Activity theory (Auctions vs Fixed Pricing)

Let's embellish something.  I read a statistic the other day about auctions hitting higher in search rankings than fixed listings.  Assume 1000 listings pull up and 100 were auctions and 900 were fixed.  And, 64 or something of the top 100 were auctions while the other 36 were fixed.  This means auctions carry a higher percentage of the top 100 and were over-represented based on pure numbers.  (I figure some of this gobblegook has to do with both new listing and ending soon bonuses, but whatevs.)

I also saw a video blog of a seller than lists auctions first and moves them to store after they don't sell.  But, she lists HIGH on the first auction shot.  She does this because she saw this over-representation, too.  And, because she swears it drives traffic to her store and keeps her numbers up.

Hmmmmmm.  Of course, this gets me thinking.

Why not list an auction, at YOUR price, and see if you can't flip a few things in a week?  So, I tried it today. I usually just dump things directly in the store with a Best Offer on them to cover my range of acceptance.  For example, a $25 shirt may have an offer on it for $20.  I don't care what it sells for in that range.

The auctions I put out there today were on some bigger ticket items, too.  I started the auction price at what I would typically put as my low offer acceptance.  If I felt it may work, I placed a Buy-It-Now on for what my original asking price would be.

This allows me to offer free shipping on auctions.  It also means since eBay dropped it's tiered auction pricing (where everyone used to fear going over the 9.99 mark) I can ask pretty much whatever I want.  I only need one bid......I don't need a war to start to get MY price.  However, the listing fees were higher.  In some cases, double.  I felt that's ok for the sake of experimentation, but don't know how I feel about it long-term.

The shirts I put out there were Hawaiians.  I put out two Reyn Spooners, a couple cheapies, and two Tommy Bahamas (one NWT).  These "should" get some attention at the least.  I'll be interested to see if a few of them sell.  If so, this will be one seriously quick way to get paid for some great thrift store finds.

Make Today Count!
Chip

Monday Results..8/26/13

Quick post here.  I had a nice weekend.  Sold over a dozen items.  Here is the biggest one.

Bought for $8 about 4 months ago.  Cashmere Sportcoat

As for the rest of the numbers, now sold 60 items, gross sales of $1207, net over $600.  I'm sure this is because I'm back on the listing train again.  Sales have really picked up since.

Later, peeps.

Reality Check..

That's right....I'm talking to you.  It's time to get off your ass and list that old stuff you have been overlooking because you don't like it.  Those things that aren't in your "niche."  Those things that aren't exciting to you.  Those things that sit in that corner and just mock you while you play with the toys you love.

Yes, I'm talking to you.  It's time to practice self-discipline and get your space in order.  It's time to rethink your organizational system.  It's time to rethink your shipping and storage process.  It's time to reclaim your house so company can come over once again.

Yes, I'm talking to you.  It's time to get off Facebook and list those things that are piling up.  It's time to take pictures of things even if your kids are screaming in the background.  It's time to get that stuff online before another Christmas passes you by without you giving it your best effort.  It's time to stop shopping for more until you get everything listed online.....SO YOU CAN SELL IT!

Yes, I'm talking to you.  It's time to get your receipts in order for tax time.  It's time to categorize things NOW so you don't have to spend time away from doing what you love later.  It's time to see where your profit margins actually lie instead of misleading yourself into thinking you are headed to Paris in first class seats next month.

Yes, I'm talking to you.  It's simply time to get real.

If you don't you know from experience you will regret it.  You will continue procrastinating and putting it off. You will keep accumulating things until you are on an episode of Hoarders.  Or, you will keep piling up receipts until the IRS knocks on your door for an audit.  This is a business.  It's not 3rd grade recess where we push the cute girl down or kick the kickball over the monkey bars.  It's real life!

Nobody said this would be easy.  If it was easy, and we could do what we wanted to all the time, everyone would be doing it, too.  You chose this life because you didn't want average and ordinary.  You didn't want what all the other "normal" people let themselves get trapped into.  You chose this because you are different!  You are special!  You are an amazing brain of untapped potential that just thinks differently than the rest.  However, the way you reward yourself is to stay on top of things.

Yes, I'm talking to you.  Don't take your foot off the gas because you are a little tired.  This is how it all starts to unravel.  You already know this.  I'm not sharing anything prophetic with you.  I am writing this letter to you to motivate you and inspire you to keep going.  No one ever got their dreams by sitting in a lawn chair with a beer.  And, they didn't stop until it was painfully obvious they were already there.

This can be you........if you only stay disciplined.  So, let's DO IT TODAY!!

(For those of you kind enough to read this, thank you.  Now, even though this may have been intended for me, myself, and I......I beg of you to go to your mirror and read it to yourself.  And, watch yourself take off! It's never too late to get a grip on yourself.  So, don't sit down........go!)

