Outside the Cocoon

My EBay Life - Essay 6 - Top Rated Seller Status (Is it a big deal?)

My EBay Life

(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)

 

 

I have been thinking lately about Top Rated Seller Status (having recently lost mine) and what that really means to me.  Of course I am not happy about it exactly, but in truth I am not really loosing any sleep over it either and in fact I am wondering if I gave up too much of my bottom line to get it. 

You might be thinking that I have lost my grip on reality here but let me try to explain.  If you are a seller you already know about DSR ratings.  We are rated on the following four items with 1 to 5 stars (5 being good and 1 not so much)

1) Item as described

2) Communication

3) Shipping Time

4) Shipping and Handling Charges

I may rant at a later date on why I don't think that number 4 should even be part of the rating system but for the purposes of this post all you need to know is that it is item number 4 that caused me to loose my top rated seller status.  Item number 4 is also the reason that I didn't get Top Rated Seller status when EBay first started the program.  So I have known that it is my trouble spot on the DSR system all along and I have been lowering my shipping charges since the implementation of the DSR system.  Maybe I am not supposed to say this but I do try to cover my shipping cost with a little extra (usually around a dollar) for handling fees and packaging material.  Sometimes I do make more than a dollar and sometimes I am actually in the hole because I haven't charged enough for shipping. 

As I said, I have been mostly lowering my shipping charges for several months anyway but when I found out that I lost my Top Rated Seller Status because of shipping charges my immediate reaction was to lower my shipping costs even more.  In many cases planning not to cover my whole shipping cost, by under charging by roughly a dollar (for a 2.00 total decrease in revenue.)  On all other items I just eliminated my handling fee of roughly 1.00. 

I did all of this in an effort to gain back these benefits.

Here is the information directly from EBay (with my perhaps irreverent comments in blue)

Top-rated seller benefits

Top-rated sellers receive the following privileges and benefits:

• Priority customer support  (I don't know what this means and there is no additional information from EBay.  I guess we can conclude that I didn't use this benefit when I had it, so it certainly doesn't make sense to mourn its loss.)

• 20% discount on final value fees (on item price portion only)  (This is the only really tangible item which I will elaborate on below)

• Unpaid item protection, which offers credit for certain listing upgrade fees on eligible listing formats  (Maybe I missed something but follow this link and tell me if I am wrong. This benefit applies to all sellers not just top rated ones and it only pertains to certain auction type listings.  I list almost exclusively in the fixed price format so again not worth crying over.)

• Expanded seller protection from PayPal  (Again I don't know what this means and there is no additional information)

• A badge on listing pages   (Yes this one does give you bragging rights and in truth if everything else is equal I would probably choose the seller with the pretty badge)

• Improved search standing for fixed price listings in Best Match search results (The importance of this item is hard to first measure and second quantify but it sounds really good kind of like "Priority Customer Support"  here at least there is some additional information but my thoughts are these: One thing is true, buyers do see the Top Rated Seller badge in the search function.  The rest of it is some interesting double speak about how top rated seller status will improve your search standing in best match for fixed price listings and oh by the way there is no guarantee that your item will actually show up ahead of someone else's.  Also I don't know about you but even though the search default is "Best Match" I usually end up searching by price.)

• United Parcel Service (UPS) rate discounts (I didn't see anything about a discount or Top Rated Sellers when I clicked through this link.  Maybe it's because I lost my status but I don't ever use UPS so in my case who cares anyway.)  

So what is my point?

Well lets go back to the math (keeping it very simple because that's the way I do math.)  I said above that on my new listings I was loosing 1 to 2 dollars per item in an effort to appease the shipping charge gods.  When I was receiving my Top Rated Seller 20% discount it was between $14.00 and $19.00 each month.  So just for the sake of argument lets use the $19.00 discount and the $1.00 decrease in revenue.  The other number we need is my unit sales per month which averaged about 50 per month in 2011.  I realize that this scenario is taking a very simplistic view of something that is actually much more complex but I think it still makes a valid argument.

