BAJA BOLO

Well that didn't take long! Remember my Baja jacket that I was hoping to get $25 for?

And another brag photo:

That, my friends, is my to-be-listed pile!! I just finished editing pictures of the last of it. I do still have a candle holder that I need to buy a new votive cup for, and I have a handheld poker game that I need to buy a new battery for. Other than that, folks, I. AM. DONE.

I am desperate for a road trip, because I apparently have bought out my one little local Goodwill. However, I have a grand total of $77 in my Paypal account with a $100 auto-withdrawal coming out tomorrow :(  So no shopping for me. This is an ugly catch-22. I need to keep listing in order to sell consistently, but I need to sell in order to have money to shop for things to list. Ugh.

Revisiting the 90's

Look what I found in my Goodwill the other day:

When I was in about 6th through 9th grade, these were very popular. When I saw this one on the Goodwill rack, I don't even know what made me stop and look it up on my phone, but I did. Surprisingly, there still seems to be a market for these baja jackets. Check out the completeds. They aren't a hugely high-dollar item, but the sell-through rate is pretty decent, and I can expect to get $25-30 for it, I think. Obviously, it's going to depend on the color, but this one is in excellent condition, so I'm optimistic. I'll be sure to report back when it sells.

A Few Good Sales!

I've had a fairly steady stream of sales coming in this week, thank goodness! I haven't had many earth-shattering sales, but I'll take a steady stream too :)

There's absolutely nothing spectacular about this sale, except that it sold for more than the retail price on the tag. Before I shipped it, I did remove the original price, because that's just asking for trouble.

• Acquired On: --- sold on consignment for a friend
• Listed On: 10/3/12
• Sold On: 10/21/12
• She Paid: $1.50
• Sold For: $12.99 + shipping (retail price $10.50)

I regretted buying this Wiggles pillow as soon as I got it home. It was pretty pilled, but it didn't have any holes or stains, so I priced it to move fairly quickly. I didn't really expect it to sell as quickly as it did, but I'm okay with that!

• Acquired On: 7/12/12 (Facebook yard sale group)
• Listed On: 10/13/12
• Sold On: 10/17/12
• Paid: $3.00
• Sold For: $17.99 + shipping

 For some bizarre reason, I had Priority Flat Mail Envelope as an option for this. The thing is 26", so I'm not sure what I was thinking there. I did end up losing a little over $1 on shipping, but again - no big deal. It was bulky, and now it's gone :)

The only reason I'm mentioning this is because I had JUST decided that if it was still around this winter, I was going to keep it to wear to church Christmas Sunday. It's pretty and sparkly, and the fit is very forgiving :) But I'm pretty okay with it selling too.

• Acquired On: 2/21/12 (Goodwill)
• Listed On: 3/6/12
• Sold On: 10/21/12
• Paid: $3.99
• Sold For: $21.24 + shipping

This is a no-name brand that I have never heard of (Weatherproof), but it was new with tags and pretty on-trend, so I gave it a chance. It also sold quickly.

• Acquired On: 9/23/12 (Goodwill)
• Listed On: 9/25/12
• Sold On: 10/18/12
• Paid: $2.99
• Sold For: $25.49 with free shipping ($4.93)

This Miche shell came from the huge lot I bought for $97 at a yard sale this summer. I only have 3 shells left from that lot, and I am up to $777.77 in sales. It was worth dragging the kids out of bed early that day! What's odd about this sale, though, is that there has been absolutely ZERO interest in it. Then the other day, I got a message from an eBay member about it. Then a few hours later, it sold, but not to that person. It is amazing to me how often that happens - an item will sit with no interest, then I get multiple questions and/or a sale.

• Acquired On: 6/28/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 7/2/12
• Sold On: 10/20/12
• Paid: $2.00
• Sold For: $29.99 + shipping

I really hate prepping hot rollers, but once I do and get them listed and the sales start rolling in, I'm always glad for them. I have now sold 6 or 7 sets of these Conair Ion Shine hot rollers. I don't know why. They aren't vintage. They aren't super hot. But who am I to question these things? I just hold out my hand for the money and say "Thank you!"

• Acquired On: 7/7/12 (road-tripping with Tina)
• Listed On: 7/31/12
• Sold On: 10/19/12
• Paid: $2.14
• Sold For: $31.99 + shipping

I cannot stress this enough - always pick up SAS shoes that are in good condition!! You just have to make sure of 2 things:  the size isn't rubbed off, and the side of the shoe isn't misshapen from bunions. Seriously. You think I'm joking. I have seen SO many of these shoes with a big ol' deformed bulge sticking out the side of them.

