Hey eBay sellers, you have landed on episode 158 of eBay the right way. Today's date is March 27 2024. And my guest is Bill in California. And Bill was on the podcast almost a year ago. And he had first started eBay. And he's back to update us on his journey and share some great experiences and advice. The only announcement this week is that my first homestead happenings video is up
on YouTube. If you want to see what's going on with our farmhouse remodel, gourmet, mushroom, business, livestock, backyard chickens, and blending eBay with rural living. The link to the video is below the podcast. And I have made a separate playlist on my existing YouTube channel for these videos. So you can follow along easily if that interests you. Okay, let's get into the chat with Bill.
Welcome back, listeners. I have
bill with us today and you are a repeat offender on this podcast. How are you doing this morning?
Very good. Thank you. We're very busy. With all eBay related things here in in California.
Okay, you're in California, right? And tell me where in California you are
in the central San Joaquin Valley, the southern end of that. So
what's the biggest city near you?
The biggest city would be Bakersfield to the south, and then Fresno to the north. Okay, and we're about 6540 miles away in either direction.
Okay, great. Anchor. Maybe I reached out to see if you wanted to come back on and update us about what's going on with you. So jump right in. And LS what's been happening?
Yeah, well, it was just I enjoy your podcast so much. And like talking about ebay so much when, when I saw you had open, open casting call, so to speak. I decided to go out there. So yeah, it's interesting. Here we are in March. This is my one year anniversary of having an eBay store. And last year, and 2023 was really my first year of doing eBay. in earnest. Really working at it and doing your regular sourcing daily listing and saw increases throughout the year. So it was it was a great
experience. I'm having a ton of fun. A couple of my friends from work have caught the eBay bug. And we enjoy sharing all that together. So we'll see what this next year has to do. But I just do have a few thoughts, reflections from this last year. Things I've Learned or thoughts I have on that.
Well, let's just dive in. I didn't realize this was your one year anniversary.
Yeah, yeah, actually it was a year ago in March. I took off a couple of weeks and I'm off for a couple of weeks. This year as well. Just just have some vacation that I need to use. And you can only accrue so much. So I took off last year in March and I did not have a store I was under 250 on my listings.
And I think I had heard from one of the one of the youtubers that he he does a thing every month where he delist his entire store and then he re does so he ends and then sell similar it says it blows up his store and blows up his sells right well I did that with with with mine but he
didn't have a store. So and I was limited on my listings and so in just the mechanics of the way the dates and everything did that put me way over my limit And because I was approaching that 250 Anyway, so I, I just, I just went ahead and got that got to store that time.
Okay, and so you have the basic store, it's like 20 bucks a month.
Yeah, yeah, the basic. There's a starter. I think that's even below that, but I wanted the basic.
Yeah, I don't think the starter gives you very many options or not as many as the basic and you don't get the coupon for your supplies.
No, no, with
the beta starter. So you know, yeah, it works for you. So did you try the listing everything and relisting it? It
did? I did. It's it does create a lot of traffic on your site. I had a lot of watchers on my items. I had a lot of views. I think it just really blows the algorithm up, isn't it? What to do with it? But I didn't see it result in a lot of sales necessarily. But it might it might have been my stuff. Who knows. But, you know, if you have enough room in your store, you can try it and see what happens. You know, you just but your, your take take that with a grain of salt. I haven't
done it since. So there you go.
Well, and I wonder, well, first of all, how many items did you have that you ended and then restarted? Around? No,
I don't really I don't remember exactly. But I know that it was enough. That whenever I did, I did the like the Edit, like the bulk edit. So when I relisted everything, I hit the limit. And then I started getting insertion fees, and all that. And then that way, I'm kind of like, oh, man, I've really blown myself out of the water with this. If I, you know, here I am in the middle of March, like I won't be able to list anything else, because I've
hit my limits on everything. And so then I went ahead and got a store. So, okay,
okay. And I wonder what that does. If the algorithm sees all of those listings is brand new, and you just have so many at a time, or, because I know that when people are brand new to eBay, they get a bump in search, if they're like a new, not necessarily new account, but maybe they've had an account for a long time and they start listing algorithm likes that, and it wants is my opinion. eBay wants to get them hooked up, they send a lot of traffic to their listing, and
maybe they result in sales. So they're like, oh, wow, this eBay thing is awesome. I'm gonna keep doing it. And it's kind of like, you know, when the bank or the, you know, cell phone providers, like, oh, new people get a special discount, you know, if you're new, we're gonna do this special stuff for you that they don't do for established customers. So it's like, really not fair. Oh, yeah. But anyway, I just wonder if that's what's happening.
