[jcatblum]

I spent 2 days working to list 15 items! I did iron a few items, also had issues with my camera remote & lighting. Things were not in my favor this time! No, it normally doesn't take me that long. However, I feel like anytime I start listing on eBay it takes me way to long!
I try to write all my descriptions at once & weigh the items needed, then I move onto taking pictures. Sometimes one of the kids take the pics, but I get to redo half of them.
Afterwards I began listing. I hate when I go to load my pics & the circle just spins, pics wont load & I am stuck waiting! I am sure part of it is y highspeed satellite internet.

I have thought about just trying to do 2 or 3 items at a time, but it isn't worth dragging out the camera. I always have a to list on eBay box going. When it is full I list things. Perhaps I am taking the wrong approach?

I love taking items to my local consignment shop, it is fast & easy. Large & expensive to ship goes to the local consignment shop. I select the higher priced things to go on eBay.

 

[clovis]

It depends on what we are listing.

Of course, if we have multiples of like items, we make use of the "sell similar" button. We can fly through stuff this way.

We used to average one item per hour...but again, that was an average, a few years ago. I wasted a ton of time writing lengthy descriptions. These days, my listings are much shorter.

One thing that I've done that has sped up the listing process is to search the completed listings to find out the selling price. I often look for a listing title that I like, click on the listing, and then click on "sell similar item". I then modify that title to one that fits my listing.

Sure, this is only saving a minute here and there, but that does add up when you are listing a ton of stuff.

When I buy something on ebay, with the intent of reselling on ebay, there is a button in your 'my ebay' that says "sell this item". Sometimes I use that too, but generally their title and or category was wrong.

We are also creating the listing on our laptop, putting in a stock image, and then loading all the correct pictures with an iPhone thru the ebay app. This alone has saved us a TON of time.

Since we get 12 free pictures, we use all 12, on almost every listing. I let the pictures do more of the talking these days, instead of writing the lengthy descriptions I used to write.

We are probably averaging 15 minutes per listing, but again, that is the average. Some listings we fly through, like the 10 inch stack of cross stitch patterns we listed yesterday. I bet we were averaging 3 or 4 minutes per listing.

I have a $300+ agriculture testing gizmo that I'll probably spend 20-25 minutes on the listing, but I've already got about 2 hours in testing it and cleaning it. I also have a train engine coming this week that I'll list, which will take 15 minutes to list, but if I can clear $100 on it, I don't mind.

We also have used Siri on our iPhones to write descriptions. We've had some success using it.

In a nutshell, the iPhone has sped up our listing time considerably. All of our pictures are taken with a 4S iPhone, and they upload like a breeze.

 

[jcatblum]

I regretted not posting more pics on my listings yesterday, I only did about 3 per item. May try adding more with my phone, never considered that one! Many were similar, but clothes all need measurements & that too takes time.
I think 15 minutes is prob what I also average. Just goes to show you that you need to make sure you are not pricing your items to low.
Sold 1 item last night while I was sleeping. I priced it similar to everything I had seen sold & that was listed. Guess it sold so fast since it was the right color & size.
I hesitate on washing vintage clothing & leave it to smell like grandmas house for the most part. IMO that is how vintage smells, but I always hope the buyer agrees. If I washed every piece that would add a bunch more time on my part.

 

[clovis]

I know what you mean about the time involved with cleaning something up. Clean up time eats a ton of our time.

On almost every item we buy for resale, we have to decide if it is worth cleaning and fixing for ebay.

I am very reluctant to list anything that has a mildew smell, is broken, or has some sort of defect. The risk of taking a negative is just too great.

All in all, we do struggle sometimes with the amount there is to list, and clean up time is a real challenge. I spend a bunch of time figuring out what is worth cleaning/fixing, how to list it best, and how to be the most profitable/productive with my time.

 

[clovis]

Also, jcat, I can't say enough about the iPhone.

The ebay app is smooth and seamless, for the most part. The picture quality is beautiful.

Until recently, 99.9% of all of our listings were started with an iPhone, and then modified using our laptop. The iPhone really sped up our listing time, and pictures are so very easy, and better quality than our home camera.

 

[jcatblum]

I agree on only listing clean items. I would never list or even buy to resell a piece of clothing or anything else that smelled of smoke or animals. The vintage smell is something that often becomes engrained into the fabric. I can wash the item & in a few wks the smell comes back. My sanitize cycle on the washing machine can help at times but never a guarantee. None of the clothing I purchase has an over powering odor IMO, just not a gain fresh if that makes sense. If a purchaser has never own a piece of vintage clothing is when I would become very nervous about their reaction.
Thankfully I have maintained 100% feedback in my 10+ yrs on eBay. (Please don't let me saying that change anything).

I am excited to play around with using my iPhone for listings. I tried it once before, but it was when the app was kinda new. Awesome to hear it helps speed the process. Using my phone I could even snap pics as I brought the items in the house. Imagine how much better I would do than letting items collect in a box!

 

[clovis]

You can also snap all of your pictures at one time, and upload/list when you have down time.

My wife sometimes lists when we are in the car.

 

[clovis]

Important note:

Always double check the listing after it is listed. We've had a few glitches, like the item running as an auction instead of a BIN, or saying no returns instead of 14 day returns.

We haven't had those problem in a while, but nonetheless, double check the listings after they are up.

