Remember me .... ?

Remember me?

It's been a long time since my last blog.   Naughty, naughty me.    Have I been getting up to mischief and shenanigans, seeing as I have been too busy to even write my blog for nearly three months?

Umm ...  no.

You know that saying "When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going."

That absolutely, positively and definitely does NOT describe me.


I have been going through a boo-hoo, oh-woe-is-me, what's-the-use couple of months.

My new attempts at increasing my sales on the internet had seemed so good at the time.  I was vibrating with enthusiasm and chock-full of zealousness   

Instead of increasing my sales, all that ended up getting me was a strange feeling in my colon.


My 3 selling venues:

1)    Aaah Quicksales -  Quicksales, aka PissWeakSales.   I had been working madly, copying my listings over.   I was SO proud of myself.    The number there is now approaching 400 items.   Total sales in the last 10 weeks = 1 board game @ $9.99 and one book that ended up being a non-payer.


2)   Fishpond - the Amazon-wannabe online store where I sent in 3 huge boxes of books/DVDs.    The postage cost was nearly $20 a box, making a total of nearly $60.   This would be taken from the initial sales - so no cash outlay was necessary.   Sounded great, right?   They weren't sitting in my house, and I didn't have to worry about sending them.

They entered the items I'd send, and then from my end, I changed the prices to what I wanted for each item.

Well, at some point they decided to change the pricing structure to "generate quicker sales and cash for customers like me".     This was done without any communication to me.    This change meant that all the prices that I had put in on my items were replaced with a different price, guaranteed to move the item quickly.

You bet they moved quickly - faster than a zombie with an empty tummy - confronted with a member of Mensa.

 Here are some examples of the prices I got for items before I cottoned on to their new "pricing structure".

Serenity DVD   -   83 cents
Happy Elf DVD  -   65 cents
Battlestar Galactica Season 1 Box set   -  78 cents
Bridget Jones Diary DVD  -  79 cents
The Net DVD  -  79 cents
V for Vendetta DVD -   99 cents

Can you see why they were flying off the shelves!!!!   A lot of those were my own DVDs that I had very reluctantly parted with in an effort to try and get some more money to pay bills.  They were in Like New condition.

I WAS SO MAD!!!!    A lot of my items have sold, but my sales have only just paid off the postage and a whole $10 has been paid to me so far after nearly 3 months.    Can you hear the steam spurting from my ears????

They have a new policy now, where if any more items are sent in "you cannot ask your own price, Fishpond will set the price for you to move your stock quickly."    Did I mention that they get 17% commission for each sale - and take that out of the postage as well as the item.   So they don't really care if it sells for .99 cents.    I will no longer be sending anything there.   I had hopes for this selling venue, so I am very disappointed.

3)  eBay.  Sales still plummeting.   Then I got an email telling me that the cost of my store was rising from $29.95/month to $49.95 a month.   The email noted that eBay wanted to (in my own words) - "weed out the little man, and encourage the larger sellers" - hence the rise in fees.  The email suggested that I take a Webinar to increase my store's exposure to make it stand out from the '1000's of other stores on eBay."    Bah humbug!

I am gradually going through this video on Youtube, that was mentioned by Rachel on Ebay Underground.   This has some great tips - and I'm only about 20 minutes in so far.  It tells you how to Optimise and Market Your Ebay Store.   There are some other Ebay videos on there that look  helpful too.

I have given up on the adult clothing idea.  Didn't do so well there.    Lots of the clothing ended up having something wrong, such as a stain or tear, or pant legs that had been cunningly shortened in such a neat way that it wasn't easy to tell in the shop.    I am anal about clothing being perfect.  I was getting seriously stressed and out of my comfort zone.  So I got those clothes and took them back.   If I can't see them, I can't feel guilty.

On a lighter note.   As you know, my Mum is the clothing cleaner / ironing specialist.   When I gave her this pair of men's/youth's shorts, she cleaned and ironed them very nicely.

When I picked them up, she pointed out the tear on one leg with a shocked look on her face.

And mentioned what a shoddy job somebody had done of sewing it up.   She said she was going to have a go at doing it herself, but decided it was too hard.

Bwahahahahahaa!    I told her it was meant to look like that.

Her face was a sight to behold.


Sooo, lower sales = lower cash to spend on stock.  So my next blog will talk about what cheaper items I am picking up to stock my shop.

Until them, I am head down, bum up - listing, listing, listing !!

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*.   

No, that clicking sound is not my knees ...

Ebay sales are plummeting.  I know from my Ebug friends, that it is the same all over the world right now.   We have started a "clicking" campaign - where we form groups and click on items in each others stores because it has been rumoured that this will somehow push you up in the search listings and boost your sales.    So far - still crickets for me.  


