That's why there's a returns policy...what if they don't work?
Trash or treasure?
- Thread starter Nords
- Start date
Rustic23
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I see both items are still at their $.99 starting bid. Hope things pick up, or that the spoons are not a part of DW's college tuition.
Moemg
Gone but not forgotten
what if they don't work
Well they probably have some good vintage clothes in their closet . Check for leisure suits ,Nehru jackets , vintage Hawaiian shirts , old concert tees and of course disco outfits . Plus if your guy is a star wars collector you have hit the relationship jack pot .If you find any of these you have a winner . You can secretly remove the items and sell them for something you really want .
Nah, our kid had her chance to save them for yet another generation. This money's going straight to the parental attic-cleanout fund so that she doesn't have to do it herself someday.I see both items are still at their $.99 starting bid. Hope things pick up, or that the spoons are not a part of DW's college tuition.
Note that I've volunteered to pay the shipping, too, so right now I'm paying bidders to take my stuff. I won't make that mistake again.
From what I've read & seen, the vultures will swoop in at the last minute. For their shopping convenience, I timed the auction to end Sunday after 4 PM PDT/7 PM EDT.
Some of this stuff has been sitting on my desk for over five years. Putting up this thread is like telling my friends that I'm going to the gym-- I'm much more likely to follow through on the commitment when it's public. It's what kept me plugging away yesterday instead of my previous months of finding other "more important" things to do.
Moemg
Gone but not forgotten
I see both items are still at their $.99 starting bid. Hope things pick up, or that the spoons are not a part of DW's college tuition.
Lately on ebay people watch items and then there is a flurry of biding at the last minute . I've had things listed with no watchers and then bingo it sells for a lot more than I listed it for . As they say "It's not over till the Fat lady sings "
Ed_The_Gypsy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It is so nice to know that a much more rational man than I also has collected odd diddlies.
My wife has been after me for years to sell my SOL-20 computer.
My wife has been after me for years to sell my SOL-20 computer.
Sure enough. eBay lets sellers track the number of people who are "watching" the item, so you know when there's going to be a bidding frenzy.
The spoon sat at 99 cents for six days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds. Then it whipped through five more bids and sold for $9.38, of which I gave 57 cents to eBay and I was planning to give another $4.80 to the U.S. Postal Service. The buyer suggested a cheaper shipping method which should save a few bucks for us both. His payment was at PayPal within 10 minutes of the auction's end. Good learning experience.
The Jamaican coins went through a similar dry spell and then zipped through a dozen bids the day before. No last-second sniping but they sold at $15.38. Still awaiting the buyer's payment, but probably similar fees and shipping expenses.
I put up the graphics card and two more spoons at the same time, so we'll be going through this again next Sunday afternoon. Turns out one of the spoons dates from around 1898-1901, the construction dates of the Indianapolis Soldiers & Sailors Memorial. The other spoon's only identifying info is an embossed cityscape in the bowl labeled "Bremen", and a key symbol on the handle. No makers mark-- of all the spoons it's the smallest, plainest, and with the least identifying info. Best guess (after two hours of searching both the Internet and our family archives) is that it really did come from Bremen, which would mean that my great-great-grandfather brought it over in 1880 and passed it down through two grandmothers.
300351828882
300351826567
heyduke
Recycles dryer sheets
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you should charge the shipper to the buyer ....
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
Nords, once you have sold or disposed of everything, let us know the total amount you got for everything! Sounds like you are making some good money on many of these items.
Some buyers are apparently attracted to "free" shipping.
After shipping and including the RAM I sold on Craigslist, a bit under $50 so far.
My spouse makes me look like an amateur. Three weeks ago she found a Kenmore Elite drop-in convection oven on Craigslist, but the seller wanted to keep it until a certain date so she'd sort of discouraged the typical buyers. By the time spouse swooped in on the deal it was down to $150. We brought it home yesterday.
Kenmore Elite Stainless Steel 30 in. Slide-In Electric Range
Four years old, nearly perfect condition, uses much less energy than our 20-year-old Frigidaire. Should fit like a glove in our counter.
The sellers ran out of storage space. They're demolishing their 1959 house in "old" Ewa Beach (what you used to know as the "new" part of Ewa Beach!) and rebuilding a two-story four-bedroom 4000 sq ft modern. $250K worth of construction but on their lot it's worth it. We've been invited to the blessing, which they hope will occur during 2010.
RonBoyd
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Wow! Does she have a sister?
FYI, I have that range. I don't really like the controls on the front, too easy to have a button pushed accidentally. But maybe you don't have to lean over the stove to clean it like I do, as a short person.
I do like the glass cooktop.
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Moemg
Gone but not forgotten
I have a lot of my sales go like that . I'll have a ton of watchers and at the last minute I'll get a flurry of bids . The other day I had no watchers and at the last minute it was bid up like crazy . I was so surprised .
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Yeah, that's a concern, especially with our short-attention-span teen who once left the oven on all night. I'm hoping to find some kind of lock button or program setting to minimize that. Either that or I'll be obsessively checking settings six times a day.FYI, I have that range. I don't really like the controls on the front, too easy to have a button pushed accidentally.
