Ebay Sales Down

[ggxarmy]

Originally Posted by nam812

For those of you with an eBay store, you have less than 2 weeks to use your coupon for supplies before the 1st quarter ends. I know some don't use it, but for those who do, don't forget.

My hero

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

Slabs are hotter than ever but, yes, there are segments that one could consider "junk", at least relative to the price of the grading service. I'm especially talking about base Topps rookies in the last 10 years with a few exceptions. I've had no problem getting fair prices overall for top flight players (Judge, Harper, Freeman, Ohtani) of most any card type. The second tier popularity players (think Alonso, Lindor, Machado, Seager) are pretty weak right now. I have hundreds or potential gems just sitting in boxes because it's not worth $20 per card to grade that stuff. Maybe it will at some point down the road (like what happened with a lot older Griffey and Pujols stuff) but I won't hold my breath waiting for those card prices to jump or grading costs to drop.

Doing alright this month with my singles. 596 items sold over last 31 days.

[hammerva]

Well had my first experience of someone wanting to pick up a card (a card they haven't paid for by the way) and also look for other cards that I have from my home. I don't know if the person thinks that my ebay is from a store and actually running from my apartment. Never mind the fact that I work from home, I am not set up to have people just going through my stuff. Plus the stuff on my ebay is probably 20% of what I actually have and really not interested in negotiating or dealing with the other 80% just yet.

Talk about early morning awkward

[fungi2510]

Originally Posted by hammerva

Well had my first experience of someone wanting to pick up a card (a card they haven't paid for by the way) and also look for other cards that I have from my home. I don't know if the person thinks that my ebay is from a store and actually running from my apartment. Never mind the fact that I work from home, I am not set up to have people just going through my stuff. Plus the stuff on my ebay is probably 20% of what I actually have and really not interested in negotiating or dealing with the other 80% just yet.

Talk about early morning awkward

Probably someone trying to make a new friend. You honestly could meet them somewhere public and bring a box of cards that they might be interested in. You might find a buyer for stuff that you want to move. I wouldn't shut it down immediately. (It sounds like I am the buyer)

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by hammerva

Well had my first experience of someone wanting to pick up a card (a card they haven't paid for by the way) and also look for other cards that I have from my home. I don't know if the person thinks that my ebay is from a store and actually running from my apartment. Never mind the fact that I work from home, I am not set up to have people just going through my stuff. Plus the stuff on my ebay is probably 20% of what I actually have and really not interested in negotiating or dealing with the other 80% just yet.

Talk about early morning awkward

Just invite them over. Life is short, make new friends. Maybe fix them some spaghetti or something. And go through boxes of cards while you are eating. If you time it right there may be a game on tv too. Yall can sit down and take a load off after sorting through everything. Ebay is actually where I look for most of my friends.

[prospectorgems]

I have been having a lot of issues lately with ending/relisting. Not sure what interface changes eBay did but the items don't immediately show up in the ended and the active volumes don't update quickly either like they had in the past. Last night I struggled through relists and after multiple refreshes I was able to get it done.

This morning I wanted to relist some higher end items which was only 22 cards and now for the last hour only 6 items are showing in ended and the listings are not showing in active. The volume count in that particular active category is still high but none of the listings are there.

So be warned for anyone wanting to do end/relists, be wary of potential issues.

[Budler]

Originally Posted by hammerva

Well had my first experience of someone wanting to pick up a card (a card they haven't paid for by the way) and also look for other cards that I have from my home. I don't know if the person thinks that my ebay is from a store and actually running from my apartment. Never mind the fact that I work from home, I am not set up to have people just going through my stuff. Plus the stuff on my ebay is probably 20% of what I actually have and really not interested in negotiating or dealing with the other 80% just yet.

Talk about early morning awkward

It appears he may want to get by E-Bay fees and shipping cost or just wants to meet someone close to him that he may be able to deal with.
How did he contact you? E-Bay or E-mail
Were the other cards listed on E-Bay? If not, how did he find out about them?
How did he know where you lived?

As I do not know how E-bay works anymore. I just buy a card or two now and then. I see postings like this and just wonder.

Not through E-Bay but other platforms I have meet many people and have done a lot of deals at my house.

[paulcarlcards]

Since launching my CardCobra app for automating lot listings, I've gotten a bunch of requests for a tool that just generates the images. So I made a free webapp to do it. You just upload your scans, choose a background color (I use black to match my black background in the scans themselves), and click the button.

Then you can use all of the images it creates for your eBay listings or whatever platform you want to sell on.

Let me know what you guys think of it. https://megacollage.com/

[Crosby 87]

Originally Posted by paulcarlcards

Since launching my CardCobra app for automating lot listings, I've gotten a bunch of requests for a tool that just generates the images. So I made a free webapp to do it. You just upload your scans, choose a background color (I use black to match my black background in the scans themselves), and click the button.

Then you can use all of the images it creates for your eBay listings or whatever platform you want to sell on.

Let me know what you guys think of it.

So it's a free hosting platform?

