Its been a busy eBay week! I have done a lot to get my store back up and rolling and to start making some money. I am confident that the experiment will be a success, even with the setback from the books.
August 22 - 28, 2008: Friday, August 22, 2008
Today I spent doing many business oriented things to help my eBay business.
I purchased the domain name,
www.Rayes-Stockpile.com
for my eBay store. I then went through my SBI service and got it redirected for free, so that I could send both online and offline customers to an easy website address.
In addition, I am an affiliate for eBay. They pay me 50% of their commission on an item if I send them the customers. So instead of just forwarding the eBay store domain, I actually forwarded a special affiliate url so that I would get credit for the sales! Even if the customers go on to purchase from another eBay seller!
I put the word out on Yahoo that I was looking for Mary Kay. Got one hit, but she wanted too much. I just can't figure out why they think 25% off is a good deal for me!
I decided to buy labels from a company that makes them for Paypal shipping.
I thought this might make my packages seem a little more professional, and since it takes so darn long for me to tape the labels on the packages, might save me some time.
I paid $45.47 with shipping for 500 labels.
I also finally got around to ordering some free supplies from USPS.
I got a couple boxes of flat rate priority boxes, some priority bags, and a few miscellaneous boxes. All were free. My big problem is space. Since we live in an RV, finding creative space for all these items can be a real challenge.
I created a simple eBay packing slip for my items on Microsoft Word. It just says thank you, has my contact info, and a place for me to write the item number and description. It also lists all my websites for them to go to if they'd like.
I sold another Mary Kay item today.
I really liked the eBay Marketplace Research tool I used, so I decided to start the $9.99 monthly subscription. I will reevaluate next month to see if it is worth it.
While using this tool, I started to notice a trend with those who sold the most Mary Kay items on eBay: they offered free shipping. They priced their items higher than most people, and built the shipping costs into them.
I decided to give it a try! In all my years on eBay, I have NEVER done free shipping before! I read somewhere that eBay would give you preferential treatment in the listings if you offered free shipping.
So I edited all my store inventory items to reflect the free shipping amount! This took several hours, as I decided to do them one by one. I kept shipping charges on all auction items because I start my auctions at one cent.
I also found a lot of Mary Kay items on eBay that I won for $14.54 including shipping. Most of the items were unusable because they were used demos, but there were a few products that could be resold. We'll see.
August 22 - 28, 2008: Saturday, August 23, 2008
I got up early for garage sales. Checked with Craigslist.org for the ones I wanted to go to. I had done this last night as well, but I'm glad I checked again. There were a couple sales that were added overnight, as well as one that was canceled due to the weather. Tropical Storm Faye was supposed to be giving us some more bad weather. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
Three items were sold overnight with the new free shipping! Two of the items were very lightweight and went to the same bidder. That worked out to my advantage, though it won't always.
We spent a few hours going to some garage sales. Purchased:
Medical scrubs and fork place card holders - $25
The fork card holders are decorative items to display who sits where at a nice dinner table.
Lot of Cake Decorating Items - $25
I went to on garage sale where the owner had taken the time to individually bag dozens and dozens of sets of cupcake decorations and cake decorations. They were probably worth $5-6 each. She wanted $1 each for the bags.
I managed to talk her down to $25 for the lot, but it was difficult. She only wanted to sell me some of the lot for $20, but I held firm. We eventually compromised on $25. We'll see how they do.
Erector Set Junior and Golf Swing Helper - $2
I paid a buck a piece at one yard sale on a couple of used, but in their original boxes, items. Not sure if they are worth anything.
Garage Sale Tips
When going to garage sales to look for items to resell on eBay, there are a few things I do to try and keep the price down.
I dress in "exercise" type clothes, old t-shirts, shorts, with a kerchief in my hair, trying to seem very casual and not well-off by any means.
I pack a backpack full of large pillow cases for purchases and make sure I leave any designer bags or name brand clothes at home.
I also make sure that I never hint that I am going to be selling on eBay. My kids, who often accompany me, know that “eBay” is the bad word, and if they mention it, they are banned from coming to any more sales. They'll have to wait in the car with Daddy. When people think you are going to resell their stuff, the price suddenly goes up, or becomes nonnegotiable.
