posted on April 28, 2003 04:21:31 AM new
It's warm weather again and maybe some of you more experienced sellers could help! How do you keep your listings on eBay up, correspondence, wrapping, shipping, AND do gardening, enjoy outdoors and your housework. Plus allow time for your husband/wife and 12 year old grandson/children? Not to mention look for new items to list! Perhaps some of you are more organized and could give me some hints. Last year I tried to take some time off and it took months to build sales up again. Your experience and suggestions would be so greatly appreciated by myself and other eBayers!
posted on April 28, 2003 04:33:22 AM new
Vitamins. Lots and lots of them. Actually, my live-in boyfriend and I do the yard work together every Saturday. We try to get an early start. Afterwards, we clean the house. That leaves the afternoon for grandchild visiting. She lives down the street from me so seeing her really isn't a problem. She's 4 1/2 and I bought her gardening gloves last year. She comes over and helps out. We also plan family cookouts on Saturday afternoons. That pretty much leaves the evenings for Ebay. On Sunday, Ken and I rise early and hit the flea markets (for me) and the electronics stores (for him). Doing things together not only gets things done faster, it allows you to spend time together. I still manage to have an hour or two on Saturday and Sunday to be just plain lazy.
During the week, I'll pull some weeds in the garden after work (about 10 minutes) so that way it's not so bad on the weekend. We hardly ever cook in the house in the summer. That saves on cleanup time.
Maybe in a year or so I'll fall down from exhaustion, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the family time and ebay time.
posted on April 28, 2003 06:37:27 AM new
Hello
This is my fifth Ebay summer. I long ago quite fighting the system and season and just try to go with the flow. From now to 01 SEPT I list about 1/3 the lots I do in the winter. I use "inventory" and bounce lots back and forth to save lotting time. I focus more on locating and buying stock. In short I prepair for the winter sales which seem to a little poorer each season.
posted on April 28, 2003 07:36:36 AM new
If you are having to spend a significant amount of time sourcing inventory ("finding stuff to buy" ), you should probably consider selling items that are easier to come by, find more reliable suppliers, or just decide that you don't need so many sales.
I had to spend most of February sourcing inventory because my regular supplier had some sort of problem (it's still not clear). I lost a lot of sales, but I found several more jewelry sources plus one major sales outlet that is now bringing in more cash than eBay at significantly less effort.
As for personal time, we eat many meals together. Just came back from an extended weekend trip to Southern California, which we enjoyed immensely. Bought a big flat of fresh strawberries at a roadside stand in Oxnard for $12 and munched all the way home.
--
"I'm thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said `I drank WHAT?'"
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Apr 28, 2003 07:36 AM ]
posted on April 28, 2003 08:06:25 AM new
I do less selling over the summer, because I am usually on vacation for a month or so of it. Well, vacations for me always involve work, so I see it as new opportunities to find new sources, plus my consulting business is pretty portable.
posted on April 28, 2003 09:11:08 AM new
For me the answer is simple...I hired a gardener, pool guy and cleaning lady to handle all these chores! My wife just quit her full time job to handle eBay full time. If I did not have such great benefits, 160 hrs per year vacation plus holidays, I would be tempted to quit also.
[ edited by marcn on Apr 28, 2003 10:23 AM ]
Cheryl