though? I don't know, I don't know if they see a lot of new listings, or if every if every time, you know, I think maybe when you do your own new listings that might, you know, show new new items listed in regular feed eBays items. So it could just be it's such a mass net, this cast that you catch us some but yeah, it's a strategy. I'm not sure how much it worked. It's a little scary. So
well, that is something to throw out to the listeners, like, because I talk about on my sales update videos, ending listings and restarting them and I don't necessarily do it every day, but it is in my weekly workflow to touch that and and stuff and started over and I do see those items sell within a pretty short time. So I know that strategy does work, but there's no way to prove like would that have sold anyway, if I didn't do anything to it? There's no way to prove that.
Yeah, I mean to I mean to do that with some of the older ones I wear, maybe take new pictures because some of my I think my picture taking skills have improved as well as my backdrops from what I was doing initially, so Oh, I thought well, I could, you know, use use to edit some of these. And, and then I'm finding too as some of my older items sell, I've edited in that, for whatever reason. So my shipping is way off, and it's
very high. And I will No wonder this sells, you know, it's $20 shipping on a t shirt or something. So I don't know what happened at that point. If it maybe I was copying off someone else's listing, or maybe I estimated the weight because I was frightened, or something I don't know.
Well, I've noticed when I end and restart or edit listings, you know, I'll just be typing along and, and sometimes I'll be in the wrong box, like I'll be changing the price. But the cursor is actually in the shipping weight box. And because I've found listings, where it's like, it's been like a pair of gloves, and I've got four pounds on it. And I meant to have four ounces. It's like, No wonder nobody bought this, who would pay that
No. Or the other thing I noticed is sometimes like when I went back and through and changed to ground advantage when all that happened, July of 2023. Somehow priority mail because I offer two options, priority mail was put as the first option. And so that's what the buyer sees, if they don't click through and look at all the shipping options. So several of mine were priority. And then grant advantage was the second choice
and it wasn't showing up. And so as I work through all the listings, I'm changing that so that the cheapest option is first, because a lot of buyers do not click through and look at all our options, or they don't even know they can choose it when they check out. Buyers have emailed message me and said, Why is this shipping so expensive? And I go look at it. And it's like, oh, they're seeing the priority price. I gotta switch
that. So, you know, it's all kind of details that that you might not even realize it's like, really four pounds on a pair of gloves? Nobody's gonna buy that. Yeah, no, no.
Okay, I would say one of the things that I've learned is just don't be shy in telling people about what you do. Whether it's when you're out, sourcing or just you know, your friends. And, in fact, I probably err on the other side, I can't stop talking about Ebay. I, you know, one of my one of my biggest sales and most interesting sales to date comes from just me talking a lot about
it. And it was at church. And one of our friends who works there, sent me a message and said, Hey, we have something here if you want him. And she sent me a picture it was for life size, nativity figures. And what had happened was the local fairgrounds in some of their Christmas, something new their Christmas fame they have going on, they have these extra pieces or ones they couldn't use. They donated in the church. It wasn't a complete set. Two of them were
not even painted. So I took him and you know, they were talking, you know, the angel was over four feet tall with a three foot wingspan. There was a wise man who was about 510 There was a newly mare, I mean, full size face. So I took him and I listed them. I did vehicle pickup, because I have no idea how to do shipping and I can't find a good resource on how to learn how to do shipping freight like that. And so I did, the buyer reached out to me, he was from Sacramento, which is about four
hours away. And he wanted wanted to buy him we worked out a deal i i have lowered the price quite a bit from what they were probably worth but I just I needed to get rid of them. I mean, they're They're huge and very hard to store those things. And he drove down and bought off all four of them. And for $400 it wasn't it wasn't a lot less than what they were worth but it didn't cost me anything. It was it was a fun adventure.
