Can I make £1,024 in 11 weeks from nothing?

benedictadams

SoScrooge wrote:

Outside on a sunny day should be good.

Unless you have a white painted room with cream carpets in your house.

PS: since you seem to be the only one who is still awake.... could you perhaps look at this item - 300040818987- and let me know your HONEST opinion?

Cheers

Honest answer is that i don't know about the neck ribbon

with the penknife try and find out what all of the thingy-me-bobs are that will make you sound more on an expert and may allow you to achieve a higher price. (if i don't know a lot about a product i'm selling i search the internet and do a fair bit of copy and pasting:p )

What i normally do when i'm going to do a BIN auction i look at the completed items and pitch the price somewhere close to the end price for which the condition matches the other auctions(if that makes any sort of sense) eg with the Sony camcorder tapes the £10 BIN price i decided on was because there was another auction with 4 tapes which had raised about a tenner, so it means you aren't selling the stuff too cheaply or pricing yourself out of the market.

There have only be two neck ribbons on the completed items,both of which are a different style and were listed differently. They didn't sell but you've put in keywords into the title so more people may see them.

How much are they new? As apart from computers, very popular items eg the latest must have product that new the items tend to sell for around 50 - 75% of that price, and second hand will be totally dependent on the condition

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hi.. benidictadams... and everyone who are finding it hard to get bargins at the charity shops....

i am going to let you into a few trade secrets here....

they might be of help.. they might not......

first of all i mentioned a bankrupcy auction in a previous post.. but i also go to a local auction house which does general auctions....
which i go to on a preview day/night...and have a good look at the boxes that are normally under the table or to one side..... have a good rumage through these....especially the books etc...then if you cant get to the auction... or if you are like me... might get a bit carried away....leave bids on the table.....and then you can phone up when the auction house say its best to phone to see if you have won anything.....this way you know you are going to stick to your budget......
you normally find that auction houses do this type of auction quite regular... the ones round by me hold them every fortnight....
dont forget.. there are charges on top like commission and vat.... but check this out before you place your bid...
so then you know how much you are spending....

i went to view one on friday night... placed my bids... and then went yesturday at the end of the auction to pick stuff up... ok lots of hings i diidnt win.. but ...i still had some good bargins....huge box of scalecix track £6. which my boys want to put on to ebay... box of books £7.
big huge box of old sewing threads... and bits £4. ideal for my repair work..etc...
and i cherry pick out what i want in these boxes... and then put what ever is left back into the auction....so nothing is wasted...

the next thing is charity shops.. sell their culling to rag man... for a small amount per black bag....culling is the stock that has been on the rails a while and not sold... in the past i was buying a few of these bags from a local basied charity shop, for more than what the ragman was paying....so everyone was a winner....i found the likes of oxfam etc.. did not want to know.. but the lcoal independant charities.... did,as it meant more money for the cause......

i am now getting a waste licence.... so when i do this in the future its all proper.. as i am hoping to turn my hobby into a small business....

hope this info might help some peeps....if not sorry i rambled on .....

benedictadams

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote:

domt forget when you revise an item once its listed.. ebay charge you....i think its 5p ..not alot but it adds up....

i dont think i am going to do well in this challenge by the looks of everyones totals, but i must say thanks to everyone here and the op.... as its given me the energy to get off my but and list more things on ebay..and try and find cheap ways of getting more money into the pot.....

even if i make £50. at the end of the challenge its £50. more than what i would have had....and thats a cc monthly payment covered....

so thanks guys....:T your all stars....

cooltrikerchick, you are ahead of where you should be, its difficult not to compare the totals but you never know what next week will bring. you could stumble across a very rare piece of china for a fiver and it sells for thousands (which would be nice!)

I'm am sure that in the six? weeks left you will do more than just double the money once you currently have.

benedictadams

I was once told the following in respect of charity shops

the posher the area of a city the more likely it is to pick up branded clothing for less

the reason was apparently the ladies who lunch donated last seasons wear as they would dare wear something unfashionable, and because ladies what lunch don't shop in charity shops then the shops sell them cheap as no-one will be buying them at a large price

not sure if thats still the case and i've not found it to be but other towns and cities might still work like that

COOLTRIKERCHICK

benedictadams wrote:

I was once told the following in respect of charity shops

the posher the area of a city the more likely it is to pick up branded clothing for less

the reason was apparently the ladies who lunch donated last seasons wear as they would dare wear something unfashionable, and because ladies what lunch don't shop in charity shops then the shops sell them cheap as no-one will be buying them at a large price

not sure if thats still the case and i've not found it to be but other towns and cities might still work like that

i found on my travels around the charity shops.. that the shops that the laadies that lunch drop their clothes in...also have the posh person doing 'their bit' for charity... and mark up the prices quite high....as they havent got a clue..going to the opp side of the scale... i have seen a tescos value pair of jeans that you can buy for £3. new in tescos... marked up at £4.50 in a charity shop....as a lot of charity shop.. blanket price.... so all tops are x£.. regardless of the make....and all coats are x£...regardless..

might be worth you city peeps..... going on a day out on a train.......cheap fare of coarse....and going to a small town.. smaller city etc.... and checking out charity shops there...... but do it as a day out.... so if no bargins are found at least you have had a day out.....

also dont forget from november onwards.. peeps will be clearing out and cleaning ready for christmas.... so should be plenty of bargins then

mennie

my ebay isnt doing very well at all. 92 items 5 selling

Any advice?

ID ellis2260

Thanks very much and well done everyone!!!

soolin

mennie wrote:

my ebay isnt doing very well at all. 92 items 5 selling

Any advice?

ID ellis2260

Thanks very much and well done everyone!!!

An honest answer would be that you have quite a few negs that will put people off, plus your neutrals and your responses to the bad feedbacks may be a factor.

Once a week shipping is a turn off for a lot of buyers, I know this is probably beyond your control but it is dodgy as you are leaving yourself open to paypal chargebacks which can be started on day 7 for non receipt. Personally I would not buy if I was expected to wait a week for item to be sent.

You might want to have a read of some of the threads on the ebay forum for tips, but I can suggest that when selling books it really is a good idea to check what has sold recently and for how much. A lot of the books you have listed are not worth the listing fee as they don't sell, it isn't your auctions that are the problem it is the books themselves. Your post and packing on paperback books is slightly higher than the norm which also does not help. Used books also need a slightly more informative description..how used, what condition, what are the pages like etc?

Sorry to be harsh but I hate to see anyone wasting their money on listing fees like that. Ebay are taking all those fees from you and looking at your previous history I can't see you are even covering your listing fees some weeks. Be more aware of what sells, if a book does not usually sell then Amazon it or bung it on Greenmetropolis , don't give ebay 15p to list it.

Soo

soolin

Sorry can I add more?....

Why are you paying an extra £6 for a shop when you are not using it, your ebay fees must be horrendous for very little return. Also maybe you need to rethink your auction ending times , you have stuff finishing a 1pm on a Tuesday..not a great time to pick up last minute bidders. With difficult to sell items you need to have an end time that will attract the 'it's cheap so I'll buy it anyway' brigade, so evenings, Sunday afternoons when Mums sometimes have time to browse a little on ebay.

EDIT. An example of losing money is item 190043286671. If it sells at start price you will get £1.04. You have paid 15p to list it and if it sells you will pay approx 3p FVF and approx 26p paypal fees leaving you with 60p for an envelope, postage and your time. If everything sold you could probably afford to do that, but as so much goes unsold you also have to cover all the 15p listing fees for all those unsold items as well.

Adrasteia01

Cooltriker..

I revise my auctions quite frequently and I don't get charged 5p for changing them (that's ebay.co.uk). There was one time they had a cheap listing day and afterwards they were charging for revisions, but I don't remember them doing that at any other time.

When you go to the revise screen and have made changes (for me anyway) it would usually say at the bottom that no additional charge has been incurred.

I revise them a lot as I think of better ways to say things or scan better images and change them. I've never had to pay more to do that.

Tamara

Adrasteia01

Soolin..
I always wondered about people who list 1p items - if they sell for the starting price or little more, whether they're just giving their items away at the end of the day. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing that with ebay anyway as if I list a lot of auctions and only sell a couple of items, any profits get eaten up in ebay and paypal fees. I currently have 63 items listed and only 1 bid so far (and not on a 'free' item) - loads of watchers though.

I've noticed that a lot of sellers (especially international ones) with very low starting prices have very high postage rates. I think that can put off a lot of people though. It's annoying if you pay $20 for postage on something and when it arrives you see $1.50 on the envelope!

When it comes to listing less expensive stuff, I find lots of stuff can be a good way to go but generally you'd get less per item overall than if you had actually sold them individually on ebay, but you're saving on fees.