posted on February 7, 2006 06:13:53 AM new
Hello, I sell european car parts on ebay. I have for about 7 years now. I have been using vendio for about 5, and cant live without it. Great service.
Although my wife and I am making a living, somethimes i wonder if its worth it. I have never been to ebay school but have read and heard lots of suggestions.Now that I have found this forum, im asking for advice.
Whats the best way to keep my $1300 ebay,$150 vendio,$300 paypal bill down?
How in the world do powersellers answer the hundreds of emails? I cant even begin to. I used to spend 3 hours a day, now i just try for the serious questions.Whats the secret?
Is there another venue other than ebay that actually works? Like I said , im making a living but i feel all my eggs are in 1 basket.
posted on February 7, 2006 06:20:22 AM new
are you paying 2.9 % or 2.2% to Paypal??
are you paying extra on gallery,Ebay picture hosting,bold letters,buy it now etc?
I dont use Vendio and I dont pay Ebay for extra pictures,I used my ISP .
I also do not use gallery picture .
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on February 7, 2006 07:06:47 AM new
It all sounds very high but it depends on how many listings you run in a month?
Do you have a store? That can lower your fees.
I rarely list without a gallery photo but I don't see what good it would do you so if you use that - drop it.
As for the questions - that too depends on what you sell - I guess auto parts would generate more questions but if you give full descriptions that should cut down on your questions.
I'm a powerseller but I average about 50 to 100 listings a month and I only get an average of 5 to 10 questions a month. I sell antiques and collectibles, so I guess that makes the difference.
posted on February 7, 2006 07:20:09 AM new
I'm *not* a FlowerSmeller, I run 600 to 800 listings a month, and I get a ton of email, most of which I ignore.
You are not obligated to answer stupid questions. There. That ought to save you at least an hour a day.
I only use Vendio for the Gallery, and that's on a probationary basis. Before Christmas, having the Gallery in my listings had no effect at all on sales -- they were uniformly dismal.
There is no other venue.
Scott, we can be a lot more helpful if you let us see your listings. It's quite likely you don't need AMS at all. Most people could live without it quite nicely if they would stir themselves to set up their own domain and learn a few simple bits of HTML.
fLufF
--
P.S. Scott, I forgot to mention: If eBay is all that you and your wife are doing, you are right to be alarmed. That's very, very dangerous. I've been NARU'd three times in the last year, on false charges. Fortunately my husband has a great job and I have additional non-eBay profit centers. You need to get busy and hatch more eggs.
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Feb 7, 2006 07:22 AM ]
posted on February 7, 2006 07:25:27 AM new
I know how you feel about email, Sometimes I feel like I just need to take a break from it a while- NOT recommended! When I got a virus and hijacked from foolishly answering a bogus ASQ from email, I put an auto-reply on my email account, '...for my protection and yours, I will no longer open or respond to questions sent by email. If you have a question, please use eBay's messaging system... '
I answer questions from customers first, questions that have a good chance of producing income, second (I forgot to bid, please relist), easy questions from 'potential' buyers, third. I usually never get around to answering questions that require my pulling inventory to answer them. It rarely resulted in sales and increased my chances of damaging or misfiling my postcards.
posted on February 7, 2006 07:57:56 AM new
Watch your fees. If something is not working, don't use it. Consider a vendio store, an ebay store or an internet store.
My ebay store: Rare items go into the store because they will show up in searches anyway. Saves money when you have multiple items. Also put items I know my collectors are looking for. Be sure and have a link on your auction pages to your store. Since you are using Vendio, open your vendio store.
Over time, I have incresed my off-ebay sales to about 60% of sales. List your Vendio store with search engines, include a card with your VD store address in all packages. There is a "legal link" from ebay page to your VD store, use it. I get a lot of cross-sell promotions that way.
Start a client database of requests and use your email (with customers permission) and let them know when you have something they might like.
Automate your email. Only answer email from ebay questions (good advice already given). I delete most of them as they want to know the value of something or how to sell something.
Make sure your listings have all the information in them. Payament accepted, shipping costs, shipping calculator, etc. (good advice already given, just echoing it).
Finally, buy low and sell high. Meaning really research your market. What is selling? What is going to sell in the future? Where are the best sources of material? What are your competitors doing? What do your customers want? Are they price conscious?
posted on February 7, 2006 08:31:16 AM new
Thanks for all of the advice soo far. Please keep it coming.