And what was the final price on those items below 100 $400 That's amazing.
Good for you. I love you. Yeah.
Just you know in other people, you know I have a thing I'm working on right now another one of our friends. Again, she she lives out of town now but we were at a birthday party function. And we were talking eBay and I got a call. Washer her husband reached out to me her Her father recently passed away. And they have to deal with his estate, which is a kind of a hoarding house situation. So I've gone over there to help them and the houses, it's just packed to the gills with stuff.
And so I'm currently working through that with them, trying to help them. Downsize that I don't even I feel even though that I'm going to get a chance to scratch the tip of the iceberg on that one.
A little overwhelming. Yeah,
I mean, it's just a lie. I, you know, took several big totes of things home. And in working through that, they they are particularly overwhelmed because she and her, one of her sisters are dealing with it may you know, they also have a mandate from the court because the step mother is still alive, but she's in a conservatorship. So how much they're supposed to get for their the sale of the items and they want to stop paying on the phone. It's it's a mess. So she's very overwhelmed.
But you know, I'll do I'll do my part. And you know, and see what what happens with the items I get.
Yeah, that's all you can do. In fact, this home I'm living in that I moved to. It's my man is like the family historian and custodian, he just ended up with everything. And he's got one sister and his parents, and he got his grandparents on both sides got their stuff. And he's like, I don't even know how I ended up with all this the basements just full. And so he just keeps you bringing stuff up. What about this? Can you sell this? What about this? I keep looking stuff
up. And I'm finding all kinds of things. Well, all kinds of things are being brought to me, just appearing in front of me like, oh my gosh, I've known about this for years, and I've never seen one out in the wild. And it's in this house that I just moved into. So um, you know, I think eBay gods are on my side with that. But I haven't really been out sourcing and so we're recording this in mid March, and all the garage sales and yard sales are going to be
starting up here soon. And it's like, I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to go to him. I've got so much to work on right now.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's me, I, I have so much going on. With both that hoarding situation. Stuff that I have myself, my mother in law. She has a storage unit that in she's had some life changes that we need to look at her storage unit to do some things. My grandfather passed away last month. And so we have some things from his house. It's just, I could probably not go sourcing for this year and probably be fine. Now, I probably will go sourcing because it's fun, and I can't
stop that. I can I can be I can afford to be more selective, I think.
Yeah. And I think a lot of sellers are in that situation where it's fun to go out hunt, treasure hunting. But it's also a challenge to stay disciplined and work on what you already have. Because it's sitting right there. And it could sell I had, I've been finding these old milk bottles, and they're from all these little dairies in the Midwest around this area. And, you know, doing the research, pricing them $100 or more, and they're selling within minutes, like
people have alert setup. Yeah. And it's like, that's something I never saw out in the wild and anything's collectible. And a lot of these dairies don't exist anymore, or they were a family dairy, and it's the family that's buying them because they're like, Oh, thank you so much for offering this. This was my grandpa's dairy and I sold one a couple of days ago, to somebody that lives two miles down the road. I mean, pass his house on the way to the post
office. So I was like, hey, I can just drop this off at your house. And he was totally fine with it. And as a first time in my 21 year history on eBay that I ever sold something to someone that close to me and one sold for $100 and it was chipped, and it was not in really great condition. It just had someone's name on it. And so that's what makes it valuable with that. You know, that motivated me I gotta keep listing this stuff because what's gonna happen next?