Make Today Count!
Chip

Flip vs Buy and Hold.....some math

This is the constant question poking in my brain.  I don't think anyone short of Alan Greenspan could get the answer correct.....and he likely can't.  

It's the question that forms the very bedrock of your business model.  Do I charge less and burn that inventory out (aka WalMart), or do I charge more and make more profit for less work while risking holding onto an item for awhile and having to store it (aka Tiffany's jewelry)?  Which one makes more sense for me?

I'm a geek when it comes to breaking down things to their simplest form.  It helps me understand things.  Granted, nothing is black and white.  There are always shades of gray.........about 50 to be exact, right?

Well, I've finally put some rough work into the details.  Let's assume (yes, I'm about to make an ass out of you and me) that we have an average profit of $10 if we can unload an item in a month.  And, let's assume we will make $25 in profit if that same item is priced higher and doesn't sell for an average of 4 months.  Which is better?

I buy my shirts for $3, but let's use $5 for ease.  If I sell that first shirt for a $10 profit, I can now buy 2 shirts.  Provided I get them listed quickly, that next month I should make $10 on 2 shirts, or $20.  Now, flip it again and it's $40.  Again, and it's $80.  So, 4 months later, I have netted $150 in profit, right?  Seems like a no-brainer vs letting the item sit for $25.  After all, $150 beats $25 hands down.

Oops.  Look a little deeper.  What is your time worth to you?  It will take significantly longer to pack and ship 1+2+4+8 items (15 items total).  To make the same $150 the 15 shirts made me, I only need to sell 6 shirts at $25.  All I need to do is build my inventory up while I sit around waiting.  If it takes me an average of a half hour to source, list, pack, and ship each item (random time here, but worth knowing about yourself someday), that's 7.5 hrs for the 15 items vs only 3 hrs for the 6 items.  Translate that to an hourly wage, and we have $20/hr for the $10 profit model vs $50/hr for the $25 model.  Assuming 40 hours/week is all you want/can work, we have an income of $800/wk vs $2000/wk.

Look, I'm being overly simplistic here, but one person can only work so much.  There's only so much time in a day.  The difference here is working hard vs working smart.  The only trick is:  Are you buying items that can net you both $10 or $25 depending on how long you choose to wait?

I guess that's a topic for another blog post.....

Make Today Count!
Chip

Monday Results Update..8/19/13

Another horrid August weekend draws to a close.  For the second Sunday in a row, I sold nothing....zip.....zilch......nada.  But, I should disclose I sold 3 things on Saturday so all was not lost.

I have jumped back on the listing horse, though, and things are starting to pick up.  I seem to be selling some of my very old stuff.  It's interesting to watch things sell that I had all but given up on and was just waiting for them to come up for relisting again so I could move them to auction and just dump them.

Look out!  What I'm getting ready to show you is going to blow your mind with how rich I'm going to get....lol.

Bought for $2 and sold for.......
Dilbert Tie

Bought for $1.50 on an experiment to see if the brand sells....it doesn't....
Cremieux Polo

I know those are links and not pictures.  But, to save space on my computer, I toss my pics shortly after an item is listed.  If these links die, I'm sorry, but I have no other way to show you just a pic.

As for results, this month I have sold 35 items for a gross number of $598.  Margins are down because I'm purging old inventory by lowering prices to drive them out the door and recoup the cash.  But, even if my margins are 50%, that's a car payment for some.  I'll get back up there soon now that I'm listing again.  So, no worries.

As for today, I spent the morning at a few thrift stores and posted a video on YouTube here.  Feel free to check it out.  It's about 7 minutes long and I break down my profit expectations on paper at the end.  I also listed 7 things and redid my notes I take before I list items and my condition rating.  Remember, simpler is better.....as long as you get your point across.  I am really working on this concept right now, and I will blog about it when I have settled on a system I like going forward.   Happy Tuesday, and as always...

Make Today Count!
Chip

The Way It Was...

I have dabbled with a few methods of getting rid of stale inventory.  As a result, I have learned quite a bit about the different methods.  I have learned a little of what works and what doesn't.  I'm no expert....believe me.  But, I can share a couple of tidbits today.

As I started this reselling on eBay gig, I was having fun building my inventory and number of listings.  Things started selling on a consistent basis and my confidence grew.  However, so did my stale inventory.  As the months went by, I could start to see what may not have a prayer at selling.  What to do?  

