Seller led: Sourcing and sales for a successful eBay business
[Music] sourcing and sales for a successful ebay business before we get started please feel free if you have any questions or you'd like to comment please use the q and answer within the bevy system so today's presentation is the three s's for ebay sellers successful ebay sellers trish and i are co-leads of the new england ebay new england seller group trish has been selling on ebay for over four years can you tell us about that sure i owned a very very unsuccessful women's consignment store and i was failing miserably and ebay gave me a way to get out of that situation and it really has helped me and now i'm a very successful six figure clothing reseller on ebay but diane has been selling a lot longer than me you want to tell us about that sure i've been in many different direct sale companies over the years from avon to home interiors and gifts i ran it's an estate company and i also had a brick and mortar store called creations unlimited it was a crafting gift store so we are going to talk about the three s's for a very successful ebay business and they are um sourcing sales and sellers and we're going to cover everything from newbies intermediates and for the season seller the first s we have is for sourcing and we've split this into three sections first for the newbies you're going to start at home and ask your family and friends for help um the intermediates you're going to go to all your main spots like sabres thrift stores goodwill free sites facebook marketplace and of course yard sales and estate sales and for all you seasoned sellers well we didn't leave you out either we have something special just for you we're going to teach you to think outside the box and we're also going to teach you the art of making a deal so when you first start you're brand new you're not sure what you're doing but here let me tell you everybody has thousands of dollars worth of items in their house that they are not using go in you have clothes you have knickknacks you have tchotchkes you've got records you've got pocketbooks parker i'm not selling the pocketbooks i am trish i'm not doing it keep going okay but you should i know well anyway for this demo i took a box of records from my husband's closet and researched them on ebay sold i was amazed at the prices that those records were commanding um for about 30 records that i checked they added up to about 300 dollars that was crazy um and not counting the ones that were less than 20 dollars crazy so one of them was pink floyd wish you were here and it i just checked it again yesterday and it went from 150 to 250 dollars i told my husband we need to sell it he won't let me anyways we could go out to dinner exactly well and then this little johnny cash the bug record it sold for 30 dollars and it went to germany and they paid 25 to ship it right so i got it for free so don't be afraid to ask for help in your new ventures tell your friends and family what you're doing right now you have more time than money hopefully this will reverse itself because you want to be making more money than you have time absolutely but until then offer to help your friends and family you can clean out a garage you can clean out a closet whatever they were going to donate to the thrift stores maybe they'll give it to you as payment and then you got to tell people what you're doing because if they don't know they can't help and people most most of the time want to help so tell them what you're doing so sourcing for the intermediates this is when you're building your business phase thrifting there are tons of resources online learn about bolos be on the lookout for vintage different designers antiques new niches bags pocketbooks car parts hey the possibilities are endless third thing is a great way to build your business so next we'll talk about yacht sailing and free sailing yep that's right we all know about yard sales well i use apps like yard sale treasure map yard sale.net g sailor which is g s a l r and all you do is you put in your zip code and it gives you a map view so you can make your route um to your treasures and be more efficient i also use an app called mile iq to track those mileage um that's great for your taxes correct um and being more efficient you always want to look for ways to shave time off any of your tasks absolutely there are two different ways to guard sale you all know the first one go early get buy it get up get out of bed be the first one there and you're paying top yard sale dollars for yeah so and another way is you go at the end of the day um you can negotia negotiate for bargains um and you could offer to take everything that doesn't sell away for a price or you could do it my way and what i do is this i say to them i will come back and take everything off your hands for free you don't have to do anything and if they show you say what were you thinking what were you thinking you'd be surprised how much inventory you can get for free just look around people are always putting stuff out on the street oh and diane does this thing after the sales we call it the yard sale drive-by right so what you do is you already went to all those houses earlier and it's already in your map so all you do is you go back to that same route when the sale is over and you pick up everything they have off the sidewalk for free um and this is really great for the newbies because you may not have wanted to do the step that i just outlined above makes you nervous so you can just go and get free stuff without having to speak to anyone so the next thing we're going to talk about is estate sales again we all know how to do this you look at the research you look at the ads online but here's the deal in my opinion you have to tell the estate sales what you're doing tell them what you're interested in tell them what you buy i as a clothing seller have a lot of relationships with some local estate sale companies and they'll call me and say i've got x amount of items left would you buy it for this sometimes they just give it to you because they really want it gone well i can tell you from the estate side i ran an estate company for five years and i loved it when people would ask about um because they may want hard goods they may want clothing whatever it is it's my responsibility to get rid of all of the stuff at the end so i would much rather take a little bit of money or give it away free so i don't have to get rid of it and some of this is just a mind shift in what you're thinking you're giving them a service also they can do less work because you're willing to take the things and that's good for an estate sale a yard sale either one another way to get inventory at this level is um liquidation and