Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume IV, issue number 1

‘My eBay Business New Year’s Resolutions‘

by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’

Well, it all started when my dad and I hauled that huge truckload to the dump (ezine volume 3 issue 48.) I started looking around my house/eBay office and realized that I had better make some serious eBay New Year’s Resolutions.

You see, I have lived and worked out of this house for over five years. That is the longest I have ever lived in the same house. With a pack rat like me (you know I come by it honestly), I try to move at least every two years so that my accumulations don’t get out of control. Well, guess what? They are out of control!

One of the closets in my master bedroom was completely filled with wrapping paper, gifts I put away and overflow. Check out this photo:

I have five eBay Business Resolutions this year and here they come:

#1: Clean up the clutter in my house by selling Everything Unnecessary on eBay

The closet is what got me going. I decided to completely clean it out. Not one thing would be left in it when I was done. Why was I keeping gifts to give from five years ago that I had never given? It was crazy. I had boxes full of Crabtree & Evelyn from the shop, items for the kids, my parents and my friends. It was really fun once I got going.

I started filling boxes with stuff to sell on eBay. My mom wrote up a bunch of it and some of the items are even selling for quite a bit. It was so liberating.

Check out this toy train that I bought at a garage sale five years ago to give to Houston. He is not even into trains anymore–As it is all baseball now! Turns out it was a Starbucks item. I bought it before I even knew how collectible Starbucks items are. How exciting!

Click here to see what it is up to.

Another thing I listed was a Greek or Roman Warrior statue that I was thinking about giving as a gift but never did. It is doing really well on eBay and over 56 people have already looked at it! Cool. Hey by the way, did you see my USC Trojans on New Years Day? It was awesome!

Click here to see what it is up to.

My plan this year is to attack every closet like that first one. I am going to clean them and sell things on eBay until they are empty. Once I am done with the extra closets, I am going to go through every room in my home with a fine-tooth comb. This house is going minimalist this year!  Very Eames-era retro…sleek and empty! Wish me luck.

#2: Make Sales and Profit Margin Goals

I received a wonderful note from one of my Queen’s Court Members, Dawn (Cape Cod Treasure Chest), this past week. What she writes about is exactly what I encourage you all to do this year.

I love numbers and truly believe you need to analyze them. What better time to do this than at the end of a year. It’s great to make plans and to set goals for the new year.

Hands down, Lynn’s system works!!! I’ve been following it for the past few months but over Christmas kicked it up a notch. (I’ve purchased many of Lynn’s items and the Boot Camp in the Box.) Although I must admit getting those 100 items listed every week sometimes was very difficult.

A couple of things I did to analyze my figures was first to add up all my sales for November and December. You could even look at these figures for the whole year. But I chose not to since I was not using Lynn’s system the whole time.

Figure out all your expenses, make sure you include your help, shipping supplies, all fee’s etc.

Next figure out how many items you sold during the time frame you are looking at.

My figures were very interesting in that I sold approximately 31 items a week. Which is approximately 1/3rd of the 100 items listed.

Next, take your sales minus your expenses to get your profit. Hopefully it’s a nice high number.

Divide this number by the number of items sold to get the cost of profit per item.

Mine was $25. Which is pretty high, but I do sell some expensive items, so I’m sure this is why mine might be higher.

Now the fun part. How much do you want to make a week? $100, $500, $1000.

I personally would like to make $750 a week or more.

So how many items do I need to sell? I need to sell 30 items per week. 30 x $25.00 profit per item equals $750 per week. Giving me a salary of $39K per year.

Based on the information for the past six weeks it really shows that I need to list 100 items per week, approximately 31 of the 100 items will sell and for a total profit of $25.00 per item.

Now I really have the proof that 100 items is my number.

Even though not all my items sold, I’m listing them in the store. I’m assuming with all these not sold items going into the store, it should be easy to make even more money. But I’ll have to look at the end of 2008 to test my theory!

This obviously is going to be different for different people. But I just wanted to share. So many people want to know if it’s possible to do this full time and the answer is a resounding yes. We all want to be like Lynn and sell as much as she does! I know I’m on my way, thanks to her.”

-Dawn

No, Thanks to Dawn for sharing how she analyzed her business and is setting goals!!

Here is my plan for 2008: I sold $117,877 on eBay in 2007. I want to sell $200,000 on eBay in 2008. I want to do about 1/2 in higher margin (80% to 90% margins) unique one-of-a-kind items and 1/2 in lower margin (30 to 50% margins) brand new goods. What is your plan?

#3: Clean up Slow Selling Merchandise

This is really funny. I was looking around my eBay rec room and decided to start clearing out slow selling merchandise as a goal for 2008. I know where it is and about how long it has been there–especially since we implemented Mo’s system about 1 1/2 years ago. If you have the shipping DVD, you have seen the letters and dates on each shelf.

So, if there is no letter or date on a shelf–I know it has been in my eBay store about two years. One of the items I fixated on was this set of 12 really neat plastic plates with cups that fit into the center. Very mid-century minimalist (like my house is going to be).

They were on the shelf near the ceiling above my treadmill. I said to myself, “That will be one of the first things to go.” Too bad because I really thought they were neat. Guess what? I wake up the next morning and all three store auctions have sold!!!

Checkout this auction for four of the dinner sets.

And, the bidder has even paid for them all! These three store items were listed in my store on February 1, 2005–almost 3 years ago!! You just never know. So it cost me 35 months at 6 cents each ($2.10) plus a selling fee of 99 cents. Grand total per set $3.09. I paid $5.00 for all of the sets. $14.27 in total cost for $29.97 in sales. Still a 52.3% gross margin. I think most retail stores would be extremely happy with that. I know I was.

So, when you or I do decide to take slow-selling merchandise out of our eBay stores, we need to do it on a case-by-case basis and take a little time before hitting those “end auction buttons.” But, not too much time, because time is money!!

#4: Look for more flatware and dinnerware

This year I am going to find and SELL more dinnerware and flatware. These are the items that I can list faster and make the most money on.

To do this:

A. I will ASK at every garage and estate sale if they have dinnerware or flatware sets that I have not seen.

B. I will stop into my local thrift stores at least THREE times per week and start asking the managers to call me when dinnerware and flatware sets come in.

C. I will post wanted to buy ads on www.CraigsList.org and try another ad in the Antique Trader.

Check out these Pfaltzgraff plates that I paid 50 cents each for that sold for over my $9.99 asking price. I know, I know, I swore off Pfaltzgraff but I thought this pattern was really neat and I still hear Mo’s voice in my head.

Visit this auction here.

I challenge you to pick one category that is working extremely well for you and write down strategies to find more merchandise.

#5: Have fun

Last but definitely not least, as Sally K said so perfectly…”You really help me….to achieve a better balance between home and work, and between having fun and making money!” I love her quote.

I am going to have more fun (than I already do) this year. I am actually going to go on two vacations and NOT take my computer. I tried this once last year and it was pretty amazing.

I went scuba diving on Catalina Island with Peter for three days and did not bring my laptop. I vow to do that at least twice this year. Maybe even for an entire week. I don’t know–that last sentence is making me a little nervous. So, I will leave you with this….

I wish all the best for you and your family this year. I wish all the best for you and your eBay business this year. Make eBay resolutions that make sense for you and your family and make this your best year ever both on and off eBay!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Here’s to a very successful 2008 on eBay and off!

Happy eBaying!