For me it doesn't make sense to lower my shipping costs to have zero or negative profit.  Using the numbers above my best case scenario shows I am loosing $50.00 to make back $19.00 for a net loss of $31.00.  My worst case scenario shows I am loosing $100.00 to make back $14.00 for a net loss of $82.00. 

Of course there is the question of whether or not the lack of a Top Rated Seller Badge is costing me actual sales but in my case I think the fallout is minimal since my items are mostly one of a kind I don't have apples to apples competition.

Don't get me wrong I would like to have my Top Rated Seller Status back but not at the expense to my bottom line.  I feel a little smarter having thought it through.  I certainly want to have reasonable shipping costs for the buyer but they also have to be reasonable for me.  If you are still here thanks for hanging in there for this longer post.

Happy EBaying,

My EBay Life - Essay 5 - Reality Check (I spent how many hours?)

My EBay Life

(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)

 

This post is going to be short and to the point.  To be honest I wasn't sure if I was really going to share this little factoid that I now have at my disposal but I have decided to be as open about this as I can be so I am going to divulge just how many hours I worked on EBay in 2011.  To be perfectly honest I did not plan to keep track of the hours that I was working on EBay at the beginning of 2011 so this number is not perfect.  But, I am a Virgo and a little OCD in some areas and so I write down everything I do and when I do it in my day planner.  So I decided to go back through it and figure out just how many hours I had really spent working on EBay.

Some months and weeks were much higher than others but the average end result was surprising to me.  I worked on average 10.32 hours per week, just 44.75 hours a month.  I am actually a little embarrassed by this number.  If I hadn't actually figured it out I would have guessed that it was at least double that number.

Armed with this number I am targeting at least a 20 hour work week for 2012 that I will keep track of on a weekly basis.  Will let you know how that goes.  And speaking of my 20 hour work week I had better get to it.

Happy EBaying,

My EBay Life - Essay 4 - More Year End Analysis

My EBay Life

(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)

***

At year end I try to give some thought to the metric data that I should continue to track, any new data that I should track, as well as any other ideas I should work on to grow my business.   I also try to think of things that I should stop doing because they aren't adding any value to my business.  I suppose that it would be prudent to do this more often than once a year but I guess once a year is better than not at all.

On the continue doing list:

1) Tracking my hours spent on EBay.  (This may seem like an obvious metric but I didn't bother doing it until last year and to be honest when you are first starting out you might not really want to know your hourly wage.)

2) Tracking total items and dollars sold per month and comparing them to 2011.

3) Tracking total items listed and total potential profit listed per month and increasing that number over 2011.

4) Working on a higher profit per item average (ie: better margin)

 

On the new items list are:

1) Work on lowering shipping charges.

2) Work on finding additional product sources.

3) Look for items with higher dollar sale potential.

4) Implement a more systematic way to write-off and clear out obsolete inventory.

I am sure that there are a lot more items that I should be working on but this seems like a sufficient list to keep me busy.

 

As for the stop doing list.  This one is always a little tougher.  I have been puzzling over it for several days now and I haven't come up with anything.  In years past I have simplified my listing process.  I started out using a bunch of different templates now I use just one.  I have shortened my photo taking and photo processing time mostly by getting smarter about taking pictures.  One of the biggest time savers in this area was that I used to lay the clothes out on the floor.  They looked nice but it took a long time.  Now I take hanging photos most of the time this is adequate for a decent photo and much faster.  I have stopped paying as much attention to other sellers.  But, so far this year I haven't identified anything to cut out.  I guess I will have to stay mindful about that one and see if anything presents itself.

 

For now I guess I will concentrate on the things on the list above.

