Well, it is summer, and summer's tend to be slow......but so far August has been the worst month of the year.
This was due to lower than average sales and higher than average expenses - a lethal combination. Our gross sales weren't great, but also weren't terrible - better than a couple of months this year. But for various reasons, some one time, some maybe not, our expenses were much higher than normal this month, so that lead to our lowest net in a one month period this year.
I take a breath, shrug my shoulders, march on.
A bright point, our international sales remain quite strong, unbelievably strong in fact, at least compared to what I considered normal international sales. I'm not sure why that is, but that is a very good thing. I've been selling internationally for years now and it's turned out ok.
Our eBay postcard sales (or lack of) was the culprit this month - not that we didn't sell any, just less than normal. Our photo sales were pretty strong.
We've been on Etsy for about 5 months now, and it hasn't been great, but, to my surprise, we haven't lost money. We did lose money this month on Etsy, but over all it has been profitable. Not much, but as long as we're not losing money, I suppose it is a nice second outlet for some of our stuff.
And that's about it. We made a profit, but it was not a good month.
Showing posts with label eBay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eBay. Show all posts
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Our eBay (and Etsy) Month - July 2012
Just coasting along......
July was our best month this year, at least as far as net profits went. As far as I'm concerned, net is what counts, and our net profits for the month were very good. I know what happened, but I really don't know why it happened.
Our postcard and photo sales were both close to the most we've sold in a single month period all year, and when that happens we have a good month. We've had months where we've sold more of one or the other, but not where both were this good - at least not this year.
Also, for some reason we sold an extraordinary amount internationally - I believe international sales accounted for almost 1/3rd or our sales, and that is a lot for us. I believe this this is the most we've ever sold internationally in a month, but I've only been tracking that for a couple of years now. eBay has been tracking it for us since day 1, however, so I can report with a fair amount of accuracy that in the 6 years and 3 days we've had this business going, international sales have accounted for roughly 12.5% of our total sales. I don't know if that is good, bad, or otherwise, but it is what it is.
I like international sales, I hope it keeps up.
Sometimes you have a good month because you find some special inventory. We did have some good inventory this month, but nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary. But we had some items which were unique, and which sold quickly for a decent profit - but even without that it still would have been a very good month. So I don't really know how to explain it.
Our Etsy sales were decent, but not that much better than in June.
Traditionally the summer months are slower - June, July & August. Well this year May and June were terrible, so I figured we were in for a slow 5 months. So I'll very happily take a good July.
I was worried that sales might be slower, because we're no longer have top rated seller status. This is because eBay changed their criteria, and we felt the costs outweighed the benefits of trying to meet it. So we made a business decision to stay the course so to speak.
Well that's not quite true - we moved part of our business to Etsy, and it seems to be working ok.
August has started out ok for us, but we're in the hole a bit because of some business expenses we had to make. Costs money to make money as the say.
July was our best month this year, at least as far as net profits went. As far as I'm concerned, net is what counts, and our net profits for the month were very good. I know what happened, but I really don't know why it happened.
Our postcard and photo sales were both close to the most we've sold in a single month period all year, and when that happens we have a good month. We've had months where we've sold more of one or the other, but not where both were this good - at least not this year.
Also, for some reason we sold an extraordinary amount internationally - I believe international sales accounted for almost 1/3rd or our sales, and that is a lot for us. I believe this this is the most we've ever sold internationally in a month, but I've only been tracking that for a couple of years now. eBay has been tracking it for us since day 1, however, so I can report with a fair amount of accuracy that in the 6 years and 3 days we've had this business going, international sales have accounted for roughly 12.5% of our total sales. I don't know if that is good, bad, or otherwise, but it is what it is.
I like international sales, I hope it keeps up.
Sometimes you have a good month because you find some special inventory. We did have some good inventory this month, but nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary. But we had some items which were unique, and which sold quickly for a decent profit - but even without that it still would have been a very good month. So I don't really know how to explain it.
Our Etsy sales were decent, but not that much better than in June.
Traditionally the summer months are slower - June, July & August. Well this year May and June were terrible, so I figured we were in for a slow 5 months. So I'll very happily take a good July.
I was worried that sales might be slower, because we're no longer have top rated seller status. This is because eBay changed their criteria, and we felt the costs outweighed the benefits of trying to meet it. So we made a business decision to stay the course so to speak.
Well that's not quite true - we moved part of our business to Etsy, and it seems to be working ok.
August has started out ok for us, but we're in the hole a bit because of some business expenses we had to make. Costs money to make money as the say.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Our eBay (and Etsy) month May 2012
This was our worst month in 2 years - literally. I looked. I had to go back to May 2010 to find a month when sales were lower. Sales were lower this month than that awful 3 month period in 2011 when I thought sales were so slow.
Now this is going to sound very simplistic, but the reason our gross and net amounts were so slow was because we didn't sell as much as we usually do. Sounds reasonable I suppose.
I track transactions per day and items sold per day (some transactions are for more than one item), and we had almost 2 transactions (with 2.8 items sold) per day fewer than normal. That adds up over the course of 31 days.
Every category I track was down, down, down. Sales of single postcards were off by about 30%, sales of photos off by about 50% (that really hurt).
Our international sales dropped off the charts. Normally international sales account for 20% or more of our total sales. Most of our international business goes to Canada, Western Europe and Australia, with a smattering of sales to other parts of the world. In May our international sales were the lowest they've been since I've been keeping records, and not by a little. A LOT! Had our international sales been normal, it still would not have been a great month, but it would have been a lot more reasonable.
Like most months, I live in a semi-fog with all this. I can tell what happened, but I can't tell why. I have no idea why our sales were down, or why the international sales were low. I can conjecture 'till I'm blue in the face, but the reality is I don't know. I know much of Europe is in a financial crisis of sorts, but I refuse to believe that this minuscule business is any kind of measure of the global economy.
As bad a month as it was, we still made a profit.
I don't subscribe to big business' definition of profit and loss. A large company I worked for many years ago had a profit of close to $600,000,000 one quarter, but because in the same quarter the previous year they had a profit of close to $800,000,000, managers called a meeting and told us with a straight face that we lost $200,000,000, as if we were responsible or could do anything about it. I'd look up at them and think "what assholes". While I understood that the profit for one quarter was significantly less than the profit during the same quarter of the previous year, I didn't understand how a profit of $600,000,000 could be construed as a loss of any kind. But in all fairness, I never took a business course in my life, so what do I know.
Anyway, we made a certain amount of money through sales, we had to spend a certain amount on things like fees for using eBay & PayPal, postage, packaging supplies and so on. The amount we spent on expenses was less than the amount we made on sales, hence we made profit, at least in my naive little brain. It wasn't as much as we usually do, but still, we did not lose money.
That being said, I sure hope sales pick up. June, July & August are typically the slowest months of the year for us, so that may be wishful thinking. But whatever, we'll keep plugging away, and eventually the sales will come our way. I reckon.
Now this is going to sound very simplistic, but the reason our gross and net amounts were so slow was because we didn't sell as much as we usually do. Sounds reasonable I suppose.
I track transactions per day and items sold per day (some transactions are for more than one item), and we had almost 2 transactions (with 2.8 items sold) per day fewer than normal. That adds up over the course of 31 days.
Every category I track was down, down, down. Sales of single postcards were off by about 30%, sales of photos off by about 50% (that really hurt).
Our international sales dropped off the charts. Normally international sales account for 20% or more of our total sales. Most of our international business goes to Canada, Western Europe and Australia, with a smattering of sales to other parts of the world. In May our international sales were the lowest they've been since I've been keeping records, and not by a little. A LOT! Had our international sales been normal, it still would not have been a great month, but it would have been a lot more reasonable.
Like most months, I live in a semi-fog with all this. I can tell what happened, but I can't tell why. I have no idea why our sales were down, or why the international sales were low. I can conjecture 'till I'm blue in the face, but the reality is I don't know. I know much of Europe is in a financial crisis of sorts, but I refuse to believe that this minuscule business is any kind of measure of the global economy.
As bad a month as it was, we still made a profit.
I don't subscribe to big business' definition of profit and loss. A large company I worked for many years ago had a profit of close to $600,000,000 one quarter, but because in the same quarter the previous year they had a profit of close to $800,000,000, managers called a meeting and told us with a straight face that we lost $200,000,000, as if we were responsible or could do anything about it. I'd look up at them and think "what assholes". While I understood that the profit for one quarter was significantly less than the profit during the same quarter of the previous year, I didn't understand how a profit of $600,000,000 could be construed as a loss of any kind. But in all fairness, I never took a business course in my life, so what do I know.
Anyway, we made a certain amount of money through sales, we had to spend a certain amount on things like fees for using eBay & PayPal, postage, packaging supplies and so on. The amount we spent on expenses was less than the amount we made on sales, hence we made profit, at least in my naive little brain. It wasn't as much as we usually do, but still, we did not lose money.
That being said, I sure hope sales pick up. June, July & August are typically the slowest months of the year for us, so that may be wishful thinking. But whatever, we'll keep plugging away, and eventually the sales will come our way. I reckon.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Our eBay (and Etsy) month - April 2012
5 days into May, I suppose I should pronounce judgement on April.
April was the best month this year, and is the 6th straight month of what I consider above average sales. If this continues (a big if) I'll have to think about changing what I consider average.
Postcard sales were a little above average, photo sales were quite a bit above average. And our international sales (although they are part of, not in addition to, our postcard & photo sales) were very high. I don't know why some people make the decision not to sell internationally - it's a significant part of our monthly sales.
The one dismal part so far is Etsy, so dismal in fact that we're considering pulling the plug on it. Which is too bad, because I actually like the site. There seems to be two aspects of Etsy - one is a social aspect, and another is the market aspect. Socially there are circles and teams and treasury lists and favorites and probably a lot of other things. That is quite active. It's nice and makes me feel good to know a lot of people consider our stuff pretty or interesting or even thought provoking, but so far it's making very, very few people actually want to buy anything, so the market place part of Etsy is lacking for us. Our total Etsy sales last month would have made a bad day's worth of sales on eBay. It would be accurate to say sales on Etsy were pathetic. It's getting to be a lot of work for very little return, so if sales don't start happening soon, the Etsy experiment will probably be ended sooner than planned.
All this came about because of a rule change on eBay concerning qualifications for top rated seller status (hint: we're TRS's now, but next month won't be, even we'll be providing the same high level of service as we always did). This deserves it's on rant filled post, so I'll do that later.
Back on eBay, April was like two different months. The first half was extremely good, the second half was fairly slow. That slowness has extended into the first week of May, so I hope that changes. That's the way the business is though, there is nothing steady about it. Its either a mile a minute or skipping along smelling the roses. The first week of May was not terrible, but it was leaning toward smelling the roses.
April was the best month this year, and is the 6th straight month of what I consider above average sales. If this continues (a big if) I'll have to think about changing what I consider average.
Postcard sales were a little above average, photo sales were quite a bit above average. And our international sales (although they are part of, not in addition to, our postcard & photo sales) were very high. I don't know why some people make the decision not to sell internationally - it's a significant part of our monthly sales.
The one dismal part so far is Etsy, so dismal in fact that we're considering pulling the plug on it. Which is too bad, because I actually like the site. There seems to be two aspects of Etsy - one is a social aspect, and another is the market aspect. Socially there are circles and teams and treasury lists and favorites and probably a lot of other things. That is quite active. It's nice and makes me feel good to know a lot of people consider our stuff pretty or interesting or even thought provoking, but so far it's making very, very few people actually want to buy anything, so the market place part of Etsy is lacking for us. Our total Etsy sales last month would have made a bad day's worth of sales on eBay. It would be accurate to say sales on Etsy were pathetic. It's getting to be a lot of work for very little return, so if sales don't start happening soon, the Etsy experiment will probably be ended sooner than planned.