[gregr2]

Originally Posted by Crosby 87

So it's a free hosting platform?

according to his page:

Privacy Note: All processing happens directly in your browser. Your images are never uploaded to any server, ensuring complete privacy.

[paulcarlcards]

Originally Posted by Crosby 87

So it's a free hosting platform?

No. You download the images and then upload them to your eBay listing or Facebook group/IG/etc.

Someone found a bug already so I'm working on fixing it.

EDIT: Looks like it's fixed now.

[GoodMorning]

What do you guys think about the business model of buying raw singles on eBay, sending them to PSA and then selling the slabs on eBay?

[paulcarlcards]

Originally Posted by GoodMorning

What do you guys think about the business model of buying raw singles on eBay, sending them to PSA and then selling the slabs on eBay?

Better to buy raw singles, send them to PSA, and then let PSA sell them for you on their eBay. You make more profit and do less work that way.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by GoodMorning

What do you guys think about the business model of buying raw singles on eBay, sending them to PSA and then selling the slabs on eBay?

Lots of people do this. If you have a good eye I'm sure you could make a few bucks. I don't grade much, but I hear PSA standards have gotten really tight and makes this a harder play.

Personally, I like to remove as many variables as possible from the equation. PSA is a variable that is inconsistent and unreliable that I choose not to use for that reason.

[byronscott4ever]

Does anyone use the combined shipping rule when they sell items that have varying shipping rates? I’m curious as I’ve had people request combined shipping and I never get the message.

[smanzari]

Originally Posted by byronscott4ever

Does anyone use the combined shipping rule when they sell items that have varying shipping rates? I’m curious as I’ve had people request combined shipping and I never get the message.

I only charge shipping for auctions and in these situations, I typically just fix it and charge the most expensive method plus whatever my add an item cost is.

In some rare scenarios, when I have lots/sets up with Free Ship, I just do all of it free to save a future argument/headache (its happened before in these situations)

[rwperu34]

March ends up my biggest month ever. Up 20% vs February and double last year...despite 8% less inventory than last year. More on that in a minute. Items sold were #2 ever, behind only July 2023. I ran a bunch of 1¢ free shipping auctions that month, but this month was 100% high priced BIN. Items were up 60% vs last year, with $/package up 25% vs last year.

My new favorite monthly stat is % of inventory sold. I take my total sales for the month and divide it by my average daily inventory. I want that number to be between 14-22% in most months. This March that number was 18.6%. Last year I only sold 8.6% in March then a measly 12.2% in April, despite massive price reductions. Over the last five months I've averaged 16% vs 8.9% vs the same five months last year.

My total sales since October are up 65% vs the same period last year on roughly 13% more spending.

[beauspencer]

March ended up being better than expected despite my annual spring training break that really slows down my store.

Net Sales ($) were up 36% over March 2024. Quantity sold was up 11%.

Hopefully this momentum carries into April. I did not list very many new items at all in March, so that is something I am going to focus on this month.

[jamcas997]

My totals since I started this back in 2022, Would be nice to buy cases again at a descent price , but breakers and the chasers have killed that. I buy bulk in autos, parallels and numbered stuff to move now. I have been also getting vintage for grading and resell also.

Items Sold
2022
JAN 440
FEB 376
MAR 439
APR 617
MAY 453
JUN 454
JUL 866
AUG 507
SEP 320
OCT 325
NOV 616
DEC 337
TOTAL 5750

2023
JAN 489
FEB 458
MAR 651
APR 453
MAY 371
JUN 911
JUL 659
AUG 377
SEP 271
OCT 232
NOV 176
DEC 138
TOTAL 5186

2024
JAN 242
FEB 347
MAR 606
APR 433
MAY 274
JUN 143
JUL 220
AUG 262
SEP 265
OCT 1322
NOV 172
DEC 213
TOTAL 4499

2025
JAN 545
FEB 289
MAR 654
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
TOTAL 1488

2022
Jan $4,715.23
Feb $4,269.06
Mar $3,747.16
Apr $5,548.21
May $4,075.73
Jun $3,353.10
Jul $5,072.83
Aug $4,159.12
Sep $2,252.60
Oct $2,135.52
Nov $2,483.31
Dec $2,055.33
$43,867.20

2023
Jan $2,644.68
Feb $1,879.04
Mar $7,700.75
Apr $4,201.74
May $3,204.33
Jun $4,292.77
Jul $3,285.93
Aug $2,813.38
Sep $1,606.03
Oct $956.31
Nov $837.70
Dec $1,088.04
$34,510.70

2024
Jan $1,178.02
Feb $1,462.95
Mar $2,239.49
Apr $1,560.86
May $1,816.71
Jun $567.21
Jul $909.07
Aug $1,169.04
Sep $1,303.62
Oct $2,503.60
Nov $902.98
Dec $1,194.35
$16,807.90

2025
Jan $1,227.55
Feb $1,044.53
Mar $1,846.88

[rwperu34]

Card Show Ready Update

My first two sold. The first one was a 300 count that I botched in many ways. It sold for right on the line between "I'm happy" and "this is putting lipstick on a pig". The second was 100 count and it did very well, 60¢/card + shipping, for a net of $46. I put into it about $25* and 1.5 hours**. The * is because I had more leftover to go in the next batch of lots (actually more than I put in this lot!) and the ** is because some of the sorting I did will pay benefits in the future. FWIW, listing 99¢ + shipping cards that I have $0 cost basis is worth about $10/hr for me.