 

Happy Ebaying,

 

 

 

My EBay Life - Essay 3 - Year End Reports (The Good and the Bad News)

My EBay Life

(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)

***

I am starting at the end but it also feels like the beginning.  I finished my year end reports for 2011 yesterday and in some ways the news was quite underwhelming.  But most things are rarely all good or all bad and bearing this in mind, here are some of the stats that I now have to work with and use for next years benchmarks.

1)  My sales number ($$) was down 8.27 percent from 2010  :-(

2)  My sales volume (units) were down 24.08 percent from 2010 :-(  :-(

However

3)  My net profit was up 1.97 percent from 2010   :-) 

How can this be?  The answer is......

4)  My average profit per item sold increased by $2.08.

Sorry to my buyers but this was done primarily by:

5)  My average selling price increase of $2.33.

Here is my brief assessment of those numbers.  Unfortunately I didn't keep track of the hours that I was working on EBay in 2010.  I do have an estimate for 2011 and I intended to keep even a closer eye on that number in 2012.  Still I think it is safe to conclude that the amount of time I spent (at least on the back end specifically packing and shipping) was significantly, 24.08 percent to be exact, less than I spent in 2010.  While it is not good that my unit sales were down by almost 25 percent I do consider it a success that I was able to increase my net profit particularly in light of the EBay fee change that happened in July of 2011.  My estimate is that on average my fees increased by 25-30 cents per item sold.  I wish I had that number to add directly into my bottom line.  

Moving on:

It seems fair to assume that my increased pricing, at least in part, had something to do with my decrease in sales.  I suspect that the decrease in sales also had something to do with how much was being feed into the system with new listings.  I only started keeping track of this number last year so unfortunately for now it is just a gut feeling.  Next year I will be in a better position to analyze the actual effect.  Still it does seem prudent to pay attention to the balance between average selling price and average profit.

In conclusion I am pleased that the one thing I worked on was a success but it appears that I need to pay attention to a few additional things in 2012.

Happy Ebaying,

 

 

My EBay Life - Essay 2 - My Intentions

My EBay Life

(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)

First of all I want to be clear that while I hope that some of my blathering on about EBay will be helpful to others I don't intended for these posts to be a lot of instructional how tos.  Although I may throw one in here and there.  I believe that there is plenty of information out on the Web and on EBay about how to put up a listings or how to take better photographs.  I don't even remember how to put up a listing through EBay as I have been using listing software for the last several years.  I also doubt if there will be any specific order to my posts.  My next post might be about packing and shipping or how to find things to sell and I might not even post about the listing process itself.  Sorry but at this point I just don't know precisely where these posts are going to take us.  I do intended for my posts to be more about what has and hasn't worked for me.  What things have helped me the most.  What things I still need to learn and even some of the of the things that I have stopped worrying about.

As I stated before I believe that there are plenty of "how tos" out on the Web already.  And if you are familiar with EBay you know that there are tons of people out there selling (or trying to sell) their stuff.  There are also plenty of people ready to teach you what they know (usually for a fee.)  But what seems to be missing is the honest assessment of how well any of these sellers is doing.  How much money are they really making?  How much of their time do they spend on EBay?  What does there sales number have to do with their actual profit? 

I have found that you don't get many numbers out of EBay sellers and I can appreciate peoples right to be private.  I certainly don't intend to spill all of my financial information out in these posts.  But I do think there could be more disclosure on the important matter of money and what you can make on EBay.  After all isn't that the point?  Maybe some of you want to sell your stuff just to clean out your garage but if making some money on it isn't part of your game plan than save yourself a lot of trouble and hall it to the goodwill.

A few more little bits about me. If you are interested you can read about how I got started on EBay here. 

Other things you should probably know:

1)  My two sources of income are from Waitressing / Bartending and from EBay.  Sorry but they are in order of importance as far as income goes. 

2)  My personal goal is not to make a full time income from EBay but I would like to know that I could and I do want to increase my income from EBay.