wholesale bulk wholesale ninjas we bargain just to name a few but please be careful start with manifested loads wholesale and liquidation is a gamble and you really have to be careful and make sure you know what you're doing and only play with money that you could afford to lose because it is a big gamble sometimes that's right um business cards is the next thing that you should have because when you go to that estate sale or yad sale you can give it to the people and that way when the stuff is left over at the end you just say here call me um so that you can also give them out to other resellers when you see them when you go to the thrift stores or to yard sales and you see someone collecting all the same things that you're buying yeah you might think that you don't want to tell people that that's what we do absolutely because even if it maybe you meet someone who's in a clothing seller like i am but they hate jeans and they have a hookup for you know 200 pairs of jeans and they're like i'm not doing jeans i hate jeans oh but diane loves jeans i'll call diane tell people what you do tell them what you're looking for so you should always be learning looking into new brands new trends and new niches absolutely and youtube is a great resource for this you can always find new content on res on youtube so once you're a seasoned seller sourcing becomes more interesting and this is where experience can really give you an edge and so with the pandemic we were forced to really think out outside the box again for this um so for me i went online and found the online essay state sales and auctions and of course ebay is always a great place to source right then i also found max old which is located in canada but it's also in new england so we kind of lucked out on this area because they have um everything on their auction start at a dollar so it's really an awesome place to source but it's also a good place to get rid of your large death piles that you don't want to ship somewhere yeah but remembering that it all starts at a dollar then out in vegas and phoenix there's nellis auction company and i'm sure there are a lot of other companies absolutely look on facebook look on craigslist you'll be able to find these in your area now now let's talk about thinking outside the box would consignment work for you it works for diane it's free merchandise absolutely free is good so i sell electrical supplies for a local electrical shop i get 50 after fees and i pay out once a quarter which gives me a grace period in case there's a return um it's a great way as there's multiples of each of these items and they're very expensive my most recent sale was two of these um circuit breakers and they sold for two hundred and eighty dollars each yeah crazy so and how long did that take you to do 20 minutes so i mean it's that right so all you have to do is take a picture list and ship so having owned a women's consignment store i i do want to say that getting free inventory is fantastic but i do think there's a lot of work involved and so you might want to have a minimum price 75 or 100 if it's not worth that it might not be worth your time listing unless of course it's multiples when you get into multiple things the price can be at a different and i have eight more of those breakers to sell right so diane can you please explain to us the art of the deal the deal yeah i want you to tell them about the deal you got me you want me to tell them yeah are you sure i do okay hello okay well a casual acquaintance was closing a gift store and um it also had clothing in it which i sell so we made arrangements to check it out trish asks what do you think she would sell it to me for i wanted to get everything i thought for like a dollar a piece it was brand new merchandise i figured a buck was great i asked her why just clothing because that's what i sell right but you get a better deal if you buy it all she almost tackled me when i went to go into the store yeah but i did go back into the store and i made her an offer on everything we got the entire store for less than trish was going to pay just for the clothes i even got the lease of the store for two weekend sales so we could offload the things trish didn't want like ornaments funko pops more beanie babies so in reality diane made all the money back that i paid for the store before we even left for the store so those two weekend sales we we paid for it so it was pure profit for me once we got into the clothing i never would have made that deal i would have only focused on what i sold and thinking bigger because i could resell the things i didn't want to sell they were outside of my niche i could sell them to another reseller i could sell them on facebook i could sell them anywhere but i wasn't willing to look at it like that but diane really opened my mind to that and then we had a yacht sale after we got out of the store we went and did a yacht sale at my home and then a local children's school was having a christmas fair and there was a lot of kids items they came and bought out of a ton of that so and trish is still selling clothes to this day i said i sent scarves out of there today my at my house we could lovingly call it the gold mine you know it's the gold mine that keeps giving so sales all i've got to say is you've got to list it that's it basically that's it people go on and on but there's no magic formula for any level of seller you just have to list you just have to do it if it's not listed it can't sell and a lot of new sellers and some seasoned sellers become concerned about having the best listings don't do this they get paralysis of you know of perfection paralysis we call it but don't do this having an out of a hundred percent if your listing is eighty percent good let it go get them up that's right and for you newbies i would suggest that you start with ebay seller school it's a fabulous resource that will help you get started i can't recommend it enough it will help you in every aspects of your listings from photography lighting research there is never ever going to be a perfect time to start you just need to do it absolutely um when you first start you need to know that your listings will not be perfect in actuality they're gonna suck it's okay you'll get better do them every day do a couple every day and very soon you'll have great listings so selling for the intermediates we within the ebay community talk a lot about death piles some people call them money piles some people call them profit piles whatever you call them they are not good there is a difference between a death pile and backstop i might have a thousand pieces of clothing at my home right now but that is back stock that is not a death pile a death pile is things you don't want to use