Who are? Who are yes, it's, it's, it's amazing the things that sell. And it's always people ask me, What are you looking for? And I say, Well, you know, I know it when I see it. But chances are, you probably don't think it's worth anything. The The other lesson that I've learned is wake up early. And I say that wake up early, because more than once it has paid off for me there was I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but my sleep pattern seems to be really
off. And I'll oftentimes wake up at three o'clock in the morning, and can't go back to sleep. So one day, this last summer, I came out and was looking at Facebook. And somebody had just listed they were selling an entire storage unit. So I contacted her and met up with her. And it was a situation where this lady, she had a friend who passed and she was the executor of the estate, there were no local family was no local family, that she was
closing things out. I bought the storage unit, the contents of the storage unit for her. And there's been several really good items in that. That unit and some that were completely unexpected. One of the items was when I saw it, it was in the right in the front of the unit. And I had no idea what it was it was a bust of a figure, a hooded or a robe that figure with a beard. So usually that is you know, we think Jesus when we see that, you know, but it was the face at hands was just glossy
black. And I don't know why someone would have a, you know, a black Jesus figure, especially this white lady who owned the unit, and I'm not so in doing my research, I actually found out it was it was a recast from the three incorporation in 1960. They recast an earlier bust of an actor named Ian Aldridge, who was one of the first African American stage actor in the 1800s. And I don't know why
three M did this. Other than you, I think three M has just experimented with their things to see if they what they can make money with or what will happen. So this bust was chalkware. And I did look it up on eBay, there was one that had sold for over $400. And I ran mine put mine up for about the same price. And I did take an offer for $366. And it went to Staten Island, New York all the way across the country from California. And you know, I had bought I bought the
that's incredible, these prototype kind of items where there was only one or a few made those can just be a goldmine. Oh,
sure, sure. I mean, maybe I should have held out longer. I don't know. But you know, I kind of figured how long can you hang on to this thing. And it was, you know, up on the shelf and our room staring down at us the whole time. So I was kind of figured I was pushing my luck. It's with anyway, so I better I better take it. Right. Yeah, there was several other things I got from that unit. That was really good. And you know, another another example of waking up early was when Sunday
morning. I had woke up early again, was looking on Facebook, there was an ad for a family run estate sell that had not appeared prior to that. I got my daughter up to see if she wanted to go with me. We went to this estate sale, I bought several things about a whole pile of stuff and one of them was two pieces full of cassettes. So they were about 6060 cassettes in each case. The person having it recently she saw me looking at these cassettes. You want those? I'll say those cases for
$1 each. Okay, sure. And they were filled with a lot of heavy metal and thrash metal bands stuff. A lot of those are pretty rare. Not very well known. One of them in particular I did my research on it was a band called atrophy and it was an early demo tape. And I put that on auction, and it's sold for $127.50.
Oh, great. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So I think that the seller was just so happy to get rid of all these cassettes that, you know, some people just don't see the value in things, or they just
don't have time. You know, maybe they know I'm probably donating given away something that's valuable, but they just want to get that project done and get it cleaned out and move on. Yes, yeah,
that's it. Yeah. And that's exactly what it was. They just needed to wrap it up. And I, I, you know, I tell people, I think a lot of times we are, we are problem solvers. We solve people's problems, when they have a mess. And they need to get rid of things, when they have to your weekend come in, and, and we don't pay them the retail, but it's just the they they pay for the convenience of not having to deal with it. Just like I might pay somebody to mow my yard. That $50 I can move it
myself for free. But I would rather do eBay. So rather than rather than pushing along, or I'd really be taking pictures of cassettes. So I pay somebody to do that. Yeah.
Yes, and it's, I don't know who said it or where I read this. But it's like, you need to focus on what you do well, and take people to do what they tell. Because same thing, like I always paid somebody to cut my grass, I couldn't have done it. I didn't want to I wanted to be inside listing stuff on eBay, I could list one thing that sells and pays for that guy to cut my grass every
week. Sure. And you know, doctors will tell you this, like, you know, if you're a brain surgeon, that's your thing, you focus on that, and you pay other people to do to do the things you hate, like such as your accounting work, you know, pay somebody who loves to do that. And, and then you know, you're putting money into the economy, you're helping other sometimes self employed people. I'm all about that, stay in your flow and do your thing that gets
you excited and motivated. And the money comes, and then you can outsource these other things that you don't want to do.
