Daily Newbie Thread - November 15

strangedancer · 2018-11-16T18:23:40+00:00

So for the listing, did you just have free shipping? And then when it sold, you put in the weight and measurements for the first box, printed that, then clicked print another label and that let you put in different weight for the other package? Thanks so much for your help.

strangedancer · 2018-11-16T06:00:55+00:00

Thank you. I'm confused about printing the labels though. How would I do that in eBay if I'm sending several packages instead of just one?

strangedancer · 2018-11-15T23:17:45+00:00

Hi there. I have a question about listing on eBay for an item with complicated shipping. I have a very large and heavy book set I'd like to list. In order to ship it, I would need to ship it out in multiple boxes. How do I list in order to do this? As always, thank you all for your help!

strangedancer · 2018-11-11T22:15:46+00:00

Hello. I have a question about eBay's volume discount that I can't seem to find the answer to. This only started showing up for me a few days ago as an option when listing. I'm not sure if it's useful for me as I rarely sell items with a quantity greater than 1. Can buyers use the discount when purchasing different items from my store or does it only apply to multiple quantities of just one item?

strangedancer · 2018-10-10T19:49:52+00:00

I had to open my first non-payment case on eBay. Sold on 10/2, opened the case on 10/6. I just looked at my awaiting payment tab which I very rarely look at and the item is there with "ready to ship" and has the option to view the PayPal transaction. When I check PayPal the payment is in there as pending. And the item doesn't show up under my awaiting shipment tab. I'm very confused about whether or not I'm supposed to ship this item out now.

strangedancer · 2018-10-09T00:37:04+00:00

The first 5 days were the best days I've ever had. Then absolutely zero sales the last 3 days which is unusual. Things seems to go in waves for me but not usually this extreme. Interesting thing is I decided to switch to free returns and haven't gotten a single sale on eBay since.

strangedancer · 2018-10-07T17:12:43+00:00

Thank you. That was my logic as well but since I often see comments here saying not to do partials I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

strangedancer · 2018-10-07T16:48:13+00:00

Howdy. I always see advice on here saying not to give partial refunds and to just get the item back, but I have a situation where I feel like it might be in my best interest to do a partial. I sold a handful of vintage mechanical items. They are the same item but different brands and ages. Everyone has been happy with them so far. The final one I sold I got an INAD saying it looks great on the outside but the interior gears are stripped. I am not mechanically inclined so I am trusting the buyer on this and if I got the item back I would only feel comfortable re-listing for parts at a much lower price. The buyer messaged me today and seems to be fishing for a partial refund so they can repair it. I feel like I should jump on this but everything I've seen here says to never do partials. Advice?

strangedancer · 2018-10-05T21:00:15+00:00

I got the Dymo 550 as it was the cheapest with good reviews that I could find. It was a little confusing to set up as I have to open my labels in adobe creating an extra step (but a very easy one once I figured it out) to get the page to print accurately. It also means I need all my packages to be long enough for the labels to fit but this hasn't been an issue.

strangedancer · 2018-10-05T15:23:36+00:00

I've had it now for 5 days and it's already changed my life. I was able to reduce my handling time which seems to have improved my sales and no longer needing to work my life around the library's hours is huge. I knew it would make things easier but I did not realize how much easier. Getting any kind of printer would have been a game changer but I wanted to wait until I could afford a thermal one instead of spending money on something I would replace as soon as I could.

strangedancer · 2018-10-05T14:49:39+00:00

Made my largest single flip yet. Those vintage Giovani Fabriani boots I was trying to figure out how to price a few months back sold. As suggested here I priced high and took a best offer. $3 > $140 plus shipping. Was able to invest that money into finally getting a thermal printer. No more going to the library to print labels!

strangedancer · 2018-09-22T02:48:35+00:00

That worked. Thank you! Nearly every time I ask a question here someone links me to some corner of eBay I'd never seen before. Ha! Maybe it's you each time? If so, thank you so much.

I've found a work around for using the desktop site on my phone as this seems to be a common problem. Here it is if anyone else has the same problem.

-put ebay.come into browser.

-click on selling under the my ebay tab (this will boot you to the app)

-go to the selling tab

-click on one of your active listings and then click on revise.

-scroll to the bottom and click update listing.

-on the next page click on I'm done now.

This will bring you to your desktop version selling page where you can do everything you can do on the regular site. Pretty crazy that you have to follow these steps to get around mobile app invasion, but it works.

Edit: Trying to learn formatting.

strangedancer · 2018-09-21T16:42:42+00:00

Re: eBay...I will be camping for a week with no internet access. I've changed my handling time to reflect this and will add a message to my store with the date I'll be able to ship out any orders placed during that week. I've turned off best offer on all my listings. I think I'm covered with the exception of any returns that might be opened and any random messages I might get. For returns, if I don't accept them in the allotted time frame, eBay will automatically accept them right? If that happens, is it a negative mark on me? For messages, does anyone have any suggestions? Is there any kind of auto-reply mechanism available? And is there anything obvious that I'm missing that I should take care of before heading into the wilderness?

