I'm always looking for ways to become more efficient at this eBay thing. So I throw it all out to you for things you do that you think might be more efficient than perhaps the way others do it.
I'm a one-and-a-half person business. I do everything except packing/shipping. The half does that (which actually makes him a fifth, but I don't want to hurt his feelings).
I'm kind of a "low calorie" seller. I only do this for a hobby, 37FB. One of the things I do is keep a hard copy of every e-mail and transaction. I also made up a "flow sheet" for my auctions. I keep track of every aspect of each one, from item #, to dates, prices, e-mails & EOA's to shipping info and tracking numbers, all on one sheet. It has been a great help for me.
When I started selling, I was so scared I would miss or forget something, I had to come up with some kind of system.
I'll be watching this thread, maybe I can pick up some good pointers too.
posted on July 27, 2001 09:54:10 PM
I do everything myself, I'm not a big seller either, except go to the PO. I envy couples that work it together. Since my husband has no interest what so ever I'm afraid to ask him to get more involved. This is serious business & not much room for error. What keeps me efficient is keeping track of everything myself. I keep it simple & all information goes onto a section of a notebook page that covers every aspect of every transaction. So far it's working.
posted on July 27, 2001 10:34:20 PM
Hello my ebabe SADIE....
.
The single, biggest by far ......bare none ..change
we made to make our eBay operation more efficient
was to make all of our auctions .. “FREE SHIPPING”
This was a very risky move at first......not knowing
how the bidder would feel......We aLL know that there is no free
anything......so just the words free shipping made me feel like
PT Barnum’s great great grandson.....Jack made me feel better
when he spelled it out.....If you have a item that retails for 60
bucks....and lets say it sold on eBay for 20 bucks and now it cost the buyer
15 more in shipping....35 now ..right?.....all the bidder can think about is the shipping
is almost the cost of the goods.....but when you add the 15 up-front in youR starting price...
The bidder will only concentrate on the money that they will save off the retail price....
Now I know all ..the pros and cons ....on this subject.....but let me tell you SADIE
Our sales are up.....are deadbeats are down.....our costumers all happy and
the crew is MORE EFFICIENT
one love
randy
.
EBAY ID
JUMPIN*JACK
.spelling again
[ edited by jumpinjacko on Jul 27, 2001 10:35 PM ]
[ edited by jumpinjacko on Jul 28, 2001 01:16 AM ]
posted on July 28, 2001 05:25:55 AM
I tried FREE shipping back in 98, and didn't notice any change in the number of bids per item, or the final prices realized. I guess it depends what you sell?
posted on July 28, 2001 05:43:29 AM
Some things that I do to speed my ebay activities:
1. Use vrane power relist for all relistings. I can even play with headlines, prices, 3,5,7,10 day options. Much faster than going directly to ebay.
2. Preset form letters for end of auction, receipt of payment, item shipment in which all essential details are included in the subject line.
3. Carry mostly items that are same size and similar weight - videos and cds - and have Priority Mail boxes pre-assembled, bubble wrap precut, ready to go.
4. All videos are prewrapped in a 12 x 12 bubble wrap sheet and ready to go. My stroke of genius was to cut hundreds of addttional 8" x 12" strips of bubble wrap which I roll up and tape during slow times, and they fill the void perfectly in the small usps video box. Makes filling orders real quick.
5. Filing completed orders. I rarely need to check these, but each day's orders are filed chronologically, with customer name, destination, postal receipt and DC tracking numbers. Makes finding stuff easy.
All shipment info is stored on line by customer name.
6. From sellers search, I print out list of closed auctions when multiples, I print BIN as they come in and use these to trace eoa notice, payment etc. When paid, they get filed.
7. I do my scanning weekly, upload at one time to my website, and write/save auction descriptions using template before listing on ebay.
I am probably in the market for an auction service like AW but nobody seems to be Mac or Webtv friendly. It's a shame, too, since there is a market ready to be tapped!
posted on July 28, 2001 05:45:45 AM
I am a one-person part-time seller. I use AW post sale management in addition to my own Excel spreadsheet. On the "keeping track" side, the only thing I found to make me more efficient is a small thing, and may be a habit for the rest of you, but when I first get the buyer's address, I immediately prepare the shipping label and slap it on the already-packed carton.
I found that the best thing I could do to help my efficency is to pack items as soon after the first bid as possible. If the item is 5 lbs. or under, I use the priority mail cartons and tape. If over 5 lbs, I use a recycled non-priority box and clear tape so that if the person ends up electing parcel post I don't have to repack it. If the winning bidder ends up being international, I just brown-paper-wrap the already packed carton. If I need to combine shipping, I can usually just put the already-packed items into a larger box although on rare occasions I do have to unpack and repack.
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
[ edited by NothingYouNeed on Jul 28, 2001 05:47 AM ]
- Fixed S/H charge worldwide ( I sell old postcards and labels).
