What Do You Do??

[nan*55]

What do you do to motivate yourself to list?  Seems to be getting harder and harder for me. A friend and I are having a feedback race , but so many no longer leave feedback.

What little tricks do you have to get yourself listing, and not get side tracked ?

[mr.elmwood]

Nan, I was racing you for a bit at around 4000. I forget who there first. I always wanted to get to 5000, just for the star.

I have been at this for eleven years. My desire is waning. FB returns are dropping. Used to be around 60%, now are around 40%.

I need a vacation from reality.

[nan*55]

LOL Mr E. Maybe I should get my butt in gear and catch up?

[anguscoinshop]

i stopped being motivated by feedback # a long time ago. i'm in this to make $. feedback will take care itself

money motivate me, i'm seing $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[brandeentertainment]

It's funny when I started my business I started it with one thing in mind... Rural northern communities that have to pay $20 for a 5 year old movie at the overpriced stores.. I started this just to give people better prices and amazing deals..

Now I do it for money and because My favorite thing to do is work .. YES I AM THAT GUY... Some people hgave funy going on trips and have family gatherings  which I do love to do and Once a year I take a trip and once a year have a family reunion but on any given day my Favorite things to do are Work and hang out withmy kids..

I gave up on feedback along time ago too...

[nan*55]

I think we've given up on the feedback thing. LOL

But what do you do??????

[anguscoinshop]

selling s all about strategies

always look at the big long term picture but also make sure you don't have all your eggs in the same basket.

[reallynicestamps]

I have a porch full of books I don't want to move to Victoria and because I am Aberdonian-born, want to turn as many of them into cash before donating the rest to the Friends of the Library.

But DH keeps bringing me more and more stuff. Cigarette tins, postage, postcards. And at work they went and had a book sale for the United Way... As Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist anything except temptation."

Ah well, I have a Pitman Shorthand textbook to list and a neat Beehive Corn Syrup notebook and some Real Photo postcards of some obscure folk parade in Scotland and some catalogues for high end watches....

"Work, work, work."-  Hoban Washburne.

[brandeentertainment]

What I do is Wake up everyday and tell myself you can sit and do nothing or go and play or you can do something to make some money and keep keeping on .. Just like Joe dirt digging his garden..

I have a love hate relationship with my life but I am also one of those half glass full optimistic people who many people just can't stand ..

I sleep 4 hrs wake up 5 am with a big smile on my face and say GOODDDDDD MORNING EVERYONE LOL..

There will come a point where it is noth worth it but that point is on an idividual basis .. The Day I do this and only profit $10 a day is the day I shut it down ..

[mr.elmwood]

"move to Victoria"

Eh?

[pierrelebel]

"What do you do to motivate yourself to list?"

Sorry, I do not. 

I reached the golden age where listing on eBay is no longer important.  I have put little effort marketing my items in the last year.  I just keep relisting the same stuff (where I often have large multiples) - switching from auction to fixed price and vice versa - depending on whatever promotion eBay is offering that month.

My priorities these days go from Mary who recently retired to my grandchildren (up to five!).

[mr.elmwood]

Priorities change. I hear that.

[i*m-still-here]

This has always puzzled me.

Why would anyone care about the FB count?

If I can sell 10 items for $500 each, why would I waste my time selling 500 for $10 each?

High FB does not = high profits.

[ricarmic]

By many accounts I am probably an (undiagnosed) adult with AD&D.

This is my full time business, and the "root" of my efforts at this stage in the game (children in university) are the never ending supply of bills that need to be paid....

Its only been a full time business for 5 years now, before that I worked a 50-? hours job plus ran the business....my goal since I was 15 years old was to run the business full time, which I did 5 years ago.

I'm glad to have moved to running the business full time, however I "traded down" significantly salary wise, but traded up stress/lifestyle (ie less stress, better lifestyle).

Having said this I have the same problem echoed here by others, there are just never enough hours in the day and eBay etc never stops! Having children in university is expensive and is pushing me to work harder to stay on top of the bills. I told someone my hours one day 6-10 each day and they thought it was a great job till I helped them understand it is 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM each day 😉

That was some background, to answer the original question, how I manage to fit listing in, I have a sequence/routine that I often follow, however (back to the AD&D thing) I bounce around to many different tasks in a given day so that is only sometimes the case.

Normal weeks, I ship Monday, Wednesday, Friday - with a normal volume of stuff going out, and the usual barrage of phone calls, dealing with "where's my package" emails etc, I'm done wrapping, packing and back from the post office by about 1pm (I start at 6 most days).  Usually, if it is a "bright" - as in sunny or not too dark clouds kind of day I will picture and list in the afternoon till it is time to make supper (I inherited that task when I became the "stay at home dad").

Something else that keeps me going is when I can create a new "product line" - a stamp mixture or something I've not had to list before because I'm interested to see how it does! (Maybe "Nan" you should try inventing some new jam flavours like "Mint Saskatoon berry flavour or something!).

I've also had goals to have a certain number of items listed, getting to 1500 was a goal that took me a long time to reach as stuff was going out faster than I could load it...however lately I've been listing slower moving stuff, so my recent record is 1786 items...and I don't have a current goal in that regard.

I also have to avoid spending too much time on the boards etc which is a fun and informative thing, but doesn't help to pay the bills so much......

That's what comes to mind for me.....

[mr.elmwood]

eBay used to push FB scores as a measure of success. Different colour stars, shooting star, etc. FB scores used to be a measure of your social standing.

[brandeentertainment]

maybe you only made $2 of the 10 items for $500 and you were making $2 for each of the 500 items for $10 .. LOL

just playing around

[brandeentertainment]

CONGRATS Pierre on the 5 grand kids .. My parents are up to 4 now and basically dedicate all there spare time to My kids and my brothers kids...

I can see the joy it brings so I can just imagine all the joy they bring to your life...

ENJOY 🙂

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Reading the recent threads makes me feel young again. Thank you ladies and gentlemen!

I wonder if there is anyone else here who just graduated from university like me and still struggling to pay off student loan lol (aaaand already went back to school for further education + part time job... gave up my full time job since it was getting too physically demanding)... =P

[anguscoinshop]

"eBay used to push FB scores as a measure of success. Different colour stars, shooting star, etc. FB scores used to be a measure of your social standing."

i found one that has 1,000,000 + feedback, wow, i'm glad its not me, i wouldn't have any fishing time

[mr.elmwood]

Zee, we all struggle to pay off something. Could be the new car, mortgage, CC bills, the last trip to Las Vegas that involved late nights, card tables, show girls, you know.

I "gave up" the life I had to move and start all over, at 57 1/2. The why does not matter. It is the abrupt change of direction and the cognitive dissonance that goes along with those sorts of decisions.

As difficult as the adaptation to the change is, standing still would have caused me far more stress, and oddly, far greater cognitive dissonance! I made the decision to change at the exact time the bottom seems to have fallen out of the parts business. At the exact, to the day, time that changes took place at my suppliers that changed my ability to get parts at a good price.