Making Some Changes in My Biz Plan
I've been selling on eBay for 25 years! That's a long time. I also have or am currently selling on Amazon, Poshmark, Craig's List, Facebook Marketplace, Mercari, Nextdoor, MaxSold, OfferUp, 5Miles, and Etsy. I am about to make some changes in my business plan for 2024!
I am a seasoned veteran who has also taught classes on selling on eBay in person and with my course on Udemy. I have seen lots of changes over the years in the world of online selling. Our buying habits have indeed changed significantly over that time as well.
And if that's not enough, I have a couple of garage/yard sales in front of my house every year to liquidate and then donate the rest. A lot of work you say! Yup! Many of my sales online and in person are by consignment. I am phasing out of that this year too.
The way to make money is to be flexible and consistent. If something isn't working, then changes need to happen. I took a look at my overall sales for 2023 on eBay yesterday. I'm down 46% overall. eBay has lost a lot of its luster over time. Other sites are making it easier to be a seller than eBay.
When selling there are three ways to make money: sell the most of one thing, sell your largest items first (to clear room), or sell expensive stuff. I have done all three.
When asked what do I sell the most? My answer is "used, dead tennis balls". (Note: I am a tennis pro, not on the court as frequently, but with a source for the balls to sell. I will never run out of them!) I sell primarily to dog owners, classroom teachers who put the balls on the bottom of chairs in their classes, senior citizens for the bottom of walkers, and to families for playing catch. I have sold upwards of $30K in dead tennis balls over the years.
When asked what is the largest item I sell. The answer is pianos or cars. I've sold about four of each. Not fun getting the piano shipped. For my latest piano sale, I used a marketplace called PianoMart. The fees were way less expensive than eBay. Good news the Steinway was just delivered to the buyer in Wyoming and money was released from escrow into my checking account.
When asked what the most expensive items I sell are? The answer is often jewelry: gold is best and old coins. They always sell and the market is very fair in that category.
My big change this year is to do more cross-posting. I take a bunch of photos and write a description and with the magic of copy and paste, I am going to take the same item and list it on many marketplaces. I have done this in the past and will be renewing that practice again! I do keep a spreadsheet of where I list items and have to be sure to remove them from sites when sales happen. That's not too difficult to do.
One more question I get all the time. What do you sell? Besides the dead tennis balls, I love to sell sports and movie memorabilia.
So that's my new plan. List it on multiple platforms and reach more eyeballs! I hope my sales increase and I can get to all the unlisted stuff I have accumulated (also known to sellers as a "death pile").
If you are an online seller, do you cross-post too? If you are a buyer, do you shop online, in stores or a combo?
Recent Comments
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I have enjoyed selling random things online as well as extras of things I don't need anymore. It's fun and amazing how the weirdest things sell. Do you purchase the things you sell and then resell them? Who would have thought there's cash in old tennis balls. That's awesome, Anne. Well done!
Susan
Hi Susan-
It is fun to sell stuff . I used to go out and find stuff to sell, at garage sales, thrift stores and retail arbitrage, but no longer need to since I have so much movie and music memorabilia socked away that I could list for years and never be done! And
More balls! Thanks for your comment!
Anne
Hi Anne…that’s great to learn. You must have quite a collection. Wishing you many more sales!
Susan
It's almost like a tomb of 1980's Rolling Stone mags, movie posters.....Really fun to sell. That's the other part of selling online, you have to like the stuff or it's no fun!
Can't confess to being an online seller Anne, but... as with every avenue of business, things change over time and we must change and adapt with them in order to stay in the game my friend! :-)
I wish you the best with your changes for this year! For the first time, I did my shopping this past year for Christmas online. Circumstances kind of forced me to shop online this past Christmas, but I found that I did like it! 🙂 I shopped on Temu.
Take care,
Jena
I see Temu in my ads. I have not checked them out yet. They seem to have a lot of good stuff!
I have a WooCommerce website, but there is nothing on it yet, Anne!
You are a gem at the top of your market! Well done!
Jeff
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Good morning Anne,
Thank you for your very interesting post! I really do find it fascinating what different people do for a living. It's interesting how much you have seen eBay change, especially from the revenue factor.
Whenever I have used eBay, the fees always seem to be a bit more than I expected! I guess places like Facebook Marketplace have hit eBay hard.
How amazing that you're making good use of your used tennis balls! It never fails to amaze me what people do to earn some money, I mean that in a good way!
All the best to you.
Roy
Thanks Roy! Selling what is around us is key! And what we know! Others will have tools or books etc.
I’m getting ready to post to all sorts of places this morning including FB marketplace. eBay’s losing to other sites.
Well done, Anne, it sounds like you keep busy, which is fantastic.
It's interesting about eBay, it was certainly an amazing invention or platform, the fact that you can sell across the world. Other platforms have come a long and enabled people to sell for less money, I guess.
Enjoy your day and happy selling.
Roy