Having said that, I love looking at my fellow groups items and seeing what they are selling.  I wish I could find the range of awesome items they have (and get the prices they are asking).   I hope that my clicking helps their sales.  I think it's awesome that we can help each other out in this way.   I think the jury is still out on this one, but it costs nothing to try, right?


These are my sales for the past week:


May 1st - Tuesday - $25.98
May 2nd - Wednesday - $28
May 3rd - Thursday - $14
May 4th - Friday - $35.22
May 5th - Saturday - $3.79  -    woohoo!
May 6th - Sunday - $17
May 7th - Monday $7.12


Giving a grand weekly total of $131.11


My weekly goal for sales is $300 - with this I barely scrape through - and some of the utilities bills get put on the credit card.


For a while there, a couple of months ago - I was up to $500 a week which allowed me to eat/drink and pay my bills.

Now that my ONLY income is getting sucked into the great Grimpen Mire - I need to find more sources of income.     Much as I'd like to join the fetish club and sell items of my used underwear and socks on fetish web-sites, I think I'll hold off on that for the moment. 

I have not yet given up on the idea of selling a fart in a nicely wrapped jar.  The cost of outlay is minimal, but I'm just not sure what ebay category to put it under.

I have 2 other sites where I sell items.  I use the word *sell* loosely.   On one of the websites I only had a few items up and it has sold one thing in the last year.     This is Quicksales.com.au - a site similar to Bonanza in the US.    No fees to put the items ups - low final sellings fees, but not many sales.   I have spent the last week copying and pasting like an insane beast on one day, and then taking photographs the next.  I managed to copy over my board games (about 20), and also my bulk lots of books (about 30).   Next, I hope to start adding my videos.   Whilst I'm doing this, I'm not managing to put much new stuff on Ebay - but considering I now have 1,000 items and am making diddly-squat, I'm really not that fussed right now.  I'm just relisting items that end.

I'm interested to see if Quicksales lives up to their name, now that I've got more items up, but I think in my mind I'm already calling it Pissweaksales.    I keep plodding along and adding more stuff up - once it's there it can sit there for ages, so the effort is worth it (I hope).   I'll let you know if anything happens.


The other website is Fishpond.com.au.      They used to sell mainly books, and then added an option where you could sell your second hand books through the web-site.   Since then they've added DVDs, CDs, Video Games and many other things.  A couple of years ago just before my marriage went tits-up, I was making $600 a month on this web-site.  I had so many book sales, I couldn't keep up with posting them.    Of course, then everybody else jumped on the bandwagon, and now my sales on there are ---- WAIT FOR IT .....   $6 a month.    Yep, that sucks big time.     Especially when it takes them about 3 weeks to pay you for the sale.


Then the other day I got an email about their new thing called "Smartsell" - where you send them a box of books/DVDs/CDs/Computer Games.  They store it in their warehouse, put the items up and take care of posting them out for you when they sell.  The good news is they pay you in 2 days (after taking their cut of course).    


I dithered over this.   You had to pay $15 per box of goods to get them sent to their warehouse.   I sent a message to them asking what the limit was on the box size.


The reply I received was "just a normal-sized box."

I considered that one for a while, and wondered what they'd think if my idea of a normal-sized box was one that a new refrigerator came in.   I stamped down on my snarky inner voice, and considered my options.    


The boxes I had (whoops, are they are all ones that have held bottles of wine, how interesting), were quite small.   I couldn't imagine fitting much in them.   I finally bit the bullet and got a decent-sized box, but I had to BUY the darn thing at the post office for $4.50.


I couldn't fit many books in it still.  I needed to maximise the amount of items I could squeeze in to justify the $15 postage.    I looked at the CDs and DVDs and computer games that I still hadn't put up on Ebay (and my own that I didn't want).  I could fit a lot of these in the box.   So I stuffed it full - and managed to fit 78 items in the box.  It bulged at the edges, so I taped it to within an inch of its life.

The courier picked it up yesterday.   So they're winging their way off to Sydney and should get there tomorrow.  Fishpond should have the items uploaded on their website by early next week.    All I need to do is check that they aren't giving the items away at way too low prices, and sit and wait and see if this will generate me any money.   


I have my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed.


In my last blog, I mentioned the two prints that I was selling for a friend.  These two auctions ended over a week ago.


They didn't go for the high price that we had hoped, going on past sales, but I needed the money at the time, so we can't be too greedy.  (or can we ???)  - *hint: I certainly can*


These are very collectable, so keep an eye out for these by J H Lynch.