I'll watch other customers interact with the garage sale owners to see what kinds of deals they are getting. If they are saying "sure" to every offer, I'll place a lowball offer in for any items of interest. If they get offended when others try to dicker, I'll leave the garage sale without ever offering for an item.
I also make a pile of the items I am interested in, if possible, and when dickering will include all the items for one single price, instead of pricing each one separately.
I came across a garage sale that was listed on Craigslist. We actually hit this one first, as the listing said they had over a hundred Hummels. They specified "no early birds" so we showed up exactly at 8am, their opening time.
But when I looked around, I didn't see a single Hummel!
I knew it was too early for them to be gone, so I asked the seller what happened to them.
She told me the night before, her husband got cold feet about selling them.
She had been collecting for 30 years and had spent more than $20,000 on her hobby.
Her husband was upset that she was going to sell them for pennies on the dollar and told her not to do it.
She seemed genuinely upset about this.
I asked her if she wanted them anymore, and she told me she really wanted to get rid of them, as they were moving and she had already sold the curio cabinet they were housed in. I then told her I would have sold them on eBay had I purchased them.
I gave her my phone number and told her to call me if she wanted me to list them for her, as a Trading Assistant. I told her I would split the sale, 50/50 with her. When I got home, I sent her an email with my eBay user id, a repeat of my offer, and a repeat of my contact information. I also told her I was only in town for another month. We'll see if anything happens with that.
Often, I go to garage sales where the sellers have high value, collectible items, for more money than I can afford, or for as much as they would sell it for on eBay. I sometimes mention to them that I would be willing to sell the items for them, as a Trading Assistant.
When I got home, I listed the miscellaneous stuff I had found in the house last week on eBay, and caught up on the other stuff I needed to list like the bug suit and the fishing shirt. I did not list the new stuff I found.
Two people are in contact with me about the BJU homeschooling books that were delisted. Hoping that they will pay me for them and I can ship them out.
August 22 - 28, 2008: Sunday, August 24, 2008
One woman paid me $30 for a set of the books which I will ship out tomorrow. I'm including the payment as income with my eBay biz since the items were on eBay.
I had another person contact me for a Buy It Now purchase of a sega dreamcast system I listed yesterday. No bids had been made on it, so I told him I'd take $40 for it. He bought it immediately.
But here's the problem. Remember on Friday when I changed all my items to reflect free shipping? I put in every listing that auctions would be charged a shipping fee, but all Buy It Now purchases were free shipping. I stupidly didn't consider that when I made the $40 deal! He ended up putting an extra $6 towards shipping after we discussed it, but it cost me more than $15 to ship.
I took pictures of all my new garage sale finds and edited them.
They are now in boxes next to my computer area ready to be listed.
I started to list beef, buffalo and turkey jerky from the network marketing company that I am involved with,
Jerky Direct.
I can list as much as I want, and they will dropship for me. The only problem is that many many sellers also list the same jerky, and they price it so low, it is actually costing them money to ship it!
I think they unreasonably assume that anyone who buys the jerky is fresh meat to push the opportunity on; either that or they can't do math! I listed the jerky for the actual retail, plus shipping amount. After eBay and Paypal fees, I will make about $2.50 per set sold. Nice part is I don't have to do the shipping.
To set me apart from those trying to cause themselves to go into bankruptcy, I put cute little cow, turkey, and buffalo graphics in my preview picture. I didn't list all the jerky, in fact, only started with the turkey. I've been busy!
August 22 - 28, 2008: Monday, August 25, 2008
I spent about a half hour this morning and created a list of the delisted BJU homeschooling books, and then listed one book in each of the Craigslist communities throughout my state.
I put in each listing that more were available, and to contact me for the list.
Three people contacted me; one was a reseller himself.
I explained to each person that I was a seller on eBay and got delisted.
I showed them my eBay store so they could check my feedback, and explained that the prices included shipping to their location.