- I use Auctiva Manager to manage all end of Auction work ( it's great . 2 clicks and it combines all auctions from the same client, and calculate the total price with S/H !! )
- I use Auction Manager pro ONLY for bulk listings and image hosting
- I make groups of similar items, I list one, then with copy/paste I do the others ( changing only the different words - in similar items, only a few words change )
- I use my email program as a database for all clients adresses and sold items ( the subject of all email has always the eBay item nr, so I do a search by the item number on all emails when I want to find all correspondance regarding an item )
- I stopped completely with hard copies . No paper work .
- I have other person doing the shipping mail
- I list items only once a week ( all ending Sunday ) . That results on more multiple items winners, and all my work is more efficient.
- and the main thing is: I love what I sell . My hobby was ( is ) collecting postcards.
posted on July 28, 2001 07:18:45 AM
Thank you for your replies everyone! All were helpful whether applicable to my situation or not.
Randy, you guys have SUCH a different business than I do. I've looked at your products and Me page (because as someone once said, though I don't remember who, "Listen to people who are more successful than you." ). And I believe you don't take paypal if I remember correctly. So the thought of eBay taking 5% of my shipping and paypal taking 2.9% of my shipping right now is tough for me to swallow. However, the next time I sell something New With Tags, I'll definitely give it a shot. But with my sort of "one of a kind" items (if that concept still exists) and my used and eclectic books, I'm not sure people are comparing with retail.
Thanks again everyone! And if anyone else has advice on how to get pics taken faster, etc. my ears and eyes are open.
posted on July 28, 2001 01:55:09 PM
>I married a bookkeeper, who's very efficient.
LOL... I married a computer programmer. The first thing he did upon moving in with me was insist that he was going to write a program to automate all the post-auction details.
I'd tried every program on the market and couldn't find one I liked, so he sat down with me, had me tell him exactly what I wanted it to do, asked a bunch of questions, and then vanished into his office for about three days. When he came back out, he'd written a program that did everything I wanted it to do, and then some. And now it takes me about three seconds to do what used to take me three hours.
Having a fast enough computer really helps too. Just this week I added another 64 MB of memory to my computer. It still needs more ($%^&#@! Netscape 6.0!) but at least it sped things up a bit.
Another thing that helps me is having enough room to work in. I have a 14' x 14' office that's exclusively mine. I don't use it for anything but eBay. I have wall-to-ceiling shelves along one wall, a huge desk along another, and assorted shelves and work surfaces along a third. No one is allowed to move anything in my office.
I print all my address labels. It looks much more professional, saves a lot of time, and the postal clerks don't have to try to decipher my handwriting.
I also ship only twice a week. I state that upfront in my auctions, and no one has ever complained about it -- in fact, I usually get complimented on my fast shipping. Not having to run to the post office every day makes it easier for me.
There's probably more I could tell you, but my brain is foggy. Which is why I'm here instead of working...
posted on July 28, 2001 02:14:23 PM
I package as I list. Most of my widgets are mailed in either a medium or large bubble mailer. When I create the auction, after I take the picture I stuff the widget in the envelope and write the auction number where it will be covered when sealed. Then I put the envelope in the plastic bin for that day, keeping them in auction number order. When the bin is full it goes at the end of the line of bins in the hall, scooting the line down each time a bin is added.
7 days later that bin has reached the other end of the hall. I open it up and process in auction number order, relisting the unsold and marking the sold with the buyers ebay id next to the auction number. It goes in the sold bin, in auction number order, until it is paid for. This way I have a weeks advance notice if I am running low on mailers.
Weekly I go through the Sold bin to nag slow payers.
I use paypals automated winning bidder notification service, saves me hours, and the bidders reply with the description in the email header and the auction id is in the email, easy to find.
posted on July 28, 2001 04:39:45 PM
For those of you who rely on Paypal's winning bid notice: I ALWAYS wait to hear from the seller. Paypal's notice does not contain the shipping amount and I don't have the time to return to the auction and figure out my total with shipping. I also don't consider it my responsibility to find out the total.
I wait for the seller to notify me. I know of several bidders who say the same thing.
posted on July 28, 2001 07:03:08 PM
I have great helpers! I have a person who does all my packing whom I pay and my husband does all the insurance slips and the post office runs, (he is the unpaid helper),it makes life a lot easier, about four years ago I realized I couldn't keep up with the packing and still do all the buying, listing, etc so its worth it. Also I don't use any special software or auction tracking, and I keep no hard copies of past auctions. I keep books, when I get a payment in the mail I record it in a notebook, name, address, amount, name of item, and date it, then I prepare the shipping label and put it with the item to be packed and thats the end of it. I don't know why anyone would want all that paper around when you have a computer, just look at your past auctions and if the item is still in your house then you haven't been paid for it, I believe in keeping it simple, if I want to see what I sold last year at this same time I just look at last years books.
