SecondMoonshot

This is my office and photo location and staging for inventory….and craft storage for Zabrina. Turned it into my office and slowly coming into its own. About 2/3rds of the signed books reside in here and items I have yet to list (or determine they are worthless and put them in the attic for the next garage sale). Got the chair at an estate sale for $25, looks good, but damn uncomfortable, but pride won’t let me get rid of it. The sofa is a sleeper, so will be in trouble when the next relative comes to spend the night, then will have to take down the IKEA desk extension and finally pack up all the already posted listings and take them to storage. It’s my space, I like it. John

This is the first time I am using the eBay Time Away option and so far so good. Took my father down to Myrtle Beach Marriott Vacation Club for a few days, we have a few weeks of time share, although only doing a long weekend. Setup was about as easy as you could think of. Just put in a start and end date, and an optional away message. They did have an option to allow buyers to purchase while your away and then you can ship them when you return, which is the option I chose. Pretty sure it will not have a negative impact on your 1 Business Day shipping record.  I didn’t do the start date 1 day in advance, and I really should have…it just had me scrambling the night before and having to coordinate with family to get the packages to the post office the next day. Just do the extra day before. I didn’t change the end date past the actual vacation, and figured it wont be too big of a challenge to ship everything the day after I return. The only item worth improving is that you can only setup

So lets talk a little about what I am looking for when I go to an Estate Sale and look for items to list. Everyone is different and should be, because that is what makes each seller unique. There are a couple things which might be more applicable across sellers and will try to hit on those. Final Sale Price Should be No Less than Double of Item Cost This is a good general rule to follow, but adjust the % up as needed depending on what you are selling. Certainly some will get significantly more than that, so this is your floor. With eBay, after shipping fees, promoted listing fees, possibly international shipping fees, and shipping, you will be lucky to keep the overall costs below 50% total. Normally my starting price will be a minimum of double of what I paid and an additional 20% on top of that, then I will do a Buy-it-Now and allow lower offers at roughly 20% lower (sometimes less if I know it will be a hot item). As I study the costs and track them, I will continue to adjust this.

One of my early areas of focus for SecondMoonshot was Signed books. I really wasn't too concerned on the topic of the book, as it turns out that signed books are desired by anyone that reads for the most part, including religion, philosophy, academia, business, etc. Signed books can be found in Estate Sales, Thrift Stores and occasionally Flea Markets, but by far, the highest volume of signed books come from Thrift Stores. My theory is that people just don't know or don't remember that some were signed and donate them. A typical Thrift Store will have about 300-400 books. Some mega-Thrift stores have special library-like space with thousands! While Thrift Stores are my go-to for seeking signed books, I wont pass up an opportunity at Estate Sales or Flea Markets and usually will walk away with a handful, especially if the Estate Sale if for a lawyer or some high class resident (or politician). Goodwill/GCF, ReStore, Salvation Army, Pet-centric Thrift Stores and even some Bou

Before I get started, it is best to qualify that I have only been doing eBay and online selling for a little over 7 months. So I am going to do a series on lessons learned / tips and tricks over that time and plans going forward. Every day I learn something new whether it is about eBay itself or learning about a new area of products. I will refer to this series as “What I Have Learned So Far”…for obvious reasons. Some of the things I learn are by mistake/error, some are unexpected buyer outcome/expectations and others by just having identified a new business need. This blog post will be specifically about the returns I have had over the last 7 months.  It is also worth noting that I am very gracious on returns, if someone doesn’t like it, for any reason whatsoever, I will offer them a full refund including shipping as well as pay for the return shipping should I want the item back. Normally, if an item is <$20 sale, then the return will just put more cost into the listing and I will