All this came about because of a rule change on eBay concerning qualifications for top rated seller status (hint: we're TRS's now, but next month won't be, even we'll be providing the same high level of service as we always did). This deserves it's on rant filled post, so I'll do that later.
Back on eBay, April was like two different months. The first half was extremely good, the second half was fairly slow. That slowness has extended into the first week of May, so I hope that changes. That's the way the business is though, there is nothing steady about it. Its either a mile a minute or skipping along smelling the roses. The first week of May was not terrible, but it was leaning toward smelling the roses.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
eBay and Etsy
A couple of months ago we began moving postcards and some other items from eBay to Etsy, with the idea that we'd sell primarily antique photos and such on eBay, and postcards, snapshots and such on Etsy. We did this as a reaction to an upcoming change eBay is making in how they determine top rated sellers. Beginning June 1, they're going to require 90% of items shipped have tracking on them, and we currently can't meet that. (I checked & in the last 3 months we mailed just under 52% of our items with delivery confirmation). Because of the way we mail things (and the fact we offer free shipping), we mail all our antique photos with tracking, but for the most part we don't mail postcards that way. In order to mail postcards that way we'd either have to increase our prices or have a shipping & handling charge on them. If we wanted to make any kind of a profit, that is. I'm not sure we could do either and maintain our sales level.
So, not knowing how it would work, we decided to try and sell our postcards and cheaper items we would not normally mail with delivery confirmation on Etsy. We're moving them over slowly but surely. We started this on the last day of February, so I guess this is long enough to make some observations.
Etsy is quite a bit different than eBay. It is a whole different culture. It is a much more artistic, creative, handmade and craft oriented place. With their circles, treasury lists and convos, Etsy is much more of a social site than eBay. Etsy has a section for selling vintage items, which is where we and our postcards fall under. I'm really not sure Etsy is the best place in the world to list & try to sell postcards. But we shall see.
There are lots of things I like about Etsy. I especially like the layout of the listings - it just somehow seems nicer & cleaner than eBay's. Easier to understand.
eBay & Etsy have a different language. eBay has stores, Etsy has shops. eBay watches items and saves favorite sellers, Etsy favorites items and shops. eBay has categories, Etsy has sections. It is quite a bit easier to see item and shop (store) statistics on Etsy than it is on eBay. eBay has more sophisticated reporting if you're in to that stuff - in fact I'm not sure Etsy has any reporting to speak of, other than the shop stats.
On eBay, it's possible to save favorite sellers, or "watch" an item you're interested in. There is the same type of thing on Etsy, the difference is on Etsy you can see who "favorites" an item or your shop. You could, if you wanted, "convo" or contact them. I've often wondered how many buyers on eBay have us in their "saved sellers" list, and who it is watching my items - I have no clue.
It's a lot easier to organize your favorite sellers and items on eBay than it is on Etsy. Also eBay allows you up to 300 categories and sub-categories for the items you're selling. Etsy only allows 10 sections, with no subsections.
There are no auctions on Etsy.
Etsy seems to be a bit less expensive to do business on than eBay. The fee structure is different, so it is hard to compare, but at first glance, it seems less expensive.
Printing address labels is a lot easier on eBay, especially online labels from the Post Office.
eBay is bigger than Etsy, I suspect a lot bigger, and has a lot more structure to it. A lot of this structure comes in the form of ever increasingly restrictive rules on sellers, and I'm pretty sure there is a reason for that. Up to now we've just shrugged and adjusted (well, sometimes maybe not), pretty much doing what ever they wanted, but unless we change something dramatically we will not be able to meet their 90% delivery confirmation rule. For some stupid reason I'm proud of our top rated seller status. Providing good customer service just seems natural to me. We're almost certainly going to lose the TRS status, at least for awhile.
So at any rate we decided to at least partially jump ship, and try to establish our postcard business on Etsy. eBay is so huge, I'm positive absolutely no one noticed. We're like a flea on an elephant. Not even. Put 10 elephants on top of each other, then maybe we'd be like a flea on the mass of 10 elephants. Probably not even that. Maybe a flea egg. Maybe if fleas had fleas, we'd be like a flea on a flea on the mass of 10 elephants. Not very significant to the survival or profitability of eBay.
Anyway, at this point we have 638 items on Etsy (all of which would have been on eBay), and move more everyday. When we're done, we'll have in the neighborhood of 2,000 items on Etsy. They'll be mostly postcards, snapshots, trade cards with some antique photos in the mix. I'm not sure how many items we'll have on eBay, but I suspect in the neighborhood of 1500, about half of what we used to have. For the most part they will be various ilks of antique photos. Once those number are established, we'll build from there.
It won't happen by June, when this 90% rule takes effect. We'll lose our beloved top rated seller status, even though we're just as dependable as we've always been.
Anyway, this is the projection, assuming things work as planned. That is a big assumption, the jury is still out on Etsy. What's important is the bottom line, translated as sales. Right now sales on Etsy are dismal, and I'm not surprised by that. For April, we usually sell more in a single day on eBay than we did for the entire month on Etsy. In fact the entire months sales on Etsy for April, would make a below average sales day for us on eBay (also in April). Not good, but it's early yet.
It takes awhile to make a profit. We've been selling on eBay since 2006 & I suppose we're pretty well established in the world of postcard & antique photo sellers there. We have a fair amount of sales anyway, with a fair amount of repeat customers, and we make money every month. We jumped into Etsy with no customer base, no exposure whatsoever, and obviously we're not the only one selling these items there. So it doesn't surprise me that after 2 months sales are not good. We have to stick it out for awhile, keep plugging away, keep learning, use the site the way it's intended to be used, and hopefully the sales will come. There is a lot of potential, and I'm optimistic.
At some point - not exactly sure when, but at some point, we'll make a go/no go decision concerning Etsy. If worse comes to worse, we'll regroup at that time figure things out and soldier on. But one thing at a time. Right now we're concentrating on making Etsy work.
So, not knowing how it would work, we decided to try and sell our postcards and cheaper items we would not normally mail with delivery confirmation on Etsy. We're moving them over slowly but surely. We started this on the last day of February, so I guess this is long enough to make some observations.
Etsy is quite a bit different than eBay. It is a whole different culture. It is a much more artistic, creative, handmade and craft oriented place. With their circles, treasury lists and convos, Etsy is much more of a social site than eBay. Etsy has a section for selling vintage items, which is where we and our postcards fall under. I'm really not sure Etsy is the best place in the world to list & try to sell postcards. But we shall see.
There are lots of things I like about Etsy. I especially like the layout of the listings - it just somehow seems nicer & cleaner than eBay's. Easier to understand.
eBay & Etsy have a different language. eBay has stores, Etsy has shops. eBay watches items and saves favorite sellers, Etsy favorites items and shops. eBay has categories, Etsy has sections. It is quite a bit easier to see item and shop (store) statistics on Etsy than it is on eBay. eBay has more sophisticated reporting if you're in to that stuff - in fact I'm not sure Etsy has any reporting to speak of, other than the shop stats.
On eBay, it's possible to save favorite sellers, or "watch" an item you're interested in. There is the same type of thing on Etsy, the difference is on Etsy you can see who "favorites" an item or your shop. You could, if you wanted, "convo" or contact them. I've often wondered how many buyers on eBay have us in their "saved sellers" list, and who it is watching my items - I have no clue.
It's a lot easier to organize your favorite sellers and items on eBay than it is on Etsy. Also eBay allows you up to 300 categories and sub-categories for the items you're selling. Etsy only allows 10 sections, with no subsections.
There are no auctions on Etsy.
Etsy seems to be a bit less expensive to do business on than eBay. The fee structure is different, so it is hard to compare, but at first glance, it seems less expensive.
Printing address labels is a lot easier on eBay, especially online labels from the Post Office.
eBay is bigger than Etsy, I suspect a lot bigger, and has a lot more structure to it. A lot of this structure comes in the form of ever increasingly restrictive rules on sellers, and I'm pretty sure there is a reason for that. Up to now we've just shrugged and adjusted (well, sometimes maybe not), pretty much doing what ever they wanted, but unless we change something dramatically we will not be able to meet their 90% delivery confirmation rule. For some stupid reason I'm proud of our top rated seller status. Providing good customer service just seems natural to me. We're almost certainly going to lose the TRS status, at least for awhile.
So at any rate we decided to at least partially jump ship, and try to establish our postcard business on Etsy. eBay is so huge, I'm positive absolutely no one noticed. We're like a flea on an elephant. Not even. Put 10 elephants on top of each other, then maybe we'd be like a flea on the mass of 10 elephants. Probably not even that. Maybe a flea egg. Maybe if fleas had fleas, we'd be like a flea on a flea on the mass of 10 elephants. Not very significant to the survival or profitability of eBay.
Anyway, at this point we have 638 items on Etsy (all of which would have been on eBay), and move more everyday. When we're done, we'll have in the neighborhood of 2,000 items on Etsy. They'll be mostly postcards, snapshots, trade cards with some antique photos in the mix. I'm not sure how many items we'll have on eBay, but I suspect in the neighborhood of 1500, about half of what we used to have. For the most part they will be various ilks of antique photos. Once those number are established, we'll build from there.
It won't happen by June, when this 90% rule takes effect. We'll lose our beloved top rated seller status, even though we're just as dependable as we've always been.
Anyway, this is the projection, assuming things work as planned. That is a big assumption, the jury is still out on Etsy. What's important is the bottom line, translated as sales. Right now sales on Etsy are dismal, and I'm not surprised by that. For April, we usually sell more in a single day on eBay than we did for the entire month on Etsy. In fact the entire months sales on Etsy for April, would make a below average sales day for us on eBay (also in April). Not good, but it's early yet.
It takes awhile to make a profit. We've been selling on eBay since 2006 & I suppose we're pretty well established in the world of postcard & antique photo sellers there. We have a fair amount of sales anyway, with a fair amount of repeat customers, and we make money every month. We jumped into Etsy with no customer base, no exposure whatsoever, and obviously we're not the only one selling these items there. So it doesn't surprise me that after 2 months sales are not good. We have to stick it out for awhile, keep plugging away, keep learning, use the site the way it's intended to be used, and hopefully the sales will come. There is a lot of potential, and I'm optimistic.
At some point - not exactly sure when, but at some point, we'll make a go/no go decision concerning Etsy. If worse comes to worse, we'll regroup at that time figure things out and soldier on. But one thing at a time. Right now we're concentrating on making Etsy work.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Our eBay (& Etsy) Month - March 2012
March was a good month, not great, but it continued a series of above average months for us. It also was the start of a bold new experiment, where we are slowly but surely moving our postcards, snapshots & trade cards to etsy, concentrating our antique photo sales on eBay.
So, while March was an above average month for us, we did not sell as much as we did in either of the previous two months. It is easy to tell why at a glance of a spreadsheet I keep - both our average daily transactions & average items sold per day were down by 1 item a day from the previous month, while the average price we received for items was about the same. If you sell less, you generally earn less, which is not really that astute an observation.
But again, it was a good month.
Etsy contributed, but not a whole lot, and we didn't expect it to at this point. We'll give Etsy until October or so, or maybe to the end of the year, and if it doesn't start paying for itself and then some, we'll call the experiment a failure and start backing off. Etsy of course is famous for hand made items, but they do allow sales of vintage collectibles and other items, and that is where our postcards fit in. I don't know if it will be a success for us or not, but we shall see.
