posted on July 5, 2003 07:30:58 AM new
This has probably be done before, but I haven't seen it around in awhile. Post your favorite timesaving or cost saving tip so we all can benefit. My favorite which I just start using is http://www.shortkeys.com/. It saves me tons of time in typing, and the free version suits me just fine. You program keystrokes and it will type a paragraph for you. For example if I type sa I get:
Thank you for the payment. I'll get it in the mail on Saturday and will leave positive feedback. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or problems with anything when it arrives.
Have a great weekend!
I have programmed one for everyday of the week and for frequently asked questions, shipping quotes (for those who can't read the auction, etc.)
PS - just be careful not to program real words as your keystroke shortcuts. I originally had it programmed to do that for the keystroke sat, but everything I typed the word sat I would get my paragraph
Edited because I didn't double check that the link was un-clickable
[ edited by ihula on Jul 11, 2003 10:12 AM ]
posted on July 5, 2003 07:35:17 AM new
thanks for the tips-we sell masserati and ferrari here,we only send one email out per month,rest of the time we are on the french riviera doing girl watching!!!!!!
posted on July 5, 2003 08:26:14 PM new
ihula, thanks so much for that. I have been using notepad with all my normal run of the mill answers to the silly repetitive questions I get but this is going to save me even more time. I am so glad you posted this!!!
Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care!
posted on July 5, 2003 08:37:59 PM new
Hahahaha. I took a quick look at it. How can it help me with those,,How much is shipping 92678? reduntant Questioners? AH!!!!! I just figured it OUT!!!!! my zip is RIGHT in the auction too!!!!! My reply,,,,Figure it out yourself!!!!! 91234! Thanks! I'll use it! That WAS great!!!! Info! Thanks!!!! hahahaha like they really are going to. I'll just Dream on,,,,,,,,
posted on July 5, 2003 09:34:42 PM new
A big time saver is to try to post the s/h in the auction or a shipping calculator. The auctions that have those must garner more bids than the no-mention-of-s/h auctions. I see tons of auctions that are selling a very light item ( a few ounces ) yet they something really stupid like mail me your zip code after the auction ends for the s/h cost.
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"Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography." - Paul Rodriguez
posted on July 5, 2003 10:22:59 PM new
Ace, sometimes I don't pack things until they are sold. Maybe thats lazy but hate to do the prework and then it doesnt sell. The amount of packing and type of box can make a big difference in the postage especially on fragile items.
posted on July 5, 2003 10:39:10 PM new
Solution to SH......Let's do it just like the big BOYS on T.V. Free Camera! Shipping and Handling ONLY $29.99.......Rushed!!!!
posted on July 5, 2003 10:57:59 PM new
I never seal up a package beforehand but you're gonna have to find a box for the thing sooner or later.
Even the free shipping gambit requires you to guestimate the cost so you can figure that into the price. Free shipping works best on inexpensive shipping. If you can send the item for $1 it would be a big help to have Free Shipping in the auction description and you only eat a buck.
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"Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography." - Paul Rodriguez
posted on July 6, 2003 02:11:26 AM new
My best time saver is taking every single successful item and putting it into one crate. Since nearly all of my items are bottles and small items this one crate holds everything not yet paid for.
The crate is right next to my desk.
My desk is positioned in the middle of the room and only 4 feet directly behind me is a huge shelving unit with all sizes and shapes of boxes & bubble mailers I have. Next to it a laundry basket of packing peanuts
On my desk I always have
2 pairs of scissors
2 roles of tape clear & priority
a calculator a stapler and a ruler
popup post-it note holder.
A handful of sharpies
A small standing letter sorter for custom forms, delivery confirmation, insurance & priority stickers.
The morning after a successful closing when all of the payments come in I do not have to get up 50+ times to pack each bid/order.
In summary HOW you arrange your work space around you makes all the difference in the world...... http://www.lovepotions.com
posted on July 6, 2003 07:41:19 AM new
Here's a tip for the new sellers. Know your fees! Don't start your item at $10.00, start it at $9.99 - you'll save 25 cents. Here's the fees breakdown:
.01-9.99 - 30 cents
10.00-24.99 - 55 cents
25.00-49.99 - $1.10
$50.00-$199.99 - $2.20
$200.00 and up - $3.30
Don't forget to use the free supplies when applicable for the items you sell - free USPS priority boxes available on their website, the free envelopes (tyrek), priority tape, etc.
Pharmacy's and Health food stores are great places for free (clean) packaging peanuts.
posted on July 6, 2003 07:48:25 AM new
turn the fed exp box inside out and ship it usps first class.
nice box!!
use the usps priority box for fed exp ground,they will take anything!!
posted on July 6, 2003 07:58:07 AM new
I never box my items up ahead of time, I have shelves and shelves full of all the items I am selling. Unfortunately I never remember to take off the items that I decide won't sell, so the shelves are very crowded.
I use a shipping calculator and love it. I can build in a handling fee and the buyer never sees it. I also use UPS counter rates and have daily pick-up, so I make a few cents there too. I do offer priority as an alternative on all my small items, because sometimes the UPS price is high for under 1 or 2lbs.
For the shipping weight I always weigh the item and then add about 8oz packing for a small item (like up to a 12x12x12 box), 1lb for a bigger sized item and 2 lbs for a really large item. So if an item weighs 2 2/3 lbs, I use 3 lbs for the shipping weight. It's not real accurate, but close enough.
I keep getting burnt on international shipments. I keep trying to pad $3-$4 into the cost and it keeps being more than I charged. I think the post office has funny scales. I just ordered a new shipping scale off ebay, so hopefully that will help. It is supposed to give you the shipping cost right on the scale. It will hopefully be more accurate than the bathroom scale I use, or the 4lb dial scale I have for small items.
posted on July 6, 2003 08:02:45 AM new
Here's another tip that has made me money...
