Deja Vu - Ebay Style

On Ebay Underground, Ryan from Terapeak was asking for an Australian Ebay member to help a colleague with their talk in Australia, at the Professional eBay & eCommerce Sellers Internet Conference on the Gold Coast.   My store would be used during the Terapeak presentation.   I was excited, and it put a little zing in my step.

So I contacted Ryan at Terapeak, and we hit a snag - I actually had to be a Terapeak subscriber for them to be able to use my store.   So I signed up for the free 1 week trial, I was able to see what I would get for my $29.95 USD per month.

The software is great, but with this awful economic climate, I am unable to even afford that much extra a month, when I can't even pay all my bills.   I had to turn the offer down, and miss a great opportunity.   I was waiting for the words "free" and "1 month" but they never occurred.  Oh well.

The software was helpful, but I could also see where it would help when I was "on the road" in the op shops looking at merchandise.

You see I do not have a smart phone.  Mine is the dunce in the class, it is ancient.   It takes ages to even log onto the internet, so I stopped trying.  All I use it for is phone-calls, text-messages and taking rude appropriate photos.  I can't even get my email to work on it properly.

So looking at Terapeak, I would like to get it one day, but should probably think about upgrading my phone so that I can get more business use out of that.

I have paid off my phone, and it is no longer on a contract - so I looked at the phones I could upgrade to.  I am currently on a plan that is about $33 a month.   When I hit the Optus website I saw that I could upgrade to a new Nokia Lumia 800 for $35 a month.   *Scream*   It has FREE unlimited access to eBay and Facebook.   Whoohoooo!   

So that is my new plan, whenever I can drag my sorry carcass down to the local shopping centre to the Optus store. 


I know that I can do all this on-line and get the phone mailed, but I'm very dense when it comes to phones, and I need to ask lots of stupid questions to the salespeople.  In this way I give their eye-balls some exercise as they roll their eyes behind my back at my utter stupidity.  But wow, a smart phone - I'm excited.   I will be moving into the Noughties phone-wise!!!

The title of my blog comes from the fact that from my limited time on Terapeak, I sold the same book 5 times.  

Here's how it happened.   I did some searches of books I'd had sitting around, I came across this little book.   

Yes, it's a diet book, don't worry it can't hurt you!!!!   You're fine, this is only a photo of it.  There are no photos of healthy meals or exercise plans on here.

There is also a Book 2 in this series, and I had been waiting to get copies of that to sell as a 2-book deal, as the postage of $10 was the same for one book as for 2.  In the meantime I had 4 copies of this book sitting around gathering dust.

Then I saw on Terapeak that this book by itself was selling for $11.   What, really?   

So I put one up.   Fifteen minutes later it sold.   I was a little surprised.

So I put the next one up.   Within 10 minutes there were 2 watchers.  Sold within half an hour.   I was *quite* surprised.

I put the next one up.  It sold within 20 minutes.    I was getting excited.  I put some depends on as emergency backup.

I put the next one up.  It sold within an hour.   I was getting to the point of gob-smacked.  I don't really know what the word means, but I *felt* that way.

I'm not sure if a rumour had gone around that these books had special pages that would get you high if you sniffed them or smoked them, because this was crazy.

So within the space of 3 hours I had sold the same book 4 times.  The reason I didn't put this up as a multiple copy listing was because these books were not all the same condition, and I like to have a photo of the actual book I am selling on the listing.

I went on the hunt for more.    I found another copy on my bookshelf.   I remembered thinking "one day I'll go on a diet".  I read the book and it said, lots of vegies, lots of exercise and no wine, so I screamed and hid it in my bookshelf.   That was a VERY close call, there.    

By now it was 5PM,  I put my copy up, and raised the price.   It sold within 2 hours.    I was now swinging off the roof and singing "Danny Boy" in an atrocious Irish accent

Yikes, I need to find a nest of these diet books and stock-pile them.  I have never ever had anything sell like this book.     (Mental note:  must sniff the pages of the last book before I post it, and see if I get high).

So this was an example of where Terapeak was very useful for me.   I also used it to get rid of some  useless older text books that were taking up space.       I dropped them off at my local op-shop this morning, and now have some lovely empty space.

Ebay sales have picked up a little in the past week.  I have sold a few videos and books and some board games.   The items worth mentioning

Videos:

Aussie Fit Low Impact Aerobics  $9.99

6 x X-Men Videos    $14.99   (not yet paid)

6 x VeggieTales Videos   $18

Wrestle War 1989    $9.99

6 x Winne the Pooh Videos   $16

Games:

Great Australian Gambling Game  $15.99

Rex Hunt Fishing Game  $15.99    (this sold within one day of listing)

Books:

2 x Vintage Patons Knitting Booklets @ $6.50

On my last blog, I mentioned that I had posted a huge box of DVDs/CDs/PC Games to Fishpond so they could sell them for me.    There were 78 items in the box.    They finally put the items up, and I had dabbled with the prices (up and down), and changed all the things they had described as New to Like New.   So far I have only have sold one DVD for $7.50 but that was a week ago, and the person has still not yet paid.  If they ever do, the payment will go toward my $15 postage cost for the box rather than into my empty wallet.    

I also noticed that not all the items had been put up on their website initally.  Finally the last 15 or so items appeared.   Obviously the box had been thrown around a bit.  These last items were listed with "lots of scratches" and "broken cases".   I also had an email from Fishpond saying that I could no longer list any more items on the website unless I posted them in to their warehouse.

So in the end, I think that Fishpond is a lost cause, and the end of another potential money-maker for me.   :-(

On Quicksales.com.au  (aka pissweaksales.com.au), I have copied over 170 items over from eBay.     If only they had a nifty download from ebay option.     I have gone through board games, children's videos, music videos, Mills & Boon bulk lots and am now half-way through sports videos.  There have been lots of clicks on my items, one query on combined postage cost, and absolutely no sales.  But I am going to keep plugging items up on there.

So always remember - Humility, Comity & Farternity.  That's my motto, especially after a few glasses of *medicine*.