March was the end of the 1st quarter. Our 1st quarter earnings, both gross and net, were roughly 10% higher than 1st quarter of 2011, so that's good. However, they were about 10% lower (give or take) than our 4th quarter 2011 earnings. We had a very good 4th quarter last year. I've noticed that in 3 of the last 4 years we've had a 3rd quarter slump - summer months - so I'll guess I'll be thinking about how to handle that as time goes on.
Our international sales were strong, once again. Much stronger than our yearly average. International sales actually got a bit of a boost from Etsy, literally 3/4ths of our sales from that site went to Europe or Canada.
In March, for the first time this year, photo sales were greater than postcard sales. In fact, the reason that March was not quite a good a month as February is because we sold fewer postcards. That could be an effect moving things to Etsy, really can't say at this point. Eventually, if things work out as planned, photos will take over our eBay business. If they don't, then postcards will be back there. I reckon.
April has started off very well eBay-wise, very poor Etsy wise. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
So, while March was an above average month for us, we did not sell as much as we did in either of the previous two months. It is easy to tell why at a glance of a spreadsheet I keep - both our average daily transactions & average items sold per day were down by 1 item a day from the previous month, while the average price we received for items was about the same. If you sell less, you generally earn less, which is not really that astute an observation.
But again, it was a good month.
Etsy contributed, but not a whole lot, and we didn't expect it to at this point. We'll give Etsy until October or so, or maybe to the end of the year, and if it doesn't start paying for itself and then some, we'll call the experiment a failure and start backing off. Etsy of course is famous for hand made items, but they do allow sales of vintage collectibles and other items, and that is where our postcards fit in. I don't know if it will be a success for us or not, but we shall see.
March was the end of the 1st quarter. Our 1st quarter earnings, both gross and net, were roughly 10% higher than 1st quarter of 2011, so that's good. However, they were about 10% lower (give or take) than our 4th quarter 2011 earnings. We had a very good 4th quarter last year. I've noticed that in 3 of the last 4 years we've had a 3rd quarter slump - summer months - so I'll guess I'll be thinking about how to handle that as time goes on.
Our international sales were strong, once again. Much stronger than our yearly average. International sales actually got a bit of a boost from Etsy, literally 3/4ths of our sales from that site went to Europe or Canada.
In March, for the first time this year, photo sales were greater than postcard sales. In fact, the reason that March was not quite a good a month as February is because we sold fewer postcards. That could be an effect moving things to Etsy, really can't say at this point. Eventually, if things work out as planned, photos will take over our eBay business. If they don't, then postcards will be back there. I reckon.
April has started off very well eBay-wise, very poor Etsy wise. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
A Change in our Business
Once or twice a year eBay implements "Seller Updates" & I've noticed over the years that these changes directly or indirectly cost us money. Frequently we (and just about every other eBay seller in existence) slowly but surely - some not so slowly - raise prices to cover the increased cost. We've generally gone with the flow, eBay makes these changes to encourage certain behaviors in the sellers, in the belief this will increase buyer's confidence, which will in return increase the number of buyers who shop on the site. Some sellers react with anger (just read the boards), but I have a feeling most, like me, just make adjustments. I'm pretty sure eBay is the still the largest site of it's kind by far, and that translates into traffic & dollars for people like me.
In this latest seller update eBay announced a change that we will finally not be able to meet. It's not something that would drive us out of business, in fact I suspect in the long run it would only make a minimal difference, and as usual we could probably raise prices just a bit to compensate. But it spurred us to thinking about things, and to make a change which we hope in the long run will translate into an expansion of sort.
eBay, of course, rates it's sellers, and if sellers meet certain criteria, they are awarded with "Top Rated Seller" (TRS) status. TRS status comes with a tangible financial incentive in the form of a 20% discount on their Final Value Fees, the amount eBay charges a seller when they sell an item. It can add up. TRS status also brings an advantage in eBay's default Best Match search results, but that is somewhat intangible since there is no way to measure if that leads to any sales or not. And last but not least a seller with TRS status gets a badge displayed on their listings & next to their listings in search results, which is supposed to give a buyer a bit more confidence. Again, intangible. But the 20% discount is not intangible, that is easly measured every month.
They've added a requirement to achieve TRS status - in June, to obtain TSR status, sellers will be required to have delivery confirmation (or some other kind of tracking information) on 90% of the items they ship domestically, in addition to all the other requirements they have to meet. We can't meet that 90% requirement the way we currently do buisness. We've had TRS status for years and unless we do something radical, we're going to lose it because of this.
We ship almost all items domestically for free. Our more expensive items and/or items which are rigid - most of our antique photos, for example - are shipped as a package. Typically the photos are shipped with delivery confirmation, the postcards not necessarily. It's economics.
In order to ship everything with delivery confirmation we'd have to raise prices on our postcards or start charging for shipping (same difference) to cover the increased cost. This would not be a cost we could absorb, and competition is such that I don't think we could raise the prices on our postcards high enough to cover the increased cost of shipping.
No matter, we don't want to raise our prices & we'd like to maintain our TRS so we decided on a different approach, and it's risky, as far as I'm concerned. It is not worth doing solely to maintain TRS status.
We've had an Etsy shop for years, but had not used it in awhile. We've decided to start moving postcards some photos & other items over to Etsy, and concentrate our antique photos on eBay. If we ever got to the point that we were routinely selling the same amount of photos as we are postcards, we could potentially more than double our income. So that's what we're going to try to do. In theory, this will also enable us to keep our TRS status, but it may not. It's a slow process, it'll be a long time before all our postcards etc are moved to the Etsy shop. It is not worth doing this just to maintain TRS status. But over time, we'll have a lot more antique photos in our eBay store, and a ton of postcards and other items in our Etsy shop. Over time this should result in a notable increase the amount of $$ we pull in, and secondarily, should retain our TRS status on eBay. At least that is the goal.
It's a risk. Postcards are a major part of our monthly sales, usually more than half, and if they don't sell on Etsy, we will lose money. I don't know if any any eBay customers will follow us to Etsy. We could potentially lose a lot more money than we would by simply not having TRS status. So it is a risk, but that's what makes life interesting, at least in the corner of the little room I'm sitting in.
It's not like we're risking the house or anything like that. It's only money, after all.
I put a link to our Etsy shop on the left column of this blog - click on it take a look if you want. Check back often, we'll be adding stuff pretty much daily. Feel free to buy something, anything, I'm not particular.
In this latest seller update eBay announced a change that we will finally not be able to meet. It's not something that would drive us out of business, in fact I suspect in the long run it would only make a minimal difference, and as usual we could probably raise prices just a bit to compensate. But it spurred us to thinking about things, and to make a change which we hope in the long run will translate into an expansion of sort.
eBay, of course, rates it's sellers, and if sellers meet certain criteria, they are awarded with "Top Rated Seller" (TRS) status. TRS status comes with a tangible financial incentive in the form of a 20% discount on their Final Value Fees, the amount eBay charges a seller when they sell an item. It can add up. TRS status also brings an advantage in eBay's default Best Match search results, but that is somewhat intangible since there is no way to measure if that leads to any sales or not. And last but not least a seller with TRS status gets a badge displayed on their listings & next to their listings in search results, which is supposed to give a buyer a bit more confidence. Again, intangible. But the 20% discount is not intangible, that is easly measured every month.
They've added a requirement to achieve TRS status - in June, to obtain TSR status, sellers will be required to have delivery confirmation (or some other kind of tracking information) on 90% of the items they ship domestically, in addition to all the other requirements they have to meet. We can't meet that 90% requirement the way we currently do buisness. We've had TRS status for years and unless we do something radical, we're going to lose it because of this.
We ship almost all items domestically for free. Our more expensive items and/or items which are rigid - most of our antique photos, for example - are shipped as a package. Typically the photos are shipped with delivery confirmation, the postcards not necessarily. It's economics.
In order to ship everything with delivery confirmation we'd have to raise prices on our postcards or start charging for shipping (same difference) to cover the increased cost. This would not be a cost we could absorb, and competition is such that I don't think we could raise the prices on our postcards high enough to cover the increased cost of shipping.
No matter, we don't want to raise our prices & we'd like to maintain our TRS so we decided on a different approach, and it's risky, as far as I'm concerned. It is not worth doing solely to maintain TRS status.
We've had an Etsy shop for years, but had not used it in awhile. We've decided to start moving postcards some photos & other items over to Etsy, and concentrate our antique photos on eBay. If we ever got to the point that we were routinely selling the same amount of photos as we are postcards, we could potentially more than double our income. So that's what we're going to try to do. In theory, this will also enable us to keep our TRS status, but it may not. It's a slow process, it'll be a long time before all our postcards etc are moved to the Etsy shop. It is not worth doing this just to maintain TRS status. But over time, we'll have a lot more antique photos in our eBay store, and a ton of postcards and other items in our Etsy shop. Over time this should result in a notable increase the amount of $$ we pull in, and secondarily, should retain our TRS status on eBay. At least that is the goal.
It's a risk. Postcards are a major part of our monthly sales, usually more than half, and if they don't sell on Etsy, we will lose money. I don't know if any any eBay customers will follow us to Etsy. We could potentially lose a lot more money than we would by simply not having TRS status. So it is a risk, but that's what makes life interesting, at least in the corner of the little room I'm sitting in.
It's not like we're risking the house or anything like that. It's only money, after all.
I put a link to our Etsy shop on the left column of this blog - click on it take a look if you want. Check back often, we'll be adding stuff pretty much daily. Feel free to buy something, anything, I'm not particular.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Our eBay Month - February 2012
Sometimes sales are just plodding along and you think it's going to be a struggle to even be an average month, then all of of sudden the flood gates open. This is what happened the last few days of February.
When the dust settled, we had out sold January - which was a pretty good month. Not by too much, but it counts. And we blew away February of 2011; we had more than 25% higher sales than a year ago, which is pretty good.
Never can tell when the sales will (or won't) come.
The number of postcards we sold were about average, but we received more for them than we usually did. I'm not sure why - some of our postcards cost more than others, of course, and I guess those sold well.
Our photograph sales were strong, and when we have a good month photograph wise, we generally have a good month period.
We continue to have repeat customers & also customers who make multiple purchases, and I take that as a good sign.
Our international sales were also strong, which is a good sign. We were forced to increase our international shipping charges for many of our items because of USPS increases, and I was worried this might cost us some international sales. Apparently not - at least not yet.
However - and this will be another blog post in a day or so - we've made a major decision about how we are going to do business going forward, and it is a major change for us, and a bit of a risk. My unstated, un-detailed & undefined goal (pipe dream?) is to roughly double the amount of gross income we generate in a average month. The problem is doing that without doubling the workload, because I really don't want to double the amount of time I spend doing this. However, this was not the reason for our change, I'm just sort of hoping it's a result. More on all this in a day or so.
So put February 2012 in the "it was a good month" category, and move on.
When the dust settled, we had out sold January - which was a pretty good month. Not by too much, but it counts. And we blew away February of 2011; we had more than 25% higher sales than a year ago, which is pretty good.
Never can tell when the sales will (or won't) come.
The number of postcards we sold were about average, but we received more for them than we usually did. I'm not sure why - some of our postcards cost more than others, of course, and I guess those sold well.
Our photograph sales were strong, and when we have a good month photograph wise, we generally have a good month period.
We continue to have repeat customers & also customers who make multiple purchases, and I take that as a good sign.
