posted on December 5, 2003 04:39:27 PM new
Glassgirl: I love that picture!!! It brought a huge smile to my face and a healthy chuckle throughout my body.
Thank you. I am going to copy it and look at it now and again. Wonder if fluffy looks like her cats? (You usually do start to merge with your pets after awhile.)
Cheryl: When I posted that, I was picturing a bird perched on a tree branch, tweet'in sweetly and contentedly and how its just a cat's nature to to spy it and want pluck it down.
I think its hard enuf to get your own stuff listed and sold with any ounce of creativity. I imagine I would wind up hating trying to sell all else's stuff, too. But if your'e getting a good commission from it, my guess is that keeps you going with it and once you finish you can say no more.
posted on December 5, 2003 05:22:18 PM new
The problem with selling other people's stuff is the constant "how are my things doing?"; "Why didn't you get more?"; "I need your seller ID so I can watch my stuff."; "When are you going to list it?"; "Why didn't it sell?" questions. These go on and on. My boss has been the worse. He brings me things that he and his wife couldn't sell in a garage sale. He wanted me to sell a wheelchair, a tred machine and even an organ. I told him "no" on those things. Brother! Yes, I get a commission, but I don't know if it's worth the hassle.
I have a bird. Do you think fluffy and I would ever get along?
posted on December 5, 2003 05:48:36 PM new
Tessa -- Wouldn't ya think newbies, being new, will not be able to figure out the search the neg fb right away, will ebay make that part of the page easily recognizable? and even if so will they bother to do it?
Sometime go over to Yahoo Auctions and click on someone's ( either buyer or seller ) feedback. They have the feedback broken down into 2 groups -- A 'Sun' group of good feedback and a 'Rain' group of bad feedback. There is a clickable "Details" link below both the 'Sun' and 'Rain Cloud'. A Second Grade student with bad grades could figure that out.
As to the penny starting bid model that is employed by a few successful sellers such as the thread titled Fluffster ----
It seems to me that it has to have two or three main elements present.
Number one, the seller must make a few dollars on the s/h on each and every transaction.
Number two, there should be no combining of auction wins in regards to the s/h ( the mega one cent jewelry seller has a quasi-combining policy but still makes a lot on shipping ).
Number three, this is the biggie, you have to have a great wholesale connection and get the items at a super low price. Lose the connection and you're sunk.
If the jewelry items can be bought at an average of $3 or $4 each on a large scale the seller only has to average a $4 or $5 average price to make money on the items. One hundred auctions per week where the seller makes a $1 each on the item and $3.50 each on the s/h adds up to a $400 profit. If the average price per item climbs to $5 or $6 then the seller can make $800 profit per week. With Christmastime arriving the average price may rise and make these sellers very happy indeed.
That's way I think Fluff and others like her are very clever and shrewd and DAMN LUCKY to have such great wholesale connections.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on December 5, 2003 07:11:19 PM new
Cheryl, lol about the bird!! <smiling>
Ace, I have been at Yahoo, but not in a long time and you know I dont remember that?
Well, I guess we will see about the repercussions of this new ebay Fb page will be.
Interesting stats you posted on the .01 cent and shipping deal. I dont do 1 cents (tried a few and like Cheryl mentioned got burnt on them and even .99 deals because I couldnt bring myself to jack the shipping but so far)
If I could make 400 a week, I'd be happy with that. But Ace, you forgot to mention what the percentage of fees that would be?
100 auctions with pix, no gallery I assume,,,
brain dead to think of it right now but surely that would cut into the 400 p/wk somewhere, no??
posted on December 5, 2003 07:28:17 PM new
Tessa, That's where sellers like Fluffy shine. They do not pay a third party auction service a cent and they only pay ebay the bare minimum fees. Gallery is a waste and the seller can host thousands of photos on their own for a few dollars per month. There are few relists so every listing fee is almost always only minimum 30 cents. The FVF is 5.25% of the sale amount. That's it, the minimum selling fee and the FVF. Some Fluffy-like sellers even restrict the types of Paypal payments they receive.
If you look at the 'scrap' auctions she runs it is a picture of a clear baggie with either broken SS jewelry or unsaleable jewelry. That may be part of the great connection. Buy a large box of SS jewelry that contains 10% broken items at a steal?