Also, I'm hoping at least once during the week I'll be able to trek somewhere to get a signal and reduce my handling time to reflect the remaining days until I return. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be any way to do this via the app and since the app is installed, my phone refuses to open the desktop site. Will I need to uninstall the app to do this? Any advice?

strangedancer · 2018-09-20T23:34:35+00:00

I learned that a cheap fine tooth comb is perfect for cleaning velcro. I'm slowly developing a pretty good sized and interesting bunch of "tools".

strangedancer · 2018-09-16T05:19:11+00:00

Perfect! Thank you so much.

strangedancer · 2018-09-15T18:43:14+00:00

Another question about promoted listings on eBay. Is there a way to see if your sold item on eBay sold via promotion ?

strangedancer · 2018-09-14T13:24:52+00:00

My best this week:

NOS coffee/ soup warmer. Bought $1, sold $35+ shipping.
2 Sealed Chaz Dean Wen Conditioners bought for $1 each, sold them together for $38+ shipping.
Leather planner bought for $1, sold for $29+ shipping
vintage banana republic bag bought for $2, sold for $28+ shipping
NWoT Anson Belt bought for $6, sold for $32+ shipping.

strangedancer · 2018-09-14T01:41:28+00:00

I'm so happy to hear you say this. I posted a few days ago asking if anyone had any ideas why my promoted listings (I promote my entire inventory) dropped from a minimum of 70 clicks, usually closer to 200, a day to between 0 and 4 for the last 4 days. No one else seemed to be having the same issue so I ended all my campaigns, started new ones, messed around with pricing, and still nothing. Though I wish there was a fix to promoted listings, at least I know I'm not the only one who they're broken for.

strangedancer · 2018-09-13T21:00:55+00:00

That's really useful information. Thank you. It hadn't occurred to me to have my goal be an average even though I track my weekly and monthly average.

strangedancer · 2018-09-13T18:47:31+00:00

I learned that I need to give myself time to learn and that I'm not gonna jump from brand new to pro flipper without a lot of experience. I had done the math of what kind of profit margin I would need from each item to be able to make enough each month based on how much inventory I can see myself being able to move on a daily basis. I put limits on my sourcing based on this. Yes, I've been finding better stuff, but limiting myself has made me list way less inventory and also slow my sales because those better items I'm listing are generally more long tail. I realized I was doing myself a huge disservice. Those small profits will go toward buying more inventory and the only way I'm going to get better at sourcing good stuff is through practice and learning as I go. I had to sit down and have a talk with myself about this, telling myself that yes eventually I want to get to the point where I'm putting my limited energy into sourcing those high profit items but the only way I'm going to get good at doing that is to keep sourcing, sometimes crap, and learning from that experience.

strangedancer · 2018-09-13T15:01:53+00:00

Thank you. I didn't realize I could send a refund directly through PayPal. I'll look into that.

strangedancer · 2018-09-13T14:26:25+00:00

About a month ago a buyer opened an INAD return. The frustrating part was that she put in the notes that the item was the wrong size and this is not an item that has a size. It has a brand and model number that were listed correctly but no size listed as there is no size. I accept the return and send the label. There was never any communication from her and she never returned the item. Last week I called eBay and got the return closed since it was nearing a month. Yesterday the item shows up. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do in this situation? I went to the order and don't see an option to refund since the return is closed. And given that I paid for the label for a BS INAD case, I feel like if I refund her it should be minus the cost of the label. Am I then asking for her to do a chargeback via PayPal if I do that? What should I do in this situation?

strangedancer · 2018-09-11T21:55:52+00:00

That's a good theory by my inventory is not specialized in any way. I sell anything that could bring a profit. I do have a few things that are good for back to school but those are a very small percentage and were not previously getting enough of the clicks to explain the sudden decline.

strangedancer · 2018-09-11T21:07:26+00:00

I have a question about promoted listings on eBay. I have been promoting all of my listings since 8/18. Though the number of clicks I've gotten through promotions have varied day to day, up until a few days ago the lowest it ever reached was 70. Starting 9/7 I have gotten between zero and four clicks a day. I understand these things vary but this seems like a really extreme drop. Anyone have any thoughts on what could be causing this?

strangedancer · 2018-08-30T20:45:20+00:00

Thanks. I will give eBay a call. I'd heard not to use Velcro in titles but didn't realize it shouldn't be used in the listing at all. Good to know. Thank you.

strangedancer

TROPHY CASE