Our international sales were also strong, which is a good sign. We were forced to increase our international shipping charges for many of our items because of USPS increases, and I was worried this might cost us some international sales. Apparently not - at least not yet.
However - and this will be another blog post in a day or so - we've made a major decision about how we are going to do business going forward, and it is a major change for us, and a bit of a risk. My unstated, un-detailed & undefined goal (pipe dream?) is to roughly double the amount of gross income we generate in a average month. The problem is doing that without doubling the workload, because I really don't want to double the amount of time I spend doing this. However, this was not the reason for our change, I'm just sort of hoping it's a result. More on all this in a day or so.
So put February 2012 in the "it was a good month" category, and move on.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Shipping Costs
This is yet another eBay related post. I'll think of something else to write about eventually. But for now.....
Sometime back we decided on a flat rate shipping for items we sell on eBay. We keep it pretty simple, and it works well in 95% of the cases. We deal with anything odd or out of the ordinary on a case by case basis as it is listed.
Domestically, we offer free shipping on virtually everything, and you can't get much simpler than that. We've been doing that for over a year now, and it works for us.
We've never offered free shipping internationally - it's just too expensive.
The United States Postal Service increased their rates on Jan 22, 2012. The news focused on the domestic rates for letters and postcards, but for us, that didn't matter. What we wanted to know, and what was surprisingly difficult to find out before it actually happened, was the new rates for first class packages, both domestic and international. We ship out a lot of packages that weigh 2 or 3 ounces - and the cheapest (& frequently the quickest) way to send them is first class & first class international.
So this is what we found out.
First class domestic is actually cheaper now, because the post office no longer charges for delivery confirmation if you print the label online. Before Jan 22, the 2 & 3 ounce rate for an online label was $1.56, and they required you to purchase the delivery confirmation at $.19, for a total of $1.75. After Jan 22, the rate went up to $1.64 for 2 or 3 ounces, but now delivery confirmation is added on for free. So it's 11 cents cheaper than before. That's good for us since we offer free shipping on these items, and over the course of a year that 11 cents is going to add up.
First class international is much more expensive. We differentiate international shipping between those items going to Canada, and those items going everywhere else.
Before Jan 22, USPS charged $1.98 for a 2 ounce package, and $2.24 for a 3 ounce package to Canada. Now the charge is $3.15 & $3.30, respectively.
For Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia etc the rate before Jan 22 was $2.59 for a 2 ounce package & $3.46 for a 3 ounce package. Now USPS charges $3.78 & $4.56, respectively.
As a seller, I have experienced international shipping rate sticker shock. The domestic changes were minimal from our point of view, but we were very surprised at the international increase. We were forced to increase our rates because of this, though we desperately did not want to.
International sales are a good chunk of our business. I'm afraid these increases will hurt our sales. This was not a minor increase, it was nothing we could come close to absorbing in the price of our items, and I'm not terribly happy about it.
In reality it won't affect everything - we'll send individual postcards & small photos internationally at the same rate as before. But CDVs, Cabinet Photos, Antique photos and many other things will be more expensive to ship internationally. That's just the way it's going to be.
Sometime back we decided on a flat rate shipping for items we sell on eBay. We keep it pretty simple, and it works well in 95% of the cases. We deal with anything odd or out of the ordinary on a case by case basis as it is listed.
Domestically, we offer free shipping on virtually everything, and you can't get much simpler than that. We've been doing that for over a year now, and it works for us.
We've never offered free shipping internationally - it's just too expensive.
The United States Postal Service increased their rates on Jan 22, 2012. The news focused on the domestic rates for letters and postcards, but for us, that didn't matter. What we wanted to know, and what was surprisingly difficult to find out before it actually happened, was the new rates for first class packages, both domestic and international. We ship out a lot of packages that weigh 2 or 3 ounces - and the cheapest (& frequently the quickest) way to send them is first class & first class international.
So this is what we found out.
First class domestic is actually cheaper now, because the post office no longer charges for delivery confirmation if you print the label online. Before Jan 22, the 2 & 3 ounce rate for an online label was $1.56, and they required you to purchase the delivery confirmation at $.19, for a total of $1.75. After Jan 22, the rate went up to $1.64 for 2 or 3 ounces, but now delivery confirmation is added on for free. So it's 11 cents cheaper than before. That's good for us since we offer free shipping on these items, and over the course of a year that 11 cents is going to add up.
First class international is much more expensive. We differentiate international shipping between those items going to Canada, and those items going everywhere else.
Before Jan 22, USPS charged $1.98 for a 2 ounce package, and $2.24 for a 3 ounce package to Canada. Now the charge is $3.15 & $3.30, respectively.
For Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia etc the rate before Jan 22 was $2.59 for a 2 ounce package & $3.46 for a 3 ounce package. Now USPS charges $3.78 & $4.56, respectively.
As a seller, I have experienced international shipping rate sticker shock. The domestic changes were minimal from our point of view, but we were very surprised at the international increase. We were forced to increase our rates because of this, though we desperately did not want to.
International sales are a good chunk of our business. I'm afraid these increases will hurt our sales. This was not a minor increase, it was nothing we could come close to absorbing in the price of our items, and I'm not terribly happy about it.
In reality it won't affect everything - we'll send individual postcards & small photos internationally at the same rate as before. But CDVs, Cabinet Photos, Antique photos and many other things will be more expensive to ship internationally. That's just the way it's going to be.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Our eBay Month - Jan 2012
All in all it was a good month, a little better than average, perhaps. Perhaps not. It was not as good as December or November, but on par with last January at least.
In fact the similarities between Jan 2012 & Jan 2011 are remarkable. Our net this month was less than $7.00 higher than our net in January 2011, but our expenses were also higher, so our gross in Jan 2012 was somewhat lower than a year ago.
In a remarkable co-incidence, our total number of transactions were exactly the same for both months. The types of transactions were distributed a little differently though - in Jan 2012 we sold fewer postcard "singles", and more photographs than we did in Jan 2011. That seems to be a trend for us, at least during the last 4 or 5 months, and I see no reason why it won't continue. Famous last words.
International sales continued to be a significant part of our business in January. We sent items to 13 countries (with Canada & the UK leading the way) and international sales accounted for about 20% of our total transactions and 21% or our net income. We sent a photograph to Jordan last month, a first for us, and received feedback for it a few days later. So cool.
Our net for December 2011 was significantly higher than Jan 2012, and our expenses were slightly lower, making our gross for the month quite a bit higher. Although we actually sold more postcard "singles" in Jan 2012 than we did in December 2011, we sold many, many more photographs in December. That more than made up for a slow postcard month.
The post office increased postage rates this month. We offer free shipping in the domestic USA, and that's not going to change. I've discovered that even though the post office increased 1st class domestic package rates, they've decided not to charge for delivery confirmation. As as result, 1st class postage has actually become cheaper for us after the change. Over the course of a year, that will add up. Everything else, however, has increased.
We do charge a flat rate shipping for international sales, and we've not changed our rates. It is a bit more expensive, but for the time being at least, we're not changing anything, international shipping wise.
So, January was a good but not a great month, perhaps slightly better (or not) than our monthly average for 2011. Business kind of slowed the 10 days of the month, and Feb has started off slowly, so we'll see how it goes.
In fact the similarities between Jan 2012 & Jan 2011 are remarkable. Our net this month was less than $7.00 higher than our net in January 2011, but our expenses were also higher, so our gross in Jan 2012 was somewhat lower than a year ago.
In a remarkable co-incidence, our total number of transactions were exactly the same for both months. The types of transactions were distributed a little differently though - in Jan 2012 we sold fewer postcard "singles", and more photographs than we did in Jan 2011. That seems to be a trend for us, at least during the last 4 or 5 months, and I see no reason why it won't continue. Famous last words.
International sales continued to be a significant part of our business in January. We sent items to 13 countries (with Canada & the UK leading the way) and international sales accounted for about 20% of our total transactions and 21% or our net income. We sent a photograph to Jordan last month, a first for us, and received feedback for it a few days later. So cool.
Our net for December 2011 was significantly higher than Jan 2012, and our expenses were slightly lower, making our gross for the month quite a bit higher. Although we actually sold more postcard "singles" in Jan 2012 than we did in December 2011, we sold many, many more photographs in December. That more than made up for a slow postcard month.
The post office increased postage rates this month. We offer free shipping in the domestic USA, and that's not going to change. I've discovered that even though the post office increased 1st class domestic package rates, they've decided not to charge for delivery confirmation. As as result, 1st class postage has actually become cheaper for us after the change. Over the course of a year, that will add up. Everything else, however, has increased.
We do charge a flat rate shipping for international sales, and we've not changed our rates. It is a bit more expensive, but for the time being at least, we're not changing anything, international shipping wise.
So, January was a good but not a great month, perhaps slightly better (or not) than our monthly average for 2011. Business kind of slowed the 10 days of the month, and Feb has started off slowly, so we'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Our eBay Year - 2011
As promised, this is my post about how our eBay business did last year. It may be an incoherent rambling kind of post - I'll at least try to keep some structure.
2011 was a good year, compared to 2010 & 2009. Things kind of slipped in 2010, so 2011 was a very good year compared to 2010.
Our gross was 23% higher than in 2010, and our net was 28% higher than in 2010. My first thought was that our expenses must have been lower, but that's not the case. There's an old adage, it takes money to make money. Well, eBay, PayPal & just about every other business in existence has a very regressive type of fee structure. The less you sell, the greater the percentage you have to pay in fees, the less money you get to keep. When you sell more, the reverse happens, you pay less of a percentage in fees - it's an amazing thing when you finally cross that tipping point. Our expenses were a lot, at least in my opinion, and the difference in the percentage increase between gross and net I attribute to increased sales.
This increase in net and gross income came in a year that we've offered free domestic shipping on virtually everything we sell. This is our first complete year offering free shipping, and it doesn't seem to have hurt the bottom line. I track our shipping costs very closely, and it's a major expense. In fact it's our second highest expense every month (and year) without fail. Only our eBay fees are higher. Free shipping only works if you know your costs, and can increase your sales. It worked for us.
Internationally, we charge a flat rate, based on the item sold - postcards will be less than Cabinet Photos, for example. Also, we charge less on items we send to Canada, simply because it costs less. I've learned over time how much it costs to ship to the various locations, and roughly how long it takes to get there, in most cases at least.
I've come across sellers who refuse to sell internationally, and that's fine, but I don't understand it. Possibly the items we sell, postcards and photographs, aren't high on the scamming list. Whatever it is, our problems have been very minimal. I can only remember one incident - in 2010 a person from Italy (yes, Italy), claimed he never received his item. It had been a month, so I refunded his money without any kind of argument. I did put him on our blocked buyers list though, because without going into detail, I had some suspicions. And that is it - we've been selling internationally for over 5 years now, and that's the only issue we've had.
Our international sales accounted for 10% of our transactions, and 17% of our gross income in 2011. I don't know how that stacks up against other sellers, I don't know if that is good or bad or neither. But we're glad to have it.
In December 2011, we had our biggest single order for photos & postcards in our history - it was significant to us, and it was going to Poland. I packaged it up carefully, sent it off December 17th, and crossed my fingers. We received feedback for it this morning, and finally uncross my fingers. We haven't really had any bad experiences shipping internationally.
Speaking of international sales - our highest sales for 2011 went to Canada (by a wide margin), the UK, Poland, Germany, France & Australia, in that order. The only surprise on this list is Poland - and that was because of that one very large order in December. In 2011, for the first time we sent items to Peru, Thailand, Turkey & the Ukraine.