But maybe you don't have to lean over the stove to clean it like I do, as a short person.
I do like the glass cooktop.
We could no longer get parts for our old stove, so every time a neighbor put one out on the curb (for bulk trash pickup) we'd cannibalize it and store the parts in our attic. I spent an hour today backhauling all those parts and inviting the few neighbors who still have that stove to help themselves.
Spouse put several hours into the glass top (oven cleaner and a razor blade) in exchange for me promising to wire it correctly and to trim away just the right amount of Corian countertop to make it fit. We'll see how that goes...
Looking at some of those eBayer profiles and purchases is verrrrrrry interesting. I can see how it could suck down all their free time and then some more.
heyduke
Recycles dryer sheets
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Curious then about how long might be optimal to put something on ebay since most are watching till the closing... seems a shorter sale period my be the key to higher turnover of product.... not too short of a period to be missed though.
Moemg
Gone but not forgotten
I mix my sales up . If I'm doing auction I go for seven days you want enough people to have seen your item . I also put things up on fair value (one price ) which seems to attract the middle of the night shoppers . To succeed you really have to research the product and offer great customer service even when some of these people get nutsy .
A lot of the process can be automated, but authors still tend to think that buyers want to be watching the countdown timer when the auction ends. So by listing at 1-2 PM HST, the auction ends for west coast buyers at 4-5 PDT to east coast buyers at 7-8 EDT.
eBay buyers can build searches to keep an eye out for new auctions of their products. So if a seller can correctly categorize (and spell) then the searches make it hard to miss something. But there's whole book chapters on how to track down miscategorized/misspelled items, buy them for pennies (because no other buyers notice them) and resell them for dollars. It gets pretty complicated to design a good comprehensive search for keywords like "solar" when you just want to see solar panels of at least 50 watts, or misspellings of "photovoltaic". At some point you spend your time wading through dozens of listings of the wrong stuff.
Or maybe the authors just need something to write about.
I guess a three-day auction would more than double the turnover of a seven-day auction, but it'd also more than double the workload. I can see the profit of self-employment or the fun of a hobby, but unless you love what you're doing then it turns into just plain ol' work. But there's a lot of money to be made by scooping up local items (where they're usually priced ridiculously low for a local market) and reselling them worldwide. Craigslist has saved us thousands of dollars over retail.
At least we're cleaning out the attic and our kid is re-hearing the family stories. And a crowd of neighbors is stopping buy to pick up used stove parts.
The upside is that I have never actually turned it on by accidental button presses. Temperature lights go on but the start button never seems to get pressed by accident.
heyduke
Recycles dryer sheets
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i agree 100 percent... if the customer isn't happy then there is no doubt you wont get top dollar!
missionfinder
Recycles dryer sheets
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A few eBay tips... I buy and sell many things on eBay.
1. If you don't know if an item will sell, then list only 5 items per month. eBay now waives insertion fees for the first 5 items. I typically sell more than 5 items per month, so I list my "testing the waters" items as the first 5.
2. eBay's high activity time and when the most bids are going on is from about 8 - 10 pm EST on Sunday.
3. To get your item in front of the Sunday audience twice with one listing, use a scheduled listing. It costs an extra $0.50 to do this trick but it pays off. Start it at 9 pm EST (6 pm PST) on a Thursday. The scheduled listing costs $0.10 and then make it a 10 day auction (another $0.40). This way the item will be listed for two Sundays. I have found that 10 day listings done this way tend to do much better than 3 day or 7 day listings.
4. Start with a listing price much lower than you normally would. People jump on this and items with many bids tend to snowball and get many more. Once someone is involved in bidding and watching the item they get emotionally involved with winning and odds are you'll have a better ending price by starting low.
5. Offer a 7 day DOA warranty on electronic items. This does amazing things for moving the product because people know they aren't buying junk. In 6 years I've not had one person return an item, though I've always offered a DOA warranty. Highlight this policy in red and bold.
6. Don't pad shipping costs, and let bidders know this. I always post in the description that I never pad shipping costs. Highlight this in red and bold.
7. Point out your feedback score if its 100%. Again, highlight this in red and bold.
8. Make sure you offer optional insurance with shipping (next month eBay is going to start requiring insurance).
9. Start the product description with something other than the product info. Humor works well and seems to draw people in when you tell a story about the item. For example:
These memory sticks are in great condition but I have to sell them because my collection is getting too large and my wife is threatening to put me in the dog house if I don't make room.
10. Give as many details as you possibly can. People are lazy, and would rather read the specifications on your listing than take the product number and search Google. This being said, also, when possible, include a link to the manufacturer's product page for the item.
11. Search for "completed listings" of similar items. Pay attention to the items which sold for a good price. See what the seller included in their description and do something similar. Additionally, start with a similar starting bid price.
12. Whenever possible, do not use a reserve price. This turns off many people because they know your opening price is meaningless. Trust that it will sell at a decent price without using reserve and it usually does.