That's right. That's right. Another another lesson that I think I've I've learned that I'm trying to apply is to, to pay attention, to be friendly, to strike up conversations with people. And recently, again, you know, on Facebook, I noticed there was one one poster and in particular kept posting things for free on the free site. And there wasn't anything that I wanted. So I didn't take her up on any of it. But I in my mind, I'm thinking something's going on there. If she's giving away all this
stuff, something is going on. So as soon as something came up, that looked interesting to me, I sent her a message. There's my opportunity. So I sent her a message went over to her place to pick up there was a table, an old taping folding table, and a CD case like you put your CDs in there. So I want I pulled up to a house and there was a dumpster in the driveway. So okay, that's that's a good sign. And get out introduce myself and start talking to strike up a
conversation. Now I could have just got this stuff and left but I you know, oh, it looks like you're cleaning your garage, what's going on and you know, just dragging out the conversation talking to her seeing what she's up to, you need to know her a little bit. Again, she was just at her garage, she was cleaning it out her husband about six months ago has had passed. And this was just the project that she was working on to get rid of this
stuff. I think maybe too. Maybe she's just needing to distract herself from it. But in so when she we were talking we were talking about eBay, she had something she wanted to sell herself on eBay. But she didn't know how to do it and she doesn't know when she's gonna get around to it. But she says if there's anything here you see you might want let me know. And you know, there was a looks like a box of CDs. It turned out it
was computer software. I couldn't use that but she said I do have some old video game stuff. You want some of that? And, you know, I barely able to control my excitement that. Sure. So you're she?
Oh, I guess I'll take a look at though, okay.
And when she she brought him out there's two old systems. It was an Atari system and then a Colico vision system. And so I got him the Atari system I had not heard of. And it was called an Atari Jaguar. And so I did research on it. And turns out Atari Jaguar is an extremely rare system, it was the first 64 bit system that they created, was ahead of its time, it failed after about three years, they only made I
think, 100,000 of them. And when they're up and working, it may be in the neighborhood of $500. I could not get mine going. So rather than again, I was maybe trying to find a friend to help me work on it. I just said, you know, I'm not going to burn my time I'm going to, I'm going to sell for parts. So I did listed, print it up listed it sold it for parts, and it didn't cost me anything. And I took an offer for $200. And yeah, that was a long bubble with that, that gains us and there was several
games with it. And for that I think I've sold. And there was 10 games where the games the sold comps hasn't sold yet, but it's over $300. But I have sold one for 101 for 50 and one for 15. So the Colico vision I haven't gotten around to working on yet. So that's that's the my semi to do pile.
So are you testing them? Like with a TV to see if they work? Are you just seeing if they turn on? Or how do you do that with the really old consoles and the units?
The console, I did try to hook that up to the television and hooked it up. I could not get that the power on. So I because I couldn't get that to power on I couldn't get any of the games to power on either. You know, I just listen as untested. And and go from there. And you know, I think that the people, you know, I have got comments. They work works great. Thank you. You know, I think that the people who want them are just very excited to get them and they're excited to pay the price for.
Okay, yeah, I've seen where people list them as untested. On the one hand, well, if it does work, you could get more for it, but that you have to have a way to test them, like a game to put in there. And if you don't have a game that goes with that system, then how are you going to test it? But it's good to know that people are happy with them just listed untested and see where it goes.
Yeah, that's That's right. The other the other lesson that I learned that I've learned that I want to take away, it's go slow, and trust the process. And the go slow one. This this one here, I owe this score, particular score to you and to your interview with George Kelly. Okay, you're going back listening, listening to a bunch of the old podcast. And in that podcast, I think he mentioned having a newspaper ad.