I track lots of things. Our best months in 2011 were, in order, Nov, Jun, Dec, Oct & Jan. We tend to sell more items in the middle of the week - Tues, Weds & Thurs., I'm not sure what I can do with that info, but there it is. I know our average and mean daily dollar amount for the year. I know the average amount we receive per transaction, and can split that out between auctions and fixed price. I know the average number of transactions per day, and the average number of items sold per day. I know how much we spend on postcards & the various photo types vs how much we're able to sell them for. I know how many items we've listed vs how many we've sold for the year. I know what postcards subjects are most popular (believe it or not I track about 137 different subjects).
Photos are a different matter. I know which types have sold best for us, but subject matter is a different story. People who collect photos are not looking for the same thing as people who collect postcards. Photos are somehow more vague, and not as easy to put your finger on. Photos are more of a feeling, at least for me.
The big change for us this year was the domestic free shipping. We also offer expedited shipping, and a 30 day return no hassle policy. If we sell you something and you don't like it when you receive it, just return it and we'll refund your money. We're basically doing what eBay wants us to do in this regard, and in return (in theory) we should get a bump in the "best match" search results. I don't know if it had anything to do with our increased sales or not.
Here's another couple of things driving our sales, and oddly enough, something I'm not tracking. We're getting a lot of repeat customers. People returning multiple times over the year to buy things - that is a very good thing. And we're also getting a lot of multiple item purchases, and that is also very good. When someone buys several items at once, it adds up quickly.
We also do our best when it comes to customer service. Package nicely, ship quickly, answer questions, communicate and so on. I think excellent customer service is the most important ingredient in winning repeat customers. And it doesn't happen overnight.
So 2011 was better than 2010 (and also 2009). We hope 2012, which has started off pretty well, will be better than 2011.
2011 was a good year, compared to 2010 & 2009. Things kind of slipped in 2010, so 2011 was a very good year compared to 2010.
Our gross was 23% higher than in 2010, and our net was 28% higher than in 2010. My first thought was that our expenses must have been lower, but that's not the case. There's an old adage, it takes money to make money. Well, eBay, PayPal & just about every other business in existence has a very regressive type of fee structure. The less you sell, the greater the percentage you have to pay in fees, the less money you get to keep. When you sell more, the reverse happens, you pay less of a percentage in fees - it's an amazing thing when you finally cross that tipping point. Our expenses were a lot, at least in my opinion, and the difference in the percentage increase between gross and net I attribute to increased sales.
This increase in net and gross income came in a year that we've offered free domestic shipping on virtually everything we sell. This is our first complete year offering free shipping, and it doesn't seem to have hurt the bottom line. I track our shipping costs very closely, and it's a major expense. In fact it's our second highest expense every month (and year) without fail. Only our eBay fees are higher. Free shipping only works if you know your costs, and can increase your sales. It worked for us.
Internationally, we charge a flat rate, based on the item sold - postcards will be less than Cabinet Photos, for example. Also, we charge less on items we send to Canada, simply because it costs less. I've learned over time how much it costs to ship to the various locations, and roughly how long it takes to get there, in most cases at least.
I've come across sellers who refuse to sell internationally, and that's fine, but I don't understand it. Possibly the items we sell, postcards and photographs, aren't high on the scamming list. Whatever it is, our problems have been very minimal. I can only remember one incident - in 2010 a person from Italy (yes, Italy), claimed he never received his item. It had been a month, so I refunded his money without any kind of argument. I did put him on our blocked buyers list though, because without going into detail, I had some suspicions. And that is it - we've been selling internationally for over 5 years now, and that's the only issue we've had.
Our international sales accounted for 10% of our transactions, and 17% of our gross income in 2011. I don't know how that stacks up against other sellers, I don't know if that is good or bad or neither. But we're glad to have it.
In December 2011, we had our biggest single order for photos & postcards in our history - it was significant to us, and it was going to Poland. I packaged it up carefully, sent it off December 17th, and crossed my fingers. We received feedback for it this morning, and finally uncross my fingers. We haven't really had any bad experiences shipping internationally.
Speaking of international sales - our highest sales for 2011 went to Canada (by a wide margin), the UK, Poland, Germany, France & Australia, in that order. The only surprise on this list is Poland - and that was because of that one very large order in December. In 2011, for the first time we sent items to Peru, Thailand, Turkey & the Ukraine.
I track lots of things. Our best months in 2011 were, in order, Nov, Jun, Dec, Oct & Jan. We tend to sell more items in the middle of the week - Tues, Weds & Thurs., I'm not sure what I can do with that info, but there it is. I know our average and mean daily dollar amount for the year. I know the average amount we receive per transaction, and can split that out between auctions and fixed price. I know the average number of transactions per day, and the average number of items sold per day. I know how much we spend on postcards & the various photo types vs how much we're able to sell them for. I know how many items we've listed vs how many we've sold for the year. I know what postcards subjects are most popular (believe it or not I track about 137 different subjects).
Photos are a different matter. I know which types have sold best for us, but subject matter is a different story. People who collect photos are not looking for the same thing as people who collect postcards. Photos are somehow more vague, and not as easy to put your finger on. Photos are more of a feeling, at least for me.
The big change for us this year was the domestic free shipping. We also offer expedited shipping, and a 30 day return no hassle policy. If we sell you something and you don't like it when you receive it, just return it and we'll refund your money. We're basically doing what eBay wants us to do in this regard, and in return (in theory) we should get a bump in the "best match" search results. I don't know if it had anything to do with our increased sales or not.
Here's another couple of things driving our sales, and oddly enough, something I'm not tracking. We're getting a lot of repeat customers. People returning multiple times over the year to buy things - that is a very good thing. And we're also getting a lot of multiple item purchases, and that is also very good. When someone buys several items at once, it adds up quickly.
We also do our best when it comes to customer service. Package nicely, ship quickly, answer questions, communicate and so on. I think excellent customer service is the most important ingredient in winning repeat customers. And it doesn't happen overnight.
So 2011 was better than 2010 (and also 2009). We hope 2012, which has started off pretty well, will be better than 2011.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Our eBay Month - Dec 2011
This post is just about December & the 4th quarter of 2011. I'll write another post to sum up the year in a couple of days.
December was a good month for us - better than October, also a good month, not quite as good as November, which was a very good month. I'd gladly take a year full of Decembers.
However, our sales of "single" postcards were down - in fact they were the lowest for the year by far. I don't know why. If we had sold our average amount, then December would have been our best month of the year. We got a fairly good price for them though, but for some reason we sold significantly less than average.
Our sales of photographs (Cabinets, CDVs, other Antique Photos, snapshots etc) were very good, on almost exactly the same level as November. This means we sold significantly more than average. And in December 2011, for the first time in our history we sold more photos than we did postcards. Something for us to ponder.
December also marked our highest photograph sales for a single order, ever. On December 17th we mailed out this large order to a buyer who (sigh) lives in Poland. We've yet to receive feedback or any indication that it's arrived, so fingers crossed for now.
Another interesting thing that happened was yesterday (Dec 31st) an item was returned to us from Germany, marked "insufficient address". It was pretty neat - it had the German custom sticker on it and everything. The other neat thing was that we had mailed it way back on September 14th - about 3 1/2 months ago, with an address label printed from the eBay sales record. We'd never heard a word from this person, no feedback, no emails, had no idea he hadn't received it. It was so long ago that the buyer could not leave feedback now if he wanted to. It was so long ago that the sales record was no longer available to us & we could not refund his money through eBay. So we sent him a message letting him know what happened and sent the back money via paypal to his paypal account. What this means is we did not get any fees back, and paypal will charge him fees, but its the best we can do, especially since there's no other communication going on. If he still wants the item I suppose he can contact us and we'll make arrangements.
The packaging survived quite well, which made me feel good.
Its always something. Its amazing how many weird things go on in a little 2 person business.
The 4th quarter of 2011 was the best quarter of the year, by far. In fact, it's better than any quarter we had in 2010 & 2009, so its the best quarter in the last 3 years. One of the quarters of 2008 may have been better because we were doing consignments back then, but 2008 vs 2011 is apples and oranges as far as our business goes. It was a very good 3 months for us
This is part of what's happening: we're getting a lot of repeat customers, and that is good. Repeat customers can drive a business. We're also getting a lot more sales of multiple items to a singer buyer than we used to, and that can add up quickly. And many of the repeat customers and multiple item buyers (sometimes they're the same people) are buying our photographs. We charge more for our photos than our postcards (because, they're generally worth more), and that has been driving our business, especially for the last 3 months.
January is starting off pretty well, so I hope it continues.
December was a good month for us - better than October, also a good month, not quite as good as November, which was a very good month. I'd gladly take a year full of Decembers.
However, our sales of "single" postcards were down - in fact they were the lowest for the year by far. I don't know why. If we had sold our average amount, then December would have been our best month of the year. We got a fairly good price for them though, but for some reason we sold significantly less than average.
Our sales of photographs (Cabinets, CDVs, other Antique Photos, snapshots etc) were very good, on almost exactly the same level as November. This means we sold significantly more than average. And in December 2011, for the first time in our history we sold more photos than we did postcards. Something for us to ponder.
December also marked our highest photograph sales for a single order, ever. On December 17th we mailed out this large order to a buyer who (sigh) lives in Poland. We've yet to receive feedback or any indication that it's arrived, so fingers crossed for now.
Another interesting thing that happened was yesterday (Dec 31st) an item was returned to us from Germany, marked "insufficient address". It was pretty neat - it had the German custom sticker on it and everything. The other neat thing was that we had mailed it way back on September 14th - about 3 1/2 months ago, with an address label printed from the eBay sales record. We'd never heard a word from this person, no feedback, no emails, had no idea he hadn't received it. It was so long ago that the buyer could not leave feedback now if he wanted to. It was so long ago that the sales record was no longer available to us & we could not refund his money through eBay. So we sent him a message letting him know what happened and sent the back money via paypal to his paypal account. What this means is we did not get any fees back, and paypal will charge him fees, but its the best we can do, especially since there's no other communication going on. If he still wants the item I suppose he can contact us and we'll make arrangements.
The packaging survived quite well, which made me feel good.
Its always something. Its amazing how many weird things go on in a little 2 person business.
The 4th quarter of 2011 was the best quarter of the year, by far. In fact, it's better than any quarter we had in 2010 & 2009, so its the best quarter in the last 3 years. One of the quarters of 2008 may have been better because we were doing consignments back then, but 2008 vs 2011 is apples and oranges as far as our business goes. It was a very good 3 months for us
This is part of what's happening: we're getting a lot of repeat customers, and that is good. Repeat customers can drive a business. We're also getting a lot more sales of multiple items to a singer buyer than we used to, and that can add up quickly. And many of the repeat customers and multiple item buyers (sometimes they're the same people) are buying our photographs. We charge more for our photos than our postcards (because, they're generally worth more), and that has been driving our business, especially for the last 3 months.
January is starting off pretty well, so I hope it continues.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Our eBay Month - Nov 2011
November was a very good eBay month for us, our best this year by far.
Our postcard sales were better than average, and our photo sales (cabinet, cdv, snapshots, other antique photos) went through the roof. We sold more photos this month than we have sold in any other month, by far. We sold them in unheard of amounts, at least for us. It was as if people suddenly discovered we sell photos. I'm not sure why this was, maybe it was the holiday period, though none of the photos had a holiday theme. Maybe it was domestic free shipping, but we've had that for a long time now. So, we don't really know why sales spiked, which means there's nothing we can really reproduce to ensure continued sales. So we'll do what we always do: list nice photos and describe them accurately, price them reasonably, give free shipping to domestic USA address, package them up securely and get them mailed within one business day, and provide best customer service we can.