um what's her name stop from the hippo hut she has a show on youtube she's a reseller she calls them that i don't want it they're the things that maybe i don't want to because they're hard to list i don't want them because i hate jeans i don't want to because i'm not going to make that much money on them but you already own them they're at your house list them if you and if you're someone who likes to shop this can be a very big red flag you've got to really be careful what you're doing or you're not going to be able to be a successful reseller sell list your death piles that's right at this point you need to be upping your game you need to be upping your photography you need to be upping your lighting um you can use a photo cube or a light box which is pictured in the slide here the if you're not sure what that is they're pretty easy to use and ebay has also given us photo editing software available on the app and it will soon be on the desktop if it's not already and you should try it it's really easy to use great tool there's also a third-party app called photo room that erases the background which may help you out free app yeah and you don't need to spend a lot of money on it but for a small investment in your business you could add one of those things to you absolutely and i agree with diane this is the time to invest in your business think about what you're working towards look at other resellers that you like look at their stores see what they're doing try to emulate some people that you think are doing well also if you're not utilizing offers to buyers this is a time when you really got to make sure you start using that tool daily um so now let's talk about research you always want to keep learning you always want to find new things you always want to research new niches but keep your eyes and your ears open because things become in and out of fashion and you want to be there right and research is the same for the season seller you don't want to research too much you're going to waste hours that you could be listing just look at the sold get a good idea for it and just go with it you can use terapeak which is now rate on your seller hub or worth point which is a paid service the other way is to hire a lister virtual or not or you could use a service like hammock or sell hound just make sure if you use one of these services that the price point fits within your margins because you don't want to lose money in these ventures that's right and trish hires a full-time lister and i have someone who does it by the piece you need to find something that works for you because it's not listed you will not make any money sometimes hiring someone is a great way to get to the next level i mean it actually it absolutely did that for me that's what happened to you yeah absolutely if i didn't hire somebody i would not be at the point that i am now and also use the tools available to you that ebay now as account users so somebody could list on your account but not see all of your back ends so now we're going to talk about sellers the hidden gem is the selling community and the greatest assets in my opinion the wealth of knowledge is astounding so we have told you about solacing in sales but the best s is sellers with the ebay community you have other sellers to help you along this sales journey when you first start you might be overwhelmed this is why you need to learn from other people this is the most important time for you to learn it will save you countless hours in the future don't reinvent the wheel somebody already knows how to do it knows how to do it well follow them join a facebook reseller group we have a facebook group ebay new england sellers where you are encouraged to ask about things you don't know and don't understand and you don't have to engage if you're not ready just come in and read because you're always going to find the answers you're looking for once you're there you'll see there are many different kinds of groups some of them cater to newbies some of them cater to six figure sellers some of them cater to store owners and they also have different feels some are really nice some are a little prickly yeah well there's some really good ones and they're pictured on our slide here so we have ebay stores nothing but ebay stores which is run by kathy terrell she also has a group just for newbies called ebay selling basics nothing but ebay basics and boss stuff is run by our friends katie and vicky and teresa and that is a really great face up facebook group for a newbie they're really gentle group and they're really positive um so pick some people some people that you find in you know entertaining but also positive and follow them follow them on facebook instagram hey even tick tock if you're brave i love tick tock next find a buddy that will help you reach for the stars you don't want someone that has negative and has a lot of excuses trish and i are buddies um i know i drive her crazy um so she would always when we would meet she would grab my phone and this is okay with me by the way yeah this wasn't i did it with permission she would grab my phone and look at our 90-day totals and i would always beat her but now she's beating me i love trying to beat dai and for the longest time she would be so ahead of me and i'd be like how are you getting these numbers she would it would make i mean i'd want to cry she was doing so much better than me but then i slowly caught up to her and then i surpassed her but she was always rooting for me it was never real competition it was always just a friendly game but you need friends like this you need friends that are going to want you to do better who are going to want you to succeed so selling for the intermediates this is where you want to get involved so you need to join an ebay meetup group right um trish and i run the local new england chapter and when it's not covered times we meet once a month in a local restaurant we have guest speakers we have corporate com we have other ebay sellers we have two personalities we even had a cpa that helped with tax credits that was awesome but we have had a really a lot of great guests and joining a meetup group is a way great way to expand your knowledge and your world because this is a very singular thing we do so finding other people who do it is a great help for you um our group is ebay new england sellers and we're wicked smart sellers so please even if you're not in our area join our group because we're going to be doing some virtual things also that's right once you're an intermediate seller a good way to keep skills fresh is to teach other people this is one of the reasons people come and speak at our groups and they do it for free because they teach they help teach right and helps their