My next batch was a huge project. I spent about $240 and put in 12 hours, not counting however much time I put in bidding and winning the items. There are (3) 300 count, a 125 count, and a 100 count, plus a few other bulk lots that were related but are not in toploaders. If everything sells where I currently have it listed, I will scoop about $500. That would be a $260 profit on 15-16 hours of work. Plus a bunch of stuff leftover for future lots.

One thing about that 12 hours is it didn't crowd out any other work for me. I had a little vacation scheduled for the 6th to the 9th and didn't want to fire up the buying machine (or the spreadsheet work that goes with it) until after that. So while I put in 12 hours, it was 12 very low leverage hours. The kind where if you can make $15 an hour it's very worth it.

[rwperu34]

I think I have figured out why nobody ever takes advantage of my sales. It's because it's impossible to sort and filter sale items!

Let's say for example I want to buy some Joey Gallo. I go to the store page, find the Buy 1 Get 1 X% off sale, but there are 2000 items on sale. I don't want to sit there for two hours looking at every single item in Gallery View, 72 items at a time. I just want to search for Gallo (or whatever else I might be looking for) and have it all laid out there for me so I can take advantage.

When I do a normal search it has a checkbox for Deals & Savings and Sale Items over on the left, where you might filter for BIN/Auction or Sold Items. Neither of those show what is actually on sale. To find the sale items I have to open an item, go to the store's homepage, and click on sale. Even then I only see a few items. To get everything I have to click the Shop Now sale banner. At that point it's Gallery View with a max of 72 items (default 48), no search function, and limited filtering. That's an awful lot of clicks for something that should be front and center.

Maybe if eBay made stuff like this easy for the buyer they wouldn't have to tinker around with bid increments to try and squeeze a few extra dollars out of us.

[smanzari]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

Card Show Ready Update

My first two sold. The first one was a 300 count that I botched in many ways. It sold for right on the line between "I'm happy" and "this is putting lipstick on a pig". The second was 100 count and it did very well, 60¢/card + shipping, for a net of $46. I put into it about $25* and 1.5 hours**. The * is because I had more leftover to go in the next batch of lots (actually more than I put in this lot!) and the ** is because some of the sorting I did will pay benefits in the future. FWIW, listing 99¢ + shipping cards that I have $0 cost basis is worth about $10/hr for me.

Have you listed these here? I put some together with the intention of putting on eBay and tried here first - someone claimed within minutes, figured it was a fluke until I now have no more of any of that stuff (multiple lots eventually led to a repeated buyer, etc.)

[YayNJ]

eBay in the UK no longer gives the option of combining postage

[gmoney328]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

Card Show Ready Update

My first two sold. The first one was a 300 count that I botched in many ways. It sold for right on the line between "I'm happy" and "this is putting lipstick on a pig". The second was 100 count and it did very well, 60¢/card + shipping, for a net of $46. I put into it about $25* and 1.5 hours**. The * is because I had more leftover to go in the next batch of lots (actually more than I put in this lot!) and the ** is because some of the sorting I did will pay benefits in the future. FWIW, listing 99¢ + shipping cards that I have $0 cost basis is worth about $10/hr for me.

My next batch was a huge project. I spent about $240 and put in 12 hours, not counting however much time I put in bidding and winning the items. There are (3) 300 count, a 125 count, and a 100 count, plus a few other bulk lots that were related but are not in toploaders. If everything sells where I currently have it listed, I will scoop about $500. That would be a $260 profit on 15-16 hours of work. Plus a bunch of stuff leftover for future lots.

One thing about that 12 hours is it didn't crowd out any other work for me. I had a little vacation scheduled for the 6th to the 9th and didn't want to fire up the buying machine (or the spreadsheet work that goes with it) until after that. So while I put in 12 hours, it was 12 very low leverage hours. The kind where if you can make $15 an hour it's very worth it.

You ever do any vintage lots I am all ears.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by smanzari

Have you listed these here? I put some together with the intention of putting on eBay and tried here first - someone claimed within minutes, figured it was a fluke until I now have no more of any of that stuff (multiple lots eventually led to a repeated buyer, etc.)

I haven't...yet. I was looking at your stuff and it seems more focused. Mine is a mishmash of Modern, Junk Wax Era, stars, RC, HOF, 1st...etc with a few #'d, autos, and jersey cards thrown in. Much closer to what the originator of the scheme is putting out there.

One thing that keeps me from listing here (aside from not liking to negotiate) is I can't see sold prices. How much were you getting per card?

Originally Posted by gmoney328

You ever do any vintage lots I am all ears.

Unfortuantely I don't have a single vintage card I had a few Bruce Sutter (like 77-79, if you even count those years as vintage), but they've sold already.