 

[jcatblum]

I have worked hard the past 2 days, think I am still averaging about 15min per listing. But i don't feel as crazy. I pulled out another table to help me work from & got a bit more organized. Makes me feel better about getting things done. I have decided to take a new approach. If I don't think I will make $10 or more profit then it goes in the consign pile.

Did everyone get the free BIN listing notice??? Up to 60000 items can be listed between not & March 2nd with no fee for listing. Honestly would be surprised if I got 200 things listed, but a girl can dream!

 

[clovis]

I have not received the free listings email, but I hope that I do.

I have about 100 listings that ended over the weekend, and wish that I could list them for free. That would save me $20+/-.

I didn't get much listed today. I may have gotten 20 new listings up. The research of items sometimes eats up a day, not to mention the clean up and testing of those items.

We also spend a good amount of our days trying to figure everything out:

How should I list it?
What category?
Who is buying this item?
Why are they buying it?
What is the value?
Is it worth listing?
Should I sell them as 14 multiples in a single listing or one lot of 14 items?
Should we take it to the flea market. or list it?
Should it be listed as a BIN?
Should it be listed as an auction?
What should the auction price be set at?
How will we ship it?
Medium flat rate?
Parcel post?
Padded flat rate?
Free shipping, or charge for it?
What key words should I put in the title?
Which is more important in the title, '200WOG' or 'Made in USA'?

I know that I could save myself a ton of time if I took the easy way out, and quit stressing over it all. It would be too easy to list each toy train as "Old Toy Train" and start a 99 cent auction with virtually no description written. But as a business, and as the primary bread winner in my family, it is my job to maximize our profits on every listing, and still get them sold. The attention to detail has paid off handsomely for us.

In a flooded market and a weakened economy, I think the work is even harder.

I still miss the old days when it was so much fun to go treasure hunting at auctions and garage sales, find some junk, list on ebay for fun and profit...man, those were the days.

 

[jcatblum]

I didn't know that eBay offers were not for everyone, weird if you don't get the free listing offer Clovis.
I looked & I completed 50 listings & have 18 that just need pics added to make active. Much better for my 2 days of effort. Almost all of my listings have been clothing so it is more work IMO. I did have a few belts, necktie & small household things. Those are twice as fast to list. Clothes have a BUNCH of work involved.
With this eBay money I want to buy a large backdrop & a new battery for my camera. I haven't even looked at the battery cost for my Nikon D5100, but I hate when 1 goes dead & I have to wait on a charge.

 

[clovis]

I agree...clothes can be a ton of work.

We do list some clothes from time to time, but I am always a little reluctant to list them. Most of the time, when we do list them, we literally use a magnifying glass and go over them to make sure there aren't any stains or defects.

I'm struggling today on how to list the last of the new brass plumbing valves I have. As groups, or individually? The easy way out is to scrap them.

 

[jcatblum]

If you have a bunch of valves I would do a lot of 5 & then list them individually showing you have multiple available. It's a good way for you to see what gets the most lookers & buyers.
I bought a lot of 5 shower heads on eBay once. As a landlord it was a bargain.

 

[clovis]

I did some checking, and ebay did not offer me the free billion listings they have in the past. I have received those when others haven't, but I'd love to get another right now.

 

[clovis]

The valves are now listed. If I have to look at another valve, I might puke, LOL.

I had more valves than would fit into a 5 gallon bucket.

The big valves were listed individually, but the home owner sizes and grades were lotted up.

 

[jcatblum]

Clovis hate you didn't get the free listing offer. Had to take DD to town today. So was able to hit a few thrift stores. Best score of the day was $1 for a vintage BINGO set up from the American Legion. It doesn't have the caller card, but has 32 slider bingo cards. Has a small cage with wooden bingo numbers in it. But it has been WAY used. They even used ink pens to touch up some of the call numbers. Think I will part out the slider cards. I know when I was teaching school I would have loved to have them in my classroom. The large lots do well on eBay.

 

[clovis]

I hate it too. I'd love to have that offer right now. I have scads of unsold listings rolling off, and would love to save the money.

I hope the valves sell. I'm sick of looking at and studying valves, but thankful to have them at the same time.

We are going deal shopping tomorrow. I hope that we do well!

 

[jcatblum]

Clovis, thank you so much for recommending the eBay app for listing!!! I had only ever shipped on the app. I think it cuts 5 min off my listing time.
I type the description on my PC, but photos were all w my phone today.
I was scared to tell DH, since I have a pretty price camera. But as soon as I mentioned it he completely understood & was talking about buying an attachment to improve my camera on my phone.
I got about 50 items listed & hope to finish up the rest of my pile tomorrow. However, weather is suppose to be nice, guessing that means some good yardsales Saturday.
The cycle repeats........

 

[clovis]

I am glad that it is working for you!!!!

Technically, we start listings on both the iPhone and on our home computer. If we list with the home computer, I put a 'place holder' photo in the listing, which is generally a picture of my daughter. Once the listing is up, my wife edits and uploads the correct pics from her iPhone.

It works for us, and has really sped up our listing time.

 

[jcatblum]

I put a peacock feather up as a stock image & got like 6 messages saying they could only see the feather. The first line of my description was
PHOTOS will be added SOON

Then I used a cute font, typed up PHOTOS COMING SOON, snapped a pic & loaded that as the stock image. No messages about no pics then.......