• Acquired On: 4/20/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 5/23/12, but just relisted on 10/19/12 without the HTML
• Sold On: 10/20/12 (the day after I removed the HTML!)
• Paid: 50 cents
• Sold For: $35.00 + shipping

I bought this probably 2 years ago, figuring on reselling it. But my then-7-year-old son saw it and wanted it. Because I knew nothing about K'Nex at the time, I foolishly let him have it. Let me tell you - I have been picking up K'Nex pieces for 2 years now, and he's not ONCE put the thing together. In his defense, it's an extremely challenging one with 1280 pieces. I had made a deal with him that anything like this that I buy, *IF* he puts it together to make sure it's complete and works, it then becomes his. Then once he decides to sell it, I will split the money with him. He seemed pretty happy with that deal, but he never put this one together, so I reclaimed it. I had to order a couple pieces from K'Nex, and it was still missing one tiny piece that they don't carry anymore, but it was huge and I wanted it gone, so I listed it even with the missing piece. It sold very quickly.

• Acquired On: ?? 2010? (Goodwill)
• Listed On: 10/6/12
• Sold On: 10/18/12
• Paid: $7.99
• Sold For: $99.99 + shipping

Packaging and Shipping Tips

Ashley wrote:

packaging and shipping! I am clueless when it comes to this!

I'll give you a brief rundown of my best packing and shipping tips, but then I'll redirect you to the eBay Underground Proboards group, where the discussion topic of the week this week is this exact topic!

Essential Supplies:

• a wide variety of poly mailers, which I order from eBay
• tyvek mailers, both generic and Priority Mail
• a wide variety of boxes (plain, recycled, and priority mail)
• bubble wrap
• packing peanuts
• packing air bags
• packaging tape
• tissue paper

I buy almost all of that on eBay. It gets me eBucks, and I'm supporting the selling community. I have tried to beg for packing supplies on my local Facebook yard sale site. I have gotten a handful of responses, but it's not a reliable source. People in bigger towns would probably have more luck with that than I do.

Clothing Shipping Process:

I love shipping clothing! It is fast, easy, and safe. I fold the item neatly and wrap it (with my packaging business card) in tissue paper. Then I drop the bundle into a poly mailer, and that's it! Sometimes this varies. If the item weighs more than 13 oz, I will put it in a flat rate mailer, or of course if it's very bulky, I'll put it in a box. But 98% of my clothing goes first class in a poly mailer.

Plush Shipping Process:

If the plush does not have a sound/voice box, I follow the exact same procedure as my clothing shipping. If it has a voice box, I wrap it in tissue with my card, then I drop it into a shipping box.

Breakables Shipping Process:

This is going to depend on the item, but mostly my breakables get double-wrapped (at least!) in bubble wrap, then packaged in a box that's too big, filled with packing peanuts. My most frequent breakable item is microwave turntables. I used to build boxes for them, but I quickly got tired of the time I was wasting on that and decided it was worth the $2 each to just buy boxes. Sometimes you have to spend money just to keep your sanity.

Shoes Shipping Process:

Shoes also get wrapped in tissue and put in a shoe box. Most of my shoes go domestically, via priority mail. I use the priority mail shoe box for that. The boxes are free and are usually the perfect size. If it is going via international first class mail, I scavenge a plain box or turn a recycled box inside out.


I know this has been a quick post, and that I've only skimmed over how I package, but I wanted to encourage you to participate in this week's eBay Underground thread about packaging tips. If you don't have any packaging tips of your own to offer, that's okay too! Come read other people's tips and LEARN! That's what we are there for!

How to Remove SSB Templates and HTML From Existing Listings

Ok, I have had several readers ask me how I have been removing the SSB html coding from my listings, so here is a step-by-step tutorial with screenshots. These instructions are the same whether you are just revising an existing listing, or whether you are relisting using Sell Similar.

First step, go into your Active Selling page and find the listing you want to fix. Right click on the listing and choose "Open link in New Tab"   This will give you one tab with your Active Listings, and one tab with the listing you want to fix.

 Once you have your item open in a new tab, go to that tab, right click on Revise Your Item (or Sell Similar - whichever you are doing), and then click on Open Link In New Tab. Now you should have 3 tabs:  all your active listings, the listing you are fixing, and the Revise or Sell Your Item tab.

 Go into the newest tab (Revise/Sell Your Item). Scroll down to the item description section and click on the HTML tab.

 Right click inside the box with all the HTML coding and choose "Select All". Then delete it.

Next, click on the Standard Tab.

 Now go back one tab to the original listing. Scroll down to the Item Description section. Highlight your text and copy it.

 Go back to your Revise/Sell Your Item tab. Right click in the empty item description box (Standard tab!) and choose Paste.

This will paste your description content. You will probably have to fix some formatting, text size, color, etc... Once you have it how you like it, go ahead and continue with your listing and click on Submit at the end.

**VERY IMPORTANT**  If you are doing a Sell Similar, don't forget to end your original listing!! If you leave the original and the new one up, you may get caught with Duplicate Listings, which will earn you a policy violation. In fact, it's a good idea to end the listing as soon as you have opened it in a new tab.

**ALSO VERY IMPORTANT** If your SSB listing is kind of old, from before SSB started offering the picture pack, you may need to save your pictures from your listing onto your computer, and then re-upload them into your Revise/Sell Your Item listing.