November 2011 was the best month for us since December 2010, and even there, there is a caveat. The only reason our gross in December 2010 was higher than last month was because of consignment sales. Consignment sales accounted for 1/3rd or our total gross that month, and over half of our consignment sales was due to a sale of a fairly expensive item on the last day of the year. Our net (which I see as our profit) for Dec 2010, was actually somewhat less than our net for November 2011. You have to go back to July of 2009 to find a month where our net was higher than last month. November was a good month.
And much of the July 2009 sales came via very strong consignment sales that month - it's funny, I can still remember what we were selling then. Even though "Consignment" is still part of our store name, we don't really do consignment any more.
When sales go up, fees & expenses go up. eBay charges a fee to list, a fee if an item sells, and a store subscription fee. PayPal charges a fee when money is deposited into your account. Fees get pricey. Business expenses, especially postage, were quite high in November. But I take the view that if the fees and expenses have increased, that means the sales have increased. And the higher the sales, the over all less of a percentage expenses are. This, by the way, is one reason large business can make a huge amount of money while small business struggle. Just a little social commentary.
Our gross (and net) for Nov 2011 was almost twice as much as Nov 2010. Interesting.
Nov 2011 was a month of extremes. On November 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving, we had nothing to ship. We were skunked - for the first time since sometime in 2009 we went a day without receiving any payments. In the days that followed though, we set and then promptly broke a record (for us) for the amount of items shipped out in a single day.
I've noticed we're getting quite a bit of repeat business - customers who buy things then return later and buy more. In fact the repeat business has driven a lot of our sales, it's a good thing to have.
It's very hard to predict what sales will be. October & November were very good months, July and August were terrible. Back in 2008 there was a month when we actually lost money. I have no idea how December will turn out, though right now it's looking pretty good. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Our postcard sales were better than average, and our photo sales (cabinet, cdv, snapshots, other antique photos) went through the roof. We sold more photos this month than we have sold in any other month, by far. We sold them in unheard of amounts, at least for us. It was as if people suddenly discovered we sell photos. I'm not sure why this was, maybe it was the holiday period, though none of the photos had a holiday theme. Maybe it was domestic free shipping, but we've had that for a long time now. So, we don't really know why sales spiked, which means there's nothing we can really reproduce to ensure continued sales. So we'll do what we always do: list nice photos and describe them accurately, price them reasonably, give free shipping to domestic USA address, package them up securely and get them mailed within one business day, and provide best customer service we can.
November 2011 was the best month for us since December 2010, and even there, there is a caveat. The only reason our gross in December 2010 was higher than last month was because of consignment sales. Consignment sales accounted for 1/3rd or our total gross that month, and over half of our consignment sales was due to a sale of a fairly expensive item on the last day of the year. Our net (which I see as our profit) for Dec 2010, was actually somewhat less than our net for November 2011. You have to go back to July of 2009 to find a month where our net was higher than last month. November was a good month.
And much of the July 2009 sales came via very strong consignment sales that month - it's funny, I can still remember what we were selling then. Even though "Consignment" is still part of our store name, we don't really do consignment any more.
When sales go up, fees & expenses go up. eBay charges a fee to list, a fee if an item sells, and a store subscription fee. PayPal charges a fee when money is deposited into your account. Fees get pricey. Business expenses, especially postage, were quite high in November. But I take the view that if the fees and expenses have increased, that means the sales have increased. And the higher the sales, the over all less of a percentage expenses are. This, by the way, is one reason large business can make a huge amount of money while small business struggle. Just a little social commentary.
Our gross (and net) for Nov 2011 was almost twice as much as Nov 2010. Interesting.
Nov 2011 was a month of extremes. On November 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving, we had nothing to ship. We were skunked - for the first time since sometime in 2009 we went a day without receiving any payments. In the days that followed though, we set and then promptly broke a record (for us) for the amount of items shipped out in a single day.
I've noticed we're getting quite a bit of repeat business - customers who buy things then return later and buy more. In fact the repeat business has driven a lot of our sales, it's a good thing to have.
It's very hard to predict what sales will be. October & November were very good months, July and August were terrible. Back in 2008 there was a month when we actually lost money. I have no idea how December will turn out, though right now it's looking pretty good. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Our eBay Month - Oct 2011
October was our best month this year.
In looking at the sales & things I keep track of, in one way it seems like a broken record. Most of our sales are either postcards or various forms of antique photographs, and so much of what determines whether we have a good month or not depends on the photograph sales. The same was true for October.
Our sales of single postcards - which I still consider the core part of our business - was a little higher than average, and the price we got per card was a little higher than average. It was a good solid postcard sales month & I'm quite happy with it, but we've had months this year where we've sold more.
Our sales of photographs is another story - they were by far the highest sales of year. Actually the highest sales ever (except for June, but that was a special case, so I don't want to count it). Also, for the first time since we've been selling photographs, they generated more money for the month than the postcard sales - and we had a good postcard sales month. (Again, except for June) Our photos are the same types of photo's we've always had. (Once again, except for June). Its as if people suddenly discovered that we sell them. I really don't know why so many sold this month.
We offer free shipping domestically, maybe that played a role. eBay increased the title size to 80 characters, perhaps that helped. I really don't know for sure.
June was a special case, photo wise, where a few unique photos did very well for us. In October, it was volume, photo grunt work so to speak, the most individual photos we've sold in a month, ever. In October we sold our typical photos, and there is no reason why we can't repeat that. We may not, but it's entirely possible. In June, we had a few unique photos and that will be very hard for us to replicate. June was a little bit of luck, but luck had nothing to do with October.
I pay attention to photos - I know what makes an antique photo unique and collectible. They are actually hard to get hold of for a reasonable price (unique items being unique and all). I also know that people collect photographs for reasons other than absolute uniqueness, and I'm doing my best to get a share of those people. At the same time I keep my eye out for something really interesting or unusual.
It's like a car dealership that sell Mercedese and Chevys. The Mercedese are much more expsenive, but they'll make more money over all on the Chevy sales. I won't get into maintenance, because there the analogy may break down.
There is nothing special about the month of October. October 2010 was a poor month for us, sales wise. You'd have to go back 18 months or so to find a month where we did better than last month.
Another first for October 2011 - we actually sold more than we listed, so the inventory in our eBay store has gone down a bit.
eBay fees are high. Of course the more you list & sell the more fees you pay. There are also PayPal fees, which aren't as high, but are high enough. Postage is also a major expense - generally our second highest expense of the month.
Even with the increased expenses it was a good month. November seems to be starting off well so we'll see if it keeps up.
In looking at the sales & things I keep track of, in one way it seems like a broken record. Most of our sales are either postcards or various forms of antique photographs, and so much of what determines whether we have a good month or not depends on the photograph sales. The same was true for October.
Our sales of single postcards - which I still consider the core part of our business - was a little higher than average, and the price we got per card was a little higher than average. It was a good solid postcard sales month & I'm quite happy with it, but we've had months this year where we've sold more.
Our sales of photographs is another story - they were by far the highest sales of year. Actually the highest sales ever (except for June, but that was a special case, so I don't want to count it). Also, for the first time since we've been selling photographs, they generated more money for the month than the postcard sales - and we had a good postcard sales month. (Again, except for June) Our photos are the same types of photo's we've always had. (Once again, except for June). Its as if people suddenly discovered that we sell them. I really don't know why so many sold this month.
We offer free shipping domestically, maybe that played a role. eBay increased the title size to 80 characters, perhaps that helped. I really don't know for sure.
June was a special case, photo wise, where a few unique photos did very well for us. In October, it was volume, photo grunt work so to speak, the most individual photos we've sold in a month, ever. In October we sold our typical photos, and there is no reason why we can't repeat that. We may not, but it's entirely possible. In June, we had a few unique photos and that will be very hard for us to replicate. June was a little bit of luck, but luck had nothing to do with October.
I pay attention to photos - I know what makes an antique photo unique and collectible. They are actually hard to get hold of for a reasonable price (unique items being unique and all). I also know that people collect photographs for reasons other than absolute uniqueness, and I'm doing my best to get a share of those people. At the same time I keep my eye out for something really interesting or unusual.
It's like a car dealership that sell Mercedese and Chevys. The Mercedese are much more expsenive, but they'll make more money over all on the Chevy sales. I won't get into maintenance, because there the analogy may break down.
There is nothing special about the month of October. October 2010 was a poor month for us, sales wise. You'd have to go back 18 months or so to find a month where we did better than last month.
Another first for October 2011 - we actually sold more than we listed, so the inventory in our eBay store has gone down a bit.
eBay fees are high. Of course the more you list & sell the more fees you pay. There are also PayPal fees, which aren't as high, but are high enough. Postage is also a major expense - generally our second highest expense of the month.
Even with the increased expenses it was a good month. November seems to be starting off well so we'll see if it keeps up.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Our eBay Month - September 2011
September finally broke our 2011 sales pattern, where (with the exception of June, and maybe August, but not by much), every month was not quite as good as the month before. September exceeded August, both in Gross & Net. To a person like me, who really knows nothing about the finer points of business, the most important number is the net - what is left over after expenses. In September our expenses were higher than in August, so as a result even though we grossed quite a bit more in September than August, our net was just barely higher. But still, it counts.
September was also the end of the 3rd quarter of 2011, which can lead to a lot of comparisons. 3rd quarter of 2010 was much better, 3rd quarter of 2009 was about the same, both in gross and net. However, up to this point in 2011, we're doing quite a bit better for the year than we did in 2010, and are about even for the year with 2009.
In 2009 we were still doing a fair amount of consignment sales. We did a lot more before that, and while it's profitable, there's a lot more work involved record keeping wise and especially dealing with people. People, as you know, can sometimes be difficult. If I wanted difficulties I could have a REAL job, sitting in a cube sweating drops of blood & jumping thru hoops to meet deadlines and such. So we decided we didn't want to do consignment anymore & by 2010 we were pretty much out of it. As a result our sales dipped mightily for the year. Well I think we've finally recovered and compensated for the lack of consignment, and in 2011 we're back on a 2009 pace.
September started out pretty slow, but it began to pick up during the 2nd week - maybe because school started, who knows. As usual, what seems to determine if we have a good month or not are our photo sales - and photo sales were better than usual for the month. Postcard & trade card sales were about average for us.
We had a jump in international sales also. We sold more internationally in September than any month this year since January, and that was very welcome. October has started with an international sale (a trade card to Malta) so hopefully it will continue.
July was an absolutely dismal month sales wise, we've had two pretty good months since then, and we'll just have to see how it goes. This eBay stuff seems to be boom or bust for us with not much middle ground. All I know to do is keep plugging away at it. It's the optimist in me I suppose.
September was also the end of the 3rd quarter of 2011, which can lead to a lot of comparisons. 3rd quarter of 2010 was much better, 3rd quarter of 2009 was about the same, both in gross and net. However, up to this point in 2011, we're doing quite a bit better for the year than we did in 2010, and are about even for the year with 2009.
In 2009 we were still doing a fair amount of consignment sales. We did a lot more before that, and while it's profitable, there's a lot more work involved record keeping wise and especially dealing with people. People, as you know, can sometimes be difficult. If I wanted difficulties I could have a REAL job, sitting in a cube sweating drops of blood & jumping thru hoops to meet deadlines and such. So we decided we didn't want to do consignment anymore & by 2010 we were pretty much out of it. As a result our sales dipped mightily for the year. Well I think we've finally recovered and compensated for the lack of consignment, and in 2011 we're back on a 2009 pace.
