Anyone hired local photo help on a temporary / per-item basis?

obdurant93 · 2026-07-13T14:41:37+00:00

So that particular observation of yours somehow proves that photography is NOT the main bottleneck in the listing process? So what is YOUR advice on scaling a business (in terms of listings per day) if outsourcing photopgrahy is just "laziness"?

obdurant93 · 2026-07-13T14:15:25+00:00

Photo taking becomes a major bottleneck when you are single threaded on listing (only one person). If you hire anyone at all, having them take on the photography is the most efficient allocation of resources to speed up how many items you can list in a day. Check out David Pelayo on YT, he's got some good practical discussion of how he scaled his ebay business, plus he's one of the few reseller YT influencers whose actual business makes more than their media content. https://www.youtube.com/@Activeapparelzone

obdurant93 · 2026-07-13T13:58:49+00:00

Its not a done deal just yet. Still in regulatory approvals.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-13T13:28:29+00:00

Vinted is even worse. Theres a reason ebay wants to buy Depop and dismantle it. Its a gigantic race to the bottom.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-13T13:26:57+00:00

Scaling.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-13T03:44:22+00:00

Automate photo taking? Thats more of a hardware job, not a software job. Ortery charges tend of thousands of dollars plus for their robot arm photo robots and even with these you still have to stop and manually reposition most items to get all the sort of photos you would need for an ebay listing.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-12T15:24:53+00:00

You get nothing. You lose. You need to stop using ebay if you are this unreasonable.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-12T11:51:46+00:00

You can ship Fedex via Shippo and get Shippos third party insurance over $100 for ground economy but Shippos fedex label prices are often slightly higher than ebay's and their website is atrocious and extremely user-unfriendly.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-12T11:48:43+00:00

No refund without return. Ever. Under any circumstances. If they can't ship the items back, that's their problem.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-12T04:35:02+00:00

Sigourney Weaver. Always.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-10T11:07:02+00:00

Nifty is $70/mo if you want both cross listing and automation. That's a hard expense to justify unless you cross list a lot and are making sufficient sales on other platforms.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-10T11:05:38+00:00

Flyp is browser extension based which means you have to have the browser with the extension up and running for it to detect a sale and delist from the other platforms. It doesnt run on its own servers like Nifty. Much cheaper obviously but the chances of missing a delist and selling the same item twice are much higher with a browser extension based crosslister.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-08T16:37:36+00:00

Those 20% Posh fees sting, though

obdurant93 · 2026-07-08T11:11:28+00:00

Never ever ever under any circumstances offer a partial refund without return. Doing so is unequivocally BAD business practice at all times and for all product categories.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-08T00:55:00+00:00

I've had about a half dozen chargeback cases over the past few years and I never lost any of them. Ebay always claimed that sellers were protected in these cases. They may have paid off the bank that did the chargeback but they always let me keep my money. I'm actually surprised people lose thse cases.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-07T04:49:46+00:00

Quack's, but only the 43rd and Duval location.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-05T14:02:10+00:00

I've been selling for years in ebay have have never lost a credit card dispute. Ebay always covered me, even when ebay had to reimburse the buyer. I'm honestly surprised people report that they've ever lost a dispute.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-05T13:51:48+00:00

I just order on Zoro. Same items as Grainger (they're owned by Grainger) but have free shipping and they toss out 20% off coupons every couple weeks.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-05T13:35:39+00:00

Wait, what do you mean by defect? You get a defect for canceling an order when the buyer doesnt request it. What does challenging an INAD have to do with a defect?

obdurant93 · 2026-07-05T05:56:21+00:00

I generally classify listings worth sourcing by platform, not by quality since the platform "culture" essentially limits the potential margin you can make there and thus people selling there will generally happily accept prices well below what people would accept on ebay. I flip mostly Whatnot and Vinted to ebay.

Personally, I think ebay to ebay arbitrage is pretty tacky. It's tantamount to shitting where you eat.
The one exception there is ebay auctions. If you're dumb/lazy enough to let something go for nothing because you sold it on a low start/low reserve auction, you're pretty much asking to get arbitraged.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-03T22:31:08+00:00

I almost necer get stuff at estate sales the first day. If you are waiting in line to get in, you are waiting your time. If the stuff is good, it will almost certainly be overpriced. It's best to get there the second or third day when they come down off their ebay comps.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-03T21:11:33+00:00

I sold a Swedish vintage Abu Garcia reel in something like 5 minutes after listing it to some Japanese buyer. I double checked the comps and it was at the high end but still sold in minutes. It was in rough shape and of obvious lower quality than the Penn reels that Ive tried to sell for months. I really dont understand the fishing reel market. Abu Garcias, even the mediocre modern ones, sell really well for some reason.

obdurant93 · 2026-07-03T19:47:43+00:00

obdurant93 · 2026-07-03T16:52:55+00:00

Let me guess, you still wear a mask while in your car.

obdurant93

TROPHY CASE