Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume V, issue number 11

The USPS Shipping Cheat Sheet has been updated. First class international and domestic prices were raised. Media also increased. A digital file of the front of the sheet will be posted on the Queen’s Court Inner Circle Forums as an extra gift this month and a Thank You for being so awesome!

Speaking of awesome, check out this awesome shirt that I just got in the mail from Gladys Cox (grccox) (a 2008 Live Boot Camp graduate). She actually went to Replacements for a tour and said, “I couldn’t resist buying you this shirt.” Too sweet! Thank you!

Since the chart has changed slightly on the front side, Media and 1st Class International, and the back has changed completely, I am offering the laminated version for sale here at the usual low price (shipping included).

If you had already bought the chart in January, I am offering the laminated version for 25% off, click here.

And remember, Queen’s Court members may use their discount.

Hopefully, that is all for this year!

‘Our 5 Top Tips for Keeping Your eBay Space Organized’

by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions, with Carmen Badham

I am happy to report (again) that Carmen (with Deborah’s help) did an incredible job of organizing the eBay room. She spent about 4 months on it and she got all of our 104 shelves in chronological order. She pulled all of the old inventory and now it is gone! As of today, I can park in my garage and the gals love the clean and organized eBay room.

Check out Carmen and Deborah in our clean space!

Carmen and Deborah are awesome. Here is a very nice email I got from a customer today about Carmen! Don’t those types of emails make your day?

Lynn,

I just want to say what a pleasure it is to work with you and your products! Carmen is such an asset, anytime I need help or have a question she has always been available to answer them and help me out. I appreciate all your kindness and patience. I hope someday to be able to do the amount of volume you do! eBay has been very good to me and has allowed me to meet and talk to such wonderful people like you and Carmen.

Thanks again for your service and product! DM

Now on that positive note, let’s move on to our 5 top tips for keeping your eBay space organized and working for you!

1.     Keep merchandise in your eBay store for 2 years (try and have

it go through two holiday seasons).

We think that two years is enough eBay store exposure for an item. However, we have sold some items recently that we had pulled from our shelves, but had not ended the auctions yet (or donated to charity). Lucky for us!

Check out this Gibson bowl. We sold two! And we still had them.

Two years (with two holiday seasons) is a good rule of thumb. However, use your own judgment.

2.     Number your Shelves from 1 to 104 or from A to ZZZZ

I was very pleased when I realized that the 26 letters in the alphabet times 2 is 52 for one year–52 weeks. Then it was even cooler that to go from A B C D….to AA BB CC DD…to AAA BBB CCC DDD….and finally AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD. Four times through the alphabet totals 104 shelves and worked out perfectly when we ended with ZZZZ. 104 weeks or two years exactly!

This way we always have a shelf for each week of our two-year rotating system. AND now they are all in chronological order and permanently labeled. Shelf A will always be exactly where it now. No more saying, “Does anyone know where shelf RRR is?”

Here is what our shelves look like.

3.     Put that shelf number on your I Sell sheet so that you can

quickly find merchandise

My mom even puts her shelf number right in the eBay listing. She learned this from Peter. I may start doing this myself. It really helps when you get a question about an item and need to go and find it.

For now, Carmen and I use Turbo Lister to quickly look up our listing date and then we find the I Sell sheet and go to the correct shelf.

Here is one of my I Sell sheets with the shelf number on it.

4.     As you list your new 100 items each week, rotate the old stock

off of that shelf number or letter and box it up.

As an example, this week, I am listing items for the CC shelf. So, after I have the items photographed and all ready to be listed on eBay, Carmen will clear the old merchandise off of shelf CC and put the new 100 or so items on that shelf.

Here is a photo of shelf CC with what will be taken off this week.

Don’t buy anything you see on this shelf! Once Carmen boxes it up, she goes into Turbo Lister and ends the auctions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Items that were in the store for more than $19.99 will get a second chance in the store for a few more months at a lower price. Or even at auction at a lower price.

As an example, I had a Limoges covered vegetable dish that did not sell for $49.99. Carmen and I agreed to try it at auction for $9.99 and it still didn’t sell. I wasn’t ready to donate that to charity! So, we put it back on the same shelf (the I Sell sheet still had that shelf number on it) and listed it in my eBay store for $24.99. It sold 5 days later for $24.99. Carmen and I just looked at each other and said, “She could have had it for $9.99!” So you just never know.

Click here to learn more. This is the listing that we ended. We relisted it again at auction and then in the store and it sold!

Just have a slightly different strategy for your more expensive items.

5.     Donate what doesn’t sell to charity (a great tax write off)

Luckily, I could donate all of my unsold inventory to Houston’s baseball team because they are a 501C charity. I got a tax donation receipt from the team and the garage sales that they had (with my eBay unsold items) brought in a lot of money to help them on their way to Cooperstown.

We will be in Cooperstown for the tournament starting on June 26th, so wish us luck! Thank you for helping us with our charity auctions earlier this year!

Here is Houston and one of his teammates

in front of the garage where we dropped off our donations.

Pick your favorite charity and donate away. Remember that most charities will even come and pick up the items you donate and then give you a receipt or two!

I keep all of my old I Sell sheets in case I need to prove value for the items that didn’t sell.

In conclusion, get a system that works for you and stay on top of it. Carmen and I really learned a valuable lesson this year. We learned that it is much easier to take off the 10 to 40 items that didn’t sell from over two years ago, by the week, than to let it build up and have to get rid of 2,000 items all at once. That took four months!

New merchandise sells and you want to keep your stock rotating and fresh. Have fun with it! We do!

Happy eBaying!

Lynn