3)  The reason for item number two is that I have way too many other interests, for example: blogging (I have two blogs this one obviously and my Upcycled Design Lab Blog.) I like crafting mostly from upcycled items and I have started selling or should I say trying to sell items on Etsy.  I am fascinated by Cafe Press and have just started trying a little graphic designing at Loop the Moon Designs.  Have you heard of Pintrest?  It is a fun way to keep track and share all of the things you love on the Internet.  And of course you all know about Facebook (I have my personal account and two pages one for EBay and one for my Upcycling blog to maintain.  Lets not forget Twitter although I do most of the time and then there is Youtube which I also feel compelled to dabble in although so far I only have this one video. 

Oh and I fancy that I am going to write a novel someday.  So far I have a sketchy outline in my head and a couple of pages written.  So don't hold your breath for that one.

Sorry I promise never again to bombard you with all the me me me stuff but I thought that it was important to share that my attentions are divided and while I don't aspire to make my living solely from EBay I do aspire to make my living solely on my own terms hopefully adding income sources perhaps from some of the items noted above or elsewhere in the future. 

However going forward you have my word that these post will be about EBay.  You can follow my other antics if you choose but I will try not to bore you with them in future EBay posts.

Happy Ebaying!

 

My Ebay Life - Essay 1 - Who What When Where and Why

Happy New Year!!

 

 

My EBay Life

(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)

 

Here it is a new year and as usual I am filled with the desire to start something new.  A new project or challenge for the new year ahead.  Be forewarned that while my intentions are always sincere my execution and follow through are sometimes lacking.  I like to think I make up for this short coming with a stubborn unwillingness to totally give up on a project that I have committed to.  What this means really is that my progress is often painfully slow but I do generally stick with it.  So if you have interest in the series of post that I intend to write about my EBay life, you will need to be blessed with a great deal of patience. 

 

If you would like a better idea of my pace and progress or lack-there-of you can visit my other blog Upcycled Design Lab that I started just last year.

 

Well onward. 

 

Who I am - My name is Cindy Fortin and I have been selling stuff (mostly second hand and vintage clothing on Ebay since 2006.  Here is a link to my store Clothes Line Apparel and More.  I include this here not to be shamelessly self promoting (although if want to buy something all the better) but because I have run across a lot of EBay "teachers" or self proclaimed EBay educators, both in person and on-line who don't actually seem to be selling anything on EBay.  I don't know about you but I find this to be quite disingenuous and a little bit dishonest.

What I sell - I guess I have already covered this although I have also sold some new items purchased at retail and on-line and even a few things that I made myself.  More on that in a later post.  This is just meant to be a basic introduction.

When - I started in 2006 as stated above but the more important answer to this question is "When ever I want"  which is one of the biggest benefits of selling on EBay or working for yourself in general.  "When ever you want" also represents one of the biggest challenges of self bossing.  (More on that later too.)

Where - Well mostly from the comfort of my own home sometimes in my P.J.'s and almost always in my slippers.  But of course there is so much flexibility now that many aspects of this business are completely mobile.  Which means the world can be my office if I want it to be.  That's a lot of options.  I like options. :-)

Why - I could probably ramble on for hours about why I do this but I will try to keep it short and to the point.  After receiving my college degree I worked in corporate america for 17 years.  It was good for awhile.  Now it suits me better to work on my own dreams and not someone elses.  I enjoy the flexibility I have and the freedom to pursue things that I enjoy.  I don't what to mislead you here.  I do not make a full time income from EBay (I am also a part-time waitress/bartender.  Maybe I will start a blog about that next year.)  But, I do make a steady monthly income and my intent with this series of posts is first to share what I have learned over the years and second to continue to learn and grow my own business. 

