posted on August 23, 2001 12:55:30 PM new
Bevhead,
Newberg, OR, here. Just down the street (I5) from you. Been here for 13 years, bought an old farmhouse on 10 acres back then for $75,000. But the basement flooded every year up to the floorboards! Lost a washer and dryer that way. Not to mention many old, old books. Now we are in town on a city lot. Very hard not to look at the neighbors next door from your kitchen window. I used to look at trees and the horses next door. Different lifestyle altogether. Oh, well. When we retire, we're going to Baja... Ensenada or Rosarito. Houses are cheap there. And Americans can buy property now. Until then, I'll keep dreamin'.
posted on August 23, 2001 01:09:29 PM new
Hey psyllie and tjbrocean, its good to see some Western PAers here. I'm heading to Morgantown tomorrow to buy some powerball tickets. I live in Fayette county, just across the river from Washington county. Our house payment is very low ( I don't pay it so I don't know exactly how much it is) and my ebay fees are about $450/month.
posted on August 24, 2001 07:54:31 AM new
It's funny. I see all the PA people on this board and also note that a good number of our buyers are from your State. PA pulls more than its weight on eBay and seems to have a ton of people online.
posted on August 24, 2001 08:25:43 AM new
It's actually a great place to live, despite the cost. The town of Naperville is very large 125,000+, but has a small town mentality. There's genuine care for quality of life and families here. Good schools and many programs for the kids. Lot's of family entertainment is also available. Just a nice place to live.
When corporate companies transfer their senior managment and executive employees and their families, Naperville is the first town that is recommended.
We've been here for 8+ years now and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:11:31 AM new
psyllie,
My husband is in line as we speek!!!! I wonder if we won if I could give up this Ebay sickness I have- I think it is a habbit I wouldnt be able to break even if we were worth millions!!!
Jen
posted on August 24, 2001 10:38:28 AM new
Gee, after reading this thread I have more reasons to be thankful I'm a Canadian!
I live way up in Northern BC, where we enjoy 6 months of winter and brisk -40 degree temps!
Bought our acreage 10 miles from town for $42,000, taxes are $525 annually (we only have to pay 1/2 since we get a homeowners grant). We have 5 acres on a hill with a great view of town (10,000 pop.), and a 900 sq. ft. house. A new home in town sells for 70,000-100,000. The big source of gossip around here is the one rich guy who's building a house for $350,000!!
Course, we live 5 hours from anything resembling a big city, and we do have to put up with 6 1/2 months of winter (minimum!) and freak July snowstorms, but then we get a tax deduction just for living here, and it's beautiful country. We share our hill with wolves, bears, moose, deer, foxes, cougars, and even one lonely lost mountain goat!
Tomorrow I get to drive into grizzly country to pick wild huckleberries, and if I get a chance this fall, into moose country for wild bog cranberries. Too bad I can't sell that on Ebay!!
posted on August 24, 2001 11:27:11 AM new
I live in North Oakland, CA. There is rent control so our rent, $735.00, is cheap! We're about 5 block from the Oakland/Berkeley border.
A couple of years ago Berkeley and Santa Monica (SoCal) lost their severe rent control (Owners couldn't raise the rents on an apartment even if it was empty!
Students have been invading Oaktown since.
We have a 2 bedroom apartment for $735.00.
One bedrooms in our building are going for $1150.00 now
can't wait to move.
A small one story house on my walk to my bus-stop in the morning just got put on the market for $550 000.00...Another one sold for $460 000.00 in a week that was a block away.
posted on August 24, 2001 11:39:54 AM new
katrina7- boy I missed your post, Wow there are a lot of PA people, Where in Fayette County are you?
I own a house in Fayette City(more towards Perryopolis) I also attended the Frazier school district until the steel mills went down(My dad had worked for Allenport) and we moved to Kansas City , Mo!! Another really cool place, but I eventually ended up back here, missed the mountains and the pittsburgheese
Jen
posted on August 24, 2001 06:07:12 PM new
I'm going to go off the current topic of this thread and address the initial post... a $2400.00 eBay bill.
My first impression is WOW.. why/how could you pay so much in fees? What could the monthly gross sales be to generate that much in fees? But then I realized that you could be doing $5000.00 in gross sales and still have a $2400 bill..
What percentage of that $2400.00 is listing fees? And what is your sell through rate? Have you used the eBay stores to sell the merchandise, or are you strictly listing each and every item in the auction format? (the fees to list in the stores have been waived all summer)
$2400.00 is a large monthly bill (but, obviously less than rent, etc at a Brick and Morter store)
Probably what would be more informative would be your eBay bill in a percentage format, for example, Generally, my fvf/listing fees are 5-10 percent of my gross sales.(actual sales) and my sell-through rate is 80%
Since you gave so much information in your posts, I ran your eBay user ID through Vrane's easy FVF calculator,
The results were interesting. Of course the last 30 days are not the same time frame used for your $2400.00 month,
I was also interested in seeing you ask for the phone number for the Powerseller support number? Were you able to get that number? Which powerseller level do you qualify for, and why is it that you were never given that support number?
I've read several posts here that mention how much they spend on eBay each month (total bill) but I haven't heard many folks mention that number in a percentage. Am I the only one that likes to keep the eBay bill as low as possible, while having a high sell through rate? (afterall, the eBay fees are only a small portion of expenses to sell on eBay)
How about it, without divulging too much personal information, let's hear how much you pay eBay compared to how much you sell and what your sell-through rate is?
posted on August 25, 2001 09:48:13 AM new
I see your a bit more analytical than I. It has its value. I'm about 99% salesman and dealmaker and 1% accountant...
Regarding online sales, we were a few dollars short of $35,000. This figure includes eBay and website sales, along with a handful of wholesale transactions.
A quick glance of the overall financial outlook of the month looks good. It was a nice profitable period for us.
We're a silver level Powerseller and soemwhere underneath the many piles of paper and merchandise is a letter which provides eBay's support phone number. I've found it easier to ask online than to attempt to dig through these piles.
One might say that organization, on my part, is needed. This would be correct. My problem - eBay is just a side business for me and I don't have a great deal of time to allocate to running this business. Just the evenings, as my other business keeps me busy during the day and then some. Still, we manage. A good amount of the business is now automated with software, which is helpful in making things managable.
Our sell thorugh rate varies, depending on season. We work on nice margins, as I import our products direct from manufacturers in very large wholesale purchases. It allows us to source our products at as low a cost as possible. This also allows our customers to save 70%+ off of traditional retail pricing.
I hope this information is helpful in answering your questions.
posted on August 25, 2001 11:52:33 AM new
HIDDEN HEAVEN
WOW!!!! That sounds absolutely wonderful! I love places like that, but I would get lonesome after a while. It sounds like places where we vacation, and while, 1-2 weeks isn't long enough, I know that 'forever' would be to long for me.
Back on topic now, my ebay monthly is 40-100 dollars (i know, peanuts to most of you guys!) my house is a '70's 2 story standard. 4 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath, family room, LR (aka office) and BIG kitchen (we knocked out the wall btwn DR and kitchen). We paid 114,000 cause it needed TONS of work. 5 yrs later it's appraised (and taxed, unfortunately) at about 150,000. It's a 3/4 acre lot in a nice suburb of Cincinnati.