I do have a vendio store. Its hard to get traffic to it , as we cant link from ebay.
My ebay name is
scottlandyardspares
I get about a hundred questions a day. Will this fit me car even though it looks like it wont?
will you ship to canada, isreal,...
I try to have good images and descriptions. However I dont have the time to list everything it will and wont fit.
Last year, I had 275 auctions running. Trust and safety e-mailed me about a saearch manipulation. I was plowing my driveway and didnt get the email till the next day. They went ahead of friday and cancelled all 275 ads because 4 ads we universal cup holders had too many name brands listed. I have images of these cup holders in BMW volvo saab rover and vw.?? That was huge learning curve for us. We lost all of the bids, and went 2 weeks w/o income. I was ready to quit but what do you do w 40K$ worth of inventory?
I do know a lot of HTML. but dont know how i could use it to save money on my . I have a redirect (www.scottlandyardspares.com) that sends people to our vendio store. But i only sell 1 thing a week out of it. (?)
Im pretty thick skinned. If its obvious im doing things backwards, tell it to me straight.
posted on February 7, 2006 08:35:02 AM new
All good advice. Without knowing the breakdown of your fees and the percent of fees to sales it's really hard to see how you can reduce them. Are your ebay fees mostly listing fees and listing extras or are the mostly FVF. You certainly can drastically reduce your listing fees by skipping the extras. If you sell like items that could be FP and don't have an ebay store you should think about opening one and reduce auction/fp listing fees considerably.
If your fees are mostly FVF, an ebay store won't help much because FVF are higher but maybe a Vendio store could if you promote it right.(I don't know about Vendio store because I haven't really taken the time to set one up yet)
Do you use the most economical Vendio plan? Take a look at the plans offered.
If you are willing to share your ebay id I am sure you will get a lot more suggestions.
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posted on February 7, 2006 08:39:24 AM new
I have asked Vendio and they set me up on the plan that seemed best for me. Im at the lowest pypal percentage also. It looks like FVF and insertion fee's are almost the same for us.
I was under the impression everyone used vendio. Is this not the case? I dont know how i could keep track of all of our listings, whats selling, what needs to be relisted... Is everyone finding that Vendio is the best value in this regard?
posted on February 7, 2006 08:44:04 AM new
1) You can DECREASE your PayPal fees by going PAYPAL PREFERRED, & then using your PP DEBIT CARD for all yer vendor charges...HOW does one become PP PREFERRED?
a) Agree to ONLY advertise PP in yer listings -- you CAN accept others & state so in yer emails & ME-PAGE, just NOT on yer listings.
b) Everytime you do a charge with yer PP BUSINESS MASTERCARD, PP will give you a 1% rebate (Ralphie gets a 1.5% rebate because we been doing this for years)
c) We use our PP MASTERCARD DEBIT CARD for ANY&ALL charges associated with our feeBay biz -- it adds up fast & the savings are GREAT!
2) A year ago, Cheryl clued Ralphie in on a very INEXPENSIVE image host -- we use them & save a FORTUNE/month...For PSM, we use feeBay's system, as we get it for free..FOR LAUNCHING, we use pre-saved templates & the feeBay function "SELL SIMILIAR ITEM"
IOW: we pay very little/month to HOST/LAUNCH/FOLLOW-UP our items!
WE DO use VD's GALLERY -- it's an extravagance that we like... It's not a NECESSARY item, but we splurge on it because we LIKE it...
3) THE VAST MAJORITY of our listings are in our FEEBAY STORE -- we use our few FIXED-PRICED LISTINGS as SIGNPOSTS, pointing the way to our STORE -- this dramatically DECREASES our LISTING FEES!
YES, the FVFs on STORE items is a whooping 8%, but I don't mind so much because the LISTING FEE was a measley 3-cents!
RALPHIE & I are constantly reviewing our fees to see if any PORK needs to be CUT, but, other than the VD GALLERY, I think we got it down as far as possible...
"And then that little jerk Ralphie convinced all the sheep-herders to build a roller-skating rink!"
posted on February 7, 2006 08:54:30 AM new
We do use our PP card for everything. Gas food and $200 per day at the post office. I will look to use paypal exclusively and save a bit more i guess. thanks for your post.