Often the reason you see a ton of last minute bids is people use snipe programs to bid at the last possible moment. Additionally, someone may bid $10 more than the current bid, but it will only show up as $0.50 over the current bid. When the next bid comes in, the person's $10 bid is automatically rebid for another $0.50. This is why you may see 2-3 bidders with several bids (they actually only made one bid each and eBay proxied the bids for them).
heyduke
Recycles dryer sheets
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nice tips... thanks
missionfinder
Recycles dryer sheets
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You're welcome. I recycle many of my personal items through eBay and average a few thousand dollars each year using these methods. Some items, such as a dryer, go directly to Craigslist.
Generally, I'll go eBay first. If it doesn't sell, I'll put it on Craigslist. If it still doesn't sell I give it to Goodwill and write off the amount on my taxes, using sold item prices on eBay as the guideline for what its worth (print these eBay pages and keep them with your tax records).
Then there are items which are simply not worth my time to put on eBay/Craigslist. These go directly to Goodwill.
Generally, I'll go eBay first. If it doesn't sell, I'll put it on Craigslist. If it still doesn't sell I give it to Goodwill and write off the amount on my taxes, using sold item prices on eBay as the guideline for what its worth (print these eBay pages and keep them with your tax records).
Then there are items which are simply not worth my time to put on eBay/Craigslist. These go directly to Goodwill.
Sold the Indianapolis spoon today for $9.50. Four watchers near the end of the week, but zero bids until the final hour. The winner sniped it away in the last five seconds. After Paypal (58 cents), postage ($1.05), and eBay's invoice for the September auctions ($2.65) the total is now a bit over $55 net. $8-$10 per spoon may be the going rate.
Not only does eBay automate the bidding, but it seems to automate the payment. This was the second time the winning bidder had their money in my PayPal account within minutes after the auction ended.
This has been surprisingly painless so far. Last week's buyer of the Jamaican coins canceled his eBay account a few days after his PayPal deposit. I'd already mailed off the coins and I didn't notice until I started looking for his buyer's feedback. I guess I don't have to do any more with him!
Neither the graphics card (300354158240) nor the German spoon (300351826567) sold. At $25 for a 128 MB card I might have set the minimum bid too close to actual value. I relisted at $15 and it apparently was the right move because 30 minutes later it gained a watcher. Good enough.
I'm not sure what to do with the spoon. The other spoons fit neatly into a relatively popular “sterling souvenir spoon” category but this one is in “Non-U.S. Silver > Germany” and it might only be silver-plated instead of sterling. No makers marks or any other info on it. I guess the first step is to try to figure out the spoon's composition and date, and then I can try listing in both categories. The Silver Forum (Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks, Hallmarks & Makers' Marks) has an unbelievable amount of info and a lot of their posters seem to live in Europe. One poster already helped me figure out that one of my utensils is a baby-food pusher from the early 1900s. Hard to Google that sort of thing when you don't know the vocabulary.
I've been listing the spoons two at a time (300354150632, 300354152769) but next week I think I'm going to put up all of the remaining eight-- or at least as many descriptions as I get around to researching & writing. I haven't had many questions from the buyers and the post-auction pack&wrap is no problem. I'm even getting rid of the eight-cent stamps...
Not only does eBay automate the bidding, but it seems to automate the payment. This was the second time the winning bidder had their money in my PayPal account within minutes after the auction ended.
This has been surprisingly painless so far. Last week's buyer of the Jamaican coins canceled his eBay account a few days after his PayPal deposit. I'd already mailed off the coins and I didn't notice until I started looking for his buyer's feedback. I guess I don't have to do any more with him!
Neither the graphics card (300354158240) nor the German spoon (300351826567) sold. At $25 for a 128 MB card I might have set the minimum bid too close to actual value. I relisted at $15 and it apparently was the right move because 30 minutes later it gained a watcher. Good enough.
I'm not sure what to do with the spoon. The other spoons fit neatly into a relatively popular “sterling souvenir spoon” category but this one is in “Non-U.S. Silver > Germany” and it might only be silver-plated instead of sterling. No makers marks or any other info on it. I guess the first step is to try to figure out the spoon's composition and date, and then I can try listing in both categories. The Silver Forum (Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks, Hallmarks & Makers' Marks) has an unbelievable amount of info and a lot of their posters seem to live in Europe. One poster already helped me figure out that one of my utensils is a baby-food pusher from the early 1900s. Hard to Google that sort of thing when you don't know the vocabulary.
I've been listing the spoons two at a time (300354150632, 300354152769) but next week I think I'm going to put up all of the remaining eight-- or at least as many descriptions as I get around to researching & writing. I haven't had many questions from the buyers and the post-auction pack&wrap is no problem. I'm even getting rid of the eight-cent stamps...
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mews
Recycles dryer sheets
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Nords, when you put up all eight, be sure to add a line "please look at my other 7 listings" - and say that you combine shipping.
You may get a happy buyer of several items, and only one package for them for the post office.
ta,
mew
You may get a happy buyer of several items, and only one package for them for the post office.
ta,
mew
I'm offering free shipping, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out. I wouldn't hesitate to kick back a couple bucks to the winner but I don't want the hassle of running afoul of eBay's "outside the auction" prohibitions.