own business that's right i went to my granddaughter's sixth grade class and that's what you see pictured here um for career day and taught them how to sell on ebay it was the most what i was the most well received there but to be honest i did give out ebay switch well ebay swag goes a long a long way yes but it still may have been the hottest yeah it was good so the next day the teacher did a recap and asked which profession the kids wanted to be they all wanted to be ebay sellers it was awesome for them it was awesome for me um usually you're home by yourself and getting out there to share gives you a really good feeling and like i said before it really is a singular profession so going out once a month to a meetup group or going to teach a class is a great social event but it's also expanding your own knowledge so once you're a seasoned seller then what network with other sellers you want to emulate diane and i have been very fortunate we've traveled to ebay open in las vegas twice we've gone to the ebay upfront in new york city we've got a tour of the ebay headquarters in new york city and we have done a lot of things sponsored through ebay and i can honestly say that it's helped me as a seller but it's also given me a network of people that i now have contacts with i have friends that i never would have had without this and it has also pushed me to be a way better seller than i would have been without it that's right you need to find your tribe you have to find the people that you want to be with exactly there are other ways to see people and that is by youtube instagram and tick tock i love tick tock it may seem like the reseller's face is flooded but people are always searching for new content if you have something to say if you're fun if you have a niche to turn to um teach please start a channel we're always looking for new content i always have something and diane always has something to say which is why i made up dianisms trish did this slide behind my back you see friends like this making things behind your back no no no i i did this in front of your face i make fun of her face that's not the same so but i really think a lot of these sayings that she says hold a lot of good weight and i wanted to share so let's start with this is the one that she says constantly ebay is like a buffet trish is serving you when you go to a buffet you look down that whole line both sides of food and then they have a dessert station and a carving station food galore if you put one of every single thing onto your plate it would not hold and the stuff would go crashing to the ground so what do you do you pick your favorites and then you go back to what can fit into your stomach so ebay has so many choices look at all the information we just gave everybody you can't do everything at once if you did all of those at once i'm you would probably fail at all or maybe you get a couple of them right so you need to pick and choose which will fill you and leave you satisfied right absolutely but she says it at every ebay event ebay is like a buffet but another thing she says quite often mostly to people in her life not in public is i am not disabled yeah so this is not something that's easily shared so i have a disability but i'm not disabled i have a form of rheumatoid arthritis that affects all my large tendons so basically it affects my ability to work some days i can't sit some days i can't stand some days my brain is not at its very best and i sit and stare at the computer screen and realize i haven't typed a thing the reason i am not disabled is that i found workarounds when i can't sit i take photos when i can't stand i research and list i use ink frog as my lister because it gives me the ability to schedule out a month in advance so if my brain is on vacation i still have listings go live i think people hide behind their disabilities i know i have not told very many people about this and i'm not truly sure why it's time to share and i'm willing to help or answer questions about this and that brings us in that's actually a really good segue to the time is now so trish has had a lot of real life problems before we went to ebay open three years ago her dad was diagnosed with cancer and was in tough shape yeah he was having brain surgery while we were at open it was it was really stressful yeah so trish almost flew home but my daughter who worked at the hospital would give trish a call in the morning in the evening to let her know how her dad was doing trish didn't go home and we had been to more classes and events since then and trish is now beating me in sales her dad is still with us yep and is still struggling yep um and trish manages to fit him in and work her business so what would have happened if she waited to build her business the time is now there's always going to be an issue and it's true if i had waited i'd still be in the same position i was three years ago because he's basically in the same position he was three years ago so absolutely you just have to do it right and there's always going to be an issue so i don't know if you think that you're not gonna have issues but you're gonna but 2020 is a perfect example 2020 was difficult the pandemic made it very hard on everyone more so on diane and people who were immune compromised you get very fearful i was fearful of getting it not really for me but i was afraid i'd give it to my dad or give it to diane it was very scary and at the end of the year diane decided her word for 2021 was going to be fearless yeah it doesn't mean i'm gonna jump out of an airplane or a bungee just come on but i need to fear less i you know when you're in the house for an entire year it's very difficult to re-emerge um i have covered here now because i was not able to go to the hairdressers but i finally got it cut to this length um which may not seem like a lot to other people that was a big deal but it was huge i made a decision to submit a presentation to ebay which was also fear less my disability also affects my voice so i cough or i have to clear my throat a lot i never thought we would get picked so i figured i was fearless just submitting the presentation they picked us now i had to speak and overcome my fear of speaking in public by doing this presentation i hope you enjoyed it i still have the rest of the year for more fear less mess what are you going to do the time is now are you going to be a wicked smart seller if so try some of the tips here remember ebay is like a buffet so diane and i want to thank you all so much for joining us we hope we gave you some new things to think about we are um on social media please find us please join our facebook um wicked smart sellers and we'd love to see you thank you thank you [Music]
2021-08-14 16:24