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on December 5, 2003 08:38:02 PM new
THe one thing that puzzled me is that Fluffy said she paid the 10 cents to pend auctions on ebay...can easily pay the Vendio fee for that one feature alone with the number of auctions she runs and Spare Dollar is cheaper still. What does eBay charge for a FVF for a 1 cent sale price anyway or do they bother?
posted on December 5, 2003 09:01:18 PM new
That's a good point about the pending auction/scheduling fee of 10 cents. If you're listing on ebay it's only an extra click so maybe it's worth it to not have to change to a third party vendor.
It looks like the average sale price for single items is about $8 or so that's an average 40 cent FVF. $1,500 in monthly ebay fees is about $50/day so a lot of the fees must come from FVFs.
45 auctions per day -- $1.10 in ebay fees per auction - 40 cents listing/scheduling fees per auction leaves 70 cent FVF per auction or a possible $14 average. That sounds about right because the scrap auctions run about $80 each and some 'lot' auctions run higher too. With the $3 or more earned from excessive s/h per auction that adds up to a tiddy home-based income.
That's a lot of work too! She has my respect as a businessperson. She has a great setup. The only drawback that I can possibly ever foresee is losing that wholesale connection.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on December 7, 2003 11:57:27 AM new
Happy Sunday, everyone.
I honestly didn't think there was any great mystery about me not showing up here, especially given my OTWA posting--which I assumed some of you would read since I know you hang out over there. My business is undergoing some fundamental changes, and it is likely (though by no means certain as yet) that my eBay activity will drop to as little as 10% or less of total revenues.
The timing of that development is up in the air. I have some wonderful customers who are still having a heck of a good time bidding up my stuff. Bless 'em and bless their family trust funds, long may they hold out.
fluffythewondercat.com will be developed as a b2b sales site aimed primarily at boutique/gift shop owners, eBay sellers (poor dears), home party plan organizers, etc. These are essentially the same people I sell to now regularly, without attracting the horde of 1 cent gadflies who make life miserable. The business will be wholesale. I know from my own experience in sourcing merchandise that such sites are hard to find. Even so-called "wholesale" jewelry vendors in India, Thailand, etc. still want to sell to you by the piece, which at the wholesale level is just plain silly. ftwc will offer package deals on large jewelry lots. Anyway, that's the first phase of the new plan. Another plus is that this should pretty much eliminate all interaction with brides.
The second part is to place merchandise on consignment in stores both inside and outside the Bay Area. This will involve some traveling, which I don't mind telling you I'm really looking forward to after running this business out of my home for the last 18 months. The economics are such that compared to department store sale prices, we can offer a very attractive price point to the retail customer and still have plenty of profit available to the store owner and ourselves.
The third phase is to continue to liquidate merchandise in big lots on non-eBay auction sites. It is impossible to get decent prices in eBay wholesale jewelry categories. Possibly the serious buyers have been discouraged by the quality (i.e. the lack of quality) of the typical eBay wholesale offering: cheap plated junk advertised as sterling silver.
The fourth phase is to offer merchandise directly to our long-term customers, which is something they have asked for in the past but we have been loath to do as long as eBay made it easy for us to do business. That has changed. Not including the recent VeRO fracas, we were cited for rules violations three times this year, and each instance required much rewriting of our auction text, which impacted our profitability. The rules are myriad and Byzantine; no one can ever be sure they know them all.
There are several other reasons for cutting eBay out of the loop, but saving on fees is actually not the prime motivator. The punitive business atmosphere imposed on sellers is.
Re: PowerSeller status. We gave up our PowerSeller rating voluntarily earlier this year after I noticed that I was starting to worry about feedback numbers. However, we continued to get (and still do) invitations to become a PowerSeller again, even though one would think we would not qualify at this point. Being a PowerSeller is just giving eBay one more thorny club to hold over your head: it is so not worth it.
A few individual responses.
stopwhining: You are confused. You didn't buy from me if you received the piece in a jewelry box inside a padded mailer sent Priority Mail with DC. I have never ever sent a package that way in six years of doing business on eBay in various guises.
Also, I never said I worked at Apple. I have been in the headquarters building at One Infinite Loop and have eaten in the excellent cafeteria as the guest of friends who worked there, but I never had a contract there myself. I have worked at Tandem/Compaq/HP, VLSI, Sun Microsystems many times, Amgen, Cadence and others I've forgotten about.
Cheryl: Sorry. I lack tact. Obvious, eh?
AuctionAce: One way to nail down a great wholesale connection is to buy everything offered you, whether or not you need it or have the cash readily available. You become the broker's go-to guy. Then you blow out the excess at cost if need be. Some would-be eBay sellers are tentative about loading up on merchandise, so they don't get great prices.