If you open the photo in your SSB listing, you will not be able to right click on it to save it. You will have to get a screenshot. To do that in Windows, open the photo and press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. Then paste that photo into a new Paint document, crop it, and save it. Do that for all the photos in your listing. Then when you go to fix the listing, you can re-upload those pictures. Once you delete the HTML coding, the pictures that you have in your listing body will be gone, so this is important.

With your newer SSB listings, you won't have to do this step. Just make sure that all of your photos are showing up on your eBay Revise/Sell Your Item screen in the photo section. As long as they are all there, you won't need to do the screen shots.


***

I hope this made some sense. If anyone has anymore questions about how or why I have been doing this, please feel free to comment or email me directly and I will help you out the best I can.

What Have You Been Up To?

Please allow me to explain my absence ....

#1) My sales have been pathetic, so I haven't had any exciting sales to blog about.

#2) I have been feverishly getting caught up on my unlisted inventory. My store inventory had dropped from about 900 a year ago to around 450 a month ago. I am just above 500 right now. I wish I could find the time to list more regularly, but our homeschool is back in full swing, and we are trying to enjoy these last few days of nice weather before the winter arrives. I also have gotten back into running, and my husband has a lot of schoolwork that has to be done on the computer, so I have had to share :( 

#3) In addition to getting as many new listings up as possible, I have been editing current listings to take out all of my SSB templates. At eBay on Location, we learned that listings with 3rd party templates, photos, and HTML in the body of the listings really deter mobile buyers. I had heard this before, but listings look perfect on my phone, so I thought it was just another conspiracy theory. But then I saw a listing on Tina's Android (I have an iPhone), and it was an absolute mess on her phone. If I had that phone and I had opened that listing, I would immediately have backed out to find one that was easier to read. With mobile commerce on the rise, I am aiming to target those buyers more, so I need to get all of that coding out of my listings.

Each morning, I take a look at the listings that are due to end that day. If I recently listed it, I just revise it to take that coding out and make it text-only. If it's an older listing, I end it and relist it using Sell Similar, and take all the coding out that way. I'm also tweaking my pricing and keywords, and adding free shipping to all my first class items. My Shipping DSR has been steadily slipping, so I'm trying to bump it back up before it becomes a problem.

I am now officially moved into my building. I am set up to take pictures out there now. I absolutely love it. That's my peaceful time at the end of the day. I slip out there in the dark, lock the door, and blast my iTunes while I work. Sometimes I do packaging, sometimes I rearrange, sometimes I just look and smile :)  That has been the best move for my business. I really enjoy working out there.

I can't end the post without just one or two sales from the last couple weeks. Let's see which ones were my favorites...

This is a Faded Glory (Walmart) skirt. It always makes me laugh when I sell a FG skirt for good money, but it has happened enough now that I won't hesitate to pick them up in the future, *IF* it's a cute one. I think all the FG denim skirts that I have sold have been seamed like this AND have been plus-sized.

• Acquired On: 8/30/12 (Goodwill)
• Listed On:  9/17/12
• Sold On: 10/15/12
• Paid: $2.99
• Sold For: $24.99 - $4.99 shipping

My Miche items are still selling well. This purse sold VERY quickly, with free first class shipping, on a Monday. My buyer immediately messaged me offering to pay extra if I would ship it express mail because she needed it by Saturday for a wedding. I messaged her with a shipping quote for Priority and Express, with instructions to send whichever total she chose to my Paypal account. A few minutes later, I received a payment for Express mail. Now, I live in Pennsylvania. She lives in Ohio, right next door. The purse would easily have made it in time with just the free first class shipping option, but I wasn't about to take the chance that some freak occurrence would make it late, so I got it packaged and made the special trip to the post office to ensure that it would get there the next day.

• Acquired On: 9/19/12 (Facebook Yard Sale)
• Listed On: 9/27/12
• Sold On: 10/15/12
• Paid: $6
• Sold For: $26.99 + $21.95 express shipping

Excellent Deal at Vista Print!

I'm still here. I'm just ... working! I've whittled my unlisted inventory down to just one more bin! I feel a road trip coming on :)

I'm just popping in really quickly to tell you about this great deal at Vista Print. I have used VP for years for all of my business cards. Even before I was selling on eBay, I was getting business cards through VP that I used as a pianist. I gave them out for piano students or potential performance gigs. I have always been very happy with their service and their product.

Now, I slip a business card into each package I send out. It doubles as a thank you note too. Last time I ordered cards, I got 1600 of them. I just opened my last box, so this deal came just in time.

Right now, you can buy a $50 Vista Print credit through Living Social for just $10! So you pay Living Social $10 today (or sometime within the next 5 days, before the deal expires), and you will get a code for a $50 credit to use at Vista Print. What an awesome price!!

But that's not all. Vista Print also makes Christmas cards, so even if you don't need business cards, this is a FABULOUS way to get cheap Christmas cards!!

Check it out here - this price is too good to pass up.

Tax Links are Fixed!

For those of you who have been wanting to read through my tax series but weren't able to access any of the posts, I have finally updated the links. They all work now! To find them, click on the "Income Tax Information" at the top right corner of this blog, and you'll find the entire series there.