiting for the right buyer, as is with many antique and vintage items.
2. I sold a Faceted Crystal Rhinestone Black Bow Shoes Brooch Lapel Pin via best offer AND a 1% promoted listing.
I picked this up in an auction lot over the winter and listed it back in January. Two months to sell is a perfect time frame and I would actually consider that to be “fast” for most pieces.
Jewelry, brooches & lapel pins especially, are in my wheelhouse and is one of the first product lines that I started selling online. I absolutely love the artistry of such pieces and truly appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into creating them. And the fact that they’re easy to store and ship is an added bonus.
As I gear up to move out all clothing that has been listed since 2017 & 2018 I have been slashing the asking price to 50-60% off. Not a sale, but just reducing the price.
As I do that I have been debating if I should remove “Best Offer” from these items. While I like the additional sales I see from having Best Offer as an option, the lowballs drive me crazy at times. And even if you don’t have Best Offer turned on people still message you with offers.
My issue is that say I have an item listed for $25 with Best Offer then I reduce the price to $12, still with Best Offer turned on, then I see offers for $5 (sometimes less). At $25 a low offer might be $10.
My goal is to clear things out, so if $5 at least covers expenses, that’s a wash. But a secondary goal is more cash flow and breaking even isn’t going to get you there. So I counter as I usually do and that runs the lowballers away. Decisions, decisions. What’s more important? The space or a few dollars to buy new inventory?
What are your thoughts?
As you probably noticed, there was no “What Sold” post for Wednesday. Yes, it was a complete swing and a miss across all platforms. While we usually have that happen 2-3 times a month on eBay, that marked the NINTH day in March without a sale on eBay. That many days in a month without a sale has never happened since we bumped our active eBay inventory up over 1,000 listings. I’m not sure what’s going on over at eBay and we’ll probably never know, but this February & March have been abnormally low for sales. I’ll touch more on that once we wrap up the quarter next week.
What did you sell yesterday and on what platforms? How are your sales going?
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019, I sold three items on eBay.
1. I sold a Freya Floral Print Balconette Underwire Bra at the full asking price.
I’m pretty sure this was picked up at a thrift store, probably in the spring of 2018 when I was buying clothing to sell. It was listed in June 2018, so it wasn’t a fast seller by any means.
Fellas, I have learned over the years that you need to make sure the underwire and elastic are in good shape and to check for any holes around the underwire. And if a bra or bikini top has certain types of attachments, such as straps that can be removed, make sure they’re not ripped or missing.
2 & 3. I sold TWO Tobin Kittens Kitchen Towels Stamped Embroidery Kits, one at the full asking price and one via best offer.
These were purchased last year in an Amazon liquidation lot (see the sticker still on them) and listed in August 2018.
I had 9 of them and one sold in October 2018. Then yesterday two sold, which has an odd similarity that I’ll get to next.
When the first Tobin order came in yesterday I didn’t think much of it other than, “Cool, I finally sold another one of those.” But when the offer came in a few hours later I noticed that it was the from the same state, Missouri. When I see that it is sometimes the same person just wanting an additional one for whatever reason. So I looked and sure enough, it was a different person. Odd, I thought, but whatever, that’s cool.
Then I looked closer at the bra order on one of our other stores and guess where that was going? Missouri!!!
These are the type of coincidences that eBay selling conspiracy theories are made of. Are they hiding listings? Are they targeting specific locations? How does an item sit for months and then have multiple sales in a single day? How closely are our eBay stores linked together? Why don’t we routinely see sales from all 50 states, but instead the same few states over and over again?
The list of thoughts go and & on, but is there some truth in there? Or is it all just happenstance? I don’t know, but that is very strange.
What did you sell yesterday and on what platforms? How are your sales going?
On Monday, March 25, 2019, I sold one item on eBay.
1. I sold a Franklin Spelling Ace Electronic Speller With Thesaurus SA-206S via Best Offer.
The buyer had sent a lowball offer for 70% off the asking price on Sunday and I responded with a 30% off counter offer that they accepted on Monday. This is a perfect example of why you always counter, even if we’re starting low.
This was listed a few weeks ago and was picked up at a thrift store. Easy flip, BOLO.
According to Finder.com, drunk shopping is a big thing here in America. A $39.4 BILLION thing!
More than a quarter (26%) of Americans admit to shopping under the influence, totaling some 53.4 million people, according to the latest Drunk Shopping survey from finder.com, an annual survey of roughly 2,000 American adults about their boozed buying habits.
Collectively, Americans spent $39.4 billion on drunk purchases in the past 12 months, up from last year’s $30.43 billion.
And what are they spending their money on? Take a look!
This may explain why eBay buying habits don’t make sense and why I get negative feedback that simply claims, “I did not order this”. It also strikes home that you may want to be in the “best match” search to cash in on this buying habit. Or maybe you don’t so you can avoid problems such as unnecessary returns, chargebacks & negative feedback.
What did you sell yesterday and on what platforms? How are your sales going?
I would typically place this segment into the Monday morning “What Sold” post, but there’s a slight problem. Nothing sold on Sunday.
The only activity was a low offer that was 29.4% of the asking price. As in the offer was for 70% off. I countered 30% off and they did accept the counter this afternoon, so there will be a What Sold post tomorrow. Always counter.
Quantity wise we sold 5 items last week. 1 at the antique mall and 4 on eBay. There’s no way to sugar coat it. Last week was our worst sales week of the year and almost the worst sales week since we scrapped our old website and relaunched the main eBay store in 2017.
Week 11 made it look like we were going to have an upswing, but the graph above tells a different story. For reference, we sold 32 items in Week 12 of 2018, and as stated last week too, we had less inventory listed. Week 13 last year started a sales slow down that continued until Week 32 in the third quarter. Let’s hope that’s not the case this year.
As mentioned yesterday, our eBay goal is to decrease listings on the platform. While that may seem counterproductive, what we really want on eBay are things that will sell within two-three months of listing. We currently have items that have been listed for up to 18-months. While we have been selling some of these older items lately, they are taking up valuable real estate online and in our physical inventory. Much like bricks & mortar stores clear out items, it’s a good idea for e-commerce as well.
Going into 2020 we plan to list certain items on eBay for 2-3 months. If they do not sell within that timeframe they will either be moved to Fazoom.com or a different platform such as Mercari or Etsy. In the 12-18 month window, most items will be evaluated and a decision made as to their future. Only our main lines of small merchandise will be exempt from evaluation.
Do you have a policy for your inventory? If so, what does that look like? What tips do you have for other resellers?