Neroter: No, I don't look like any of my cats. They all have sweet and clueless looks of befuddlement most of the time...except for the littlest one, who thinks the other six are gazelles and is always trying to bring them down by fastening his teeth to the side of their necks. He's currently stalking a spider, which is more the size of prey he can successfully dispatch.
Well, it is Sunday, which means we're off to a late breakfast. Under an agreement signed with the local fire department, Fluffy does NOT attempt to cook and in exchange, she gets to leer at the cute young firefighters all she wants.
Coming soon to an Internet near you: fluffythewondercat.com
posted on December 7, 2003 12:09:32 PM new
Well good luck on your upcoming financial endeavour. I agree that ebay has become too difficult a place to sell items at any kind of a decent price. There are other avenues available for selling other than ebay.
I was kinda right about the sterling silver connection then when I wrote That may be part of the great connection. Buy a large box of SS jewelry that contains 10% broken items at a steal?
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on December 7, 2003 01:10:14 PM new
Best of luck Fluffy! I have occasionaly stumbled upon a couple of your auctions at one of the other sites and have been impressed with some of the prices you were getting... and thinking that that was at least 500 less idiots you would have to deal with.
I've been looking into the party concept myself but obviously not as far along in the process as you are. If you need a good printer for catalogs, let me know. What I lack in current jewelry connections I make up in the the Mail Order trade connections.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on December 7, 2003 01:27:30 PM new
fenix: Thanks for the good wishes. You and I really ought to look into a joint venture; I think we have a lot of complementary experience.
Another thought that had occurred to me with reference to a future business direction was subcontracting out the eBay auctions. I've got more-than-adequate merchandise streams coming in; perhaps someone who isn't totally soured on eBay could partner up, with me supplying the goods. Not sure how that would work yet.
--
Coming soon to an Internet near you: fluffythewondercat.com
posted on December 7, 2003 01:47:45 PM new
LOL - I would love to discuss something with you. We could become the WonderTwins of customer disservice
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
No need to apologize. Differences of opinion are what makes this board interesting and besides a good argument every now and again keeps me young! Best of luck with your endeavor. Sounds very exciting. Let us know when the site launches!
posted on December 7, 2003 03:48:30 PM new
well,i am glad it is not you ,whoever i bot from -i was bombarded with emails telling me it is ready to ship,it is about to be shipped,it has been shipped and by now it should have arrived,feedback has been left,wont you leave me feedback,and thank you and come back.
wonder who that seller is ??
posted on December 8, 2003 12:27:59 AM new
Fluffy, glad you came back to let us know you are 'around'. You are an entertaining writer on this board. I figured you were masterminding your web site and bus. plan so dont forget to let us know when it launches.
Tessa
ps: I think my cat and I look somewhat alike now. And if I tease him or annoy him, long after I've forgotten about it he will swat me, or gimme a quick love-bite to let me know he owes me one!! Wonder where he got that from? ...lol...
posted on March 4, 2008 01:14:43 PM new
And you resurrected this thread after nearly five years to make one lame comment?
Interesting to look back on what I tried to do five years ago and reflect why it didn't work out.
We did offer package lots for a while, not on eBay or on fluffythewondercat.com, but on a B2B site. We were booted off when the site itself decided to run its own jewelry auctions. I believe what happened is they saw how immensely profitable it was for us, so they sourced their own (crappy) jewelry. Say what you will about eBay, but so far they've never decided to set up shop as a seller.
We did in fact visit consignment shops to place merchandise. Unfortunately, it was the end of the line for such stores and there are none now left in the Bay Area within an hour's drive (that I know of).
I ran auctions on Overstock.com for awhile but left, fed up with non-payers and scammers. Many of my regular customers hadn't followed me there as anticipated.
As for AuctionAce's (Good Lord, whatever happened to HIM?) comment about being lucky to have such a great wholesale connection, luck has nothing to do with it, cash does. I have a broker who secures this stuff for me and he does not do it for free.
Five years ago may have been about the time we had to abandon penny auctions and start 'em at 99 cents instead.
fLufF
--
Now updated daily. Jewelry news, views and pretty baubles for those with low impulse control.
posted on February 26, 2009 06:28:32 AM new
I can remember when someone recycled at least five threads during a period of relative inactivity on the RT. Old threads can be informative and generate interest if they are focused on topics relevant to the interests of board members.