If you have an item that you know is related to a popular item, but you can't say what the item is because of keyword spamming, than do this...
You can include a small cheap piece of the actual item, or an info sheet on the popular item.
For instance... A couple years ago I was selling vertibird toys. These were new remakes, the same mold as the old ones. But the new ones are called Chopper Command and ebay wouldn't allow the use of the word vertibird.
So I started including an information sheet on the "popular vertibird toy from the 1970's" with my auctions. With this I was able to get around ebay's keyword spamming rules. And this was an item that vertibird people wanted, they just didn't know how to find it without the word vertibird. After I started doing this a competitor started offering a piece of an original vertibird with his auctions. Like a wheel, or the nosecone, or a decal. Just some small cheap piece so he could use the word vertibird too.
posted on July 6, 2003 08:08:28 AM newPharmacy's and Health food stores are great places for free (clean) packaging peanuts.
And hospitals often have piles of smaller clean cardboard boxes. I've gotten a lot there.
I am not a bathtub full of brightly-colored machine tools on Vendio.
posted on July 6, 2003 01:31:25 PM new
deltim: "So I started including an information sheet on the "popular vertibird toy from the 1970's" with my auctions."
posted on July 6, 2003 08:33:09 PM new
As I have said before, the true secret to Ebay is:
Just do it.
Find what works and do it... and keep doing it. Don't spend all your time scrounging the internet for the best way to make money in online auctions. Don't waste money on stupid reports explaining online auction secrets. Go get a product and sell it.
posted on July 6, 2003 08:50:47 PM new
http://images.google.com may be a source for auction pictures. I have put together some nice adds from stuff I found there. You could even just link the picture from the source site if you don't mind chancing a broken link.
Your on your own as far as figuring out the copyright legalities though. I am sure there is plenty of opinions on this floating around, but talk to your attorny if this really conserns you.
posted on July 6, 2003 11:34:26 PM new
I mostly sell clothing. I have a word document saved that has 4 different condition templates on it. When I make my list of items to list on ebay, I use a 4 column chart that includes: clothing type/title (ex. blue hawaiian shirt), size, measurements, and condition.
When I use the Auction Manager to create auctions, I simply cut and paste the same description template for items that are in the same condition. I list all items in "A" condition together, "B" together, and so on... It is a general template, so I can simply go in and enter the size for the item and add anything special to the description template if I need to. I've been doing this for 3 years, and it has saved me hundreds, if not thousands of hours of typing the same thing over and over for each auction.
[ edited by rustygumbo on Jul 6, 2003 11:35 PM ]
posted on July 7, 2003 09:55:32 AM new
1) Research your category.
2) Research your category.
3) Research your category.
All the information you need is there: Does this item sell? How much will people pay for shipping? What ending time catches the most last-minute bidders? (You can figure out all these answers by looking at closed auctions over the past 30 days for items like yours.) What's the percentage of problem bidders in this category? (Look at the feedback ratios of frequent bidders in the category)
Finally, be 100 percent honest and as detailed as possible in your listing. I've seen slightly battered items get more bids than identical items described only as "perfect" - because the bidders have confidence in seller No. 1 and not enough info from seller No. 2.
That is why I would respectfully differ from eagleedc on the issue of photos, (though I do agree on his or her other point, which is that the "How to sell on eBay" guides are virtually worthless.)
Copyright issues aside, people need to see a photo of the item you have, not a glossy studio shot of what your item may look like. When I see an obviously professional photo - like the ones fluffy pointed out a month or so ago, stripped right out of the Coldwater Creek catalog - I form two impressions about the seller: 1) He/she will steal other people's work. And 2) I have no idea what the item I'm considering actually looks like. Even if your intentions are good, you run the risk that someone will take that photo as an implied guarantee of the condition of your own item.
Producing photos is the most time-consuming aspect of what I do. Some auctions don't need them. But if you put one up, it should be one you produced yourself and one that shows your own merchandise.
------------------- We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.
------------The Talmud
posted on July 7, 2003 09:29:23 PM new
I sometimes come into rather large amounts of clothing to sell, and this is how I organize it.
I photograph it, giving each item a lot number, then immediately place it in a small sized plastic trash bag (new, obviously). I then list the items, and as each one is listed, I pull out the tag with the number, tie the bag shut and staple the number to it. The photo has the same number, so right click and properties tells me which number the buyer has purchased. The bags prevent mishaps and cat hair.
posted on July 8, 2003 06:06:28 PM new
Has anyone looked into putting privacy policies on their vendio stores? I haven't seen much if any of that on the vendio stores I visited in the mall. I did look into it. And found out through Vendio legal their privacy policy DOES NOT cover us as sellers even while renting their site under their privacy policy. Seems it might I initially assumed it would but they told me no it does not. Apparently in doing some research there is some inherent liability by not having a policy stating clearly how you would use a customer's information who purchases items through your site. I'm new to the whole game online so I don't have any neat tips to offer like most of you here, but I can tell you it might be wise to add a link in your policies to a free page somewhere denoting a clear and detailed privacy policy if you sell items online specifying how you use customer information, your handling of mailing lists, etc....
Most of you probably are well versed in this so I apologize for the redundancy if so but there are most likely some new folks like me that might find it useful.
Vendio told me in future upgrades they will look into adding ample room to post a proper privacy policy for our stores which I think is a good idea.
posted on July 9, 2003 01:19:12 PM new
I only leave feedback after I have received it from my buyer. I do this a couple of times a month while I have other auctions running. The idea being they see the feedback from me and may go and look to see what other items I have up and running currently.