And so a while back I took out a newspaper ad basically I think it says you know, whatever cash cash for stuff before you throw it away or donate it, call me out by it and kind of list a few things. And so I did get a phone call from a guy who was getting rid of some, you know, some family member who is deceased, some toys and some comic books. And you know, there was several GI Joe items in there. And one of the one of the GI Joe items in there was this green take with a very long gun in the
front. Looking at it on the conscious many, many of them listed on eBay currently, and the soles are around $30 So you know I listed it for $30 and moved on. I was actually doing it one day after work is kind of quickly trying to get some things done, and it sold within a few minutes. So that's always you're always kind of like, Well, why didn't mind sell my regular asking price? There's all this other competition. And so is your car was eating away
at me all night? And trying to look cuz I mean there's so many out there Well, finally I did keys together every one that's listed is was camouflage in color and mine was solid green. So yeah and so as I start to search for solid green ones there are no solid green called a slugger tank is what it was called the slugger cannon. And so i i in doing more research on it, it does look like it is more desirable, whatever that means. And I you know, then you get your, your your conundrum,
right, what do I do? Do I cancel the sale? Or do I just honor the sale? I decided I was just going to honor it just just, you know, bite the bullet and I shipped it. I didn't wait until the buyer got it. And then I reached out to the buyer just kind of said, you know, I noticed this was after I sold it. And it was all I noticed this was all green and the other ones were all camouflage. I noticed you're a collector because like he did have an eBay store. And you have Is there any reason? Is there
any difference in this one? And it was it was, I think available through the mail the mail order one so it is more rare is more desirable? He said probably around $120. I sold it for 30 I think he was being kind. I have since actually done a worth point subscription. I think I found one for a couple $100 that have sold sold. So you know if living learn. It's the you know, it's tuition. I just paid tuition on that one. Yeah.
And everybody has something like that. You just can't know every single detail.
No, no, I think it was. It's a good lesson. I think one of your other podcasts the couple who do a lot of the Hot Wheels.
Okay, yeah. Tina? Yes. Yeah. You know, in
there, you know, a takeaway from that is a lot about the little details on him the little variations. So, but But you know, kind of a success on that about going slow and trusting the process is one day there was it was a Thursday, there was a an estate sale that was listed. By Appointment Only it was in a mobile home park in town. And I was at work so I
couldn't get away. I contacted the the seller made an appointment for actual work that day, I was gonna get off my day, I was gonna be off at like 330 that day. But we'd be live for somewhat by about four o'clock. I was the last person there. And they had a few things set up in the living room. It was good. And it was the guy who was his one of his parents. I think the second last parent had just
passed. He was getting rid of some things and going around through the room there was you know, this the end of the day there was an oyster plate. So I did post this on the group it was a fish, fish head waster plates so it's got I think six wells. Now.
You posted that I saw that. Yeah, each
fish and I have heard in other groups are the oyster plates can be desirable. And so I got that. The $5 You know, went home did my research, looked at worth point and then started an auction. I listed it I started the auction at $99 because I think it was not an original piece from the 1800s it was a reproduction. I don't know when I've seen ones like mine sell. So I started it at that price. I did have somebody sent me an offer for $20. I thought
that was laughable. I did make a little my response made the decline was thank you for your interest in this item. If if I'm not sure if that was a mistake if that was a mistake. You can offer if you are serious about it, I suggest you watch it and do a bit at the appropriate time. Then the final sales price on that was three $366 I think
excellent. Yes. So that was beautiful piece.
Yeah, it was, it was nice. I go back and forth on whether it's beautiful or really ugly. I can't make up my mind.
That's true. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
Yeah. But it's, it's, it's, you know, then then, you know, you have all the stress of packing something like that. And, but it made it there. And I haven't heard either way. So I'm, I'm happy that we had no, no news is good news. Exactly.
Yeah. You got one more for us.
One more sale, or one more,
whatever you want to say? No,
there's a few things that I've been thinking about, that I've tried on eBay, which I really wish there was a school, or some way to learn how to maximize your eBay store, it seems like there's all these great tools that I don't know, or I'm having a hard time figuring out like, there's a way to wake it up with your Facebook or there's a way to do a newsletter in there. I just recently have started doing featured categories in my eBay
store. And, and then when you go to create and list your items, you can put them in your category in your store. Like for example, in my in my eBay store, I currently have two feature categories. One is gift ideas for Mother's Day. One is gift ideas for Father's Day. And so when I list items that might fall in that category, I'll when it says, Your store categories, I'll put it in there. And and then I have a few other ones I have one that's called a geek
tastic. So that's my you know, Star Wars stuff, video, game stuff, comics, things like that. And then one that's I think I've named it the the eclectic soul is what I've named it. And that's just kind of odds odds and ends stuff. And so, you know, my my hope there is that maybe somebody just browsing will see those things, and we'll go browse those categories, and buy from there. So I've tried that. Another thing that I I've tried is, I've created coupons.