 

Come along for the ride if you choose but please do heed my warning above regarding the snails pace.  :-)

 

 

 

 

Ebay Fee Increases for July 2011 - Who benefits? (hint: it's not the sellers or the buyers)

About once a year EBay likes to challenge it's sellers to re-vamp their whole selling strategy or they just like to figure out a way to get more money for themselves.  I personally think that it is the later unless they really are masochistic but I suspect that it is more likely they are just greedy.  But I don't know for sure.  I say that only slightly tongue and cheek since I have no idea what their operating expenses are but I just finished doing my taxes for 2010 and here is the deal; from my sales for the year EBay made just under 1/3 of what I made.  If you add in my pay pal fees the total is just over 1/2.  (meaning for every $100.00 of profit I made Ebay + Pay Pal charged $50.00 in fees.)  I don't know about you but that seems like a pretty heavy fees base already.

I understand that things change and I need to adapt.  I guess that I just wish EBay would be a little more accurate? open? honest? about their changes.  They always seems to word things in way that doesn't make it sound like they are raising their selling fees even though they are.  They must have some ex-politicians working for them.  It feels like working with the government when they say your taxes aren't going up but somehow they mysteriously do. 

Their lastest change is being billed as a decrease in final value fees, and then, in smaller sub-text, the lower fee will now be applied to the price of the item plus the shipping fee instead of just the price of the item as it is now.  They say that they are doing this to encourage sellers to offer low cost and free shipping which in turn will attract more buyers.  But lets be real here where do you think the shipping cost goes if you offer Free shipping?  The only way for a seller to be able to actually do that with out increasing the price of the item itself is if they sell higher end items that are small and don't weigh very much.  So I guess EBay will be a good place to buy your fine jewelry and not much else.

I sell mostly second-hand clothing which I try to offer at just above thrift store prices.  I mean EBay is supposed to be the place that offers great deals on things for the buyer right?  But there has to be a seller on the other end who feels like it is worth their time, expense and energy to offer that item for sale in the first place.

I am trying to grow my business and sell more which would automatically benefit EBay.  Right?  To do that I need to be able to offer good deals to potential buyers and still be able to make a profit but how do I do that when every year Ebay chips away at my margins and at the same time tells me that it is a benefit to the buyers.  I am sorry but in my humble opinion it is just a benefit to EBay.  And here is the kicker.  They actually benefit twice because I will have to raise my prices to cover the fee increase which automatically increases my fees even more.  It what you call a win/win for EBay.

Here is a breakdown of the numbers.

My average shipping cost is 6.00 (I am purposely guessing low because this will show the best case scenario for me not EBay.  It only gets better for them.)

For the category that I sell in Ebay currently charges a 12% final value fee on the price of the item only.  They are changing the fee to 10 percent on the price + the shipping.  So that means that they will be charging me on average .60 cents more for every item I sell minus 2% of the price of the item.  Most of the items that I sell are between $8.99 and $19.99.  So my 2% savings on an item that sells for 8.99 is 18 cents minus the additional .60 cent for shipping and I am net -42 cents on that one item alone if my shipping charge is really only $6.00.  Using the same formula on my $19.99 item I am net -20 cents.  At a sale price of $29.99 with shipping of $6.00 is the place where I finally break even.  Of course generally speaking the higher priced items that I sell are heavier and would cost more than 6.00 to ship so.... that price really isn't a break even (meaning paying only as much as I am now) point.

I know of one seller who said that at about a $50.00 sale price was were she would be back to paying an even fee amount based on her shipping costs.  By the way the postage fees went up again a few months ago.  Do you remember that my friends at EBay???

I am trying not to get too frustrated and just run the numbers to figure out how I am not going to just give EBay an additional .20 to .42 cents on evey item I sell.  But you buyers know what that means right?

Here is how EBay is billing their change publicly: 

"2011 Spring Seller Update: Fee Update to Encourage Low-Cost Shipping"

Here is what I think they are saying behind closed doors:

"Tee hee hee, even if you charge low costs for your shipping we are still going to get more money from you.  Aren't we clever all we had to do was change a formula and send out a notice to rake in a bunch more cash.  What?  You still have to do the same amount of work shopping, photographing, listing and shipping your items, managing your inventory and your business all to make less money?  Well I guess you aren't as smart as we are."