Board Games + Growing Up with Them & Selling Them

Board games!   I loved them as a kid and as an adult.  Many happy memories on our summer holidays of playing UNO and Tri-Ominoes and How to Be a Complete Bastard (whoops!!).


Some board games bring back memories of my early childhood - especially the ones with the same boxes - Masterpiece, Cluedo and Scrabble.  Getting blisters on my finger playing Ants in Pants.     Ah, happy memories of my lovely little brother grabbing the game board and throwing the entire thing in the air when he knew he wasn't going to win.   Then doing a fantastic imitation of a fly-sprayed blow-fly on the floor.     Happy days.


I still have my packet of Dukes of Hazzard UNO that I bought as a teenager.   Boy I thought those two men were hot in that show!!!!    My teenage heart *yearned* for them.

Bwahahahah!  You didn't think I meant limp Bo & Luke!   Hah!   I have better, more refined, singular taste in men, even at that age.   Imagine my dismay when I found that instead of putting Enos on the UNO cards, they had that putz Cletus.  Those cards went back in the box, and I never used them again.     They're in a little box with the other things I'm secretly a little embarrassed about but absolutely will not part with.

Australia has some great old board games - many of them revolved around horse-racing, drinking, gambling and driving cars in the outback.  Because apparently that's all we do here.   I remember one game we used to play had a little foam esky that the game came in, instead of a box.   Classy as.

I love Trivial Pursuit and I love word games like Scrabble and Boggle.   I have a built-in spell-checker.  I anally spell-check menus, road signs and anything else I can slap my peepers onto.   

I hate games like Monopoly and Chess that you have to think ahead and plan.  My tiny brain lives in the right now (or even ten minutes ago) - not five, ten or fifteen minutes into the future.

Board games was my new venture on Ebay after selling only books.   It was a new subject to learn about.

This is all the games I have listed on Ebay:

Yes, they're nearly up to the ceiling.  Some of these I've had for over a year.  At 40 cents a month on Feebay to keep them up, they have to sell quick or they become a little money vacuum hidden inside a lovely box.      I have found a non-Ebay selling site, Quicksales.com.au  where I can park these lazy little squatters and get them moved on with no listing fee.  I need to do that this week.  This site is probably similar to Bonanza, in that you don't get many sales, but when you do, the fees are very low.

This is one of my piles of "To Be Checked" board games.     

The other pile is in my family room.    The other problem with board games is you can't be sure all the items are in the box.  I spend a lot of time holding boxes above my head and squinting at the Contents list,  sneakily slicing through boxes that are sticky-taped up so I can peruse the contents.

I hate the sight of an "AS IS" sticker on a game box.  Either it is all there - or it isn't.  Please let me know, so I don't have to arse around on the op shop floor with people tripping over me.

Having said that I love it when you get to push the lid back on the box and it does a loud farting sound. Very very satisfying.  Please excuse my game sir, I have no control over it.

And here one of my piles of games that don't have all the contents, but I think could sell as parts - these are just the ones where I have kept the box.  I also have a box full of miscellaneous game parts from different games.  I will be using Quicksales to put these pieces up to.   I still have to do that.   Must pull my finger out.

Remember that Scrabble game I talked about last week that I left behind and then found the price was good.  I beetled back there first thing Monday morning, and found the game was still there.  Yay!   I forked over $5, hurried home and put it up on Ebay.

One hour later, I got this: 

This customer paid nearly $20 to get it posted to them.  Hmm, think I under-priced it.  Live and learn.

Remember the other Scrabble game I mentioned last week?  The Sydney 2000 Olympics one.  There were others up at $8 that weren't selling, so I didn't price mine too high.   I put it up, and then one day later:

I have given my sister my BOLO list for board games as she is also a keen op-shopper.   Yesterday she found me this one for $1.  This is always a sure-fire seller in Australia.

I put it up when I got home.  Then one hour later:

She also found me Nightmare III for $2 which I have put up, and also Cluedo (which sadly was missing all the murder implements). 

I wish all the sales were nice and quick like the above-mentioned, but as you can see by my photos I have lots of games that are taking up space and not paying rent.  A lot are ones I bought early when I didn't know what to look out for, or I didn't check to see if all the contents were there.   

Others are just bombs that nobody would bother using even to start a bonfire with.

The only thing that will move these now is my free-to-list website.   Sometimes I want to take them back, but I can't find myself willing to part with them - after all that time I spent photographing them and counting all the blasted cards.  I guess I'll give them a free holiday on Quicksales for 6 months or so and then give them their marching orders.

I've enjoyed branching out into games, they have added some much-needed income - but like anything else, they are hard work.

Do you sell many games?   What games are your sure-fire winners?