September started out pretty slow, but it began to pick up during the 2nd week - maybe because school started, who knows. As usual, what seems to determine if we have a good month or not are our photo sales - and photo sales were better than usual for the month. Postcard & trade card sales were about average for us.
We had a jump in international sales also. We sold more internationally in September than any month this year since January, and that was very welcome. October has started with an international sale (a trade card to Malta) so hopefully it will continue.
July was an absolutely dismal month sales wise, we've had two pretty good months since then, and we'll just have to see how it goes. This eBay stuff seems to be boom or bust for us with not much middle ground. All I know to do is keep plugging away at it. It's the optimist in me I suppose.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Our eBay month - August 2011
August was better than July, but the business is still following a trend that I would like to reverse.
How good or bad a month we have is determined by a few factors: the number of items we sell, the amount we're able to sell them for, our business expenses and eBay policies (which are closely entwined with our business expenses).
In August we actually sold somewhat fewer postcards and antique photos than we did in July, but we sold quite a bit more trade cards. Also, there is a quirk of the way I keep records. I update the totals on the days we ship - I somehow feel like it isn't legal unless it's paid for, packaged and on its way, and it helps me keep organized. We ship Monday thru Saturday, everyday the post office is open. July had a holiday, and because of the way the days fell there were 25 shipping days in July. In August, there were 27 shipping days. For monthly totals, it doesn't matter how many days there were, but it does matter for daily averages of sales and transactions, and I watch that closely.
Overall, we sold more items in July than August, but we got a better price for things in August, so our "gross" haul was slightly better than in July.
The important number though is not the gross, but the net, the amount we have left over after expenses. The net for August was significantly higher than July, and this happened for a couple of reasons. Our postcard & antique photo sales were down slightly, both in number and dollar amount, but we had a pretty good Victorian Trade Card month. In addition, our monthly business expenses were much lower than average.
I'm very interested in why business expenses were lower, and I some reasons I know, and others I have theories.
First, our direct eBay payment was noticeably lower. eBay charges listing fees whenever we list something for sale, and a final value fee if it actually sales. Until last month the FVF on most items we sold was 12%. Last month eBay lowered the FVF to 11%, but included shipping and handling charges in the FVF calculation, something they had not done before. For people who have a shipping and handling charge on their items, their expenses just went up. We don't charge shipping and handling on any items we ship to a domestic USA shipping address, so this change resulted in somewhat lower eBay fees for us.
Second, the amount we paid for postage was much less than what we paid in July. I print postage labels online when I can, and we purchase stamps in bulk (by the roll, etc) as needed. We just didn't purchase as much in August as we normally do.
The increase in the amount we netted for August was significant, and 80% of that came from reduced expenses, which does not really make me happy. Our daily sales average in August was less than in July, and the average transactions as well as the average number of items sold per day were also lower than July. This continues a trend that started in January - the daily averages for each month this year have been less than the month before (with the exception of June). I don't like this and I'm not sure what to do about it.
September has started fairly slowly. Sigh.
How good or bad a month we have is determined by a few factors: the number of items we sell, the amount we're able to sell them for, our business expenses and eBay policies (which are closely entwined with our business expenses).
In August we actually sold somewhat fewer postcards and antique photos than we did in July, but we sold quite a bit more trade cards. Also, there is a quirk of the way I keep records. I update the totals on the days we ship - I somehow feel like it isn't legal unless it's paid for, packaged and on its way, and it helps me keep organized. We ship Monday thru Saturday, everyday the post office is open. July had a holiday, and because of the way the days fell there were 25 shipping days in July. In August, there were 27 shipping days. For monthly totals, it doesn't matter how many days there were, but it does matter for daily averages of sales and transactions, and I watch that closely.
Overall, we sold more items in July than August, but we got a better price for things in August, so our "gross" haul was slightly better than in July.
The important number though is not the gross, but the net, the amount we have left over after expenses. The net for August was significantly higher than July, and this happened for a couple of reasons. Our postcard & antique photo sales were down slightly, both in number and dollar amount, but we had a pretty good Victorian Trade Card month. In addition, our monthly business expenses were much lower than average.
I'm very interested in why business expenses were lower, and I some reasons I know, and others I have theories.
First, our direct eBay payment was noticeably lower. eBay charges listing fees whenever we list something for sale, and a final value fee if it actually sales. Until last month the FVF on most items we sold was 12%. Last month eBay lowered the FVF to 11%, but included shipping and handling charges in the FVF calculation, something they had not done before. For people who have a shipping and handling charge on their items, their expenses just went up. We don't charge shipping and handling on any items we ship to a domestic USA shipping address, so this change resulted in somewhat lower eBay fees for us.
Second, the amount we paid for postage was much less than what we paid in July. I print postage labels online when I can, and we purchase stamps in bulk (by the roll, etc) as needed. We just didn't purchase as much in August as we normally do.
The increase in the amount we netted for August was significant, and 80% of that came from reduced expenses, which does not really make me happy. Our daily sales average in August was less than in July, and the average transactions as well as the average number of items sold per day were also lower than July. This continues a trend that started in January - the daily averages for each month this year have been less than the month before (with the exception of June). I don't like this and I'm not sure what to do about it.
September has started fairly slowly. Sigh.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Our eBay month - July 2011
July was a pretty sad month eBay-wise. It was by far the worst month of the year, and, with the exception of June, it continues a downward trend for the year. We've seen a monthly decrease in our average daily shipping amount (dollar wise) each successive month since January, again with the exception of June. Even so, July is the first month this year I'd consider to be a "bad" month.
June was a special case - we sold some pretty unique items at a pretty good price. Had we not sold those items, June would have continued the trend.
So, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting the results to change, then perhaps I'm crazy & we need to totally revamp the business. Of course I think the definition of insanity has a lot more to do with disorganized thinking, auditory & visual hallucinations, paranoid delusions and stuff like that than it does with the way we run a fairly minuscule eBay business. But still. I wish I knew what's going on.
July 2010 was a very good month for us, so I don't buy the explanation that it's summer & people are doing summer stuff. It was summer last year at this time.
The overall economy is not in great shape, but I also can't believe that our postcard and photo sales reflect anything going on with the financial or housing markets, or anything else having to do with the national economy. But I can't discount it either.
Our sales of single postcards were normal - both in quantity and price. They were right at what our average for the year is. Our sales of old photos and Victorian trade cards were less than normal, and our business expenses were somewhat higher than normal, but not extremely so.
I just checked our trade card sales for the year and I'm surprised at how much less than normal this month's was. So I guess that was the issue. Lower than normal photo & trade card sales, higher than normal business expenses.
I track postage expenses separately from business expenses, and while they take out a chunk, they were actually a little lower than previous months. Lower sales, lower postage expenses. We offer free shipping on virtually items shipped domestically - perhaps that bit us a little this month.
But at any rate, January 2011 was a good month, and it's been going down hill ever since. With the exception of June. June aggravates me, because since it was a good month I have to keep writing "with the exception of June". But, with the exception of June, sales keep getting worse & worse. So I gotta think of something.
I do know something though. Good inventory sells. Even in the summer, even in a bad economy, even in a bad economy in the summer, even on eBay. "The exception of June" kind of proves that point. The trick is getting good inventory.
June was a special case - we sold some pretty unique items at a pretty good price. Had we not sold those items, June would have continued the trend.
So, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting the results to change, then perhaps I'm crazy & we need to totally revamp the business. Of course I think the definition of insanity has a lot more to do with disorganized thinking, auditory & visual hallucinations, paranoid delusions and stuff like that than it does with the way we run a fairly minuscule eBay business. But still. I wish I knew what's going on.
July 2010 was a very good month for us, so I don't buy the explanation that it's summer & people are doing summer stuff. It was summer last year at this time.
The overall economy is not in great shape, but I also can't believe that our postcard and photo sales reflect anything going on with the financial or housing markets, or anything else having to do with the national economy. But I can't discount it either.
Our sales of single postcards were normal - both in quantity and price. They were right at what our average for the year is. Our sales of old photos and Victorian trade cards were less than normal, and our business expenses were somewhat higher than normal, but not extremely so.
I just checked our trade card sales for the year and I'm surprised at how much less than normal this month's was. So I guess that was the issue. Lower than normal photo & trade card sales, higher than normal business expenses.
I track postage expenses separately from business expenses, and while they take out a chunk, they were actually a little lower than previous months. Lower sales, lower postage expenses. We offer free shipping on virtually items shipped domestically - perhaps that bit us a little this month.
But at any rate, January 2011 was a good month, and it's been going down hill ever since. With the exception of June. June aggravates me, because since it was a good month I have to keep writing "with the exception of June". But, with the exception of June, sales keep getting worse & worse. So I gotta think of something.
I do know something though. Good inventory sells. Even in the summer, even in a bad economy, even in a bad economy in the summer, even on eBay. "The exception of June" kind of proves that point. The trick is getting good inventory.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Our eBay month - June 2011
June was a very good month for us. It was also the end of the 2nd quarter, which causes a fanatical urge to compare quarters so I shall do so, briefly.
We know exactly why June was a very good month. In May we bought 10 cabinet cards of Native American Indians. We paid a bit more than usual for a group of 10, but they looked very interesting. The person who sold them didn't know if they were original or reprints.
We couldn't tell for sure either - we do not consider ourselves experts or authorities, but we are gaining quite a bit of experience. We've sold hundreds of 19th century, early and mid-20th century photographs, so we know what they look like. There is a big difference between the looks of a snapshot from the 1940's, a gelatin silver photo from the early 20th century and a late 19th century albumen print. I'm talking about he physical characteristics of the photo, not the subject matter. We've gotten pretty good at estimating the age of a photo with a glance. The photos we received did not look like 20th century photos to us. We looked at them pretty closely too. We scanned them to see if we saw dots or lines, we looked at them under a magnifying glass. I made my peace with the world and stared at them. We saw nothing that would absolutely place these photos in the 20th century.
But still, we had no way to absolutely authenticate them, so we do what we always do when we think we have an original but aren't 100% positive or can't prove it: we took good pictures, and described it to death. And included our caveat that we weren't sure. We started these at a fairly low auction starting price - especially if these are originals. And we weren't going to argue with anyone - if some one didn't like the photo or it wasn't what they thought we'd refund their money, no questions asked. After we received the item back, of course.
Every one sold, most sold for MUCH more than our asking price & we made a very good profit on them. This is the reason we had a very good June. If these were originals, even the ones who paid a lot of money for them got a bargain. The people who bought them seem to be happy - so far all our feedback for them has been positive, and we haven't received any low dsr marks.
Our sales of single postcards were down slightly, in fact they were the lowest this year, but not by much. All in all post card sales continue to remain steady. As usual it is the photo sales which seem to determine if we have a better than average month or not. In June, the photos sales were very good.
Our net for the 2nd quarter - after expenses and stuff - was about 9.5% higher than our net for the 1st quarter of this year. We are doing much better in 2011 than 2010. Our net for last month alone was almost as much as our total net for the whole 2nd quarter of 2010. And our net for the 1st quarter of 2011 almost doubled our net for the 1st quarter of 2010.
I doubt July will repeat June, but you never know. You just keep plugging away at this stuff and sometimes good things happen.