Here is a quote from the Fee Update Announcement that I find to be particularly dubious.

"For the vast majority of eBay sellers—especially those already offering free or low-cost shipping, these updates mean overall fees will be reduced or stay about the same."

Ok then here is a call out to the universe.  I would like to hear from this "vast majority."  What praises do you sellers have for the new EBay Fee structure???  Where are you? You silent majority?  Come tell me your tales of how pleased you are with EBay and how they are looking out for your best interest.

Or if you think that last quote above is a load of B.S., like I do, please feel free to comment as well.

EBay Alternatives - Taking the buyers point of view

In regards to viable EBay alternatives I guess that you could ask the unanswerable question of the chicken and the egg or in this case which comes first the Buyer or the Seller.  It seems to me that  it needs to be a combination of the two, some systematic increase on both the buying and the selling side that would entice new comers from both sides of the equation.  I have set for myself the lofty goal of trying to evaluate many? some? all? of the potential EBay alternatives for sellers but for the sake of simplicity I have decided that I will start my reviews from the buyers point of view. 

Also I am a seller primarily in the Clothing and Accessories category so I will have a tendency to evaluate that category above all others.  The primary focus of my Buyers review will consist of the following items.  There are probably other important considerations but once again for the sake of simplicity these are the areas I plan to focus on.

1) Quantity and Variety of items

2) Prices and Buying options (auction, fixed price etc.)

3) Sorting and Search Capabilities

4) Payment Options

5) Trust Issue (what do you know about the seller, what do you do if something goes wrong with your purchase etc.)

Once again for the record.  I do not see any immediate or serious competition for EBay nor do I hold any grudges against them for any of the new policies and changes but I would be remiss in my personal business endeavors to blindly take for granted that EBay is and always will be the only option.  So while I see no immediate financial gain from this review I do believe in its future value.  If others also find it helpful well that's all the better.

Ebay Alternatives - Are there too many???

In my ongoing search for EBay alternatives I stumbled onto an interesting site called Power Sellers Unite.  They have a page that shows number of listings and % changes for EBay and some of EBays competitors.  See their Auction Site Count page.

I have also continued to find more and more competitors.  (See the links below.)  But if you check out the Auction Site Count you will see that all these competitors combined do not even make a dent in EBays total listings.  To make the void even larger (if I understand the fine print see the asterisk on the auction site count) EBay's current number of listings does not include their store listings.  I will be watching this number to see if it jumps after March 30th when all store listings become Fixed Price listings.

So here is my point.  EBay is probably laughing at all of us who are unhappy with their fee changes.  They are confident in the fact that their is no real competition.  At first glance anyway it would appear that they are at a long and safe distance ahead of the ever growing pack of challengers. 

What will it take to tip the scales?  Will they always be the Walmart of on line auctions?

26) Also Shop

27) Delcampe

28 thru ???)  I can't even type all of these (there are some repeats)

25 Alternatives to EBay (Who knew there were so many?)

I have nothing against EBay.  They are a business and they will continue to make decisions based on what they need to do to make a profit.  I must do the same.  Therefore it seems prudent to familiarize myself with my other options.  At this point I know very little about any of them.  But I list them here as a reminder that they need further exploration.  In the coming months I hope to educate myself with the following options. (And maybe with a few more that I don't know about yet.)

1) Webstore

2) Ecrater

3) Ebid

4) Bidtopia

5) Amazon

6) Bonanzle

7) ePier

8) iOffer

9) Online Auctions

10) Overstock

11) The SOC Exchange

12) Webidz

13) CQout

14) Bluejay

15) Buy It Sell It

16) USiFF Online Auctions

17) Atomic Mall

18) Wensy

19) UBidRight

20) Etsy

21) Specialists Auctions

22) Plunder Here

23) Auction Quests

24) Your High Bid

25) uBid