I chose prices based on where I thought the auctions would have ended. My prices, collectively, equaled $420 from the $150 lot. Dang it! That bored mom with nothing else to do really set me back!
I decided to buy some business cards for my eBay Trading Assistant business. Not that its really a business, but I figured that it might be helpful to have my contact information to give to garage sale sellers when I find items that are eligible. I bought some free cards as VistaPrint for the price of shipping. Total: $5.78.
I answered an ad on Craigslist for more Mary Kay. She mentioned that she was getting out of the biz and that she was selling at a discount, so I emailed her. She said she had $2,600 worth of product, and would “give it to me” for a mere $1,700.
I told her thanks, but I wasn't interested. I mentioned that if she got desperate, and wanted to sell it at a more reasonable price, that I was in town for a couple more weeks. She immediately emailed me back with a price of $850. Still, that was much more than they would sell for, so I passed, again mentioning that I was in town for a couple more weeks.
I never made an actual offer, and she emailed me back saying she felt her price was good, but would keep what I had said in mind. About an hour later she listed the lot on Craigslist for $950.
My eBay shipping labels came in! Wow! That was really fast! Unfortunately, I thought that 250 pages of 2 labels each meant I would get 500 labels. What it really meant is that I would get 250 eBay shipping labels and 250 little labels that I cannot use. Oh well, live and learn.
August 22 - 28, 2008: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Started the day by finding someone on Craigslist who had a brand new, in box, Mary Kay starter kit for $49. I emailed her and offered $30. She took $40. It was so exciting to get to see exactly what these new distributors actually get! The foundations alone were worth the $40, plus I got so much more.
The kit was a new one, so had new catalogs. I will be listing the catalogs and order forms on Craigslist since they are hard to sell on eBay due to their weight.
I shipped some eBay items sold throughout the week today (11 items) with my new shipping labels. First, I put the paper in the printer backwards. No biggie. I just reprinted the labels on the other side. But then as I was doing this, the printer decided to run out of ink! All 11 labels printed to faint to put on the boxes, so I had to throw them away!
The third time was a charm though, after changing ink. But they weren't formated correctly, so some of the label was off the main perforated sticker. I had to piece the sticker together on the packages, trying to line it all up! After all that, though, I still think it was less trouble than taping the labels.
Listed a few more selections of jerky, the entire buffalo varieties. I need to do all the beef and the fruit stix as well. I also listed one of the three boxes of cake decoration items. This, while trying to work on three websites! If only there was more time in the day!
August 22 - 28, 2008: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
I sold some jerky this morning! Some of the
teriyaki buffalo
with the cute buffalo graphics. This is looking good!
I got the Mary Kay items I had bought last week on eBay from the new eBay seller. She didn't package them well at all, and somehow one of the sample foundations had been punctured and had exploded over everything in the box. In addition, one of the "new" items that was listed (one of the only things I would be able to resell to begin with) was expired! I have emailed her about it.
I have decided, after this experience, to give up on trying to buy resell lots on eBay. I will stick with craigslist.
August 22 - 28, 2008: Thursday, August 28, 2008
Sold some Mary Kay samples overnight.
The Mary Kay seller from eBay replied to me. I was concerned that she might not since she was so new to eBay to begin with. But she offered to compensate me for the damaged products. That was the right thing to do, and I will be sure to leave her positive feedback.
I haven't gotten my freebie box of Mary Kay yet from my friend's sister. Hopefully next week!
August 22 - 28, 2008: This Week's Totals:
Total Sold: $197.81
Paypal fees: $9.34
Shipping fees:$43.51
Purchases:
Garage Sales: $52.00
Craigslist: $40
Drop shipped Merchandise: $9.57
eBay MK Lot: $14.54 (haven't gotten a refund yet.)
My eBay fees are due this week too. I decided to show you what I pay on a monthly basis, instead of per transaction. This will be easier to comprehend. This includes my store fees, listing fees, final value fees of items sold, and my Marketplace Research fees. This does not reflect my current balance, but only what is due at the time of payment.
But when I looked around, I didn't see a single Hummel! 
When going to garage sales to look for items to resell on eBay, there are a few things I do to try and keep the price down.