And in particular, recently, what I've started doing is I have a coupon that if somebody gives me a positive feedback, I send them one of these coupons for Disney, it's 15% off, but it's just, you know, thank you for your purchase and the positive and the great feedback. Here's a coupon for next time. Again, I don't know that I've seen a lot of business from that. But you know, I hope I hold out hope for it. I do sales, I don't know, I do I start I stopped sales. I've
heard that's helpful. You know, rather than maybe like running one for, you know, two months or a month at a time, sometimes like I run one on the weekend. And it started on Friday and ended on Sunday night. So those are just some things that I've tried. What
about promoted listings? You know, I,
I've tried to like do some promoted listings. For a while I was promoting some of my older stuff at 2%. Then I've gone back in recently, and I've I've just kind of promoted some of my stuff out there suggested rates, like, for example, I'd have some older hats, you know, some trucker hats, and you know, there's pretty stiff competition with those. So I've put those that out there suggested rates. I don't know that I've seen a lot of success from that necessarily, but I've given it a
shot. And you don't have to pay until it sells so you know I'll try it.
Right? Yeah, if it's, it's got that 30 Day cookie on it. So if somebody clicks on it, looks at it, and then make maybe you end that promotion or change it. If they buy it within 30 days. Then you're charged that promoted listing fee. Yeah, so it's, it's not just a one time click on it and buy it if they tracks it for 30 days, which is very common with anything on the internet. That's like affiliate marketing. It's got a 30 day cookie on it.
So because rarely do people buy something like first time they click on it, you know, they might save it. Go back look at it again later. See if the price changes talk to their spouse Almost like, you know, I do that all the time, I never buy something the first time I see it, you know, you price shopping, whatever you're doing
but good. You know, that's kind of the complaint, a lot of sellers is well, you know, if they buy it within 30 days, even if you end that promotion, you're still charged, but you do get the sale. So, you know, it's just, it's hard to know, without experimenting for yourself, how that's gonna work. I do promoted listings all the time. And I get sales from them. And I change it up every week, not as like, not exactly like every Thursday at nine o'clock, no, I, I've
randomly change it. And I think the algorithm likes that randomness, where if you're, if you're changing your promoted listings every Wednesday at noon, it's not going to be as effective as if you just randomly do it. That's what I've discovered any. Yeah.
And kind of a new tool. They're like, I started doing this last weekend, I was out of town this weekend. And I set some of my items, scheduled them to list because I like to have things listed every day. So I hit done some in advance and then scheduled them to be listed. And that was nice, that was fun, was fun to see that go. So I think maybe it's good, you know, if you're, if you're a seller, and you're not using those tools, you know, give those a shot, and see what
happens. It's funny with those featured categories, you know, I went I went to the stores have several, you know, people, including some of the YouTube, people who are big sellers, and a lot of them didn't have these categories, some had a few. Maybe they had said that I was kind of interpret as maybe they had set them up in the past and then just kind of stopped doing it. So but you know, I'm gonna try it and see what happens.
And I think the most important takeaway is, yeah, try it for yourself. If you're on a group, and everybody's like, yeah, markdown manager, it doesn't work. I never get any sales, you know, don't the only person's opinion that matters is yours. You know, because there's just the research is too much of a gray area of like, what works and what doesn't, you got to figure out what works for you, what you sell your price points, your business model, like you have
plenty of inventory. You know, you don't have to worry if you let some things go with less than optimal prices, because it's good for the algorithm when things sell, even if it's not a really high profit sale. So and where do you put all your stuff? If you're cleaning out storage units and house cleanouts? Do you have your own storage unit?
Oh, me. You know, like, for example, the storage unit, when I had that, this summer, I have a pad on the side of the house. Luckily, in California, we don't get a lot of rain in bad weather, especially in the summer. So I had use that as a staging area. And then I would just operate out of that. I have a little shed there too, on the
side that I can use. And then you know, I try to you know, I have things that need to be listed there in totes boxed up the things that I want to move that are they're just temporary. They are you know, I'll try to move those like yard sale do yard sales, I tried to do a yard sale every couple of months. And I priced stuff to get rid of it. Or the you know, but I look at it, you know, I might sell something for one or $2 but um, turn around and turn that one or $2 at a yard. So I go to into
you know, 50 to $100. So I don't it doesn't bother me to let go for a buck. Yeah.