On July 6th eBay is implementing "new lower rates" for sellers and they're also rolling out a shopping-cart. I've been with eBay long enough to know that when they implement "new lower rates", it always costs sellers more. Always. It will this time too. I made a prediction awhile back that prices on eBay are going to go up overall, maybe by as much as 20%. I hold to that, though I can't defend it with any hard data.
As for a shopping cart, that may bring eBay up to industry standards - it's a common thing on most online sites. Hopefully it'll work with no glitches. As sellers we shouldn't even be aware of it's existence.
Blogger's spell checker doesnt seem to be working - so be kind.
We know exactly why June was a very good month. In May we bought 10 cabinet cards of Native American Indians. We paid a bit more than usual for a group of 10, but they looked very interesting. The person who sold them didn't know if they were original or reprints.
We couldn't tell for sure either - we do not consider ourselves experts or authorities, but we are gaining quite a bit of experience. We've sold hundreds of 19th century, early and mid-20th century photographs, so we know what they look like. There is a big difference between the looks of a snapshot from the 1940's, a gelatin silver photo from the early 20th century and a late 19th century albumen print. I'm talking about he physical characteristics of the photo, not the subject matter. We've gotten pretty good at estimating the age of a photo with a glance. The photos we received did not look like 20th century photos to us. We looked at them pretty closely too. We scanned them to see if we saw dots or lines, we looked at them under a magnifying glass. I made my peace with the world and stared at them. We saw nothing that would absolutely place these photos in the 20th century.
But still, we had no way to absolutely authenticate them, so we do what we always do when we think we have an original but aren't 100% positive or can't prove it: we took good pictures, and described it to death. And included our caveat that we weren't sure. We started these at a fairly low auction starting price - especially if these are originals. And we weren't going to argue with anyone - if some one didn't like the photo or it wasn't what they thought we'd refund their money, no questions asked. After we received the item back, of course.
Every one sold, most sold for MUCH more than our asking price & we made a very good profit on them. This is the reason we had a very good June. If these were originals, even the ones who paid a lot of money for them got a bargain. The people who bought them seem to be happy - so far all our feedback for them has been positive, and we haven't received any low dsr marks.
Our sales of single postcards were down slightly, in fact they were the lowest this year, but not by much. All in all post card sales continue to remain steady. As usual it is the photo sales which seem to determine if we have a better than average month or not. In June, the photos sales were very good.
Our net for the 2nd quarter - after expenses and stuff - was about 9.5% higher than our net for the 1st quarter of this year. We are doing much better in 2011 than 2010. Our net for last month alone was almost as much as our total net for the whole 2nd quarter of 2010. And our net for the 1st quarter of 2011 almost doubled our net for the 1st quarter of 2010.
I doubt July will repeat June, but you never know. You just keep plugging away at this stuff and sometimes good things happen.
On July 6th eBay is implementing "new lower rates" for sellers and they're also rolling out a shopping-cart. I've been with eBay long enough to know that when they implement "new lower rates", it always costs sellers more. Always. It will this time too. I made a prediction awhile back that prices on eBay are going to go up overall, maybe by as much as 20%. I hold to that, though I can't defend it with any hard data.
As for a shopping cart, that may bring eBay up to industry standards - it's a common thing on most online sites. Hopefully it'll work with no glitches. As sellers we shouldn't even be aware of it's existence.
Blogger's spell checker doesnt seem to be working - so be kind.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Our eBay Month - May 2011
Well April is no longer our worse sales month this year. May now holds that dubious honor.
Our business is really divided into three sections, 1) postcards 2) photographs 3)Victorian Trade Cards. We sell other random items occasionally, but the core of our business by far is the sale of single postcards (as opposed to postcard 'lots') and old photographs. Although I consider Trade Cards to be a main part of the business, postcards and photos is where we concentrate most of the energy.
Our sales of postcards in May was about average. We actually sold more postcards in May than we did in April, and for a somewhat higher price. Our sales of photos & trade cards were below average. In fact Trade Cards only generated about 1/3rd of the money they did in April.
The trade card sales data in April is a tad askew however, because one of our cards sold for a lot of money. It got multiple bids, and kept going up and up. I remember when it hit $40.00, we looked at each other and wondered what these people knew that we didn't. It went a lot higher, and as a result the we got quite a bit more money for Trade Cards in April than normal, even though we sold pretty much the same number of cards we always do. Honestly, I would have been happy with $5.00 for that card, and I still don't know what was so special about it.
So in May, postcard and photo sales were roughly equal (actually a little higher) than in April, but Trade Card sales were not. Hence our gross sales were somewhat lower. Also, as luck would have it, our business expenses were higher in May than in April. It all combined to make May a dismal month net sales wise. April was a bad month, May was worse.
Now a serious question is why have April & May been so poor? I'm keeping my eye on "Free Shipping". We recently expanded it. Not the best timing perhaps - the post office increased their rates - but eBay is implementing changes which make offering Free Shipping advantageous. However I think this may be a culprit. Shipping costs are consistently our 2nd highest monthly expense, & we'll have to watch this closely. If sales don't increase as a result of free shipping, we lose money.
The first 4 days of June have been very good though, I have no idea if it will hold or not. So far the best month this year has been January.
Our business is really divided into three sections, 1) postcards 2) photographs 3)Victorian Trade Cards. We sell other random items occasionally, but the core of our business by far is the sale of single postcards (as opposed to postcard 'lots') and old photographs. Although I consider Trade Cards to be a main part of the business, postcards and photos is where we concentrate most of the energy.
Our sales of postcards in May was about average. We actually sold more postcards in May than we did in April, and for a somewhat higher price. Our sales of photos & trade cards were below average. In fact Trade Cards only generated about 1/3rd of the money they did in April.
The trade card sales data in April is a tad askew however, because one of our cards sold for a lot of money. It got multiple bids, and kept going up and up. I remember when it hit $40.00, we looked at each other and wondered what these people knew that we didn't. It went a lot higher, and as a result the we got quite a bit more money for Trade Cards in April than normal, even though we sold pretty much the same number of cards we always do. Honestly, I would have been happy with $5.00 for that card, and I still don't know what was so special about it.
So in May, postcard and photo sales were roughly equal (actually a little higher) than in April, but Trade Card sales were not. Hence our gross sales were somewhat lower. Also, as luck would have it, our business expenses were higher in May than in April. It all combined to make May a dismal month net sales wise. April was a bad month, May was worse.
Now a serious question is why have April & May been so poor? I'm keeping my eye on "Free Shipping". We recently expanded it. Not the best timing perhaps - the post office increased their rates - but eBay is implementing changes which make offering Free Shipping advantageous. However I think this may be a culprit. Shipping costs are consistently our 2nd highest monthly expense, & we'll have to watch this closely. If sales don't increase as a result of free shipping, we lose money.
The first 4 days of June have been very good though, I have no idea if it will hold or not. So far the best month this year has been January.
Monday, May 9, 2011
More Free Shipping
We've decided to put free shipping on just about everything we sell (domestically) in our eBay store. For over a year we've offered free shipping on postcards, but charged for large postcard lots, cabinet photos, cdvs and so on. We've made the decision to offer free shipping on all the other items we sell and ship domestically. International sales will still have a shipping charge.
At this point we're not charging shipping on any new items we list. Some of the older items still have a shipping charge, but those are slowly but surely being removed. In a month or two, pretty much nothing will have a shipping charge. On the older items we're not (for the most part) raising the price - so in effect by removing the shipping charge we're reducing prices on the vast majority of our inventory.
In order for free shipping to work, you have to know how much it costs to ship your item, and figure that into the listing price, if possible. You have to ship things safely, but you also have to be efficient about it. It takes experience to get the hang of it all.
In the best of all possible worlds, free shipping leads to increased sales. Free shipping worked well for us with the postcards - there was a noticable increase in sales. It remains to be seen if it will work with the photos. Photos are different - they're more delicate, they require more packing to ship safely, and because of all that they cost more to ship. Also the people who collect photos are generally not the same as the people who collect postcards, and we just don't know how this is going to work. It's a bit of a risk we're taking, we'll have to see how it goes.
It doesn't help that the post office recently increased shipping rates on many services.
For quite awhile now eBay has encouraged seller's to offer free shipping. eBay recently announced a change which will take effect in July (unless they move it back) that removes one of the biggest incentives for sellers NOT to offer free shipping. In July, eBay is going to charge a Final Value Fee (FVF) - the fee they charge sellers when an item sells - on the entire selling price. Right now they do not charge an FVF on the shipping charge.
Right now if a seller sells an item at a fixed price of $10.00 with a $2.00 s&h charge eBay charges a $1.20 FVF. If another seller sells the same item for $12.00 with no s&h charge, eBay charges $1.44 FVF. There is quite an incentive to charge a lower price for the item with a reasonable s&h charge.
After July they're going to lower the FVF by 1% (BFD if you catch my drift), but also include the s&h charge in the FVF calculation. Under this scenario both sellers would pay a FVF of $1.32. This removes the advantage a seller has by charging shipping & handling.
eBay also offers a "free shipping" search filter, enabling a buyer to search only for those items with free shipping. I have no idea how many people make use of that, but it's only reasonable to assume some do. So this new policy does a bit more than level the playing field - it actually gives a bit of an advantage to people who offer free shipping.
One thing I learned long before I started with eBay is that nothing ever remains the same. If you can't drive the change, you have to adjust. eBay is something I have no control over, so I adjust.
At this point we're not charging shipping on any new items we list. Some of the older items still have a shipping charge, but those are slowly but surely being removed. In a month or two, pretty much nothing will have a shipping charge. On the older items we're not (for the most part) raising the price - so in effect by removing the shipping charge we're reducing prices on the vast majority of our inventory.
In order for free shipping to work, you have to know how much it costs to ship your item, and figure that into the listing price, if possible. You have to ship things safely, but you also have to be efficient about it. It takes experience to get the hang of it all.
In the best of all possible worlds, free shipping leads to increased sales. Free shipping worked well for us with the postcards - there was a noticable increase in sales. It remains to be seen if it will work with the photos. Photos are different - they're more delicate, they require more packing to ship safely, and because of all that they cost more to ship. Also the people who collect photos are generally not the same as the people who collect postcards, and we just don't know how this is going to work. It's a bit of a risk we're taking, we'll have to see how it goes.
It doesn't help that the post office recently increased shipping rates on many services.
For quite awhile now eBay has encouraged seller's to offer free shipping. eBay recently announced a change which will take effect in July (unless they move it back) that removes one of the biggest incentives for sellers NOT to offer free shipping. In July, eBay is going to charge a Final Value Fee (FVF) - the fee they charge sellers when an item sells - on the entire selling price. Right now they do not charge an FVF on the shipping charge.
Right now if a seller sells an item at a fixed price of $10.00 with a $2.00 s&h charge eBay charges a $1.20 FVF. If another seller sells the same item for $12.00 with no s&h charge, eBay charges $1.44 FVF. There is quite an incentive to charge a lower price for the item with a reasonable s&h charge.
After July they're going to lower the FVF by 1% (BFD if you catch my drift), but also include the s&h charge in the FVF calculation. Under this scenario both sellers would pay a FVF of $1.32. This removes the advantage a seller has by charging shipping & handling.
eBay also offers a "free shipping" search filter, enabling a buyer to search only for those items with free shipping. I have no idea how many people make use of that, but it's only reasonable to assume some do. So this new policy does a bit more than level the playing field - it actually gives a bit of an advantage to people who offer free shipping.
One thing I learned long before I started with eBay is that nothing ever remains the same. If you can't drive the change, you have to adjust. eBay is something I have no control over, so I adjust.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