Another way we have trimmed a bit on this end is buy using USPS priority and flat rate boxes instead of Fedex Ground. We were sending 95% via fedex Ground. However the billing was very vauge. I was getting charged for this and that and what looked like a $6 shipping fee online, really ended up being more like $10++ after all of the out of town, fuel surcharge, odd shaped box fee's. We now use USPS and at the very least i know what it cost me and it doesnt change. Its free online trackind(DC) and free boxes.
I really appreciate all of the good info. Keep it coming.
posted on February 7, 2006 09:49:53 AM new
If you are getting so many emails asking you this and that,may be a store is good for you as these foreign car owners will seach hard for their parts.
With an Ebay store,you will save listing fee and time relisting them,and may be you can skip Vendio altogether .
Fed Exp is expensive,if they have to go out of their way to deliver the package,there are extra fuel charges.
I will go online and request USPS courrier pickup at my house,all you need is have at least one USPS priority or EMS package for them to pick up all your packages,and often they dont even bother to check if there is at least one priority box.
PS.
Are you charging enough shipping and handling to absorb some of the fees,such as Paypal??
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on February 7, 2006 09:50:52 AM new
also who is insuring your packages?
U-PIC and DSI are both cheaper than USPS,DSI is cheaper than U-PIC.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on February 7, 2006 11:33:42 AM new
I've only been a power seller two or three times, for a couple of months. I sell maybe 100-150 items a month, collectibles, books, etc.
Lately, though, I've been selling a lot of guy stuff--gadgets, gizmos, electronics, and I've been astounded at all the questions. Lots of them can be answered by reading the description--and I'd hate to think that guy-stuff buyers aren't readers! But the questions from potential bidders really had me going last week--from all over the world--and, checking, not one question asker was high bidder on any of the items that ended last night.
I still answer the questions, though, because to me it's chancey not doing that. If I were in your shoes, I do what you were advised here about all those questions.
And I love Vendio Gallery. When I started it up, I saw an immediate jump in hits.
______________________________
posted on February 7, 2006 12:43:04 PM new
Scott, what you really need to do (IMO) is boost sales.
First, you have a very low percentage of repeat sales, less than 10%. That's where I'd start. Since you sell multiple kinds of parts for the same model car, I'd expect to see more multiple purchases.
You need some hard data. What I would do is to print up some prepaid postcards with a brief survey. Rubber-stamp the reverse side with your own address. I'd send out at least 100 postcards, one enclosed with each order. You can and should invent your own survey questions, but it could go something like this:
1. Did this purchase meet your expectations?
2. Can we help you find similar products?
3. Was this item shipped to you in a timely manner?
4. Do you have any suggestions for us?
You may very well be amazed how many of these you get back. People want to give you input. All you have to do is ask, in most cases.
posted on February 7, 2006 01:06:37 PM new
I had a succession of ASQ's that ended today like this:
First ASQ: Could you send me a scan of the back of the card? (Usually I ignore these, but the card was right in front of me.)
Ans.: The back has the identifying marks: CA 21, POST CARD, divided back with generic stampbox. That's it.
Second ASQ: (from same guy) Are you sure it doesn't have Levy et fils on the back?
Ans: I'm sure. Also, the card is printed in English, not French.
Third ASQ: Lengthy explanation that this card was published by Levy for CA in both English and French
Ans.: Thanks for the info. Are you planning to bid?
Fourth ASQ: Another lengthy one saying no, he's writing a book and could I please notify him if I find any similar cards!
posted on February 7, 2006 03:47:04 PM new
Not to hijack the thread or anything but I'll bet he is lifting your images ..why pay??
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posted on February 7, 2006 04:00:38 PM new
If you send any photos , make sure they are all watermarked so cant be removed and useless to another seller. inc the ones on the auctions.
posted on February 7, 2006 04:09:23 PM new
Some of your auctions are listed with BINs that are the same starting bid or have .01 difference. Wouldn't it be cheaper to list it as a fixed price auction rather than paying the extra for the BIN option?
I'd be interested to hear what some of the other veteran sellers think about the amount of a starting bid versus a BIN price of $10 or more (24.99 to 34.99). Does anyone think a Buy It Now price can make a potential buyer wait only for that buyer to forget and not bid? Basically, losing the impulse buyers.....
posted on February 7, 2006 07:19:51 PM new
Ill do the survey and add a discount coupon if they fill it out or send it in. I really appreciate everyones help. Thanks- Scott
"And then that little jerk Ralphie convinced all the sheep-herders to build a roller-skating rink!"