Yeah, I feel that. Okay, well, we've been going about an hour and this has been a great update on your business and that you've only been doing it a year is really phenomenal. It's just you just grabbed the bull by the horns and ran with it. So I want to commend you on that. Do you have any last words before we finish up? That
Well, thank you so much. And you know, I guess I just you know what they said? These little reflections just Give it a shot, don't get in a hurry, be calm trust the process, it's you know, so I think success is consistency plus time. And you know, you just every little thing will, it all adds up, it might be you know, and don't get hung up on just the little things, you know, maybe maybe this one cassette is only going to sell for two bucks, less than one cassette, go through that list.
Because when you work down down to the list, you're gonna get to that next cassette that's gonna go for $127, you know, go go through the jewelry box, and you're going to list some of the jewelry box, the pieces of jewelry, don't waste your time jumping from thing to thing to thing, you know, go go through
and do that. You know, the other thing is sometimes just recognize, maybe, maybe it's your you have, you have to you need, you need to get rid of it in a in a bigger bite, there's been a couple items that I had that, you know, like a big lot of cameras, I had bought a lot of antique cameras, I think I had 15 of them. And it was just too much to worry about every way they were cluttering everything up. So I put them all together and did an auction on all of them. And I sold the
whole thing for 156 bucks. And most of them, I think I bought most of them at a yard sale for $30. But then a few of the others I had bought at estate sales and my piles of other stuff. And that's the other thing, don't underestimate the power of the pile. When you go to an estate sale, get yourself a big box of stuff. And most of the time, they'll look at it, you'll be surprised at how often you'll get a really great deal.
And something that you know, individually, they might have charged you $1 for it would just be heaped in with everything else, and this wouldn't be considered. So because again, you're you're you are not you are you're fixing their problem. If you don't take it, they're gonna have to pay some guy to ball to the trash.
Right? Or they're gonna have to do it themselves. And who wants to do that? So sure, sure. Okay. Well, thank you again for coming on. And I wish you continued success with everything you're doing. And we'll keep watching your great sales on the Facebook group.
Thank you so much and best of luck to you. You have a great day. Thanks, you too. Bye. Bye, bye.
On to today's trivia question. I think Bill is really smart about how he runs his eBay business. So on that note, what are some characteristics of people with high intelligence? Here's some time to think it over. Okay, there was a lot of information about this topic. But this is coming from i n c.com. The business magazine. And the article is called eight personality traits of highly intelligent people backed by science, the scientific reasoning behind some of the personality traits that smart
people share. And smart meaning high IQ. So we're going to run through these number one, they're highly adaptable, intelligent people are flexible, and able to thrive in different settings. Number two, they understand how much they don't know. And I love this one. The smartest folks are able to admit when they aren't familiar with a particular concept. You never want to be the smartest person in the room, because you can always learn more from other people. Number three, they have
insatiable curiosity. Albert Einstein reportedly said I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. So kind of be like a three year old. What? Why? Why is it like that? How did it get that way? That is a sign of high intelligence. Okay, number four, they're open minded. Smart people don't close themselves off to new ideas or opportunities. Number five I've, they like their own company.
Highly intelligent people tend to be very individualistic and often prefer spending time alone, then with spending time with other people doing social events, that type of thing. Number six, they have high self control. Smart people are able to overcome impulsiveness by planning, clarifying goals, exploring alternative strategies, and considering consequences before they begin. Number seven, they're really funny. Highly intelligent people tend to have a great sense of
humor. And number eight, they're sensitive to other people's experiences. Smart people can almost feel what someone is thinking or feeling. And there were lists up to 20 characteristics, but you get the gist of that. Okay, next week is a special third anniversary podcast with snippets from several other resellers. Yes, the very first episode of this podcast was on March 24 2021. three straight years, never missing a week with a new
episode. The third anniversary episode will be a format, like the estate sale and jewelry podcasts, just changing things up and making it fun. I think you will really enjoy it. Thank you again for listening to this podcast. And I hope you have a stellar week on eBay. Bye, everybody.