I tried dropping prices.  I dabbled with Markdown Manager.  I have even been running what I thought was going to be the solution....Ki Markdown.  This ingenious little program uses Markdown Manager to put items on sale either randomly or by age or by pretty much whatever method you want.  The sales can be set to recur daily, weekly, monthly, again...pretty much whatever way you want.  I thought, "Why not put things on an increasing sale as they age?"  You know, like retail stores do.  I constructed 30 day, 60 day, and 90 day sales.  I noticed a bump in sales of older things, but not like I had hoped.

Nothing worked as well, for me, as this method I'm about to share...........AUCTIONS!  Yes, the old-fashioned eBay auction.  But, with a twist.

If I have stale inventory (and that definition varies for us all) over 6 months, I move it to auction at "cost + shipping."  Yes, with all the DSR talk lately, this is a risk.  It exposes your shipping cost DSR to being rated. But, you don't have to charge normal shipping prices, either.  If something is going to cost you $3 to ship, you can charge $2.  That insulates you as well from the whackado buyer hellbent on leaving you a bad rating.  To do this, though, you need to know your cost.  There are many "eBay fee calculators" out there.  Just search that term and find one you are comfortable with.

I simply price the auction to end on a Sunday and detatch any emotion I have with the item.  This works well because we all know we usually get only one bid.  I don't care.....I recouped my cost.  I'm out nothing.  Ok, ok, maybe I'm out a couple of listing fees.  But, I look at it as recouping some cash to go out and hit another homerun.  Sometimes, I mark things up a buck and start the auction at that price.  Sometimes I mark it up a few bucks.  But, the best way for me over the months has been moving things to auction and pricing them at my cost + shipping.  Any multiple bids I pick up are gravy.  If I get a bid, I can't lose money.  Auctions also bring different buyers to my storefront to look around for other possible values.  

Think a little about this.  I could go on and on, but don't want to bore you with long blog entries.  If you are like me, you suffer from UDADD (UnDiagnosed ADD).  I'm not much on pretty blogs and pictures to entertain you (although I'll try and play a little).  I'd rather keep things ridiculously content-rich so you come back knowing you'll learn something.  Or, at the very least have something to think about going forward.

Make Today Count!

Chip

Activity Update..

As of now, we've sold 27 things this month for a gross total of $475.  I am listing an average of 3-5 things a day.  I haven't really cracked down on a goal yet, as I'm just coming off summer with family and kids and going out of town to see more family.....and kids.  I'm cranking back up slowly.  I suppose I'm like that huge boulder sitting on top of the mountain.  If you can just get me rolling, I slowly and steadily pick up speed as I methodically roll along.  And, once I stop rolling, it's a real bugger to get me moving again.

That said, I ran through Marshalls for the first time today.  I've heard people talk about buying NWT (new with tags) items off their clearance racks.  I found a few things that I researched on the phone.  I didn't get what I felt were conclusive results from my phone app, so I decided to sit on the purchase until I could get home and check a little more thoroughly.  

I don't know about you, but my phone often reveals partial results compared to my laptop at home.  So, when I'm staring at something outside my comfort zone, I don't jump.  I do my research and go back if I still feel the gamble will pay off.  The reason this technique is outside my comfort zone is because 1- I've never done things this way.  I'm a thrift store guy where if I get burned, I'm out $3.  2- Looking at what interested me, I was going to have to shell out $34 on 3 shirts.  I can get 11 shirts at my local Goodwill for that price.

But, here is what was also weighing on my mind.  1- These were no-brainers even for the price.  (I'll go into detail in a minute)  2- If you don't leave your comfort zone, you never grow.  3- Bringing more NWT items into my store may reach a different audience I can get to come into my store and potentially find other appealing things.

No-brainers?  Here is what I was looking at.  A Tommy Bahama silk camp shirt for $20 that retails for $110 in store.  Problem is it's a small.  I also saw two Perry Ellis polo shirts for $7 each that were 4XL shirts.  Problem is Perry Ellis is an "ok" brand, not a great one.  But, 4XL speaks for itself.  I also saw a Sean John shirt that looked cool and it was an XL or 2XL, I can't remember.  I think it was $10.

I looked all these up and it appears I can sell the 3 shirts I mentioned (the SJ would be the shirt I'm not including) for $56 in profit.  Not bad for 3 shirts.  So, after consideration, I think I'll go back and grab them when I take the kiddos for Friday Pizza.

Let's do something fun, ok?  The Tommy Bahama is a red, solid, silk camp shirt....size small for $20.  The Perry Ellis polos are 4XLs for $7 each.  All are new with tags.  Post a comment and tell me what you would list them for AFTER doing the best research you can do.  Let's learn together!  I already know what my price points will be, as I've done enough research to see what they will sell for and this is why I'm going back to buy them.

I'll post the listings soon.  Gawd, this reselling is fun!  You walk into a store and just never know what you are going to find and/or learn.  Am I right?

Make today count!

Chip

Search Ranking Conspiracy?

I have been reading a lot about eBay and it's search engine, Cassini.  I will summarize what I've read someday after it all digests.  This may be the quickest way to insanity!  But, of course, like fools we read all we can anyway....knowing it will only serve to raise our anxiety levels.

Well, lately that has been happening to me.  I have been reading about search rankings, and found a theory called Rolling Blackouts.  This theory explains, however unproven, that eBay could possibly be rotating who is visible in their search engine.  This also can feel like it explains why our sales suddenly shut down for a few days and then come back.  None of this is proven, of course, and eBay would NEVER admit to any of this. But, one can't help but wonder.

Last weekend, for the first time since I've been reselling on eBay (I started in November 2012) I didn't make one single sale.  Neither Saturday nor Sunday!  It had to rolling blackouts, right?  Well, that or August's doldrums.  So, I decided to check it the only way I know how.....by looking up my items myself.  Yep, all there.  And, then I thought that if eBay put me on some rolling blackout there's no way they'd show it to me. Of course all my listings would show up to me.  And, of course, they'd appear high in the rankings, right?

How do you get around this?  Call a friend.  Someone that doesn't live close to you.  I have a friend in eastern Florida and another in northern Idaho.  I called them both.  I live in St. Louis, MO.  Can't get a lot farther away that those two spots.  I had them look up the same items I was looking up to see if we both got the same results in search rankings.  (This was actually really fun!)

I figured I would find my item ranked #6 out of 140 or something, and my friend would find it ranked #130 out of the same 140.  Nope.  She found it exactly where I did..........and ranked high.   Hmmmmm.  Now what?

I suppose it can't be a rolling blackout killing my sales, can it?  The point of all this is to tell you that I don't know how much there is to any of this conspiracy theory.  I'd really like to believe it because I'd like to have something to blame for poor sales.  But, the fact is, it's all likely a coincidence timed with a slow sales period.....summer.

But, rest assured, I'm going to overthink this stuff now that I'm back in the saddle and pushing again.  However, I can't get past the feeling that I'm trying to sell sand in the Sahara right now.  Lol.  Either way.........

Make today count!
Chip

Get in Line with Ebay's Requests

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to make my eBay items appear higher in search rankings.  With the switch over to and evolution of eBay's new search algorithms, Cassini, we need to pay attention to more factors than just keywords.

I believe, without being told, that one of those parameters is paying attention to "warnings" eBay issues.  Whether it be that your DSRs (Detail Seller Ratings) are low, or that your photos aren't the correct size, I believe we should hop-to and fix things before we agitate the powers that be.

Ebay now rewards us for being customer-centric sellers.  The more convenient we design our listings for buyers, the more Cassini rewards us with higher placement.  Ebay has made no bones about focusing on the buyer, and it behooves them to do so.  They don't want the buyer running off to Amazon or another rival.  Those sellers that get in-line with this concept will outperform the sellers that don't.  It's that simple.

I received a warning today that 2 of my listings didn't fit the photo profile eBay wants.  So, I'm jumping on this right away to fix it.  At the very least, I am pulling the listings until I have time to rephotograph them.  But, I also noticed eBay is giving me suggestions for 9 other listings regarding adding Item Specifics.  Well, it would probably behoove me to fix those, too.

In the recent past, many sellers (15,000 to be more precise) have been suspended or banned from selling on eBay because they didn't adhere to multiple warnings eBay gave regarding customer service.  I am just taking this one step further and staying ahead of the game.  I suggest you contemplate doing the same.

Where do you find these warnings?  I found them under the Selling Reminders section under the My Ebay tab.  This is what mine looks like.

When poking around your eBay page today, take a look in the Selling Reminders and see if you don't have anything to correct.  I will report back if I see a bump in sales after fixing these.

Make today count!

Chip

Autumn Push!

As I push into August and deal with the doldrums of retail selling in summer, I plan to get more active with the blog.  I will try and turn this into a diary of my activity and results with more frequent postings............so people will actually start to follow this blog.

Here we go!

July is over!

Whew, my month of traveling all over the Midwest and summer vacationing is gone.  Time to start fresh and push for the holiday season and end of year.

Simple post of what happened last month.....my first July.  55 items sold (not bad considering how inactive I was).  $1056 in gross sales (profit margin has dropped due to me dropping my prices and flushing out old inventory).  Estimated net of $500-$600 profit.

I'll take it since July is supposedly a slow retail month.  When I asked Google, this is the answer I received, "Any month but December."  I chuckled and searched a little deeper and found this pearl....."The absolute slowest months are January through Spring Break (usually March) and mid-July through August (vacations)."

I'll push harder in August and see where we land.

Happy Trails!